Hotaru cried out in pain, her flight through the air sharply changing course as she spun out of control. She slammed into the ground, hard, a moment later and rolled nearly forty yards before coming to a stop. The energy around her hands faded as she started to push herself up. She cried out again as she put pressure on her right arm and fell back to the ground.
Rolling onto her back she put her left hand over her right arm and looked up into the sky. Vegeta floated up there, several hundred feet up, looking down at her and panting heavily. Both of them were tiring. They still had plenty of power left but it was starting to decline. Their most recent exchange had definitely helped with that. Ten mintues of flying around swinging and dodging and constantly sustaining energy blades was a tiring and draining endeavor.
She moved her eyes a little to look toward her attack. She couldn't see it too well, it wasn't an obvious thing. The attack, even at the high levels of power it had now, was never very large. Currently it was about the size of a basketball which meant it looked like little more than a speck to her right now. It wasn't quite ready yet, it still needed more time to charge.
The Tanarian lifted her hand off her arm and looked at it. Her palm was stained red. By the ammount of blood on her arm she figured his blade had served an artery on its last pass. No matter, she'd just finished sealing up the injury so she didn't have to worry about blood loss now. Taking a deep breath she worked out a new tactic in her mind. She just needed to stall, buy herself time...
She scowled as Vegeta started diving toward her. Apparently he'd gotten enough of his breath back to resume the match. Quickly she brought her arms up, hands in front of her, and started through another set of motions. "Shika-Shidou..." she said as she finished and then thrust them up, pointing her palms at the Sai-jin. "Mizu Taihou!"
The air above and around her shimmered and she felt her clothes dampen. A second later a torrent of water exploded from in front of her hands and surged up at Vegeta. The Sai-jin thrust his arms down and met the water head on. He slammed into the stream and began pushing against it. She scowled more realizing she didn't have enough water or pressure to hold him off.
/So where do I get more... ah.../ she smiled and reached out with her energy, spread the influence of her technique down into the ground. Instantly the air around her grew more damp as the ground water started coming up. She reached in deeper and deeper trying to draw as much as possible. And then she found it, about a hundred feet down, an aquifer. She punched into it, drawing forth its water, and her attack swelled in size and surged in force.
"What!?" Vegeta cried as he felt it pushing him back. /Damn it, it's just water!/ his mind growled. With a cry golden energy flashed around his hands and then a stream of it surged down into the stream pushing it away as it proceeded down. The Sai-jin smirked but the still prone Tanarian scowled.
Vegeta's attack was only feet away now but she finally had a plan. Suddenly she vanished, her attack ending, and then his energy blast impacted and exploded. She reappeared a moment later only a few dozen feet from where she'd been, but now standing. Vegeta noticed her instantly but she didn't care, her hands were already moving. "Gah, would you cut it out with those!" he cried, scowling.
She smirked. If the others had annoyed him... "Shika-Shidou... Kage Genkaku!" Suddenly she vanished from sight. Vegeta's eyes widened. He could still sense her... for a moment. And then her energy was gone too. He started looking around for some sign of her. Any sign. But there was nothing.
"What the hell?" he wondered. /If it's a teleportation technique... where is she?/ he thought. /And if it's not... what is it?/
Hotaru looked up at Vegeta from where she floated, just a couple feet above the ground. She had her power suppressed as much as possible while still allowing flight. She drifted backward slowly, she didn't dare go fast or she might put out enough energy for him to sense. She'd figured he'd never refined his ki sensing to pick up low powers, instead sufficing with detecting the big and obvious ones. She didn't know how low big and obvious was, though, and didn't want to push it.
So it took her nearly three minutes to get into place. Vegeta was still where she'd left him, scowling, and looking around him intently. As she touched down and let her power slip even lower she saw him close his eyes, apparently planning to focus to find a lower power. No matter. She only needed a couple more moments and she'd be ready.
She put her arms down at her sides and channeled energy into them. Small amounts, to stay under his radar. She could amplify the power of the move at the last instant before using it. Slowly she raised her arms up and out until they were above her head, fingers touching. She'd formed almost a complete circle with them and the thin band of energy she'd made expanded around her and transformed into a bubble.
Suddenly Vegeta's eyes snapped open and he turned to look right at her. /Damn, almost there!/ she thought. Now that he'd found her she had no reason to stay hiding and left her energy shoot up. As it did she channeled power into the bubble around her. The sudden increasing in power caused her Kage Genkaku to fail, revealing her to his eyes again. By now he was already charging at her.
Quickly she pointed her arms toward him. "That's far enough Vegeta!" she cried, smirking. "Fuujikomeru!" The bubble around her flashed and then surged forward. The Sai-jin pulled to a stop and crossed his arms and brought up his legs to block, the bubble looking like a large energy ball. But it didn't explode on contact. Instead, it swallowed him up.
The bubble stopped moving once he was in its center. Lowering his arms and his legs he looked around in shock. "What the hell? What is this?"
"My Fuujikomeru." Hotaru said, smiling. "The perfect prison."
Vegeta scowled and thrust his arms out, golden energy surging forth and impacting the inside of the bubble. The energy hit and spread out covering nearly half the surface area. He quickly realized its force was being dissipated and scattered along the surface so he ended it. "Impressive, I suppose. But what does this achieve? You can't attack me any better than I can attack you."
"True." she replied. "But then again, I don't need to. Not just yet." Slowly she floated up into the air and felt out for her gathering attack. Almost ready. The power Vegeta had lost in the battle worked to her advantage now, she didn't need to wait as long since she didn't need to charge it as much. She reached eye level with him and arched her back causing her spine to pop and crack. Still she continued up. "It's been fun, Vegeta. But now it ends."
Vegeta scowled as he watched her ascent. /What is she planning?/ he wondered. As his eyes followed her he spotted a small speck of light in the sky. At first he thought it was just the first star of the night but realized it couldn't be. It wasn't late enough yet. So he focused his mind on it and soon sensed it. It was high up there, higher than the top of the stadium, and it was powerful. /When did she... how did she.../ he wondered, eyes widening in surprise.
Hotaru stopped in her ascent and raised her right arm up. The energy sparkled and floated down into her palm. It was the size of a beach ball now. But its size was misleading. It was a tightly compacted ball of energy. A whole lot of power jammed into not a lot of space. As she lowered her arm and pointed the energy at him, bracing that arm at the wrist with her other arm, he raised his own arms and prepared to defend. There was nothing else he could do.
"Looks like I win." she said, smiling. "Ikioi Reikon Kougeki!" The sphere of energy flashed brightly and then surged down at its target at incredible speed. It hit the exterior of the energy bubble a second later and the bubble popped. And then it slammed into Vegeta's outstretched arms. It wasn't as powerful as it could be, she'd intentionally kept it weak so as not to accidentally kill him, he could tell.
Still, it drove him down into the ground quickly. As his feet touched he used the extra leverage to his advantage and started to push back against the attack in earnest. Meanwhile Hotaru thrust both of her arms down toward it adding her own force to try and drive it down. The Sai-jin cursed under his breath. He'd not wanted to reveal his full power so soon, not until his match with Gohan. But it was looking like he wouldn't be able to beat Hotaru without it.
Suddenly he felt the pressure from the attack let up some and looked up through the sparking blue, silver, green, and orange energy at where Hotaru floated. She'd pulled her arms back and was charging an energy blast in her hands. Most likely with the intent of detonating the energy bomb he was struggling against. /Damn, I guess I really don't have a choice./ he thought.
He let out a loud cry, a burst of power washing out around him, as she thrust her arms down flinging the orange ball of energy at him. The two attacks impacted a moment later, the Ikioi Reikon Kougeki swelled up quickly and then exploded. However, the roar of the explosion was soon over ridden by the roar of Vegeta's voice. The dome of energy that had formed by the exploding attacks was blasted apart by a flash of gold.
When the glare subsided Hotaru's eyes widened. Vegeta still stood where he'd been, the ground under his feet fine but that around him for a hundred yards was carved out into a crater. He didn't seem any worse for the attack that had just hit... and blue lightning sparked around his aura. Suddenly the Sai-jin King smirked. "You lose." he said, vanishing. There was a thunderous crack an instant later as he re-appeared, knee buried in her stomach.
She floated there for a second as her aura flickered and then vanished. And then she fell to the ground unconscious. Vegeta floated down and landed a few feet away, his hair and eyes turning black again, as the countdown started. Not wanting any surprises he stayed there, watching her, until the count finished, and then turned and made his way back to the competitors area.
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Galactic Games Arena, V.I.P. Box
"No way!" Krillin cried moving over to the window and leaning forward to look up at Hotaru. She'd just brought her attack down into her hand. "When did she have the time to make that!?"
Yamcha laughed. "She's been generating that since right after she used the Shika-Shidou Konmei." he said as she launched it. "Well, that's the match. Looks like the finals have been decided, Gohan vs. Hotaru."
"No, no way dad can loose!" Trunks cried.
Krillin stumbled back and fell over as the arena shook from the explosion of the attack. As he climbed to his feet again he heard Vegeta's voice and looked. And then everyone's eyes widened in shock as they felt his power surge up. "N-no way..." Krillin breathed as he looked down at Vegeta again. "He's... he can..."
Nova looked up toward the power reading for Vegeta. It had, a moment before, read 392,946,723 but now it stood at 797,893,446. "Unbelievable..." she said softly, as Hotaru fell to the ground unconscious.
"I can't believe it... Vegeta unlocked the second level..." Gohan said slowly.
"Looks like you'll actually have to try to win now." Vadora said, smirking.
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H.F.I.L.
Two figures stood atop a tall spire of rock within the H.F.I.L. gazing about at everything around them. "I've lost the power we were tracking." the taller one said as he looked down at his companion.
"As have I." she replied. "It troubles me that we lost it here. Only the Kais and the Oni should be capable of crossing the barrier between Otherworld and the H.F.I.L. like that. And I worry that we lost the power because it went deeper, down into Hell. The one place in this realm we cannot go."
Kibito nodded. "Where should we go from here?" he asked.
The woman pursed her lips in thought as she gazed about her and then turned her eyes to the golden clouds above. "There is nothing more we can do here. We should return to Otherworld. I believe the other Kais are gathered on the world of the Grand Kai currently. I think it is time to speak with them about this. Perhaps all of us together can determine something." Kibito nodded again and then both vanished.
Once they were gone a figure slowly slipped out from behind a rock out cropping. The being was female. She had short, near vertical, spiky red hair, dark purple skin, and black eyes with white irises and black pupils. She wore a dark blue gi with a black belt and no shoes. She watched the point where the two Kais had been standing for a moment before turning and looking off to her right. /So even they sense what is coming./ she thought.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing. -My lord, do you hear me?- she asked telepathically.
-Yes, I hear you Nefaria.- came the deep voiced reply, echoing inside her mind.
-I ran into a pair of Kais and lost the target while trying to avoid detection. What should I do now?-
-We cannot stop this without first locating the Blood Crystal.- the voice replied. -It must be in the H.F.I.L. somewhere, that is where we fought him. You will need to search for it on your own. With luck you'll sense one of them again and can tail them.-
-Yes, my lord.- she replied, opening her eyes and flying off.
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Otherworld, Grand Kai's Planet
The Grand Kai straightened up as he felt a pair of powers appear behind him. Two powers he'd not sensed in many centuries. The tournament in the Mortal Plane had just come to a close for the day and the one in Otherworld was gearing up to begin, though this first round wouldn't be as entertaining as the one in the Mortal Plane. "I'll be right back." he said to the other Kais as he stood and made his way back into the building behind where they sat.
"I thought that was you." he said closing the door behind him. "Kibito, Mikomi." he said to them, bowing to each. "What brings you to my world?"
"Something unsettling I'm afraid." Mikomi said. As she spoke the Grand Kai realized things truly weren't good. He could hear in her voice none of her usual cheeriness or playfulness. She may have, at one time, been the oldest of the Supreme Kais, but she had always been the most child like of them at heart.
"We tracked a power." Kibito explained. "From within Otherworld and into the H.F.I.L., through the barriers."
Mikomi nodded. "Yes. And then there's the matter of the tears between planes. As well as the disturbance we felt earlier today. I am... worried... that something is coming."
"You are worried that Buu is free again." the Grand Kai said, more than asked. "I can assure you that he is not. In fact, I can assure you that it is highly unlikely he will be any time soon. Not only is Bibidi dead but so, too, is his son Babidi. Killed some centuries ago in fact.
"Beyond that, the Earth is now under the protection of some of the most powerful mortals to ever live. They do not quite compare to the Tanarians that once nearly destroyed Buu but the Earth is in good hands just the same."
Mikomi smiled. "Thank-you, Zenryou." she said. "But this only makes me wonder what it could be then."
Zenryou stroked his beard in thought. "I do not know. I had not even sensed that anything was amiss. Then again, I have been occupied lately with matters here so it is not surprising. I wouldn't worry too much though." he said. "As I said, the Earth is now home to warriors near equal to the once great Tanarians. And there are others on other worlds that are quite powerful as well, quite powerful. If there is some evil approaching the Mortal Plane has never been more ready for it than it is now."
"I can only hope that you are right." she said.