Part 1, Chapter 2.

PART ONE: A VERY STRANGE TOURNAMENT!

Chapter 2

Translated by MikeysBoner(certified god) and Kakarotto Ka Power Level Kya Hai?

At the Briefs house, it was essential for Vegeta to train every morning at the crack of dawn, although he was always up training long before that. At an earlier era in his life he had trained in a vessel built by his father-in-law, a vessel which could create artificial gravity well above that of the Earth's. Following several battles with his rival Goku, Vegeta had asked Dr. Briefs to build him something entirely new. A place where the gravity could be pushed even further than before, and above all else, mask his Ki. He wanted to cut himself off from the world so to speak so that no one on Earth, especially Goku, could feel the level of his Ki.

After several months of planning and trial and error, Dr. Briefs finally offered to build Vegeta a secret room under the Capsule Corporation for his new training facility. The latter was delighted to see that the gravity device had been dramatically improved from his old vessel, but was disappointed to learn that the technology to hide his Ki did not exist in this world...

Vegeta went to the palace of Dende and asked if he could use the Dragon Balls to wish for the technology to hide his Ki, but Piccolo and Dende flatly refused Vegeta's request, stating that it would be a misuse of Shenron's power. Fortunately, Dende offered to Vegeta the option to use the Room of Spirit and Time as often as he liked, which had been rebuilt to allow users to stay in longer than before. Since then, Vegeta had alternated between training in his new room under Capsule Corp and in the Room of Spirit and Time.

Today, in spite of his rigorous training schedule, Vegeta could not go to the palace of Dende. His wife and daughter had planned on going shopping and informed Vegeta that he had to come along, something that he could not refuse to do...

Drenched in sweat, he found himself face to face with his wife, Bulma, who had her hands placed firmly on her hips.

"Vegeta!" Bulma screamed in his face. You're late!"

"Well at least let me do my morning workout!"

"We said we were leaving at eight o'clock!" replied his agitated wife.

"But it's not even eight yet!" retorted the Prince of Saiyans.

Bulma did not disarm. "You've got ten minutes," she stated. "And do me a favor, please. Take a shower and find some decent clothes to wear."

Vegeta softly grinned and headed towards the bathroom.

"What a pain in the ass," his wife thought to herself

Behind Vegeta, Bulma also smiled softly as she turned away. "Hmm..." she thought maliciously. "I'll have to buy him some sexy jeans today..."

Twenty minutes later, Vegeta walked out of the Capsule Corp building dressed very elegantly. He was very presentable, wearing nice dress shoes and pants with a formal jacket covering his shirt. Before him stood his wife and his daughter, Bra, who were obviously at the forefront of fashion.

Without saying a word, Bulma came up and gripped the arm of her husband, who was slightly embarrassed and blushed furiously. The trio began to leave their family home when Vegeta suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. He had an odd feeling, as if he was being watched. Just then, a flying spherical robot with short metal legs appeared about two meters in front of him. He wondered at first if it was a creation of his wife, but the design made it apparent that this was not the case.

The little robot silently landed on the ground in front of him and played the same holographic message that his rival had received roughly two minutes earlier from the Varga and Piccolo.

After the message played, the robot took off again towards the palace. Vegeta suddenly seemed very excited. "Well," he said, "Good bye, shopping!"

He looked very serious, but that wasn't very convincing to his wife and daughter. "Bulma, Bra, I'm sorry but this seems very important..."

Bulma wasn't fooled. "Oh, no you don't!" she exclaimed, "You promised that the three of us would go shopping together!"

Vegeta, however, was unyielding. "We can go shopping some other time. Right now, I have to go to the palace."

Bra, who knew her father all too well, knew that this time it would be useless to try to make him change his mind. "Okay," she said, "then we'll all go to the palace together in the plane!"

Vegeta felt the trap coming. "So you can trick me into going where you want to go?" he responded. "Nice try, but I'll make better time going there on my own."

The Prince immediately flew in the direction of the palace, leaving the two women behind fuming with anger. Vegeta smiled to himself as he flew through the air. He thought to himself, "A tournament? What luck!"

Filled with excitement, Vegeta accelerated, and even transformed into a Super Saiyan to multiply his speed. He did not notice the little spherical robot in his path and grazed it as he rushed by, knocking it distressfully to the ground.

At the palace, Piccolo stood motionlessly in thought, arms crossed and eyes closed. "What could possibly be the purpose of such a tournament?" He thought to himself, a question that had been on his mind ever since he received the information.

Piccolo suddenly opened his eyes and uncrossed his arms. He had felt a familiar Ki approaching the palace. After only a few seconds, Gohan appeared flying over the palace, gaining altitude at an astonishing rate of speed. He stopped about ten feet above the palace, letting down the white aura that surrounded him. The Saiyan-Human hybrid quickly inspected the palace by scanning the mysterious ship, the Namekians, and the bizarre bird-like aliens. He spotted Piccolo and Dende and dropped a couple of feet in front of them before walking in their direction.

"Hey!" he said to his two old friends.

Dende was visibly pleased to see Gohan. "Gohan!" Dende exclaimed, "It's been so long since you've paid us a visit!"

"I know, Dende," Gohan replied with an honest smile. "I've been busy at the university lately, but the holidays just started so I should have a little more free time."

"You made it here pretty quickly, Gohan," congratulated Piccolo.

Gohan modestly began scratching the back of his head. "Yeah," he replied, "but my speed is probably the only thing I've retained since I stopped training."

Piccolo was a bit surprised. "Speaking of training, seeing you like this sure brings back memories," he said with a little smile.

"Oh, it's probably because of these." Gohan removed his glasses from his shirt pocket and put them on. "I put them in my pocket so I wouldn't lose them on the way here."

"Hmm... They definitely add age to your appearance," replied Piccolo.

Dende's attention suddenly shifted. "Vegeta's here..." he said.

Arriving in the same way as Gohan, the Prince of Saiyans landed in front of trio nearly without slowing down, creating a blast of air which forced Dende to shield his eyes. With obvious arrogance, Vegeta asked directly if Goku had arrived yet, a question that seemed apparent.

"He'll be here soon," replied Piccolo. "Don't worry."

Vegeta replied with an arrogant smile. "Hmph, as if I would be worried about that low-level clown!"

"Hey, Piccolo," said Gohan, skillfully changing the subject, "What do you think about our visitors?"

Vegeta, who was interested in the question, crossed his arms and waited to hear Piccolo's answer.

"Nameks are Nameks," said Piccolo. "They can always be trusted. These Vargas... seem honest at least. I don't sense any hostility from them. They claim to be from another universe..."

"Is that even possible?" asked Vegeta skeptically.

"Theoretically not," replied Gohan pensively. "But time travel is not theoretically possible, either, even though we know firsthand that it is. They must have had one hell of a technological advance for that to be possible... Going from one universe to another must use a lot of energy.".

Gohan turned and examined the Vargas and their ship. "I wonder if they would let me study that..."

Suddenly, a group of seven people appeared out of nowhere next to the quartet, to which Vegeta immediately reacted. "Trunks!" said Vegeta with obvious annoyance. "Where the hell have you been? I looked all around the Capsule Corp for you today!"

Trunks nervously turned to Goten, seeking any form of support from his friend.

Videl approached Gohan and lovingly straightened out his shirt, which the flight had crumpled, and Chichi took the time to reprimand Goten's lack of formality. Uub looked all around him at the group of warriors in fascination. Vegeta, on the other hand, spoke menacingly to Goku.

"Kakarotto! What took you so long? You've made us wait!"

"Sorry, Vegeta..." Goku replied with a smile on his face.

"You're awfully slow for someone who can teleport..." said Vegeta.

"I had to pick everyone up first," replied Goku, who did not manage to change Vegeta's bad mood.

"Couldn't they have just flown here themselves?"

"If you were this anxious, Vegeta, why didn't you come find me instead?"

"Here we go again..." mumbled Piccolo to himself.

"Great idea!" said Vegeta. "Next time I'll come grab you by the skin on your ass!"

"Oh sure! Give it your best shot!" countered Goku with a pleasured smile on his face, taking a stance.

Vegeta's eyes jubilantly lit up. "What an excellent idea, Kakarotto!"

Vegeta then also took a guarded stance, much to the worry of the Namekians and Vargas. Embarrassed at the situation, Chichi intervened. "Goku!" She said, staring at her husband intensely.

Goku suddenly became tense as his smile was erased from his face.

"Oh, uh... Chi-" Goku began.

"Don’t make a fuss!" Chichi said cutting Goku off. "Do you think you're in a school playground or something? When will you grow up?"

Goku did not know what to say. It was true that for a fight against Vegeta, pleasure tended to prevail over reason. "Uh..."

Suddenly, a strange, thundering noise was heard for several seconds. The Vargas, fearing a storm, began scanning the bright blue sky. The group of Earthlings, however, knew exactly what the noise was, and they all turned their eyes to Goku.

"Ha ha, it's just my stomach, guys!" said Goku. "I left in a hurry and forgot to eat.

While Vegeta and Chichi scoffed with an air of boredom, Uub was perplexed. "But we had breakfast just before we started training..."

"But that was two hours ago!" said Goku. "All of that training raised my appetite. Where's Mr. Popo? Oh! I'm sure he's already preparing all of my favorite dishes! Mr. Popo! Helloooo?"

Everyone remained silent as Goku ran inside of the palace to the kitchen. Trunks then attempted to break the silence. "So, uh, dad," he said. "Where're Mom and Bra? They didn't want to come?"

"I think they're coming by plane." replied Vegeta without looking.

A small Varga suddenly approached the group timidly. "Um... Excuse us..." the Varga began.

"Don't worry," Piccolo said. "He'll return soon. When Son Goku gets hungry, it's impossible to take his mind off of food. But you can join us if you'd like. We can discuss the details of this tournament over a bite to eat." A sudden thought tore a giant smile into Piccolo's face. "Of course, with all of these Saiyans around the food might not last that long."

The Varga returned to his group and informed the others that their stay might last longer than expected...

Mr. Popo finished preparing all of the food and lined up the dishes on his floating magic carpet, which was being used as a long makeshift table. Bulma and Bra soon arrived at the palace.

Bulma, much like Gohan, was fascinated by the Vargas and their technology, while Bra thought that the aliens were cute due to their small size and fashion sense. She even went as far as to pet one of the creatures, causing him to "purr" before quickly distancing himself, looking rather embarrassed.

During the meal, only Goku and Pan, who was fond of imitating her grandfather, gorged themselves with food. The others instead focused their attention on the Vargas, who were seated at the end of the carpet, while they further explained the aspects of the tournament.

So as you know," the Varga began, "we came from a universe entirely different than the one you know. The Nameks who came here with us are also from our universe."

One of the Namekians advanced slightly and reached out. He held in his hand a thin circular object, which became slightly warm and caused the air above it to behave in strange ways. Images began to appear above the object, which instantly sparked Bulma's curiosity.

"A hologram?" she asked.

"Yes, it appears to be," replied Gohan.

"You exist within a multiverse," the Varga continued, "which is to say, multiple universes. They are all similar, with many of the same causes and effects. However, one single event that happens differently in one universe will cause it to diverge from the others. For example, in one universe, the sky of your planet could be red, and in another universe it could have been conquered by aliens."

The Varga was cut off by the noisy eating sounds emitting from Goku and Pan. The two noticed that the room had suddenly gone quiet and looked up at everyone, with noodles hanging out of their mouths. Knowing they stopped talking because of the noise they were making, Goku and Pan quickly slurped up the rest of the noodles and gave the speakers their attention.

"Yes... As I was saying," the Varga continued, "another example is our universe. In our universe, and ours only, the Vargas inadvertently discovered technology that allowed us to travel from one universe to another. The gods decided that the universes should remain closed, but they allowed us to organize one unique event..."

"Hey, that's the Supreme Kaioshin!" Goku exclaimed suddenly, noticing the purple-skinned god on the hologram.

"We allied ourselves with the Nameks of our universe," said the Varga, ignoring Goku's comment, "to organize a tournament between the strongest warriors of all the different universes. The winner of the tournament will get three wishes from the eternal dragon of Namek."

"The Dragon Balls of the other universes will be used to resurrect anyone who dies in the tournament." said the Namekian with the hologram. "And aside from the winning prize, the warriors of the tournament should find much excitement in the prospect fighting all of the powerful opponents."

"The tournament is unique and completely safe," continued the Varga. "Our question is: would you like to participate?"

The group around the table began to talk amongst themselves, and didn't quite know if they trusted the story or not. Vegeta, who remained silent, found it a little hard to concentrate with all of the different conversations happening around him. Goku finally cut in.

"This is a great opportunity! Uub will be able to test his powers without any risk. There're too many restrictions here."

"I don't trust this multiverse story at all," said Vegeta, "but there's no way you're going to enter a tournament without me, Kakarotto! I have a few surprises in store for you."

"Um... We have a question." said Trunks and Goten simultaneously.

Can we fight as a team?" asked Trunks.

"No," replied the eldest Namekian. "Fights are one against one. You lose if you cannot fight for thirty seconds or if you forfeit. Weapons are allowed as long you enter the ring with them. Once you enter the ring no outside force is allowed to help you. We will detail the finer rules later. "

Trunks and Goten both smiled contently.

"That's fine by us!" said Goten.

"We register Gotenks." said Trunks. "He is among us, but you can't see him, and we come along as spectators. Is that okay?"

"Yes," replied the Namekian, "spectators are greatly encouraged, and anyone is allowed to participate. One person even enrolled his unborn son. We don't care if you create this Gotenks just before the fight."

"Then I'll come as a spectator also," said Piccolo.

"Me too!" said Gohan without hesitation.

"You are the eighteenth universe to participate," said the elder Namekian. "This will be the number registered to your universe."

Without delay Vegeta instantly stood up. "Well, what are we waiting for?" he exclaimed. "Let's go!"

"I can't wait to get there!" said Pan excitedly.

"I'll stay here," said Chichi. "I find this tournament idea ridiculous. Gohan, surely you're not gonna let my granddaughter participate?"

Gohan shot a glance at Videl, leaving the decision up to her.

"Well..." said Videl. "It could be beneficial to her..."

Chichi crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and turned away pouting.

Trunks looked to Goten. "It looks like we have to start practicing fusion again."

"This is gonna be amazing!" Goten replied with evident eagerness.

"Gohan," said Goku, "are you sure you don't want to enter the tournament?"

"Yeah," replied Gohan. "I've stopped training for too long and haven't been in a fight in years."

"But with your power alone you could probably go far in the tournament," said the young Uub.

"Forget it!" Vegeta intervened. "Gohan is worthless. I could beat him with my eyes closed!"

The remark made Gohan smile. "If it makes you happy to think so, Vegeta."

Vegeta also smiled, remembering a time nine years ago...