Trunks was glad to finally have some time off from the Time Patrol. What with the construction of Conton City taking longer than expected, Demigra's wormholes popping up here and there, and all the new Time Patrollers entering the field for their first missions, the stress of running the whole organization was starting to get to Trunks. It might have been Trunks's price to pay for being the first to disrupt the timeline, but at least the Supreme Kai of Time was kind enough to let Trunks have a short vacation from all the insanity back in Age 851. At least for a little while, Trunks can go back to his own timeline and spend a nice holiday dinner with his mother.

But the second the time machine materialized back in his home timeline, he knew something was wrong.

For one thing, Trunks sensed a number of tremendously high power levels. There were four, maybe five or six scattered throughout West City. Trunks nearly blasted through the time machine's glass ceiling to confront these strangers – was it more Time Breakers? An alien invasion? Another android like Cell, perhaps – but then Trunks saw the explosions of light behind the old Capsule Corp building. Trunks' mother was supposed to be prepping dinner at the moment, and Trunks sensed that she was still inside the building. After storing the time machine in a capsule, Trunks was moving faster than ever to get inside Capsule Corp.

"Mother!" Trunks screeched as he burst through a window. His eyes scanned the kitchen before falling on that familiar blue hair. "What's going on? Who's fighting out –" Trunks stopped himself short. The dining table was set up nearby, and next to it was a thousand more tables, each one full of a wide assortment of foods and dishes. His mother was carrying more food to the last table.

"Oh, Trunks! You made it!" Bulma Briefs nodded at her son and flashed a quick smile. After setting down a plate topped with a gigantic chicken wing, she picked up the rag on her shoulder and wiped sweat off her forehead. "Can you be a dear and get the last of the food for me? I swear, we never had to make this much food even when Goku was still around."

"Food for – Mother! What is going on?!" The building shook. The two Briefs briefly stumbled before regaining their balance. "Can't you hear it? The fighting outside? Why are you still making food when you should be trying to get somewhere safe!"

Bulma gave Trunks a bemused look. "It's just Richard and Android 16 fighting it out again. Are you really surprised that they're still going at it? You know how Richard feels about synthetic people."

"Wait, Android 16?" The ginger robot shouldn't be up and running yet. Trunks had only found his blueprints and his metallic skeleton in this timeline only recently. "And who's Richard supposed to be?"

Trunks's mother gave him another look, one of her disappointed ones that usually made Trunks flush in embarrassment. She sighed and began to pull Trunks toward one of the exits. "I told you that you needed more time off from the Time Patrol, Trunks. The stress has been getting to you. Don't think it I haven't seen it, young man. Staying up all night training, avoiding your Time Patrol partner – who I still haven't met, by the way – and don't get me started on Puddin..."

Beyond confused, Trunks numbly let his mother drag him away. He had to admit, the stress was getting to him, but there were still so many questions Trunks had to get answered. Who was this Richard? Why was Android 16 up and running? What about those power levels Trunks sensed earlier? And what did pudding have to do with anything?

Mother and son found themselves outside in the giant grass field at the back of the main Capsule Corp building. There were a few minor, lesser buildings in ruins scattered across the field. In the distance, Trunks could see what had to be Android 16 in his green and black attire jumping back from a plume of smoke. Trunks was about to approach 16 when another figure popped out of the smoke.

It was a shirtless man with brown skin and a slick white moustache and goatee. He wore a strange hat that vaguely reminded Trunks of his childhood story books about pirates. Trunks' keen eyes also made out the man's sunglass and some sort of weapon on his right arm.

Bulma sighed again, and Trunks, with a degree of apprehension, turned to her to see his mother looking wistfully at the strange man. She leaned on one foot and rested her chin on one of her fists. "There he goes again. He's almost as bad as Vegeta when it comes to spending time at home."

Now she was comparing this strange to father. "So is that…?"

"Captain Richard Ravager the Third," Bulma confirmed, pronouncing Ravager ra-va-jay. She realized Trunks was staring at her, so she tried to go down a conciliatory route. "I know, Trunks. He isn't your father, and he isn't Vegeta. I never thought I would love another man in this wasteland again, but it happened, and I'm not going to just throw that away."

The battle between 16 and the Captain now long forgotten, Trunks contemplated whether to hightail it back to Conton City and figure out which of the troublemaking rookies had spiked his hetap to induce this horrible hallucination or to question his mother viciously on what exactly happened since Trunks was last here.