(The next morning)
The sun was warm and the sky was clear, and all across West City the roads and buildings were glistening like well polished jewels sitting on top of a mantelpiece. The damages that'd been inflicted to the city during the Hasky crisis weren't very visible anymore and the estate that served as the frontline for the entire conflict was also looking better than ever. Maybe it was because the workers had done a bang-up job at patching things up this time. Maybe it was the way the light was reflecting off of the planet's surface like glass. Or maybe it was because the mood had shifted drastically from the last few days.
Whatever the case was, this morning felt much different from any other that'd come and gone before, and the entire planet could feel it. When the glow from over the horizon eventually fell over Capsule Corp and illuminated the windows of the facility, the sensations of warmth and life rang the alarm clocks for every single person sleeping peacefully throughout the main building.
Groaning when the sun beams danced across her face like dust over a river, Videl sat up from the bed she was lying on and rubbed her eyes. Giving a very lioness like yawn, she then squeezed the hand of the boy lying on the bed next to her, just to check and make sure he was alright. However, when her grip ended up clutching nothing but air and the fabric of the bed and her fingers attempted to seek out the hand they were supposed to be joined with, a jolt of alarm suddenly rushed through her.
"Gohan?" Looking up towards the pillows with a start, the raven haired fighter saw that the comforter the demi-Saiyan was supposed to be lying on was empty. At first thinking this was some sort of an illusion and shaking her head to clear the airways, when she looked back, she saw that the spread was still empty and the indent in the sheets was real.
Springing to her feet, the baffled Videl gasped in shock, "Gohan!" Her exclamation drew the attention of the meditating Piccolo and roused the dozing Hera on the windowsill, both of whom looked over to see their human companion looking around and appearing distressed. "Gohan! Damn it… where are you?"
Lime, having previously been enjoying a Gohan-orientated dream, sat up from her place atop the desk with a piece of paper glued to her face, where she then turned to stare groggily at her schoolmate. "What's with all the noise?" the brown haired teen mumbled.
"Did something happen, V?" Erasa also asked, sitting up from her bed with her arms wrapped tightly around a pillow.
Looking around at her friends, the startled Videl then turned to fix her gaze upon Zangya. "He's gone."
Her statement had the Hera look at the teen in alarm. "What?"
Seeing her friend hop off the sill, the raven haired girl quickly turned and dashed across the room. "Gohan! He's gone!" She ripped back the curtains of one of the chamber's cubicles and looked from corner to corner. "I… I don't know where he is."
Also expressing surprise at the announcement, the former guardian of earth took a moment to settle his thoughts and, dropping out of his meditative state, dragged himself to his feet. "Calm down, runt," Piccolo cut in, at the same time stepping away from his spot to watch the frazzled student continue searching the chamber. "No one else entered the room and there aren't any signs of a struggle, so it's safe to say he probably got up sometime in the middle of the night to stretch his legs. He couldn't have gone far."
Still, this didn't answer the question as to how the brat was able to slip away right under their noses. What? Did he pick up some sort of new stealth mode while he was in a coma?
"Right. A Super Saiyan who can teleport between dimensions and travel great distances faster than the speed of light, couldn't have gone far," Zangya replied sarcastically, brushing her hair back and throwing the Namekian an irritating smirk, "Might want to reassess your points there."
The former guardian glared back at the woman for her comment, "Cut the crap and help us out here, would you?"
Rolling her eyes, Zangya then began a very relaxed walk towards the door, at the same time Erasa and Lime finally got to their feet to join what was expected to be an interesting hunt. "Relax, green man. It's not like this is the most difficult problem to work out. Gohan's been unconscious for about ten days now, and has barely had any food, drink, or sunshine, so there are only a few places he could've gone. It's either: A, the bathroom, B, the kitchen, C, outside, or D, the gravity room. Unless you want to pick all of the above and try to multiply yourself, I'm guessing he's gone to make himself a sandwich so I'll start with B, the kitchen." She then exited the room, passing a still confounded and shaken Videl.
Quickly regaining her senses, the raven haired fighter decided to follow up on Zangya's suggestions and dashed out of the room after her. Lime and Erasa also gave pursuit with the latter not really caring that she was still dressed in her PJs. After shaking off the sardonic remarks of his second most casual sparring partner, a grumbling Piccolo also joined the four women on a hunt across the billion-zeni facility, deciding to carry it out at his own labored pace.
Before the morning shift had even begun to roll in, the hallways were already clamoring with the bodies of dotting youngsters, all of whom were trying to find the owner of another. Zangya, Videl, Lime, Erasa and Piccolo searched high and low, splitting up so that they could cover more ground in separate locations. One of them cracked down the stalls of the nearby bathrooms, not really caring it was the male toilets or not. Another one visited the kitchens, while paying particular attention to the several pantries that were built on station to feed the hundreds of employees and one very anger-prone Saiyan Prince. The third member of their group searched the indoor gardens, being sure to check every tree and furrow, while a fourth member of the team, just for the heck of it, went searching all of the rooms she came across, one after the other, alphabetically… or whatever was convenient.
The key here was process of elimination and, if fortune favored the intelligent, then it was the wisest of them that would find the demi-Saiyan first. It certainly wasn't going to be Erasa, as the dutiful blonde, bless her heart, had gone out of her way in her investigation to leave no stone unturned… literally.
Case in point, while she was searching the lounge room, the pajama wearing teenager thought it was a good idea to sequentially check underneath each of the room's incredibly expensive couch cushions. Noticing Tama was asleep on top of one of the place holders the girl carefully picked up the pillow and removed it, with Mr. Briefs' cat still snoring peacefully across it.
Ignoring the kitten's wagging tail the bubbly teenager then peered into the couch, at the same time carefully holding the seat above her head. "You-hoo. Gohan? Are you there?"
Hey, as far as she knew he could've been anywhere. That was her logic anyway.
For the next twenty or so minutes the gang continued running about the facility, with the commotion even attracting the attention of Bulma Briefs. Stepping out of her room following a long and very comfortable sleep, she immediately noticed Lime running past her in a hurry, which snapped her out of her drowsy state and had the scientist stare after the girl in bewilderment. Before she could ask where the fire was at, the brown haired teen was gone, which prompted the woman to quickly follow after her out of curiosity.
As Piccolo looked around outside and Erasa turned her attention to the cafeteria, Videl moved her search to the training facilities built for the Saiyans of the establishment. Arriving in the familiar corridor of the gym department, the girl quickly jogged into the locker room, which she proceeded to search. Her investigation soon came to an end when she spotted Vegeta standing over by the GR door, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed and arms folded. Puzzled, the poster girl of Satan City approached him.
"Vegeta? What are you doing out here?" the girl asked.
Eyes cracking open, the prince grunted and nodded over his shoulder. "Take a guess."
Puzzled by his seemingly irate response, Videl jogged over to the viewing window to see what was going on. When she peered through, her eyes instantly lit up in astonishment when she saw Gohan, alive, well, and back on his feet, standing in the center of a ridiculously powerful gravity field, sparring with the company's training probes.
Darting through the glowing red air in a blur of motion, the half-Saiyan hero, dressed in a pair of training shoes and spandex blue shorts, dodged a series of powerful, highly concentrated beams sent flying his way by the spinning robots. His form flickered as he moved through the air at unheard of speeds, grinning to himself when he finally came within range of the probe floating at the highest point of the formation. When its sensors detected Gohan's approach, the orb-shaped robot fired another beam down at its evasive target, only for the hybrid to skillfully slip it and dart behind the probe. Cart-wheeling over in midair, the teenage warrior jabbed down with his fingers and hit the button on the machine's side, switching off the droid's weaponry and forcefully putting it in standby mode. The moment he did, he then went about doing the same to the rest of the training bots.
In record breaking time, the boy shot between the robots in a barely visible blur, effortlessly avoiding their attacks and striking their off switches one by one. He ended up moving so fast between the swarm of machines that every single one he ended up tapping wound up switched off at the exact same time. The moment he charged through the entire wave, he landed straight back down on ground level in a crouched position, eyes set ahead of him and a steeled look slapped across his face. When the wind finally settled from his light speed dash, the last of the probes beeped their final chorus before the entire room's lighting faded back to normal.
The sound of electronics and engines powering down signaled the end of the gravity simulation, allowing the half-Saiyan to rise up from the floor and face the ceiling without any strain on his person.
A sigh of relief soon escaped his lips as he felt the pings of his early morning session dissipate and looked down at his hands in thought. "Even after being out of it for several days, I didn't lose a single step." He then clenched his fists tightly. "Actually… I think I've gotten even stronger than before. Kai, I love my Saiyan genetics."
He loved his alien metabolism, he loved his adaptability, he loved his superhuman strength, speed and reflexes, he loved staying up for consecutive nights without any drawbacks, and he especially enjoyed those full moon nights when his body got all tingly and his-
"Gohan!"
Having completely missed the sound of the gravity room door opening and the intercom informing him that the chamber was being accessed, the demi-Saiyan turned around just in time to see a wide-awake Videl rushing over to meet him. His surprise quickly becoming replaced by delight at the sight of his girlfriend, Gohan faced the approaching teen and opened his arms just in time to catch the laughing fighter when she leapt at him without pause or hesitation.
The two embraced, with the former comatose patient spinning the love of his life about while he held her comfortably above the tiled floor. They both smiled and spent the next few minutes enjoying one another's company, with neither caring that one of them was half-naked and covered in sweat. After the spirit hazing ordeal they'd had to go through over the last ten days, neither one of them cared how the other person was dressed, appeared or smelled. They were just happy to see each other again.
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