AN: Sorry this chapter is shorter than I wanted, but I wanted to post something. Hopefully you like it.
"Are you still coming with us today?" Sharpner asked during gym on Monday.
"Yeah, my mom told me I could stay out as long as I wanted as long as I came back with enough time to train with Goten." Gohan told his friends. "So, what do you guys do for training?"
"We mostly do strength training and then at the end we fight for a little." Sharpner said.
"That sounds boring, does it ever change?" Gohan commented.
"Not really, Mr. Satan is really into building strength." Shapner sighed.
"Strength isn't all you need to be a great fighter, you need to be fast and be able to react without thinking. How can you learn that if all you do is strength?" Gohan asked perplexed.
"Easy, we don't." Videl muttered.
"But then how can you be your best?" Gohan pointed out dodging a ball, they were playing dodge ball.
Videl threw a purple fist sized ball at a boy on the other team, hitting him square in the chest. "I don't know Gohan, the only way I've been trained is by my father's way. As far as I'm concerned, I'm at my best."
"But your training has been completely one sided. You could double your strength by rounding out your training." Gohan argued. He caught a ball then handed it off to Sharpner, he didn't want to accidently hurt anyone by throwing it.
The bell rang while the class was still playing, most people ran off to the locker rooms to leave the school as fast as possible. Gohan followed Sharpner to their lockers, Gohan changed into one of his training outfits although he doubted he'd need it.
"Dude, what's with the purple pants?" Sharpner joked.
"My first mentor wears something similar; I fought Cell in something like this." Gohan defended his clothing choice. The only difference from the uniform he wore at the Cell Games was that he had a red belt and red T-shirt on.
"Okay man, it's just, purple?" Sharpner was wearing black workout pants and a blue T-shirt.
"Yes, purple I don't know why. It's something to wear." Gohan finished the conversation while walking towards Videl's house.
All of the sudden, Videl ran up behind the guys to push them both over. Sharpner fell down on one knee, just barely stopping his head from meeting the pavement; Gohan though had acted on instinct, avoiding the arm aimed to knock him over and then grabbing it. He had to stop himself from punching his friend's face, his fist only centimeters from Videl's nose. She blinked a couple of times before flinching away from the almost attack.
"How'd you move that fast? And why were you about to punch me?" Videl demanded.
"Sorry about that it was a reflex." Gohan explained.
"Some reflex, almost knocking me out." Videl commented as they started walking again.
"How'd you even know she was coming? I had no clue she was anywhere near us and then the next thing I knew I was on the ground." Sharpner asked.
"Reflex." Gohan said simply with a shrug.
"You'll have to test that reflex on my dad." Videl joked. The three (Erasa was shopping with friends) made it to the gargantuan house where a few other teens were gathering at a side entrance, Videl led her friends into the front of the house and into the living room. "We have fifteen minutes until class starts, my dad should be in here soon."
"Videl, where are you?" Hercule's booming voice called out on cue.
"In here." Videl called back.
The hulking form of the so called strongest man in the world entered the room not long after the short conversation. "What do you want? I was preparing for your class."
"I just wanted to remind you that Gohan's going to be joining us today." Videl told him.
"This little pipsqueak? Is he going to be able to keep up?" Hercule asked skeptically.
"Don't worry about him, his father trained him." Videl insured.
"Okay, but don't come crying to me if this is too hard for you." Hecule ordered.
"I won't sir, I'm sure it'll be fine." Gohan said.
"Dad, we have to go let everyone in now." Videl reminded.
"Oh yeah, let's go." Hercule abruptly turned around and strutted down the hallway towards one of the many training rooms. Once in the large room filled with weight machines, Videl walked over to the door to let the other fighters in. A group of fifteen teens came in, almost all of them were ripped guys. They all immediately went to the tournament sized ring to sit haphazardly in a circle; Sharpner pulled Gohan into the circle while Videl moved to the center.
A short round of stretches ensued before Hercule stepped into the center of the circle. "Who's ready to work as hard as I do?" He asked, trying to pump the kids up. "We'll be breaking up into groups of six and going rotating stations today so get going."
Videl grabbed Gohan and Sharpner, as well as the other three strongest people and ran over to the weight machines.
"Why are we starting here?" Gohan asked her.
"That way we can end by sparring, that's much more fun." Videl answered with a smirk.
With a shrug Gohan sat at the nearest machine, one that works out the biceps. One of the other boys, this one wearing a blue shirt that showed off how ripped he was, teased, "Don't hurt yourself, those things can be pretty rough. Are you sure you read the manual on how to use it?" Without answering, Gohan put the weight to the highest it could go and easily cranked out a set of twenty five reps. The jock's jaw hit the floor, "How is that even possible?"
"Bulky muscles get in the way during fighting, so instead of just strength training, I had a variety of ways to train." Gohan laughed.
"Is that why Videl can beat us even though she's so tiny?" Another muscle boy asked this one had short blonde hair.
"Sort of, but I think it's more that I'm a girl and you're not." Videl pointed out.
"Hey, enough chatting over there! Get back to work!" Hercule ordered from his seat in the corner of the room.
Gohan looked at him, a little confused as to why the man wasn't helping all of his students but shrugged it off, he'd ask about that later. He rotated with the others, trying each of the machines although he knew none would help him too much.
After half an hour the stations switched, Videl led Gohan to an open section of the room. "Next we get to practice our form." She told him on their way over then asked, "Do you think you could help me with some of the forms you and your friends were teaching?"
"Sure, but I think you already got most of them down." Gohan agreed.
Videl started going through the movements taught to her very slowly so Gohan could point out anything wrong with them. He laughed before saying, "You don't have to go so slow, I've seen those moves so many times I'd be able to point out a mistake on the verge of consciousness. It's kind of weird to see them so slow. Also, if you want to be able to put more strength behind your blows shift your left foot back a bit."
"Okay, I'll try that." Videl said while making the necessary adjustments and speeding up her movements.
"Hey scrawny kid, get moving!" Hecule hollered making the boy in question jump.
"Oops, I guess I've got to do something." Gohan shrugged, slipping into his own forms.
"Those are pretty cool moves, who taught you them?" The boy in the blue asked after watching Gohan for a few minutes.
"I've mixed some aspects from all of my friends' techniques to create my own." Gohan shrugged as he slipped into a harder set.
"I guess that's why you said the moves we learned last week were easy." Videl commented in amazement, stopping to watch the complexity of the twisting moves the demi-Sayian was pulling off.
The odd techniques caught the attention of the world champ, who walked over to watch more closely. He couldn't help but think that the boy had skill, but being naive as he is thought he could still take him. "You're pretty good kid." Hecule praised. "But you could still use a little more practice in order to be as good as me."
"Well yeah, you can always get better. But I think you might need a lot more than me." Gohan said with a smirk, taking a page out of Vegeta's book.
"Haha, that's a good one." Satan laughed wiping a tear from his eye.
"I'm not joking; I've been trained by the best my whole life. I know my weaknesses, but do you?" Gohan asked.
"Of course I do!" The man answered without thinking.
"If you're so sure then fight me, better yet, fight Videl." Gohan challenged.
"I already know I can beat her, why would I?" Hercule laughed nervously.
"To prove that you aren't a coward." Gohan suggested with a shrug.
"I'm no coward! Come on tough guy, take me on yourself. Don't be a coward and push your fight onto someone else." Hercule roared.
"I was just trying to make it fair, but if you want to I'll fight." Gohan shrugged.
"Be prepared for a beating." Hercule boasted.
"You wish." Gohan muttered following the man to the ring.