Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or any of the characters, but do enjoy the story
Chapter 9
Videl was nearing the location of the Satan City Office Building. It was a typical fifty story building, but it was the giant statue of her father that made it stand out. Her eye began to twitch slightly at the sight of it. Oh how many times she wished she could blow the damn thing into a billion pieces.
"Videl," she heard a voice come over the intercom, "Are you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here. I'm currently above the building," she said, "What's the situation?"
"Unfortunately we don't know," the officer told her, "All we know is that the employees on the top floor have been taken hostage. We don't know how many, nor the number of criminals you'll be fighting. Sorry."
Videl growled as she turned the intercom off. There was absolutely no useful information at all. She was basically going to have to go in blind. Serious, what was up with this city and its stupid ass police force. If her uncle wasn't there she was pretty sure that they would never catch a single criminal. She let out a sigh as she made her descent onto the rooftop. Luckily she had been keeping an ear out for some sign that the citizens had noticed her, but she heard nothing on the radio. That meant with luck she could manage to take them by surprise. While that may not be her usual style, it did bring a slight smile to her face.
"I wouldn't be smiling like that if I were you," she heard a voice call out to her.
Her heart skipped a beat and she remained frozen in her place. There was only one person who ever made her do that.
She tried to control her breathing in order to not seem excited and then turned to face him with her signature smirk, "Well, well, well, if I didn't know any better I would think you were stalking me Gohan?" (By now, we should all know that Gohan tends to show up out of the blue.)
Gohan shrugged, "It's possible. After all, you are very attractive, so stalking you wouldn't be out of the question."
Videl's smirk disappeared as her face turned bright red and she began speaking gibberish. While she was too embarrassed to speak properly, she didn't notice the serious look that had come over Gohan. It was almost as if he was trying to dissect her with his eyes.
When she finally noticed, she stared nervously, "What?"
"Just curious," he said, "What's your relationship to that Belphegor guy?"
Out of all the things that he could have said, that was not one that she was expecting from him.
"He's my uncle," she said inching away from him, but then gave a mischievous grin, "Don't tell me you're jealous of him."
"It wouldn't do to be jealous of a guy I just met," he said blankly, "Besides that's what he told me too."
Problem is, you're the only one who was honest when asked, he thought, Is it possible that you really don't know the truth.
Gohan let out a sigh, "Oh well, it's none of my business."
Videl was left confused, but soon straightened herself up, "You said earlier that I shouldn't be smiling, why?"
"Probably because you'd be in real trouble if you got too overconfident," he said, "There are fifty-eight hostages and about 9 armed men. Even you would have trouble dealing with something like that."
The female fighter's eyes widened, "How do you know those are the numbers.?"
"I'm just weird like that," he said smiling.
"You do realize that explanation is pretty lame," she said slouching slightly, "In any case, as long as I have the element of surprise there's no way that those creeps can beat me."
THe half-saiyan then pointed over at the roof entrance, "If you look above that door there is a small camera. What's more is that it's the kind that is usually connected to wireless device. That means the creeps already know you're here."
Videl walked over and sure enough there was a small camera hanging just above the doorframe. She had just lost the one thing that could have given her an advantage. That meant her only option now was a full on assault.
She turned back to Gohan, "Listen, I'm sure that you can handle this all by yourself, but this is my job. So don't you dare interfere!"
Gohan smiled at her confidence and her stubbornness. So for now, he would grant her demand(because let's face it Videl does not make requests).
"Fine," he said.
Videl scowled at him as if to make sure her words would get through, "I mean it Gohan, if you help me in any way then I will not forgive you."
"I got it," he said raising his hands in surrender, "I swear that even if you're about to get yourself killed, I will not come to your aid."
The Satan girl gave a small huff and stormed through the door with Gohan following after her. It surprised Videl that no one was guarding the stairwell, but she guessed that since they already knew she was coming it would have been pointless. Still, it made her feel as if these guys were underestimating her and that was something she could not stand.
Gohan however had already realized something Videl had not. The fact was these guys were not underestimating her at all. They were just being very careful. They made sure to take plenty of hostages to gain attention. Then there's the camera on the no police officers that use jet-copters and the only crime fighter that was known to use one was Videl. That means the criminals were after her specifically. Add in the stronger than average kis he was feeling, then they were probably professional mercenaries.
Let's see how you deal with this one Videl.
As they neared the floor the hostages were held on Videl tried to slow down to assess the situation, but her partner apparently had a different idea. So instead he walked out directly into their sights.
"Well, you must be Ms. Videl's partner am I right?" a man sitting on one of the desks asked, "I must admit your appearance has thrown us for a bit of a loop. We had always heard that she worked alone."
This man was the total opposite of his men. They were all built like tractors and their faces made it seem as if they scowl twenty-four/seven. He on the other hand was at least attractive and was more leanly built. More than likely these feature made it easier to deal with clients.
"Don't worry," Gohan said, "You're camera should have already picked up my little deal with Videl. So, I'll just go sit over there."
He indicated a small section to his right and sat atop a desk himself. The mercenary looked at him oddly.
How strange, he thought, Not many people react to situations like this with such calmness. Either the kid is stupid or he's been through some serious shit. Not only that, but I usually have no trouble getting a read on someone after talking to them. Yet, this guy is completely unreadable. Who is he?!
"Hey!" Videl called out to regain the leader's attention, "Let go of those hostages right now and I might just go easy on you."
The man gave a gentle smile, "You heard her men. Release the hostages."
Videl deadpanned. The armed men that had surrounded her went over to the hostages and untied them. They were even nice enough to guide the scared people to the door.
The man laughed slightly at her expression, "I can see that you're confused, but you must understand. We are professionals and so we have our own sense of dignity. If we're caught and arrested after taking out the intended target then there is no problem. However, we're not going to worsen our sentence by committing mass murder."
"That's not a bad way of doing things," Gohan commented.
"Thank you," the man replied genuinely.
Videl had to actually agree. Most people that took hostages didn't care about worsening their sentence. They only cared that they achieved their goals, but apparently there some out there who can be respected.
"Still, this doesn't mean I'll let you win," she declared.
The man smiled, "It wouldn't be that much fun if you did."
He snapped his fingers and in an instant she was surrounded by the other eight men. They formed a large circle around and already had their guns drawn. The man walked to the only opening in the formation and drew his own gun. Every weapon was focused on her and there was no doubt that they were aiming for vital spots.
"Now, let's get this over with shall we," he said pulling the trigger.
A normal human would have been shot down in an instant, but as if by instinct Videl tilted her head to the side. The result being the bullet flying into the wall behind her. As soon as this occurred the other men starting firing at her. Despite the oncoming barrage she was dodging every bullet with incredible ease. The leader had stopped shooting, but the others were continuing. As soon as a magazine was emptied they would reload, but it was only one at a time. That meant Videl had little time to strike. In fact, she shouldn't be able to dodge at all, so how was she doing it?
The so called mastermind was becoming nervous by the minute unaware that their unmoving guest was smiling. It wasn't that hard to figure out what was going on. After all, it was thanks to his instruction that Videl was able to move like this.
(Flashback)
It had only been two weeks since Gohan had soundly defeated Videl and as usual she was coming at him like a wild beast.
"That's not the way to do it," he said while dodging her strikes.
She jumped up to aim a kick at his head, but he ducked underneath and moved behind her. Videl turned quickly and tried for ram her fist into his chest. Unfortunately, her opponent wasn't so cooperative. He turned to the side letting the punch go past him and then kicked at her feet causing her to trip. Gohan grabbed her arm and then flipped her onto her back. The moment she came into contact with the ground he pinned her by her throat.
"If you keep attacking me so wildly like that," he said calmly, "You won't be able to see anything."
"And what you mean by that?" she growled.
"I mean that so far I've been holding back," he told her, "I made sure that I was moving at your pace and my moves have been pretty obvious. If you weren't so blinded by your pride then you'd be able to predict my moves."
Even though she heard that his advice was honest, the fact that he had held back was irritating her. For a solid weak this new kid had been dominating their fights. Sure, she wasn't blind to the fact that he never broke a sweat, but she had hoped that she was at least giving the bastard a challenge.
Gohan removed his hand from her throat and was about to walk out of the ring.
"WAIT!" she called out.
Gohan turned slightly to where he could see her trying to stand up again. She raised her head to make sure they were making eye contact.
"How?" she asked, "How can I learn to read your attacks?"
He was impressed. The only person he knew that had as much pride as this girl would have to be Vegeta. Yet, unlike the arrogant prince, this girl was willing to swallow her pride in order to become a better fighter.
"Before we get to that," he said, "Why haven't you learned how to do so yourself?"
The girl stared into his eyes before proclaiming, "I can do it!" but then she lowered her head in shame as she realized what she was about to say would only sound like an excuse, "It's just that with my style I usually take out my opponent before they can do anything. I guess I'm just a little out of practice."
If anyone else had given him such an answer he would think that they were gloating about being far above others. But that wasn't the case with Videl as she was honestly ashamed to have to give him this answer. So Gohan smiled.
"If we're talking about a competent fighter then you're best strategy would be to learn how their breathing changes with each move," he told her, "However, learning how to do that takes time. So, until then I'll tell you a way to deal with amateurs and even bullets. One part of the body that is always moving would have to be our shoulders. If you can identify how the shoulder moves with attacks then if they aren't that skilled, you'll have no problem dealing with them.
It was obvious that Videl was taking in every bit of his advice, but she was still stumped, "How does this help me deal with people that are armed with guns?"
"Even if it's only a slight movement," he explained, "The shoulder moves with the hand. If you can see this then it shouldn't be hard to to predict an attack that travels in a straight line."
(In case you didn't realize, I'm bullshitting a lot of this. I do not know if this tactic would work, so do not try this at home.)
"Okay, well even if I can predict where they're going going to shoot," she replied with a skeptical look, "That doesn't help as far as the speed is concerned."
Before she even knew he had move Gohan's fist had just passed by her head.
"Leave that to me," he said as he retracted his fist.
(End of Flashback)
Within three weeks she had picked up on the method and though she was unable to dodge him consciously. Her body had learned to move by instinct and now it would appear that she's learned how to rely on those instincts.
"Okay Videl, show me just how far you've come," he said to himself.
She was still moving in between the spray of bullets that were coming after her, but that didn't mean she wasn't learning a few things. First of all, they were all well positioned so that even though their bullets were missing her, their comrades wouldn't get shot as well. Then their was the interval in which they had reload their guns. Each person had to do it within the same amount of time each time. Every fifteen seconds someone had to reload and then they would reload again after about three minutes. Within the time span that they are reloading is most definitely the best time to attack. It's practically the only moment in which nothing comes from that direction and leaves a massive opening for attack. She just had to pick her moment and it was soon handed to her. She chose the first person who had to reload and the second he started to reload his gun Videl closed in. In the blink of an eye she was in front of him and driving her fist into his abdomen. When the two adjacent men tried to aim at her she gave to the one on her right a spinning heel kick. Then she quickly lunged to her left and punched him into a wall.
Both the leader's and Gohan's eyes widened slightly, but the half-saiyan's surprise turned into a smile. A normal human wouldn't have realized it, hell, Videl herself probably hadn't realized what was going on. It was slow, but the longer the battle was going on the stronger her ki was becoming. This sudden increase in ki was also affecting her physical capability, making her both stronger and faster.
"I knew this would happen after last time," Gohan said to himself, still smirking slightly, "But I had no idea it would progress this quickly.
The second a gun was turned on her Videl would immediately react and attack before the mercenary could pull the trigger. This quick reaction would have stunned most people into being unable to do anything. But even Gohan could see that the mercenary leader was easily figuring out how Videl chose her targets and that meant she was in trouble. Other than the leader there was only one man left and it it didn't take long for her to pin him. However, before the unconscious mercenary cold hit the ground Videl was sent to the ground herself.
"Have you finally calmed down?" the leader asked.
The crime fighter struggled to lift herself up enough to see what had happened. The second she hit the ground her body was overcome with exhaustion, but she was unable to understand why? Just a second ago she had felt so much power coursing through her and now it was gone. As she tried to lift herself up, there was an unbearable pain pain coming from her right shoulder. When she collapsed back to the ground she took the liberty to reach for the spot the pain was coming from and it felt wet. Videl looked at the substance that covered her fingers was blood.
"You seem surprised," the leader said, "Is this the first time that you've seen your own blood?"
Then she saw it, the gun he had been holding was extended towards her. So that's what had happened: She had been shot.
"You know it really is hard to say whether you're lucky or unlucky," he said, "You see this gun contains several modified bullets. Each one with a different destructive and penetrating force. Fortunately for you that bullet couldn't go all the way through, but that also why you are unlucky. After all, it's still inside of your shoulder. Meaning, the more you move the more it tears through your muscle."
"Why?" she asked as her breathing became unstable, "If you guys are mercenaries then that means someone hired you. Who?"
Smart, she noticed the overconfidence in that man's voice, Gohan thought with a smirk, So she's using her current condition to not only gain information, but also time to get back some of her strength
"I believe he went by the name Caspers," the man said, "I don't really know why he hired us, but I must thank him. I mean, do you know how much more we can charge people when they hear that we've defeated one of the great Satans?"
CASPERS! She thought, Is that idiot still blaming me for his son's suicide?
The leader extended his arm once again and this time he aimed where he was sure her heart was. Even if the bullet didn't go straight through her, at the very least it may puncture her aorta causing her to bleed out.
Videl's breathing began to even out as she tried to stand up, surprising the mercenary leader. A slight blue glow began to surround her and when she turned to face him this same glow could be seen in her eyes.
"Kill or be killed," she muttered to herself, "So, this is what it's like to make this decision. I didn't want it to come to this, but there is no way that I'm dying here."
The moment Videl clenched her fist the aura dispersed and then converged back around her fist creating a large blue sphere. The man's eyes widened, but he couldn't understand where his fear was coming from. The last time he felt this afraid was when he was a kid and the Demon King Piccolo had taken over everything. The man was trembling with his gun in hand to the point where it was obvious that he would miss.
"TAKE THIS!" Videl yelled out as she lunged forward.
The female fighter's fist was about to land on his face, but someone's hand intercepted her attack just inches in front of it. The mercenary then found himself being sent flying onto his back. The aura that was once so bright vanished and with it the last of Videl's strength. As hard as she tried she just wasn't able to remain standing and collapsed.
"What are you doing?" she asked, "Gohan, you promised that you wouldn't interfere."
The desk where Gohan had sat was now vacant as he stood in between the two combatants.
He let go of her fist and turned away from her, "No, I said I wouldn't save you and I didn't. The person I saved was that idiot on the ground over there. If your punch had landed, it would have killed him."
Videl glared at him and growled, "So what? Aren't you the one who said I needed to learn to make that decision: Kill or be killed. So tell me, why stop me now?"
Even though Videl couldn't see, Gohan's face had become somewhat gentler compared to usual, "That's true."
Videl was about to say something else, but was quickly interrupted.
"But I don't recall ever saying that I would allow you to spill blood," he said with a harsh tone, "I don't care how many lives I'll have to take to keep other safe, but I won't let you carry that burden."
Gohan finally focused all of his attention on the quivering man. Ever since Gohan had entered into the fray he had become unable to properly hold his gun. This worse than when he faced the little girl. This young man was far more terrifying than even the late demon king.
"What do you want from me?" he asked trying to stay standing.
The half-saiyan flashed a smile, " I just wanted to thank you for teaching my friend here a valuable lesson. So, I want to give you a nice little gift and that is: I'll let you live."
Gohan extended his arm and made a gun gesture as if he were a little kid. A small yellow orb formed at his fingertip(Hello Spirit Gun).
He smirked as he said, "Bang."
The orb disappeared in a flash and before anyone knew it, the mercenaries arm had been utterly destroyed all the way up to his shoulder. Then there was a humongous hole that had been formed in the wall behind him. As the sense of pain finally dawned on him, the mercenary leader let out a terrible scream that was almost inhuman.
"What a baby," Gohan said with a deadpanned expression.
He turned his attention back to the fallen crime fighter. Kneeling down next to her, he placed his hand on her right shoulder.
"This is going to sting a little bit," he told her gently.
The palm of his hand began emitting a small white light and as he told her, she felt some pain. She had no idea what he was doing to her, but when he removed his hand she noticed a looseness in her shoulder.
"I used my ki to disintegrate the bullet inside your shoulder so you should be fine," he told her.
"Ki?" she questioned.
"I'll explain some other time, but not when you're expecting company," he said.
The half-saiyan walked to one of the desks and pulled out a pen and piece of paper. After writing something down, he handed it to Videl. On the paper was a set of coordinates for wasteland area that had absolutely no civilization. She looked up at him in confusion.
"Meet me at those coordinates when you're ready," he said, "Good luck until then.
He walked to the hole in the wall as a white flame-like aura erupted from his body. With a single lunge he pushed himself forward and was flying far from her sight.
Videl was left wide-eyed, "He...can... fly?"
Author's Note
Letting you know I made some slight alterations to the end of the last chapter, but nothing too obvious, so you don't have to go back and read it. In reality it was just a few words that I fixed. Anyways,I'm sure a lot of you guys can easily figure out what's going on with Videl and Belphegor, but I needed it for a reason that I will explain after the next chapter.
So, as you can see not all of Gohan's personality has changed over the years and we get to see how far he is willing to go for Videl. That's about all I've got this week.
By the way there is a small alteration to my story that you would not have guessed is a change, but it is. There will also be a oneshot to go with this change.
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