Bank Security

Deep underground the electric hum of a computer could be heard. A large screen on one wall of the dark room came to life, displaying an array of data as the long-dormant system came back online.

"Contact with spy satellite Beta has been lost. Initiating backup procedure," a computerized voice said.

In the corner, beside the massive screen, a glass vessel began casting an eerie glow throughout the room. Through the bubbling fluid, contained in the large vessel, a single object could be seen. The brain was suspended in the fluid with wires extending from every region of its exterior.

"Commencing memory download," the computerized voice stated to the empty room. "Time to competition, six hours. Begin powering up main system." The screen now displayed a timer counting down from six hours and a long process bar marked "start up" underneath it.

XXXxxxXXX

Videl woke up coved in sweat and breathing heavily. She had never had a dream like that before. It was so intense and felt so real to her. Untangling herself from her sheets, she sat on the edge of the bed, her breathing returning to a slow, steady rate. The clock next to the bed read 7am.

Videl went to her bathroom to get cleaned up. The relaxing hot water of the shower coaxed several images of her dream to surface. Slowly remembering the dream, Videl felt a torrent of emotions run through her. The dream replayed though her mind. She could remember herself standing next to Gohan like any other day, and then his shirt was gone. She stared at the finely sculpted muscles, not big and disproportioned like a body builder's, but clearly toned to suite a fighter.

Biting on her lip, Videl tried to suppress the remainder of her memory. 'I can't believe I had a dream like that,' Videl thought. 'And it was about Gohan. How could I have a dream like that about him?! He's just a geek, a nerd! There's nothing special about him, but why do I have these feelings?' An image of Gohan's bare chest flashed in her mind. 'He's just a guy, and guys only like me so they can get to my father. But Gohan's not like that, is he?'

Stepping out of the shower, Videl pushed these unsettling thought out of her mind. She was just going to spend some time with Gohan today and get some answers out of him. Nothing like what happened in her dream was going to happen today. She got dressed and had breakfast before enjoying her morning workout.

XXXxxxXXX

Gohan's dreams were very different from Videl's. His mind created a world where everyone knew the truth. The fame that Hurcule flaunted around was his. It was nice at first: people acknowledged what he had done and respected him for it. However, it soon became a nightmare with reporters everywhere he went. At one point in his dream, he looked in a mirror and had grown an afro.

Needless to say, Gohan awoke in a state similar to Videl, although the reasons behind it were very different. Glancing at his clock, he got out of bed and went to the gravity room. He knew that Vegeta would be in it, but at the moment he could use a sparring partner. Stepping through the door, he was greeted by a cheerful Vegeta.

"What do you want, Brat?" Vegeta spat, stopping his training.

"I didn't sleep well so thought I'd have a little workout to wake me up."

"Well, I'm using the gravity room now; come back later when I'm not here."

"I figured you'd say something like that," Gohan said as a mischievous grin appeared on his face. "However, I'm not asking to use the room. I am using the room."

With those words, Vegeta was on the attack, needing to defend his pride. Gohan knew he would react in this way and was ready for the attack. He quickly blocked the first round of attacks, a stunning fury expressed with kicks and punches.

Gohan let Vegeta advance the offensive for a while as he got warmed up, and got ready to advance their little skirmish to a new level. As Vegeta threw a punch at his head, he countered by ducking and quickly coming up with an uppercut to Vegeta's chin. The enraged prince changed into his Super Saiyan form and advanced once more.

Gohan was still able to hold his own in base form; however he was now getting hit every now and then. The battle carried on for a good half hour before Gohan moved up to Super Saiyan as well. This caused the battle to fall more in Gohan's favor. After another half an hour the two were still at it, and neither was showing signs of slowing down. Once more they powered up, reaching the next level of Super Saiyan.

Vegeta had not seen Gohan fight since the day of the Cell Games, and was both impressed and shamed by how well the kid was fighting. 'I knew he was training but I never imagined he would have gotten this strong,' Vegeta thought to himself. 'I know I'm starting to get tired, but it looks like Gohan is still only getting started. How had he done it? I am the prince of all Saiyans, and as such I should be the strongest, the elite of my race. But this half breed child has grown stronger than me … how?'

Vegeta tried putting anger into his attacks but they still only had a minimum effect on his opponent. The battle had been raging for almost two hours now, and Gohan was starting to get hungry. He had enjoyed their little spar as it had helped him burn off some steam. Wanting to end the fight without making Vegeta feel too bad, which would be by knocking him out, Gohan tried to verbally end the fight.

"Vegeta, why don't we end the fight here? I'm starting to get hungry."

"You will finish what you started. The only way out of this room is if you beat me or I drag your unconscious body out," Vegeta's Saiyan pride said for him.

Gohan figured that would be the answer, but had to at least try the nice way first. Vegeta felt a sudden flare of energy. Never before had he felt power like this. Vegeta didn't feel the energy for long, as his world quickly turned to darkness.

Gohan was nice enough to drag Vegeta's unconscious body to the medical room and put it on one of the beds, before getting cleaned up and going for something to eat.

Vegeta regained consciousness at about 10:30 and headed for the living room, ready to pick up his fight with Gohan where it had left off. Storming into the room, he focused his attention on Gohan and began yelling, ignoring the other people in the room.

"Brat, get changed and meet me in the gravity room in five minutes. I'll teach you a lesson for ending the fight like that."

"Sorry Vegeta, but I have more important things to do than knock you out again." With that statement, Gohan took to the skies, heading towards Satan City.

"Where does he think he's going?" Vegeta said, more to himself than the people around him, and was not expecting an answer.

"He's meeting up with a girl from school," Chichi said with a very happy and excited voice.

"A girl, I see; that explains it."

"What is that supposed to mean? And why are you challenging Gohan to a fight?" Bulma asked, surprised by the whole scene in front of her. However, her questions were left unanswered as Vegeta retreated from the room with a smirk.

XXXxxxXXX

Gohan took his time flying to Satan City. He hadn't intended on leaving so early, but he didn't want to deal with Vegeta anymore. Landing where he usually did, near the train station, he walked the rest of the way to the tourist district.

As he walked around the area, he couldn't help but notice how right Videl was about finding the action figure store. Almost everywhere he looked there was either a poster on a phone pole or a sign pointing to the shop. With all the signs pointing the way, it only took him about five minutes to find the place once he entered the tourist district.

Gohan arrived in front of the store at about five to eleven and was glad to see Videl already standing there. He waved at her and walked up with a pleasant smile on his face. She smiled back and they exchanged some common greetings before walking off along the crowded streets.

"How are you today?" Gohan asked, trying to start a conversation.

"I'm good, and I see you are in a better mood then yesterday morning."

"Well I talked things out with my mom and we came to an understanding."

"Glad to hear that. Anyways, why don't we start where we left off yesterday? Just how well do you know Bulma Briefs?" Videl asked the question, wanting to get right down to the point. Gohan looked around and had a worried look on his face when he turned to Videl.

"It's really crowded on the street here and I don't really want anyone to overhear us."

"Don't worry about it. The only way these people would give you a second look was if you had an afro like my father's." Gohan tried to suppress a laugh as he remembered his dream from that night.

"What's so funny?"

"It's just that I had a dream last night where I looked in a mirror and had a huge afro."

"Ha, that's hilarious; I wish my dream could have been more like that."

"So what did you dream about?"

"None of your business," Videl replied angrily as she turned red thinking about it.

"OK, fine. I won't ask. How about we sit down in that park and talk?"

"Works for me."

The two wandered their way through the park until they came to a bench just off to the side of the path. Videl's face was a pure expression of excitement. She was finally going to get some answers. Gohan sat down a little apprehensively. He still wasn't sure he wanted to let his secrets out and also how would he ask about reviling the truth about Cell?

"Enough stalling, Gohan – let's hear it."

"Fine, let me see, how should I put it? Well, I guess the simple answer is that Bulma is my godmother. She's known me since I was a baby."

"Wait, how is it that Bulma became your godmother?"

"She met my father back when they were teens, before she became famous. They did some traveling together and became really good friends."

"OK, so why don't you want people to know that you are almost related to her?"

"You of all people should know what it's like to be related to someone famous. My family likes its privacy, so we just never said anything about it, and Bulma understands this, so she never says anything about her close friends."

"I can understand that. The press can be a huge pain in the ass. They're always sneaking around our house. Some days I just wish that the world would leave my dad and our family alone, but he just had to go and become the strongest man on the planet by beating Cell. I'm starting to rant again aren't I?"

"Just a little, but it's alright. It's always good to get things off your chest."

"Right, so tell me, when did you start learning martial arts and who taught you?"

"Like I said yesterday, I started when I was four. A friend of my dad's trained me."

"I'm surprised your parents let you start training when you were four. Isn't that a little young?"

"Well at the time my dad had gone off to explore the world and he left me with his friend. This guy was a fighter so he just started to train me while he was doing his own training."

"But what about your mom? Why didn't you just stay with her?" Gohan started to panic a little at this question. He didn't want to tell Videl that he was actually kidnapped so he could be trained to fight off an alien attack. Doing his best to get away from this topic, he said the only thing he could think of.

"I don't really know. I was only four at the time so I didn't know what was going on. Say, how about we go get something to eat? It's just about noon now."

"Sure, I could go for some food." Videl had a feeling that he was not telling the whole truth, but decided to let it go since he was telling her something.

They got up from the bench and walked the path back through the park and out to the crowded streets. Neither of them seemed to know where they were going, but they kept walking in silence as they wandered around. It was Gohan's stomach that finally broke the silence.

"Do you know anywhere good to eat around here?"

"I think there is a little restaurant just a couple blocks away. Let me just run into the bank over there so I can get some money out."

They walked up the steps to the bank and headed for the bank machines just inside the doors. For being so close to the tourist district, the bank wasn't too busy, and there was no line-up at the bank machine. Gohan was standing next to Videl as she stepped up to the machine and made her withdrawal.

They were heading back towards the door when three men in ski masks came charging in. The man in the lead had an automatic rifle slung over his right shoulder. He yelled out that "This is a robbery! Everyone on the ground!" Pointing the gun above everyone's head, the man began firing, taking out the surveillance cameras in the process.

Only about half the people were on the ground when the other two men, with hand guns, moved off to either side of the room and started forcing the remaining people to the ground. The trio thought they had gotten everyone on the ground and turned around to make sure the door was secure. To their surprise they found both Gohan and Videl still standing with shocked expressions on their faces.

Once more the man with the machine gun was in the lead, walking towards the two teens. Videl quickly dropped to the floor. 'What should I do?' Videl was thinking. 'I know I'm good at martial arts but I'm only fourteen; well, almost fourteen. I'll just stay on the ground and do what they say and pray I make it out alive.'

Videl looked over at Gohan, expecting him to be on the ground next to her, but she was surprised to see him still standing as the men slowly approached him. Videl assumed he was just in shock and couldn't move his body properly. The three men advanced toward him, making the same assumption.

When the man with the machine gun got about a step away from Gohan, Videl noticed a sudden change in his expression. Videl watched as all emotion left Gohan's face, leaving a dark expression that almost scared her. The man advancing on Gohan began to take a step away from the kid when he saw the change in his face, but it was too late.

Moving forwards, Gohan shot his left hand out, grabbing the front of the machine gun and pushed the muzzle out of the way as he spun into the man. He hit the man in the chest with his right elbow, then dropped the gun as he turned to deliver his left elbow to the gunman's head. The two hits were enough to knock the man out cold.

The two other robbers raised their guns and fired at Gohan. He saw this happening and used the unconscious man's body as a shield. The two men had unloaded half their ammo before realizing they were shooting their own man. Lowering their guns, the men ran towards Gohan. The two were distracted and surprised as Gohan throw the unconscious man at them. Before either of them could recover, Gohan appeared in front of them, delivering simultaneous punches to their stomachs.

All three robbers lay unconscious on the ground in less than ten seconds. Throughout the exchange, Videl was unable to blink. She was in a state of both shock and awe at what Gohan had just done. Never before had she seen someone move like that; with such precision and grace. It was like watching an action movie where the scene has been choreographed and planned for weeks.

The people in the bank soon concluded that it was safe to get up. Videl was among the first to get up and as soon as she was on her feet she felt Gohan's hand grab her wrist and pull her out the door at a slow run. The two continued to run for a few blocks until they were well away from the bank. As they slowed to a walk an awkward silence built around them; both wanted to say something but neither of them wanted to start. Once again it was Gohan's stomach that broke the silence.

"So where did you say that little restaurant was?" He asked sheepishly, hoping Videl wouldn't go completely nuts about what had just happened.

"Seriously, food? You just took out three armed gunmen and all you can think about is food."

"Well, I always get hungry after something like that."

"Are you saying that you've done that before?"

"No, I just mean I get hungry after a workout."

"The restaurant is just over there, but you better tell me what happed back there."

"Fine, let's just get some food."

The two headed into the little restaurant and, to Gohan's relief, were seated off in a quiet corner with no one around them. The two returned to silence once again after the waitress took their order. Videl was going over every detail of the encounter in her mind. She thought that the guys that robbed the bank must be professionals considering how well they executed their entrance. In less than a minute the men had everyone on the ground or almost everyone, the cameras had been taken out and they were double-checking their exit before even trying to get to the money.

She then went through the physical exchange with Gohan. She still couldn't believe he had done that. She tried to go through each move he had made but his movements were so fast and precise she wasn't sure she had caught everything he had done. Running it through her mind one more time, she tried carefully reviewing what had happened.

'First he moved forward and knocked the gun out of the way. Then he spun around and hit the man in the head. Just as the other men were about to fire he used the unconscious man as a human shield.' Her train of thought was broken as she came to the realization that one of the men had been shot.

"Gohan, that one robber got shot when you used him as a shield. He's probably dead; the guys put a good six, seven shots in him." Videl was about to get up and run back to the bank but Gohan simply raised a hand at her indicating to just sit down.

"Don't worry," Gohan said as Videl reclaimed her seat. "The guy I used as a shield was wearing a bulletproof vest." Videl visibly calmed when he said this but she had to ask, "How did you know he was wearing a bulletproof vest?"

"I felt it when I elbowed him."

"But you elbowed him in the head; how could you have felt it?"

"The elbow to the head was the second hit I gave him; the first was to his chest."

Videl replayed the scene over in her head again but still couldn't see the first elbow blow. She was very shocked by this since she had seen her dad fight in the past and no matter how fast he was going she was able to see every move and hit he made. It was then that she noticed, despite beating up three guys bigger than him, Gohan didn't seem tired or out of breath at all.

Videl was going to start asking questions, but just then the food arrived. Looking at the way Gohan was digging in, Videl knew there was no hope of getting any information out of him until he was done eating. She dug into her own plate of food and found that she too was surprisingly hungry.

When the food was gone, the two paid their bills and hit the street once more. Videl really wanted answers but at the same time she didn't want to upset Gohan, considering he didn't like answering her questions and he had probably saved her life for the second time that week. They turned a corner onto a fairly deserted street when Gohan broke the silence.

"About the bank robbery," Gohan stated out of the blue. "I was kind of hoping we could try not to let anyone know it was me. I know I will probably be found out sooner or later but if you know, if like someone asks you about it could you try not to mention me." Gohan started tripping on his words halfway through but Videl understood what he meant.

"Sure, I can do that."

"Thanks."

"Not a problem, I know all too well what it's like being the center of attention. I wish my dad had the same kind of humility you do."

"What do you mean by that? I'm sure he would have stopped the robbers if he had been there."

"Well yeah he would have stopped the robbers, but unlike how you just wanted to get out if there afterwards, he would have stayed. He would have waited until the news crews came and then he would give them a play by play of what he did so the whole world would know how great he is."

"I get it."

"Good. Don't tell anyone this but every day I wish someone else had beaten Cell just so I wouldn't have to put up with the way my dad acts now."

The two chuckled at that. Videl chuckled because she thought of it as an impossible dream and Gohan laughed for the obvious ironic reason. As the laughter stopped, Gohan saw a chance to ask the question that had been bothering him all night.

"How would you feel if all of a sudden it was discovered that your dad hadn't actually beaten Cell?"

"I think that would be the best day of my life," Videl replied, thinking of it as something that would never happen, and Gohan could tell she wasn't thinking seriously about it.

"Are you sure you would like that? Think about how it would affect you. Sure your dad would lose all his fame and be condemned a lira for the rest of his life, but wouldn't that same shame be put on you?" Videl was surprised by this; she had thought Gohan was just joking but he was being serious.

"You know most people only ask questions like that as a joke, but I have had such horrible times with my father ever since the Cell Games that truly I wouldn't mind the effect it would have on me if it all changed tomorrow."

Gohan was overjoyed by this revelation. Any worry he had about releasing the satellite data over to the government was gone.

"I must say I had a lot of fun today Videl. I hate that I have to leave now."

"Why do you have to go? We only just finished lunch and there's still plenty of day left."

"I wish I could, but my mom has me on a very tight study schedule. Sorry."

"Well guess I'll see you on Monday then?"

"Yep, see you then," Gohan said as he started walking back towards the train station.

XXXxxxXXX

When Gohan touched down at Capsule Corp, he headed straight to the living room where he could feel Bulma's KI. He found her sitting on the couch reading a book. After what happened the day before with his mother, Gohan refrained from reading the title and took a seat in the recliner beside her.

"So how was your date?" Bulma asked, never one to beat around the bush.

"It wasn't a date. I was just meeting up with a friend from school to chat."

"And this friend was a girl, right?" Bulma said in more of an accusatory way.

"Yes she is but that doesn't mean it's a date."

Bulma chuckled at the sight of him red in the face and flustered from his reluctance to see it for what it was. Gohan found his composure and took a calming breath before bringing up the topic he had originally come to talk to her about.

"So about Monday; I'm fine with you releasing all the data over to the government."

"I'm glad to hear you say that. What changed your mind? It seemed like this was going to be a hard choice for you."

"Well the friend from school I was with is Hurcule's daughter. I knew that when we released the data Hurcule would become a laughingstock, and it would also affect Videl."

"So that's what the two of you were chatting about." Bulma said this with a suggestive smirk as though it wasn't the only thing they were talking about.

Gohan paled at the look on Bulma's face. He knew she was just kidding but was a little disappointed that she wouldn't let it go. Seeing Gohan's expression change for the worst, Bulma felt a little bad and tried to make him feel better.

"I'm only kidding, but I have to say that what you did was very considerate. Not many people would think about all the people affected in a situation like this and the way you handled it is just what your dad would have done."

The cheerful look on his face told Bulma that her plan had worked. Over the years she had discovered that nothing could cheer Gohan up more than to comment on how much like his father he was. However it was also true that most comments in general about his father would bring his mood crashing down.

"So, anything new or interesting to report?" Bulma inquired, moving the conversation away from Goku as fast as possible.

"Well actually, I had an idea for a new type of capsule yesterday."

"Oh, and what's so special about this new capsule?"

"The idea is that only the owner of the capsule can open it so whatever is inside it is safe from theft or prying eyes." Gohan added the last part as he thought about the original reason behind the private capsule.

"That's a good idea. As I'm sure you know at the moment all anyone needs to operate a capsule vehicle is the capsule. With this we can prevent theft because only the owner can then use the capsule. This is a great idea. How soon can you have plans drawn up?"

Gohan was shocked that his idea went over so well, considering the idea had originally been a way for him to hide his dirty magazines.

"I already have some rough plans drawn up but I think they still need some refinement. I can go and get the plans now if you want?"

"Don't worry about it right now. We can go over it all tomorrow. I'm fairly sure Chichi has some things for you to do today. Why don't you go and see if she needs anything?"

With that, Gohan left the living room and went to find his mother. He was not at all surprised to sense she was in the kitchen.

XXXxxxXXX

Videl found she was unable to go home after Gohan left. The excitement from the bank robbery was too much for her and she found herself walking back to the bank. The same part of her that was curious about Gohan was also curious about the bank.

At the bank, she found the entrance blocked off with police tape, and a few cop cars were still there. She made her way up to the police line to see if she could see inside the bank. There were a couple of detectives walking around the place looking at the location of cameras, where the hostages were, and the crime scene in general.

One of the detectives looked over and saw Videl looking in. He walked up to her, knowing that she had been there at the time of the robbery thanks to the bank machine's transaction record.

"Ms. Satan I'm glad to see you," the detective said as he approached her.

"And who might you be?"

"I'm one of the detectives looking into this attempted robbery."

"Have you found anything yet?" Videl asked trying to sound like she hadn't been there.

"Well I was hoping you could help me out a bit since you were here when it happened."

"According to the bank machine, you were here," he said before Videl could ask the question. "Anything to say for yourself?"

"If you mean the reason I left, it's because I got scared and just wanted to get away. But I'm back now to help however I can."

"Well then, can you tell me what you saw?"

"It all happened so fast. I had just gotten some money from the bank machine when the three men came in. The first man had an automatic machine gun and he shot out the cameras. The other two men only had hand guns and they came in after the cameras were shot out. They then went around and made sure everyone was on the ground. I was the last one standing at that point and I dropped to the ground when they turned to me. I don't know what happened after that. I just kept my eyes shut and hoped I'd get out alive."

Videl lied about closing her eyes, but it wasn't like anyone saw that she was looking, and this way she didn't have to say anything about Gohan. She knew he wouldn't like that she was lying, but it was the only way she could think of to avoid including his involvement.

"Do you remember anything about what might have happened when your eyes were closed? And how did you know it was safe to leave?"

"I remember hearing some gunshots, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. It was shortly after that that I looked up and saw the three men on the ground. I got up and ran for it at that point. I'm sorry I didn't see more."

"That was excellent. So far you're the only one who noticed the different guns the robbers were carrying. I'm glad you came back to give your statement."

"Not a problem, I just needed some time for my nerves to calm before I could come back here."

"Well thank you for your time."

"Not a problem."

With that, the detective walked back into the bank, leaving Videl to go about her day. She felt a little calmer now that she had seen the bank again but she still had a lot of pent-up energy to get rid of. Knowing how to deal with that energy, she headed home for a good long workout.

XXXxxxXXX

"All systems are online and the memory download is complete. What can I do for you Doctor?" The computerized voice said, now addressing a cloned brain of the long deceased Dr. Gero.

"Judging from my memories, there was a long period of time between the last upload and the death of the earlier Dr. Gero. Tell me computer, what happened with my androids and project Cell?"

"According to the last backup of the system, both projects are coming along as expected and are expected to be completed without setbacks. However, according to public records three years ago there were sightings of androids causing destruction all over the world. Apparently the attacks came to a sudden end just after large cities of people started to disappear. This was followed by the appearance of Cell, who challenged the strongest fighters of the world. It was during these Cell Games that Cell was destroyed."

"WHAT? How could my cell be defeated? He was made up of the strongest fighters in the universe. How was he destroyed?"

"According to the public records, it was a man by the name Hurcule Satan. He became the world martial champion after Goku and is still considered the strongest man in the world. Our scans, however, say his power level is only slightly higher than most humans."

"There is no way a man that weak could beat my creation. Get me General Tao. I think I need to have a word with this Mr. Satan."

XXXxxxXXX