Chapter 7 Raye vs. Number 18 Ranma and Akane were standing at the entrance to the World Martial Arts Tournament Stadium, called Hercule Square. Akane gave out a long drawn out sigh wondering what was keeping the others, when they both heard someone clearing their throat. Ranma turned his head to the sound and spotted the Namekian warrior, Piccolo. When Akane saw him she kept the surprise from her face, she had never seen a green skinned pointy ear person before. Ranma quietly walked up to him casually. "Hi, Piccolo it's nice to see you again," Ranma replied. Piccolo smiled and nodded once. "I guess I can say the same thing." "Oh, Piccolo I want you to meet my fiancee, Akane," Ranma said taking Akane's hand and leading her over to the Namek. "Please, to meet one of Ranma's friends," Akane said nervously. Piccolo nodded but said nothing, his attention was diverted because the rest of the Z-fighters had appeared. Ranma and Akane turned to watch as the group walked up. Ranma waved in excitement as Trunks and Goten ran up. The two saiyens immediately started asking Ranma huge amount of questions involving his and Akane's quality time together. Akane's face turned pink at some of the questions, this fact was only compounded when Brad, Krillin, and Goku started commenting on Akane's facial color. Tenchi, Ryoko, Tsunami, and Washu were walking up to the main entrance to the stadium when they heard a loud scream coming from two young people, one was a young man with a pigtail, and the other is a girl with page boy style haircut. They were both yelling at a group of people who seemed to be teasing them. They would of been ignored if not for the fact that Tenchi and company recognized several individuals in the the group. "Hey, it's that green skinned guy that ask if you wanted to take part in the tournament," Ryoko stated. Washu looked at her son-in-law. "Hmm, you were invited to this tournament by a Namek." Tsunami meanwhile was looking at the others gathered around the Namek. "And by the looks of it, he's surrounded by a group of Saiyens and really powerful humans." Washu's eyes gleamed over in scientific thoughts. "I thought the Saiyens were wiped out long time ago." Tsunami shook her head. "Apparently, a few were missed and it looks like they have changed their ways." Ryoko looked at Tsunami and Washu strangely. "What do you mean changed their ways?" "Simple, they were planetary pirates far worse than you or Kagato. They easily destroy planet without the use of ships or special weapons," Washu replied watching the good nature exchange between the shortest member of the group and one of the Saiyens as the group entered the stadium. "Hmm, that one in the orange and blue uniform looked familiar." "That's because he's Barddock's son," Tsunami replied sadly. Washu mirrored that saddness. "I wonder if Barddoock knew how his youngest child would turn out." "He knew," Tsunami said as she walked toward the entrance, the others quietly followed the reborned goddess. As they walked through the entrance, they were being watched by eight pairs of eyes. They were all dressed in shadowy cloaks and hoods except for the leader, he was dressed in a evergreen trench coat, a wide-brim dark green hat, and dark green gloves. He wore an evil smirk on his face. "So the boy is somehow alive, all the better. You three know what your roles are in this game of games." All three of the shadowy figures nodded once and moved to the front entrance. The courtyard outside the main stadium leading to the big tournament ring, was completely packed with martial artists of every variety, style, and sex. The Z-fighters waved goodbye to those who wouldn't be fighting in the tournament namely Nodoka, Chi Chi, Marron, Bulma, Bra, Master Roshi, Yamcha, Puar, Oolong, and Pan. Tenchi and Ryoko waved their goodbyes to Washu and Tsunami then waited with the other fighters by the master of ceremonies podium. A few minutes later Hercule and Amazon elder Cologne appeared at the podium overlooking the crowd of fighters. It was Cologne that spoke out. "Greetings, honored warriors and we welcome you to this year's World Martial Arts Tournament," she stated and a round of shouts, whistles, and cheers were sounded through out the courtyard. "This year's tournament will be different than the others in past years. It will consist of a twelve bracket qualifing tournaments to enter the big main event. A female eight slot tournament, with the two finalists qualifing for the main event. It also has an eight slot male youth division tournament with the two finalists of that tournament also competing in the main event. Each of the twelve qualifying brackets will have a number above it, that number will determine your spot in the big main event," Cologne took a deep breath. "Now to explain the rules, we have the retired world hero, Hercule." Hercule took his place at the podium and cleared his throat. "The rules are as followed, if your knockout of the ring, are down for a count of ten, or give up your out. If you unfortunately kill you opponent, fight outside the ringduring the tournament, or interfere in a match your out of the competition," he paused. "This tournament is meant to showcase the best of the best in martial arts. So goodluck and remember this is a competition, so try to have some fun." Cologne had retaken her spot on the podium. "Now first is the Women's division, which will no doubt last until lunch, then after lunch the twelve bracket qualifying rounds will begin. The youth tournament will begin after dinner. So those who need to change into there fighting gi's do so now, and goodluck." Ranma and the other Z-fighters took spots up at the top of the stadium looking down at the stadium floor. He closed his eyes and made a silent prayer to Dende, to keep his fiancee and sister safe during the women's division. He looked down at the program that he got for the entire tournament and waited to see who would be pitted against who in the first round the female tournament. Akane and other seven women competing in the female tournament, looked up at the tournament bracket to see who they will be fighting against first. What Akane saw made her smile like the shark that had chased her. World Martial Arts Tournament- Female Division 1st Round Akane Tendo Xian Pu (Shampoo, for those who don't know) ____________ Raye Hino Saotome Number 18 ____________spot 16 spot 5 Ryoko Masaki Eiko Magami ____________ Videl Son Chun Li The Tournament announcer took his spot in the center of the ring and started to charge the crowd. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, I proudly declare that the tournament begins," he said into the microphone and a thunderous roar from the crowd gathered. As the announcer put the mic to his lips again. "Now, lets begin this tournament by letting the ladies go first. Speaking of first, we have Akane Tendo of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts taking on the Amazon Dynamo from China, Xian Pu." Akane and Xian Pu walked side by side heading to the ring, during the trip Akane was thinking of some pretty mean things toward the purple haired Amazon. Akane kept the mean thoughts off her face as she stepped up onto the ring floor and walked to the middle. She then waited, for the gong to pounce on her long time former rival. The announcer stepped off the ring floor and turned around bringing his hand up. When the hand came down the gong was sounded. Xian Pu was about to charge at her opponent, but her opponent disappeared. Akane reappeared behind Xian Pu and slammed her foot into the Amazon's back sending her flying clean out of the ring, and crashing into the wall right in front of Cologne's private booth. With a satisfied smirk Akane turned on her heel and walked back to the waiting area to wait for the semi-finals. The announcer and several dumbfounded fans of the Amazon watch Akane disappear into the waiting area. "Um, Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner is Akane Tendo," the announcer said regaining his composure. Ryoko watched in amazement at how fast the match ended, and how fast Akane Tendo had taken out her opponent. The announcer looked down at the sheet he was given to keep track of the matches and a smile blossom on his face. "Ladies and Gentlemen we have a returning fighter to the tournament, Number 18. This blonde bombshell was a finalist in the tournament seven years. Now she is back facing in the opening round Raye Hino Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. I hope this proves to be a better match than the last one." Number 18 and Raye walked side by side each with a smile on her face. "Your going down, little girl," 18 taunted. "Not before you do, you old hag," Raye responded, and they both laughed as they stepped onto the ring. The announcer watched as they got several feet apart, and had an inkling of what type of match he was about to see. All he could do was smile as he stepped off the ring and raise his hand. When he dropped his hand and the gong sounded, he watched the two women launch at each other at supersonic speed. (Start Playing "My Way" by Limp Bizkit here to recieve the full imaginary effect) 18 and Raye met at the center of the ring forearm to forearm, they engaged in a brief bout of tug of war before seperating doing backflips, then launching toward at each other again engaging in a series of kicking and punching combinations. Raye and 18 punched, blocked, vanished, reappeared, throwing a massive amount of kicks and punches that appeared that they were about to land just before the indicidual would disappear from view. As the fight continued they were slowly ascending into air so totally engrossed in the fight, that they didn't even notice that no one was cheering, except for the Z-fighters and their families. Everybody else in the stadium were sitting or standing with there mouths dropped to the floor. The two women split at the apex of the long ascent flying back away from each other, Raye then launch higher into the air and when she stopped she brought her index fingers together. "Mars.....Fire.....," she slowly chanted as 18 was flying up to meet her. 18 was so engross in catching up to the raven haired youth she didn't notice the fireball slowly gathering on Raye's index fingers. The closer 18 got the brighter the fireball got. "Ignite!!!!!!!" Raye finished chanting and sent a huge fireball directly at 18. 18 saw it at the last second and dodge out of the way, the fireball went flying past her and impacted just outside the ring creating a good size crater. 18 turned around from watching the fireball's track only to be nailed in the mouth with Raye's fist. Raye then kicked 18 in the stomach and followed it up with a double axe handle punch sending the blonde beauty hurtling to the ring floor. Just before 18 impacted she did a quick frontflip landing on her feet, she then launch back into the air at an increase speed. Raye barely had chance to block before the two went back into trading punches and blocks. "Man, can you believe this," Goku stated. "They're both tearing it up, and this is just the first round." Brad nodded extreme pride showing in his eyes. "They want to give it everything they got. This is just awesome, win or lose. I'm proud of my little girl." Krillin nodded. "You know it, going toe to toe with 18 and not going super Saiyen says a lot on how far we've all come. But, being the husband that I am, I'm totally bias. Get her sweetheart!" Krillin shouted. "Yeah, well the winner as to take on Akane, and she's got one those patented Saotome surprises waiting for the victor," Ranma said with a winsome smile. All the Z-fighters present remember what those type of surprises were like. "Dende, help us all," Vegeta mumbled. 18 and Raye dropped back down to the ring floor, launching toward each other only this time they both slip past the other's defenses and landed blow to the side of the face sending each other flying backwards. They both backflipped while 18 landed perfectly, Raye though landed off balance. 18 quickly spotted a way to end the match, flew at Raye and tried to land a kick at Raye's midsection only to have the raven haired youth make a quick hop back, 18 tried again only to have Raye flip over it, plant her foot then launch into the air. As she went flying into the air, she quickly started assessing herself. Raye froze thirty feet above the stadium and scrunch up into ball. 18 launch into the air wondering what the raven haired youth was doing. Then she could feel a sharp increase in Raye's power level. 18 quickly increased her speed but was just little late. Raye jerk herself out of her fetal position a golden aura surrounding her as hair fanned out in every direction, turning golden in the process and her dark eyes change to emerald green. Every fan in the stadium who were already stunned at the battle, now had something new and amazing to look at as Raye Hino Saotome became a Super Saiyen. Raye smirked a bit then with her Super Saiyen enhanced speed she vanished from site and reappeared in front of 18 landing an earth shattering punch to the blonde beauty's stomach. Then she grabbed 18's arm and flung the blonde beauty higher into the air. As 18 went soaring she notice she was directly underneath the sun. "Alright kiddo, if your going to play dirty so can I," 18 said then stopped her momentum and watched as Raye fly right towards her. 18 spread her fingers next her face and turn them inward. "Here's a trick your Uncle Krillin taught me, Solar Flare!!!!!!!" she shouted and huge blinding flash of light cascaded down. Raye was caught by the light and was temporary blinded. 18 used this given time to fly down at max speed and slam her foot into Raye's cheek causing the raven haired youth to go sailing at mach three toward the ground and crashing to the floor well outside the ring. The crowd had gotten over it's stunned looks in time to realize the match had ended, as the announcer declared Number 18 the victor. World Martial Arts Tournament- Women's Division 1st Round Akane Tendo Xian Pu Akane Tendo Number 18 Raye Hino Saotome Number 18 _____________spot 16 spot 5 Ryoko Masaki Eiko Magami ___________ Videl Son Chun Li Post Chapter Note's: This was certainly a long one, it has shades of the Trunks vs. Goten, but with a few things added and the outcome was left up to experience rather than power level or the fact that Number 18 was fighting a Super Sayien near the end of the match. I also wanted to give a little visual aide to help me keep track on how far I have to go. As for the spot 16 and spot 5 written at the end of the bracket, those are spots the finalists will be in, in the main event. You'll also notice that Chun Li from the Street Fighter video games and Eiko (A-ko) Magami from the Project A-KO movies are the other fighters. Also Hercule was totally out of character, and I wrote Shampoo as Xian Pu because that's her Chinese given name. Well, gots to go.