I've read stories where Gohan reveals the true nature of his 'tricks', but I usually found the reaction the people have to be rather underwhelming.

So I decided to write my own version.

Careful, it gets darker as it goes on. I gave it an M rating for a reason.

Chapter 1

Change

High above the planet Earth, there was a single spacecraft floating among the many satellites. But unlike all the others, this one was not from this planet.

Inside it, several strange, bug-like creatures were monitoring the many screens and dials.

"Sir, we have found a suitable place." One of them spoke up to what seemed to be his superior. "The energy accumulated here will set us up for years. Requesting permission to start up the scanning procedure."

The superior glanced at a few numbers passing by on one of the screens. He said only one word. "Granted."

Friday afternoon, last period.

'This is so dull.' He thought, as he put his head on his arms. 'We've been through this at least three times already. Can't we just move on?' He stretched out his aching back a bit.

"Gohan!" A voice snapped through the room. Gohan shot up and looked in the direction of the voice, which just so happened to be at the front of the classroom.

"Busted." Erasa whispered to him from his right, while sporting a bright grin.

"I know you've learned this already, but I can't have you slack off in my classes." The math teacher continued. "It gives a bad example to the rest of the students if I do."

"Err… sorry sir." Gohan replied, bowing his head slightly.

The teacher simply nodded and continued on with his lesson.

"You see, before you can find X you will have to solve a few other…" The dreadfully boring voice droned on.

Son Gohan had been in school for a few days now, having started just earlier this week. He also made his debut as Saiyaman on the very same day, to the chagrin of one of his classmates.

Videl Satan.

In a word, fierce. She had made it her personal mission to unmask Saiyaman, even though Gohan was sitting only two seats from her.

She was also the daughter of the illustrious Hercule Satan, champion of the world. The man who defeated Cell. Or so the world believed. Gohan knew better, but he didn't talk about it. If that guy wanted his credit, he could have it. All he wanted was peace.

The droning voice was interrupted by the bell. Finely. The half-blood Saiyan was wondering if this day would ever end. Stretching himself out, he saw a certain blonde jock eyeing him.

"Had a rough night?" Sharpner implied.

"No, just bored to death" Gohan replied, as he grabs his books.

"You and everyone else" Videl added smugly. "I mean really, that has to be the fourth time he's been through that. I'm surprised we didn't hear any snores."

Gohan nodded, somewhat absentmindedly. None of the three paid much attention to him.

Sharpner was a prime example of a jock, and thus thought a nerd like Gohan was beneath his notice. And he was eager to show it. He took pride in his muscles, and his strength, and was most definitely Mr. Satan's spiritual child. The only thing missing was an afro, replaced by long blonde locks.

Videl was suspicious about him being Saiyaman, mostly because those two appeared on the same day. Especially because Saiyaman appeared after she had pointed out Gohan's similarities to the Golden Fighter, who appeared that very day as well.

And hasn't been seen since.

In hindsight, that might not have been such a good idea.

Other than that, she tended to be entitled. Teachers bowed to her will, and rules did not apply to her.

Although she did risk her own life and health helping at the police, she was rather vocal about it, proudly retelling her stories, painting herself to be a few shades more heroic than what she had actually done. Which was jarring to Gohan, as he tended to be there, as Saiyaman.

And she was proud, so very proud, to the point where it made her arrogant. Proud of her father, proud of her work, proud of her strength, of her popularity, her wealth, her servants, her title as junior champion, her two close friends, the classy way she could move her pinkie, just to name a few.

Yet Gohan could see her side. She had grown up believing her father had saved the world, in wealth unimaginable, with servants bowing to her feet at every opportunity. And she was strong, for someone who could not use her energy, she was very strong indeed.

She also had a boyish streak, which he found rather charming.

And finally there was Erasa, who was busy chatting to Videl. Of the three, she had been the nicest to Gohan, inviting him up to the roof for lunch and all that. Yet he could not help but feel her niceness was insincere, as if she was trying to get him to do something.

But such is life. Gohan only knew these things because he could feel their reflections in their respective energies. Ignoring that, they were fairly good people.

Gohan followed the others out of the gates, then made his grand exit.

"NIMBUS!" He called.

"Go ahead, take your stupid cloud." Videl grumped in his general direction. As usual, he decided to ignore it, knowing she was only grumpy because she couldn't ride it. She had her pride to protect after all.

"See you tomorrow." Gohan waved, as only Erasa waved back.

Weekend passed. Monday passed. The only thing of notice was Saiyaman helping Videl rescue the mayor.

Then, on Tuesday, destiny awaited.

The aliens in the spacecraft, which was currently circling and observing the planet, were looking at a large screen, with a picture of Hercule Satan on it.

"The primary threat from this planet." One of the aliens stood in front of it and spoke to the others. "Although we do not have a reading on him yet, we do have several readings of over a million." Several gasps were heard. "We do know for a fact that he is proclaimed to be the strongest on this world, so his power must be at least that high. Luckily, we finally found a weakness."

The screen changed to show a picture of Videl. "His daughter. Scans put her as high as twelve thousand. But her readings are also unstable, often vanishing on the spot. Unfortunately, repressing one's power seems to be commonplace on this planet. So she might be merely repressing it as not to scare her fellow Humans. But either way, it is nowhere near as high as that of her father."

Now the screen changed to show both pictures side by side.

"We have determined that this species puts a high value in its offspring. Therefore, should we capture the kid, the father may be persuaded to stand aside, or perhaps even aid us in our conquest."

"But surely he won't let her out of his sight." Another protested.

"Ah, but he does." The first showed a sly grin. "They have grown confident in their power. Though that of the kid is still nowhere near that of her father, she is still a long shot above the rest. I know for a fact he leaves her unguarded for several days at a time. And I know for a fact that he has left again for a few days. In just a few hours, our opportunity will come.

Since she is probably going to be a problem with her high power, we will first give them a show of power by annihilating the entire city she lives in. Then, when she is weakened, we will move and capture her."

Videl was having a pleasant dream about unmasking Saiyaman and beating the living daylight, shit and everything else out of him.

As such, she was not very happy when her alarm went off, so she threw it out the window and turned around to continue her dream.

But she was already awake, so she simply spent her time trying her hardest to sleep again, which of course did not work in the slightest.

And to top it off, one of the maids entered her room.

"Mistress Videl." The young woman called her. "Is it not time for you to wake yet?"

Videl simply sat up a little, and gave the poor woman such a death glare that she was reeling out of the room.

But she was up now, might as well pretend to try to be on time.

So she climbed out of her bed and threw off her clothes as she walked to her personal bathroom. A maid would come in and clean those up for her later.

This morning would at least have one upside. Her father was out on his business trips, A.K.A. being with a random woman, so she had home free, which was nice for a change. She loved her father, but he could be so grating. He wouldn't be back until the day after tomorrow.

After her shower she picked a set of clothes, many of which were identical, and made her way to the dining hall, where her breakfast was waiting for her.

Or it should have been, had it been ready. One of the servants told her that the cook would be done in a minute. That was the second time this month. Perhaps it was time for a new cook.

A long time later, about fifty seconds, her eggs, bacon, milk, juice, toast, pancakes and sausages were brought to her.

She wolfed most of it down, leaving the pancakes with apple syrup because she didn't feel like eating sweet at the moment.

Once done, she walked out, threw down the capsule of her copter and flew off.

At school, she arrived just in time to see Gohan land on the roof, jumping from that thing of his. A Nimbus Cloud, he called it. Unnatural, she called it.

According to him, you had to be pure of heart to ride it. Off course, no one but him could sit on it, which was not suspicious at all.

Whatever his angle was, she wasn't buying his tricks.

'But what's the point?' She asked herself. 'What does he want from me?' She'd love to just throw him out of her circle of friends, but he had not given a reason to.

Not a valid one, at least. There was a limit to what even she could get away with.

Except for that riding cloud trick of his, he hasn't really shown signs of… anything really. So until he showed his true colours, or she figured out his trick, she would have to endure his presence.

Fortunately, the boy wasn't as bad as she first thought. If she could forget about his lies and tricks, she might actually like the guy. Erasa drabbled on about how he was nice, kind, cute and handsome, and though Videl had to argue the last points on principle, she had to admit to herself, he was likable enough.

Unfortunately, her suspicions about him being both Saiyaman and the Gold Fighter mostly blocked her from seeing any redeeming qualities he might have. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

She greeted her friends the usual way, Erasa with a smile, Sharpner with a gut punch and Gohan with a scowl.

Everything was as it usually was. Until just after lunch.

Lunch. How in the world could one boy eat so much? It was freakish. And disgusting.

But now she had a job to do. Seven thugs were trying to rob a warehouse. The police had them surrounded, but since the robbers were armed, they didn't dare go inside. Useless cowards, the lot of them!

Ah well, it meant action for her, which was something she'd never turn down. Kicking criminal butt was one of her favourite hobbies.

So she got back in her copter, flew to the roof, put the thing on autopilot and jumped out.

There was an entrance to the roof, which she knew. The plan was to jump in from above. There were no hostages, which left her pretty much free to do as she pleased.

And she did.

The first guy she jumped, and knocked out with a swift kick to the back of the head. The second noticed, but was not fast enough to avoid the punch to his gut, knocking the breath, and consciousness, out of him as well.

The third raised his gun, but she knocked it out of his hands.

He surrendered. As did the other four.

"Please don't hurt us." One pleaded from his knees.

"Why shouldn't I" She returned, pumping her fist. "You're the ones trying to take what isn't yours."

"We didn't have a choice." He pleaded some more.

"You did have one, and you chose wrong." She kicked him in the face. Or tried too, had a white gloved hand not taken her ankle at the last moment.

"Saiyaman." Her eyes narrowed as she pulled herself free. "What are you doing here?" She snapped. "Are you defending these criminals?" She suddenly got an idea. "You're one of them! I will arrest you!"

The clown ignored her. "The police are still outside." He addressed the thugs. "Walk out with your hands above your head, and they'll take you in."

"Thank you, Mr. Saiyaman." And the five promptly left to do just that.

"What the hell!" She was outraged. "You let them GO?!" She attacked with the last word. Her kick swept underneath his feet as lifted up.

"Get back here!" She yelled after him. But he didn't, and left the building through a window.

So Videl, pissed as she was, had no choice but to leave as well. Either that or stay here for no reason.

So she left, just in time to witness the five being handcuffed. She couldn't legally beat them up now. And she needed to beat something.

One of the officers approached her.

"Two more inside." She pointed over her shoulder. "They actively resisted, and tried to shoot me."

One of the criminals overheard and looked at her in disbelief.

Videl didn't care. They chose to be criminals, and now they were going to pay for it.

She got into her jet copter, which was brought to her by an officer, and went back to school.

In the afternoon. Videl was walking out of school with her two friends, and one more.

She still didn't have proof that this guy was Saiyaman, but she heard from Erasa that he makes a bathroom break every time she leaves to fight crime. That's not suspicious at all.

Just today, that guy had interrupted her fight, while only yesterday he showed up for few thugs who took the major captive.

Both of these were hardly more than petty thugs, who bit off more than they could chew, even without the likes of Saiyaman around.

There was a massive bank robbery on Sunday, which ended with the robbers getting away with it. And Saiyaman hadn't shown up. Nor to any crimes she wasn't called away for.

But she had to catch him in the act, so her hands were tied. For now.

She glanced back at the boy, who to her surprise was still there. So she gave him the 'I know you know I know your secret, but I know you know I know I can't prove it yet' look.

Needless to say, he didn't get it.

He did, however get her other message. 'Get lost!'

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Gohan said as he waved slightly. "NIMBUS!" He called at the top of his lungs.

She watched his trickery with distaste.

'Whatever.' She told herself. 'I'll get you eventually.'

She sighed. It had been a long day. She felt tired. She couldn't wait to get home.

She heard the cry of a child somewhere, and the tired voice of the mother trying to soothe.

A car swirled over the road, left to right, only barely staying on the road. She flipped him off, along with many others.

People were strutting about. A few even sat down at the sidewalk.

Videl's alarm bells were ringing. She pushed her own tiredness to the background, and observed.

The entire street looked like The Waking Dead. Even Sharpner was walking rather slumped, his eyes only half open. Gohan was also looking around, sitting on his cloud. Unlike normal, people hardly looked at him.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Erasa said next to her.

"Leaving already?" Videl wanted to know, raising an eyebrow. Usually Erasa would accompany her to the mansion.

"I'm feeling a bit tired." The blonde girl replied.

Sharpner managed to give a huff. "But you didn't do anything today."

Erasa just smiled a bit before walking on.

She only took a few more steps, then collapsed on the floor.

"ERASA, WAKE UP!" Videl screamed at the girl in her arms. She had caught the other just before she could hit the ground, but Erasa seemed to have lost consciousness all of a sudden.

And she wasn't the only one on the ground. More people were falling down where they stood.

Gohan, now alerted, did a fast check-up on Erasa's energy. It was low, and dropping. As was that of everyone around them.

No, it wasn't dropping; it was leaving their bodies and moving up.

Come to think of it, even his own energy was leaving and being pulled up. He hadn't even noticed it, since it wasn't all that much to him. He raised his power, and now his energy obeyed him again. But the people around him couldn't do that.

So he did the only thing he could think of. He pushed his power up further, and spread out his energy over the area.

Directly above them, high in the air, but still within the Earth's atmosphere, the aliens were regulating their equipment, to make sure everything was going well.

However, it was not going well.

"Sir, we have a rising power." One of the aliens reported, pointing at a number which kept going up, and was already in he thousands.

"She has made her move." The commander grinned.

"Sir, our energy draining is dropping." Someone else yelled.

"What?!" He asked. "How?"

"Someone is blocking it." The reply came immediately.

"Satan!" The commanded said under his breath. It would seem he had underestimated her.

Oh well, no matter.

"Turn up the power." He commanded.

"But what if she keeps clogging it?" The other protested. "It's not designed to just pull like that, it'll malfunction."

"She is compensating for the entire city; she can not keep that up forever." The commander replied quickly, pretty much making it up on the spot. "Soon she will have to stop protecting others for her own life, or die trying."

"As you say, sir."

Videl glanced left and right, looking for help. But all around her were more collapsed people.

Screeching of tires reached her ears. Along with the loud crash that followed. The zoom of jets and copters that were no longer properly controlled, if at all.

The only thing missing were the screams. No one had the strength to do so anymore.

"What is going on?" She nearly cried. Sharpner was also bending over Erasa, but his face was fallen and his knees shaky. And she wasn't doing much better either.

She looked back at the newest member of their group. Gohan was still standing on his feet, having jumped off his cloud, and was looking at the sky, wearing a frown.

'Why isn't he affected?' She asked herself.

Then he lowered his gaze, and looked at her. It actually shocked her how different he looked. Confidence was brimming in his onyx eyes. His usually grinning features had become hardened, and serious.

She felt a warmth in her chest. Not a feeling, her insides were actually warming up. And her drowsiness and tiredness vanished like spring snow.

Below her, Erasa's eyes sprung open. She sat up straight again. "What happened?" She asked, rubbing a hand over her head.

She wasn't the only one; all around people who were on the ground were getting up again.

"I feel weird." Sharpner complained, holding one hand to his chest. So Videl wasn't the only one.

"What is THAT?" Erasa yelled, pointing up to the sky. Videl's eyes followed her finger. There was something up there. A small black spot contrasted against the crystal clear skies. It was too small to be seen clearly.

Then she felt a pull. The warmth inside her was ripped out, leaving fatigue in its place. But only for a second.

A strange wind was picking up. It centred itself around the raven haired guy. He had his eyes closed, and was making deep breaths. And his feet were a little about the ground.

"Aha!" The entire situation pushed out of her mind she pointed at him with glee. "You are Saiyaman!" She accused the boy.

"Really?" He opened his eyes again. She could see the disappointment in them. "The entire city is having the life sucked out of it, and that's all you can think about?" He sighed, shaking his head. Then he looked up again, annoyed this time. The wind grew in strength.

"What do you think you're doing?" Videl tried her best glare on him. It failed, mostly because he wasn't looking her way. She continued anyway. "You stop that trickery right now, or so help me, I will make you!"

Gohan seemed to ignore her, his focus on the sky. The winds picked up some more, and started swirling fast now. The warmth inside her had grown to a painful heat.

"Get out of here." He said calmly, before rising higher in the air.

Not quite what she wanted to hear.

Forgetting the fact that he was, well, levitating and generating wind out of nowhere, she ran up to him to grab him by the collar. "WHO DO YOU…" Her voice broke the moment she touched.

It burned.

She knew pain. Even being burned was no strange feeling to her. Once, she even gripped the burning hot valve to let out the water in the tank.

But this was a different kind of heat.

It was the same as the one within her, yet so much more intense.

'It's him.' She realised. 'He's doing this. But how? Why?'

"Stop that!" She commanded. "I don't care how you do that, you're hurting people!"

"Listen, I am not…"

"I said STOP!" Videl swung her fist at him, fully intending to strike him in the face, and bring him down, stopping whatever he had been doing.

He caught it in his palm. It was like sticking her hand into boiling water. Inadvertently, a scream escaped her lips as she drew back.

"This is not the time." He decided, and took for the skies, much like Saiyaman had so many times before. He went up slowly, only just high enough to not be reached anymore.

Videl wanted to scream after him, but did not find the words. The pain in her hand had been all too real. And there was something else.

Some kind of blue vapour was coming off of him, spreading out in all directions. It seemed to float on the strong wind.

The blue vapour quickly grew thicker, becoming light blue mist. Most of it went up, straight into the sky, but much of it spread out, drifting in between the buildings.

And her insides felt like they were on fire. Whatever this mist was, it was the cause.

She had to get away. It was as logical as distancing oneself from a fire that's burning too hot. Yet, for all the heat burning within, she was frozen to the spot.

The mist grew thicker, forming the shape of a flame around him. It seemed to ooze out of his very body.

He was still going up, his strange blue whatever-it-was going with him. He was completely surrounded by it now.

And as he flew up, the fire within her eased.

"What's he doing?" Sharpner had joined her, and was now looking at Gohan as well, along with pretty much anyone within visual range.

It was getting harder not to notice him, as his blue fire grew larger and brighter. It was terrifying; the she felt her legs shake beneath her, as if the ground itself was trembling.

It was trembling. And the winds had grown so strong it had become hard to breathe. The reflections in the windows of the nearby buildings were shaking heavily. Had there been clouds, they would probably have parted.

This was no trick. This cannot be faked. Such a thing simply cannot exist.

People screamed, and ran. But she was too close. She had felt it too intensely. The strange light. The blue vapour, mist and fire. The strong air currents. The trembling of the very ground beneath their feet.

This cannot be faked.

This could only be real.

The blue hue had grown as he rose higher; the flame alone was now many metres across. And spreading still. The blue mist had spread out over the entire sky.

Then she heard a voice. It was merely a hum at first, yet she heard it despite the currents worthy of a hurricane.

No, it was carried by the wind. The wind came from Gohan himself, and carried his voice for many miles.

As the flame grew larger and brighter still, the image of Gohan himself was distorted and only vaguely resembled a Human, the voice rose in pitch and volume.

Twice it stopped, only to continue louder and higher.

'Why are you doing this?' Videl asked herself. 'What are you trying to prove? Aren't you Gohan, the pure hearted nerd from out of town? The socially awkward guy? Didn't you save people as Saiyaman, whether I liked it or not? How could you do this? Why?'

The shaking grew worse. Glass was already shattering, the deadly shards carried in the wind. Videl was barely hanging to the ground as it was.

Again the voice grew, becoming a scream. A scream of pain, anger, anguish. Rapidly it grew louder.

And then a flash. It was so bright it burned itself into her eyes. A ripple of gold flowed through the blue, turning it bright enough to drown out the sun itself.

The blue of the sky was no longer even visible.

The cracking, the shaking, the wind, the heat. It all grew rapidly. And above it all was Gohan's scream, long and loud.

She pushed herself up a little to look up. She didn't even know when she had fallen, but she found herself face down on the stone, alongside Erasa. In between was Sharpner, either arm protectively over the girls, pressing them down into the ground.

The tiles beneath her rumbled, as each shook in its very own way.

The wind above her ripped at her hair and clothes.

The scream filled her ears, drowning out all else.

The light blinded her eyes, the flash still burned into her retinas.

…

And then it was gone.

…

The light, the scream, the shaking, it all died down at once. The wind ripped a few seconds longer, then died as well.

Videl looked up again. She saw a golden beam go straight up, and vanish in the sky.

…

Ever so slowly, her vision recovered, and a bright figure, surrounded in much smaller golden flames, became clear.

It just floated there, violating many laws of logic and physics. As if he didn't just thoroughly rape them just now.

She grimaced. This was bad. This couldn't be good. Reality had shifted. Whatever happened, her life was over.

She saw something fall, from way up in the sky. From where she saw the bright beam vanish into.

It was dark, and had a strange shape.

Like half of it had been torn off.

It was growing fast, thus falling fast.

The golden figure merely raised an arm, and a small, glowing ball of gold flew out. It hit the black thing with a massive blast. She could feel the heat all the way down here.

When the fireball vanished, so had the black thing.

Then the golden figure flew higher, and turned into a yellow streak across the sky, spanning to the horizon.

End of Chapter

I hope you liked this.

I might take a while to upload the second chapter though. I'm focusing on my other story first. But since the next chapter for that one wasn't ready, and this one was, I decided to just upload this one.