Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ
...
Videl allowed herself to collapse in her bed, the comfort of the mattress straining under the amount of weight that the raven haired girl carried on her wrists and ankles. While the training that she had undertaken in the park was nothing out of the ordinary, she still found it difficult to consider anything she did under Gohan's rule ordinary. The monkey bars today had been especially difficult, a ridiculous amount of weight pulling her down. One of the most awkward thing was though was the fact that they hadn't escaped the eyes of the paparazzi.
While Gohan hadn't particularly felt any hassle from the flash of the cameras, Videl felt the pressure upon her; not only did she have the crazy challenge that Gohan had set upon her but she also had the fact that if she were to fail in any way the cameras would have swooped all over her. It was interesting to see though that despite some of the people getting right up in Gohan's face asking him questions he ignored them all the way through the training session, only speaking when barking orders to Videl.
Pushing herself onto her back so that she didn't suffocate into the blankets, Videl contemplated the next challenge she had to face. While her classmates had openly shown their excitement for the challenge that Gohan had faced, the teachers had not shied away from giving them their homework. With three assignments due by the morning, Videl was well aware that she didn't have any time to spare. While her mind was keen to not fail any of the tasks before her, her body refused to cooperate.
The buzzing of her phone caused her to flounder around for the device, the weight on her arm making it significantly much more difficult than one would imagine for such a simple task. Eventually her fingers gripped around the item and she answered it, quickly putting it on speaker as she doubted she had the strength to put the phone to her ear. "What do you want?" she asked without even knowing who it was.
"Oi Videl, you checked the news yet?" said Erasa from the other side of the line.
"If it's something about my dad being humiliated, tell me about it tomorrow," said Videl not really knowing what her friend was going on about.
"I'm not sure if it's humiliating but he says that one of his students found drugs in Gohan's bag while he was fighting!"
"Drugs?" repeated Videl suddenly feeling the exhaustion clear from her system.
"You know, those performance enhancing ones," said Erasa. "He says that it's only because of those Gohan was strong enough to even have taken out one of his guys."
Videl couldn't help but bite at her lower lip as she forced herself to sit upright. She was well aware of the pride that her father had but for him to openly decree to the media that Gohan had been using steroids or something potentially worse was maddening. To go so far as to blame Gohan's victories on something into his bloodstream was absurd considering she had seen her teacher fight against Eighteen in a contest that still left her mind reeling when thinking back on it.
She could hear Erasa saying something over the other side of the line but Videl found herself contemplating all of the things that Gohan had done that simple seemed impossible. From having liften the seating complex in the gymnasium to jumping from rooftop to rooftop far enough that Olympic competitors would be jealous. Even though he had said that he had been training since he was a child and for months upon end with little rest there was only so much that the human body could go before being ripped apart from the inside.
Due to his extreme training regime, could Gohan actually be taking some sort of drug in order to prevent his body from shutting down on him.
"VIDEL!"
"What!"
"The TV presenter just said that Gohan has been suspended from school until the issue has been resolved and that if what your Dad says is true Gohan faces expulsion."
"Shit," cursed Videl.
"Do you think Gohan even knows what's going on, he lives out in the middle of nowhere remember, do they even get TV service out there?" asked Erasa, the question a genuine one that Videl couldn't answer.
"I don't know E but I'm going to get to the bottom of this," declared Videl.
"How do you plan on doing that?" asked Erasa. "I doubt your father is going to simply tell you everything he said was a lie. Plus who are they more likely to believe, a teenage high school student or the man that saved the world? Face it, Gohan pissed off your Dad and he can't stand it."
"Is there any proof to any of this other than the word of one of Dad's students?" asked Videl.
"They're showing the footage of the last fight where Gohan seemed to get really sluggish and started taking hits. Your Dad says that an honest fighter who had shown the skill that Gohan had earlier wouldn't have had any of those hits land, let alone allow him to be taken out of the competition after only a couple of blows. Even the weights that Gohan left behind, it took twelve people to move them, twelve! I mean I know Gohan's strong but can he really carry that much without getting tired? Also they're using the fact that Gohan avoided all the media after the fight as an excuse."
"Thanks for letting me know," said Erasa. "I'm going to clear this up right now."
"What are you going to do? Like I said I doubt your Dad's going to simply tell you the truth."
Erasa had actually raised a good point, what could she actually do at this stage? The answer however came to her when her eyes had drifted to the ankle weights strapped to her legs and the branding shone out to her like nothing else. "I'm going to West City."
...
While the idea had sounded good at the time, Videl had struggled to get her body to move and in turn the time it had taken to get to West City had been a lot longer than she had anticipated. With the sun setting in the distance and her standing outside of one of the biggest businesses in the world Videl couldn't help but feel that this had been a stupid idea from the get go. She had been irrational in her thinking and as a result she was nowhere near her home and more likely than not the employees of Capsule Corp had gone home for the night. Somewhere in the back of her mind she could hear one of Gohan's lessons repeating itself but she did her best to not pay it any attention as she rummaged around her back pocket for where her jet capsule would be.
Before her fingers grasped around the small device however the door to the building swung open revealing a blue haired woman with a cigarette between her fingers. "You going to come in or stand in front of my door all night?" she asked as she raised the cigarette to her fingers before igniting it.
"You know those things will kill you," said Videl.
"So will attempting to beat up criminals when you're unprepared," she replied without a second thought as she took a big drag before expelling the smoke upwards. "So what can I do you for?"
While neither of them had introduced themselves they had a mutual understanding of who each other were, or so Videl thought. The raven haired girl found Bulma mildly intimidating knowing just how much power this woman held. "There are a few things I want to ask," she said.
"Of course there are, I'll hazard a guess that they're about your sensei," replied Bulma as she leant against the window. "Don't look so surprised, it was the only thing on the news all day."
"Fair enough then," said Videl as she crossed her arms doing her best to not be intimidated. Some of Gohan's lessons were pounding on her brain now as she remembered that in order to obtain her objective she had to remain calm yet show some manner of strength.
"I can see Gohan's lessons already," said Bulma as she took another drag.
"What?"
"You may not remember it but we met each other a long time ago, seven years in fact during your father's ceremony for having defeated Cell," said Bulma.
Videl meanwhile was searching her memory banks for such an event, mildly recalling the actual party and how she had been shown to everybody as the 'daughter of the world's saviour.' Looking back on it it had been no surprise that she had burrowed the memory so deep within her mind. While she had first loved the fact that she was Hercule's daughter she had soon begun to loathe the fact that she was seen as nothing more than her father's child.
Scratching at that memory, Videl recalled hundreds of people introducing themselves to her before she was herded off to speak to the next person who was always equally or even more important. During most of the festivities however there had been one person whom she hadn't been introduced to but she always saw her out of the corner of her eye, sitting at a table in an elegant gown yet looking like she hated the fact she was there.
"I see you remember it," said Bulma as she took another drag from her cigarette. "We may not have been formally introduced but there was no need. I think I still have the email somewhere on file about how your father had been furious about how I had been what he called 'moody' but in much more colorful terms. I hated that night with a passion, it was actually the night when I first took up smoking if only so when the day comes where I die of lung cancer I can blame your father."
"Why were you so upset?" asked Videl recalling the scowl that had been plastered upon Bulma's face.
"You may learn in time but that's not what you came here to ask is it," said the blue haired technician as she brought the topic back to the original conversation. "Considering the fact that you actually flew here after the news reports about Gohan being on some kind of drugs in order to enhance his strength."
Biting at her inner lip, Videl asked her question. "Would it be possible to use some manner of drugs in order to increase one's strength to something extraordinary?"
"Well you could have worded that better," said Bulma nonchalantly as she tapped her cigarette causing a small bit of ash to drop to the floor. "So you came here figuring that if anybody could create something similar to a steroid yet with the effect being hundreds of times greater there would only be one person who could create it."
While Videl didn't say it outloud she was surprised by just how much Bulma could figure out by everything that hadn't been said. "Well," continued Bulma as she rubbed the back of her neck, "I guess if I wanted to I could create something like that in a couple of months."
"So then nothing like that has been created then," stated Videl reading between the lines.
"Of course not, something like that falling into the wrong hands could be devastating," said Bulma. "I can see though that you're not convinced Gohan's strength truly is his own, it's written all over your face. Eighteen told me about the fight that she had with Gohan and how she had hated having to hold back so much just that you'd be able to see what was going on."
Again, Videl was reading between the lines understanding that Eighteen seemingly was a mutual friend of Bulma and Gohan hinting that the tech genius and Gohan likely knew each other personally. "Let me tell you a story," said Bulma as she tossed the cigarette she had smoked to the ground before stamping on the remainder and crushing it beneath her feet. "When I was a girl I went on an adventure, driving around by myself on what others had deemed a wild goose chase. On this journey I met Gohan's father when he was just a boy out in the woods who had no idea what even a car was. I remember when he saw me in one, he actually picked up the car and threw it thinking that it had eaten me. He picked up a car and threw it like it was a baseball when he was twelve years old!"
"What the heck," said Videl in disbelief.
"I don't blame you, if I hadn't been the one in the car at the time I doubt I would have believed it myself."
"So Gohan's strength is genetic then?"
"One half genetic one half strict teachers," declared Bulma. "Gohan had enormous potential from a young age, even more than his father. When he was barely five he had the ability to take on almost anything the world could throw at him. I kid you not I saw the boy get driven three feet into the ground before brushing it off as if it was nothing, and that was during training purposes. I understand that this is hard to comprehend Videl but you have to understand that this is all physically possible."
While Bulma was saying it it still was theoretically possible it was still difficult for Videl to comprehend. If everything she had said was true, just what was Gohan's true strength?
"Considering that there is undoubtedly doubt still in your mind, I'm going to make a couple of calls and arrange something for you," said Bulma. "Before you argue about it know that I'm doing this for both you and Gohan."
"What are you talking about?" asked Videl.
"Gohan's too much like his father," said Bulma. "He will gladly carry every single burden upon his back just so that nobody else gets hurt, even the things that will eventually tear away at him from the inside."
Videl swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat as she saw Bulma whip out a pen and a piece of paper. "I'm going to call up the media tomorrow and sort all of this junk out, I'd do it tonight but I find entertainment in some of the shit that people post on random forums. You however are not going to be going to school tomorrow; I doubt you're thinking this but if you were going to argue about how you were going to go learn trust me when I say that you'll be learning a hell of a lot more than you would at school. Here," she concluded as she handed Videl the notepad.
"What's this?"
"These are the coordinates you'll fly to tomorrow," declared Bulma.
"Are you serious, just how high up is this thing?" asked Videl as she looked at the directions Bulma had given her.
"It's up there, trust me," said Bulma with a cheeky grin. "I left a note on the back there which should get you easy access."
"What am I meant to do up there?" asked Videl.
A devious smile plastered across Bulma's face. "You're going to visit the Pendulum Room."
...
Hope you enjoyed.