"You're doing great, Sharpner-kun," Gohan nodded. Sharpner's pale lips whimpered, eclipsing his face, which turned blue from tension. While he stood there with his arms clutched and tried levitating off the ground, it seemed like there was a ceaseless world war being waged over his head where the world's most overpowered toddlers went at it with calamitous bangs and rampant shockwaves which at times made Sharpner think he was flying, when in fact he was merely being rag-dolled.
"Am I? I genuinely can't tell the difference from an hour ago…" Sharpner tucked his chin down. When he considered joining these two for training alongside the training regiment that Goku, Chi-Chi, and Chayote were putting Goten and Navy through, Sharpner felt embarrassed to learn martial arts alongside two pre-schoolers for rivals. Now it felt like they were so far ahead that it no longer even embarrassed him. He gave up on hopes of ever matching their pace and just settled on doing his own thing.
"If it's any consolation, you're advancing at around the same pace I was. I thought I knew a lot back when I was training karate with all the fancy instructors my dad had hired to train me, but that might have been just baby steps compared to Chayote-san's training drill," Videl offered Sharpner some encouraging words.
Sharpner clenched his fists and tucked his arms to his sides, buckling his knees and preparing to kick off the ground with the final expulsion of force from his body. Just when the long-awaited feeling of weightlessness hit him and an ecstatic smile of accomplishment colored Sharpner's face, the ground below introduced itself to Sharpner's rear as the young man fell on his backside and struggled to stand back up.
"It's no use, my legs gave way from all the standing and pushing," Sharpner lamented while panting on the ground with Gohan and Videl landing from a subtle hover they used to taunt Sharpner into taking off on his first hover.
"Hmm… Maybe we should switch training partners?" Gohan wondered, looking troubled as he scoped the two kids clashing in the skies with Navy ramming himself into Goten while the tiny, spitting image of his father stopped Navy's tackle with his hands and the two entered a sparking power struggle that resulted in jolts of lightning shooting off in every direction. "I'm thinking we might be no good as tutors…"
"Nonsense!" Videl scolded Gohan before putting her hands on her hips with a scorned look on her face. "You've taught me plenty back when Chayote-san relinquished my training to you, Gohan-kun. If the teacher and the student alike will question their competence, we'll get nowhere!"
"Man…" Sharpner grumbled, switching to a more comfortable sitting position on the ground. "Maybe I'm just not meant to become a martial artist? Like… Maybe there are right and wrong people for martial arts and I just don't have the talent?"
"That's not true, Sharpner-kun," Gohan shook his head. "Everyone can become a martial artist. It's just that I've never trained one up from literally ground zero. I've trained Videl-san, but Chayote-san trained her up and Videl has had years of karate training on top. While she might downplay their impact on her skills, even those karate lessons helped her develop a great deal. You've just never really had any martial arts background before."
"I've done some boxing," Sharpner shrugged. "But this is completely different."
"That's not quite true," Goku surprised everyone by landing behind Sharpner and offering the fallen youth a bottled drink. "Flight's tough as nails! It took me almost until I was an adult before I finally picked it up and old timer didn't pick it up for hundreds of years, though it's probably out of spite for his old rival, who developed the technique. You can indeed force yourself into the air, it's how Vegeta and my dad fly around, but you're nowhere near tough enough to do that yet. You need to push yourself off the ground using your Ki."
"Dad…" Gohan brushed the back of his head with his hand in slight embarrassment that his father saw the complete mess he made of Sharpner's training and intervened. "My dad's right though, Sharpner. Boxing is a forceful martial art that builds up your body's muscles and inherent toughness and also trains you to switch those muscles on and off at the right intervals for explosive punching attacks. You can definitely make it work here too, but the principles of training Ki control and boxing are completely different. Your physical strength will do you no good here, you need to feel your Ki and radiate it in small quantities from your body to lift you in the air."
"Ki…?" Sharpner grumbled before taking a few hearty chugs of the sparkling water he was given. "Isn't that the same tai chi nonsense my mom practiced?"
"Not sure what tai chi is, but this is a bit of what Ki can do…" Goku put his hands together and formed a basic Ki blast in between them that filled his cupped hands and nearly spilled out with radiant light. Sharpner suddenly forgot all about his fatigue, jumping up and crawling away from the sudden eruption of energy from Goku's hands. "It's an energy that's inside all living beings. No matter if you are a martial artist, if you fight using karaka, boxes, or whatever… You've got it. You just need to feel it and draw it out of your body."
"It's karate and boxing, dad," Gohan scratched his cheek, now feeling embarrassed in front of Videl and Sharpner about how clueless his dad sounded.
"I see, I see…" Goku chuckled before noticing that Goten blew a fuse and began biting into Navy's arm to escape a headlock, which caused a more serious fight to erupt between the two. He vanished away at incredible speed, catching Goten by the rear end of the belt of his gi while Chayote restrained Navy by his collar from the other side.
"Say, Gohan… Is boxing really that useless of a martial art that your dad doesn't even know it and it's never gotten in the way for him?" Sharpner wondered just how much of his life, sweat, and tears he may have wasted before he began training for real that day.
"No way," Gohan shook his head with a smirk on his face. "My dad is actually a master boxer. Even without Ki control, he could outbox the best of them if someone explained the rules to him. He might be a master of hundreds, thousands of martial arts, though he's adopted all of their dogmas naturally and he doesn't know what each of the elements comprising the complete martial arts system is called. Breathing, footwork, muscle control, momentum… He's mastered all the key elements of boxing. It's just that he doesn't constrain himself to just boxing. He switches between thousands of fighting styles in an instant and it's exactly because of how natural fighting comes to a trained martial artist. In here, you won't just learn moves and katas, not even I have the brainpower to remember and analyze all of that and it's extremely wasteful to do so. Using martial arts is honing a body so completely that it basically fights by itself, relying on the training you've done."
"Ki…" Sharpner muttered while looking at his hands and wondering if that radiating energy that Goku just channeled was really inside of him, as he said. Maybe he was just no good and his body had none of that Ki stuff? Maybe he wasted too much time lifting weights and doing push-ups, toughening his body to look hot enough to make all the girls swoon that he squandered whatever Ki was supposed to have in him?
"Like my dad said, Ki is a fundamental energy of life inside your body. Martial arts have a lot to do with learning to draw and amplify that energy," Gohan effortlessly replicated the Ki manipulation feat that Goku had just shown before Sharpner. "For now, let's forget flying and just focus on teaching you Ki control."
"Come to think of it," Videl pressed a finger to her chin, deep in thought. "How come we didn't start Sharpner's training from Ki control and jump straight to flying?"
"Oh… I just figured that Sharpner-kun would waste a lot of money on jet fuel flying here every day for his training so I figured we'd teach him flying first so that he won't need to use his hovercar to get around everywhere," Gohan pointed out only to receive a nudge to the back of his elbow from Videl who reared and ground her teeth at him nervously.
"You really are your father's clueless son, aren't you!?" she hissed. "How's Sharpner supposed to pick up flying when he doesn't even know what Ki is!? Jeez… Then again, it's taken me this far to notice too, so maybe we're both awful teachers…" Videl's previous confidence in her abilities as a teacher deflated.
"V-Videl-san…" Gohan laughed it off, playfully massaging Videl's shoulders to comfort her. "You can't think that way, you'll ruin Sharpner-kun's impression of our ability to teach him martial arts if you berate yourself like that."
"You know, Chayote-san, back in the day, I always tried modeling my family after what I read about in magazines and saw on TV," Chi-Chi said while finishing the preparation of the picnic blanket when the rowdy toddlers will have finally had enough of all the bruising and brawling and come down for some food and rest. Lacking Chi-Chi's gifts in picnic decorations or cooking, Chayote just stood behind her with her arms crossed, trying to conceal her lingering inadequacy.
To be perfectly frank, Chayote would have much rather joined Goku in tutoring the kids and watching over their fights to try to prevent a more serious injury, even if that job felt almost as useful as Chayote's current bodyguard duty at this point. It's just that there would have been too many cooks in the kitchen for the two boys.
"Now that I look at this, our families and friends all together, training and strengthening our bonds, eating and spending time together… This is exactly what normal families do, and I didn't even have to try and do anything special," Chi-Chi chuckled into her open hand with glee.
"Yeah, maybe all that normal family stuff is just human nature. You don't have to try too hard to make it happen. I guess we all want it and go around getting it in our own different ways," Chayote nodded.
"That's not true either," Chi-Chi turned to her friend with a cheerful smile. "You're not human, that is to say, not from Earth, and yet you've got a very beautiful family and a strong bond with that boy that is very human."
"Hmph…" Chayote blew her blushing cheeks out before cupping her hands together. "Navy! Stop just thrashing around like a human missile! Jeez! What are these martial arts lessons even for!?" all this yelling made the rest of her face turn just as red as her flushing cheeks. "That Kakarot. He's barely even correcting these kids. He's way too soft to be a martial arts instructor."
"I don't know…" Chi-Chi wondered about that. "I think that there's some method to Goku-sa's aloof nature. Sure, he might not try to hammer down his lessons into the kids, but in doing so, he lets them figure out their own way. He trusts them and their abilities enough to let them choose to follow his advice, he trusts their abilities as budding martial artists to adapt and fight their own way. Heck, he probably is learning from the way Goten and Navy are brawling from watching them himself. I think there's a place for that kind of martial arts instructor, and the fact that Goku-sa is always open to learning new things like he was still a child himself, is part of why I fell in love with him."
"You've grown a lot from that lively little girl training with her dad just because the guy she's got the crush on is a martial artist and hopelessly dreaming of getting married," Chayote noted. "It's almost like you've got to be wise for both halves of this family."
Something was wrong. A surprise attack caught Chayote completely unaware, mainly because she couldn't sense an energy signature before her eyes registered the blur. A humanoid body wearing segmented armor over its feet and calves up to the knee, mud-colored in terms of skin, wearing a short green skirt and tank top and armed with the same segmented chitin shell-like armor around the forearms and donning an impressive horned headdress on the top of a vaguely humanoid head emerged in a headfirst reckless charge for the kids.
The creature's red lips were stiff and serious and its amber-colored eyes relayed the intense focus of a cheetah charging for its prey. Behind the armored hybrid of insect and human laid long, green armored wings, and a tail equipped with a sharp stinger at the end.
Alongside the charging assailant was another, a much shorter one. Fully resembling Frieza, except darker brown in skin color and equipped with amber-colored gemstones on its shins, chest, and shoulders. Identical horned headdress grew out from the top of this one's head too, the same was for the armored cicada-like wing plates and the stinging tail flapping by the creature's side. This curious pair lunged for the kids like it was after them from the get-go.
Navy and Goten looked pumped, clenching their fists and adopting their fighting stances in preparation to fend off their attackers. They looked excited to get to fight these surprise challengers, completely oblivious to the threat to their lives they may have represented because of the innocence of their youth. In a snap, Goku and Chayote stepped in between Goten and Navy, gently moving their sons behind them as they prepared to fend off these assailants themselves and protect their children.
The insectoid attackers seemed taken aback by the vastly escalated level of threat as they froze in terror and ceased their reckless rush toward the kids.
"No Ki, huh? More Artificial Humans?" Goku wondered out loud while pumping himself up for a fun brawl.
"Don't give a crap, they're after the kids, which is why I'll rip them apart, no matter what they are," Chayote cracked her knuckles and neck to the sides before adopting a free-form fighting stance to adapt to whatever these freaky insectoid copies of some human woman and Frieza would throw at them. She's fought enough Artificial Humans by now to no longer consider being able to read one's Ki in battle a necessary condition to thrive in a fight.
"Eek!" the feminine Bio-Android squeaked out. Whether it was its cybernetic radar systems or the natural ability to sense Ki that tipped it off the infinitesimal chance for survival and the unquantifiable amount of trouble it just made, the creature looked completely horrified for its life, however, it didn't stand down or try to flee.
"Hyah!" the Frieza hybrid cackled out before preparing to lunge at the two protective parents sidelining their hyped-up children. Videl and Chi-Chi dragged the thrashing Navy and Goten back down to the picnic table while Gohan moved Sharpner to a safer distance from the calamitous battle that was about to break out of nowhere during what seemed like an ordinary day of training in the wilderness.
"Here it comes, huh?" Goku smirked through a serious look on his face.
The Frieza hybrid extended its arm and screeched out, sending a mighty psychokinetic pulse that crumbled a few of the surrounding mountains and sent their chunks flying at Goku and Chayote. In a counterattack, Goku attacked the mountainous rocks and shattered them with his fists to free up some space and regain vision over the battlefield. The Bio-Android surprised him by concealing itself behind one of the rocks and tripping Goku up with a sweep before slamming its palm into Goku's chest, sending the Saiyan flying through the same airborne blizzard of pebbles that he'd helped create.
Rolling through the sky, the insectoid Frieza hybrid tried stomping onto Goku's head, but the Saiyan crossed his arms together and blocked the attack, pushing out his arms and absorbing the shock of a full-body shoulder charge as well. However, the Bio-Android flawlessly transitioned into an elbow strike before tripping Goku up in mid-air again and erupting into a flurry of whipping lashes of its tail that smacked Goku down from head to toe before swiping him aside.
"Ki-ki-ki!" the humanoid hybrid flew in with a spinning kick that slammed straight into Chayote's raised block. The female Saiyan grunted in pain after blocking the strike, noting that these guys were stronger than any Artificial Human she'd faced and, despite their relatively strange appearance, deceptively skilled and strong to handle in base form. As she attempted to scope her opponent's abilities, the snickering Bio-Android vaulted in a highly elastic and unnatural for a human manner and stretched its leg out, digging it straight into Chayote's solar plexus and kicking her down into the mountain creek below.
Working on dealing with suddenly plunging underwater, Chayote rolled backward and repositioned herself only to find herself in a direct collision against the rushing Bio-Android once again. She raised a block to absorb the jumping kick to the jaw, then read the same combination that just worked against her before, grabbing the Bio-Android's heel before it could drive all oxygen out of Chayote's body and rag doll her around again.
A fleshy crack and a flood of violet blinded Chayote as the Bio-Android rid itself of the leg, the heel of which Chayote just grabbed. Rolling through the air, the one-legged Bio-Android slammed a double ax handle strike to the back of Chayote's head and crashed her into the bottom of the creek before sprouting another limb in a feat of Namekian regeneration.
Plunging to the bottom itself, the Bio-Android slammed a diving fist into Chayote's gut, then punted her into the air like a soccer ball. Extending its hands out, the human-insect hybrid fired a barrage of Ki blasts that forced Chayote onto the defensive immediately upon recovering from the painful punt kick. A fusillade of explosions threw Chayote rolling backward into the air, positioning near Goku, who was also reeling from the relentless attack of the opponent he was dealing with.
"Not bad, huh?" Goku snickered, with a slight wince in his right eye. "It's like fighting amped-up Frieza himself. I'm getting excited! I never thought I'd have the chance!"
Chayote grumbled and burst with a golden aura, igniting a Super Saiyan shine around her as her hair spiked up with a golden flare and her eyes turned teal. "You'll struggle to fight in your base form, Kakarot. You better keep up. I'll pound you if I have to pick up your half of the work."
"Come on, turning Super Saiyan almost feels unfair against these guys. Besides, it'll be poor training if you fight them as a Super Saiyan," Goku smiled with a subtle tease.
"This isn't training, Kakarot. These freaks attacked our children. This is a mauling, nothing less!" Chayote dismissed Goku's attempts to squeeze a nice and prolonged bout out of this encounter with an aggressive growl. Side by side, the two Saiyans prepared to battle against these unexpected assailants while a threat remaining unseen carefully observed the battle that was about to break out to the fullest from a concealed position in a mountainous river canyon.
A crimson glint scanned through Cell's slanted eyes as the Bio-Android laid its eyes upon Chayote's Super Saiyan transformation, licking its beak as if it had just devoured a deluxe full-course meal.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!