Disclaimer: I don't own the Dragonball Universe or anything even closely related to it. just borrowing it all for some fun.
"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."
While watching the screen, Videl nearly lost it then and there. Johnson? He was supposed to be dead! He died in that prison fire months ago, didn't he?
"Now, for those of you who may not know of me, allow me to further introduce myself." Johnson continued, his almost permanently present smirk still showing itself, just like it did all those months ago. "I was the one who took over Orange Star High a while back, then proceeded to beat the living daylights out of your national treasure Videl Satan, play around with the entire police force as long as I wanted and finally had a big, impressive fight with my old boss, who kicked my ass to hell and back. That should about cover the last time I was on the news."
Well, it did, except Videl wouldn't have called it 'beating the living daylights out of her'. Johnson had pulled a cowardly trick, letting his subordinate fight a one-on-one then when she stood up; he struck her before she could recover from the fight. In hindsight, the attack should have been obvious, but she had only been out for a few seconds…
'Who am I kidding?'
"Now, after that little adventure, I was placed in a maximum security prison where everyone thought I died when the whole place went BOOM! Too bad folks! I didn't. I fooled all of you." At this point Johnson broke down into laughter that sounded close to madness, but somehow it fit him. Before he had always seemed perfectly in control; an exemplary soldier. Now, with his hair longer and unkempt and a strange gleam to his remaining eye he looked more a madman than a soldier. Some of his now longer hair fell in front of what should have been a missing eye. Instead, a red, mechanical eye was placed in it's socket, glowing and really perfecting the madman image.
"But let's get on to business shall we? I'm not here just to announce my existence to the world; I'm here to inform a couple of special people that I'm having some very special guests. Here, lemme show you all."
Johnson took a step backward and to the side, revealing the scene behind him. Videl let out a gasp, anger and fear overcoming her in equal measure. At her side, Gohan visibly tensed up, immediately breathing hard and giving a glare of death at the TV. Behind Johnson, Sharpener, Erasa, Marron and Bra all stood together, hands bound together by iron chains, attached to the ground. The two girls were apparently unconscious, Erasa was kneeling next to them, looking close to tears, but Sharpener stood tall and looked directly at the camera.
"Go on kid; tell them a little about yourself, for those who don't recognize your pretty face." Johnson said as he entered the screen again, standing next to Sharpener.
"My name's Sharpener, they caught me and Erasa at approximately nineteen-thirty-five, just as we were leaving the shopping mall to get some dinner. These two little girls with us are Marron and Bra; they were also kidnapped sometime this afternoon. They've been given a drug to make them sleep. With some luck, they'll never remember any of this."
"Couldn't have put it better myself kid." Johnson said, stepping in front of the camera again. "Now, as I'm sure everyone understands I didn't capture these cute kids for their pleasant company or sweet snores. Here's what I want; Videl Satan and the Commander, both of you better get searching and start finding where I am, 'cause I can't wait to see you two again. I want those two to come find me so I can kill them. If anyone else even gets close to where I am, I kill the hostages. Based on my record, I think you'll find I'm more than capable of doing that."
'Of course he is.' Videl nearly spat, thinking back to that one brave young policeman who had stood up to Johnson and got shot in the head for it. 'If you want me, I'll come see you. But where the hell are you?'
"If you're not here in, let's say… three hours? Yeah, three hours sounds good. If you're not here in three hours, I start killing these hostages. One for every fifteen minutes you're late. And if neither of you has appeared yet… there are more people I can get close to, without anyone ever knowing of it. Good luck finding me, after all… the chase is half the fun, right?. See you in a few hours then. After all… you wouldn't want my guests to become uncomfortable, do you?"
XxX
Bulma was completely stunned as she and the officer helping her saw the sudden broadcast. It was on every one of the TV's in the police station where Bulma had spent most of her afternoon. She had been called within minutes of the sudden kidnapping of Bra and Marron and she had, in turn, notified Vegeta, Krillin and #18. Since Trunks had been training with Vegeta at the time of her call, he too had been notified and he was even more angered than his father.
Already the four super warriors were searching for the kids around the world, but neither of them had a high enough energy signal to pick up from a distance. If it had been either Goten or Trunks that had been abducted, they would have been found within seconds. But neither Bra nor Marron had ever received any kind of training and neither was any stronger then an average girl their age.
Before now, Vegeta had never even made a suggestion of training his daughter, but as he had flown off to search for her, he had vowed to Bulma that after she was back safe and sound he would start training her until 'None of these pathetic excuses of life forms called humans or anything else of this mud ball of a stinking backwater third rank planet would ever be able to even consider touching her'. It was rare that Vegeta sank that deep into a cursing rant, unless he was really worried.
But while her husband and close friends searched across the globe, all Bulma could do was report to a police station and order them to start searching as well, while hiding from the press massed outside.
As the screen switched back to normal, everyone at the police station seemed to remain frozen for several seconds, trying to take it what had happened. Bulma was one of the first to recover from the shock, pulling out her phone.
Vegeta, Trunks, Krillin and #18 needed to hear about this, now!
XxX
Videl had to break into a half jog to keep up with Gohan as he stepped quickly and surely through the halls of Capsule Corporation. Almost as soon as the TV had returned to a normal screen, Gohan had shot up form the couch, paced two rounds through the room and then made left to go here. Videl had followed after him; wanting to know what Gohan was doing, but barely able to keep up.
'Hang his long legs! I'm almost running and he still looks like he's just walking.' But now wasn't the time to get annoyed at the difference in their body size. Gohan still had a look of pure murder on his face and he was speaking on the phone as he moved.
"Tom, it's me." He didn't sound like normal either; his voice was hard and cold as steel, completely unlike normal. This was a voice of command, one you didn't interrupt or ignore. "I saw, I'm already on my way over to the communications department. I'll direct the search myself, set up a workstation with five computers and give me access to the screen wall. I'll be there in roughly one minute."
Without waiting for a reply, Gohan cut off the call and put the phone back in his pocket, then simply continued walking. Videl moved at his side, trying to keep up, but she didn't speak. She was already trying to think of possible locations where Johnson had taken them. The background had obviously been a factory, but there were no other hints.
'How the hell am I supposed to find him before he starts killing them? Damn, I haven't even come face to face with him, but he's already making me completely helpless!'
She dropped out of her thoughts as Gohan let her into a large room, making her gasp. The room was absolutely huge, the ceiling at least three times as high as that of a normal room, and it was filled to the brim with computers. On one wall there were screens lined up from top to bottom, covering every inch of it. It must have been over two hundred screens, all linked together.
As soon as Gohan entered, everyone in the room stood up, gave a quick greeting and then returned to their work. Three people, each holding a digital notepad, moved closer, giving their reports.
"Sir, we're already working on trying to find the origin of the signal, but it's been scrambled. According to our initial findings, it's coming from five different locations at once, but was streamed real-time. We're running a secondary tracking system alongside a reversed decoding unit to locate the original source, but it will take some time. Tom is overseeing it himself, he's confident that he can find the source of the origin within two hours." The first of the three said, getting into pace at Gohan's side.
"We're running a background check on everyone involved as well." The second, an older-looking, motherly woman added. "There is little connection between the four victims, but we're looking for anything to give us a motive behind what's going on. It may also provide us an insight into possible hiding places for Johnson, we're running through old safehouses and contacts to see what we can find."
"A check of the video's background has already been started, we've got fifteen men working on it now sir." The third member, a bespectacled, serious-looking middle-aged man added as well. "We've confirmed that the image behind them is genuine and not a fabricated image. It's already been identified as an abandoned factory or power plant, build more then fifteen years ago and abandoned for at least two years, still working on further detail."
"Excellent." Gohan nodded at their reports then sat down in a station that had been prepared for him. Five computers sat on a round table, placed in a half-circle, allowing Gohan a view of the screen wall as well. As he sat down, the three who had come running took places at computers placed just behind him.
"Bring up a national map in the upper-left corner of the wall." Gohan commanded. Three taps of the motherly-looking woman later a large picture of the nation appeared on the wall, taking up almost a quarter of the screen. "Point out all abandoned hardware facilities of the last two-hundred years." Immediately red dots started appearing all over the map, many clustered together.
"Good. Remove all those who have been confirmed to have no remaining structures. And now those in populated areas."
At the first command almost two-thirds of the dots disappeared, at the second half of those disappeared again. That still left over fifty different places, spread across the country in a random pattern.
"There's no way I'll be able to check them all out within three hours!" Videl gasped as she looked at the screen.
"You won't have too." Gohan curtly replied, already at work on all five computers. "Uploading the message on the right half side of the wall, use the lower left side to freeze important images."
Over a dozen faces stopped their work to look at the screen, Gohan amongst them. Videl could only stand there and be amazed at what is going on. This wasn't like the Gohan she knew at all. That Gohan was always kindly asking things, never even assuming anything. This Gohan gave commands and orders and didn't check if they were obeyed; there was no chance anyone would disobey that tone of voice.
'Well, he is a department leader after all. He must have been taught how to take command in difficult situations.' Videl mused as she looked at her boyfriend, so focused at work.
Up on the wall, dozens of the screens already held frozen aspects of the image, people staring at them and analyzing every bit of it.
"Keep analyzing the background of the video, look for anything that can give you a clue." Gohan ordered. "Videl!"
At the mention of her name, Videl shot out of her thoughts and back into the real world. of course, she had to get ready as well! Gohan and this entire department were working on finding the location, but she was required to go in there!
"When you go out there, be careful." He warned, "You'll be facing more then just Johnson. It looks like he has thirteen CCDD agents with him."
"What? How'd you know that?"
Still working behind all five computers, switching between them so rapidly that it almost seemed like the computers themselves couldn't keep up with his working speed, Gohan pointed at some of the frozen screens. They held a picture of Sharpener, hands still bound, but with some fingers extended.
"Sharpener gave us a warning." Gohan explained. "When he was talking, he flashed his fingers in a three-three-four-four pattern. That corresponds with the letters CCDD, so Johnson brought some more of his friends from the Capsule Corporation's Defensive Department with him. When he's telling us the time, Sharpener is suddenly taking in numbers, while we both know Sharpener doesn't normally talk like that. At the same time, his fingers flash a five-five-three pattern, which adds up to thirteen. He managed to send us a message."
'Wha?' Videl hadn't even noticed anything about Sharpener other then that he had been chained! 'Nice one Sharpener, you're always keeping your cool, no matter what!'
"Gohan, I'll go get ready." Videl finally said, realizing she was of no help here. Videl enjoyed being a detective, but this was far beyond her. "Let me know what else you find."
XxX
It was a rare time for Parer Pencil to be sitting at home, instead of working late hours at his office again. It had taken him much hard work and more sacrifices then he cared to admit to reach his position as executive director of STV, the biggest television and radio channel in the nation, but he was no super talent at the art of management. Keeping his position often required him to start early and work long hours.
But now that he had a rare day off, enjoying the chance to relax and enjoy a pleasant meal with his wife, pure and utter pandemonium had come crashing down on him. Already he had received phone calls from his office, informing him that the video that had just been aired had strong-armed every known signal out of the air for it's few short minutes of broadcasting.
That, however, was the least of his concerns. That bastard of a Johnson had kidnapped Sharpener! Again! The last time, he had been held as a hostage at first then taken with the green-haired man when he had tried to flee. This time, Parer's son had been specifically chosen.
Parer and his wife had seen the message together, though Kyna had nearly passed out near the end. She had always been somewhat fragile after she had recovered from her disease all those years ago and, while she didn't let it show, she suffered from the strained relationship her husband and son kept. Parer didn't blame her.
'If this doesn't make my remaining hairs gray, I don't know what will.'
Three times in a year, Sharpener had been in life-threatening situations. It was enough to make anyone nervous. But, like he had always shown, their boy stayed in control of himself. Only rarely did Sharpener ever loose control off himself. It was a trait inherited from his father, though he was as passionate about most things as Kyna ever was.
'I have to do something.' Parer finally decided. Even if he and his son weren't exactly on friendly terms – to put it kindly, he had also inherited that stubbornness from Parer – Parer still loved his son. Picking up his phone, he dialed the number. 'But I can't do anything, not in this situation. I have no other choice. I have to save Sharpener and Erasa and those two kids. And more likely then not Videl will get hurt if she goes there. I can do something to save them.'
Finally the call was answered.
"Capsule Corporation, how may I help you?"
XxX
Fifteen minutes after she had left, Videl returned to the Communications Department, where Gohan and the others were still hard at work. She had changed her clothes, now donning her hair in pigtails again, her trademark white shirt and hot pants and her new sneakers and gloves. Those shoes and gloves had been specifically designed to aid her in battle.
Gohan had given Videl her first set of true battle gloves, but those had been broken when she took down Android #1, so Videl had bought a replacement. These were actually a great improvement over the older gloves. Instead of a single piece of iron over the knuckles, these new gloves were reinforced with a metal skeleton, a perfect imitation of her hand, to allow full mobility but still provide extra power when hitting. Something similar had been done for her shoes, strengthening her kicks as well.
The cost for having the gloves and shoes custom-made wasn't something an ordinary fighter would have been able to afford, but Videl had gladly paid the price. The battle gloves had proved critical to her victory on two occasions already, so Videl wasn't about to give up on them just yet!
Glancing at the map, Videl saw many of the red dots vanish before the map itself was reduced to a smaller area in what looked like the center of the nation. Videl didn't keep track of the time as she watched the department work, shutting down one of the red dots after another, then narrowing down the map again. Finally, only half a dozen dots were left.
"Ah good, you're back." Gohan's voice rang through the room. Looking around, Videl saw Gohan stand as he waved her over. "We've managed to narrow down the possibilities to seven different facilities, all located in the center of the nation, located within a three-mile radius of each other. Several of the facilities are broadcasting signals, but we're trying to locate the correct one. I think you'd better get on your way, I'll give you the coordinates."
"You're not coming?" Videl asked, suddenly feeling like her iron-enforced shoes weighed a ton each. If Gohan was there… nothing would be able to stop him, nothing on the planet could even hurt him!
"I'll stay here for a bit longer, narrowing the signal down until I've got their location. When I find it, I'll send in the cavalry. Good luck Videl. Stay safe."
Videl gave a nod, feeling a bit better already. So Gohan was coming; but he couldn't just yell to these people that he was Saiyaman and nearly invincible. It did make her feel a bit better.
'Come on Videl, shape up!' she scolded herself. 'Since when do you rely on anyone else to do your fighting? You've rushed into enemy gunfire plenty of times before.'
Videl made her way over to the roof, her jetcopter capsule already in her hand. The distance to the facilities Gohan had pointed out was much too far for Videl to fly and still remain in any kind of fighting condition. Besides, he'd work with coordinates and the jetcopter had a built in GPS system.
Still though, as she stepped into her trusty flying machine, she felt a shiver crawl up her spine. Yes, she had run into enemy gunfire before but, as the Commander had once told her, all her previous enemies had been idiots who didn't know one end of a gun from the other. These were trained soldiers, each of them, shooting to kill.
As she lifted off, Videl knew she was flying straight towards a trap. But she had a feeling the trap was much, much deeper then anything she would anticipate.
XxX
Krillin was floating somewhere above a couple of islands to the south of East City, trying to detect a familiar energy pattern, when his phone started ringing. Even at an altitude of several hundreds of kilometers above the earth, Krillin didn't feel a bit of cold or wind, thanks to the orb of energy he had created around himself. It was a trick every flyer sooner or later worked out, because if you didn't create the orb around you, your lips would crack after mere minutes of flying, you'd get blinded by the biting winds or much worse.
At the moment, however, it simply allowed Krillin to answer his phone with little more disturbance than when he would have answered it in his house.
"Krillin, it's me." Gohan's voice was as cold as ice on the phone. Immediately all kinds of mental alerts started going off inside Krillin's head, but he didn't react. He had expected Gohan would react like this. To almost everyone else, two groups of two had been abducted. To Gohan it was his two best friends and his two adopted little sisters. It couldn't have been more designed to strike straight at his heart. "I just got a special tip that allowed me to locate the exact area where everyone's held as a hostage. However, I need you to listen before you rush in."
"What's going on?" Krillin asked, already lowering his altitude as he spoke.
"Johnson is very good at what he does, Krillin, and he'll have everything prepared to the smallest detail. Whoever is supporting him, they've got some serious business to keep their hideout this secret. I'm betting they have all kinds of advanced equipment to locate anyone going near them, so you guys can't rush in just yet."
"You think they've got equipment fast enough to track us if we decide to move in?" Krillin asked, worried. Vegeta could move faster than the speed of light if need be and Krillin was almost on that same level of speed, so if they could react faster than that…
"I'm not sure, but I don't want to take the risk either. Do you?" Gohan returned, and Krillin realized he was right. If the system was automated, it would react at light-speed, making even their rescue a murder. Krillin didn't want to risk his daughter's life on that.
"You're right, so what do we do?"
"I've got a plan, but I'll need all of you to cooperate with me. Get the others and hurry to the location I'm about to send you. We've only got thirty minutes left before we reach the deadline."
XxX
"I can't believe entire plains exist without anything built on them!" Videl was deeply surprised as she flew around in her Jetcopter. For a while now, she had been out of civilization areas and over nothing but barren, empty plains. And now she was really starting to sound like some city girl, who'd never been outside of her home yet.
"These places weren't fertile enough to build new cities." Gohan answered through the radio. "So, instead, they used most of them for either farming or factory placement. That is exactly why it'd make such a good hideout."
"No kidding, you can do whatever you want out here, no-one is ever going to notice it."
"Now, Videl, you have to be careful when you enter the area." Gohan cautioned her once again. "We found their location, but we still can't detect anything about their defenses, other then that they somehow prevent our scans from working. Once you're inside, try to find the device that is allowing them to detect anyone outside approaching. Cutting the power to the machine will probably work. If you do that, we can bring in as many forces as we want, turning the tide in our favor."
"Ok, so I gotta look for either the power station of the area or the device itself. Got it."
"Also, be careful when fighting. You're stronger then you were before, but you will be outnumbered and they will all have guns. And from what we saw of Johnson in the video, it's possible some of the agents had some kind of cybernetic upgrade. If this is true, they will be stronger and tougher than an ordinary human. Approach them with extreme caution."
"Yeah, I was already planning on that." Videl remarked, sounding annoyed. "Since they got guns and they know how to use them and all!"
The remark may have been a bit too bitchy to be allowed, but Videl was under a lot of stress here. Her best friends were threatened, she was knowingly walking into a trap and she had no knowledge of just how strong her enemies were.
"Just one more thing," Gohan completely ignored the remark, instead continuing to state his list of facts. "Our databanks indicate that the factory where Johnson is hiding is owned by Styring Behersk, through several front companies and other steps to hide the fact. It's been abandoned for years, but recently it's energy output has been increased. Whatever's going on in there, this has been planned for a few months now."
'Behersk. Oh great, let's add that asshole into the mix as well.' Videl thought. She had always kept a policy of avoiding crime bosses if she could help it, but Styring Behersk was a special case even amongst them. The leader of one of the greatest crime syndicates in the world as well as one of the largest legal corporations, Styring was a slime ball that always got under Videl's skin in ways very few people could.
"Remember, take out the sensors as quickly as you can. I'll see you soon." Gohan closed the communications channel as Videl approached the factory in question, leaving Videl alone to her thoughts.
Or, at least, she would have been if the radio didn't resume communications again a few seconds later.
"Welcome miss Satan, I'm pleased to see you could find us in time. I would so hate to kill your pretty blond friend; she has a much better future ahead of her then a bullet between her eyes." It was Johnson's voice again, welcoming her in person. "Now, if you'll please be so kind as to land near the factory you're approaching, I'll send some of my associates out to greet you. Don't worry; they won't attack, they're just your escort. Wouldn't want you getting lost so close to the finish line would we?"
"Great, thanks." Videl's voice was filled with sarcasm, but Johnson only chuckled.
"Oh, you should be grateful. These old metal-working factories can be quite a maze if you don't know your way through. And the timer won't stop ticking until you are standing right before me, so you'd better hurry up. Only fifteen minutes left."
"I get it, I get it. I'm landing now."
As she landed Videl could see two armed figures appear from the factory's main entrance, though neither had their face obscured by masks this time. One was an absolutely massive, fierce-looking man with red head, while the other was a woman who would have been attractive if she hadn't had such a thick neck and a scar running over her left arm.
Exiting her Jetcopter, Videl moved towards the two former CCDD Soldiers, before realizing that the large man moved with a strange step. Not quite a limp, but… odd. As he stepped closer, Videl saw a flash of metal from underneath his shorts, right where his knee should have been.
'That's one of the guys that fought the Commander in that church!' Videl realized, remembering the scene. The Commander had shot one of the Soldiers in the knee, completely destroying the limb.
"Follow us please." The woman said as she walked closer to Videl. The man kept his distance and didn't drop his weapon. So, at least, they considered her a threat, which somehow gave Videl a small boost in confidence.
'If they're worried I can hurt them, I can.'
Taking a deep breath, Videl stepped forward, passed the female Soldier and walked towards the factory. She was in lair of the lion now, no sense in keeping danger waiting much longer.
Beta Note: I fucking LOVED this chapter, seeing Gohan take command is badass. This chapter is definitely approved and beta'd by myself, Kushin eX.
As always, please leave a review telling me what you think.
