Chapter 9: Potluck
A man draped in shadow stood in an alley. He was waiting patiently for his target to return to his house for the night. He had strange orders for this particular mission. Normally, his benefactors simply paid for clean, simple murders. However, this time required a forged suicide. Suicides were so difficult. Murders were so much easier.
However, the man realized that he shouldn't be complaining. This particular benefactor had paid to release him from prison in addition to paying for his mission. He was quite the interesting fellow. His main concern did not follow the normal protocol, where the main objective was the elimination of the target. He did not seem all that concerned with the fate of the target, instead he was hell bent on retrieving a certain priceless artifact. The rich are certainly strange.
He had been observing his target for a few days now and 7:30 was typically when he came home. He seemed to be a very hard working man, perhaps to a fault. His family seemed to respect him, but weren't all that close to him. Which was fortunate, because now they would have to live without him. The man was happy when everything came together.
He watched his target enter his home. The time was nigh. The rest of his family was fortunately out, which would make this much easier. Suicides were somewhat harder to forge with witnesses. The assassin calmly looked for an area to enter the house. The rich were typically lackadaisical when it came to home security. Bank and cyber security were typically the most secure. The man quietly picked the lock of a side door and slipped inside.
He calmly stepped through the house, looking for a sign of his target. He froze cautiously upon hearing the floor creak. After hearing nothing else the assassin continued to look for his target. He heard the sound of running water coming from what he assumed was the master bedroom. His target was taking a shower. Convenient.
He knew that the running water would conceal the noise. Additionally, people stopped thinking while in a shower. The man had killed many unaware people in showers. Showers also made a great place to forge suicides, as many people have committed the act in such. He quietly opened the door and crept over to the closed shower curtain and the shadow inside. Observing his target, he struck. He opened the shower curtain and quickly jabbed a pressure point.
The man crumbled before he knew what was going on. The killer then calmly began to do the deed.
After it was finished, the assassin left the bathroom to finish the mission. He scanned the master bedroom to look for the object, but did not immediately find it. He was unfortunately not a detective, but would have to pretend to be one in this situation. He eventually found the object sitting in the living room, sitting on top of a stand like a trophy. It was an orange ball that appeared to be made of glass, with six orange stars standing in two rows.
The assassin frowned. The benefactor believed that it would have four stars. His benefactor had apparently made a mistake in his research. He reached into his pocket and retrieved the decoy ball his benefactor had ordered him to place. He took the real ball from the stand and placed the fake one in its stead. His mission accomplished, he left the building as quiet as he entered it.
No one could doubt the efficiency of the master assassin.
Football was an interesting sport, Gohan supposed. While he supposed that it was entertaining, the rules were just so confusing. He kept having to ask Sharpner questions, which was really starting to irritate him.
Gohan, Sharpner, and Erasa were standing in the stands of their football stadium. Videl had, graciously, declined the invitation. Orange Star High's football team, called the Dragons, were playing their rival team from South City High School. Orange Star's players were dressed in orange jerseys with green pants. Gohan kind of found the colors ugly. He would rather see the orange jerseys with some blue mixed in and orange pants. Sharpner had told him that this game is very important for their team's playoff chances. Not as important as their rival, River Side High, but still important.
After one of their players caught the ball the students went crazy. Gohan felt a trickle of soda fall down the back of his shirt, but when he turned around, he couldn't tell who the guilty party was. He sighed and turned back around to face the game again. Sharpner noticed the action and told him, "Don't worry about it. They'll all idiots." Gohan shrugged and continued to watch the game.
While football was an odd sport in itself, the way the students reacted to it was even more confusing. They seemed way too emotionally invested in it. All of the students, including Gohan's pack, were standing up and had been standing up since the beginning. Additionally, they all jumped around crazy after certain game events, like when one of their players picked up a ball off of the ground. It seemed like such a strange thing to get excited about.
He still wanted to stay, since Sharpner and Erasa asked him to go. They said that it would be essential to Gohan's high school experience. He was still waiting for that to happen.
He was ripped from his thoughts by a roar erupting from the stands. He looked down at the field to try and figure out what was going on, but couldn't make heads or tails about it. He looked over at Sharpner. "Hey Sharpner, what's going on?" Sharpner stopped cheering and groaned. "I don't want to have to explain it again… Hey 'Rase, can you explain it to him?"
Erasa gave an amused glance to Sharpner. "Sorry, but I don't have a clue about what's going on either. I just follow the crowd." The jock sighed at this revelation and said, "I wish Videl were here. She at least knows sports." He gestured to Gohan. "Unlike you guys."
Gohan rubbed the back of his neck and refocused on the game. Sharpner recovered from his irritation and tried to focus back on the game. Instead, something in the stands caught his eye. One of the students he knew from elementary school was running across the bottom part of the stands toward the exit. His name was Clip O'Donnel. They were pretty good friends back in the day. Unfortunately, they drifted apart in middle school. When Sharpner joined the Sharks.
Clip looked frantic and pale. This was obviously odd to the blond boxer. Another odd piece of information was the fact that Clip was a diehard sports fan. For proof, he and his friends tailgated before the football games. Before high school football games. There was no way that Clip would leave the game unless something bad happened. Sharpner realized that had to be the case.
Even if they weren't really friends now, Sharpner still felt like he had to check up on his former friend. Unfortunately, he'd have to bail on his new friends. Well, sacrifices have to be made. He mimed checking his phone, as if he needed to be somewhere at a specific time, and said loudly, "Well, I think I need to get going. I'll see you guys later."
Gohan, who was staring off somewhere in the distance, came back to earth and said, "You're leaving? Then I guess that I will leave too. I should be getting home." The girl of the group had to complain about her friends leaving early. "Oh come on! Why do you guys need to leave all of a sudden? You don't want to at least finish watching the game?"
Sharpner shrugged. "I just want to go. I just remembered something that I have to do. Besides, why do you care? You don't even know what's going on." Erasa took fake offense. "Hey! I'm just here for the socialization!" The blond grunted. "Whatever." He then started walking down the aisle. "See ya." Gohan quickly followed after him. "See you Erasa, Sharpner!"
Sharpner parted with his friends and began to look for Clip. He had run in the general direction of the student parking lot. The future detective saw no sign of him walking around, so he figured that Clip had already managed to leave. Sharpner rummaged through his mind for his friend's address. Remembering it to be somewhere close to the school he began to walk to it.
He walked a few blocks before remembering the panicked look on his friend's face and picking up his pace. He reached the general area of his house, a fairly wealthy area located closer to the suburbs of Orange Star City. He knew that Clip's father was a pretty wealthy business man and raked in a ton of dough. He nearly wet his pants when he saw Clip's house the first time.
Now, seeing Clip's house made him start to sweat. The house was swarmed with police cars, all of them flashing red and blue lights. The police had set up a barrier surrounding the house with cars and barricades. Sharpner looked around at the policeman standing around and tried to get their attention. One of them caught his eye and walked over to him. "What's the matter son?"
Sharpner asked, "What's going on here officer? Is everything okay?" The officer noticed Sharpner's Orange Star badge and said, "You must be a classmate of the boy. Well, I'm sorry to say this but, Malcolm O'Donnell was found bleeding severely in his bathroom today. He and his family have been transported to Orange Star Hospital."
Suicide? Mr. O'Donnell? There's no way… "Thank you officer. I'll be on my way." The officer nodded to him and returned to his post. Sharpner turned around to go to the hospital. I should go visit Clip… He'll need someone.
What's going on? Saiyaman was flying over Orange Star City doing a patrol. Gohan had heard quite a few police cars in the distance while at the football game. He had become more and more anxious the longer the game went on. Gohan seized the chance to investigate when Sharpner started to leave. He had then changed and took to the skies to investigate.
The evening had turned into night and Orange Star City had burst into life. The buildings and streets were now covered in brilliant and flashing lights. It was times like this that Saiyaman felt most alive. Growing up on Mount Poazu, Gohan had never seen sights like this. Gohan truly felt blessed.
But now was not the time to reflect. He noticed a high speed chase going on near the residential district and flew down to put a stop to it. He knew that stopping the car could potentially hurt the driver. Gohan wasn't a fan of capital punishment. So he needed to figure out a way to slow down the car without severely hurting the driver.
He quickly descended toward the chase. Flying toward the back of the car, he gripped the back of the car and prepared to pull. The driver, unfortunately, noticed his presence and began to swerve the car back and forth. Saiyaman disengaged from the bumper, afraid of the driver running into someone and hurting both parties. He still kept to the air, flying at the same speed as the car.
What to do now? He needed to stop the car and fast. The car was approaching a bridge that led outside the city.
He suddenly came up with a plan. Flying next to the driver's side of the car, he leaned down underneath the car and lifted it up. The car, now tilted, only had two tires touching the ground. Only one, most likely, was providing motion. The driver was not prepared for the sudden motion and found himself lying inside the car, his face pressing against the window in a comical fashion. He should have been wearing his seatbelt.
The wheels eventually slowed down enough to where the car slowed down on the bridge. Saiyaman set the car down and took a breath. His break was interrupted by a car honking frantically. A minivan was heading straight for them, as the car and Saiyaman had wondered into the left lane of the bridge. Saiyaman could tell that it wouldn't be able to stop in time. He positioned himself to try and stop the car from colliding with him and the crook, as this could cause an even greater traffic accident with the cars trailing behind them.
Unfortunately, the car made a decision for him. It took a sharp turn to Saiyaman's right and had enough speed to jerk over the barriers and fall off the bridge. The hero didn't think twice. He leapt from the bridge and flew down towards the car. He reached its underside and began to fly upwards back onto the bridge. He placed the car down on the bridge close to where it had fallen down to relieve his burning muscles. He had gotten better at flying with heavy loads, but it still hurt horribly.
He remembered the situation that he left and turned back to the cars. Luckily, the cars had stopped short of each other and prevented accidents. That relieved Saiyaman. He didn't want to have been the cause of a massive problem. The criminal, however, had climbed back into the driver's seat and was preparing to take off. Saiyaman smiled before launching two blasts at the back wheels, breaking them.
The criminal was frantically pressing the gas pedal trying to get it to move. It almost looked comical.
Saiyaman watched him for a moment before hearing police sirens right behind him. He waved to the people climbing out of their cars to see before blasting off. His job was done here.
The hospital was as depressing as Sharpner figured that it would be. Rows of people were sitting down in the waiting area. Their faces were as solemn as Sharpner was. However, Clip was not among them. The long-haired blond walked over to the reception counter. An older woman was sitting there glossing over paperwork. She noticed Sharpner's approach. Putting on her fake smile she asked, "Hello, what can I do for you today?"
Sharpner cleared this throat and asked, "Excuse me. Is there any news on Mr. O'Donnell?" The receptionist shuffled some papers around and said, "Yes. I'm sorry but he just passed away." Sharpner had to press on the table to stop himself from collapsing. Mr. O'Donnell is dead? Just like that? Another question occurred to him. "Is there any information on how he died?"
The receptionist frowned and said, "I'm afraid that is a question for the police. Not a hospital." Oh yeah. That's true. He apologized and then asked, "Can I speak to his family?"
"Are you part of his family?"
Sharpner winced. "No I'm not. I'm a friend of Clip's". He flashed his Orange Star badge. The receptionist sighed. "Well… Normally I shouldn't do this. But that family could use some kind of support." She then wrote down a number. "They should be in this room." Sharpner thanked the woman and left for the room.
He reached the room and cautiously opened the door. The O'Donnells were clustered in a group around their patriarch. Clip looked up at the sudden noise, his face red with from crying. His red eyes widened upon seeing Sharpner. "Whoa. Sharpner? What are you doing here?"
Sharpner gave a light smile and said, "I saw you leave the game. I eventually found out what happened and made it here. I thought that you could use a friend." Clip made a half-hearted snort. "What, does it take this to get us to talk to each other again? What happened to us?"
Sharpner shook his head. "I don't know man. Growing up sucks." Clip nodded. "Yeah. It does." He then looked to his mother, who nodded. Clip then broke away from his mother, younger brother, and sister and invited Sharpner outside.
The two ignored the nearby benches and sat down on the floor like they did in their youth. Some time passed before Sharpner said, "Don't worry. I'm not going to ask if you are okay. I know that's a stupid question." Clip cracked a smile. "Thanks man. That really means a lot. You've always been good at this stuff."
Sharpner grimaced. "Not really. It feels like I'm walking on nails." Clip didn't even register the comment. He sniffed and said, "Listen man. There's something I need to talk to you about. Something I can't talk to my family about yet." Sharpner motioned for him to continue. "Before my family came here, a policeman came up to me and said that he thinks my father… killed himself."
Sharpner's stomach dropped. "Suicide? That's crazy. Your father would never do that. They have to have it wrong." Cliff sniffed and said, "That's the thing. His wounds were self-inflicted. That's what they told me. I don't know whether to believe them or… believe in my father." He put his head on his knees. Sharpner tried to comfort his old friend. While he wasn't sure why this happened, he was sure of one thing.
O'Donnell had not committed suicide. He was absolutely certain. Growing up with the guy taught him that. He loved life and never rushed into bad decisions like this. Alarms were going off in his head. Either the police were lying or… something else was going on. Sharpner couldn't figure out what, but something else had to be happening. There was something more sinister at work.
Clip sniffed beside him.
Oh yes. There was something else at work. Sharpner set himself on one thing. He wouldn't rest until he figured out what actually happened.
Gohan stumbled into his apartment after finishing his rounds. The teenager had made a few fly overs of the city after he stopped the chase but had not seen anything else that warranted his attention. He had eventually grown bored and retreated back to his house. Goten was sitting on the couch watching TV and turned his head after hearing his brother come back in.
Goten nodded to him. "Hey Gohan, what's up?" Gohan took off his shoes and plopped down on the couch beside his brother. "Eh, nothing really. I just got back from the football game my friends asked me to go too."
"Really? Who won?"
Gohan blanched. "Uh, I don't know actually. I left before it ended." Goten frowned at his brother. "Why did you do that?" Gohan lowered his voice and said, "I, uh, heard something that required my attention. You understand?" Goten nodded and said quietly, "Yeah, I understand."
Chi-Chi then appeared from the laundry room carrying a load of clothes. She brightened up upon seeing her son. "Hello Gohan! Did you have fun at the game?" Gohan replied sheepishly, "Well, I didn't really get it, but it was still cool hanging out with Erasa and Sharpner." Chi-Chi giggled and said, "Well that's understandable. You've never seen the game before after all." She then eyed the program on the TV.
Goten was watching some sort of cartoon featuring men with large, disproportionate muscles running around and fighting each other. One of the guys suddenly stopped fighting and starting yelling loudly, his already large muscles growing even larger. Chi-Chi frowned at the scene. "What on earth are you watching Goten? It looks really weird." Goten looked excited. "Trunks told me about this show. It's awesome!"
The man was still yelling. Chi-Chi shook her head. "Well, I think it's weird." She then sat down in a chair to fold clothes. The TV show abruptly cut from the yelling to the ending credits. Goten didn't seem to like it. "What!? How could you possibly cut off at that point? Gintei was unlocking his inner power! That's so stupid!" The other Sons laughed at the younger.
Chi-Chi looked up from her clothes. "Goten? Could you please change the channel to the news? I'd like to see what happened today." Goten grumbled something about stupid writers and changed the channel to the local news.
A reporter was in the middle of saying something. "…the chase was interrupted by Saiyaman, who flew in from the sky and stopped the driver." Gohan began to get excited. They're talking about me! This is so cool! "Here is a report from an eye witness of the event." The screen cut to another reporter holding up a microphone to a man. The man said angrily, "And then Saiyaman comes from the sky and pushes the car into the other lane! We almost wrecked! I had my wife and kid in the car! They could have gotten hurt! This guy's a menace!"
Gohan felt crushed. Is that what people think about me? Am I really just a hindrance? The screen then changed to a close up of a policeman. He appeared to be in the process of saying something. "Yes. The police was prepared to arrest the criminal. We blocked off the streets across from the Silver Bridge with spike strips to prevent the criminal from fleeing. If Saiyaman waited a moment, then there could have been no risks involved in the arrest."
Gohan felt even worse after hearing the policeman. Am I really that dangerous? I guess I could have handled the situation better, but I thought that I was doing the right thing. Was Mr. Satan right? Should I go through the police? Or should I just let the police handle everything?
Gohan looked over to see that Goten looked as depressed as he did. The younger brother caught his brother's eyes and straighten up. "Well I think that Saiyaman is a hero. I think that these people are crazy!" Gohan had to smile upon hearing his brother's praise. Another thought occurred to Gohan. Before he could stop himself he said, "Hey mom, what do you think about Saiyaman?" Goten also turned to his mother, curious. Chi-Chi kept folding clothes for a moment. She put down a shirt and said quietly, "I just think that his mother worries about him."
Goten groaned. "C'mon mom! That's such a boring answer. You're such a mom." Chi-Chi looked at her son angrily. "Well guess what young man! I'm your mother. You better be glad that I am your mother! No one else could put up with you." Gohan had to laugh. While his mother's answer wasn't what he was expecting, he still found it reassuring to hear that Chi-Chi didn't disapprove of what he was doing.
The family continued to talk and laugh for a while. Eventually, Chi-Chi checked the time and excused herself to bed. Working in the restaurant tired her out, but she loved it. The amount of time that she spent cooking for her two boys forced her to love how to cook. Getting paid for cooking was even better.
The two boys continued to talk and laugh in their mother's absence. Eventually, Gohan remembered something. He got Goten to retire to their room with him. He sat down on his bed and noticed Goten's puzzled expression. Smiling, he decided to answer his question. "So you do remember that alien I met?" Goten frowned. "The old one or the young one?"
"The old one. Before he stopped talking to me, he told me that he would send me some sort of mental training. I don't really know what he meant, so I'm going to try it out. He told me to just think about it and it would make itself known to me."
Goten stared at him. "Oh. Okay. So why did you tell me?"
"Well, like I said, I don't know what will happen. So if mom comes over here, just tell her I'm sleeping. Okay?"
Goten seemed excited to be involved in something. "Okay! You can count on me!"
Gohan smiled and got into a meditative pose. He took several deep breaths and attempted to focus on Piccolo. Several minutes passed and Gohan still felt nothing. He noticed himself staring to get irritated with waiting and calmed himself. He then decided to try to think about other things.
He settled on his desire to improve. The people on the TV got to him more than he thought they did. He replayed what happened in his head over and over again to try and figure out what he could have done better. He became so wrapped up in his thoughts that he failed to notice the air shift. He would have continued to analyze his situation unless a voice had not interrupted him.
"Welcome." Gohan jumped, as the voice was definitely not Goten. Standing before him was a tall green Namekian, dressed in what appeared to be a purple gi with orange boots and a blue sash. Gohan smiled. "Hey Piccolo!" He stood up and took note of his new surroundings. He was standing on a plain white floor. The floor continued uninterrupted to where it disappeared into the horizon. The sky above him was also bleached white. In the distance was a structure that appeared to be an oddly shaped house.
All in all Gohan thought it was really cool.
"So you're probably wondering what this is." Gohan whipped around to face Piccolo. Gohan nodded and said, "Yeah, you said something about mental training but-"
Piccolo interrupted him. "This is a mental state that I have put you in with my telepathy. A sort of willing hypnosis, if you will. In here, you will be able to train with me. Are you prepared?"
Gohan was still sore about being interrupted. "Well only if you promise not to-"
"Good." Piccolo closed the distance between the two rapidly and threw a punch at the teenager. Gohan narrowly avoided the punch, his power flaring up in self-defense. Now golden-blond, Gohan entered a fighting stance and prepared for Piccolo's onslaught. He blocked a left hook and dodged the follow up kick. He then retaliated with an elbow to Piccolo's face, but the warrior easily stopped the attack and grabbed Gohan's arm. He followed that move with a twist and threw Gohan over his shoulder onto the ground.
The impact jarred Gohan and he felt the breath leave his body. The teenager laid on the ground for a moment to catch his breath before standing up to continue the bout. Piccolo was ready for him to continue. Gohan, eager to take the offensive this time, closed the distance between them and threw two quick punches at Piccolo's face. The Namekian blocked both punches and responded with a right elbow into Gohan's face.
The blow hit home and Gohan's body bent downward. Piccolo threw a knee into Gohan's head and then launched a straight kick into Gohan's chest to knock him backwards. Gohan hit the ground with a groan. He lifted his head up to spare a glance at Piccolo. The Namekian was still in a fighting position. Why is he so focused on fighting? Gohan slowly got up and faced his new mentor. "So Piccolo? Can you tell me anything about-"
Gohan was interrupted by an extended arm narrowly missing his head. What the heck? It's like he doesn't even hear me. What's going on? He refocused back on Piccolo to see the Namekian rushing toward him, apparently wanting to capitalize on the distraction caused by his arm, which was still extended past Gohan's head. The superhero prepared himself for the onslaught rushing at him.
He was caught off guard when Piccolo's extended arm grabbed Gohan's hair from behind and pulled Gohan towards the Namekian. Piccolo threw a punch into Gohan's gut and followed it up by putting Gohan into a headlock. The teenager struggled against Piccolo's grip but to no avail. After a moment of struggling he began to try to convince Piccolo to release him. This is going to be tougher than I thought.
The two warriors fought few more rounds. Piccolo won all of them. Gohan kept getting back up to continue to fight, but his heart didn't appear to be in it. Gohan just wanted to talk to Piccolo about somethings. Piccolo seemed to know many things that Gohan wanted answers about. Gohan didn't know why, but he felt that Piccolo knew some information about him. About his powers.
However, every time he tried to stop the fight and talk, Piccolo would ignore him and continue to fight. After a while, Gohan reached a realization. This mental training of Piccolo's was some kind of training simulation and training simulation only. The figure before him could only fight. He wasn't real like Gohan initially thought. This realization depressed him.
After a particularly nasty blow to the temple Gohan got up with a fire in his gut. If this was all that Piccolo left him, than he would embrace it to the maximum.
AN:
Sorry about the hiatus. It did give me some time to think about some things.
There will be no OC heroes or villains if I can help it. The only exception right now is Piran, but only because the canon Red Shark Gang was stupid. I intend to only use canon characters, with most of their canon powers. So no worries of this story getting really fanfictionish.
Also, if you're seeing superhero clichés, you're supposed to. I wanted this story to have some cliches, but not enough so that it looked like I replaced Spiderman or Superman with Gohan.
Any feedback is appreciated.
