Chapter Fourteen: Recovery

Chapter Notes: -

There was a new patient at the hospital.

Sharpner, who couldn't stand old people, couldn't help but feel irritated. Why the hell was the old man placed in his ward anyway? Didn't his parents pay extra money for him to stay in a private hospital room?

He tried bearing hearing the new patient's coughs, but finally he snapped.

As Mr. Lao wheezed and coughed, tears streaked down his eyes. The door opened and there was a streak of brown that flew past and hugged him tightly.

"Grandpa! Thank God you're okay."

Lime dashed to Satan City General Hospital as soon as she could when she heard of her grandfather's predicament. As soon as she saw him, she burst into tears of joy seeing that he looked alright. He looked slightly under the weather, but he looked like he was on the road to recovery. Now she only needed to worry about the money to pay for the hospital bills, but she can worry about that later. For now she was glad that her grandfather was alive.

There was a loud ruffling sound where someone pulled the separators wide open.

"Would you shut up!?" a blonde, long-haired, muscular teen shouted irritably. "You're disturbing my pea-"

Then he stopped when he saw Lime. His heart started beating faster and he entered a daze. God, she was gorgeous! Sharpner had fallen in love at first sight! Sadly, a sharp stinging sensation and an empty feeling like something was missing between his legs reminded him that things were not the same as they were before.

Still, Sharpner knew that he had fallen in love at first sight. He previously had his eyes on Videl (though he still dated many girls on the side) but now that he had been rejected, the first beautiful girl that he saw made him go head-over-heels in love. It was goodbye tomboy and hello brunette beauty.

Puffing up his chest and tensing his muscles to make them look bigger, he took the get-well-soon flower bouquet that he had gotten from his female admirers and he put them near his nose, pretending to smell them and enjoy their fragrance. He combed his long hair backwards with his fingers and said coolly, "Ah, spring has come. What a wonderful time to fall in love, isn't it?"

Now Lime was not used to being hit on by guys. She was beautiful, yes, but the guys in Chazke Village ostracised her for not believing in Mr. Satan. Instead of blushing and falling into the strange blonde's pace, her mouth just fell open and the first sound it made was, "Huh?"

Turning to her grandfather, she said loudly and insensitively, "Did they place you in the wrong ward, grandpa? It looks like this place is reserved for mentally ill patients."

"Gah, no wait!" Sharpner begged. "I just wanted to become your friend - boyfriend," he winked.

Lime snorted (which Sharpner found incredibly cute). She snorted and then laughed so hard that she clutched her stomach.

"Certainly didn't sound like you wanted to be friends when you shouted just now."

She knew by now, through instinct, that the random blonde stranger sharing a ward with her grandfather was trying to flirt with her. The thought of it disgusted her, especially when she could see from his body that he was just a show-off. She sensed his ki and knew that he was extremely weak and that his muscles were just for show. Hitting the gym and lifting weights repetitively while consuming protein drinks was a simple way to bulk up and look buff. And she knew that the blonde teen was one of those people.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Sharpner said, still trying to sound cool. He didn't sound sorry at all, which Lime could tell. "But I really just wanted to know you. I was so excited that I shouted."

"Yeah, right," Lime rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, the name's Sharpner," he held out his hand.

Lime took the hand and shook it. She disliked the guy, but she was taught to be polite by her grandfather. She grasped the hand and Sharpner let out a small 'eep!' How strong was this girl? He thought. She was so strong that she was unconsciously crushing his hand through a simple handshake!

Contrary to what Sharpner was thinking, Lime was only applying a small amount of strength for a 'proper' handshake. Lime smiled and Sharpner felt his heart melt.

"Lime," she replied back politely. Then she added just in case, "Just so you know, I have a fiance."

That felt to Sharpner as if a bomb had been dropped in the area. His heart in shatters, he croaked weakly, "I-I see. Does he treat you well?"

"Yeah, after all, he's the Golden Fighter," Lime declared proudly, wanting to spite the narcissistic brute.

Sharpner's eyes turned sharp and dark. It was the same person that Videl was so obsessed about. Who was this person to steal all of "my" women? He thought. Never mind not having baby-makers. He still had his tongue, fingers and various toys up his arsenal to make up for his loss. What he really needed to do now was to deal with this Golden Warrior. He was sure that he could defeat the visored hero and humiliate him publicly. After all, he was Mr. Satan's - saviour of the earth, defeater of Cell - star pupil.

And so, after a month in the hospital, Sharpner finally recovered from his trauma and now had a new goal. First, he would deal with the Golden Warrior. Then, he would beat the girl who made him lose his precious gems into submission. Finally, he would make this new girl, Lime, his.

Trunks stood at the entrance of the 2nd Floor of Capsule Corporation.

He glanced periodically at the wall clock and smiled evilly. Well, it looks like the annoying girl wasn't coming to the 2nd Floor, he thought. He wasn't disappointed though. That means she must have gone down to the Basement!

He immediately left his waiting spot and dashed towards the surveillance room.

He had calculated everything from the beginning. His genius brain had predicted (correctly) that Videl was a person who would earnest and would not hesitate to snoop around to find out about Gohan's secrets if she was given the chance to. He knew instantly, though he had only seen her character from afar for only a few seconds. Knowing this, he eliminated all the options and gave her a little push.

Sending a red access card to her room, he knew that her curiosity would lead her to take one of the two options. She could have either gone up to the 2nd Floor and tried looking for Gohan's room and gone through his stuff to find out clues about him. Or she could have gone to the Basement. Either way was a win situation for Trunks. If she went to the 2nd Floor, he would intercept her and play non-stop pranks on her. If she went to the Basement, he had his popcorn and soft drinks ready for a night of hilarious entertainment where he will watch her as her own curiosity would lead her to the Gravity Room and 'accidentally' meet Vegeta.

"This is going to be fun to watch," he thought.

Putting on some shades, he put the surveillance camera in the Gravity Room up on the main, large screen. His mother had this installed recently so she could monitor whether or not Vegeta was going to destroy something again. Then he realised that his father wasn't there.

"Huh? Where did dad go?" he wondered.

Man, he might have to improvise.

What Trunks didn't know was that the Gravity Room was broken (yet again by yours truly).

Vegeta left the Gravity Room in search for his wife so Videl had no trouble entering the room. She was however, in for a rude shock.

As she walked along the room, tiptoeing in case someone was in there and could discover her, she found large puddles of liquid all over the place. She took a fair bit of time trying to avoid the puddles so that she won't leave her shoe-prints all over the place and finally, she arrived at the centre of the room.

"Whew, I wonder what those puddles were? They smelled strongly of sweat, but who would sweat so much like that? What in the world is this room for?"

So many questions flooded her brain that it hurt just thinking about it.

While she wondered what the initials G.R. stood for, she looked curiously at the monitor in built into a large pillar in the middle of the room. Could it possibly be a mainframe computer that contained all the data in Capsule Corporation? It was possible. After all, this was a level accessible only to the Briefs Family.

She walked closer towards the computer and noted that it only had numbers on it in increments of two, ten, twenty-five, fifty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty, and so on all the way up to five hundred.

"That's strange. What kind of computer would be so big only to have these few buttons?" she wondered aloud.

Perhaps it was a panel for people to key in a password before the main keyboard and computer would be activated.

Not wanting to leave her fingerprints on the keypad or make an error in entering the wrong keystrokes, Videl backed off from the computer and was about to leave for another room when the machine fizzed alive slightly with electricity. The sound was so inaudible that Videl didn't notice it. She was about a third of her way out when she felt something.

"Is it just me or is my body feeling very heavy?"

In fact, the Gravity Generator in the machine had malfunctioned due to Vegeta's overuse so every now and then, the machine would crackle to life and generate random values of gravity. When Videl entered, it was running at 1.2x of Earth's gravity so she didn't notice the addition to her weight. When she was leaving, the machine fizzed and ran a simulation of 1.5x of Earth's gravity which was just enough for Videl to start noticing and feeling heavy. Suddenly, the machine went wild and crackled loudly, cranking up the gravity to 3x of Earth's gravity.

Videl definitely felt it now. She was struggling to move her limbs as she forced herself to walk towards the entrance.

Gritting her teeth, she refused to be beaten by the strange phenomenon.

"Grrr… What… is… going… on?!" she said through gritted teeth with every step that she took.

She was about halfway through now when the machine jumped to 10x of Earth's gravity. It was too much! She now weighed 500 kilos! Her body got pulled towards the ground where she just lay there in a heap. She was slightly teary from the pain created by the pressure being exerted on her body, but she refused to cry. Was she going to die here? No, she can't! She still had to beat her father and make him stop being a womaniser.

Thinking like this, she decided that now was not the time to worry about being caught so she decided to shout out as loud as she could, "HELP!"

Thankfully, the Gravity Generator had stabilised for now so Videl was fortunate that she didn't get crushed under even more extreme pressures, so she lay on the ground on her stomach crying out for help until her voice became hoarse.

Meanwhile, Trunks had missed out on all of the fun. He was in the 2nd Floor trying to search for his father. His plan was to let Videl gain access to the Basement and accidentally encounter Vegeta in the Gravity Room. He knew that his father would get so mad at the girl for entering the family's private quarters that he would end up either incinerating her with a ki blast or toy with her. He knew that it would be entertaining because from what he's seen, the girl had a personality that won't back down so she would fight Vegeta and argue back.

However, his father was nowhere to be seen! He decided to search for his father's ki instead and he immediately discovered that Vegeta was making his way towards the Gravity Room. However, it wasn't only Vegeta that was going there.

He sensed that Gohan too was nearing the Gravity Room.

His father had probably dragged Gohan out of his room for a spar. This was not going to be good.

While Videl was suffering alone, trapped in the Gravity Room, Vegeta held Gohan by the collar and was dragging him viciously against his own will out of bed.

"You will train with me, Kakabrat," he began. "You've grown too soft and weak over the years," he spat.

Truth be told, he felt that it was a chore to train Gohan, but his Saiyan blood and pride rejected the notion of beating the boy when he was in such a sorry state. What glory would it bring him? Nothing.

First, he will train the stupid half-earthling back to his former state. Only then will he feel a sense of achievement in beating him. He wanted to become the strongest warrior in the universe! At the moment, the strongest one in the universe was, he hated to admit it, Gohan - at his finest when he beat Cell, of course.

But all of that was about to change, he smirked. He had been training hard for seven years while the brat was spending all his time studying. He was confident that even if Gohan went back to his former state of strength, he was still going to win.

"Hey, Vegeta, wait! We're going to blow up the whole Capsule Corporation if we spar!"

Vegeta laughed. "In your current state? You make me laugh, boy. Besides, you're too weak to spar with me right now. We're going to train you back to your current state first. Then we'll talk about sparring."

Now Gohan felt offended. He hadn't been idling around in the past seven years. Well, okay, maybe he had, but he was now the Great Saiyaman! Protector of truth, defender of justice! He was no way that weak.

They entered the Gravity Room not noticing the subtle change in the earth's gravitational pull. After all, 10x of earth's gravity was the normal gravity in Planet Vegeta so it felt like normal to Vegeta (as well as Gohan). As soon as they entered the room, Vegeta immediately sensed a weak ki present in the room which Gohan sensed a bit later. He was rusty from keeping his ki suppressed all the time in school.

"Oh look, what do we have here?" Vegeta said sarcastically.

He picked up Videl by the hair and lifted her head up.

"Well if it isn't Videl Satan. Daughter of the man who saved the world from Cell." he mocked.

Vegeta, though he never admitted it, loved watching TV - specifically Bulma's soaps.

While he was working as a space pirate under Freeza, he was exposed to monitor screens that displayed maps and information about his and Nappa's targets. He also knew that these were used to monitor his vital signs when he was in the healing solution tanks. However, he had never seen people acting on the screen and, on the first night that he spent with Bulma, he blasted the box down with a ki blast making her very cross with him indeed.

"What sorcery is this?!" he screamed at her at that time.

It was the same reaction he had when she used a DynoCap to set up a temporary home for him after he was defeated by Goku and had nowhere else to go. Advanced as technology was outside earth, the DynoCaps was something that was a remarkable genius by Dr. Briefs and, while Saiyans knew how to produce ki blasts, magic was a completely different and unwelcome notion to them.

(A/N: In the Dragon Ball Universe, ki and magic are two different things. The Saiyans use ki while Bibidi and Babadi used magic.)

It took a while for Bulma to explain to him but he eventually (and secretly) fell in love with watching soap operas such that the large monitor inside the Gravity Room played his favourite programs on while he was busy training. Dende knows how many times he's replayed 'Coronation Street' and whatever else he watches in the last seven years while training inside the Gravity Room.

It was through his little pleasure that he saw frequent commercial ads about Mark Satan. It was also through this that he watched passively while training; news broadcasts of Videl Satan, Mr. Satan's daughter, fighting crime every morning.

Gohan immediately rushed towards Videl's side and grabbed her from Vegeta. Slapping her lightly on the cheek to make sure she was still alive, he said in a panicked tone, "Videl, Videl! Are you alright?"

Videl had heard Vegeta's words though her eyes were closed and she felt anger rising in her chest. Forcing her eyes open and with great difficulty, moving her head to face Vegeta, she said haughtily, "That's right. Want an autograph?"

Seriously, what was wrong with the new people she was meeting these days? Ever since Gohan joined school, it was as if everyone new that she met had a grudge against her and her father. It was her father who saved them from Cell, for God's sake!

Vegeta didn't find her reply in the least bit funny so his mocking smirk turned into a frown.

"And why would I want to get the autograph of that weakling's daughter?"

Despite the heavy weight and pressure that she was feeling, Videl still managed to argue with Vegeta.

"What do you mean weak? My dad's the strongest person in the world! He can probably kick your ass. Heck, scratch that, I probably can."

"Oh is that right? That's funny because I'm not the one who collapsed under a mere 10x of earth's gravity."

"Vegeta, please," Gohan cut in and pleaded. "She's not in a good state right now."

Normally, Gohan would have already left and given Videl some first aid (he knew how precious senzu beans were) if not for Vegeta still grabbing hold of Videl's hair.

"I don't care what state this woman's in. If she has the gall to talk to me like this, she can bloody well fight me back and prove it."

Videl clung on to Gohan's chest and forced herself upright.

"B-bring it on… *huff* baldy!"

"I AM NOT BALD! It's called a receding hairline!" Vegeta shouted indignantly.

Sensing the danger of Vegeta's anger going out of control, Gohan decided to produce a small ki energy to come out on the tip of his fingers and cut free Videl's hair which Vegeta was still holding on to.

"Sorry Vegeta, but I guess me and Videl have to go," Gohan tried his best to give Vegeta a childish grin, a drop of sweat dripping down from his temple, before leaving saying, "Gotta boogie!"

And with that, Gohan left carrying Videl in his arms while Vegeta blasted the walls of the Gravity Room in anger, shouting, "COME BACK HERE! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET, KAKABRAT!"

Thankfully for Gohan, Vegeta decided that it was not worth the effort to chase after him and Videl. He had other chances to 'educate' the boy.

Without running out of breath, Gohan decided that the closest place for him to bring Videl without being seen by the other students was in Erasa's room. Giving the pink door a light knock, Gohan waited.

Erasa was enjoying the spacious room. She didn't want to sound ungrateful, but the room that she used at the Son Residence, big as the bed was since it was specially prepared for the Ox-King, was nothing compared to the size of this room. In fact, her own room at the Eraser household was tiny and was nothing compared to this!

Still, she didn't regret not living with Bulma instead. She was happy with being around Gohan and she was taking a long hot bath, mulling over her plans to win Gohan over when she heard the knocks on the door.

Wondering who it was, Erasa towelled herself dry and cautiously opened the door just by a crack. Then, seeing as if she'd seen a ghost, she couldn't hide the alarm and panic in her face when she saw Gohan carrying her best friend's limp body.

She may be competing with Videl and Lime for Gohan's affection, but that didn't mean that she had to be a bitch and change her attitude completely. She still considered herself as Videl's and Lime's best friend and she put that friendship first before her affection for Gohan on this occasion.

Not turning jealous at watching Gohan looking so worried and caring for Videl, she asked him, "What happened?"

"I don't know. I found her at the Gravity Room collapsed so I brought her here," Gohan said worriedly.

"I see," Erasa replied back calmly. Seeing that it wasn't as serious as she thought, she asked a less important question. "But what happened to her hair? It's become so short!"

"It's a long story. Look, Erasa, would you mind calling Bulma over? She can help us and tell us what to do. I think she's in her office."

Erasa nodded quickly. She cared a lot about her friend so she didn't even have to think twice, though she didn't exactly know where Bulma's office was.

As soon as she left, Gohan tended to Videl. He panicked at first when he saw her lying in a heap, but now that he had a small breather, he realised that the girl was far from being in grave danger. Videl was just tired from over-exerting her body to move at 10x of earth's gravitational pull. All of her muscles ached and some of them even tore from the strain, but that was about it. She will live. Just that she will be in pain from over-exertion and muscle tears for a day or two, or a week at most.

Gohan was just about to leave to get himself a drink when Videl's hand shot out and locked fingers with his.

"Wow, it's so small, soft and warm. Are all girls this fragile?"

It had been a long time since he held a girl's hand and the last time that he did was when he was still a child with Chichi. However, his mother's hand had more strength than Videl's and was less fragile, so this was the first time he actually thought about it.

Forcing herself again, Videl croaked weakly, "Gohan?"

"Ah! Y-yes, Videl?"

Gohan felt awkward, embarrassed and weird - even guilty. Why did that thought enter his brain? He didn't know. All he knew was that he was thinking about something that he normally wouldn't and it made him feel guilty that it involved Videl in it.

Videl managed a weak smile. "Thank you, for back then."

Gohan didn't know why, but the fragile girl's smile made him smile too. It was a different smile from what he normally gave other people. This smile felt like it meant something else, but he didn't know what.

Videl, feeling satisfied that she had thanked her rescuer, fell into a peaceful sleep at last, but not before unconsciously saying, "Don't leave my side, okay?"

Gohan felt his heart beat go faster and he was blushing red as he scratched his cheek with his index finger, "Ah, yeah. Of course I won't."

Fortunately or unfortunately, Videl would forget ever saying the latter part.

End of Chapter Fourteen

To be continued...