17 Chapter 17 - Betrayal! Who Saw It Coming!

This was the first time that Baba truly saw Goku in a different light.

Defiant that a sole kid would be able to defeat all her fighters, she quickly ushered him into the second arena.

"We need to switch arenas for the next fights. To the Devil's Toilet, follow me!"

Following Baba down the narrow road to the next building and up the stairs, they eventually came upon an old wooden door with a skull as the handle.

Opening the door, a burst of toxic air hit Goku's face like a truck. He walked a couple more steps before he saw light... and teeth at the end of the tunnel. He emerged from a devil statues mouth and stood on his tongue that was elongated to touch another devil's tongue.

Both devils were on a toilet with paper in between them. Looking down, he saw an angle of which only those who stood at the platform would see and couldn't help but pity the devil.

Baba took out a juicy piece of steak from seemingly out of nowhere and demonstrated what would happen to someone if they would 'accidentally' fall in.

Goku couldn't help but lament for the steak as it sunk into the poisonous water never to be seen again.

"Come on in Dried-Up Gladiator, Mummy!"

A large man wrapped in bandages came through the devil across from Goku. He had a permanent sneer on his face as he walked along the tongue to face Goku.

"Battle Begin!"

Ignoring the start of the battle from Baba, Goku threw his trash talk to the opposition immediately like any other good samaritan would do when they want to win.

"Your name is Mummy? Did you like come out wrapped up in bandages or something? Your mom must have an awful naming sense."

Said Mummy had a look of confusion than of anger.

"This is my alias! Alias! How dare you insult my mom!"

Mummy charged at Goku in a fit of rage, but he was already in a defensive position.

Cortex, left bicep, right bicep, left thigh, right thigh, Mummy's punches were as accurate as they were fast despite Goku's taunting in the beginning. His burly body coupled with his fast speed was able to cover a lot of ground as he started to do chops towards Goku's head.

Goku could feel the wind on his face from Mummy's heavy quick chops.

No matter how fast Mummy did his attacks, Goku was able to dodge all of his attacks due to his small size advantage.

Going under his lumbering fist, he did an uppercut to Mummy's chest. Mummy was lifted off the ground a couple of inches. Continuing his combo, Goku spun and kicked the side of Mummy while he was in the air. Airborne, Mummy flew back to his devil and crashed on its teeth producing a few cracks.

Mummy leaked a little blood from his mouth for the first time in a long time. He grabbed a loose piece of bandage and wipe the blood away. Both attacks put him in a very dire position physical wise. His mental state was also in shambles after getting beaten up by a little kid.

Goku looked at Mummy after he went back to a fighting position. He glared and exerted all his intimidation pressure onto the poor beaten up man. Mummy's eyes suddenly whitened out and he passed out since all his mental defenses were down.

Baba and Roshi were stunned at the spectacle before them, exerting pressure was no easy task to learn. Mummy nearly fell out of the platform before Goku went up and caught him. He didn't want to see someone die for no reason.

"Hmph, you are one hell of a fighter. Get it? Hell in Devil's Toilet?"

Baba was laughing at her own joke while the next fighter came out.

"Here comes Devil Man!"

In comes a man in a literal Devil suit. Equipped with horns, wings, and a tail, the black-clad man smirked at the little boy confident in his win.

"Battle begin!"

Devil Man launched up in the air with a flap of his wings. He smiled at Goku menacingly and went towards Goku with both of his hands in a claw-like fashion. His fingernails were disgustingly sharp and yellow as per usual for Devils.

Goku knew about Devil Man's special abilities and didn't have any confidence in defending against it. He had to finish this fast and he had enough power to.

Goku, in turn, jumped up towards Devil Man in a counter surprising everyone by his actions.

Devil Man though that they would meet in the center with both of their fists with how Goku also had his fist in the same fashion but instead with closed fists.

Just before they clashed, Goku retracted his arms and slipped through Devil Man's arms with his slim body. Before he can defend himself, Goku tilted his head back and rammed it back towards Devil Man's head.

Thinking quickly, Devil Man leaned his head forward so that the horns on his heads were in between him and Goku. Although he couldn't get the spiky part to stab Goku because it was too far back, the extra protection gave him more confidence in his defense.

His confidence was quickly shattered along with his horns and consciousness as he blacked out from the extreme pain.

Devil Man slammed on the opposition wall with such force you would think something in his head cracked. Goku did not want to leave any variables so he hit nearly as hard as he could.

"G-Goku has far expanded in strength than I ever realized."

Baba and Roshi were stunned silly from the speed and strength that Goku displayed while Goku exhaled from the light workout he received.

"By golly! You are one tough cookie!"

Out came a short man with a very odd mask with some white hairs sticking out. Even though everyone couldn't see his face, they all knew the shocked expression was also coming across his face like it was on theirs.

Even if Goku didn't already know who this was, he couldn't mistake that mustache for anything.

"I highly doubt I would win, but let us go to the other stage. We need an open fight to really test our limits."

---

(Somewhere in the middle of nowhere)

"This is the best! We can learn everything about Goku from the safety of our car!"

A dog spoke to his companions that were in the car with him in a really loud voice due to the earphones they had on.

"WHAT?"

The girl sitting across the seat from him couldn't hear and scream out like the normal person would do when they can't hear themselves. Scream knowing that you are screaming so that you can hear yourself when you are not supposed to.

Soon enough, they started arguing making the blue gremlin in the front of the car very agitated. It became very much a problem so the leader swiveled his body to tell off his subordinates.

"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP?!"

They immediately shut up not wanting to endure the punishment. However, they then heard a small thud originating from the front seat's floor.

Pilaf then saw a shiny orange ball spill out of the box that it was stored in. Panicking, he quickly put it back inside sweating at the implication that it escaped its cage for even a split moment.

---

Baba complied and led everyone back to the original stage.

Standing face to face, he couldn't help but think back to the familiar times when they sparred against each other and the guilt he felt for what he did.

They were whispering to each other before the match started. Baba was looking at Goku mischievously while the stranger showed no emotion through his mask.

They both did their bow to honor the other person in this spar. Like Goku always did. Definitely.

"Battle begin!"

Even though they were both standing still, they were both sizing each other up internally.

Knowing that Gohan was a defensive fighter, Goku initiated the exchange by speeding over to him.

A fist to the face was the starting move but was easily dodged with a duck. When Gohan ducked, Goku did a quick knee that was blocked by two hands that were connected. Gohan clasped the appendage that was brought to him and threw him to the other side of the ring.

Goku did a few flips and landed stably on his feet like a cat. They both had a good gauge on each other strengths from the little exchange that they had.

Gohan started this time with a jump kick that was landing hard and fast. Goku moved his body to the right to dodge the incoming attack. However, once Gohan landed, he reversed his momentum and sped towards Goku's back. Unable to turn around in time to counter or block to Gohan's wide attack, Goku forced his feet into the stadium to plant himself.

Cracks formed like a spiderweb on the square stadium as Goku was firmly on the ground tensing his back muscles ready for the impact. Gohan slammed into Goku like a freight train shaking the entire stadium but not moving the rooted Goku.

Feeling pain with his tackle, Gohan was stunned for a little bit. Goku took this advantage and grabbed Gohan in a clamp, like a reverse German suplex. He then, with as much force as he could, brought Gohan in front of him. Gohan's feet slammed the ground cementing his position much like how Goku was right now.

Goku then punched him as hard as he can uprooting him and sending up ragdolling forward.

In a daze, Gohan had just enough sense to change his position and barely latch on to the edge of the ring.

Climbing back up, he couldn't help but praise all the training Goku was gone thorough despite his age.

"You are quite the amazing martial artist, however, I will have to end this match now."

Gohan rushed up to Goku with a blinding determination. He knew what this opponent was after, but he didn't know how he would go about it.

When he was right in front of Goku, he jumped up to fly over Goku. He was anticipating a move like this and swiveled around to meet his aggressor. However, when he turned around, Gohan was nowhere to be seen. He felt something grab his tail in a tight manner, so he turned around to meet a mask right in his face.

It turns out that Gohan used the Afterimage Technique to fool Goku into thinking he jumped when didn't.

"Looks like you weren't paying attention and now you lose."

Goku started to limp like he was jello under Gohan's hand.

"You didn't train your tail enough and it will be your downfall."

Gohan started to raise his hand to start harassing the young child until he started to feel something unusual.

He was instead being lifted up by the tail!

Goku had a snicker on his face as he flicked his tail up launching Grandpa Gohan in the air.

Gohan felt proud but ashamed at being played a fool by his grandson.

Both of them started to do their most prized move to hurl at each other.

"Kamehameha!"

The two beams clashed in the air but the one with advantage was obvious to everyone there. Gohan was being slightly pushed even higher in the air.

Before he could really lose, Gohan conceded already achieving his objective.

"I give!"

After hearing those words, both contestants powered down their blast until Gohan was safely on the ground.

Gohan removed his mask and turned towards Goku.

"It's me, your Grandpa, but you already knew that didn't you-"

Just as he was able to finish his sentence Goku already hugged him hard making him stumble back a little.

"I-I am sorry Grandpa, for what I did."

Gohan had a looked of astonishment on his face, surprised that Goku knew the cause of his death.

"Hahaha! No worries my grandson. I know it wasn't your fault. I am quite content with the afterlife anyways."

Goku was talking to Gohan a little bit about his life after his passing while Gohan told him about his circumstances in the overworld and his visit.

After saying goodbye to his old master and the esteemed person who brought him back to see grandson, he parted ways with them after a quick last hug from his grandson.

After Grandpa Gohan left, Baba started her divination to the last Dragon Ball.

"The 7th of the those Dragon Ball's that you have? No biggie!"

Baba started to emit some strange magic power to the crystal ball while concentrating.

Before long, a vision of a car that was slightly off the dirt road smoking came into view.

'Odd, from what I know Pilaf shouldn't have crashed like that?'

"120 Km over there. It should be near the car and is not moving."

Goku quickly thanked Baba and left Roshi to catch up with his sister. He completely ignored Roshi's pleading cries to take him with Goku.

Arriving in no time thanks to his Nimbus, Goku slammed down next to the smoking car. What he found tied on the car surprised him.

"Dr. Briefs!?"

His sleeping figure's hands were tied to the trunk of the car binding him. Hearing a voice, Dr. Briefs woke up with a jolt.

"Goku!?"

Dr. Briefs finally had a look of excitement on his face compared to his usual indifferent expression. Goku quickly cut the ropes that bonded Dr. Briefs making him rubbed his red wrists with an irritated expression.

"Thank you, Goku."

Before he could ask Dr. Briefs why he was here, the scientist's neck was wrapped in a chokehold and a gun pointed at his face.

"Stay back or I will kill him."

Goku couldn't believe his eyes, in front of him was someone that he thought was dead all this time...

"Bob!"

Tall Bob to be a matter of fact as he had a scared look on his face when holding his hostage. Bob discovered the Pilaf Gang after they exposed their location for a split second with his prototype small radar from the obliterated RR Army. He hoped to trade the Dragon Ball for his life and beelined to them.

"Stay back Goku or I will shoot!"

He then realized the severity of the situation before him and his face transformed from a confused expression to a deadly serious one. This only made Bob sweat more as his face contorted with fear.

"Why?"

A simple question with seemingly endless answers.

"I-I was always with Red Ribbon Goku! I was just a low ranking grunt who got lucky with a job at scouting the powerful Brief family. I was just doing my job! I just gave them information and nothing else."

"Did you kill Bob?"

Bob's face immediately turned into one of regret. However, it didn't last long, replacing it with a look of resolve and fearlessness.

"He backed out from the job! We were in it together so when he said that he didn't want to do it, we couldn't have any trails behind us!"

Goku had enough of Bob's drivel and with extreme speed separated Dr. Brief and his tall assailant. Hitting the ground with a thud, Bob looked up with extreme fear if the water leaking out from between his pants was enough of an indicator.

"Please! Think of the times we had."

Goku did think of the week that they got to know each other.

(Flashback)

Goku nodded at the two approaching men when they saw each other.

A standard greeting when seeing each other. The Bobs nodded in return before going their separate ways.

(End of Flashback)

A single tear fell out of Goku's eye. He suppressed his emotions and blasted him with a ki blast taking in Bob's scream of agony.

"I will always remember you Bobs as good people in my heart!"

The people in the bushes and Dr. Briefs sweatdropped at the exaggerated display. Seeing this as opening, three mechs of various sizes ambushed the mourning Goku.

Goku had his eyes closed because he was mourning the death of Bob and he still had it closed when he effortlessly caught the smaller mech. He swung with all his might and launched the small mech making it crash into the other ones. The force was so strong that they started to fly to the never-ending sky.

"AHHHHH THE PILAF GANG IS BLASTING OFF AGAIN!"

After that rude interruption, Goku went back to respecting the pile of ash on the floor as if it was important.