Gohan dropped Sharpener off at the hospital receiving scared, nervous and angry expressions from the staff and other patients, "Sheesh, tough crowd" he thought to himself as he left the hospital, "some of those people look like they hate me" Gohan remarked internally, wondering at the refusal of the human race to believe anything that seemed impossible to them. His thoughts quickly changed course however when he started thinking about what he heard from those crooks. They wanted Videl…that was the second batch of crooks that wanted Videl. It couldn't be a coincidence, Tao had said something about a plan to take over the world, but Gohan never asked more about it. "Idiot!" It definitely wasn't Tao, Gohan was 100 percent sure he was completely destroyed…which meant… "Dammit! How could I have not seen this?! There is someone who Tao was working for! He couldn't have fixed himself up like that! And because I destroyed him I now have no way of knowing who or what I'm looking for! Fuck!" the self-berating that he endured fueled his anger to melting point. The Ki surrounding him turned the air hot and humid. It brewed the clouds around him as he flew. He noticed what he was doing and reined his energy in. He was not eager to reawaken the power that defeated Cell above an unsuspecting city. He took deep breaths and an idea hit him like lightning. The criminals he beat down, surely one of them must know something about it. He abruptly changed direction and flew towards the police station, the two he beat today should still be there, no way a court date would have even been organized for them yet. He sensed that Videl was still there. That was fortunate, she at least trusted him to SOME degree. He didn't think he could deal with a bunch of skeptical, stuck-up, useless Police Officers right now…okay maybe that was a bit harsh but seriously they should listen to him! He'd been involved in saving their asses from Aliens plenty of times, he knew what he was doing!
He reached the Police Department and dropped out of the air just at the bottom of the steps that led to the front door, stunning a few officers into dropping their coffees and lunches. One of them was so alarmed by his sudden close proximity that he reached down and grabbed his gun, upholstering it with lightning speed…for a human. Right as the officer opened his mouth to say something and began bringing his gun upwards Gohan cut him off without so much as looking at him. "That weapon is unnecessary officer I mean you no harm" Gohan started off, polite as ever, but still the alarm remained and the officer now had his gun pointed at Gohan's chest. Gohan sighed but did not comment on it, he understood that his Super Saiyan form made him look somewhat aggressive and unapproachable, and he instead tried continuing in polite fashion.
"Put your hands on the back of your head and step back sir!" he commanded, authority in his tone. It was obvious he was an experienced officer. Gohan complied, slowly raising his hands, palm open in the air before bringing them to the back of his head, and taking a few drawn out steps backward.
"Officer I'm being compliant with you as I am not here to hurt you. If you have not already recognized me by my glow, I am Saiyaman" he began, volume low and speech measured. He really wanted to avoid unnecessary confrontation with the city's law enforcement. Not that they could do anything to him, but he figured it would yield no conceivable benefit and would more than likely cause issues for him later down the road. Staying on good terms with the people here would make his job much smoother, and less troublesome. "The gold man who's been helping out in the city recently, I only came here to talk to Videl Satan." He explained, his eyes closed and hands in plain sight, appealing to their helpful nature.
"I know who you are" the officer revealed with an equally measured tone, "but that doesn't mean I trust you." He continued, with an edge to his voice that concerned the young Saiyan. What was that supposed to mean?
"At ease Lieutenant!" a familiar, feminine voice called out from behind the twitchy police officer, who also seemed to recognise the voice, and so he lowered his weapon and gave Saiyaman an extremely critical look-over before turning to see Videl come bounding down the stairs. "What are you doing here Saiyaman? Where's Sharpener? I thought you were taking him to the hospital?" Videl questioned, voice quickly growing more and more urgent and frenzied.
Gohan held his palms up placatingly, "Your friend is just fine. I already took him to the infirmary" at the look of disbelief and incredulity on Videl's face the proclaimed Super Hero preempted her next words and answered so as to save time, "Yes I'm aware that I'd have to be going faster than humanly possible to do that. As I am now I can fly at about 4 times the speed of sound, I explained this remember?" he asked somewhat impatiently. He didn't mean to be irritable, he just felt pressed for time to try and collect and compile all the information about this plot as he could. Her life depended on this!
"Oh, well than why are you here?" the girl asked, doing her best to make a rudely-worded sentence sound proper and polite.
"Videl this may be a bit much for you to take in and hear right now considering the situation with your friend that just took place, but I have reason to believe that there is an illegally funded criminal plot to have you murdered." Gohan told her, gripping both of her shoulders gently as he told her with a calm voice that was clearly avoiding making her worry or freak out about it. That was the opposite of what he wished to achieve. Gohan was instead hoping that he could gain the aid of the police force and their resources, or at least Videl and her attuned people sense and detective ability, both of which Gohan did not quite possess.
Videl looked shocked but otherwise unaffected by his words, "Are you sure?" she asked him, voice low as she pulled Gohan further away from the police station, looking around as if checking that they were alone, "Are you REALLY sure?" she asked again. She didn't want to hear 'maybe's or 'possibly's in a situation like this.
"I'm sure" Gohan verified with certainty before he cocked his head slightly at her and his face twisted into confusion as he scratched his head, "This doesn't surprise you" it wasn't a question, rather a statement of fact evidenced through observation of the girl before and after telling her.
Videl sighed heavily and placed her hands on her hips, looking at the ground while lightly chewing her bottom lip out of nervous habit, "Not really no, the amount of criminals I put away and the state I leave them in makes me wonder why a massive target wasn't painted on my back sooner…"she sounded uncharacteristically put-out at this. Videl was normally a girl of headstrong action. She reveled in facing new and difficult challenges regardless of the potential consequences should she fail, another aspect of her personality that reminded Gohan of his late father. Yet here she was, looking almost apprehensive about something for a short time before her face shot up to look at him, eyes wide with the realisation of something. Uh oh, she looked like she was going to ask him something. "Saiyaman?" she had a slightly guilty look on her face but her eyes contained hope, what for Gohan had no idea.
He considered not allowing himself the possibility of getting roped into something by flying off without responding, but he knew what his mother would do if she even HEARD that he did something like that. And if Videl was anything like his mother then GOD FORBID he do something like that directly to her. So instead he played the game of chance and awaited his fate to come kick him in the dragon balls like it always did.
Videl seemed to take his silent response (which came in the form of him staring at her while his face ran through a series of different emotions, as if he was having an internal struggle before it settled on what appeared to be acceptance and he refocused his attention on her) to mean that he was listening since she continued, "Could you do me a big favour and not tell anyone about this?" She asked him almost pleadingly, again this was unlike the Videl he knew.
"If you want me to even consider keeping it a complete secret then you have to tell me why." Gohan bargained, trying to get some kind of context to this whole situation.
Videl frowned slightly but didn't argue, "If you tell anyone, even a random civilian on the street, even if you leave them with no evidence whatsoever to back it up, it will spread like wildfire" she began, and Gohan was beginning to see where this might be going.
A few moments of silence passed and the Saiyan raised an eyebrow at the girl, seemingly unimpressed at the fact that she thought he had heard enough, "Continue." He pressed, moving his finger to draw a circle in the air in the universal symbol for "move it along".
Videl rolled her eyes and huffed in frustration at the Super Hero, "Duh! My name is so big around here that news will quickly spread to every media outlet, possibly world wide! Everyone will know! And if the Police chief knows there's a plot to have me killed…" her voice trailed off and she blushed, desperately trying to turn her head in a way that hid her burning cheeks.
For her sake Gohan pretended not to see it, and instead finished the explanation for her, "Then you'll be taken off duty and put under maximum protection, forced to stay in your home until its resolved." Gohan finished as an educated guess. He realised now what had made Videl seem deflated and nervous, it was the prospect that she might not be ALLOWED to face this new challenge at all, and would instead be grounded like some little kid. It would be a serious blow to her warrior spirit. Gohan could definitely sympathise with that notion.
"Exactly…Its not fair! I know me better than them, I could stay one step ahead of them, lure them, trap them! That's why you can't tell anyone! How will I ever progress if I'm not allowed to fight my own battles?" she questioned, obviously more to herself than with Gohan, and seemed emotionally invested in it.
He folded his arms and walked a few steps beyond her, looking out at the rest of the city in silence for a while before responding, obviously thinking of the correct response. "Videl the caliber of the people they're sending for you, its not something you could handle. Plus since the department wouldn't know, if you were to be captured or worse no one would know how or why. To be brutally honest with you Videl its too dangerous and you have no chance on your own. It would be in your best interest to stay in your home until everyone involved is caught and dealt with." Gohan finally said, there was no emotion in his statement. He held no malice or anger or arrogance or even sympathy, he merely stated the facts and made sure it was clear.
Videl's fists clenched and her eyes screwed shut, her body quaked with frustration, but also with sadness, a crushed ego, and a feeling of weakness. She felt so useless and it was made so much worse by the fact that the unstoppable Super Hero was not only the one to tell her, but would probably enforce it so she had no chance of sneaking out and doing it of her own accord. She felt a pain where her heart was and almost felt like she would cry.
"That being said…I completely agree with you." He added suddenly with a tone of consideration to his voice. Videl looked up at him in surprise and confusion. "You cannot grow as a fighter if you aren't allowed to fight your own battles. And being held back from testing yourself and trying is hard, trust me I know. My warrior spirit sympathises with your situation…" still Videl wasn't quite sure where Saiyaman was going with this. "I wasn't exaggerating when I said you had no chance on your own. And it's tue that no one else in the world will know what happened to you if you were to be captured or killed, so I suppose since I know it's up to me to make sure that doesn't happen…" hope began to fill up Videl's being now, she stared in complete shock at what Saiyaman was suggesting. "Videl, I will allow you to take this on, but I will be stepping in if at any point you are about to die." The girl couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sure she was a little disappointed at first that she wouldn't be allowed to handle it completely by herself but after remembering Tao and his men her disappointment was overshadowed by her understanding and acceptance.
"Saiyaman I don't know what to sa-" she was interrupted before she could finish however.
"I'm not quite done yet. As you are now, you are quite strong for a normal human, but if I'm to be frank, you're weak in the grand scheme of things."
Videl burned to argue back about that but she held her tongue as first of all she feared he may take back his generosity should he feel disrespect from her, and secondly, who was she to tell a Super Hero with his abilities that she was strong?
"But during your fight with Tao, I sensed something in you…" he trailed off mysteriously. "For a short time your power increased dramatically, you became even a tenth of my current power, which may not sound like much but trust me for a human like you, that's impressive." He complimented.
Videl caught the "human" remark but decided to file that information away for later, "Okay but so what. I haven't gotten any stronger in quite a while now. I think I've hit my limit so I hope you don't have high hopes for me…" the Raven-haired girl responded dejectedly.
Gohan merely chuckled at her, shaking his head slightly. "You may have reached your limit for training how you have been. But you haven't even begun to tap into your real power." Gohan explained, instantly piquing Videl's interest. "Videl I set you a task earlier, to discover something about how I do what I do. I'll tell you what, if you can find something about it and gain even a vague understanding of it, I'll teach you it as best I can." He propositioned her.
Her eyes almost bugged out of their sockets at this, "You-You'll teach me it? It can be taught!?" she near-screamed in excitement and shock.
Gohan nodded her an affirmation, his back still facing her "Mhm, at least most of it. It would entail flying, blasts like the "lasers" I shoot, enhanced strength and speed, that kind of thing." He told her.
Videl's eyes began watering up and she could barely hold it back. He was going to teach her to fly and be a Super Hero, it was any kids dream, but better yet, he was going to teach her to become a stronger fighter than she ever could have been on her own. "Thank you…thank you Saiyaman." She tremored out.
This was a side to the girl that, before now, Gohan doubted even existed, let alone that he would ever see with his own eyes. It was the only real indication that as strong as she was, Videl was still human and female, and she had emotions. It really opened Gohan's mind up to what her life must be like and how it all affects her. He turned enough that she could see his face and it was stretched in a friendly grin, "Don't thank me yet, you still have some homework to do before I'll teach you." He reminded with a playful, teasing tone.
And just like that Videl's expression became determined, and her spirit came back in full, making Gohan smile even wider. Suddenly before either could say another word to the other an explosion rang out, shaking the whole station and putting both fighters on high alert immediately. Videl ran straight for the front doors while Gohan took a moment to reach out with his energy and feel out for whatever caused that. He felt a few Ki's right where he felt the explosion from however they seemed excited. Then they began quickly disappearing, one-by-one, as if they were all dying instantly and frequently amongst themselves. But how could that be possible, if they were being killed that quickly and suddenly then there would be panic among the survivors, they would be running away from whatever it was. But they all seemed eager and happy and were staying where they were. Gohan observed the Ki's of Videl and what must have been officers rushing towards the room in a group. 2 of them were way closer than the group and entered the room ahead of them and Saiyaman sensed quick flickers of energy and suddenly one of the 2 Officers faded to nothing while the other was alive but barely. It was down to the last few signatures in the immediate vicinity and they were disappearing fast. He had a bad feeling about all this. Gohan growled with frustration and moved quickly.
Videl was running towards the source with a group of other officers, she didn't know what Saiyaman was doing but knew better than to question the wise and helpful hero, and instead focused on getting to the blast site as quickly as possible. By now she had figured out the blast originated in the room where they temporarily held the suspects and that didn't bode well. Suddenly Saiyaman phased into existence right before her, grabbed her by the wrist and suddenly the world blurred into indescribable blends of colour and she felt dizzy. The world then came into focus and she found herself being steadied by Saiyaman in the hall that ran along the line of cells. Saiyaman arrived just in time to see what looked like a silver skeleton pull a cell door open. Gohan immediately noticed that it had no Ki. The strange being reached inside the cell and pulled out a criminal. Seemingly upon making contact with the criminal, his Ki disappeared suddenly. The silver man turned and saw Gohan and Videl and raised his arm. The appendage seemed more like a cannon and it began to hum and whir. It seemed to be charging and suddenly it fired, and at the moment it fired Gohan sensed the attack, which was also mentally noted. He pulled Videl behind him and took the attack head on and felt a slight burn but was otherwise unaffected. His first reaction was an urge to fire back but stopped himself quite quickly because if he fired the prisoner would be caught in the crossfire.
Gohan lowered his arm and watched it dive through a wall before disappearing down a hole in the ground on the other side. He could have chased but he saw the still living injured Police officer on the ground dying and decided that he was the only chance he had to survive. Gohan crouched over his injured form and checked him over for injury. He noted the sizeable hold in the right side of his chest. Thinking back on the attack he began to piece together information about these foes. That blast it fired at Gohan, it wasn't spiritual energy, it was some kind of Plasma/laser weapon, unlike Tao. Granted that one had been very weak but who knew if that was simply fired to kill a human or otherwise weak target, perhaps it could amp up the attack far beyond what it had displayed.
Gohan transferred a little bit of energy to the injured officer, "Videl, he has enough time for you to get him to the hospital! You take him, I'll follow that tunnel and see where it leads." Be detailed, expression serious.
"What? You're going to follow them!?" Videl questioned incredulously. Saiyaman would be heavily outnumbered down there and these weren't just everyday crooks, who knew what they were capable of!?
"I know what you're thinking but I have to! Those crooks they spring free, they're the only ones who might have information about who's trying to have you killed, and its no coincidence that a group of killer robots broke in and took them away." Gohan explained, thinking back to Tao. Tao had been confident he would be able to beat Gohan and so the Saiyan never considered that he hadn't been 100% truthful about the nature of his plans and his reasoning for luring out Videl. But it was apparent he had only told Gohan a half-truth. Or at the very least, their plan had evolved since Gohan defeated Tao. But why? Now that they knew Gohan was a factor in the fight they were simply making their job riskier. Then again, perhaps they were incompetent and hadn't been watching closely. It WAS entirely possible that they had failed to realize be got more powerful when he was angered and simply thought that if capturing Videl would call him out, then killing her would take her out the picture and Gohan wouldn't be able to simple rescue her. If that was the case they had made a serious oversight. After all, it made no sense that they could want Gohan to get angry…
Shaking his head clear he nodded to Videl and then turned and jumped out the window and took off, flying down the hole and following the tunnel's path. He weaved around winding turns and avoided outcroppings as if he saw them all in slow motion, never slowing down from just below Mach speed. He flew for a while and began to hear a growing hum. He slowed down now, dropping to the ground of the tunnel and walking. There was a big corner up ahead and he could see a bright red light, shining from beyond it. As he approached it Gohan tried to get a sense of what it was. He felt an energy signature, very similar to the one that he sensed when they fired their lasers. But it was much larger and stationary. He guessed that it was the hum he heard and thought it may be some kind of generator. He found himself very wrong.
As Saiyaman rounded the corner he came face to face with what appeared to be a massive cannon, pointing at him with a huge red ball of plasma or similar, bigger than him in fact, at the far end of the barrel. He had walked into a trap, "Fuck!" it fired and struck Gohan full on. He screamed aloud and felt his back hit the wall of the corner, the blast became unstable and it burned hotter, beginning to expand. It was going to explode and take out a good chunk of the city with it. Gohan wouldn't be killed by such a blast normally, but it wasn't Ki, if was made up of something Gohan had not encountered before, in real life of in his many books. The explosion would possibly be nuclear and could radiate him beyond repair. At this range it could burn so hot he was cooked alive or even melted, he would likely not survive.
The Saiyan teen closed his eyes in preparation for the end and was almost frightened when instead of darkness he saw Videl, staring back at him with a frown that quickly turned into a distraught expression, "Please don't leave me…" she begged softly with tears brimming in her eyes. His eyes flew open and he was overcome with anger, "no….no! NNN-AAAUUUGH!" his no blended into a warcry and his energy soared for a moment. How much by he didn't know, but he used his energy to contain the blast within the tunnel as best he could and infused his body with energy. It detonated in his face and his warcry was slowly over-shadowed by the horrible fumbling of the explosion that rocked the city.
Moments before: With Videl
Videl was flying her jet-copter towards the hospital when she heard a deep rumble and the whole city seemed to shudder. She looked back and saw a huge area of road begin to bulge outward as if something was pressing against it from underneath. The people around it either reversed as far as they could or got out of their vehicles and backed far away, then suddenly it stopped expanding and a tunnel of red light pierced the road and shot into the sky just over the city, the rumble got much louder and if one listened they could hear a prolonged scream bellowed alongside it, before the light faded to nothing. The rumbling subsided and the people nearest where it came from stood enraptured by what they had seen. "Saiyaman!" she thought instantly, terrified for her new partner. She was torn, this officer needed to be hospitalized as soon as possible but who knew how much help Saiyaman needed. And saving him would save potentially hundreds more lives, but she couldn't play favourites with lives, the officer was with her right now and there was DEFINITELY a possibility of him surviving. Videl squeezed her eyes shut and turned away from where the blast had come from, knowing that she would have to leave Saiyaman for now. She set her jet-copter to move at faster than legal speeds and shot for the hospital, if she moved fast enough she could get back in time to help Saiyaman...hopefully.
Meanwhile: With someone
A man was training in a mountain range not far from the city named after the afro guy when he felt something he had not felt in quite a while, a large energy blast. Lately he had been sensing a lot of strange things. People powering up, large destructive battles. But this was the first time in a long time he could claim he sensed a truly large blast. At first he chose to simply ignore it, even as he felt a fading Ki near the center of it. He continued shadow-boxing. Fighting an opponent only he could see, only he could envision, only he could challenge. His fists flew and his muscles rippled, stretching the now faded scars his torso and body were covered in. But something nagged at him and ate at his conscience. He felt guilty for deciding to leave whoever it was to die slowly amongst that blast. But why? No human could survive long enough for him to get there and help anyway. Yet still he felt as if he were betraying an old friend by not going, as preposterous as that sounded. Once again he tried to return to his training but again he felt a spiritual pull towards the life form. A deep urgency to go help them, so deep that he couldn't shake it. Something, or someone was trying to tell him he needed to get down there right now. As much as the old fighter thought he must be going insane after all these years of solitude, he decided that it could not hurt and if it would make the turmoil in his heart stop it was worth at least checking it out for himself. And so with that in mind, and for the first time in many years, a sense of purpose in his heart, he shot towards the area he had felt the blast come from, intent on saving whoever it was that had been unfortunate enough to get caught in something as massive as that, he just hoped he made it in time to help this time around.
That's it again everyone. Another chapter, much faster than the last one as promised. So for those wondering the substance that makes up the blasts that these new baddies are using is not a real element, or even a pre-existing fictional element as far as I know. There was nothing that quite had the properties I required to make it work how I wanted to I made up one. Have no name for it yet but I'll come up with one when I need it. Anyway, who wants to guess who the mysterious fighter is that's on his way to help Gohan? Take a guess come on, bet you won't guess it. Anyway, until next time everybody.