Chapter 10
Vegeta remained in the center of the ring, his arms folded as he awaited his first opponent of the night. He looked over at the empty seats surrounding the ring.
"This is such an absurd situation. This spoiled fool builds this enormous stadium and holds fights with no spectators..." He thought, his frustration growing.
He looked over and made the mistake of seeing Bulma sitting on her mattress and pillows in her new outfit which was simultaneously skimpy and lavish. She looked more bored than distraught at the moment. Vegeta groaned in anger. He had been conditioned to bury his emotions in battle, so he tried to avoid looking at her, he knew she was placed there only there to distract him. And probably to humiliate her. Vegeta despised seeing his Bulma, his brilliant and classy wife stripped down and exposed for all to see, reduced to being scantily clad trophy on display. She didn't deserve to be treated like this. He maintained a stoic demeanor but internally all he could think about was how desperately he wanted to free Bulma and find Trunks wherever he was. One thing was certain, once he successfully finished the gauntlet Snow was going to be punished. Severely.
"Our next opponent will be a much more seasoned fighter, Juice is... I mean, WAS new, my mistake, and he lost due to inexperience." Snow proclaimed, still bitter that Juice lost in such an embarrassing fashion. "The next fighter has years and years of fighting experience, as a matter of fact he was the first fighter I signed to my Elite league...ugh, hold on. I need to wake him up..."
As Snow quickly got up to head to the locker room, Chi-Chi began to walk out of the entrance, preceding the next fighter. She held up a large sign reading "Fight 2". Goku's heart raced as she turned the corner of the ring and made her way towards him.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I woke him up. He's on his way!" Snow announced, his voice cracking with excitement. Goku looked up and saw Bulma serving Snow wine again as he sat down. The two appeared to be having a contentious conversation. Bulma looked less than thrilled but she would inadvertently be giving Goku and opportunity to check in on Chi-Chi.
"Chi-Chi!" Goku said under his breath, hoping Snow would not notice. "Are you ok?"
She began to slow down so she could communicate with her husband. "Yes, I'm ok and so is Bulma. That FREAK Snow hasn't laid a hand on either of us, at least not yet. I'm just trying to stay quiet for now and bide my time... I am praying this nightmare will just be over soon, I just want this to end..."
"It WILL be over soon. We're going to get both of you out of there, I promise."
Goku looked into Chi-Chi's longing dark eyes, finally making direct eye contact after so long. He was taken aback how all out Snow went with her appearance, her thick black eyeliner stood as did her lips which were cherry red.
"Please Goku..." Chi-Chi whispered sharply. "I know you can do it; I believe in you. But Snow is really creeping us out... I'm worried about Bulma. She's been defiant and talking back the whole time we've been captured. I think Snow is going to try really hard to hurt Vegeta to punish her and break her spirit..."
"Don't worry, he can handle himself and so can I." Goku assured her. "We're going to win, free you then we'll find the boys." His confident smile automatically gave Chi-Chi a strong sense of hope, a feeling she had been missing ever since her ordeal with Snow began. Goku had a special talent for making her feel protected.
"I gotta get back up there before he starts to suspect anything." Chi-Chi said, as she put her sign down. "I love you..." She quickly wrapped her hand tightly around Goku's index finger before heading back to the skybox.
"I love you too..." Goku murmured, hoping she could hear him. He looked up to see Snow with Bulma waiting for her.
Shortly after Snow's announcement, a lime green colored humanoid made his way out. The fighter had long dark hair and wore a leather jacket with matching leather pants. Snow was not wrong in describing this fighter as experienced, he certainly looked older than the last competitor, more weathered from numerous battles. Peculiarly, the fighter started to gesture to the empty seats as if he was playing to a nonexistent crowd causing Vegeta to recoil with disgust at the bizarre behavior.
"Waking up from his nap, the original Elite fighter of the Ampheta Organization's Elite Tournament, I give to you, the Tree of Fighting Knowledge, Jerik!"
Jerik once again raised his arms, waving at the empty seats surrounding the arena with a smile on his face, seemingly taking in imaginary ovation. The fight was soon to begin as the red barrier went up around Goku at the waiting platform.
"Do you not realize there's no one here? You moron." Vegeta finally broke and had to call out this fighting veteran's unusual behavior.
"Sounds like you're jealous of my millions of fans, all here tonight." Jerik responded. "I think you ought to be humbled, kiddo."
"Hmph..." Vegeta scoffed as he unfolded his arms. "Much like your boss, it appears your delusion runs deep."
"Bear witness!" Jerik suddenly shouted as he changed his stance. "To my superior speed and, my strongest strike; the deadly Electric Elbow!"
The weathered warrior launched off from his position as he rotated in the air, raising his elbow out for a strike against the Saiyan prince. To his shock, Vegeta quickly blocked the strike and gripped his elbow with his gloved hand.
"Hmmm... " Vegeta tightened his grip as Jerik dropped to his knees and cried out as Vegeta gripped onto his elbow tighter. "You're not off to a good start if that's your strongest strike. If you call that electric, then I'll call you the dead beat that doesn't pay the electricity bill!"
With that Vegeta launched Jerik into the stone pillar. The veteran fighter wince as he collided with the pillar, surprisingly leaving little damage despite the velocity. Vegeta pounced towards the pillar and delivered a knee strike to Jerik's mid-section. Before he had a chance to process the hit, Vegeta grabbed a handful of his long brown hair and drove him face first into the ring, leaving cracks in the stone formation.
A black and white droid moved closer to the fighters. It was the automated referee, and it soon began the ten count as Jerik lay motionless in the ring. The veteran fighter began to show signs of life once the count reached six and slowly stood up to Vegeta's surprise as he looked over.
"You want more punishment?" he asked as he turned around to face Jerik again, walking towards him. "I'll gladly oblige."
Goten and Trunks walked down the dimly lit corridor closer to the cell where the mysterious voice was coming from. They could make out the faint shape of a man inside the cell back in the darkness. A red glowing light seemed to divide the outside of the cell where Trunks and Goten were standing and the inside where the prisoner was.
"What do you mean stored anyway?" Trunks asked.
"You guys really don't know what you walked into, do you?" The voice answered with a question of his own. "Everyone here is stored for their energy or so they can be forced to fight the stars of this company."
Trunks shrugged. "That sounds lame."
"And that's not gonna happen to us." Goten chimed in. "We're gonna escape."
A man emerged from the shadows, he looked closer to a human that anyone else Goten and Trunks had encountered in this strange place. The man wore red and blue shorts and a black tank top. But his fighting getup did not hide the many tattoos that covered his entire body. He had a look to him of restlessness, like he had struggled to sleep for years. His black hair looked disheveled, and his beard had specks of grey.
"Hmmm, I doubt two kids could possibly escape a place a like this..." he said. "Then again, you're both wandering freely so maybe you can. How did you get out of your cells?"
"We never got put in cells." Goten answered quickly.
"One moment we were at the mall with our parents then the next we fell asleep and woke up on hospital beds. Oh, and then we found our way out here." Trunks explained. "We were looking around then we found you."
"So, he sedated you instead of harvesting your energy. That's... odd." the man thought out loud. "I don't know what Snow could possibly want with two kids to sedate them for gene harvesting. What's so special about you?"
"Harvesting genes? Who are you anyway?" Goten asked. "And why are you the only one here? And who's Snow?"
"Heh, one question at a time, kiddo. You can call me Saoda. I WAS a fighter for the Ampheta Organization until I... acted up. You could say I'm a bad influence. And Mr. Snow is the guy who owns this place, Ampheta Organization is his company."
"What did you do to get locked up?" Trunks asked this time.
Saoda turned around. "Because I told the truth about this place. I fought across this galaxy in many tournaments, big and small. I consider myself to be the best in the universe, but I always am in search of new competition. I was invited to join the Ampheta Organization's Tournament of Elites years ago. I thought this was a legitimate tournament because of the old owner, Mr. Snow's father, who was a renowned promoter of fighting tournaments. I thought I was fighting for him... not the current owner."
"This place is anything but legit." Saoda continued, sounding more bitter. "In reality, it's all a scam. It's just Snow Junior's toybox and that spoiled man child collects fighters all over the universe like they're living toys. He keeps the fighters he likes, feeds weaker fighters to them in fights then he turns the defeated fighters into raw energy. And I have no idea what he does with that energy."
"Why would he do that?" Goten asked.
"Snow's always been a fan of fighting. He loves to watch fights, and he wanted to be a fighter himself. The only issue is that he's too weak and too lazy to put the training in. Not to mention, he's too entitled, and he can't handle not getting his way. His father Snow Sr. was the only thing standing in Snow Junior's way of getting whatever he wanted. So, one day after one of Junior's usual temper tantrums, he finally got rid of his father by making him the first victim of his new creation, the Void Vacuum, which harvests the energy of any being with high power levels by dissolving them and storing them in the machine."
Saoda looked off, deep in thought reflecting on his tenure for Ampheta. "He may be a petulant, spoiled man child, but he is a crafty one, that Junior. I'll give him that. He knew that no one would find his father's remains if they were disposed of this way. Now Snow Junior inherited his family fortune and goes around the universe, getting as many unwitting fighters as he can find so he can condense them into pure energy. I am not quite sure what he wants to do with that energy. Maybe he wants to use the energy to make the fighters he likes more powerful and give them an unfair, not to mention undeserved, advantage in combat. All I know is he has hundreds of thousands of fighters across the universe reduced into pure energy over the years and they're all stored here, somehow safe from being drained from all the black holes."
"Black holes?" Goten repeated.
"I guess you guys haven't had any astronomy classes yet, huh?" Saoda shook his head. "All you need to know is that they're these cosmic objects that pull everything close to them in and I mean everything. Snow may be a lunatic, but I'll admit he's also very intelligent. His family and him have made a LOT of cash once they learned how to manipulate black holes making portals to go from one place to another. He managed to somehow keep this place from getting sucked into the black holes."
Both boys processed all this new information until Trunks piped up. "That doesn't answer why you're the only one here."
"Be patient, I'm getting to that part." Saoda snapped. "Damned kids and their attention spans... There is only truth and lies. I am a man who only tells the truth. Sometimes that's helped me and other times it's gotten me into trouble. I guess this time my honesty really backfired, especially when some people don't wanna hear the truth. After a few fights here I stumbled upon the truth of this place really is, what's happening to the fighters. I confronted Mr. Snow and told him he's a fool. I was ready to quit and never come back to this hell...But there was one problem with that, I happened to be Snow's favorite fighter before making the mistake of signing here. He was a fan of my work and had been dying to have me under contract for years."
Saoda looked down at the ground, sneering. "He wasn't going to let a toy walk out on him, especially his favorite toy, so once one of his fighters tipped him off of my plan to leave, he imprisoned me and told the roster that I tried to attack him. He told them I made him fear for his life even though I didn't lay a hand on him! I only told him I didn't want to work for him anymore. But I was the first to rebel against him and an example had to be made. He's such a coward..."
"So, you're the only one here... so that way you can't escape or fight somewhere else?" Goten asked.
"Correct. Being Snow's favorite has its perks, I guess. I'll take dying of boredom over being dissolved. Although sitting in the darkness got pretty old about the 3rd month or so in..." Saoda muttered. "I don't even know how much time has passed. Now my turn for questions, who are you guys? And just why would Snow want to capture two kids? You both can't be that strong. And kids don't make for good fighters."
"My name's Trunks. And well, actually we are pretty strong." Trunks bragged.
"And we can fight too!" Goten chimed in. "Oh, and I'm Goten!"
Saoda looked skeptical. "Show me just how strong you are. Tell you what, break me out of here and I'll help you guys escape. I know the layout of this place. See that console behind you?"
Both Goten and Trunks looked at a computer behind them.
"That controls the barrier of this cell. If you can destroy it, this red glow disappears, and I can get out. But it's reinforced to the ground with a strong metal alloy. I doubt any of Snow's strongest fighters could destroy it let alone two kids but you're both welcome to try. Go on, prove me wrong."
"Uh...sure. This shouldn't be too hard. I got this!" Goten said as he backed up a few steps. The young boy ran at the console at full speed, leaping up and delivering a kick, easily pulverizing the computer and sending pieces flying down the corridor. The red light of the cell flickered and disappeared quickly. Saoda stood in his cell despite his freedom, dumbfounded at how easily Goten obliterated his imprisonment.
He finally exited his cell, still bewildered. "You obviously are no ordinary child with that ability. I guess I owe you one."
There was a tense silence as the Capsule Corp ship continued its' journey to the Nil Cluster of Black Holes. There were three hours left on the journey; they were halfway to their destination.
With an ordinary ship, the Nil cluster would take weeks to get to. Luckily for Gohan, Videl and Krillin, Dr. Briefs had developed a new thruster to make the trip quicker thanks to his new 'hyper blast' engine he had been tinkering around with. Thanks to his new creation, a multi week trip to the far edge of the galaxy was reduced to six hours.
Gohan was standing by the window looking over at Krillin who was slumped down in the pilot seat, looking to get a quick nap in on the long trip. Videl on the other hand had been awake during the entire trip, practicing her strikes on the opposite end of the ship. Gohan did not expect her to want to be involved so badly and fight whoever abducted her in laws. The young scholar still felt uneasy. He was not sure what foes awaited them. Could Videl and Krillin hold their own? Could HE hold his own?
And how was his father faring against the same enemies he would soon be facing? Not being able to sense Goku or Vegeta for that matter did not ease Gohan's anxiety.
He breathed deeply, there was no use in worrying and making his agitation worse. He had to have faith in his wife and friend. He had to believe in himself as well. His entire family depended on him.