Super Dragon Ball: Paradise Hysteria

The Story Takes A Slump!

"I thought you were in a hurry, keep up, slowpoke!" Trunks flipped over to glide through the air on his back while saluting Videl, who was pacing behind him. It didn't take long for Videl to realize what Kami Upa and the rest meant about searching for the Dragon Balls being a unique form of training. It wasn't until she began traveling the world in search of magical star-decorated marbles that she realized she wasn't a very good flier. Not as good as Trunks was, anyway.

It was only when Videl reflected on her training that the reason became apparent to her. Most of her training was stationary. Training from inside the gym in the mansion with Chayote or Gohan or training atop the God Temple or inside one of Kami's mystical training rooms. She was lucky to take the fight into the air a few times, but pacing about and trying high-speed flight was an alien experience to her. It felt like being asked to run after spending her entire life lifting dumbbells while sitting on a couch.

"Where even are we? Are you sure that the Dragon Ball is here?" Videl changed the topic. It wasn't entirely just a deflection. She had never seen or heard about these parts of the planet. None of the maps she'd studied at school or when taught by private tutors back home showed that there were so many landmasses past the Red Sea. As far as maps were concerned, there wasn't supposed to be anything south there, just endless oceans until the glacier regions of the south pole.

"Yup, says so right here, look!" Trunks tilted the Dragon Radar and pointed its screen to Videl as if she could make anything out of it at this distance. As if fully aware that she couldn't make anything of it, Trunks pocketed the radar immediately and focused on flying onward. Videl felt her gut burning up with fatigue and numbness passing down her muscles, but she didn't want to say anything to deprive the cocky brat of the satisfaction.

He'd have probably agreed to stop for a break or to stuff his face full. He loved doing that himself, and he'd have jumped at any opportunity to loaf around and eat up. Still, he'd look at her as if she was the child among the two and have that odd sass in his look that'd make Videl boil up inside. He'd start asking those weird questions as if she was a child or an elder with that ridiculously overblown tone, asking her if her feet hurt and if she needed another break. Videl had entertained the possibility that he was genuinely looking out for her, but the smug expression he had when asking her said it all.

Videl had become so immersed in her reflections of the past few hours and the day before that she nearly missed Trunks seizing a dive onto one of the larger islands in the uncharted archipelago far south of the Red Sea. The young Saiyan landed while looking around as if checking where exactly the Dragon Ball signal was coming from. When Videl touched the ground with her boots, Trunks was zooming in on the signal to see where they'd need to go on this island.

"Is it really here?" Videl wondered.

"Yeah... But now that I zoomed in, we may need to walk across to it. Could be good four-hundred kilos, I think..." Trunks grumbled, clearly dissatisfied by how their landing went himself.

"You know, if you didn't race it around the world like a hothead, you could've zoomed out while you were hovering in the air and made a more accurate landing," Videl pressed her knuckles to her waist, lecturing the young man. She didn't want to nag him and aggravate their relationship even further but if there was a chance to fix his need to prove how much faster, stronger, and more experienced he was than a girl triple his, admittedly, unimpressive age, their quest for the Dragon Balls would be so much easier.

"Gee, thanks for the advice, mom!" Trunks barked back at her before sticking his tongue out and making a mean grimace Videl's way.

"Really mature..." Videl shook her head in frustration. A strange rumble coming from nearby made chills go down Videl's spine. Trunks didn't seem to notice it, looking too busy making faces and deviant gestures in Videl's direction to realize that a high-pitched noise was coming from one of the grassy hills nearby.