DRAGON BALL GT: BEYOND
Arc 2: Pan's Journey
It had been several days since the Dondoro incident. Though to the Z Fighters, they didn't come off as the biggest threat to Earth, despite Dondoro's ultimate weapon…
To the rest of the world, they had a lot to deal with. Many cities were victims of collateral damage as they were caught in the raging battles between Dondoro's soldiers and the Z fighters. The worst of it was West City, which had the battles between Dondoro and Yamu vs Vegeta and the others. Although casualties were low, destruction was beyond reasonable. Bra, being the humanitarian she was since Super 17's rampage, gave Vegeta the earful after looking through damage reports.
But to Mr. Satan, there was something far worse than the near-destruction of the city, or even the Earth…
There were several news outlets there that day to capture his big announcement of passing the torch to his beloved granddaughter, only for them all to film said granddaughter being beaten in one hit by the enemy. Polls were already in, and more than 90 percent of the public had lost their faith in Pan being their new World Champion protector…
"We've got to work some major damage control here, people!" Satan announced to his PR team in the conference room of his dojo, "How do we fix this?! How can we make Pan popular with the crowd once again?!"
"Well for starters," one of the PR men spoke up, "Perhaps we can get Pan some more proper training to better prepare her for the role of-"
"Are you saying my training wasn't enough for her?!" Mr. Satan slammed his fists into the table and glared daggers at the man, who wisely kept silent. He angrily looked over at the rest of the board, who remained quiet as well. Unfortunately, the silence meant another answer…
Mr. Satan frowned in response. "Who am I kiddin'?" he muttered, "I know Pan ain't strong enough to take on a serious threat… The problem is, we don't need the whole world knowin' the same thing! There's got to be a way we can present Pan as a worthy successor without actually turning her into one of them Super Saiyan delinquents."
"Well, who were those men that took out those aliens and destroyed that weird machine?" one of the PR members asked.
"Oh. Family friends," Mr. Satan replied, "One of them is my son-in-law. He's the one that really killed Cell, but remember, that information NEVER leaves this room, less I take away your pensions!"
Alas, Mr. Satan didn't realize the door was slightly creaked open and that anybody who was right outside the room could hear such a thing.
Fortunately for him, nobody was out there, except for one person… Pan, who was eavesdropping and taking in every word her grandfather was saying.
"Well, then why don't we get him and all those other guys take over for you?" the PR member suggested.
"Well I don't want to take anything away from Pan either," said Mr. Satan.
"Sure, sure… Understood."
"How about we make her part of the team?" a PR woman piped in.
"Are you nuts?!" Satan cried, "There's no way I'm letting my little Panny get in the middle of any of that trouble!"
"Of course not!" the woman responded, "She'll have all those men protecting her. But to the public, she's the one in charge! Just think! Your granddaughter, a young female, leading a team of big strong men! We'll have a higher demographic thanks to feminists! They'll eat that nonsense up! We may even get more girls interested in martial arts… Meaning double the income!"
Mr. Satan rubbed his chin in thought. "Hm… Well, I'm not against double income and viewership, I'm still on the fence of allowing Pan to get involved with any major issues like the one we just faced."
"She can handle bank robberies, can't she?" asked another PR member, "Surely you can trust her to do the little things, and come bigger obstacles, she can 'lead' the new team that you create."
"I got it!" the woman cried, "We'll call it 'Satan's Heroes'! The team of Mr. Satan's personally handpicked warriors to succeed him, led by his very own granddaughter!"
"Satan's Heroes…" Mr. Satan mumbled to himself, "I like the sound of that! Okay, let me call Pan in and run this all by her…" The world champion got up from his seat and made his way to the door. He didn't notice it open ever slightly as he slammed it open and peered out the hallway… which was completely empty. "Huh?" he blinked, "Where'd she go..?"
Pan was now downstairs on the ground level, lost in her own thoughts as she slowly walked through the halls of her grandfather's dojo, which also served as a museum honoring his own self.
'Who am I kiddin'? I know Pan ain't strong enough to take on a serious threat…'
'She'll have all those men protecting her. But to the public, she's the one in charge!'
'Surely you can trust her to do the little things, and come bigger obstacles, she can "lead" the new team that you create.'
'Is this really how everyone sees me?' Pan thought to herself as she looked up the walls at the pictures of past Tenkaichi Budokai winners. Mostly it was different portraits of Grandpa Satan, but she passed a few different faces… Jackie Chun, Tien Shinhan, and especially Grandpa Goku… She stayed on that portrait the longest.
'Grandpa…' she thought, 'I'm part Saiyan because of you. But I can't even take a single punch…
'Why did you choose some dumb kid from some dumb village, and not your own granddaughter? In fact, why didn't you train me while we were in space? Did you really have no faith in me?'
She looked on ahead and continued forward into Satan's Trophy Room, which was open to the public. Many of Mr. Satan's adoring fans were wandering around, admiring the props and the many trophies he had won.
'Now that I think about it,' Pan continued in her mind, 'Nobody else really gave me a chance either. Dad chose to study instead of train me… Uncle Goten would rather go on dates than train at all… Trunks spent more time protecting me instead of teaching me a thing or two…'
She then approached a giant glass case, which housed many of Mr. Satan's recent trophies and ribbons, as well as news article clippings of his 'victory' against Cell and Omega Shenron. In the center was a small ceramic statue of him, standing heroically with a big grin and holding up his usual "V" sign. Right next to it was another ceramic statue, this one of Pan herself standing tall, fists on hips, and a cocky smirk on her face. Her grandfather had recently surprised her with it about a month ago, and told her that he would be handing the reins over to her as the new world champion. Once he assured her that she never had to grow a mustache, she was beyond ecstatic at the idea of being everyone's favorite icon.
But now that she looked at the small figure of herself, it looked more like the icon of something completely different…
'Does everybody think I'm a joke..?'
"Mommy! Lookit! It's Pan!" rang out the voice of a small girl from across the room. Pan glanced over to see a small family of three, and the youngest a girl who pointed excitedly at the quarter-Saiyan. "It's really her, Mommy! She's my hero! I'm gonna be just like her when I grow up!"
"You can't be just like her," her older brother, a pre-teen, snorted.
"Why not?"
"Because girls can't fight!"
"Yuh huh!" the little girl balled up her fists and stuck out her lip, "Pan's a girl, and she can fight!"
Pan then heard the snickering of some young men nearby. "Yeah right… not after that last battle we saw," one of them joked.
Pan looked back at the trophy case and down at her statue. The very epitome of what a fighter should not be… The statue wasn't glorifying a hero. All it did was represent her lack of skills. Sure she can fight low-level bad guys, maybe get a good hit on a bigger enemy if she was lucky… but then they turn right back and someone has to shove her out of the way of an attack. Or she attempts to fight for real, but gets hit only once and is out for the rest of the day… Or trying to avoid a blast and getting knocked out by debris in the process…
She was no hero.
That little girl deserved a true hero to look up to, not another faker pretending to be a hero!
She was done being a weakling. She was done being a whiny little baby.
If she was going to be the next world champion… no, a worthwhile Z Fighter, she was going to stop this nonsense and get serious for a change!
*KER-RASH!*
The alarms blared as Pan smashed the trophy glass with her fist, grabbed the statue of herself, and threw it against the floor, smashing it into tiny pieces.
Good bye, old Pan. It's time for a change.
"Pan! What in the world are you doing?!"
The pre-teen girl looked up to see her bewildered grandfather among the crowd of shocked and silent guests, having witnessed her outburst.
"Pan, why did you do that?" Mr. Satan cried, motioning towards the now smashed statue and making his way towards her. "Tell me!"
Pan didn't want to waste another moment with this man. So she powered up her ki and blasted her way out the window and into the sky towards home.
"Pan!" Mr. Satan shouted, trying to race after her, but could only get so far as to the now shattered window. He watched as she only became a speck in the sky. 'What in the world has gotten into her..?'