fate40

The self-proclaimed future queen of the universe was, at the present moment, reclined on a feather-filled cushion, her entire body naked except for a strategically-placed piece of silk that covered her lower body as a strong manservant massaged her back.

Milena sighed in satisfaction as strong, skilled hands worked their magic over her tense muscles and she smiled; it had been too long since she reveled in the simple pleasures that her station in life brought her. At the advice of her head high priest, Queen Milena had decided to stop attacking the group of warriors who continued to deny Milena her sacrifice. Instead, her head high priest, Saloman, had convinced her to investigate the enemy, spy on them, if you will, to find out their weaknesses and strengths. At the time, Milena had agreed to send out scouts only because she had several months until her 150th birthday. But, that was a few months ago. Milena’s birthday was coming up within the next two months; her time to strike was coming up soon if she had any hopes of living past the young age of 150.

Milena had put all such thoughts out of her mind as she concentrated on the massage she was receiving, but the thoughts came unbidden when a servant girl entered the room, dressed in the emerald green that was the royal family’s color.

“Your Grace,” the girl said softly, “High Priest Saloman wishes to speak with you.” Milena sighed in distaste; she really didn’t want to be interrupted, but if Saloman wished to speak with her, she figured it must be important.

“Send him in,” Milena commanded gently. The girl left and, seconds later, Saloman entered the Royal Chambers, his dark brown robes caressing the ground and his long, black queue swaying behind him gently.

“Your Grace,” Saloman greeted, bowing lowly, “I am so sorry to disturb you, but I have need to speak with you about matters of great importance.” Milena only rolled her eyes.

“Well,” Saloman continued, “Your time to capture your sacrifice is coming up soon. We’ve had no word from the Guardian of Earth on his approval of handing the girl over, so it seems we must take her by force.” Milena frowned at that; she was counting on the Guardian of Earth to hand over her sacrifice.

“Saloman, you know by know that we cannot take her by force. Every time I’ve sent out warriors and mercenaries out to fetch her, most of them have been killed by our enemies. If I send out my warriors once again, they’re sure to fail. I will never get my sacrifice or that boy,” Milena said, her temper growing short. Saloman hurried to speak, rushing to calm the queen’s rising temper.

“We’ve figured out a way to get both your sacrifice and the boy you want so much. We’ve found the perfect time to strike. Your wise decision to stop sending out your warriors has lulled our enemy into a false sense of security. They’re getting lax in their guard and are sure to be caught unawares at our presence. And, as to the acquisition of Gohan-” Milena cut off her head High Priest.

“I remember the little prince,” Milena said with a smirk, “Standing proud next to his father’s leg. I take it he’s grown since then. It has been a few decades since I’ve seen the young Prince of the Saiya-jins…or, should I say, King of the Saiya-jins. If I remember things correctly, that fool of a Aseeu-jin, Freeza, destroyed that planet and the royal family.” Saloman nodded.

“Well, when we take your sacrifice, Videl, I think her name is, and transport her back here by ways of our magic, he will be so enraged and desperate to get her back that he will transport himself to wherever she is by means of the Instant Transmission move.” Milena sighed.

“That damned move. I ought to destroy Yardratt and those pesky little people with their tricky little moves. Anyway, what happens after he gets here? He’s quite strong, Saloman, and I’m not sure many of my men, if any, could stand up to a force such as himself.” Saloman smiled.

“That, my Queen, is where this comes in,” Saloman said, pulling a thin, bronze collar out of his wide sleeve “This is what I call the Ring of Hanoi. Once put around a person’s neck, that person cannot access his own ki. Gohan will not be able to attack any of us, so he will pose no threat to us. The moment he arrives here, he will have this snapped around his neck and he will belong to you.” Milena smiled; it seemed that things were finally starting to look up for once.

“Queen Milena plans to strike soon. She will have her sacrifice and she will rule the universe. She will bring disharmony wherever she goes, my dear Keresei. I must find a way to stop her! But, it is so hard to pretend to be loyal…I don’t know how much longer I can stand it.” She walked up to her husband and placed her hand on his shoulder, feeling great pity for him.

As one of Queen Milena’s High Priests, he was bound by oath to aide the Queen in her ceremonial sacrifice. She frowned as she looked at her husband. He was a gentle soul, not wanting to hurt anybody. And she could see that it was killing him inside that he had to act the part of the loyal servant.

“My sweet, I pray I find a way to stop her for the universe cannot see Milena get her way. If she does…the universe is doomed.” A tear ran down his face, leaving a wet streak down his skin. Keresei wiped it away with her thumb. She pulled her husband into a hug, offering him all the comfort she could give. Inwardly, she prayed to the gods.

Gohan smiled in excitement as himself and the rest of the Z-senshi made their way to the 25th Tenkaichi Budoukai, all of them piled into Bulma’s airbus. The Tenkaichi was taking place on a small island about 30 miles off the coast of the mainland. All of them had decided to travel together and, to look as non-conspicuous as possible, decided to use normal means of transportation. Videl squeezed Gohan’s hand as she sat next to him. Gohan looked over, the smile still on his face.

“Yeah, I know. You guys aren’t allowed to stay at my house. Hell, my father doesn’t even know about it. Nor will he ever. He’d kill me if he found out I was letting a whole bunch of strange people stay at his estate. Well,” Videl said, thinking over her choice of words, “Strange for him, at any rate. But, the one thing that he will not stand for once he finds out, because he will, is the fact that you and I are going out. You know he’s going to flip.” Gohan sighed in annoyance.

“That’s because you a guy and you’re threatening to take away his ‘little girl’,” Videl said, mocking her father’s own words, “He said that I couldn’t go out with anyone unless he was stronger than him. But, even when he finds out that you are a million times stronger than he is, he still won’t be happy with it. I swear, if it were up to him, I would remain single for the rest of my life and die an old maid.” Gohan laughed at Videl’s words, knowing them to be outrageous, yet true. Gohan maintained his hold on Videl’s hand as he looked around the cargo hold of the airbus.

Trunks and Goten were zipping about the large cabin, excited that they, too, were going to participate in the competition. Although neither Trunks nor Goten were happy with the fact that they weren’t going to be able to fight with the rest of the adults, they accepted the fact with the maturity of two adults and were content just to be able to fight. In one set of seats sat Goku and Chi-Chi, Chi-Chi’s hand resting on Goku’s thigh and Goku’s hand gently resting atop of it. Krillin, #18, and Marron all sat together; Vegeta and Bulma were in the front, Vegeta complaining about how long it was taking them to get there; Bardock, Tien, Yamcha, and Mirai sat near the back while Piccolo had claimed the entire back to himself, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed.

Gohan looked around the group with a small smile on his face, a group full of family and friends who had become like family. For as weird and diverse as the group was, he wouldn’t give them up for the world. In the front of the cabin, Bulma, who was navigating the vehicle, spotted the island ahead and turned to her husband, yelling at him loudly.

“Look! There it is! Are you happy now? We’re there!” Bulma shrieked, causing every Saiya-jin plus Piccolo to wince as Bulma’s words reached their sensitive ears. Only Vegeta showed no signs of discomfort to his wife’s tone and simply harrumphed.

“Finally, woman. I was afraid that by the time we got to the island, I’d be too old to compete.” Bulma growled deep in her throat, but wisely decided not to argue back against the “all-mighty” Saiya-jin Prince and instead decided to concentrate on finding a spot to land the airbus. After about 10 minutes of searching, Bulma found a clearing near the stadium and landed the plane, everyone quickly evacuating it so Bulma could put it back in it’s capsule.

“I know, aren’t they? People all over the world have my father to thank for this invention. Without him, I just don’t know where our civilization would be technologically,” Bulma said as the entire group walked towards the entrance, catching the eyes of several people as they walked past. It wasn’t every day that people saw Son Goku, the winner of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai, Yamcha, the greatest baseball player of all time, Bulma Briefs, and a tall, green guy walking around together in the same group. But, the Z-senshi were totally unaware of the attention they were getting and proceeded to make their way towards the entrance. As they walked, they spotted a huge group of people crowded around something, or someone, that they didn’t know.

“The only man, or thing, that could draw that much attention would be my father,” Videl said, turning to look at Gohan with an apologetic look on her face, “I’m sorry, but I should go and say hi to my father. I don’t think you want to see him right now, do you?” Gohan shook his head.

“No, I don’t think my seeing him would be a good idea right now. I think I better wait until later…like after the tournament,” Gohan said. Videl smiled and kissed Gohan gently.

“No…not technically, but I think they’ll make an exception for the daughter of the ‘great Mr. Satan’,” Videl said in mockery of her father. Gohan rolled his eyes.

“Well, I better get going. See you later!” Videl said, running off, waving to Gohan as she made her way to the crowd of people surrounding her father. Gohan turned back to the rest of the Z-senshi and jerked his thumb in the direction of the entrance.

“Shall we continue, guys?” he asked and with that, they continued on towards the entrance. Meanwhile, Videl was fighting her way towards the center of the crowd, most of them recognizing her as Mr. Satan’s daughter and letting her through. Finally, when she got to the center of the crowd, her father spotted her and a huge smile appeared on his face.

“Videl! Get over here and give your father a hug!” Videl smiled gently and walked over to her father. For all that he was a fraud and a liar, she still loved him. He engulfed her in a huge hug, all of the reporters and press giving a collective ‘aww’ at the sight of Mr. Satan embracing his daughter.

“It was fine. My dojos are running fine and training men to be stronger every day, though none of them will ever be a strong as me, of course!” Mr. Satan said, a huge grin replacing the small smile, striking a pose for the cameras. Videl rolled her eyes slightly before an idea hit her. She smiled mischievously; she was going to give her father a shock.

“Hey dad,” she said loudly, catching his attention and the attention of the reporters as well, “did you know that Son Goku, the baseball player Yamcha, and the husband of Bulma Briefs are all competing in this tournament?” Mr. Satan froze for a split second and she knew he was scared. Son Goku was the winner of the Tenkaichi Budoukai before he was and one of the only people to have ever destroyed the ring in a match before and Mr. Satan had met both Yamcha and Vegeta before, both of them scaring him…especially Vegeta with his intense glares and bone-crushing hand-shakes.

Videl could see that her father was having doubts as to whether he could win in the tournament at all. But, before the newscasters could notice a change in Mr. Satan’s behavior, he was back to his old self again, cocky and arrogant as usual. Mr. Satan let out a huge, booming laugh.

“Well, that will just make the competition even more fierce…though I will still come out on top. There is no one in the world who is as strong as I am and I will be the victor!” The newscasters and the crowd roared with applause at Mr. Satan’s claim of superior strength. After striking several more poses for the crowd and the cameras, Mr. Satan seemed to finally have enough of what he was doing.

“Well, thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen,” Mr. Satan announced, “But I think it’s time for me to go and mentally prepare myself for the upcoming events with rigorous meditation and other mental exercises.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t want to begrudge you your training, Mr. Satan, sir,” one brown-nosing reporter gushed. Mr. Satan gave the crowd a smile and a nod before turning and walking in the direction of the arena, Videl following him inside. As Videl predicted, the officials let Videl into the fighters’ waiting area, all of them more than happy to give Videl free roam of the otherwise restricted area. Videl gave them a smile in thanks as her father went to his private quarters to “meditate”, but Videl had a feeling that he would only be watching TV or one of his old matches to motivate himself.

Videl herself walked to the small alcove where the fighters would wait to step out onto the ring, situating herself right outside the entrance to the ring so she was sitting in the arena, her back against the wall as she looked out at the ring where the announcer was awaiting the initial pairings for the first round.

“Ok, it will be any minute now and we should have the results of the drawing,” the announcer bellowed about an hour after Videl had sat herself down, the announcer’s voice bringing her out of her light doze. She had decided that since it was going to take a while for the preliminaries and the drawing to finish, that she was going to take a quick nap against the wall.

Her excitement rose when she heard that the results of the drawing were going to be announced. She already knew that all of the Z-senshi were going to compete in the Tenkaichi Budoukai, all of them much stronger than her own esteemed father and couldn’t wait to hear what the pairings for the first round were going to be. It was only a couple more minutes until the results of the drawing were in, the piece of paper in the announcer’s hand waving in the air as the announcer held it up for all to see.

“The results are in!” the announcer said, “And now, the pairings for the first match! Up first, we have our champion, Mr. Satan, fighting against the favored Jewel! After that, it’s newcomer Son Gohan verses Spopovitch. Then Mirai Briefs against the returning contender Tien, then Krillin against Mighty Mask, Ma Junior is returning to the tournament to fight against newcomer Zion, the formal champion Son Goku is fighting against Bardock, Vegeta Briefs is fighting against a lovely lady who goes by the name ‘#18’ and, for the final match in the first round, is Yamcha verses Kyle!

"What a roundup we have here today! It’s going to prove to be an exciting tournament, so don’t leave your seats, ladies and gentlemen because you’re not going to want to miss the action!” Videl smiled at the pairings, anxious to see the results, yet part of her knowing what they were going to be.

* I bet that the final round of this tournament is going to be Gohan against either Goku or Vegeta. I can’t wait to see that one! * Videl said in her mind as she sensed the approaching ki of all of the fighters behind her. Getting up, she walked back inside the waiting area, seeing Gohan and the rest of the Z-senshi approaching, followed by the rest of the fighters. She walked over to the Z-senshi and promptly gave Gohan a kiss on the cheek.

“I guess so. I don’t know this Spopovitch guy, so I don’t know what type of competition he will be, but I’m sure I’ll win. I know it will get more interesting as Tenkaichi Budoukai proceeds and that’s what I’m looking forward to,” Gohan said with a small smile on his face. Videl smirked.

“True, true,” he said before he realized something and his face scrunched up in annoyance. “Hey,” he said, “I haven’t seen you in about an hour and a half and that little kiss is all I get?” Videl shook her head in amusement, knowing that Gohan was just trying to garner a kiss out of her…and it was going to work.

“Come here, big guy,” she whispered, pulling him down to her, her lips meeting his in a passionate kiss. The Z-senshi and the rest of the fighters turned a blind eye to the kissing couple…all except one. Mr. Satan, who had come down to the waiting area after hearing that his match in the first round was the starting match of the tournament, seethed at the sight of his little daughter kissing that scrawny, good-for-nothing runt.

* Ooh, I hope he makes it to the second round, * Mr. Satan thought, recognizing him as Son Gohan, the kid who took Videl to the Junior Winter Ball the previous year, * Because I will make him pay for touching my daughter. Who does he think he is laying his hands on my daughter without my permission? Well, no matter; I will make him pay. And, if he doesn’t make it to the second round, then I’ll challenge him in an unofficial match and I will win…nobody touches my daughter and gets away with it…nobody. *

Mr. Satan simply harrumphed at the sight in front of him and strode out to the ring, with his opponent Jewel right behind him, his long blond hair flowing down delicate, yet toned shoulders. The two contenders stepped out onto the ring and looked at each other while the announcer stated the rules for the crowd and for the fighters. Mr. Satan looked at his opponent, sizing him up.

* Well, he’s not strong enough to beat me…but he looks strong enough to give me a good workout. I really don’t want to beat him up, though. Who I really want to get my hands on is that scrawny runt, Son Gohan…well, I guess this ‘Jewel’ person will have to do for the moment, * Mr. Satan thought, getting down into a fighting position, ready to start his first match of the tournament.