Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or anything related too it.

Clone names:
Gohan – Nahog
Videl – Levid
Vegeta – Furuti
Trunks – Tapara
Bulma – Ropa

All activity in the surrounding area seemed to stop right then and there, as Gohan walked forward from the light fog, evil grin on his face. Videl, more so then anyone else, felt paralyzed by terror, seeing that look. She had seen it twice before, on occasions she wanted nothing more then forget. Wanted to, but couldn't.

While Gohan was still casually strolling through the school grounds, slowly making his way towards Videl and her friends, Videl's sight was suddenly blocked as Sharpener stepped forward. His bag, still full of books, was held at his side ready to be swung like a weapon as he stood before the two girls, but he was still visibly shaking with fear.

But he might as well have been air for all the attention that Gohan gave to him. Without a worry in the world, Gohan walked past the blond male, who had been his best friend before everything had happened and stood facing Videl and Erasa. Only now that she was actually looking up at him did Videl realize that she had been unable to make any kind of movement since Gohan had shown himself. Erasa was clinging to her arm, the two shaking almost synchronically.

Breaking through his fear, Sharpener finally managed to get moving again. Turning himself around, he swung his bag at Gohan's back. Before Videl could even see what had happened, Sharpener was flipped over and thrown into the two girls, knocking them all over.

Again Gohan slowly walked while everyone else was completely frozen and now he was looming over Videl and her friends with a terrifying smile on his face. Slowly Gohan pulled one hand out of his pocket and extended it, reaching for Videl. Before he could even get halfway through though, somethingelse happened.

Moving faster then Videl could clearly see, the new student – that amazingly annoying, bastard, stuck-up fatso of a James Simon Anthony Mitchell – moved forward, grabbed Gohan's hand and twisted around so he threw Gohan straight into the school's wall, some distance behind the trio of terrified teenagers.

The turn-about of events, completely unexpected and from the last person on earth she would have expected to have some martial ability, Videl was finally released from her fear-induced paralysis. Getting back on her feet, she turned around to see what had happened to Gohan. Mitchell had not just thrown him against the wall; he had thrown the madman straight through two walls and had collapsed a third.

"What the fuck!" Videl exclaimed, finally finding her voice again. "What did you do? Since when do you… how the hell do you know fighting?"

"Quiet." Mitchell commanded, never even looking away from Gohan, yet the command and authority in his voice was clear enough that Videl never even considered disobeying. The other students seemed equally surprised, but before anyone else could comment on it or do more than breathe again, Gohan stood up from underneath the rubble and laughed.

"I knew it!" He said, not a shred of doubt in his voice, but still sounding like a madman. "I just knew it was so, there was no other possibility, you'd never let anyone take your place in this. You're so predictable! That's what makes you so damn pathetic, you know that? Because you are unable to let go, still too stuck up to notice everything is going exactly the way I want it to go! So many months of wanting revenge against me, trying to come up with so many clever ideas but always playing right into my hand. Tell me, how does it feel, knowing you're completely defeated before you even start?"

Surprised by Gohan's rant as much as the pure venom in his voice, Videl kept trying to look between Mitchell and Gohan, but it was clear she was missing something between the two. Mitchell had been preparing to fight Gohan for months? Yet for all Gohan's efforts, Mitchell didn't even raise an eyebrow. This, more than anything, seemed to anger the black-haired teen.

In less then the blink of an eye, Gohan was next to Mitchell, holding the dirty-blond teen up by the collar.

"What's the matter, lost your tongue? Or is the realization of your complete and total defeat cutting in so badly you can't even reply to me? Well? Answer me! ANSWER ME GOHAN!"

Mitchell smiled at being called that, though Videl had no idea why on earth he'd do that, but Gohan had clearly finally gone completely crazy. As Mitchell smiled at Gohan, though, he started to shimmer lightly, until suddenly his entire appearance disappeared. Instead of the fat, dirty-blond teen with thick spectacles, a tall, lean, muscular and bald man of middle age appeared with a third eye on his forehead.

"Wha?" Before Gohan could finish his question, the bald man kneed him in the stomach and then slammed his elbow into Gohan's back, before picking him up and throwing him high into the sky. And he threw the mad teen high! Immediately afterward, he put his hands together and created a triangle with them, looking at Gohan through that triangle.

"Neo-Tri-Beam-Canon!" The Bald man shouted as he was suddenly enveloped in a bright flash of light before something that could not be seen seemed to rush forward. Despite not being visible, it was still very much there, whatever it was. Gohan was obviously knocked back, blood flowing from his nose from the blast. But that wasn't all of it; the building that Gohan was now floating in front of suddenly seemed to explode, several floors completely disappearing.

With a cry of "Kia!" the man fired another invisible blast and then another. Before he could get in more blasts though, a series of small, compact and powerful explosions covered the area.

XxX

As he was traveling through the sewer, Tapara was more then happy that he was wearing a gasmask with night vision built in. Sure, the mask would reduce his field of vision, but at least he could breathe without being distracted by the smell of the sewers. Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to fly – there was a chance Piccolo could pick up even that small usage of energy and pinpoint him – so he was walking through the sewers.

Glancing at his watch again, Tapara double-checked himself. The watch was a special one; it showed not only the time, but also his position accurate to the centimeter. This watch was the only aid he had to keep on course. He was getting close now, with very little time left.

Stretching out his senses as far as they could, the teenage half-saiyan tried to locate where Piccolo was hiding, but the Namek was as skilled at keeping his presence hidden as anyone could be.

'Oh well, time to get him out of the way.' Tapara thought, pulling the special device his mother had made for him out of his pocket. Activating it, the device gave loud bangs not unlike a clock bell sounded and it echoed nicely along the large tubes of the sewers. Throwing the device forward, Tapara pulled out a second and activated that as well, before throwing it the other way. It was enough noise to annoy him; with Piccolo's hyper-sensitive ears this must have been enough to cause nausea.

A light beep announced that Tapara had arrived at his destination, with almost a full minute left to prepare. Still distracted by the sound producing contraptions; Tapara tried to focus for the battle that lay ahead.

What he found around the final corner of the sewer was definitely not what he had expected.

XxX

The explosions in the immediate area could well not have existed for all the reaction that the bald man gave them. Instead of turning around to see what was going on, he gave another cry and Gohan was struck again, the building behind him now reduced to nothing but dust.

Before the bald man could strike again, though, someone else appeared behind him and kicked him in the back. Unprepared for the surprise attack, the triclops fell, but managed to correct himself before meeting with the ground. While falling he kicked back, but whoever had attacked him was already gone, now appearing before Videl.

As the attacker landed, Videl was again frozen with shock, though this time not with fear. She knew this attacker. It was the face she saw every morning when she got showered and dressed, the face that looked back form the mirror when she was brushing her teeth. Her own face. And the hair…

She had seen that hair so often lately, appearing in her dreams, the spirit of her mother talking to her again, helping her get herself back together. Before the lookalike could say anything, or the possibilities could fully register in Videl's mind, the lookalike was blown away and Videl was pulled to her feet, though the hands were surprisingly gentle.

Gohan, wearing a blue martial arts gi, was helping her to her feet, while his eyes kept moving between Videl and a point in the sky. A point where Gohan, wearing his white kahki pants and black shirt, along with the remains of his ruined jacket, was floating.

'Two Gohans? No, no, no, please don't be true.'

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Videl yelled in a panic, but the blue-clad Gohan that was holding her let her go gently, not a single bruise showing from his hold. Instead of saying anything, or even showing that insane smile that sent chills down Videl's back, the blue-clad Gohan turned around and looked over to where Videl's lookalike was lying. Apparently, he had been the one to throw her back, though she was uninjured. Even now, he didn't show any signs of going to hurt her, only raising his hand.

But Videl remembered very well what a single hand had done to the walls of her father's mansion, what seemed like a lifetime ago. The Gohan in the sky, in his torn clothes, also saw the threat, freezing on the spot with his eyes locked on the scene.

"You know what I can do right now." The blue-clad Gohan said. "Are you angry? I know neither you nor I ever really liked surprises. But more then that, there is one thing we would do anything to prevent, isn't there? Your advantage is gone Nahog! I have the upper hand now."

"You've never had the upper hand!" the Gohan in the sky – why had the other called him Nahog? – yelled, the venom he had directed at Mitchell earlier back in full force. "I'm everything you could ever hope to be, I'm superior to you in every way. I'll kill you, after I'm done ruining you! No matter what you try, Gohan, you'll never match me, never get the upper hand on me, do you hear me!"

"ENOUGH!" Videl yelled with fear, anger and confusion paramount in her voice. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING N HERE!"

There were suddenly two Gohan's, both acting so very differently, but what was going on? How were there two Gohan's? What was the bodyguard of Emperor Chiaotzu doing here? Who was that lookalike with the same hair as her mother's ghost?

"Think, Dolly." Videl's lookalike said from her position, now standing up again. "There are two of them, there are two of us. They're not alike, just like we're not completely alike. Think, what trail did I set you on?"

Immediately Videl tried to remember every conversation she had had with the 'ghost' of her mother in her 'dreams.' Some things did not make sense, but the 'ghost' had always said to reach out past the obvious, consider wild guesses, take fantasies into consideration, not to take anything at it's face value, to look at everything like someone else had…

Just as realization hit Videl – a possibility that was almost impossible, but almost was not completely – two others appeared in the crowd. The flame-haired husband of Bulma Briefs – Vegeta, as she had learned after the World Summit – appeared suddenly, wearing tight blue combat clothing. On the other side of the blue-clad Gohan, Bulma Briefs herself appeared, waist-long hair tied up into a ponytail and wearing clothes similar to her husband's. They were both here for a fight.

But the blue-clad Gohan was already gone, disappeared from sight before the other two had even fully appeared.

XxX

Up in the sky, the debris of what had been a skyscraper still falling all around him, Nahog quickly tried to recover from what had happened. His clothes were ruined, which didn't concern him at all, but he had taken substantial damage from the unexpected attacks. Why had Gohan given the task of protecting Videl to someone else? Surely, Gohan was not that free with his trust, even if he did not realize it himself?

But this was not the time for questions: Furuti and Ropa had already appeared, and Levid was also in position. With both Gohan and Tien having already disappeared, it was time for this act to get started.

"Get ready." Nahog said, quickly appearing in the middle of the school grounds, his back towards the three other clones. They had already assumed their square formation when the Z-fighters appeared around them a second later. Unlike what Nahog had expected, however, they did not make a closed circle upon appearing. Instead, they all hovered on different heights, Gohan and Vegeta opposite each other on the lowest level, with the others all on various heights, energy attacks already charging.

"Look out!" Furuti yells, quickly forming a shield around the school grounds. "It's a sphere formation, not a circle. It'll allow them to attack from any direction at any time they want to. Against something like this, a square-formation is useless. We need to keep a guard up against attacks in the vertical plain."

Apparently, the rough voice – or the appearance of over half a dozen people who were floating in the sky – was enough to break the hold of terror on the students of the school. With all the chaos and cries of a mass panic attack, the students all scattered, running through each other, the gates and the doors to school in equal disorder.

Even as he saw the energy attacks being readied – apparently, the Z-fighters had realized how badly they needed a first strike if they were willing to attack before evacuating the area and were no doubt planning on using the Dragonballs after the fight was over – Nahog saw something else that made his heart skip a beat.

Floating directly opposite of Levid, higher than Gohan and Vegeta, nearly at the top of the sphere, was Piccolo.

The world was devoured by a mass of yellow light as the Z-warriors attacked.

XxX

While he looked through the darkness of the sewer with his mask, Tapara could feel the bursts of energy from above, indicating that the fight up above had begun. The sound-blasts must have been more damaging to Piccolo then had been anticipated, because for the last few seconds, Tapara had been gathering his energy, ready to strike, but the Namek had never shown himself.

As his watch gave it's second signal – a low, short zoom – Tapara was made aware that the time had come for his attack. Gathering the energy to his hands, the purple-haired half-saiyan raised his hands to the ceiling, ready to disrupt the enemy's formation with a single strike.

Before he had even realized what had happened, Tapara was knocked in the flow of sewage water, submerging fully for a second before he could blow the foul liquid away with his energy. Someone or something had attacked him in the back, but a strike of that kind of force would have to be sensed before it could hit. Maybe Piccolo was be-

Collapsing under the sudden knee in his stomach, obviously thrown from the side, Tapara was grasping for breath when his assailant reached out and removed the mask from his face. Now locked in complete darkness, as blind as could possibly be, Tapara could still hear the signs of the mask being crushed while he tried to cover his nose. The stench was horrid, even worse then anything he had anticipated.

Forced to take deep breaths to regain precious oxygen, Tapara nearly became nauseous thanks to the odors assaulting his nose, but his assailant wasn't finished with him yet; a strike to the temple – from the other side of where the knee had come from – sent Tapara into the wall. Quickly bracing himself for the follow-up kick, Tapara raised his guard tightly, but instead of kicking, the mysterious attacker grabbed him by his jacket, rendering his guard useless, and threw him into the flow of urine and poop again.

This time, Tapara had no mask to protect his face while he dived, getting his eyes, nose and even his mouth filled with the excrement.

'That's it, Piccolo, your Namek ass is mine!' Tapara could barely stop himself from uttering some of the more colorful language his father had demonstrated at times, but talking now would have only worsened the situation and his eyes were already stinging. It was all he could do not to puke out everything that had ever entered his body.

With a blast of bright light suddenly illuminating the entire sewer; Tapara transformed into a Super-Saiyan. The transformation evaporating or disintegrating the remains of human waste that stuck to his person. Quickly the teenage half-saiyan turned around, hoping to pinpoint his Namekian enemy while he was blinded by the sudden flash of light, but instead of the tall, green form of Piccolo he found someone else entirely.

#18 was apparently not bothered by the increase in light at all, since the beautiful android simply struck Tapara in the stomach hard with one fist, before punching him in the temple with her other hand. The combination – once again robbing him of his only recently regained supply of air – was enough to knock the teenager out, if only for a second. The transformation dropped along with his consciousness, once again making Tapara fight in the dark.

'Dammit, this isn't good!' Tapara was ready to curse himself, but instead he turned around and fled. 'I'm not prepared to fight her. I was supposed to fight a nearly defenseless Piccolo, not her!' Despite his attempt at quickly fleeing, Tapara did not get far; unable to see in the dark without his goggles, the teen almost immediately crashed into a wall.

Apparently, #18 didn't share this weakness, since she almost immediately pulled the teen out of the wall's rubble, and delivered several punches, before throwing him into the water again. She must have been enjoying that…

But being submerged gave Tapara the time he needed to gather his energy again. Once more, he transformed into a Super Saiyan, quickly escaping the stinking waters and ready for the fight this time. But #18 had once again vanished from his sights, only to reappear behind him, pink energy blast already formed and being shoved into his abdomen.

The blinding light off the massive explosion was all that Tapara could see while he felt the excruciating pain of the blast.

XxX

In the school grounds, Furuti and Nahog were both burning through their energy to keep up a protective shield from the rain of energy blasts. Both were trying to cover as large an area as possible, shielding the normal humans from the deadly and destructive rain. Not for the first time, Nahog felt regret of not simply brainwashing the clones to be loyal to his cause, rather then adding false memories and making them live in a lie.

When the rain of blasts lessened, Nahog looked up, trying to find the cause – had Tapara realized something was wrong and changed the plan, attacking them from behind? – But still had to keep the shield up. Several of the Z-fighters left the area, apparently moving in small groups to attend to one task or another, while some remained to keep the suppressive rain of energy blasts up.

Lining up their shields to defend more efficiently, both Furuti and Nahog reduced the amount of energy required to defend the area, allowing them to gain a quick breather, when the ground below their feet exploded in a massive blast of pink light. Almost devoured by the blast, Tapara was barely recognizable as he was catapulted into the sky, falling like a ragdoll. The boy was obviously unconscious at best; it was very likely that the attack had been strong enough to kill him.

But to Nahog that wasn't his primary concern; the attack from underground had served to destroy his formation, rather then striking at Gohan's, like the original plan had been. The explosion followed just a little behind the blast, quickly devouring all four of the clones that remained on ground-level.

XxX

After having jumped back when the white-and-black wearing Gohan – who the other, blue-clad Gohan had referred to as Nahog – landed, Videl, Erasa and Sharpener were completely isolated from the others. When the rain of yellow lights – which were clearly more dangerous then the average missile! – had started, almost all of the students of Orange Star High had vanished in a manner very much like how the Gohans and all those others had appeared.

Videl very much hoped that it meant some of those flying fighters were carrying the civilians to a protected area, but there was no way to be sure. And from where she and her two best friends were lying – directly behind the four people being targeted and had formed a square – it would have been next to impossible for anyone to reach them.

The fight was apparently progressing in places Videl had never thought of, since the ground in between the clones suddenly cracked open and a pink beam erupted from the hole, much like a volcano spewing lava in a movie. She thought she could make out a shape atop the pink beam, but before much more could register, the beam was followed by an explosion.

Sharpener, who was standing in front of Videl and Erasa, had turned around as soon as he ground had cracked and jumped for the girls, but he could barely envelop them in a tight, crushing bear-hug before the explosion devoured them all.

As always, much thanks to my beta Kushin eX for going over this chapter for me.

Please leave a review telling me what you think.