Up in the stadium, the crowd of spectators was literally shocked into silence by the swift and sudden defeat the first alien had been able to deal her opponent.
Panning around, the roaming, automated camera was able to capture the entire scuffle, and was now hovering over Krillin's battered body while his foe stopped beside him. The result had Chi-Chi and Bulma stare in shock and bewilderment, but neither one of them could match the surprise reflected on Oolong and Master Roshi's faces.
"K-Krillin," the pig murmured, he, Chiaotzu, Puar and the turtle hermit watching quietly while the words 'Eliminated' appeared on Krillin's screen, seconds before fading to black.
"What happened?" was the first question to escape Chiaotzu's lips.
The whole fight had happened so fast. He swore he'd missed something.
XXX
Now making his way towards the enormous tower he could see sitting on the horizon across the desert, Doskoi was making cracking progress. In spite of the scorching heat bathing his immense girth and wafting off of the sand underneath his feet, the man remained perfectly unfazed by the close to unbearable conditions enveloping him. Being a martial artist and a warrior in his own right, the wrestler knew he had to remain calm and collected, even in the face of great adversity.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to stop the sweat from squeezing out of the pores all over his body as he ambled across the sand dunes, the heat reaching him physically even if his mind didn't register to his surroundings. The man soldiered on, regardless of the invisible obstacle.
Leaving deep footprints in his wake, the man started making his way down another steep slope. However, just as Doskoi was about to reach another incline, the big man failed to notice a sinkhole open up behind him and a hand stick up out of the ground. It was only when he felt a presence appear behind him did he actually respond and spun around.
"Who goes there?!"
The second he did so, the sumo wrestler felt a hand clamp over his throat and his body get lifted off of the ground. Gasping in horror, Doskoi began kicking and thrashing about wildly to try and shake himself out of the vice now crushing down on his windpipe. Exclamations of shock muffled by a lack of air, the poor human male continued to beat at the arm holding him several feet off the floor until, after a full minute of fruitless struggling, Doskoi breathed his last.
Body going limp, the sumo wrestler was then unceremoniously dropped to the ground and the assailant responsible for his swift demise turned towards the camera hovering behind him.
XXX
The audience gasped in horror when they saw the alien contender turn to face them. As soon as he did, instead of seeing the friendly, painted face of one of the intergalactic competitors they were promised, the spectators got the shock of their lives when they saw a blue skinned monster of a man with pointy ears, an orange Mohawk, beard, a purple vest, golden earrings and a wicked grin glare towards the lens.
People left and right immediately rose out of their seats in fear and, when the camera panned down to the lifeless Doskoi at his feet, the crowd started to scream.
"Murderer!"
"He killed one of the competitors!"
"Doskoi's dead!"
"What the hell is this?!"
Questions flew in from all sides uncontested and with the appearance of the two new alien competitors to the event hanging in the air people immediately began to realize that something terrible has happened. Chi-Chi and Bulma recognized the danger, as did Baby Trunks, who started to whimper in his mother's arms while she held him close to her cest.
The woman tasked with protecting him made certain to cover her son's eyes so that he didn't see the 'thing' that was now leering at the camera.
Videl on the other hand, who was observing the monitor intently, narrowed her once startled gaze into a glare as a bead of sweat ran down the side of her face.
"W-Who the hell is that?" the girl asked herself, jaw clenching as she looked upon the face of a man who was definitely not one of her father's students in costume. "What the heck's going on here?" Her thoughts were soon drowned out by the cries and exclamations of the thousands of people in the coliseum.
The commotion became so bad in fact that the screams managed to filter out of the dome and enter the courtyards sitting outside the structure, which quickly drew the attention of Tien and Yamcha who, only moments ago, had been enjoying a couple of drinks following their decisive defeats in the opening stages of the tournament
Heads perking up, their eyes quickly trained towards the stadium.
"What was that?" a baffled Yamcha asked.
XXX
Wandering through the checkered landscape of giant toys and oversized bedroom antiquities, Gohan gleefully admired the off-colored weirdness and oddity of his surroundings. While it certainly wasn't the most extravagant of settings he could have landed in for sure, it certainly was the most interesting.
Hopping over a large pile of plush animals and building blocks, the young Saiyan then had his gaze drawn skywards when he spotted a couple of balloons floating down towards him.
Feeling curious, Gohan reached up and poked one. The thin sheen making up the inflated ball of air popped the moment his finger made contact, drawing a playful laugh from the young hybrid. "Cool."
His joy was short-lived however.
Spotting a shadow underneath him, the demi-Saiyan's eyes widened in alarm before his gaze shot upwards. The moment he looked, the young fighter had but a split second to leap out of the way before an enormous alphabet block came crashing into the ground where he'd been standing, splitting the floor with its impact.
"Gah! What the?"
Yelping in surprise, the raven haired boy began back flipping across his playground wilderness as more and more enormous toys came cascading down around him. Every impact was marked by an earthshaking tremor and a cloud of smoke, a process that continued on for several seconds until the young warrior landed atop a windup robot directly in front of an enormous, analogue clock with golden rims.
Taking a defensive stance, Gohan then spotted the cause for the sudden rain of toys. Eyes narrowing seriously, the demi-Saiyan spotted a strangely dressed, little blue man wearing golden jewelry, white slacks, a red jacket with golden buckles, and a purple turban, float down from the ceiling above to leer at him.
The person suspending themselves upside-down in front of the young warrior puzzled Gohan at first. But then, just as they were facing each other down, the gold pieces on the person's uniform suddenly started to glow a hot yellow and, upon throwing his hands forward, the alien began producing an orange demonic aura from his body.
Sensing something foul, the demi-Saiyan then jumped when he heard the hands of the clock behind him spin wildly before flying off of their host like rockets, prompting the boy to take evasive action. Jumping back a few hundred feet, Gohan assumed a horse riding stance atop a large drum and, with a yell of effort, fired up his ki. His blue aura exploded around him just in time to form a barrier, which blocked the two giant clock hands attempting to skewer him from both sides. His energy shield filed them down to nothing before he dropped it moments later.
Hearing his opponent give an impish giggle, the raven haired Saiyan held a hand out to him in alarm. "Hey! What are you trying to do? Kill me?" the young hybrid asked.
The blue skinned man snickered once again and held out his hands, "You catch on really quick, speck." With a quiet yell, red energy and electricity began zapping off of his body, the bolts chopping away at their surroundings in a storm.
Recoiling in surprise, Gohan then watched on as the cheerful toy wonderland surrounding him melted away, revealing a densely forested area with gigantic mushrooms growing all around him. As soon as the landscape's transformation was complete, the half-Saiyan quickly realized he must've been trapped inside of an illusion and quickly threw his game face on.
Gohan fixed his best glare upon the man still suspended upside-down in front of him.
"Alright. You've got my attention." The young half-Saiyan then assumed a fighting stance. "Who are you?"
The little alien snickered, "I am Bujin. And now… you're going to die!" A split second later, a current of lightning shot out of his forehead and flew towards his opponent, who managed to avoid it by leaping into the air.
The explosion that followed almost took out the entire mountain behind him.
XXX
As the crowds in the stadium started to flee, terrified at the sight of the aliens now popping up all over the monitors, X.S Cash and his family remained held up in their skybox. Watching the chaos unfolding down below, the billionaire magnate clenched his fists and shook his head, completely baffled by what he was witnessing.
"This is getting out of hand," his wife spoke up from behind, squatting down to comfort their frightened son.
"What a fiasco!" Mr. Cash shouted, spittle flying from his mouth as he rounded on his assistant. "I want an explanation for this immediately!"
The man with the slicked back hair and suit pointed at the television screen in front of him, "These are not the fighters that were scheduled!" He then turned to his boss anxiously. "I've never seen these creatures in my life! They're supposed to be friendly extraterrestrials. Hercule's boys dressed up in costumes! I wouldn't book something like this. These things are the real deal!"
"Gah! We have to do something to bring this back under control!" With the defeat of one of the finalists and the death of another, the wealthiest man in the world quickly realized that there was only one man capable of stopping these monsters and rounded on the guards he had stationed at the door. "Where is Mr. Satan?! We need the Champ out here, on the double!"
As the men up in the penthouse began scurrying about like headless chickens, down in the sea of horrified spectators, Yamcha and Tien nudged their way through the masses and into the crowded arena. Stopping for a moment to look up at the monitors, where they spotted the fallen Doskoi and saw Gohan engaging a third alien across his battle zone, the two men quickly leapt up onto the pyramid and into the two new pods that'd been stationed there.
Once the cockpits were closed, the two warriors shot off at high speed down the tracks and disappeared into the tunnels.