Chapter 21: Dead Man Walking

"Now let's get the 3rd round underway!" blared the announcer. "For our next match, we have Mr. Satan's #1 student, after his daughter of course, Caroni versus the Backstreet Queen and bane of the Satan Dojo herself, Barbella!"

Hearing the ginger's name, the stands erupted into hisses and boos as the spectators pelted trash and other projectiles onto the field.

Sauntering out to the ring, a very nervous Caroni grimaced at what he would have taken as a compliment less than two weeks ago. He knew he was walking to his defeat, perhaps even worse if Videl and Brea-Og's fight were anything to go by, and still, he couldn't back out. Both Videl and her common law spouse had warned him of what would happen, but he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It wasn't just Videl who had been defeated by Barbella four months ago. He, Parowski, and half the dojo got flattened, and the whole world knew it. He was now trapped into choosing between two evils: Fight Barbella and lose, or forfeit and destroy his career.

The blonde grappler looked over at his red-haired opponent, the very woman who sent him to the hospital last spring. If her punching machine score was any indication, he was as good as done.

For her part, Barbella was seething underneath. The embarrassment she suffered at the hands of her hated rival's spouse would not go unpunished. She'd make Caroni pay for what that monkey-tailed freak did to her. In the face of something like Gohan, she'd have to take a page out of the devil's playbook to get any satisfaction. When you can't hurt your neighbor, hurt his dog. Isn't that what the devil did?

Just outside the ring, Gohan, Videl, and Pizza chomped down on junk food as they watched the spectacle. Videl tore into rice ball after rice ball as she glared daggers at her hated enemy.

"Woah! Careful there, Tiger!" chided Miss Pizza, snatching away Videl's snack. "If you eat too much, you'll be too sluggish to fight!"

"Sorry…" the Satan girl grit between clenched teeth, "I just can't stand that bitch! I don't think I've ever wanted to hurt someone as much as I do her!"

"Why did the announcer call Barbella the Backstreet Queen?" asked Gohan.

"It's her old nickname," answered Videl. "She was a shoplifter and home invader before I finally took her into custody. Our street fights were the stuff of schoolyard legends. I still have scars on my body from my earliest fights with her. Hellcat Vidy versus The Backstreet Queen, that's what they called us! She'd commit a crime, I'd pursue, she'd lure me into a back alley, and we'd fight until she ran away. This went on for about two years until her luck ran out. You know the rest…"

"I take it even then she was a real handful?" Gohan quipped.

"The worst," was Videl's curt reply. Videl's eyes narrowed dangerously as memories of her past dealings with Barbie came flooding back to her. "She wasn't just a vicious street fighter. She was a notorious arsonist! She had this chilling fascination with fire and gasoline. Once, she burned down an old couple's shop just because I thwarted her attempt at a break-in. She's living proof that even young people like us can be as nasty as the worst adults."

"I can only imagine what someone like her has been doing with Crane's teachings," her spouse remarked.

"Whatever it is, it's a sure bet that the police would never be able to handle her," said the petite fighter. "How much do you think she's changed since the first time we fought?"

"Hard to say," Gohan answered. "You and her are around the same level, but I won't be able to get a real estimate until she actually gets going. Fighting ki can fluctuate wildly in the heat of battle."

In the ring, Caroni eyed his opponent warily. Judging from the calculating gaze Barbella was giving him, he knew it was gonna be hell. This was a suicide errand and he knew it.

"As most of you are aware, Barbella has gained notoriety as the only fighter to publicly challenge and defeat the Satan Dojo's best!" the announcer informed the crowds. "Among them were both the Champ's daughter Videl and Caroni! How will the #1 student of the People's Champ fare in the upcoming match? Can he redeem himself?"

"I hope you're ready," Barbella remarked with a cold edge. "I'm going to make this nice and painful."

Caroni swallowed hard before shooting back, "I'm not gonna give you the satisfaction of seeing me forfeit!"

"Oh, Blondie…" she tsked, "Who said I wanted you to forfeit? If you quit, there's no fun in it for me."

"Let the match begin!"

As soon as the match started, Caroni turtled up. Bringing his forearms up in a tight guard, he steeled himself for a massacre.

Uncrossing her arms, Barbella paused one last time to shoot a malicious smile towards Videl and Gohan. It had the intended affect. If Videl still had short hair, it would've stood on end at the sadistic look her hated rival had just given her.

"Something tells me she intends to take her time with Caroni," Gohan remarked. "She's gonna make him pay for what I did."

Videl's eyes widened in panic. "Caroni! Don't play her game! Forfeit the match!"

It was too late. The next thing anyone knew, Barbella had seemingly phased out of existence only to reappear right behind Mr. Satan's former top student.

"W-What?!" was all the blonde show fighter could stammer before a sharp, deep pain stabbed into his right shoulder. Behind him, Barbella held up an outstretched finger.

"CARONI!" Videl screamed. She and Miss Pizza looked on in horror as their long-time dojo alumni fell forward in agonizing pain.

"Uh-Oh! Somehow Barbella disappeared into thin air before delivering a debilitating strike to Caroni from behind! How will the Satan Dojo's top disciple come back from this?"

Now on his hands and knees, Caroni rasped painfully on choked breath. "I-I can't breathe…!"

"That's the idea," Barbella stated smugly. The muscled female bent over to whisper chillingly in her opponent's ear. "It should be harder for you to speak now. Wouldn't want you ending our fun too soon, eh?"

Caroni's eyes widened in abstract horror. He was both there but not there simultaneously. His mind wandered back to the Cell Games. It was then that he understood just how easy he got off that day…, how badly it could have ended had Cell decided to toy with him the way Barbella was now. The veil was lifted, and it was time to pay the piper.

Drawing back, the red-haired female let loose with a gut-wrenching hook kick to Caroni's kidney that folded Caroni like a dirty dishrag. Blood sprayed all across the ring floor as the blonde man's body bounced like a cushy meat sack to the edge of the ring. Just as he was about to go over the edge however, he felt himself sling-shotted by a powerful blow back towards the center. The man rolled onto his face as a puddle of blood stained the linoleum.

"Oops! Sorry about that," smirked Barbie in mock apology. "Got a little carried away. Don't worry though, I'll make it up to you."

"No! Caroni!" screamed Miss Pizza.

"That bitch…" seethed Gohan. Golden lightning began to course over the half-Saiyan's body as he fought to keep from going super right then. A great tremor rose through the earth as his power began to pulse uncontrollably. Beside him, Videl shook with barely bridled rage at the barbarism of her long-time enemy.

Stepping up to her downed opponent, Barbella reached down and yanked Caroni to his feet by the hair. His nose crushed, his now toothless mouth gaped fruitlessly as he struggled to breathe.

"This is a good look for you!" the former street thug remarked as she brought him around to face her. Suddenly, she shoved him back, causing him to stumble to the floor. Then out of the corner of her vision, she caught the enraged looks Videl and Gohan were shooting her. Smiling to herself, she turned to regard her onlookers.

"Enjoying the show?!" she hollered coyly. She then locked eyes with Gohan. "I may not be strong enough to make you pay for my humiliation, but I can always make someone else pay! Watch closely…"

"STOP IT, PLEASE!" sobbed Miss Pizza as she attempted to rush the ring. Before she could get anywhere, she felt the strong arms of Gohan wrap around her from behind.

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" screamed Mr. Satan's long-time agent.

Satisfied with herself, Barbella returned to the task at hand. Leveling an index finger at her downed opponent, Barbella began to gather ki onto a fine point at its tip before letting fly with the Crane School's signature assassination move.

"Now suffer!" she cackled. "Dodonpa!"

Gohan and Videl watched with horror as Barbella fired a thin, golden beam into Caroni's prostrate form. The beam connected with the man's right knee in a bright flash before blasting out the other end. The smell of charred flesh wafted through the air as the heat of the attack cauterized the wound.

Caroni had no way to prepare himself for what he was experiencing. The blonde man's back arched clear off the ring floor as pain exploded through his right leg. It agonized him to do so, but somehow through all the broken bones, blood, and phlegm, he managed to scream.

"Oh..! Barbella just fired some kind of finger laser into Caroni's leg! However she did it, it sure looks painful!"

"What's your problem?!" Gohan roared at the announcer. "Call the fight!"

"Uh… right!" nodded Mr. Firecracker. Before he could make the call however, Barbella launched a second ki blast into the man, this time aimed at something a little more sensitive.

All across the arena, a blood-chilling scream pierced the frothing background noise of the audience as Barbella's final ki strike collided with Caroni's crotch. Blood and chucks of scorched meat puddled at the linoleum below his roasted scrotum. The pain was so severe, the man passed out from the shock.

"Caroni is out! Caroni is out cold!" yelled the announcer. "Quick! Someone grab a stretcher!"

Up in the audience, Goku and the others looked on with morbid shock at Barbella's ruthlessness.

"Who blows a dude's balls off during a match?!" demanded Sharpner incredulously. The young man crossed his legs as the mere thought of having such a thing happen to him.

His resolve hardened, Goku rose from his seat.

"Where are you going, Dad?" asked Goten curiously.

"I'm going to take Caroni to see Dende." Bringing two fingers to his forehead, the Saiyan warrior disappeared.

"Where did he go?!" queried Erasa.

"He does that sometimes," was Chi Chi's curt response.

Her lips quirking in a sadistic smile, Barbella turned to leave the ring. On her way back to the fighter's lounge, she took a moment to regard Gohan and Videl. It took everything the two teens had to keep from jumping the red-haired Amazon right there.

"With any luck, your friend will experience phantom pains for the rest of his life," Barbella commented mockingly. "Next time, know your place and stay broken, little Miss Satan…"

"What's your deal?!" growled a seething Gohan. "Why take things this far?!"

"Your little slut ruined my life, Monkey Man," she stated. "I don't care how many people I have to destroy or how many saps get caught in the crossfire! I'm not quitting until I get back what's mine!"

Her eyes narrowing dangerously, Videl fired back, "You bitch…!"

Closing in on one another, Videl and Barbella circled each other like a couple of embattled lionesses from opposing prides. The two locked eyes in mutual disgust that ran deeper than any other grudge in the industry as they tested for weakness.

"Don't blame me for this little Miss Satan," Barbie chided mockingly. "You created me! You ruined my life and so many others because you, like your fraud father, were too busy living on your high-horse, secure in your cradle of power! You always set yourself up on the high road in being the law's lapdog when your own father was little better than us! You lived for years assuming no one could challenge you, believing that you were better than every other fighter your age just because you had a silver spoon shoved up your ass! You touted your abilities over your peers, never once appreciating the fact that you had a head start on all of us just because your daddy made a killing off someone else's efforts! You had opportunities to grow and become strong that the rest of us poor people could only dream of having, opportunities you never deserved, and you still act like you're entitled to success. You really are just some spoiled little girl!"

"Unlike you, I learned from my moral failings!" Videl spat. "You have no place judging me!"

"I could say the same thing," Barbie returned in a heated tone. "Do you really think the police would've allowed you to be their little attack dog if it weren't for your fraud father? Unlike you, the gains I made as a fighter were those I earned without daddy's pocket book! After I was thrown out onto the streets, I had to survive in a world that never wanted me! I suffered in life only to suffer again in death! You murdered me, but I crawled back from Hell itself and left you and your father's best broken at my feet! Seeing someone like you have pride of any kind is an insult! Even if it takes the rest of my life, I will destroy everything you have!"

With that, the muscled redhead returned to the Crane Hermit's side, leaving an enraged Gohan and Videl in her wake.

"I hate her…" seethed the raven-haired girl through gnashing teeth. "I fuckin hate that pompous, back alley, STD-ridden shit-whore! She's gonna pay for what she did to both Caroni and me!"

"I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that that girl suffered as much as she did and still learned nothing," her husband remarked. "For the first time in eight years, I think I've found someone I pity more than Cell. At least Cell was programed to be a monster…"

Just then, the announcer's voice cut through the underlying tension like a knife.

"We will now start the last match of the quarterfinals and boy is it a doozey?! In this match we have the returning Champion of the 20th World Tournament King Choppa versus mysterious newcomer Unbridled Fury! Will King Choppa and Unbridled Fury please enter the ring?"

On cue, the two combatants walked side by side as they made their way onto the field. His face bearing the look of a man who'd seen too many winters, King Choppa lacked the visible zest of his earlier years.

"King Choppa, huh?" Gohan mused, stroking his chin, "There's an old name…"

His opponent by contrast carried himself with an air of confidence. As Unbridled Fury walked, his heavy armor and shackles rattled like tank treads. Because his features were covered by a face guard of sorts, his appearance had been a mystery since the start of the tournament. Just as he was about to enter the ring, he was stopped by Mr. Firecracker.

"You can't wear that in the ring," the bi-speckled announcer informed him. "You're gonna have to take it off if you want to compete."

Pausing, the armored fighter looked between Mr. Satan's longtime cheerleader and his opponent a few times before reaching up and undoing the latches on his helmet. Long blond hair cascaded down the man's back as the helmet and face guard were lifted from his head, revealing a young, twenty-something white male bearing green eyes and somewhat sharp features.

"I hope you're happy," said the man. "You just put a former Champ's life in danger."

"What do you…?" Mr. Firecracker was soon cut off as Unbridled Fury chucked the headpiece over his shoulder. A loud 'Thunk!' could be heard as the offending helmet struck the grass.

Both Videl and Barbella watched with interest from their prospective spots on the field.

"Woah…" mouthed Videl in amazement.

"Looks like he trains with weighted clothing too," Gohan observed. "His fighting ki just went through the roof!"

"Did you see how heavy that thing was?!" she asked with an exasperated voice. "He must be using three times as much weight as me!"

"Not like it means anything," her Saiyan spouse replied. "He won't get the full benefits from such training without knowing the inner philosophy behind it. He's clearly not used to using that much weight. Heck, he probably can't even fight with full dexterity using the amount you normally wear. He's got the right idea though…"

"His power level just jumped to 200."

Upon hearing this, the two teens spun around to find Royal Bureau of Investigation agent Wingle fingering a visor-like device covering one eye. Gohan's eyes widened in recognition.

"A scouter!?" declared the half-breed incredulously. "How did you get your hands on something like that?"

Grabbing his suspenders, the short, middle-aged man smirked. "Stolen Capsule Corp tech. Enough said…"

"What's a scouter?" Videl questioned.

"It's a device that allows one to locate sources of energy," Gohan informed her. "It's been years since I've seen one though."

"And you'll be seeing a lot more of them real soon, kid," Wingle remarked with a wink.

On Dende's lookout, the current guardian of Earth knelt down to examine the blonde man Goku had brought to him.

"You're saying that this fella is your student?" queried the younger Namekian.

"Sort of," confirmed Goku. "I don't really see much potential in him though. Still, Gohan and Videl needed me to train whoever they could get."

"Hard to believe you wound up training Mr. Satan's clown car," Piccolo said somewhat jokingly.

"He did volunteer," Goku remarked with a sigh. "So Dende…, can you heal his damaged goodies?"

"I'll try, but you'll probably have to get Buu to do it if this doesn't work," Earth's guardian explained. "I've seen cooked hamburger meat that looked more salvageable."

Crouching down beside Mr. Satan's one-time disciple, Dende reluctantly placed his hands over the unconscious blonde's eviscerated package. Waved of soothing energy pulsed and thrummed as Earth's god set to work etching the broken man's crispy burnt genitals back to health.

Soon enough, Caroni began to stir. Looking down, the man squinted through blurry eyes to see a little green man fondling his junk.

"Ya know…" Dende started, "If I wasn't asexual, we'd be totally gay right now."

The next thing anyone knew, Caroni fainted.

"That went better than expected," Piccolo remarked.

"Sure did..." Dende quipped.

Back at the Satan City Staduim, Unbridled Fury continued to remove one piece of weighted armor after another. Heavy pauldrons, a breastplate, steel tassets, armbands, gauntlets, and leggings formed a pile behind the tall contestant, slowly revealing an intricate suit of cables, springs, and pulleys underneath.

"What is this…?" asked Mr. Firecracker in bewilderment. The longtime ZTV pundit ran a finger over some of the interlocking coils and mechanisms feeding out from the chest area into the arms and lower body.

"My power regulating suit," Fury answered bluntly. "It forces my core body to adapt to various levels of training by halving my strength."

"H-Half?!" stammered Jody. "Are you really gonna fight in that thing?! Wouldn't it be better if you took it off?"

"No," was the man's reply. "Half is all I require."

The announcer readjusted his glasses. "I see… wow… OK…hmm…"

Fury gave the announcer a telling smirk before joining his opponent in the ring. His arms crossed, King Choppa eyed the young man expectantly.

"I was wondering when we were gonna start, boy," the old former Champ remarked. "I thought I was gonna die a third time before we got this party started."

At this, the young man calling himself Unbridled Fury quirked a puzzled eyebrow. "Third time?"

"What does he mean by third time, Gohan?" Videl asked curiously.

"I guess King Choppa must have died by one of father's enemies once before," Gohan told his spouse. "My father used to fight this guy in the prelims back in the day so it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case."

"The man's fighting power rose to over 500 when he removed all his armor," Agent Wingle observed, fiddling with his scouter's scanners. "He's presumably far stronger than King Piccolo or your father were when they fought at the 23rd World Tournament. King Choppa's paltry 190 is tensile by comparison."

"How high is my power level?" Videl asked.

"Give me a moment…" Looking in the direction of Gohan's young spouse, the RBI agent held his finger on the scanner switch until the scouter visor's cursor locked onto her energy signature. When the reading finally registered on the machine, a whistle was the man's only outward reaction.

"It's reading 4850," the agent told them. "It's grown a tad since the last time the eggheads at the Interior Ministry measured it. Just for reference, the average power reading for an adult human is about 5."

"Holy Shit…!" breathed an exasperated Videl. The girl didn't have long to dwell on this info before the announcer's voice garnered her attention.

"As the older diehards among you probably know, King Choppa once held the very title worn by my good friend Mr. Satan today! Due to his age however, it's understandable that many experts are skeptical of his attempts at a career comeback."

"You keep saying that," rumbled the one-time Champ in a gruff voice. "I do this not for myself but for my newborn grandson, Uub."

"His opponent on the other hand is a veritable neophyte! An amateur in every sense of the word! How will Unbridled Fury stack up against a man who is said to have defeated all of his opponents in the 20th World Martial Arts Tournament without being touched?"

"This is where the rubber meets the road…" Fury remarked, fingering his coveted suit."Let's find out if my invention is all it's cracked up to be."

"Let the match begin!"

Right from the get-go, King Choppa leapt clear across the ring, his yellow sheik robes fluttering around him as he tried to connect with a flying jump kick. Much to his dismay, his attack met nothing but air.

"Where did he go?!" From his past experience in fighting Goku, the dark skinned man knew he was in a world of trouble. Trying to locate his opponent, he flitted around frantically. "Come out and fight me!"

Choppa nearly jumped out of his cloths as his opponent seemingly materialized into existence right in front of him. "Is that really your wish?"

Roaring in anger, King Choppa threw a spinning heel kick at his young adversary. A resounding slap of flesh on flesh could be heard throughout the ring as Unbridled Fury blocked the blow with a simple forearm!

"You're going to have to kick it up a notch if you wanna get through me," said the suited newcomer with self-assurance.

Darting back, King Choppa fell into his traditional yoga-based fighting stance, the same one he had honed in the wake of his first death at the hands of Tambourine so long ago.

"Twice I've faced the Valley of the Shadow of Death!" the one-time champion declared. "These are the words I've spoken to King Yemma when last I saw him. Those who have died cannot fear loss for they have already lost!"

"Well said…" his opponent smirked coyly.

With that, both combatants phased out of sight with Unbridled Fury leading the way and King Choppa in hot pursuit. Moving faster than any normal human could follow, the two men passed in and out of hyper speed. The clapping sounds of strikes and blocks resonated throughout the field as the two contestants, at least to the average man, seemingly battled on equal terms.

"That Unbridled Fury guy is leading Choppa around by the nose," Videl noted, her eyes flitting about at high speed as she watched the fight. "This fight's almost as one-sided as Caroni's fight with Barbella."

"Only without the malicious intent," added Gohan. "I don't sense any bloodlust in their ki, so the match will end on a high note. That being said, Unbridled Fury will at least give Barbella a warm-up when they fight."

Unbeknownst to the two teens, Jody Firecracker overheard them.

"Wait a second?! You two can actually see them?!"

"Remarkable, isn't it?" was Videl's blunt answer.

"I'll say…" breathed the bi-speckled man. "How're they able to move so fast? And for that matter, how were you?"

"It's the product of an ancient training regimen going back many millennia," Gohan answered. "I can tell you though that neither of them hold a candle to some of the monsters I've seen…"

"Videl, tell me…" the man urged, "The kind of fighting those two are doing now… It's just like the Cell Games. It's just like the battle between that one fella and Majin Buu over West Metro. I had my suspicions at first but I need to know, did your father really beat Cell?"

Casting a look of shame towards the ground, the daughter of the Champ uttered a quiet, "No…" Off to the side, Gohan let out a cough.

"Have you known all along?"

"I had my suspicions, but I didn't really find out until after my fight with Spopovich at the previous tournament."

"I want to know the full story," said the man as he turned back to the match at hand. "We'll talk about this later..."

Videl cringed upon hearing this. Jody Firecracker was a well-respected ZTV legend. If she was gonna tell him anything, it would have to be off the record.

Back in the ring, King Choppa had taken to fighting after images of his opponent. The dark-skinned warrior darted two and fro, delivering knife hands that cleaved through visual doppelgangers in a veritable fool's errand. To him, it seemed as if there were dozens of Unbridled Furys starring, mocking him as he continued to reach for something that simply wasn't there.

"You're running out of steam old man," the blonde fighter remarked dismissively. "Surely, a former champion of the world can do better than this!"

Gripping his knees shakily, King Choppa took a moment to catch his breath. Smiling to himself, the older fighter figured that if he were gonna use it, now was the time. His self-assured smile did not go amiss.

Bridled Fury quirked an eyebrow. "What are you so happy about?"

"I've got one last trump card," replied the one-time Champ. "After that, I'll let you have this match."

"Let's see it then!" his suited opponent coaxed.

"Have a taste of my Hasshu-ken!" roared the former champion. Faster than the human eye could follow, the man surged forward, and threw out an intricate set of super-fast fists, knife-hands, and palm strikes that created an optical illusion for anyone not fast enough to follow, giving him the appearance of having eight arms.

Easily finding the intervals between the man's ancient hand techniques, Unbridled Fury side-stepped, weaved, parried, and ducked shot after shot. Finally, the young man reached up and casually caught the one-time champion's wrists in mid-strike.

"My word…" Choppa uttered breathlessly, his face one of morbid shock.

Still holding Choppa's wrists, Unbridled Fury brought him closer. "You lost this fight before you were ever born. You represent the best of the old and only the old. I represent the best of two worlds."

The fire died in Choppa's eyes upon hearing this. Yanking his wrists free from the grip of his far younger opponent, the man turned to announcer.

"I forfeit!" hollered the one-time champion.

"And there have it folks!" blared Mr. Firecracker. "King Choppa has thrown in the towel, making Unbridled Fury the winner!"

"Why am I not surprised?" Choppa groaned with a huff. "Ever since I lost to Son Goku, my life has been one long string of tragedies and setbacks."

"You're too old for this kind of thing anyway," Fury remarked matter-of-factly. "You had a good dream, but we all wake up eventually. Go live in peace. Enjoy your retirement."

The one-time Champ glowered at the suited youth. "One day, you'll get where I am. It might happen sooner rather than later."

With that, the two men left the ring.

Off to the side, Videl did a few pre-fight warm-ups.

"It looks like you're fighting Tao next," Gohan commented.

"I've heard a lot about this guy," the petite fighter said, touching her toes, "Both from you and from Master Roshi."

Gohan grimaced. "Hopefully, he was being honest about wanting to go legal."

Videl's eyes narrowed somewhat. "He probably had a hand in training Barbella. We'll know soon enough…"

Guest Responses:

Guest #1: Sorry about that. I'll go back and re-edit Tao's name to its' rightful spelling when I get the chance. Thanks for catching that mistake!

Guest #2: Tell me about it. This point seems to be lost on a lot of authors these days. I've seen a marked decrease in the number of Gohan/Videl fan fictions in the past year or so, and an uptick in the number of anti-Videl stories that present her in a negative light. Toriyama's wasting of Gohan and Videl's potential has spawned an unwarranted backlash of sorts against her character and the ship. They're the only couple we actually see taking time to fall in love. Toriyama doesn't write romance well, so the fact that we even got this kind of thing at all is a freakin miracle. People need to blame the creator of the show, not the character. Android Eighteen and Chi Chi already got gutted badly enough, but what Toriyama did to Videl's character in such a short timeframe just because she got married and had a kid (Only two years supposedly passed between the Buu Saga and the beginning of Dragonball Super) was nothing short of misogynistic and shameful given all the build-up she had leading into the Buu Arc.

Author's Notes: In this story, I've already done several things or made serious attempts at things that are either completely original or have been done half-heartedly in the past by other authors. I had Gohan move in with his girlfriend and her father whereas all the other authors have Videl moving in with Gohan. I've only read one other fanfiction where the idea of Mr. Satan training like Goku and Krillin is taken seriously and it was a one-shot. Third, I've only read one other fanfiction where the effects of Majin Buu's massacre on the people of Earth following their resurrection are even taken into account and those effects weren't even expanded on. A calamity like that would cause society to change, and not necessarily for the better. I mean… look at human history in the real world.

I've haven't seen a fanfiction on this site where Videl is actually in character on the issue of Gohan's decision to stop training. Yes, Videl would want to be a supportive girlfriend, but Videl, having died at the hands of Super Buu herself, would not have allowed Gohan to put everyone in danger by quitting again. His quitting the first time contributed to them all getting killed by Buu, and Videl has a history of getting Gohan off his ass and into the game. Someone who died once because of Gohan's decision to slack off would not let Gohan repeat history when by the end of the series he's easily the most powerful thing in the universe. She would have expected better from him, especially regarding the safety of the people she's sworn to protect ever since she started fighting crime herself.

I also haven't seen a post-Buu AU where the memory erasure wish wasn't made where Gohan wasn't a Gary Stu. Everyone discovering the truth about Mr. Satan isn't something that would end well for Gohan or Videl much less the rest of the Z-gang. Let's be real here! Videl loves her father (She calls him 'Daddy.' What does that tell you about how close they are?), so him getting caught in his lies and getting into real legal trouble would cause more than their fair share of problems for her. Her last name would likely become an albatross around her neck for the rest of her days.

Lastly, I think I'm the first fan fiction author to actually have Gohan and Videl form a civil union before they formally get married. I think it puts a fresh spin on their relationship.