EPISODE TWELVE - THE WAGER

Moments earlier, in the ring:

"After yesterday's match destroyed our ring, it only took one day to repair it and replace it! Let's have a hand for our volunteers, and of course our esteemed sponsor, Mr. Evil Kai!" Evil Kai stands. The crowd goes wild.

Mason walks within sight of the arena and hears the wild cheers. “BOOO! HE STINKS!”

Evil Kai speaks loudly. "Those aren't volunteers. I had to pay them. Wretched humans." The clapping subsides, but the announcer claps loudly and awkwardly to cover for it.

"Anyhow, let's begin the semi final match. In one corner, all the way from Hell, Piccolo...I mean Mystery Man Z!" The crowd cheers loudly.

"In the other corner, hailing all the way from... Earth I guess, the Saiyan warrior, Mason Titanstalker!" The crowd goes wild again.

“To fight you honours me, Piccolo, but don't think for a second I'm not here to win this.”

Piccolo begins the multiplication process. And with that, he steps aside and his clone is left in the ring. "Don't forget."

Mason prepares his stance for the upcoming battle. “I won't. I know what's at stake here.”

"Let's start this crazy fight! The winner fights Cell for the championship!"

Cell shouts out to the fighters, "Good luck. You're both going to need it!"

“I don't need your luck, Cell, unless I scrape it from my boot!”

The gong is sounded.

“The move you saw last time wasn't supposed to be revealed so soon, but the competition was starting to get fierce.…” Mason begins to gather his energy together. “But that doesn't matter now that you've seen it.” The energy begins to form around Mason. “BIG..... BANG.... ATTACK!”

Piccolo smiles and braces his body for the blow. As with the previous battle, the charged attack flies across the ring and cradles into Piccolo’s open hands. There it explodes and a bright light blinds the audience. When the light fades, the ring is a giant crater. Piccolo floats there, smouldering, and bleeding from open wounds. But not quite gushing.

Mason, panting a bit, floating above the busted arena, speaks, “I guess I am not strong enough to destroy myself… At least not in one shot…”

"No, you are not. But I might be able to remedy that..."

“Enlighten me.”

Piccolo places his hand on his forehead, then sharply extends it forward. A ring of power envelops it. Piccolo only smiles. "SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!"

Mason hears the scream and in a split second prepares his body for the massive blast that is sure to come his way, bracing for the damage that is to follow. The charged blast slices through the air, and collides with Mason's crossed arm. Suddenly, Mason screams in agonizing pain as the blast tears into his one arm and splinters the bone. Mason is knocked backwards and spins wildly before coming to a full stop. He grips his one arm, which is limp in a way which you couldn’t possibly want to picture with a full stomach. Bones protrude from a number of places. Mason lets out a blood curdling scream.

“AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!”

Piccolo speaks. "Now you're handicapped. Let's see how you fare."

Mason glares at Piccolo. “I'm not handicapped, just handicapable! AH!” Mason charges at the Namekian full speed before delivering a flurry of kicks.

Piccolo proceeds to block the oncoming assault, pressing is body into a defensive position. One punch is thrown and taken in by the green, muscular Namekian arms. As is a second.

A third is landed as well, but on the edge of Piccolo's arm, causing Mason to slip forward, his momentum causing him to fly forward too much and ending his assault. When he turns around, Piccolo is already gathering power. His body begins to glow yellow, and bricks from the destroyed arena begin to rise into the air. "AHHHHHHHHHH." Piccolo powers up. "Now, that feels much better."

Taking his space, Mason decides its time to gather his strength again as well. Focusing his energy he begins to collect it, as an aura is seen enveloping him glowing blue with a slight icy fog beginning to shroud around him, though he is still visible. The bricks from the destroyed arena begin to crumble after the successive follow up. Mason powers up. “I agree, it does feel better.”

Piccolo places his hand on his forehead. And brings his hand forward. Rays of light envelop it in a swirl of energy. The scene is all too familiar to Mason. He grips his broken wrist. "Are you ready to lose, Saiyan?"

“You assume a Saiyan is ever ready to lose.…”

Piccolo brings his second hand forward. It also envelops a swirl of energy. "DOUBLE KI BEAM!"

With that, the beams are unleashed, both travel in opposite directions but with the same final target. "Saiyan sandwich."

In the brief second that the beams shoot out of Piccolo's hands Mason stances himself as if he is going to counter at least one of the beams with one of his own when suddenly his eyes flash a brilliant blue as if he's seeing something, yet nothing else appears in the arena. “I understand.” Mason quickly braces again for the impact as a block despite what his Saiyan instincts tell him, to counter one of the beams and hope for the best.

Two beams of light quickly rip through the air and into the body of the Saiyan. One of the Saiyan’s arms flesh rips at the wrist and flies off into the crowd. And the Saiyan doesn’t move an inch as both blasts equally push into his body. “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH SON OF A SASQUATCH!”

But the Saiyan lives. Mason breathes heavily. “I still stand, Piccolo.”

The blasts subside giving the Saiyan room to breath, although he is badly injured and unable to fire blasts requiring two hands.

“This is not a game. Time to finish it…” Mason wipes what he can of the blood on his face with what's left of his one arm that still functions somewhat. He then begins to gather his strength forming all the energy he possibly can into a single point shaking the arena even more so than it has in any of the previous battles. The light becomes blinding to most as the energy ball grows to rather large proportions.

“BIG BANG ATTACK! FULL KI!”

Piccolo is blasted backwards with a massive beam of ki that when exploded singes the hair off most of the spectators faces and in their noses. When the light subsides and people can see again, which takes several minutes, the Piccolo clone is nowhere to be seen, vaporized.

Cell stands up. "Ha ha ha you fool, Piccolo! You know you were the only one strong enough to defeat me. Why do you play silly games with these pesky people!"

Piccolo floats down from above. "I'm not dead, that was a clone you fool." He begins floating towards the Saiyan. He has an angry look on his face. He puts his hand on his forehead and then forward swiftly and it begins to glow.

Suddenly, Mason is wretched from the air and flies into the Namek's hand who cups his head like a basketball. He lifts the Saiyan towards him and....embraces him with an open mouth.

“AAAAHHHHHH------”

His tongue slivers into the Saiyan’s mouth and down the Saiyan's throat. It creeps its way down deep into the Saiyan‘s stomach and feels increasingly heavy in the gut. Suddenly a huge surge of energy courses through the Saiyan’s body.

As Piccolo releases the Saiyan he leaves him with these words: "Go....Super...." and he drops to the ground below, unconscious.

"Ring out! Mason wins!"

“Super - Man? Super - Cola? Super - Crazy?” But Mason knows what he meant. Mason walks over to where his arm lies on the ground and picks it up, then walks over to the official and gives it to him. “Raise it!”

Piccolos body begins to fade slowly from the arena as the all too familiar trip back to Hell takes place.

The official looks shocked at Mason, and then grabs the dead lifeless hand and lifts it into the air.

“That was the grossest transfer of power ....ever! WOOOOOOOOO! I'm coming for you next, Cell!”

Cell looks at him awkwardly. "You weakling! I already won! Piccolo is gone! Which is too bad I was half hoping for a challenge, not for someone to hand me the Earth on a platter!"

“I seem to recall a time when you had once thought you won another tournament because a certain Saiyan was gone. How did that turn out for you?”

Suddenly a surge of power overcomes the Saiyan and his body begins to glow. Suddenly his hair lengthens, and appears yellow. Super Saiyan Two.

Cell's jaw drops. “IMPOSSIBLE!”

“BELIEVE IT!”

“IMPOSSIBLE! YOUR POWER LEVEL IS INCREDIBLE!”

Evil Kai smiles evilly.

“Enjoy my incredibleness while you can, for your time is limited, Cell!” 

Flashback to earlier that night:

Mason is taking a stroll after the battle with Ceit, proud of his one hit win. He's looking for Ochocinco, the Android damaged in the previous battle with his next opponent, Mystery Man Z, also now known as Piccolo. He both wants to razz him a little, as well as maybe get an idea of what kind of fight to expect. If what Piccolo said in that fight is true, his 20 million power level is no match against Mason's piddly 40,000 plus power level.

“Man, if what Piccolo said is true, his 20 million power level is no match against my piddly 40,000 plus power level…”

But what Mason didn't expect to find was Piccolo himself, hovering above a bench in a quiet part of the back staging area, blocking the only direct path to Ochocinco's recovery room.

“Hmmm, well this is unexpected... Piccolo's directly in my way, and if he's as good as I think he is there's probably no avoiding him now if I continue on my path…”

"You wish I wasn't here, don't you?"

“Would you wish it be any other way?”

Piccolo breaks his meditation. "You want to find out how to beat me. Well, you can't. I could kill you where you stand."

“And that's why I needed to know if there was a way to beat you.”

"There isn't. Not for you. I can sense your power level. Like I said, I could kill you where you stand."

“Do not mistake me for a fool, Namekian. I may act like one, but it is precisely to cover up the unwanted battles that I have survived. To act like the fool the rest have seen is to enjoy the few times outside of true battle I have. I am no stranger to fighting against impossible odds, and yet I still stand here before you. Could you kill me where I stand? You could... but that won't stop me from striving to survive.”

"You'd be deadly foolish to fight back against me. But you have the spirit of a Saiyan and I admire that. Where are you from? I thought all the Saiyans had perished save a few that I had the privilege of knowing, all of them."

“To what I was able to recover from my damaged ship before I had to destroy it, I was sent here from where all Saiyans came from. Before even the legendary Goku was sent. Only his ship was more fortunate than mine. I was kept in stasis for years because of an error."

"The Red Ribbon Army found me and tried to have me enslaved. It was there behind their brutal methods of ‘teaching’ that I learned to fight back, even if things appear foolish.”

“So my guess is you want to kill and enslave the humans, now that Freiza is dead, and for revenge?”

“I may have been sent here to enslave, but I am no ruler. I have no wish to do to others what the Red Ribbon Army has done to me. I fight because I have to fight, I fight to stop what happened from happening again. I have no care for the pity plannings of others. Not when it comes in regards to telling me what to do against my will.”

"Heh. Well I am telling you now, you will lose this match against your will.... Now back to business, feel free to go visit the Android, but he won't be able to help you, your fate is sealed. You aren't strong enough to beat me, and certainly not strong enough to beat Cell. I don't even think I am strong enough to beat Cell."

“If you truly believed that then you are the foolish one who has sealed his fate. Those that have resigned to failure shall surely lose. I refuse to fall into that category.”

Piccolo almost whispers.... "Heh, you refuse to accept reality....."

“I never really accepted reality. And that is why I am before you today.”

Mason continues to walk carefully but confidently past Piccolo towards the room in which lies his favourite punching bag, and the only possible hope he may have of finding a weakness in the legendary Piccolo.

As he is about to turn a corner.... "Saiyan, I have a proposal for you."

Mason looks over. “What is it you wish to propose?”

"Hell weakens an individual. Unlike the realm of the upper Kai's, Hell is designed to keep a person down, weak. The longer a time a person spends there, the more they deteriorate. That's why my power level is so low, only 20 million. That's why Freiza was so easily beaten. And Nappa. And so on."

“So where does this concern me?”

"Cell is strong. His power level was over 200 million when he was still alive in his prime, and in his perfect form, which he retains in Hell. Though he has been in Hell much longer than me, he is still a force to be reckoned with. I have fought him in Hell on numerous occasions. I like to think of myself as a one man police force. But... even though he backs down most times I know that if he wasn't toying with me to fend off boredom he could kill me, if I had life able to be killed that is."

"But you, you're alive. You have a living life force, a life force I could use. I was taught by a sage in Hell whom I saved from being robbed and tortured how to temporarily transfer a life force from one body to another. It works sort of like a fusion, but it could kill you, and of course you wouldn’t have control over your body. I propose instead of wasting your life in the ring with me, you hand over your life force to me. Our combined power and your life force may give me a fighting chance against Cell."

“And if I refuse?”

"I defeat your piddly weak body anyways, probably put you in a coma for months if not accidentally kill you, and in recovery of your broken Saiyan bones for years, not to mention your pride. You'd probably never fight again."

“Well, as enticing as either proposition sounds, you haven't really given me a reason to go along with either scenario.”

"You're a fool. Without me, you couldn't possibly defeat Cell, and neither can I."

“Of course without you you couldn't defeat Cell! On the other hand, I do not need to defeat him, just survive him, and win the tournament. There is more than one way to shave a bar of soap.”

"Yeah, and there’s one good way to get blown up trying to be foolish." Piccolo gets up and walks towards Mason. "Unfortunately for me both participants need to be willing in order to successfully transfer a life force. And unfortunately again they need to be in peak health, and that rules out most of the defeated fighters here, except you. And you're the strongest and therefore the most useful fighter here. The one to give me the most likely chance to win. And that big bang attack of yours... see, with the transfer of a life force the recipient not only gains the strength and power level of the other fighter on top of theirs, they also temporarily learn their techniques."

“Has it occurred to you that the plan you propose is precisely why the Evil Kai brought you back from Hell? That you are playing right into what he wants? Why would he have brought the one person who could destroy his plans before they come to fruition from Hell along with the others that were to do his dirty work for him?”

"I take it he isn't that smart. Besides, how could defeating Cell play into his plan? Look at them out there, they sit there like best of friends. Evil Kai has Cell well under his control. Me, he doesn't. I don't think he expected anyone to beat Cell. He's the strongest fighter here. Defeating him would definitely not play into his plan and I need to find a way to do that."

“And what makes you so certain that it needs to be you that finds a way?”

"I'm the only 'REAL' contender....and I mean for you to take offence to that. Sigh. You Saiyan's are so stubborn. I bet you wouldn't be so difficult if the shoe was on the other foot, if it was YOU getting the powers and strength."

Mason glares at Piccolo. “And why couldn't the shoe be on the other foot?”

"Ha ha ha, don't be a fool. I'm much wiser than you. I'd know much better how to use our combined powers than a novice like you."

“That may be, but when the tournament is over, then what? You're returned to Hell. Evil Kai remains here and anything he tries then would be up to us to stop and where would all your wisdom be?”

"I'd have to take the chance. Besides, you'd only have the powers for as long as my body remains unconscious. Just about a day I'd wager. Or the other way around. About a day. After that the powers diminish as the life force returns to the original bodies at their original levels. Which makes fighting Evil Kai either way not an option for me. This is assuming the one of us who fights defeats Cell before the nightfall, about this time tomorrow during tomorrows final match, that is. If the fight goes into the night, longer than 15 rounds, we'd fail at our task. Our life forces will separate."

“But my way I would have gained experience and shared your wisdom for a day. Anything I could take away from that would help us in whatever comes afterwards immensely.”

"Stubborn fool... Look I can't do this without you all the same. We have a fight in five minutes. Are you a gambling man?"

“What's the wager?”

"You want control? Earn it. One clone of myself at your strength. If you can beat it, you may be worthy of controlling that much power for a day. But if I win, I get YOUR life force for a day. Deal?"

Mason Titanstalker thinks for a moment. “You're on. You hold up to your end of the bet, Namekian, and if you honourably uphold it and manage to defeat me... I shall go along with your plan.”

"Then it's settled. See you in the ring"

“I shall.”