It had been 7 years since cells defeat, shin had already come and warned us, and was nice enough to give us the Z sword and even used the Katchin on it. With the Elder Kai out of it, we had used him to unlock all of our potential, now all of us could stand up to Majin Boo and if at worst case scenario boo was hatched, at least the humans could gang up on him and end it.
In the meantime, a new martial arts tournament was about to take shape, as our group flew in to the registration board we were greeted with press and cameras. Honestly, the hardest thing about living here asides from the occasional world ending threat was dealing with the media, they were relentless. Even when we were doing our day to day tasks outside the dojo they would always follow us. But on the other side we had so much money we didn't know what to do with it and the freedom to train constantly so it was give and take.
I had a little press conference, answering questions about the tournament and our expectations from it. After 20 minutes of answering inane questions from the press we went to the punching station to register for the tournament. We went through the motions and eventually the brackets and matches for the tournament were decided. The matches were as followed:
Goku vs Vegeta
Broly vs Shin
Nappa vs Raditz
Tarble vs Paragus
Goten vs Trunks
Videl vs Tien
Piccolo vs Gohan
Me vs 18
Once that was decided Shin came and approached us, he told us the game plan. He had already spotted 2 people with the M symbol on their foreheads and told us about it, Shin told us how they would let the people take energy from us after one of the matches and then we would follow them back to the ship and eliminate them. For now we would enjoy the tournament. Vegeta and Goku were the first ones, they stepped onto the ring and got into their classic fighting stances. My inner fanboy was hyped, I was honestly looking forward to it. Goku shouted, "Hey Vegeta, how about we skip the warm up and go all out." Vegeta smiled, "Very well then Kakarot". With that, their power surged up through the stage and their hair spiked up a little but didn't turn blonde only a few small sparks of lightning were coming from their hair. They had both mastered their mystic forms, the ring started cracking immediately. Flashes of lighting and bodies started moving all over the stage. Even the 2 people with the M symbol were astounded, the tall muscular one said to the other one, "they will be good sources of power for the master".
The fight kept on heating up, Vegeta would land a punch, Goku would land a kick, even the slow motions cameras could barely keep up with them. After 10 minutes of fighting Vegeta and Goku charged up a final attack, they shot at each other and the beams collided. They blew up and both Vegeta and Goku were thrown into the ground as well. Goku fell into the ground first and then Vegeta fell a second later. The announcer walked up with his microphone and yelled, "THE WINNER IS VEGETA BY A RINGOUT!!!!!!" The crowd went wild with cheers, Goku and Vegeta walked up to shake hands after being fed senzu beans. Vegeta was upset however, "this doesn't count as a victory Kakarot, next time we'll have a proper battle outside of this ring, a battle to the death".
The tournament then passed by, Shin forfeited to Broly, not wanting to spend unnecessary energy; Nappa and Raditz fought after them their rivalry had intensified over the years and both of them used everything they had, eventually however Raditz got the upper hand and delivered a point blank Kamehameha that knocked Nappa out, Nappa was pissed off at Raditz but acknowledged his defeat.
Tarble then fought Paragus, it was even at first, but Paragus' age and experience caught up to Tarble and after several minutes of combat Tarble was out, Vegeta however wasn't to upset he got up and shook Tarbles hand saying he had done well, this surprised even me, I knew Vegeta was mellowing out but not this much already, I was confident that this time he wouldn't let Babidi possess him if it came down to that.
Goten the fought Trunks, just like in the original dragon ball Z they fought and eventually Trunks won by a ringout.
Videl then fought Tien, it was fairly even at first, Tien had learnt from his last tournament and stay away from multiform. Rather, he was simply using solar flares then suppressing his ki and going for blind spots while Videl was blinded, it was a pretty clever strategy and I figured I should use the same while fighting 18. Eventually, Tien landed a critical and Videl was knocked out of the arena.
Piccolo and Gohan's battle was more intense, since both had gotten ultimate they were pretty even. And although Gohan had kept up with his training he was slacking a little. Piccolo managed to get Gohan to tear his arm off, but while he was distracted fighting piccolo, his arm came behind Gohan and delivered a knockout blow.
Finally, it was my turn against 18. We face off in the arena, I wasn't going to let it be like the original manga and anime where he paid her off to succeed, I was gonna make her fight for it. I loaded up a solar flare and went to action, 18 had anticipated it and blocked some of it but she was still partially blinded, I did an afterimage technique and started knocking her around. This time I was able to keep up a Kaio ken times 200 for about 30 minutes in combat when I last checked so I figured I should he able to take her out by then. Though she had trained hard as well and had infinite energy I had to be careful.
I did like Tien, going for blind spots and always keeping solar flare. 18 was getting pissed and was charging up ki blasts, but she knew better, she couldn't throw ki blasts with the public around like that so she would only have to use her fists. As such I had to take full advantage of it. Then, I saw a flash of light, 18 had used a solar flare as well. Luckily I had prepared for this, I had some perfume stashed in my gi, so I had made sure to spray some in her while I was knocking her around. As such, I was able to smell her even if I was blinded. However, one of my punches missed, it was with that gap that 18 took advantage and pushed me out of the arena. I thought, 'shit, well at least I entertained the crowd.' I walked up to 18, shook her had and raised it in the air. The crowd went wild, some were shouting, "18, 18, 18." Others were shouting, "Hercule, Hercule, Hercule." Even though I had lost I was still one of Earth's heroes, damn it felt good to be on top. Krillin walked up to me and handed me a senzu bean, as soon I felt my energy return a felt a stabbing pain from the side, Looks like Babidi's minions had finally made their move.