The Tenkaichi Budokai Commences!

Four years have passed since the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, and life for Baezel, the Saiyan warrior, has settled into a peaceful routine. He's been living on Earth with Dana and Lemogras, and so far, life's good. His relationship with Gangal is still...distant, and his relationship with Radichio is still as great as it always was. Although no new relevant threats have arisen during this time, Baezel remains vigilant and committed to his training, ensuring that he is always prepared for any potential challenges that may come their way. Platinum ended up still being alive, and tried to fight Baezel, but even with Platinum's impressive power level of 5 million, this wasn't even a blimp on Baezel's radar. He was eliminated without a second thought.

In the tranquil garden behind their home, Baezel is engaged in his daily image training. His eyes are closed, and he sits in a meditative pose, channeling his focus inward. In his mind's eye, he envisions an intense sparring session with Radichio, the both of them in Super Saiyan 2. From an onlooker's perspective, Baezel was in his base form meditating.

As the mental battle rages on, Baezel can feel the growth of his mental muscles and the adrenaline rush surging through his veins. He is fully engrossed in the training, oblivious to the world around him.

Suddenly, the peaceful atmosphere is interrupted as young Lemogras approaches his father curiously. "Daddy? Why are you sitting like that?" he asks innocently.

"Ah, crap, I lost! I'm doing image training by simulating a fight in my mind," Baezel replies, a smile gracing his face. "Or, I was, until you interrupted me."

Lemogras apologizes for the intrusion, and Baezel reassures him, "Hey, it's alright. Do you want to see me do something cool?"

Excited, Lemogras nods eagerly, and Baezel quickly transforms for his son. His hair spikes up, flickering to pale blonde, and his aura takes on a golden hue as he transforms into Super Saiyan Grade 4. Lemogras is in awe of his father's incredible power.

"It's Super Saiyan! Please, teach me how to turn Super Saiyan! Pretty please, Dad!" Lemogras pleads.

Baezel smiles warmly at his son's request. "You've got the enthusiasm to learn, alright! It'll take a lot of training for you to become a Super Saiyan, but I have an idea," he says. "I could enter you into the Tenkaichi Budokai this year. I'll train you, and if your mother agrees, you can participate."

Excited at the prospect of joining the tournament, Lemogras nods vigorously. "Yes, yes, please! I want to learn martial arts, and become as powerful as you!"

"Hey, Dana," Baezel returns. "Uh, do you mind if I speak with you in private?"

"Of course."

Baezel says, "I wanna enter our son in the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai If you're worried about him not being strong enough, or any danger that he could get into, it's alright, I can train him beyond the light sparring that we do. He's got potential waiting to be unleashed; I can just feel it."

Dana's eyes widen in surprise.

"You would do that for me?" she asks.

"But of course I would," Baezel answers.

"Oh, Baezel," Dana says, hugging him, "always wanting to better yourself and others...alright. I'll allow you to train our son."

"Thanks for being understanding," Baezel smiles.

"And thank you for being so calm with this," Dana says. "But, I have a question."

"Yes?"

"If you're going to be training our son to learn martial arts - well, to train him more intensely than you do now, does that mean he'll be leaving home and going somewhere else to train, like a dojo?"

"Well, no, I don't think so. But if you wanted that, we could arrange something."

"Still, I'm not sure if this will go well. You remember what happened at the last tournament."

"God, don't remind me," Baezel says with a worried look. The memories of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai were already like war flashbacks to him. "Trust me, this won't be like last time - hopefully. Just give me six months, six months to train Lemogras, and I promise you, that at least ONE OF US, will win first place," Baezel pleads.

After pondering it for a little bit, Dana budges. "Fine. You can train him, and both of you can participate. But believe me, if our little pride and joy gets so much as a scar on his face, he's not participating in another Tenkaichi Budokai until he's at least sixteen," Dana warns.

"You got it. I'll try my best," Baezel replies.

"Good. I've already packed a bag of supplies for you two; it's in the kitchen. Do your best!" she says.

After Baezel discusses the idea with Dana, she agrees to let Lemogras participate, but with a condition: either he or Lemogras must return home as the winner. Baezel promises to do his best to protect their son during the tournament. If Lemogras got so much as a scar on his face, he wouldn't be participating again. Neither Dana nor Baezel wanted a repeat of the catastrophe that was the 23rd Budokai, and though Lemogras was only 3, almost 4, and was likely too young to remember, he probably didn't want a repeat of it either.

Putting on the parcel, Baezel and Lemogras fly out to the wastelands. The pair spend the next six months training - Baezel in the perfection of his existing techniques, and Lemogras in taking martial arts more seriously. Over the next six months, Baezel and Lemogras embark on a rigorous training journey in the wastelands. Baezel perfects his techniques, and Lemogras learns to manipulate ki and invents techniques of his own. Their bond grows stronger as they spar and train together, The kid's a quick learner, and is soon able to spar with his father and not get easily overwhelmed. Despite his young age, inferior strength and extremely inferior skill, he is a surprisingly competent opponent for his father.

When the time comes for the Tenka'ichi Budokai, Lemogras turns nine. Many fighters arrive at the island on which the tournament takes place. Some arrive in flying cars, some in a ship, others simply by flying. Baezel and Radichio do some stretches in the training area, and some participants have a short spar with each other. A massive crowd of people cheers, and the competitors begin to stride into the center of the ring, each with a colorful robe flowing in the wind.

Baezel and Radichio walk into the ring, smirking and staring each other down.

The crowd is completely silent. They're all looking at Baezel.

"Let's get it on," says the referee.

Baezel drops down to one knee.

Baezel rushes at Radichio, clashing fists. He throws a barrage of punches and kicks, and Radichio dodges them all. Baezel then does a sweeping kick, but Radichio kicks him in the cheek, making him stagger. He throws an uppercut at Radichio, and it seems like it did some good damage, since Radichio finally goes into Super Saiyan. He fires a barrage of ki blasts at Baezel, who then fires his own barrage, and as the ki blasts meet each other, they explode on impact. Baezel then goes Super Saiyan as well, and fires a Kamehameha at Radichio, and then he blocks the attack.

Radichio is very close to being beaten, and Baezel can't help but feel he's being a little bit unfair here. He wants Radichio to attack first, to give Baezel a chance to counter.

"If you must know, buddy, I'm holding back," Radichio says. "So you have another level of Super Saiyan you wanna show me?" Baezel asks. Radichio nods and smirks, and he powers up. As he powers up, his golden Super Saiyan aura becomes bigger and bigger, and his muscles also increase in size, as his hair becomes wilder and each strand becomes longer and thicker.

Radichio showcases Super Saiyan 2, his hair slightly spikier than before. His power has doubled, and electricity crackles around him. "So, ready to kneel?"

This leaves Baezel with a very difficult choice, and one he'll have to make quick.

"Kneel? You know me, I don't kneel to anybo - TAIYOKEN!"

Baezel puts his hands close to the center of his face, and a white light fires out and blinds both Radichio and the audience, but Baezel hasn't gone blind. He uses this distraction as an advantage and kicks Radichio out of the ring, winning the match. He then waits a couple seconds for the light to disappear, and Radichio is eliminated. Baezel wins his match.

Lemogras steps into the ring, facing off against Draft, the cloaked man with purple hair and green eyes.

"It's nice to meet you," Lemogras politely says.

Draft is unmoved by his greeting and kicks him in the chin.

"Ow! What the heck was that for?!" Lemogras whines.

Draft smirks under his cloak, performing a "come at me" hand motion. Lemogras rushes at him and tries to hit him, but Draft is able to stop several hits with his bare hand. He then uses a compressed blast of ki to push Lemogras back. He stands there, panting and confused.

"You're...not gonna hit me? But why?" Lemogras asks, surprised.

Draft just rolls his eyes.

Lemogras cups his hands together and puts them to his side, then he begins charging a blue ki wave.

"Ka..."

"me..."

"ha..."

"me..."

"HAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

Lemogras fires a Super Kamehameha, a much more powerful version of the Kamehameha, at Draft, and it doesn't do much except obliterate his cloak, revealing his curly purple hair, green eyes, and slim but muscular bodily structure.

"YAHOOOO!" Lemogras yells.

The dust settles, and Draft is still standing in the same place.

Lemogras looks at Draft in horror, terrified at the fact that his strongest attack did nothing.

"Is that your best, child?" Draft asks. "Now it's my turn." Draft rushes at Lemogras and punches him in the gut, then slams his face into the ground. Lemogras struggles to get up, and he then kicks him in the face, knocking him out of the ring and eliminating him, giving him a black eye to boot.

Draft wins his match, and Lemogras runs to the building outside of the arena, which is where the fighters train before they fight. He runs crying to Baezel that Draft gave him a black eye and beat him up, and he vows to beat Draft when they get to the finals.

After a couple of matches that the writer is too lazy to describe, Baezel and Draft make it to the finals of the Tenka'ichi Budokai, with everyone else having been eliminated.

When the two men enter the ring, the audience is treated to the most intense match of their lives. Both men are evenly matched in skill, but Draft has an advantage over Baezel in raw power. It's hard for him to keep up, but he's able to stay on his feet and inside the arena with his superior battle knowledge. He uses telekinesis to throw a tile at Draft, and even tears two rocks out to try and slam into his face. It damages him a little, but doesn't do anything. Baezel zigzags around the arena with afterimages, and tries to strike Draft three times, but all three of those times are countered by a barrier. He throws a barrage of punches at the barrier, and the barrier holds, despite how much damage it's taking. Eventually, it starts to show cracks, but Baezel's knuckles are getting worn out from punching at something so hard for so long.

He backflips to gain some distance, and rubs his knuckles in pain. Draft puts down his barrier, and takes a minute to catch his breath.

Baezel comments, "Wow. You're pretty good, Draft! This is really exciting!"

"Thank you," Draft grunts.

"I mean...ya know, you're...great!" Baezel says.

"Mm hmm. You too," Draft replies.

"However, assuming you didn't notice already, I haven't been using my full strength. Obviously, I've only been in my base form. But I have three transformations - well, four, actually, under my belt - and I'm far from my limit," Draft says. Baezel is astonished, yet invigorated at this fact. Draft clenches his fists and powers up. He gains a purple aura around himself, and his hair slowly starts to rise up. He slightly bulks up, and finishes his transformation.

"This is my first transformation. I like to call this Super Human," he says. He initiates a new set of attacks against Baezel, and this time he's outmatched.

Baezel activates the Kaioken, engulfing himself in a red aura. He has become twice as strong as before, and hits him with a knee to the chin, but he is still not strong enough to beat Draft. He cranks up the multiplier to times three - nothing. Five - nothing. Ten - still nothing

"You've got a damn good resistance to my attacks," Baezel mutters, "but I can do better."

"Maybe," Draft replies. "But you're still nowhere near my level. I'm objectively stronger and you know it."

"Whatever. Ten isn't as far as I can go. If you want, I can double that!"

"Oh yay, power level tennis," Draft mockingly says to him. "I wonder how high you can raise your power level!"

"I'm not sure," Baezel says, "How high do you think?"

"Who knows? You'll just have to wait and see for yourself!"

"If that's how you wanna play," Baezel says, "then fine! KAIOKEN TIMES TWENTY!" He uses the Kaioken to multiply his power as high as he can, making himself twenty times stronger. The red aura he had with the normal Kaioken has now become a deeper shade of red, and his muscles are bulging out. He is also way, way faster than before, launching himself towards Draft.

"YAAAGH!!!" He smashes his fist into Draft's chin, knocking him down.

"That hurts, you son of a bitch!" Draft muttered.

Baezel rushes towards Draft, knocking him away, then Draft disappears into the air and throws a giant ki blast at Baezel, who dodges the attack, while saying:

"KA..."

"ME..."

"HA..."

"ME..."

"HAAAAAAAA!"

He fires a Kaioken x20 Kamehameha at Draft, and it does significant damage to him but doesn't knock him out. "I can't believe the Kaioken x20 wasn't enough," Baezel says.

"Don't talk, attack!" Draft screams. He smashes his fists into Baezel's body, leaving him aching in pain.

"Damn it, my body's starting to ache!"

"I warned you."

Baezel goes back to normal, clutching his arm in pain. The pain eventually dissipates. "Alrighty. Now that the pain's gone away, I'd like to show you the transformations of a Saiyan, Draft."

"Huh? Super...Saiyan?" Draft asks.