THE VEGETA CHRONICLES
Chapter 9 - Crossing the Line Part III
A few minutes ago...
It was chaos in the Cash's Rich Box. Now pulling up commands from a pull out command console, him and his assistant had been trying to reroute and manually control the feeds of the automated cameras. With all the devastation being brought onto screen, they made sure to quickly wink some that had a bit more detail than others, trying to keep the inevitable deaths of these fighters away from public eye. He already had a ton of legality issues with this as it was, he wished to make it a little less painful.
He did try and keep some good shots of astounding feats. For example, the explosions after they hit target were amazing to record on film, as well as the one of the tiny man growing to the size of a colossus before being struck down by the small fighter. Other fights were purposely avoided, much like the two sword-toting fighters. All of this was being rapidly and successively changed behind the scenes, making it appear as some cameras were "dead" before others were stationed to take certain shots and angles of others.
Then, the display of one of the remaining extraterrestrial warriors came up, his aura making all of the cameras within the battlefield sizzle and distort for a second, due to the electromagnetic interference from his sheer power output. Then, the boy himself came into view, letting out a fierce cry of spirit, causing all cameras to momentarily be cut off before turning back on.
"W-What are they?! What is going on?!" The assistant asked nervously.
"Its just like my wife said," Mister Cash leaned against the expanded control table, bowing his head with utter shock as sweat beaded down his face, "its the Cell Games all over again..."
After the rumblings had subsided from several of the spectacularly captivated explosions, the arena grew strangely quiet. An ominous roll of thunderclouds began to move over the stadium, unbeknownst to the crowd, had begun to form from the intense energies radiating below their feet, deep within the chasm of the bulk of the island's interior. It provided the only sounds of crackles and lightning and an impending storm, despite the forecast being clear and sunny all day.
But beyond the elements, the eerily quiet that held the audience captive from beneath them grew on.
Not due to the animated conversations from the fans, which hadn't nearly subsided, nor the roaring of the nearby waves. The fights seem to end, and without announcement. The fighters had yet reach the stadium floor, so the battles felt as if they were a big delay for the upcoming finale. So why did everything feel so still and calm?
Then, Chi-Chi and Bulma's eyes drew to the screens, now showing the real reason for the pause of action below them. Gohan ignited a passionate and anger-filled scream, as he powered up to his legendary Super Saiyan 2 state, his body's aura now as bright, if not brighter than Bojack's. Calling him out, he challenged him openly to settle things once and for all.
"Gohan," Chi-Chi could scarcely believe her eyes. This was the first time she ever saw him have a look of such daunting courage and anger. He hardly looked the same, and yet, he looked so familiar. The power coursing through him, and the eyes of fierce determination, mirrored the child that Chi-Chi admired and fell in love with that was her later husband. A tear snaked down her eyes, as a smile of pride welled up upon her face, "you'd make your father proud..."
"Gohan?!" Videl's eyes bulged as she leaned as close as she was able from her viewing box within the now vacant contender box. She could scarcely believe it. Besides taking down a collosal gargantuan sized monster with barely any effort, as his friends had done, he was now taking on a man who withstood the imposing and powerful green-skinned teacher of his. He looked calm, passively enraged, but controlled.
Looking at the evil man before him, with rippling muscles and dark power fluctuating his skin, grinning evilly she could feel her blood grow cold, even from the distance she was from the arena. Just seeing the screen sent chills down her spine.
But when the camera panned over to Gohan, she couldn't help but feel her heart skip a few beats. A flush of foreign crimson rushed to her cheeks, and a look of dumbfounded awe crossed her face. Seeing him, with the passion that projected both visibly from the bright, crackling golden-blue aura and emotionally through the gaze of righteous rage from his now emerald eyes.
"You're probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life," She thought with a growing smile, as she saw him rear his fist back and throw it at his opponent's much larger one...
"Ugh," Hercule, finally recovering from his fall down the stairs of Battle Island I, began to climb back up. Having been stirred awake by the vibrations that the speakers and shockwaves that Battle Island II was having transpiring as of recently. He knew this was getting dangerous, and if things were heating up like he heard it was, it could only mean one thing: Another Cell Games was at hand!
"I'm not going to have my daughter get caught up in this crazy crossfire!" Hercule grumbled as he limped up the stairs, using the handrail for support, as he finally reached reached the contender box. Walking up to the door, he prepared to open it and convince his only child to come with him at once. After all, it was his duty to keep his child safe, right?
Mr. Satan reached halfway to open the door, and grab his daughter, to get to safety...but...
Now...
Gohan and Bojack's fists struck at once, and immediately unfolded a titanic burst of force. Lightning streams from the point of contact, kicking up slabs of earth in the dozens of meters, igniting the air with intensity, and slamming into the ground within a mile radius. This ushered in creating a powerful shockwave at its epicenter that unfolded with the sheer yield of a bomb going off.
It was fortunate enough for Piccolo that he raised his arms up to shield himself from the blast, his heels digging in and shoving him back with incredible force. He had never been able to witness this, even during the battle against Cell. How much stronger was this Bojack?!
Trunks turned towards the direction with widened eyes, as he felt the full force strike him, even from the distance he was from ground zero, "Gohan?!"
"Whoa!" Yamcha called out with shock and wonder, as he comically flew with Tien, head over heels from their comfortable pile of rubble, to painfully land elsewhere, "where's the fire man?! Geeze, these Super Saiyans and their battles always seem to dwarf ours..."
"Stop being jealous and be quiet," Tien coughed out towards his friend as he punched his fists into the earth, hoping to anchor him from future collisions.
18 had already began to fly through one of the tunnels that she navigated her way through to begin with, holding Krillin's prone form in her arms. The shockwave and the clashing energies unnerved her, causing her to fly that much faster to the surface.
Up above, that first punch would be a wake-up call to the sheer scale of the battle happening below...
BOOM! Chi-Chi's eyes widened, as she felt the entire stadium thrum with such force, she briefly felt herself lift off the edge of her seat, before falling back down. Did Gohan strike that Bojack's fist that hard?
"My gosh!" Bulma spoke aloud in alarm, even as Kid Trunks giggled with enjoyment, feeling the shockwave as if it was a game of sorts, eagerly bouncing on his mother's lap to have it happen again, "and here I thought they wouldn't start off strong right away!"
"Yeah," Chi-Chi nodded, her eyes widened comically as she stared aghast at the wide-screened image of her son exchanging the blow, following up with another. Each time their fists and feet struck, the shockwaves were potent enough to shake the entirety of Battle Island II. Dozens of people fell over and were aghast, shocked, and quite surprised by the force the blows the two combatants exchanged. Was it real? Was this really happening? The battle, if anything, was nothing like any of the others before it.
Even the shaking Island's tremors began forcing the waves to rise and fall unnaturally higher beyond the lone dock, and rock the stationary Battle Island I.
THRUM! "What the Devil?!" Mr. Cash's eyes bulged up, shaking him out of his reverie, as he stared at the screen and then at the reinforced rich box he designed for him and his family, "what kind of powers are we witnessing?! What have I unleashed?!"
"This almost feel like a battle between gods rather than between two martial artist, Mister Cash," the assistant spoke with shaken awe, gulping audibly to quench his fear-driven dry throat.
"Please let this nightmare be over!" Mrs. Cash spoke with genuine fear and dread, as she held her trembling child in her arms and lap, his head burying into his mother's bosom to escape the frightening noises and explosions occurring not too far from them.
VOOM! "Whoa!" Videl's eyes widened, as her body stumbled around, struggling to maintain balance from the number of tremors issued from the base of the Battle Island II that rocked Battle Island I within their docked position to it.
"G-G-Go Go-o-han, whoooooa!" Videl tried to cheer, but still felt herself wobbling side to side, trying her best to not fall on her buttocks and watch the screen keeping close detail of the battle unfolding before her.
To her father's chagrin, she heard a faint yell of terror emanate from behind the sound proof door, as the rocking of the man-made Island forced him to lose his footing and fall...
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-OW-OW-EH-AH-OOF-OH-OW-OW-OW-OW!" Hercule screamed out in comical terror, before his face struck the stairwell, and literally proceeded to fall head over heels down the curved, spiral staircase of the main turret's staircase, all the way to the bottom. By the time he fell to the ground, his head struck the ground hard enough to knock him out cold, and slide onto his backside with a goofy grin of daze and stupor on his face.
Back within the dark city's artificial sky, lightning cracked and thundered, as the two warriors struck each other like two missiles. Repeatedly slamming into each other, the two flashing auras would emanate brilliantly projected auras, before breaking away, forming a shockwave that would rock the island to its core, blow back all structures, and sending gusts of wind that would occasionally brush up against his stationary comrades, watching his progress in awe.
After nearly three dozen clashes of sheer power, Bojack rushed in to swipe at Gohan's flank, propelling himself forward with a momentum that few could hope to halt. As Gohan momentarily tapped Bojack's forearm to vault over it, the Herasian's arm's gait sent disruption within the fabric of space, curling it around, and crushing all structures.
Using the physical prop of his own outstretched arm, Gohan maneuvered his lithe and smaller feet back, before double-kicking Bojack in the jaw. The crack his aura-enraptured feet would make upon his own strengthened jaw would cause a flash of golden overpower the violet-white energy, and send the warrior spinning back across the air a good thirty meters.
Zooming after him, Gohan quickly overtook the airborne Bojack to reach his left flank, elbowing his exposed side with a deafening crack that shook the island and produced a golden-lit flash of lightning to explode from his skin. It momentarily stunned Bojack, but he was steeled for it, swiftly swinging his massive arm out with a back-handed hammer fist to hit the back of Gohan's head.
The pop of the air was palpable, expanding like a balloon of violent electric-bursting air pressure, and shuddering the whole city's ruined landscape, as Gohan descended down with a thunderous crash.
Within a moment, Gohan rebound from the strike, spearheading up in a golden streak that would barrel into Bojack's gut with both outstretched fists. Bojack gasped aloud at the impact, breaching his tightened abdominal muscles and sending him reeling back. Swinging a meaty fist down to retaliate, Gohan bent his body dexterously to the side, grasping the wrist tightly in a vice grapple.
Gohan then charged up a vibrantly crackling fist of Ki, striking it hard into Bojack's gut, driving it with such force that his back rebounded with the intensity of his blows.
The green giant winced and bulged his eyes in response from each painful punch, perforating the atmosphere with vibrant flashes of light and ripples of thunderous quaking force. Using his only free hand, he swung it towards the Super Saiyan, hoping to use his remaining limb to strike him away from his body.
The fist was caught deftly, as the retracted smaller hand swung around gracefully to grasp the knuckles with equal force sent his way, causing a pop the flourish his wild, crackling hair as he glared upon his enemy.
With a bit of leverage, he pulled the two arms down hard enough to boost himself up above the muscular Herasian, striking his right knee into his chin with crackling force that sent fraying lightning bolts to strike the city at all directions. With his target stunned, he let go of the arms, and twisted his body to the right, striking his foot into the massive temple of the green skinned alien, causing him to roll over within the sky awkwardly.
As his brain thrummed with pain and dizziness, Bojack couldn't help but to feel doubt and fear creep within the recess of his mind. Was the Grand Kai playing with him all along? Was he capable of such power and was merely toying with him as he clashed with him at the heart of the Universe? How was a mere boy taking every hit he threw at him and returning it back with just as much force?
When the marauder's vision cleared, he saw Gohan already zooming at his righted position within the sky. His aura painted a long streak of golden energy in his wake, that cracked with blue bio-electrical charges as he forced himself to pursue his opponent.
Swinging his arms out to clap the boy with his hands as he came within reach, hoping to crush him in mid-flight, but would find him slapping empty air. As the air buckled with an enormous fissure of electrified air pressure that would strike the far wall of the city, Gohan bent his head in sync with his upper body, to slide between the Herasian's legs. Flipping to be perfectly vertical and upside down, Gohan swung his arms gracefully to be splayed out and framing his forehead.
As Bojack would turn around to swing his fist towards Gohan's airborne and stationary form, he didn't expect what would flow from the boy's hands.
"SUPER MASENKO!" Gohan cried with a guttural roar, discharging a golden stream of energy that dwarfed the giant berserker, and put any prior said technique used by Piccolo to shame.
Swallowed up within the maw of searing energy, Bojack felt himself flung across the ceiling of the sky, trailing a blaze of fire and electricity in his wake, before his body felt himself halt within an immense golden-white explosion of raw explosive yield. The force from the unfolding orange-yellow flames of the detonation rocked the integrity of Battle Island II's structure, visibly shaking it with as much intensity as an earthquake tremor.
But this didn't halt Bojack for long.
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" as his roar of outrage billowed away the smoke and shook the city in a mighty projected Kiai, issued from his expanded lungs. Setting his black, boiling eyes to set upon the distant golden-hued image of his newfound nemesis, he bared his teeth with raw hatred.
He wanted to kill this kid, bad.
Stretching each hand to his sides, he gathered a large collection of energy, piling layers upon layers of condensed Ki, keeping his senses attuned to Gohan's movement. To his satisfaction, the boy arrogantly stood in place, awaiting the release of his enemy's attack towards his destination. Little did the prodigious Super Saiyan would find out, that not all would go the way he would believe it will.
"Take this, chump!" Bojack laughed aloud, smiling past the searing scars of burnt flesh perforating his body, as he clasped his wrists together, and fused the two orbs of emerald-white energy together into one massive sphere, as large as his body, discharging it forward at his target, "Galactic Buster!"
VLAAAAAAM! Screaming out with intense force, it rippled and distorted space around it, with a volatile nature that Gohan immediately sensed with alarm.
If he allowed it to explode anywhere in the arena, the whole Island would detonate and possibly wipe out the coastal city beyond the docks.
Glaring heatedly, Gohan charged his aura, higher than anyone would believe to be possible and settled himself with his hands outstretched. As the ball of explosive energy struck his palms, Gohan palmed it, and forced his aura to electrify, his scream became nigh deafening, as he forced his own energy around it and enrapturing it. Within a matter of seconds, not without strain, Gohan began to push the orb in on itself, crushing it to the size of a pinball, dispersing the energy entirely.
Letting out a sigh of relief, he suddenly realized the position he was in.
"HRAH!" Bojack was upon him, slamming his knee into the boy's stomach with a powerful exertion of force, shaking the isle anew, followed up with a double-overhead hammer fist to his skull, sending him spiraling into the ground with a fantastic crash. Leaving most of the city to ripple like a wave of water-like debris, Bojack disrupted that flow when he bowled down and slammed his fist into the boy's crouched form.
Grasping the boy by the hair, he held him up before himself, with a diabolical grin on his face, chuckling to himself with pride for his cunning. Rearing back his fist, he proceeded to strike the inert and unresponsive boy, with every fist dwarfing his chest, and hitting him square in the face and body, cracking the earth, indenting it, and sending writhing black tendrils of projected energy to flow endlessly across the horizon.
After nearly a solid minute of blows, Bojack huffed and puffed, satisfied with the amount of punishment, seeing gashes and cuts displayed over the boy's fair skinned body, as well as tattered his orange-blue gi.
"Have anything to say to me now, boy?" Bojack taunted as he laughed darkly.
What he didn't expect, was an immediate reply, that dryly escaped Gohan's throat.
"Ow," With that single response, Gohan's eyes opened and looked undeterred directly up at Bojack, "that hurt..."
CRACK! Grappling Bojack's outstretched wrist, Gohan swung his knees up to preform a double knee kick towards the relaxed elbow.
The result was brutal.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Bojack let out an ungodly howl of pain, as the flash of blue-white light that coated the half-Saiyan's kneecaps cracked and broke his arm with enough force to snap his arm down, and have his bones penetrate his flesh, sending a geyser of blood up into the air that quickly dissolved in the wake of such powerful exuding energies.
Letting go of Gohan, he backed away while holding onto his arm with a look of despair and rage, cast in Gohan's direction. Within an act of desperation, he swung out his free hand, casting dozens of psycho threads to tie around Gohan's body, barely grazing the boy's skin due to his aura.
"HA! I GOT YOU NOW!" Bojack laughed aloud, his mind on the verge of snapping from the unforgiving pain his bleeding arm gave him.
"Yeah, you sure got me," Gohan spoke dryly in retort, his eyes unyielding and impassive to Bojack's determination.
"I'm going to sap you of your strength, just like I did to Vegeta!" Bojack growled with anxious bloodlust, wishing the boy would just buckle and die in front of him already.
Gohan, inhaling deeply, closed his eyes. Then, he let out a literally earth-shattering Kiai from his mouth, raising it face Bojack, sending disruptive force of bio-electricity and air pressure to snap the chords holding him, and blast the ground around him within a omni-directional fissure of steaming force, in a wake of blue lightning and golden flames.
Bojack felt his ears ring, as he felt his body wreak on fire from the force of the sonic waves striking his skin and rattling his organs. Dropping to his left knee, Bojack heaved and gasped heavily. His body was covered with burns, scratches, and bruises, with his right arm badly broken.
"Is that it? Is that all you got?" Gohan spoke in a quiet whisper, contrary to the rolling and crackling aura thrumming around his body.
Bojack used one last ability in his arsenal, if not out of desperation, then out of yearning to know what the boy was planning: Telepathy.
He heard the thousands of voices flowing above him, the thoughts of finality of Gohan's plans for retribution, but also, two coalescingly similar voices drifted to his consciousness. A woman, sitting to another, held the power signature of a Saiyan within her belly, not too far above within the stadium, with another child being a hybrid to a Saiyan-blood.
With a bleeding, demented grin, Bojack decided to compromise.
"Not...QUITE!" Slamming his fist into the ground, he created a powerful fissure of blinding of violet light to emanate from the earth, in answer to Gohan's question. It was bright enough to flash all of the cameras, and blind even the passive observers, and even incapacitate Super Sayan standing in front of him.
This was his chance!
VOOM! With a powerful burst of energy from around his body, he roared up as he outstretched his arm towards the ceiling of the artificially scarred sky, crashing through it head first...
Videl gasped, as she saw the distant explosion of flames erupt from the stadium. She realized the monster was out, free to attack anyone he wished, and out of reach, if even for the moment, from Gohan. What could she do?
Then, she recalled something. She really thought hard about what an ordinary martial artist like herself could do in scope in comparison to these super powers. But what really rattled her, was her conviction of what would Gohan do?
With her mind made up after her legs started running, she rushed towards the door, and opened it, rushing towards the ramp that would lead to the stadium, even as she heard the distant thunder. Whatever she would do, she would do it without pause and without question. Her time was to be fearless, not to cower. She would show him what she was capable of.
"Hold on, Gohan!" She spoke to herself as she rushed down the dark corridor at top speeds that her teenage body would allow, "hold on!"
Chi-Chi gaped in horror in sync with Bulma.
In fact, all of the crowd that was nearest to the stadium's edge that weren't flung from their seats found themselves screaming, panicking, and rushing towards the exits. This battle had grown out of control, and they knew this wasn't mere sport or entertainment. This was slaughter and mayhem in the making, and they wished not to be a part of it.
To the widowed woman's chagrin, the alien seemed to fixate a crazed grin in her direction. Within a movement she couldn't fathom, he approached her, his battered, bleeding form standing imposing in front of the two fragile women, the child, and the unborn one within the womb of the human female.
"You are the mother of Son Gohan," Bojack spoke in a disturbingly knowing tone.
Chi-Chi felt her blood grow cold, as his aura projected a disturbingly nightmarish aura. It felt as if she was staring into the eyes of a demon. Hungry for blood, and delighted at seeing her fear. She had no words to speak, and felt her skin clam up. Where was her fiery spirit when she needed it?
Much to her thankfulness and chagrin, Bulma was no so easily intimidated.
"HEY! YOU!" Bulma pointed at Bojack, even as the crowd screamed and scampered as fast as they could away from the demon that appeared before them, not wanting to be victims to his wrath, "YOU GOT A LOT OF NERVE RUINING THIS TOURNAMENT! I PAID GOOD MONEY TO WATCH MY TRUNKS WIN THIS! YOU BETTER APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW OR-"
"I don't have time for you," Bojack rolled his eyes, twitching his broken arm's finger, sending a burst of Kiai to send her and her child flinging up into the air and towards the ground below.
"BULMA! TRUNKS!" Chi-Chi shouted out, in horror, as she saw the incredulously horrified woman and her child fly down head first to the Tournament ground. At the velocity she was flung, as a normal human, she could get physically traumatized from the impact alone.
"Hooooooooooooooooowaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Though, salvation came in the form of a mad dashing girl in pigtails, white gi, and a black belt, as her bare feet rushed across the grassy field towards the airborne. Leaping up, into the air, she caught the falling mother with both arms, bracing her back for the pull of gravity, and striking the earth with a defining thud, skidding across the earth.
Bulma blinked, her eyes wide and filled with surprise. She only felt mildly dazed, and felt an unfamiliar small body pinned underneath her, muffling with relief that she was safe.
"Rv yove ove wight?" Videl asked from underneath Bulma's upper back, trying to wrench herself from the ditch their bodies carved in the field.
"Yes...oh...yes I am," Bulma sighed with relief, momentarily distracted by Kid Trunks happy giggles, ecstatic from the sudden flight he experienced.
"Agan-Agan!" He urged his mother, bouncing up an down in her arms.
"No, Trunks, none of that," Bulma sighed, as she turned to smile in thanks to the brave young girl.
"Thank you, miss...?"
"Videl," Videl answered, reaching her weary hand out to Bulma, "pleasure to meet you-"
Any social call the two females would have would be broken by the ear-piercing scream from Chi-Chi.
The widowed woman of Goku's struggled within the grasp of Bojack's good arm, as he smiled with blood dripping down his jawline, making him appear all the more devilish in nature. He chuckled as he wrapped his whole hand around her upper chest and neck area, intending on crushing her within an instant.
"Say hello to your husband for me, will you?" Bojack chuckled as charged up a Ki blast between his palm and Chi-Chi's body.
Even as Gohan, Trunks, and Piccolo's bodies streaked out with immense force, heading straight towards Bojack, they saw it was too late.
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" Gohan's eyes widened, his pupils dilated with horror, as he desperately rushed to strike Bojack before his mother would get killed. He needed to move faster. He needed...
Time seemed to slow down to a halt.
A sizzling shimmer of golden light seemed to erupt from Bojack's flank, rocketing forward with the figure of a golden-aura cast warrior. Light seemed to erupt from the fist of this unknown warrior, smashing into Bojack's jaw with the same force...no...even higher than Gohan's attacks from before. The energy seemed to have a carnal animosity to it, roaring out, howling, and bowling into Bojack's entire being with immense force.
Only Gohan was able to see the golden halo emerging within the iconic being of justice, as he took full form, with an aura of an unstable Super Saiyan 2, as he flung Bojack from the choke hold he had on the helpless woman, before grasping her with a free arm.
His voice, made it all clear to him, and everyone present.
"DON'T LAY A HAND ON MY FAMILY, BOJACK!" Goku roared out, a look righteous anger and pure guttural emotion enveloped his being, as hurtled his enemy, far into the horizon with his Warp Punch.
Son Goku had come to save his family.
A/N: End Part III
Thus ends the formerly enormous Chapter 7, now Part III Chapter 9.
I hope you all liked how this chapter turned out and how events will unfold from this point. I really tried my best to give a satisfying conclusion to the battles that has transpired, as well as a good cliffhanger for those of you keen on finding out what happens next.
Please post your comments and reviews of what you thought, new readers, for those of you reading this as a 9th Chapter instead of the original behemoth 7th one.
Until then, I'll post a collaborative chapter detailing about what happened in Other World simultaneously in the Other World Saga story I'm writing.
In the meantime, I hope I'll see you all next week for the conclusion of the Bojack Tournament Arc and the aftermath that will unfold in its wake.