"It's finished! Trunks come down here!" The eager aqua haired scientist was squealing high enough to make a puppy pee, making Trunks tingle due to his highly sensitive saiyan ears. "I'm coming mom! and for the love of Kami can you please stop squealing like that? it makes me wanna pee…" retorted Trunks."Ahh Sorry…" His mother giggles, "Look I'm almost done with the wiring and it seems like it should be up and running in a minute…I just need to finish these last parts…" she trailed off laboriously typing away.
He looked over at the time machine. Now that he thought about it, it looked more like a giant jewel encrusted egg rather than a time machine. On the top there was a clear dome, and on the way down there was a teal band with yellow spikes coming from it, and the bottom of the ship had black and yellow panels with four rockets coming from it and five yellow legs coming from the sides. His mother was a scientific genius feared by her competitors and could outwit almost anyone in the universe…and she designed the ship to look like a fancy egg. She always thought that fancy eggs represented royalty…like his father. The teal, black and yellow of the ship represented the color of her and Vegeta's hair; the black for his normal hair and yellow to silently boast he became a super saiyan. She never said it out loud but in their situation, when she spent a week looking for certain paints through the rubble of the town, he knew there was more to it.
Looking around the room he started to notice that all of the equipment in there was black and being popular technological colors it could have been a coincidence, but knowing how logically his mother thought, he'd give her the benefit of the doubt. "Is there anything else I can do while you work mom?"
"No sweetie I think I got this but why don't you scan below to see if everything is alright. Be careful." She gave him a stern look in the eyes that he knew too well. 'If anything goes wrong, help the people and come straight home.' He nodded in understanding. Meanwhile she kept on fiddling with a hologram version of the time machine and glancing between the hologram and the hard drive. She was so focused she didn't pay him any mind when he said goodbye.
'I haven't been out here in days…but then again ever since the androids came, there hasn't been much to see now has there? I need to get to Hypogeus as soon as possible…I don't trust them. Do they even know where it is or are they toying with us? Those dammed androids are worse than rabid animals. At least you know a rabid dog will bite you in the ass…with the androids they'll tease you until you either die of exhaustion or they kill you first…I'm not sure which is better…'
He scanned the area and quietly flew up into the clouds for some sort of cover, silently praising Kami that the androids couldn't detect ki like he could. Of course the downside was that he couldn't feel theirs either but lets focus on some positives. Practically memorizing the course, he landed after flying for around five minutes when he looked around and kicked over a dark grey stone, pressing a hidden button. A boulder lifted leading to a very dark, deep ditch in the ground with a rope ladder attached to one side of the hole. Immediately he went in in dark abyss using the boulder to once again cover the gaping hole.
As soon as he touched the bottom a series of lights turned on and he ran attempting to get to the end of the hallway as soon as he could. 'The faster I get there, the faster I can go to the past, the sooner everyone will be safe.' However in his attempt to get to the end, he wasn't exactly paying to much attention and ended up crashing into a giant steel door. "Kuso!" he inadvertently yelled and covered his mouth like a a guilty child.
"Who is it?" a solid shrill voice came from the other side that sounded all too familiar. "Its me Chichi!" In a matter of seconds the door bursted open and the black haired woman's arms enclosed him. "I was so worried Trunks! You haven't been here in six days! Who else would keep me company now that everyone else is gone?" tears started to well in her eyes as she said "You and Bulma won't let me live up there with you because its 'too dangerous' do you think I would have married Goku if I gave a rats ass about danger?" "Um….well…."Trunks nervously started to scratch the side of his head. "The answer is NO! And when did you start cursing! I thought your mother taught you better! It must have come from your father I tell you…."
Chichi droned on as Trunks zoned out and started looking around the premises. The Hypogeus was an underground facility that was built under capsule corps in case there was ever an emergency so they let everyone move in after the androids attacked the city. There were only about 250 people left and food and water were both valuable resources. In order not to scare the masses they always say everything is fine but they're running out…fast…
Coming out of his daze he realized Chichi was still talking 'Oh Yeah.' "….It's so stuffy and depressing down here I can't take it anymore! I refuse to be down here any longer! I do not want to spend the rest of my life withering away in a giant basement town!" "Yeah, yeah sure Chi…wait what?" Trunks barely had time to react when she threw a bag at him and started storming down the hallway. 'Oh well. It's almost time for me to go anyway…everything seems fine and no one has been complaining so I guess it's fine if I leave.' He grabbed Chichi and flew out of the abyss once again covering the entrance with the boulder sloppily in a rush to leave as fast as possible. "Slow down Trunks! I'm not a saiyan you know! Hundred mile per hour winds don't happen to feel like breezes!" *Sigh* "Sorry, Chichi." "Don't sigh! The next generation so rude…"
Looking up at the sky Android 17 gave a sly smirk. 'Looks like I got some fun information today~ thankfully the idiot was too preoccupied with his harpy so he didn't skip out on any details. I can't wait to hear what 18 thinks we should do about this' He turned around whistling a snazzy tune walking away unbeknownst to Trunks.
He walked in lightly putting down Chichi and led her down to the basement where he mainly hung out and worked with his mom. [AN: -_- How's it going with the ladies?] "Is everything going okay in Hypogeus? Hows Chi…..Chi? Are you here to visit?" Bulma smoothly lessened her shock knowing if she sounded too surprised her friend had a habit of being shrill and loud. It was only seven o' clock in the morning and it was way to early to deal with that. But by the look on her sons face and the fact Chichi was already here, she can tell he was up and running. She snickered a bit to herself before saying "You're welcome to stay here."
"Thank you Bulma. Its so lonely down there and I thought that you and Misaki could always use some more company! You guys are always so busy doing this and that, how is that little girlfriend of yours?" Trunks stiffened and changed the subject. "Have you fixed the problem with the time machine mom?" Bulma quickly glanced at Chi giving her an 'I'll tell you later look' relaxing the quizzical look on her best friends face.
"It should be fine but I want a test run first. I'm all about trying to save the future but I won't let that all go to waste from a malfunction or risk something happening to you. I'm going to program an automatic test run so no one gets hurt and it should be ready but tomorrow morning. Is that too soon or will you be ready by then?" Without leaving a second to think "I'm always ready to do anything that might change this living hell."
The edges of Bulma's mouth slightly curved upwards in a sad smile 'Thats my boy'. "Tomorrow it is then. You shouldn't need any clothes but bring some underwear just in case…" "Mom! I'll be fine it's only a visit right? And why would I need underwear I'm a saiyan I won't pee myself!" 'He has his fathers pride too.' He ran his hands through his short purple hair sighing with a faint smile on his face. "I'm going to take a nap. I've been feeling a bit on edge lately. Bye Ma, bye Chichi."
"Would you like any tea? I've been working on this project so long I feel a bit jittery." Bulma laughed a bit bitterly as she quickly brushed some stray strands of her long teal hair behind her ear. The skin under her eyes were sagging and black, and her skin looked too pale for comfort. Their were premature wrinkles on her face and her hair was thinning. "I don't think more caffeine is what you need. How about some hot water for the both of us?" Chichi said with the standard overused fake smile. "I think I'd like that very much." Chichi turned around and reached for the tap 'Oh yeah…can't use those anymore.' before swiftly reaching for a water bottle on the top of a cabinet pouring two mugs of water.
"That poor boy….what happened to him? Aside from being terrorized by the androids of course. But haven't we all been terrorized?" She quickly looked down and her eyes glossed a bit. She handed over a mug to Bulma and thought, 'I'm Chichi'. The fearless mother ever after losing everything; her home, her son, and even her husband all before the age of thirty. She needed to stay strong for everyone and herself because thats exactly who she was. The fearless, selfless mother. She snapped out of her daze and looked back up before Bulma could really comprehend anything was wrong with her.
"Its Misaki. A few days ago she wanted to go out for some fresh air. She said she couldn't stay suffocating in a house any longer and she needed to breathe so she left. She was gone for about three hours when Trunks got worried and went out to look for her. When he found her she was unconscious with a bruise on her head, some broken ribs and Android 17's bandana covering her face. He was furious. He flew back home with her and didn't talk for the rest of the day." Bulma paused and looked down at the coffee mug. "She hasn't woken up yet either so I guess that does not help with his anxiousness at all. Nor does the fact that we have no major medical supplies so the only thing we can do is bandage her up and wait."
"Its such a tragedy. I remember when she first came to West City when Trunks was about eight years old. She walked right up to us and just started were the days. " 'Yeah and she said her favorite color was purple and they became instant friends. How does Trunks even have purple hair? Is it from my Dad? Oh wait I used some experimental dye all those years ago..Che even I not like I have any baby pictures to reference to. Heesh and Vegeta thought I cheated until Trunks threw his bottle so hard it went through a wall.' Bulma's thoughts were interrupted when Chichi continued. "She doesn't deserve this. None of us do. Do you think anything will change when Trunks goes to the past?"
'To be honest I think that him traveling to the past will just create another timeline or kill us. Either way if it creates another timeline, at least one version of us will be happy, and if we die…well that can't be worse than living hell. But Chichi has been through enough her husband always being in and out of her reach before it took him three months to die from heart cancer. Right after he died she had a miscarriage and Gohan dying four years ago…She needs some hope. We both do…Vegeta. Maybe if I say it out loud I can convince myself we'll be fine.'
"No matter what it has to be better than right now. We can only dream of the future, but lets not get our hopes up." There was a brief silence. It wasn't awkward but it wasn't comfortable, and neither one of them were really used to silence in their household. They only laughed when they both burst out saying "Wanna play some card games?" Such a lame occurrence but it was the stupidness they both needed to relax themselves.
Trunks heard their laugh signaling the end of their serious conversation and got up from sitting on the stairs floating upward so they wouldn't know he was spying on them. He was telling the truth when he said he needed a nap but he was never able to really get a good nights rest since the androids came. 'They killed my father before I knew him, Piccolo which destroyed the dragon balls, all the Z warriors, Gohan, and they hurt Misaki and I couldn't do anything about it. I need to make sure everything goes smoothly tomorrow. Its my turn to have the upper hand on the androids!'.
He continued to float down the hallway when he passed by the guest room. The door was slightly ajar and he thought he might as well go in to see how Misaki was doing. He poked the door with his index finger slightly pushing it back enough so that he could slide through and he gently let his feet tough the ground. He switched on the light and looked around. There were boxes all over the room and the window was darkly tinted with curtains so the androids couldn't see in. In fact the only light came from a single dim bulb hanging from the ceiling.
Misaki shifted a bit on her bed so she was now facing the other way. 'She could never sleep with the lights on. I hope she wakes up soon…Hey I'll just put her in a brighter room to see if she'll wake up. It won't hurt to give it a shot. Right? Right.'