The Final Champion! Who is this Stranger?!
"A-Anyway," Baba began as she adjusted her hat and tried to regain her composure, "You've done very well to get this far. Now, however, you must face my final champion!" There was a long pause as the group waited tensely and heard the padding of footsteps coming in through the darkness.
"Oh! Pardon me," came a surprisingly young and unthreatening voice. "Didn't see you there, Spike. Oh dear. You too, Bandages?" Then the voice made a "tut tut" sound before finally emerging from the shadows. It was a young man about Goku's height. He was wearing an orange gi with a black undershirt and pants and a green hat with a white ball on the top. Nothing else could be seen about him, however, as he was wearing a cat mask that covered his entire face. He turned his attention to Baba suddenly even as Goku got back into her guard. "Pardon me, lady Baba," he said politely. "Might we go back outside? Goku won't be able to use her full potential in this space."
"Uh… a-all right," Baba allowed with clear confusion. "Everybody back outside!" Everyone started to head back up the stairs with Yamcha being supported between Launch and Bulma.
"Wait a second!" Goku shouted as she pointed at the mysterious warrior. "How do you know my name?" He looked at Goku but said nothing. He only chuckled and walked away. Goku chewed her bottom lip before following after the others.
"Never seen someone so young talk like someone so old," Bulma remarked as they walked up the stairs. Suno gave a shrug.
"Maybe he's just really polite," she offered.
"What do you think, Goku?" Krillin asked while carrying the still-recovering Puar.
"He smells pretty nice," Goku said with a smile. All the while, Roshi stroked his beard and thought.
'There's something very strange about this,' he thought, 'And something very familiar about that young man. What are you up to, sister?' They reached the outside fighting ring again and Goku's group shuffled to the far side while Baba remained closer to the Devil's Toilet building.
"For this final battle," she explained, "The only way to win is to knock your opponent out or make them give up!" Goku nodded as she got into her guard. She was surprised to see that instead of getting into a guard of his own that the Masked Warrior was bowing to her.
"Aren't you going to do the pre-match bow?" he asked innocuously. Goku blinked for a moment before she nodded and bowed back to him. She hadn't bowed before a match since before she met Bulma! When she looked up, the Masked Warrior was in his guard and she got in hers, too.
"Begin!" Baba declared. The Masked Warrior motioned for Goku to come at him and she obliged, charging with her fist drawn back. Goku was shocked to find she was charging straight into the Masked Warrior's fist and brought herself to a stop just before impact to dodge his strike. She threw out a kick to the side of his head and was shocked yet again when he brought up one hand and caught her by the ankle. Goku wrenched her leg away and spun through the air, charging again as soon as her feet touched the ground. The Masked Fighter continued to surprise her by leaping high over Goku's head before he used a kiai wave to hurtle himself back down, elbow-first to drive it into Goku's face! Goku jumped back and the man backflipped in mid-attack to stop his momentum and landed on his feet to stand across from Goku. The two of them stared for a moment before they charged at each other and each threw out a ferocious jab, their fists colliding as they caught each other's attack. The two pushed against each other, Goku's brow furrowed in concentration while a single vein was visibly pulsing behind the cat mask. Finally, the two broke off and hopped away again. Goku couldn't help but smile. Tao Pai Pai had been a good fighter but was also a jerk. This fight was just fun!
"Wow," Yamcha muttered in astonishment as they all watched with stunned expressions on their faces. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like these two. Goku's gotten crazy strong but this new guy is still evenly matched!"
"That's nothing," Roshi observed. "That was just them feeling each other out. Now that they know what each other is capable of, this is going to get interesting!" Suno nodded as she watched intensely. Their energies were about the same but whereas Goku's was as wild as always, the Masked Warrior's energy was oddly serene.
The Masked Warrior charged at Goku and she ducked under a flying kick. She turned around and ran at him to attack him in kind but it was a feint with the Masked Warrior throwing himself onto his back and pushing his feet up against Goku's chest as she came over him. He sent her flying through the air with a kiai through his feet and then jumped up after her, hundreds of feet into the air. The others could only squint as they watched two black dots in the sky.
Goku surprised the Masked Warrior with a punch as he came up that caught him right on the mask. Goku was surprised that the mask didn't break even though the blow made his head snap back. She threw out another jab but this one was blocked and so was the next. He countered with a series of Crane strikes that Goku blocked in turn. The two traded punches and kicks in the air before the Masked Warrior surprised Goku by smacking his palms against Goku's ears to disorient her before he flipped forward and smashed the back of his heel into her head to send her hurtling down to the ground far below. He even heard the tiles smash as she went into the ground.
"That should rattle her," the Masked Warrior said to himself. Then his next words were "Oh heavens" as Goku came rocketing back up with a flying kick that smashed him in the chest and sent him flying towards the entrance building. Goku's gang screamed and ducked to cover their heads but he threw out his arms and legs to slow down his momentum and landed safely on the building. He pushed off and landed in front of Goku in the ring again and got into his guard. "I'm surprised you were able to get up so quickly after that attack," the Masked Warrior observed. Goku grinned and flicked a finger across her nose. The Masked Warrior chuffed at that and charged Goku again. Goku grinned and met the attack head-on and the pair of them collided in the center of the ring where the Masked Warrior fired off with a barrage of Crane Strikes again. Goku was able to block those as easily as she had been before. Was he already out of ideas? That would be–
Before Goku could finish that thought, however, she noticed that the Masked Warrior had stopped striking. She looked down and saw his fist hovering an inch from her chest. To the watchers, it looked as if Goku had no time to react at all when the punch hit her but in actuality she'd had enough time to seize her body up and take the blow full-force. Even without being able to see his face, Goku could read the Masked Warrior's body language to know he was shocked. Then she kneed him right under the chin. She'd seen an opening that screamed "attack" so she did!
"Was that your best shot?" Goku asked as the Masked Warrior picked himself back up. "You need to train more!" The Masked Warrior surprised her once more by chuckling.
"No, it wasn't," he admitted as he pivoted his body to the side, "But this is a pretty good one!" He began to move his arms in an intricate pattern… just like when Master Roshi– "Kaaaaaa Meeee–"
"What?!" Yamcha, Krillin, Launch, Puar, Bulma and Suno cried out in unison.
"Haaaaa meeeee,"
'Wait… no, there's no way it could be him!' thought Roshi.
"Haaaaaa!" The blue-white beam flew out of the Masked Warrior's hands with wisps of energy flowing off of it like waves crashing off the rocks. Goku stared at the beam in surprise as it came rushing out to meet her.
OoOoOoO
Pilaf cackled madly as he reduced a massive boulder to rubble with the awesome and unrelenting might of his Pilaf Machine. If only he'd invented it a year ago, he could have crushed Son Goku like a gnat! It had taken nearly all of his remaining fortune to build the three Pilaf machines as well as craft the box that perfectly masked his Dragon Ball's energy signature but it would all be worth it soon enough. Soon he would be Emperor of all the world!
"Your eminence," came Mai's voice crackling through his machine's internal speakers, "We have discovered the last known whereabouts of Son Goku." Pilaf smiled before Shu's ponderous voice cut in.
"Or, y'know," he said, "Close enough." Pilaf could hear struggling and fighting on the other end and rolled his eyes as he let out a groan. He pinched the bridge of his nose which meant that the motion-recognition software in the Pilaf Machine caused the robot to rub two fingers against the glass bubble of the cockpit.
"What do you mean," his aggravated tone brought a cease to their squabbling, "close enough?"
"Well, y'see–" Shu started to say when Pilaf audibly heard Mai shove him away from the microphone.
"Our satellite was tracking Goku and his friends through the desert," she said with clear reluctance, "When they suddenly… vanished, your grace. There's an area in the desert completely invisible to our instruments." Pilaf groaned and Mai rushed to reassure him. "But we still know their approximate location, I'm sure of it!"
"It will have to do," Pilaf sighed. In truth, he was lucky to still have that satellite. Thinking about that satellite, though, reminded Pilaf of a wonderful piece of information: Satellite footage they'd recovered shortly after that giant monkey destroyed his palace had shown them that the stupid monkey had a weakness in its tail that could immobilize it. Combined with security footage to show that the stupid monkey was the stupid girl and they now had a perfect, winning strategy. "Suit up and get in the car," Pilaf ordered. "It's time to end this once and for all!" The bottom of the Pilaf Machine hissed as it slowly dropped down like an elevator to let Pilaf out.
"What are you going to do when you're the God-Emperor, your majesty?" Shu asked. Pilaf blinked a few times and scratched his blue head. He…. he wasn't entirely sure.
OoOoOoO
Goku's afterimage dissolved as the Kamehameha went through it and the Masked Warrior spun around to see Goku standing behind him. She waved at him before dropping back into her guard.
"You've mastered the Afterimage Technique," the Masked Warrior said in disbelief. "That's incredible! I'm very proud of you, Goku." That sure was nice of him to say but how the heck did this guy know who she was? She'd have to ask him after she kicked his butt! "And you've lost your tail as well. That certainly changes things." How did he know she used to have a tail?! "Now that I've seen it in action, however, I can see how it restricts your movements. I'm afraid you still have much to learn." Goku bristled at that as he moved into his stance again. If she had a tail, it'd be puffing up like crazy.
"I'll show you what I have to learn!" Goku declared indignantly as she pivoted to her side. She watched the Masked Warrior come to a stop when he realized what she was doing and smiled to herself. So he didn't know she could do the Kamehameha! Now who still had much to learn? "Kamehameha!" He brought up his arms with an instant to spare and dug his feet into the ground as the beam pushed him back and sent his hat fluttering away to land perfectly on the peak of Baba's witch hat. When the light from Goku's beam faded away it revealed that the Masked Warrior had a head of thick brown hair that spilled down to the middle of his back which he'd somehow impossibly shoved into his tiny hat. He slowly brought his arms down and looked exhausted from the effort of blocking. Goku took this as her moment to strike and charged. "This is your last chance, give up n–" Goku's words died off in a wheeze as the Masked Warrior drove a Crane Strike into her stomach to take the wind out of her.
"As I said," he told her through labored breaths, "You have much to learn." Goku staggered back a single step before he unleashed a torrent of Crane Strikes on her face and chest while she fought to regain her breath. "You use up energy in wasted movements that leave you open! If I had to guess, you've used your physical powers to overwhelm opponents who lacked your strength and your technique to overwhelm those that cannot match your skill!" Goku took a wide and wild swing with her arm that the Masked Warrior ducked under before he continued his assault, "And you've counted on a combination of the two to make up the difference! But this will not always be the case."
"Who is this guy?" Krillin muttered in shock.
"There's only one person it can be," Roshi muttered to himself. He knew it the moment that the Masked Warrior had done his Kamehameha. It took a lifetime for Roshi to perfect the Kamehameha and, unless you were a prodigy like Goku, every Kamehameha had its intricacies or imperfections that was unique to the user.
Goku was finally able to stop the Masked Warrior by hooking her foot behind his ankle and tripping him up. She followed up with a headbutt that sent him tumbling back and jumped away to give herself some space. She touched down at the same time as the Masked Warrior got to his feet and they threw themselves at each other.
"Janken!" They cried in unison. Rock collided with Rock, Scissor interlocked with Scissor, and Paper slammed against Paper. As the two fighters pressed their palms together, Goku realized what the Masked Warrior had done.
"But," she started to say. "B-but," she repeated in a small voice as her arms trembled. She'd learned that technique from…
"I forfeit," the Masked Warrior said as he dropped his hand away from Goku's. "You may drop the illusion on my halo now, Baba." Baba gawked and stammered in complete disbelief.
"But… but you were… I… you…." she groaned and threw up her hands. "Fine!" she muttered as a cream-colored halo binked into existence over the young man's head. Before their eyes, he began to age and his clothes grew with him. First, he grew taller as he grew older and then he grew shorter as his hair vanished and a thick white mustache came into view behind his cat mask. His gi transformed into an orange martial arts jacket covered in yellow rings over a black long-sleeved shirt and black pants. Finally, he removed his mask to reveal a sweet, kind old face.
"My little Son Goku," Son Gohan said with all the love and pride in the world, "How much you've grown!" For a moment, Goku was too stunned to move. After all this time, all her searching… then she ran forward with her arms open wide, tears streaming down her face. Goku buried her face in Gohan's chest and sobbed helplessly as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close while he ruffled her hair like he always used to.
"Grandpa!" she sobbed out as she nuzzled his chest, "Grandpa! It's you!" The others stared in shock as Roshi pulled off his glasses to make sure his eyes were working.
"That's Goku's Grandpa?" Krillin asked, flabbergasted.
"But I thought Goku said he was dead!" Suno added in shock.
"That would explain the halo," Yamcha pointed out before he looked over at Bulma. "Are you alright?" he asked as he saw tears in the corners of Bulma's eyes.
"I–" Bulma's voice cracked and she coughed to clear her throat. "I'm fine." she insisted as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She'd justified it to herself all the while during their adventure and Goku seemed happy enough when it was all over but she'd still lied to Goku about using the Dragon Balls to bring Gohan back. Usually, she kept herself too busy to think about these things but, in her quiet moments, Bulma would feel waves of guilt over what she did and think that maybe Yamcha was right. Maybe she was an awful person. Seeing Goku so happy now, reunited with her Grandfather, however it happened, left her overcome with relief.
"I looked everywhere!" Goku was saying as she looked up at Gohan and sniffled, "I couldn't find you! I… I thought you were…" Goku sniffled again and threatened to start sobbing again as Gohan stroked her hair to soothe her.
"There, there. It's all right," he said in a calming tone. "I'm here, see?" he smiled again and patted her hair gently. "You've grown so strong, my Goku. You must have trained with Master Roshi." They heard the tapping of a cane mixed with the padding of sandaled feet as Roshi approached with the others trailing behind and Gohan turned away from Goku to bow to his old master. "It's good to see you again, Master Roshi!" he said cheerfully. Roshi dropped his cane to pull Gohan out of his bow and pull him suddenly into a hug.
"It's good to see you too, Gohan," he replied in a voice hoarse with emotion. "God, it's been too long. I didn't even recognize you! Not the mask, of course but, God, you haven't been that small in decades!" Gohan chuckled as Roshi let him out of the hug.
"Well, the nice thing about being dead is that I can sort of decide what age I am now," he said in an almost bashful tone. "I hope you'll forgive me for the secrecies, Master, but I figured Goku wouldn't fight at her full potential if she knew it was me." He leaned in to whisper to Roshi, "What happened to her tail?"
"I took care of it," Roshi assured him with a chuckle. Gohan nodded at that before continuing.
"Does she know that she used to…?" Roshi shook his head and Gohan nodded. "She must never find out. She's a smart girl, I don't want her to have that kind of guilt. Promise me you will never let her know."
"I promise," Roshi assured him. Goku tugged at Gohan's sleeve to get his attention again.
"I can't believe you're back!" she said joyfully as she wrapped her arms around Gohan again and picked him up off the ground. "You can come back and live with me again! We can visit Suno in Jingle Village and train with Master Roshi and you can come to the Tenkaichi Budoukai and–" Gohan put his hands on Goku's shoulders and something about it made Goku slowly put him down and look up at Gohan. Why was he so sad now?
"I'm sorry Goku," he said softly as he brushed a hand against her cheek, "But I'm only on Earth for this one day."
"I foresaw your coming," Baba explained. "Being a fortune teller and all. Gohan requested that this be the day he was brought back so that he could face you and see how far you've come."
"Goku," Suno spoke up suddenly, "We still have the Dragon Balls. Maybe… maybe you should use them to wish Gohan back instead." Which meant that her father wouldn't be brought back but it was alright. It was just another year. Right? Gohan shook his head with a smile.
"That's quite alright," Gohan said. "Strange as it might sound, I'm perfectly happy being dead. The afterlife has much to offer!" Gohan chuckled wryly and Roshi was suddenly feeling gypped with the whole "immortality" deal.
"Besides," Goku said, "I made a promise to you and Upa and everyone else who was hurt by the Red Ribbon Army." All the same, she turned to Gohan and hugged him tight again. He hugged her back before looking up at Goku's friends.
"Thank you all for being such good friends to my Goku," he told them before he looked back at Goku. "Goodbye, Goku. I won't be seeing you again for a long, long time." Then he faded away in her arms, leaving Goku holding nothing. Goku sniffled and Krillin put an arm around her.
"Are you alright?" Krillin asked. Goku rubbed her eyes but nodded.
"Speakin' of Dragon Balls," Baba muttered as she hopped off her crystal ball, "You beat my champions so I s'pose it's time you get your prize." She wiggled her fingers at the crystal ball and it began to glow. It flashed white suddenly and when the light faded it showed… a van.
"What the heck?!" Bulma blurted angrily as she stared at the ball. "Is this some kinda joke, lady?" She fumed at the van and pressed her face to the glass. She was so close that her breath was fogging up the ball.
"Could you show us who's driving the van, by any chance?" Yamcha asked with a sneaking suspicion as he slowly pulled Bulma away from the crystal ball. Baba shrugged and wiggled her fingers again; the ball shimmered and this time it showed who was in the driver's seat: Mai, Emperor Pilaf's minion. Pilaf himself was in the passenger seat with Shu sitting on the floor. Even though there were more seats. Yamcha groaned and rolled his eyes. "Of course it's them," he muttered.
"Who the heck are they?" Suno asked curiously as she stared at the strange characters.
"Is that the Pilaf guy you talked about, Goku?" Krillin asked. Goku nodded.
"Yeah, that's them," she said before turning to Baba. "Do you know where they are?"
"They're headed this way," Baba said without bothering to wiggle her fingers. The others looked at her curiously and she shrugged. "Fortune teller," she explained. Goku grinned and clapped her hands together.
"Okay," she said eagerly, "I'll go get the last Dragon Ball! Nimbus!" The yellow cloud zipped down from the sky and Goku climbed onto it.
"Bring me back whatever box they're carrying the Dragon Ball in!" Bulma called after her as Goku flew away. How the heck could that Pilaf creep hide the Dragon Ball from her Radar?
OoOoOoO
Goku flew out into the desert until she saw the van that Pilaf and his gang were driving in and rolled off of the cloud to drop right in front of the van. It crashed into her and flipped end over end before it landed on the other side of her. She turned around and watched them stagger out of the van and fought the urge to giggle. They were wearing funny, shiny, skintight suits with yellow spikes on their shoulders, ankles, and wrists.
"Hi there," she said with a wave. "Can you guys let me have your Dragon Ball?" They were probably going to fight but it couldn't hurt to ask, could it?
"You've got some nerve asking me for anything after you destroyed my castle!" Pilaf snapped at her while he shook a fist. What the heck was he talking about? Goku didn't do anything! Or maybe she did. It was kind of hard to remember how they got out of that room. "I'm not going to give you anything! We're going to thrash you to pieces and then we'll take your Dragon Balls!" Goku blinked at that.
"...How?" she asked. Pilaf turned purple with anger as the three of them threw capsules onto the ground. When the smoke cleared there were three robots in front of Goku where Pilaf and his friends had been. She could see them inside, though. There was a wide and tall pink robot with clamp hands, a skinny and tall green robot with a tail, and a teeny tiny blue ball robot.
"With the power of my new Pilaf Machines," Pilaf said through a speaker in the blue robot, "We will destroy you!" Goku watched the robots do some katas and grinned wide. They were just so bad! The girl and the dog looked a little better but Pilaf just looked like he was making things up! "We'll see how funny you think this is! Attack!" The three of them lunged at Goku and she hopped around their attacks, swinging from limb to limb and jumping on the robots. This was funny!
"Go for her tail," Shu shouted as Goku ran through his robot's legs. "It must be hidden in her pants!" Goku came to a stop and looked at them in confusion. Why did they want her tail? Didn't they remember?
"I lost my tail after you guys cut it off," Goku told them. They stopped and stared at her with big eyes. She grinned and shrugged. "It grew back but then I lost it again at the Tenkaichi Budoukai." The three robots huddled amongst each other and then suddenly the pink robot jumped up into the air with its legs going up into its body and landed on top of the green robot which became like new legs. Pilaf's blue robot jumped up on top of the pink robot and its limbs went inside to be like the head. Goku could see the three of them through the bubble of the pink robot and watched them move together to make the robot move.
"This is the Super Pilaf Machine!" Pilaf told her. "It's strong enough to destroy you! Especially when we use our super move!" The robot moved into a fighting stance and one of its clamps started to glow.
"These hands of ours are burning red!" all three of them called over the speaker. "Their loud roar tells us–"
"Kamehameha!" Goku shouted, thrusting out her hands and blasting the arm with the glowing clamp clean off. Maybe another time she'd have fun fighting them but right now she just wanted the Dragon Ball. She jumped in the air and smashed the top of the blue robot with a knife-edge chop straight down. A tiny crack appeared before it split clean down the middle and collapsed into a pile of scrap. "Can I have that Dragon Ball now?" she asked. Pilaf groaned and handed her the Dragon Ball. "Thanks!" she told him genuinely before hopping on Nimbus. "See you guys around!"
Pilaf laid among the wreckage for a long while and was too distraught even to cry. It wasn't fair. Two years ago, he didn't even know Son Goku existed! He was just going to take over the world! It was going to be so easy. He had a vast wealth and he'd already had a few Dragon Balls! Then Son Goku appeared and ruined it all. He had no Dragon Balls, no palace, no money. She'd taken everything from him! He… he had to do something. Something desperate. He'd heard the legends. There was only one thing he could do.