Disclaimer: In no way do I own any part of Dragonball Z or Dragonball. These animes and all characters thereof are the exclusive property of Toei Animation, Funimation, and Akira Toryama. However, Rolo Yeung, Fein, and Hard Copper, are mine so hands off!
Chapter 22: Battle for the End of Century
"We now begin our first of two semifinal matches!" blared the first announcer, Akira, "And what a match this will be!"
"Two of this tournament's powerhouses are set to collide in the most spectacular fireworks display since the Cell Games!" continued Mr. Firecracker, "In one corner we have the current National Martial Arts Champion! Undefeated in his 30 year reign, Hard Copper has left many hundreds of combatants dead or retired!"
The Giant Korrin native stepped up to the center of the ring. His scarred form decked in buckskins and feathered Mohawk made this wild man an eyesore even amongst the multitudes of cultures presented at the tournament thus far.
"And in the opposing corner we have the ever-feisty Rolo Yeung of the Crane School! A prodigy of strength and endurance, Yeung's last public appearance was at the Cell Games where he was casually brushed aside by the monster Cell. We're anxious to see if this youth has the grit to topple the reigning champ!"
The said adolescent warrior stepped forward, his own Crane School fighting gi sporting the vivid yellows and greens with the Crane School's symbol emblazoned over his right. On the back of his getup the words 'Guns Don't Kill People, I Kill People!' were embroidered in a big yellow sign.
"Eight months ago, these two locked horns at Hard Copper's home town of Rusty Gulch! This match was widely reported as having put Rolo Yeung on the map as a serious contender. Since then, the boy has trained hard and bulked up! It's going to be a treat to see how the crowd's designated Heel stacks up against the National Champ!"
Mr. Firecracker could only nod at his colleague. "One thing is for sure Akira; There are no heroes in this match-up! The crowds have been on the verge of bum-rushing the field since the start of the competition! They absolutely hate these two combatants…"
"And with good reason Jody. The National Champ has maimed thousands mercilessly! Contestant Yeung has put dozens of Mr. Satan's students in the hospital and has killed law enforcement in the West Kingdom! Make no mistake about it, I have never seen so many Molotov cocktails hurled onto the field!"
"I see that you've dressed your best," rumbled the giant champion. "It's going to be a shame scuffing up that pretty little gi of yours…"
"Words won't win this fight." Yeung performed and back-flip and landed in his and Mercenary Toa's preferred stance.
"True enough," snickered the colossal man, "Regardless of the outcome of this fight, the future is mine!"
"The two contestants may begin!"
All the training was past. All the threats and idle banter was at an end. The only recourse left was a collision course.
The air began to swirl around the arch nemesis'. Granules of sand and powder were kicked up in wild dust-devils at the outskirts of the concrete platform. The two warriors eyed one another, Hard Copper being the more relaxed of the two.
As if out of the blue, tendrils of red and whitish-blue ether, extensions of their ki presence, began to dance over the ground in a beautifully entrancing flow as if heralding the coming battle of fates. Between the two, a purple pinpoint, an energy nexus where their two fighting spirits met, coalesced.
Suddenly, the two took off at one another at near-subsonic speeds, stopping just short of one another. Their forearms clashed against one another is an earth-shattering cross strike that carried into the foundation of the ring. At the outskirts of their colliding essence, a trench was dug was dug into the tiled ring floor.
Breaking away from one another, giant and midget entered into a terrible all-out brawl, as if testing one another for weakness. Tens of thousands of fists were exchanged in but a fraction of an instant. Few of Hard Copper's strikes hit pay-dirt against the smaller, slightly faster Yeung. Conversely, none of Yeung's seemed to affect the Korrin titan, the Native's conditioned hide being harder than any metal.
At the end of the fruitless exchange, Yeung landed in a horse stance back on his side of the arena. Hard Copper simply stood in the center, staring down unflinchingly at his smaller rival. His calm demeanor irked Yeung to no end.
His features contorting into a most grotesque smile, Hard Copper barreled into his smaller opponent full force. Changing tactics, Hard Copper took wide swings at his shorter adversary. With each swing, the air around his punches was compressed into a soup-like ripple. Clearly, even if Yeung did dodge their hammering force the youth was ravaged by the hurricane inducing sonic booms.
Diving between the giant's feet, Yeung sprang upwards and delivered a powerful uppercut with eruptive force, and just as Hard Copper landed, the kid pushed against the giant's midsection with open palms. The muscles in his hands contracting rhythmically, Yeung unleashed a spot-on performance of Mercenary Toa's patented Flood Rush!
Skin and flesh blasted violently from Hard Copper's gut as if it were a grizzly splash on the surface of a meat-pond. Reeling, the Mountain Lord fell backwards and landed hard on the concrete floor.
Outside the ring, Mercenary Toa was ecstatic!
"That a way!" shouted the retired killer.
"Something doesn't sit well with me," Roshi said flatly.
"What's wrong?" asked Krillain.
"You haven't noticed?" quirked the aged master, "That Hard Copper didn't scream or even flinch even as that technique hit home! He seemed totally at ease…"
"That's right!" exclaimed Tien, "But what could it mean?"
"I don't know but I don't like it."
Back in the ring, the colossal Mountain Lord came to a stand. Despite having a big gaping depression where his belly-button would be, he seemed completely nonchalant. The wound itself spat blood like a sprinkler.
"Champion Hard Copper looks to be mortally injured! We may have to call this one before somebody gets killed! Oh wait….."
With a low chuckle, the giant placed a palm over the massive gut-hole! The palm glowed with a white ember and around it one could hear a distinct sucking sound. To everyone's surprise, when Hard Copper removed his hand, the wound was gone save for a pink scar.
"His wounds are gone!"
"I should be grateful to Korrin-Sama for his training," said the native.
Unnerved, Yeung backed away from his daunting enemy. Hard Copper wasn't even taking a stance.
"I don't understand why you're frightened," said Hard Copper flatly. "We aren't even scratching the surface."
Yeung shot the giant a nasty sneer before dropping into the Crane stance yet again.
"I think I have it figured out…," growled the Mountain Lord. "You think you can get me to play my hand too early! That my size alone will do half the work. Think again runt! I've remained undefeated for thirty years for a reason!"
"Looks like the old man was right," Yeung mumbled to himself, "When the stakes are this high, Ugly doesn't make mistakes!"
"Here's a proposition," stated HC. "Let's drop the sandbagging and fight for real! I'm sure you didn't train for eight months just to half-ass it. I know I didn't!"
It was all the invitation Yeung needed. Hurling himself forward, the boy dropped all constraints. It was clear now that Hard Copper would not allow himself to fall victim to hubris.
The two vicious rivals met in the center of the ring. Yeung hurled toe-kicks and finger jabs at every opening he could find. Hard Copper in turn intercepted the openings, the kid's strikes glancing off his iron-hard skin. Due to the monster's vast reach, Yeung was unable to get close enough to deal any real damage. It was really more a struggle against Hard Copper's inherent physical advantages. Every time Hard Copper would throw a hard right or left, his six foot reach would force Yeung beyond striking distance and whenever Yeung would get inside, he had only enough time to deliver finger jabs and the occasional roundhouse kick to the body. This was to say nothing of the times one of the Mountain King's strikes would hit home. Granted Yeung's training closed the gap between them considerably, Hard Copper's hard rights would blow through his guard like an artillery shell.
It was after one of these hard rights forced him to step back that Yeung had an epiphany. Stepping away, the youth fired a few hastily made Dodonpa at the giant. They seemed to do the trick as Hard Copper brought his own cross guard up to block the crimson beams. The impact knocked the monster of a man off balance just long enough for Yeung to get inside and sweep the giant's legs out from underneath. The giant went crashing to the floor with a 'boom' that shook the arena all the way to the bedrock.
The mountain of a man did not stay down long. Raising his hand towards the sky, Hard Copper brought it down onto the tiled floor with enough force to propel him to his feet only to be met with a roundhouse kick to the face that didn't seem to do anything against his hardened hide.
"The kid just can't seem to do any damage!" remarked Roshi worriedly.
"Tien! Just when is this hidden power supposed to surface?" asked Mercenary Toa. "Seriously, the boy could really use it about now…"
"Truly, if this Hard Copper had been around back in Goku and Piccolo's day, he would have been a force to be reckoned with!"
"Don't get dismayed too quickly," said Krillain out of the blue. "The kid isn't getting too beat up either!"
Back in the ring, Yeung and Hard Copper put their bodies through Hell itself or at least Yeung did. The boy had changed his tactics, applying 'flood rush' to all his attacks. They'd certainly closed the damage gap some! They seemed to be the only way Yeung was able to put a dent in Hard Copper's brawny armor.
Hard Copper began to turtle up in an effort to deflect damage away from his body. Taking this as his chance, Yeung dropped to the tiles and began to spin on the back of his neck like a top, delivering dozens of roundhouse kicks to Hard Copper's guard. The power of Yeung's legs far outpaced that of his short arms. Finally, the Mountain King's guard was blasted aside, allowing a heavy strike from Yeung's right foot to hit home. The force was such that it turned the massive native around and forced him to kiss tiles.
The crowds in the stands erupted! It was the first time in history that Hard Copper's guard was broken.
Pushing himself to his feet, Hard Copper cursed violently under his breath. He had actually felt that strike.
His opponent's back turned, Yeung went in to catch him from behind. Needless to say he didn't make it far. Feeling the kid's air, Hard Copper threw his left leg behind him with the force of an atom bomb and fed the hapless youth a mouthful of moccasin. The boy was flung to the floor with enough force that the back of his head squeezed a car-sized pressure crater into the tiles.
Hard Copper had no time to capitalize on his down. Yeung surged up as if nothing had happened.
"You've done a fine job of catching up to me," remarked Hard Copper nonchalantly, "At least in the area of pain resistance! And look! You've even found a way to neutralize my toughened hide! I'm impressed…."
"Only the best for you!" Yeung snapped snidely.
"I've fought against dozens of styles over the course of my life, even those with ki-based moves," rumbled the giant.
This was a side of his adversary Yeung had never seen: Hard Copper the teacher.
"Let me show you what I have learned." Bringing his hands out to his sides, the King of the Mountain began to move his arms in a big circle.
"OH NO!"
Roshi and the others looked down to find the God of Martial Arts, Korin, standing beneath them. "He's gonna use it!"
"Korin! Where have you been?" asked the Turtle Hermit.
"Never mind that!" snapped the cat god. "He's about to use 'it'!"
"It?"
"I don't know what it's called but it's one of Hard Copper's finishing moves!" explained the cat god. "It operates on a principle similar to the Genki Dama developed by North Kai!"
"What?" shouted Tien disbelievingly.
"Somehow, Hard Copper developed a high level attack without any prior training from a master!" explained the cat. "Until he climbed my tower, everything Hard Copper learned he discovered on his own! Forged by untold thousands of battles, his fist is a hard style taken to the greatest of extremes! He's a self-taught master on par with Roshi!"
"Oh my God…." breathed Tien.
Back in the ring, the Northern Champion was preparing to unleash his attack on his much smaller opponent. He continued to cast his arms around him in wide circles, stirring the currents in the air; drawing life spiritual energy from the surrounding environment.
"Block this if you can!" Drawing his arms back to his sides, the mountain lord cupped his hands just below his diaphragm and thrust forward. "HEAVEN'S COMMAND WIND!"
All around him Yeung could feel currents of air cutting against his skin as if he were in a tunnel lined with razors. Unable to move, he could do nothing as a bright comet of white light rushed at him.
The ensuing collision kicked up tiles and ring foundation, shaking the whole of the arena. Tremors assaulted all of North Central Metro as air outside the arena became still and heavy. The blast carried through for miles around.
When the dust finally cleared, the results of the ki wave's power were brutally apparent. Deep fissures had opened in the quad just outside the ring and many of the spectators were hurled with lethal force from the front rows of the stands into midrows. Yeung for his part lay seemingly unconscious, his dojo uniform in tatters and his head tilted backwards over the side of the ring.
"Incredible! Hard Copper's attack has knocked both his competition and a good chunk of the audience out cold!"
"And to think the Command Wind was only half as strong as it could have been," rumbled the giant. And just as the giant was getting ready to step in and finish the job…
"That's good…" rasped a certain boy warrior. The youth lifted himself off the ring floor. "Because it proves I can at least keep up!"
"Incredible…" whispered the mountain lord.
"That's what my last opponent said," Yeung quipped.
The King of the Mountain let a small chuckle slip. "I was holding back for the sake of our battle! It would not do to end my fun so quickly!"
Dashing forward, the Mountain Lord tried to bring a crushing hard right down on his considerably shorter opponent. Just before the attack hit, Yeung phased out from in front the assault. The punch's trajectory continued on until the attack collided with the ring floor. The force of the punch cast a seismic concussion wave that imprinted a pressure crater half as wide as the ring.
Wasting no time, Hard Copper leaped high into the air where Yeung was waiting for him. There the two squared off, Yeung still unable to penetrate Hard Copper's vast reach. In spite of his massive size, the mountain lord was able to hurl strikes at a velocity on par with Yeung. Just as was the case before, Yeung continued to rely on the 'flood rush' in the face of the monstrous native's toughened hide.
In situations where two comparable opponents are of differing sizes, there is usually a speed advantage held by the smaller. This battle was the exception to the rule. Hard Copper seemed to have all the cards: Superior brute strength, resistance to pain, natural defenses, beneficial attributes, and equal speed. It wasn't too long before Yeung had to break away from the midair fray.
Watching his opponent land in the ring with a resounding 'Boom!,' the boy sincerely hoped the giant couldn't fly. Things were not looking good.
Hard Copper peered up at his floating adversary, smiling ever so broadly. He suspected that the youth planned on carpet-bombing him from the air with energy attacks as he did before against 'the Dragon.'
'That's fine by me,' thought the giant. 'I have something that will put a stop to that…'
Bringing his thumb and forefinger together, the Korrin native aimed his hand at the adolescent. With a resounding 'snap,' he unleashed a wave of compressed air that knocked Yeung out of the sky with the precision of a guided bomb! Yeung hit the cement with a sickening bounce before rolling atop his face in a grounded summerset.
The boy drew himself up on his elbows. His head swimming, Yeung looked around frantically for his opponent.
"Over here."
Yeung jerked around only to be met by his opponent's iron-hard fist. The punch followed through, plow-driving Yeung face-first through first the ring floor, then the foundation, then the topsoil, the city waterworks, and finally straight through to the underground subway transit.
Aboveground, the ring was wrenched into two halves forced apart by the tectonic forces of Hard Copper's heavy attack, a mushroom-shaped dust cloud billowing high into the air. Many in the audience held on for dear life as the blast concussion came to.
'Ladies and Gentlemen, National Champion Hard Copper's might is indomitable!' screamed Mr. Akira. His co-announcer Mr. Firecracker braced himself against one of the adjacent pillars of the quad.
"I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS!" screeched Mr. Satan's spectacled sidekick.
In the stands, several of the spectators, hoping to ride out the powerful shockwave, took to grabbing hold of members of the Z-Senshi.
"THAT BIG BALOOKA IS A MONSTER!" screamed Oolong. The pig took to diving for cover under his seat.
"MY POPCORN!" growled Vegeta, the snack food and soda spilling in his lap.
Down in the arena the dust began to settle. Atop the rubble that was once the ring stood Hard Copper, no less ruffled than when the fight began. The giant looked down with a scrunched up frown upon the deep chasm in which Yeung was unceremoniously buried.
"So…" whispered the native more to himself than anyone else, "I guess you were just like all the rest…" Turning around, the hulking monster of a man casually strolled away from his latest work.
"Contestant Yeung is down and by the looks of this hole I'd say he's down for good!"
Deep underground buried under layers of steel rebar, dirt, and powdered cement, Yeung laid out cold. His once sporty Crane uniform was but a distant memory. His face which took the brunt of the Mountain Lord's true strength was torn all to Hell! Teeth were knocked out, his nose was crushed, and his right cheek had a hole where one of his cuspids had turned sideways and punctured the delicate tissue.
"I'll start the count! One!...Two…."
Yeung squirmed as images played in his head! It was like being born again. White light came rushing at him as he traveled down a long tunnel. An eyelid cracked open and it was like a flood gate had opened inside him.
"Three!...Four-Huh?"
All around, bits and pieces of rubble were wrenched up and danced in a mesmerizing circle above the yawning maul. The Earth shook with great force as if something distant were upending the very crust upon which the city lay. Finally, a hollow deep ember began to radiate from the hole where Yeung had been cast.
Jerking around, Hard Copper couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was as it was eight months before. Yeung imbued with a red ember, came to stand before him, his head tilted towards the ground. Blood dripped like hot fudge from the boy's mouth, ears, nose, and eye sockets. His eyes bore ghastly, white ether that grew with every passing moment.
"What's with his eyes?" asked Krillain who was more than a little creeped out.
"It's like….the lights are coming from inside his skull," Tien observed.
With a blood-curdling screech, Yeung threw his head back and let it all come forward; the strange hidden power that was the sum of his whole. The white glowing ether spilling from his eyes began to hurl photon bolts across the arena. Pallor tendrils arced off the concrete, off the spectators, from all around. Atomic bonds in the immediate area came undone and the light of the surrounding world began to bend around him in a horrifying gravity well….an event horizon!
The event horizon gained kinetic energy and began to expand, forming a dim red dome of contorted air and space around the boy. At all sides, tiles and rubble were blasted away or atomized by the dome of inverted temporal energy.
All about the arena no, the city, the depolarizing effects of the gravity well could be seen and felt. Debris was thrown into the air, turning the sky into a maelstrom of hap hazardous projectiles. Windows shattered, circuits and pipes burst, fires ignited, ...in short, the cityscape came to symbolize the turmoil that was taking place between Yeung and the titan that stood before him.
"Contestant Yeung is surrounded by what can only be described as an energy shield!" screeched Mr. Firecracker. Mr. Satan's longtime side-kick lay face-flat on the grass, doing what he could to shield himself from flying debris. "What otherworldly force is giving him this power?"
Hard Copper was a bit taken back by this turn of events. Here it was, the power he had got a glimpse of in the first fight he and the boy shared. Now that he had brought it out, he was at a loss at how to approach it.
Walking towards the berserker youth, the giant reached forward with one massive hand and attempted to strike at the boy. However, upon connecting with the gravity well his hand opened up as if it had a steak knife taken to it. The man yanked the said mauled hand away from the energy field. Had he pushed on any further, he would not have had that hand much longer.
"My invincible iron-hard body?" stammered the giant. Yeung for his part had no sarcastic replies. The kid was entirely beholden to his new state of condition.
Trying yet again, Hard Copper charged up his signature move, this time at full power!
"HEAVEN's COMMAND WIND!" Thrusting forward with open palm, Hard Copper sent the razor wing laced energy wave hurtling at the empowered youth. The wave connected dead-on with the field only to be deflected away by the gravity well. The blast itself was sent careening into the skybox above the quad.
"The spectators are getting caught in the fireworks!" Bulma screamed.
"Wouldn't be a bad thing," muttered Oolong.
Yeung cackled hysterically at his now neutralized opponent. It was as if some otherworldly force had taken whatever sanity he had. Bringing up one hand, Yeung gathered ki onto a fine point. Upon reaching critical mass, the crazed youth let fly with the Crane School's signature attack.
"Dodonpa!"
Bright crimson blasts erupted from his finger like a machine gun, punishing his colossal adversary. Between the Dodonpa's penetration power, the arcs of white ether licking him, and the intense gravity well, Hard Copper couldn't even approach the boy. If not for his mighty hide, Hard Copper would have burned alive.
Holding up an elbow to shield his face, the announcer, Mr. Akira, tried his best to offer commentary. "Ladies and Gents! Intense is the only word I can use to describe the maelstrom of things going down here at the Northern Kingdom Budokai!"
"INTENSE?" screamed Mr. Firecracker incredulously, "These guys are crazy!"
Before too long, Hard Copper found himself pushed into a corner and on his knees. He had accomplished what he set out to do: Force Yeung's latent power to the surface. Needless to say, he was reaping the whirlwind. Just outside the ring Mercenary Toa threw taunts at his students' archrival…
"How ya like them apples huh?"
Through grit teeth, the Korrin giant squelched out, "I take as well as I give…" Cupping a hand to his side, the Mountain Lord launched a sun-bright ball of ki into Yeung's peripheral.
"Here goes nothing…" With one last exertion of his will, Hard Copper sent the blast sailing right into the ground just under Yeung, bypassing the event horizon entirely. The ki ball detonated, knocking the concrete flooring out from under the youth. The resulting flash and dust provided a smokescreen for the giant to slip out of the corner.
With a great leap, the hulking titan took to the air. Thinking on his feet, the Northern Champ brought his hands together in front of him. His entire strategy of engaging the freshly empowered youth hinged on one thing: An issue of chaos.
"HEAVEN's COMMAND WIND!" Again, Hard Copper employed his signature attack, only this time the wave did not leave his hands. The Genki Dama-like ball of life energy laced his palms with a white-hot glow as it connected with the gravity well. With the giant brute pressing down with cupped palms, there was nowhere for the energy to go but forward. With a loud 'THOOM!,' a hole was torn into the gravity well, allowing the Korrin colossus to slip through.
"He's in!" screeched a flabbergasted Toa.
The massive native locked hands with his smaller adversary in a grapple. With all their heaving might the two combatants dug in and pushed forward. Though the gravity well had reformed itself, it was useless now that Hard Copper was inside.
White ether arched violently against Hard Copper's rugged hide. Channeling some of his own ki, the giant held fast. The two powerful ki signatures flared into a bright pallor/red aura that lit up the late afternoon sky. The energy output eventually reached such a level that the two warriors began to rise off the ground. Between the two, a nexus of ki began to build and build until finally they were hurled apart by a massive backlash!
The concussive force of hundreds of blasts rocked the area as meteors of residual ki careened into the audience and the surrounding city. The two enemies came down opposite one another in what was left of the ring.
"If this continues, we won't have an audience much longer!" screeched Mr. Firecracker who was hunkered down behind a section of the ring.
"Believe me, this is nothing compared to the 23rd Tenkaichi!" Akira shouted back. "You get used to it!"
"Holy Shit!" hissed Krillain through grit teeth. "Maybe we get the others out of the stands!"
"Don't worry!" screamed Roshi, "Vegeta and Eighteen are with them!"
Clad in a deep red ember, Yeung's berserker state was a terrifying sight to behold. Hard Copper so long regarded as an unassailable juggernaut, was for the first time in his career left on the defensive.
"Ya know…," began Roshi, "Something's been bothering me."
"What's that Master?"
"For all the pummeling that big guy's taking, he still isn't as frazzled as he should be," answered the aged hermit.
"How so?" asked Tien with interest.
"I just have this funny feeling." The old turtle hermit couldn't place his finger on it. "There's just this staleness in the air, kinda like how the atmosphere gets heavy just before a storm sets in. Something's up! I feel it in my aching joints."
"So you noticed?"
Everyone looked down to see Korrin the Cat. "I guess I should tell you guys right now. Hard Copper has one more trump card to play."
"Huh!"
"It's something about the Korrin Tribes' intrinsic connection to the position of the Morning and Evening Star. For a limited time just as the sun sets, the planet Venus provides a boost in power from on high."
"How big a boost?" pressed Roshi.
"Big enough," answered the cat deity. "It was this boost that allowed that giant to finally catch me after climbing my tower."
"I remember that experience," said Roshi. "Took me three years to accomplish such a feat!"
"How long did it take him?" asked Tien quirking an eyebrow.
"About a week."
"Are you telling me that beast can become even more horrible?" Toa screeched.
"If that's the case, after the competition we may have to intervene."
Power Levels:
Rolo Yeung: 281
Rolo Yeung(berserker state): 500+
Hard Copper: 302
Hard Copper(Boosted by Evening Star): ?