Choice to be Different

Chapter 9:CrossRoads

'Geta and Goku sat on the banks of the stream that ran through the valley they'd been inhabiting for the last few months. Both boy had traded their compact child-forms for gangly adolescence. They were too tall for their weight and struggling to adjust to limbs that were suddenly longer than they were used to. But the day was sunny and warm, the fish were biting and even considering growth pains life was good.
Goku let the tip of his tail dangle in the water in place of a fishing line.

'Geta ambled upstream in search of his own fishing spot. He stretched and let the warm sun bake some of the soreness out of his muscles. 'Geta didn't enjoy the growth pains anymore than Goku did, but he had to admit that his primary growth phase had turned out to be something of a reprieve. The Dragon Balls should have regenerated several months ago, it was past time for them to go back to their real lives... But he wasn't going to go searching the globe for a bunch of wish-granting balls when there were mornings when all he wanted to do was curl up in a ball and whine about the pain in his joints. As for going back, that simply wasn't happening until he was back in fighting form. Even so he couldn't put off going back forever. In just another three months they'd be done growing and he'd either have to go back or find another reason to delay.

'Geta didn't doubt what his older counterpart had said about him not being strong enough to face Frieza yet. Even though he'd have his full height in a few more months he knew he'd be in his early twenties before his muscle-mass filled out completely. Raditz was eighteen and he was still in the process of filling out.

'Geta didn't want to believe what his older counterpart had said about what he'd do to Raditz and Appura. He didn't want to believe that but he did. His counterpart was right, he couldn't go back to Frieza. He'd experienced something better and he couldn't go back to that life. The question was what was he going to do about it.

A year wasn't enough time to prepare for Frieza. So what was he going to do.

Thousands of miles away that same sun shown down on the 25th Tenkaichi Budoukai.
No tournament took place without a few behind the scenes catastrophes but in the opinion of the officials this one was cursed. First every camera on the entire island blew up. Tournaments had been held without being televised before and so they forged onward. Even if the reigning champion and savior of the world wasn't happy about it.

Then the punching machine broke before they were even half-way through the prelims. They barely managed to get the back-up calibrated before the Junior Tournament ended. They should have been done with the prelims by then, everything was behind schedule. Also the scores of the last group who'd been tested on the original machine were suspect. After careful consideration the tournament officials decided to let the scores stand. They were behind schedule, asking that bunch to retest would only hold things up more. As for Contest 88... well they didn't exactly have a score recorded for him but the unanimous decision was to declare him a qualifier, punching machines weren't cheap after all. It wasn't that they were afraid to ask him to retest... honestly.

There was a minor issue with needing to restock the kitchens.

The tournament officials breathed a sigh of relief when the final sixteen competitors began their matches without any further incidents. It turned out that they'd relaxed too soon. In the third match Videl Satan, Mr. Satan's beloved daughter and the darling of Satan City, took a brutal beating at the hands of her opponent. That disaster was quickly followed up by over half the remaining competitors walking, or flying to be more precise, out on the tournament.

What else could go wrong today?

Across a narrow sea and a mountain range, in a rocky valley west of the Tournament Island Vegeta doubled over in agony.
"Fight it!" "Give in to it." The Supreme Kai and the Wizard Bobbidi were both shouting orders at him. Vegeta ignored them. He was Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans, he took orders from no one.