"My word!" Roshi cried as Tatamo's power-up came to an end. "His power... there's just no way!"
"What is it?" Bulma asked looking over to him. Of the talents she'd picked up over the last several years Ki sensing hadn't been one of them.
"He... he's stronger than Bardock was, as a Super Sai-jin, when the Androids first came!" the old Master cried in shock as the power level reading on the screen finally stopped increasing. "That's..."
"Amazing..." Nova breathed, her eyes locked on the power reading for the Sai-jin. This Sai-jin, who was not even a Super Sai-jin, was even stronger than Cold had been!
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Galactic Games Arena, Competitors area
The others watched as the Sai-jin slipped around a punch from the blonde woman and then shot up into the sky leaving a trail of deep blue energy in his wake. The barriers around the battle area reached up a good two miles but he only climbed a few dozen yards before turning to face her again. Suddenly his position shifted, he moved into a side-ways angle, and his hands cupped together.
Vegeta's eyes widened further and he looked over to his father, the elder Sai-jin sharing in his expression of shock and confusion. "How could he know that attack?" Vegeta asked. His father shook his head. He didn't know how either. Only the royal family was ever taught how to use it. And yet, this Sai-jin was about to.
Back out in the pit Mijima wasn't about to wait for him and shot up toward him as his blue aura shrank away and filled the space between his hands. She was almost on him by the time he thrust his arms out at her. "Galick Gun!" he cried, the energy surging forward. The Cyborg saw it coming and dodged around to the right.
Tatamo smirked and gave a sudden jerk of his arms. Mijima's eyes widened and she turned to look behind her. Sure enough, her suspicions were correct. The attack had made a U-turn and was now surging up toward her! With a cry she thrust her arm down toward it and fired of a stream of golden energy driving the attack down into the ground. She then started to turn to find her opponent only to meet with his foot smashing into her face.
The blow drove her back a few feet but she recovered, dodged around his punch, and then grabbed his arm and surged down toward the ground. Still a few feet up she released him and pitched him down at the dirt below. Just before hitting the ground his arm shot out and he rebounded back onto his feet.
"You're a lot better than I'd expected." Mijima said, brushing a little dirt off her left arm. "But you still can't take my full strength."
Tatamo let took a deep breath and let it out as he floated up into the air until he was level with her ten feet above ground. "Well, you're partly right there." he said at last. "Like this I doubt I could take your full strength. So..." With that he lifted a leg and grabbed hold of one of the black boots he'd been wearing. With a quick tug it came off and he let it fall to the ground where it impacted with a loud thud and smashed out a hole. His second boot did the same.
Then he grabbed the bottom of his furred shirt and lifted it up off revealing a white tank-top he'd had on beneath it. The shirt then landed on the ground with a loud crash much like the boots. Next he pulled off the red wrist bands he'd been wearing and dropped those as well. Mijima watched as they also caused small craters to form and then looked back up at the Sai-jin who was now stretching.
She'd not expected him to be wearing weights, and she wasn't the only one. "Unbelievable." Gohan said as he felt the Sai-jin's power go up with each weight removed. By the time he was finished his power had climbed to just over 45 million. "You talked to him earlier Piccolo... who is he?"
This got the attention of Vegeta as well and he glanced over at the Namek as he waited on the other's response. "He is who he says he is, that's all." he said at last.
/Is who he says.../ Vegeta thought. Then his eyes snapped open wide. "Surely you don't mean that you think he really IS Tatamo?" he asked.
Piccolo smiled faintly. "That's exactly what I mean."
"But... Piccolo..." Videl said looking up at him. "He's been dead for ten thousand years..." When the Namek made no further comments everyone turned their attentions back to the screen.
/Could it... really be possible/ Vegeta wondered. /Wait... what if the legends are right but they got it wrong? What if it's not the Guardian Sai-jin powers that return when the Sai-jin race is in danger... what if it's Tatamo himself/ With this new possibility in his mind he began to wonder if, perhaps, Kuriiza was more of a threat than he'd given the Changeling credit for. And this man being Tatamo explained how he knew the Galick Gun. He invented the damned thing!
Back out in the Battle Pit Tatamo had finished up with his stretching and slipped into a fighting stance once more. "I never expected to ever get a challenge from someone that wasn't a Sai-jin." he said smiling. "Times change, I suppose." Mijima raised an eyebrow but readied for the next round of fighting as well. A moment later both of them vanished once again.
A series of thunderous cracks rang out through the stands as bright flashes flared up seemingly randomly. The fight was going far too fast for the average spectator to keep up with with just their eyes, but the monitors showed no signs of the same trouble. The two were moving back and forth, left and right, up and down, as the momentum of their attacks drove them through the air. Control of the battle kept slipping from one to the other as each found an opening in the other's defense and pushed in with an assault of their own.
Tatamo slipped under a punch from the Cyborg and then launched an uppercut into her stomach. As she doubled over his knee shot up into her face snapping her head back. His left arm shot out and his open palm slammed into her chest. As she was knocked backwards he spun around behind her jamming his knee into her back. Sliding back he turned a little as his other leg snapped out crashing into the side of her head.
Darting around in front of her again he threw a punch toward her face but it missed as she back flipped in the air. As she turned over her leg snapped out and her foot caught his chin with a crack. In a flash she was on him with a back hand to his face followed by an elbow to the same spot. Then a knee to the chest, a head butt, and a hard right hook that knocked the Sai-jin spinning and dropped him face first on the ground.
Thrusting her arm toward him she fired a blast of pink energy down toward him. He suddenly pushed off with his hands and launched himself up into the air, the energy blast sailing harmlessly under him and slamming into the ground. He spun around and lashed out with a kick but her arm came up and blocked it. She fired off a punch but he slipped around it and countered with one of his own. It missed as the Cyborg slipped back from him a few feet.
"They're practically dead even." Gohan said, his eyes shifting back and forth between them. "The slight edge in power Tatamo has isn't enough to give him any real advantage."
"I get the feeling he's still warming up." Hotaru said. "He may be at full strength now but his form and technique have been steadily improving the whole match."
"Powers this close to each other, that's what this will come down to." Videl said with a nod. "Which of them is more skilled than the other."
The two fighters had charged in at each other again and were now only inches apart. Both had launched right fists and both had been caught by the other fighter's left hand. Mijima glanced down at their hands and then back up at her opponent and smirked. "If you wanted to dance all you had to do was ask."
Tatamo smirked back and then his eyes began to glow. The Cyborg let go of the Sai-jin's hand and attempted to move back but he had a strong hold of her. So instead she shifted to the side as the twin beams of energy surged passed her. Then she felt a tug on her arm and realized he'd yanked her in toward him. Turning her head to look she saw his fist flying at her face as fast as she was surging toward him. Once more she tried to pull back and this time she felt her fist slip free of his hand, but she'd not broken loose, he'd released her hand.
He knew as well as she did that it was too late to dodge or block now but she still tried. And she got a fist to the face for her efforts. The blow sent her sailing nearly two hundred yards before slamming her into the barrier at the edge of the battle pit. The energy field sparked and rippled, red light surging out along it's surface temporarily making it visible to those in the stands. But as the field strength stabilized it vanished from sight again, as did the Cyborg. Tatamo's eyes widened in shock and he looked about for some sign of his opponent.
"What the...?" Videl wondered. Even the cameras and monitors hadn't caught the faintest hint of movement. Even earlier, when they'd been using high speed movement to apparently vanish the cameras had caught the movements. But this time there was nothing...
Krillin sighed. "I don't believe it. She actually pulled it off..."
"Pulled what off Krillin?" Yamcha asked.
"Relocation." the short Human replied. "Goku's multiple disappearances on the lookout after our first battle against the Androids got her interest. She took a trip to Yardrat a couple years ago to learn the technique, but even after three months there she'd not gotten the hang of it. I'd thought she'd given up trying a long time ago..."
As he filled them in on the origins of Mijima's technique the woman in question had re-appeared behind Tatamo and slammed a foot into his back. This time he was the one surging toward the barrier but, a second before hitting, he vanished. Mijima's eyes widened but before she could react a foot smashed into the side of her head. She flipped around in the air and thrust out an arm firing a blast of energy toward the Sai-jin but he vanished again.
This time she followed suit, his fist as he re-appeared passing through thin air. Then she was behind him launching off a kick but he was gone before it could hit. The two were vanishing and attacking and vanishing again too fast for the cameras to keep track. By the time the monitors locked onto their current position they were already gone.
"No... way..." Krillin breathed, wide-eyed. "He can use it too?"
Piccolo cast a glance at Krillin for a moment before looking out toward the Battle Pit and smirking lightly. /Not quite. He's shifting back and forth between here and Otherworld to simulate the Relocation technique./
"Man, this fight's getting intense." Yamcha said, no longer watching the monitor. He was following the fight, at least half of it, with his senses. For now, at least. The two warriors were still managing to avoid each other's attacks as they teleported around the Battle Pit. The frequency at which these teleportations were occurring had increased quickly and now they were only appearing for a fraction of a second at a time.
And then suddenly the pattern was broken. Mijima appeared, Tatamo vanished, Mijima vanished, Mijima appeared... no signs of Tatamo. The Cyborg stopped and looked around not sure where the Sai-jin had gone. And then a thunderous crack sounded as Tatamo appeared smashing his knee into the back of her head, a large grin on his face. Piccolo was the only one that realized what had happened.
Tatamo had remained in Otherworld and used his powers as planet Vegeta's Guardian to look in on the world. He'd waited for Mijima to stop and an opening to form and then came back. "Cheater." he said softly, smirking.
While the Cyborg was still sailing forward out of control Tatamo had thrust his arms out to his side forming a T with his body. Blue energy flared around his arms and then shrank into several blue rings, three along each arm. "Containment!" he cried whipping his arms back and forth launching one ring from each arm in rapid succession.
Mijima had only just righted herself and gotten her flight under control again when she saw them coming. Her initial reaction was to block and that soon proved to be a mistake. The six rings reached her and then attached themselves to her. One around each wrist, one around each ankle, one around her waist, and one around her neck holding her out in an X shape.
"Anchor!" he called next, closing his hands into fists. The blue rings flashed and turned golden and he smiled. "Well, not sure what kind of teleportation technique you use but you wont be using it now." he said. The blonde realized he was right, she couldn't Relocate. The Sai-jin took a deep breath and wiped some sweat off his brow. "That was quite the workout, I was starting tire. You weren't though, were you? Something about infinite energy I believe."
Her eyes widened a bit at that. That wasn't exactly common knowledge in the galaxy. "Well, are you going to surrender or do I have to finish this?" he asked at last. She merely scowled at him to which he shrugged. "Have it your way." Thrusting an arm out toward her he opened his hand and pointed his palm at her. "BANISH!" he cried, closing his hand into a fist.
The world seemed to flash negative a couple of times and Mijima threw her head back letting out a loud and painful scream. And then her head fell forward as she passed out. The rings holding her vanished and she fell to the ground. Tatamo floated where he was listening to the count and then, as soon as he was declared the winner of the match, he vanished.