After school that day, Videl let herself and Goten into her house, near the kitchen.
"So, can we train again?" Goten asked excitedly.
"We're going to train every day," Videl said. "But not right away, okay? First, I've got homework I need to do."
"I drew a picture in school today, wanna see?" Goten asked.
"Sure," Videl said.
Goten rooted around in his backpack before pulling out the crumpled piece of paper. "It's a kangaroo!" he said.
"It kinda looks more like my dad," Videl said, looking at it.
"We learned all about kangaroos today!" Goten said excitedly. "They go hop hop hop like this! Hop! Hop! Hop!"
"Very exciting," Videl said. She noted that Goten still had a tail for some reason.
"And they're from Australia! And they carry babies in their tummies! And—"
Goten hopped around for five minutes, telling Videl everything he learned in kindergarten that day. Videl tried to get some reading done, but it wasn't easy to focus on her book and Goten at the same time. Then, her watch started beeping.
Not now. Please, not now, Videl thought.
Videl pressed the button on her watch. "Hello?"
"Hello, Videl," the police chief said. "We need your help. There's a minor riot going on at the Fresh Yogurt store downtown."
"A riot at a yogurt store?" Videl asked. That was a new one.
"The owners called 911 two minutes ago, asking that we help take care of the problem. Apparently, a group of their customers got belligerent and started attacking people."
"Wait a minute," Videl said. "Fresh Yogurt...that's the place on West Street. The one that all the hippies go to."
"That's right," the police chief said.
"So you're saying that a group of hippies have started a riot in a yogurt store," Videl summarized.
"Exactly. The store owners specifically requested that you help solve the problem. They don't want any direct police involvement if they can help it."
Videl sighed. "I'll be there in ten minutes, I guess."
She pressed the button on her phone, and turned to Goten.
"Hey, Goten!"
"Yeah?"
"You wanna go get some yogurt?"
Videl and Goten made it to West Street in seven minutes. Across the street from the yogurt store were two police officers, watching the scene.
Videl asked them for a status report, even though it was pretty easy to tell what was going on. Even from across the street, she could hear loud chanting and angry-looking people with lots of hair and tie-dye shirts.
"Things are relatively stable so far," an officer said. "The hippies seem to be attacking anyone who goes near the store, but we've been warning people to stay away."
"I thought hippies were all into peace, gentleness and bad music," Videl said. "Why would they start a riot?"
The officer shrugged. "No one's told us. Who's the kid with you?"
"This is Goten, my little buddy," Videl said, putting her hand on Goten's shoulder.
"Hello, sir," Goten mumbled.
"Is that a...tail?"
Videl faked a laugh. "Goten's pretending to be a monkey right now," she said.
"I like animals," Goten said.
"We'll look after him for you," the officer said.
"No way! I wanna see Videl be a superhero!" Goten protested.
"The kid's coming with me," Videl said.
"Are you sure that's safe?" the officer asked.
"Trust me," Videl said. "He'll be fine."
The doors to the yogurt store slammed open. Videl and Goten stood there in the doorway. Videl had her hands on her hips, in a "take no prisoners" stance. Goten tried to do a cool superhero move, too, but all he could think of doing was a thumbs-up with both thumbs and his tail.
"All right, what's the big fuss about?" Videl said, in her most business-like tone.
People all around her started yelling. Something about high prices, discontinued flavors, and the store being out of napkins. It was obvious that calm discussion wouldn't work in this situation.
"You're making a disturbance," Videl said. "I'll have to ask you to go back to your homes, quietly."
"NO!" everyone shouted.
Someone threw a punch at Videl, but she was able to dodge and hit him with an uppercut. Seeing this, the hippies all immediately jumped into fighting stances.
"Wha—what?" Videl said. "You know how to fight?'
"We do Tai Chi," one of the hippies said. "You don't have a chance. There's thirty of us and one of you."
"Two!" Goten said, trying to be brave. His tail wrapped tightly around his leg, though, because he was scared. He had never been in a fight with mean people before...
"Well, you said you wanted to train today," Videl said to Goten. "Here's your chance! Heeeeeeya!"
Videl lunged forward at the nearest hippie, and they all attacked at once. Videl might be a tough fighter, but getting tackled by fifteen people simultaneously is not the sort of attack you can just shrug off. She collapsed under the weight of the hippies and hair.
The three hippies who had gone after Goten were now lying on the ground, eyes rolling in dizziness.
"Videl! Shoot off your energy!" Goten suggested.
"...Not...helping..." Videl groaned as she moved her arms around, trying to get a firm grip on something. She managed to grab onto someone's arm, and yanked it to the side as hard as she could.
"Ow!" the person yelled.
"The big boom!" Goten said. "You know, rrrrwargh! Haaaa-ra!"
Right, the energy wave attack, Videl thought, figuring out what Goten was talking about. She focused her energy inside herself for a brief second, but instead of holding it in and gathering as much energy as possible, she immediately let it burst out in all directions. This pushed all the hippies away from her, flinging them backwards like rag dolls.
It was an impressive move by human standards. Plus, Videl didn't fall down this time! Definitely a success.
Yeah, that works a lot better when I just shoot off a little bit of energy, Videl thought. Good.
"What the? How did she..."
"...Do that?" a hippie asked. "I dunno!"
"She attacked all of us at once!" another hippie said.
Videl assumed a defensive pose. "Last chance. Are you going to leave quietly, or do you want some more punishment?"
Some of the hippies were in favor of leaving, but the braver ones wanted another chance. One jumped at Videl with a strange twirling jump kick which she was able to duck underneath. She put her hands out and turned the attacker sideways, so he ended up crashing into another hippie.
A third hippie started throwing some dangerous-looking punches, but she tripped over her own hair before she could get close enough to attack Videl.
Goten jumped at the fourth attacker and punched him in the face.
"Goten! Behind you!" Videl warned.
Without turning around to look, Goten used his tail to slap his attacker on the face. The attacker grabbed his cheek and howled in pain.
"Ow!" Goten said, rubbing his tail.
Looks like that tail is more useful than I thought... Videl thought.
"Ungroovy! Let's get out of here!" one of the hippies cried.
"Yeah, I didn't like the yogurt here, anyway!"
"I'm going back to college!"
"Dude, that kid has a tail!"
"Does anyone have change for a twenty?"
The hippies all ran out of the yogurt store, right into the policemen who arrested them for disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, and walking around barefoot instead of obeying the "no shoes, no shirt, no service" rule.
In celebration, Videl gave Goten a superhero high-five (which is just like a normal high-five, only more super).
"Thank you so much for saving us!" the yogurt shop owner cried.
"All in a day's work," Videl said.
"Helping other people is fun!" Goten said.
"I have to reward you somehow!" the yogurt shop owner said. "I know, how about some free yogurt? As much as you want!"
"As much as I want?" Goten asked excitedly. He ran to the counter and started pointing out various yogurt containers. "I want the green one, and the brown one, and ooo! The red one! And—"
The store owner laughed. "You want a cone from each of the yogurt tubs?"
"Huh?" Goten said. "No, I want the whole tub!"
The store owner fell over.
"I can't believe you ate five gallons of yogurt," Videl told Goten as the two of them left the store.
"It was goooood," Goten said. "Now I know why you're a superhero! It's awesome!"
"You're not so bad yourself," Videl said, inwardly blushing at Goten's superhero comment. The kid really seemed to idolize her. It was quite the compliment.
"I liked when you went pow! And bam! And whap!" Goten said, acting out all of Videl's attacks.
"I liked the energy wave attack," Videl said. "It works great."
"That's not really an attack," Goten said. "You're supposed to do a lot of energy waves so you can be glowy. But doing one works, too!"
"...Right," Videl said. He might be cute, but sometimes that kid was hard to understand.
Hercule was getting some orange juice from the kitchen when he saw a piece of paper on the floor. Curious, he picked it up.
It was the picture of a kangaroo that Goten had drawn in class that day.
"Hey, it's a picture of me!" Hercule said. "I should put this on our refrigerator!"
Then he noticed the signature on the picture.
"Goten Son," Hercule read. "Wow, I guess that means the kid really likes me! And he gets along so well with Videl, too! He'll make a great stepchild!"
"Wait, stepchild? Chi-Chi and I aren't...we're not..."
"AUGH! I keep blurting out dumb stuff like that! I'm gonna get in trouble some day, if I'm with Chi-Chi and I tell her I think she has the shiniest hair I've seen since—augh! No! Bad Hercule! You can't think that way about your PTA buddy!"
"Maybe she'd like to carpool with me to the next PTA meeting..."
"Wait, do they even have a PTA at Orange Star?"
"Oh, I hate romance! This stuff is too hard! I should just follow that no dating rule I gave to Videl, and that'd make things a lot simpler!"
Chi-Chi was practicing her punches in the backyard. In one short month, she and Goku would be fighting each other in a World Martial Arts Tournament, just like the day they got married! Oh, it would be so romantic!
She wanted to tell her sons the story of how she and Goku fell in love (again), but they hadn't come home from school yet.
Where are those boys, anyway? They should be home by now. Gohan better not be spending more time with that devil girl!
Unfortunately, Videl and Chi-Chi had gotten off on the wrong foot, and Chi-Chi still hadn't gotten used to the idea of Videl being anything else besides a sneaky girl who was obsessed with finding out the Son family secrets.
Hercule is nice enough, but his daughter? Ugh! Why can't that girl mind her own business? She's probably a bad influence on Gohan!
Chi-Chi started punching harder.
Plus, what's all this garbage I hear about her fighting criminals? Is she crazy? That's not something a normal teenager does for fun! She could get killed!
Chi-Chi did a few kicks, then wiped off her forehead.
I should look into finding some proper teenagers for my son to hang out with...
That night, Vegeta roamed the city restlessly. Bulma had kicked him out of the house as punishment for attacking Videl, and so he had nothing to do except sulk.
I should have killed that girl when I had the chance, Vegeta thought. It would have been worth it to see the look on Gohan's face when I killed his mate.
Vegeta wouldn't have really killed Videl the first time he met her, though. He was the sort of man who liked to play with his food before he ate it. And speaking of playing...
Vegeta took to the air and flew towards Hercule City. It was time to see this girl again and get revenge on her for ruining his night of training. Not that he really needed to train because he was already the strongest being in several universes, but it was the principle of the thing.
Vegeta was able to locate Videl easily enough. Next to the Son House, the people in the Satan Mansion had the highest power levels in town. Besides, it was kind of hard to miss the Satan Mansion. It was the largest, gaudiest building in town.
A normal person might have knocked on the front door, but Vegeta simply flew up to the room where Videl was and smashed the window.
"AUGH!" Videl screamed.
Vegeta flew into the room at an angle in order to make it through the window. "Hello there," he sneered.
"You—you—pervert!" Videl said. It was the only thing she could think of saying to the strange man who broke into her bedroom and was seeing her in her pajamas.
Vegeta grinned. "Don't worry, I'm not interested in you in that way. Small, annoying girls aren't my type."
"Get out of my house NOW," Videl commanded.
"In a moment," Vegeta said. "You've interfered with my life one too many times, Girly. If you don't stop, I'll make you stop."
"How can I interfere with your life?" Videl asked, grinding her teeth while trying to think of a way to call the police without this creep knowing. "I don't even know your name."
"I am Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans," Vegeta announced. He had the habit of saying that at every possible opportunity.
"Blah blah blah, aliens with monkey tails," Videl said. "Gohan told me the whole story. It's nothing to get all high and mighty about."
Too quickly for Videl to dodge, Vegeta grabbed her by the collar. "That Gohan is a weakling compared to me," he said. "I am going to kill him at the tournament. And if you cross me again, I'll kill you, too."
At these words, Videl immediately thought of the "no killing" rule that was in place at the World Martial Arts Tournament, but something told her now was not the best time to mention it.
Vegeta tightened his grip, and the front of Videl's pajamas started to rip. That was when she began to be seriously afraid that she would get raped or killed or both.
"Don't mess with me, or you're dead," Vegeta growled. He flicked his wrist and flung her backwards towards the wall, although she didn't slam into the wall itself.
Videl didn't respond. She just covered herself defensively while glaring at Vegeta.
"I'll give you one fair chance," Vegeta said. "The tournament. You're entering, right? Defeat me in the tournament, and I'll never bother you again. If I defeat you in the tournament, you never bother me again. Fair enough?"
Vegeta liked the technique of telling people when he'd attack them ahead of time, just like he did when he and Nappa first came to Earth. It gave his enemies more time to despair, and it made victory all the sweeter if his foes had uselessly tried to train their little hears out.
"Don't use your freaky alien superpowers, and you've got a deal," Videl said.
Vegeta laughed. "I don't need my powers to defeat a weakling like you," he said. "See you in the fight, Girly."
He lifted up his hand and blew a hole through the wall. Videl jumped instinctively.
God, I love doing that, Vegeta thought.