Author's note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed!
This is going to be a long story, but I promise you won't be disappointed. I still don't know how it's going to end, but I have a lot of good ideas; all I need is to write them down. However, if you have any suggestion, be my guest ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z, or any of the characters.
Chapter Two: Land of confusion
Videl Satan was taking a hot, relaxing bath while listening to the radio, when the transmission suddenly turned to static. She was slightly irked, as she enjoyed listening to music whenever she was in the bathroom; nonetheless, she ignored it, and kept bathing as usual.
She closed her eyes, as thoughts kept running through her mind. She could almost see them, dancing around in bright, vivid colors, constantly shapeshifting into thousands of disparate forms.
The past week had been quite intense, to say the least. A huge crime wave had swept the city, and she'd spent almost every evening aiding those incompetent police officers in bank robberies, gunfights, car chases, and even in handling a difficult hostage situation. She'd had some trouble in keeping up with her studies and training, but that was overall acceptable.
What was unacceptable, however, was that stupid Great Saiyaman, the self-appointed "Guardian of the city", jumping into every fight she was in, pretending to just be there to help out, and always stealing the spotlight from her. How dare he! She didn't need his help, she was no damsel in distress! That was her job, her city; and she wasn't going to let that superhero freak come and steal what was rightfully hers!
People called him a hero, but she was suspicious. She didn't like his attitude and, even if maybe he did save her life a time or two, she still didn't trust him.
But she had to concede that he was unbelievably strong. She'd never seen someone lifting a bus, or deflecting bullets with his bare hands, all without even breaking a sweat. On top of that, he possessed the ability to fly; that's how he managed to rush to crime scenes in seconds and always be one step ahead of her.
And that was why she had vowed to unmask him; she wanted to know his true identity, and how he was able to do perform such amazing feats. And then of course, she'd use the information to her own advantage.
So far, though, her investigation had not progressed much: Saiyaman was frustratingly elusive, and usually avoided direct confrontation on the topic when approached. Currently, her only suspect was the no less mysterious Gohan Son. She had some good reasons to believe he and the masked superhero were the same person, even though some things didn't add up; sadly, however, she lacked actual, conclusive evidence that unmistakably linked the meek student to the bold superhero.
But she was definitely going to find it.
A smile formed on her lips as she slowly got out of the tub, wrapping her fit body in a white towel. The radio on the shelf was still giving off the annoying static sound, so she turned it off, promising to herself to give it a look when she had the time. Then, she left the bathroom and entered her room, closed the door and started getting dressed. Instead of the usual plain shirt, she opted for a white, long-sleeved t-shirt under a sleeveless blue shirt with a red "FIGHT" logo printed on the front, along with some gray sweatpants and her standard yellow boots.
She then picked up the hair dryer she kept in a drawer of the dressing table, plugged it into the wall socket, and turned it on, only to find that no air was flowing out of it.
"What's going on?" she angrily exclaimed, then something caught her eye: the alarm clock on the bedside table was flashing from apparently a good thirty minutes, judging from the blinking numbers.
A power outage...wonderful!
She was about to call her dad, but then she remembered he was not at home: he'd left two days ago on a business trip to North City, saying that Videl was big enough to take care for herself while he was out, and was not going to come back until another two weeks. Although the girl actually believed he was just spending some quality time with one or more of his countless lovers, his departure suited her just fine.
With a sigh, she walked out and descended the stairs, heading to the basement where the main fuse box was. As she passed through a window, she noticed a police car parking right in front of the metal gate at the entrance of the mansion. A familiar figure emerged from the vehicle, adjusting his blue peaked cap.
She stopped midway, ran for the front door, and rushed down the alley to the black gate.
"Chief Drake! What a surprise!"
"Videl! Thank goodness you're here. I feared you were out in your jet-copter."
The raven haired girl reached for the keys in her pocket, and started to unlock the gate, but Drake interrupted her.
"That won't be necessary, I'm not staying here long. I just came to fill you in with the news."
"Oh. But why didn't you contact me through my watch, then?"
"I'll tell you soon, but first let's start from the beginning." The man paused, as an ambulance passed nearby at full speed with their sirens wailing; once it was far enough, he resumed the conversation.
"About half an hour ago, a massive blackout hit the whole city and the surrounding rural areas. Right now, most public buildings are running on emergency generators. We began some preliminary investigation, but it didn't take long to find out what had caused the power failure: apparently, all of the transmission lines have been severed, even the underground cables. Unbelievable, huh?"
"All of them? How could it be?"
"We didn't have a clue, until we started receiving some reports about strange road accidents: cars crashing into thin air, or split in half, even the hovering ones. I couldn't believe it, so I drove to the nearest crash site to see it with my eyes; long story short, we've discovered that an invisible barrier is blocking every path to and from Satan City."
Videl couldn't believe her ears. "An invisible barrier?" she asked, not sure she'd understood what the chief had just said.
"Yep. It's like glass, you can see what's on the other side. But it's much, much harder than a concrete wall. Nothing can pass trough. For all we know, it may even be indestructible."
Videl was stunned: why would an invisible wall suddenly appear around a large city? And was it really indestructible as the chief claimed?
"So...I'm guessing this thing...sliced the transmission lines when it popped up, hence the blackout, right?" she asked, trying to make some sense of the situation.
"My thoughts exactly. I fear this barrier might be covering the whole city perimeter; this is no good at all." Drake said in a serious tone. "We will have to use every single man on the police force to handle the situation..."
"What about the military? Can't we just call them? I'm sure they have better means to deal with this thing than we do!" Videl proposed, though she was not so sure herself.
"Ahh, yes, I almost forgot" the Chief shook his head, then resumed. "As if things couldn't get any worse, we've been cut off from every type of connection with the outside world: radios, telephones, TVs, the Internet, you name it. They're all down; guess we have to thank the wall for this one too. There's no way to contact foreign authorities, we can just hope they arrive here as soon as possible, and come up with a solution. But right now, we'll have to rely on our own forces."
Videl didn't know what to say: it all seemed so absurd. Maybe she was still relaxing in the bathtub, and this was just a dream?
Before she could pinch herself to make sure she was dreaming, she already knew she wasn't. She rested her body on the iron bars, taking a deep breath. Then looked up to the chief.
"This is so confusing...I just don't know what to say. I'm pretty shocked."
Chief Drake placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I know, I know. That's why I have to make sure there won't be any chaos when the people find out about this." He checked the time on his watch. "I gotta go. Stay safe, Videl. I'll try to stop by later in the evening."
He gave her a fatherly smile, then turned and walked towards the car. Before he opened the door, Videl shouted "Wait!"
The man slowly turned to face the young girl. She had a confident look on her face.
"I'll come too. I'll do everything I can to help. You know me, I can't just sit down and do nothing while there's an emergency out there. Besides, I want to, well, 'see' this mysterious wall myself."
"You sure, Videl?" Drake asked, uncertain.
"You bet I am!" she replied without hesitation. She felt a newfound energy running through her veins, and couldn't wait to put it to the test.
Drake looked at her for a few seconds; a faint smile formed on his lips when he finally spoke.
"Fine, let's go."
Still in his Super Saiyan form, Gohan was flying in the direction of the City Hall. He and Vegeta had been discussing on what they were going to do about the current situation: while Gohan said he had his Saiyaman duties to attend to, especially in an emergency like this, Vegeta couldn't care less about "those pathetic weaklings", as he called the inhabitants of the city; he claimed he needed some time to think about the next move, and that he was going to find a place to temporarily settle down. They agreed to meet at sundown in the same spot (the hill with the split tree and the rabbit), before setting off in opposite directions.
It was then that Gohan realized he had lost his red cape, probably swept away by the sheer force of the Kamehameha explosion a while ago, but he didn't bother searching for it; there were more important things to do at the moment.
As he passed over Route 81, he saw a large amount of wrecked vehicles amassed near the border of the Dome, some still in flames. A little north of there, the police had established a roadblock, preventing other cars to crash into the invisible wall.
Looks like the authorities have been informed already. I wonder if they know something about this Dome that we don't...
Police sirens, shouts, and other loud noises were filling the air when Gohan flew over the commercial district. He had never seen so many police cars racing in the streets below, not even in the last big chase which had taken place just the other night.
Finally, he reached the white, tall building that housed the mayor's office and the Satan City Council. He landed before the main entrance, and burst through the door, ignoring the surprised voices and looks of the bystanders.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" A man in a white shirt and a black tie placed himself directly on the way to the stairs, forcing Gohan to stop.
"This is an emergency, I have to speak to the mayor!"
"I'm sorry sir, I can't let you go through if you don't have a scheduled appointment."
"There's no time, I have to see him now!" Gohan was starting to get frustrated. Sure, he could effortlessly shove the man aside and have it his way, but that was not his style.
"I have told you already, sir, I..."
"I am Saiyaman, for Dende's sake!" he almost shouted, making everyone in the room turn their head in his direction, astonished. The man in the white shirt raised an eyebrow.
"Are you?" he asked; then added "Now that you mention it, that suit you're wearing is pretty similar to that of Saiyaman. But I thought he also wore an helmet...?"
"Broken" he hastily replied, "now can you tell me where the mayor is?"
"Not so fast, young man; a suit alone doesn't prove that you're indeed Saiyaman. You're going to have to be more convincing than that."
Just then, a short and stocky man in a blue suit, wearing eyeglasses and sporting a thick mustache, rapidly descended the stairs, walking towards the two men.
"What's going on here, Jerry? Is anyone causing trouble?" he asked to the guy in front of Gohan, who had his back turned to the newcomer.
"Mayor, this man says he wants to speak with you. He's claiming to be the Great Saiyaman, but I don't-"
Just then, Gohan decided that if he could not convince them with words, he would do so with actions. In a split second, he used his super speed to get right in the mayor's face, bypassing the man called Jerry.
"A-aah!" both the mayor and his subordinate jumped in surprise; from their untrained eyes, it must've looked like as he'd instantaneously teleported. Gohan smiled inwardly: there was no more doubt about his identity now.
"Mayor, it's me, Saiyaman. We've already met, remember?" He was referring to their first meeting, when he had been kidnapped by the Red Shark Gang, and Gohan had used that very technique to quickly defeat the criminals.
"...Yes, of course I remember" the mayor said in a low tone. He probably didn't want to reminisce about the circumstances of that incident, which had basically exposed the police's carelessness and failure to protect even the most important representative of the local government. That wound was still fresh in the memory of the unfortunate mayor, and he tried to avoid the topic whenever possible.
The man stared curiously at Gohan's hair.
"What's with the shining hairstyle? I've heard stories of a Golden Fighter with hair like that, but I didn't think he and Saiyaman were the same person..."
Gohan resisted the urge to scratch the back of his head in his signature's grin. "Another time, maybe. There's something very important we need to discuss, right now."
"Very well, but, uhm, try to make it short, please. I have a meeting with the Police Chief in about five minutes" the mayor conceded, while assuring Jerry with a slight nod that everything was fine. The latter took the hint, and left the two alone.
"Thanks, sir. It's about the invisible barrier that has recently surrounded the city. I believe you already know about it."
"Actually, that's all I know. That's why the Chief is supposed to come here soon. He'd sent one of his men to tell me that he'd found out the cause of the blackout, and possibly of the telecommunication failures, and that he was coming here to tell me everything they'd discovered so far."
"Blackout? Communication failure? I know nothing about that. What happened?"
The mayor raised an eyebrow.
"What happened? Chaos, that's what! Everyone started to panic when the lights went out. We activated the emergency power system, only to find telephones and radios were all out of commission. And all because of an invisible wall that decided to pop up and mess with everyone's life!" he almost shouted, visibly agitated.
"Actually, sir, it's not a wall. It's a dome."
"A...dome, you say?"
"Yes. And it's seemingly indestructible. I witnessed a plane exploding in the air as it collided with the Dome, and I myself couldn't break through."
"A plane crashed?" he asked, shocked. "This is horrible...and it didn't even harm the damn thing?"
"Not even a scratch, I'm afraid."
The mayor paused, looking down. After a few moments, he raised his head.
"You say you've tried to break through, but were unsuccessful. I know you're super-strong and everything, but...don't you think a couple of well placed rockets could, uhmmm...be a little more...efficient?" he nervously asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
Gohan was amazed by the sheer silliness of the question: he'd been fighting crime in their city for months, and they still didn't understand what was he capable of?
"Sir, I don't mean to brag, but I can assure you my powers are far, far stronger than those of any conventional weapon. And believe me, I tried to the best of my abilities" he replied, slightly annoyed.
The mayor remained silent. He slowly took off his glasses, wiping them with his suit's sleeves. When he put them back on, he had begun to sweat.
"This might be even worse than I thought..." he muttered to himself. He then raised his voice: "If this barrier is really so invulnerable as you say, I fear there's nothing we can do."
"Now, sir, let's not rush to conclusions. I'm sure we'll find out what caused this Dome to appear in the first place, and find a way to disable it somehow" Gohan stated, with a confidence he didn't really feel. "Who knows, maybe it will suddenly vanish on its own..."
At that moment, the door burst open, and two figures appeared on the doorway. One was the tall, elder chief Drake; the other, to Gohan's surprise, was Videl.
The young girl on the opposite side of the room stared at him, with eyes and mouth wide open. Clearly, neither of them had expected to see the other so soon.
"Drake, at last! Now can you tell me exactly what the hell is going on? I was having a word with our good superhero over there, and..."
"Saiyaman?" Videl moved towards the young half-Saiyan, ignoring the two men. "Is that really you?"
Gohan quickly straightened his posture: "Hi, miss Videl!" He then remembered he was not wearing his helmet.
Oh, crap! I hope she doesn't recognize me! My transformation should conceal my appearance a little, but...
"I can't believe it!" she screamed, making him wince. "You...you're the Golden Fighter!"
Gohan sighed, relaxing: for a moment, he thought she was going to say his real name. Still, he decided to look away from her, afraid that the fear in his eyes could betray him.
"Hehehe...well, uhm...yes, I am." He felt stupid, but he didn't really know what else to say.
"I've always wondered about the incredible coincidence of the Golden Fighter vanishing right around the time Saiyaman started appearing, almost as he'd taken his place. I guess it only makes sense now. But tell me" Videl got so close, Gohan had to take a step back to avoid her piercing gaze, "why did you change your name and looks?"
"Miss, this is not the time..."
"Answer me!" she grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him. "It's because you didn't want to be recognized by your schoolmates, isn't it? 'Cause I know you are a student at Orange High!"
But before Gohan could come up with an answer, a large boom from the outside tore the air, making the building shake. A second, bigger explosion, opened a breach in the wall, shattering windows and raising a cloud of debris.
Everyone but Gohan and Videl fell hard on the pavement. Videl immediately detached from Gohan and ran to help the chief stand up, but before she could reach him, a stern voice coming out of a megaphone spoke up: "Stop, or we'll shoot!"
Videl froze; Gohan turned to where the voice had come from: half hidden by the smoke, a dozen of men, all armed with heavy weaponry, stood by the broken remains of the front door; another three were entering the building from the new breach on the left. One of them was a few steps ahead of the others, holding a megaphone in one hand, and a pistol in the other.
"Everybody get down on the floor, now! We're only here for the mayor. Do as we say, and no one will get hurt!"