The Frozen Turtle VS The Mountain! The Power of Babidi!
Lazuli eyed Yamu curiously as they circled each other in the ring, her guard up cautiously as she waited for the bald man to make his move. He didn't seem that impressive, although it was more than a little weird that Lazuli couldn't sense any ki coming from him whatsoever. Was he another kind of cyborg? She supposed it didn't really matter all that much.
The tail of Lazuli's orange longcoat dragged slightly along the ground before she launched herself at Yamu like an arrow being fired from a bow. She flew at him with one foot pointed toward his chin when, to her surprise, Yamu grabbed her by the ankle and spun her around and around before tossing her up into the air. She caught herself and floated over his head before, surprising her yet again, Yamu actually flew up to meet her!
"Huh," Bulma muttered casually as she watched the battle begin to unfold. "I didn't know anyone outside of you guys could fly." The group in the luxury box watched on their wide screens as Yamu and Lazuli exchanged punches and kicks in the air, each one blocking and deflecting a strike before it could find its home.
"Me either," Yamcha added as he rubbed his chin curiously. Something about this Yamu guy was really creeping him out. Not just, well, his appearance, but the fact that Yamcha couldn't sense anything coming from him. It wasn't as if he were hiding his ki because, even then, Yamcha would be able to sense something. There was just a nothingness floating there, trading strikes with Lazuli. It was eery.
"Come on, mama!" Marron cheered as she shook her tiny fists in the air. "You can do it!" There was a touch of worry in her voice despite her eagerness. She'd never seen mama fight anyone but daddy before and even that was just practice-fighting.
"Don't you worry your little head," Lapis assured his niece as he bounced her on his knee. "Your mom can take on anybody."
Lazuli glared at Yamu as she tried to punch her way through his defenses, looking at him with an intense and focused gaze. What the heck was he? He was completely unreadable as she tried to figure out his style. He didn't even seem that committed to the fight. Was he even trying?!
'Bro,' Yamu thought absentmindedly as he evaded a series of jabs from Lazuli by bobbing his head to the left and the right. 'What does the machine say about her power?'
'Nothing,' Spopovich responded brusquely, which surprised Yamu enough that it left him open to a punch to the gut from Lazuli.
'Are you sure?' Yamu asked, the blow barely registering before he countered with a gut punch of his own that drove the wind out of Lazuli.
'That's what it says,' Spopovich growled impatiently. 'Hurry up! Too many people. I need to get to the Grand Final and kill Hercule!' Rather than waste the mental energy to remind his kid brother of their actual mission, Yamu decided that if this woman didn't have any power that the machine could detect then there was no reason to keep testing her. Taking a dive now certainly wouldn't help his master's plans any but he only cared about those plans inasmuch as he cared about living so who was he to complain for an easy out? He simply dropped his hands on Lazuli's counterattack of a roundhouse kick and let it catch him on the jaw, dropping him out of the sky like a bird that had been shot with a rifle to land hard in the grass.
"Ring out!" Ken announced. "Lazuli wins! She will go on to face Krillin in the quarterfinals!" Lazuli was more than a little confused as to what the hell just happened before she smirked and turned toward the fighter's area to blow Krillin a kiss. Despite his great fall, Yamu got back to his feet and dusted himself off as if nothing had happened.
OoOoOoO
Videl bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited in her guard. It was mostly the same stance as she always used though there were a few subtle changes from her time spent tutoring under Suno and the Odori style. As Upa tossed off his vest and got into his own fighting stance, his exposed chest muscles bulged and the sunlight caught their definition to the whistles and cheers of a decent portion of the crowd. Iris and Mai, unsurprisingly, were the most enthusiastic in their cheers for Upa, causing Shu to roll his eyes and for Mercury to groan and hide his face in his hands in embarrassment. Videl supposed that, objectively, Upa was attractive, but he had nothing on Gohan. Plus, he was way too old for.
Upa sprinted toward Videl like a hunter on the trail of his pray and struck with an overhand chop that Videl hopped to one side to avoid and retaliated against with a kick to Upa's thigh that caused him to cry out in pain, his leg spasming as Videl kicked him again and again in the leg, driving him back toward one corner of the ring. Videl did a few backwards handsprings to put some space between herself and Upa before she came in for the strike that would send him flying out of the ring.
'Okay,' Upa thought to himself as Videl came charging at him, 'I can't lose this easily.' He stretched his arm back and felt his Life Energy flowing through him, gathering it into his hand. He clenched his fist as Videl got closer and closer and a white, glowing tomahawk formed in his fist which he threw at Videl with all his might. It sailed through the air, spinning violently, going right for Videl. She spun to avoid it and gawked as it sliced off three strands of her hair.
"Hey!" she exclaimed angrily as she hung in the air. "Watch it with those things! My hair's short enough as it is!" Upa could only gawk at Videl as he watched her fly above him before rolling his eyes. Of course, nothing about this tournament could be easy. He gathered life energy in both fists and hurled tomahawk after tomahawk at Videl as he sprinted across the ring, following Videl as she flew to avoid them to try and force her out of the air. Eventually, Videl did come down to Upa's level and, to his surprise, came barreling straight toward him with one leg drawn back for a spinning kick. Upa let out a roar and flung one more tomahawk as hard as he could. It went straight at Videl… and straight through her as she dissolved into an afterimage.
"Ohhh crap," Upa muttered as he realized what had just happened. He didn't even have enough time to try and guess where Videl had gone before she was all too happy to inform him with a rather emphatic kick to the back, sending him sailing out of the ring before he crashed down into the grass.
"Ring out!" Ken declared as Videl dusted off her hands with a smirk. "Videl is the winner!"
OoOoOoO
"Justice Punch!" Mighty Mask cried as he leaped into the air and brought a looping overhand right down on Goku, who casually deflected it with the flat of her hand. Mighty Mask skidded away from the force of the shove but, undeterred, came running back at her and flew at her like a spiral with one foot stuck out. "Justice Kick!" Goku sidestepped Mighty Mask and grabbed him by the cape as he flew past, swinging him around and around before flinging him out of the ring to go crashing into the barrier that separated the ring from the first row of spectators.
"Ring out!" Ken declared as Mighty Mask kicked his feet from the hole he'd created in the barricade or, more accurately, that Goku had created with his body. "Goku is the winner! She will go on to face Videl in the quarterfinals!"
"Hey!" Goku called to Mighty Mask over the crowd's cheers. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," the masked hero assured her groggily, his feet still kicking, "I'm okay!" There was a bit of a pause. "Can someone get me out, please?"
OoOoOoO
Piccolo looked long and hard at Xī who smirked at him from across the ring. The Namekian carefully weighed his options and considered the best and most reasonable strategy with which to tackle this particular fight.
"Screw this," Piccolo announced as he literally threw up his hands. "I forfeit." He spun around on his brown, shoe-like feet and walked right out of the ring, much to the consternation of the paying audience. Not that Piccolo really cared that much what they thought. He wasn't going to blaspheme by punching the God of Gods in the face for their amusement.
"F-forfeit?" Ken announced in bewilderment. "Xī… wins?"
"Hey, Gohan," Suno asked her son curiously, "Who is that purple lady anyway? I can't really get a read on her ki and Piccolo's never been the kind of guy to just back down from a fight." Gohan started to say something before they were interrupted by the intercom.
"Spopovich and Son Suno, please come to the ring! Spopovich and Suno," it repeated, "Please come to the ring." Suno grinned and shrugged a little, giving Gohan and Goku a wave as she started walking.
"You can tell me after I take out this clown," Suno told him over her shoulder, "Since I'll be fighting her in the next round!" Gohan swallowed nervously as he watched his mother walk out to the ring, Spopovich lumbering behind her like a mountain that walked. She'd probably be able to handle him, Gohan assured himself. He couldn't really detect any ki from Spopovich or Yamu but, going by what he'd seen from Yamu, they'd probably be about on par with Lazuli. His mother could handle that.
OoOoOoO
Suno smirked up at Spopovich as the monster-man snarled down at her through his enormous, horse-like teeth. He was frothing at the mouth, wide-eyed and with his veins twitching under his skin like writhing snakes. Suno'd always had a bit of a sneaking suspicion that the Budoukai didn't do any sort of drug testing whatsoever. As she looked up at an opponent who seemed to be on all of them, that only confirmed her suspicion.
'Man,' Hercule thought to himself as he watched from the fighters' area, 'What happened to Spopovich?' The man had always been huge but this was just… freakish. To say nothing of the fact that he'd shaved his head and facial hair and apparently gotten a tattoo. Was the guy having a midlife crisis? He didn't think he was old enough.
"Fighters ready?" Ken asked as Suno got into her stance and Spopovich just… stood there. "Begin!" Suno threw a solid punch to Spopovich's stomach at about the same force with which she'd hit the Elimination Machine. Spopovich just absorbed the blow without even blinking.
"Okay," Suno muttered, "That's not what I expected." She hopped away quickly from Spopovich, who still hadn't made a move to attack her yet. Upon realizing that her larger opponent wasn't going to make a move, she charged back in again and jumped at Spopovich with a flying knee. Now, however, Spopovich retaliated, swatting Suno out of the air with one of his enormous hands with an open-handed slap that caught her in the left shoulder. The slap sent Suno spinning through the air before she caught herself and watched as Spopovich turned slowly to face her. He growled wordlessly at her and launched himself at her like a wild animal bursting from the underbrush to pounce on its prey. Suno managed to evade his lunge and snapped off a few quick kicks to his boulder-sized shoulder which only caused Spopovich to grit his teeth angrily before throwing out his own kick and catching her in the stomach. The blow once again sent Suno flying before she caught herself. Despite this, Suno didn't seem that bothered by the monolithic malcontent. Big and strong, yeah, but not that much in the brains department. Nothing she hadn't seen before.
"A careful feeling out process by both competitors," Ken narrated as Suno started moving toward Spopovich again. "One has to wonder what techniques they'll display once the match begins in earnest!" Like Hercule, Ken was more than a little disturbed by the metamorphosis that Spopovich had undergone. He definitely needed to push for testing to be incorporated at the discussion for the Twenty-sixth Budoukai.
"Shinsoku Odori!" Suno cried as she dashed toward Spopovich suddenly, causing a mix of surprise to worm its way under his perpetual expression of fury as she closed the distance between them swiftly and slipped under his guard, catching him hard across the jaw with a jumping kick, pushing off of his face and backflipping through the air before diving back at the big man to drive her feet into his stomach with a sledgehammer force. She bounced off of him like a tennis ball but it did make Spopovich stagger back a step. Suno decided to press her advantage and dropped down to sweep Spopovich's legs out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground like a felled redwood tree. She leaped into the air and came down toward him with a flipping kick that would bring her heel crashing down to cleave the tree in twain before Spopovich struck again with his alarming speed, smacking her leg away and causing Suno to pinwheel through the air before he kipped back up to his feet and drove his shoulder into Suno to send her flying. She managed to catch herself in the air and turned around to dash back toward Spopovich as he charged forward to meet her like a thundering rhino barreling forward only for Suno to leap over him in his charge and drive the point of her toe between his shoulder blades, causing him to arch his back, before kicking him in the back of the knee. Spopovich spun around in a fury and smashed Suno across the face with a backfist, knocking her to the ground.
"Mother!" Gohan cried out despite himself, secret identity be damned. He knew his mother was tough but, still, that hit looked like it could have really hurt. Goku, for her part, only watched on eagerly with a grin. She hadn't watched Suno fight in so long, it was exciting to see her in action again. Suno hopped to her feet and wiped a bit of blood from the corner of her mouth where she'd been struck, chuckling to herself.
"Y'know," she said as she cracked her knuckles, "I was hoping to bust this move out a little later. Maybe even if I faced Goku in the finals. I definitely didn't expect to need to use it against you," she admitted as she gestured cavalierly to Spopovich, who snarled and balled his fists.
"Stop talking," he demanded. "You talk too much! Fight me!" Suno grinned to herself. So he definitely had a short fuse. She could use that against him.
"What move?" Lazuli wondered aloud as she rubbed her chin. Had Suno upgraded the Shinsoku Odori again? She hadn't mentioned any sort of new techniques in their spars.
"Kaiouken!" Suno roared as a red aura erupted around her and she launched herself at Spopovich like a missile. Goku's eyebrows shot up appreciatively and her grin widened considerably. She wondered how quickly they could get through the rest of the tournament…
Suno seemed to launch herself directly at Spopovich only to pivot to the left just as he launched his knee out to where her face had been. She kicked him in his other leg to make him stagger and knock him off-balance before coming at him again from the other side and slapping him hard in the ear. To her surprise, however, this wasn't the end of the fight for Spopovich and he swung both hands under her chin with an axehandle blow, knocking Suno into the air before grabbing her by the ankle and slamming her back down. He tried to continue his assault by leaping into the air and driving the point of his elbow, which was about the size of a car tire, down into Suno's chest. Instead, his elbow went crashing down into the ring and got caught there after going through her afterimage. She charged at him from the front and kicked him in the chin, knocking him away and freeing his elbow. He bellowed with rage as he got quickly to his feet again, his veins pulsing and his eyes twitching.
"Man," Suno remarked as she circumvented one of his wild haymakers and drove a hard kick into his side, "You are just the world's angriest punching ba–" She ran right into a jab that interrupted her train of thought, followed by another and another before he drove the point of his toe up into her chest to lift her off the ground before he grabbed Suno by the throat in one hand and drove her hard into the ground. It took her a moment to recover and she looked up at Spopovich in surprise. She definitely hadn't expected this. Her hits still didn't seem to be doing anything!
"No more talking!" he demanded as he raised one livestock-sized foot over Suno. "No more wasting my time! Now you die!" Despite the threat, she grinned.
"Kaiouken times three," she stated calmly. His foot went crashing down through nothing and Suno came at him from behind, her arms going around Spopovich's neck and squeezing as she drove her knees repeatedly into his billboard of a back. He bucked and writhed like a rodeo bull before flinging Suno off of him, causing her to flip through the air before landing on her feet. "Kamehameha!" she cried as she thrust out her hands, the blast catching Spopovich square in the teeth as he came charging yet, even still, he came right on through it! Her eyebrows leaped up in surprise and she had to sidestep quickly to avoid another of his wild, savage blows. So he was really tough. On the bright side, Suno thought to herself as she threw a ki blast that caught Spopovich in the side of the head, he was still really stupid. He roared again and came charging toward her once more as she flew backwards, firing ki blasts at his face to keep him coming straight at her. Then, just as soon felt her back foot hovering in the air above the grass, she pushed off and launched herself upwards, sailing over Spopovich's head as he kept going straight forward, followed immediately by going straight down into the ground.
"Ring out!" Ken declared as Suno touched back down and dropped out of Kaiouken. "Suno is the winner! She will go on to face Xī in the quarterfinals!" The crowd roared its approval while those in the luxury box and the other fighters (except for Vegeta and Yamu) cheered enthusiastically.
"Yeah, Suno!" Krillin cheered as Lazuli put both pinkies into her mouth and whistled.
"Yay, mama!" Goten cried from the luxury box as she clapped enthusiastically. Gohan smiled and clapped for his mother while Goku looked as if she were ready to go run out into the ring and give her wife a great big hug.
Then, ruining the good mood like a thunderstorm at an outdoor wedding, Spopovich burst out of the Earth with a heartstopping shriek of rage, his eyes wide and bloodshot. He shot towards the surprised Suno at incredible speeds and caught her square in the jaw with a powerful right hook that sent her spiraling through the air and into the wall of the fighters' building.
"Mother!" Gohan cried out as Suno pried herself from the wall and security began to poor into the ring.
"Stay back!" Suno commanded as she cut off security's path with a wave of kiai. "Leave him to me! He'll just kill you if you get too close! You too, Gohan! I've got this!" Suno launched herself from the wall and back into the ring, getting into her guard before the seething Spopovich.
"Kill you! Kill you! I'll kill you!" Spopovich said as he slowly started lumbering towards Suno. Suno couldn't help but be mildly unnerved at the ungodly amount of killing intent and some other vile thing that was radiating off of his body in waves she could almost see but she stood her ground.
"Kaiouken times three!" Suno vanished from her spot and Spopovich was suddenly surrounded by a red tornado. He glanced around madly for a moment before intensely glaring at one spot.
"KILL YOU!" Spopovich lashed out with an uppercut at a seemingly random part of the tornado and caught Suno squarely in the stomach, driving the wind from her and lifting her off her feet. "KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!" Spopovich's arms blurred as he pounded into Suno with a barrage of punches that she could barely even see, much less react to in her stunned state. With another scream of pure hatred, Spopovich hit Suno with another uppercut that connected with her jaw and sent her hurtling into the sky. He immediately gave pursuit at speeds far greater than he had displayed before, his body wreathed in a purple aura of pure malice, and caught her by the ankle. He jerked her down to his level and slammed his elbow into her side before catching her in her other side with a swift kick and following up with a headbutt to the nose. Not letting up for even a heartbeat, Spopovich grabbed Suno by the head, his hand enveloping her entire face, and began meteoring towards the ground at incredible speeds.
"I don't care what she wants! I've got to help her!" Gohan said as he started to move only to be stopped when Goku placed a hand on his shoulder. Gohan looked back in surprise at his mom only to see her shake her head, her eyes never leaving the fight even as she frowned.
Mere moments before impact, Suno managed to snap out of her daze. She quickly slammed a palm strike straight into Spopovich's elbow, forcing him to let her go. Suno succeeded in angling herself away from Spopovich but she was simply moving too fast and was too close to the ground to safely come to a stop. She bounced painfully off of the ground before managing to bring herself to a stop in the air.
Suno was seeing red. Even if she didn't have the Kaiouken active, she'd still be seeing red. Her nose was broken, she had several cracked or broken ribs, her jaw was fractured, and she probably had some serious internal bleeding but she pushed past it all. It didn't make any sense, after all. This was a nobody. A lowlife. A two-bit punk. This wasn't Zarbon or Dodoria. This wasn't a member of the Ginyu Force. This was somebody so incredibly unimportant that he'd surely be forgotten the next day. This was a Saibaman. This was one of Freeza's goons. She couldn't lose to someone like this. She could win this fight easily. She had to win this fight easily. She needed to be strong.
"KAIOUKEN TIMES FOUR!" With her own scream of rage, Suno launched herself at Spopovich, ignoring the screams of protest from her own body as the Kaiouken exacerbated her wounds. She and Spopovich clashed in an flurry of explosive punches, each one delivered with enough power to easily destroy half the planet, but the exchange was painfully onesidded. Even though Suno was landing five blows for everyone one of Spopovich's, Spopovich seemed to recover almost instantly from each one while each of Spopovich's blows were breaking more and more of Suno's battered body.
Over in the fighters', Goku's scowl deepened as Gohan's anger rose, his power rising along with it. "This has gone on long enough! We need to put an end to this! We need to make that monster pay!" Gohan's hair flickered between black and gold as his anger started to push him into Super Saiyan, the force of both the transformation and the wind messing up his hair and forcing off his mask.
"Not yet," Goku said calmly even as her body radiated tenseness. "Your mother said that she can handle this so we'll-"
"KAIOUKEN TIMES FIVE!"
"Suno, no!"
With her muscles bulging obscenely, Suno jammed her fist into Spopovich's stomach, actually managing to lift him off his feet and cough up spittle, before following up with a left cross to his jaw that sent him staggering away. Suno quickly brought her hands to her side, gritting her teeth as she forced her rapidly decaying body to obey, and started gathering her ki.
"KAAAA…."
Suno forced her raging power between her hands. It was like trying to direct the flow of the ocean with a broom but she had done it so many times that it was second nature. She could feel her ki starting to condense and take shape but it wasn't enough. Not yet. Spopovich was starting to regain his footing so she pushed her broken body even further.
"MEEEE…."
She forced every bit of her power into the space between her hands but it still wasn't enough to be certain. She needed to blow this nobody away. Reduce him to nothingness. Anything less than an absolute victory would be total failure.
"HAAAA…."
Ignoring the scream of her body, Suno began drawing even more power into the attack. Using this much of her life energy was certainly dangerous but it didn't matter. If she continued down this route, she would certainly die the moment the attack was launched but it didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that she absolutely could not afford to lose this fight. She had to win no matter what it cost her. The price for her defeat here would simply be more than she could handle.
"MEEEE…."
She was so far beyond her limit that her body was breaking even faster. Her hearing was gone. She couldn't feel anything. The scent of blood was gone. Even her vision was tunneled to the point that she could only see her target. Most of her bones were fractured or broken. Her spleen had ruptured and she could feel blood pouring into one of her lungs. Her heart felt as if it would burst, breathing was becoming a Herculean task, and it took every ounce of her willpower to remaining standing.
Things shouldn't have gotten this far to begin with. Even if she won, she'd still lose. At least she'd have this one last victory to cling to, no matter how small.
With agonizing slowness, Suno begun to bring her arms forward. This was it. This was the end. This was everything she had left. Even if this was her last act, she was confident that it would be enough.
Mere moments before the attack launched, Suno's body finally gave out. The light of the Kamehameha vanished and the aura of the Kaiouken dissipated into the ether. Suno stood frozen in place, her eyes empty and lifeless as she stared ahead. It hadn't been enough. She hadn't been strong enough. She couldn't do what was needed of her.
As her body finally gave out and she began to topple forward, Suno could see that missile from so long ago heading towards her. She had managed to rise above her lot once in life but it seemed that miracles truly don't happen twice. That had been the highest she had ever risen and now she could do nothing but accept the inevitable. She had strived to touch the sun and now she was burned.
With a sad smile and a single tear, Suno hit the ground.