Chapter 6: Villains Never Shut Up
It was Friday afternoon and Gohan had been invited to hang out with his friends after school. They were in the gym doing basic fitness and Gohan was doing the usual solitary body-weight exercises while everyone else did their own thing. A few times he almost forgot where he was and moved into hand-stand pushups but he always caught himself before his feet left the ground. He felt edgy, like he was itching for real exercise. He actually wanted to fight. He hated to admit it but biologically speaking he was as good as a pure Saiyan. So he expected that once he started training again, he would awaken his battle lust. Of course he still knew that he far preferred peace to danger and he hoped that the world stayed permanently safe, but he would be lying if he said that his battle with Vrozan hadn't gotten his blood-pumping. Is this just a lesser version of what his father would feel constantly? Is this why his father wanted to fight and train all the time? If so Gohan could understand why his father had been the way he was, but only because of Goku's unique situation. Gohan would never skirt his responsibilities to fight, but that didn't mean he didn't wish he could at times.
After gym he made his way to the locker room and waited until everyone else had left. Slowly the other students filtered out and some gave him weird looks as he merely sat on a bench in silence as he waited. Eventually the locker room was completely empty except for Gohan and he began changing. He wished he didn't have anything to hide but between his scarred body and his "too-ripped-to-be-normal physique" he couldn't afford to be seen and visually examined by his peers. It was too dangerous. He paused right before he put his baggy long-sleeved shirt on. He studied his latest mark. He thought it was a strange coincidence that the horn of Vrozan had gone right through the center of his scar from Cell. The scar there used to be slightly rounder in the center before thinning out on either side. However Vrozan's horn had made a wider hole in his shoulder, making the previous impact point of Cell's attack hidden, or more pronounced depending on how you looked at it.
He pulled his shirt on before walking towards where he could sense his friends' Ki signatures. He had locked their Ki's into his memory recently as, besides Videl, they had very unexceptional Ki's and would be near impossible to find should they ever be in trouble. He found them and Videl and Erasa looked impatient and he was lectured by his friends for taking so long. Gohan expected Sharpener to jump in and tease him too but when he looked at the blonde-haired teen he only saw curiosity and concern on his face. Gohan wasn't sure if that was better or worse than him joining in. His gut told him that he needed to try to be more careful around his friends. They were starting to act weird around him and he wasn't sure why.
They went to get pizza first and when Gohan inhaled what looked like his body-weight in every pizza on the menu his friends merely cringed. "Gohan I will never understand how you do that" Videl began, turning her head away but still watching the Black-haired teen out of her peripherals, "It's both disgusting and impossible to look away from at the same time." She said as her upper lip pulled, brows furrowed and her eyes twisted in disgust.
He merely looked at her out the corner of his eyes, pausing only long enough to give her the shortest response possible. He shrugged his shoulders and made the one comment he always made when someone brought it up or asked him about it, "Genetic." He simply responded before taking in more food. Unbeknownst to his friends, the reason Gohan always gave that response about his appetite was because it's the only thing he could tell them that wasn't a lie at all. It was 100% honest and upfront he would tell himself but deep down he knew that technically he was being dishonest by slipping past details in his answer like some politician or corrupt business man. But it was for the best that he keep what he was from them, at least for now. Gohan thought about that notion internally and what it implied, "Maybe...one day I might tell them...we'll see I suppose." He thought to himself. He wasn't sure how truthful with himself he was being, but it felt better thinking about telling them about himself one day then it felt thinking that he'd have to hide forever and live a lie to his friends.
After they finished, or rather Gohan finished, their pizza they went to the arcade across from the pizza shop. They played a multitude of games together. Gohan dominated shooting games due to his superior reflexes. In fact, Gohan dominated them in a lot of games and his friends looked surprised when he told them he had never even been in an arcade before in his whole life. At their expressions he knew he had made some kind of mistake but then suddenly Videl brushed it off and made a joke about Gohan just having nerd in his veins. The Saiyan chuckled at her remark and they moved on to another game. He found himself struggling in a game about fighting however, as regardless of how good his reflexes were and his far better combat strategy, he did not know the controls properly and they confused him to be honest. He put up a decent few fights and eventually managed to learn the controls well enough to beat Erasa and Sharpener but no matter how much he tried he could not beat Videl.
"How can you be this good!?" He asked as he made a panic block and barely managed to defend against his opponents attack. Videl merely smirked as she got Gohan in a grab move, hitting him with a combo before tossing him to the other side of the screen.
"No natural talent for video games and a single day of playing is going to make you better than me Gohan!" She taunted with a fire in her eyes as she beat him yet again. She turned smiling smugly to Gohan who was looking at her surprised.
"You play video games?" Gohan said with a wide-eyed expression. She roller her eyes at him.
"Not video games, just fighting games really. They aren't as good as the real thing but they definitely help when I'm sick or injured." She explained before narrowing her eyes at him, "What? You think a girl can't enjoy stuff like that?" She said accusingly to the boy who merely lazily held his hands up in a sign of defense.
"Hey, I didn't say that. I just never picked you as the type who would enjoy stuff like that is all. I guess I should have guessed though based on all the other things you have in common with him..." He said cryptically, seemingly saying the last part more to himself than her based on the fact that he looked down at the floor thoughtfully.
"In common? Me? Who are you talking about?" Videl asked. Sharpener and Erasa, who were standing behind Gohan on the opposite side of him from Videl, wisely chose this moment to become extremely quiet. Gohan looked up at her surprised. It was obvious he didn't realise he had said it out loud and didn't expect to be questioned about it.
Gohan was about to tell them it was no one and not to worry about it but he saw no reason to keep this from his friends. It wasn't like that secret would bring his whole world and web of lies down on top of him. "Oh uh...just, you remind me a lot of my father..." He admitted quietly while not making eye contact with anyone. But Videl and the blonde's had still heard him and Videl looked confused at why he seemed to hesitant to say something as simple as that until she remembered being at his house and not seeing his father anywhere. Her eyes widened as she connected the dots. Now the fact that Gohan could remember what his father was like but he spoke of him in a positive way, hinted to Videl that he probably hadn't left him, as a boy who could remember details about his father who left generally had a bad view of them. Videl didn't want to assume anything but Gohan's introvertive nature and his inability to understand expression of emotions, plus the way he spoke of his father, indicated to her that Gohan's father was no longer alive.
Now she didn't want to pry too much as if she really reminded Gohan of his father in as many ways as he had implied it stood to reason he had thought this way for a while. Meaning that he may have only just made the decision to reveal this bit of information. If she pushed him he could close up more than he had before. So she decided to try very neutrally and without sounding like she was interrogating him. "Gohan, the way you said that, I also noticed that your dad wasn't at your house and that you never talk about him...is-" she began but Gohan preempted her and responded.
"My father is dead..." Gohan said quietly still not looking at anyone and rather staring into space off to his side. Videl's eyes softened further and her heart clenched as she realised she was correct. She heard Erasa gasp in shock and saw her cover her mouth with her hand. Her face a visage of total shock and disbelief. Videl could almost sense her thinking 'Poor Gohan' from here. Hopefully she wouldn't say anything out loud about it. Especially anything that might make Gohan feel any worse than he must already. Thankfully it seemed Erasa could read Videl's mind too as she didn't say a word.
"I'm sorry I-" but for the second time today Gohan interrupted her, he had a hard look to his eyes and a slight scowl pulled over his face. Videl could tell the scowl wasn't at her for asking, she felt no anger or malice from the much taller teenager. But he was scowling nonetheless, probably at himself for showing weakness in front of people.
"It's fine" the father-less teen said in a tone of finality, as if to say that this conversation was over. But then he spoke again, his voice and features much softer this time, "It happened...a long time ago..." Gohan told them reassuringly before plastering a smile on his face that was only half legitimate, "Let's just enjoy the now alright? I don't really want to talk about it." He said politely and reasonably, seemingly with a level of control over his emotions now.
"Of course" Sharpener said, once again showcasing that he actually knew how to be sensitive to the feelings and wishes of others. Erasa nodded similarly and so did Videl.
"Yeah, let's just go enjoy one more-" but at that Videl heard a ringing from her watch. Her face immediately turned serious from happy. She pressed a button on the strange looking watch and a little screen opened up on it. "What is it captain?" She asked the watch.
"Videl! We have a situation of about a dozen criminals holding the mayor hostage. It appears that they are scarcely armed with real weapons and so we pushed them back to the building and surrounded them. However one man has an RPG and threatened to fire into the line of cars if we so much as moved from where we are. We need someone who can sneak in and deal with them at close-quarters. We tried your father but he is currently unreachable. Please hurry and help if you can!" The Police Captain urged of her.
"On my way!" She said dutifully before hanging up on her watch, she looked up at her friends apologetically, "Sorry guys gotta cut it short today! Police emergency!" She told them incase they hadn't heard what was being said. At that she bolted out the arcade for the exit of the store. Gohan knew that these were suspicious circumstances. Why would they be so lightly armed if they were capable of getting their hands on an RPG. And why did they just stay in the room like that after capturing the mayor. They had made no demands, no attempt to escape. Its almost like they were waiting for-
"Shit." Gohan thought, before beginning to walk as unsuspiciously as he was capable of. "Sorry you two but it's about time for me to be leaving anyway. Continue on without me if you want but I gotta start heading to my apartment. I have family coming over to visit." Gohan lied somewhat smoothly as it was easier when he didn't have to look them in the eye when he did it. They waved and said goodbye to him and as soon as he was out the store he began running, looking for the closest alley. It took him about 15 to find an alleyway he could actually use to stay hidden from the public bustling about on the pathways and such. He pulled off his shirt and dropped his bag beside him before turning Super Saiyan again. He shot up out of the alleyway high into the sky before reaching out with his Ki for Videl's signature. Once he found the crime-fighter among the hundreds of thousands of Ki's in her direction he zeroed in on it. Her Ki felt strange, as if she was on high alert, but she wasn't in battle yet as it was not fluctuating. Gohan figured that she must be sneaking around right now trying to find a way in. At Mach 4 Gohan soared right for the block she was at and made it in roughly 15 seconds. This hadn't been that far away at all, since it took Videl so long to get here and her jetcopter was capable of moving over half the speed of sound Gohan thought it would have been further away.
Then again, she would have to fly quite a lot slower since she was in a contraption made by man and so she didn't have full control over herself. With all the tall buildings around that probably isn't safe. Due to his ridiculous speed it took quite a while for the sound to catch up. When it did, once again the explosion from his breaking of the sound barrier caught up and everyone heard the bang and his sudden stop from that speed caused a rush of wind to blow through the area. Blowing police hats away and pulling at people's clothing. Gohan dropped down to where the Police officers were to offer them his help.
"I-it's you! The gold-haired superhero!" The officer managed to stammer out to Gohan who merely smiled gently at him. The captain wasn't quite sure how to feel about this guy. He HAD killed a criminal yesterday, and though he did it to save Videl, he wasn't authorised to do something like that. He wasn't a cop, he was just a Vigilante and killing a criminal - even when in the defense of an innocent - was illegal and grounds for arrest. But he definitely wasn't going to be the one to tell him.
"Yeah it's me, I'm here to help. Where's Videl?" Gohan asked
*WITH VIDEL: Meanwhile*
The short raven-haired girl worked her way around the building and heard the resounding boom of that superhero arriving. She scowled slightly, she didn't really need this help and while she wanted to talk to him, she really didn't want him interrupting her fight. With the possibility of him coming to help her any moment, Videl knew she needed to move fast. She peeked up over the wall into an open window and saw that there had been a guard at this window but he was facing away now as they were all focusing towards the front of the building at the sonic boom and chattering about what the sound had been.
She monkey-vaulted the windowsill silently, sitting herself on it with her hands placed firmly on it either side of her. She pushed herself up and shot her legs out before wrapping them around the window guard's throat and mouth. Leaning back out the window as far as she could she arched her back and placed her hands on the ground outside before rolling her whole body out with all her force, pulling the man out the building and throwing him over her onto the ground face-first. She just sat on the back of his neck with her legs wrapped around his throat until he fell unconscious. She stood up and, with all the grace of a cat, jumped into the building and landed, immediately going low. The next closest guy was about 10 feet ahead of her and was starting to turn around, as were a few others. They would see Videl any moment now. But the daughter of Mr Satan was determined to take full advantage of the element of surprise she held and take down at least one more guy. Staying low she bolted at the closest guy who saw her out his peripherals as he slowly turned around to face her. His eyes widened and videl sprang up to his head height, did a full spin before nailing the guy full force in the side of the head with her boot.
The criminal went sprawling across the ground, unconscious before he even hit the floor. By now everyone in the building had seen her and they were charging at her. Here was her advantage. Naturally some of the thugs were more nimble or faster than others so they would not all reach her at the same time. She ducked the punch of the first one to reach her, a thinner man of average height, she jumped up and kneed him in the stomach. He backed off momentarily as the second one, who had a similar build to the first only taller, reached the fight and threw a surprisingly clean kick at her. She stopped the kick with her forearms before launching forward and nailing him with an uppercut followed by a haymaker. She heard the crack of her fist - which was reinforced at the knuckles and padded everywhere else by gloves - against his skull as the man lost consciousness. The first guy had recovered by now and a third one had almost closed in. She slipped a jab from the first goon before kicking him on the inner thigh, near his knee. The man was buckled by this and could do nothing against the front kick that planted itself toe-first into his jaw, knocking him off his feet from the force. He was in a lot of pain and could not continue fighting just yet.
The third guy was quite large but due to his long legs, made his way close to the front of the pack. Videl was very careful to dodge and block any direct attacks as she knew that if one hit her she could be knocked out instantly. She swayed back from a spinning kick and dived to the side to avoid a big punch. As she recovered from her roll she noticed the fourth assailant had reached her and was coming up behind her. The big guy was already upon her winding up for another swing so all she did was side-step it, twisting her body to get the extra few inches to be sure she was not touched at all. And she watched the punch hit the fourth man directly in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him off his feet where he hit the ground head first. Videl cartwheeled away from the big guy who looked extremely confused as to what had actually happened.
It was then that one of the other criminals charged Videl and started shooting off punches and kicks. Videl slipped the jab and ducked the hook. The man went for a leg sweep but Videl was slightly faster and sprung from her crouched position backwards before landing on her hands and gracefully swinging her legs back beneath her. She jumped forward with a smirk on her face as she swung a leg at the still low man. However to her utter surprise he lifted his forearm and blocked her kick. She made a sound of surprise as he retaliated, capitalising on her distraction and ramming his opposite shoulder into her gut, winding her and knocking her backwards in mid-air. She hit the ground and managed to roll backwards over her shoulder onto her feet, stumbling back slightly as she had more momentum than she calculated.
The man charged her again and she attacked with a knee to the stomach. Her right knee merely met his left palm only inches from his stomach. He tried to throw a wide right elbow but her left hand moved up and caught the offending elbow. They pushed off from eachother.
*With Gohan: Meanwhile*
Gohan merely looked at the bank as he felt Videl's Ki spiking. She had been fighting 12 men in there and by the look of it, at least 3 were out of commission. Gohan turned his attention back to the police captain. Gohan had been about to ignore him and go in right after Videl, not needing a sitrep. But he had stopped when the man told Gohan that they were all unarmed except for one RPG which was for crowd control. Now why would they attempt to kidnap the mayor without weaponry. "Unless they're exceptional fighters..." Gohan thought to himself more as an afterthought then anything. He noted that they all had quite high Ki's as far as normal humans went. Some were even on Videl's level, but even that wouldn't be enough. Gohan knew he was missing something and the young Super hero didn't like it one bit. He felt something very off about this all and he sensed something. Not a Ki signature. A...presence. His instincts were trying to warn him about something and he didn't know what.
She was slightly winded but knew that she still had more than enough energy in her to take these criminals. Or at least she hoped so. As she blocked a straight punch with her lower forearm and attempted to counter only to be dodged and kicked at, forcing her to leap away from her opponent, she began to think that there had been a reason they were all unarmed and chose to only fight her in hand-to-hand combat. Because they were good, and as much as she hated to admit it, she actually probably wouldn't be capable of beating them all if the rest were at least close to the guy. At that thought someone new stepped in from the shadows. She wasn't quite sure where he came from, she hadn't seen him from before. Videl was frustrated by this and slightly concerned. "Fuck, just what I needed..." She thought. She was still fighting fairly evenly with the other guy but she knew she had the advantage over him. Videl made a habit of never going all out on criminals lest she hurt them too bad and be accused of police brutality.
Videl started fighting harder than she already was and noticed the immediate change in the direction of this fight. She threw a kick with her full force and the man blocked it still but was knocked off balance by the force. He staggered and a look of alarm passed over his face as he realised she hadn't been fighting at full capacity. He managed to block the next punch, but she was much faster and more powerful now. A leg kick slipped past his notice and it buckled him. Videl tried to press the advantage by leaping up to his head-height and throwing a dangerous knee at his jaw. The man twisted his head away from it and felt the knee graze his ear. He backed off and threw a punch that she deflected and countered by ramming her fist into his gut. He was winded and needed to get some space, he rolled back out of her range.
The figure from the shadows stepped forward into full view and Videl was shocked to see such a person. He was quite tall and obviously broad shouldered. He had Black hair pulled back into a braided ponytail and he had a mustache. He had a black long-sleeved Chinese style outfit with a pink tabard over the top that said 'kill you' along the back and he had the unconcious mayor underneath his arm. There was something very wrong about his eyes, he felt...wrong. Lifeless... He clapped at her performance with a mirthless grin. "You fight quite well Satan girl. However I regret to inform you that were you to defeat that fighter, all the others are either just as good or better than he is."
"No way! You're bluffing!" Videl declared with a hint of uncertainty in her tone that made the newcomer's sick grin stretch wider across his pale lips.
"I assure you that I am not bluffing, and even if you were to defeat them all, then you'd be faced with fighting me. And I assure you that is not a fight you would walk away from." The fighter implied with a tone that made Videl's skin pale at the sound. She steeled her nerve however and pressed for information.
"Well it's obvious that you aren't here for the mayor, you could have escaped by now, assuming what you say is true. Who are you and what do you want?" Videl asked of them, keeping an eye on the henchmen to be sure they weren't sneaking around her while the leader distracted her. Sure enough the henchman simply stood exactly where he had been when the leader walked out.
"Ahhh, the question I was hoping you would ask me. My name, miss Satan, is mercenary Tao. I am an assassin, trained in the ancient Crane Style of Martial Arts. And what I want is more complicated. I was trying to draw your father out but he isn't currently in the city and so instead I must settle on using you as bait when he returns. What I want is to defeat the strongest fighter on the planet and claim title of strongest on the planet. Surely he will come immediately when he finds out that his little girl is in danger." The man, now known as Tao, explained to her methodically and with little emotion in his voice.
"Well then why didn't you take me down immediately, instead of letting me fight and defeat your men?" She asked with suspicion. The man merely chuckled at her.
"I merely wanted to see the full extent of your power. And I am now sure that I can defeat you in one on one combat." Tao boasted, turning his back on her. Videl bristled at that remark.
"Oh yeah? How about you prove it!? Without the help of your lackeys!" Videl taunted the man, itching to punch this guy in the face. He stopped and stood still for a moment before turning back around to face Videl.
"Very well girl, let me see if my scanners were correct shall we?" He asked with a smirk on his face as he fell into a fighting stance. Videl wanted to ask what he meant by 'scanners' but was interrupted and forced to put the question aside in favour of fighting back when Tao charged her. She rolled to the side avoiding his charge. As he landed off behind her Videl spun around and leapt twisting her body into a mid-air side-kick. Tao side-stepped the kick and attempted to grab her leg. She barrel-rolled horizontally and Tao was forced to let go of her leg. Videl landed on her hands and knees and rolled on her side away from the axe-kick Tao launched at her. She got to her feet and looked in shock as he had buried his foot knee deep in the floor of the building. Videl had seen her father do stuff like that before but still, it meant that this guy may not be bluffing about his skill as a fighter.
Videl took advantage of his predicament and threw her body weight into a huge desperate superman punch to his jaw that knocked him backwards, the force enough to knock him back and pull his leg from the rubble. She knew this could get very bad very quickly if she didn't take him down. He flew backwards through the air and she shot after him, urgently needing to take him down, she caught up and was directly underneath the flying assassin. She jumped and then flipped upside down in mid-air and kicked upwards, hitting Tao in the back, sending him flying straight up. She watched as Tao soared up and slammed into the ceiling, going upwards to the next floor of the building. Videl saw Tao smash through the next ceiling through to the next floor above before hitting the ceiling of the next floor still. He didn't go through this one however and fell back down a few feet away from his entry point through the ceilings and fell through them yet again before coming back through to her level and smashing into the receptionist's desk and going through it to the hard floor. There was a mess of dust from the crushed marble floor and splintered wood from the desk everywhere. She relaxed and Videl felt tired for some reason. Like she had somehow exerted all of her energy in one attack. She had accomplished things she wasn't aware she could do. But it was done, the gold fighter would be here in a moment to help her with the stragglers.
But then there was movement. Videl caught it in her peripherals as she was about to turn around and lo-and-behold the mercenary was getting back to his feet. "But! But that's impossible! After something like that you should be cut up and broken! How can you even be conscious!?" Videl questioned out loud, though she wasn't quite expecting an answer as she was still trying to move past the fact that he had somehow got back to his feet, ready to keep fighting no less, even after that murderous onslaught Videl just pummeled him with. Now panic began to set in as she realised that Tao had not been bluffing. If an attack like that couldn't bring him down then nothing would.
Tao appeared in front of her like a horrible vision, fading into reality right before her eyes. She hadn't even seen the man move. She felt a fist embed itself into her stomach before she was hit in the temple by the top of a foot. She flew to the side and rolled, managing to get her feet under her. She blocked a karate chop aimed at her neck by catching his attack by the wrist. But before she could even attempt a counter she was kneed in the chin. This made her back up a bit, dazed. Tao leapt forward and she ducked a spinning kick to the face before rolling back to gain more distance but as she got back to her feet Tao wasn't infront of her. An elbow hit her in the center of her back and she flew forward and smashed into a wall, cracking it and causing bits of drywall to fall to the ground in flakes.
She struggled to her feet and turned her back to the wall, using it to support herself. She stumbled forward to meet Tao and blocked the first jab before deflecting a cross to her side with her free hand. Tao threw an arching elbow that she ducked and attempted to counter with an uppercut but Tao swayed back avoiding the blow before throwing a leg kick. Videl checked the blow to her leg so that she didn't buckle and took all the force out of it but couldn't defend against the lightning quick straight to her left cheek. She slipped the next punch before throwing a hook of her own that was ducked by Tao, who retaliated by placing a well timed elbow to Videl's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her. She began to fold inwards from the blow but Tao kicked her out the front doors of the building. Before she hit the ground however Tao caught her by the front of her shirt, suspending her in the air.
"Now, Satan girl, the world shall see you beaten and your father will come running to save y-."
"I wouldn't be so sure asshole." Gohan cut in, hair blazing gold and teal eyes full of silent hatred. Tao looked at him in confusion before a smirk came over his features. Tao tossed the barely conscious Videl back inside the building where she hit the ground and slid along it until coming to a complete stop. At that the assassin returned his attention to Gohan.
"So the son of Goku are we? Good, I can finally pay him back for what he did to me all those years ago." Tao remarked with a smugness that told Gohan he thought he had the advantage in knowing that information.
"Enough egotistical blabber Tao. I heard the stories about you, you were a horrible murderer OF whoever FOR whoever provided the right amount of money. People like you are the scum of the Earth. Or rather ex-people should I say?" Gohan added on with a smug smile of his own that had Tao reeling in shock. How could this boy know?
"Brat! How could yo-"
"How could I know that you aren't human? Simple, you think you're a great and powerful fighter, especially now that you're far stronger than you ever were but you're still ignorant to the abilities of a true warrior. Your body gave off no Ki signature. You think you know what strength is? Tao, I will show you strength..." Gohan, after cutting the cyborg man off for the second time, threatened with a dark tone to his voice as his eyes narrowed from dull anger to disguised killing intent.
"Pah! You're all talk boy! With my new implants that I took from the remains of Gero's lab I am exactly equal to the creature who walked the cities absorbing people for their life energy! Mind you this was a creature made to be stronger than the cyborgs who were built powerful enough to eliminate Goku! What chance does a boy like you have!?" Tao rattled off, throwing what he thought were intimidating facts, like they were bullets from a machine gun, "I will not-"
"Silence Tao." Gohan remarked abruptly, "I'm sick of you villain types and all your maniacal self-praising monologues." He spat sharply, words caustic as acid to Tao's pride. At that Gohan shot inside the building straight past Tao right as his remaining men were all in a circle around the crouched and beaten Videl. He kicked one of them in the cheek as he approached, landing perfectly in the position the man had been previously occupying.
"About...time you sh-rgh-showed up..." Videl wheezed out, but underneath her defiance Gohan could see well-hidden relief at his arrival, as well as hope. Gohan merely nodded at her with a softened gaze before turning to the stunned men who just seemed to process what had just happened. Right as they moved to react Gohan threw a pinpointed elbow strike to the neck of the thug on his right before turning his upper body to face the one on his left and striking him just under the jaw with two fingers, dropping them both effortlessly. Videl's eyes widened and she gasped at the ease with which he dealt with these men who were all at least as strong as she was.
"There's no way this can be real! Tao must have been overestimating his men because if they were all about as strong or more so then I am, then there's no way this guy could defeat them all so easily!" Videl thought with utter shock and denial before a mental image of the destruction in West City came to her mind, "...maybe not I guess..." She thought dejectedly at how outclassed she appeared to be.
Gohan easily slipped a right cross before, like a shadow on ice, smoothly and simply chopped the man on the unguarded side of his neck and she watched as his eyes rolled back and his body went limp. Another threw a kick at him from behind and he did little more then move to the side and catch the kick under his arm before throwing an elbow back that hit his offender in the center of his forehead, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. In a similar fashion Gohan evaded and incapacitated the last of Tao's men, leaving the assassin himself with wide eyes and an expression of disbelief.
Gohan's eyes flashed dangerously as he looked Cell in the eye, beginning a slow but steady approach towards the now mostly robotic assassin, his every step cracking the ground beneath him with the sheer mass of his energy. "It's really cute that you think that being as powerful as the version of Cell that absorbed citizens is an achievement." Gohan said casually, almost as if he were making idle chatter, but contrary to appearances loose rubble and light objects began to disobey gravity and slowly rise, and the epicenter of the anomaly seemed to be where Gohan was walking, "But enough talk, I don't plan on giving you the time of day to explain how royally fucked you are..."
And that's a wrap yet again. This chapter was a lot quicker to write. I am very quickly nearing the end of highschool so I'm almost done all my assignments and exams and whatnot. Which will give me an exponential increase of free time with which I can write more. Sound good? Now there were a couple of reviews that were asking questions so I'll attempt to answer them here.
DeinonychusL: Very observant of you. Won't say too much about this but suffice to say that this is a very different story then the one we know from the actual DBZ series. It'll be explained more in depth as time goes on.
Anonymous: You are correct that Dende in the anime already had the knowledge on how to create Dragonballs but this is an AU, and it wouldn't be very dramatic if they could simply use the Dragonballs at every turn. So to solve this I changed some things about how Senzu Beans and Dragonballs work in this fic but they will be explained with time. But for a short answer about Piccolo not just being given a Senzu, the main issue for him personally is that as a Namekian, it is stated that he does not eat food. He only has to consume water to live. Yes in some filler episodes they have him being implied to eat food with Goku and his family but those were filler episodes not written by Toriyama alone. So technically senzu beans should never have worked on Piccolo since he doesn't have the same digestive system as we do as it is made only for water and not solids. So I have come up with a solution to how this will be dealt with later but for now Senzu beans are a no go for Piccolo. Also without Goku around none of them have anyway of contacting King Kai. Also I made the hierarchy system much more strict in this. You will see more as it goes on but basically Kai's aren't really allowed to communicate with mortals except in dire circumstances. And none of them know how to use instant transmission anyway so even if they were to find a way to communicate with King Kai and find New Namek there would be no conceivable way for them to get there due to how mindbogglingly far away it is. Also about Piccolo's healing factor, in the manga it was stated that Piccolo could only regenerate if the organ in his brain that allowed him to heal was in good condition. As I explained earlier that organ was damaged in the fight with Cell and so his body is taking much longer than normal to heal itself. Thanks for the review as I enjoy explaining and talking about the technical parts of the show.