Title: Off the Beaten Path

Author: Crackabad

Rating: PG – Due to the large number of authors participating in this event, rating is subject to change at any time.

Disclaimer: None of the authors taking part in this Round Robin claim to own Dragonball/Z/GT.

Summary: Round Robin. Gohan and Videl get lost in the woods, and Videl doesn't know about Gohan's powers! What's a demi-Saiyan to do? (donated by texaspeach)

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Chapter 5

"Ahhhh!!" Videl yelled as she heard the monster's loud roar coming from behind her. Acting on her first instincts, she ran to Gohan, who seemed a little dazed from the sight of a semi-naked girl, and hid behind him in fear. "Gohan!" she cried, trying to snap him out of his reverie. "Do something!!"

Another roar came from the monster, bringing Gohan to his senses just in time to see that the monster was about to charge at him and Videl. The demi-saiyan quickly tried to think of what to do. 'I can't do anything that will show her my powers, but I cant let us get eaten!' he thought.

Unfortunately, he didn't have enough time to come to a clear decision as the monster ran at them, mouth wide open, so he had to act on pure instinct instead. "Videl, move!" he shouted.

"But...," she began, but couldn't finish as she saw Gohan step forward towards the monster.

He took the creature by the upper and lower lips with his strong grasp, causing him to slide back a little. Finally, he brought the monster to a stop with his strength.

Videl couldn't believe what she was witnessing. There was Gohan, the class nerd, holding down a monster that was three or four times larger than him by its mouth! But what really amazed her was that, once Gohan had stopped the creature's charge, it looked like he was dealing with the situation with relative ease!

'How is he able to do that?' she thought. 'I mean, I saw that he had a strong body, but I don't know anyone that could fight a monster like that so easily. Not even my dad could do it!'

Gohan finally had the creature's mouth closed and sent a quick uppercut to its throat. To Videl, the punch looked like nothing, but as a result the monster started wobbling back and forth, clearly in pain. Then, after giving them one last look, it turned around and ran the other way.

'He hardly flexed his arm with that punch!' Videl thought 'How was he able to do enough damage to make the monster give up after one blow!?'

Gohan dusted his hands together, congratulating himself on a job well done, before remembering that he was being watched by a certain girl. 'Great' Gohan thought. 'How am I going to play this one off?'

Before he could think of anything, he felt a tap on his shoulder. With a sense of knowing what to expect, he slowly started to turn around to face the girl he knew would want to know about everything that had just happened.

But as soon as he caught a glimpse of her, he quickly turned away with a bright blush on his face and a small trickle of red dripped from his nose.

Peeved that he was ignoring her, Videl tapped his shoulder again out of frustration "Helloooo? Gohaaaan? Turn around!" she said, but Gohan did not budge.

Instead, he stuttered, "Ummm...d-don't you think you want to p-put on your c-clothes f-first before I t-turn around..?"

Videl let out a small "Eep" as she realized that sometime during all the excitement she had completely forgotten she wearing nothing but her bra and panties.

Now it was Videl's turn to blush. She quickly tried to cover her body with her arms, but still thought that she wasn't covering enough of herself. "Umm...Gohan, go back to the fire now!" she yelled. "And cover your eyes as you go back!" she added.

Gohan nodded and quickly did as he was told; he ran back to the fire and actually found himself thankful for more time to think of a good way to get out of this predicament.

As Videl watched Gohan's silhouette disappear, she slowly stopped trying to cover herself and walked back over to where she had laid her clothes down, thinking about what had just happened. 'I have no idea what to make of Gohan. He can fly, he can almost sense the right directions to travel in, and he has incredible strength...' she thought as she recalled his fight with that monster.

As she was finishing putting on her clothes, an idea struck her. 'No way, he can't be. Not Nerdy Gohan. But...it explains everything.'

Then a devilish grin crossed her lips. 'I'll just interrogate it out of him,' she thought. 'It shouldn't be too hard, knowing him.' She laughed to herself.

Gohan was by the fire, trying to dry off his clothes. He wasn't able to think up a good excuse for what he had done in front of Videl. "Oh, I was just lucky that the monster wasn't very strong," he said aloud to himself. 'No...,' he thought. 'That's just stupid. Maybe...'

His musings were interrupted when he saw Videl's shadow walking towards him. 'I'm screwed,' he thought with a long sigh.

Videl came over and sat right down across from him on the other side of the fire with a big grin on her face. Gohan didn't really know why she should be smiling, but it gave him a bad feeling. He thought that she would have a more serious look when she questioned him. 'Maybe she's just happy that we made it out okay and not worried about how I did it,' he thought quite optimistically.

"So...how was your stay in the spring?" Gohan said, trying to keep Videl's mind off of the whole ordeal with the monster. He hoped it would work.

Then Videl's expression changed from a grin to a more serious look. "Gohan, lets just cut to the chase."

'Yup, that's the face I was expecting,' Gohan thought with a sigh as all his previous optimism went away in a flash.

"What do you mean?" Gohan asked, again trying any way he could to get Videl off topic, but really knowing that it was to no avail. He wasn't expecting what she would say next; instead of a question for him, he got a statement from her.

"I know who you really are...," Videl simply began with the grin returning to her face.

'No way...there's no way she could know, could she?' Gohan thought as he just sat in disbelief.

He knew that he was in a far worse predicament than before as Videl finished her statement; "...Mr. Saiyaman!"

'How do I disprove her now...?' was all Gohan could think.

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Beta'd by Ms. Videl Son (aka, megaminoeien on DA)