Ugly was the first word that ran through my mind when I first saw Yush transform.  The second was hideous; I admit, my vocabulary is slightly limited.

            I stared in a unique blend of horror and surprise as Yush’s body metamorphosised before my eyes.  I knew I probably shouldn’t have given him the time he needed to transform, but my body and mind weren’t quite on the same page.  In fact, the entire battle hadn’t just been fought between Yush and I, it was also between my body and mind.  While I saw every movement Yush made, anticipated every attack he attempted; my mind and body just didn’t interlock the way my previous pairs had.  My movements were sluggish, uncoordinated and listless.  My strength, speed and stamina were all higher than Yush’s (untransformed) at Kaioken times ten, and I knew I should’ve been able to dominate the Caprian, but for some reason, my body didn’t act or react as quickly as my mind.  As it stood, the only reason Yush was matching up to me was his speed.  Almost all of his fighting ability was in his mind-numbing speed, which nearly matched my own.  He and I both knew that if it came down to a match of strength, there would be no contest.

            So up until his transformation, he had kept all our encounters quick and snappy, as to give me no chance to exert my strength advantage.  As soon as he changed though, the entire battle changed.

            His eyes were no longer tainted by fear or foreboding after the transformation, instead they were bastions of vigilance and independence, a dark contrast to say the least.  I store down into those eyes, praying for a seed of doubt to lay hidden within them.  As I gazed into my opponent’s eyes, I found he was doing the same.  We floated in the air for perhaps a minute, each of us glaring at the other, both of us seeking some sort of mental advantage; finding none.

            I guess I was the first one to break the stare-down, but he was the first one to act.  I hovered there, mentally trying to gauge his power level, which I figured to be well above a million, leaving myself completely open to his attack.

            The fist came before I had a chance to conjugate a thought of defence, much less implement one with my non-cohesive mind and body.  His teal, meaty knuckle placed itself directly into my nose, then quickly retracted itself.  I can’t describe the sensation of seeing your nose breaking before your very own eyes, its something you have to experience for yourself.

            I brought my hands up in defence immediately afterwards, using them to shelter my broken bone; the river of blood and immense pain coming soon afterwards.  Rather than making the mistake of giving him another unguarded shot, I made sure to keep my eyes on his chest, where I could keep track of all his limbs.  He was still just staring at me, his fearless eyes now having their way with me.  My cupped hands were soon overflowing with blood, the pain in my nose gradually receding with each second.  I dropped my hands from under my nose, releasing a small lake of crimson red liquid to the ground, and whipped my hands into a combat position.

            “You better be ready to pay for that.”  I muttered, more to myself than my nemesis.  He made no response, simply continued to bore his way into my mind.  It was starting to get on my nerves how little this soldier spoke, almost like he’d been trained not to.

            Suddenly something inside of me told me he was going to strike again, so I made sure not to give him the chance.  I shot forward, and as fast as I could, I sent a flood of punches and kicks at him.  I was strangely surprised when I found it much harder to lay a hand on him than before.  I continued my assault, but soon discovered he moved so quickly I couldn’t even touch him; he deftly avoided every strike I attempted, all with seemingly the greatest of ease.

            After only a dozen seconds I became extremely frustrated at my weakness and lack of speed.  Almost right after that though, I realized it wasn’t my lack of quickness that led to my pointless battering, it was the increase in his.  His speed, which had previously been just slightly below my own, was now well above any pace I could match.

            Even as I discovered the futility of my efforts, I continued, if not redoubled them.  Wave after wave of fists and feet I sent flying at Yush, all in the vain hope a single blow would land.  Soon though my attacks became more and more uncoordinated, as I concentrated more on speed than any set plan of attack.  And so, the mistake Yush had obviously been waiting for presented itself rather quickly.

            A jab of mine sailed just to the left of Yush’s head, and since he didn’t have to move to avoid the attack, he had a split second chance to mount his own assault.  He lowered himself in the air, a foot at the most, and then whipped his fist into my abdomen.  Luckily my stomach muscles were flexed and the blow didn’t cause any serious injury, but it did give me grounds to double over in pain, almost automatically.  He saw the opening and pounced on it, flying above me at almost light speed, then kicking me viciously in the back and sending me to the ground at suicidal speeds.

            After the floor and I had met each other’s acquaintances, I was nearly immobile from pain.  My back, face, stomach and chest all burned with a stinging pain, all of them rendering me inert on the ground, my limbs twisted astrew at my sides and on top of me.  Being in such an uncomfortable position gave me no chance to prevent Yush from slowly floating down next to me.  As I lay on my chest in slowly retreating agony, I thought he would certainly pounce, striking me in my weakened state and finishing the fight.  Instead though, he simply stood over me, his arms crossed, his eyes locked onto me.  He watched in complete silence as I slowly pushed myself up from the ground, spitting out blood and holding back the urge to scream in pain, and as I turned to face him, he just looked into my eyes and said “What, no quick response this time?”

            Now it was my turn to be completely silent, as I found myself bafflingly at a complete loss for words.  He was really starting to open up on me, and I began to wonder how much longer I could hold out.  Then I realized there was nothing to hold out for, no other fighter to aid me should I fail.  I was the last hope against these Caprians, the last chance humanity, no the universe, had for salvation.  If I failed, there would be only death and destruction.  It was a heavy burden, but a part of me almost greeted the challenge, like it was what I’d been born to face; and in reality, it was.

            Even as I recognized all this, I couldn’t get past the primeval urge of ripping Yush’s damned eyes out of his head and spitting in the empty vacancies they left.  Deciding then would be as good of a time to strike as any, I whipped my left hand straight at the Caprian captain’s head.  Before it reached its target though, Yush had nimbly brought his own hand up from across his chest and caught my fist in his right palm.  Before I could begin to think, Yush had counter-attacked, sending his free hand straight at my chest.  Fortunately my right hand was already close by, and I managed to instinctively bring it into the path of his fist, clasping his appendage in my hand before it could connect with my torso.

            So with our hands clamped onto each other’s, we both instantly realized what was next; the simple test of strength I’d taken for granted just a while ago.  I pushed forward with all my strength, and he pushed with all of his.  I used every part of my anatomy I could, my back, legs, arms and even my ass were thrown into the mix; and from the looks of Yush, he too quickly implemented his full strength.  His already huge muscles seemed to expand more as he exerted his entire body in the hopes of overpowering me.  For two or three seconds, neither of us moved an inch as our muscles pressed against one another.  Quickly though my arms grew tired and heavy, then my already injured back began to throb and give way.  Soon Yush had pushed my arms back nearly a foot, so that they were awfully close to my chest.  As we continued to hurl as much as we could into each other, my back began to bend backward, and I realized Yush was beginning to overpower me.  It seemed that his power had increased far more than even his speed after the transformation, so now the tables were turned, and he had the huge strength advantage.  Still, I pushed with all my might, not wanting to give any sort of victory to this damn Caprian; at least, not without a fight.   Beads of sweat, mingled with pieces of blood poured their way down my forehead, dripping across my eyes, intoxicating my nose with their sultry stench.

            Soon though, I realized Yush was going to break my back and earn the victory if I didn’t do something swiftly.  He already had my spine bent backwards after only half a minute and I let out a scream of pain as my spinal cord cracked under the pressure.  For a split second I considered raising my Kaioken multiple to a point where my strength would be greater than Yush’s, but before I could implement the manuever, Yush pulled a quick one on me.

            Before I comprehended what was happening, all of Yush’s resistance disappeared, and since I was pushing blindly with all my strength, I literally fell forward, right onto Yush.  As I fell, the Caprian pulled me forward, so I was falling almost horizontally.  Sooner than I could react, Yush struck, thrusting both of his feet straight up into my stomach.  The contact caused me to lose my grip on his fist, and I was thrown high into the air from the kick.

            While I soared through the sky, I lost all sense of direction as I wrapped my arms around my injured stomach.  I slowly reached the top of my climb and was content to float there, catch my breath, and regain my orientation.  My tunic was now torn to shreds by the wear and tear of the battle, and since it offered no real protection anyways, I tore it off my torso and flung it lack-lustrely to the ground.  My entire body was stiff and sore with pain, but I already knew the end of my hurting wouldn’t come unless I could devise a plan of attack against this transformed monster.  My choices were few, and none of them very preferable.  The one that seemed predominant was to just raise Kaioken to a higher level, but I feared what it would do to my body.

            The fusion had made me strong, to a level beyond anything either Cris or Triono had ever experienced, and as such, I had no idea how far my new body could go.  I knew I had yet to push it to its limits, but I was scared that I would go beyond those borders in my haste to win the battle, and in the process kill myself and end up losing the conflict.  It was a fine line I had to walk, between self-destruction and triumph, and I felt like I was being forced to walk it with a blindfold.  One thing was certain at that point however; Kaioken utilised at the ten level was not going to cut it.  I doubted eleven or twelve would really be that much more useful, but I couldn’t decide if anything above that would leave me anything left after I used it.  For a few moments, I hung in the air, trying to decide what multiple I would be able to up Kaioken to, when the little alarm every great warrior has in the back of his or her head began to go off like crazy.  I abruptly realized I was a sitting duck, just waiting to be shot, and I didn’t even have the slightest idea where my hunter lurked.  I hysterically scanned for Yush’s ki signature, and quickly found it.  Unfortunately, it was right in front of me by the time I’d tracked it down.

            Yush didn’t waste a single movement, I had to give him that, he was almost like the perfect fighting machine.  His snap kick to my right knee was so fluid I was almost mesmerized by its beauty.  When he elbowed me hard in the head though, my vision was wiped away, and all I saw was a hazy blackness.  Because of my sudden blindness, I didn’t see the quick and swift blow that connected with my chest and upper abs, all I know was that it knocked the wind right out of me, and sent my body slowly back to the ground.

            My landing was slightly more gentle than the previous one, but I was in so much pain I couldn’t really tell the difference.  I knew that if Yush landed another set of attacks on me, the fight would be all but finished, and I wouldn’t be able to implement my increase in Kaioken even if I wanted to, so I made sure to track his ki signature while I lay recuperating on the grass and dirt.  He remained in the air, descending just slightly at a leisurely pace, resting in the air about a hundred metres away and about ten metres above the ground.  I shook my head, sending blood from my cut temple and busted lip scattering across the soil, trying to clear my vision to a point where I could see my opponent once again.  My entire body screeched for me to just lie down there and give up, but for once, my mind held control over my physical form.  I gradually raised myself up from the ground, my vision clearing with every passing moment, and before long, I was standing on my own two feet, gazing intently up and towards Yush.

            Our eyes caught onto one another’s for a split second, and I made sure to pour the utmost confidence into my glare, it was my turn to rule now.  I spread my legs to shoulder-width, brought my arms up from my sides, disengaged Kaioken for a few moments, to allow my body time to rest, took in, and slowly released a deep breath, and then shouted out, “Kaioken times fifteen!”

            Why I chose fifteen?  I don’t know, maybe it just seemed like the most obvious step up from ten, or maybe I figured subconsciously it was the highest level I could sufficiently maintain.  Whatever the reason, I had no idea what number I would yell out when I opened my mouth; just let whatever happen, happen.  As soon as I uttered the magical words though, I instantly felt the effects.  My muscles, absolutely every single one of them, popped, like some sort of bag had just been shot full with a blast of air.  It hurt like hell as my skin was stretched in order to fit the expanding muscles, and the muscles themselves pressed against my bones, shoving my organs around like they were some sort of useless sports balls.  My pants and belt were stretched by my increasing muscles, to the point where I thought they would burst off.  My earrings were thrown upwards by the explosion of power, and it felt like they were going to be ripped off my head.  The red aura that always accompanied Kaioken seemed to explode around me, ripping the ground beneath my feet to shreds, and illuminating all the rocks and shrubs that weren’t destroyed with a light reddish glow.  I stood there, imbedded into the ground for a few seconds, making sure that I hadn’t self destructed, and that I could actually move in my new form.  My body felt like it was going to burst at any second, but the surge of power that rushed through me recharged me to a point I’ll never forget.  It got to such a point where I didn’t feel the pain any more, didn’t sense the skin ripping apart in front of my very eyes, where I didn’t even care if I survived or not, I just needed to fight.

            I shot away from the ground as fast I could, straight towards my heated rival.  His face was no longer free of fear; it was now riddled with it.  I almost felt like laughing in the split second it took me to cover the distance between us, laughing at how once again the tides had turned, in my favour.  When I reached him, he swung a wild hook at my head, I easily ducked under it, and with all the momentum of my short flight behind me, I let fly a fist into his stomach.  He was almost cut in half from the punch, which bent him forward at an irregular angle, and left his head as a target too tempting to resist.  I shot up from my position just below his head, driving my own skull right into his jaw.  The contact whipped his neck up and propelled him upwards slightly, so he was we were at the same eye level.  I followed up the strike with a hook to his left temple.  That blow hurled him sideways through the air, where he came to a rest almost half a kilometre away.

             He lashed himself around in mid-air to face me, his jaw set at a lopsided position, his eyes bloodshot, and his muscles convulsing involuntarily.  I couldn’t wait for him to make any sort of a movement, I needed to feel his skin again, to feel his bones breaking by my hand, to see the pain in his face once again, so I fired myself straight at him, fearing nothing.   I was about half way to him, when suddenly his hand flashed at me, and I felt a surge of ki from his direction.  Luckily, Kaioken enhanced my vision to the point where I saw the beam coming towards me before it was actually upon me.  I don’t remember telling myself to zanzoken out of the beam’s deadly course, but I did it nonetheless.  I do remember reappearing directly to Yush’s left, and I do recall the absolute terror that was stuck to his face, as he realized he was now outmatched, that I was the superior warrior.

            I had time to wind my right leg up by turning my hips to the right, and then using as much leverage as I could get, I drove my leg right into Yush’s open stomach.  Whatever air remained in Yush’s lungs was soon exhausted, as my blow crushed his lungs.  If it wasn’t for the fact he was thrown through the air again, the kick might’ve even killed him.  His body had already been through a lot, and though he didn’t seem to have any adverse physical pain from his transformation, I was fairly sure it put at least a bit of strain on his body.  After the kick though, he just sort of sailed through the air, making no movements at all, like he was paralysed or something.  I’m not sure to this day if he was just trying to lure me into a trap, or was just plain injured, but I do know that either way, my best plan for attack was a long distance one.

            I brought my hands up, raising them above my head and opening them so the palms faced the sky.  I placed the left one right beside the right, and began charging all the ki energy I could into my hands.  My red aura dimmed slightly as the power was transferred from the air around me into a small ball of ki in my hands.  It’d been a long time since I’d used this move in a battle, almost a year and a half, which seemed like a lot longer because I had the memories of two people’s year and a half running through my mind.  Soon the ball of red ki energy began to grow, and after a few seconds, I’d completed gathering the required power.  I looked out into the sky, finding Yush just as he was halting himself in the air and turning to face me.   I could feel the energy crackling in the air above my head, and as soon as I was sure I had a bead on Yush, I screamed out “Tasaranko!” and whipping my hands back quickly and then lashing them forward, hurled the ball of energy straight towards the Caprian fighter.

            I was half expecting Yush to just fly out of the path of the slow-moving attack, but to my pleasant surprise, he was either too stupid to just evade it, or he was intent to salvage some piece of his pride.  Little did he know that even the lowest powered Tasaranko could equal the destructive power of an atom bomb.  Triono had specifically designed it so that he could use it, as a last resort, to destroy the Earth.  Since I was fighting to prevent such a thing from happening this time, I didn’t put quite that much explosive power into it, but the ball of ki was still highly volatile, and there was no way Yush, or anyone else, could touch it without setting it off.

            The Caprian commander valiantly waited until the Tasaranko was right before him, and then with his left palm, attempted to swat it away.  The instant his skin and the covering of the energy ball made contact, the people in the city must’ve thought a new sun had been created.  To say it was loud and bright would be a serious understatement.  More like ear splitting and brilliantly stunning.  A huge red sphere of ki expanded exponentially from the collision point in less than a second, eventually creating an orb of flame-red energy the size of a farmer’s field, turning the sky a dull red colour. I was forced to undo Kaioken for fear my finely tuned eyes and ears would be permanently damaged by the extreme sensory bombardment. The explosion had so much excess ki I was thrown far away from my original starting position, almost four hundred metres into the air.  I lost Yush’s ki sign in the explosion, droned out in the sudden and massive upsurge of energy.  I doubted anything within a five hundred-metre radius that wasn’t tough as nails was incinerated in that blast, cremated into nothing but dust particles and small pieces of hardened carbon.  Once I managed to hold my position in the air, I waited out the blast, which lasted for almost half a minute.  When the ki finally began to dissipate as it dissolved into the air to be spread amongst the living things of the planet, I looked down at the ground as the glowing embers of ki finally burned their way out of existence.  A crater the size of which I’d never seen before is what greeted my eyes.  It was at least four football fields in diameter, completely circular, and went down maybe fifty feet into the ground.  It was truly a sight to behold, but I didn’t see the almost destructive beauty of the spectacle at first, I was more impressed by what was within it.

            There, standing in the middle of the gigantic crater, was Yush.  I had to rub my eyes for a few seconds before I could believe it myself, but it was true, Yush not only survived the huge blast, he had survived it standing.  His entire body looked badly worn out, his back and chest were covered in cuts, bruises and welts which covered practically every inch of his body, his left knee was nearly popping out of its socket, and his face; well, I’d rather not get into his face.  Still, he stood, and I knew I had to give him some credit; he sure was one tough motherfucker.

            But that blast had taken quite a bit of my ki, and I would need some time to recover enough energy to mount another assault.  At the same time, if I gave Yush too much time to work with, he could muster up his own strength to a point where he could do some more serious damage.  I decided I couldn’t let him have that opportunity, that I needed to do as much damage as I could at once, while he was already on the ropes.  I quickly powered up to Kaioken times fifteen again, felt the now familiar stretching of my epidermis, saw the burning red ki aura spring up around me, and then I headed for Yush at full speed.

            He saw me coming just a split second before I could’ve had a chance to strike him unmolested. Instead of striking immediately and just hoping I could land a hit or two, I decided to try a different approach.  I flew right in front of the Caprian, landing in a crouch just a few feet ahead of Yush.  I looked up at him, and he looked down at me.  My thick aura prevented me from seeing his entire face, but I saw enough.  His eyes were no longer scared of me, no longer terrified or concerned about me.  I looked harder; deeper to make sure what I was witnessing was correct.  That’s when I found it. 

Almost hidden within those eyes I found the one thing I feared the most; a small glimmer of confidence, an almost camouflaged piece of hope and optimism that seemed to be in the very core of his eyes.  I had no idea if the confidence was genuine, or some other emotion just trying to masquerade as self-assurance, but in any case, it scared the hell out of me.  I couldn’t let Yush have that confidence, the doorway to victory, at least, not if I wanted to survive that day.  As soon as I gazed upon that tiny stronghold of expectation, I was almost overcome with the need to pound Yush into the ground, into defeat.

            I roared a battle cry, and shot straight at his legs.  From the ground, I did a sweeping kick aimed towards his left knee.  He dexterously hopped above the kick, but I had been ready for that, and before he could mount an attack of his own, I had clamped my right hand into a fist, and using my legs as the source of power, I drove the fist straight into his jaw with an uppercut.

            The blow launched him into the air, so high that I had trouble seeing him in the brightness of the early afternoon.  I tracked his now weakening ki signature though, and quickly flew towards him, my ruby red aura leaving behind a trail of surplus ki energy.   As I neared him, he gained control of his loosely flailing body, and whipped around to face me.  He had a ball of energy in each hand, and was already beginning to wind up to throw the first one when I was coming close to him.  Before he could get the chance to fire either of the blasts at me, I zanzokened right in front of him.

            He first attempted to move his hand to an angle where he could hit me with the ball of energy, but I snapped onto both of his forearms with my hands and held them in place.  He pushed with all his super-human might, but I was stronger than he was now, he stood no chance at overpowering me, and I told him so, “Don’t struggle, you’ll only waste your energy.” I half whispered, half shouted to him.

            As usual, he didn’t reply in words, just actions.  He continued to push with as much strength as he could muster, while I just firmly clung to his arms, holding them in position.  He even let out a scream of exertion, but soon afterwards the ki balls in his hands disappeared, his arms gave less and less resistance and he even said, “All right, I bow to.”

            I tried to look quizzically into his eyes, unsure of whether he was bluffing or not, but he held his head down so I couldn’t even get a glimpse of them.  That should’ve been my first indication that he was lying, but for some reason it just didn’t register in my mind.  Eventually his arms went limp, and I loosened my grip just slightly as I began to contemplate whether to believe him or not.  As soon as I made that small little slip, he struck.

            His arms slithered out of my grasp before I realized what was happening, and as I made a vain attempt to grab them once again, my arms were knocked aside by his own in a double out-block.  This left my chest wide open, and it didn’t take long for him to yell out, “Hookarama!”  And fire a huge blast of ki energy from both of his hands, straight into my torso.

            I think I blacked out after the blast and on the way to the ground.  All I know is that pure blackness consumed me, and when it finally dissipated, I was on the ground, on my stomach, with Yush rocketing towards me from the air.  My mind screamed for me to do something to save myself.  And for the only time that entire day, my mind and body worked as one.  I gathered the energy I needed in less than a second, and just as I turned around, Yush was at most ten metres away, and flying full speed towards me.  I shot both of my hands up, completely open so each finger and thumb stuck out, placed both of them next to their respective temples, closed my eyes and yelled, “Solar Flare!”

            I have no idea how I performed that move; I’d never practiced it as either Cris or Triono, and I really had almost no idea how I managed to perform it.  The burning hot white light poured forth from all around me, and as soon as I had expelled all the energy I had, I made sure my eyes were clamped shut, and then flew away from the scene of the blinding light.

            Once I was half a kilometre away, the light began to dissipate, and I heard Yush crying out in agony as his eyes were burned into by the white hot flash of brightness.  I spotted a small rock ledge onto which I could perch, and once I did so, I disengaged Kaioken.  It felt like a wave of peace had been washed over my body, as my muscles detracted to their normal sizes, and my aura disintegrated all around me.  It was only then that I realized how much a strain I must’ve been putting on my body.  It felt like I’d been training non-stop for my entire life, and after all that some sort of huge ki blast had just hit me.  Just the thought of using Kaioken again sent a ripple of pain through my body, and I hoped for Kami’s sake that Yush would just surrender or retreat back to his Caprian army.

            I watched through squinted eyes as Yush practically ripped at his face in pain.  I had no idea what he was going through, but I knew it was all for the better.  I made sure to catch as much of my breath as I could, while Yush just frantically tried to restore his vision.  It must’ve taken him almost two minutes to do so, but when he finally regained his ability to see, he just slowly turned to face me.  His entire body, especially his jaw and eyebrow muscles were twitching uncontrollably, like some maniac killer.  He was grinding his remaining teeth so hard I could hear it, and his fists were clenched so tightly his fingernails had pierced his skin and his palms were bleeding.  Finally he screamed out, “Fuck it all!  Fuck Earth!  Fuck the Dragon balls!  Fuck everything god damnit!  This place is going bye-bye you goddamned pieces of trash!”

            I was taken aback by his sudden outburst, but I had almost sensed it coming.  He may of very well had much more to say than he ever let on, but it seemed like he was almost afraid that if he said something someone would come and beat the crap out of him.  But since that was already done, I guess he had nothing to worry about, and had let his thoughts flow out of him.  I didn’t particularly like the message, but I was sure it was nothing I couldn’t handle.

            At least, I was sure.  When he flew high into the air, right above me, I wasn’t quite certain what to make of it.  When I felt a sudden and significant up rise in his ki though, I began to get the idea.  He brought both of his open hands up to his forehead, and instantly began concentrating his ki energy into his palms.  A small, yellow ball of ki began to form in his palms, and I suddenly thought, “This seems somewhat familiar.”

            I took in a final deep breath before beginning my own charge up of ki.  “Kaioken times fifteen!”  I shouted out once again, and once more had the sensation of my skin being ripped apart send itself to my brain.  My emerald aura of power flickered to life around me, as I felt my ki power rise to fifteen times its normal limit.  “Yes,” I remember thinking, “this is all too familiar.”

            I fought with my arms until the bottom of my palms were connected right next to my right hip, and began centring all of the energy that remained in my body into that one point.  The stream of energy began to flow through me, as if it was my blood, and before long I had created a ki ball very similar to Yush’s.  “Ka----” I yelled out, announcing the words I’d need to in order to perform the attack Cris had perfected so long ago, and had since passed onto me.

             Yush’s ball of yellow ki was gradually growing larger, and within a few seconds it was almost as large as his hands.  I continued garnering my energy, undaunted by the Caprian’s manuever.  “Me-------“ I continued, as the energy within me continued to pour towards my palms.  “Hame----------“ I yelled out, wanting nothing but to expel this now huge mass of ki that rested in my hands.

            Yush and I both finished pushing our power to its max, and as soon as I had all but released my beam, he screamed the magic words, brought his arms down to his waist, and fired the huge yellow beam straight towards me, “This is it!  Masenkooo!”

            If my mind had not been occupied at the moment, I would’ve perhaps realized the significance of him using Son Gohan’s old attack, but I had more important things to worry about right then, like firing my own beam.  “Ha!!!!!!!!!!”  I absoloutely hollered, as I threw my hands up, and shoved with all my strength my beam right into the path of Yush’s yellow shaft of light.

            A clash of kis is something most people would not like to recall.  It’s sort of like total ecstasy locked and devoured by the thought that at any moment you would be swallowed by your opponents beam and disintegrated into dust.  The exertion needed to maintain and (even more so) win a battle of ki beams would be enough to drive most people to the brink of insanity, if not beyond.  The instant our beams met halfway the distance between us, the struggle began.  The struggle not only to beat the one another, but to actually survive the stress you put on your own body in such a meeting.

            I pumped all the force I could into my red beam of energy, which was at least ten metres in diameter, and was actually a bit bigger than Yush’s beam.  I was somewhat surprised when the rock I was standing on held under the immense pressure, but after all, most of, if not all the stress was put on the combatant’s bodies, not on the area surrounding them.  It seemed at the beginning that our two beams were equally matched, but after a few seconds, I felt Yush’s beam give way ever so slightly, and then a few seconds later, it wavered again.  After nearly half a minute, it felt as though I was going to win, that I would hit Yush with my beam and send him careening into the other dimension.  I even gained a few feet of leverage on Yush before long, but then I realized something.  If my beam hit him, it would probably not explode, there just wouldn’t be enough momentum and power behind it to cause any sort of a blast.  It would most likely just hold the Caprian in its palms and then send him on a trip into the atmosphere, which he most certainly would survive.  I couldn’t let that happen, I had to finish the fight right then, before he could do any more damage to me or anyone else.  I just had to beat him and end the battle, for the good of all humanity.

            “Kaioken,” I began, as I prepared myself for the absoloute worst to occur, “times twenty!!!!!!”  I screeched at the top of my lungs.  I’d thought I’d known the meaning of pain before I did that, but as soon as my power multiplied itself to the level I’d requested, I had a whole new definition of the word.  My chin was pushed upwards by my pectoral and neck muscles, as they expanded.  I heard a sound very similar to that a balloon makes before it pops, that squeaky, rubber stretching sound.  In a disgustingly horrifying moment, I realized it was my skin making that sound.  I let out a scream of pure agony and torture as my beam increased in size even more.  Even through all the pain I was experiencing, I could feel the beam cutting its way through Yush’s Masenko, and then finally, after three nearly eternal seconds, the brunt of my beam reached the Caprian captain.  It exploded in a brilliant flash of scarlet light and teal skin, as Yush’s body was caught in the middle of a blast even larger than the one the Tasaranko had created just a few minutes earlier.  Almost instantly I mentally turned off Kaioken, and as my muscles receded into their natural positions, I was left with a horrifying, and at the same time pacifying, type of pain.  It left me numb all over, like my entire body had been frozen, yet I was still awake.  I couldn’t feel anything around me, not the air on my skin, no the rocks under my feet; nothing, like I was dead, and yet still alive.

            I watched in complete silence as the huge detonation slowly cleared away, and Yush’s body fell out of the sky like some sort of fallen angel from the heavens.  He smacked into the ground with a barely perceptible “Thump”, and for a few seconds, I thought it was all over, that I’d finally killed the bastard and finished the fight.  Then, to my dismay, I felt his ki, still holding onto this dimension by a thread, as if he was going teetering between life and death.  I soon realized that he was unconscious though, and that we still had a chance to finish him.

            I told myself that I needed to get up and draw to a close what I had started.  My body was unwilling to budge though, and before long, a huge drowsiness swept over me, like a blanket of despair that wanted me to sleep.  I tried to fight it, but I’d been through too much already, too large an amount of fighting and pain, I needed to rest, to sleep, if only for a few seconds…

 

            I saw it once again, only this time it was strange.  I didn’t see myself as me, I still saw Triono.  I saw him, me, curled in a corner, my/his head coiled into our knees, our eyes burning red with tears and pain.  I didn’t understand it; I couldn’t understand any of it at all.  And deep within the bowels of the dream, I heard it, “Now go and do it.”