At long last it is time for the first round of the intergalactic games. As Vegeta makes his way to the battlefield he'd best prepare himself for the trials that lay ahead. What monstrous enemy awaits him?
Ding, Round 1
The meuhvache led Vegeta down countless hallways and through a maze of lifts and moving walkways.
Finally they emerged in a spacious, circular room. Vegeta could hear the crowd gathering in the stadium and the cheers of species from all across the galaxy.
Vegeta turned to face the meuhvache only to discover it had disappeared back out into the hallway, locking the door behind it.
With a snort Vegeta surveyed his surroundings. The room was certainly spacious, allowing plenty of room to warm up. Hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room was a screen that formed a complete circle. Scrolling across it was information about the upcoming battle and the contestants, no doubt the same information that was scrolling across the screens in the stadium.
Directly across from the door Vegeta had entered from was a set of double door that appeared locked, most likely the entrance to the stadium. On the far right wall there seemed to be a much smaller door, like that of a closet.
Vegeta strode over to the smaller door and flung it open. Inside was a blue saiyan uniform, complete with chest plate and boots.
Looking down it dawned on Vegeta that he was still wearing his training shorts and padded boots, but nothing else. He hadn't spared his wardrobe a second thought since he had left the gravity room.
Reaching out he relished the feel of real Saiyan fabric between his fingers. It was true enough that Bulma's mother had provided him plenty of duplicate saiyan suits but they were made from Earthly fabric, nothing near as strong or flexible as true saiyan fabric. Without hesitation he dropped his shorts and slipped into the suit.
Once he was dressed he began his vigorous warm up, one that would make even the strongest Earthling pass out from fatigue.
When he was nearly done a familiar robotic chirp shattered his concentration. "Greetings Prince! It's so nice to see you again, it's hard to believe only a year has gone by since you were here with the almighty Frieza."
Growling in displeasure Vegeta glanced up at a replica of the robot he had destroyed on Earth before getting in the pod. He vaguely wondered how many of those annoying tin cans they had laying around.
"Hmpf" Vegeta grunted, continuing his sit-ups.
"As you may recall our planet, Meuhvachidor, is several light years away from our sun making our years incredibly long" The robot happily chirped, although Vegeta had no idea why it felt the need to relay that information.
Vegeta did recall Frieza telling him about it. Meuhvachidor was so far away from its sun that if you looked for it in the sky it would be indiscernible from the millions of other stars. Several massive balls of energy, similar to the one he himself had used to transform into an ape the first time he came to Earth, kept the planet illuminated and the atmosphere tolerable.
The arena for the intergalactic games spanned the majority of the small planet. It housed hundreds of individual arenas, enough rooms to imprison millions of warriors and enough infirmaries to keep them alive long enough to die fighting. It brought in limitless amounts of revenue to the reptalthians who used this place for their scientific study.
Finishing his warm up, he used the back of his hand to wipe the sweat off his face before kicking the robot square in the lens. Much to Vegeta's satisfaction it instantly shattered.
Warming up had greatly calmed his mind and the haze of white-hot anger that had previously clouded his vision was gone.
With a great whoosh followed by a gust of dusty air the double doors swung open, beckoning him out into the field.
Vegeta squared his shoulders and clenched his fists at his sides as he strode out into the light.
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When Bulma awoke again she in complete darkness. The pain from her backside was now only a dull ache, but one that bit at her every time she moved.
Sitting up she felt her face and hair with her hands and took account of herself. Her hair was a tangled rat's nest matted with what could only be her own sweat and blood.
Clenching her jaw she began gently yanking the knots out, working her way from the tips of her hair to the scalp. By the time she was done she had spilled a few tears but she felt a little better.
Her face was completely caked in the remnants of tears, causing her skin to feel tight and dirty. Running her tongue over her lips she smoothed out the cracks that had formed, cleaning out the blood and removing the salt left from her tears.
Slowly she stood up, only to bump her head on a very low ceiling. Once again sitting she reached up and felt the ceiling with her fingertips. She followed it all the way in each direction, discovering she was in a small room.
Sitting down on her rear with her legs straight in front of her she could reach above her head and touch the ceiling, and reach to each side and touch the walls. If she leaned back she would smack her head on the wall behind her and if she scooted forward any her feet would hit the wall in front of her.
Taking a deep breath she examined each wall with her hands, feeling for some sort of latch or handle.
If Vegeta won't lift a finger to save me then dammit I'll save myself. I am Bulma Briefs after all, and Bulma instantly felt a little better.
Much to Bulma's dismay all sides of the room were perfectly smooth. With no foreseeable way out she pulled her knees to her chest and began to wonder how she could get herself out of this mess.
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Walking out onto the field Vegeta was instantly greeted with a mixture of cheers and boos. Superimposed on a jumbo-sized screen high in the air was an image of his face, as if he was being caught on video despite no camera's being blatantly obvious.
Another wave of cheers and boos rose from the crowd and Vegeta turned and looked down the field at his opponent. The field was about two football fields long, and elliptical in shape. The stadium rose up all around them, although no roof was visible from the ground Vegeta knew the elliptical opening at the top of the stadium was encased in glass.
When he was here as a child, one of the contestants, a winged creature, attempted to flee by flying out the top. At the time Vegeta had laughed hysterically when the creature collided with the glass and dropped like a rock to the ground below.
Finally Vegeta locked eyes with his opponent. Although she appeared somewhat human at first glance she was definitely far from it. Her eyes were completely black, with no white to be found. Her entire top row of teeth where fangs that hung out over her lower lip and her hands were more like claws, even from a distance they appeared razor sharp.
The creature eyed him wearily, swaying back and forth.
"Welcome to this years intergalactic games!" boomed the speakers of the stadium and the crowd went wild.
"Our third game of the day will be between the Prince of all Saiyans and the Mistress of the dreaded Aracono King!" and once again the crowd went wild with cheers, shouts, and jeers.
"The rules of today's game are simple!" and on cue the ground rumbled as two black boxes rose up at either end of the field.
With a lurch of his stomach Vegeta felt Bulma's kai radiate from the box on the other end of the field.
"The prize for each contestant is within the boxes on each end of the field" once again on cue the blackness coating the outside of the boxes vanished, revealing the prize inside.
Vegeta's Saiyan eyes could see Bulma sitting in her box, looking utterly confused. Vegeta cursed under his breath, realizing Bulma couldn't see what was going on around her.
Despite being caked in blood her hair still fell perfectly around her face, like that of an angel. Much to Vegeta's relief her back didn't look as bloody and raw, the efforts of the female meuhvache seemed to have paid off.
"Ready…Set…Go!"
Vegeta cursed again, he had been so focused on Bulma he hadn't been listening to what he was supposed to do.
With a screech the Aracono mistress launched herself forward then dove into the sand, disappearing into the ground.
"What the fuck…" Vegeta spat, backing up. He reached out to find her life force but there were too many people in the crowd, his senses were overwhelmed and the speck of her life force disappeared among the millions in the stands.
His eyes darted back and forth, looking for any sign of movement in the sand.
His superior Saiyan eyes saw one tiny grain of sand shift at his feet but that was all the warning he received.
The Aracono mistress sprang out of the ground directly in front of him, clawed hands extended and fangs bared.
As she was coming toward him Vegeta's hands jumped to his defense, crossing over one another to form a small shield directly in front of her face.
Without hesitation the Aracono mistress bit down on his gloved hand, her fangs tearing through his flesh. Vegeta let out a disgruntled yell as he slammed his other fist into her skull. Squealing she let go and retreated back into the dirt.
Sparing a glance toward Bulma, Vegeta froze. Her box had gotten smaller. Realizing the box was shrinking, Bulma had curled into a ball in the center of box. It wasn't a drastic size decrease but it was discomforting.
Vegeta was brought back to his sense when the Aracono mistress leapt out the ground behind him, wrapped her arms around him and sank her teeth into his shoulder.
With a smirk he grabbed hold of her wrists and pushed off the ground with both feet. Tucking both feet underneath him he shifted his weight backward, placing the Aracono mistress between himself and ground. When they were parallel to the ground he thrust his feet out above him and shoved his hips backwards, slamming the Aracono mistress into the ground.
A thunderous roar rose up from the crowd but nothing was loud enough to disguise the squeal of surprise that came from Bulma.
The aracono mistress relinquished her hold on his shoulder and sunk back into the ground. Vegeta shot up and sought out Bulma's box. It had once again shrunk although Bulma wasn't in any immediate danger. Bulma was still curled up in a ball, although she was now visibly shaking. If she were to sit up now she would surely smack her head against the ceiling.
Glancing over his shoulder he took account of the aracono mistresses prize for the first time. It too had curled into a ball in the middle of the box and was shaking uncontrollably. Whatever it was, it was covered in black fur from head to toe with several limbs sticking out that were currently wrapped around itself. He noted that its box was the same size as Bulma's. Are they shrinking in direct relationship with one another? He wondered, his mind whirling as he tried to put the pieces together and discern the rules of this round.
A soft crunch at his feet brought a smirk to his lips. This time when the aracono mistress sprang up Vegeta was ready. As her hideous face rose up to meet his he dealt a swift upper cut to her jaw, sending her flying backwards.
Glancing up he saw her prize box shrink yet again, causing the occupant to shake more violently than before. Throwing a glance over his shoulder at Bulma he was relieved to see that her box had remained the same.
"So that's it is it…" Vegeta chuckled to himself. Each blow a contestant suffered shrank the box that contained their prize, he mused, so even if the contestant survives an onslaught of blows, their prize could be crushed anyway.
Looking around he found that the Aracono mistress had once again fled into the ground. Carefully Vegeta retreated to the wall of the field and waited. Closing his eyes and crouching down he slowly tuned out the audience, tuned out the loud speakers, listening to the silence of the field. He sat in drowned out silence, waiting for any trace of his prey.
Feeling the slightest shift in pressure beneath his right boot Vegeta let his signature smirk once again haunt his lips.
Opening his eyes he slammed his open hand into the ground, grabbed the Aracono mistress by her neck and pulled her out kicking and screaming. Slamming her against the wall he held her with one hand while he pulled the other back in a fist to end it.
Then his eyes meet her and he recognized the pain on her face, the look of defeat and failure. For just a moment his grip slackened and that's all it took.
The Aracono mistress raked a clawed hand across his face, leaving 4 deep gauges, narrowly missing his left eye.
Hearing Bulma's scream ignited the fire and hatred in him once again and with every once of power in his being he slammed his fist right through the Aracono mistresses face.
Dropping the corpse to the ground he heard the roar rise up from the crowd. He slowly tilted his head back and closed his eyes to let the victory cheers wash over him. They fed the adrenaline coursing through his veins and he felt like he could take on the world.
Looking down he noticed his white glove was now black with the mistress's blood, and red with some of his own.
Turning his gaze to the prize boxes he noticed they had returned to normal size. Both occupants were still curled into balls, unsure of how long the spacious reprieve would last.
"Congratulations to Prince Vegeta! You have won round one and both prize boxes are now yours!" boomed the loud speakers as the boxes once again descended into the ground.
Feeling the presence of the bastard he turned to face him. The bastard was standing within the double doors Vegeta had entered through, presumably to lead him back to his room. Raising his eyebrow Vegeta obliged. He was curious to see what would await him when he returned.
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Vegeta has come away from round 1 victorious, walking away with two prizes in his possession. What awaits Vegeta inside the compound? While he finally be allowed to reassure Bulma that her prince is there and keeping her safe? Find out next time on Dragonball Z!