Okay I feel bad for this, as its been a while and its a shorter chapter but still… I had to release something so people know its not dead. This fic is never far from my mind and I'd love to write it, but I have literally no time. I was home for maybe 5 days over Christmas vacation and now that I'm in school, classes take up a ton of time. Calc 2 takes a good chunk of my day and that's just one class, followed up by some CS classes… its just crazy time consuming. Just letting everyone know its not dead and I still love this story and still love you guys, I even wrote out the entire plot outline, in detail so I could take a break and come back to the story when I need to/can. I feel proud of the plot I constructed, so just bear with me, I want to take my time and do a good job on this. Thanks for understanding
Replies!
anonymous- I see where you're coming from, I was trying to convey that Goku was already extremely tired and the opponent was pushing him to this stage. He was straining because the fight had gone on so long, but that's all I can say, you'll figure out more in the future!
Reign Of Sorrow- Thank you, friend.
shugokage- Glad you're enjoying!
Dratias- Nononono, I will never willingly stop this story, I love it too much :) But thank you, I'm glad you like the style. I know there's much more I can improve on and that's why its taking me so long to write. I could crank out a part a week, but quality would suffer, so this is all I can do for now… Life is crazy, but rest assured I'll always be grinding away here. Thank you for the review.
Okay, onto the shorter chapter!
Mind still buzzing with the events of the day, Gohan made the trip over to CC, wondering how Bulma and Vegeta would react to the story of the day. His mother and brother on the other hand, could find out about this next weekend. ChiChi would no doubt be all over the school, livid that her son was assaulted, even though no damage could've been done in the slightest. If he didn't calm her down, then there's no telling what she'd do to the school.
Arriving in a flash of light in front of a particularly large dome shaped building, Gohan took a deep breath and walked in, met by a smiling, although slightly confused Bulma.
"Hey there kiddo, what brings you here? I thought you'd go straight to the gravity chamber, what's up?"
Gohan relayed his adventure at school and later at his apartment. To his surprise, Bulma smirked wider than Gohan had ever seen her smirk and laughed, as if to say that she knew something he didn't.
"Oh, sure I'll get ya a cell phone and you can put this girls number in it. I'll have it ready after you're through training. Run along now Gohan, talk to you later!"—then in barely a whisper, Bulma turned around and started walking away, saying—"Oh how adorable, I can't wait to tell Chi about this, she'll love it!"
"Wait What!?" Gohan was confused and a little alarmed, unaware of his blunted friend's ulterior motives.
Bulma spun around, "Oh, damn I forgot about you Saiyans and your hearing, never mind Gohan. It's nothing, just some mom talk." and with that she sent Gohan a wink and walked away. Leaving him stuttering, "what, but, uh what? Wait!" but the words fell upon deaf ears.
Damnit Bulma, I hate when you get like this… Nothing I can do now though, might as well train.
—A few hours later—
Both bruised, bloodied, and breathing hard, Vegeta and Gohan walked out of the chamber. Only one of the cuts opened back up, so after they cleaned up, Gohan reapplied the salve and wrapped himself back up in gauze, before saying his goodbyes, getting his new phone, and departing for Satan City. Vegeta had reacted pretty much as Gohan expected. He was annoyed with how Mr. Shu treated Gohan and even more annoyed that the man was still breathing, but acknowledged the necessity of it. That was pretty much the extent of the conversation they had, as they were both eager to train.
By now, it was dark out and school started in about eight hours or so, not that Gohan planned on going. The moon was bright in the sky, allowing for him to see about as well as normal humans could during the day, so Gohan allowed himself to fly home slower than normal, taking in the sights and sound of the night, inhaling breath after breath of the sweet, crisp night air.
This really is relaxing, I understand why Piccolo loves the mountains so much. Might as well take the time to enjoy the flight home.. wonder what the city looks like at night too.
So Gohan did just that, and chose to take a more indirect route home, so that he could see more of the city. From his altitude, it looked like a flat Christmas tree, except some of the lights were moving and everything seemed to be… alive with energy. Different sounds reached his height, car horns, engines, a rather unlucky guy who just dropped his guitar, house parties, even some people yelling and… gunshots? Why gunshots? There's no firing range near here, is there?
Confused, but alert, Gohan raised his power level to just under super and flew over where the source of the gunshots were coming from. The second he flew over the site, the harsh odor of burnt gunpowder assaulted his nose. Focusing on the scene below, Gohan saw four men outside of a bank, armed with assault rifles and what seemed to be full bullet proof vests. They looked to be stalling for something, a get away car maybe? Opposite of them were ten or so horribly unprepared police officers hiding behind car doors, armed with standard pistols and one or two had shotguns. One seemed to be badly injured but pinned down and another officer tried to carry his comrade out, but ended up getting shot in the leg himself. The situation was dire and pissed Gohan off to no end.
Who do they think they are? What gives them the right to do this? These are the kind of people that should've just stayed dead after Cell. I probably should do something about this…
Adopting an intimidating scowl, Gohan tensed up his body, and a golden aura erupted around him, coloring his hair, eyes, and tail, which escaped from his clothes. He shot off towards the sound, eyes tracking a single bullet that would've ended one of the injured officer's lives. He appeared in front of the two, the smell of blood reaching Gohan's nose, angering him more, speaking to his primal side.
Fucking ungrateful animals
He caught the entire magazine's worth of bullets and threw them to the ground, ignoring the look of shock and awe from the officers and relishing in the look of shock and horror of the robbers. In a deep, commanding voice, one that demanded authority, the glowing hero called out, "Send for medics and get these two out of here. Don't worry about them, they're mine."
There were seconds of silence, neither side fully registering what had just happened.
"NOW" The simple one word command was enough to get the police officers scrambling and enough to make a single terrorist, the largest of the group, to speak up.
"Hah, yeah right punk, LOCK AND LOAD BOYS, LET'S GO!" With that, the assault rifles began to bark all right once, sending hundreds of bullets towards the police, who froze with terror.
You're kidding… Do they really not know how screwed they are?!
Finally pissed in earnest, Gohan bellowed, "ENOUGH!" and with that, the bullets stopped, suspended in midair for a second, before falling to the ground, like metallic rain. Just as the bullets fell, Gohan disappeared, suddenly reappearing in front of the man who yelled out earlier, kicking him in the thigh met with an extremely satisfying crack, before taking his other leg, spinning around in mid air, and sending his heel into the man's chest. Another crack and the man was sent, barreling through one of the windows in the bank, shattering it, before skidding into a heap on the floor. Less than a second passed and Gohan dispatched the rest of the group in a similar way. He headed into the bank to throw the man with the other pile of unconscious terrorists, but as he picked up the body, one last man tried to stab the demi in the back.
Coward.
Gohan didn't even take the time to turn around, so he simply grabbed the man's wrist with his tail.
"Wh-what!? What are yo- ARRGGHH!"
He constricted his tail, crushing the mans wrist, before throwing him out into the street with the others in a heap. He then threw the last man with the rest and without another word, rocketed out into the air, purposely blinding those around with his aura and headed home, returning to his base state, finally calming down a bit.
Hmmm.. did I overdo it a bit? …. Yeah maybe, but oh well, they deserved it. Maybe it'll stop some others from doing the same thing if they hear about this? Doubt it but still.. doesn't hurt to hope. Time to go home and get some sleep though, tomorrow's going to be a good day of training and homework.
—The Next Day—
The next morning, at around 11, Gohan finally stirred. He made the conscious decision to turn off all his alarms, opting for more sleep than a too short training session or anything of the sort. School would be over in a few hours and Videl would be back with his homework then, so Gohan decided to do something he hadn't in what seemed like forever. He laid back, relaxed and decided to read a book, for enjoyment rather than for his academics.
He reasoned with himself that there wasn't enough time to do much of anything for training and he had no idea exactly when Videl would be back, sometime after school but other than that, he didn't know. So, he should stay home and enjoy himself.
After a few hours of relaxation, he decided to go shower, put on some clothes, and eat lunch. By the time this was all over, it was around 3 and school would be out soon, so Gohan decided to return to his book on the couch, getting some coffee. Then, at about 3:30 or so, a knock on the door jarred Gohan from the book.
He went and opened the door, met by a scowling Videl. "Hi!"
"Hey Gohan, here's your homework and how're the cuts?" She sounded actually concerned for the guy, but was met by a smile from her friend.
"Oh thanks! But I'm doing fine, they don't even hurt anymore. I've just been laying around all day, so they're healing."
She shook her head, wondering if it was weirder that he was acting like this or if she wasn't surprised by it. Rather than stand in the doorway, she walked in after Gohan offered, setting down the papers, her backpack, and another duffle bag, probably full of training equipment. "Good, so I have the notes from today if you want to go over them before I go train, sound good?"
So, the two exchanged notes and Gohan humored her, letting Videl 'teach' some of the new material from the day. After a couple of hours, Videl felt satisfied that she had done a decent enough job for Gohan to finish all the homework on his own, so she stood up, took the two cups and plates that they had used earlier into the kitchen and started to wash them off.
"Oh, hey you don't have to do that, it's not like I have anything better to do right now!"
Videl shook her head, "No, no, its fine, you're still injured whether you admit it or not, so its the least I can do. But hey, have you heard?"
"Uh.. heard what?"
"About that guy at the bank yesterday!"
At that, Gohan sat up a little straighter, more alert, curious as to what people were saying about him. "The bank…? No, I've just been sleeping and reading since last night, so I haven't heard any news."
Videl looked truly excited, eager to share what she'd learned, since this news was about what interested her the most, stopping crime. "Well, yesterday night a group robbed a bank here and caught the cops off guard. They were winning the firefight and I guess a cop was almost killed then a glowing golden guy appeared in the middle of everything and get this, he actually caught the bullets! Then he went and kicked all the robbers asses and then disappeared. There was a video of it and everything! Look!"
"Woah, no way that's crazy!"
She pulled out her phone and began to search it for the video as a pit appeared in Gohan's stomach. The color drained from his face and he began to get nervous.
Shit shit shit… I should've been moving too fast for a phone camera to catch, but I did stand still a couple times. As long as they didn't get my face, I should be okay, but still. I've gotta be more careful… Maybe go ss3 to fight them? But then I don't know if I could hold myself back enough not to kill…
"Uh, Gohan… hello?"
He jumped back to his senses from the mental conversation he was having with himself, "Oh! Sorry, yeah ready!"
She cocked up an eyebrow and the two leaned over a phone screen to watch the video that already had over a million views. It was a grainy image of a glowing man, with a tail, who shouted, "ENOUGH!" and disappeared. The video after that turned to static and all that could be heard were different shouts, until the mysterious fighter threw out the last terrorist. A blinding flash of light followed and then the camera caught a golden streak in the sky.
Hmm… not too bad. I don't think anyone could realize that's me unless they had some serious help. Still… I've gotta be careful.
He put on is best surprised face and asked, feigning disbelief, "Did he…. fly? You sure this isn't a joke?"
Videl scowled and shook her head, "No, they're doing news segments about it and the police that were there said it was real. That and those terrorists looked pretty beat up when they covered it on the news…"
"But just what the hell could that have been, then? Some sort of military grade drone or something?" Gohan tried to steer the conversation in a direction away from anything that could get him in trouble.
"Hmm"—a short pause followed and Videl looked lost in thought—"Well I guess that makes the most sense at this point. No human could do that, it had to be a robot or something. Some prototype from the military or Capsule Corp or something like that. I'm still interested though…"
Uh oh… judging by how Mom and Bulma act, she won't stop looking for something until she satisfies that curiosity. This could be tricky…
Gohan nodded, also appearing lost in thought, "I agree… its weird. Kinda cool though right? I mean from the sounds of it, there could've been lives lost so whatever that thing was, I'm just glad it did some good."
"Agreed."—Videl got up and gathered her bags before starting to walk to the door—"Alright Gohan, I've gotta go train. Just let me know if you need anything— Oh and before I forget, text me so I have your number. I was gonna call you and let you know I was on my way, but couldn't."
"Ah, yeah one second"—The Saiyan fidgeted with his phone for a bit—"There. I'll let you know if I need any help and I'll see you tomorrow in school. But for training, I should be good to go by next week, sound good?"
Another genuine smile lit Videl's features, "Yeah, of course, just don't overdo it, k? See ya later Gohan!"
—
Next Week
—
After school, Videl led Gohan out the front door and pulled out a capsule, threw it at the ground and waited for the car to appear. Once it did, the two hopped in and started the quick drive to her house. Over the course of the week, Gohan had become something of a school hero, at least for the first couple days he was back. Then everyone seemed to forget about what he did, too busy with their own lives to care. The small group that Gohan could call his friends, however were becoming closer to each other by the day. He now felt confident enough to participate in the light-hearted harassment and started to enjoy their company more and more.
The same went for the rest of the school. Pretty much everyone was nice to him and would say hi in the halls or ask him for homework help. Even the bullies tended to steer clear of him, no doubt aware of the incident with Mr. Shu. Whatever the case, high school was going along pretty well for the half alien teen, but today was a big day.
He'd have to train with an extremely aggressive partner and go talk to the one man who seemed to recognize him from the Cell Games. It worried Gohan, but he hoped that Hercule would have enough sense to ignore their familiarity, or at least discuss it in private.
"You sure you're feeling up to this?" Videl asked, never taking her eyes off the road.
"Yeah, yeah don't worry, I'm fine. The cuts are pretty much completely healed and I even did a little training last night on my own, so I know I'm healthy enough." He flashed a reassuring smile.
"Alright, just making sure. I'm a little excited to tell you the truth, it'll be good to have a sparring partner with someone that doesn't have a fighting style influenced by my dad. That's all anyone ever has around here and its annoying!"
"I understand completely, it'll be good to spar with someone new after training with the same people for so long."
Come to think of it, I only actually train with Vegeta and even that gets old…
"Good! We're almost there, you can just leave your backpack in the car, I'll drop you off when we're done."
—
Gohan walked into a fighter's wet dream, rows of heavy bags and speed bags were available for use, three full sized rings for sparring were available, rows upon rows of weights and other training equipment took up another portion of floor space, and the gym was complete with two full sized locker rooms.
He whistled, "Woah, this is quite the place, I don't think I could ever get bored here."
Videl gave a dry laugh, "Yeah, it sucks when you're the only one training though."
Gohan nodded, completely understanding her complaint. When the two were finally finished, they stretched and Videl called for an easy spar to finish warming up. Agreeing, Gohan settled into his stance at one end of the ring, while Videl raised an eyebrow, not used to this foreign style. She readied herself and announced that the sparring could start.
Even at a half effort, Videl could have easily overwhelmed most fighters years older than her, it surprised Gohan that she could be so strong with no formal training of ki. Regardless, he studied her stance and form as he ducked under a series of punches, blocking a kick.
hmmm… her form is a bit too heavy handed and relies too much on power. Its like Krillin trying to fight like Broly. He almost laughed at the mental image of a short Krillin swinging slow. No, all she needs is a quicker, more accurate style. Something that can use her strength for agility and striking power. But damn… if only she would let me teach her how to use ki, then that could be scary.
Scowling, Videl sought to knock that distanced look off Gohan's face with a left-legged round house, only to have it catch air when he made an odd duck, bending backwards, before catching himself on one hand and making a slow foot sweep at her remaining foot on the ground. She was so caught off guard at this bizarre style that she couldn't make herself dodge in time and ended up hard on her back.
Gohan's eyes widened in surprise as Videl let out a grunt of pain and grabbed her ankle, "Ah uh um Videl! I'm sorry I didn—"
"Shutup, I'm fine, that was just a hell of a move. That ankle has been bothering me for a while and I shouldn't have left it open, that's my bad. Let's take a quick break for me to ice and heat then we can get back. Sound good?"
"Yeah, of course, where's the ice?"
So, Gohan wrapped Videl's ankle in ice and the two sat there for a second before Videl frowned and asked, "Well… what did you think? We weren't going full speed but still. Honest opinion."
Do I be honest and get yelled at or play peacekeeper… hmm… sorry mom but girls aren't always right I guess.
"Ok, completely honest, from what I've seen, your fighting style is a bit too… brutish for you."
She raised an eyebrow, almost as a challenge, obviously annoyed, "Oh, yeah? What makes you say that?"
Gohan sighed, "Well, your blows are quick, but are too heavy. You're probably one of the most gifted fighters I've met, but that's what I see holding you back. If you changed just a little, to a quicker, more accurate style, your strength and speed could be used much better, since you don't have mass amounts of muscle mass to slow you down. I went through the same thing with my dad, I wanted to fight just like him, but had to develop my own style. One that suited my mentality and physique better. It helped me a ton."
It had just slipped out, but there it was. Gohan had openly and willingly talked about his father, but just then a dark feeling crossed his stomach, remnants of the taboo he placed upon himself from ever mentioning Goku.
Videl looked like she was going to hit him but then her face softened and took on a thoughtful tone. "Hmm… well I can see where you're coming from, and my dad is a lot more bulky than I am, but still. That's how I learned to fight, so its kinda ingrained, ya know? I can't just change it all of a sudden."
The taller man brightened up, "Ah, but that's the thing. You don't necessarily have to change up techniques. Judging by how you spar, you've pretty much mastered that technique. Now, how about we add this to your skill set. Nothing is worse than fighting an opponent with multiple styles, it'll give you a hell of an advantage."
Videl was still lost in thought, processing what Gohan said, about all the possibilities that it meant for fighting, about how many styles Gohan knew, about his father that he'd never mentioned before, and finally about how he got so damn strong. Whether she mentioned it or not, that slow kick hurt way more than it should have. "Yeah… yeah. I agree actually! But who would teach me the new style? You? Do you even know how to teach it? Also, how many styles do you know and how the hell did you learn them? And just how did you get so strong huh? Steroids or something?"
Gohan chuckled at all the questions, much to Videl's annoyance.
Well Saiyan heritage pretty much does count as steroids…
"Okay, starting with the first, yeah I could help you and train you. I'm qualified enough to teach and I've done a bit of it before, so I'm not completely new at it. I know my fair share of styles, mostly variations of a few main forms, say about 3-ish give or take? More like three and a half but the half is a half new form I made on my own that's my favorite. I've gotten strong because I had to, that's all there really is to it I guess."
Videl scowled, not believing him fully, but after studying his face, decided that Gohan was telling the truth and she thought to herself
He really is a complete freak of nature then, isn't he. People that have trained their entire lives wouldn't have been able to master two forms, let alone 3 and I'm just starting with a variation to what I'm doing right now… Just how crazy is he!? And even if we were just warming up, I was starting to get a good sweat going and he doesn't look like he even moved, even with those cuts. What the hell is up with him….
"Alright, sure sure, I'll believe you. But if you can't make me as strong as you then I won't believe it." She crossed her arms and smirked, lightening the mood.
Caught off guard by the smile Gohan decided to take a chance, "Well I guess the only difference in the training that I guess you did and the training that I did was that I trained mentally nearly as much, if not more than physically."
He was referencing ki as mentally training, since a lot of ki control was mental, so training your brain was the best way to master the art of ki manipulation. It wasn't really a lie, more of something Gohan wanted to implant in her mind to try and get her to pursue her potential.
"What does that even mean? Like thinking about fighting or what?!" Her deep blue eyes were furrowed in concentration, trying to grasp what her friend meant.
"Well, it's something that I had to start learning on my own and only happened what I was physically a little stronger than you… aaannd I don't think I would've figured out what the hell it meant so soon without almost dying in the process and that's just reckless." He thought back to some not so fond memories of Piccolo trying to train Gohan to use his ki. That mountain sure did hurt.
Videl looked in disbelief again, wondering whether or not to believe what came out of his mouth, but his sincere face combined with the matter of fact tone he took told her that he spoke the truth. Hmm… maybe I should listen to him and just figure it out in time. Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner rather than later if I keep training with him… Maybe if I play my cards right I can get him to tell me what he's talking about. "Alright then Gohan, if you're so strong, then how much can you lift? I bet I can win proportionally. C'mon, the weights here are for guys that's supposed to be strong, I dunno if I can even max out the machines. If I win, you tell me more about this mental training, if you win… I'll let you teach me no questions asked, sound good?"
Gohan raised an eyebrow, caught off guard by her challenge and wondered what was even in it for him, aside from some mental math for his and her body weight, along with what weights they should lift. "Well… uh alright I guess, let's go heat your foot and lead the way. We can do leg stuff some other time."
They both quickly forgot about the supposed cuts on Gohan's back, Videl wasn't one to think about much else other than whatever goal she sought to achieve. As she finished heating, she led gohan to the first set of weights, a simple bench press and explained the rules.
The man of the house, Hercule Satan watched the happenings on a security camera, visibly upset and psyching himself up to go in and yell at the teenager. Yet for some reason he was hesitant, something was familiar about the boy and some primal instinct told Hercule to not fight this guy, it was the same sort of feeling he got and ignored before fighting Cell. It sent a shiver up the man's spine as he watched the two go about their workout.
—
OtherWorld
"Good Goku, you're almost there. Keep training and soon you'll be on par with these beasts, but sadly… it won't be enough. It can never be enough, all we can do is hope to prevent the inevitable. We're in a desperate struggle right now Mr. Son, you are playing a major role in it, I thank you, but you'll need to go heal and return to your training. We'll call upon you again as needed."
Goku scowled at the voice, which sent more blood running down his face from the massive gash over his eye. He stood barely upright over a disintegrated pile of ash before being Instant Transmissioned back to his training quarters.
There's got to be something more to this.
—
AND BOOM, ENDING.
Well folks, that's all for this chapter. A little shorter than normal, but I explained all that above. I honestly have no idea when I'll be able to update this again, but I do have a plan and the will to do it, so rest assured this fic won't die.
Until then, I wish you all the best in your lives' endeavors and remember that I thank each and every one of you that click, favorite, follow, and most of all review, it inspires me even more to write and I can't thank everyone here enough for not flaming me for being gone so long.
See ya guys next time :)