A/N: gasp I'm back? I'm back!!

Chapter Ten - Gold Fighter!

"Out of my way, people!"

She skid to a halt, chest heaving as she got her bearings. 24th and Yellow St. After one deep breath she was off again, bellowing at the top of her lungs at all of the unfortunate people who happened to be on the streets that day.

"Move it!"

More intelligent beings wisely removed themselves from the young woman's warpath at the faintest echo of her voice. Most however, were completely oblivious to what was going on around them. The lucky ones were passed by while the less fortunate were bowled over.

"Police business, stand aside!"

Of all the days for my damn chopper to be fixed, it had to be today!

Things couldn't have been worse for Videl Satan that morning. Not only was this the first day of school, today was also the day her father's training room had been shut down for cleaning, so she hadn't been able to get her early morning work-out. On top of that, just when she was about to head down to the kitchen for her breakfast, her watch had to go off.

"Videl Satan. Calling Videl Satan. Ms. Satan, this is Police Chief Gordon, are you there? Over."

She sighed, wondering if she'd ever get the chance to enjoy just one week without having to solve someone else's problems. "Videl Satan here. What's the problem, chief?"

"Robbery in progress," the voice crackled, cutting right to the chase. "On 14th and Orange St. at the Satan City Museum. They have about fifty hostages, all employees and customers."

"How many of them are there, chief?" she asked, already making her way outside. In these types if situations, it was always better to move fast and ask questions later.

"Four of them. Big guys."

"Armed?"

"Of course."

"What attempts have been made to subdue this?" she asked, not without a little frustration. This was the fourth robbery of the month she'd had to deal with. Out of four!

"We sent Daton in about half an hour ago. He hasn't come back." Videl ground her teeth. Harold Daton was about the biggest Hercule Satan gusher in all of Japan, which made him the most annoying person in the world in her book. It was just her luck that he was the Satan Police Department's hostage negotiator, a job that constantly had him working with her, Hercule Satan's only child, on many assignments.

"I just want you to know you were our last resort, Videl. We knew today was your first day of school, but there's no one else we can turn to." Something in the Chief's voice made Videl bite back her anger at being called that morning. The Chief was a competent and all around good guy, and even during her summer break he tried not to call her on assignment during her off duty hours. It wasn't his fault that today was her first day of school and some jerks decided to rob a museum in his jurisdiction. The fact that Daton was taken hostage also increased the severity of the situation. One of their own (however annoying he happened to be) was in there.

"I'll be there as quick as I can, sir," she responded, already heading for the door. "ETA; five minutes."

"We'll be awaiting your arrival," he responded. "Thank you Videl," he added quickly before cutting the link.

Moments later she had realized that she had turned her chopper in yesterday for some much needed maintenance, and with traffic as crowded as it was this early in the morning, she had no quick means of transportation.

So here she was, twenty minutes later, running as fast as she could to the Satan City Museum. Horrible scenarios were going off in her head of just what had happened in the last twenty minutes. Were all the hostages all right? Did the suspects make any demands? Were there casualties? Each thought added more speed to her legs, and soon she was approaching her destination. Just one more corner….

That was when Videl's day got worse.

"What do you mean there was a gold light?"

"It was so amazing!" exclaimed Daton, eyes full of admiration that was usually only seen on the young man's face when he was talking about his hero Hercule. Videl and several other officers rolled their eyes. "I tell you, it looked exactly like the lights those guys at the Cell Games were throwing around-"

"You gotta be kidding me…"

"Is he saying one of those Gold Fighters blew up the museum?"

"I thought they were all dead?"

"What would a Gold Fighter be doing here in Satan City?"

"You think he took a hit to the head?"

"I'm telling you guys, there really was a glowing ball of light!" shouted Daton, obviously hearing the not so quiet mutterings. "The thing was moving so fast I could barely see it, about the size of a basketball and it was beautiful! I swear it didn't come up from the floor, or was a bomb, or anything like that. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before! Ask the other hostages if you don't believe me!"

That was just it, though. They had asked all the other hostages, all of whom spouted the same story of the "gold light" flying in from the street only to blow up in front of the building, saving them all. The would-be robbers were suffering severe burns, broken bones and a concussion or two. The hostages were only a little singed inside the building, leading most to believe the robbers had planted a bomb under the steps of the museum to perhaps ambush the cops, a thought that had all the officers turning pale or cringing at the possible massacre.

Luckily, the bomb appeared to have gone off too early. In the chance that the golden light may have been a shared fantasy by the hostages in a stressful situation, they had turned to Daton to tell them the truth. He was trained to remain calm under such events and would surely tell them what had really happened while the rest of the hostages were panicking.

No such luck.

Videl rubbed her temples irritably as she looked around for the chief, knowing that she would be unable to stand the endless ramblings of Daton for much longer. It wouldn't be the first time he'd cornered her to bombard her with questions about the great Hercule Satan. She wouldn't put it past him to start gushing about the Gold Fighters at the Cell Games, who in his opinion were bested only by her father. She glanced back momentarily and saw the star-struck light in his eyes. 'Too late,' she thought crossly, increasing her search for the chief. They noticed each other at the same time, and the cross look on the Chief's weathered face as he made his way over to her did nothing to raise Videl's mood.

"I'm sorry, Chief," she began before he could open his mouth. "I completely forgot my chopper was in the shop, and it would have been murder trying to drive here in a car. I figured running would be faster and-"

"Videl, relax," said the Chief, waving his hand as if to bat away her apology. "I understand, and I'm not upset at you. It's this whole bomb thing, or whatever the hell it was. Everyone and their grandmother swears they saw a golden light flying towards the museum, rather than a bomb going off on the stairs. The people on the street are even saying they saw the one that threw it. I don't know if that's true or if they were just taken in by the whole excitement of the thing." Videl nodded knowingly, remembering several occasions where the exact same thing had happened.

"What are the witnesses saying about the guy who 'threw' the light?" she asked curiously. The Chief shrugged, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket to pat down his sweating face.

"Mismatched reports, the usual. Everyone's raving about how the Gold Fighter came roaring out of the sky to save the day. Of course, before Daton opened his fat mouth, some people were saying that someone…" he broke off for a moment, flipping through papers and notes given to him by the other officers. "Ah, here we are. 'A young man with dark hair and dark clothes. Witness reports having originally noticed the man when he tried to cross the police barrier earlier during the robbery'."

Videl rolled her eyes at the account. Black hair? This was Japan! Everyone had dark hair, and as for the dark clothes bit, that was the latest fashion trend to hit the "brooding" young. The guy just probably wanted to get a closer look at the action, was stopped, threw his hands up in exasperation and then BOOM! Presto, sudden Gold Fighter.

"I know it all sounds like hogwash at the moment," said the Chief, flipping through more of the papers as he compared other officers' notes. "And it's not the first time something like this has happened. Even so, we have to take this with all seriousness. First, I'm going to send a forensics team into the building, see if we can't find some remnants of a bomb to dissuade a lot of rumors. Until that time, when you get through with school I'm going to have you and every officer I can afford checking with witnesses, going through nearby security cameras, the works. Who knows, there might actually have been a Gold Fighter here." He glanced at his watch. "Come on Videl. This is your first day of school, and I'm not going to have you be late on account of me."

She followed the Chief to the squad car, thanking him for the ride. After a few moments of silence listening to nothing other than the police radio, Videl turned to him. "You don't really think there was a Gold Fighter out there, do you?" That would be impossible, she told herself. They haven't been seen in seven years. Why on Earth would they show themselves for a little thing such as this?

The Chief sighed. "Videl, after watching the Cell Games, and seeing all the strange things I have in my line of work, anything could be possible."

So this is a school…

Mystic was wandering aimlessly through the corridors of Orange Star High, half-heartedly attempting to find the main office of the large building. Really he was just congratulating himself on managing to find the place. Bulma, his King's woman, had given him strict directions on how to get here and how to pass for "normal" amongst other humans…

"Alright," she began, "tomorrow you're going to your first day of school, and I think there's some ground rules we should cover before you get there."

"Like what?" he'd asked distractedly, rubbing his wrists and staring at the place the hated ki blockers had, until a few minutes ago, been resting menacingly. Those damn things were finally off and he was now free.

"Like what you can and cannot do around other people," said the blue-haired woman, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. To her maybe, but he didn't have a clue what she was talking about. "For instance, no flying, no super saiyan, no mention of saiyans or other aliens…"

He started to tune her out as he glanced around the room. He had had a lot of people telling him what to do in his life, and he had developed the ability early on to quickly tell the difference between important instructions, and everything else. It went a little something like this: If the instructor came from Frieza's ship, listen. If not, kill it. Of course, he had to adapt a little in this case, but the same rules applied. Suddenly something she said caught his attention.

"Wait, what do you mean no eating?" He was aghast. Eating was the third most important things to saiyans. Right after fighting and staying alive. Who was she to tell him he couldn't eat?! Humans ate! He knew, he saw them.

"If you would just let me finish," she said, placing her hands on her hips and giving him the look. He had long ago dubbed it as 'the Bitch Look'. Goku's woman was very proficient at it. "I was saying no eating more than you can fit onto one tray. Humans don't eat as much as saiyans in one sitting, and it would attract a lot of unwanted attention if you were to eat like you regularly do. Here, you can eat as much as you want, but in school, try to limit yourself to one tray at a time." He crossed his arms and glared at her, but said nothing. She obviously understood little of the saiyan physiology. The more ki one had, the more energy one had. To maintain that energy, one had to eat. A lot.

He could handle it. He'd once starved himself for an entire week hiding on a barren planet, he could handle a few hours of hunger pains to avoid suspicion.

Didn't mean he had to like it.

Once he'd left Capsule Corp this morning, he'd followed the woman's instructions to the school. Turn right on Lemon Way. Continue until it changes to Silver Place, then a left. Keep walking until you make it… on and on. He was about half way there when he ran into a little trouble.

Like a bunch of people in blue clothes and wearing weird hats telling him he had to go away.

He blinked at the man in front of him, who was about a head shorter than him, yet was saying that he had to go and find some other way around with all the authority of a commander. Vegeta and his woman hadn't told him anything about this.

Looking around, he finally noticed the flimsy wooden barriers erected in a large semi circle, cutting off access to the street, as well as several metal carriages (Cars, he remembered) with blinking lights on top both inside and outside the barrier. Pedestrians were crowding around outside the barrier, all looking towards a large brick building that seemed to be the center of all the confusion.

"What's this?" he asked to no one in particular.

"There's a robbery going on in the museum," said a woman to his left. She looked fairly young, and she had a baby strapped into some sort of harness in front of her. "The hostage negotiator just got taken in and everyone's saying Videl Satan will be here soon!" she said excitedly, looking around as if expecting to see this person any moment. To Mystic, this all meant nothing. He didn't even know what a… what was it? Roby? He didn't even know what a roby was, but it was obviously the reason all these men in uniform were here.

"When will it be over?" he asked the woman. He had no other set of directions to the school, and he had to get there by a certain time. He forgot what time exactly King Vegeta's woman had said, he just remembered it was relatively soon.

The lady shrugged, not even bothering to look at him anymore. "Whenever they stop the robbers," she said, straining her neck to get a better look over the people in front of her, her poor baby being crushed between her and some stranger's back.

Mystic's eyes furrowed. When it was over? He looked over at the uniformed men (and women, he finally noticed). They didn't seem to be doing much. He looked at the large crowd behind the barriers. Obviously they weren't helping. They just wanted a show.

He smirked.

He stared at a sign next to the stairs, trying to decipher the human letters on them. It wasn't that he couldn't read. Human letters were getting easier by the day. Comprehension was a different story, but eventually he puzzled it out. Main Office, Second Floor.

There was no one else around as he ascended the stairs, so he figured he must either be really early, or fairly late. He was betting on the latter. After casually throwing the small bit of ki at the building the woman had called a museum, the roby had definitely ended. What disappointed him was that instead of immediately leaving, everyone panicked. There were screams of "Bombs!" "Cell!" "Gold Fighter!" "Light tricks, I tell ya! Light tricks!" The people in uniforms were trying to calm everyone down, but doing a terrible job of it. Hell, half of them were doing the screaming!

He'd had to push and shove his way past the humans, regrettably remembering his earlier instructions not to fly or show his saiyan strength. It was only after he'd manage to make his way clear and was walking away did he realize that the slip of paper with his directions on it were missing. It had taken a long time of pointless wandering, and the help of an old woman who'd "Lived here since the day I was born, young man!" to finally make his way to the silent school.

The office was hard to miss. Instead of doors, the entire wall was missing to reveal the haphazard arrangement of desks and file cabinets within. Not to mention the large sign next to it saying "Main Office, receive schedules here."

"Can I help you, dearie?" croaked a voice, and he turned around to see the ugliest human he had yet to encounter. She was short and squat, the drooping of her jowls and large mouth making him think of a large frog. Green colored around her eyes all the way up to her eyebrows, mouth painted a ruby red, and her red cheeks made her look like she'd had one too many to drink. Bleach hair was piled on top of her head into some sort of cone shape, and she smelled like smoke.

Mystic was sorely tempted to ask the Fromle how it managed to travel all the way to Earth undetected, but managed to restrain himself. "I'm new."

The thing smiled at him. "Well of course you are," it rasped. "I would remember a boy as handsome as you walking the halls before now. I suppose you're here for your schedule then." Without waiting for a response she waddled over to one of the file cabinets and grabbed a punch of papers inside before coming back. "Name?" she asked.

"Mystic."

She smiled again, this time exposing her small, yellow teeth. "Last name, dearie?"

"Uh…" He honestly didn't know. Before he could even hazard a guess, the thing pulled one of the papers out and handed it to him.

"There we go, dearie. Son Mystic, correct?"

"Unless there are any other Mystics in there," he said, gesturing to the pile. She laughed as if he had said the funniest thing ever. He didn't get it. Were there other Mystics in there?

"I always say a laugh is the best way to start out a new year. Now then, I suppose you'll need a note for your class explaining why you're late…" she rummaged around on her desk for a pen and a piece of paper. He was about to ask her why he needed a note when she scribbled something down and handed it to him. "Just give that to your teacher and there shouldn't be any trouble. Do you know the way to your classes?"

He didn't, but he nodded all the same. It took all of his self control not to run away from the office. Especially when the Fromle called out in its crackly voice, "Come back and say hello sometime, handsome!"

Glancing at his schedule, he tried to figure out where his classes were located. His eyes, however, kept drawing to a certain corner where his name was printed. Something was starting to bother him…

Why on Earth would Chichi, the woman who hated him, give him their last name?

A/N: What can I say? I have been super busy, nothing can change that. Though it may have looked like it, I have no intention of dropping this story. Mystic just made it to school, :p. There will probably be more updates, if not soon, then definitely during the summer.

Thank you, everyone, for continuing to review and ask for the next chapter. It reminded me that this fic is not forgotten. :-)

As always, thanks for reading, and please review.