Ch. 189: Clash of the Super Saiyans

"Man, I've been waiting for this! My blood's really pumping now!" On the other side of the courtyard from me, my dad was lightly jumping in place, doing a few last-minute stretches. I was actually doing the same, though I was calmer about it.

After Yamcha'd blown all of his energy on a failed attempt on using Grey Mode, most everyone had been really let down, my dad and Videl chief among them. Videl had been looking forward to taking down a stronger opponent, or at least winning the fight, but with Yamcha basically self-destructing, it'd not even really been a fight. Meanwhile, the whole thing had gotten my dad revved up for a real fight. With no outlet, he'd eventually explode, so he'd begun bugging me about a fight. Since I was the only other Super Saiyan alive right now, combined with my unusual strategies, this bout had become inevitable, though it'd taken me nearly a week to free up my schedule for it. 

Naturally, during that week, my dad had done nothing but train with Gohan and Piccolo in an almost scary fervor. Now, he was jumping up and down like it was Christmas. 

"Dad, remember, this is just a training match. Since we're at Legacy, we can fight pretty hard, but just..."

"Stop worrying so much, Hanna! Just... focus on me, alright. I don't want you holding back too much, alright?" Goku reassured me. I rolled my eyes, letting out an amused huff. He really never changes.

"Now this is something that I definitely can't miss." Pigero muttered to Tien.

"Definitely a match for the history books." Tien agreed. The courtyard was actually filled with Z-fighters who wouldn't dare miss this fight. Even Vegeta was standing in a corner, watching. He was an uppity jerk, but he wouldn't miss an opportunity to see two fighters who'd once beaten him reveal all of their cards.

"So, you ready?" Goku asked me casually, finishing up his stretching.

"Ye-" "BOOM!" I began to answer "Yeah," but was interrupted by a fist heading straight for my face. Intercepting it, the air reverberated with force, but I shared a smile with the owner of the fist, my dad, before our battle began in earnest without another word.

I was honestly surprised by my dad's growth. That was the first thing that came to my mind as we exchanged fists at dizzying speeds on the ground. In terms of pure fighting technique, I wasn't able to hold back much. I was used to fighting Core Girls who could basically read my mind as I fought, and had decades of experience with hard, life or death level fighting experience, but my dad was reading my moves almost as well as they were, with the instinct of a Goku. But as good as he was, I still did have to hold back on my technique a little. 

"Hup!" With simultaneous kicks off the ground, Goku and I lifted off and flew into the clouds, still exchanging blows at a blistering pace. For a moment, our visions were obscured by the fog as we hit the atmosphere, but neither of us were really using our eyes anyways, so it didn't even serve to slow us. Finally, our exchange suddenly stopped, the clouds flying away with the added force of our final blow.

"Let your guard down, old man." I joked. I'd caught his fist with a half-turn. He'd managed to catch my elbow with his other hand, but it was obvious that I had the advantage here.

"Du-oh!" Pulling his fist over my shoulder with both hands, I executed a shoulder throw with everything I had, literally flipping midair as I threw him to the ground with enough force to shatter a cannonball.

Flying toward the ground, my dad barely managed to right himself before he hit the ground, but as I caught the flash of a smile on his lips, I realized that I'd let my guard down, too. 

As he hit the ground, something incredible seemed to happen. The ground bent beneath his feet for a moment, absorbing the shock from his fall without a crack, before reflecting his kinetic energy and sending him flying back into the air. I immediately realized what'd happened, he'd used an advanced technique to soften the ground, turning it into a trampoline of sorts by infusing it with his energy in the single moment before he'd actually touched down. But before I had the time to be dumbfounded by my meathead dad's new finesse, there was a fist in my stomach. My body bent at a strange angle for a moment before blasting even higher into the atmosphere at a speed that almost made me motion sick. 

But my dad's combination wasn't done there. He used Instant Transmission to catch up to my body in the air and hit me with a crushing hammer blow. I barely had time to use the Kaio-ken to strengthen my gut where he was gonna hit me, before I was flying back down to the ground at twice the speed as Goku had when I'd thrown him. Righting myself, I simply let myself fall toward the forest of Mount Paoz below. Upon landing, the ground below me shifted a bit, turning into a small hill that I was able to slide down to soften the force of my fall. It wasn't as smooth as Goku's trampoline technique, but it was the same general idea. Obviously, I'd already mastered that technique, but it was so advanced that I wasn't stupid enough to just start using it perfectly the same day that my dad had shown it off for the first time.

As I spit a glob of blood out of my mouth, my dad drifted down to land in front of me. He had a bit of dust on him, but other than that, he didn't look at all like he'd been in a fight at all. Meanwhile, my legs were covered in dirt and I'd just literally spit up blood. Safe to say that I'd lost the first round here, but the fight was just getting started.