AN: Hello everyone! Sorry this took a while to write. March was so busy for me. I'm so happy to hear people enjoyed the filler chapter last time. Things are going to get more serious from here on out though!
Chapter 9: Connecting Dots
It was just the adrenaline, Videl decided. Long ago she had read about the effects of this hormone on people who underwent harrowing experiences together. It tricked the mind into thinking there was some special connection there, when in reality, there truly wasn't.
She kept telling herself this all night and all morning long. Now, she sat on the battered steps to some old shop in the ruins of Mount Frypan village, stabbing her chopsticks into the rice bowl she'd brought along for lunch. She had come straight here after gathering stalk, too afraid to run into Erasa and Maisy at lunchtime lest they invited her to watch the prince hold court afterwards with them.
Videl had hoped that a bath and some rest would clear her mind, but all those did was render her memories even more stark, all crisp lines and brilliant tones. It just made them even more mortifying. She couldn't help but squeeze her eyes shut and swear a dozen times in a row whenever her brain brought up even the slightest recollection.
She gazed up, the endless blue sky filling her view as she chewed on what was supposed to be a delicious bowl of spicy beef and steamed rice. Videl had decided that the best use of her time and mental resources was to figure out how the fire spirits were falling. It would remind her of her purpose, of her goal, of her standing. But she couldn't bring her mind to focus. Even this place, strewn with smoky wreckage and debris as it was, could be considered tidier than her head right now.
Romance had always been out of reach for Videl, and someone as pragmatic as her had never wasted her time fancying impossible things. With her father's decree that she could never date anyone who couldn't defeat him in a fight, Videl's younger self had all but accepted that she would grow old to be a spinster. Oh, it had sounded grim, but she hadn't seen it as all that unfortunate. She'd had visions of an older Videl who would be authoritative and respected and skilled and admired. She would be loveless, sure, but treasured by her community.
When her father had turned out to be a fraud, those visions had evaporated. Whatever respect and admiration she might earn in the future would be difficult to come by. As for romance, who would want to sully their good name by associating with her family? Even if someone was strong enough to defeat her father, what would be the point now?
Videl set her chopsticks down and patted her cheeks. Why couldn't she just let this go? Just admit to herself that she had a momentary lapse of judgment, then go back to being immune to thoughts of romance? The more she continued to think about it, the more it would stick in her mind.
But something had changed at Warmwater City. She had always respected Gohan, had always appreciated his fair judgment and merciful approach to ruling. Being levelheaded was such a rare trait these days. Even his awkwardness and oddities didn't diminish his character. But yesterday, she'd seen an even more enticing side of him, one that was confident and strategic, and brilliant with his mysterious skills. He'd been happy. Impressive. She was piecing together an image of him that was undeniably attractive to her.
And she hated — hated — that she now knew what she was attracted to. Because now she would notice it all the time! And she would remember the impossibility of it all. Gohan was a prince, for goodness' sake. He was bound to marry a princess or a rich heiress. Any normal girl in good standing would make a better bride than Videl.
Why did she do this to herself?
Videl stuffed the rest of her rice bowl into her mouth, angry that she couldn't enjoy this lunch, angry that she was allowing herself to be preoccupied by a silly thing like romance. Her life had finally just started looking up. She had it better than she'd ever did in the past two years. She had a stable job that she enjoyed and peers that tolerated her. What was the point in making herself miserable over some idiotic crush? She had a task to do, and wallowing in self-pity wouldn't get it done.
She stored away her lunch box and chopsticks, and drank a mouthful of water. Then she determinedly marched over to the sky-scooter she had ridden straight from the Paozu mountains to Mount Frypan. Videl had received permission from Steban before their shift that morning to use it for research-related travel.
There was another reason why Videl had taken the sky-scooter today instead of a copter. She wanted to study the part of the sky where the last fire spirit had fallen from, the one she'd been able to capture on video. And she wanted to be as exposed to the air as possible when she did that.
Squinting against the bright glare of the sun, Videl could not see any discernable breaks or fissures in the sky now. Distracted as she'd been during her lunch, she'd still been able to observe a flock of seagulls fly over her without any trouble. If there was a portal up there, how did it exist?
Videl pressed the button on the sky-scooter to start the engine, and she slowly rose to the sky. She had reviewed the footage she'd captured, and measured the altitude of the fissure from which the fire spirit had emerged. It was just shy of twelve kilometers above sea level, perfectly within the sky-scooter's range. She periodically glanced at the altimeter on the sky-scooter while scanning the sky around her, trying to find any peculiarities. She didn't know exactly what she was looking for. Maybe a rippling shimmer, but she wasn't sure.
The altimeter on the sky-scooter signalled 11.8 km. Videl paused and looked around. There was nothing but clear air all round her, the remnants of Frypan village beneath, and brown, barren landscape all around. She hadn't felt anything on her way up either. And yet, this was where the ripple had appeared, she was sure of it. Could the altimeter be broken? Videl glanced down, but by her own estimate, she was roughly on the lower stratosphere.
She sighed. She'd been hoping so badly for something to happen, for something to finally explain how these bothersome spirits were piercing through to their world.
Videl tilted the handles of the sky-scooter and whirled in place to double-check her surroundings. She stretched out a hand. Mid-swing, a bone-deep shock zapped through her body and a blue wave flickered in the air. She immediately halted the sky-scooter.
Her heart pounded with apprehension and excitement. Was this it? Did she find the portal?
She reached out again at the spot where she'd felt the tremor. Her fingers caught something thread-thin but taut, invisible until the moment of contact. Then a luminous blue glow extended across the line for a second, then disippated.
A whisper of breath escaped Videl's lips. This was surreal. She tapped it again, and the blue light re-emerged. Whatever 'it' was, it felt like a strong, pressurized wire. It was very strange. She tapped the area below it, but her hand went through empty air. She did the same at the area above, with the same results. Could a portal really be so thin?
Videl braced her hands on the scooter. She had imagined something like a force-field, wide and all-encompassing. That was why it had puzzled her to think that birds and planes could pass through this area without encountering any supernatural phenomena. But if the portal was this small, then the likelihood of something hitting this exact spot was low; air-traffic here was aleady pretty light anyway. And if birds did fly across the portal, it would just tickle them a bit. A plane or a copter might experience a sudden, short-lived turbulence, but that was about it. No wonder nobody had noticed anything.
She scratched her head. The question was, how did fire spirits fall through here? Could it have something to do with exposing the portal to heat?
Only one way to find out. Videl fished out a lighter from her pocket. She wasn't the type to carry one most days, as she wasn't a smoker, but she'd figured she needed to do some experimentation with heat. Her hunch had paid off. She flicked open the lighter and set the flame close to the portal. Blue light rippled across the portal, very similar to what she'd seen from her video recording. The ripple widened outward until it was the size of half her palm.
An impulse stole over Videl. She steadied her sky-scooter, setting it to hover in place. She reached out with her other hand, and her fingers dipped into the ripple. She braced herself, watching with horrified fascination as her fingers disappeared across the portal. The sensation on her fingertips was strange, buzzing with energy. She felt nothing on the other side, though; no texture, no hinderance, just empty space.
Spooked, Videl snatched her hand back. This was a horrible idea. Who knew what she would encounter in a realm populated by fire spirits? It was a miracle her fingers hadn't burned.
But no, they wouldn't have burned. If the portal needed heat to open wide, there likely wasn't any source of heat directly on the other side right now. Otherwise it would be porous. Videl didn't know what kind of world the fire spirits' realm was, but she imagined a bunch of dough-like balls randomly bouncing about, then getting sucked through this portal if they accidentally came near it.
In any case, she wasn't that desperate to find out what the other realm looked like. No need getting herself catapulted in there by accident and getting trapped. All she needed to know was the mechanisms of the portal, and at least now, she had an inkling.
Videl snapped the lighter shut and tucked it back into her pocket. She gripped the handle of the sky-scooter with one hand while she tapped the air with the other along the length of the portal. She wanted to know how long it went on for.
Her fingers struck the same invisible taut thread, and a blue light flashed softly. She maneouvred the sky-scooter along the thread, feeling for its end. To her surprise, it continued for some time. She went on to follow it for at least a kilometer north-west, and only then did it change direction, pointing upwards.
A thought struck her. All this time, she had been envisioning the fissure as a single line. But what if there were more lines about, criss-crossing like a web? Or a crack with tributaries spanning the width and breadth of Mount Frypan?
Videl shook her head. She should be writing all these down. Mapping the line to see where it was exactly, or if there were more. It would be faster if she could just see them, but how would she do that?
She swerved the sky-scooter back towards where she came from, and she landed near her pack. She hopped off and began rummaging in her backpack for her notebook and a pencil.
A round, cold, metallic thing pressed against the nape of her neck. Videl had been in enough fights before to recognize immediately that someone was holding a gun to her head.
"Drop the pack," a voice said behind her, young and male. Videl knew who it was instantly, even before several other people emerged from the dusty ruins of old buildings in front of her. All had guns pointing in her direction. She'd seen them before in a short video clip inside a moldy room, surrounding Gohan as he'd questioned Endy Vora Jr.
Who happened to be behind her.
"Slowly," Vora commanded. "And put your hands up."
Videl sighed and lowered her backpack, then stood up with her hands raised. She wasn't particularly scared; more annoyed to be interrupted at a crucial time in her research. She'd gotten out of a bind tighter than this one plenty of times before.
"Fancy running into you here, Vora," she said, turning to face him slowly.
"Fancy indeed. Scavenging doesn't usually bring us such good fortune, Ms. Satan. Or should I say, sunsetbeluga36?"
Videl froze, her breath stuck in her throat. Then she forced herself to clear her expression and to breathe normally. But the split second of hesitation had been enough confirmation, and she berated herself for comitting such a rookie mistake.
"Ah, so it's true," Vora deduced. He chuckled and lowered his gun. He signalled to the other gang members to put their weapons down too. They didn't need it now. Their weapons were less of a threat to her than whatever knowledge he held, and she'd given all that information away. Videl cursed inwardly.
Vora smiled at her, and she couldn't help thinking that he was so young to be leading a gang, to be antagonizing an entire kingdom. "Walk with me, Beluga. I think you and I should have a chat. Don't worry about your things, my pals will bring them along."
He sidled up next to her, too close for comfort, but Videl could hardly move away. Two men and a woman marched right behind them, and the rest formed a semi-circle at the sides. One member held her backpack, and a different one pulled her sky-scooter along.
"No need to be so tense," Vora said. "I know we didn't exactly get off on the right foot back at the copter. But I didn't know who you were, then. Now that I do, I have to say we actually have a lot in common. Snack?"
He handed her a pack of chocolate wafers. Why was he being so friendly? Videl thought that Scar Town's gangs led with violence first.
"No, thank you. I just ate lunch."
"Suit yourself." He stowed the wafers back in his jacket pocket. "Like you, I'm also fond of sunsets. I do prefer orcas over belugas, but you'll find solidarity with me when it comes to sea creatures. Oh, and I can find my way around the dark net quite decently as well. It's how I source fresh produce for the neighbourhoods under my gang's protection without the other gangs knowing."
Videl contemplated whether it was still worth pretending that she didn't know what he was talking about, that she had no clue who this sunsetbeluga was. But she needed to know his angle, and she wouldn't get that if she feigned ignorance.
"Fresh produce," she remarked. "You must be a member of the EggplantersUnite and DicedAndSliced servers." She combed her memory for anyone who might have hinted at living in a barren crack in the foothills, but she couldn't remember anybody.
"I'm also a member of JusticeForTruth, and I was quite pleased when I saw sunsetbeluga36 emerge from the grave a few nights ago. You know, I admired you back then, how determined you were, how cleverly you struck deals with other users to finally get at that long-buried footage of the Cell Games. And then you disappeared. Only to reappear asking around, strangely enough, about a canning family mogul."
Had Videl been careless during her search for information about Cant Merches? How had Vora linked sunsetbeluga36 to the real her? But if she asked outright, he would only gloat. She'd bide her time. From her experience, when people were proud of accomplishing something, they usually showed off eventually.
"Is that why you're taking me, then?" Videl asked instead. "To show you how to hack a database or make a bribe?"
Vora laughed. "Not at all. I just want to talk about the stalks."
"The Paozu Stalks?"
"That's right."
Blackmail, then. This was going to be blackmail, Videl could feel it.
They arrived at what must have been a town square before flames had eaten away the nearby buildings. Cracked terracotta tiles littered the ground, along with shards of broken glass. Squatting in the middle of the clearing was a fat truck, which Videl suspected was more for storage than for transportation. A big vehicle like that couldn't be driven through the ruins of Frypan. It must have been capsulized to get here.
Her suspicions proved correct when Vora opened the back of the truck and motioned for her to go inside. The interior of the truck looked like someone's electric workshop and chemistry lab merged in a frenzy. A sideboard lined the left wall, and there was not a single empty spot on it left among the jumble of metal panels, wires, boxes of screws and rivets, test vials, bottles of house chemicals, tubes of sealants. There was a burner, a collection of curious-looking spherical shells, and a teetering tower of notebooks and sketchpads.
A small square table with accompanying chairs were situated at the far end of the truck. Videl climbed inside and sat gingerly on one of the seats. It was much farther in than she was comfortable with, as Vora's friends assembled themselves near the doorway. If she needed to escape, it would be a tight attempt, but the wide array of objects inside gave her hope that she could fashion some distraction or another.
Vora took the chair opposite hers, and he grabbed one of the notebooks and placed it on the table between them. To Videl's surprise, she recognized it.
It was Goten's slambook.
The one stolen by Cant Merches supposedly.
"You've seen this before," Vora said, not quite a question. "Of course, since you wrote an entry in it."
"How did you get this?"
"I bought it, fair and square. You seem to have pissed off a fellow resident in the Ox Palace. Merches filched this on his way out the door after the royals gave him the boot. He came to me, probably thinking I'd join his pity-party complaining about the Ox family. I humoured him, and he showed this quaint little notebook to me. Said it contained some info about some of those who live in the palace that I might find interesting."
Vora shuffled the pages of the slambook and stopped at a particular entry, one with Videl's handwriting.
"Videl Satan," Vora stated. "The girl I quarrelled with in the copter. Favourite colour? The orange of sunset. Favourite animal? Anything cute like pandas, elephants, belugas and cats. It's rare to see sunset and belugas mentioned in the same passage of anything, you know. As for the 36, well that's right in your name, isn't it? Three sixes."
She didn't respond. Her username had been created exactly because she loved sunsets and belugas, and yes, her last name was Satan. Videl allowed him to continue, knowing he was getting a kick out of this. But she, too, was finally getting the answer to how he'd figured her out.
"Then there's the fact that sunsetbeluga reappeared right before an emissary to a royal family gets kicked out due to some unfortunate college scam. The only common denominator between Hercule and Cant Merches is their proximity to you." Vora smiled. "I bet you didn't think anybody would figure it out. Merches certainly didn't."
"So what, now?" Videl crossed her arms. "Did you take me all this way to chitchat about this slam book? Exchange favourite colours and animals?"
"I have a proposal." Vora brushed back the hair over his forehead, then clasped his hands on the table.
Videl glanced at the seven other members of his party. They all stood like obedient sentinels by the opening of the truck. Her backpack had been deposited a few feet away from the vehicle, and her sky-scooter was parked just beside it.
She turned back to Vora. "Go on."
"It's clear to me that you don't want anyone to find out that you're sunsetbeluga36. I mean, two years after you've cracked the biggest scam in the world, and look at you. You're a lowly servant who was lucky enough to get a job hacking away at some big mountain seaweed. Not exactly glamorous life, is it?
"What I never understood was why sunsetbeluga36 never came forward to reveal themselves. They could have gotten any job they wanted — police, detective, government official, secret agent, cybernetwork influencer. They would have been the hero who saved the world from being hoodwinked any further by that liar of a man. They would have fame and admiration and respect."
Vora shook his head, his smile getting bigger. "And then I find out it was you all along. Daughter of that very same liar." He laughed. "Now I understand. You didn't come forward, because you know that the only thing the world hates more than a grifter is a traitor."
Videl knew he was trying to bait her into a reaction, but still, she found it difficult not to flinch at that word. Because it was a word that had haunted the back of her mind all these years.
"A traitor to their very own flesh and blood. Your own father doesn't know, does he? That his daughter stole his fame and fortune from right under his nose, all the while pretending to grieve at his side at their personal catastrophe. Did you hug him when he was upset, then laugh behind his back? Is this the real Videl? Was the teenage crimefighter who touted the values of justice and fairness just a PR stunt too?"
"You've made your point," Videl said briskly. "I'm keeping sunsetbeluga36 a secret, yada yada, now where is the part where you make me a deal?"
"All right, fine." Vora shrugged. "Here's what I propose. I keep your little secret away from your Prince and your father, and you, in turn, give me some Paozu Stalk."
Videl's eyes narrowed. "You want the stalks?"
"Just some. Surely you can manage even that much."
"Why?"
"Is it so surprising? The Paozu Stalk is a super-superfood. One serving of it can keep a human in peak condition for a day. For a gang that relies on smuggled fruits and vegetables, some Paozu Stalk would alleviate the growing hunger in our neighbourhoods."
His explanation made perfect sense, but somehow Videl felt he wasn't being honest. There was something else at play here, but she couldn't figure out what.
She shook her head. "That's a nebulous deal, and you know it. What, you expect me to deliver stalks to you in perpetuity so that my secret stays between us forever?" Blackmail without a clear end was the fastest way to get a target on your head. Surely, a gang leader knew that. Someone more selfish and ruthless than Videl would be planning how to shut Vora up permanently by now.
"You don't like it?"
"I never like blackmail, but I expected a better one coming from you. You present me with two options with exactly the same risk. Either way, I risk getting fired."
Vora laughed. "Fair enough, so why don't I make one option riskier. Get me some stalks and I don't tell the whole world that you're a conniving backstabber. You still risk getting fired from your current job, but at least one option leaves you with potentially other avenues of income in the future."
Videl's patience was running thin. Vora was just playing around with her, and she didn't know why.
"I'm getting bored," she said. Exhausted, was more like it. Confused, even. She needed time to dissect Vora's angle, and for that she needed some breathing room. Time to get away.
She mustered up all the bravado she could for the next bit. "The thing about secrets is that they're only a good weapon if you know how to wield them. For example, what do you think your man, Zucki, over there would do if I tell him that his sweetheart is cheating on him with his pal, Jango, standing right across him? It is Jango, right? That wasn't the name on his birth certificate, but it is the name he adopted when your gang took him in at six years old. Partly to mask the fact that his father was from a rival gang who murdered three members of this gang."
Videl took in the widening of their eyes, the flashing gazes they shot one another. She turned back to Vora whose expression had closed off, jaws tight.
"Oh, you didn't think I perused only the JusticeForTruth servers, did you? No, while I was digging up dirt on Merches, I decided to look up a few things about your gang too. What can I say, I had a pretty productive night that time. So," she pushed back her chair and stood up. "We can continue the conversation, but it's going to be a one-sided monologue pretty soon, because it's clear that while you only have one secret on me, I got plenty over you."
She stared down Vora, then did the same with the other seven gang members, who were now eagerly fingering their guns again.
"It's your decision," Videl said. "I can start listing off the numbers of the combination on your treasury safe. Not the one that your official treasurer manages of course, but the second one you keep secret, Vora. It's under the tiles at the foot of your bed, isn't that right?" She didn't actually know the combination to the safe, but she hoped that by dropping hints of everything else she knew, they would take her bluff seriously.
Videl took a step towards the end of the truck. "May I leave, now?" she said in a tone that indicated she didn't actually need their permission. She glanced at Zucki, who had raised his gun, and she unbuckled the sickle from its loop on her side. "Or do you need me to rattle the place about?"
Vora conceded defeat with aplomb. He smiled — rather sarcastically — but waved his hand to the truck's entrance and said, "Don't let me stop you. I apologize if I have given you the wrong impression of your importance. The truth is that you're quite dispensable. To me and to your little prince."
She ignored his taunts; it was a weak power grab from someone who knew he had lost his leverage. Videl squeezed her way out of the truck, her skin crawling as Vora's underlings eyed her with bitter resentment. She stooped to collect her backpack and stepped on the sky-scooter. She stole a final glance at Vora and his men, then kicked the scooter to life. She shot up to the sky, stretching her senses in case they decided to attack her from behind in the air.
But Videl made it out of Frypan safely. They didn't follow her. They didn't try anything foolish.
And that left her wondering what the point of the entire conversation even was.
-o-
Videl's bravado melted even before she arrived at Mount Paozu. By the time she'd returned her sky-scooter in the garage and made it back to her room in the servants' wing, she was positively vibrating with restless apprehension.
She had to tell Gohan. She had just encountered an enemy of the kingdom; there was no way she could afford to keep this a secret.
It meant she would have to tell him about the blackmail, and to tell him about the blackmail, she would have to tell him she was the one who'd outed her father.
Videl threw herself on her bed.
She still remembered what the prince had said about the hacker who'd exposed the truth: cruel. That was what he would think of her now. Cruel and sly, because even Vora hadn't been wrong when he'd labelled her a traitor.
It wasn't like it had escaped Videl that she'd betrayed her own father. It wasn't like she felt proud of what she'd done. Every bit of stress and frustration and indignity she'd suffered the last two years, she'd borne with gritted teeth just so she could make enough money to alleviate her father's current life. Just so she could make up for everything that had happened since she'd sent that anonymous report to the news outlets. She'd made a mistake, driven by the petty angst of a neglected teenager.
Videl squeezed her eyes shut against the streak of dismay that shot through her chest. She was going to get fired, that was almost certain by this point. All leaders had their own secrets to keep. No royalty would allow her to work in the palace knowing she had a habit of exposing secrets in the name of her own self-defined justice and truth. If even flesh and blood and bone could not inspire loyalty in her, neither would financial incentives. Not in this world where filial piety still generally trumped all other duty.
And here she thought she could make a life for herself in the Ox Kingdom. Build something stable. Get her footing back, improve herself. How easily she'd let her guard down. She even had the gall to entertain a crush this morning. That seemed like a lifetime ago. What an utterly foolish thing to have worried about.
She pushed herself off the bed. She had to find Gohan soon. The longer she stalled reporting what had happened, the more suspicious she might look.
Videl exited her room and made her way to the main section of the palace. She wasn't entirely sure where to find Gohan; by this time, court would have finished, and she didn't know if he had any plans afterwards. Fortunately, she came across a servant whom she'd seen cleaning in the royals' wing before, and stopped her.
"Hello, ma'am, do you know if Prince Gohan is in his apartments?" Even to her own ears, her voice sounded strained and a bit shaky.
"He isn't, dear," the older woman answered. "Probably won't be for some time. He and the Ox King went off to the northeast mountains to survey the blueprints for the bridge they're building there."
Right, Videl vaguely remembered some labourers who'd petitioned Gohan to build a bridge somewhere. "Thanks, ma'am."
Antsy and relieved at the same time, Videl headed back to her room. She'd have some extra time to mull over how she was going to break the news to Gohan, but a small part of her had been hoping to get it over with. She knew the outcome anyway; better just rip the band-aid off.
Perhaps Videl didn't need to tell her secret to Gohan. She could just hint that it was an embarrassing mistake from her past. But as soon as she thought of it, she knew it wouldn't do. She had to tell him. Otherwise, it would always be a weakness that others could exploit. She didn't want to be blackmailed into harming the prince or his kingdom.
How hasty she'd been, trying to one-up Cant Merches. She'd been so arrogant, again. She'd allowed her temper and sense of justice to get the better of her. Had it even really been justice she was after? Or had she simply wanted to wrest power back from Merches, because he'd reminded her of how low she'd come?
In the end, Gohan came back past 10:30pm, and Videl was so exhausted by the events of the day and the unceasing rumination in the evening, that she chickened out of seeking him. Excuses flitted through her mind — he must be tired too and deserved rest; he'll be more receptive to bad news after some sleep; things probably weren't as urgent as she felt. Videl thoroughly convinced herself to wait until the next day.
With little sleep and an agitated mind, she clocked in to her shift early the next morning with deep bags beneath her eyes and a distracted energy. She must have been quite a sight, because Yanni sobered from her usual humour and checked in on her.
"Videl, you okay?" the woman whispered, leaning close. "You look a bit off today."
"Um, yeah, just tired." Videl tried to give a nonchalant smile. "I didn't sleep so well last night, that's all."
"I know what that's like. Well, feel free to stop by my room next time you can't sleep. I have some melatonin, an extra weighted blanket, a black-out eye mask, and a white-noise generator. You can borrow them if you need."
"Oh, that's quite kind of you."
Yanni gave her a wink. "It happens once in a blue moon."
After that, Videl resolved to at least put up a semblance of calm.
Throughout the first half of their shift, Videl redirected her agitation into every blow against the tough outer layer of the Paozu stalks. The repetitive motion steadied her nerves a bit, but every time the sun crawled a little higher from between the mountains, she was reminded of the task awaiting her after their shift. Her hands grew clammy, and her sickle almost slipped a few times from her grasp.
Steban called for a break at the usual time. Videl opened her pack and saw the empty tupperware from yesterday's lunch she'd had at Mount Frypan and a pair of dirty, greasy chopsticks. Her water bottle, too, was only a quarter full. She bit back a sigh. She'd forgotten to pack new snacks and refill her bottle.
That was when she noticed something odd in her bag. Beneath all the other stuff she typically brought along, there seemed to be a ball resting right at the bottom. She'd never seen it before. She dug it out, confused by its smooth, hard shell. It was all black with a rubber ridge that ran right across its circumference, as if it could be cracked open there. The outside was covered in some type of fabric that seemed familiar, but she wasn't sure where she'd encountered it before.
"What's that?" Sharpner asked, taking a sip from his own water bottle as he approached Videl. "If you wanna play ball, might want to wait until we're not six kilometers up in the sky?"
"Don't think this is a ball you can play with." Videl tossed the object from one hand to another. There was a heft to it that shifted when she moved it, leading her to believe there was something inside.
Lin came over too, munching on a ham sandwich. "Ooh, a new toy? I love toys."
"I've no clue." Videl passed it to Lin, who took it with one hand.
Suddenly, the ball lurched from her palm. "Whoa!" Lin made to grab it, but Sharpner caught it instead. Still, the ball continued to lurch, making little hopping movements until it slipped from Sharpner's hands and fell with a dull thud on the ground. It rolled for a bit then stopped beside one of the stalks.
"What in the world? It felt like there was a puppy in there!" Sharpner remarked.
Something about that made Videl's tummy sink. That ball was in no way big enough for a puppy, but there was another creature she could think of that tended to hop and sommersault in the air.
And the shell… now that she thought more about it, its fabric seemed very similar to the special nylon of the fireproof outfit Gohan had given her.
The ball split down the ridge, and the two halves fell away from each other. Emerging from its cradle, a luminous humanoid figure half-a-foot high jumped out. Videl's belly sank further still until she felt nauseous. Pieces clicked into place so rapidly in her mind, she thought she would pass out.
She may not have seen this ball before, but the shells — separated as they were now — were recognizable. Yesterday, in the truck in which she conversed with Endy Vora Jr., there had been shells very similar to this one on the cluttered desk.
More importantly, she understood now what the point of the conversation had been. It was never about blackmailing her into doing Vora's bidding. It was never about gathering Paozu Stalks behind the prince's back. It was all just a stupid, terrible distraction.
And Videl, idiot that she was, had fallen for it.
All this time, she thought she'd outsmarted Vora. She'd been so proud of how many secrets she knew about him and his gang, of how effectively she'd scared them all off without even so much as a single punch thrown.
But his plan all along had been to plant a fire spirit inside her bag. He'd taunted her with her hackername just to get her to play along. And it had worked. Damn it, it had worked, because now she had unwittingly taken a destructive spirit right into the heart of the Ox Kingdom's lifeblood.
All this Videl realized in a span of a blink, and she could only watch helplessly as the fire spirit frolicked into the air and plunged into a nest of Paozu stalks.
They burst into flames. Cries erupted from behind and beside her.
"Quick, put it out!" Steban lunged forward, pulling the picnic blanket he brought along for the mid-morning breaks. He swung it upon the stalks, but it blazed away in a matter of seconds.
"No, you have to step back!" Videl cried, tugging him away from the fire. "It's no ordinary fire, you can't put it out that way."
"Lin, do you have an extinguisher?" Yanni yelled, the roaring of the flames now crescendoing around them. The air shimmered with sudden repressive heat. The small landing would no longer be safe for them to stand on in a minute or two.
The girl shook her head. "No, I'm sorry!" Lin shouted back. "I never thought we'd have to use one."
"It probably wouldn't work anyway," Videl said. "That was a fire spirit. The thing that torments Mount Frypan."
"Why did you have one in your bag?" Miki asked, shielding his face from the flames.
Long story. "Look, we don't have much time. Prince Gohan has something to put the flames out, but first, we need to sever these stalks from their bases, otherwise the fire will spread," Videl said. Many of the stalks crawled down the mountain faces and connected with other stalks and plants across the mountain range. If they weren't careful, a chain reaction could start, and all the stalks could go up in flames one after another.
All five of them reached for their sky-scooters, unsheathing their sickles. Videl was just about to pull up into the sky, when a screech echoed all around them. A huge mass of scales and leather swooped up over the edge of the mountain.
"Watch out, it's a dinosaur!" Steban said, though everyone could see it now that it was over their heads. It must have been resting in a nook below and the fire had disturbed it.
Videl waved her sickle at it, trying to force it to go up higher. This close to the mountain, gusts of wind whooshed all around them with every beat of its wide wings. She didn't want any embers floating away —
With a final, tremendous flap of its wings, the dinosaur shot off to the south in panic. A large, crumbling piece of stalk peeled away from the rest, flames still eating away at its skin. The wind carried it away like flotsam in an angry ocean wave. It tore into dozens of pieces, each of which travelled in different directions, and in just a handful of breaths, all the peaks around them blazed like an inferno.
AN: You guys, I tried so hard to insert Piccolo into this chapter, but he just wouldn't fit? Every time I tried, it seemed so random, lol. I don't know when he can make an appearance in this fic anymore, to be honest.
Oh, I also updated chapter 4 to address a plot hole pointed out to me by a reviewer. The Stalk gatherers were supposed to have a parachute as part of their outfits, but somehow that disappeared in the plotline. I totally forgot I had written that, haha! I inserted a small scene there to explain how Videl lost her parachute.