[To ItzMeSalazar: Thanks again for reviewing!]
(Daima's ended! ((SPOILERS: So if I understand this correctly, Goku can transform into SSJ4 at will after Daima?! That has… interesting implications for Battle of Gods, lolll. Makes me think Daima is a new timeline, perhaps. You might remember what I said in Chapter 10, that if Daima was canon I'd add some of its new lore to this fic. Let's just say that if it is canon, Trunks and Goten and a lot of other characters still don't know about SSJ4's existence. There ya go.)))
Also, this fic has reached a total of 20,000 views on this site and almost 3,000 on Wattpad! Thanks for reading along so far!]
Chapter 25: Next Into The Ring…
The group met Piccolo and Bardock on their battlefield, with Gohan saying to them how much of a cool battle it was to watch. Bardock muttered something to himself that Gohan couldn't hear, but he was seemingly in agreement.
"Are you satisfied?" Gohan asked him.
"…Almost," Bardock responded, looking slightly miffed. "The Namekian's strong, I'll give him that. He would give the other Nameks a run for their money."
Piccolo humphed with his arms crossed. "That's some high praise, but you didn't even turn Super Saiyan. We'll have to go all out next time."
"Sure," he simply replied, waving his hand to end the discussion.
"Guys, don't you think we should head back now?" Yamcha asked.
"Yeah, we ought to," Piccolo responded.
"Hmph… Back to that snappy wife of Vegeta's," Bardock complained with a sigh.
"Hey, look, she's not that bad, alright? I mean… I've seen her bad side plenty of times, but when you get to know her, you'll see!" Yamcha tried to defend her without much success.
As everyone was about to fly off, Goten had a thought. "Hey, Big Bro?"
"What is it, Goten?" Gohan replied.
"Can you spar with me before we go back?" he asked with a beaming smile. Everyone else turned around at the question, intrigued, except Bardock and Trunks. They cast a glance at each other with knowing smiles.
"Sure, Goten. We haven't seen each other in ages, have we? Let's have a little fun!" Gohan accepted.
"Alright!" Goten cheered. He bowed and then ran a ways off and got into a crouching stance, powering up to Super Saiyan. Piccolo beckoned everyone else to get some distance away from them both as Gohan returned the bow.
"Wow, Goten… I can feel just how much progress you've made!" Gohan praised him.
"Hehe! Thanks, Big Bro! I had a little help from Grandpa Bardock! And, we've all been using the Gravity Chamber together! Um, by "all", I mean me, Trunks, Grandpa and even Yamcha!"
"Y- Yamcha too?! Really?" Gohan stuttered in surprise.
Piccolo looked at Yamcha and said, "Poor you. Bardock and the kids must have been giving you a hard time."
"Tell me about it- Uh, I mean, no, I was doing just fine, actually!" Yamcha responded, a bead of sweat forming on his face.
"Now I see why Bardock respects you as a fighter. You've been training with him and the kids in the Gravity Chamber at the same time," Piccolo commented. Bardock rolled his eyes, but didn't try to deny it.
Super Saiyan Gohan adjusted his power to what he thought Goten's maximum power was.
Goten noticed this and powered up twice as much in return.
Gohan's face went blank for a moment. So did Piccolo's. Yamcha and Trunks watched on in awe, while Bardock smirked.
"Did… Did you just power up… that much?!" Gohan exclaimed.
"Yeah, I did! Pretty awesome, right?" Goten put his hands on his hips. "Are ya gonna power up like me, bro?"
"Guess I'd be silly not to," Gohan decided, astonishment clear on his face. He hadn't let out this amount of power while he was training on the ship, in case something on-board went wrong because of it.
"Hraaah!" Gohan sent out a golden shockwave of ki, raising his power to the peak of the first stage of Super Saiyan. "I don't tend to use Super Saiyan a lot these days. But, it's fun for sparring, I suppose."
"It sure is!" Goten agreed, getting into a battle stance.
Gohan noticed that it was a defensive stance. 'He wants me to attack first? Alright…'
Gohan ran up to Goten with blinding speed, and aimed a jab at his shoulder. Goten dodged it with relative ease, and dodged a couple more hits from his big brother.
All the while, Gohan was wide-eyed at the level of accuracy his brother was displaying. 'Maybe I didn't train as much as I thought I had…! The results of Goten's training with the others has really paid off.'
"Oof! Come on, Big Bro! This is a spar, remember?" Goten said jokingly.
Gohan was growing more confused by the second, as he was boosting his regular Super Saiyan form to the max. Was this not Goten's limit anymore?! Gohan felt extremely proud of him in that moment because of it.
He proceeded to jump away from Goten and shouted as he powered up to the weakest he could go in his Super Saiyan 2 form. "This should be enough for you now," Gohan told him.
"Oh yeah?"
"…What do you mean, "Oh yeah"?!" Gohan stared at his brother incredulously, a bead of sweat forming on the side of his face.
"Is Goten serious?" Piccolo asked, utterly bewildered. The others were silently smiling as Piccolo continued to stare at the sons of Son Goku.
"HUAAAAA!" Goten screamed, with his head reared back and his arms tight. The ground began to quake violently, and some rocks began to levitate. His golden aura flickered with an intense light. As the light died down, sparks of electricity danced around the boy, and the aura was reigned in a little. His hair stood on end, appearing as razor-sharp spikes a little like Gohan's, with three separate bangs on his forehead, similar to whenever his father powered up like this too.
Gohan and Piccolo gawked. Goten had managed to ascend beyond Super Saiyan… into Super Saiyan 2.
"This… You…" Gohan was at a loss for words.
Goten grinned with his eyes closed, looking rather smug.
Gohan was suddenly reminded of Cell. He briefly pondered if Goten could have possibly even overpowered that guy, now. "Just… Just what kind of training have you been putting yourself through while I was gone…?!" Gohan questioned, chuckling in disbelief.
Goten answered, "Oh, y'know… I've just been beating up bad guys on New Namek, beating up more bad guys on Earth… beating up Grandp-"
"GET ON WITH THE FIGHT!" his grandpa suddenly shouted, startling the other spectators, and especially Piccolo, with his sensitive hearing.
Gohan laughed. "Haha! You heard the man. But, I wanna tell you this before we start: I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of you, Goten. And I know Dad will be proud too when he finds out," Gohan said, his smile wide. 'I wonder how Mom reacted to this…' he thought to himself.
"Th- Thanks, Gohan…" Goten sniffed a little. He soon composed himself, pointing at his brother eagerly. "So now we can get down to the real fight!" he declared. "The last Son standing will be the winner!"
"You're on!" Gohan responded, crouching slightly.
The two smirked before zooming towards each other at a shocking speed. They were locked in a fierce, electric clash. Goten managed to grab Gohan's upper arm and throw him behind him, but Gohan didn't travel too far off.
Gohan flew in for a kick and hit Goten in the side, but Goten thought fast and grabbed him once again, this time by the leg, and swung him into a rock formation.
Gohan got up and barely had time to counter a punch to the face, managing to grab the fist just in the nick of time. Gohan then kicked Goten in the stomach. The kid chose to fly backwards out of the way of any further attacks from Gohan.
Goten shot a barrage of ki blasts and finished his assault with a larger blast he conjured above his head between his palms. He lobbed it at Gohan, who dodged out of its way, covering his eyes as it struck the ground, making lots of rubble fly everywhere.
Gohan realized he wasn't fighting at Goten's level, which had been steadily increasing over the course of their duel. He clenched his fists and gave a short yell, powering up to almost his full power in Super Saiyan 2.
"Wha…?! Hey! Gohan! That's not fair! I'm not that strong!" Goten exclaimed.
""Not that strong" yet - You're getting stronger the more we fight. I'm sure you'll catch up to this level of power, kiddo!" Gohan reassured him.
Goten trusted in Gohan's words and vowed to fight the best he could. "Ha!" Goten dove in for a flurry of attacks, which Gohan was hard-pressed to block and counter.
Gohan found an opening and kicked Goten in the side again, then followed up the attack with a Masenko. Goten's eyes went wide at the sight of the orange ki barrelling towards him, and quickly got to his feet and fired a hasty Kamehameha.
The two were now locked in a beam struggle, with Gohan not feeling as pressured as Goten in that moment. Goten had never been attacked by one of Gohan's more powerful blasts before. This was a tall order.
"Rrrgh… Keep… pushing…" Goten whispered to himself as the beam became brighter on his end, signalling that he was soon going to lose the clash. 'No… I can't lose yet! I've got so much more to show him…! And… he doesn't fight too often, so I might not get this chance for a while!' Goten thought worriedly.
As the others witnessed Gohan and Goten's beam clash, Piccolo turned to Trunks and asked, "Trunks, can you go Super Saiyan 2 as well?"
Trunks frowned. "N- Not yet. Buuuut, I'm really close! …You'll see!"
Goten pushed with all his might, but Gohan's beam still held firm. 'What can I do?' Goten thought. He couldn't think of anything, except…
~"You gotta reach for it! Deep inside you!"~ His dad's words replayed in his mind from the time he was teaching Goten and Trunks how to go to the next level.
Goten shook his head. This was no time to be thinking about attempting Super Saiyan 3! That wouldn't work at all! He was really grasping at straws, at this point.
'Guess I'm gonna lose…'
"Hey! Goten!" Bardock shouted.
Goten raised his head slightly. "Huh…?"
"You're part Saiyan, aren't you? That's not supposed to be all the power you have!" Bardock told him, clenching a fist.
Goten blinked. He was trying as hard as he could, wasn't he? Couldn't his Grandpa see that? Why was he telling him this? This was the most power Goten had ever shown him, or anyone else! Even himself!
Goten grimaced in anger. "I am trying! Can't you see? It's too much!" he shouted back.
The light from the beam clash grew further away from Goten, surprising him a little. Piccolo grinned. 'I see. Just like with other Super Saiyans, it's all about the anger… and Bardock knows this.'
Gohan noticed this development and strengthened his Masenko. 'Looks like I need to push him a little more. Come on, Goten. You can do it!'
Goten grew annoyed at Gohan powering up his attack like that, when he was having a hard enough time as it was. "Rrrgh! C'moooon!" Goten yelled to himself as his hands shook trying to expel all that ki into his Kamehameha. He shut his eyes as the beam's clash point once again grew closer towards him.
'I know there's more in you, kiddo,' Gohan thought. 'Maybe it just isn't all ready to come out, yet.'
'I know there's more in you, Goten,' Piccolo thought as well. 'You're a fast learner. If you keep up with your training, you could become one of the strongest warriors in the universe.'
'I know there's more in you, kid,' Bardock also believed with his arms crossed. 'But… I'm gonna be the one to surpass your slacker of a brother first! I ain't gonna be losin' to children any more, once I get my hands on Super Saiyan 2!'
Alas, Goten was growing weary from the strain of maintaining his attack. "No! Goteeeeen!" Trunks yelled as the beam collided with his best friend.
"Aggghh!" Goten screamed and was launched into a rock face.
Yamcha stood in awe, watching a ton of rocks crumble around Goten. "Oh boy… Is he alright?"
Goten shouted weakly, having powered down to his base form, "I… I give up… Big Bro! You're so strong…!"
Gohan approached him and held out a hand which Goten immediately accepted, and pulled him out of the rubble. "At this rate, you'll soon be dominating in our spars, Goten! Keep it up!" Gohan praised him.
As the two approached the group, Yamcha said, "Hey! You guys were incredible out there! I'm glad I joined you!"
"Thanks, Yamcha. By the way, I can tell just by looking at you that you've gotten a lot stronger too," Gohan noted.
"Ooh, even you think so…?" Yamcha smirked. "We'll have to spar sometime so you can take an even closer look!"
Gohan nodded. "Yeah. I suppose it would be interesting to see all your techniques up close."
"You've trained hard, Goten," Piccolo spoke. "Super Saiyan 2 isn't easy to obtain at your age. Good job."
"Thanks Piccolo!" Goten responded happily, but with half-lidded eyes, seemingly struggling to stay awake.
"You were awesome, Goten!" Trunks told him.
"Let's head back. We gotta get you cleaned up," Piccolo told him.
"Okay," Goten accepted, yawning loudly.
"Well fought," Bardock said to his two grandsons. "Fighting to your very limit is what I like to see, Goten. You showed true Saiyan grit, even though you lost the fight."
"Grandpa…! Thank you!" Goten beamed, smiling cutely from his Saiyan grandfather's praise. His head looked very pattable, but alas, nobody moved to pat it.
Bardock proceeded to fly up into the air, making the others ascend to fly with him. Trunks helped Goten fly by having his arm over his shoulder.
The rocky field was left in a complete mess, but on the bright side, archaeologists would definitely discover new fossils there now!