Videl Satan slammed into the white police cruiser and ducked down as bullet impacts traced her steps and pinged into the steel body of the car. As talented as she was in martial arts, Videl just couldn't get close enough to do anything against the shooters. While they weren't the best of shots, there were five gunmen, and if Videl wasn't careful, one of them might just get a lucky shot. As careful as she needed to be, though, there were still three hostages inside the jewelry store that was being robbed and those hostages needed her help.
Videl slowly crept her head upwards, inching towards the tinting window of the cruiser. Before she could move, she needed to know exactly where the gunmen were. Just before she was able to see through the window, the glass spider-webbed as a bullet smashed through the window just above her head. Videl snapped back down into a deeper, and safer, crouch. She was running out of options. Something needed to be done before the robbers got away or someone got hurt.
The young crime-fighter wracked her brains- there had to be something that she could do. She only had so many advantages against guns. She was a small target, the shooters were rarely talented shots, and she was fast. Maybe that was it. Maybe with her size and speed, she could close the distance and get too close for them to shoot her without risking their fellows. It was risky, but Videl couldn't think of anything better. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and dashed out of cover.
One of the thugs had moved closer while Videl had been behind the vacated police cruiser and he was now an easy target. Videl rushed straight for him, bullets smacking into the street behind her. As she reached the shooter, Videl sank a fist into his gut and smashed her elbow into the mans jaw. One down.
She immediately moved on and sprinted to the next shooter. Videl was fast and their aim was bad, but the bullets were starting to get worryingly close. She jumped over the curb and turned that jump into a flying kick straight into the knee of the gunman. He crumpled to the sidewalk. Videl rolled as she hit the ground and sprang back into a sprint; the next gunman was at the door to the store, only a good ten or twelve steps away. Two down.
But Videl's good fortune had run out. This one had a straight shot on her and his revolver was already aimed at her chest, the gun casually being held at his hip. Videl skidded to a stop, shocked and- not that she would admit it to anyone- scared. There had been close calls during her career as Satan City's prodigal crime fighter, but this was it. This was evidently the end for the great Videl Satan.
"Sorry, missy," the gunman spoke, a twang in his accent, "it ain't personal, you just happen to have got in my way."
He pulled the trigger and the gun fired- a much harsher noise than the rest, as if a whip was cracked right next to Videl's ear. Videl never had time to register this as the bullet blew a hole clean through her chest. The pain was immediate and all-consuming. She looked down at where the bullet had struck. A red stain was already creeping across her baggy, white shirt. She gave a strangled cough, blood coming up with it, and staggered. The heroine began to fall forwards and her vision began to close in. She struck the ground and almost fell from consciousness.
The hurt and loss of blood essentially neutralized Videl's senses. She could barely feel the ground past the agonizing hole next her heart. Sound was dulled as if the world existed entirely two rooms over. Time was an anomaly. It could have been seconds or years after she hit the ground, but Videl thought she heard someone shout "Saiyaman!" and some distant popping noises which might have been gunshots- she couldn't tell anymore. She was mildly aware of the feeling of being lifted, but she fell into oblivion too quickly to register it.
She drifted in and out of a semiconscious state. Time no longer had meaning. Sometimes she could feel what seemed like a constant rushing wind and two arms beneath her. Some time later, she stirred again and heard an agitated shout for a "den day" whatever that was. There was no longer gale force winds though and Videl slipped back into nothingness almost as soon as she had come to.
The first thing that Videl registered was the heavenly comfort of whatever she was lying on. The second, which hit her almost immediately after the first, was the constant aching in her chest. She opened her eyes and tried to sit up. Videl winced and let out a hiss as pain instantly shot across her chest, forcing her back down. She took a steadying breath, screwed up her eyes, and slowly tried again. It hurt like hell, but she made it to a sitting position and looked around.
Videl found herself in a small room. There was no furniture except for the bed that she was sitting upon and a plain wooden stool on the other side of the room. The door was slightly ajar and some dim light crept onto the white floor tiles through a small window. She slowly pushed herself up and off the bed and walked towards the door. Every step hurt, but she needed to know where she was and how long it had been since her... incident.
She stepped out into a hallway even more stoic than the room she woke up in was. The plain white floor tiles were identical to the ones in the room and the brown walls were void of anything except for a multitude of doors, each as plain as the one that she had come from. One of the doors was open and a soft light spilled into the hallway from the opening. Videl figured that there wasn't anywhere better to go and moved towards this new room. As she approached she could hear two voices talking in hushed tones, too quiet for her to make out any words. One of the voices was gruff, much more so than the other voice, which sounded almost like a young teenage boy. Just before she reached the door, the gruff voice harshly shushed the other one and the light went out. Videl winced and stopped moving. She hadn't met these people yet, they could be dangerous and it seemed like Videl just gave up any potential element of surprise she might have had.
"Come in, Miss Satan," the younger voice said.
Well, in case there was any doubt she had been detected before, it was gone now. Videl turned the corner and peered into the now dark room. The soft moonlight coming in from a window was enough for her to make out to silhouettes, but little else. One was very tall, easily hitting the seven foot mark, and stood in front of the window, casting a long shadow on the ground which reached where Videl stood in the doorway. What parts of him were illuminated revealed a flowing white cape with pointed shoulders. The other was sitting down and distinctly smaller than his associate. The smaller one also had what seemed like a tall staff with a large hammer-shaped top which leaned against him- or perhaps his chair, it was difficult for Videl to tell where the person ended and chair began in the low light levels.
"You must be very lost after suddenly waking up here, I'd imagine," the younger voice spoke up again, "You were shot in the chest earlier today, about ten hours ago now, and the, uh, 'Great Saiyaman' as I believe he calls himself, made it to the crime scene just after that happened. He handled the criminals and brought you here for me to heal your wounds. I have to apologize, I'm afraid I wasn't able to heal it all in one go- my energy was rather sapped when you got here and Ve-, I mean, one of my... acquaintances used up the last of the Senzu bean crop two weeks ago. Tomorrow, however, I should have enough energy to finish healing you and you can be on your merry way."
Videl was at a momentary loss for words, but questions were beginning to form in her mind already. Where was she and who was she speaking to were the two most prominent, but the almost-spilled name of that acquaintance also piqued her interest.
"Um, thank you and all," Videl began, unsure really of what to do in this situation, "especially for healing me, but where am I and who are you two? And do my friends know I'm okay? Or my dad, even? Oh, Kami, if Dad doesn't know he-"
She was cut off by the smaller figure's chuckling.
"To start with your last question: yes, your father knows where you are and that you are being taken care of. Saiyaman personally delivered the message. As for who we are and where you are... that's a little complicated. But, I can say this: my name is Dende, my friend here is Piccolo, and you are at my home. You are safe here."
Videl pondered this new information. Her dad knows where she is and hasn't barged down the door yet after she literally got shot? That's certainly... unusual for the World Champ. Videl simply nodded her acceptance.
The tall figure, Piccolo as Videl now knew his name to be, cleared his throat and the smaller one, Dende, Videl remembered, jumped a bit.
"It's been a long day for you, Miss Satan," Dende began, "and it is rather late. You should go back to your room and get some rest. I'll wake you up in the morning to finish healing you and then we will answer any further questions you have afterwards."
Videl opened her mouth to protest that she was fine and not tired, but was cut off when she issued a large yawn.
"Getting shot really takes it out of you, I guess," she thought. She hadn't even realized how tired she really was. She nodded her agreement to what Dende had said and turned to leave, but stopped and looked back over her shoulder.
"Hey, uh, Dende... is there a bathroom around here?"
Videl had a lot to think about as she washed her hands. There had, thankfully, been a restroom right down the hallway and that was where Videl found herself now as she processed the meeting with Dende and Piccolo. That Piccolo guy didn't talk much, but Dende had been fairly helpful... even if he did raise some questions. Why had they cut their conversation off when they realized she was outside the door? Why shroud themselves in darkness? Why was who he was and where they were a complicated question? She figured that they probably weren't in Satan City any longer, but was it really that difficult to just say where they were? What were they hiding?
These sorts of questions had plagued Videl quite a bit lately. The newest addition to her small group of friends, Son Gohan, raised almost as many questions as this Piccolo and Dende did. While she did like Gohan well enough, the blatant question dodging did irk her quite a bit, as well as just heighten her curiosity. The new super hero, Saiyaman, also raised quite a few questions, many of which centered around his powers. That dorky superhero's uncanny ability to find a way out of Videl's interrogations also annoyed her to no end, in addition to his intervening in almost every fight she has. She would have to thank him for this one time, she supposed, since Saiyaman had actually saved her life this time, but some of the other times were just ridiculous in her opinion. She didn't need his superpowers to stop a man barely sober enough to stand from threatening to light the local library on fire. Although, Saiyaman did seem to take that one a little personally for some reason...
The young crime fighter looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror as she pondered the questions which hounded her life and she noticed something odd. There was a bullet hole in her shirt and she could see her skin through it. Healthy skin with no hole, blood, or scar. If it weren't for her still bloodstained shirt with its hole and the constant ache in that area of her chest, there was no evidence that just ten hours ago she was lying on the pavement, bleeding out from a gunshot.
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