Ok, um, guys? Hello? Did you forget something? Like, maybe . . .
REVIEW!
Geez! Only one, ONE, review! If this keeps up, I'll defiantly loose my drive to write these things! Come on!
REVIEWS FOR BOTH CHAPTERS 18 AND 19! If I don't at least get to the 171 mark, then that is just pathetic!
**Caution: I've lowered the rating so that more people can see this, but it is a high PG-13 for violence**
Note: Fanfiction.net has the rating automatically set to G through PG-13. Be sure to change the tab to include R's and maybe NC-17 (not all of them are bad), but only if you are old enough to read the stuff!
Tournament Troubles
The child in the dream was scared. There were many bad men around it, doing terrible things.
The bad men were killing, defiling, destroying. There are death all around the child.
The child had flames of destruction all around it but it felt cold. It was cold because it feared. But the fear wasn't coming from all the bed men.
The child's fear came from only one of the beings in the dream. It flew high in the sky, death on black wings.
It was going to destroy everything, including the child. The child knew it.
The man with the black wings swooped down. The child braced itself. The man struck.
And the adult awoke in bed, screaming.
~0~
There was light in his eyes. Groaning, the young man rolled over in an effort to get the sun out of his eyes, but found he had no more bed to roll over on to.
With a gasp in surprise, Gohan tumbled from his bed and landed on the floor, head first, the rest of his body and his blankets following after him.
Gohan considered just laying on the floor for a while, maybe getting some more rest, even if he was uncomfortable on the floor. But his usual alarm clock decided to make him get up.
His usual alarm clock was Goten.
"HEY BIG BRO .. ther?" Goten halted in mid lunge to Gohan's bed when he realized the older half saiyan was not on his bed but instead piled up on the floor.
"Gohan? What are you doing down there?"
"Mmmph."
"Huh?"
"What time is it?"
"Play time!"
"You always say that, Goten. What do the numbers on my clock say."
"Oh. Um, an eleven and a five."
"Five past eleven. I missed breakfast. Mum must be upset . hey, what about school?"
"Mum would have had me get you up if were late for school. Remember last week?"
"All too well. I still wish you hadn't jumped on my back like that."
"Yeah, but it's got to be better than that big nasty guy ramming you into a building."
"Huh?" Memories of the tournament washed over Gohan. Entering the tournament. Finding Videl. The tournament began, but eroded with that mysterious fighter. Omega, he killed all those people. Fighting Omega, losing, transforming, Videl gets injured . . . speaking of Videl . . .
"Hey, has there been any calls for me?"
"Calls? Uh, no."
Gohan sighs and picks himself up from the floor. He heads over to the closet. Inside there were a number of fighting gis, ranging from his casual blue gis, his more showy red and blue ones like the one he wore to the tournament, and a few others he had acquired during his life. He smiled at the small blue gi with white collar hanging in the back of the closet. He used to wear it as a kid.
There was a suit plus a few school outfits that he had hanging for school, but since the school took a week off for the World Martial Arts Tournament, he didn't need any school clothes. He picked up one of his blue gis.
"Hey, Gohan. Good morning." Gohan stepped into the kitchen where the smells of lunch greeted him along with his mother. "Hey, Gohan, you don't look so good. Trouble sleeping?"
"Yeah. Weird dreams."
"About Videl?"
" . . . "
"Ah! I guessed right!"
"Um, speaking of which, has, um, anyone called?"
"No, Gohan."
"Thanks. Mmm . . . "
Chichi smiled. "Smells good, huh?"
"Oh yeah . . . " Gohan grabbed a plate.
~0~
The girl opened her eyes. She had thought she had heard her name. She listened and realized she was right.
"Videl! Come on, Videl! Wake up!" The voice, however, was not coming from directly behind the door of the room. It seemed to come from farther away. She looked around and registered her surroundings.
'This isn't my room . . . ' She was in the guest room. Her room was further down the hall. The two rooms were similar in furnishings but anyone who had seen her room could tell the difference.
'And I'm still in my fighting clothes. What happened?' She tried to remember but her mind was still grogy from just getting up.
Groaning, Videl got up and walked out into the hallway.
Mr. Satan was banging on the door to her room. He stopped in mid slam when she came out of the guest room, a dumb look on his face. "Uh, hello, Videl. Whatcha doin' in there?"
"I don't know."
The dumb look continued. "Um, how did you get home last night? From the tournament?"
Memories of flying came to her for a second. Flying with a man with blood on his face.
"I don't know."
Mr. Satan snapped out of his stupid daze. Then he got into his superman stance. "Hey, I bet one of the workers came and brought you back! Huh, I'll have to thank them. They are nearly as considerate as me!"
Videl groaned, but Mr. Satan didn't notice.
"Hey, did you hear about my defeat of that nasty terrorist?" More memories sparked through Videl, but she did not make sense of them. "Yeah, I came up to him and . . . "
Videl left unnoticed into the bathroom. There, she took off her clothes and prepared to take a nice, long, soothing bath in the hot tub.
She piled her clothes on the floor. She paused at her shirt.
Holding it in her hand, she noticed a small hole in it.
'Looks like a bullet hole . . . but it isn't . . . ' A memory of a beam of light crossed through her mind. Then many of the memories came together, and pierced through the early morning fog of her mind.
She remembered Gohan and his secret. The man who called himself Omega. Fighting. Dying. Then, reawakening in a place high in the sky. Flying.
She remembered finding out her father's deepest secret, and lie. Cell.
And Gohan's promise. There was no way he was going to back out on it. She didn't care what it took.
She enjoyed her bath, noting that Mr. Satan was still ranting on outside, not realizing that he had lost Videl, both in body and mind.
~0~
Many people he cruised by did not have the reaction time to look up before he was gone, but those who did see him fly by saw nothing but a blur.
Gohan cruised at speeds that oustripped many of the most advanced jet engines. And this was just a casual speed. His true speed could not be detected by but a few eyes in the galaxy.
'And now I must teach someone else how to do this.'
Gohan reached Satan City in less than five minutes, but landed on the outskirts of the city to walk the rest of the way. He couldn't let anyone see him flying. It would raise too many questions.
Althrough a lie, it would be disaterous if the truth got out. Many would refuse it, fight against it. It could even lead to bloodshed.
So that is why Gohan decided to walk to the Satan Mansion.
There were many people out and about, and Gohan did seem a little out of place wearing his gi among all of the other clothes. But few hardly gave Gohan a second glance.
'Mr. Satan's students have always paraded themselves. They would wear their training gis out in the open, proclaiming loudly that they were fighters. The art has become nothing much more than a popularity contest.'
'But then again, I haven't trained in seven years. What can I say about the art?'
It took Gohan about twenty minutes to find the Satan Mansion. The gates were closed, and there were even some armed guards at various stations.
One of the guards eyed him suspiciously. "What do you want, kid?"
"Oh! Um, I'm here to see Videl."
"And who are you?"
"I'm a friend of hers from school. My name's Gohan."
"Ms. Videl did not mention your arrival, kid. Leave. Now."
"But . . . "
"With the terrorist attack on Mr. Satan, I've been ordered to keep everyone out. Besides, Ms. Videl isn't in right now, she hasn't come back from the tournament."
'That's a lie.' Gohan frowned. 'She's inside right now. I should know, I brought her back, and I can sense her energy in the house.' "I think that your wrong, sir. Videl is home."
"How would you know? Your following her, aren't you!?! I should have you arrested."
"No, I am not following her."
"You're one of the terrorists! Heck, that was you at the tournament with Videl! All of the other competitors died during the attack, save the Satans, so how did you survive?!?"
'Damn! I thought guards were supposed to be stupid! How am I going to get out of this one?'
Fortunately for Gohan, rescue came.
"You idiot, shut up for once!" The small figure of Videl came running out of the mansion. She didn't slow down, but continued running towards the gate. She jumped, back flipped, and cleared the gate, landing with the grace of a gymnast. Then walked forward like it was nothing.
Gohan smiled. "Nice form."
"I'll take that as I hope it was intented, Gohan." Videl turned to the opened mouthed guards. "If Dad is looking for me, tell him I went out with a friend."
"But, Ms. Videl . . . "
"See you later."
~0~
Videl followed Gohan into the park. "Hey, Gohan, what are we doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you."
"Yeah?"
"Um . . . What do you remember about your fight with Mr. Satan? Back at the tournament?"
"Huh? Um, I remember him knocking me down . . . and kicking me . . . but I beat him, didn't I?"
"Yeah. But do you remember how?"
" . . . No, I don't. It's kinda blurred."
Gohan looked down at the ground, his face intense. 'This is strange. Great power coming and going in an instant. Plus, not remembering any of it. Sounds a lot like the hidden power I had when I was young. But she can't be a saiyan. The Kais themselves said my father and Vegeta were the only saiyans left . . . '
"Gohan? You ok?"
"Um, yeah. Just thinking."
"About me?" Videl got a mocking smirk on her face. Gohan put a hand behind his head and used the Son grin.
"Not like that! No! I was just thinking about the, uh, training I'm supposed to give you!"
"Sure, Gohan."
"It's true! Listen, um, Piccolo is getting something for me, and until he gets to us, let's head to a better training ground, eh?"
"What's wrong with right here? I used to train here at the city park for years!"
"Not this kind of training. We'll probably need a lot bigger area. And clear of others."
"Others?"
"Other people. Training can be intense without a gravity chamber to limit your abilities."
"Gravity . . . ?"
"I'll explain later . . . "
"You better."
"Right. Anyway, I've thought of a place we could use. It's a little away from my house, my dad's old training ground."
"Your dad didn't keep his training a secret?"
"Huh?"
"I thought that people would not want others to see them train to keep their abilities secret from enemies . . . "
"Father was never like that. He just trained for fun. He wasn't really concerned about strageties and all that. Fighting was mostly a game to him."
"You're dad and mine are certainly different. I don't think I've ever seen Mr. Satan train."
"Anyways Videl, it's about six hundred miles from here. I can carry you.."
"I don't want to be carried, Gohan. I feel like . . . like . . . "
"Like.?"
"Never mind! I just don't want to be carried, OK?!?" To be up close to Gohan like that, no, she was afraid of what she might do. "I'll fly on my copter."
"But that will take hours, and . . . "
"Gohan. I. Am. Using. My. Jet. Copter." Videl reached in and pulled out her dynocap.
" . . . Alright."
They left immediately. Videl had the throttle at full, but she could tell that Gohan wasn't used to this speed by the fact that he would occasionally goof around, doing loops or barrel rolls.
He was also distracted. It had to be some preoccupation to cause the guy to fly right through a forest and not notice he did nor realize that he had a nest of young birds sitting on his head, which he returned after a few minutes.
The goofy kid, she couldn't help but smile and shake her head.
The journey was going to take three hours, but half and hour away Gohan suddenly halted. Videl had to circle around back to him and put the copter on hover.
"WHY DID YOU STOP?"
Gohan cupped his right hear, showing he couldn't hear her over the roar of her engines.
"WHY . . . DID . . . YOU . . . STOP!?!"
Gohan sighed, then flew under the copter. He grabbed the underbelly with one hand, and with his other hand moved his finger across his throat sideways, telling her to kill the engines.
'But, without the engines, can he hold this thing up?' A memory came back to her, of the first time she met Saiyaman. He had been holding up a bus in midair, and a bus was a lot heavier than her copter.
She flicked a switch in the cockpit, and her engines died. She halfway climbed out so she could see Gohan.
"Why did you stop?"
"I sensed Piccolo."
"Sensed . . . ?"
"Yeah. He knows where we are headed, and is already there. We can start as soon as we get there. But, Videl, Piccolo has just done me a big favor, and I don't want to inconvience him any further. Could you please let me carry you? I can make the distance in less than a minute, and it's another half an hour this way."
'Only a minute. Can a stand just one minute?' Thoughts conflicted in her mind, and she decided to play it safe.
"No, Gohan. I don't want to be carried anywhere."
"I still don't understand . . . "
"Can it."
"Yes ma'am."
Videl climbed back inside and reignited her engines, and they continued on.
~0~0~0~
REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!
Again, a light cliffy. What's the training going to be like? The beginning of the end starts next chapter!
Response to reviews: Aurelia Lothlorien - That's alright, but I wish you reviewed more than once. You're the only review I got for that chapter. I know that it's slowed down, but give me three to five more chapters and the storm I started in chapter thirteen will be a hurricane!
REVIEW!
Geez! Only one, ONE, review! If this keeps up, I'll defiantly loose my drive to write these things! Come on!
REVIEWS FOR BOTH CHAPTERS 18 AND 19! If I don't at least get to the 171 mark, then that is just pathetic!
**Caution: I've lowered the rating so that more people can see this, but it is a high PG-13 for violence**
Note: Fanfiction.net has the rating automatically set to G through PG-13. Be sure to change the tab to include R's and maybe NC-17 (not all of them are bad), but only if you are old enough to read the stuff!
Tournament Troubles
The child in the dream was scared. There were many bad men around it, doing terrible things.
The bad men were killing, defiling, destroying. There are death all around the child.
The child had flames of destruction all around it but it felt cold. It was cold because it feared. But the fear wasn't coming from all the bed men.
The child's fear came from only one of the beings in the dream. It flew high in the sky, death on black wings.
It was going to destroy everything, including the child. The child knew it.
The man with the black wings swooped down. The child braced itself. The man struck.
And the adult awoke in bed, screaming.
~0~
There was light in his eyes. Groaning, the young man rolled over in an effort to get the sun out of his eyes, but found he had no more bed to roll over on to.
With a gasp in surprise, Gohan tumbled from his bed and landed on the floor, head first, the rest of his body and his blankets following after him.
Gohan considered just laying on the floor for a while, maybe getting some more rest, even if he was uncomfortable on the floor. But his usual alarm clock decided to make him get up.
His usual alarm clock was Goten.
"HEY BIG BRO .. ther?" Goten halted in mid lunge to Gohan's bed when he realized the older half saiyan was not on his bed but instead piled up on the floor.
"Gohan? What are you doing down there?"
"Mmmph."
"Huh?"
"What time is it?"
"Play time!"
"You always say that, Goten. What do the numbers on my clock say."
"Oh. Um, an eleven and a five."
"Five past eleven. I missed breakfast. Mum must be upset . hey, what about school?"
"Mum would have had me get you up if were late for school. Remember last week?"
"All too well. I still wish you hadn't jumped on my back like that."
"Yeah, but it's got to be better than that big nasty guy ramming you into a building."
"Huh?" Memories of the tournament washed over Gohan. Entering the tournament. Finding Videl. The tournament began, but eroded with that mysterious fighter. Omega, he killed all those people. Fighting Omega, losing, transforming, Videl gets injured . . . speaking of Videl . . .
"Hey, has there been any calls for me?"
"Calls? Uh, no."
Gohan sighs and picks himself up from the floor. He heads over to the closet. Inside there were a number of fighting gis, ranging from his casual blue gis, his more showy red and blue ones like the one he wore to the tournament, and a few others he had acquired during his life. He smiled at the small blue gi with white collar hanging in the back of the closet. He used to wear it as a kid.
There was a suit plus a few school outfits that he had hanging for school, but since the school took a week off for the World Martial Arts Tournament, he didn't need any school clothes. He picked up one of his blue gis.
"Hey, Gohan. Good morning." Gohan stepped into the kitchen where the smells of lunch greeted him along with his mother. "Hey, Gohan, you don't look so good. Trouble sleeping?"
"Yeah. Weird dreams."
"About Videl?"
" . . . "
"Ah! I guessed right!"
"Um, speaking of which, has, um, anyone called?"
"No, Gohan."
"Thanks. Mmm . . . "
Chichi smiled. "Smells good, huh?"
"Oh yeah . . . " Gohan grabbed a plate.
~0~
The girl opened her eyes. She had thought she had heard her name. She listened and realized she was right.
"Videl! Come on, Videl! Wake up!" The voice, however, was not coming from directly behind the door of the room. It seemed to come from farther away. She looked around and registered her surroundings.
'This isn't my room . . . ' She was in the guest room. Her room was further down the hall. The two rooms were similar in furnishings but anyone who had seen her room could tell the difference.
'And I'm still in my fighting clothes. What happened?' She tried to remember but her mind was still grogy from just getting up.
Groaning, Videl got up and walked out into the hallway.
Mr. Satan was banging on the door to her room. He stopped in mid slam when she came out of the guest room, a dumb look on his face. "Uh, hello, Videl. Whatcha doin' in there?"
"I don't know."
The dumb look continued. "Um, how did you get home last night? From the tournament?"
Memories of flying came to her for a second. Flying with a man with blood on his face.
"I don't know."
Mr. Satan snapped out of his stupid daze. Then he got into his superman stance. "Hey, I bet one of the workers came and brought you back! Huh, I'll have to thank them. They are nearly as considerate as me!"
Videl groaned, but Mr. Satan didn't notice.
"Hey, did you hear about my defeat of that nasty terrorist?" More memories sparked through Videl, but she did not make sense of them. "Yeah, I came up to him and . . . "
Videl left unnoticed into the bathroom. There, she took off her clothes and prepared to take a nice, long, soothing bath in the hot tub.
She piled her clothes on the floor. She paused at her shirt.
Holding it in her hand, she noticed a small hole in it.
'Looks like a bullet hole . . . but it isn't . . . ' A memory of a beam of light crossed through her mind. Then many of the memories came together, and pierced through the early morning fog of her mind.
She remembered Gohan and his secret. The man who called himself Omega. Fighting. Dying. Then, reawakening in a place high in the sky. Flying.
She remembered finding out her father's deepest secret, and lie. Cell.
And Gohan's promise. There was no way he was going to back out on it. She didn't care what it took.
She enjoyed her bath, noting that Mr. Satan was still ranting on outside, not realizing that he had lost Videl, both in body and mind.
~0~
Many people he cruised by did not have the reaction time to look up before he was gone, but those who did see him fly by saw nothing but a blur.
Gohan cruised at speeds that oustripped many of the most advanced jet engines. And this was just a casual speed. His true speed could not be detected by but a few eyes in the galaxy.
'And now I must teach someone else how to do this.'
Gohan reached Satan City in less than five minutes, but landed on the outskirts of the city to walk the rest of the way. He couldn't let anyone see him flying. It would raise too many questions.
Althrough a lie, it would be disaterous if the truth got out. Many would refuse it, fight against it. It could even lead to bloodshed.
So that is why Gohan decided to walk to the Satan Mansion.
There were many people out and about, and Gohan did seem a little out of place wearing his gi among all of the other clothes. But few hardly gave Gohan a second glance.
'Mr. Satan's students have always paraded themselves. They would wear their training gis out in the open, proclaiming loudly that they were fighters. The art has become nothing much more than a popularity contest.'
'But then again, I haven't trained in seven years. What can I say about the art?'
It took Gohan about twenty minutes to find the Satan Mansion. The gates were closed, and there were even some armed guards at various stations.
One of the guards eyed him suspiciously. "What do you want, kid?"
"Oh! Um, I'm here to see Videl."
"And who are you?"
"I'm a friend of hers from school. My name's Gohan."
"Ms. Videl did not mention your arrival, kid. Leave. Now."
"But . . . "
"With the terrorist attack on Mr. Satan, I've been ordered to keep everyone out. Besides, Ms. Videl isn't in right now, she hasn't come back from the tournament."
'That's a lie.' Gohan frowned. 'She's inside right now. I should know, I brought her back, and I can sense her energy in the house.' "I think that your wrong, sir. Videl is home."
"How would you know? Your following her, aren't you!?! I should have you arrested."
"No, I am not following her."
"You're one of the terrorists! Heck, that was you at the tournament with Videl! All of the other competitors died during the attack, save the Satans, so how did you survive?!?"
'Damn! I thought guards were supposed to be stupid! How am I going to get out of this one?'
Fortunately for Gohan, rescue came.
"You idiot, shut up for once!" The small figure of Videl came running out of the mansion. She didn't slow down, but continued running towards the gate. She jumped, back flipped, and cleared the gate, landing with the grace of a gymnast. Then walked forward like it was nothing.
Gohan smiled. "Nice form."
"I'll take that as I hope it was intented, Gohan." Videl turned to the opened mouthed guards. "If Dad is looking for me, tell him I went out with a friend."
"But, Ms. Videl . . . "
"See you later."
~0~
Videl followed Gohan into the park. "Hey, Gohan, what are we doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you."
"Yeah?"
"Um . . . What do you remember about your fight with Mr. Satan? Back at the tournament?"
"Huh? Um, I remember him knocking me down . . . and kicking me . . . but I beat him, didn't I?"
"Yeah. But do you remember how?"
" . . . No, I don't. It's kinda blurred."
Gohan looked down at the ground, his face intense. 'This is strange. Great power coming and going in an instant. Plus, not remembering any of it. Sounds a lot like the hidden power I had when I was young. But she can't be a saiyan. The Kais themselves said my father and Vegeta were the only saiyans left . . . '
"Gohan? You ok?"
"Um, yeah. Just thinking."
"About me?" Videl got a mocking smirk on her face. Gohan put a hand behind his head and used the Son grin.
"Not like that! No! I was just thinking about the, uh, training I'm supposed to give you!"
"Sure, Gohan."
"It's true! Listen, um, Piccolo is getting something for me, and until he gets to us, let's head to a better training ground, eh?"
"What's wrong with right here? I used to train here at the city park for years!"
"Not this kind of training. We'll probably need a lot bigger area. And clear of others."
"Others?"
"Other people. Training can be intense without a gravity chamber to limit your abilities."
"Gravity . . . ?"
"I'll explain later . . . "
"You better."
"Right. Anyway, I've thought of a place we could use. It's a little away from my house, my dad's old training ground."
"Your dad didn't keep his training a secret?"
"Huh?"
"I thought that people would not want others to see them train to keep their abilities secret from enemies . . . "
"Father was never like that. He just trained for fun. He wasn't really concerned about strageties and all that. Fighting was mostly a game to him."
"You're dad and mine are certainly different. I don't think I've ever seen Mr. Satan train."
"Anyways Videl, it's about six hundred miles from here. I can carry you.."
"I don't want to be carried, Gohan. I feel like . . . like . . . "
"Like.?"
"Never mind! I just don't want to be carried, OK?!?" To be up close to Gohan like that, no, she was afraid of what she might do. "I'll fly on my copter."
"But that will take hours, and . . . "
"Gohan. I. Am. Using. My. Jet. Copter." Videl reached in and pulled out her dynocap.
" . . . Alright."
They left immediately. Videl had the throttle at full, but she could tell that Gohan wasn't used to this speed by the fact that he would occasionally goof around, doing loops or barrel rolls.
He was also distracted. It had to be some preoccupation to cause the guy to fly right through a forest and not notice he did nor realize that he had a nest of young birds sitting on his head, which he returned after a few minutes.
The goofy kid, she couldn't help but smile and shake her head.
The journey was going to take three hours, but half and hour away Gohan suddenly halted. Videl had to circle around back to him and put the copter on hover.
"WHY DID YOU STOP?"
Gohan cupped his right hear, showing he couldn't hear her over the roar of her engines.
"WHY . . . DID . . . YOU . . . STOP!?!"
Gohan sighed, then flew under the copter. He grabbed the underbelly with one hand, and with his other hand moved his finger across his throat sideways, telling her to kill the engines.
'But, without the engines, can he hold this thing up?' A memory came back to her, of the first time she met Saiyaman. He had been holding up a bus in midair, and a bus was a lot heavier than her copter.
She flicked a switch in the cockpit, and her engines died. She halfway climbed out so she could see Gohan.
"Why did you stop?"
"I sensed Piccolo."
"Sensed . . . ?"
"Yeah. He knows where we are headed, and is already there. We can start as soon as we get there. But, Videl, Piccolo has just done me a big favor, and I don't want to inconvience him any further. Could you please let me carry you? I can make the distance in less than a minute, and it's another half an hour this way."
'Only a minute. Can a stand just one minute?' Thoughts conflicted in her mind, and she decided to play it safe.
"No, Gohan. I don't want to be carried anywhere."
"I still don't understand . . . "
"Can it."
"Yes ma'am."
Videl climbed back inside and reignited her engines, and they continued on.
~0~0~0~
REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!
Again, a light cliffy. What's the training going to be like? The beginning of the end starts next chapter!
Response to reviews: Aurelia Lothlorien - That's alright, but I wish you reviewed more than once. You're the only review I got for that chapter. I know that it's slowed down, but give me three to five more chapters and the storm I started in chapter thirteen will be a hurricane!