A/N: Hey, guys. Zelenal lives in Florida and he's right in the middle of Irma's path so keep him in your thoughts
Chapter Hundred-thirteen
The Tournament Arrives! Welcome Back, Son Goku!
The day of the Twenty-fifth Tenkaichi Budoukai had finally arrived and, while Gohan was at the Wolf and Ox household getting the finishing touches done to his costume change, as his helmet would be considered armor and therefore not allowed in the Budoukai, Suno was making sure Goten was ready before Bulma came to pick them up in her Capsule plane. Despite the fact that Suno herself would be competing in the adults' tournament, she was far more concerned with her daughter's preparation, as if she were seeing her off on her first day of school.
"Okay," Suno said as she sat beside Goten on the couch and brushed her hair, "Let's go over it again; We had a healthy breakfast–"
"Uh huh," Goten affirmed with a little bit of a nod, not wanting to interrupt her mother's brushings.
"You took a shower and got dressed in the gi I washed last night–"
"Uh huh," Goten said again, smiling happily and swinging her arms back and forth, enjoying the swishing sound her long sleeves made.
"Did you brush your teeth?"
"..." There was no 'uh huh.'
"Goteeen," Suno warned her daughter sternly.
"Why do I need to brush my teeth?" Goten protested. "It's not like they'll kick me out if I stink! That Battery-man never washed and he got to fight when mom was little!"
"Bacterion," Suno corrected, "Also died of a series of infections less than a week after the Budoukai because he'd never bathed. Now go brush your teeth, young lady!" Goten zipped off the couch and rushed to the bathroom in an orange-blue blur. She returned a few seconds later and showed her teeth to her mother in a wide smile as if presenting them for inspection. "Did you floss?" Suno asked pointedly. Goten huffed and crossed her arms when Suno used her undefeatable "Maternal Stare" technique, causing her defenses to crumble before she dashed off to the bathroom again. Suno smiled, proud of herself. Not even Goku had ever been able to stand against it. Just as Goten returned, they heard the loud sound of turbines winding down from what could only be the Capsule plane landing outside. Suno looked out of the window to see Bulma waving at them from the pilot's chair and couldn't help but roll her eyes. Of course, Bulma was flying the plane herself. Who else would she trust? She looked up slightly and, upon seeing Vegeta standing atop the plane with his arms folded and doing his level best to look stoic and badass, couldn't stop herself from letting out a snort of laughter.
"Mama!" Goten cried excitedly as she tugged eagerly on Suno's pant leg. "Mama, let's go, let's go!" Suno smiled and put a hand over her mouth and chuckled before getting down on a knee to look Goten in the eye.
"Not yet," Suno told her impatient daughter affectionately. "There's something I have to give you first."As she said this, she put her hands to the back of her neck and undid the clasp of her necklace and slowly took it off. "This necklace," she explained as she held it up to Goten, "Was a gift from your grandpa to your grandma for their wedding day." Goten didn't remember her grandmother very well as she had died when Goten was three, but she looked reverently up at the necklace all the same as the reflection from the light glinted off the topaz twinkling in her eyes. "Your grandpa said that it brought out the fire in your grandma's eyes whenever she was passionate about something and she gave it to me when I met your mom and we went off on our first adventure together. I've worn it in every important moment of my life; not just every battle, but at your mom and my's wedding, and when your brother was born, and when you were born." She put it slowly around Goten's neck and made sure the clasp was secure before stroking Goten's hair affectionately. "I want you to have it now," she cooed softly as she looked lovingly into her daughter's eyes. "Because I want your life to be full of adventures." Goten took the pendant in her small hands and held it up to look at with even more awe and wonder now that she knew how important it was before throwing herself at Suno and hugging her tightly. Suno hugged her back, holding her daughter close to her chest. The necklace might not have any special properties like the Power Pole that Goku had handed down to Gohan but it still meant a lot to Suno and she was glad to pass it down to her daughter.
Their heartfelt moment was interrupted by Bulma loudly blaring the Capsule plane's horn which nearly made mother and daughter jump out of their skin before they jumped to their feet and rushed out the door.
"Are you two coming or what?!" Bulma demanded in what could best be described as playful irritation while Suno made sure to lock the door. Goten rushed off to run toward the panel that opened in the back of the plane and, not having to worry about setting a bad example for her daughter, Suno pulled down one eyelid and stuck out her tongue at Bulma. Bulma returned the gesture before they both burst out laughing. Although they obviously hadn't had much time to spend together in the last year or so with Bulma becoming one of the most, if not the most powerful and important person on Earth, their friendship was still there.
As Suno climbed into the back of the Capsule Plane, she was delighted to see that Krillin, Lazuli, their daughter Marron, Lapis, his wife Amy, their five children Rhodey, Emmy, Greg, Andy, and Jamie, (Suno's heart went out to them, she couldn't even imagine raising five Gotens or Gohans at the same time), Trunks, Tenshinhan, Launch, their daughter Kani, Roshi, and even Piccolo were all already inside. It was a little cramped, but it was nice to be around friends. Although Piccolo seemed to be there under duress, that was probably just Piccolo being Piccolo. Suno gave an excited shout when she saw Lazuli and wove her way through the throng of children to pull Lazuli into a hug, which the latter eagerly returned while doing her level best to retain her "Cool mom" image. In the last seven years, what had initially been Suno coming by to check on Krillin and his new Turtle School had not only strengthened their own friendship but formed a friendship between herself and Lazuli. As Bulma grew busier and busier with her growing responsibilities and borderline-totalitarian reach, Lazuli quickly supplanted her as Suno's best friend, with Suno even serving as Lazuli's maid of honor at her and Krillin's wedding.
"So what've you been up to since I talked to you last week?" Suno asked curiously. "Any exciting new cases?" Lazuli just shook her head with a rueful smile.
"Uh uh," she said with a wag of her finger. "I leave work at work. Besides," she added in a conspiratorial whisper as she leaned closer to Suno, "Way too many munchkins around to be talking about murders and drug rings and all that crap." Suno nodded and cleared her throat awkwardly, sometimes forgetting just what unit Lazuli was involved in. It felt like just the other day she was a traffic cop. She had only been one for about a day, of course, as in that single day she canvassed the entirety of East City and had written over two thousand tickets. Speaking of the munchkins, Suno's eyes drifted down to the children, where Goten had already swiftly made friends with Lapis and Amy's adopted children, astounding them with her ability to fly and her feats of strength as she held them all over her head with one hand. "What about you, though?" Lazuli asked to get Suno's attention again. "Anything exciting in the world of academia?" Suno just rolled her eyes.
"Riveting," she replied sarcastically. "I've been thinking about taking some classes online to start teaching at a university. Honestly, the most excitement I had was when I threatened to suspend one of my students, Eddie, over a song that he and his friends had made about me."
"Wait," Lazuli interjected with a gasp. "You're not saying that 'Hot For Teacher' song that's all over the internet is about–"
"Yup," Suno admitted with a bit of embarrassment, which only worsened as Lazuli let out a scandalous laugh and gave her a playful shove.
"So what'd you do to discourage the scamps?" Lazuli asked. Then, with a mischievous eyebrow waggle, she added, "Did you discourage them?" Suno rolled her eyes and shoved Lazuli right back.
"I told Eddie and his friends that while I was flattered," Suno explained, "I demonstrated that it probably wasn't the best course of action for them to continue and that they should turn their talents and… attentions elsewhere."
"How'd you do that?" Lazuli asked with a grin.
"I mangled an appropriately-sized piece of steel rebar in my bare hands," Suno explained simply, reducing the both of them to titters of laughter.
"So, Lapis," Krillin said as he turned to his brother-in-law in an attempt to distance himself from the current conversation. "Who's keeping an eye on the herd?" He was referring to the rather absurdly-large pack of pets that Lapis and his family had accumulated.
"Don't worry about it, bro," Lapis assured him with a grin and a wave of his hand. "The big guy's got it covered."
OoOoOoO
Back at Lapis's home, Adrian was sitting up to his neck in a sea of old, disabled, or otherwise unwanted dogs and cats, affectionately and gently petting them all in turn with his massive hands. Bulma had managed to reconstruct him completely from the blueprints that had been salvaged from Gero's lab, although all of his weapons had been removed, as well as his murderous programming, and his body armor had been replaced with the same synthetic skin that covered his hands, neck, and face. More often than not, he liked to wear overalls and a green shirt. He helped range the park with Lapis and was always useful as an extra pair of hands to help with the children. The five, as well as Marron, loved their Uncle Adrian. It had taken about a year or two to finish the project with everything else Bulma had going on, and a few years more to get Adrian back up to speed, but now he was more or less back to normal.
OoOoOoO
"So how's Marron's training coming along?" Lapis asked in a half-joking tone. "She made a Kienzan yet?" Krillin just laughed and shook his head.
"Training?" Krillin repeated jokingly. "She's three! We don't trust her with safety scissors yet, never mind teaching her the Kienzan!" Lapis grinned.
"Then I guess it's up to cool uncle Lapis to teach my little niece how t'kick butt." He reached down and ruffled Marron's blonde locks. "Whaddaya say, kid? You wanna be a crane?"
"Yeah!" Marron exclaimed excitedly. "Kickin' butt!" Krillin put a hand to his heart, feigning a heart attack.
"I've never felt so betrayed," he bemoaned melodramatically. He and Lapis laughed as Suno looked around the plane.
"Is there even gonna be room for the others?" she asked half-seriously. "Chi-Chi and the twins take up quite a bit of space." She supposed it was a good thing that Gohan was flying on his own, or else they'd be packed in like sardines.
OoOoOoO
"This is never going to work," Gohan muttered as he sat in a chair in front of Yamcha's bedroom mirror, wearing his Great Saiyaman outfit while the older man worked thick globs of black gel into his hair with his gloved hands.
"Hey, you came to me, remember?" Yamcha asked as the gel completely smothered Gohan's fire engine red hair and, against all logic, actually made his spiked hair stay in place. "Besides, you trusted me with your new look for school, remember?" Which, truth be told, was more or less a copy of Yamcha's own old spiked hairdo.
"Yeah," Gohan protested, "But that's different! I thought you had more of a plan than… this!" he gestured to his hair in frustration.
"Hold still," Yamcha said sternly as he kept working the gel into Gohan's hair, smoothing it out to create an almost-spherical effect. "Look, it was either this or your mom's idea with the head wrap and the sunglasses.
"No way!" Gohan insisted while Yamcha put a finger into Gohan's bangs and pulled down a single spit-curl that hung in the middle of his forehead. "That would've looked so weird! It would have messed with the whole aesthetic."
"Then this is what you're getting," the bandit told him firmly. "Now pipe down and put on that mask." Reluctantly, Gohan picked up the green domino mask off of the table in front of him and pressed it to his face. He'd asked a few other heroes, as the Great Saiyaman of course, how they kept their masks fastened to their faces. They'd all said that they used something called "spirit gum," but Gohan still couldn't shake the feeling that the mask was going to fly off his face the second he got hit. He looked into the mirror and frowned.
"I'm doomed," he muttered forlornly.
OoOoOoO
Gohan flew off before the Capsule plane arrived to cram in its last few passengers. The Great Saiyaman arrived on Papaya Island as was greeted with calls and cheers from the people below, all arriving to either participate in or watch the tournament. The size of the stadium caught Gohan off-guard as he slowly descended to the ground, making sure to arrive a few minutes before the Capsule crowd just to err on the side of caution. The stadium was far larger than what the others had described it as from their times participating in it. He suspected the fact that Hercule was the returning champion and the world's greatest hero had something to do with the tournament's explosion in popularity and demand for increased coverage.
"Name?" the young turtle-girl asked at the sign-in desk, not looking up at Gohan as he got to the front of the line.
"The Great Saiyaman!" Gohan boomed in his stage voice, startling the girl so severely that her head shot down back into her shell. She peered slowly up over the rim of her shell with wide, awestruck eyes.
"R-r-really?!" she stammered out. Gohan flashed her a dazzling smile and gave an emphatic nod. Professionalism completely forgotten, the turtle-girl squealed excitedly and scrambled over the desk with her phone in hand. "C-can I take a picture with you, Mr. Saiyaman, sir?" she pleaded. Gohan laughed boisterously and smiled again.
"Certainly!" he declared. He struck a couple of poses for the girl before picking up a brick out of the path. "What's your name?" he asked.
"V-Venus," she gasped excitedly. Gohan smiled and carved something into the brick with a fingertip before handing it to her, which she read aloud. "T-to Venus, keep standing for justice, from your pal the Great Saiyaman!" She squealed excitedly and hugged the brick to her shell as if it were her own child.
"Good Grief!" someone a few spots behind Gohan shouted. "Can we keep this thing moving?!" Venus rushed back behind her desk in embarrassment and quickly wrote down 'The Great Saiyaman' before Gohan finally got out of the line.
"Name, please?" Venus asked the next person in line.
"Spopovich," the man growled before pushing past Gohan. The sight of the man gave him pause. He only saw the large, bald, singlet-wearing man's back but he was the most… unsettlingly-muscular man Gohan had ever seen. He had protruding veins covering nearly his entire body that were the size of small dogs! Before Gohan had gotten too much farther, however, he was struck in place by a boisterous laugh that was even more recognizable than the Great Saiyaman's own.
"Well if it isn't the flyboy!" Hercule Satan boomed as the crowd parted for him like a sea, his white cape billowing in a breeze that seemed to appear from nowhere as his throng of media followers tailed behind him. Videl, still in her tank top, purple shirt, and black shorts walked beside her father step for step. Hercule stepped right up to Gohan and seemed to glare at him intensely for a moment while cameras snapped like crazy. A brief moment of panic ran through Gohan as he wondered if somehow, someway, Hercule was going to recognize him and blurt out his identity to the world. But Gohan's fears were alleviated as Hercule grinned. "Gotta say, I like the new look!" he declared with another laugh. Gohan laughed in return with no small measure of relief as Hercule threw an arm around his neck and pulled him to his side. "Let's get a picture!" he declared in a tone that made the decision for Gohan. "The world's greatest heroes, huh?" Gohan grinned despite himself and the pair took several pictures for the press, posing ridiculously.
"Mr. Saiyaman," one of the reporters asked, "What do you plan to do with the prize money if you win?"
"Give it to charity, of course!" Gohan declared with plenty of bravado. "The Great Saiyaman doesn't fight for money!" Hercule laughed and slapped Gohan on the chest.
"I love this kid!" he exclaimed as they stood for a few more pictures. All the while, Videl watched from a few feet away with what could only be described as a shit-eating grin. She strolled casually up to Gohan after Hercule and his media circus departed.
"Well," she mused in a hushed voice. "It's nice to see that my dad likes both halves of my boyfriend's identity." Gohan's face reddened and Videl snickered, elbowing him playfully in the side. "So," she asked, "Seen anyone that looks like they want to start the end of the world?" As quickly as the blush had arrived, the color instantly drained from Gohan's face. In all the excitement and his Saiyaman-related buffoonery, he'd forgotten about the very real, overwhelming danger of Babidi's minions being among the entrants.
"Not yet," he admitted out of the corner of his mouth, "But I'm keeping my eyes open." Then, as if just remembering it, he added with another mutter. "Hey, you shouldn't be so close to me. Videl and the Great Saiyaman don't get along, remember?" Videl just smirked.
"Well I guess I just got to know him a little better," she teased. Gohan smiled and blushed again, making her chuckle. Soon after, Gohan noticed his mother and their friends that were entering among the throng of those at the registration desk and those who weren't entering just moving among the crowd and had to fight an inclination to wave.
"Hey," Krillin asked Suno as he stood in line behind her, "Where's Gohan? I thought you said he'd be coming ahead of us." Then he looked at the Great Saiyaman and frowned. "Didn't you say that Gohan was dating that Videl girl? Why's she being so chummy with Great Saiyaman?" Suno looked back at him and smiled until she realized that that Krillin was actually being serious and stopped dead in her tracks.
"Wait," she asked in disbelief. "Do you… honestly not know?"
"Know what?" Krillin asked somewhat irritably. Suno laughed so hard that her legs nearly went out from under her and she had to lean on a very-confused tortoise-man in front of her to keep from collapsing to the ground. The harder she laughed, the more consternated Krillin grew. "What?!" he demanded before looking at the Great Saiyaman again. Finally, it clicked. "OH MY GOD!" he cried, clapping both sides of his face in his hands. This only made Suno howl with laughter even more as tears ran down her face.
"Mr. Vegeta!" a reporter asked Vegeta as she ran up to him, a microphone up to his face. "What do you expect to do in the tournament?" Vegeta gave her a chuckle and a sly, sideways glance.
"What I always do," he said cockily. "Win."
"What will you do with the money if you win?"
"Keep it," Vegeta replied as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. "What else would I do?" The reporter moved a few places back in line to Piccolo.
"And you, sir," she asked, "Mr…"
"Majunior," Piccolo replied bluntly.
"Ma… Majunior," the reporter stammered, clearly knowing her history. "I… uh…" she cleared her throat and tried to recover. "How well do you expect to do in the tournament, as a former finalist?" Piccolo only gave her a chilling, almost wicked grin before looking forward again. The reporter broke out into a cold sweat before she and her cameraman quickly scampered off. Piccolo didn't have much time to savor his bit of fun, however. He was distracted by the purple, white-haired woman in front of him in line. There was something about her that made him incredibly uneasy.
OoOoOoO
Once everyone had gotten through the line and finished registering, they all congregated together with those who'd be spectating until it was time for them to take their seats. Gohan stayed a few feet apart from the rest of the gang to perpetuate some kind of an illusion while Videl wandered off to go find their school friends, bullshitting some story about how Gohan wasn't there because he'd come down with stomach flu and trying not to punch Erasa in the back of the head when she called the Great Saiyaman "a dreamboat". With everything else taken care of, there was just one attendee conspicuous by her absence: Son Goku.
"Of course she's going to keep us waiting," Bulma groaned with a weary smile. "Why not make it three in a row?!"
"I mean, technically," Krillin reminded her, "Last time we just didn't recognize her."
"It still counts!" Bulma insisted. Before Suno could offer her own input, she heard a vaguely familiar voice call her name.
"Suno!" a man shouted. Suno spun on her heels and was utterly stunned as he walked up to her. He had grown much taller and more muscular since she'd last seen him and his skin was now several shades darker. There was also no feather in his long black hair but his hide vest, fringed pants, and moccasins were all undeniable giveaways of…
"Upa!" she exclaimed in amazement before running to greet him with a hug. "Oh my Goodness, look at you! It's been forever, how have you been?" Upa flashed Suno a smile as he looked down at her.
"Well, you know," he said casually. "A few years after you and Goku left, I decided I'd try and climb the Sacred Korin Tower myself so that I would be strong enough to protect the village. I… uh… I didn't expect him to be a cat," he admitted, making Suno laugh. "It took me about a week to climb the tower and a month to claim the sacred water. Though I somehow suspect that by that point I was hardly breaking new ground." Suno gave an apologetic shrug. "A few years after that, I moved to Central City and–"
"Upa!" a voice called from the crowd. Now, as Mai and a lavender-haired woman- both of whom were noticeably older than Upa (although not in a bad way)- pushed their way through the crowd, each with a child of a slightly-lighter skin tone than Upa in tow, it was Yamcha, Puar, and Bulma's turns to gawk in slack-jawed amazement.
"There you are!" the lavender-haired woman said as she looped her free arm through one of Upa's. "Where did you wander off to?"
"I was just catching up with an old friend, Iris," Upa explained to her as Mai came to his other side and took his other arm. "Suno," he said while indicating with turns of his head, "This is Mai and this is Iris. These are our children," Upa gestured with his head first to the child next to Mai and the one next to Iris, "Shu and Mercury." Shu, the black-haired young man with short, feathered black hair looked to be about fifteen and Mercury was probably thirteen, his hair such a light shade of purple that it looked gray. Shu wore glasses, had a shy smile, and was wearing cargo shorts and a tank top. Mercury, by contrast, was smirking self-assuredly and wore a silver-and-black gi.
"O-oh," Suno stuttered as she looked back and forth between the three, "S-so you all…" Mai chuckled.
"He stumbled his way into a case at Iris and I's detective agency," she explained. "He nearly lost us the whole shebang but he proved himself useful in the end."
"He just kept hanging around," Iris added, "And after a while…" she shrugged and all three of them chuckled.
"We'll catch up later, Suno," Upa said as the women began pulling him along. "I've gotta go help them find a good seat so they can watch me win!"
"Man," Yamcha muttered as the group watched them all walk off, "Some guys have all the luck." Tenshinhan and Krillin nodded in agreement, earning all three of them rather severe clubbing blows to the back of the head despite their insistence that they were only kidding.
OoOoOoO
Another twenty minutes passed while the gang waited for Goku. With each passing second, Vegeta grew more and more irritable that Kakarot's face had not yet appeared for his fist. However, as the first moments of worry started to flutter in Suno's heart, she picked out a voice through the murmur of the crowd as clearly as if it had been right next to her.
"Hi, there!" she heard Goku say in an eager greeting. She turned around slowly and could see her wife with her back to them at the registration desk and her heart skipped about half a dozen beats.
"Name, please?" Venus asked.
"Son Goku!" Goku exclaimed. Venus looked up at her slowly, gawking at the halo floating over Goku's head.
"A-a-as in…" Goku just nodded and the poor turtle-girl swooned and fell backwards, fainting on the spot. Goku signed her own name on the sign-in sheet before she suddenly appeared in the middle of their little band and gave everyone a start.
"Hey, everyone!" she shouted happily with her arms outstretched. They all stared at Goku in astonishment and wonder. Despite having nearly a month to prepare for the idea, it was still almost unbelievable to see her back. Krillin was on the verge of tears. "Are you all just gonna stand there," Goku asked teasingly, "Or is somebody gonna give me a hug?" Krillin, Bulma, Yamcha, Launch, and Roshi flung themselves eagerly at Goku with enough force to knock a normal person to the ground. Goku, however, stood firmly in her spot as she put her arms around her friends, laughing and hugging them all close. Then she hugged Tenshinhan and when Piccolo tried to give her a polite nod, Goku wasn't having any of it and yanked the tall Namekian down into a hug. Despite his protests, Piccolo returned the embrace easily enough.
Before Goku could do anything else, Suno launched herself at Goku like a ballistic missile, knocking her wife off her feet and sending both of them to the ground in a sprawling tangle of limbs. Goku giggled happily as Suno covered her face in kisses before she silenced Goku's lips with her own. They held each other like that for several seconds, lost in recaptured bliss as if no time at all had passed.
"Soooo," Bulma interrupted. "Should the rest of us leave or are you two gonna forget about the tournament and get a hotel?" Everyone else laughed as Suno and Goku quickly got to their feet, Goku grinning like she always did while Suno's face was flushed with embarrassment. Then, Goku's eyes locked on Gohan.
"Hey, Gohan!" she greeted eagerly, noticing her son instantly despite seven years and his get-up. "Look at you!" she proclaimed proudly. "Look at how big you got! Suno, look at our son!" Then she paused, a worried expression crossing her face as she looked at Gohan's. "Are you okay?" No, Gohan thought, he wasn't okay. From the very second that his mom had arrived, Gohan had been struck with a cold bolt of guilt that ran through his entire body and made everything seize up. He thought he'd come to terms with everything that had happened. He thought that, after seven years, he'd finally made peace with himself. Yet seeing his mom now, exactly as she had been on that day…
Gohan threw himself at his mother, hunching over as he hugged her tightly and buried his face in her neck. "M-mom," he whispered in a hoarse voice, his throat tight with emotion. "Mom, I'm so sorry! I-I'm just…" his shoulders shook and he was on the verge of tears.
"Hey," Goku whispered softly as she hugged Gohan back and rubbed his back gently. "Hey, Hey. It's okay, Gohan. It's okay." Gohan looked up and took several deep breaths, blinking to keep from crying.
"Goku," Suno said suddenly. "I think there's someone you should meet." Goku and Gohan turned to Suno and Goku couldn't help but look a little confused as a tiny version of herself seemed to be peeking out from behind out from behind Suno's legs. "This is Goten," Suno explained, "Your daughter." Goku got down in a crouch so that she would be on Goten's level, smiling softly at her.
"Hi there," Goku greeted in a gentle, soothing voice to make herself more approachable in a sharp contrast to her earlier almost-deafening exuberance. "It's nice to meet you." In the style of her mother and brother, Goten charged toward Goku and jumped up to land in her arms, pressing herself to her mom's chest.
"Mommy!" Goten cried excitedly. Goku laughed and shot up to her feet again, swinging Goten from side to side in her arms and making her burst out into a fit of giggles. She put Goten up on her shoulder and met the rest of the children afterward, smiling and shaking all of their hands.
"Hi, Trunks!" she said to the Prince, who looked up at her suspiciously.
"How do you know my name?" he asked curiously. He didn't remember ever meeting Goten's other mom.
"Oh," Goku replied with a grin, "I met you–" Suno clapped a hand over Goku's mouth to interrupt her.
"When you were a baby," she said while giving Goku a very pointed look that, in no uncertain terms, explicitly said 'Do not tell Trunks about time travel.' Goku nodded with understanding and muttered something muffled and wordless in agreement to Trunks. Suno smiled and gave Goku a pat on the arm before Lazuli and Lapis walked up to her.
"Hi," Lazuli said as she put out her hand for Goku to shake. "I'm Lazuli, this is my brother Lapis. I just wanna say how awesome it is to meet you and how much of a hero and an inspiration you were to me as a girl." Lapis rolled his eyes as Goku shook their hands.
"And I'm Lapis," he greeted dryly. "We were the cyborgs genetically modified by Dr. Gero to kill you." Lazuli shot her brother a murderous glare despite the fact that Goku's smile never faltered.
"Neat!" she proclaimed before turning to Lazuli. "Don't worry," she assured the blonde, "Lots of my friends used to want to kill me." With that, she turned to Vegeta while still grinning from ear to ear. "Hey, Vegeta!" she said happily. "How ya been, buddy?" Vegeta's glower would have frozen the sun.
"I have not," he replied in a measured tone, "Nor shall I ever be, your..." he paused and screwed up his face, as if the word coming out of his mouth were about to be followed out by the contents of his stomach. "Buddy." Goku laughed and slapped him on the arm.
"Ah, sure ya are!" Goku assured him. Vegeta's glare somehow grew even colder.
"If you could die twice…" he began to threaten before Ken's crystal-clear, crackle-free voice boomed over the audio system.
"Llllllladies aaaaaaaand gentlemeeeeen!" his voice rang out, instantly hitting all of those who had participated in tournaments past with a wave of nostalgia. "The historic twenty-fifth Tenkaichi Budoukai is about to begin! Spectators, please make your way to your seats! All Junior Budoukai participants please proceed to the warm-up area! All Adult contestants, please make your way to the elimination machiiiine!"
"Bye, mommy!" Goten declared as she gave Goku a quick kiss on the cheek before hopping off of her shoulder. Then she gave Suno another cheek kiss before following one crowd of children with Trunks, Shouronpo, and Mercury.
"Good luck, Goten!" Goku called after her daughter with a wave. Then she turned to the others and asked, "The heck is a Junior Budoukai?"
"It was implemented last time around," Yamcha explained. "It's a separate tournament for everyone under the age of fifteen."
"What for?" Goku wondered. "Krillin and I entered our first tournament when we were twelve and thirteen!"
"Some kid entered a different tournament between the 23rd and 24th Budoukai," Yamcha informed her. "He got put up against some thirty-year-old and broke both his legs, so that was all the parent groups needed to demand a full-scale reform to the Budoukai. Apparently," he added teasingly, "You two set a bad example."
"Yeah," Krillin replied with a roll of his eyes. "Like we were the only ones to enter the tournament as kids."
"Hey," Yamcha reminded him, "I was sixteen when I entered the 21st. I was over the age limit."
"Come on, let's go!" Bulma told the other spectators. "I've got a box up at the top of the stadium," she said to the tournament entrants as her group moved away from the others. "You can come up there and watch the Junior Budoukai with us!" With that, they disappeared into the crowd while Goku and the others got in line and filed off toward the elimination area.
"Why'd you keep us waiting til the last minute?" Suno asked as she walked behind Goku. Goku grinned and looked over her shoulder.
"I didn't wanna waste any of my twenty-four hours standing around and waiting," she explained. "Plus, there's a lot of stuff you have to sign the day you come back to life, and I had to get my Death Pass made–"
"Death pass?" Krillin interrupted curiously from in front of Goku, turning around to look at her.
"It's like a passport," Goku explained, "But for dead people who get to keep their bodies. We're supposed to have it on us if we come back to the living world or any of the other realms." She fished it out of her back pocket and handed it to Krillin. It was a small leather booklet that, when he opened it, said "Son Goku" on the first page over a picture of her. For clarification's sake, the picture shifted between her regular appearance and her Super Saiyan appearance. It also listed her age at death, her race, her home planet, her birth planet, her Kaiou, her height, her weight, her hair and eye color, and the cause of her death. Krillin gave a macabre chuckle when he read that her cause of death was 'assisted suicide' and listed the assistant as 'Cell.'
"So how long have you been back among the living for?" Suno wondered, tapping her chin.
"I think about… ten minutes?" Goku guessed. Suno nodded thoughtfully, tapping her chin. So she would be around for twenty-three hours and fifty minutes. She doubted that the tournament would take the entirety of Goku's time so that hopefully left them with a few hours.
For Goku to bond with Goten and catch back up with Gohan, of course.
And for other things.
"Hey!" Goku exclaimed with a sudden realization, "Krillin, you grew out your hair!" Krillin chuckled and ran a hand through his thick, black hair.
"Nothing gets past you, huh?" he asked jokingly.
"I thought you said you can't be a real martial artist if you don't shave your head," Goku retorted playfully. Krillin shrugged.
"I was wrong about a lot of things," he admitted.
"And what's with your gi?" Goku asked as she gestured to his orange longcoat with the Turtle logo emblazoned on the back.
"Oh," Krillin explained coyly, "That's just part of the new Turtle School uniform," he explained. "Yeah, that's right," he added with a bit of a boast, "I'm the Turtle Hermit now."
"I think you did it backwards, though," Goku pointed out. Krillin blinked and looked at her curiously. "Master Roshi grew his hair on the bottom of his head, not the top!" Krillin rolled his eyes and they shared a laugh as the line kept moving. "Man, you sure have changed."
"You're not kidding," Krillin agreed as he held up a hand, showing off the golden band around his finger.
"You got married?!" Goku asked excitedly. She'd thought the little blonde girl with no nose looked familiar! Krillin nodded and Lazuli's hand shot up from in front of Krillin.
"Yo!" she declared with an almost territorial intent. Goku squealed happily and stepped out of line to yank Lazuli and Krillin into a hug, pulling both of them up off their feet. Vegeta rolled his eyes at the indignity of it all as Goku, Krillin, and Lazuli got back into line.
When they finally got to the Elimination Machine, Goku couldn't hide her confusion. It was a large, cylindrical machine on a stand with a black screen on top of it and a large burgundy mat at the end that looked like the bottom of a punching bag.
"The heck is that?" she asked aloud.
"I was about to ask the same thing," Suno muttered curiously as she rubbed at her chin.
"What," Lazuli wondered, "Am I the only one here who read the brochure? They replaced the preliminary rounds with this thing to limit the risk of injury. Hercule's gonna come in and set the number to beat. Anyone who doesn't get within five points of it gets eliminated. The fifteen highest scores make it to the finals."
"Aww man," Goku whined as she crossed her arms. "I liked the preliminary rounds…" She did like the idea of the finals being bigger, though.
"Goku," Lazuli pointed out as she gestured expansively to the seemingly-neverending line behind them, "Look how many people entered this tournament! It would take forever to get through the preliminary rounds, even with them expanding the finalists from eight to sixteen." Well, really it was only fifteen, as Hercule was exempt from having to qualify by virtue of being the returning champion.
'Okay, guys,' Gohan whispered telepathically. 'I think we should hold back on the machine, just not to raise any suspicion.' Everyone agreed except, notably, for Vegeta.
"Here he is, ladies and gentlemen!" Crowed Jimmy Firecracker as seemed to have appeared from nowhere. After the Cell Games, Jimmy had retired from the news and got a job as Hercule's new personal hype man. "The man of the hour! The savior of mankind! The world's greatest hero…" he gesticulated wildly before pointing at nothing, "HERCULE!" There was a puff of smoke and, when it cleared, Hercule was standing there. He'd snuck in through a trap-door while the smoke bomb had everyone's attention.
"All right!" Hercule declared as he flexed his bicep. "Remember, one of you will be facing me in the finals for the title of World's Champion!" Although when Hercule noticed that quite a few of the people who had been at the Cell Games were among the entrants, it was only his showmanship that kept him from breaking out in a cold sweat. "So I want you all to give it your best shot! Break through the impossible and push past all your limits!" He spun around to face the Elimination Machine and drew back a fist. He let out a war cry and punched the machine with gusto, the screen quickly flashing "147." He laughed and flashed a peace sign as he disappeared in another puff of smoke. Lazuli was the first one to step up to the machine and she cracked her knuckles as she eyed it coolly. Then, she gave it a quick little tap with her knuckles. The machine blared "774", leaving the judges and attendants gobsmacked.
"Oh for crying out loud," Gohan grumbled as he put his face in his hands.
"E-excuse me a second," one of the attendants muttered, "Th-the machine must have been improperly calibrated." Lazuli rolled her eyes as he fiddled around with the machine's inner workings for a minute before stepping away. "Try again." Lazuli tapped it even more gently than before. "203" the screen proclaimed.
"That means I qualify, right?" Lazuli asked with a smirk. The judges nodded dumbly and Lazuli strutted past them, tossing her hair back. Krillin looked at her absolutely adoringly and let out a sigh as he stepped up to the machine. His gaze never breaking from watching his wife walk, Krillin punched the machine absentmindedly and scored 192 before walking past her, not even waiting to hear whether or not he'd qualified. Goku stepped up after him and made a big, elaborate show of taking a deep breath, getting into her fighting stance, and drawing back a fist. Then she tapped the machine with the lightest little punch that wouldn't have even swatted a fly. It scored her 186 and, honestly, probably would have obliterated the fly on a subatomic level. Suno came up after Goku and scored 177, doing her level best to hold back as much as she could.
"There's no way this is right," one of the judges said to the other. "What the hell is wrong with this thing?!" None of them could comprehend, could even fathom the concept, that this gaggle of strangers had so completely blown the champion out of the water.
"Maybe we should get the new machine out," another judge suggested. "Though that'll take a little time." Vegeta had heard about as much of this as he could stand and stomped toward the machine.
"Out of my way!" he ordered them while already drawing back a fist. Gohan winced, already expecting the worst. There was a deafening boom as if they had all stood at ground zero of a megaton bomb, and when everyone looked up, Vegeta was standing there with smoke rolling off of his extended fist with no machine in sight. It seemed that Vegeta had simply punched it out of existence. "I win," he growled as he pushed his way past the judges.
"Well," one of the judges said, "We definitely need the new machine now." Gohan groaned and massaged his temples. It was going to be a long, looooong day.