Chapter 4
The next day was cast under a shadow of darkness as the storm rolled in and the rain fell from the sky. School was cancelled because of the events that had happened the day before, the ringing of gunshots still echo in back of everyones mind. Gohan sat by the window of his bedroom watching the heavy showers pound the ground as he thought about Videl, the only thing to cross his mind for the past few days. He wondered how she was doing after what had happened to her father. He knew how it felt to lose someone like that and he hoped it didn't have to happen to her. A brilliant flash of lightning interrupted his daze and the monstrous thunder shook the house.
He realized just how much he wanted to see her. He wanted to make sure with his own eyes that she was okay. The rain didn't even give him a doubt about what he was about to do. He made his way downstairs, stopping only to tell his mother he was heading out.
"I'm going to check on Videl and Mr. Satan. I'll be back for dinner.", Gohan explained as he made his way out.
"But Gohan, it's raining.", she said, but Gohan was already out the door and taking flight.
The rain didn't even bother him. In fact it almost felt good as it fell upon his skin. It would roll across his face and down his arms as he shot across the sky. The smell of the storm was refreshing to his lungs and he wondered why he didn't do this more often. But he had somewhere to be and couldn't be distracted by such sensations. Yet the lightning seemed to reflect his sadness and rage as it streaked down from the clouds above. He was going to find out why Mr. Satan was attacked, for Videl's sake.
As he began to clear the storm, he could see the city on the horizon. He figured if he was going to be flying around he had better get into his Saiyaman outfit, seeing as how people might get a little freaked seeing a kid shooting across the skyline. When he had finally cleared the rain he pressed the button and was immediately wrapped in his costume. The sun brought warmth back to his body as its gleaming rays bounced off of him. A smile started to sneak its way across his face. Why he was smiling, he didn't know. But that little nagging thought in the back of his mind knew why. And it was trying to tell him, if only Gohan would listen to it.
The buildings began to whiz by beneath him as he entered the city limits. The people below had grown used to Saiyaman making rounds through the city, searching for a crime to stop. But every now and then he'd have someone point at him with jaw dropped to their feet...usually kids. They always wanted to be just like him when they grew up. Little did they know just how possible their dreams could come true.
Gohan noticed as he was flying by, a car, a black Lincoln, swerving through traffic, cutting off every driver not going the 60 miles per hour that he was, until, after running a red light, turned into a garage at an old warehouse. Gohan didn't have to time to worry about that at the moment. His only concern was Videl. But he wasn't sure where to find her.
'I'll bet she's at the hospital with her dad.', Gohan thought as he shifted his direction and headed for the medical facility. It shortly came into view and as he started to descend, he wondered what he would say. Would he just say he was visiting Mr. Satan, or should he tell her that he really just came to check on her. To tell her how he felt about her.
'No No! I can't say that. It wouldn't be right. Not now.', Gohan's puzzled mind questioned and contested as he walked through the hospital doors. And the question kept popping up saying "But when?" and Gohan could never find the answer. 'I don't know when. Maybe never. I can live with that...'
"...but you can't.", said the lady at the desk. Gohan looked up surprised and rather nervous.
"Wh..What?", Gohan stuttered.
"You can't go see Mr. satan. His visiting hours are over. Nobody is allowed in there right now. Not even Saiyaman.", she said as she gave him a warm grin and a wink that made Gohan quirk his eyebrow. He then looked down to notice that he was still wearing his outfit. He began to blush and that geeky grin found his face as he realized how stupid he must look at this very moment. After a moment of feeling stupid, he worked up the confidence to ask a question.
"Is Videl allowed in there?", he asked
"Nope.", she replied, "She was here awhile ago, but went back home when visiting hours were over. She's been by his bed every chance she got today. I suppose she's still at home right now...", Gohan was out the door before she could finish the sentence.
* * *
As he walked up to the gates of her house, he made sure he was not in his Saiyman outfit one more time. He looked at the enormous building that was before him, and he realized it looked a lot bigger from the sidewalk than it did from the air. He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do as he stood behind the huge steel bars that kept him from even touching the property. He saw a small red button at one side of the doors and he pressed it, hoping it was some kind of doorbell. Not two seconds after he had hit the button, the front doors to her house opened up and two large bodyguards came out to greet him. They stopped right up against the gate, as close to Gohan as possible which gave him a certain level of discomfort.
"Who are you and what do you want?", asked one of the bodyguards with a voice that would make a good substitute for thunder. Gohan was almost too intimidated to ask.
"My name is Gohan and I've come to see Videl", he replied.
"Ah, Gohan. You may enter. videl was hoping you would come.", said the other bodyguard.
'She was?", Gohan thought, confused and pleased at the same time. That smile drew itself on his face once again as he followed "Rambo" and "Rocky" into the house.
When he entered his jaw almost fell off at the size of the inside. He couldn't help but just stare in wonder as his head swiveled around to get a good look at everything. Everything was in perfect order and as clean as a whistle. It was an incredible sight to see compared to what Gohan was used to.
"Follow me, kid.", said one bodyguard as he started walking away, the other staying behind at the door. Gohan quickly reeled his chin back up and began to walk with the huge statue of a man.
Gohan noticed a light on in a room they passed on their way to Videl's room. He stuck his head in to turn out the light, but was captured, once again, by the size of the room. The whole room was probably bigger than his whole house and there were shelves lined around the walls with the most random stuff he could think of on them. He would've kept staring if he hadn't heard the bodyguard calling after him.
"Hey kid, get outta the closet.", he yelled. Gohan quickly shut off the light and closed the door, returning to the guard's side.
'That's a closet?", Gohan thought.
When they finally got to her room, they met up with another bodyguard keeping watch at her door. He told them that she was in there and had been in there ever since they had returned from the hospital. The guard turned to open the door. When he did, everyone just stood there for a moment, blank expressions on their faces. There was no one in the room. When they came back to reality, they all rushed into the room looking every which way. Gohan noticed that the window next to her bed was open. They all went over and looked outside, but found no trace of her. Then Gohan saw something that made his face go pale. One of the window panes had been broken and blood was all over it, still dripping into a small puddle next to her bed. She had been kidnapped, there was no doubt about it. Somehow they had managed to get in without making a sound and keeping Videl quiet. Gohan was speechless. His mind was on lockdown, it didn't want to think.
"Who the hell could've done this?", yelled one of the bodyguards. Gohan snapped back and knew of only one thing of Videl's kidnappers. They were probably from the same gang that attacked Mr. Satan.
"I gotta go.", Gohan quickly stated as he ran out of the house. As soon as he was outside he took off, not even fearing that someone might see him without his costume on.
* * *
Gohan burst through the doors to the police station and ran to the front desk, sweat running down his face. The sweat not from fatigue, but from the thought of losing Videl. For some reason he couldn't stand to think that he would never see her again, never hear her again. As he collected his thoughts, the rather large, big-boned if you will, woman behind the desk asked him what he needed.
"What do you need, hon?", she asked.
"I have to speak with the prisoners that were brought in from the attack on Mr. Satan yesterday.", Gohan replied.
"Sorry, we don't allow civilians to interrogate our prisoners.", she said. Gohan realized that he was not in Saiyaman attire and so he turned around and headed out the door. As he walked through one side of the double sided doors he turned his head to the side and said,"Hi Saiyaman.", as if he were trying to throw the lady at the desk off, if she had even been paying attention. Just as the door closed behind Gohan, he walked back in through the other side, decked out in costume. He strutted confidently up to the desk.
"May I speak with the criminals apprehended yesterday after the attack on Mr. Satan?", he asked.
"You'll have to talk to the chief upstairs.", she said and pointed to the stairwell.
"Thank you, ma'am.", Gohan thanked the lady and headed towards the stairwell up to the chiefs office.
'Man I'm good. She didn't notice a thing.', Gohan thought.
The chief's office was at the end of a long aisle of cubicles in which every single officer stopped and stared. Gohan tried to ignore all the eyes on him, but he started to blush. He walked straight into the chief's office with every bit of determination he had.
"I must speak with the criminals arrested yesterday. There has been a kidnapping and I think they might provide some useful information.", Gohan explained.
"Well Saiyaman, havn't seen you in here before. I guess I can let you talk to him. We havn't had any luck.", the chief said.
'Him?', Gohan thought. He figured maybe the chief had simply mispoke for he knew that he had captured two of them. The chief led Gohan down another aisle of cubicles to a bland room with one table and two chairs, one on each side. The chief told Gohan to wait as he went through another door on the other side to get the criminals. When the chief came back with only one guy, Gohan was rather shocked.
"Here he is Saiyaman. See what you can do.", the chief said.
"But...", the chief had left before Gohan could tell him there was supposed to be two men. The guy gave Gohan an evil stare as he walked over and slumped down in the chair, confidently putting his feet up on the table. But Gohan was in no mood for games at this point. Everything he knew was being screwed around with and his mind wasn't about to take it. He walked over to the table, facing the guy.
"Where is the other one?", Gohan asked.
"I don't know what your talking about.", the guy replied.
"Where is he? I know there were two of you. I grabbed you when you jumped from the helicopter.", Gohan explained.
"Wouldn't you like to know?", the guy teased. Gohan was not ready to be played. He wanted answers and he wanted them now. Gohan stressed his impatience by quickly slapping his hand on the table, breaking it into pieces. The guy's eyes went wide with shock, his feet still dangling in the air. He glanced up at Gohan who had a menacing look on his face. The guy still wasn't saying anything, but whether or not it was out of spite or from shock, Gohan was going to get it out of him.
"WHERE IS HE?!", Gohan yelled as he released his ki into a small shockwave that picked the guy off his feet and slammed him into the wall, holding him there for the time being.
"OKAY! OKAY! I'LL TELL YOU ANYTHING!", the fear had taken over his mouth and was speaking on his behalf.
"Who are you working for and why did you attack Mr. Satan yesterday?", Gohan asked rather calmly.
"Satan was rackin up bills with the boss. His gambling has been gettin him in trouble so the boss asked us to teach him a lesson he would remember.", the guy explained.
"Does your boss have anything to do with Videl's kidnapping today?"
"Probably. After you stopped us, Lou, the one that escaped arrest yesterday, more than likely told the boss about you. He's using her to get to you.", the guy rattled on. Gohan slowly let the guy down off the wall, feeling he would get what he wanted now.
"But why would he think that Videl would get my attention?"
"You're more open with your feelings that you think. We could tell you had a thing for her when we saw you starin' at her yesterday. Lou probably told the boss that you two were hittin' it off.", the guy started to get his sense of cockiness back. Gohan was started to get frustrated. He didn't like being made conscious of his habits of gazing. His temper was starting to bubble.
"And where is your boss?", Gohan asked trying to stay as calm as possible.
"Oh I couldn't tell you that. The boss would kill me.", the guy replied with a tone like he thought he had control of himself again. Gohan's temper flared at the statement and he walked right up to the guy and wrapped his fingers around his neck, lifting him off the ground slightly.
"If you don't tell me, I'll kill you.", Gohan quietly shouted. His own words surprised him, but it wasn't him that was saying them. His uncontrollable drive to find Videl, to save her, was the one talking at the time.
"Okay! Okay! He's in the old abandoned warehouse near the edge of the city, the corner of 10th and Main.", the guy quickly spit out, hoping Gohan would drop him from the strangle hold. Gohan suddenly remembered something. It made him forget all about the guy in his hands who was at the moment turning blue. The chief busted in to try and keep Gohan from killing the guy. Gohan finally released him and the guy fell to the floor gasping for breath. Gohan turned and ran out of the room and out of the police station, his mind racing. He had remembered something from earlier that afternoon. On his way into town, the car, the black Lincoln. It went into that warehouse. Videl was in that car.
The next day was cast under a shadow of darkness as the storm rolled in and the rain fell from the sky. School was cancelled because of the events that had happened the day before, the ringing of gunshots still echo in back of everyones mind. Gohan sat by the window of his bedroom watching the heavy showers pound the ground as he thought about Videl, the only thing to cross his mind for the past few days. He wondered how she was doing after what had happened to her father. He knew how it felt to lose someone like that and he hoped it didn't have to happen to her. A brilliant flash of lightning interrupted his daze and the monstrous thunder shook the house.
He realized just how much he wanted to see her. He wanted to make sure with his own eyes that she was okay. The rain didn't even give him a doubt about what he was about to do. He made his way downstairs, stopping only to tell his mother he was heading out.
"I'm going to check on Videl and Mr. Satan. I'll be back for dinner.", Gohan explained as he made his way out.
"But Gohan, it's raining.", she said, but Gohan was already out the door and taking flight.
The rain didn't even bother him. In fact it almost felt good as it fell upon his skin. It would roll across his face and down his arms as he shot across the sky. The smell of the storm was refreshing to his lungs and he wondered why he didn't do this more often. But he had somewhere to be and couldn't be distracted by such sensations. Yet the lightning seemed to reflect his sadness and rage as it streaked down from the clouds above. He was going to find out why Mr. Satan was attacked, for Videl's sake.
As he began to clear the storm, he could see the city on the horizon. He figured if he was going to be flying around he had better get into his Saiyaman outfit, seeing as how people might get a little freaked seeing a kid shooting across the skyline. When he had finally cleared the rain he pressed the button and was immediately wrapped in his costume. The sun brought warmth back to his body as its gleaming rays bounced off of him. A smile started to sneak its way across his face. Why he was smiling, he didn't know. But that little nagging thought in the back of his mind knew why. And it was trying to tell him, if only Gohan would listen to it.
The buildings began to whiz by beneath him as he entered the city limits. The people below had grown used to Saiyaman making rounds through the city, searching for a crime to stop. But every now and then he'd have someone point at him with jaw dropped to their feet...usually kids. They always wanted to be just like him when they grew up. Little did they know just how possible their dreams could come true.
Gohan noticed as he was flying by, a car, a black Lincoln, swerving through traffic, cutting off every driver not going the 60 miles per hour that he was, until, after running a red light, turned into a garage at an old warehouse. Gohan didn't have to time to worry about that at the moment. His only concern was Videl. But he wasn't sure where to find her.
'I'll bet she's at the hospital with her dad.', Gohan thought as he shifted his direction and headed for the medical facility. It shortly came into view and as he started to descend, he wondered what he would say. Would he just say he was visiting Mr. Satan, or should he tell her that he really just came to check on her. To tell her how he felt about her.
'No No! I can't say that. It wouldn't be right. Not now.', Gohan's puzzled mind questioned and contested as he walked through the hospital doors. And the question kept popping up saying "But when?" and Gohan could never find the answer. 'I don't know when. Maybe never. I can live with that...'
"...but you can't.", said the lady at the desk. Gohan looked up surprised and rather nervous.
"Wh..What?", Gohan stuttered.
"You can't go see Mr. satan. His visiting hours are over. Nobody is allowed in there right now. Not even Saiyaman.", she said as she gave him a warm grin and a wink that made Gohan quirk his eyebrow. He then looked down to notice that he was still wearing his outfit. He began to blush and that geeky grin found his face as he realized how stupid he must look at this very moment. After a moment of feeling stupid, he worked up the confidence to ask a question.
"Is Videl allowed in there?", he asked
"Nope.", she replied, "She was here awhile ago, but went back home when visiting hours were over. She's been by his bed every chance she got today. I suppose she's still at home right now...", Gohan was out the door before she could finish the sentence.
* * *
As he walked up to the gates of her house, he made sure he was not in his Saiyman outfit one more time. He looked at the enormous building that was before him, and he realized it looked a lot bigger from the sidewalk than it did from the air. He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do as he stood behind the huge steel bars that kept him from even touching the property. He saw a small red button at one side of the doors and he pressed it, hoping it was some kind of doorbell. Not two seconds after he had hit the button, the front doors to her house opened up and two large bodyguards came out to greet him. They stopped right up against the gate, as close to Gohan as possible which gave him a certain level of discomfort.
"Who are you and what do you want?", asked one of the bodyguards with a voice that would make a good substitute for thunder. Gohan was almost too intimidated to ask.
"My name is Gohan and I've come to see Videl", he replied.
"Ah, Gohan. You may enter. videl was hoping you would come.", said the other bodyguard.
'She was?", Gohan thought, confused and pleased at the same time. That smile drew itself on his face once again as he followed "Rambo" and "Rocky" into the house.
When he entered his jaw almost fell off at the size of the inside. He couldn't help but just stare in wonder as his head swiveled around to get a good look at everything. Everything was in perfect order and as clean as a whistle. It was an incredible sight to see compared to what Gohan was used to.
"Follow me, kid.", said one bodyguard as he started walking away, the other staying behind at the door. Gohan quickly reeled his chin back up and began to walk with the huge statue of a man.
Gohan noticed a light on in a room they passed on their way to Videl's room. He stuck his head in to turn out the light, but was captured, once again, by the size of the room. The whole room was probably bigger than his whole house and there were shelves lined around the walls with the most random stuff he could think of on them. He would've kept staring if he hadn't heard the bodyguard calling after him.
"Hey kid, get outta the closet.", he yelled. Gohan quickly shut off the light and closed the door, returning to the guard's side.
'That's a closet?", Gohan thought.
When they finally got to her room, they met up with another bodyguard keeping watch at her door. He told them that she was in there and had been in there ever since they had returned from the hospital. The guard turned to open the door. When he did, everyone just stood there for a moment, blank expressions on their faces. There was no one in the room. When they came back to reality, they all rushed into the room looking every which way. Gohan noticed that the window next to her bed was open. They all went over and looked outside, but found no trace of her. Then Gohan saw something that made his face go pale. One of the window panes had been broken and blood was all over it, still dripping into a small puddle next to her bed. She had been kidnapped, there was no doubt about it. Somehow they had managed to get in without making a sound and keeping Videl quiet. Gohan was speechless. His mind was on lockdown, it didn't want to think.
"Who the hell could've done this?", yelled one of the bodyguards. Gohan snapped back and knew of only one thing of Videl's kidnappers. They were probably from the same gang that attacked Mr. Satan.
"I gotta go.", Gohan quickly stated as he ran out of the house. As soon as he was outside he took off, not even fearing that someone might see him without his costume on.
* * *
Gohan burst through the doors to the police station and ran to the front desk, sweat running down his face. The sweat not from fatigue, but from the thought of losing Videl. For some reason he couldn't stand to think that he would never see her again, never hear her again. As he collected his thoughts, the rather large, big-boned if you will, woman behind the desk asked him what he needed.
"What do you need, hon?", she asked.
"I have to speak with the prisoners that were brought in from the attack on Mr. Satan yesterday.", Gohan replied.
"Sorry, we don't allow civilians to interrogate our prisoners.", she said. Gohan realized that he was not in Saiyaman attire and so he turned around and headed out the door. As he walked through one side of the double sided doors he turned his head to the side and said,"Hi Saiyaman.", as if he were trying to throw the lady at the desk off, if she had even been paying attention. Just as the door closed behind Gohan, he walked back in through the other side, decked out in costume. He strutted confidently up to the desk.
"May I speak with the criminals apprehended yesterday after the attack on Mr. Satan?", he asked.
"You'll have to talk to the chief upstairs.", she said and pointed to the stairwell.
"Thank you, ma'am.", Gohan thanked the lady and headed towards the stairwell up to the chiefs office.
'Man I'm good. She didn't notice a thing.', Gohan thought.
The chief's office was at the end of a long aisle of cubicles in which every single officer stopped and stared. Gohan tried to ignore all the eyes on him, but he started to blush. He walked straight into the chief's office with every bit of determination he had.
"I must speak with the criminals arrested yesterday. There has been a kidnapping and I think they might provide some useful information.", Gohan explained.
"Well Saiyaman, havn't seen you in here before. I guess I can let you talk to him. We havn't had any luck.", the chief said.
'Him?', Gohan thought. He figured maybe the chief had simply mispoke for he knew that he had captured two of them. The chief led Gohan down another aisle of cubicles to a bland room with one table and two chairs, one on each side. The chief told Gohan to wait as he went through another door on the other side to get the criminals. When the chief came back with only one guy, Gohan was rather shocked.
"Here he is Saiyaman. See what you can do.", the chief said.
"But...", the chief had left before Gohan could tell him there was supposed to be two men. The guy gave Gohan an evil stare as he walked over and slumped down in the chair, confidently putting his feet up on the table. But Gohan was in no mood for games at this point. Everything he knew was being screwed around with and his mind wasn't about to take it. He walked over to the table, facing the guy.
"Where is the other one?", Gohan asked.
"I don't know what your talking about.", the guy replied.
"Where is he? I know there were two of you. I grabbed you when you jumped from the helicopter.", Gohan explained.
"Wouldn't you like to know?", the guy teased. Gohan was not ready to be played. He wanted answers and he wanted them now. Gohan stressed his impatience by quickly slapping his hand on the table, breaking it into pieces. The guy's eyes went wide with shock, his feet still dangling in the air. He glanced up at Gohan who had a menacing look on his face. The guy still wasn't saying anything, but whether or not it was out of spite or from shock, Gohan was going to get it out of him.
"WHERE IS HE?!", Gohan yelled as he released his ki into a small shockwave that picked the guy off his feet and slammed him into the wall, holding him there for the time being.
"OKAY! OKAY! I'LL TELL YOU ANYTHING!", the fear had taken over his mouth and was speaking on his behalf.
"Who are you working for and why did you attack Mr. Satan yesterday?", Gohan asked rather calmly.
"Satan was rackin up bills with the boss. His gambling has been gettin him in trouble so the boss asked us to teach him a lesson he would remember.", the guy explained.
"Does your boss have anything to do with Videl's kidnapping today?"
"Probably. After you stopped us, Lou, the one that escaped arrest yesterday, more than likely told the boss about you. He's using her to get to you.", the guy rattled on. Gohan slowly let the guy down off the wall, feeling he would get what he wanted now.
"But why would he think that Videl would get my attention?"
"You're more open with your feelings that you think. We could tell you had a thing for her when we saw you starin' at her yesterday. Lou probably told the boss that you two were hittin' it off.", the guy started to get his sense of cockiness back. Gohan was started to get frustrated. He didn't like being made conscious of his habits of gazing. His temper was starting to bubble.
"And where is your boss?", Gohan asked trying to stay as calm as possible.
"Oh I couldn't tell you that. The boss would kill me.", the guy replied with a tone like he thought he had control of himself again. Gohan's temper flared at the statement and he walked right up to the guy and wrapped his fingers around his neck, lifting him off the ground slightly.
"If you don't tell me, I'll kill you.", Gohan quietly shouted. His own words surprised him, but it wasn't him that was saying them. His uncontrollable drive to find Videl, to save her, was the one talking at the time.
"Okay! Okay! He's in the old abandoned warehouse near the edge of the city, the corner of 10th and Main.", the guy quickly spit out, hoping Gohan would drop him from the strangle hold. Gohan suddenly remembered something. It made him forget all about the guy in his hands who was at the moment turning blue. The chief busted in to try and keep Gohan from killing the guy. Gohan finally released him and the guy fell to the floor gasping for breath. Gohan turned and ran out of the room and out of the police station, his mind racing. He had remembered something from earlier that afternoon. On his way into town, the car, the black Lincoln. It went into that warehouse. Videl was in that car.