Chapter 1

It came from above

Prologue:

After the events of the Cell games the world quickly returned to its normal day to day activities. At the end of the games when Gohan didn't take credit for beating Cell the infamies loud mouth Hercul Satan steeped forward claiming the title as the strongest person in the world. The world accepted Hercul's claim of winning and his explanation of the other fighters using cheap light tricks in there fights. Only those who were there and saw what transpired knew the true horror of the Cell games and what it cost for Gohan to win. His victory came with a cost higher than anyone would have expected or liked. The loss of his father, Goku, left Gohan with not only physical scars but the guilt of knowing he could have prevented it.

As much as Gohan wanted to spend his time wandering the mountains in a state of self-pity Chichi had other ideas. Gohan soon found himself shut in his room with a mountain of books surrounding him.

When Gohan first started back into his studies the one thing he had asked for was that he could stay in his Super Saiyan state. He had done this as a way to continue his training. However it was quickly discovered that as a Super Saiyan Gohan had not only increased physical ability but his mind worked at a heightened level as well.

Within a week Gohan had completed and memorized all the work books his mother shut him away with. Although Gohan was super-fast the mail wasn't, meaning he had a lot of free time waiting for the next level of work books to arrive. During this time Gohan would go off and train by himself, but soon found the need for an actual opponent. He considered asking Vageta but was worried how the proud and temperamental prince of the Saiyan's would react after being beat by the son of his greatest rival. There was only one Z fighter left for Gohan to train with; Piccolo.

His old teacher was happy to train Gohan again. Although it was quickly discovered just how large the power gap between the two of them was. Since Piccolo couldn't keep up with Gohan he started to teach him how to better control his power. This involved a lot of meditation and mind training to focus his KI.

Within a year of training, despite it only being chucks of a week or so while Gohan waited for new work books, he came to master the ability to sense KI. At one point while meditating he was able to feel every living thing on the earth. Although he could sense KI without difficulty he still needed work on using it for more things. Where Piccolo could move an entire mountain without touching it Gohan had trouble with just a bolder, although a very large bolder. Gohan however enjoyed having a challenge that he couldn't figure out in mere minuets.

Piccolo also taught Gohan a little about body manipulation. Gohan would never be able to re-grow a severed limb but he learned how to focus his energy for healing and how to change the way his body looked; making his muscles bigger or smaller. Along with these techniques Piccolo also showed Gohan how to create his own uniform. Chichi was very happy about this because now she didn't have to worry about replacing the close Gohan ruined during his training.

Gohan's ability to complete his academic work so quickly meant that after two years Chichi ran out of things for Gohan to study. At this point Bulma stepped in and let Gohan come to Capsule Corp to get some hands on experience. At first Gohan was set up in his own lab where he worked on some simple projects assigned by Bulma. Most of these tasks were building old Capsule products from scratch. Bulma soon realized that Gohan could easily put together any old products as well as improve on them. Noticing this Bulma had Gohan become her assistant and receiving a pay check to match the roll of working as an equal with the richest and smartest person in the world

Between training with piccolo and working with Bulma Gohan was able to put the sadness he had felt about the Cell games behind him and look to the future for once. However Gohan wasn't the only one looking to the future. Chichi was also making plans for Gohan.

Three Years after the Cell Games:

Gohan slowly crawled out of bed, far too early for his liking. He found over the last couple of years that he liked to sleep in despite going to bed at a reasonable time. Although Gohan was part alien he had the sleeping habit of any fourteen year old, as well as some of the other unwanted afflictions of human boys his age.

Despite being intellectually on par with the smartest person on earth Chichi still wanted Gohan to go to school. The reason she gave Gohan was that although he was smart he needed the documents to prove it and the best way to do that was to start in middles school so he could get into a good high school so he could go to a good university. However Chichi's real reason was that she wanted him to make friends his own age and learn about the world and the people in it; unlike his naïve father. There might also have been some thoughts about grandchildren but she wasn't going to push for that yet.

To facilitate Gohan going to school his whole family, Chichi and his toddler brother Goten, moved in with Bulma. As much as Chichi would have liked to stay in the mountains it would be very hard for her to look after Goten without Gohan's help. Also, since Gohan is too young to have a license how would he tell people he got to school each day.

From Capsule Corp it's only a two hour bullet train ride to Satan city where Gohan will be going to school. Gohan can still fly but this way he has a reasonable story about getting to school. Living at CC also means that Gohan can still help out Bulma while he's at school, which is part of the reason Bulma was so happy for them to move in despite Vageta's objection.

Gohan found it much easier to function after having a long hot shower. He got dressed and headed to the kitchen to grab breakfast before heading to school. Around the kitchen table was Bulma and his mother who looked like she had been up for some time; probably thanks to Goten.

"Gohan" Chichi said as he was devouring what was on his plate. "You can't go to school looking like that."

"What's wrong with what I'm warring?" Gohan replied looking down at the shirt and pants he had put on that morning.

"It's not what your warring but your still in your still in your Super Saiyan form. If you go to school like that there's a good chance that someone will connect you with the gold fighters from the cell games". Gohan hadn't thought of that as he looked over and saw Bulma shake her head in agreement. Closing his eyes Gohan stopped the flow of KI Keeping him in his Super Saiyan state. With the KI cut off Gohan's hair and eyes began to darken and return to their normal colour for the first time in years.

When Gohan opened his eyes he looked at his reflection in one of the appliances on the kitchen counter. He noticed that his hair had returned to being black except for a small part that still had a blond tinge to it. His eyes also looked lighter then they use to be. Gohan was shocked at first but soon realized that he still had a fair amount of energy running through him. He concentrated as hard as he could to suppress it and he saw the blond part start to darken but as soon as he stopped concentrating it returned to being blond.

"That's the best I can do" Gohan said to his mother with a sheepish look on his face. "I guess all this time as a Super Saiyan has left me with so much energy that I can't fully return to my normal state at the moment".

Chichi's face made it abundantly clear that she was not happy about this and was second guessing her choice to let Gohan stay in that golden harried state so long ago.

"I like it" Bulma piped in trying to help Gohan after seeing Chichi's face. "I'm sure Gohan will be able to control his power over time. For now he can just say that he dyed it a while ago and is just waiting for it to fade out."

Gohan nodded his head in agreement with Bulma's idea as well and giving her a small wink of 'thank you'.

"Fine" Chichi said in defeat. "But, when you're not at school or working with Bulma I expect you to be working in controlling that extra energy of yours."

Gohan was happy with this answer and looked forwarded to working on this problem. He hadn't had much time to work on the KI training Piccolo had taught him and this would be the perfect way to get back into it.

"You should probably get going " Bulma stated looking at the clock on the wall. It was already eight o'clock and classes started at eight thirty. He finished off the last few bits of food on his plate, and got up to set off for school. Just before flying off the balcony Bulma called out to him.

"Catch" Bulma said throwing a capsule at Gohan. Looking at it Gohan recognized it as the new food capsule Bulma and him had been working on.
"What's this for?"

"I figured it was time to start field testing it" Bulma said with a smile on her face. "If it doesn't work, just run home for lunch".

Slipping it into a case with his other capsules Gohan took flight to Satan City ready to face whatever came his way .

XXXxxxXXX

Gohan made it to Satan City in only a couple minutes and started to look for his school. He stared from the train station in case one day he actually needed to take it to keep up appearances; it would look wired if he didn't know how to get to the train when he supposedly rode it every day.

He saw that the school was fairly close to the train station so he decided to set down by it and walk to the school from there. It took all of five minutes for Gohan to walk to the front gate of Orange Star Middle School. His mother had insisted that he go there because it was the main feeder school to Orange Star High School, the most recognized School in the country.

Gohan made his way to the main office to get his schedule and finish any final paper work the school may require. The secretary sitting in the office smiled as Gohan walked in.

"How can I help you dear" she said with a kind voice.

"Hi, I'm a new student here. I was told that I had to come to the office to get my time table".

"Yes of cores, Mr. Plunder the principle wants to meet you in his office. It's just around the corner".

Gohan walked around the corner and soon found his way to Mr. Plunder's office. He knocked as softly on the door as he could, and was glad to see he still had control over his strength. The gentle knocking sound alerted the principle to his presence.

"Come in, " Mr. Plunder called through the door. Gohan walked in to find the principle sitting in his chair behind a very nice desk, not as nice as the one in his lab at Capsule Corp but nice all the same.

"You wanted to see me" Gohan asked with a timid voice.

"Ah, yes you must be Gohan"

"Yes, sir"

"I just wanted to personally welcome you here and tell you how excited I am to see what a person with perfect entrance scores can accomplish".

"Well, I'll try my best " Gohan replied not sure how to respond to that.

"Very good" Mr. Plunder said. "Here is your time table. Your first class starts in a couple minutes. I suggest you wait for the class to get settled before you enter so the teacher can properly introduce you. Now get going and try your best".

Gohan quickly left the room still not understanding what Mr. Plunder had meant about seeing what Gohan could accomplish. Putting that out of his mind Gohan began wandering around the school looking for his first class. Along the way he heard a few of the students whispering about him.

"Hey who's the new guy?"

"What's up with his hair?"

The whispers continued until a bell sounded and all the students headed off to class. Once the halls were clear it was much easier for Gohan to look for his class room. He found it a couple minutes after the bell and assumed it would be safe to enter.

The teacher had just finished some morning announcements when he say Gohan enter. "Ah, you must be are new student. Class I'd like to introduce our new classmate Gohan. Well go on tell them about yourself."

"Hi, I'm Gohan. This is my first time going to an actual school as I have been home schooled my whole life. My interests include science, art and martial arts".

"Thank you Gohan, feel free to take any seat you like."

Looking around the room Gohan spotted an open spot next to blond a girl, who started to wave when she saw him looking that way. Taking the wave as an invitation to sit there Gohan started his way up the steps to the back of the lecture hall type room. On his way to his set the teacher started talking again.

"Gohan got perfect scores on all his entrance exams. I hope the rest of you can learn something from his example".

Despite the odd outburst of 'geek' or 'nerd', Gohan quietly took his seat in the back. The blond girl who has been waving at him lend over as he sat down and introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Erase and these are my friends" she pointed to the two students sitting beside here.

"This is Sharpener" she said indicating the blond haired guy sitting next to here. "And this is Videl" indicating the black haired girl next to Sharpener.

"So what do you think of this school so far?" Erase asked in almost the same breath she used to introduce her friends.

"I don't really know yet I've only been in the building for half an hour".

Before Erase could ask another question the teacher cleared his throat indicating he wanted to start his lesson and that the students should be quiet. Gohan found the next couple hours to be very underwhelming. The subject matter was the same he had learned shortly after getting back to earth from Namek. During this time Gohan looked out the window and stared to draw what he saw. This was the same thing he would do at home when he couldn't study any more.

Whenever the teacher asked a question at Gohan he quickly provided an answer without realizing that the teachers were testing him with some of the hardest questions they had. The students sitting beside him however didn't fail to notice this. During the next break while the students were waiting for their next teacher Sharpener decided to speak up.

"Hey brains, is there anything you don't know?"

"Ya, when's lunch" Gohan replied getting a chuckle out of the people listening to the conversation and a grin out of Sharpener.

Before the teens could say more, their next teacher walked in. Mr. Smyth, there history teacher, was one of their favorites because he tried to keep things current. Even though they were studying the history of long died civilizations, he often brought up new discoveries that were found in some of these long forgotten places.

This was the only class that Gohan actually had to pay attention to, because he knew some history but it was clear that this teacher was better informed then most text books. Just before the end of the class at lunch time the teacher told them that latter this week he would be assigning them to their group research projects. This was the most talked about and anticipated project of the year because Mr. Smyth would let the students research almost anything they wanted.

The bell rang letting the students head for lunch. Gohan was just about to get up to leave when Erase told him to join her and her friends for lunch. Remembering his mother telling him to make friend he said ok. The group of four walked outside and sat down under a large tree. Everyone started pulling their lunches out of their bags.

"Hey Gohan didn't you pack a lunch?" Videl asked in an interrogative sort of way.

"Ya, I did" Gohan said about to reach for the capsule in his pocket, when he remembered that no one knows about food capsules and it would be wired if he pulled one out.

"I just left it in my locker" he said quickly giving him an excuse to leave the group to see if the capsule worked. Getting up Gohan quickly searched for where his assigned locker was. He hadn't had a chance to find it earlier and at the moment he didn't have time for his new friend to get suspicious of why it was taking so long.

He turned a corner and walked right into Videl. He moved back as quick as he could so Videl wouldn't get hurt walking into his solid body. She staggered back a step before regaining her footing.

"Any one see the wall that just jumped out and attacked me" she said still getting her bearing. When she finally looked up Gohan was still standing in front of her.

"Damn Gohan what are you made of I thought I had just walked into a brick wall or maybe a steel one".

"Sorry I didn't notice you coming around the corner quick enough".

"It's ok, accidents' happen. Any ways why are you here?"

"Well I can't seem to find my locker again" Gohan replied trying to make himself sound silly.

"What number is it?" Videl asked thinking it funny that the guy with perfect scores forgot where his locker was. After telling her the locker number Videl quickly showed him where it was since it was right next to hers.

Gohan had remembered reading the combination for the lock on his time table and was easily able to open it. He pulled the capsule out of his pocket and pressed the button on it. Videl saw the small cloud of smoke the capsule made and asked Gohan what he was doing. Quickly thinking up another lie Gohan said that it was his bike capsule; it's not working right and randomly lets off puffs of smoke.

Grabbing his now decasualized lunch bag he quickly closed his locker hopping to turn Videls attention away from it. Videl commented that he should either get his bike looked at or get a new one before something went seriously wrong.

The two of them headed back out to the tree to sit with the others. The whole way there Gohan could only think about how much he hated lying to his new friends and if his lunch survived being in a capsule.

As luck would have it his lunch was in perfect condition and tasted delicious too. Sitting there the group started talking about what they would want to do for the history assignment.

"So what do you want to research Videl?" Erase asked giving her a bight eyed smile.

"She's going to do it on the Cell games, what else would she do" Sharpener said.

"Why would she do her research on the cell games?" Gohan asked thinking it a kind of strange topic for a history class since it only happened three years ago.

"Because Videl's father was the one who beat Cell, silly" Erase chimed in.

Gohan sat there for a moment taking it all in. He couldn't picture Videl and that crazy loud mouth together.

"Earth to Gohan, " Sharpener said knocking Gohan on the head. "Where have you been for the last three years living in the mountains or something?"

"Well Ya actually, my family only just move out of the 439 mountain district so I could go to school. That's why I was home schooled until now".

All three of them looked at him with open shock and Sharpener looked almost as silly as he felt. The whole group burst out laughing after a moment.

"Any ways" Videl began. "Hurcule is my father but I don't think I would do my research on the Cell games, I already know all there is to know about them. I think I would prefer to look into the old World Martial Arts Tournaments from before my dad was the champ".

"Hey Gohan didn't you also say you were interested in martial arts?" Erase asked.

"Ya, it's been a bit of a hobby of mine to look into that stuff".

"Hey Videl you should partner with brains. You'd probably get an A if you did the project with him".

"I'd want to focus in on the fighter's styles and I doubt this guy could tell the difference between turtle style and Crane style".

"Good point, by the looks of him he couldn't even hit a fly" Sharpener said ending the conversation.

Gohan just sat silently with his face all red from them talking about him. In the back of his mind he was thinking 'if only they knew'.

The bell sounded to end lunch and the group made its way back to class. Gohan decided that for this class he would at least pretend to think about the question before answering.

Despite his plan, he found it hard not to just blurt out the answers in his next class because it was math. Compared to the math he did with Bulma on a daily bases this was so simple. By the end of class however there were some whispers about him not being as good as everyone thought he was. With class finishing up Sharpener lend over, "now we can see how you do with subjects that involve more than just your brain". With that the class got up and headed for gym.

After the students got changed they headed out to the playing field at the back of the school. Since the school was located near the edge of the city it had a fair sized filed with a chip track running all the way around it.

They started off by warming up with a lap around the track. Gohan felt as though he was walking as he moved along in the middle of the students, trying his best to look like he was in average physical shape. However by the end of the lap he was still breathing easy while most of the students were trying to catch their breath.

The teacher walked up to them and said that today they were going to play soccer. A lot of the student groaned at this. To them the idea of physical activity did not appeal in the slightest. The two team captains were Videl and Sharenar since they were the top athletes in the school.

The teams were quickly divided up with Gohan ending up on Videl's team. As the two teams took their sides of the field Videl decided that Gohan would try being goalie since he 'didn't know the rules of the game' and this way he was less likely to make a foul.

As Gohan took his place in the net he decided to size up the two teams. Focusing on the players KI he was able to detect that each team was evenly matched. He was surprised by the energy level coming from both Videl and Sharpener. Videl in particular was at a level just above most adults.

The Game went on at a good pace for about fifteen minutes before some of the weaker students started to slow down and the battle for the ball became a battle between Sharpener and Videl. At the beginning of the game Gohan had decided to let in all of Sharpeners kicks, which soon seemed to be the only shots coming at him after a while.

The teacher saw the change in the game play and gave the kids a break to catch their breath and get some water. Gohan was heading to get some water when Videl called him over to talk to her.

"What are you doing? It's like you're not even trying to stop Sharpeners shots. I don't care how little skill you have, but from what I've seen so far you're not trying your hardest".

Gohan was a little socked by this. He had been holding back a little whenever Sharpener made a shot but no one should have been able to tell. 'how does she know"?

Gohan was about to respond when he heard shouts and screams coming from the other students. Looking up he saw something big heading towards him and Videl. Without thinking he threw himself forward pushing Videl to the ground.

The object just flew over them before crashing to the ground. A huge cloud of dust came up and coved the two students so no one saw what happened to them.