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(The very next morning)
Due to the unexpected meltdown at the power plant, the entire region encompassing Satan City experienced a full two hours of black out and electrical difficulties. The workers at the station labored quickly to fix the issue, in that time leaving thousands of people in darkness. Though this wasn't much of a problem seeing as how most of population was asleep, this was extremely inconvenient for all those who were working the night shift, particularly the hospital and at other emergency departments. Fortunately the facilities were able to activate their backup generators to keep their various life-support systems running and their doors open. It being an incredibly vital part of the community, it made perfect sense that they had to be the ones most prepared for a situation like this.
By the time dawn eventually ticked over, the staff at the power plant was able to attend to the source of the power outage and make repairs to it. Electronics and technology were soon restored and by the time people started to get up for the day ahead, the city was once again running at full capacity. Though the workers were unable to figure out the exact cause of the explosion in their main power line due to the surveillance feeds being messed with prior to the disaster, the security at the station was still put on full alert. In case there was another energy surge, the staff made extra certain that they were ready to rush in and address the issue as efficiently as they could.
Thanks to being occupied up on Kami's Lookout making preparations for the battle ahead, the members of the Z-fighters Gohan, Videl and Piccolo, who had been brought to the attention of the mysterious armored assassin the previous afternoon, completely missed out on the blackout debacle. After all, regularly occurring human calamities were considered the least of the team's worries, as they were currently dealing with an even bigger issue in the form of a ki draining sociopath. The thought that the man was capable of absorbing different types of energy was completely lost on all of them as the demi-Saiyan and his teammates flew down to the capital in the final hour leading up to their fated meeting with their unknown quarry.
Landing on a distant tor on the outside of Satan City, Gohan, Piccolo and Videl went over the plan of attack one last time. After assuring his comrades that he would be okay, the young warrior, dressed in a white turtleneck and tight jeans, and assumed in his Super Saiyan form, took flight towards the center of the metropolis. Passing over traffic and crowds of people wandering aimlessly in the streets, the powered up young warrior soon arrived in the Central Plaza.
This particular landmark and tourist hotspot was designed into a miniature town square; a quad with a post-modern statue made of iron and resembling a person standing in the center, with enormous glass buildings, most of them five star shopping malls, surrounding the courtyard. Set in the heart of the wealthiest district within the city itself, there were dozens of people wandering around the place, enjoying breakfast at the local bars and having tea at the cafes setup alongside the shops. Since it was still early in the morning, the people had yet to clear off to their day jobs. The only plus-side was that the malls weren't flooded with customers yet. That wouldn't happen until sometime around ten.
Nevertheless, Gohan found the presence of people worrisome, and regarded them with both care and caution. After landing on the edge of the square and having a quick look around, drawing a couple of bewildered gazes from those civilians who recognized him as the Gold Fighter, the young Super Saiyan then began to march. Sensing and seeing nothing for him to be concerned about at first, the teenager then started a more thorough scan of the area. He circled the plaza, patrolling the floor plan and keeping an eye out for any sign of his would-be adversary.
The man had called him out here for a fight. If it was a battle that he wanted, then the Saiyan was going to give it to him.
Taking note of the large clock setup against the side of one of the buildings and seeing the hand tick over to nine, Gohan stopped beside the plaza's central statue and waited. Silence dawned across the area for the focused and battle hardened warrior as his steel gaze narrowed on the massive shopping complexes in front of him. With people continuing to walk about and some even stopping to snap some photos of him, particularly a group of girls from a nearby private school, the entire scene drew to a suspenseful still, in which nothing but white noise filled the half-Saiyan's ears.
Then, moments later, a scream of fright broke the mold, followed immediately by a series of surprised gasps that instantly had Gohan's body snap around.
Gaze locking onto the glass shopping mall on the other side of the plaza, the demi-Saiyan then used super speed to approach the area the noises and exclamations were coming from. When he entered the mall via the open glass doors and skidded to a stop at the edge of the crowd gathered in the center hall, the young man quickly nudged his way to the front. When he managed to weave his way through the mob of civilians, the young warrior then recoiled in shock when he saw for himself the cause of the disturbance.
Sitting as the centerpiece for the mall's grand entrance, there was a large fountain with the statue of Venus positioned proudly in the center. Through the cascading water raining down from the cupid statues gathered above the goddess and into the shallow pool surrounding her, Gohan spotted a person bound, gagged, and standing conscious against the statue with their hands tied in front of them.
It wasn't just any person either.
"Erasa!" Gohan gasped, before quickly sprinting forward. Jumping over the wall, the boy landed directly in front of his friend in a heartbeat. When he saw the girl look up at him, the concerned Saiyan took a quick moment to assess her condition. He narrowed his eyes when he saw a strange metal collar with a blinking blue light wrapped around her neck. Gripping it between his fingers, he snapped it in two and was relieved to feel her ki come back into focus. "An energy suppressor?" Seeing she hadn't been harmed in any way, with another quick tug he snapped the ropes holding her to the statue, freeing her from the marble pillar. "Are you alright?" He then reached up to remove the gag.
The instant he pulled it away, Erasa shook her head and looked up, only for her eyes to widen in horror a split second later. "LOOK OUT!"
Spinning around, Gohan immediately spotted a red energy blade being guided by an unknown force and flying straight at him like an arrow. The sight of it approaching causing him to react in alarm, he speedily pushed Erasa out of the way and ducked at the last second, avoiding the blow that would have impaled his skull.
The instant he dropped, the energy sword buried itself into the side of the statue where it stopped. Instinctively, the young half-Saiyan then lunged towards the air and drove an elbow into whatever was attacking him. It came as no surprise when he felt his arm slam into something solid and heard a loud grunt. This was shortly followed by his invisible opponent dematerializing out of thin air as his active camouflage dissipated and his body was sent stumbling away, sword still firmly in hand.
Lying in the fountain water, Erasa looked back to see a now visible Vulcan staggering away, with Gohan standing bravely in place with his elbow jabbed forward.
The moment the giant mech appeared and attacked, the crowds of people flocking to the fountain quickly took flight, scattering across the plaza and out onto the streets, screaming in fear.
Upon hitting his opponent, the demi-Saiyan leapt out of the fountain and tumbled along the ground in an evasive maneuver, leaping to his feet and spinning around to properly face his assailant. When he did, he saw the massive, hulking mech, which stood at the exact same height as Piccolo, stomping towards him with his yellow optical sensors flaring brightly. Narrowing his eyes the young warrior threw up his left hand and fired a powerful Kiai right into the machine's chest. The repulsive shockwave slammed into Vulcan head on and managed to slow him down, jerking him to a momentary halt. Despite this, the soldier kept right on coming, bringing up his sword and, using speed the Z-fighter didn't expect, lunged forward and swung for his head.
Gohan slipped it, avoiding the decapitating strike and prepared for another blast. But the mech swung at him a second time with an upward blow, which clipped the Super Saiyan in the shoulder. Grunting at the glancing blow, the young warrior gritted his teeth and rushed forward. Diving in close to stop Vulcan from using his weapon, he tackled the armored suit in the stomach and sent him into the ground, slamming the man's back into the fountain wall and crushing it under his weight.
Seemingly dazing the pilot, Gohan kept it pinned to the floor with his full body. When the giant robot turned its head to look in his direction, the demi-Saiyan backhanded it with his fist, stunning him, before grabbing its arm and slamming it repeatedly into the floor, forcing it to release its sword. The weapon flew out of his grip and landed outside the fountain's pool, just a few feet from where Erasa was now standing out in the open.
Giving an audible growl, the mech suddenly reached over with its free arm, grabbed Gohan's waist with its gigantic hand, and threw him to the floor next to him. As soon as he had the Saiyan on his back, Vulcan cocked his right fist behind him and slammed it into the teen's stomach, caving him into the floor. The blow landed with a deafening thunderclap, drawing a cry of pain from the demi-Saiyan and causing him to spit up blood as a result of the rib crushing blow. The teen then ended up grabbing the stomach area that was hit with both hands, rolling over in agony while the giant armored suit lumbered to its feet.
After rising to full height, Vulcan stomped around and smirked down at the fallen warrior. "Like the rest of your kin; you lack discipline and imagination. Pathetic." With the Gold Fighter still on the ground, the pilot reached down and grabbed the teen by the head. After turning his face towards him to get a good look at his cringing mug, the mech then turned, aimed out the entrance of the shopping complex, and chucked the boy straight out into the plaza.
Gohan's body was sent flying through the wall of glass, where he proceeded to bounce several times across the square and eventually slam into the building on the other side. His impact was marked by a shattering of glass and a cloud of dust, which shot out of the store he'd ended up flying into like a miniature explosion.
Seeing her friend get taken down brought a terrified look to Erasa's face. "Gohan!"
The sight of the boy's crash landing drew a chuckle from Vulcan, who then stomped after him and out of the ruined mall. Not caring as he broke down the rest of the door frame and began cracking the tiles at his feet under every footstep, the giant armored suit made a terrifying impression on his audience as they ran screaming past him in panic. Now that explosions were taking place across the plaza, no one wanted to be within even a mile of this bout. Only those who'd heard of the Gold Fighter's legendary exploits and were bold enough to want to stay, held their ground and kept their distance.
While marching across the now slightly battered square toward the other side, the armored warrior smirked. "After everything I heard about you Saiyans, I figured that you would be a lot tougher than this. But I guess I was wrong."
A few seconds after he said this, he suddenly saw the hole in the café's wall explode outwards in a shower of rubble and debris, which blocked out his view of the ground floor of the structure for several moments. Stopping in his tracks, Vulcan narrowed his gaze upon the anomaly as his scanners honed in on the center. A split second later, he saw the cloud of dust clear and his adversary come floating out of the shop. Battered yet standing upright and proud, Gohan's golden aura blazed around him like a hurricane, with currents of blue electricity surrounding him, and his hair elongated and standing on end, accompanied by a single bang beating over his forehead as opposed to his previous two.
Blinking at the sight of the teen glaring daggers in his direction, the pilot inside the suit chuckled and rolled his shoulders. "Oh? Did I say something to piss you off?" The numbers on his helmet then echoed out in a series of notable beeps, giving the Vulcan a display of his adversary's power level. "3000 roentgens? Not bad." He then sneered confidently. "Still… it's not enough."
Gohan landed firmly on the ground safely outside the cafe and scowled at his foul smiling opponent. "That's some impressive tech you've got there." He then nodded at the man inquisitively. "Mind telling me where you got it from?"
The warrior straightened his back, lifted his hand and waved it through the air in a condescending manner. "I'm glad you asked that because I wanted to… take this time to reveal all of my dirty secrets." All of a sudden, Vulcan thrust said hand forward and unleashed a powerful red beam of liquid energy from his fingers.
Balking in shock, Gohan reacted defensively and dodged to the right, the blast clipping his arm on the way past so that it punched a hole through the building behind him. Briefly looking back and then towards the burn caused by the glancing shot, the Super Saiyan 2 snapped his gaze back around to see his opponent hold up both his hands and begin lobbing similar red blasts his way. The bolt sized attacks flew at the demi-warrior faster than light, threatening to tear him apart. Holding his ground, the Saiyan powered up so that his aura surrounded him protectively and he began deflecting the shots one after the other. The attacks bounced into the sky, scattering across the countryside and landing safely out of harm's reach.
As another volley of blasts flew his way, Gohan advanced, blocking them with his hands and forearms with expert precision. Vulcan meanwhile started to edge around the area, firing shot after shot with terrifying accuracy, all targeting the boy in front of him. It was after marching through another volley of red death that the half-Saiyan eventually came within a few yards of his enemy, who stopped moving around the perimeter of the square when he found himself backed into a corner.
The moment his target got close, the armored warrior took flight, the jets on his back and boots firing up and propelling him into the sky at ridiculous speeds. As he climbed, Vulcan unleashed another volley of continuous energy blasts down at the Saiyan, who defended against them while at the same time stopping them from hitting the plaza.
Vulcan ascended to about twenty stories above the city streets, where he then produced a cluster of barrels from his gauntlet and unleashed several energy blasts upon his target at the exact same time. The sight of the approaching rain of energy beams forced Gohan to dive out of the way, resulting in the attack striking the square and decimating half of it in a fiery explosion. This allowed the mech pilot to maneuver behind a nearby skyscraper, where he took cover as the demi-Saiyan rolled back to his feet.
Leaping into a stance, the still powered up warrior gritted his teeth and watched the area of sky his foe had disappeared in with a hard glare. His reaction to the salvo was mostly out of frustration at how troublesome this guy was already proving to be.
Despite his looks, this mech pilot mercenary was a lot more powerful than Gohan initially gave him credit for. Due to the fact he couldn't sense his bloody energy signature the demi-Saiyan wasn't able to gauge exactly how strong he was. What's more, his attacks were powerful, damnably fast, and deceptively precise.
A single misfire and he risked accidentally taking out one of the surrounding buildings or nuking this entire area.
The fact that this assassin was fighting him in such a densely populated area meant that Gohan couldn't use any big moves against him without risking the civilians. He was keeping it confined to this space, which was honestly putting a lot of pressure on the seasoned Z-fighter.
Hell, he couldn't use any big moves anyway due to the guy's ability to absorb energy attacks. Since a lot of his strongest techniques involved blasts, this pretty much cut his ability to fight effectively by half.
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