I’d been waiting for quite a while now, and while I’d learned patience training under Master Roshi, even my newfound batch of the stuff was nearing its end.  It’d been nearly a week since we’d put in the request for the Saibaman, why couldn’t Capsule Corp. hurry their lazy asses up?

            True, the reason for requesting the Saibaman must’ve seemed a little strange.  Master Roshi wouldn’t lie, and he put down on the application:  To fight.  He’d had to pull some strings to even get the submission looked at.  The Saibaman were extremely dangerous and I suppose Capsule Corp. was right to be very picky about who it sold its merchandise to.

            A few years after Goku went missing, a human colony found hordes of Saibaman seeds, and they took a few of them back to earth for study.  Since then, Capsule Corp. outbid the remnants of Red Ribbon to own the rights to the Saibamen, and began mass-producing them.  They’d learned how to control how powerful the Saibaman would be; they could create ones with power levels any where from 200 to 2000.

            Roshi and I had put in a request for one with a power level of 1000, not quite as strong as the one’s the Z warriors faced on earth so many years ago, but close enough.

            Finally it arrived late at night on Friday of the last week of my eighth month in this dimension.  Roshi called me downstairs from my room where I’d been reading on some of Goku’s old battles, and when I came down, he held a big box in his skinny arms labelled “Highly Dangerous” “Handle With Care”.

            I smiled widely, and he said “Make sure you get a good sleep tonight, tomorrow might be a long day.”

            I went right back to my room with all the intentions to go sleep, but I just couldn’t, I felt like a giddy kid the night before Christmas.  I knew the battle the next day would be brutal, but I felt certain I could take it.

            I’d told Master Roshi that I just wanted to fight the Saibaman to gauge my abilities, but I had an ulterior motive.  I believed that I performed my best when everything was on the line, and in the two months I’d been trying, I still couldn’t master the full power of the Kamehameha.  I felt that if my life were on the line, I would be pushed far enough to do it.

            I knew I needed sleep, but it didn’t come, even after Master Roshi went to bed, I lied fully awake.  I tried everything, but I just couldn’t relax.  Then an idea came to me.

            I reached under my wooden bed, feeling around before my hand came on it.  I snatched it up and flicked on a light switch using my mind (one of the few tricks I learned during meditation).  I hadn’t looked at her picture in almost a month, but I still longed to be with her.

            The picture was now torn and tattered, bent around the edges, and the image itself fading off slightly.  Still I could never forget her face; it was burned into my mind.  Whenever I felt like giving into the tired arms or the fear of death, I just recalled that picture in my mind.  I brushed my hand against the portrait, and suddenly I was completely calm.  I stared at the picture for another few seconds then put it back in its place on the floor, flicked off the light again and went to sleep.

 

 

             The next morning Master Roshi let me sleep in an extra hour, no doubt he knew I’d need all the rest I could get.  As soon as I was awake I went downstairs and was about to begin my morning exercises but he stopped me, saying I’d need all the energy I could save.  I just agreed, but there was something strange about how he said it.

            After we ate breakfast, he climbed on-board Nimbus with me and we headed in-land.  We landed near a large mountain range that reminded me of the Rocky Mountains back home.  It was also near where Son Goku’s house used to be.

            We set down in an open field, with forests off to the east and the mountains to the west.  Master Roshi had taken out the Saibaman capsule earlier in the morning, and all he had to do was plant it in the ground. 

I’d worn my best “fighting” clothes.  They were tight but allowed for full-mobility.  While Roshi covered the planting site with new dirt, I stretched out, loosening up before the match began.  After he’d finished covering the Saibaman in soil, he dumped a green gel-like substance over it.

I felt a powerful ki signature emanating from the spot, and I knew the Saibaman was sprouting.  Master Roshi scampered away, fearful of the beast.  I’d told him that if I failed he would take Nimbus and fly and get one of the Z Warriors to kill it off.

After a few seconds, there was a slight rumbling and then out popped the green little rodent.  It flew high into the air, spraying grass and dirt in every direction.  Dirt didn’t bother me, what did bother me was the fact that I suddenly didn’t know if I could take this green beast.

I’d never felt genuine fear like that before, but I quickly quelled it.  These last eight months had been the hardest in my life, and I agreed whole-heartedly in the saying: no pain no gain.

The green-skinned midget plopped down about 10 metres in front of me.  Its body was heaving up and down, making scraggly noises from its throat.  I found it the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen, and I was determined to wipe it from the face of the earth.

A rage, an unquenchable, un-deniable rage the likes of which I’d never felt before exploded from me.  I shot straight at the being and struck at it with a flying ki-covered fist.  I struck nothing but ground, I didn’t so much see as I did sense him Zanzoken above me.  As soon as my feet touched the ground I pushed off and shot up straight towards it.  It was nearly a hundred metres above me, but I reached it in no time flat.  We collided and exchanged a quick flurry of punches that we both blocked fairly easily.

He managed to shove me away back towards the earth but I caught hold of myself and landed softly.  He then went on the offensive, flying towards me at a fairly quick clip.  Right before he was on me though, I cleared my mind, prepared my legs and as his out-stretched claw whipped towards my head, I zanzokened away off to his right.  He caught me in his line of vision and shot at me again, and again I zanzokened, only this time behind him.

He twirled around and swung a wild claw at my head.  I easily ducked it and seizing my opportunity, struck him with a fist where his kidneys would be if he were human.  Of course he had no internal organs, so it was just like hitting anything else on him.  His armor-like skin absorbed most of the hit, and he wasted no time taking another swipe at my head.  I was forced to whip my neck to the side to avoid the attack, and rather than trying something again, I kicked with all my might away from the ground.

I went high into the air, and within a single second my green opponent was with me.  We struck each other with enough force to crack a mountain, only on one another’s skin.  I quickly got a step on him though, and managed to land a kick to his side, a punch to his non-existent nose, and a chop to his shoulder before he flew away.

I made sure not to let up, and set off after him.  He flew upwards, straight towards the sun.  He was much smarter than I suspected, the sun blinded me, and I was forced to hold in the air and blink away the lights.  He took his opportunity; the beast was not stupid at all.  He did an about-face and crashed into me with a dynamite kick.

            I crashed into the ground at an amazing speed, breaking through a few layers of earth until I connected with some rock.  My back tingled with pain and my stomach (where he’d hit me) was scraped from his claws.  He didn’t even give me time to get my wind back.  He came down on me with a knee to the abdomen and then hooked his hands together, raised them high above his head and was about to bring them down on my head, but I managed to raise a hand and fire a ki blast straight into his sternum.

            It sent him flying a few football field distances away.  I collected my breath inside my lungs before shooting up and searching out for my enemy.  I felt his ki off to my right.  I squinted, and sure enough I spotted my Saiba-buddy running a circle around me, trying to flank me, or something.

            Suddenly he zanzokened out of view, and I tried desperately to pick up his ki.  I did late, and it cost me, he was only ten metres to my left.  I was amazed at his speed, and I barely managed to evade his onslaught.  He slashed and hacked with amazing ferocity.  On one of his lunges, I was force to jump backwards leaving my legs in front of me.  He slashed at my chest, and his body was right over my legs, so I took advantage of my position.

            I had enough time to lower my foot slightly and then savagely bring it up.  It connected with his chest again, and he was sent flying into the air.  I finished my fall backwards and pushed myself into the air with my hands.  I was going much slower than him so I speeded my ascent with the help of bukujutsu. He was disoriented in the air so I used a bit of my energy to zanzoken right in front of him.

            His small beady eyes opened wide, and I punched him as hard as I could right in-between them.  He was barely pushed back by the blow, but I followed it up with a rabbit punch to his chest and a roundhouse kick to his temple.

            The kick propelled him through the air, off to my left and a good fifty metres away.  I didn’t go after him, instead taking the small lull in the action to catch my breath.  He halted himself in mid-air and stared down at me, a small dent in his forehead.

            The fight up to that point had been going mostly in my favour, but he decided to change all that with a very slick move.  He sort of powered up, gaining more and more ki energy, for almost twenty seconds.  I let him, for what reason? I have no idea; looking back it was a stupid and foolish mistake.

            In one split second he was gone.  He completely vanished from view, and I lost all trace of his ki.  I frantically searched high and low, but he was nowhere to be found.  Then suddenly something came from behind me and hit me in the back.  I was propelled forward through the air as I turned to face what I assumed to be the Saibaman.  There was nothing there, and I still had no sense of his ki.

            I began to panic slightly.  No sooner did I begin, than I thought I caught something out of the corner of my eye, down and to the right.  I turned to face it, but just as I did so something struck me extremely hard in my chest.  I was rocked upwards, and clasped my arms around my chest to comfort the amazing pain that was now in them.

            I frantically searched again, but found nothing; I still couldn’t see my attacker.  The next time he passed I managed to begin to feel his ki, and tried to move my head, but failed and was struck in the jaw with what felt like a foot.  My body followed shortly after my head in a less than epic descent to the ground.

            After I’d crashed into the ground, I shook my head to clear the little black spots that were clouding my vision and then spat out some brand new blood from the inside of my mouth.  I whipped my head around to face the sky above me and whatever it was that I was fighting.

            I had no idea the Saibaman could move fast enough to avoid detection from me.  It didn’t seem fair, if I’d just prevented him from powering up, I knew I wouldn’t have been in this shit.  Suddenly a memory propped in my head.  It was from a while back, maybe six months ago, when he was trying to teach me the Zanzoken technique for the first time.

            I knew I didn’t really have time to take a trip down memory lane, but I did it anyways.  I remembered Master Roshi zanzokening out of view right in front of me.  I couldn’t even see him blur out of view like I usually could.  I suddenly felt his ki behind me and I turned and asked him how he could move fast enough that I couldn’t see.  He replied saying that if I allowed myself to watch with an “un-moving eye” I would be able to see him zanzoken.

            I thought “Why not?” And went for it.  I stared at absolutely nothing, just the blue expanse known as the sky.  For several seconds, nothing.  Then, I thought I could hear that now familiar hissing sound that the Saibaman made.  It didn’t come from any one real spot, but from seemingly all around.  I continued to stare into nothingness, until finally, I began to pick up what seemed like flashes of light, snapping around my vision.  To begin I could barely tell the blurs apart from the sky, but after another second or two, they took on the familiar green tone of the Saibaman.

            Apparently my methods for spotting were far too in efficient for my opponent, and he didn’t mind taking advantage of my motionless position.  He smacked me from behind, planting my face into the ground again, and then fired a small ki blast into my exposed back.

            I was pushed down into the soil, the skin on my back singing away.  I opened my mouth to scream in pain, but I ate only dirt.  After what seemed like an eternity of pain, I managed to get up and spit out the earth.  My body was racked with pain, but I knew I couldn’t lose, not now.

            I pulled my body up from the gutter and continued to look with un-moving eyes.  I heard the Saibaman right away, and within a second or two, I could see the flashes of green skin.  I was un-wavering, and I then realized that my green opponent was just toying with me.  He could’ve struck me at any second, but he wanted to play with his catch first.

            I smiled, that would be his biggest mistake.  I tried to clear my mind of all impurities, so that my focus was steady.  Once I did I saw him.  I saw every movement he made, every motion he attempted.  He was flying circles around me, at amazing speeds, as if he was always zanzokening.  I waited patiently till he began heading in a straight direction, and then I struck.

            I zanzokened right in front of him, and he froze in place ahead of me.  I stared him down and he took a few hesitant steps back.  I don’t know if Saibaman have confidence or even consciousness, but I had a feeling they had fear.  I knew from that point on the fight was mine to win.

            I lunged straight for the Saibaman, and sure enough he placed his arms up in defence of his body, but his arms were what I was lunging for.  I grabbed his right forearm with my left hand and flung him into the air.  He easily adjusted in mid-flight and was preparing a ki-blast for me while still ascending.  I didn’t just let him fire it at me though, before it was even ready, I zanzokened behind him and kicked him off to the side again.

            I could tell that rapid, non-stop zanzokening had taken a lot out of his body; he didn’t even see me get behind him or even try and dodge or block my kick.   I flew after his limping body, getting under him and punching him in the stomach.

            He flew upwards from the recoil of the punch, and I took the opportunity to power up some ki in my hands.  I concentrated all my power to my hands until they felt ready to explode with energy, and then yelled out “Renzoku!!” and released the ki power from my hands.

            Of course because he was in the air, he had the chance to dodge a lot of the little Renzoku energy blasts, but I did nail him a few times before he zanzokened out of my line of fire.  It didn’t matter, I’d used up all my available energy in that flurry, so I was probably going to have to brave it hand-to-hand.

            I caught him in the weeds on the ground a few seconds later, his skin acted as a great camouflage.  I flew down towards him, sweeping in at a low angle so I’d be right in front of him for just a second.  As I thought he would, he whipped out another claw towards me right as I came into range.

            I zanzokened behind him right as his out-stretched claw was brushing my head.  When I reappeared behind him, I kneed him in the back, raising him off the ground, and causing him to spit a white substance (blood, saliva?) from his mouth.  Right as I brought my hammer-locked hands down on his head soon after, he made the strangest sound I’d ever heard from him.  It was sort of like a whimper a scared dog makes; only it had the same gurgling that had always come from the Saibaman.

            It completely disgusted me, and right then I felt the same rage to wipe him from the face of the planet as when we started the fight.  He fell to the floor, his body covered in soot, that white substance, and black bruises.  I took a few deep breaths as he rose from the ground again; all that zanzokening had taken its toll on me.  After a while he turned to me, his claws clenching and then un-clenching into fists, his whole body heaving with just the struggle to breath.

            Suddenly he whipped his hands towards me, claws open.  I hopped back quickly, avoiding them, and retaliated by jumping into the air with a slight backwards angle.  The Saibaman lunged at me, but just as he came to me, I pushed a small bit of ki into my foot and shouted, “Dynamite Kick!”  as I shot straight at him, and drove my ki-immersed foot into his face.  I thought the collision was enough to kill him, but I could still feel his ki as he went flying at maybe 200 miles per hour into one of the mountains far away.

            I knew I was strong, but I didn’t think I could whip him around like that.  I vaguely saw a cloud of dust and rock pieces rise up from where he crashed into the mountain.  Once I touched to the ground, I set off after him at my full speed run.  I was at the mountain in just a few seconds, and sensed his ki near-by.  He was just pulling him-self out of the mountainside, a really pissed off look on his ugly face.  I smiled, don’t know why, but this was becoming fun.

            I lunged at him again, and punched with an out-stretched arm where his head was.  He narrowly evaded my strike, which shattered more of the mountain, and with my appendage sticking out like that; it left a wide opening in my torso.  The Saibaman noticed this too, and slashed violently at my stomach, ripping off most of my shirt, and tearing through several layers of skin.

            Blood began pumping from the wound almost instantly, and instinctively I covered it with my left (free hand).  Seeing that I’d lost my concentration, my opponent grabbed onto my right (extended) forearm and dug his claws in, searing the flesh and pumping even more crimson liquid out.

            I screamed as my pain receptors went off like crazy, and my vision began going out on me.  I couldn’t, no, I wouldn’t, let myself die now.  Just as I assured myself of this, the most disgusting, annoying, and mind-blowing sound pounded itself into my ears.

            It sounded like someone was running over a million cats all at once, all screaming at the top of their small lungs.  My vision returned and I saw that the black and blue face of the Saibaman was nodding up and down, his mouth open.  I then realized it was laughing, it had thought it’d won.

            I gritted my teeth, and yelled out in agony, hate and fear.  I brought my legs together underneath me, pushed them together, and then shot them straight at the fucking piece of crap’s head.  My feet and his head connected with a SMACK the likes of which I’d never heard before.

            He was blasted high above me, towards the top of the mountain.  I flew after him, going full speed, the adrenaline, the hate running through me until all I could see was him laughing.  I caught up to him no problem, and punched him once in the stomach, crashing him into the mountain again.  I turned to my side, so my right hip faced him, brought my leg up and just started kicking him as hard as I could.

            I went full speed, and I must’ve kicked him sixty or seventy times, driving him at least 10 metres into the width of the mountain.  I flew into the newly created hole, dragged him out and flung him to the ground, his limp body falling like a feather.  That wasn’t fast enough for me, so I flew to his body, and hammered him towards the ground with both hands.  He crashed into the ground and sent a cloud of dirt, dust and grass flying for several metres.

            I was swooping in for the finishing blow as he was trying to get up, when suddenly he stuck his foot out and drove it right into my throat.  The blow slightly crushed my voice box, and for several seconds, as I dropped to the ground and stumbled away, I couldn’t breathe.  Finally after maybe half a minute I began to take in oxygen again, but my lapse had allowed my green buddy to get back to his feet and regain some composure.

            I hopped away from him, so we were 50 metres apart.  Both of us were tired beyond belief, my muscles were absolute stone.  I couldn’t believe the Saibaman though, he was still conscious after the beating I’d given him.  My anger for him was replaced by respect, and as soon as I accepted that I realized what I needed to do.

            I took in a breath, the air pushing down the adrenaline, as I brought my hands to my hips and began focusing my ki.  “Ka------“ I began as I closed my eyes (not usually a smart move, but the Saibaman was still wobbly) and pushed all the energy I had left into my V-shaped palms.

            I began then to remember what Master Roshi had said.  Be at peace with all things around you, and be at peace with yourself.  “me-----“ I bellowed, the energy rushing through my body faster than ever.  I was sort of at peace with the Saibaman, but I wasn’t sure about myself.

            “Ha------“ There was something missing, something that made me sure of myself and all the living things around me, and I only had a very small time to find the thing.  My ki was forming into a ball in my palms now, I was running out of time.

            I racked my mind, what was it, what was the thing that set me at peace with myself?  “me-----“ I screamed through clenched teeth as I thought deeply.  My energy was completely ready now, I just needed to finish it off.

            I began to raise my hands, unsure if I would release the full power of the Kamehameha.  I was about half-way to putting my hands in front of me and releasing the energy when it flashed inside my head.  I don’t know why it didn’t come to me sooner.

            I saw her not the way she was in the picture that I kept under my bed, but how I saw her the last time I left her.  She was asleep, on the couch in her living room, her hair was tousled, her mouth hung open slightly, but her beauty and elegance was still astounding.  For the split second that I saw that memory in my mind, I felt invigorated.

            “HAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed so loudly I felt like my lungs would explode.  I released my beam, it’s power almost through me back, it was at least ten times the width of my body, and at least twice as high.  I’d never felt power like that before.  It’s blue tint reminded me of her some how, and as soon as I struck the Saibaman with the attack, I knew it was over.

            After I lost all traces of the Saibaman’s ki, I ended the beam, and fell to the ground in exhaustion.  I heard someone running up from behind me, but I recognized the soft steps as Master Roshi’s.  I tried to push myself up, but I’d lost too much blood, my right arm felt like it was going to fall off, and I couldn’t find any strength anywhere in my body.

            Master Roshi came up beside me and kneeled beside me, asking “Are you alright?”

            I figured it was rhetorical, so I didn’t answer.  He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small seed.  “Here eat this.”

            Another Senzu Bean I figured, so I quickly snatched it from his palm and crunched it down.  Sure enough, in a few seconds, all my strength returned to me, and I felt really good.  I was still sore and everything, but I was doing well none the less.

            “Thanks Master Roshi!” I exclaimed.

            He just nodded, and then turned and asked me “Do you know what you did Cris?”

            I was wondering that myself, but I didn’t know so I replied “No, not really.”

            “You did it.  You used the Kamehameha’s full power.”  I stood there, and somehow I knew it was true.  I didn’t know exactly what to say, but Mater Roshi did.  “So do you know what that means?”

            I answered truthfully “No.”

            He turned back to me, and I thought I saw some tears falling from under his glasses.  “It means I have nothing more to teach you.  You’re training under me is complete.”  I just nodded; I seemed frozen in place there.  “Tomorrow I’ll take you to Karin tower, from there you can go to Sky Palace and begin your training under Kami.”

            I nodded thinking:  Hopefully tomorrow will be easier than today.