While Anonymous Void and I are working on Part III of our Bane Trilogy, I had this little idea pop into my head and it refused to go away. So, I gave in and wrote it. Hope y'all enjoy it

"Dynamite Kick!"

"Dynamite Kick."

"No, no," the deep voice reprimanded. "You have to put more oomph into it! Search your soul and seek out your inner man! Say it like this: Dynamite Kick!"

There was a gulp. "Dynamite Kick!"

"Better. But you still have much to learn! Now do it a twenty more times! Go, go, go!"

Gohan could feel himself die a little on the inside. He was wearing a white practice gi, one that was a few sizes too big for his lean frame. That was all that was available in his height though. Everyone that frequented this place was usually muscle-bound and proud of it.

Standing across from him was his teacher, the very model for everyone that sought out physical perfection here. He was big, boisterous, and strutted around with more arrogance than the youth thought possible. It was slightly amusing considering this was the second time he had seen it in person, but that amusement vanished once he was ordered to practice.

That's right, he was practicing martial arts with the World Champ himself.

That was Hercule Satan, in case you didn't know.

Said man had a shiny sheen of sweat on his face and exposed chest, the champ wearing the same kind of gi Gohan was wearing. Whereas Gohan's looked as if it were swallowing him up, Hercule's fit snugly. Both of them were standing in the middle of a practice ring, one immaculately clean saved for the drop of sweats that had flung off Hercule's body as he had demonstrated his famed Dynamite Kick.

How had it come to this? Never had Gohan thought he would have another teacher, not when he had set aside his training for books. In fact, he would've been happy enough keeping it aside, collecting dust since the mysteries of mathematics, science, and literature were so much more interesting. No one got hurt when pen met paper aside from the occasional paper cut.

Unfortunately, he knew very well why he was here. About a week ago, he had run into a couple of street thugs that were harassing people. Feeling that it was up to him to make them stop, he had put himself in front of them and told them to stop. He was even willing to engage them in hand-to-hand combat.

That was when Videl had showed up.

One shot to the face and he was down and Videl was telling him to leave the fighting to the professionals. That was actually a godsend considering the girl had him ranked at the top of her list of suspects for the identity of Saiyaman, his more famous, totally awesome, superhero alter ego. That little tussle had dropped him damn near off her suspects list and her constant attention had waned.

If only it had stayed that way.

A couple days after that incident, the Son boy had been extended an invitation for some self-defense training by Videl. Apparently, she had felt bad about him taking a punch to the face, so she wanted to make sure he knew how to defend himself. Honestly, he had tried to refuse, but no, the Satan girl would not be denied. It also didn't help that she had enlisted her father in this mad scheme, then extended the invite to him in the presence of their classmates.

"Dude, you have to do it." That had been Sharpner's response.

"This is so exciting!" Erasa, of course.

"You're so lucky." Hmm, that had been…Pen? Was that his name? The guy that sat in front of Videl in class?

"Heeeey, where's my invitation?!" And it came back to Sharpner.

As you can imagine, the conversation got derailed at that point, but Videl had not taken no for an answer. The fact he was at the Satan family gym spoke to this.

"Come on! Don't just stand there like a sissy! Show me what you've learned!" Hercule bellowed, arms across his chest, looking down at him much like a mentor looked at a student. Gohan flinched from the yell, startled by its abruptness.

"Y-yes, Sir," he replied before he spread his legs out, closed his eyes, and prayed no one at school saw him do this. He then opened his eyes, pivoted on one foot even as he raised his other, and kicked out his foot. "Dynamite Kick!"

"Hmm," Hercule grunted. "That's better, but you need to put more feeling into it. Half of the attack is how you say the name. Everyone knows that! You can't unleash the true power of a move if you're not saying the name right. Now do it right!"

Gohan kicked again. "Dynamite Kick!"

"Again!"

"Dynamite Kick!"

"Again, ya wimp!"

"Dynamite Kick!"

"C'mon! My daughter can kick better than you!"

Gohan paused at that. "But isn't kicking her specialty? Shouldn't she be better than me by default?" Okay, that wasn't true, but maybe if he used this logic, it'll get him out of this mess.

Hercule stared blankly at him. "What's your point?"

"Aren't you the one always saying she's the strongest person in the world next to you?"

"I'm not seeing where you're going with this."

"Umm, that is my point."

It seemed the point was lost on the World Champ, as arbitrary as it was. "It's still no excuse, boy! If you want to get big and tough like me, you're going to have to train every day! You gotta eat, sleep, and dream training! I'd shower in it if I could. Now hop to it!"

Gohan hung his head as he sighed. Someone, anyone, shoot him. Heck, he'd willingly go on another date with Angela, just so long as he got away from the World Champ. He had the feeling an embarrassing revelation of teddy bear underwear was not going to bail him out this time.

"What are you waiting for? You quitting on me, boy?" Hercule's voice boomed. "Quitting is for…uhh, quitters. You're not a quitter, are ya?" He then gestured with his hand, waving for the Son boy to follow him. Reluctantly, he did.

Hercule walked them over to where a couple of punching bags were hanging from the ceiling. Hercule came to a stop in front of one of them, motioning for Gohan to stop a few steps away. "Here, let me show you just what the Dynamite Kick can do. Once you see, you won't ever quit on the World Champ."

I'd rather squirt lemon juice in my eyes, he groused internally. It was a dark thought for the normally upbeat teen, but for some reason Hercule brought that side of him out.

Hercule held himself ramrod straight, fists at his sides. "Hooooo," he chanted as he gathered himself, eyes shut tightly.

Then they snapped open. "Hyaaaahh!" he yelled as he leaped towards the punching bag."Dynamite Kick!" Leaning backwards, he led with his foot, landing a kick to the punching bag. The bag swung away from the man, arcing high into the air. Hercule landed on the floor, a big smirk on his face.

A smirk that disappeared as the punching bag swung back down and smacked the man right in the face.

"Gyahh!" the afroed man cried out as he fell to the floor, hands gripping onto his face. He rolled back and forth as he loudly whined, suddenly pausing after several turns. Between his fingers, he looked right at Gohan, the two staring at each other for a brief moment.

Suddenly, Hercule was back on his feet, fists pressed into his hips as he let out a boisterous laugh in spite of the stripe of redness running up and down his face. "I'm just joking!" he proclaimed, laughing heartily as he seemed to be focused on some point on the ceiling. Gohan wasn't sure where that was and trust him, he looked. The man then rubbed a finger beneath his nose as he coughed uncomfortably. "Now, do as I do and if you do well, I might even consider giving you another lesson."

Another lesson? Gohan couldn't help but feel dismayed at that prospect. He was going to have to spend more time here? No, it couldn't be possible. Please, someone, anyone, save him from more lessons.

"You boys working hard?"

Why? When he hoped and prayed for salvation, the reason for his presence here came strolling in. Body stiffening, Gohan looked over his shoulder and saw Videl approaching him and her father, a tray with a couple glasses of juice sitting on it. There was an amused look on her face as her blue eyes focused on them.

"Well, what do we have here?" The moment Videl came to a stop before them, Hercule snatched up one of the glasses of juice and drank it all down in one go. "Ahhhh, that hits the spots!" Slapping the glass back down on the trey, he then picked up the other one, holding it much like he would a glass of liquor. He even swirled the juice within the glass as he held it.

"Uhh, Dad?" Videl said as she raised an eyebrow at his antic. "That glass is for—"

"I know, Sweet Pea, you're just bringing your lovable dad his standard two glasses of juice," the man interrupted just before he raised the glass to his lips and took a sip. "That's pretty sweet of you. Hey! Boy! You really should drink more juice! It'll make you big and strong like me!"

"Y-Yeah, sure," Gohan responded with a weak smile before looking away.

"And always remember: I didn't get this great overnight, though it was pretty damn close! I worked for this body! I did plenty of push-ups, sit-ups, and drank pleeeenty of juice!"

I know, I know, you've said that one six times already.

During this, Videl merely lowered her head and shook it from side to side, seeming bemused by all of this. "You can't expect everyone to be as good as you, Dad."

"But everyone should aspire to be. I didn't film all those exercise videos for nothing. Now show me the kick, boy! I want my daughter to see just how far you've come along under my tutelage."

Gohan felt his shoulders slump for a moment before he took his place before the punching bag. He could already feel his face growing warm at the prospect of Videl hearing him say that ridiculous name. It was bad enough she knew all about the teddy bear underwear incident; he didn't need her seeing this embarrassing moment too.

"Dynamite Kick!" he shouted as he kicked at the bag halfheartedly. The bag swung away from him the moment his foot tapped it. It whipped back and forth, the Son boy moving out of the way before it smacked him, unlike his teacher previously.

"See, Videl? I told ya I could teach anybody my signature move. I bet I could teach a fish!" Hercule boasted.

"Fish don't have legs, Dad," the Satan girl gently reminded him.

"You're missing the point, Honey. I'm an awesome teacher and don't you forget it."

There was a smirk on Videl's face. If Gohan didn't know any better, he'd say she knew something about that claim that he didn't. Considering everything he had heard about Hercule and how utterly protective he was when it came to his daughter, he had a feeling the man wanted nothing to do with training him. In fact, he would venture further and say Videl talked him into it, manipulating him until he reached the very conclusion he was now boasting about.

Either that or she told him flat out what he was doing and he meekly agreed. Hmm, now why did that feel like something his mother would do instead?

"Hey, boy! I'm not paying you to just stand around and gawk at my daughter. Do the kick again!"

Gohan flinched from those words and immediately spun around to face the punching bag as it was beginning to simply hang instead of swinging around from his earlier kick. Never mind that Hercule wasn't paying him—not that he would've accepted such an arrangement to begin with—but he didn't want anyone second guessing his actions.

Because of his fluster, Gohan had a slight lapse in concentration. "Dynamite Kick!" he shouted as he did the kick yet again. However, instead of lightly tapping the bag with his foot, he actually made full contact with the bag.

Instantly, the punching bag ripped right off the chain that was holding it from the ceiling. It sailed through the air until it slammed right into the far wall, causing cracks to grow out from around the bag as it was embedded in the bricks.

Oh…crap…

Gohan's face dropped at the sight before him, even as he held his kicking leg extended out in front of him. Slowly he lowered it to the floor, his body shrinking in on himself.

This…this was not good. He had just given the one person in the entire world that was determined to expose his alter ego a glimpse into his strength. There was no way he could hide it, especially with her own father as a witness. He was oh so screwed.

That's when he heard the sound of a metal tray hitting the floor, loudly clattering on it. There was a breaking sound too, glass if he had to guess Jerkily, he tilted his head to aside so that he could peek over his shoulder. With her hands dangling at her sides, the tray she had been carrying rattling on the floor next to a broken glass, Videl stared with eyes the size of dinner plates at him and the punching bag. Next to her, Hercule had a similar look, though his mouth was hanging wide open.

Several moments passed by, the silence stretching forever until the punching bag fell off the wall and collapsed onto the floor.

That seemed to shake Hercule right out of his daze. Still keeping his mouth wide open and his eyes large, his eyes darted over to Videl and then back to the scene before him. Then he closed his mouth right before he pointed a finger right at Gohan. "YeeeeeAAAAAAHH! That's my boy!"

That, in turn, forced Videl out of her own daze. She was now giving her father an "are you kidding me?" look.

This did not, in anyway, weaken Hercule's resolve. "Do you see now, Videl?" he pressed her as he waved a hand towards the fallen punching bag. "This is what I've been talking about! This is what can happen when you master my incredibly powerful Dynamite Kick!"

Videl looked to the punching bag and back, her doubt slowly vanishing. Not completely, since she replied, "But I've never seen you do that, Daddy."

"That's because I'm holding myself back, Sweet Pea. Ya see, if I, the World Champ and Defeater of Cell, used all of my strength, why, I could tear down the entire house! No, the whole neighborhood. If I'm not careful, I bet you I could destroy the entire city just by sneezing on it!"

"So you can do what Gohan just did too?"

"Absolutely! I just don't because I'd scare away all of our gym members. Their dues are helping us buy some new weight equipment, ya know. Now if you would take your training just as seriously as I do, you too can kick punching bags into walls! In fact, you would kick them through walls since you're the strongest person in the world right after me!"

"Yeah…Yeah!" Gohan could see Videl was buying Hercule's story, hook, line, and sinker. While he was dubious about such a claim, in this case, it was saving his butt. If Videl thought he could kick punching bags across the room because of her father's technique, then that was all the better for him.

Raising her hands, Videl punched a fist into the palm of her other hand. "I'm gonna get right on that. I'll show you I can master your move within a week!"

"That's my girl! Now get to it! Me and your friend over there have some post-training things to go over."

"Alright. Go easy on Gohan, alright? He's a friend."

Waving at Gohan, Videl then walked away, leaving the gym. Once the doors closed, Hercule visibly sighed, his shoulders slumping as his head leaned forward.

Well, it seemed as if Hercule didn't have any real need of him now. Perhaps Gohan could use this as an opportunity to sneak off and head home.

"Boy."

Or maybe not.

Hercule turned around, pressing his fists into his hips. "You did real good today. We still need to work more on how you say the name, but you've made enough progress for today."

…he was going to let him leave? Oh, thank you, Kami, thank you!

"I'll let you practice on your own with the Dynamite Kick for now. You can show me your results later, but be prepared, I expect you to be saying the name correctly and with the appropriate amount of oomph."

Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. Gohan felt the early signs of the flu coming on and they would be at their worst right when Hercule wanted to see him perform.

"Starting tomorrow, we'll begin your next lesson."

Wait…what?

"Starting tomorrow, we begin the Megaton Punch!"

…why?