A Simple Change

Chapter 7: Orange Star's New Hero

Son Gohan flew through the air at a leisurely pace. He flew well above the clouds so he had no worries about being seen. At the moment the eldest of the Son children was on his way home to meet up with his friends, who were no doubt already there. His group was composed of four people, including himself.

The first was Lime a girl he'd met the week before the Cell Games all those years ago. She had been adopted by Krillin after her grandfather was killed a few years back. Next was Vasha who was surprisingly a full blooded Saiyan the same age as Gohan. She arrived on Earth a few days after the Martial Arts Tournament held by Mr. Money six years ago looking for a challenge.

She had until that point been wandering the universe moving from planet to planet searching for ways to grow stronger, along with clues of the man who sired her. She had thus surprised everyone when she accepted Tien's offer to stay with him. The final member was Sarada another full-blooded Saiyan who had been traveling with Tasha for four years before they had come and settled on Earth.

Sarada however was unlike her companion in that she lacked the Saiyan love of fighting. While she had the ability she simply did not enjoy violence and had other ideas of how to spend her time. As such it had been a bit of a surprise that she was taken in by Bulma. Vegeta had explained it was better they take her in, this way she would be protected and be able to contribute at the same time.

Over the years the group of four had been home schooled by Chichi herself. This had been true for just about every subject but applied sciences and anything regarding Saiyan culture, as she herself had begun learning. While Gohan and Sarada had proven to be scientifically minded the other girls had shown themselves to be more fashion oriented. Under the direction of 18 who had married Krillin the girls love for fashion had made them the genius minds behind the biggest fashion empire on the Earth known as Four Star, which Gohan and Vasha had rather large stakes in.

Shaking himself from his thoughts Gohan was surprised to find himself touching down in front of his house. He had barely managed to touch down before he instinctively reached out and grabbed a speeding blur that turned out to be his little brother who laughed happily as he was tossed up into the air and spun around a few times before coming down and being caught safely in his brother's arms.

"So how was school?"

Turning to the voice Gohan was not surprised to find his mother standing there along with his three friends.

"Well the air stinks, there's too much noise, I could only eat a snack for what was supposed to be lunch, and the subject matter their covering I learned when I was about ten. All in all it was about what I expected." Answered the demi-saiyan with a smirk.

Videl grunted as she slammed her fist into her private gyms heavy bag forcing it to swing backwards a few inches. Her body moved on autopilot as she went through the repeating yet therapeutic motions as her mind was still trying to work its way through its current enigma that was her new classmate. Son Gohan was a mystery, one in which she was determined to solve. The new guy had shown himself to be different from everyone she'd met in the last seven years.

Videl was someone used to the spotlight and used to everyone knowing who she was, the daughter of the current world champ and a former top model. If it wasn't that then it was her being recognized as Orange Star City's protector for the last three years. Gohan however didn't even know who she was, he had never so much as heard of her father nor her mother. As it was it was only due to his admitting he lived out in the mountains that had given their group understanding.

He was also apparently a genius who was only in school to meet girls to satisfy his mother. That was all she'd managed to learn however and any attempt of questioning had been rather skillfully evaded, it was maddening. There was also the fact that he apparently had access to products that weren't even on the market, his clothes being the tip off. Despite her disinterest in modeling as a whole Videl knew that his Four Star outfit wasn't supposed to hit the streets until next season. He hadn't even stuck around after school for any club activities even when all the clubs were accepting new members. She'd tried to follow him to see what he was up to only for him to disappear within a crowd almost as soon as she turned her head away.

That's not even to mention the fact that his clothing matched what the 'Gold Fighter' had been wearing as well, lets not forget the fact that both just so happened to arrive in town on the same day. As it was the situation just screamed 'suspicious' and she really didn't like it. Turning away from the bag and wiping her face with a towel a determined glint entered her eyes; she had a mystery to solve.

Gohan grunted as he forced his body to a stop in mid air just barely five feet from the ground. In the next instant he fazed away just barely dodging the heel drop delivered by Tasha. In the sky above Sarada and Lime threw a flurry of blows at one another their limbs reduced to nothing but mere blurs to the casual observer. From his position high above them with his back facing the sun which hid him Gohan couldn't help but give a pleased grin.

His friends had all improved dramatically over the years. Lime had gone from someone who had never even thrown a punch before to one of the strongest people on the planet in just that small stretch of time. Vasha and Sarada had both been strong when they had landed but had yet to breach the veil of Super Saiyan at that time. However after some time training with Vegeta they had both managed it and come out a far better fighter's.

Vasha had her hair like his own cut short and she wore a pair of light blue jeans that had been reduced to shorts, that stopped at just about mid thigh with frazzled edges. Her top on the other hand had also lost some material but not enough so that she was immodest. Such thoughts however was immediately pushed away as the eldest Son child fazed away once more just as a foot entered the space where he previously was. Reappearing behind his attacker he sent a reversed roundhouse of his own only for Lime to faze away. Before he could react Sarada fazed in and sent a punch towards his face which he was forced to block.

Even while moving his right hand to block his other hand copied the motion as he knocked Vasha's foot aside as she came in for a kick. His arms blurred as he defended against the duo's onslaught which Lime quickly joined as well. However even three on one Gohan showed he was still the superior fighter as he was still managing to fend the three of them off. Finally after several minutes the high speed combat came to a halt with all four panting heavily and covered in sweat.

"So would you mind explaining why you allowed yourself to be forced into that primitive human learning center?" questioned Vasha after a few silent moments.

Gohan sighed at the girls question as he tried to think of an answer. Despite the length of time that had passed and the efforts of most of their group Tasha still saw humans as a whole as primitive and idiotic. In her words they were primitive as the species as a whole had yet to really explore the vastness of space or even harness their own ki.

They were idiotic because of the simple fact what they thought was tough learning was actually quite simple to any Saiyan; it also didn't help that majority of them tended to follow that fool Hercule's idiotic principles when it came to martial arts or anything in general. Gohan remembered having to publicly come out after the Cell Games and deny that the man had trained him after he tried to gain world-wide fame that way. He hadn't kept up tabs on the man after that and had actually forgotten all about him until earlier in the day when he was told he was his classmate's father. Shaking the thought off the eldest of the Son children focused back on the subject at hand.

"Honestly I didn't know until this morning. Apparently my mom gave me the entrance exam and I thought it was a simple review. My dad went ahead and did all this without my knowledge. I could've declined but that would've been troublesome, I mean what if she refused to cook?"

The other three gained horrified expressions at such an outlandish suggestion. For a Saiyan of any breed missing a meal was not to be done especially if the meal was made by Chichi who made gourmet chefs look like amateurs. For them who had it on a daily basis especially Gohan such a thing was something they'd avoid at all cost.

"Way to take one for the team bro." said Lime.

Gohan would've chuckled as Vasha and Sarada both nodded still horrified at such a prospect. He knew that Bulma couldn't cook to save her life so Sarada made it a point to eat at least one of his mother's meals on a daily basis. The same could be said for Vasha and Lime as Chichi had taken to them as if they were her own daughters and while she'd taught them plenty about the kitchen they still preferred her cooking. Lime had even gone so far as to wish to become half Saiyan just so that she could eat more of the woman's food.

"DINNER!"

As soon as the yelled word hit them all four vanished faster than an eye could blink and reappeared outside the Son home seated at the large table eyeing it like hungry wolves.

The next morning found a tired Gohan trudging through the halls of Orange Star High on his way to his first period class. Due to the fact that he'd wasted eight hours in the school the previous day his father had offered to spar with him after dinner something he had accepted whole heartedly. Despite the fact he'd trained earlier with his friends he could never turn down an opportunity to train with his father who had always served as his measuring stick. Their spar had lasted for several hours and left the two utterly exhausted but happy as always. After his father had returned from Otherworld he had become the man's primary sparring partner and it was always up for grabs who would emerge as the victor of their spars.

Shaking himself from his thoughts he glanced down at his watch and found he had about five minutes before his first class started. Slipping into his class he found quite a few had already found their way inside and were in the midst of conversation. Gohan however paid them no mind and made his way to his seat immediately putting his head down onto his arms drowning out the noise around him with practiced ease. A few minutes later he found himself nudged just slightly as the trio of teens he met the day previous slid into their seats.

"Geez Gohan you look exhausted." Commented Erasa.

"I am. I wasted so much time here yesterday that I ended up staying up later than I usually do trying to finish everything on my schedule." Said Gohan.

For Gohan the rest of the day had gone by both smoothly and quickly, despite the fact that he had spent majority of his first period asleep. The short break they'd been given after the class had been enough to inject some energy into him after he'd gotten a quick snack, which would have been two full meals for a human. His second class had been political science and he'd been surprised to find both Erasa and Videl had the same class though Sharpner had a different elective in mind.

Halfway through his final class of the day perked up as a loud beeping noise filled the class. Turning towards it he was surprised to see it was Videl who was looking into a video watch. Apparently the police had given it to her for such cases where her talents could be put into effect. At the moment they were calling do to the fact that a group of people had taken the passengers of a tour bus hostage. He was also shocked when she just bolted out of the room and the teacher didn't say a word, at least until he was told that it was a regular occurrence by Erasa.

Whatever the case he had waited a full three minutes before he stated he needed to head to the restroom and left. On the roof he paused for a moment before smirking to himself and using the split form technique creating a single copy of himself to take his place in the class. Then with a push of a button on his watch he was covered in his armor and blasted off his copy lingering only for a minute before walking off back to class.

Meanwhile the original Gohan had managed to lock onto Videl's ki and was in the process of following her from above the height of her yellow copter. He was actually surprised about how easy it was to pick her up from the rest of the energy signals but had quickly shrugged it off. That surprise only heightened as the girl leapt out of the helicopter almost as soon as it caught up to the bus and despite the bullets flying up at her landed upon its roof doing a roll before coming up on her feet.

Then she was moving dashing across the length of the bus avoiding the fire of the bullets and slamming a fist into one thugs face with enough force to send him over the edge and to the ground below. Not even paying him anymore mind she charged forwards towards the next still dodging fire before she leapt once more and sent a spin kick that landed flush against the mans upper arm which sent him flying off the side as well.

Coming up to the front the girl did a backflip over it her hands latching onto the ledge which she used to swing and smash in the window sending a spray of glass inward which she charged through. Videl didn't waste a moment as she charged forward rolling under the first thug's spray of bullets before springing up and introducing him to her gloved fist. As the man staggered back she pushed forward giving him two more shots to the gut and face respectively; the latter of which laid him flat and knocked him out.

Looking up she was just in time to dodge under a kick meant for her head before she introduced her attacker to the floor with a sweep kick. Jumping atop him before he could recover she nailed him with a single punch that knocked him out before standing. Unfortunately she had forgotten about the driver who had taken that moment to come up from behind and grab her in a bear hold. Undeterred Videl fired a trio of elbows into the man's ribs that forced him to loosen his hold just enough for her to slip out of it. Rolling forward she turned and leapt up and forward introducing him to her knee and then the floor.

Panting heavily she was not surprised to find herself surrounded as the hostages took that moment to thank her for her help. She noticed a couple older women complaining about the police sending a child to do their job and while in the past she'd have been insulted she understood their sentiment now thanks to her mother. After all what was the point in having a police force if they were all inept? That however was why she only helped out with the more serious and time limited situations if she could. Sometimes however she wasn't called and the S.T.A.R.S (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad) were.

Her thoughts were cut off as a scream cut through the bus turning towards it her eyes widened upon finding they were still speeding forward just before they slammed through a rail and over a ledge. After a few seconds she slowly opened her eyes after the bus had suddenly stopped its forward momentum. Even more surprising was that they were actually going backwards even though they were already well over the side.

"Holy…" said one of the older women in awe.

Videl herself was following the sentiment as she found herself looking upon a golden-haired male that was actually holding the bus and pushing it back while flying. After a few seconds the bus shook as it was settled down on the ground allowing for them to file out. Videl was the first to do so and not a moment to soon as they were immediately surrounded by squad cars. Turning towards her rescuer she found herself in awe as she'd never had the opportunity to see this 'Golden Warrior' during his previous appearances as he was always gone before she arrived.

He wore what looked to be a black sleeveless spandex suit the torso of which was covered by a piece of armor. The armor was white with golden straps connecting the front and back while there was also gold over his abs. His arms and hands were bare allowing for one to see the muscles covering the limbs and he wore a pair of black boots with golden tips. His hair was a very light pale blonde that stood on end with matching eyebrows with greenish-blue eyes.

Gohan however was finding himself surrounded now as he was the one being showered in thanks now. However he quickly determined it was time to leave as he saw some looking at him hard and he had no doubt they'd put the pieces together soon if given enough time just as he was about to take off a voice cut through everything.

"Hold on a second, just who are you?" questioned Videl as she came to the front.

That question stilled Gohan and actually forced him to think. He knew they had taken to calling him something yesterday but the name he gave would be the one he'd be stuck with. While he had an idea he quickly threw it out of the window and opted for something which would probably be better.

"You can call me…Bardock."

With that he was off blasting into the sky his golden aura bursting out as soon as he cleared the people as he disappeared into the clouds. Once he was sure he couldn't be seen he changed direction and killing the aura and thus the golden trail that would've followed blasted back towards the school.

"Bardock huh, well the name could've been worse." Muttered Videl.

Still she smiled slightly as now she had a name and a face to use.

AN: That's it it's finally done. It's been a long time coming so tell me what you guys think. Till next time, LATER.