Hybrid TheoryDisclaimer: Don`t own it. Bye bye.
Hybrid Theory
Runaway
The seat was comfortable. Probably the only comfortable thing about this little flight to her senses, really. "I`ll win easily, `sumin` the poor sap even gets by any o` my students," Hercule laughed to the woman sitting gleefully on his lap like the bimbo that she was. "Doesn`t he know when he`s being used?" Videl asked herself, glancing over at her father and his newest freeloading slut of a girlfriend. Hercule laughed some more and chugged down some champaign. "It`s like everything`s gone right to his head since the Cell Games," she thought again, moving her glance to the window. "But something just isn`t right. My father may be strong, but those guys just seemed unbeatable. Especially the two that fought Cell right after him," she thought again. "That guy who fought first looked as strong as Cell, but the kid..." She imagined the boy`s face again. Standing there with a purpose, hair so golden that it put the sun to shame easily, an outfit worn by the green skinned fighter who looked about ready to go ballistic when the boy walked down to face Cell alone. "He`s not telling the truth. That kid wasn`t even really fighting back and he laid Cell out at least once."
"Who is he?" She muttered aloud, just low enough that her father didn`t hear her from his laughter.
"Almost there," ChiChi said with a smile. Gohan beamed, sitting there in a gi-styled outfit looking quite similar to his father`s but with a different pair of kanjis. The one over his heart simply read: "Trained by Son Goku," while the one over his back read: "Trained by Ma." His hair stuck out wildly but in a strangely ordered manner, and his eyes locked forward, a smile that seemed uncharacteristic of him just a few months before planted on his face. "There`re a lot of fighters coming here today," Bulma noted, taking the air car a bit higher up. "Might be a hassle to find a parking place," she said with a slight frown. Mirai Trunks, holding his baby self, didn`t really seem to mind. "Me and Gohan can just fly down there and you two can find a parking place if we have to hurry to sign up," he said. Bulma gave a nod. "You may have to, given how many aircars there are out here," she said. ChiChi frowned a bit. "I still don`t see why you want to do this, Gohan."
"Because, the prize money is a hundred million Zenni, and I can keep my skills up like Dad did," Gohan responded with a shrug. ChiChi`s face seemed to go moonstruck. "We certainly could use the money," she mumbled. "Mainly since I`m pregnant," she added in thought, not wanting Gohan to know just yet. "Unless Trunks beats him," Bulma reminded with a smirk. Mirai Trunks looked over at his past self`s mother with a raised eyebrow, then shook his head before leaning over to Gohan. "If I do win, somehow, you can take the money. My mom certainly won`t miss it since she`s richer than God," he whispered with an uncharacteristic sarcasm. Gohan nodded and whispered back. "Thanks. I`ll try and not beat you too badly," he said with a smirk before looking back out the window. "Sure you will," Trunks chided, rocking his baby self with a smirk.
"Come on, wiggle a bit!" Hercule shouted, the blonde in his lap complying with a giggle so femininely squeeky that it made Videl`s ears hurt. "Ugh," she grumbled, reaching forward and tossing on a pair of headphones. Without much thought, she smacked the play button, hearing an all too familiar song pick up on the CD player.
Graffiti decorations, underneath a sky of dust.
A constant wave of tension, on top of broken trust.
She glanced over at her father. "Prick. Mom would rip into him if she knew what he`s turned into without her around," she thought. Hercule Satan had indeed become something far less than he was when her mother was around. Videl missed her mother bitterly, she missed the way her mother would tell her about her life in an old temple before she`d met Hercule. She`d tell Videl what Hercule was like when he was younger, something that often made Videl blink repeatedly to think how a once humbled young man had turned into the dirty, middle aged bastard that he was now. Her mother, a woman named Rei, was the only thing that ever kept Hercule`s ego in line. Without her?
The lessons that you taught me, I learned were never true.
Now I find myself in question.
She frowned, looking at him. Where had that humble, good hearted man gone when her mother died? Did Hercule`s spirit die with her and go with her to heaven, leaving Videl with this asshole? She didn`t know anymore than she cared. "No. He didn`t beat Cell at all. I`m convinced of it."
They point the finger at me again.
Guilty by association.
You point the finger at me again.
Hercule felt an ice cold glare from his daughter, but didn`t look to face her. Instead, he stayed, focused on his newest girlfriend. Pyza was the woman`s name, redheaded and well proportioned, she was mindless. Hercule liked that. No questions.
Paper bags and angry voices, under a sky of dust.
Another wave of tension, has more than filled me up.
All my talk of taking action, these words were never true...
Videl on the other hand...
"There`s the island," ChiChi announced, reaching back and smacking Gohan on the side of the head. He woke up slowly, wiping off the drool from the back of his mouth and staring emptily ahead at ChiChi. "Wha...?" He asked groggily. "The tournament island," she reminded him. Instantly, Gohan`s black eyes went wide and he remembered, shooting awake entirely and getting a bit anxious. "We there already?" Mirai Trunks smirked and looked back at Bulma, who was hiding her own smirk at Gohan`s behavior. Just like Goku.
"Almost. And it does look like you two`ll have to fly down without us, we`ll probably be looking for a parking place for a little while," ChiChi said diminutively, taking baby Trunks from his adult self and cradling the child, who actually didn`t move an inch. "Race?" Gohan asked, unbuckling his safety harness and stepping to the back of the airbus. "Nah. Don`t wanna knock anyone out of the sky, do you?" Trunks asked back. "Dang." "Good point." That said, the rear hatch opened up and two demi-saiyans jumped out, freefalling for several seconds before taking control of their momentum and heading for the gigantic arena on Battle Island #1, both touching down, surprisingly unnoticed for the most part, and beginning to head for the main arena.
Once the two had jumped out, Bulma flicked a switch and closed the hatch. After that, she spent a few seconds circling the island before spotting an unused spot out near the edge of things, looking over to ChiChi now with a curious glint in her eyes. "You`re hiding something, aren`t you?" She asked bluntly, looking forward again and setting a course to touch down right in the spot she`d wanted. In the process, she hadn`t exactly noticed the fact that reporters were starting to gather up nearby. ChiChi nodded. "I`ll tell you once we land," she said, not putting up a fight while she cradled Trunks in her lap. Oddly enough, the baby didn`t move or stir in the least. He apparently had a liking for his godmother.
With a soft thunk and a sound of rushing air, the airbus touched down, and Bulma looked expectantly at ChiChi after undoing her harness. "Well?" ChiChi let out a soft smile at the picture of everyone gathered at a swimming resort, taken several years earlier, then looked over at Bulma and closed her eyes. "Gohan`s going to be a big brother soon." Bulma blinked in silence for several seconds before the information fully hit her. "ChiChi," she began. "Did Goku know?" ChiChi shook her head regretfully. "He was concieved just before the Cell Games."
Bulma went wide eyed again and spoke once more, voice a bit distant. "Does Gohan know?" ChiChi shook her head. "I want him to know, but not until after this tournament. I want him to have some fun, Bulma. He shouldn`t be fighting because he feels he has to, not after the Cell Games," she said with an affirming nod. Bulma replied with a nod as well, then opened the door. "Want me to carry Trunks?" ChiChi smiled warmly at the soon-to-be toddler. "He`s your son, Bulma. I wouldn`t mind the practice though," she said while glancing at Bulma, who gave a quiet smile and nodded. "Need any help getting out then?"
"No, I`ve got it."
I wanna run away, never say good-bye.
I wanna know the truth.
Instead of wondering why.
I wanna know the answers...
No more lies.
Videl gave her father another glare as the hoverjet touched down softly with a silent thunk and a jolt, quickly undoing her harness and getting up. "I`ll go ahead and find a seat at the arena," she said automatically. Hercule either didn`t care or didn`t hear her, instead giving Pyza a kiss on the throat and then getting up. "You stay here," he said with an arrogant grin. "I`ll be back in a few hours, with a hundred million Zenni for us to bathe in!" He said, laughing stupidly before following Videl out.
I wanna shut the door, and open up my mind.
Thankfully, there were no reporters around, but there were a pair of women and a baby nearby, within range for Hercule to zero in on the lavender haired woman`s chest. "You go on without me, Videl. I`ll be there soon," he said, eyes expanding to the size of dinner plates. Videl looked back over her shoulder, brushing a long black ponytail aside to glance at her father, then to the target of his stare. "Fucking bastard"
Gonna run away...
That was it. The last straw. With a hateful glare at him, she broke into a sprint, running towards the arena while Hercule started to walk towards the two women. Videl`s eyes stung and watered while she ran, yellow tinted, clip on boots smashing into the concrete of the parking lot as fast as they could could.
"Hello, ma`am," Hercule said in his best voice. Bulma`s face took on a decidedly deadpan expression as she walked by, glancing over at a frowning ChiChi, who looked ready to rip Hercule`s afro-haircut off of his scalp and feed it to him. "C`mon, don`t you know I`m the guy that beat Cell? Show some respect for the champ!" He demanded. ChiChi`s face turned into a twitch and she looked at Bulma, who gave a brisk nod, taking Trunks from her surrogate little sister-in-law and stepping back. "Excuse me, Mr. Satan," ChiChi said giving Hercule a few taps on the shoulder. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and spoke up in reply. "I don`t go for chicks like you," he said dumbly.
"Oh, he just asked for it," Bulma thought with a cheshire grin as ChiChi gained that look on her face that even Goku was scared of. With a thunderous crash, Hercule smacked into the back of his plain, a fist sized redmark the shape of ChiChi`s hand painted onto his face. After that, he slowly peeled off and fell back down, muttering something about PMS and tricks.
"That was for Gohan. Now let`s go," she said authoritively, walking off towards the arena with Bulma and Trunks in tow.
"Alright. The fighting starts in one hour, you`ll have Block Three, and you`ll have Block Eight. Any questions?"
Gohan raised his hand. "Who`s fighting Mr. Satan?" He asked curiously. "Whoever wins the main tournament and then passes through the test course and the last match will fight Mr. Satan," the geeky attendant said. Gohan and Trunks gave each other glances before Trunks spoke up. "Guess this is going to be interesting, huh?" He asked. Gohan just smiled a bit and walked away. "I`m gonna go get something to eat while we wait. You?" Gohan asked over his shoulder. "No thanks. I`ll just wait here and see if the others got in and found seats yet," Trunks answered with a shrug before walking off in the opposite direction.
Videl burst past the Private Audience-Fighter Registry entrance doors, none of the gaurds even noticing her for the most part. "How could he?" She asked herself repeatedly, ducking down a hallway and continuing her sprint. Her face, buried in her hands, was wet with two trails of tears, and those black ponytails of her`s trailed behind her in her wake. She was crying. Again. She hated crying. Her father though, he just didn`t seem to understand his own daughter. He noticed her when she was convenient, then ignored her somehow when she wasn`t. She was his only plaything that he wouldn`t get rid of, the champ`s daughter. That`s the only reason she trained. It was her only release in life, even if it was forced on her. The bastard wouldn`t even train her himself, she 'wasn`t good enough' yet in his eyes. Nevermind the fact she could already lay out half of his best students, and had actually come close to crippling some of the other half. She didn`t know it but she was already stronger than Hercule was, or ever would be.
Too bad no one else knew either. For all her strength, Videl was just daddy`s little sugerpea. His show item, the proof he had that he was a good family man. She was probably the only reason that most people even believed Hercule had won the day against Cell. He`d told the reporters that he`d go out there, fight and win for his daughter, and they`d bought every single word like the chumps they were. Made him look like more of a hero to them, but she knew he wasn`t the one who beat that monster. He was a monster in his own right. No one else knew it though.
So caught up in her tears and her damnation of her father was she, that Videl didn`t look ahead at all. She just looked at the floor and tried to conceal her tearstreaked face from everyone that could or would show up. Too bad...
Gohan didn`t budge off of his course when the black haired girl slammed into him. She was dressed in a pair of what looked like black spandex shortshorts, he didn`t know if they were spandex or not, and a flowing, oversized white t-shirt, a pair of purple socks faintly visible above the rims of clip on boots and a had her hair in a pair of flowing ponytails. "Sorry," he stammered, looking a bit mortified. He reached down, offering his hand, but instead, had it slapped away. That`s when he noticed she was wearing a pair slightly wet, fingerless gloves. His hand wasn`t bruised, but he felt a bit of moisture left over from where the palm of her glove had hit it.
He didn`t bother trying to offer a hand again, instead watching her sit there on the floor, sniffling and making choking sounds once in a while. "Are you alright?" He asked. "No," she choked out, placing her hands to her face and continuing to cry. Gohan, being the kindhearted adolescent that he was, crouched down and came to eye level with the girl, head tilted to the side a bit with a concerned expression gracing his features. "What`s wrong then?" He asked. Videl just growled a bit and balled her fists up, looking over at Gohan with her face framed by her hairstyle. She had a scowl on her angry enough to put ChiChi to shame, but it was tinged with a sadness he recognized and somewhat identified with. "You can tell me if you want. I won`t say a thing to anyone," he offered, gazing at her. "He looks familiar," Videl thought, glaring at this seemingly innocent boy before her. "Who are you?" She asked. "I`m Gohan. You?"
"Videl." Gohan nodded. "Too bad we couldn`t meet under better circumstances. You wanna talk about whatever`s bothering you or anything?" He asked, standing up straight and again extending a hand to help the girl up. She again didn`t accept it, but she didn`t slap it away this time either. Instead, Videl got to her feet on her own, still wearing a scowl but having her features lightened a bit. At least this kid seemed willing to listen without judging. He didn`t even seem to notice who she was, and if he did, he obviously could care less. There was also something innately trustworthy about him. "Sure," she managed to sputter out. "How about somewhere other than a hallway though?" She asked, watching as her father finally staggered in, clutching his face and grumbling to himself.
"Serves him right," both of them thought in unison, watching Hercule walk by without noticing them. "Wonder what happened to him," Gohan mumbled, looking over at Videl again with a shrug. "Maybe he finally got stood up," she mumbled out, catching his comment about some crazy bitch with black hair and a bad outfit. Gohan`s face lightened a bit as he caught it too. "Why the smile?" She asked, suddenly a bit annoyed that he wasn`t paying attention. "I think he met Bulma and my mom. Poor guy," he muttered the last part before speaking again quickly. "Wanna go somewhere to talk about it? Over food maybe? I`m kinda starved," he admitted, his stomach confirming it with a low rumble. "Sure."
Bulma sat down with a grin, looking out as fighters started pouring into the rings. Fifteen minutes, it had taken them, to find seats and even a bit longer to get drinks and food for the time they`d spend waiting. People crowded the stands, but there were still a few empty seats, maybe thirty in all. "Is that Krillin?" Bulma asked with a tilt of the head. ChiChi, now holding baby Trunks, looked towards the second ring curiously and spotted a bald midget in a fighting uniform similar to Goku`s. "Poor guy, probably thought he`d be coming here and getting to win easily," ChiChi commented while rocking baby Trunks gently. The present embodiment of the lavender haired youth entering ring eight was still quite asleep, and quite content at the moment. "Is that Tien? And Yamcha?" Bulma asked in sudden surprise, spotting her ex-boyfriend, and current best male friend out in the crowd of fighters in block three, and the three eyed monk-like ex-assassin entering block seven. "Wow, looks like most of the gang is here. Only ones missing from the ring that I know of are Gohan and Piccolo," Bulma answered herself.
ChiChi privately groaned at the mention of her soon-to-be oldest son`s best friend. Even if she`d become able to stomach Piccolo, she still found him to be far too strange for her to like as more than a very distant acquaintance. "Nope. There`s Piccolo right there, ring two," Bulma pointed before taking a sip of her drink.
Sure enough, there stood the white cloaked, turban wearing ex-Demon King of the Earth, standing still as a statue at the edge of the ring, just out of sight in actuality but still apparent. "Guess this`ll be worth coming to see, huh?" Bulma asked. "Oh... Yeah... Really," ChiChi blindly replied, shifting her gaze over to the entrance, which Gohan had yet to come through. "Say, why didn`t Vegeta come to fight? He would probably love facing off with Gohan or Trunks right now," ChiChi asked, trying to change the subject. Bulma shrugged. "He`s just been moping around lately," she said. "Must be because of Goku`s death," ChiChi remarked before turning back to the arena and settling in for what was going to be a long 45 minutes.
Gohan sat on the railing, looking on as fighter after fighter poured into the stages, spotting most of those he knew and a good many he didn`t. But he wasn`t really paying much attention to it. Videl sat on the ground beside and below him, leaned forward on a support for the railing, her arms almost wrapped around it. "He`s so mean now," she mumbled, looking to the box where her father would be entering in a few minutes. "It`s like all of his fame`s gone to his head." Gohan gave a nod, paying a good deal of attention. Almost an hour, he and Videl had spent doing nothing but talking to each other. She`d almost broken down twice, the first time when they started talking as they ate, the second time when they`d taken to watching everyone fill into the rings.
"Who`s your dad anyway?" Gohan finally asked curiously. Videl spoke his name bitterly, but she managed to get it out anyway. "Hercule Satan. The world champion, the Man who beat Cell," she said, emphasizing her disbelief in his claim. Gohan`s jaw would`ve dropped, but he kept it from doing so, mainly for her sake. "I... See. Well," he said, reaching into his overshirt. He then looked out to spot the seat beside his mother and Bulma empty, then looked down at Videl and fumbling around for a second. She looked up at him curiously, an eyebrow raised. Gohan took his hand out and reached down, handing Videl the ticket he`d bought in case he lost and still wanted to see the outcome. "I gotta go. My mom and Bulma are out there," he made a very direct pointing motion to a strangely familiar pair of women. "You can go sit by them and we can probably talk again after the tournament," he stated with a Son Smile. "If not, it was nice to meet you. Bye, Videl!"
At his last words, he was already darting off the safety rail running down the steps towards the ring, clearing the space onto an elevated platform with ease. "Too familiar," she thought. "He`s nice, and kind, but he`s hiding something," she thought, watching him land as the first bell rang out, heralding the beginning of the tournament. "I`ll find you out yet, Gohan" she mumbled with a sad-but-happy smirk, walking off towards the exit to go find the seat he`d pointed her to. Maybe she`d get to know him better yet...
End Part One
Runaway
The seat was comfortable. Probably the only comfortable thing about this little flight to her senses, really. "I`ll win easily, `sumin` the poor sap even gets by any o` my students," Hercule laughed to the woman sitting gleefully on his lap like the bimbo that she was. "Doesn`t he know when he`s being used?" Videl asked herself, glancing over at her father and his newest freeloading slut of a girlfriend. Hercule laughed some more and chugged down some champaign. "It`s like everything`s gone right to his head since the Cell Games," she thought again, moving her glance to the window. "But something just isn`t right. My father may be strong, but those guys just seemed unbeatable. Especially the two that fought Cell right after him," she thought again. "That guy who fought first looked as strong as Cell, but the kid..." She imagined the boy`s face again. Standing there with a purpose, hair so golden that it put the sun to shame easily, an outfit worn by the green skinned fighter who looked about ready to go ballistic when the boy walked down to face Cell alone. "He`s not telling the truth. That kid wasn`t even really fighting back and he laid Cell out at least once."
"Who is he?" She muttered aloud, just low enough that her father didn`t hear her from his laughter.
"Almost there," ChiChi said with a smile. Gohan beamed, sitting there in a gi-styled outfit looking quite similar to his father`s but with a different pair of kanjis. The one over his heart simply read: "Trained by Son Goku," while the one over his back read: "Trained by Ma." His hair stuck out wildly but in a strangely ordered manner, and his eyes locked forward, a smile that seemed uncharacteristic of him just a few months before planted on his face. "There`re a lot of fighters coming here today," Bulma noted, taking the air car a bit higher up. "Might be a hassle to find a parking place," she said with a slight frown. Mirai Trunks, holding his baby self, didn`t really seem to mind. "Me and Gohan can just fly down there and you two can find a parking place if we have to hurry to sign up," he said. Bulma gave a nod. "You may have to, given how many aircars there are out here," she said. ChiChi frowned a bit. "I still don`t see why you want to do this, Gohan."
"Because, the prize money is a hundred million Zenni, and I can keep my skills up like Dad did," Gohan responded with a shrug. ChiChi`s face seemed to go moonstruck. "We certainly could use the money," she mumbled. "Mainly since I`m pregnant," she added in thought, not wanting Gohan to know just yet. "Unless Trunks beats him," Bulma reminded with a smirk. Mirai Trunks looked over at his past self`s mother with a raised eyebrow, then shook his head before leaning over to Gohan. "If I do win, somehow, you can take the money. My mom certainly won`t miss it since she`s richer than God," he whispered with an uncharacteristic sarcasm. Gohan nodded and whispered back. "Thanks. I`ll try and not beat you too badly," he said with a smirk before looking back out the window. "Sure you will," Trunks chided, rocking his baby self with a smirk.
"Come on, wiggle a bit!" Hercule shouted, the blonde in his lap complying with a giggle so femininely squeeky that it made Videl`s ears hurt. "Ugh," she grumbled, reaching forward and tossing on a pair of headphones. Without much thought, she smacked the play button, hearing an all too familiar song pick up on the CD player.
Graffiti decorations, underneath a sky of dust.
A constant wave of tension, on top of broken trust.
She glanced over at her father. "Prick. Mom would rip into him if she knew what he`s turned into without her around," she thought. Hercule Satan had indeed become something far less than he was when her mother was around. Videl missed her mother bitterly, she missed the way her mother would tell her about her life in an old temple before she`d met Hercule. She`d tell Videl what Hercule was like when he was younger, something that often made Videl blink repeatedly to think how a once humbled young man had turned into the dirty, middle aged bastard that he was now. Her mother, a woman named Rei, was the only thing that ever kept Hercule`s ego in line. Without her?
The lessons that you taught me, I learned were never true.
Now I find myself in question.
She frowned, looking at him. Where had that humble, good hearted man gone when her mother died? Did Hercule`s spirit die with her and go with her to heaven, leaving Videl with this asshole? She didn`t know anymore than she cared. "No. He didn`t beat Cell at all. I`m convinced of it."
They point the finger at me again.
Guilty by association.
You point the finger at me again.
Hercule felt an ice cold glare from his daughter, but didn`t look to face her. Instead, he stayed, focused on his newest girlfriend. Pyza was the woman`s name, redheaded and well proportioned, she was mindless. Hercule liked that. No questions.
Paper bags and angry voices, under a sky of dust.
Another wave of tension, has more than filled me up.
All my talk of taking action, these words were never true...
Videl on the other hand...
"There`s the island," ChiChi announced, reaching back and smacking Gohan on the side of the head. He woke up slowly, wiping off the drool from the back of his mouth and staring emptily ahead at ChiChi. "Wha...?" He asked groggily. "The tournament island," she reminded him. Instantly, Gohan`s black eyes went wide and he remembered, shooting awake entirely and getting a bit anxious. "We there already?" Mirai Trunks smirked and looked back at Bulma, who was hiding her own smirk at Gohan`s behavior. Just like Goku.
"Almost. And it does look like you two`ll have to fly down without us, we`ll probably be looking for a parking place for a little while," ChiChi said diminutively, taking baby Trunks from his adult self and cradling the child, who actually didn`t move an inch. "Race?" Gohan asked, unbuckling his safety harness and stepping to the back of the airbus. "Nah. Don`t wanna knock anyone out of the sky, do you?" Trunks asked back. "Dang." "Good point." That said, the rear hatch opened up and two demi-saiyans jumped out, freefalling for several seconds before taking control of their momentum and heading for the gigantic arena on Battle Island #1, both touching down, surprisingly unnoticed for the most part, and beginning to head for the main arena.
Once the two had jumped out, Bulma flicked a switch and closed the hatch. After that, she spent a few seconds circling the island before spotting an unused spot out near the edge of things, looking over to ChiChi now with a curious glint in her eyes. "You`re hiding something, aren`t you?" She asked bluntly, looking forward again and setting a course to touch down right in the spot she`d wanted. In the process, she hadn`t exactly noticed the fact that reporters were starting to gather up nearby. ChiChi nodded. "I`ll tell you once we land," she said, not putting up a fight while she cradled Trunks in her lap. Oddly enough, the baby didn`t move or stir in the least. He apparently had a liking for his godmother.
With a soft thunk and a sound of rushing air, the airbus touched down, and Bulma looked expectantly at ChiChi after undoing her harness. "Well?" ChiChi let out a soft smile at the picture of everyone gathered at a swimming resort, taken several years earlier, then looked over at Bulma and closed her eyes. "Gohan`s going to be a big brother soon." Bulma blinked in silence for several seconds before the information fully hit her. "ChiChi," she began. "Did Goku know?" ChiChi shook her head regretfully. "He was concieved just before the Cell Games."
Bulma went wide eyed again and spoke once more, voice a bit distant. "Does Gohan know?" ChiChi shook her head. "I want him to know, but not until after this tournament. I want him to have some fun, Bulma. He shouldn`t be fighting because he feels he has to, not after the Cell Games," she said with an affirming nod. Bulma replied with a nod as well, then opened the door. "Want me to carry Trunks?" ChiChi smiled warmly at the soon-to-be toddler. "He`s your son, Bulma. I wouldn`t mind the practice though," she said while glancing at Bulma, who gave a quiet smile and nodded. "Need any help getting out then?"
"No, I`ve got it."
I wanna run away, never say good-bye.
I wanna know the truth.
Instead of wondering why.
I wanna know the answers...
No more lies.
Videl gave her father another glare as the hoverjet touched down softly with a silent thunk and a jolt, quickly undoing her harness and getting up. "I`ll go ahead and find a seat at the arena," she said automatically. Hercule either didn`t care or didn`t hear her, instead giving Pyza a kiss on the throat and then getting up. "You stay here," he said with an arrogant grin. "I`ll be back in a few hours, with a hundred million Zenni for us to bathe in!" He said, laughing stupidly before following Videl out.
I wanna shut the door, and open up my mind.
Thankfully, there were no reporters around, but there were a pair of women and a baby nearby, within range for Hercule to zero in on the lavender haired woman`s chest. "You go on without me, Videl. I`ll be there soon," he said, eyes expanding to the size of dinner plates. Videl looked back over her shoulder, brushing a long black ponytail aside to glance at her father, then to the target of his stare. "Fucking bastard"
Gonna run away...
That was it. The last straw. With a hateful glare at him, she broke into a sprint, running towards the arena while Hercule started to walk towards the two women. Videl`s eyes stung and watered while she ran, yellow tinted, clip on boots smashing into the concrete of the parking lot as fast as they could could.
"Hello, ma`am," Hercule said in his best voice. Bulma`s face took on a decidedly deadpan expression as she walked by, glancing over at a frowning ChiChi, who looked ready to rip Hercule`s afro-haircut off of his scalp and feed it to him. "C`mon, don`t you know I`m the guy that beat Cell? Show some respect for the champ!" He demanded. ChiChi`s face turned into a twitch and she looked at Bulma, who gave a brisk nod, taking Trunks from her surrogate little sister-in-law and stepping back. "Excuse me, Mr. Satan," ChiChi said giving Hercule a few taps on the shoulder. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and spoke up in reply. "I don`t go for chicks like you," he said dumbly.
"Oh, he just asked for it," Bulma thought with a cheshire grin as ChiChi gained that look on her face that even Goku was scared of. With a thunderous crash, Hercule smacked into the back of his plain, a fist sized redmark the shape of ChiChi`s hand painted onto his face. After that, he slowly peeled off and fell back down, muttering something about PMS and tricks.
"That was for Gohan. Now let`s go," she said authoritively, walking off towards the arena with Bulma and Trunks in tow.
"Alright. The fighting starts in one hour, you`ll have Block Three, and you`ll have Block Eight. Any questions?"
Gohan raised his hand. "Who`s fighting Mr. Satan?" He asked curiously. "Whoever wins the main tournament and then passes through the test course and the last match will fight Mr. Satan," the geeky attendant said. Gohan and Trunks gave each other glances before Trunks spoke up. "Guess this is going to be interesting, huh?" He asked. Gohan just smiled a bit and walked away. "I`m gonna go get something to eat while we wait. You?" Gohan asked over his shoulder. "No thanks. I`ll just wait here and see if the others got in and found seats yet," Trunks answered with a shrug before walking off in the opposite direction.
Videl burst past the Private Audience-Fighter Registry entrance doors, none of the gaurds even noticing her for the most part. "How could he?" She asked herself repeatedly, ducking down a hallway and continuing her sprint. Her face, buried in her hands, was wet with two trails of tears, and those black ponytails of her`s trailed behind her in her wake. She was crying. Again. She hated crying. Her father though, he just didn`t seem to understand his own daughter. He noticed her when she was convenient, then ignored her somehow when she wasn`t. She was his only plaything that he wouldn`t get rid of, the champ`s daughter. That`s the only reason she trained. It was her only release in life, even if it was forced on her. The bastard wouldn`t even train her himself, she 'wasn`t good enough' yet in his eyes. Nevermind the fact she could already lay out half of his best students, and had actually come close to crippling some of the other half. She didn`t know it but she was already stronger than Hercule was, or ever would be.
Too bad no one else knew either. For all her strength, Videl was just daddy`s little sugerpea. His show item, the proof he had that he was a good family man. She was probably the only reason that most people even believed Hercule had won the day against Cell. He`d told the reporters that he`d go out there, fight and win for his daughter, and they`d bought every single word like the chumps they were. Made him look like more of a hero to them, but she knew he wasn`t the one who beat that monster. He was a monster in his own right. No one else knew it though.
So caught up in her tears and her damnation of her father was she, that Videl didn`t look ahead at all. She just looked at the floor and tried to conceal her tearstreaked face from everyone that could or would show up. Too bad...
Gohan didn`t budge off of his course when the black haired girl slammed into him. She was dressed in a pair of what looked like black spandex shortshorts, he didn`t know if they were spandex or not, and a flowing, oversized white t-shirt, a pair of purple socks faintly visible above the rims of clip on boots and a had her hair in a pair of flowing ponytails. "Sorry," he stammered, looking a bit mortified. He reached down, offering his hand, but instead, had it slapped away. That`s when he noticed she was wearing a pair slightly wet, fingerless gloves. His hand wasn`t bruised, but he felt a bit of moisture left over from where the palm of her glove had hit it.
He didn`t bother trying to offer a hand again, instead watching her sit there on the floor, sniffling and making choking sounds once in a while. "Are you alright?" He asked. "No," she choked out, placing her hands to her face and continuing to cry. Gohan, being the kindhearted adolescent that he was, crouched down and came to eye level with the girl, head tilted to the side a bit with a concerned expression gracing his features. "What`s wrong then?" He asked. Videl just growled a bit and balled her fists up, looking over at Gohan with her face framed by her hairstyle. She had a scowl on her angry enough to put ChiChi to shame, but it was tinged with a sadness he recognized and somewhat identified with. "You can tell me if you want. I won`t say a thing to anyone," he offered, gazing at her. "He looks familiar," Videl thought, glaring at this seemingly innocent boy before her. "Who are you?" She asked. "I`m Gohan. You?"
"Videl." Gohan nodded. "Too bad we couldn`t meet under better circumstances. You wanna talk about whatever`s bothering you or anything?" He asked, standing up straight and again extending a hand to help the girl up. She again didn`t accept it, but she didn`t slap it away this time either. Instead, Videl got to her feet on her own, still wearing a scowl but having her features lightened a bit. At least this kid seemed willing to listen without judging. He didn`t even seem to notice who she was, and if he did, he obviously could care less. There was also something innately trustworthy about him. "Sure," she managed to sputter out. "How about somewhere other than a hallway though?" She asked, watching as her father finally staggered in, clutching his face and grumbling to himself.
"Serves him right," both of them thought in unison, watching Hercule walk by without noticing them. "Wonder what happened to him," Gohan mumbled, looking over at Videl again with a shrug. "Maybe he finally got stood up," she mumbled out, catching his comment about some crazy bitch with black hair and a bad outfit. Gohan`s face lightened a bit as he caught it too. "Why the smile?" She asked, suddenly a bit annoyed that he wasn`t paying attention. "I think he met Bulma and my mom. Poor guy," he muttered the last part before speaking again quickly. "Wanna go somewhere to talk about it? Over food maybe? I`m kinda starved," he admitted, his stomach confirming it with a low rumble. "Sure."
Bulma sat down with a grin, looking out as fighters started pouring into the rings. Fifteen minutes, it had taken them, to find seats and even a bit longer to get drinks and food for the time they`d spend waiting. People crowded the stands, but there were still a few empty seats, maybe thirty in all. "Is that Krillin?" Bulma asked with a tilt of the head. ChiChi, now holding baby Trunks, looked towards the second ring curiously and spotted a bald midget in a fighting uniform similar to Goku`s. "Poor guy, probably thought he`d be coming here and getting to win easily," ChiChi commented while rocking baby Trunks gently. The present embodiment of the lavender haired youth entering ring eight was still quite asleep, and quite content at the moment. "Is that Tien? And Yamcha?" Bulma asked in sudden surprise, spotting her ex-boyfriend, and current best male friend out in the crowd of fighters in block three, and the three eyed monk-like ex-assassin entering block seven. "Wow, looks like most of the gang is here. Only ones missing from the ring that I know of are Gohan and Piccolo," Bulma answered herself.
ChiChi privately groaned at the mention of her soon-to-be oldest son`s best friend. Even if she`d become able to stomach Piccolo, she still found him to be far too strange for her to like as more than a very distant acquaintance. "Nope. There`s Piccolo right there, ring two," Bulma pointed before taking a sip of her drink.
Sure enough, there stood the white cloaked, turban wearing ex-Demon King of the Earth, standing still as a statue at the edge of the ring, just out of sight in actuality but still apparent. "Guess this`ll be worth coming to see, huh?" Bulma asked. "Oh... Yeah... Really," ChiChi blindly replied, shifting her gaze over to the entrance, which Gohan had yet to come through. "Say, why didn`t Vegeta come to fight? He would probably love facing off with Gohan or Trunks right now," ChiChi asked, trying to change the subject. Bulma shrugged. "He`s just been moping around lately," she said. "Must be because of Goku`s death," ChiChi remarked before turning back to the arena and settling in for what was going to be a long 45 minutes.
Gohan sat on the railing, looking on as fighter after fighter poured into the stages, spotting most of those he knew and a good many he didn`t. But he wasn`t really paying much attention to it. Videl sat on the ground beside and below him, leaned forward on a support for the railing, her arms almost wrapped around it. "He`s so mean now," she mumbled, looking to the box where her father would be entering in a few minutes. "It`s like all of his fame`s gone to his head." Gohan gave a nod, paying a good deal of attention. Almost an hour, he and Videl had spent doing nothing but talking to each other. She`d almost broken down twice, the first time when they started talking as they ate, the second time when they`d taken to watching everyone fill into the rings.
"Who`s your dad anyway?" Gohan finally asked curiously. Videl spoke his name bitterly, but she managed to get it out anyway. "Hercule Satan. The world champion, the Man who beat Cell," she said, emphasizing her disbelief in his claim. Gohan`s jaw would`ve dropped, but he kept it from doing so, mainly for her sake. "I... See. Well," he said, reaching into his overshirt. He then looked out to spot the seat beside his mother and Bulma empty, then looked down at Videl and fumbling around for a second. She looked up at him curiously, an eyebrow raised. Gohan took his hand out and reached down, handing Videl the ticket he`d bought in case he lost and still wanted to see the outcome. "I gotta go. My mom and Bulma are out there," he made a very direct pointing motion to a strangely familiar pair of women. "You can go sit by them and we can probably talk again after the tournament," he stated with a Son Smile. "If not, it was nice to meet you. Bye, Videl!"
At his last words, he was already darting off the safety rail running down the steps towards the ring, clearing the space onto an elevated platform with ease. "Too familiar," she thought. "He`s nice, and kind, but he`s hiding something," she thought, watching him land as the first bell rang out, heralding the beginning of the tournament. "I`ll find you out yet, Gohan" she mumbled with a sad-but-happy smirk, walking off towards the exit to go find the seat he`d pointed her to. Maybe she`d get to know him better yet...