It was the fateful day where the last defender of an apocalyptic future travelled back in time in hopes of changing history. We all know that story…but, this hero is not the Trunks we all know. No, his name is Gotenks. Basically, Goten and thus Gotenks exist in the Future Trunks timeline.
The warriors had rallied onto this spot when they felt the approaching presence of Freeza, the enemy they all believed and hoped Son Goku had annihilated after achieving a legendary power. Alas, to their grim desperation, Freeza had arrived on Earth in the company of his even more powerful father, King Cold.
The group consisting of the traditional Z Fighters, Picollo, Vegeta and Bulma whom insisted on coming, stood behind a mountain separating them from the ill-intended invaders. With their power levels as low as possible, they were concealed from the aliens scouters, but all knew it would be certain death to try an ambush.
Freeza's foot soldiers were nothing; the two tyrants had each a power that dwarfed all of theirs combined. The sensation of dreadful impotence continued until a third, enormous and unknown power-level revealed itself.
"Who or what is that?" Tien asked the question everyone was thinking.
"Is that supposed to be Freeza's mom?" Krillin questioned.
Vegeta snarled. "Don't say every stupid thing that comes to your mind. Freeza doesn't have a mom."
"Then who is it? Maybe one of Freeza's super soldiers?"
Picollo, so far who did the best job at keeping his emotions from showing, raised his voice a little. "Keep quiet, all of you. We still don't know what this new player is. For now, we wait."
Like the Z Fighters, King Cold and Freeza too questioned themselves whom was the Earthling that dared stand in their way. But unlike the Z Fighters, they found the mysterious one wholly amusing rather than unsettling. An Earthling male, barely an adult yet, with hair in two shades of color had appeared out of nowhere and demanded:
"I get the feeling this is gonna fall on deaf ear, but I'll still politely ask: Leave this planet peacefully, or die."
The two tyrants laughed.
"You heard him, Father? This little human thinks he can play with us!" the mechanically-enhanced Freeza chuckled condescendingly. He ordered his grunts to kill him, but (chuckles), any reader who knows of Gotenks can tell who's gonna be standing. Before the soldiers could move, an almost imperceptible blur speed in between them and they all fell, bruised and out cold. To wrap it up, literally and figuratively, Gotenks manifested a string of golden ki which enraptured the beaten soldiers and pulled them away from the Frost Demons. Gotenks knew well Freeza would just murder those poor cretins as retaliation.
"Oh, the little human is too afraid of hurting a few butterflies." Of course the cyborg alien would take his act of mercy as weakness.
"Not really. After all, I'm not afraid of hurting you." The bicolor haired fighter retorted with a falsely innocent grin. It did make a small vein in Freeza's forehead to bulge. He displayed a smirk that promised torture and calmly paced towards the young man.
"At first I thought of just ending you in an instant. But now I feel like prolonging your death a little. Watching you squirm will be a nice way to pass the time until the Super Saiyan arri…" the monologing villain was cut off with a faster-than-light punch to the face that sent him into a mountain.
"Sorry, lizardlips. There was a fly in your face, just wanted to squash it. Come on out, lemme see if it's still there."
The mountain exploded with a tremor that propagated until where the Z Fighters were hiding. Freeza raised like a white, hot, raging flare from the blast.
"Impudent maggot, take this!" he fired a potent beam that would have stripped the flesh from the very bones of a small army of Saiyan elites. To Gotenks, it barely scorched his hair.
"Thanks for the hot air bath, can I have another one?" he flashed another grin that he would was getting on Freeza's nerves. The Frost Demon flew high up, screaming his cyborg lungs out in rage. Mustering a good portion of his might, he created a giant ball of red energy that looked like a small sun.
"Freeza, an attack like that will destroy the planet!" King Cold admonished.
"I don't care! We'll find that Saiyan Goku in space." and he fired it. The supernova blast would sink into the crust, dive all the way to the core and detonate there, destroying the planet from the inside out. All the way, pushing this impudent Earthling along for the ride.
Said Earthling, Gotenks, simply yawned of boredom and opened his mouth widely...
Freeza and King Cold were going back to the ship. They would fly out of Earth's blast radius and wait for Son Goku to arrive and see his home a pile of molten rock in space. That was the plan...until the supernova began to shrivel up.
"What the?!" Freeza sensed a familiar tinge of dread in what remained of his stomach. The same dread when he thought of that Super Saiyan Goku. His planet-busting move not only had stopped upon touching the vermin, it was shrinking!
Father and son watched agape as they realized the reason the supernova was shrinking. Gotenks, mouth opened, was swallowing the energy! Eventually the doomsday attack shrunk into a whisp that also went down the warrior's mouth. He finished it with a burp.
"Ah! Nothing like a hot snack during half-time." He gazed upon the pair. A scarlet glint decorated his eyes. "Time to wrap up this game, 'cause play time's over."
The energy he just absorbed, he let it out against the tyrants. The Frost Demons had zero battle-readiness. Though, Freeza was quick enough to dodge, but King Cold was not. He was vaporized by the energy Freeza had summoned, plus a little more of Gotenks'.
Gotenks superspeeded to where Freeza had fled and grabbed him by the metallic tail. The terrified look on
"Let's go for a spin!" and he span his prey around as if he were a toy. And then he let him go.
The Z Fighters had waited as Picollo strongly suggested. That was until the unknown energy signal spiked a little and those of the small fry soldiers went dormant; a battle had started and apparently the newcomer opposed the invaders. That development brought about an argument.
Gohan, Tien and Krillin wanted to investigate better, while everyone else (including, surprisingly enough, Vegeta) wanted to keep caution and stay hidden. Eventually the former won and the group began to scale the mountain that shielded them from the battle. Again they couldn't risk being detected, so flying was no option. Vegeta, being the first to reach the top, was flabbergasted to see Freeza, the tyrant he feared and loathed most of his life, being pounded by his own fist in the face.
"Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Why are you hitting yourself?"
The rest of the Z Fighters, the ones whom had seen Freeza on Namek, shared similar expressions, though none as stupefied as the Prince's. Bulma, whom had come along only to finally gaze upon the tyrant of the Universe, bored an unimpressed look.
"So that's the Emperor of the Universe, Freezer or whatever his name is. Gotta say, it's pretty disappointing."
"Woman, shut up." Vegeta snarled. Bulma made a retort but the Prince tuned her out completely. Up there was the cretin who made his life a living hell, getting a humiliating beating from this unknown warrior. He would expect to feel overjoyed (even if a good part of him wished he was the one delivering the pain on the Frost Demon), but he didn't know what to feel. Besides the obvious astonishment.
"Holy cow! That guy is wailing on Freeza like he's nothing!" Krillin watched stunned as the unknown put his foot on Freeza's tail to prevent him from escaping and rained a storm of punches on the alien's face.
"And he's not even a Super Saiyan!" Gohan watched mesmerized.
"There's no way this guy is human." Tien deduced. "Someone this strong, we would have picked up his power-level years ago. And I get the feeling this isn't his full power, yet. He's treating this fight like a game."
"Well, there's no way this guy is Saiyan, either. His hair isn't all black." Vegeta put in a rather grumpy mood.
Before they could react, Freeza was tossed close to where they were. Finally the alien warlord noticed they were having an audience. His vengeful sight set primarily on Vegeta. The Z Fighters all instantly powered up. But before a fight they couldn't win started, the stranger showed up and grabbed Freeza by the tail. Then proceeded to beat him into the ground without pause. Only now the stranger noticed the audience.
"Oh, give me a moment to end this episode of brainfreeze. I'll talk to you right away, guys." He hurled Freeza high into the air. He mimicked the moves of two familiar techniques. His ki lighted up immensely.
"Galick Kamehame ha!" a beam of blue and yellow engulfed the Frost Demon, erasing him from the living world. Gotenks let his ki regress and took a satisfied breath. It felt great to win a battle for a change. He had seen plenty that were as one-sided as this, though they were always not in his favor.
He turned to the small crowd and prepared for an awkward introduction. "Nothing like crushing someone's worst enemy right in front of their faces to make a first good impression, uh? Okay, let's meet everyone. Yeah, and try not to screw it up. Shut up!" toning down the mental argument, the stranger gave his most friendly smile.
"Yo, I'm off to wait for Goku. You wanna come with?"
That caught everyone by surprise and suspicion took over.
"Wait, you know my dad?" Gohan approached the stranger, whom gazed at the kid in Saiyan armor with a strange look before replying.
"Well, after a fashion. I never met him, but I heard a lot about him. I was hoping I could meet him someday, and having that roach Freeza blowing up the planet for giggles wouldn't do." he paused. "But first let me take care of something."
He flew down to where the cannon-fodder soldiers were tied up. Some had woken up in the middle of the fight was were petrified looking at the man who just slaughtered their two warlords. He removed the energy lasso and spoke with harshness but patience.
"Listen up, you all. I know you guys are somewhat rotten, but you were also enslaved by that little shit Freeza to do his dirty work. Just for that I'm willing to give you a second chance. Get on your ship, get the hell out of this planet, and tell whoever you come across that Earth is off the menu. Got all that, crap stains?"
The terrified men ran for their lives to the ship and took off much faster than they had landed. Soon they were gone for good.
"He let them go. That mercy may one day just come back to bite him." Vegeta said very disapprovingly.
The stranger looked back to the Z Fighters, pointed with a thumb to where he was going and took off.
Gohan turned to the group. "I'm going with him." one by one, the Z Fighters seconded that decision, albeit for different reasons. Picollo, partly curious and suspicious, wanted to make sure Gohan didn't get into a trap. Tien Shinhan was willing to give the stranger the benefit of the doubt. Vegeta wanted very badly to get some answers. Krillin and Yamcha gave in due to pier pressure.
The whole group took off after their savior(?). He guided them to a plateau and told them Goku would be arriving there, in three hours.
"Well, since we have that long to chat, how about you give us some answers. Like who and what are you." Vegeta demanded. "No Earthling would ever be strong enough to take on Freeza. And I can tell you're no Saiyan either."
The stranger hesitated. "For starters, my name is Gotenks. And...I'm not from around here."
"Are you saying you're not from this planet?" Picollo inquired, feeling a strange sense of nostalgia. For most of his life, he believed he was from Earth.
Again, he hesitated. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anymore."
An unease silence settled in. The group was more suspicious of him now, but none would loudly call him out. This man obliterated Freeza with ease, and they couldn't afford to get on his bad side. Bulma, however, had no such reservations and approached him.
"Well, Mystery Guy, thanks anyways for taking out Freeza. You know, at first when I saw you, I thought you were Goku."
Gotenks snapped out of his reserved mood. Only now he truly noticed Bulma and that caused two different feelings to grow in his mind. One managed to dominate the other, however. His expression turned smug and his smirk matched that.
"I'm obviously not Goku, but..." he superspeeded towards Bulma faster than any of them could keep track off. They expected a surprise attack. Instead they were treated with the visage of Gotenks holding Bulma bridal-style, his face far to close to hers. "...for you, baby, I could be."
A flustered Bulma replied. "Uh...sorry, but I'm already taken. And it's super serious."
A nervous Yamcha manned up. "Yeah, so keep your hands off of her."
Gotenks turned his sight to Yamcha, who to his credit kept his ground. And then laughed outloud. "Oh yeah, then tell me how serious that lasts!" he turned to Bulma, gently putting her down. "Call me once that serious commitment ends."
He turned around and stepped away when, without warning, his fist flew to punch himself in the stomach.
"What the hell was that, you moron?" Gotenks' face was contorted in a lot of embarrassed fury. Then it shifted to one of apologetic awkwardness.
"Sorry. Couldn't resist..."
The furious expression returned. "Then keep it in your pants, Goten!...Oh, shit, you did it on purpose."
His lips showed a huge smirk. "And your reaction was worth it."
Another punch to the stomach.
"Hey, you alright?" Gotenks turned back to Bulma only to realize there was an entire audience looking awkwardly after his little episode. Mother of all awkward silences.
"...Yeah, sure. We're fin-I mean, I'm fine." thinking fast, Gotenks pulled out a capsule and released it. A small refrigerator materialized. "I'm feeling thirsty and that usually makes me a little crazy. You guys want something to drink?"
"No thanks."
"I'm not thirsty."
"We're good." They all watched him with wary looks that said 'this guy might be crazy'.
Gotenks groaned internally. "Great! Now they think we're a mad man. You happy now?! Okay, I admit, me hitting on your mom was a dumb move. My bad. But you have to admit, she's…SHUT UP, DAMNIT! ARE YOU TRYING TO TRAUMATIZE ME?!"
With nothing better to do, Gotenks went to sit on a plane boulder and meditated. That left the group to wait and occasionally talk to one another.
"So, what do you make of this guy?" Yamcha asked Tien discreetly.
"I don't sense anything bad from him." The bald three-eyed one casted a look at the meditating warrior. "If he wanted to kill us, he could have done it as easily as he dispatched Freeza."
"What about the part he argued with himself?"
Tien paused before shrugging. "Yeah, that was weird. He may be a little strange, or even crazy. But I doubt he's a menace."
"Speak for yourself." Yamcha shot the two-colored hair man a dirty look.
"Are you that upset just because he hit on Bulma?"
On other part was Bulma who kept stealing glances at the mystery warrior. There was an instant when he briefly opened his eyes and caught her starring. She blew him a sultry kiss. His reaction; a blush of embarrassment and a barely contained urge to vomit. He returned to his meditation, desperately trying to avoid any images of Bulma.
"What's with this guy? First he was so flirty, now he can barely look at me." She eyed him, offended.
"Why were you flirting with him? Isn't your thing with Yamcha supposed to be 'super serious'?" Krillin quirked a non-existent eyebrow.
She sighed. "Sometimes, I just don't know. Yamcha is always looking at other women."
"Mr. Gotenks?" he opened his eyes again to see Gohan walking up to him. "Mind if I have something to drink?"
"Sure, knock yourself out, bro." Gotenks took out the capsule and Gohan took his pick.
"Wow, soda! Mom rarely lets me have any. She says soda is full of chemicals bad to a growing boy. Mostly she buys natural fruit juice."
"Sounds like a tough woman."
"Yeah, but she's still a good mom."
Gotenks smiled warmly. "Great to know." Unbeknownst to Gohan, the mystery warrior heart filled with a mixture of nostalgia, love, grief and remorse. He kneeled at Gohan's eye level. "Keep this in mind: your mom loves you more than anything else in the world. You're her whole life. Don't do anything that will break her heart, okay?"
Gohan blinked at the strange request. "I…okay, I promise."
Gotenks smile turned sad. He walked to the refrigerator to get himself another drink. Feelings of sorrow and sympathy for himself played his mind so much, that half of it didn't notice what brand of drink he had picked. When he was about to take it to his lips, he turned his face to the other side in a panic, spilling the liquid on his shoulder.
"What are you doing?!" another self argument started.
"I'm thirsty."
"And I'm allergic to Hetap, Trunks."
Gotenks looked at the drink, realizing it was indeed a Hetap. "Oh, sorry."
He didn't dare to turn around, since he could feel everyone staring at him. Again. "This is getting out of hand." suddenly, his wrist watch beeped and he felt a twinge of relief. "Saved by the bell."
"Great news, Goku is about to land." he flew to the destination. The Z Fighters followed suite, but only after a brief hesitation.
The reasons why there's a Future Goten and thus a Future Gotenks are explained next chapter. Yeah, because there's two reasons.