Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to DBZ, in any way.


The waitress who brought their drinks – an attractive girl who couldn't be older then twenty – bowed a little too low when setting the drinks on the table, giving both Sharpener and Gohan a peek of the inside of her shirt. Neither boy commented, playing by the rules – as Sharpener had called them – of both being taken, but they did enjoy the short show.

The waitress gave a wink and a smile before turning around and moving over to another table. While there, she made sure her backside was turned to their table as she bent forward a bit, again giving Gohan and Sharpener a free show.

"What'd you think?" Gohan asked Sharpener as he drank his soda. Sitting at Gohan's side, Sharpener was still a bit red from the morning's training. Gohan had been relentless lately, always pushing Sharpener that much further and today had been no different. Never mind that Sharpener was going on a 'date' with Erasa or that Gohan was meeting with Videl, training was training.

"I think I'll give her a solid seven-and-a-half out of ten." Sharpener answered after a second of consideration. "She's cute and all, but there's very little shaping around her hips and she isn't all that well developed. Still, overall very nice."

"You're too picky, you know that?"

"And why are you even looking at all? As I remember, you're the one with a real steady girlfriend." The emphasis on the word was not lost to Gohan, but he only gave a lopsided grin to Sharpener as he took another sip of his soda.

"And I seem to remember that a certain someone – who I won't name lest he suffer the wrath of several girls we know – told me of an excellent metaphor including cars. What was it again? Having a car didn't forbid you from looking at new models?"

"As long as you don't take them out for a test ride." Sharpener added, sharing Gohan's grin. Amazing how much his friend had changed, really, considering the short time in which it had happened. In less then three months time he had gone from completely obnoxious to pointing out the various girls and woman in the streets.

A comfortable silence settled in between the two as they continued to drink their soda. This was a small time of peace between events today. Even so, after a fashion, Gohan asked the question that was lying on his mind.

"So, are you nervous? It's almost time for the big day."

Sharpener finished his glass and answered, excitement sneaking into his voice.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I mean, in two weeks time I'll be going up against the national champ, a living legend and one of my idols in the boxing world. But I'm also really excited, I can't wait for it! I'll have a real chance to practice everything you taught me, see how I'll hold up against a living legend."

"Yeah, that will be exciting." Gohan agreed. "I can't wait to see how it'll go. You really are performing at peak capacity, but your opponent is one of the most experienced boxers in the world."

Gohan also finished his glass, but neither stood up yet, instead enjoying the moment of peace for as long as they could. Finally, though, they paid the bill, stood up from their chairs, pulled on their jackets – Sharpener's by now almost permanent leather jacket and Gohan wearing a comfortable black one – and left.

"Well, tell Erasa I said hi and enjoy yourselves today." Gohan told Sharpener as they gave each other a one-armed hug, slapping each other on the back at the same time

"Yeah, you give Vi my regards as well and don't exhaust her too much you know. I'll see you on Monday, later."

XxX

Despite it being a Saturday, Marron and Bra were on a trip with their kindergarten, going to the zoo. Some of the parents of other children had gotten together and planned this class-trip, much to the excitement of the children.

"Ooh, Marron, look over there!" Bra squealed as she dashed off towards the monkey cages. "They look so sweet!" Marron added as they both hung on the railing to see the apes from close up. The glass window in between them and the animal was the only thing stopping the two excited girls from jumping down to actually touch them.

The other children in their group – the class had been divided in groups of six children to every two adults, making the children far more manageable – followed them to the monkeys and mirrored their excitement. One after the other, the children fired questions at the two adults with them, far faster then they could answer, but neither Bra nor Marron really cared. They were too fascinated by the animals they were watching to listen to the stories.

Finally though, even the monkey got a bit boring. All it did was lay around lazily! That wasn't what a monkey was supposed to do! So, Bra, Marron and the other kids followed their adult guides out to the next cage, which held the gorillas. Again the girls and their classmates were completely absorbed in studying the large, furry animal, but… but the gorilla was even more boring then the monkeys had been! All it did was sit there and eat some twigs. Where was the impressive, powerful animal that stood on it's two legs and gave a loud shout as he drummed his chest?

Well, he still looked cool, even if he was lazy.

Three animal cages later, the group reached another section of the zoo; the savannah creatures. Immediately intricate animal sounds started to come towards the group; an elephant's trumpeting, a hyena's snickering and a lion's roar. In the distance, they could even see the elephant – it was so big! – and the giraffe's head was so high the girls were surprised they hadn't seen it from outside the park.

Still, though, there was one animal they wanted to see her before all others. The most graceful, powerful and royal of all animals; a lion. At another roar, the two girls led the way towards the source of the sound. They'd be seeing a real lion up close! Trunks and Goten were going to be so jealous!

Before they reached the lion's cage, however, the two girls bumped into someone else. The stranger towered above the two girls, not even flinching at the impact. He did look down through his hoodie as the two girls fell on the ground.

"Marron, Bra, are you two alright?" One of their adult guides asked as he came running up towards them. "Terribly sorry sir, they slipped away, you know how excited children can get in a zoo. Are you alright?"

The stranger didn't say anything, still looking down at the two young girls at his feet. Looking back up at him, the two girls realized that this man was really, really strange. His skin was so pale, it almost looked yellow.

"Bra Briefs and Marron Bongo?" The man asked. His voice sounded strange, a way of talking neither girl had ever heard before, like he was from another country. How had he known their names?

"Yes, sir." Both girls replied, manners taught by their mothers making them answer without thought. "That's us."

"Girls, do you know this man?" their guide asked. Before he got his answer though, the hooded man reached down and grabbed each girl with one hand.

"You will come with me." He announced, holding the girls up by their shirts. Shock and surprise registered on their guide's face, but before he could do more then lean forward the hooded man's leg shot out, swiping the feet out from under him. Before he could begin falling, the hooded man reappeared behind the guide and kicked him hard enough to make him fly over the wall above the lion's pit, smash into a rock hard enough to topple it and then crash into the lion's pit itself.

A lion's wild roar was the last thing the girls heard before their sudden captor disappeared from the zoo, taking them with him.

XxX

The setting sun outside, shining it's vibrant red rays through the window, combined with the plants and view of the garden would have made a perfect date. A perfect place for a young couple like Gohan and Videl to just lay down and enjoy each other's company, or maybe enjoy a picnic together, feeding each other ridiculously sweet and somehow romantic food while smiling at each other. Bulma had certainly used the inner garden to that effect many times in her life, with both Yamcha and Vegeta.

However, Gohan and Videl weren't interested in a romantic date right now. In fact, the only thing Videl wanted at that moment was to wipe that confident, knowing smirk off of her boyfriend's face. It was so infuriating! But he simply swatted her attack to the side before returning one of his own punches.

Blocking his attack, Videl raised herself higher, hoping to gain the advantage on Gohan, but he wouldn't let her off that easy. His next attack – a kick at mid-level – overpowered Videl's fragile balance in the air and send her flying back a ways before she could stabilize. Immediately Gohan stopped his assault, waiting for Videl to return.

"Ok, that was much, much better then before Videl." He praised, that contagious smile appearing on his lips. Normally Videl would have smiled with him, but now she was still in a battle fury. "We spent nearly five minutes sparring before I overpowered your balance. That's really great. How about we take five for now then do another two rounds of sparring before calling it a day?"

"Sounds great," Videl's breath was very heavy from exhaustion. She was so much faster and stronger then before, the mere discovery of energy had been enough to enhance her to unknown levels of ability, but it also showed new weaknesses. As Videl landed on the grass and laid down, intending to recover as much as possible before the next sparring match, Gohan sat down besides her.

He wasn't covered in sweat, like she was, and he wasn't even breathing hard. Damn him! Still though, she was impressed by how much he had already taught her, despite the short time she had studied under him. Once she had managed to get in touch with her energy, she quickly learned to form energy balls and those were quickly growing stronger. Already she could make her energy attacks crack stone and pierce metal. But there was more; her sudden increase in speed and strength meant she had difficulty controlling her own body, making it seem to move too fast for her to keep up, too strong to control.

Flying itself, no matter how wonderful it was, also presented it's own difficulties; Videl had been used to locking down her hips when fighting, putting force from her entire body, toes to fist, behind her punches. Blocking had required her to be flexible in her knees, making herself act like a spring to absorb the damage. Those things were impossible when she was in the air. At first, throwing a punch had thrown her so far off balance that she made a frontal flip before stopping herself. Blocking had sent her flying until she crashed into a wall.

All those problems, however, Gohan had told her could be solved by practice, experience and time. So he had told her what to do to stabilize herself in the air, made her practice it for hours in the past week until she could finally do it. He had her guide energy into her fist to strengthen it, push energy out of her feet to stabilize herself as she fought in the air and much more. Maneuvering in three dimensions was much, MUCH harder then Gohan had made it seem.

Practice had only gotten her so far. Now, Videl had to get used to the movements of her own body and how she would react in an actual fight. Hence her sparring with Gohan. Of course, after their training session was over, they'd spend the rest of the evening together as well, eating dinner and otherwise just spending it together.

But for now, Videl was determined to wipe that smirk off of Gohan's face. Hopping back to her feet, Videl gave the signal for the next round and both teens immediately shot up to the glass ceiling, ready for the next round. As soon as they got there, Videl formed two orbs of energy and threw them at Gohan, hoping to create an opening. It wouldn't be that simple, not with Gohan. Nothing was ever simple with him.

But she loved that. She loved how her boyfriend made everything a challenge to her and she wouldn't have it any other way.

XxX

"How about we take a break for now and go get some dinner? My treat," Sharpener asked Erasa as they exited yet another shop. They had been shopping the entire afternoon and as far as Erasa was concerned she could keep going until three hours after closing time.

"Yeah, good idea, I'm kinda hungry." Erasa was walking at Sharpener's side, the two of them holding each other's hand and making goo-goo eyes every few minutes at each other. They had to think about making the eyes, but that was required to keep up the illusion that this was a date.

The entire school still believed Sharpener and Erasa to be the hottest couple in the school, so in love that it was sickening to most guys and made most girls sigh at the romance. Keeping that reputation up required some serious effort, even outside of the school. Already they had run into five groups of classmates – two other couples on a date and three groups of friends hanging out – and that had made them decide to keep the act on all the time. It also made the date much more fun for the two.

Since they were shopping for new clothing for Sharpener today, the act had led to several rather comical situations as Erasa joked around by also trying on the clothes they were going to buy for Sharpener. She had even, at one point, put on an entire suit – pimp style, complete with wide-brimmed hat – before an employee kindly told her the outfit was men's style, though there were various suits in the woman's department as well.

Both blondes had burst out laughing at the woman's reaction, though they had been kind enough to explain that Erasa was only joking around. The employee could understand the joke and laughed as well, before the two paid for the new clothes and left the shop. Of course, Erasa had another motive today as well; finding out just what Sharpener had been up to lately.

At first, she had tried to make him slip up by asking him questions about his activities at night, but of course that didn't work; Sharpener had his story very well sorted out. He even knew a name of a war movie – given with just enough doubt at the title to make her think he hadn't memorized it– when she asked what his roommate had been watching the other night.

After that she had shifted on to asking about the jacket, but Sharpener's response had been simple.

"It's a gift from my old man." He had said with a shrug. "I can't stand the guy, but he's still my dad and this is a really nice jacket. That and with it's weight it's also a bit of an exercise to wear it, so I don't see a reason not to wear it. Of course, once it gets hot I'll leave the thing hanging in my closet, but right now it's a nice alternative to a new coat."

So, he had even prepared his answer to that. Of course, Sharpener was nothing if not thorough; always making sure his lies matched up and believable. All in all, Erasa was getting frustrated by her lack of success in obtaining the other blonde's secrets. It wouldn't ever be that simple – she had known that when she started – but it would have been nice to make some progress.

"The steakhouse?" Sharpener asked as they walked towards the exit of the mall.

'Maybe he'll crack over dinner.' Erasa though. 'And I could really go for a steak as well. I'm hungry.' "Sounds good," She said, smiling at her fake boyfriend.

However, when they exited the mall, they were suddenly crowded by a group of very large people who were all wearing black. They had suddenly and immediately closed in around them, forming an intimidating circle around the two teenagers. Five of them in total, each covering his face with a ski-mask. Immediately Sharpener dropped his bag and stood in front of Erasa, shielding her with one arm, but the sudden ambushers didn't do anything, simply standing there looking menacing.

One of the five stepped aside, letting a sixth person step into their circle. This man was unmasked and wearing different clothes from the rest. Seeing him, Erasa let out a gasp, terror immediately gripping her and paralyzing her. Sharpener also stiffened up, seeing who it was, but couldn't do more than grind his teeth.

"Hey kid, I'll give you an option; surrender now, come with us and no-one is gonna get hurt. Don't and we'll have to get rough with you, your girlfriend and a lot of people around here. That'll be long, painful and generally unpleasant for everyone not on our team. What're ya gonna do?"

Sharpener glanced around, but Erasa knew that it was impossible for him to defeat so many opponents. Even Videl might not have succeeded in it and she was trained to fight multiple opponents at once. Finally, Sharpener's shoulders slouched in defeat, but he gave a jerk to his jacket before answering.

"Fine. I'll surrender."

XxX

It was already dark outside and the TV was on, but neither Gohan nor Videl paid much heed to either. After their training had been finished, they had taken a shower before eating a private dinner at one of the many dining rooms that the Capsule Corporation's main building had. Eating there was not only completely for free for Gohan, but the food was first-class and no-one would look strangely at the amounts of food that Gohan would devour.

By now Videl didn't even really seem surprised anymore by how much he ate. If anything, she would be surprised that he still tasted everything he inhaled and how he somehow still retained his table manners. She was beginning to think that his insane food demands were part of his usage of energy though; since learning how to use Energy, Videl had started eating much more as well, though she hadn't gained any weight at all.

But dinner was long gone now and like the movie playing in the background, neither teen was giving it any thought. They had long since lost each other in their more then passionate embraces and kisses, tongues having a dominating battle inside their mouths, hands roaming over each other's bodies. Videl was even grinding her hips against Gohan's in her passion, though neither objected to the feeling.

Gohan's hand had, with some persuasion by Videl, found it's way underneath her shirt and both teens were now on almost completely oblivious to the world around them, lost in their passion and lust for each other.

Until, suddenly, the screen on the TV switched to something else entirely. Neither noticed it at first, until a completely new voice started sounding from the device, it's familiarity jerking the two teens away from their realm of fantasy and working like a bucket of ice cold water to bring them back to the real world.

"Testing, testing. Yeah, ok, we're on."

The screen showed a familiar face, though much changed from the last time they saw him. His hair, which had been kept in a short cut last time, was now ruffled and almost long enough to reach his shoulders, making him appear like a madman out of control. A stark contrast to the in-control military officer from last time. The right side of his face, particularly the area around his eye, had the skin replaced by pieces of metal. His eye itself wasn't there anymore, instead replaced by a… mechanical thing.

It looked similar to the optical sensors that the androids had when their heads had been torn apart. Finally, the man spoke up again and his overconfident, infuriating smirk spread on his face, just as it had done so often last time Videl had seen him...

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. My name is Mick Johnson and as of right now I'm the biggest nightmare this shithole of a country has ever seen."


Beta Note: Yo, Kushin eX here authenticating this beta-ing. Hope you enjoy this chappy, because shit has officially hit the fan.

Also to the person who reviewed congratulating both of us on a great story, I didn't write any of this fic. I discuss plot points, help with names and check grammar. That's it. Hope I've cleared up any misunderstanding.

And as always, please leave a review telling me what you think.