Reunions and Changes! A Budoukai of Surprises!
Bulma strummed her fingers rhythmically on the armrest of her chair as she looked out the plane window to the ocean below. God, she was bored. No Krillin, Launch, Puar, or Yamcha. Okay, so the last three weren't so bad but that wasn't the point. With everyone learning to fly, there was no one for her to talk to.
"Y'know," Suno said across the aisle from her seat next to Bulma, "I've always wonder, Roshi. You can do all these flips and kicks and incredibly athletic things for someone who's over three hundred years old. How come you need a cane?" Roshi shrugged and patted the gnarled piece of wood across his lap.
"I need to channel my ki to do those kinds of things. If I'm not fighting, I'm just your average old man." Then he peered down his sunglasses and gave Suno a smirk. "And," he added, "It gives me more reach to whack punks over the head with." They both chuckled and Bulma gave a weary sigh. So bored! Taking her cue, Suno turned to Bulma.
"So Bulma," Suno said, "It's been a few years since we've seen everyone. Excited to see them again? We haven't seen Goku in three years!" Bulma shrugged and gave a noncommittal grunt. "Is there… anyone you hope wins?"
"Not Yamcha," Bulma said bluntly.
They flew the next several hundred miles in silence.
OoOoOoO
The plane landed about an hour or so later to relief from all three parties. Suno left to go register herself which left Roshi, for the first time since he'd first put on the Jackie Chun wig, with no excuse to disappear into the crowd and left him standing alone with Bulma. He thought of what he might say to her to try and dilute the tension and anger that was still present. Part of him was, of course, angry at her for keeping the corpse of Piccolo around like Yamcha had told them but he figured now wasn't the time for that. What would he tell her, he wondered. That first love is fleeting? That these moments pass? Or perhaps even that holding onto hate like this would only ruin herself for the future?
Before Roshi could say anything, however, Bulma's attention was suddenly caught by something in the sky above. Roshi's gaze followed hers and was surprised to see Krillin floating down towards them.
"Hey, guys!" He said with a grin as he touched down and Suno returned from the sign-in table.
"Good to see you again, Krillin," Roshi said with a nod.
"Hey, Krillin!" Suno replied with a smile and a wave.
"Wow, Krillin," Bulma teased, "You actually got taller!" Krillin gave her a sardonic smirk but it was true. Krillin had grown a few more inches in the last three years and, while it was hard to tell under his bright red raincoat, had actually put on some muscle.
"Good to see you all too," he said with an appreciative nod. "Long time no see, huh?" he smiled to himself and began to walk to the registration desk. "Guess I'll go sign up. You guys haven't seen Goku yet, have ya?"
"Nope," Suno said, "Just got here. No sign of her yet." Krillin just chuckled as he walked towards the table. He shouldn't have been surprised. No sooner had Krillin returned from signing himself up than another group began to fly down. They were all wearing green longcoats and rice do'un hats. It was Tenshinhan, Chaozu, and some woman with bright green hair…
"Hi there, strangers!" The woman said in a playful tone with a voice that was strangely familiar…
"... Launch?!" Suno blurted out when it dawned on her with her eyes wide in shock. The green-haired woman laughed and took a bow with a dramatic sweep of her hat.
"That's me!" The others suddenly flooded her with questions once they realized who she was. What happened? Where had she gone? What was with her hair, her voice? What did it all mean? She grinned wider with each question and held up her hands for silence. "Guys, guys," she said, "It's not really all that complicated." She smirked and leaned against Tenshinhan who reddened visibly, "I just had a little help." Ten cleared his throat and tugged at his collar for a moment.
"What Launch means to say, I believe," he said, "Is that she came to me to find inner peace between the dualities of her nature. We were able to find our peace together. As you can see the effects are more… visual than they are for most." Roshi nodded and pulled down his sunglasses.
"I see," he said, "That explains the…" he trailed off for a moment as the group watched an enormous woman, taller than Tenshinhan, in a horned helmet and a red cloth headwrap that obscured her face, stride past them brusquely on her way to the registration desk. She wore a blue sleeveless longcoat with dark red pants and bright red bands around her forearms and had a figure that was somewhere between burly and buxom. "That explains the change in characters on your coats." As the others looked at the new arrivals' longcoats they noticed that Roshi was right. Where the character for "Crane" would normally be on their chests there was now the character for "Focus."
"Ten wanted to go with plain ol' 'peace'," Launch explained, "But I convinced him that was too wussy." The others chuckled and Ten, Chaozu, and Launch left to go register. Krillin noticed someone else walking past them and elbowed Roshi.
"Master Roshi," he said, "Isn't that that Hercule guy you mentioned before?" Roshi watched the mustachioed, afro'd man walk past with an arched eyebrow.
"Yes," he muttered as he stroked his beard, "But there's something different about him." For one thing, Hercule was absolutely silent. You normally couldn't get him to stop talking. Maybe he'd finally decided to take the Budoukai seriously.
There was a low rumbling as dark clouds began to gather overhead. Launch brought Chaozu and Ten back to the group although it was clear Ten looked like he would rather be off meditating and preparing for the tournament.
"Tell me," he said, "Have any of you seen Son Goku yet?" The others shook their heads and Ten nodded.
"That's a shame," called a familiar voice from the crowd. The others turned and for a moment only saw a crane's head and shining metal half-circle wading their way through the crowd before the pair finally broke through. It was Shen and…
"Tao Pai Pai?!" Suno asked with a gasp. Not that she was scared of him anymore, she knew she was stronger. It was just… How? When? What?!
"Mercenary Tao," he corrected sternly. "Do not forget that, girl." There was something strange in his voice when he spoke. Something artificial, something mechanical. Although she supposed that, given the metalwork around his skull and face, the red balls he had for eyes and his clearly robotic hands, that shouldn't have been at all surprising.
"Tao," Ten said softly, barely above a whisper, with a face like he had seen a ghost. Tao sneered at Ten as much as his limited amount of face would allow and scoffed.
"Do not speak to me, traitor," he snapped. "I am here for one purpose: Revenge!" Shen gave his brother an elbow and Tao sighed. "And yes, to redeem the Crane school," he added wearily. "Today I shall kill all three of you! Son Goku, you, and… erm…" he looked down at Chaozu and frowned. "I'm terribly sorry but I don't think I ever learned your name when you were my brother's student."
"Chaozu!" Chaozu said indignantly with his arms folded over his chest, "I'm Chaozu!"
"Ah," Tao said, "Very well then, Chaozu. You're going to die, too." He gave a dismissive wave and began to walk towards the registration table. "Do pass on to Son Goku when you see her that I intend to kill her." Then he and Shen disappeared into the crowd again.
"What a weirdo," Krillin muttered. Suno shook her head and put her hands on her hips.
"Thaaaat's not the word I would use for him." She muttered. It was crazy how much of a difference three years made. The idea of seeing Tao Pai Pai back from the dead like that would have scared her senseless. Now? Not so much.
"Hey down there, party people!" called a familiar voice from high above. The group looked up as a gray-blue streak dropped out of the sky and landed in front of them in a pool of gray fabric and black hair before it stood up. "The fuuuun has arriiiived!" he declared in a lyrical tone with his arms outstretched.
"Yamcha!" the others cried happily, except for Bulma who shuffled away with a huff. Yamcha was dressed in a rather confusing getup; a long, blue cape-like coat with grey shoulder pads. He'd also started growing his hair back out. Puar flew out of the bottom of Yamcha's coat with a grin.
"Don't forget me!" Puar said eagerly before he and Yamcha made their hellos. Yamcha high-fived Krillin and Suno, bumped fists with Ten and Chaozu, and bowed to Master Roshi. Then it was just him and Launch and the others shuffled away in the way that people do when they know a private conversation needs to happen.
"So," Yamcha said awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head, "You look… um… you look better." Launch smiled with one arm holding the other behind her back.
"Thanks," she said. "I… I feel better. A lot better."
"Hey," Yamcha said with an encouraging smile, "That's great." There was a slightly uncomfortable sentence as they both seemed to be reluctant to say what they were thinking. "So," Yamcha said finally, "What are we? I mean… should we? Y'know?" Launch thought for a moment and chewed her lip before she shook her head.
"I don't think so," she said while trying to be delicate about it. "Don't get me wrong, Yamcha. You're a great guy and I'm glad to call you one of my closest friends. It's just that… whatever I had for you before I just… I don't have it now. I'm different." She winced at Yamcha's hurt expression. "Look, I don't m–" He held up a hand and shook his head.
"Nah," Yamcha said, "I get it. You're right. It's probably better this way." They were silent for a few moments. "So, no sign of Goku yet?"
"Nah," Launch said with a chuckle and a shake of the head. Yamcha sighed with a knowing smirk.
"Yeah," he muttered, "She'll probably show up at the last minute again." Yamcha turned his head to the side as he heard a familiar voice in the crowd.
"Hot dogs," called a very familiar voice. "Hot dogs! Cold drinks! Roasted nuts!"
"You've gotta be shittin' me," Yamcha muttered as he started walking through the crowd. Sure enough, he found Pilaf pushing a hot dog cart with Shu and Mai trailing behind him carrying a case of cold drinks and a basket of roasted nuts respectively.
"Hot dogs," Pilaf called out as he walked through the crowd, having not yet noticed Yamcha. "Cold drinks! Fresh roasted…" he turned his head to see Yamcha and came to a stop. "...Nnnnuts." he muttered. Yamcha sighed and cracked his knuckles.
"So," he asked, "What's the scheme this time? Are you going to poison everyone at the Budoukai so no one can stop you from gathering the Dragon Balls?" Pilaf threw up his hands defensively and shook his head.
"No, no," he insisted, "We're just regular, honest businesspeople!"
"We decided that the World Domination business isn't for us," Mai added. "Now we're just trying to be good people." She had wanted to open a detective agency but Shu had won at Rock, Paper, Scissors.
"Everyone's gotta eat!" Shu threw in with a smile. Yamcha rolled his eyes and smirked, crossing his arms.
"So lemme guess," he said, "You idiots brought back Piccolo to kill Goku, Piccolo killed you, then you got wished back and now you've decided you wanna be good people because you saw Hell when you were dead." The three former schemers shook their heads furiously before they slowly stopped and began reluctantly nodding. Yamcha sighed and shrugged. Who was he to give people a hard time for turning over a new leaf? "All right," he said, "Gimme one with everything on it." Then he turned his head back to call over a shoulder. "Hey, Krillin, you want anything? Hot dog? Soda? Nuts?"
"Yeah," Krillin called, "I'll take some nuts!" Yamcha fought an inclination to snicker.
"What about you, Ten?"
"Do they have pizza?"
"No, Ten."
"Then they don't have food!" Yamcha rolled his eyes before turning back to Pilaf.
"Get a couple of drinks with those, I guess." Pilaf smiled and held out his hand.
"Excellent! That will be two thousand zeni." Yamcha squinted suspiciously at Pilaf before he grumbled and reached for his wallet.
"Better be a damn good hot dog," he muttered as he handed Pilaf the bills. Pilaf grinned and tucked the bills into a cash box while Mai took two drinks out of her cooler and handed them to Yamcha and Shu scooped nuts into a little cardboard cup. Pilaf then took a hot dog out of the cart and slathered mustard, ketchup, relish, and onions on it. Yamcha took all of the foodstuffs in a precarious balancing act as he walked back over to the group. He handed Krillin his nuts and drink before taking a bite of his hot dog. "Damn it," he mumbled with a full mouth, "That is good."
More time passed with no sign of Goku. An incredibly tall man walked past them with most of his features obscured by his turban and a long white cape with enormous shoulder pads. All they could tell was that he had green skin. There was also something eerily familiar about his ki. Soon after the mysterious man disappeared into the crowd there was another, louder rumble and it began to rain. Launch put her hat back on even as she, Krillin, Yamcha, Ten, Chaozu and Roshi raised their ki enough to create invisible barriers around themselves that kept the rain from touching them. Bulma touched something on her watch that made it glow purple before waving her arm around over her head in a circle. A glowing, translucent purple dome flashed into life over Bulma's head to shield her from the rain.
"Well aren't you all fancy?" Suno asked sarcastically as she reached into her red knapsack and pulled out an umbrella. Puar swiftly joined her under the umbrella. Even more time passed with no Goku.
"This is just getting ridiculous," Ten muttered irritably with his hands on his hips. "It's not as though she could get lost! The Budoukai's been on this island for a hundred years!"
"Yeah," Bulma added, "I hope nothing happened to her." Launch rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Bloomers," she said teasingly, "I think if something bad could happen to Goku, we'd all be fu–"
"Hey, guys!" called a voice from behind them. There was something familiar about it, yet… different at the same time. The group slowly turned as one to to look behind them before looking up from where they had expected to look. The woman was wearing a blue coat, red pants, and a turban but she did have a staff strapped to her back. The rain died down almost instantly and the sun came out while the woman put away her umbrella and undid the turban. Black hair spiked out in familiar directions as she broke out into a grin. "It's me!"
"Goku!" everyone cried out in surprise. She grinned wider as they all crowded around her.
"Jeez, Goku," Suno muttered as she looked up at her, "When'd you finally get taller?"
"Good to see you, kiddo," Launch said as she gave Goku a playful punch on the arm. "Y'like the new hair?"
"Oh my Gosh," Bulma said excitedly as she gave Goku a quick hug, "It's been forever!" Goku suddenly pushed the others out of the way when she noticed Krillin.
"Krillin?" she asked softly. He grinned bashfully up at her.
"H-hey Go–" then she reached down and lifted him up off the ground in a hug, "KYYYUU!" Goku laughed and hugged Krillin close with tears in the corners of her eyes as she spun him in the air. Krillin hugged Goku back just as tightly until she stopped spinning.
"I really missed you," she whispered. Krillin sniffled and nodded.
"I missed you, too, Goku." he said in a voice hoarse with emotion. Roshi cleared his throat as Goku set Krillin down.
"I don't mean to interrupt the reunions," he said, "But shouldn't you get signed up?" Goku grinned and gave a dismissive wave.
"Nah," she assured him, "I already did that!"
"When?" Tenshinhan asked in confusion.
"I got here five minutes ago," Goku said matter-of-factly. "I was looking for all of you!" The others promptly face-faulted.
"Wait," Suno asked once they were all back on their feet, "I'm confused. Don't you have Nimbus? I mean, I wasn't using it." Goku nodded. "So… how were you almost late?" Goku blinked and brought her hands up under her chin while tapping two fingers together and gave a chuckle as she looked off to the side. For the first time since any of them had known her, Goku looked embarrassed.
"Weeelll," she said reluctantly…
OoOoOoO
Goku was making great time. She was going to get to the Budoukai before anyone else! Wouldn't that be a great surprise after last time? However, as Goku was flying over a mountain range, she made Nimbus stop when she felt a familiar ki. She looked down over the edge of the cloud to the mountain road below and, sure enough, there was that guy again! He sure liked walking, huh? Come to think of it, Goku decided, she had plenty of time!
"Hey down there," she called, "I'm way stronger now! You wanna rematch?" He dropped his bag and got into a fighting stance. Goku grinned and jumped off Nimbus, hands coming to her side as she fell down towards him. "Kaaameeehaaameee…" he dropped his hands to his side too and formed a ball of light in his hands.
"Shinku!"
OoOoOoO
"I… kinda got a little sidetracked," she finally said with a nervous chuckle. Everyone laughed before Ken's voice came onto the intercom. It was surprisingly clear so the Budoukai had clearly upgraded its technology since the previous edition.
"Lllllladies aaaaaand gentlemeeeeeen," he said, "The 23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai is about to begin! All fighters, please enter the elimination hall!" Goku waved to Bulma, Roshi, and Puar as she and the others followed the other fighters.
"Bye, guys!" she called cheerily. "See you in a little while!" Once the seven were inside the elimination hall; Ten, Launch, and Chaozu all took off their coats and hats with their gi on underneath. Krillin did the same and Suno just rolled her eyes.
"Well," she said dryly, "Now I feel silly. I thought not wearing my fighting pajamas under my clothes would be normal. Be right back." She went to find the women's restroom to change into her gi as Yamcha took off his cloak dramatically, throwing his arms out wide. Rather than the Turtle School uniform that Launch and Krillin were still wearing, Yamcha's gi was stark white with shimmering bands of gold at the ankles, sleeves, and waist as well as a gold embroidered wolf across the back of his open-chested vest (to show off his scars, of course) and a pair of golden wristbands. Krillin let out a low whistle as his eyes widened.
"Fancy," he muttered in an impressed tone and walked around Yamcha to inspect his spiffy new gear. Yamcha grinned and shrugged.
"Eh, y'know," he said with a cocky flick of the thumb across his nose, "Feel like a winner, dress like a winner. This is gonna be my year!"
"You sure about that, fancypants?" Suno teased as she walked back to the group in her gi; she had dark blue boots, white pants, and an ice blue tunic. "No one here but Goku's ever seen me fight. You don't know what kind of tricks I might have!" She turned her attention to Goku with a smirk. "Isn't that right Goooo…" her voice trailed off as she and the others found themselves staring like idiots as Goku changed.
She undid the white cloth belt of her coat and let it slide off onto the ground with the smallest shake of her shoulders. Under the coat, she was also wearing a different gi. Although it was almost identical in design to the Turtle uniform, it was a golden yellow where the other had been orange and she had on a blue undershirt beneath that. It also, bizarrely enough, had the character for "God" on the back. The fabric shone and sparkled as Goku extended her strong, slender arms over her head before interlocking her fingers and stretching, arching her back until it popped, letting out a pleasured little noise. Then she bent forward at the waist until her fingertips were parallel to her toess and shimmied her hips to get out of the red pants, underneath which was a pair of golden yellow pants to match the shirt of her gi. Goku stepped out of the pants and stood up straight before she raised one leg over her head to do a standing split against the wall, extending both legs as far as she could and leaning back, accentuating her neckline. She rolled off the wall and came up slowly to her feet with a demure smile…
That immediately turned into her usual big grin.
"So what do you guys think of my new gi?" she asked before she noticed that all of her friends had that funny red look on their faces. "...Guys?" All six of them were too preoccupied to answer as all six simultaneously had some version of this thought.
'Holy crap! She's hot!'
OoOoOoO
Piccolo, or as he had registered himself, "Majunior," sneered across the ring at the dog-woman who had apparently been given the unlucky task of becoming his opponent. She charged at him and he rolled his eyes. He stretched out one hand and flicked a finger against the brim of her snout to send her hurtling out of the ring and sailing over the heads of the other fighters before a nasty landing. He scoffed and walked out of the ring. It was tedious to restrain himself so but to strike now would cause too much suspicion and panic. Not yet. The time was not yet… dramatic enough. Yamcha watched him suspiciously as he left the ring.
"Suno," he muttered, motioning to her and the others in turn, "Ten, Launch, Chaozu. Get over here." The others gathered around him and he gestured to the green man with his chin. "That guy look familiar to you?"
"A little bit," Chaozu admitted as he lifted his hat to scratch his singular hair, "Why?"
"Thousand zeni says that's Piccolo," Yamcha wagered bluntly. Suno rubbed her chin and squinted.
"I dunno," she said in a joking manner. "He's missing the great big hole in his chest." Yamcha rolled his eyes.
"Oh, come on," he insisted. "He's seven feet tall, green, and he has pointy ears and has pink patches on his arms."
"I'm not so sure, Yamcha," Ten said skeptically with his arms folded over his chest. Yamcha squinted at him.
"Do you even have a thousand zeni, ya friggin' mountain goat?" he asked.
"I do!" Ten said defensively. Launch elbowed him playfully.
"He means I have two thousand zeni."
"What the hell," Suno shrugged, "I'm in."
"Yup."
"Very well."
"Me too. ...Am I the only one scared by this?"
OoOoOoO
She roared as she grabbed her opponent by the shoulders and bashed him in the face with a headbutt. The red cloth wrapped around her head to obscure her identity did little to soften the impact with the blow rendering him practically unconscious. She grabbed his ankles and tucked them under her arms and began spinning round and round before launching him into the air, smashing through the ceiling and flying away. She watched him sail with a confident smile hidden under her headdress before thumping a fist against her chest. She could do this!
OoOoOoO
Tenshinhan stared incredulously at his opponent. It was some kind of… Octopus-man? He'd never seen one of those before. He made a ridiculous gurgling noise before charging him with his eight arms flailing wildly. As Ten easily dodged each strike, he supposed he had to give the strange creature credit for his temerity, being unfazed at the prospect of facing the winner of the last Budoukai. Temerity, however, was all that his foe had. Ten grabbed his arms and tied them into a knot over the Octopus's head. Summarily flummoxed, the Octopus gave out a pained gurgle of submission.
"What a strange day this is turning out to be," Ten muttered to himself as he hopped out of the ring while a team of medics attempted to untangle the Octo-man's arms safely.
OoOoOoO
Chaozu swallowed as he stood across the ring from the cyborg, Mercenary Tao. There was an unpleasant whirring sound as Tao attempted to crack his knuckles before frowning when he realized that he could no longer do this. Chaozu took advantage of Tao's moment of introspection and charged, needing to get as close as possible to strike with his tiny limbs.
Tao was frustrated with himself when the strange little man… Charlie? Chauncy? Cartwright? Something like that, managed to get in a few hits while he was maligning the loss of his threatening joint-cracking abilities. The little clown… was he an actual clown? Either way, he had actually managed to make Tao take a few steps back before Tao swatted him away. The dwarf… pygmy… munchkin… what was the correct thing to call them, anyway? Well, whatever he was he stopped himself in midair and flew back at Tao. Why hadn't he ever figured out flight? How hard could that be? He came at Tao with a few more strikes before Tao was intensely bored. He still had a long tournament to get through at this point. He drove the edge of his hand into the little man's face and stood on his chest, foot slowly pushing onto his neck, pressing down.
"I… I give up!" he gasped. Tao pushed his foot down for a few seconds longer, savoring that look of primal fear that people always got when they realized they were about to die… and took his foot off of his throat before kicking him into the crowd where he landed conveniently in Ten's arms. Tenshinhan glared at Tao and, lacking the facial features to glare back, Tao dragged a thumb across his throat. That worked well enough.
OoOoOoO
Launch stared across the ring at Suno and huffed, crossing her arms.
"Of all my friggin' luck," she muttered. "I mean, really, what are the odds?" Suno shrugged nonchalantly with a playful grin.
"I dunno, this is my third fight today which means the numbers are going down so I guess–" she just jumped back to avoid Launch's elbow going up her nose.
"I was being sarcastic," Launch explained as she followed up with a knee. Suno blocked it with her own shin before driving a palm into Launch's sternum. Launch staggered back and rubbed at her chest before she sprinted into another attack, flipping through the air to drive her heel into the crown of Suno's head. In the blink of an eye, Suno grabbed Launch by the leg and slammed her onto the ground, twisting her ankle around painfully. Launch cried in pain and tried to kick at Suno with her free leg but the girl grabbed that and twisted it as well, spinning Launch over onto her stomach and bending her legs and back at an unnatural angle. Launch screamed louder and tried to escape until she couldn't take it anymore. "All right, already," she cried, "I give, I give!" Suno let go immediately and helped her up to her feet. "Jeez, when'd you get so fast?" Suno giggled and tapped a finger against her nose.
"Trade secret," she explained. Launch rolled her eyes and punched Suno on the arm.
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, "You better not make me look bad and lose in your first finals match or I'll fly a plane into your house." Suno stared at her in horrified disbelief. "Kidding, kidding!"
OoOoOoO
Goku stared at the young man in a black singlet who was doing crazy lunges across the ring from her. He had an extremely short haircut and it looked like he was trying to grow a mustache. He stopped and flexed in front of her, baring his teeth.
"Martial Arts ledy," he tried to bellow in a voice that lacked the timbre to be so described, "Wrestling ees bist Martial Art!" Goku grinned. She hadn't wrestled in forever! "Thees ees yoor unly chence to leave beefore I heff to hoort you!" He got into a wide stance and so did she. He lunged and wrapped his arms around Goku before tossing her high overhead. Goku landed on her feet and grabbed him from behind in a waist lock before she tossed him overhead and out of the ring. She grinned and sauntered over to his dazed body, poking him a few times to wake him up.
"Hey," she said cheerily, "I think I wrestled your dad!"
OoOoOoO
Krillin got into his guard as the other fighter charged towards him. He was an obscenely large animal-man, seven feet tall and just as wide. A frothing, crazy-eyed hippo-man, barreling towards him with his freakishly large maw opened freakishly wide. When he got close to Krillin, however, he came to a screeching halt and counted the incense burns on Krillin's head. The hippo-man's face paled as he raised a trembling hand to point at Krillin.
"Y-y-y-you're…" Krillin smirked and got out of his guard to fold his arms over his chest.
"Yup," he said confidently. The hippo-man broke out into a sweat before he shrieked and ran out of the ring like the devil was behind him.
"It's the Bald Tiger! Run for your lives!" the hippo-man wailed in despair. Krillin chuckled to himself and hopped out of the ring, dusting his hands.
"Bald Tiger?" Yamcha asked incredulously. "What kinda training you been up to, Krillin?" The shorter man looked up at him with a serious face.
"You don't wanna know," he growled in an overly-dramatic, overly-growly voice. Yamcha laughed… before he realized Krillin was trying to be serious.
OoOoOoO
Yamcha hopped from foot to foot as he looked across the ring at Hercule. He was wondering when it'd be his turn to fight this clown. Though, from what Roshi and Launch had said, he'd been expecting someone a little more… animated. The guy looking at him was standing as still as a statue. Yamcha grinned, shuffling his feet and practically dancing across the ring.
"Come on, tough guy," he encouraged, "Let's see whatcha got! Gimme a speech! Gimme a goofy attack name! Gimme anything!" No dice. Yamcha shrugged and came to a stop. "Well, I gave you a chance! Wolf Fang–"
The next thing Yamcha, knew he was on his back.
"-ine! Ten!" the referee counted. "Hercule is the winner!" Yamcha staggered slowly up to his feet as Hercule walked emotionlessly out of the ring.
What?
WHAT?!