Chapter 6

Gohan found himself struggling out of bed Monday morning. He had spent all day Sunday working with Bulma on his new invention and stayed up far too late for a school night. He managed to stumble out of bed and get dressed before making his way to the kitchen. At times like this his Saiyan appetite was the only thing that got him going.

He managed to make it to school just in time for his first class. Listening to the conversations in the hallway, he discovered that no one was talking about him and the gym class from Friday. The main topic of conversation was about Capsule Corp's reply to Hercule's demands. Gohan was glad that everyone had forgotten about what had happened in the gym class, and he was a little excited to find out what Bulma was going to say at her press conference.

Erase sat down beside Gohan and immediately struck up a conversation. "I hear that the school will be showing the press conference this morning. I think it will be interesting to see what they will do. As far as anyone is concerned Hercule has it right and they're trying to cover their asses. What do you think?"

Gohan took a moment to contemplate his answer. Despite the fact that he had spent all of yesterday with Bulma, not once had she mentioned the upcoming conference. Thinking on it, Gohan realised that for the most part she showed no signs that anything was bothering her. However, he knew that Bulma was going to make Hercule look like a fool, but he couldn't say that out loud, could he?

He was saved from replying right away as Sharpener sat down and asked what was up.

"I was just asking Gohan what he thought about the press conference that is going to happen this morning." Erase said.

"It's clear that Hercule's right. Capsule Corp is just trying to cover up for their mistakes. I'm not surprised that Hercule saw through them. It's just like how he saw through Cell's tricks and beat him with one hit."

Sharpener's response left Gohan with an uneasy feeling. After his time with Videl over the weekend he had forgotten just how much faith people put in the things that afro-wearing oaf said. The conversation was stopped with the entrance of the teacher. The class knew they would be watching the press conference and were all eager to find out when they would get to see it and find out what will happen.

"Good morning everyone: I trust you all had a good weekend. As you know, today the school will be allowing you all to see the press conference in which Capsule Corp will reply to the questions raised by our saviour Hercule. The conference will be starting in a little while but considering the number of interruptions we have had lately I expect all of you to get your books out and work on our current assignment. I don't want to hear talking outside of discussing the math problems you are working on. Now then, off to work."

There was a slight rumble of groans around the room: everyone was hoping they would be free to do as they liked until the start of the conference. The room quickly quieted as people started pulling out their books and began working on the math assignment for that week. Looking around the room, Gohan realised he was the only one who had finished the assignment already. Not sure what to do, he want up to the teacher.

"Ah Gohan, are you stuck on a problem?" The teacher asked when he saw him approach the front.

"Well actually I'm already finished the assignment."

"Then why don't you bring it down and I can point out any errors you might have made."

Gohan knew there were no errors in his answers but figured the teacher wouldn't believe that until he looked them over. He quickly walked up back to his seat and grabbed the work he had completed the other day. The teacher looked over it quickly, mumbling to himself.

"All the answers appear correct but you haven't shown your work so I can't tell how you got the answers. For all I know you just looked them up online." The teacher gave Gohan a questioning look that said, 'Did you look the answers up online?'

Understanding what the teacher meant, Gohan waved his hands in front of himself as he explained to his teacher.

"NO… no, I didn't look the answers up online; I just did the work in my head." Gohan's face was a little flushed as he said this, as he wanted the teacher to believe him. Although he often had to lie to keep the secrets of his life out of the public eye, he knew better than most the importance of hard work, and did not want to be thought of as a cheater.

"As much as I'd like to believe that Mr. Son, in all my years of teaching I have not met a single student who could do these equations in their head, and very few teachers as well. I'm afraid you will have to go back and write out your work."

"But that will take hours. Please let me show you I can do them in my head. Put any question like the ones from the assignment on the board and I will show you." Gohan was hoping with all his might that the teacher would go along with him. He didn't want to go back and write it all out.

"Ok, seeing how you got perfect scores on the entrance exam I'll give you a chance but if you are wasting my time I will be giving you a zero on the assignment, regardless of wither you show your work or not." With that the teacher got up, walked to the board, and began to write up a question that was harder than any of the ones that was on the assignment.

The action at the front of the room began to be noticed by a few of the students who were not in the mood for math – or any other schoolwork for that matter. A few whispers later and the whole class was looking up to see what was going on. There were a few quick conversations that the so-called nerd wasn't as smart as everyone claimed he was. However those thoughts were quickly squashed.

The teacher noticed that no one was working on their assignments anymore and decided to let them in on what was happening.

"Seeing how none of you are actually doing any work, I may as well get you looking at this equation I've put on the board. Gohan here says that he did all the work for the assignment in his head, and that's why he hasn't shown it on the page. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and letting him show us that he can actually do it in his head. Well then Gohan; show us what you can do!"

At this point Gohan realized how silly it was to try and show how smart he was. All he ended up doing was draw more attention to him. However at this point there was no going back so Gohan decided to make the most of it.

He looked at the question for a moment and figured out the solution but at the same time realised the teacher had made a mistake while putting the question on the board. The only way to solve the question was to use a process that the class hadn't even been taught yet. However he decided to be on the safe side and give the answer for exactly what was on the board.

The teacher got an amused smile on his face when he told Gohan that his answer was wrong. Although when the teacher said what the answer was supposed to be Gohan spoke up.

"Sir, if you want that answer you have to change that negative to a positive in the question." Gohan said pointing to the mistake on the board.

The teacher looked over the equation on the board and saw the mistake Gohan was talking about. The teacher wasn't sure what to do. In all his years of teaching he had never been shown up by a student like this and didn't know what to do about it. He was about to respond to the class about the problem but was saved by an announcement over the school intercom.

"Good morning everybody," the voice of Mr. Plunder rang out. "The press conference will be starting shortly, would all teachers please turn your televisions on if you have not done so yet."

With that the announcement was over and Gohan's math teacher was moving over to the TV to turn it on. As the teacher was fiddling with the machine he looked back at Gohan and told him to see him at lunch. Gohan nodded his head in acknowledgement and subconsciously rubbed his belly, thinking about missing lunch.

The class quickly forgot about what had just happened at the front of the room when the teacher got the TV set to the right channel. The students could see an empty podium with microphones all across the front. The camera moved down a little and a reporter was standing there.

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"I'm standing beside the place where the CEO of Capsule Corp, Bulma Brief, is about to speak in defense of her company, after questions were raised on Friday, by the one and only Hurcule Satan. The main point Mr. Satan made against Capsule Corp was that they were responsible for a satellite crash, in a middle school playing field, and that their quick action on the scene was to cover up that involvement.

Most experts are agreeing with Mr. Satan based on how quickly Capsule Corp responded to the scene and how they have yet to provide any information to the public or government. As we can see, Mrs. Briefs is making her way to the podium and soon all our questions should be answered."

The camera moved back to the podium where Bulma was just getting in place. Without a word the audience at the conference became silent so she could begin.

"Good morning. Thank you all for coming here today. The first thing I would like to say is that Capsule Corp had zero involvement with the satellite prior to it crashing in the field at Orange Star Middle School. As it stands I see no reason to comment further on that topic."

There was a large outburst from the reporters at the conference. They had all wanted answers to the speculations going around about the fast response and lack of updates on the remains of the satellite. Bulma merely stood there not saying another word until the bickering reporters stopped talking.

"As for the remains of the satellite: everything is being delivered to the government as I speak. Along with the remains, we are sending full reports on everything that was done with the satellite and all the data that was recovered and restored. The report details the process of our data restoration so all findings can be confirmed by the government's own experts."

The crowd around Bulma once again exploded with questions. This time they wanted to know what the recovered data was. There were also many shouts asking how they would know if the reports were truthful or not. As before, Bulma said nothing until the reports quieted down again. Without acknowledging the questions, she continued.

"Our team of data recovery experts were able to restore about ninety-five percent of the data and were able to discover several facts about the origin of the satellite. They determined that the satellite was approximately thirty years old and was designed as a surveillance satellite. Judging by the images recovered, this satellite was equipped with some of the most advanced technology of the time. Over the operating time of the satellite it captured several important events. I would like to show a few of them to you now."

The reports must have been too surprised to say anything, and an odd silence was maintained as a screen was raised behind Bulma. She narrated where the clips were from as things started out with clips from and old World Martial Arts Tournament. These were followed by clips of the attack on East City and the subsequent fight with the world special defence group. The clips showed a mix of close-up shots, where people's faces were very clear, to farther away shots, showing a large area.

The screen faded to black, giving the reporters a moment to digest what had just been displayed. If any of them thought that was the end of the surprise, they were quickly rebuffed by Bulma's next statement.

"As you have seen, the data recovered from the satellite shows some of the most shocking events in the last thirty years. What I have shown is a very small portion of what has been recovered. I will leave it to the government to both confirm the authenticity of the data but also to distribute the findings appropriately. There is, however, one more clip I would like to show, before ending this ridiculous press conference. This clip shows the end of the Cell Games."

The crowd was silent in anticipation of seeing the one mighty punch Hercule used to kill Cell. There was excitement buzzing through the air. Everyone remembered the moment when the live feed of the Cell Games was cut off while the Delivery Boy was still fighting Cell. The story that followed stated that the Delivery Boy was beaten by Cell and then Hercule stepped into the ring and defeated Cell with a single punch.

The clip started with Cell and the Delivery Boy facing each other. The crowd assumed this was the part where Cell would beat the Delivery Boy. The look of uncertainty and despair on the Delivery Boy's face only added to the onlooker's expectations that Hercule would step in and save the day.

The light of Cell's attack filled the screen as it powered up. The camera panned back until both opponents were visible again. Cell released his attack and in what seemed an instant to everyone watching the clip, the Delivery Boy met it with his own attack. As the minutes creped by, people were beginning to wonder when Hercule would step in.

The light radiating from the colliding attacks cased the camera to zoom out further, until all that could be seen of the competitors were small dots. The power struggle soon ended as the Delivery Boy's attack overpowered Cell's and the dot that represented him was engulfed by the light.

As the light faded, the camera focused onto the area where Cell had been standing but there was no trace of him there. The camera zoomed out to refocus on the Delivery Boy but by then he was being carried away by one of the other unknown fighters. With no other fighters left on the scene, the camera came to rest on the only moving person in the area: Hercule.

The world watched in shock as Hercule and the announcer talked while the camera guy went to the truck. Even though there was no sound from the clip, everyone knew what Hercule was saying when the announcer held the microphone out to him – "Yeah, I beat Cell."

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Videl sat in a state of shock as she watched the clip come to an end. She had dreamed of this event so many times but had never thought it would come true. Finally the day had come where her dad was no longer the great hero that defeated Cell. This could be the start of a new chapter of her life where her father has to give up the drinking. This could be the best day of her life.

Despite her joy at this turn of events she was beginning to feel uncomfortable as the eyes of her classmates drilled into her. Videl looked around the room trying to find something to stare at and avoid eye contact with anyone. During her search she caught a glimpse of Gohan's face and had to do a double take. Like her, he was trying his best to not look at anyone in the room.

'Why is he trying to hide his face? It's not like this has anything to do with him.' Videl thought this as she tried getting a look at him. It was while she was staring at him that he looked in her direction and shyly looked away again.

'He's not avoiding the class: he's avoiding me. That question from Saturday … did he know this was going to happen? I know he is close to Bulma, but would she really let him in on this? Would she? No, he couldn't know this. But why is he avoiding me?'

Videl was brought out of her thoughts as the teacher turned off the TV. "Well now that all of that is over with, I want everyone to get back to their work." Following true teenage form, the students became quiet and pulled out their work for all of two minutes before the whispers started to fly.

"Can you believe that? Hercule is such a fake," one student whispered to his friend.

"I bet Capsule Corp made that up just because Hercule was right about the satellite," a student on the other side of the class said to the kid next to him.

Gohan, with his heightened hearing, felt bad about the words flying around the class. He didn't care so much that Hercule was getting smashed but he knew it was only a matter of time until they turned on Videl. Although he had only known her less than a week, he had found her to be nothing like her father. As far as he was concerned she was a very nice person that worked hard and did her best to live up to the image of her father—not the true liar he was.

The class soon came to an end and everyone headed off. Just as Gohan was walking out the door, his teacher called him back for a moment to remind him of their meeting at lunch time. Gohan's stomach responded with a growl at the reminder.

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Throughout the next class the whispers had mostly been directed at Hercule and Capsule Corp. However, every now and then someone would say something about Videl being the daughter of "that fake." Gohan felt a pang of guilt each time someone talked about Videl; he knew it was all his fault this was happening. If he had wanted he could have gotten Bulma to cover everything up, but it was time for Hercule to be put in his place.

Gohan was given a small reprieve from hearing these conversations during his little meeting with his math teacher. He got a lovely lecture about how it is inappropriate to point out mistakes that a teacher makes regardless of the situation. He also learned that despite his skills with mental math, he would still be required to go back and show his work.

The meeting only lasted half of the lunch period, to Gohan's joy. He had enough time to enjoy his lunch and chat with his new group of friends. Although the little group of students were outside eating lunch, Gohan could still hear people talking about Hercule, and a larger quantity of them were involving Videl. He had decided to do his best to tune it out.

With lunch ending, the little group headed off to one of their favourite classes: history. Everyone was excited because they would finally be getting the topics for their end of term history assignment. The students had been expecting to get the topic before the weekend so they would get the weekend to build groups and pick which topic to do, but unexpected events had gotten in the way.

Mr. Smyth came in with a large smile on his face. "Well, that was an interesting morning, to say the least. So it's time for the moment you have all been waiting for: assignment topics. I had them all planned out last week but due to current events, I have decided to do something different. In light of the spy satellite being about thirty years old, I have decided that either on your own or in a small group you will pick an event in the last thirty years and research it. I think it would be really interesting if you ended up picking an event that was recorded by the satellite. I am going to give you guys a few minutes to pick an event and get into groups if you so desire."

The classroom became a flurry of action and noise as the students started talking to their friends, trying to think of an easy event to cover. One event that a lot of people were starting to consider was the Cell Games, seeing how it wasn't that long ago and there was lots of information on it. The teacher caught wind of the large number of students thinking about that topic and tried to add some diversity to the class.

"I hear a lot of you talking about the Cell Games and it is with in the criteria but I will say now that I only want two people or groups looking into them. If you are stuck for an idea you could pick something from the clips you saw this morning. Let's see, who can tell me where the clips from this morning came from?"

"The first clips were from an old World Martial Arts Tournament," Videl said, having been the first person to put up their hand. "Who can tell me where the second clip was from?" the teacher continued.

There was a pause for a moment until Gohan put his hand up. "It was from the attack on East City."

"Very good you two," Mr. Smyth said. I don't normally assign groups for this project but I would like you two, Gohan and Videl, to be one of the groups looking at the Cell Games. I would like you to focus your research on the unknown fighters that showed up. I have a feeling that there is going to be a lot more information on them coming into the world soon."

Gohan really didn't want to look into the Cell Games on account of having been to them and watched his dad die there. However, at least it would be an easy topic for him since he knew all about the mystery fighters. Videl, on the other hand, was absolutely pissed about this: first because she had wanted to look at the World Martial Arts Tournaments, and second, she hated how the Cell Games had changed her life. Her viewpoint changed where she remembered that it had just been shown this morning that her dad actually hadn't won.

After a few more minutes the students had made there groups and picked a variety of topics. To Videl's surprise, one group had picked the downfall of the Red Ribbon Army as their topic. Another had decided to look into the event of King Piccolo. By the end almost every group had picked a topic that related to either Goku or the Z Fighters in some way.

"So Videl, how do you want to tackle the assignment?" Gohan asked, not knowing himself where to start.

"Since we're looking at the mystery fighters, let's see what we know. There were eight of them. Only two of them actually fought against Cell. What do you know about it?"

'I actually know everything about the mystery fighters,' Gohan wanted to say, but he couldn't say that, so he went with what Bulma told him at the time. "I don't know much, mostly what you just said. I never really thought about the mystery fighters after the games; I was just glad Cell was gone."

"Seeing how we don't know much, let's break down the research a little. How about you try to find an old news article that talks about the fighters and I'll see if I can find a picture of them. Hopefully the article will help direct our future research and with the picture we might recognise one of them if we come across them during the search."

"Okay, that sounds like a good idea. I'll see what I can find by tomorrow and then we can focus on what to write about."

With that the class came to an end and the students headed off to their next classes. Everyone heading to gym was excited because it was the martial arts unit. By the end of it everyone would know where they fit in the school in terms of their fighting skills. This was a very important ranking for the students in this city.

As bored as Gohan was with the class, he was glad that all they were doing was working on punching and blocking. He was also happy that nobody mentioned what had happened on Friday. He assumed that everyone forgot about it in all the excitement of the satellite crash and everything, but in actuality all the guys had agreed to never mention Gohan's physical merits because none of them could have had a chance of measuring up.

At the end of the day Gohan was glad to be on his way to Capsule Corp to do some proper training. He was finding that sitting at school made him more restless than when he used to study under the iron pan of his mother.

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As he was coming into land he was glad to sense that Vegeta was nowhere nearby, which meant the gravity room would be free for him to work off some steam. However, on his way to it he got pulled away by Bulma.

"Hey Gohan, come with me for a moment. I have something to show you."

Gohan followed Bulma as she led him to one of her work rooms. He looked around trying to figure out what she wanted. His eyes landed on one of the screens which appeared to be paused on a news report. The heading in the screen read "Failed bank robbery a mystery."

"What's up Bulma?" Gohan asked, having guessed what the report was about.

"Not much, just wondering if you know anything about a bank robbery that was stopped by a mysterious person?"

"I might know a bit but I don't know if you want to hear it."

"I thought you might say something like that. However, I'm not really concerned about it. This is mostly a heads-up for you that your mom will probably make the same connection when she sees this report. I hope you have a plan for dealing with her."

"I'll keep that in mind. Anything else you need?"

"No, just giving you a heads-up."

With that, Gohan headed back in the direction of the gravity room. He wasn't worried about his mom's reaction to the report. She know that he only did what he thought was right and in the end no one got hurt so there should be no problem. He continued on to the gravity room and had a good workout to release his built-up energy from school. He emerged a few hours later for dinner and was glad that his mother had nothing to say about the bank robbery.

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After the press conference, Videl was a little quieter than normal, not that anyone really noticed. She hadn't let on to her friends but the constant whispers and conversations about her and her dad were getting to her. It wasn't so much what they said about her dad, but she didn't like being compared to him. She wasn't surprised by people's reactions; she was mad at how her dad could let this situation happen. Needless to say when she got home she was anything but quiet.

"DAD, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT THIS MORNING?! YOU LIED ABOUT THE CELL GAMES! DO YOU REALIZE HOW THIS AFFECTS NOT JUST YOU BUT ME AS WELL?!" Videl yelled as soon as she entered the house.

"Sweet Pea," Hercule said calmingly. "What's with all the yelling, honey?"

"What's with all the yelling, you say! Do you have any idea of what my day has been like ever since the press conference this morning?"

"I know what you're talking about, but I promise you it's all a lie. That whole thing was completely fake, trust me, in a few days it will be discovered that it was all a lie."

"You promise?"

"Don't worry, it will all be over soon, now go do whatever it is you like to do."

Videl stormed off to her room; she knew when her dad wasn't being completely honest. She got changed and went to the gym. This whole day had her completely frazzled and she just needed something to hit. The only part of the day that seemed to go well was planning her history assignment with Gohan.

Her workout lasted a few hours and she found herself calmer at the end of it. She found something to eat before going to work on her history assignment. Looking at the photos of the games gave her some excellent shots of the mystery fighters. She found herself looking at the Delivery Boy. He looked like a kid the same age as her at the time. One of the few confirmed things about the mystery fighters was that that boy did fight Cell.

If the clip they saw that day was true that would mean that a little boy was the one to beat Cell. The thought was unimaginable: how could a little boy be stronger than her dad, let alone Cell? Videl wondered how such strong fighters could come out of nowhere. "Maybe if I show these pictures to Sharpener and his group looking at the old World Martial Arts Tournament they will find a match," Videl thought out loud.

She was somewhat content on her way to bed that night, happy about how the assignment was coming along. However, part of her couldn't shack the thought of a kid, her age, going against Cell. 'At the bank robbery I was completely useless, if it hadn't been for Gohan.' That thought ran through her head and she was shocked. 'I guess there are kids my age that know how to stand up against people stronger than them.'

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"Mercenary Tao, I'm glad you responded so promptly, I have a job for you."

"Its been so long Dr. Gero, I always enjoyed working for the Red Ribbon Army, they were very good about paying for my services. I assume you feel the same way?"

"Of course, I pay for results so long as things get done. I will be glad to pay your fee."

"Very good, what would you like me to do? Robbery, hijacking, assassination, a good kidnapping?"

"I think a hostage situation would be the best for what I need. You see my last plan was foiled by that Hercule Satan. I'd like to make him pay."

"What would you like?"

"I want you to go to his daughter's school and hold it hostage."

Gero continued his plan with Tao; they picked the day for it to happen and settled on the fee for it. It was time for Gero to get his revenge on the man that defeated his ultimate weapon.