DBZR ½

Chapter 23: Prepare for Rioting

At the Lookout, about 20-30 minutes later...

Akane rolled her shoulders and then twisted her torso back and forth, limbering herself up for the match as the others moved clear. Ranma, his arms crossed over his burly chest, leaned up against one of the trees, with Ryoga seated on the landscaping wall around it. "So, learn any other new tricks in there?" He offhandedly asked the Lost Boy.

Ranma snorted in annoyance: the man wasn't quite so dense as to just let slip what new techniques he might have picked up without thought. Or at least, he wasn't at the moment. "Guess I'll have to find out the hard way. Fine by me, I still know more about him than he does about me."

Ryoga poked his pinky into his ear and twisted it a few times before removing it and flicking. "I learned a few. Vegeta is a brutal taskmaster, but he was thorough."

At that moment, the soft padding of slippered feet on the tile presaged the arrival of a more appropriately dressed and cleaned up Shampoo. Her clothing was now more properly fitted, albeit cut a bit differently. The silk pants were now knee-length, and conformed to her shapely hips and thighs comfortably, while drawing attention to the fact that they were quite strong. Her silk top now went past her waist once more, but lacked sleeves, leaving her thicker, toned arms bare aside from her forearm guards. She had also donned her breastplate, which had been adjusted to fit her new form better. Shampoo had also pulled her hair back together, with assistance from Cologne, cutting it even once more and straightening it out. The pair of bangs alongside her head were shorter, but now even and tied once again.

As she came to a stop a few feet away from Akane, she put a hand to her hip, cocking it out and smirking, the very picture of a confident young warrior woman. "Shampoo is ready." She brushed her hair back negligently with her free hand. "Now that I am clean and dressed, I am ready to make a mess. Of you, that is."

Akane smirked as well, rolling her neck and shoulders again, before her bare feet slipped forward, taking up the forward stance of her family's martial arts style, hands held up in knife shape "You're welcome to try, Miss Kitty. But I don't think you'll find it to be so easy as you once did."

The Amazon's smirk grew cocky, and she adjusted her position, legs widening out into a front stance, arms held high, hands loose and relaxed. "Let's find out."

Cologne pogo'd over to the others, who were seated or standing in the same general area with Ranma, and hopped down. "This should be a very interesting duel. I sense they both have powerful reserves of ki now that they didn't before."

"Yea, this will be great!" Goku smiled, expression intently excited. Vegeta, his arms crossed as usual, harrumphed. "No student of mine will be weak, that I can assure you."

The two young women stared each other down for several long moments, not a muscle seemingly moving. Ranma's sharp eyes observed Shampoo closely. "That's her normal stance...but it's definitely changed. Increased height and body weight would have caused part of that. Still, I can see some of Vegeta's influence in it. She's making very tiny adjustments, matching Akane's, and Akane is catching it. No surprise there, I think she might be better than me in picking up on things like that now."

At the same time, both women's eyes widened, and they charged at each other, kicking off with their back legs and gliding over the tile, screaming at the top of their lungs as their fists drew back for powerful opening blows-

In Nerima, where nobody heard the screams of a multitude of people denied seeing a beautifully executed fight…a big fight was about to begin.

Makoto sniffed, and called out, "Here I come!" With amazing speed, she suddenly dashed forward, lashing out with a reverse punch, catching Goten off guard. The blow struck him solidly, rocking him back as she followed up, landing several jabs and kicks, before striking with a double fist blow and then quickly pulling an arm back and sweeping with an open hand, striking him upside his temple and dropping him to the ground.

"...Mommy...I don't wanna learn today…" Goten whimpered, fairly positive as he lay on the pavement that there were miniature Nabiki's holding dollar bills dancing around his head.

"Heh, we're not done yet!" Makato declared, before bellowing out a loud kia and punching down at him.

Only to miss as he rolled and pushed off, coming up in a flip to land a few feet away as her punch kicked up a small cloud of dust where his body used to be. "Nimble, aren't ya?" She grinned, her hachimaki fluttering from her motions. Goten smirked in return.

"You're a lot better than I thought you would be! This should be fun!" He laughed, and as one, they charged towards each other.

Meanwhile, Bob had weaved back and forth, subtly moving forward with each motion, arms held up high and wide, and then close together, before going wide again. Trunks held his fists up, watching cautiously, trying to determine a pattern. Suddenly, Bob flipped around onto his hands and spun, his long legs reaching out and striking Trunks dead center. He followed up with another kick strike, then flipped over onto his feet and, as Trunks shot forward, shifted aside, catching the extended arm and throwing the demi-Saiyan down. Trunks flipped, rolled, and came back up facing his opponent, only to get an open palm strike into his chest.

Trunks grinned, grabbing the hand that was still pushing against his chest, and twisted, pulling Bob out of balance and flinging him aside, only for the capoeira fighter to twist and draw his knee against Trunks's side and driving the two apart briefly.

The dark man grinned. "She wasn't kidding, you're pretty tough, kid."

Trunks smiled in challenge. "You're not too bad yourself. That style is weird, but I like how tough it is to read. Lets go."

To the side, Maya Natsume and Maki had paired off, with Maya leaping at Maki and swinging with her bokken in precise slices. Maki idly shifted from side to side, then bounced back and leapt upwards, her body twisting gracefully…

...and deceptively, as her shoe clad foot shot out and kicked at the lavender haired girls bokken, and sent it flying away out of her surprised grip. A second kick followed, with several more immediately after, each time Maki managing to continue the twist, while Natsume was driven back, catching each kick either in her hand, or blocked by an arm, the final kick being powerful enough to send Natsume sliding back several feet.

Maki landed delicately on one foot, before straightening out again. Her friends called out in support, "Yay! Go Maki!"

Natsume smiled. "Well now. You're a different proposition from the boy. I better not take you lightly."

With that, she took hold of the sash at her waist, and then pulled it up with a flourish before taking a deep breath. With a 'hup' her body suddenly expanded and transformed, stretching out into the long, lithe arms and legs and quite buxom form of a young woman, her kimono now an amazingly revealing long sleeved crop top, and the blue skirt almost a mini. The rest of the crowd recoiled in surprise while Maki was visibly stunned at the girl transforming, muttering aloud, "What the-?"

"Severe chi conditioning, twenty-three. Best way to improve your chi reserves, without expending much, if any, energy once mastered." Natsume replied, her voice having become rather sultry.

Maki's eye twitched, before the fire returned, muttering, "Whatever. Let's do this."

The two women charged at each other, streaks of light trailing from their eyes as they closed the distance. Their blows as they struck reverberated throughout the arena, the air visibly displacing around them as they blocked, parried, and danced around each other.

Nabiki was in heaven, and so very glad she had the foresight to have set up a wifi-hotspot in her phone to immediately stream the fight to the internet. All six of the combatants were going at it, going back and forth, money was moving easily…

...and her Twitch stream was bringing in a proverbial ton of cash for it! The subscriptions were kicking up, with lots of little chibi Nabiki gifs dancing and holding wads of dollar bills as they poured in. "Oh Nabiki, you are a genius!"

Back at the Lookout, a location that would not hear the sudden frustrated screams of the people who were really enjoying a battle royale style fight...

Akane panted, still smiling. "Heh. Alright. I'm impressed. You've definitely gotten a lot better." She shook out an arm, letting the ruined sleeve from her gi slip down to the tile before she reached up to the other and ripped it off as well.

Shampoo stood nearby, also panting, and grinning equally as widely. "Shampoo also impressed. I did not think you would have improved that much. This much more challenging than expected."

"Well, how about we get into...round two?!" Akane screamed, charging for her opponent, who stood her ground. Akane sheathed her fist in energy, and as she threw it forward, it connected with Shampoo's gauntlet, exploding in power-

Back in Nerima, which definitely didn't hear the riot that nearly began when the scene changed once more…or the joyous cries of the battle royale audience...

Trunks dodged a spinning kick from Maki, his opponent having switched on him when he least expected, only to have to dodge a strike from Bob as he jumped back in. "Man, this is a lot more fun than I thought it would be! These guys are actually good! Not very strong, but they've got skill!" He grinned, jumping up into the air to avoid a follow up attack by Bob, only to see the tall red headed woman's face appear in front of him.

"What the-!"

She smirked, and caught hold of him, flipping him around and spinning towards the ground, her friends calling out, "It's the Air Spin Driver!"

"Air spin wha-?" He managed before he crashed into the ground with bone cracking impact.

Maki unwrapped herself from Trunks, and went at Bob, who dodged and weaved, managing to avoid her graceful kicks, but losing ground. The young demi-Saiyan picked himself up slowly, his body shaking. "Owww….that really smarts!" He groused, before looking around. The crowd was boisterous, loving every minute of it, chanting and cheering for their chosen fighter.

Goten was still fighting with Makoto, and from their expressions, they were both enjoying the fight. Up until she caught him in her grip, planted a powerful series of punches into his torso that lifted him up, and then launched him into the night sky with an upwards punch. "ABARE, TOSANAMI, GUDAKI!" She fiercely declared as Goten flew upwards.

Bob was still being hard pressed by Maki, and Maya-

-was suddenly in Trunks's face as she dashed up. "Hi there!" She greeted with a grin.

"What the-!" He found himself suddenly being slammed into the ground, her long fingers grasping his face as she shoved him down brutally. Growling, he wrapped his legs around her arm, and, twisting his body, flung her away. Only for her to tighten her grip and fling him in return up into the air.

"This is getting annoying!" Trunks ground out, before flaring his energy and stopping his flight. Goten did the same nearby, and, with a glance to each other, they nodded, and shot back to the ground. "Time for Fusion Style!" The lavender haired boy declared as they landed next to each other.

They threw their arms out to opposite sides and began to shuffle towards each other, arms swinging overhead towards each other. "Fuuuuuu….sion…." They chanted, hands now fists and twisted back, one leg lifted and crossed over the other-

-Makoto and Maya both suddenly landed blows against the boys, a kick and punch knocking them off their feet and crashing them into the court.

"Hey, no fair!" Goten yelled, tucking and rolling before pushing off and executing a spin kick against Makoto, who blocked it and returned the favor.

"Yea! You got to do your special technique!" Trunks grunted as he blocked and parried several strikes from Maya, who laughed.

"Why would I bother waiting for someone pull of their own technique if I don't have to? Anything goes in a fight, kid!" She grinned widely as they fought.

"Anything goes, huh? Fine!" Trunks suddenly vanished from view, prompting Maya's eyes to widen in surprise.

"Where did-" She cried out in pain as Trunks kicked in between her shoulder blades, sending her flying forward. She tucked and rolled, breathing heavily. "H-how did he do that?!" She spluttered, rising, just in time to catch Makoto being slammed back from a two fisted blow by Goten. Both women fell to the ground and scrambled to pick themselves up, arms and legs kicking and slamming against each other. Trunks grinned triumphantly to his friend.

"Goten! Let's do it!"

The spike haired boy grinned in return. "Right!"

They stood next to each other, and began the technique once again. "Fuuuuu….."

Maki slid across the court, her long legs catching Goten by his ankle and throwing it out from under him, sending him to fall with a cry of alarm, arms flailing.

"Oh come on!" Trunks groused, an energy burst forming in his hand. He threw it at Maki, who, surprised as she was, managed to dance clear of it by a hair's breadth. Bob, who was running up, took the brunt of the blast in the chest and flew back with an explosive cry of surprise and pain. "Whaaaa-!" His body fell to the ground ten feet from where he had started, and he shuddered, struggling to pick himself back up. Maki's eyes flared with challenge, and she dashed forward, flipping as another blast flew past, and she lashed out at the top of her flip with both feet, driving Trunks into the pavement and landing on one foot. She then twisted as Goten came at her with a flying punch, her leg striking out in a strong blow as she finished the pirouette and sent him to crash among the crowd.

Makoto and Natsume had finally disentangled themselves, trading blows all the while. "Get out of my way, you stupid cow!" Maya ordered as she attempted to jab her elbow into Makoto's chest. The fighter caught it, and swept her foot under the taller woman's leg, screaming, "That's rich, coming from a big boobed bimbo like you!"

The lavender haired woman rolled back as she was swept, and came up enraged. "What did you say?!" Before she could follow up, Makoto had dashed in, slamming a fist into her gut, following up with several more potent blows, before tucking in and unleashing the same powerful upwards punch she had used on Trunks earlier. Maya flew several feet into the air as the brunette fighter grinned in triumph. "You heard me!" She called, just as Maya managed to land on the court pavement, badly.

She panted heavily, a hand to her belly, before finally giving a tiny smile and holding up her hand. "I concede this fight. And I apologize for my rudeness."

Makoto grinned and waved the apology off. "Think nothing of it, heat of the moment and all that. Now, time to finish things off." She quickly rushed off, just as Trunks and Goten both charged at Maki, who had a look of intense satisfaction as all three came at her.

Back on the Lookout, where the murderous intent of those who were into the battle royale was completely missed (while the happy dancing of those who felt the battle royale audience had more than enough scene time was also equally missed)...

Ranma brushed off his shirt, removing the bits of tile and dust that had made its way there. "Huh, that was a pretty good move on Shampoo's part." He considered, watching as the two women continued to pummel each other.

The Lost Boy swatted at the side of his head, finally dislodging a piece of tile that somehow had gotten into his ear. "Would be nice if they didn't send tile flying everywhere."

"Alright! This fight is great!" Goku exclaimed, holding his fists up in excitement. The others observing were of various levels of similar approval and interest. Vegeta, arms crossed, simply snorted. "They're both holding back." He muttered under his breath. "It'll be much more interesting if they were to go at it."

"Aw, come on, Vegeta. You know you don't start out going all out. You start small and work your way up." Goku admonished. Vegeta harrumphed and ignored him.

"So, I wonder if they will actually cut lo-" Ranma's query was interrupted by screams of both women as their chi flared around them, their power quickly rising and causing the tile to ripple lightly underneath them. "Oh, I guess that answers that."

"Time to finish this!" Shampoo cried, energy coalescing around both of her hands before shaping into a pair of Tai Chi style swords, the power crackling around them as she took up stance.

"I couldn't agree more!" Akane yelled, her own hands now wielding a pair of small hammers. "Let's go!"

"Oh no…" Ranma gulped, and shifted slowly to the side until most of Ryoga and a tree were between him and the two fighters.

They screamed once again, before vanishing briefly from sight, to reappear in the air, swinging their impromptu energy weapons towards each other-

Back in Nerima, nobody heard or felt the fury that arose at the scene change, while those into the battle royale laughed at the misfortune of those into the other fight…

Trunks and Goten both groaned, shaking their heads. "Man, she sure is a lot stronger than I thought." Goten groused, rubbing his head.

"Yea. We should do the Fusion while those two are going at it." Trunks picked himself up, rolling his neck.

Goten rose as well, taking a few deep breaths. "Gimme a second, she really knocked the wind out of me."

"Yea...ok…" Trunks agreed, more because Maki had also knocked the wind out of him, and he was glad he didn't have to say something first.

Across from them, Makoto and Maki were going at it, loud cries filling the air along with the impacts of their fists and feet, and the cheers and jeers of the crowd around them. They were well matched, as Makoto had speed and power, but Maki was exceptionally agile and had a significant reach advantage. They parried, ducked, flipped, or dodged each others attacks, while looking for an opportunity to get in a finishing move.

Finally, Makoto rushed in, a blow going to Maki's gut, following up with several additional blows, much to Maki's friends dismay, finishing with the upwards punch. "And that's that!" Makoto grinned, only for her eyes to widen as she realized Maki was still locked onto her with fire in her eyes. She had jumped up with the upward punch and spun around, the power of the blow increasing the spin before grasping Makoto's arm and flinging her skyward.

Maki landed, and then jumped upwards, quickly wrapping her long body around the smaller woman. Trunks's eyes widened. "Uh oh, it's that Air Spin...whatever it was she used on me!"

The two women crashed onto the pavement, and Makoto groaned, her body going limp. "Ok...I think I'm done…." She muttered as Maki removed herself. The redheaded woman then turned her attention to Bob, who held up a hand in surrender. "No thanks man, I'm not in the mood for that."

She sniffed in derision, and then turned to the two boys, her expression looking more alive than it had at the start. "How about you two?"

"Hah! We're not done yet!" Trunks cockily declared, hands on his hips. "And we'll show you!"

"Yea!" Goten agreed before they jumped a small distance apart and began the Fusion Dance for the third time. "Fuuuuu….sion…Ha!" Brilliant golden light briefly lit up the battle zone, before it faded, leaving a grinning Gotenks standing in its place. "Heh, now you're in trouble, lady!"

Even for Nerima, this was a very unusual, and new thing. That said...it was Nerima. The crowd overcame their surprise quickly as conversations on the nature of this technique were discussed. Some recognized it. "I saw that at the Rave Battle!"

Maki gazed at Gotenks with a dumbfounded expression before finally snapping out of it. "This is weird…but whatever." She limbered up, and then leapt forward, performing a flip just as Gotenks also leapt towards her with a grin. Her long leg shot out, the heel catching the fused boy on the top of his head, sending him flying down to the pavement. He landed on his hands and feet, the impact enough to shake the ground, and he quickly pushed off to the side as Maki landed right where his back had been.

"You're good, but not good enough to beat me! Ha ha!" He grinned, rubbing the top of his head briefly, before he vanished from view. Maki's eyes went wide, before she suddenly shifted aside, Gotenks fist just missing her face. She retaliated with a knee to his gut, which he caught with his free hand and twisted on it, bringing a kick to her head, only for her to block it and retaliate with a fast jab.

The fight went like this for several long moments, their movements a blur to the crowd, who was loving every second of it. Nabiki was ecstatic, and the little mental picture of herself had morphed from dancing with money to now swimming in a large money bin full of it.

Her Id had goals.

Their blows reverberated throughout the battle arena, and small shockwaves could be seen pulsing out from their fight. The other three fighters had moved aside, and were watching with a mixture of impressed awe and confusion.

"Huh. So that's the Airmaster I've heard so much about." Maya Natsume mused, still holding her belly.

"She's in a different class than us." Bob admitted, holding out Maya's bokken for her. She looked to it in surprise, having completely forgotten about it, before taking it. "Oh, thanks. Yea, she's definitely better than I would have given her credit for. She's a natural. Watch. She's using moves she saw during her fights with each of us."

Bob glanced to Maya, before looking back to the fighters, eyes narrowing. Sure enough, he recognized her using some of his capoeira techniques as she flipped, spun on her hand, and lashed out with some kicks, before switching up to techniques he hadn't seen her use before.

"Yea...she's good. The...whatever they are, they're good too." He pointed out, watching Gotenks. As he watched, he saw the boy laughing and smirking smugly frequently. Even the blows that she did manage didn't seem to phase him. "He's stronger than when they're apart. And they were tough before."

"They've been toying with us." Makoto groused, prompting the other two to look to her. "They took solid hits that boys that age shouldn't have been able to withstand, much less full grown men or women, and they got back up without any trouble. They're still holding back."

Maya's expression turned dark as she turned back to the two fighters, and, after a few moments, she realized that the experienced fighter was correct. As good as Maki was, and deservedly so, the boy wasn't really affected. To him, it was clearly all a game. Whoever they were, they were far more than they let on.

"I think it's time to end this." Gotenks called, catching a kick on an upraised arm before hopping back, ready to use an energy blast to end it. Suddenly, Maki had dashed forward, a long arm punching towards his gut, followed by several jabs before tucking down and swinging her fist up into the upwards punch that Makoto used, much to that fighters outrage.

"That's my move!" She cried out, only for everyone to gasp in surprise. Gotenks had apparently caught every blow with his hands, and was now holding himself on top of Maki's upraised fist, body perfectly held with his feet to the sky. His eyes were full of triumph, and his expression grew almost evil.

"Nice try. Won't work on me though." He vanished with a flicker of psuedomotion, prompting Maki's eyes to go wide in surprise, before she rocketed forward from a blow to her back, body arching from the impact.

Gotenks appeared in front of her before she got far, a pair of energy blasts forming in his hands. "Game over." He brought his hands forward, and the blast struck her midsection, sending her flying back the way she came, crashing and rolling along the court, body lightly smoking.

He brushed his hands together, and then flashed a V sign with his fingers, grinning widely. "I win!"

An equal number of onlookers booed as much as the others cheered, money exchanging hands as bets were processed.

Nabiki made sure she managed to get a cut of almost every one. If asked, nobody would have remembered working that out with her, but somehow, they knew they had to.

Maki's friends rushed up, surrounding her with concern on their faces. "Maki!"

"Don't be dead!"

"Please get up!"

"Quiet." Maki's deeper voice cut through, silencing them. "I'm fine. I just...lost. That's all." Shaking, she slowly picked herself up into a seated position, just in time to hear the sound of footfalls approaching. Looking up between her friends, she watched Gotenks approach, his body none the worse for wear.

"Great fight!" He grinned, reaching a hand out to her. "You're really good!"

Maki looked to the proffered hand, and, begrudgingly, took it. With easy strength, he helped her up to her feet, staggering in the process. The blows she had taken had really knocked the wind out of her sails. Gazing down at the boy, she allowed a small smile. "You're good too. Should fight again, someday."

Gotenks's grin grew larger. "Sure! Hope you'll be stronger then. That'll make it much more interesting!"

Maki's eyes once again took on the smokey hue of challenge, and she chuckled. "I'll do that." Turning away, she began to walk for the edge of the park, her friends quickly following as she added over her shoulder, "See you around."

The fused fighter snickered as he turned away as well. "That'll be a fun time."

"Hey! What the hell happened to you anyway?!" Makoto called out, prompting the boy to stop and look over his shoulder with a smirk.

"Told ya. Fusion Style."

The street fighter rose and walked over to him, gazing down at the boy. "Well, you put on a good show, but I know you were holding back." She simply stated, hands on her hips.

He made a show of scratching the back of his head, laughing. "Eh, heheh...maybe a little...come on. I just wanted a fun fight, not to hurt someone."

The dark haired womans' lips quirked with a hint of challenge. "A fun fight, huh?"

"Yea! And you were good! That was a lot of fun. Should do it again!" Gotenks grinned widely once more.

Makoto stared at him, before finally lightly laughing and reaching a hand out, which he took and shook firmly. "Yea. Sure kid. We'll do that."

"Great! Hah! This is going to be awesome!" Gotenks turned away and headed for Nabiki, who, somehow, no longer had a laptop, cameras, or any other gear.

Maya and Bob watched from their retaken bench as everyone started to filter out of the park, some happier than others. "Such enormous reserves of chi…" Maya muttered, eyes tracking both Nabiki and Gotenks. "And such a unique technique." Sighing, she rose up, adjusting her skirt. "Come along, Bob. We clearly have much more training to do."

The dark skinned man grunted and rose as well. "No amount of training's gunna prepare you for getting hit with a chi blast to the chest."

She waved it off, glancing to the taller man. "There are ways that could be used to deflect it. We'll look into it."

As they walked away from the park, Gotenks put his hands behind his head. "That was a lot of fun! I hope there's more of that, cause that'll make this trip amazing!"

Nabiki's eyes gave an evil twinkle as her pocketed hands lightly brushed the edges of the money she had acquired. "Ooh..I think we can find something."

"And since I was just contacted to enter the boys into the Fuchikawa system, winning more fights like that will be easy money!" She laughed darkly under her breath, completely unnoticed by the fused child. A tiny, emaciated part of Nabiki's mind, representing her conscience, begged of her not to do it, that this wasn't what they were there for, that they shouldn't be used in this manner, and to think of the children. Only for it to gently swept aside by the Amazonian built representation of her ambition and logical practicality: the boys ate far more than anyone else in the dojo, Ranma and his father included, and they needed the funds to keep up with that, at the very least.

Building up a nice nest egg for a rainy day was also not a bad idea. Or at least, that's how she rationalized it to herself, her conscience rolling away with a defeated sigh.

"It'll all work out in the end."

Back at the Lookout, a place that definitely didn't hear the frustrated sighs of the battle royale audience, nor the gasps of eager anticipation of those interested in the other fight…

"Wow, that was incredible!" Goku exclaimed, brushing off some tile bits from his gi. "You guys really know how to go at it!"

"Yea, and make a real mess of things." Ranma groused, rising up from the debris that remained of the landscaping bed. Ryoga, for his part, did not attempt to respond, for he had most of a palm tree on top of him. Said tree slowly rose up as he pushed it up off of his chest, expression contorted with an annoyed grimace.

Shampoo and Akane both stood nearby, their clothing riddled with holes and tears from near misses, their bodies drenched in sweat, chests heaving as they gulped air and stared at each other, grins adorning their faces. The tile under their feet was badly cracked and broken in many places, with several pieces simply obliterated. Some of which had ended up scattered amongst the others.

Cologne had a perfect half-circle of such debris in front of her, having deftly deflected all of that which came near her with either her staff or her hands. "They were far more equal than I would have imagined they could be. Akane has truly become a force to be reckoned with. This does make things more difficult." She contemplated. "If she has improved this much, I can presume that Ranma has also improved just as significantly, if not more so due to his natural talent."

A small part of her mind began to devote more resources to the relatively nascent Plan R.

Vegeta snorted. "They're well matched. This could go on for hours, and much as I would enjoy that, we do have other things to do."

"Yea, I suppose you're right. Guess they'll have to resolve this another time." Goku disappointedly sighed. Raising his voice, he called out to the two fighters. "Hey you guys! We still need to do something about Toltir. You good?"

As one, the two women straightened up, their expressions satisfied. "Yea. We're good." Akane replied.

"For now." Shampoo added before turning away and stepping out of the small crater that had formed under her after stopping a blow from Akane, brushing her long purple hair back over a now bare shoulder. "I need clothing fixed again."

The raven haired girl followed, quickly coming alongside the Chinese Amazon, hands on her hips. "Yea, I could as well, or at least have the holes patched."

Shampoo glanced at her rival. "You fight good. We should do this often. Keep skills sharp."

Akane's expression took on a hint of challenge, while inwardly she was jumping for joy: she was being treated as an equal! "Sure, we can do that. And I'll take you down, Miss Kitty."

"Heh. We'll see." The taller woman smirked, before wiping the thin line of blood from the corner of her lip and chin.

"Now that that's over, we should work out our next move." Piccolo crossed his arms, looking to Goku. "So they're stronger, and you're stronger, but that doesn't really resolve the issue with this Toltir."

"I've been thinking about that." Bulma piped up from behind an armored blast shield she had brought via capsule. "And I might have an idea."

TBC…

Hey-hey-hey! You rioters put those flaming torches and pitchforks away! The time to see what Shampoo and Akane can do now will come...just not right this minute.

What comes next? I try to figure out what Bulma has in mind, for one. We'll see how that goes. :P

As for the battle royale, I rolled a single 20 sided die to determine how each of the challengers would do for the various resolutions, and it ended up with Airmaster Maki being the final challenger. In case you were curious how that was determined.

Until next time…

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