Videl tapped her foot impatiently as the Chief briefed her on the current situation. She'd been called out of class yet again, this time to deal with the kidnapping of some important businessman she'd never heard of. It's always something, huh? Never a day of peace.
"...And they're demanding 300 million zenni!" The old chief shook his head and took a long drag from the cigar he'd been holding. Videl took note of the slight chew marks near the edge of it. "We'd really rather not be forced to negotiates with these, uh, a-holes.
Videl waved the cigar smoke out of her general vicinity and slid her foot idly along the asphalt underneath her, which was still wet from an earlier rainstorm. "I'm not a kid, Chief, you don't have to censor yourself." She was a little salty about having been pulled out of a particularly competitive game of soccer with Sharpener (well, against the other team, but her only real competition was her proud jock of a friend), and kidnappings were never her favorite crime to stop. Anything involving the endangerment of citizens really rubbed her the wrong way.
The chief coughed awkwardly. "Right. Well, anyway, we need you to sneak into this warehouse and rescue the hostage if possible. If you can't," he sighed, "I guess we'll just have to pay the ransom."
"Not necessary." Videl turned to the formerly-abandoned warehouse, taking in each patch of rust and cracked window. "I'll get our guy. You can count on that."
Finding the back entrance was easy; the miscreant guarding it was a dead giveaway. Taking out said miscreant was something Videl could practically do in her sleep, so that was taken care of pretty quickly. What was a bit more difficult, however, was trying to use the corroded old thing without a loud squeak immediately alerting everyone in the damn building. Videl groaned and pulled a small bottle of door-hinge lubricant from her pocket, thankful she'd had the presence of mind to ask for it once she'd seen the condition of the building she was to infiltrate. She hastily unscrewed the cap and got to work greasing those pesky hinges.
After a few agonizing minutes of maintenancing the enemy's base, the pigtailed crime-fighter felt confident enough to use the door for its intended purpose. She crouched down low, careful not to lose her balance and get her favorite shorts covered in mud, and turned the handle slowly, ever so slowly. She cracked the door open, infinitely relieved her greasing efforts worked to silence it, and peeked inside to see that…
...The criminals were already taken care of.
What the hell?! Why are all the kidnappers on the floor?! Where's the hostage?! And who is… She froze.
The brightly-colored superhero turned his helmeted-head to face the back entryway. "Oh, hello there, miss Videl! No need to worry, everything here has been taken care of!"
The girl sent a bone-chilling glower Saiyaman's way, her eye twitching violently. The hero paled. "M-miss Videl? Is...is everything okay?"
'Miss' Videl was screaming internally. Her responsibility, her one true purpose, the thing she had built her entire life and identity around, had just been challenged. "Okay?! Is everything 'okay'?!" She kicked a piece of scrap metal directly at Saiyaman, striking him right in the helmet. His lack of reaction just served to piss her off more. "Listen here, Saiya-whatever, this is my job, not yours! The police called me in for this, not you!" She stomped her way over to him, each step echoing throughout the expansive building like a cave. The masked ass backed up slowly and waved his hands in front of him in a placating manner.
"N-now, miss Vi-" He tripped on a rusty muffler that was just lying on the ground for some odd reason and fell backwards, the resulting thud amplifying with each echo and hurting his poor Saiyan ears. "Miss Videl, I was only trying to help!"
The furious fighter bent forward specifically to yell in the gourd-colored fashion nightmare's face. "You call stealing my mission right out from under me helping?!" She glared deep into his visor, and he feared she might be able to see his eyes through it. The damp floor underneath him slowly soaking his saiyabutt wasn't helping the situation.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know you already had it covered! I swear I'm not trying to steal your job or anything!" He scooted backwards and scrambled to his feet, wiping the guck from the bottom of his costu-outfit. "It won't happen again, I promise!"
"I know it won't, because you're gonna give up this stupid 'superhero' thing and get the hell out of my city, understood?!" She closed in on him again and flicked his visor.
The hero was absolutely bewildered. Videl was pissed, and he wasn't entirely sure why. I mean, it was an accident! How could she possibly be this livid?! He stood there in stunned silence for a brief moment before deciding this atmosphere was probably disastrous for his health. Unable to think of a response to Videl's previous command, he turned around and just kinda flew away. Neither party left that encounter in high spirits.
It was an incredibly uncomfortable Thursday morning; at least for a certain demi-saiyan. Videl had spent the entirety of first period ranting about just how much she loathed Saiyaman, and it didn't exactly make him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He wasn't sure if he should agree with her to help protect his identity or try to get her to stop hating his alter-ego, so he decided to leave the reactions to his two blond buddies.
To his dismay, said blond buddies were split. Sharpener was jumping right on the 'let's badmouth Saiyaman' train, whereas Erasa was defending him (God bless her). He hadn't known these people for long, but he did know what this sort of disagreement would mean…
"Well, Gohan agrees with me!" Erasa huffed and turned to the boy in question, who was nervously twirling a pencil. "Right, Gohan?" Here it is.
Videl cut in before he had a chance to respond. "I doubt it. I'm sure someone as smart as him can see that this city doesn't need some idiot vigilante ruining things."
Gohan gulped. This was bad. He had to decide his next course of action. It was now or never. He placed his pencil down carefully and folded his hands together on his desk. "W-well, I think-" The bell rang. Gohan took the opportunity to loudly plop his science book onto his desk. "I think it's time to pay attention and learn some science! Hahaha ha ha. Ha. Ha…." There is no way this is gonna work.
Sharpener shook his head and chuckled a surprisingly good-natured chuckle. "That's Brains for ya!" And just like that, the subject was dropped.
Videl was chewing her eraser; a bad habit she'd developed during middle school that she just couldn't shake. Damnit! I was so angry yesterday I forgot to interrogate Saiyaman! What am I gonna do if I don't see him again?! She glared at her near-pristine English textbook. Her dad made sure all public utilities in the city got ample funding, and the school system was no exception. Not that i want to see him again. No, I just want answers!
The thing that was bothering her most (at the moment, at least) was Saiyaman's fangs. Now, there were plenty of anthropomorphs in the world, and having fangs wasn't too uncommon. No, what was weird was the fact that Saiyaman seemed to be a human with fangs, which was completely unheard of. Animal people and humans formed relationships all the time, sure, but they weren't genetically similar enough to actually have kids together. Hybrids just weren't a thing, which is why Saiyaman's fangs - and The Golden Fighter's whole monkey-business - was so completely baffling to her. By all means, they seem like genetic impossibilities.
Saiyaman's fangs could be fake, but what about Goldie's tail and fur? It seemed too real…. She slapped her forehead silently. Gah, I'm having that same train of thought again! Why do I always get stuck in this rut?! She decided it was high-time to check back in on Earth and see what was going on around her.
To her right, Sharpener seemed to be googling something. Videl leaned in a bit and saw that he was looking up things to do in and around Satan City Mall. She smiled at that. Despite being kind of a self-absorbed jerk on the outside, Sharpener was actually very invested in his friendships, something Videl had learned over the many years of knowing him. He'd deny it if you asked, but he really loved his friends.
After a few minutes of reflecting on Sharpener's nature, Videl turned to check out what was happening to her left. Erasa was scrambling to jot down each and every word the teacher uttered. Erasa wasn't exactly a model student, and she definitely couldn't be considered a nerd, but claiming she didn't care about her education would be flagrantly incorrect. She wasn't a straight-A student, but she tried her best, and Videl respected her for that.
Now, let's see what Gohan's up to…. Videl looked farther to her left and fixed her eyes on Gohan and his activities. She was quite surprised to see that, instead of diligently taking notes like she'd expected, he was doodling in that forest-green notebook she'd seen him sketch in a few times before. I thought he was really into his studies? What's with the doodling? She craned her neck to try and get a glimpse of whatever it was that he was drawing, but it just wasn't working, making her grunt a bit in mild annoyance.
This caught Gohan's attention. He very gently placed his pencil on his desk and leaned back to talk to Videl without Erasa obstructing his line of sight. "Need something, Videl?" he asked softly.
"No, I-" She paused. Now that she thought about it, she kinda did need to know what she'd been missing in class. "Actually, do you know what's been going on in class? Like, what the teacher's been going over?"
Videl fully expected the boy not to know it himself, but it didn't hurt to ask. She was taken off-guard by his shockingly detailed response. "Oh, she's just going over the different iterations of MacBeth and how the evolving nature of language can lead to different interpretations of the same texts or something like that." He waved his hand dismissively. "It's real interesting the first time you hear it, but my mom drilled this kinda stuff into me years ago. Now I can see why I aced all those entrance exams. It's not because I'm smarter than anyone here, it's because I've just already learned all this stuff."
The bell for lunch rang, allowing the two to have a louder conversation. Free from academia, Erasa decided to add her own two cents. "Wow, Gohan, your mom must be obsessed with school stuff, huh?"
Gohan laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. I didn't think it was weird at the time, but she had me learning calculus before I hit double-digits!"
Videl, Erasa, and even Sharpener were now gaping at him as they stood to leave the classroom. The buffer of the blonds spoke up. "Dude, no way! No wonder you're a nerd now!" Erasa elbowed him lightly at that comment.
The raven-haired girl led the way out of the room. "Jeez, Gohan, why are you even attending public high school in the first place?"
He shrugged his light-brown satchel higher up his shoulder, blushing lightly. "Actually, I kinda wanted to come here to, uh, make friends. Living out in the mountains, I've never really had any friends my age, so, y'know…."
Erasa clapped her hands together. "Aw, how sweet! Our little Gohan was all lonely living out in the wilderness all on his own and just wanted some human interaction! Oh, no wonder his social skills are so poor!"
Gohan joke-scoffed. "My social skills aren't that bad!" The looks his three new friends shot him said otherwise. He frowned and crossed his arms as the four of them neared their usual lunch-eating spot. "Besides, I have plenty of friends and family back home, just no-one my age."
The four of them sat down under the shade of the large oak tree, careful to avoid the acorns scattered along the ground. Sharpener ran a hand through his long blond hair. "So exactly how old are your friends, then?"
Gohan thought for a moment. "I don't know, they're my dad's friends, so I guess around his age."
Sharpener whistled. "Hanging out with nothing but adults all the time as a kid? That must've sucked."
Gohan shook his head. "Nah, it was alright, but it was kinda lonely, y'know? They loved to reminisce and talk about adult stuff that i didn't really understand at the time. Honestly I felt kinda left out." He knit his brows, recalling the interactions he'd had with his father's friends outside of the battlefield.
Erasa patted his back sympathetically. "I knew it, poor Gohan! What an awful childhood you must've had!" Gohan just smiled sadly at that comment.
Videl felt a strange sense of relief wash over her. A lot of her apprehension toward Gohan stemmed from his dishonesty and unwillingness to open up, and that seemed to be changing. The more he lowered his defenses around her, the more affection she started feeling for him. She gave him a kind smile, causing him to grin back at her judging by the spark in his eyes that she was growing ever-so fond of. Yeah, this friendship was gonna work, she could feel it.
feel free to offer suggestions for stuff u wanna see (actually pls do that each suggestion adds a year onto my life)
also this sounds kinda weird but like pls suggest different types of crime bc repeatedly googling "types of crimes that can be committed" isnt rlly bearing me much fruit and i need thos crimes