Krillin and 18: One Stupid Kiss

Part 16: Awry Affair

The jets raced across the sky at light speed, leaving multicolored trails of smoke in their wake and mesmerizing the audience below. Then they dropped smoke bombs that took the form of Hercule's face upon explosion. Of course the tournament would begin with the honoring of the "great hero" of the Cell Games. If Krillin were not already enjoying the tournament, he would have rolled his eyes so far back they might have gotten stuck inside his head. The preliminary round was already underway, and he was flicking his competiton off his Battle Island stage. There were eight stages, tall white pillars that towered over the sea, each containing twenty-five fighters duking it out in a battle royale. Fainting or being knocked into the water resulted in a loss, and the latter was clearly how Krillin and the rest of the Z fighters preferred to finish their opponents. He could hear Chi Chi's cheers for her son and Piccolo's battle grunts as their piles of fighters fell around him and splashed. Poor Yamcha had already been catapulted into the sea by a giant pole a random guy used to whack some fighters. Krillin chuckled at him as he gurgled profanities. 

Some obnoxiously heavy, encroaching footsteps stole his attention. He turned to behold a seven foot musclebound meathead smiling at him the way a hyena would smile at a cornered meerkat. Krillin looked him up and down, undaunted and chaffed, "I'll let you have a free shot." The meathead growled at him, unappreciative of his cockiness, and wound back a fist the size of Krillin's head. It connected with the cheek Krillin jutted out, but without the sickening crunch the larger fighter was expecting. In fact, the force didn't move Krillin's head at all. He smiled mischeviously, grabbed his fist and tossed him in the air, making him do a couple somersaults. Then he caught him by the foot and spun him on one finger before flinging him over his shoulder like a candy wrapper. Some of the other fighters had paused to watch, quite stunned. He looked up to see Gohan giving him a thumbs up and a smile that made him look like a carbon copy of his father. Then the half Saiyan plucked away an opponent trying to ambush him and sent him flying at a thousand miles per hour. Krillin chuckled.

He caught a particular blonde next to Bulma and Chi Chi grinning at him as well. When they made eye contact she winked and waved at him, making his heart flutter. Then he shook his head at her twin, sitting on her left, who was pretending to gag. 18 glanced over and punched him. Krillin laughed at them and tried to calm his rising nerves.  

About a week before the tournament, Krillin texted 18 to meet him at a restaurant for a date then headed over to the her and 17's cabin. Her brother was ecstatic when the monk informed him of his plans. So much that he gave him a nougie that he could still feel for hours after the fact. 17 also approved of the massive diamond Krillin mined with his bare hands, now tucked securely in a zipped pocket of his gi. If 17 liked it, 18 would probably go nuts over it. Everything seemed to be going well, and if it continued this way, Krillin would have himself a whole fiance. And a pending brother-in-law.

Quite a few pummeled and wet contestants later, the promoter was announcing the semi finalists who would move on to the next special round. Gohan and Piccolo were obvious, Krillin was called after, Yamcha had his chin on a fist in the audience, and- Future Trunks was advancing as well? Krillin glanced up to see the Saiyan with his trademark outfit and sword standing victorious on his own platform. Trunks caught his eye, smiled, and waved. Krillin gulped. Where did he even come from? Do all Saiyans have some kind of built in fight radar or something? Even if they were in separate timelines? He just hoped that someone caught him and filled him in on the proposal plan in case they ended up opponents...

The promoter began to explain the next phase of the tournament: the semi finalists would enter different rocket pods each leading to a different stage. There they would meet the "aliens" that they would battle; the fighters had not seen them yet but Oolong ended up right about the humans playing dress up. One would think that the rich hosts could afford better costumes. The first to defeat their opponent would race to the final stage back on Battle Island where they would face off against Hercule. When the promoter was finished, Krillin was cheesing as if he were in a toothpaste commercial. Now he definitely had this whole thing in the bag. He wouldn't end up fighting Gohan, Piccolo, or Trunks and those three would probably be too busy toying with their opponents to focus on the race. Well, maybe not Piccolo but the Namekian was informed of his game plan and promised to have his back at least.

Krillin hopped in his rocket pod and lounged in it as if it were a hammock. The promoter had the audience count down with him from ten. On one, each rocket pod activated and fired off at sonic speed. They entered a dark tunnel lit up by thin plasma-like waves. The contestants' hooting and hollering as their pods surfed them could likely be heard by the audience. They all reached the end of the tunnel at the same time when a bright light nearly blinded them.

Before his vision could refocus Krillin's pod was ricocheting off rocks before it finally landed in a river of lava. Krillin launched out of it, smacking his poor burning behind. Hoping nobody in the audience (especially 18) saw him, he proceeded to take in his surroundings. His new stage was a volcanic, desolate wasteland full of smoke.

"Not quite the place you'd take someone on a date, eh?" he mused. He focused his attention on a figure in the distance, blurred by some of the smoke, and began to approach it.

"Hello, there," he greeted. "My name's Krillin. You must be my opponent. Considering you're an alien and all you might not have heard of me but I'm a warrior from Earth. You'd do well to stay on your guard because my goal is to make this quick."

He rubbed the back of his head and started grinning again.

"I need to win this so I can propose to my girlfriiiee..." the smoke cleared, allowing him to fully behold his opponent. She wore loose yet flattering pants with a long purple cloth tied around her hip and pointy yellow boots. Her voluminous, orange curls reached the backs of her thighs. She had a white belt that accentuated her hourglass figure, dark grey fingerless gloves that went up to her biceps, and a blue tube top with a vest. And even with teal skin, she was absolutely gorgeous. Krillin began to babble, forgetting how to speak, before he shook himself out of his stupor.

"My girlfriend!" he blurted. "I'm proposing to my girlfriend after this!" 

He shifted into a defensive stance, "So I can't afford to go easy on you or let you distract me! Got it?!" He didn't sound as firm as he wanted to, and he hated that but couldn't help it either. This chick caught him waaay offguard; who knew space women were so hot? He mentally chided himself and decided the best way to look at this alien was as a major obstacle between him and the most epic proposal in history. An epic proposal to the most beautiful, perfect, and amazing woman in the world.

Yep, that did it. 

Krillin launched himself at the alien and fired a barrage of punches and kicks at her. She effortlessly dodged every single one with a seductive smile plastered on her face. As she advanced on him, he decided to surprise her with a roundhouse kick to the stomach; she twisted away and leaned back in, close, running a slender hand up his abdomen. She gazed down at him, her sapphire eyes telling him that she didn't exactly wish to fight. He cursed himself as he blushed and propelled himself backward. This alien was unfortuantely a lot stronger than he anticipated; she wasn't even sweating in the slightest. He had started this battle giving it his all and she was playing with him like he was some toy. The possibility that she was on 18's level, or worse Gohan's or Trunks's, sank into Krillin's stomach and drowned all of his earlier confidence.

Maybe there was a way he could catch her offguard. He considered flirting back until he realized the audience, specifically 18, could probably see everything that was happening. She flew at him while he was still pondering, prompting him to yelp and leap out of her reach. She chased him as he bounced off the rocks and flew close to the lava, refusing to let him put as much distance between them as he wanted. Krillin gritted his teeth and darted at her with a kick aimed at her collarbone. She swung behind him and cradled him, massaging his chest with her lips on his neck. Face burning, he grabbed her arms and flipped her in front of him, then fired toward the ground with the intent to body slam her. And then she teleported out of his grip right before they made impact, leaving him implanted in the terra with his legs in the air.

"Oh come on," Krillin crowed as he wiggled out of the hole. He rubbed his skull then gasped as she reappeared behind him. He whipped around and sent a right hook to her temple. She caught his fist like a baseball, then the other when he tried to punch her again. The alien didn't budge and tittered at him as he tried to free himself. Then bent down and leaned in slowly. He desperately, futilely tried to yank himself away. She gently pressed her mouth against his. She...was so... cold. 

The alien released his hands and cupped his face. He pounded on her back and shoulders, but he might as well been throwing pebbles at her. Each blow took more and more of his energy, vast and unusal amounts. He felt like it was being siphoned out of him with a bottomless syringe. She smiled against his mouth as his arms fell.

Everything went dark.