Losing sight of his foe, the demi-Saiyan only had a split second to react when the girl suddenly reappeared directly beneath him and, grabbing his leg on a pass, spun him into an unexpected aerial flip, using the moment of it to throw Gohan towards the ground. Upon chucking him out of the sky, Paprika threw her hand forward and fired a pink blast after him. The attack collided with the boy and knocked him down faster, followed by another. Then, as soon as his body slammed into the center of the ring, a barrage of hundreds of pink energy blasts began raining down on top of the hapless Saiyan and bombarded him mercilessly.
Shouting with every throw, Paprika hurled a continuous stream of energy attacks at the ring, filling its center with explosions that sent a fiery cloud of smoke into the air and blasts of wind across the stands. The audience cried out in terror as the arena was practically firebombed and the half-Saiyan seemingly incinerated in the attack. Piccolo, Zangya and Videl looked on in shock and worry as Gohan was struck down by the rain of death, which lasted for several long seconds before ending with a spectacular finale.
Hercule, who was literally hanging onto the seal of the window, gawked out onto the stage with wide eyes. "Oh no. G-Gohan. How is such a strong kid being beaten down by such a little runt?"
A black mushroom cloud hung above the ring at the end of the assault. With the announcer having to duck and cover at the very edge of the battleground, when he felt the tremors subside, the man immediately took that as his cue to stand and, upon adjusting his glasses, looked into the epicenter of the disaster zone.
"Wow. What an attack. A rain of energy from above has knocked tournament favorite Gohan out of the air and turned the entire center of the ring into a smoking crater! Is our gutsy young fighter down for the count?!" When he saw the smoke eventually lift from the hole, the man peered across to see if there was a body. However, after analyzing the ruined patch of space, the announcer gasped in shock when he saw nothing. "H-He's gone folks! Gohan is nowhere to be seen!"
"What?!" Paprika shouted, gritting her teeth and looking around at the four corners of the field from above. "Damn it! Him and his stupid disappearing acts! Where the hell did that scumbag go this time?!"
Then, like an echo on the wind, the girl's eyes widened in surprise when she heard the sound of a fast approaching, familiar yell.
"GeronimooooOOOOOOOOO!"
The Makyan turned, "Wha-" BAM!
With a deafening thunderclap, Paprika was unexpectedly hit from behind by her opponent diving down at her feet first and slamming a double kick into the side of her face. The impact of the blow not only rocked the entire stadium with an earthshaking tremor, but the attack managed to knock the girl clear out of the sky and slammed her straight into the corner of the arena.
The entire quarter of the tiled ring exploded in a shower of dust and debris, which pelted the audience and drew a cry of terror from everyone in that general direction. When the cloud eventually faded seconds later, it revealed an enormous, disheveled crater where a major portion of the concrete used to be.
Smiling at his success, a badly bruised and slightly singed Gohan dropped down from the sky and landed on what he called 'his' side of the ring. Assuming a proper standing position, he watched and waited for the air to clear, the audience and the announcer also turning to see what'd happened.
"YES!" Videl cheered, completely thrilled by his brilliant maneuver. "Well done!"
"That's it. Use your training, Gohan," Piccolo murmured with a smile on his face as he and Zangya continued to watch closely from above.
After a few seconds of waiting with no sign of his opponent, Gohan and the audience began to believe that Paprika had been knocked out. However, when everyone felt a tremor work its way up from the crater, the announcer and the young Saiyan quickly realized that she was still alive and well. A few seconds of waiting later, the crowd then saw the crater explode and from the debris, the Makyan's shadow reemerged.
The announcer grinned with delight. "Incredible! After a wicked hit that buried her inside the ring's corner, Paprika is back on her feet and ready for more!"
Floating out of the hole, the demon girl landed directly across from her opponent on her side of the board. Her clothes torn up with more bruises covering her body, the Makyan spat the blood out of her mouth and glared across at her equally damaged foe.
"I hate you."
Gohan smiled, "Ah, don't be like that. I'm sure you'll grow to like me sooner or later."
"This may come as a shock to you, but I didn't come here to make friends," Paprika responded sharply, her frown deepening as she reached up to clean the blood trickling down from her mouth. It was a gesture that was copied by her opponent. "I came here to wipe the floor with you and make you pay for what you did to me. A killer like you doesn't deserve the mercy of appropriate social etiquette."
The demi-Saiyan frowned at her response, "Look, I'm sorry about what happened to your father and your planet. But he left me no other choice. It was either beat him or watch him suck the entire earth into the Dead Zone. If you were in my shoes, struggling to hold onto the ground and protect your friends, you would have done the exact same thing that I did."
Snarling at the boy's reasoning, the girl clenched her fists tightly and snapped, "Don't lecture me on perspectives, you retch! I wasn't the one that condemned a father and wiped an entire race of people from existence. You were!" Her angry retort had Gohan flinch at the pain he could sense in Paprika's words. "It's useless to get me to see your point of view. My father and my home are gone… and there isn't a damn thing I can do to get them back. The only thing that's left for me in their place is misery… and the only way I'll be able to get rid of it is to make the one who ruined my life suffer for all the pain that he's caused me."
As Gohan listened to the girl's angry tirade, the stadium remained silent as the announcer and the audience also lent an ear to the pair's conversation. While all those closest to their level could definitely hear the girl's shouts and statements, all of Paprika's hurt and frustrations were being directed to one person and one person only; and that was her opponent.
Remaining as he was, the demi-Saiyan allowed the girl to get all the words she had off her chest.
"You were the one that destroyed my home planet!" the Makyan girl snapped fiercely. "YOU were the one that murdered my father and left me all alone in the wilderness! You have no idea what it's like to be stranded out in the cold with nothing and nobody to return to! You have no idea what it's like to lose your family!"
This part had the half-Saiyan flinch. His hand clenching and unclenching momentarily, the spiky haired warrior then looked across at the girl with sadness reflected in his eyes. "You're half right. I don't know what it's like to lose my home." When he saw the girl narrow her glare, Gohan looked up at her and continued. "But I do know what it's like to lose someone you care about and to be left out in the cold… and I know what it's like to lose a family member… especially a father." These words brought a tinge of pain to the boy's own heart and had him wince on the inside.
Hearing the boy's response to her outburst, Paprika remained as she was, quiet and motionless. Eventually, after processing her opponent's own heartfelt statements and seeing the sadness reflected on his face, the girl tightened her fist again and shook her head, "Then you should know why I have to do this."
Swallowing, Gohan nodded, "Yes." He then gave her a serious look. "Do you want to dispense of the rules and try to kill each other?"
"No. I'm not going to kill you," Paprika replied, her anger still burning strongly as a current of red electricity shot up her arm. "If I did, then that would make me even worse than you; a person lower than the scum in the gutter. Besides…" The corner of her mouth twitched into a smile, "It would be a lot more satisfying to beat you within the rules. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to hurt you… and what better place to do that than on a stage like this?" She gestured grandly to their already half destroyed arena. "I'm going to beat you in front of all these people and burn you for all the crimes you've committed."
Gohan frowned at her declaration, "Sorry to disappoint you, Paprika, but at the rate this fight is going the only way you're ever going to beat me is to knock me out… and I'm not even fighting at half my real power yet. If this is all that you have to show me, then this match is as good as over."
It was these words that brought an even wider smirk to the girl's face. "I agree. This match is as good as over… for you anyway." Her response prompting the boy to raise his eyebrow, Paprika then flicked her hair back and raised her hand. "Did you honestly think that I would face you in battle without some sort of plan? You see, I have a little trick up my sleeve that you may be quite familiar with. After you destroyed my home planet and scattered its debris on the wind, I was able to collect several of the fragments that managed to survive and fused them with my body." This reveal immediately had Gohan look up with a start and watch as a feral grin slowly pulled across Paprika's face.
The expression she took on was one that was both menacing and intimidating, and sent a chill down everyone's spines.
"The radiation from the Makyo Star's soil stimulates the cells inside of its natives and increases our energy output several times over. That means, with the planet's rock imbedded in my system and combined with my energy, I'm able to do something like this!" Her body tensing up, Paprika tightened fists and gritted her teeth, a loud snarl escaping her lips as she began to focus her energy.
A red glow starting to radiate off of her body like fire, Gohan narrowed his eyes and watched closely as Paprika went through the most unusual power up. Her energy levels fluctuating and veins starting to pulse around her forehead, the ground began to tremble and the air started to grow heavy with a growing physical presence.
Then, only three seconds after Paprika began focusing her ki, the Makyan child then experienced a sudden and startling transformation. In the blink of an eye, the girl's mass and size increased drastically, her height shooting up to that of Piccolo's, her muscles bulking, and her entire body taking on a more shapely, womanly form. To top it off, Paprika's sickly green skin darkened to a forest shade, her white hair elongated and, with her sudden increase in size, her clothes exploded off of her body, shredding into pieces and leaving the girl in nothing but her shoes, a black sports bra, and white underwear.
To put it into perspective, the Makyan girl went from petite, Videl stature to fucking She-Hulk in appearance in less than half a second.
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