Goku vs Superman
by Ray Chang

"Goku, Goku come over here. Goku, what do you see?" Grandpa asked me. I looked out quitely over the green landscape. I saw the big river where Grandpa and I would go catch fish. I saw the trees where Grandpa taught me how to pick fruit and nuts. I saw the wooden stumps where Grandpa would teach me footwork and stance training. This was my life till now. My present and my past.

"I see home." I said. Then my stomach rumbled. "Grandpa, I'm hungry. Let's go eat dinner."

Grandpa laughed. "Goku, we just ate. How are you hungry again?"

"I don't know. I just am."

"You are always hungry, Goku." Grandpa pats me on the head. I giggle.

"After we eat can you show me that Tiger Crane form again?" I ask.

"Goku, one must rest too. Rest is a part of training. Tranquility is precious. Peace is precious."
I wasn't listening. I was already heading back to the quaint little hut that I had grown up. I wanted to have some more fish and those yummy mushrooms that we had picked together.

My grandpa's name was Son Gohan and he named me Son Goku. Son is his family name and Goku means ability to realize emptiness. Whenever I mentioned emptiness Grandpa would start talking about some sort of cosmos and the Tao. Nowadays I only hear empty when Bulma scolds me and says that I'm empty headed.

Sometime ago someone approached me telling me that they needed my help. He seemed like a nice guy, dressed a little weird but a nice guy. I could sense that there he was very powerful though and I wondered why such a powerful person needed my help.

"There is a person you must save." He droned. He had this really dark dramatic voice that seemed to echo for no reason. It reminded me of the time Grandpa took me to an opera and the person with white make up would sing and dance. It was that kind of voice.

"Who?" I asked
.
"His name is Kal-el He is like you, one of the last survivors of his kind. He is also like you very powerful."

"How do I save him?"

"I will take you to him. He is under a form of mind control and you must free him from it."

I remembered the time when Vegeta's mind had been taken over by Babidi. The thing that bothered me most when I saw that angry, hateful face was not his power, which was formidiable, but the sadness in his eyes.

"Kakarrot! Fight me!" He had pleaded. Vegeta, is all your life simply about being stronger than I am? Don't you see that you have a beautiful family and wife to go home to? Don't you see that you have a home now? Luckily, I was still able to knock some sense into him. I enjoyed that a lot. But then he tricked me and we finally learned to work together to defeat Majin Buu.

I smiled. "Ok, I'll do it."

The strange man grabbed my wrist and I suddenly felt like I was being stretched. I heard Chi Chi yell at me to wait. Gohan said something about think things through. Goten was eating something. Neko Majin simply smiled and Uub made a gasping noise.

They wavered away and I was standing in a big city, bigger than any city that I've ever seen. It had all these tall metal buildings and lots of really fancy…stuff.

"Good luck, Goku. If you cannot do it, then there is no hope for anyone." The costumed man vaporized and my mind wondered what kind of technique was that. It seemed to be something closer to the teleportation I had seen the Supreme Kais use. There was a man in front of me. He had a handsome chiseled face and he wore a real funny looking outfit with a long cape and a big S. I thought the cape was kind of cool.

"Hi there! My name is Goku! I'm sorry to say but you're been mind controlled."

The man, Kal-el, looked at me and I could sense an awesome power coming from him. I suddenly felt strange and realized I was being bathed in x-rays. I remembered the time Dr. Briefs made me lay down on a table and he took pictures and I got to see all these bones. He told me they were my bones and that a saiyan's skeletal structure was a lot denser than a human's.

Kal-el turned to face me and his face seemed so expressionless and mechanical. He didn't have that rage that I remember Vegeta had or Buu's evil joy. But my brain, which Dr. Briefs said thinks faster than a human's as well (although Bulma said that was impossible) knew when somone wants to fight you.

I stepped into the stance that the Northern King Kai had taught me when I was, uh…dead. It was a wide stance and was good for open spaces like the rooftop we were on. Kal-el stepped in and swung with a good kick and a strong uppercut. Usually a lot of fighters would come in with a kick because of its longer range and the speed of both movements were exceptionally fast: faster than Cell.

But my eyes and body were trained and I countered both movements at the same time, sinking back and striking out with two palms at the chest and abdomen. Kal-el suddenly shot out two beams of light from his eyes. At close range this was a killing move and I didn't know it at the time but he had used a combination of X-Ray, Microscopic, and Heat Ray Vision designed to puncture a whole through my heart.

But I was no longer there having sidestepped behind him so fast that it seemed like I had disappeared and reappeared . Kal-el's exceptional hearing had heard the change in air molecules as I appeared behind him and he tried to elbow me with one arm and threw a strong hook with the other.

I twisted my body to avoid the elbow, lowred my head to avoid the swing and thrusted out both fists in a straight line down his body. I winced. Hitting him seemed to hurt more than the time I punched Metal Cooler. His body went catapaulting into a sky scraper and I suddeny remembered that there were people in this city. I flew up in the air trying to sense where he was.. Suddenly he barreled into me like a red and blue comet. I could feel his punches digging deeper and deeper into my body. We were moving fast now, so fast that we seemed to have many limbs and multiple copies. I chopped both hands at his neck but his iron fingers got mine. Then I headbutted him and he responded with those laser eyes of his. I flipped out of the way and pulled him with me, kicking him into the ground with both feet.

Massive dust waves rolled and there was a crater where he had landed. The impact had turned turned glass to powder and had sent him deep underground into the subway system of the city. I could still sense his energy and was amazed to see him hover up to me looking relatively…fine. I had messed up his hair though.

If we keep this up this whole city will be destroyed. I thought.

"Follow me." I said and began to fly to a location where I could sense as little life-energies as possible. I broke off in flight hearing the wind rumble as I broke the sound barrier. Kal-el came close to behind me and was threatening to overtake me. I focused me energy and visualized my ideal self: my body became bathed in red light and I gained speed but he continued to be edging closer.

This is a good enough spot I thought and I changed direction flying right into him. He swerved his body out of the way and grabbed my arm, throwing me into the desert. Hovering above me he began to fire more crimson beams of light from his eyes. More craters began dot the desert landscape. Before they could hit me I used to dust to max my movements and teleported behind him throwing a hard roundhouse into his ribcage. The blow startled him but he began to throw more punches at me in midair. He managed to get one uppercut in and he vibrated his arm at superspeed as well. I could feel my whole chest cave in. I elbowed him hard in the face twice and then spun kck him away. He slammed into another building and I realized we were in another city.

Kal-El suddenly dove down and I was worried he was going to harm the people running away. Instead he bent down, stooped and began to lift the Eiffel Tower up. Grabbing it like a baseball bat he swung at me hard. It was a big movement and so was easy to prepare for. To be honest I didn't feel the Tower hit me. By then my hair had turned golden and my pupils had turned green. A great golden aura surrounded me and I felt my face harden. The secret to attaining Super Saiyan was to channel all the anger and sadness at the loss of life. But even greater than that was the anger at the injustice, at being wronged.

I blocked the Tower casually with one arm and then dove in towards Kal-el uppercutting him as hard as he had uppercutted me. Meanwhile pieces of the tower began to fall slowly and gradually like feathers because we were moving so fast everything else seemed to move slow. After the uppercut I grabbed his legs and threw him as hard as I could away from the city. As his figure grew smaller and smaller I clenched my fists and flew faster appearing behind him and elbowing him into a mountain. The mountain crumbled and Kal-el stood up once again but my hands were already cupped.

"The Kamehameha Wave is superior to a mere fireball because it is a coninuous beam of energy. It is the culmination of my lifetime's study of the martial arts." Master Roshi smiled. "A single projective can be easily dodged if given enough range. The Kamehameha Wave when performed correctly is not so easily dodged because of the wide radius that it strikes."

"Ka---me---ha---me---" If I fired down like this the energy of my strike would dig right through the earth and probably keep going. So I teleported again appearing right next to Kal-el. For reasons that I don't understand, Kal-el has a bad habit of leaving himself real open to hits. He doesn't like to dodge and weave very much. It's like he thinks that nothing can hurt him or something.

"HA"!

My attack strikes him in a blue flash. Shooting upwards instead of downwards allowed me to ensure that my power would not harm the earth anymore. Kal-el is blown away although he struggles to resist the flow of force I push harder and then smile.

"10x"

King Kai smiled. "Remember Goku, the best warriors always leave a little bit in reserve"
The energy wave grew even larger and Kal-el is blown back farther and farther away unable to resist the powerful blue flood of power. I pant hard but I can feel that Kal-el's energy is getting stronger some how. I don't understand it. Is he absorbing my attack? No. That's not it. I look up and shield my eyes as the beam reaches the sun and the whole sky turns white.

No wait, he's absorbing the sun. He's absorbing the sun's power! I clench my fists angrily. Slowly I let the anger ebb away for a moment.

"Goku, seek the stillness in your heart. Fighting against an opponent is not about technique or power or speed." Grandpa mused.

"Then what's it about?" I asked.

"It is about peace."

"Huh?" I was confused.

Grandpa laughed. "Don't worry. You'll understand it one day."

Kami nodded at me. "Goku you may be the most powerful fighter this world has ever produced but keep in mind that you are but a small speck in the universe."

"Ok."

"Although there are beings that live millions and billions of years we all will die one day. The universe will collapse on itself and open up again in one long never ending cycle. Your life is but an eye blink in that of the universe. But if you have peace in your heart, you are the same as that never ending wheel." Kami points one green finger at me.

"You are the universe, Goku. Born of the same dust as the stars. When you fight is when you see yourself most clearly. See that peace and you will become more powerful."

It took me a long time to make peace with myself. To forgive myself for the fact that I had killed Grandpa. That when I saw the moon I would become some sort of giant were-monkey that would rampage and destroy everything. I came from a race of monsters, of pirates and plunderers. But after Frieza, after becoming friends with Vegeta I began to realize that I was not a monster and there was no monster inside of me.

"We are descendents of the strongest race in the universe Kakarrot. Be proud of your heritage" Vegeta said, looking at the stars.

I am a saiyan from Earth.

I had opened my eyes and my body had transformed. My hair was golden and long and streaks of electricity shimmered down my body.

"Goku!" I heard a voice in my head.

"King Kai?" I asked.

"Goku! Kal-el is kryptonian, his powers come from the Yellow Sun but a Red Sun can take away his powers. Use your Instant Transmission to…"

Kal-el suddenly slammed into me and I felt an awesome pain rise through my body. I felt this heat surround me and I focused my energies trying to find the stillness beneath the pain as he pushed me deeper down the earth through the core and out the other end.

Grabbing me tight I could feel him try to squeeze the life out of me. I screamed in pain and felt fire all over my body. Then the earth trembled and I could see the night sky for a moment. The air was getting thinner and thinner as we reached higher up the atmosphere. My fighting instincts told me that Kal-el was like Frieza and that he could survive in space and that Kal-el attempted to suffocate me and if he doesn't succeed me there shove me face first into the sun.

I closed my eyes and told my heart beat to still down. My breathing slowed…slowed…and stopped. My body relaxed. I opened my eyes again broke his bear hug sending my aura out like a golden shockwave. The force sent Kal-el into the moon and the moon crumpled and burst into a million pale chunks over the earth. I looked at Kal-el grimly encased in a golden energy shield. It was this sort of technique that I figured allowed Broli to survive in space as well.

Kal-el floated at me and suddenly disappeared. I didn't know this at the time but he had vibrated his molecules at a super fast speed to become invisible. It didn't matter. He didn't know I could still sense him and so I punched him. He blinked back into my vision and blocked the punch and we began to trade blows again. I recognized his fighting style very clearly now incorporating some Judo, Karate, and something else (Kryptonian). He seemed to have undergone some hard training too (Mongol). Our movements connected and continued to exploit his weakness of simply taking hits and struck him at all the open pressure points and nerve centers I knew. Meanwhile Kal-el continued to hit hard, then harder, then really hard. I felt blood trickle down my chin and bruises all over my body. Kal-el's cape had holes now and I saw some blood as well.

"Goku!" King Kai called. "Use Instant Transmission and send him into the Red Sun, it will destroy his powers."

"No!" I responded.

"Goku!" King Kai yelled, this time pleading.

"No, that's not a fair advantage. I can beat him in a fair fight." I answered.

Kal-el wasn't letting up though and I felt myself growing more and more tired. It seemed like the guy had unlimited stamina. It probably had something to do with the sun.He "grabbed" a moon from some other planet and proceeded to ram it at me. I teleported and wrestled him into and then through that moon. He broke free and I felt my energy shield begin to blink dangerously. I was running low on power. If this keeps up I would die, again.

He was moving even faster now and I wondered if this was any limit to this guy's power. It was like I was fighting something that just kept getting bigger and bigger. The only time I felt this was when Majin Buu kept absorbing people and becoming stronger and stronger. But that wasn't the worst of it. He seemed to be moving one step ahead of me now and my strikes no matter how furious and fast were being parried now. (This was because Kal-el was using his superhearing to listen to Goku's heart rate, muscles and other physical sounds so that he could respond before Goku could)

Kal-el punched hard and my head snapped back. I felt my body have little explosions over and over. My ears rung and I began to lose my orientation.

Something…I saw the pieces of the moon land on Earth in horror. Suddenly images of people's screams began to appear. I saw cities on fire. I saw flocks of people running over one another. Tidal waves came and I saw cars and bodies floating in the water like dolls.

No…this is home. This is home!

My energy shield blinked back into existance but a great red fire had surrounded me. The Super Kaioken was a combination of Super Saiyan and Kaioken although this was the first time I had tried it as a third level Super Saiyan. My senses were amplified to unbelievable levels and I felt like I could see and hear everything everywhere. Kal-el's muscles tensed and I heard it, I could even hear the squeak of his joints.

"Goku. I want you to remember this principle in Chinese kung fu."

"What is it Grandpa?"

"Start later. Arrive first."

Kal-el's fist swung at an impossible speed and the space stood still. Stars did not twinkle, there was no rotation. Even the Earth so far away now had stopped rotating. His fist came closer and I continued to see the dead expression in his eyes. Then my fist came and connected before his could. The knuckles slammed right into the solar plexus region. And then my body vibrated and a shockwave of ki transferred into him as well. Kal-el's chest caved in more and the golden ki blew him backwards. Continuing my advantage I opened my palm and an invisible wave of energy exploded into him.

This is it.

My body became a streaking flash of red and gold light and I sidekicked him with everything I had. My kick collided with empty space as Kal-el used his cape the same way an expert Matador does with an angry bull and moved away. Kal-el's heat vision flared with a combination of arctic breath. I disappeared again with Instant Transmission. Kal-el seemed to be able to "see" me somehow as I hovered in the limbo between planes where I had also fought Metal Cooler.

This was a new technique that I had invented, one that I sought to cancel out the weaknesses of one of my strongest attacks. My body moved slower in this space and the effect was a bit disorienting. I lifted my arms and concentrated.

I could feel my consciousness stretch out and so many voices and faces seemed to appear in my head. I could suddenly even "see" more weird costumed people and they all seemed to look at my direction.

Give me your strength.

I appeared again less than a moment later. Before in the past the Genki Dama seemed to take me forever to form but over years of practice I had reduced the time to create it more and more. The problem was how slowly it took for all the energy to gather, but in that weird "warp" state in between Instant Transmission time moved differently
.
Kal-el suddenly was confronted with the awesome power of a dimensional spirit bomb.
I tossed it and suddenly found myself caught in one last epic battle of wills.

I felt Kal-el's hands touch the Spirit Bomb and as he did so I felt his mind suddenly. I saw big cornfields and tennis shoes. I saw a big city and a brown haired women. I saw earthquakes and fire. I saw him save them. I saw him stop floods and rescue people. I saw that brown haired woman again.

I saw him hover over the world like a guardian, listening to the cries of the world. I felt his pain for a moment at the death of loved ones. His anger, his rage at the enemies and the tyrants. There was a bald headed man. He seemed to really hate that guy.

The positive energy of the Spirit Bomb could not hurt a pure hearted person but under mind control Kal-el had became vulnerable to it. I pushed harder realizing who I needed to save.
Kal-el, no Superman suddenly changed strategies and plunged himself into the heart of the Spirit Bomb, the energy crackling around both of us. Anticipating this for some reason I did the same and we both met at the center inside the heart of the sphere of energy.

Our hands locked together I could see his face become more expressive. His face was angry and sad. He was pushing harder now and those images of that brown haired woman and the bald man kept flashing over and over. I felt my strength leaving me just when I needed it most. I couldn't really feel my legs anymore except for an occasional flash of pain. I gritted my teeth. Push! Come on! Don't give up!

Push

I was pushing back now, every muscle in my body straining. The built up Ki around me crackled even more angry. Both our clothes were burning and Superman's cape had become some mere banners of red now.

Don't you see! This is your home! What are you doing!? I screamed into his mind pushing harder. One last idea came to me.

I suddenly teleported again and for a moment we were pushing through the limbo state of instant transmission. Superman became disoriented, unused to the strange time and space distortion of limbo. He regained his posture quickly though and threw one punch at me. Straight through an afterimage.

My fist connected soundly as I teleported us back to Earth.

Superman stumbled and I continued to punch. I could tell his knees were buckling. I sensed something and both of us looked up to see a chunk of the moon falling at us like a fiery hammer.

"Goku! Goku!" Chi-Chi's voice rang.

I mumbled to myself as I crawled out of bed. I brushed my spiky hair with my hand for a moment.

"Is breakfast ready yet?" I called out. My stomach rumbled.

I woke up screaming as Superman froze my arm with his breath and then stomped on it hard. There was the sound of rubber squeaking, and of the grinding of bones. The numbing pain exploded and I couldn't tell what was hot or cold. It just burned. I suddenly felt myself lifted up and his iron fingers were digging into my neck. I reached out and suddenly the whole world was red as he began to fire pulse after pulse of heat vision.

My vision blurred and my arm fell limp, still smoking. The grip tightened and everything turned back.

The world was dying. The pieces of the moon had raised so much dust that the sun had stopped shining.

I opened up one eye. The unswollen one and I saw that the sky had turned a stormy black. My body wouldn't listen. I couldn't move. I closed my eyes and felt the whole world stir. I could see people fleeing, and all the terror on their faces. People were killing each other for no reason.

I stood up wondering why Superman didn't break my legs too. My right arm wasn't working and I limped heavily. In front of me I saw his blue figure again, stained with blood.
I glared and my hair burned golden again.

Superman fired a combination of heat vision and arctic breath at my right kneecap. There was a sharp stinging but the energy aura protected it. I winced and gritted my teeth willing my wobbily legs to run. I charged and suddenly felt something hard and fast slam into my face. He backhanded me into the ruins of the city and my body skidded through concrete. I darted to the right just in time as a pinpoint beam of laser vision, microscopically honed to burn a hole through my skull, flashed by narrowly missing me.

Suddenly he approached me a blue and red blur as he shouldered me in the chest. I felt myself travel even farther before a mountain slammed into my back. I couldn't move anymore and suddenly a red and blue storm approached me. Everything became hazy. My hair slowly returned to black.

Come on…fight back.

Nothing.

Fight Back!
…
Fight!

My punch connected even before I opened both my swollen eyes. I chuckled and laughed to myself. Superman's heat vision flashed again and I felt my whole body hiss. Moving hurt. Standing hurt. Everything that could hurt, hurt.

I walked towards him as he kept his distance and shot another wave of heat vision. My hair singed but I was still standing. My swollen eyes made out that he didn't look too good either. His uniform was torn and he was bleeding and bruised. Another thing I realized was that his blasts were getting weaker and weaker. Not by much. But I could still tell.

I looked at the black stormy sky. No sunlight leaked through. I remember Gohan once told me how the dinosaurs died: this big rock came down and covered the Earth in darkness.

I took another step forward. He hovered above for a little bit. I smiled and put two fingers to my forehead. Suddenly I appeared before him and punched him again with my left fist. I cupped my single left hand.

"Ka…me…ha…me…ha!" My one armed Kamehameha wave struck him and what remained of our battlefield crumbled.

He stood up and flew at me. I leaned back and kicked both my legs into him dodging his outstrecthed arms. He flies up more trying to reach higher skies.
"Oh no you don't" I taste blood in my mouth.

I teleport in front of him and elbow his head. He plummets back to the Earth.
I smile to myself and reach into a pouch I have. I pull out a single Senzu bean that I had been carrying on me. I carefully snap it in half with my fingers and float down. Superman stands again.

I toss one half to him. He takes it and crushes it into powder.

"What did you do that for!?" I muttered angrily. "Damn." Sadly I toss away my half as well.
I just couldn't fight an unfair fight. Blame it on my heritage.

I howled once more and my hair turned gold. The ground began to float above us and Superman charged at me determined to prevent me from powering up. His fist collided into my face but my head hardly moved. Lightning crackled over me and the long golden hair reached down to my lower back.

Kal-el blew his ice breath and the aura dispersed it. He fired his heat vision but I used instant transmission and uppercutted him with my good arm. The blow connected well and I began to vibrate my arm the way he did striking multiple times. I kept him to the earth and kept him grounded blocking him from flying away. My left arm keeps striking every part moves and connects, the elbow, the knuckle, the fingers. My whole body moves with such freedom.
Suddenly he stops and falls on his knees. Gasping he mutters something. This is the first time I actually heard him talk.

"Lois…"

Then he falls over. I stand there and smile. I see some grayish thing crawl out of his ear. It looks like some sort of slug. I fry it with a finger.

Suddenly there is a bright light and a huge group of weird people in different costumes show up. They all look at me. I smile and raise a thumbs up. Then I look around worried.

"The Earth…"

"Don't worry. We have already evacuated the planet and sent the people to an uninhabited Earth in a parallel universe. And we also will use our advanced technology to repair this one." One of them says.

"Huh?" I answer.

"Everyone is safe." He replied. For some reason I believed him.

I nod and fall over onto the ground. A costumed woman hands me half of the senzu bean that was on the ground.

I chewed it carefully before remembering something.

"Oh…one more thing…"

All the costumed weird people looked at me.

"Tell him…"

I point at Superman with my right arm, which had finally healed.

"…I want a rematch when he wakes up."