"I can't believe it," Krillin said in excitement as stared at the crowd of people, "We're actually here!" Krillin exclaimed. It was the 21st world martial arts tournament. The preliminaries would be starting soon and the boys were both excited. Goku and Krillin wore their Turtle Hermit uniforms with pride.

"I wish Vegeta were participating. He would have loved it!" Goku exclaimed. Vegeta had shown up to train with them for about a month but left when he figured out that Master Roshi had no intention of teaching them actual fighting moves or techniques and that most of his training consisted of exercises he could perform back at the temple. He felt no reason to stick around the annoying old pervert or deal with his shinanagains and left the next day to go training around the world.

"Hey Goku!" a voice called. He turned to see Yamcha, Puar, Oolong, and Bulma amongst the crowd. The young Saiyan smiled at them and waved. "It's been awhile since we've last seen you!" Yamcha said walking up to them, "No surprise that you're here. Though I'm surprised that Vegeta isn't. Where is he, anyways?"

"He went back to train on his own. I told our other master about the tournament, so he might come, but I don't think he'll be fighting," Goku explained.

"Well that's good," Yamcha said chuckling, "As much as I'd like to see how far you've come, I don't think I'd want to go a few rounds with him just yet."

"Yeah, that kid is plain scary when it comes to combat," Oolong noted.

"Yeah, he's pretty good," Goku said, "But I think I've caught up to him a little more. I hope he and Rose show up to watch. I'd really like to show them how far I've come."

Krillin, Yamcha, and the others aside from Bulma looked confused. "Who's Rose?" Yamcha asked.

Oolong snorted. "Don't tell me you found a girl of your own in the past few months," he joked, "Aren't you a little young to be dating?" Goku blinked at him in confusion.

Bulma promptly smacked him on the back of the pig's head. "Stop it you!" she snapped, "Rose is like his and Vegeta's mom!"

The others blinked in surprise. "Really?" Krillin asked, "For some reason I thought you were some kind of wild child living on your own in the forest before I met you."

"Nah. Rose has been looking after me for most of my life," Goku said, hands behind his head, "She taught me everything I knew about martial arts before I started training under Roshi."

The two fighters and two shape shifters looked surprised. "Wow, she must be really strong!" Puar said.

"Oh yeah, she's the best fighter there is!" Goku chirped proudly, "She's stopped all kinds of bad guys and takes on giant monsters all the time by herself. She can survive almost anything too! One time she even got back up after being crushed by a giant rock!"

The four were taken aback by this information. Bulma was mildly surprised, though not as much as the others. The two had told her about gems and what they were. "W-Well...that explains a few things…" Oolong said chuckling nervously.

Goku was oblivious to their nerves. Suddenly, his stomach began to growl. "I'll see you later, guys! I'm gonna go find something to eat!" he said before running off.

"Wait! Goku!" Bulma said, chasing after him, "You don't have any money! You can't get food without money!"

With that, his four other friends were left alone. "Well...Goku and Vegeta's mom certainly sounds like an interesting person…" Yamcha breathed.

"No kidding," Oolong said.

"At least we know where they get all their craziness from…" Krillin muttered. The three others nodded.

"It makes you wonder what she looks like," Puar said. The three others immediately regretted him saying that, for the next thing that came to their minds was of an angry, muscular, monkey woman with wild, spiky black hair and plenty of scars, laughing victoriously as she stood upon a fallen monster. They all shuttered simultaneously.

"I hope I don't have a run in with her!" Oolong said. The other three nodded in agreement.

….

The preliminaries finished with all three fighters making it to the finals. Their first trial was over. The next one they faced was much more difficult: finding a good place to watch amid the crowd of people. Launch, Puar, Oolong, and Bulma searched far and wide, but couldn't find a spot anywhere.

"I can't believe it! There's barely enough standing room for me, and I'm puny!" Oolong commented.

"There's no way we can watch from here…" Bulma said pouting.

"Here. Let me take care of it!" Launch said, cocking her machine gun, "Ok, everyone out of the way!" After a round of gunfire, a everyone within ten square feet cleared out of the area...that is except two. A tall woman with huge pink hair and a teen standing next to her with spiky black hair stood right in front of the stage, blocking their view.

"Hey lady! Back it up, we want to see too!" Launch snapped at her.

The pair turned to her in mild confusion, but neither looked the least bit threatened. "Oh, it's just Launch," the boy said, brushing her threat off.

The blonde looked confused for a second before recognition crossed her face. "Wait, you're the kid that was with Goku and Krillin for a while!" she said.

"Vegeta!" Oolong, Puar, and Bulma ran up to them.

"Vegeta, it's so good to see you again!" Bulma said, "How have you been?"

He nodded to her. "You're looking well," he observed stoically. "I've been the same as always. Although I wish someone had told me about this tournament," he explained with a hint of annoyance, "I would have liked the chance to compete, though honestly, it might have been a bit boring for me. Most of the competitors have pretty weak power levels."

"Bulma!" the woman with pink hair chipped with a smile as she shook her hand, "It's been so long since we've last seen each other! Did you enjoy your quest for the dragon balls?"

Bulma nodded. "Yup!" she said with a smile, "I got exactly what I wanted!" Vegeta rolled his eyes at her and crossed his arms.

Puar and Oolong gave confused look. "Uh Bulma, do you know this lady?" Oolong asked.

"Oh where are my manners," the woman said, "My name is Rose Quartz. It's a pleasure to meet you." The chubby woman extended a hand out to them and smiled.

Oolong blinked in surprise. "Wait...are you the Rose that looked after Goku and Vegeta?!" he questioned.

"Yes, that is me," she answered.

"You aren't quite what we expected," Puar said awkwardly.

"Oh really?" Rose asked, "How so?"

"Well for starters, you don't look much like them…" Oolong mumbled.

"Why would we?" Vegeta said, "It's not like we're related to her. We aren't even the same species as her!"

"But I thought you said she was their mother!" Puar said to Bulma.

Rose and Vegeta shared odd looks. "Excuse me?" she said.

"I said 'like' their mom! To be fair though, she pretty much is their adoptive mother. She took them in as children and looked after them!" Bulma explained.

"That is true," Rose said with a small shrug.

"Well, whoever you are," Launch said, "If you're a friend of Goku's, You're alright with me." With that they all settled down to watch the first match. That didn't stop Oolong from glancing over to the tall woman from time to time. He could understand her being Goku's caretaker. There was definitely a resemblance in character. However, that created a whole new set of questions. If she wasn't related to either of the Saiyans, then how could everything Goku said about her be true? Aside from her height, her outward appearance was in no way intimidating. It was really hard to imagine this woman as a fighter let alone one of the strongest in the world. Who exactly was she?

….

Krillin watched the audience with curiosity after Goku's match with Giron. That tall, portly, pink haired woman had been watching Goku very carefully and cheering for him. Vegeta, Bulma and the others were standing near by her. "Hey Goku!" he said, "Do you know that woman wit the giant curly hair?"

"Yeah," Yamcha said, "She was really rooting for you."

"Oh her?" he said looking back at the audience with a smile, "That's Rose!" He then waved at her as the others faltered and gave looks of shock.

"That's your mom?!" Yamcha sputtered.

"Pretty much, yeah," Goku said.

"But she doesn't look anything like you guys!" Krillin exclaimed, "Does she even have a tail?"

"Well she's not a Saiyan like Vegeta and I," he explained, "She's a gem." "Rose found me when I was little and took me in after my grandpa died, and she took Vegeta in after he came to Earth a few years later," he explained.

"Oh! so she's your adoptive mother," Yamcha said with an understanding nod. Goku smiled and shrugged at him.

"She's the one who who taught you martial arts?" Krillin asked.

The young Saiyan frowned. "Yeah, why do you ask?" he asked.

"I just have a hard time believing it. She can't be as strong as you say," Krillin said, "Look at her! She looks like she couldn't hurt a fly."

"Don't be fooled by appearances, boys," Jackie Chung said, approaching them, "Rose Quartz is one of the most powerful fighters of all time. To my knowledge, there is not a single human being capable of defeating her."

The two human warriors looked at him in surprise, mouths open. "You serious?" Yamcha asked. The old man nodded at them. The two turned back to stare at the large cheery woman. Later, after the semi finals, the two watched as the young Saiyan ran up to her and gave her a hug. She smiled at him and mussed up his already messy hair as she returned it.

"It's really hard to imagine her as a warrior," Yamcha muttered.

"Well I guess when taking care of those two, you have to be tough," Krillin noted. Yamcha nodded in response.

Hey look! Another flash back chapter! I've got at least one more of these to go for now. Btw, I'm going to post two more chapters before taking another break, so I hope you enjoy it! Happy Monday guys!