Bulma gave a sympathetic smile when she saw her ex appear on the television screen atop his arena's spire across from them. "Poor Yamcha. I wonder what's wrong. He seems to have lost his drive." She had a good idea as to what was probably gnawing at him. Chi-Chi did as well.
The Son mother smirked and turned away, "The competition must be overwhelming."
Feeling haughty herself, Bulma spared the woman a grin, "True. How can anyone expect to beat Trunks?"
Catching onto that snide remark, Chi-Chi immediately threw her best glare at the Brief mother, "Except Gohan!"
Lying in his mother's arms, the Baby Trunks, who'd previously been enjoying the scenery, then looked up worryingly when he saw the two women stand up and begin shooting daggers at one another. The scene soon turned incredibly worrisome for him and the people in the surrounding seats when they saw menacing auras appear around the mothers and electricity start to crackle between them.
In fact, the scene became so tense that everyone completely missed the sight of the massive Doskoi backhanding one of his opponents into the pillar Yamcha was lying on, bending it, and sending the Z-fighter plummeting into the ocean. The man had the common courtesy to let out an unmanly scream as he fell several stories before crashing into the water.
xxx
With a loud rumble and a collective cry of terror, the remaining fighters on the lowest battle platform found themselves crowded together before being sent flying over the edge. The collection of bodies hitting the surface of the water concurrently caused a splash about three stories high, a sight that drew an excited cheer from the crowd.
After plowing the rest of the competition off of his platform, Gohan held up a fist and grinned from ear to ear. "I heard the World Martial Arts Tournaments helped hone my father's skills. Perhaps this Intergalactic version will do the same for me."
As soon as the cameras scanned the ring, the referee's voice came up over the speakers. "Son Gohan is the first to pass the preliminaries!"
Upon celebrating his victory by throwing the same fist into the air, the boy then turned to the stands where his mother was and waved. When he saw her wave back at him with her victory fans, the youngster then sensed out the new friend he'd made in the food court. Looking up towards one of the nearby buildings, he quickly spotted Videl standing at the balcony and, smiling radiantly, waved to her as well.
The pig-tailed girl, at first overwhelmed by the way Gohan had handily dealt with all of his opponents, couldn't help but grin back and let out a cheer. "Yes! Way to go!"
xxx
"Trunks advances!" the announcer again announced inside of Cash's sky box, informing the family and their attendant of a second competitor. To the wealthy father and his wife, the sight drew expressions of interest and admiration.
To the mighty Champ Hercule though, it brought an expression of absolute dismay and horror. With spaghetti jammed inside of his mouth, the man gawked up at the screen when he recognized the faces of the advancers Gohan and Trunks sitting in the monitors. Able to recognize them from their attire and faces, the man could only shake his head in denial before turning toward another monitor.
There, he saw the moving platform retract and tilt, tossing all of the fighters standing on it into the ocean except for one, who managed to cling on despite all of the tumbling men and women making a grab for his head. He then gave the camera a victorious grin before his name was announced.
"Krillin moves on!"
"It… It's them… the guys from the Cell Games!" the martial arts champion with the afro thought, a cold sweat dripping down his face as he rose from his seat. Nobody, not even the kid sitting right next to him, seemed to take notice of the statue of a man turning around to clamp a hand over his mouth in an effort to cover his expression of fear. "W-Why are they here? T-This can't be happening… it's just… not possible…"
Moments later, another announcement was made.
"And Piccolo is headed for the quarter finals as well!"
The sight of the green skinned man in the turban and cape had Hercule sink to his knees, curl up into a little ball and start whimpering like a girl. Miraculously, for him, none of the family seemed to take notice of that either.
It was one of the many perks of being a charlatan of his high standing. Everybody just seemed to overlook all of his shortcomings whenever it was convenient.
"Nightmare… nightmare…"
"Tien Shinhan has also made the cut!"
xxx
With the preliminary rounds coming to a decisive close, the fighters that'd qualified then moved down to the lowest section of the island for the start of the next round. Forming up into a line on the waiting stage, they turned their attention toward the large screen above. As soon as all eyes were on it, the monitor flickered on from a picture of their group to a tally, which showcased all of their profiles in pairs, aligning each of them to their opponents for the quarter finals.
The announcer began reading off the arrangement. "Ladies and gentlemen, the matchups for the eight quarter finalists have been decided! In the first round, we have Son Gohan vs Udo! Second match is between Trunks and Tien Shinhan! After that, Piccolo and Krillin will battle it out in the third match! And last but not least, we have Doskoi and Sky Dragon competing for the fourth spot in the semi-finals!"
While the crowd clamored excitedly, placing bets on who out of the selected would be most likely to advance, Krillin deflated on the spot.
"Oh man! I'm fighting Piccolo." For some strange reason, the tiles at his feet suddenly became incredibly fascinating. "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any." As if dreading the worst, the short man then glanced across at the Namekian standing at the end of the row of fighters, whom he saw smirk his way. The man's confident expression had Krillin shiver and gulp.
"Yep. I'm boned."
With their names announced, Gohan and Udo casually strolled out onto the large, circular platform that would serve as their battleground for this part of the finals. The crowds, expecting a big fight, cheered wildly as soon as they saw the two contestants appear on the screen, showing everyone which out of the remaining eight fighters would be battling it out.
Almost immediately on the first glance, it looked pretty grim for one of them.
The man the young demi-Saiyan was up against was enormous; a hulking, burly wrestler who stood at least one story high. Topped with a pair of blue fighting boots and red Speedos, the martial artist also had long blonde locks and a bushy mustache, matched by a very aggressive look in his sharp blue eyes. Needless to say, he had a very Western appeal to him, something that his hybrid opponent didn't take much notice of. Gohan was just glad to be fighting.
Videl, still holding her position up on the balcony, broke out into a bit of a sweat when she saw the person Gohan was set to fight. "This doesn't look good." She hoped nothing bad happened to him.
Though she was actually referring to Gohan, in reality she should have been referring to his opponent.
"Fighters! Take your stances!"
Raising an eyebrow at the smiling child standing underneath his shadow, Udo snorted. "Feh. I'm fighting a baby? I gotta get a better agent," the man muttered to himself before giving the boy a wide grin in an attempt to intimidate him. "Hey listen, kid. I'm not into beating weaklings, but the training wheels are coming off today. Understand?"
Unshaken, Gohan brought his hands up, placed his right fist in his left palm and bowed. "I'm ready. Let's have a good fight."
The big man chuckled, "You've got a lot of guts kid… and I'm gonna show them to yah!" The second the starting bell rang, the man let out a snarl and reached down to grab the boy with his gigantic hands.
However, the second he saw his foe move, Gohan acted.
Focusing, the demi-Saiyan darted forward and, with a lazy sweeping kick, knocked the unsuspecting man off his feet and sent him flying. The poor, unsuspecting wrestler let out a startled cry when his body flew backwards at high speed, smashed through one of the stadium walls, and crashed into one of the stands a second later. The spectators in that box had barely enough time to barrel out of the way before the cannonball of a man crashed straight through their balcony, flew out the other side and soared over the ocean.
He landed in the water two kilometers away.
The entire island sat in stunned silence, save for one mother and her friend, who rose from her seat while punching the air victoriously.
"BOO-YAH! That's my son!"
Having watched the entire thing from her spot at the railings, Videl's sapphire blue eyes had widened to the size of dinner plates as she stared slack jawed at the splash Udo made in the distance.
Naturally, she was just as shocked as the rest of the island.
"W-Whoa. Did Gohan do that?"
If she had blinked she would have missed it. Even though she didn't, she swears she'd just missed something important.