Chapter 072 - Her Mother's Worst Creation
The journey back home usually consisted of two parts. Corset would leave Orange Star High School in one of her jet-flyers and head out of the city. Then when she was sure the coast was clear, she'd put her jet flyer back into its capsule and fly by herself. The journey took just under an hour depending on when Corset put her jet away.
Today had been different. Today she had headed home with Gohan in tow after having a close call with Videl, who'd been following the two for some reason. Corset had her own suspicions and had already told Gohan to be more cautious. He'd already revealed too much to their classmates today, especially during PE. He could not afford to be so careless; Corset'd worked far too hard to keep her capabilities as low-key as possible, she didn't need Gohan to undo all of her hard work.
The flight home was speedy and in the end took just under an hour as both teenagers flew as fast as they could. Feet tapped onto the concrete to the entrance of her home and she stepped through the automatic doors, greeting the receptionist as she walked in.
"Mama's probably in her labs," Corset spoke as she and Gohan wandered down the halls and climbed a flight of stairs to the living quarters. "I'm gonna head to my room and drop my stuff off. I'll come find you guys later."
"Sure," Gohan nodded.
"... You remember the way to the labs, right?" Corset asked uncertain.
"I think so," Gohan chuckled nervously. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll find it eventually!"
Corset sighed quietly, "Walk to the end of this corridor, turn right and follow it down. It'll take you to the first floor of the labs, you'll probably find Mama working on the bottom floor."
With that the two parted at the end of the corridor; Corset turning left whilst Gohan turned right. Corset made her way into the living quarters and to her own room, dropping her bag off at the foot of her bed and crashing onto the mattress on her back.
For a moment she lay there contemplating her day and the year ahead of her. There had been a lot of new events fitted into such a short space of time. She was stuck in a class with Videl Satan, a suspicious, proud, crime-fighting girl and the daughter of Mr Satan, saviour of the Earth and defeater of Cell... Or so the whole world believed. On top of that Gohan was in her class and not helping the situation at all! What had happened in PE made her cringe; she couldn't believe he thought he could have gotten away with those things…
Corset rolled off her bed and walked over to her wardrobe, opening the large doors and pulling out some training clothes; from one daily routine to the next. She knew she'd need to make an appearance in the gravity room at some point and would need to explain to her father she would not have such a long session tonight because Gohan had visited.
It had been almost seven years since that strange day when Vegeta had told her to come to the gravity room. From then on he'd trained her – well he said he was – Corset found herself enduring different gravities and training by herself most of the time, although on the odd occasion her father would demand a match out of her. Although it had made keeping up with school life that much more difficult, Corset didn't complain; this was the only way she knew of getting to spend time with her father.
Clothes now donned, she headed out of her room and towards the gravity room; from the feel of it both her father and Trunks were in there. Normally her evenings were packed with school work and training alongside her brother. Corset didn't have a lot of time to herself or to hang out with friends - not that she really minded the latter as her friends from high school did not know where she lived and she wanted to keep it that way! The last thing she wanted was for everyone to find out she was the heir to the Capsule Corporation, or to then find out about her past and the rumours that had followed her around at her previous school. She certainly was not a witch which the rumours suggested but she was certainly capable of the things the kids had talked about. She could make her hair float above her head, she could make the ground shake and make glass shatter, she could cause the classroom to become consumed in what the kids described as a whirlwind. Of course she'd never meant for any of it to happen and the school had called her mother in for several long talks after the event. Bulma had somehow managed to cover her daughter's tracks though Corset'd never seen her mother so furious with her!
Luckily no one had ever been hurt but the damage had already been done. In the end Corset'd been relieved to have left the school and had immediately started searching with her mother for a school of decent quality but one that was also far, far from home. Orange Star High School had been the obvious choice. No one knew her, no one had really bothered to find out. Corset'd never felt so normal in all her life and attempted to stay under the radar, making herself out to be a shy, withdrawn girl. Peipa had almost seen right through her and had indeed become a good friend though she didn't ask many questions.
Corset shook herself of her thoughts and realised she'd passed the gravity room. She turned on her heels and trotted back to the room, the door soon appearing. She tapped a few buttons on the panel which opened the door; the small monitor warning her the room was currently set to one-hundred-and-forty times normal gravity. A couple of heads had turned on her appearance.
"Hey, Sis! What took you so long?" Trunks beamed at his sister, though it was apparent he was struggling under the immense gravity. He stomped slowly towards his sister, fists clenched tightly as he moved until he was finally a couple of steps away from his sister. Corset had closed the gap with relative ease; she was used to this level of gravity and had been since she'd turned thirteen.
"Sorry, we've got a visitor I'm afraid," Corset apologised though it was more directed towards her father than her brother. Vegeta did not respond or even acknowledge the apology though Corset hadn't expected anything less of him.
"Who is it? Gohan or Goten? Or is it both?" Trunks asked eager.
"Just Gohan I'm afraid," Corset smiled. "He made a right fool of himself today in class! He's now with Mama trying to work out how to hide his identity so he can carry on being Mr hero of Satan City. He said something about a costume or something..."
"Aww cool!" Trunks exclaimed. "So he's gonna be a super hero? That sounds cool!" He turned around to glance towards his father. "Um..." He was slow to speak and Corset knew why. She wouldn't let her brother take the brunt of it.
"Dad, I'm gonna quickly steal Trunks and go see if Gohan's managed to find Mama," She spoke, grabbing Trunks gently by the hand and dragging him from the room into the normality of the rest of the building. The change in gravity was minor on her but it was felt far more by Trunks who gave a small sigh of relief.
"Why don't you just say it's up too high?" Corset asked as her brother wiped the sweat from his brow. "Sure he'll call you a wimp but isn't it better to be able to move under lighter gravity than to be crushed?"
"It wasn't too high," Trunks retaliated. "I've been in there all afternoon! Dad says tomorrow he'll put it up to one-hundred-and-fifty times normal gravity!"
The two siblings headed down towards their mother's labs. Indeed Gohan seemed to be here from what Corset could sense, she wondered what he'd ended up asking her mother for in the end. He'd muttered about costumes earlier on during the flight back to hers but he seemed to have been talking more to himself than to her!
The doors to the labs opened as the two stepped into the room. Both Bulma and Gohan were on the bottom level of the room.
"Hey, Gohan!" Trunks waved as he rushed ahead down towards him and his mother.
"Hey Trunks," Gohan greeted the boy. "You been training today?"
"Yeah, Dad's been teaching me," Trunks nodded.
"You got home a little late, did you run into trouble or something?" Bulma asked her daughter.
"No, I got here the same time as Gohan did, I just had to let Dad know where I was," Corset replied before turning to Gohan. "So, any luck? What did you decide on?"
"I'm not sure, whatever Bulma can conjure up for me I guess," Gohan said. "I was thinking something along the lines of a costume but anything that will hide my identity will be fine."
"... So you're really serious about this whole being-a-hero thing?" Corset frowned concerned. "... I hope you know what you're getting yourself into. Videl usually goes off to fight crime so you'd better be careful."
"Don't worry, I'll be ok," Gohan smiled. "Anyway, we'd better give your mother some space."
"That's right, this may take a couple of hours so you'll have to wait a while I'm afraid," Bulma nodded.
"That's ok, I guess I could make you guys a snack or something?" Corset suggested. She wasn't entirely sold on the idea but she knew better than to try to convince Gohan out of something he was clearly interested in.
Indeed it took her mother two hours before whatever Gohan had requested was ready. Once they'd been called via the internal phones of the building, Gohan, Corset and Trunks all headed back to the laboratory to meet Bulma. What she had surprised them all at first until Gohan was told to put it on his wrist.
"... So I press this red button?" Gohan asked, placing the watch onto his wrist.
"Yep," Bulma nodded.
"Hey Mum, can I have a costume too?" Trunks asked eagerly.
Gohan pressed the button. In an instant he was wearing some sort of helmet, a middle-green sheet that looked like a dressing gown minus the arms and spandex underneath, with gloves and boots which closely resembled her father's. A red cape draped over his shoulders and down the length of his back.
Corset didn't know how to react. She was not liking her mother's sense of fashion or her definition of cool: this costume was neither cool nor fashionable! She scrunched her face up a little as she observed Gohan admiring his new outfit.
"Wow! This is incredible!" Gohan exclaimed looking himself over in the mirror and checking over his shoulder. "This looks great! It looks so cool!"
"Isn't it?" Bulma smiled.
"... Mum... I changed my mind..." Trunks looked stunned, although it was hard to tell considering he had his father's facial features.
"... That's... different..." Corset muttered just as stunned as her brother. It wasn't something she'd choose to wear; it looked awful! Still if Gohan thought it was... 'cool'... No, no matter how much she tried to convince herself, there was nothing cool about it!
"Hey Corset, why don't you ask your mother for one and we could fight crime together?" Gohan suggested.
"There's an idea," Bulma stared smugly at her daughter. "You could be his sidekick!"
"Um... I can't, I don't have much free time," Corset answered. "Dad will be mad if I don't train after school and I do need to get my homework done."
"Ok then but you don't know what you're missing!" Gohan seemed indifferent.
With his new superhero outfit now sorted, Gohan headed home riding Kinto'un into the darkness. Bulma, Corset and Trunks bid him farewell from the balcony overlooking the large external gardens of Capsule Corp.
"It turned out better than I hoped," Bulma smiled as her hand fell to her side, she turned to her two children. "... Alright, what did you two really think?"
Corset and Trunks exchanged quick glances with each other. "... It looked very superhero-like," Trunks spluttered before attempting to walk off, Corset tugging him by the arm and forcing him to stay.
"What about you?" Bulma's gaze turned to her daughter.
"Yeah, it looked awesome," Corset smiled.
"... You hate it don't you?" Bulma confronted her.
"N-No I don't, it-"
"Your face scrunched up when you were looking at it, like it does when you see something you don't like."
"It's not scrunched up..." Corset attempted to mould her face but to no avail.
"You can change it now all you like, you still scrunched it up earlier!" Bulma giggled. "Well at least the person wearing it liked it... right?"
"No he really did like it," Corset sighed with pity. "Poor Gohan's probably gonna get picked on for his bad taste in clothes..."
"Can I go now?" Trunks asked impatiently.
The rumours quickly spread within a couple of days. News of the newest superhero saving the city travelled through the corridors like a wildfire, although the name hadn't quite stuck.
The Great Saiyaman.
Corset rolled her eyes and sighed, resting her face down on the desk. She hadn't had enough sleep last night and made a mental note to be more assertive with her dad and his stupid training schedule. Whether he liked it or not she had to attend school so she would need adequate sleep!
Class was just starting and their tutor had just walked in, "Alright class, open your books to page three-hundred-and-ninety-four and we'll start from there..."
Corset raised her head up and grabbed her book, noticing both Videl and Gohan weren't in class. She traced Gohan's ki; he was somewhere in the city. No doubt he was chasing crime again. She turned her attention to Videl. Her ki was larger than most humans, although still minuscule compared to hers and her friends. Her ki was spiked up, Corset guessing she was fighting. Her ki was pretty close to Gohan's...
Half an hour into the first lesson Gohan arrived, apologising and rushing to his usual seat. "So what's going on?"
"We're on page three-hundred-and-ninety-six now," Corset whispered. "We're going over the chapter; it starts on page three-nine-four."
"Right, I'll try and catch up," Gohan nodded.
Almost a minute later Videl appeared. She apologised and made her way to her seat.
"Gosh, what happened?" Eresa asked quietly.
"Some idiots decided to rob a jeweller," Videl whispered back. "That moron showed up too - the Great Saiyaman or whatever."
"He did? Wow, what a hero," Eresa smiled. "You know who else was late? Gohan; he walked in just a minute ago."
"Gohan?" Videl glared across the table to the boy. "That's funny..."
"I overslept," Gohan chuckled.
From what she could see, the cogs in Videl's head were slowly turning. Not wanting to draw any attention to herself, Corset went back to her reading. She had a feeling it wouldn't be long now until the truth came out. Gohan's insistence on being a hero was most likely to be his downfall, especially since Satan City was Videl's turf. That girl was stubborn and very cunning; Corset knew she'd do almost anything to find out who this 'Great Saiyaman' was...