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Ten days had passed, meaning that the tournament was less than a day away. The Titans, and their friends, had to go back to Titan Tower and then to the Jump City airport to Papaya Island by noon or they would miss their flight. "We can't leave without Gohan!" Starfire said to her teammates, not knowing where the half-breed was. She looked up at the morning sun, wondering if they were going to make it.

"We've searched the lookout three times," Robin said. "He's not here, nor is he answering my calls."

"He'll be here," Blackfire said. "While I enjoy watching you all worry, I know how much of a killjoy Gohan is."

The Z-Fighters silently watched the Titans worry and smirked. "Do you think they know?" Popo asked, folding his arms.

"I mentioned it to Raven," Tien said, "but I don't think she's thought anything of it."

Krillin's eyes widened. "Is that him?"

"You can sense it too," Dende said. "It's amazing."

"He never fails to surprise me," Piccolo said.

Yeah, like letting you get killed by Nappa, a voice similar to his own said inside his head. That was surprise-

"Not now, Nail," Piccolo growled.

"No, it's not Nail," Dende said.

"I didn't mean that," Piccolo said. "Never you mind what that was."

Dende stared at him with a blank expression. "Okay?"

"Holy crap, man!" Yamcha said. "No way is that him!"

"Popo," Roshi said, "just what exactly did you do to Gohan?"

"I killed him, revived him, and killed him again," Popo said. "After the fifth revival he was able to beat Cell by himself."

"Cell?" Trunks said.

"I used the Time Chamber," Popo said. "I sent him into a time illusion to fight a supreme Cell. Not even Goku would stand against what made Gohan fight."

A bright, golden light from the center of the lookout halted the discussions. Vegeta smirked. "The boy did it."

Starfire gasped. "Gohan?"

Gohan's golden aura died, revealing the spiky blonde hair and teal eyes marking the Super Saiyan form. He wore a white vest with the kanji for "dragon" over his heart. On the back, a golden, Chinese dragon traveled in a circle chasing its own tail. The tee shirt underneath was blood red and his pants were white. His belt was golden as were his shoes. He grinned at the Titans, including Blackfire. "I'm back! What's up?"

Do not mention Terra, Raven told him telepathically. I will explain later.

Gohan's smile faded. He realized she wasn't there and that Beast Boy's usual smile seemed very empty.

"Sweet outfit!" Beast Boy said, shaking Gohan's hand. "I think I finally have a superhero name for you: The Golden Dragon!"

Gohan pondered the name. "I like that! I'll definitely think about it."

"Why need a superhero name when you have a name like Gohan?" Blackfire said.

"Oh," Starfire said gloomily. "My sister is traveling with us to Papaya Island."

"I think your name is cool," Cyborg said. "I wouldn't name my kid that, but-"

"Thanks," Gohan said.

"We should get going," Robin said. "We'll all have time to catch up on the twenty two hour plane ride."

"When does it depart?" Gohan asked.

"Two hours," Robin said. "If you could teleport us to the tower, that'd be great."

"Everyone, grab onto something." Gohan placed his fingers on his forehead as the Titans, Z-Fighters, and Blackfire grabbed onto him. When they blinked again, they found themselves in Titan Tower. Beast Boy immediately ran toward the fridge and whipped it open. He fell back as the stench of seven month old food hit his nostrils.

"We gotta buy new groceries when we get back," he said, running to his room to pack for the next seven days.

"Things are just like we left it," Cyborg said.

Robin's eyes narrowed. "Check the rooms."

Gohan rushed into his room, checking everything he had. "It seems like everything's okay-"

He dived under his bed, pulling out the box of Dragonballs he hid. In the months before leaving, he had managed to find five.

His jaw dropped. "They are... gone!?"'

In the middle of the box was a black, curvy "M" penned into it, curling at the bottom going upward and coming a fine point near the top.

It came to him quickly. "Trunks! Come here!"

Trunks walked into the room, seeing everything Gohan owned in a specific pattern and his bed made perfectly in a military style. You could bounce a coin off of it. "Neat freak."

Gohan smirked. "Shut up."

"What is it?" Trunks said.

"I know how The Master grants his wishes," Gohan said. "He uses the Dragonballs." He pointed

Trunks started to shake. "Piccolo was dead before The Master arrived!"

"You narrowly managed to defeat his forces," Gohan said. "He just has to wish up some more."

"This is bad," Trunks said. "This is very bad."

"I know it is," Gohan said. "Luckily, Raven contacted a few superheroes who will help us."

"It won't be enough if he has Shenron at his right hand!" Trunks said.

"It has to be," Gohan said. "I'm not going to let my world die."

Trunks stopped shaking. He grinned. "You wanna know something?"

"What?" Gohan asked.

"You sound just like Goku," Trunks said.

A flash of orange and blue drew Gohan's attention to the clock. "We have to go now!" He reverted back to his normal form.

He opened his suitcase and stuffed uniforms and swimwear inside it. He and Trunks rushed out, meeting their companions in the living room. The Titans dressed in their costumes again, bringing nostalgia to Gohan's mind. They left the tower and rushed through the city to the airport. They checked all of the bags and showed their passports, slowly passing through security and waiting for the flight at the boarding area. "I'm surprised," Robin said. "We have five minutes to spare."

"That's because you left your weapons at home this time," Raven said.

"Evil does not have boundaries," Robin said.

"But airports do," Beast Boy said.

They boarded the airplane, quickly filling in three rows.

Beast Boy quickly sat in a window seat, sighing as he looked out the window. Raven sat next to him, prepared to comfort him in her own way. Robin sat in a window seat as well, waiting for one of his friends to sit down next to him. From the front of the plane came a short, fat young man with long, orange hair in a ponytail. His pale, pimply skin looked like he had been locked in a basement for weeks and his mono-brow looked very untoward as did his smell. Please don't be him... Robin said to himself. Please don't-

"Wow!" the fat man said with a nasally, cracking voice, sitting right next to Robin. "I get to sit next to a Titan! I have so many questions for my chat room chums!"

Robin forced a smile onto his face. "Great. Where do you want to start?"

"Princess Unikitty of Canada wants to know: why was the identity of Silver Sabre never released?" he asked. "Are the Titans hiding something from the public or is this an undercover operation?"

"That is personal information," Robin said.

"So you are hiding something!" he replied with an arrogant grin. "Why can't you tell me? Is it something bad?"

"What do you do when you're alone?" Robin asked.

His grin faded. "I don't have to tell you that."

"Exactly," Robin said. "Now, if you would be so kind as to stay quiet for the duration of the trip."

The blogger realized he had been fooled. "You won't get away with this," he said.

"I had a feeling," Robin said, beginning to dread the flight.

Twelve hours had passed, and everyone on the plane except Gohan and Starfire. They found a way to split the arm rest, a feat only capable by super humans. Gohan glanced away from the cheap movie at his close friend. She was not watching the movie and looked deep in thought. "Are you alright?" Gohan asked.

"I am not," Starfire said. "I have had the doubt speak to me."

"Doubt about what?" Gohan said.

"I remembered what the other universe looked like after The Master won," she said. "There is so much at stake in this tournament, and if he was able to defeat all the Titans in many universes, would we have the power to defeat him?"

"Trunks gave us a year to prepare for him," Gohan said. "I've been with you guys long enough to know that if anyone can stop him, we can."

"We could not stop Slade," Starfire said.

"What are you talking about?" Gohan said. "We destroyed his headquarters!"

"He returned while you were away," Starfire said, "and while I was in space. He sent hundreds of his robots to the locations of the other Titans in an attempt to wipe us out."

"How did he know where they were?" Gohan asked. "He must have had someone watching all-" He stopped his tongue. "Raven was right, then?"

Starfire nodded. "She got away, and so did Slade."

"You guys were separated," Gohan said. "One versus hundreds isn't exactly a fair fight."

"Is one against a world's population any more fair?" Starfire said. "I know that we are more powerful than most on this planet, but we have to be extremely careful when dealing with something capable of genocide."

"I know we have to be very mindful of our actions," Gohan said. "Then again, so does he. If we act paranoid from the start, we will give him the advantage. We need to learn more about The Master before we will know what to do."

"If he has already faced other versions of us, wouldn't he have the advantage beforehand?"Starfire asked.

"Not every team of the Teen Titans are exactly alike," Gohan said. "As long as the veil of ambiguity is on both parties, there is no advantage."

"I hope so, Gohan," Starfire said.

"We should probably get some sleep," Gohan said. "The preliminaries are today at noon. By the way: happy new year."

Starfire laid her head on his shoulder and fell asleep.

She awoke ten hours later to the seat belt alarms overhead. Gohan was still asleep, sitting perfectly straight and still as a statue. She blushed as she realized that his hand held onto hers. The others were awake as well, and Beast Boy's eyes were glued to the window. "Guys! Check this out!"

A tropical island paradise awaited the Titans below as the bright sun rippled across the blue waters. "That's Papaya Island?" Cyborg said, seeing the large island with its coasts similar to Hawaii and the inland consisting of small houses and numerous tourism attractions with the airport in the center. On the white sands by the shore facing them was a giant hotel with a heavy Balinese accent, where many people were already taking advantage of the beautiful weather by tanning, swimming, or surfing. On the opposite end of the island was the back of a huge stadium, larger than the Titans had ever seen. The stadium's architecture also had Asian influences, but the rounded tops of the edges and host's tower were covered in straw. On each face of the building was a large, bronze, demonic mask, probably of some religious importance to the residents on the island.

"We'll be landing in thirty seconds," the pilot said. "Please stay seated and prepare for landing."

"We're here!" Blackfire said, standing up as soon as she could. "We should hurry if we want to buy some cool stuff before the preliminaries."

The Teen Titans hurried off the plane. Security took them an hour, and thankfully there were no mishaps. They walked out onto the dirt roads, blinded by the sun and already feeling the intense heat of the sun. "We'd better hurry to the contestant rooms," Gohan said. "If we leave our stuff there, we can pick it up afterwords. I know the announcer of this tournament, and I bet I can ask him to have someone watch our stuff."

As they came closer to the tournament stadium, the diversity of people and density of the crowds grew as thousands of them squeezed into the arena stands.

"There's a backdoor," Gohan said, moving to the back of the arena with the towers and extremely large contestant dormitory. He opened the gate keeping the fans out and walked in, feeling nostalgia as the memory of Goku carrying him on his shoulders into the same giant dining hall played through his mind. The buffet styled dining hall was stuffed to capacity now with fighters of every race and size, including a number of superheroes the Titans recognized.

"Oh, you gotta be joking!" a whiny kid's voice angering Beast Boy and Cyborg said.

"How the heck did you guys get here?" Cyborg and Beast Boy shouted.

"Luck, I guess." Six super villains with yellow hexagonal badges over their hearts walked up to the five main Titans. The other ten accompanying them surround the six. The leader was a short, slender teenage girl with light gray skin, like Raven's, and light pink hair shaped like a horseshoe, sticking out just a little bit at the tips with metallic black bands near the top. Her eyes were light pink, with pupils shaped like a cat's. She also had small, oval shaped, pink cheek blushes, making her look doll-like. Her outfit consisted of a black, long sleeved dress with a purple band in the middle. The bottom of her dress was cut like a witch's, ending just above her knees with black and purple striped leggings. She wore a pair of black boots with purple soles and a black collar with a purple charm on it. "Hey, Titans."

"Jinx," Starfire said bitterly. "What are you and the H.I.V.E Five doing here?"

"Knock around some heads, win a prize," a huge, musclebound young man with tan skin and long orange hair wearing a black tank top and jeans said in a deep voice. He pounded his fists together, staring intently at Beast Boy.

"So we thought, 'why not?'" an early adolescent boy said. He was the smallest of the group at four feet, wearing a green jumpsuit and goggles around his forehead. He was bald and wore a smug grin on his face. "Get ready, bolts-for-brains," he said to Cyborg, "because I'm gonna take you down!"

"You guys barely stood a chance in Jump City," a lanky, African-American teen with a white body suit and a single goggle on his green helmet, making it look like he had one yellow eye. "You don't stand a chance now."

"Especially with two brand new members, Billy Numerous and Kyd Wykkyd," a teen wearing a red jumpsuit with a black division sign on the front said in a Texan accent, "we got y'all beat. Might as well go on home."

Kyd Wykkyd, a mute, pale-skinned boy with a black, bat-themed costume and red eyes glared at Raven.

Gohan laughed. He laughed loud enough to wipe the smirks off of the faces of the villains. "We'll crush you."

"How about I 'arrange' a match for each of us in the preliminary finals?" Jinx said. "Those take place outside, so we can show the whole world how much you suck."

"Deal," Gohan said, extending his hand.

The Texan boy spat in it.

"Very well," Gohan said. "Robin, may we move on to people more worth our time?"

"I've never seen you this confident," Robin said. "Titans: move out."

"This is strange," Raven said. "Even for you, Gohan."

"I know," Gohan said. "What they said was just that funny."

Beast Boy brushed past the mammoth of a teen glaring at him.

The speakers in the corner of the room started to buzz. "Prelims start in five minutes. Find your block and prepare to battle. We are narrowing down the field to thirty two contestants. The final preliminary rounds will be held outside."

They each went to a different block, the entrances guarded by doors. Gohan wouldn't know who he was fighting until he went in. He opened the door and walked in, seeing thirty-one fighters prepping to win. A raised, circular platform sat in the center of the room. "Well howdy." The man in the red jumpsuit walked up to Gohan. "What are the odds?"

"One hundred percent," Gohan said. "Make it to the prelim finals, please."

"Don't act all tough now," he said. "Your friends aren't here."

"I don't need my friends here to take you down, Billy Numerous." Gohan walked past him and to his own corner.

Gohan's block referee tapped his microphone. "First match: Son Gohan versus Daisuke Honma."

Gohan stepped onto the platform. His opponent was a tall, muscular Japanese man with black, gelled hair. "I hope you are ready to lose," Daisuke said, falling into a Karate stance.

"Begin," the referee said.

Daisuke let out a battle cry and charged.

Gohan stepped to the side, watching Daisuke run off the platform. "Son Gohan wins," the referee said.

Gohan stepped off the platform, dodging a punch from the angry Daisuke. "Don't do that," Gohan said, flipping Daisuke over his shoulder.

Gohan waited for an hour for Billy to fight. "Next up: Billy Numerous versus Lancer Poli!"

A short, wiry European man hopped onto the stage. "Let's go! I ain't afraid of you!"

"You will be," Billy said.

"Begin!" the announcer said.

Billy charged forward, creating three clones of himself. Lancer swallowed. "You still rarin' to go, boy?

The three clones and Billy raised the man above their heads and threw him toward the wall.

"Billy wins," the referee said.

Three hours passed as all 32 blocks went through the rounds. The other contestants were no match for Gohan and Billy, leading them to the final match of the preliminaries. Them and the referee were the only ones in the room. Gohan and Billy stood at opposite corners of the room, waiting for the other blocks to finish.

"All the blocks have reached their final matches, boys," the referee said. "Here we go."

The wall opposite to the door slowly sunk into the ground, letting a burst of light into the room. They saw the large, raised, square ring surrounded by neatly mowed grass. Men with large drums played in the center of the stage, a sound that took Gohan back to the times when he'd see his father walk out of one of the preliminary block rooms. Thousands of fans in the metal stands roared in excitement as the walls dropped, allowing them to see the 64 contestants that made it this far. The contestants couldn't see the other blocks. The stage grew since the last time Gohan seen it, and the tournament announcer's greasy, blonde hair sported a few gray lines.

Gohan's communicator started to buzz. He pulled it out and flipped it open. "What's up, Cyborg?"

"You're still in this, right?" Cyborg asked.

"Dude," Gohan said.

"Alright, alright," Cyborg said, laughing at Gohan's expression. "The reason I called you is because I have some bad news."

"What is it?" Gohan asked.

"It's Slade," Cyborg said. "He's here, and he's participating."

"By himself?" Gohan asked. "How did you find out?"

"The little snot over there is talking to him," Cyborg said. "Terra's here too, and she said something about there being a girl with a costume just like Slade's."

"Are you telling the others about what I said to Slade?" the boy villain's voice said in the background.

"Shut up, Gizmo!" Cyborg shouted.

"I don't do that to you guys!" Gizmo shouted.

"Yes, you do!" Cyborg shouted.

"Okay, I do, but I didn't do it this time!" Gizmo shouted.

"You took our tower!" Cyborg said. "I'm pretty sure that we're far from even!"

"I'll call back later," Gohan said.

The drummers stopped playing and promptly left the stage. The tournament announcer, a tall, light-skinned man in a black and white suit and sunglasses, ran his hand through his hair. He cleared his throat. "Weren't these guys awesome?" he said.

The crowed roared in approval.

"Before we begin, I would like to thank the man who personally funded and organized this event and provided the contestants and guests with free resort passes. Let's give a hand to..." He pulled out a cue card. "The Master!"

The massive crowd clapped.

"Now, out of the one thousand and twenty four contestants that originally entered this rigorous, dangerous, tournament, natural selection chose sixty four of them to step up here and show us what they can do!" The announcer grinned. "Let's get this started with the block one finalists: Prince Vegeta, the frequent finalist known for his explosive matches against Son Goku and his galaxy-busting Galic Gun, versus King Trogaar, the ruler of the Gordanians!"

Vegeta leaped out from his block wearing the white and gold elite armor over a blue jumpsuit. His red scouter gleamed from the sun. He snatched the microphone from the announcer. "Hello, Earth! Your prince has returned to rescue the prizes from The Master's tower! Are you with me on my quest, subjects?"

A banner with Vegeta's face on it was lifted from the middle row as the crowd erupted.

Vegeta turned to Trogaar, an extremely tall, blue Gordanian with red eyes and wearing golden armor. Trogaar stepped onto the stage, receiving nothing but boos. He pointed to a group of Gordanians near the front of the stands. "Why aren't you clapping?"

They started clapping like their lives depended on it.

The announcer hopped off the stage. "The rules are as follows: step off the stage, stay down on the ground for ten seconds, or get knocked out, you lose. No pins or holds are allowed, and no weapons are to be used at any time during your match. Once there is a winner, there are to be no more attacks."

Vegeta and Trogaar nodded. They approached the center of the ring and fell into stance.

"Ready?" the announcer said. "Start!"