Disclaimer: I don't own anything, but the plot, yada yada yada. you don't care about this
The Man Named Justi
Gohan: It is our compassion, not our abilities that separate the good from the evil and is something all heroes hold in high regard. Even when facing the darkest foes, true heroes will never kill or allow another if there is a way around it. But this is a quality even the greatest of people find hard to hold onto when it results in pain for yourself and your loved ones.
The streets of West City were busy as ever, despite the clouds' promise of rain in the near future. The last of the damage from the latest power hungry maniac's assault was finally repaired and everyone was enjoying the city's restored beauty and reopening stores. And a certain Saiyan hybrid, whether he liked it or not, was no exception.
"Man, one of these days, dad has got to teach mom how to fly. Like I want to spend the one day I have off studying and satellite duty doing grocery shopping." Gohan groaned, his hands tightening around a bag before immediately stopping himself. Chichi wouldn't be happy if he came home with bags of mixed goop and shattered containers.
Normally, Gohan was more than happy to help his mother with trips like this, taking advantage of his needs to get away from his desk and get some fresh air. Despite being the one everyone called the leader of the Guardians, though he'd never heard a single member mention anything to do with rank past the number they were given in the satellite's databank, he was still bound to the overwhelming study schedule his mother had set out for him. As much as he loved learning new things, the fact that he was able to complete equations and read books that even senior year students would struggle with at the age of five was a sure sign to anyone that he was overworked. Learning to fight and becoming a hero had been like a breath of fresh air to Gohan and dramatically cut down his study progress, much to Chichi's chagrin, but he was still already smarter than any college graduate, with the knowledge to enter any field he desired despite only being fifteen.
He also generally found a feeling of joy from helping the woman who raised him, but with everything being slow as of late, Gohan wanted nothing more than to spend a say in the forest, running as fast as he could and getting a thrill out of his physical capabilities. Not walking around in as crowded city going to every store imaginable just to find a specific kind of meat or the healthiest rice.
Oh well. He thought, staring up at the sky, predicting how long he had till the rain came down. I only have one thing left on the list and then I'm done. Where's that store that mom buys the twenty turkeys from again?
Looking around and finding nothing but people towering over him, Gohan let out a frustrated sigh, restraining his urge to levitate. After all, that would make the black jacket, hat and sunglasses he'd put on to hide his identity pointless. Opting for a less revealing approach, he took a quick glance around himself to ensure no one was paying particular attention to him and to plan his move before running through the gaps of the crowd and in between two buildings as fast as he could, looking like nothing more than a blur to anyone who saw him. Leaning close to the wall, he made sure that he hadn't caught anyone's attention and sighed in relief as everyone just walked on by before shooting straight up into the air and pressed his body to a roof as he looked from one direction to another, smiling widely as he found the place he was looking for. Knowing the way, he casually jumped off of the roof, landing nimbly on his feet, humming a little tune as he walked.
"High Mr Kido." Gohan greeted softly, bowing his head as he entered the store. "I'm here to pick up my mom's order."
"Ah,Gohan! I was wondering when a Son was going to show up." Mr Kido exclaimed merrily, smiling broadly at the young prodigy as he pulled a capsule from his pocket. "Though I still don't understand where all of this goes, especially with everything else you buy. How much do you have today?"
"Three full capsules and this bag of vegetables." Gohan replied, blushing at the mandatory comment on his family's eating habits.
"That's less than usual." A female voice commented behind him as the door opened. "Did your mom put Goku on a diet again?"
Gohan could only snicker at that as he turned to find his childhood friend and fellow half Saiyan friend smiling cheekily, her eyes alight with amusement.
"Are you kidding Videl?" Gohan cried, barely holding his laughter in. "The last time she tried that, dad resorted to biting the furniture before bring home a fish the size of an orca home and breaking every fragile object in the kitchen with scales flying off the thing at light speed. She'll never dare do that again."
"I still remember that near insane look your dad had on his face." Videl laughed, holding her stomach. "Eyes and mouth wide open and saliva pouring like a waterfall."
"And the whole time he was chanting 'fishy fishy fishy. Me want fishy.'" Gohan chuckled, handing some money to Mr Kido, the man releasing a booming laugh before handing Gohan the capsule and wishing him a good day between deep breaths.
"So what brings the daughter of 'the strongest man in the world' to the grocery store?" Gohan grinned, raising an eyebrow. "Your dad sends butlers to do this kind of thing."
"You." Videl answered with a wink. "I wanted to hang out with my best friend, but when I called your place, your mom said that you out here. So I sensed for you and picked up that flare you created a few minutes before I found you."
Gohan assumed that she was talking about when he flew as they turned left and entered a large park, filled with flowers, trees and a large pond in the middle. Coming to a free bench, the young hybrids sat down with Gohan's bag between them, enjoying the moment in each other's company as the sun peeked out through a small gap in the clouds, warming their skin.
"So." Videl started, grinning mischievously as she turned to Gohan again. "Chichi mentioned you blushing over a blond lately. So who is the lucky girl? It is a girl, right?" She added slyly, biting her lip to hold back her laughter as Gohan gasped and spluttered, his face burning up.
"Of course it's a girl!" He cried loudly. His eyes widened at his own scream and his eyes quickly darted back and forth behind his sunglasses, making sure no one recognized his voice. "What made you think that I'd be blushing over a guy?"
"Nothing. I just wanted to see your reaction." Videl answered before falling into a laughing fit, unable to hold it in anymore. Beside her, Gohan's blush refused to go away, determined not to let her see his face until it was gone.
"Why are you so interested anyway? Are you jealous?" Gohan asked with a smirk.
"No way, you're like my brother! A relationship between us would be creepy." Videl retorted as she calmed down, smirking right back at the male hybrid. "So am I right to assume that it's Namine you're crushing on?"
Gohan could only nod as any red his face had managed to lose came back in full force and stared bashfully at the ground. He couldn't deny it. Ever since he'd met the blonde beauty, he'd felt a tingling in his chest whenever he looked at her, but had tried to cut off the feelings completely as most of her affection had been focused on Roxas. However, when it had become clear that their feelings for each other was the love of siblings, Gohan's feelings had grown into a pretty strong crush. However, that was something that he was determined to keep to himself, not telling a single soul about it and being very careful about how he acted around the blond in question.
"When did mom catch me blushing?" He asked softly, a little confused. He couldn't remember ever mentioning Namine to his parents, much less saying or thinking anything blush worthy.
"You were looking at a picture in the morning paper." Videl replied happily. "It was a picture of a panther and its cubs, but Chichi was confident that the blush was due to the 'mystery girl' with blonde hair in the background."
Oh for crying out loud! Gohan cried mentally, smacking his forehead. The ONE time I blush and mom's there to see it. Namine's not even identifiable in that photo passed the blond female part. I only knew that it was Namine because she'd come running to tell me and Danny the story about the panther cubs before the paper even came out. And Videl, and probably my mom too, still were able to figure it out.
"It's not like you know many blond girls, particularly ones that would willingly cross paths with a wild panther." Videl stated cheekily, as if reading his mind. "So, have you asked her out yet?"
"Um, no!" Gohan exclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, throwing her a pointed look. "Do you think I'd be able to hide something like that from mom?"
"Only if Namine said no. Actually, then you would be mopey and she wouldn't stop hounding you until she found out why. Good point." Videl conceded, giving him a sheepish smile before coming back just as bluntly. "So when are you gonna ask her?"
"I'm not." Gohan sighed, throwing his head back sadly. "I'm not nearly as close to her as Roxas is, or even as close as Gwen. It's really unlikely that she feels the same way about me. Even if she does, she sure doesn't show it."
"Well, have you given her any hints about your feelings?" Videl retorted, refraining from whacking him over the head. "If you show her that you're interested, she might respond the same way. And if she doesn't, fight for her affection. You won't know whether or not it'll work until you give it a shot and you'll always look back to now with regret if you don't."
"Can we talk about something other than my love life." Gohan asked irritably, rubbing his temples. "Or better yet, how about a race?" He asked excitedly, his face lighting up considerably. "I can put the bag in an empty capsule and we can have a running race around the city. I've already got everything I needed to buy and I'm dying for some physical exertion. What do you say?"
"Sure, why not?" Videl grinned, chuckling as Gohan's beaming face matched the one his father had when a buffet was before him. "Let's run to the far side of the city. Loser buys lunch."
"Free food here I come." Was Gohan's cocky response as the paper bag disappeared into a capsule with a puff of smoke. Videl's eyes narrowed at that, her competitive side revealing itself.
"We'll see about that." She growled, setting herself beside her fellow hybrid, hands touching the ground and standing on the balls of her feet. "On your mark, get set, GO!"
A small boom like thunder could be heard by everyone nearby as the two took off, looking like nothing more than humanoid blurs to anyone who saw them.
…
Past speeding cars and winding allies, up on the roofs of buildings and down in the subway tunnels, the two ran, leaving nothing but coloured blurs and the echo of laughter as the only signs that they had been there to the people they past. Though they were faster in the air, neither Saiyan hybrid would be considered slow on the ground, running with the speed of a cheetah. When that mixed with their combat instincts, even speeding cars and high walls only made their race into an obstacle course, rather than the promise of death some of the events they'd past would be to a normal person. And through it all, Gohan couldn't have felt more alive.
"You know, I thought the gap between us would have shortened at least a little, seeing as you have even less time to train than you did a couple of months ago." Videl frowned as she followed Gohan out of a subway tunnel, leaping over two startled old women with a quick apology. "But I'm still only keeping up as much as I ever have."
"That's because I still do train a little while on monitor duty." Gohan laughed, jumping up and off of a light pole. "And some of the bad guys we face are really strong. Fright Knight and Vilgax were intense and I got a few good injuries from them to boot. Now they were painful ways to increase my strength."
"So I meant to ask, what happened with those two?" Videl asked, flipping over a moving car before landing a few feet behind Gohan. "I mean, did you finish the job?"
"Fright Knight was already dead." Was Gohan's response, his voice a little hesitant. However, it was more than enough to answer her question.
"There both still out there." She stated firmly, getting a nod in return. "You know I'm all for compassion, but one day you're going to have to figure out when to set it on the shelf. Letting the cruelest of the cruel live will only come back to bite you in the end."
"You might be right." Gohan replied emotionlessly, sliding into a tight left turn around a particularly large building. "But every Guardian feels that taking another's life makes you as bad as them and even if one of us was willing, Vilgax was the only one that bad we had a chance to eighty six."
"I just hope when the time comes at least you will be ready to kill again." Videl sighed, getting no response from Gohan. A sudden pang of quilt crossed her mind and she kicked herself as she realised that she'd ruined his mood. Deciding that criticism and doom and gloom could wait for another day, she wracked her brain for a happier conversation.
"Hey, after we eat do you wanna go scuba diving with me? I found a lake in the mountains that's full of really beautiful fish."
"Yeah, sounds good." Gohan grinned as he leapt onto the roof of a small convenience store.
Happy that she'd put a smile back on his face, Videl opened her mouth to give him more details when a wailing siren burst in their ears, causing both Saiyans to come to a sudden halt and grab their ears in discomfort.
"Urgh, beyond human hearing can definitely have its downsides." Videl groaned, her eyes scanning the streets for the source of the noise. They found it a second later as four police cars blew down the street so fast that you'd think they were running on rocket fuel.
"I wonder what's got them so worked…" Gohan started curiously before an explosion blew a decently sized hole in a building just down the street. "Yeah, that would do it." He finished dully, frowning with his eyes half closed as the flames and smoke receded.
As the smoke disappeared, five men were revealed lying on the ground, all of them bruised and bleeding, as another person ran from the building. This one however, looked much different. While the wounded were all clad in business suits, the standing figure had dark purple spandex, decorated with white lines going down the front of his legs, covering most of his body with a red bandanna around his neck. Metal shoes were on his feet and white armour covered him from his chest down to his white belt with a red buckle. His left arm had metal plates over his spandex covered muscles and shoulder, along with his knee caps, while the his entire right arm, from his shoulder down to his finger tips, was covered in metal, yet seemed to worked perfectly. Finally, there was a metal helmet on his head that reached the end of his nose, which Gohan found most peculiar as it appeared that it had no holes for vision, yet this person was walking around just fine. It had what looked like an antenna coming from both sides and specks of brown hair could be seen from the bottom of the back, the only part of his body, apart from his mouth and chin, that could be seen.
He smashed his fist into the building in what appeared to be anger to Gohan, judging by the male's tense figure, as the cops got closer before turning back to his victims. All five of them shook with fear as he appeared to have finished talking. Turning his head to the tops of the buildings, the figure ran two steps and jumped, shocking everyone in the vicinity as his leap took him right onto the roof of the highest building before landing nimbly on the balls of his feet and jumping to another.
"That guys a meta human." Gohan growled, his aura flaring around him. "Videl, find out what he was doing there and see if everyone's ok. I'll take him."
"Sure, but save some of the action for me." Videl nodded with a smirk before heading down. At the same time, Gohan took off, his speed in the air allowing him to quickly catch up with the super powered troublemaker. Coming right up to him mid jump, the metal man had just enough time to gasp at the sudden appearance before Gohan swung his fist out to his side, catching his prey right in the gut and sending him plummeting back into the ground. Dust flew into the air upon the loud impact, temporarily covering the dint sized crater the fall created in the ground as Gohan landed silently a few meters away.
However, he quickly leapt to the left as he felt a surge of energy gather quickly, barely dodging round purple blast of energy that was aimed quite accurately for his head.
What the? Gohan thought, wide eyed as blast after blast followed it, all of them heading straight for his head or gut, barely able to dodge even when he moved at full speed. The dust is blocking his vision, but he still knows exactly where I am. He's even keeping up with my speed. Can he sense me? Before he could figure out the answer, one blast slipped through his guard.
"Argh!" Gohan cried as the blast hit his shoulder, sending him spinning into the ground. Grunting, he tried to process what just happened while raising an energy shield around himself, noticeably twitching as the blasts struck it.
"Unreal. Where is that power coming from?" Gohan muttered as he looked up at the guy. "He's powerful, but he shouldn't be able to create blasts that strong. Where's the extra energy coming from?"
Watching him intently, both with his senses and his eyes, Gohan simply increased the amount of energy in is shield and watched his opponent's energy flow. "He's only shooting from his right fist while most people would use both." He muttered turning his attention to the arm. It was then, between blasts that Gohan noticed it. "That's it!" He cheered triumphantly, watching the arm. Though the blasts were coming from his fist, the energy was visibly travelling from as far back as half way up his forearm and that was where the greater than possible power was coming from. "That arm amplifies the amount of energy that's going through it. I admit, it's pretty impressive to be able to mix your natural powers with technology. But that alone won't save you."
"Just leave me alone." The boy growled, ceasing his attack. "This has nothing to do with you so mind your own business."
"You attack innocent people. That makes it my business." Gohan retorted, bursting forth faster than any normal human could react to, his fist drawn back. Growling, the boy threw up his metal arm and planted himself firmly on the ground in response, surprising Gohan as he blocked his punch. Flinging his arm out to his side, he took Gohan's fist with it, turning the Saiyan and leaving his hip vulnerable as he threw an uppercut. Gohan quickly spun his body 360 degrees and deflected the punch with an open palm, following it up with a roundhouse kick the boy ducked under and retaliated to with a kick at Gohan's chin. The Saiyan leapt back to avoid it before going low into a sweep kick that the boy leapt over and high into the air, Gohan following him up a second later.
"I told you to go away." The boy shouted, raising his right arm above his head. Gohan's eyes popped out of his sockets as the hand suddenly grew much bigger and thicker. It was more than twice its original size when it finished. "Sorry, but I can't let you stop me." The boy continued, the guilt apparent in his voice. "Thunderclap!" Yellow energy danced within his huge palm as it came crashing down towards the Saiyan. Still caught in shock, both by the growth and the speed at which it was moving, Gohan failed to avoid the attack was slammed in the back.
"AARRRGGGHH!" With an explosion of yellow energy and a bang worthy of the attack's name, Gohan was blown right back down and slammed into the earth, creating a shockwave through the ground as he did and setting off more than one car alarm. Groaning, he pulled himself up to all fours and took a few deep breaths before rising to his feet, checking himself over for any serious wounds only to sigh in relief when he found a big bruise to be the worst of it.
"Now that was a nice shot." Gohan muttered, scanning the area for his opponent. However, the mysterious boy was nowhere in sight. Frowning, he focused his senses, but the only above civilian level energy he could find was Videl's. "Man, he must be even faster than I thought he can suppress his energy like me."
"Gohan, are you ok?" Videl called, dropping down next to him, her concern evident on her face as she scanned his body. "How did that guy manage to do this to you! I sensed his energy and you're much stronger than him."
"His mechanical arm neutralised that problem." Gohan sighed, rubbing his shoulder tenderly. "It amplified his powers. He must have some sort of mental ability too. He was able to block and dodge even my fastest assaults and he knew where I was even with that bucket on his head and a dust cloud between me and his eyes. It's a real enigma. So what did you find out?" He asked, tilting his head.
"Not much." Videl sighed, closing her eyes as she shook her head. "The cops didn't want to talk to me at all, but I did manage to find out that his name is Justiman and that's not the first time that he's attacked a building, though the other two were in Tokyo."
"Justiman huh?" Gohan muttered thoughtfully. "Let's see what I can pull…huh?" Gohan frowned, padding his pockets and only finding the capsules and his wallet. "I guess I left my V com at home." He smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
"Then let's go see Bulma." Videl replied before smirking at the boy. "We can even turn it into our new finish line. Of course this time we'll have to fly. We have business to take care of."
"Sounds good to me. Then I can still get that free meal." Gohan smirked back, his aura flaring around him, Videl doing the same a second later. "Ready, set, GO!"
Two white streaks cut through the sky at that, leaving all the citizens of West City staring in wonder and amazement.