"You won't look down on me again this time, will you?" Launch, in her blue-haired state, bowed slightly to Tien.
"It remains to be seen whether you are worthy of my respect."
Launch giggled, "my goodness, you certainly know how to make a girl's heart go aflutter."
Tien blushed at her words and got into a martial stance.
"Let the last fight of the preliminaries commence!"
Launch fired several blasts of ki towards the three-eyed warrior.
Tien blocked the attacks with ease. Launch flew towards the warrior and threw a flying kick forward. Tien moved to block the attack, only to be thrown off balance when a blast of ki struck him from behind. Launch kicked him heavily in the face, then fired two ki blasts point-blank. Tien caught himself before he landed out of bounds, he was covered in a few scratches and his clothes were slightly singed, but otherwise, he was completely healthy-looking. "Is that all you can do?"
Launch's hair changed blonde, and Jazz felt her power rise.
"…huh…" He muttered, watching the girl with interest.
Tien felt a slight pressure exuding from her body. "Interesting." He charged forward, but to his surprise, Launch reacted quickly enough to catch his flying fist, she was pushed back, but shifted her stance and threw him over her. Tien stopped his throw, kicking out to catch Launch in the back of the head. She ducked and twisted, letting go of Tien. The warrior flew into the air and flew down to slam his knee into Launch, the tile shattered as she dodged out of the way. Blondey leaped forward, swinging with a wild haymaker into Tien's sternum. Tien caught the swing with a two-handed block, then pushed Launch back. He watched with interest as Launch's hair changed back into its dark blue color.
Launch charged a massive Kamehameha, Jazz noticed in interest that despite her power level lowering again, her energy skyrocketed once more as she charged the ki blast. It fired towards Tien, who focused his eye to cancel the blast, the ki blast curved away, snake by around to slam into Tien's back. He leaped over the blast, only to groan in shock as Blonde-Launch kneed him in the gut. He swung his fist, slamming her into the ground, and gave chase. He watched her hair turn blue as the wave of ki she fired off moved again to slam into his side. The explosion caused many of the preliminary fighters to be blown back, and the roof of the preliminary arena was vaporized.
Tien stepped out from the explosion, his body had bulked up. "I see." His third eye was open while the other two were closed. "You attained a higher state of Pump-Up,"
"What?" Krillin asked, "but Launch isn't bulky or anything?"
Jackie Chun, who had joined the youthful fighter to spectate the last fight of the preliminaries, piped up, "no, she has gained some bulk, but it is only slight…" he shook his head ruefully, "goodness, perhaps, like the Kamehameha, she learned to concentrate the ki of the Pump Up technique and condense it, her ki control is astounding."
"That's amazing," Chi-Chi said.
Jazz analyzed her carefully, his eyes widening in realization as he felt the way her ki was flowing, he had hit a wall with Full Power, and it looked like Launch had broken it.
"Yeah, but it looks like Tien's going to win this," Goku said simply.
"It's not over just yet though," Yamcha said. Jazz smiled at his words.
"You're better than last time, if the 'you' now fought me back then, there would be a different outcome, but unfortunately." His muscles bulked up.
Blonde Launch smirked. "Okami No Ken." An explosion of ki leapt from her body as she and Tien charged towards each other. The two warriors fought, scratches appeared on Tien's clothes while bruises appeared on Launch's body. But as the fight continued, Launch began to backpedal, Tien pressed his advantage, only to shout in pain as a burst of ki in the shape of a massive paw slammed into his chest. The tiles broke apart as he was pushed back and out of the area. Launch grinned, only to be knocked back by a blast of ki. Tien caught himself, breathing slightly.
"Interesting." The three-eyed warrior got off the tiles and landed, he walked over to the unconscious Launch, whose hair remained blond. "I admit, you were worth my attention." He carried Launch over to the medics.
…
The 8 fighters had been determined.
"Today! We bring you the 8 excellent fighters here to compete and prove who is strongest under the heavens!"
The crowd, larger than the last time, cheered loudly as the 8 fighters stood side by side. Standing from left to right, it was: Goku, Chi-Chi, Tien, Yamcha, Jackie Chun, Krillin, Jazz, and a mysterious fighter by the name of Argent. Argent was a young man with handsome features, short and spiky red hair, and narrow blue eyes. He had thin mid-cheek lines and a thin, angular jaw. Despite his pleasant appearance, he had a scowl on his face. Jazz felt the man's power level, it was amazing for a human, maybe around 80 or 90, but Nam was stronger. He had seen the man make short work of PanPut, but PanPut had a power level of a "relatively" measly 50.
'I think it was luck that got him this far, but it remains to be seen.' The man was relatively suspicious, for one, he often glared at Goku during the preliminaries, though Goku said he couldn't recognize the man's smell. The fighter brackets had already been designed before they got up though, so after the introduction, the ones who weren't up moved to the waiting stand to watch the battle. Jazz used his magic to create chairs of stone, then magic materialization to create cushions for the chairs, he offered seats to everyone, but of them, Tien and Argent refused, they remained standing to watch the first fight of the quarter-finals. Hercule, despite being eliminated by Goku just at the final round of preliminaries, sat with the rest and watched the fights.
"You've been slacking." Jazz remarked pointedly.
"I mean, maybe only for this last month." Hercule admitted, "but I'm already plenty strong, and I won't stop training. I just have priorities, teach…"
"I see." Jazz replied.
"And now! Both disciples of the legendary Crane School! Goku, and Chi-Chi!" The blond announcer let the children up on the stage and held the mike up to them. "Hey, kids! You've both done really amazing out there! Any tips for the audience?"
Chi-Chi smiled, "we just trained really hard, our master told us to expand our horizons and travel the world."
"Wow! You must have seen a lot of different things!" The announcer laughed, "truly, the legendary sage is amazing! So! I know you're both in uniform, do you train together often? Will that make this fight easier or harder for you two?"
Chi-Chi blushed slightly, but Goku chuckled, "Chi-Chi's pretty tough, so I'm going to have to be a little serious in this fight!"
The announcer turned to Chi-Chi, "I lost to Goku last time, but this time, win or lose, there's something I wanna ask him!"
Some members of the crowd "awwed" and "oo'd" as they understood Chi-Chi's implication. Goku however didn't seem to understand, and he and Chi-Chi moved to each side of the arena.
Just as the announcer called the fight to start, Chi-Chi tossed off several weights and charged towards Goku. The crowd gasped in shock as the two fighters disappeared from view. Despite no longer being in view, the two fighters were heard as fist impacted against fist and their feet hit the ground. Though to the experienced fighters, Goku and Chi-Chi's movements were as clear as day.
Chi-Chi charged forward with a flying kick, Goku countered with a two-armed block, the tailed boy pushed her off and attacked with a flurry of bicycle kicks. She backpedaled away from his attack then attempted to trip him, he short-hopped over her trip and blasted forward with a small wave of ki, tackling her.
The crowd gasped as both fighters were visible.
"AMAZING!" The announcer began, "THEY MOVED TOO QUICKLY FOR THE EYES TO SEE! BUT NOW THEY'VE ENDED THE FIRST EXCHANGE! IT LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE DEAD EVEN!"
"Not even," Yamcha said pointedly. Chi-Chi was breathing audibly, while Goku seemed cool, collected, and full of energy. To make matters worse, Goku hadn't yet removed his training weights, yet Chi-Chi matched his speed with hers removed.
Jazz whistled in appreciation, "except for Goku and Tien, Chi-Chi is the strongest."
Yamcha nodded, "I thought as much," he chuckled, "but don't count her out just yet, she's spent a year with Goku, so she knows how he fights."
Chi-Chi grinned and charged forward. Goku matched her smile and rushed forward as well. He took the initiative this time with a flying Kamehameha. Chi-Chi deflected the blast with a huge burst of ki from her palms, but instead of allowing the attack to disperse, she reached her hand into it, shouting in pain as the raw energy burned her palms.
Goku looked on in shock, then in awe as Chi-Chi used her ki to grab hold of and absorb Goku's ki. She stood there, trembling as if she was struggling to hold in a breath, then relaxed as the ki was channeled into her hands and feet, which shined in blue energy, a residual effect of the Kamehameha.
"This is something that I spent a long time working on due to my ki control, but it would only work if I was familiar with the other person's ki." She launched herself forward, overpowering Goku with a flurry of savage attacks. As Goku attempted to dodge and block she seemed able to bypass his defenses as if she knew what he would do and where he would be. Which was partially true.
Chi-Chi had looked at Goku for a long time, and due to their close proximity for the year, she learned a lot about him. One of the things she had learned was that Goku had no thoughts of romance, romantic love, or even lust in his head, and was only interested in fighting and becoming stronger. She had to come to grips with the fact that she might never ever be the number 1 priority in his heart, though it hurt to even contemplate. But even then, her feelings for the boy burned bright.
"I've got to beat you here!" She shouted, infusing all the ki she collected from Goku and from herself into a single attack. "Hathor's Hammer!" The ki focused into a powerful punch that she swung down.
Goku's eyes gleamed yellow for just a second, but that second was enough for Jazz to feel his power level jump beyond 10 times. Goku met Chi-Chi's punch with his own, their ki's clashed for a few seconds before the tailed boy pushed forward, overpowering her and knocking her towards the edge of the arena.
"AFTER THAT OUTSTANDING DISPLAY OF SKILL! COULD THIS BE THE END FOR OUR CUTE LITTLE FIGHTER?"
Chi-Chi stopped herself from falling out of bounds with a blast of ki. She teetered on the edge, but caught herself, causing the crowd to cheer her on.
"You go, girl! Show him what you can do!"
"Don't slack off monkey kid! You can really win it this time!"
Opposing fans yelled and screamed for their favorites, the noise they made was so loud no one heard the sound of Gero's surveillance drones being destroyed.
Jazz didn't take the time to look at his handiwork, but a wry smile took his face as he thought of the frustration of the doctor's or any of his allies' faces after he had destroyed their 100th or so fleet of scout drones. From his knowledge of Tsukimi, running a militarized organization like the Red Ribbon Army would take some serious cash, hopefully, he'd be able to bankrupt them before long. He turned to look at the cheering Lapis and Lazuli, who cheered alongside the crowd. He wouldn't let the Red Ribbon Army take them, he wouldn't allow Gero to hurt them. Story be damned, he just had to make it to the end, and hopefully, he'd leave the universe in better conditions than when he first joined it.
Jazz returned his attention back to the battle.
Goku had allowed Chi-Chi to catch her breath, but she hadn't yet attacked.
"Chi-Chi?" Goku asked, curiosity in his voice, "are you okay?"
Chi-Chi smiled, "you're really nice to me Goku." She began, "but not because you like me."
"Waaa?!" Goku said in shock. The crowd was silent as they waited for him to continue. "Of course I like you!" The crowd got ready to cheer at the confession, only to pause as Chi-Chi spoke again.
"And you like Krillin."
"Yeah! And I like Bulma, and grampa Kame Sennin, and Oolong, and Jazz, and Yamcha, and PaoPao, and Launch, and Puar, and Hacchan, and Upa! You guys are all my friends!" Goku said, smiling. Chi-Chi's lips curled, but her expression made Goku frown. "Are you okay?" He asked.
Chi-Chi stood there for a few seconds, then she sighed. "I'm healthy." She charged forward. She was slower and weaker than before, but despite that, Goku couldn't help but have to fight a bit more seriously, she traded blows and feints with a newfound ferocity, which excited him. Eventually, his excitement overthrew his judgment and he struck back hard enough to break her ribs, she was launched off the tiles into the ground. Goku felt the battle-lust making his head fuzzy, but he still ran to Chi-Chi. "Chi-Chi!" he shouted, shocked at his lack of restraint.
Despite coughing blood and looking painfully ill, the girl smiled. "Goku…" she said, coughing, "I made myself a promise, to ask you something after the tournament ends, so you better win this thing, okay?"
Goku nodded, bewildered and worried for his friend. Before the medic got to them, Jazz flew over and used his healing flames on Chi-Chi. The crowd watched in awe as the girl before them was able to stand on her feet again.
"DESPITE HER BEST EFFORTS, CONTESTANT SON GOKU WINS THE BATTLE! BUT AS WE CAN SEE, TECHNIQUES AND FIGHTING PROWESS ISN'T THE ONLY THING HEATING UP TODAY!"
"Thank you for your help, Jazz." Chi-Chi bowed as she walked towards the waiting stand. "Oh, and good luck, with PaoPao, not the tournament, get your ass kicked."
Jazz smiled ruefully. "Already rooting for your boyfriend?"
Chi-Chi didn't reply but she didn't get flustered either.
Tien and Yamcha walked towards the arena, passing by Jazz.
"Hey," Yamcha began, "heal Tien, he's a bit damaged from his fight with Launch."
"Please, as if the little she did to me would matter." He turned to Jazz, "rather, save your energy, I want to fight Goku then you at your best."
Yamcha chuckled, "aren't we a little optimistic today," he joked cheekily.
"If you aren't fighting, please return to your seats!" The announcer said, looking at Jazz and Goku. They walked back to the waiting area, giving Tien and Yamcha the space to get ready, the arena had already suffered from a lot of damage due to Goku and Chi-Chi's fight, and now, given Tien's personality and their fighting prowess, the arena might get destroyed.
"AND NOW! THE SECOND FIGHT IN THE QUARTER-FINALS! THE BEAST-LIKE YAMCHA VS THE MYSTERIOUS TIEN!"
Yamcha took the forward dragon stance, while Tien took the semi-defensive horse stance, twisting his body so that his left shoulder and foot faced Yamcha.
"BEGIN!"
Yamcha sprinted low to the ground and sweeper his arms below him in a pendulum motion before raising them to slam down on Tien's skull. Tien, reading his trajectory, blocked Yamcha's attack with two open palms and pushed the warrior back. Jazz watched at Tien's body bulked up slightly, his power increasing.
"Smart one isn't he…" he muttered, amused.
"What do you mean?" Chi-Chi asked.
"The way Launch utilizes Master Roshi's Pump Up, I trained to increase its power by attempting to force more ki though, overstressing my body, it was slow going, but I got to where I am now because of it, basically, I overtaxed my body and the technique, and like a muscle, the destroyed parts rebuilt itself, stronger than before, though I hit the wall with how strong it could become in that way." He looked over at Tien. "Tien saw what Launch did, and while he doesn't have all the intricacies down, he was able to emulate it."
"What exactly did he copy?" Krillin asked, turning to look at Launch.
Launch, who was in her blond state, was watching the fight intently, her look seemed to convey the message of: 'if you interrupt me, I'll kill you.'
Jazz answered for the rest of them. "Launch determined, through her ki control, to concentrate the energy build-up of the Pump Up in a way that causes it to flow through her in a continuous cycle throughout the body, normally the energy is allowed to concentrate and build up, expanding the muscles due to the strain." Jazz looked at himself, "I trained my body to keep from expanding, by building up physical strength and using ki to counter the flow of ki threatening to rip itself from my body, I would have never thought of cycling it through my body as if it was just like my blood." He laughed, "Tien realized how Launch did it, and he's using that now, though, as I said, he doesn't have it down perfectly."
The fight, despite Tien's obvious power-up, was surprisingly still even.
Goku looked on in surprise, "wow! Yamcha's really strong!" Jazz couldn't help but agree, He had at first thought Yamcha was the third strongest of the group that remained to train with Roshi, behind both Krillin and Tien, but his ki had steadily risen up as the battle continued.
"What kind of training did he do over the year?" Chi-Chi asked, surprised.
"He put on more weights than the others." Jazz said as he borrowed from Jazz 3's memories, "he did it quite steadily, almost broke his leg twice, had to use my healing flames on him. Even Master Roshi said he was too reckless."
"Couldn't you use your flames indefinitely?" Chi-Chi asked.
"Prolonged exposure to my healing flames reduces the regeneration of stamina, and the flames themselves sap my energy, both magical and ki at the same time, I'm also busy training when he is, and I'm not always on the island, there were things I had to keep up with."
Argent, the only one who had been completely silent, simply stared at the fight between the two accomplished fighters. From the corner of his eye, Jazz noticed that the man seemed to track the fight quite easily despite his lower power level. Jazz returned his attention back to the fight as well.
With each swing, punch, and kick, Yamcha's movements became faster, swifter, and heavier until be began to overtake Tien once again. Tien fought, his third eye moving independently from the other two as he attempted to keep track of the scarred fighter's unorthodox movements.
"You're slowing down, tri-clops!" Yamcha shouted. "Kamaitachi!" (Sickle Weasel) Yamcha stood low to the ground as his kid formed sickle shapes around his hands and feet, Tien flew up to dodge the attack and fired a don don ray down at the fighter.
"Genbu's Shell!" He shouted, the ki formed a strong dome of energy that met and deflected the don don ray. Yamcha charged through his defenses, spinning rapidly. "Okami no Ken!" He slammed his fist into Tien's stomach. Tien spitted blood and was launched further in the air. Yamcha smiled triumphantly, only to flinch when he saw 3 other Tien's surround him. One Tien grabbed his feet while the one he punched smirked and raised his hands to his temple. "Solar Flare!"
Everyone closed their eyes, including Jazz, but he felt what happened with his energy. He watched as two of the Tien's flew to the ground and did the fusion dance, then watched as the other two Tiens retreated back together, then into the body of their original, now in the fusion dance. He opened his eyes quickly, then watched as the metamoran fusion of Tien waited for Yamcha to get his bearings.
"WHAT'S THIS? TIEN SEEMS TO HAVE CHANGED OUTFITS! COULD THIS BE SOME MYSTERIOUS TECHNIQUE?!"
Yamcha looked down at Tien, then groaned. "Dammit, I didn't want you to be able to use this."
Tien in the fusion form stood 3 inches taller and gained some more muscle, he wore the black vest with shoulder and neck protection of the Metamorans and looked at Yamcha with his arms crossed. "I guess then you surrender?"
Yamcha laughed. "Hell no! Shin Rōgafūfūken" He howled as what appeared to be the aura of 3 wolves surrounded his body. "First dance! Howl!" Ki gathered near his face and he took a deep breath, firing a heavy kiai at Tien. Tien did not dodge the attack, instead, shattering the invisible ki. The impact still caused a massive gust of wind to blow out into the crowds.
"WHAT AN ATTACK, BY JUST SHOUTING, YAMCHA WAS ABLE TO UNLEASH A POWERFUL GUST OF WIND! DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATHS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT LOOKS LIKE THINGS AREN'T OVER YET!"
"Second dance," Yamcha said, lowering to the ground, "pack hunt!" He charged forward and began a series of punches, kicks, jabs, and grabs all low to the ground. Tien dodged or blocked the attacks with ease as Yamcha utilized his abilities to the absolute maximum, then smashed his fist into Yamcha's stomach, knocking out the latter.
Tien walked out of the ring, turning to look at Goku, who smiled excitedly, "let's have a good fight!"
Tien only nodded, then glanced at Jazz, who simply winked. "Do you need that heal?"
Tien kept silent, but Jazz noticed his imperceptible nod. "Well, don't worry, you have 25 minutes till the fusion ends, so I'll patch you up."
"PLEASE GET SOME REFRESHMENTS AND REST YOURSELVES! STANDBY AS WE CLEAN UP AND FIX THE ARENA!" Quite a bit of damage had been done from just those two battles alone, workers rushed out with tiles and spackle to fix up the arena. Jazz marveled at their efficiency but felt a bit bad, it was likely that in the next two fights, the arena would get destroyed again. At the same time, he heard a voice in his head.
"Jazz, we've got trouble."
'What is it?' Jazz thought out to her, Z was silent for a bit before talking.
"Kami's calling for us."
"Alright." He turned to the others. "Hey, I'll be back." He split in two. He looked at his doppelganger, who nodded. Jazz then transformed into an eider duck, which flew up and out of the arena at Mach 2 towards the lookout.
…
…
Jasper(Jazz) Duncan
Age: 19 years
Hair color: Red
Skin color: white
Race: Quarter Caucasian(White American of English-Irish descent), Quarter Asian (Korean), Quarter Black(African-American), Quarter Hispanic (Cuban)
Height: 6 feet 0.5 inches | 184.15 centimeters
Weight: 195 lbs | 88.4505 kilograms, Using additional weights totaling 300lbs or 136.078 kilo
Skills: Advanced Staff Technique, Advanced Kinjutsu (sword technique), Advanced Hand-to-Hand technique, Advanced Ki techniques, Mastered Magic Materialization
Capable of creating: Conventional Weapons, Food, various tools (limited by his knowledge of the materials, craftsmanship, and scientific knowledge)
Weapons that can be created: Long Ruyi Jingu Bang, Long Bansho Fan, Ryu Kusanagi, Wyvern's Wind-And-Fire Wheels, Dragon's Flame-Tipped Spear, Fafnir's Gungnir, Leviathan's Trident
Powers: Elemental Magic Materialization, Capable of summoning and freely manipulating fire, water, wind, and earth, capable of freely utilizing and creating lightning, ice, smoke, and steam, capable of manipulating and stirring the growth of plant and animal life. Mastered Telekinesis.
Mastery of General Magic Concepts and abilities, a basic understanding of intermediate level magical techniques, a basic understanding of advanced magical techniques.
Shapeshifting: Mastered Skill level (indefinite)
Transformation Power Techniques
Noble Werewolf: Adolescent Awakening: 3.375x power
Full Power: A renamed form of Pump-Up/ Max Power, no longer lowers speed, instead it now grants strength and speed proportional to power gain: 2.7x power
Talisman Magic: Body Enhancement: 1.5x Power, drains magical energy over time, lasts 20 minutes at full, before then draining ki
Emissive Techniques: Kamehameha, Don Don Pa, Solar Flare, Tri-Beam, Thunder Shock Surprise, Barrage Ki attack, Magic Fire Kamehameha, Thunderfire Kamehameha. Ki-Flame Sword, Marshmallow Meteor,
Body Techniques: Four Witches Technique, 12 Eyes Technique, Fusion Dance, Wolf Fang Fist
Suppressed Power Level: 400
Powerlevel: Temporarily Cut in half due to using 12 Eyes technique aka: Multiform. Currently 299.5(suppressed down to 200)
…
…
Afterword:
I bet you wanna know his power level right? Lol, don't worry, you will. Soon, you should all already know it a bit, but still, having the number written down is really satisfying, isn't it? Well, fine then lol.
Jazz's current power level is 599, it is currently suppressed to 400 when using the weights. When unsuppressed, his power level increases to 2021.625 when using the Noble Werewolf power to its limits by itself, increases to 1617.3 when using Full Power to its limits by itself, or increases to 898.5 when using PaoPao's magical talisman technique. The 3.375 multiplier stacks with the 2.7 multiplier which again stacks with the 1.5 times multiplier, in a similar way to how the Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken stacks the three multipliers of the God Form, Super Saiyan Form, and Kaioken. So Jazz's multiplier is 13.66875. Meaning this is his grand total possible power level without including fusion:
8187.58125: or… Stronger than Goku without Kaioken in his fight against Nappa and Vegeta. Using Fusion with himself will multiply that power by ten times, making him almost as strong as Goku's base on his arrival to Namek. This does, officially, now make him the strongest good guy on Earth, for 30 minutes at a time.