This story was inspired by my love of Dragonball and the early part of Dragonball Z. Basically, before the series dissolved into the strongest person being decided by who could scream the loudest and/or transform the most.

So, here it is. Back to basics. Like it says in the summary, I have big plans for this story and it'll span several years in the characters' lives, and a majority of the characters will be OCs. But trust me, it won't be too unbearable.

One final word before we get to the disclaimer. Updates may be erratic and irregular, due to the fact that I have a full time job. But I promise I'll update when I can, if there's any sort of interest. I won't hold my story hostage and demand "x" amount of reviews before I'll update. That said, some feedback would be nice.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OCs, who should be obvious because you won't recognize them.

Chapter One – Nest of Vipers

Ichigo yawned and adjusted her backpack. She'd been rummaging through this old office building for a few hours and had only managed to find a few useful things that had stayed intact: some spark plugs, an empty capsule, and a computer processor.

She blew some of her brown bangs out of her face and drew the rest of her hair up into a ponytail. She was wearing her usual spelunking gear today: jean shorts, yellow t-shirt, blue insulated jacket, yellow gloves, and black boots.

She jumped when the small pink radio attached to her belt loop suddenly came to life.

"…An…roids…troyed by…lden Fi…ter." The garbled message came through. Frowning, Ichigo unattached the radio and fiddled with the tuning dial.

"I repeat: The Androids have been destroyed by a mysterious Golden Fighter! It's true, it's finally over!" Ichigo almost dropped the radio in surprise as her green eyes widened. Was this an April Fool's Day trick or something? She heard what sounded like shouting from outside the building and abandoned her sack of loot to go look out the window. Down on the streets, she could see people coming out of hiding and cheering and hugging each other.

She heard heavy pounding footsteps coming from behind her and turned to see her Sabrecat friend Baumren come running through the door.

Baumren was a large animal with a bright orange shock of fur that ran from the top of his head to just past his shoulder blades. The rest of him was covered in golden fur spotted with black. He had the sharp teeth and claws to back Ichigo up in a fight, but he was really a big kitten on the inside.

A big, cynical, kind of sarcastic kitten. But still, a kitten.

"Did you hear?" He asked. Ichigo grinned and nodded.

"C'mon, let's go see everyone!" She laughed, scooping up her sack. She stuffed it into her backpack and swung a leg over Baumren's back. Baumren took a running leap and jumped out the window, landing on his feet several stories down and startling some people into falling over.

"Sorry!" Ichigo called back over her shoulder as Baumren sprinted towards the edge of town.

In no time at all, they reached the entrance to the underground slums where the orphanage was located. Ichigo jumped off Baumren's back and ran ahead of him.

"Onji! Onji! Have you heard yet?" She shouted breathlessly, entering the main room of the orphanage.

The old man that looked after the children looked up from the tattered book he had been reading. His gray hair was cut very short and his bushy moustache obscured much of his lower face. The children often joked and wondered what it was that he was hiding beneath it. He had been a mechanic before the Android crisis, and still preferred to wear his old overalls with a thick sweater over top.

"Hmm? Heard what?" He questioned, peering at her over the top of his cracked glasses. Ichigo dashed over to the large radio in the corner of the room and dug one of the spark plugs from the bottom of her backpack. Her fingers finally closed around it, and she knelt down in front of the radio and set to work installing the spark plug.

"Ichigo, what on Earth…" Onji muttered, walking over to her to observe her work. In no time at all, Ichigo had it installed and she turned the radio on – there was only one station – and turned the volume up full blast so the other children would hear.

"'So come on down to Shell Town and buy the boat of your dreams!'" The radio screeched at them. Onji and Baumren face-faulted and Ichigo sweat-dropped.

"That's… wonderful, Ichigo. But we can't afford a boat…" Onji said, trying to humor her.

"That's not what I was talking about! Jeez, with news as important is this, you'd think they'd skip a commercial for five seconds…" Ichigo muttered angrily, glaring at the radio almost as if she was trying to bend it to her will. A couple of the children had wandered into the room.

"Why is Ichigo praying to the radio?" Tsubame asked Onji, tugging on his pant leg. Tsubame was a cute little six-year-old with black hair she usually wore in pigtails. She was wearing her favorite red dress. Tsubame was the closest to Ichigo out of all the other kids.

"Probably asking it for a brain." Kyo commented, on Onji's other side. Kyo was a rough and tumble eight-year-old who tried to help Ichigo look out for the other kids, but ended up needing to be helped himself. He had messy orange hair and usually sported at least one band-aid thanks to his reckless nature. Tsubame giggled.

"Shh!" Ichigo hissed over her shoulder.

"'At 11:23 this morning, the Androids were destroyed by a mysterious young fighter! All attempts to uncover this young man's identity have fallen through, but I think I speak for everyone when I say I don't give a hoot who he is. What matters is that the Android nightmare is finally over!'"

Everyone in the room with Ichigo collectively gasped. Ichigo turned to them and grinned.

"See?"

The other children in the orphanage flooded into the room, chattering excitedly. The other kids varied widely in age, the youngest being four and the oldest being ten. It was about an even mix of boys and girls, and even races. The raccoon-boy Taro "yahoo"ed and did cartwheels around the room. Tsubame started crying, and Onji bent down to comfort her.

"So, what happens now?" Kyo questioned.

"Now, we start living." Onji replied, smiling at him and Ichigo with tears in his own eyes.

Ichigo found herself in West City a few days later. Reconstruction would begin in a few weeks, after all the festivals and celebrations were over. They'd really had all the materials and resources to rebuild the city for years, but there'd be no point if the Androids would just come through and demolish it again anyway, which they certainly would have.

Today Ichigo was bringing her bag of loot – she'd been out a couple more times since the day the Androids were defeated – to a salvage broker at the old warehouse, one of the few buildings that had been spared by the Androids.

Ichigo sold any useful items she found while scavenging to Crow, who owned the salvaging business. She would then use the money to buy food and clothes for the other kids at the orphanage.

Baumren usually came with her, because he didn't trust Crow. But today, Baumren was visiting his clan in the mountains and would be gone for a few more days.

Ichigo approached the heavy metal door and ignored the armed guards standing on either side. This warehouse was full of all kinds of valuable stuff, and Crow had guards keep watch at all times.

One of the guards put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from trying to walk past him.

"Can I help you?" Ichigo asked, bristling.

"Mr. Crow wants everyone checked for weapons before they enter." The other guard stated.

"What? Since when has he started doing that?" She complained. Everyone had started carrying weapons while living in the cities – Androids weren't the only threat. Humans had gotten more desperate during the nightmare, and were more dangerous than ever.

"Just empty out your pockets. And hand me that backpack." The same guard said gruffly. Ichigo puffed out an annoyed sigh and removed the survival knife from her back pocket and reluctantly handed it over to the guard who had stayed silent.

"Be careful with that knife." She warned him, passing her backpack over to the other guard. He up-ended her backpack, spilling its contents all over the ground.

"Hey!" She protested. The guard ignored her and started sifting through the junk. He located a handgun and a half-full magazine. He stowed both away into his vest and continued looking. Ichigo crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot impatiently. The guard held up a capsule, and Ichigo stiffened.

"What's in here?" He asked.

"Nothing. It's empty." She said quickly. The guard smirked, pressed the button on the top, and tossed it. There was a poof of smoke, and when it cleared, there stood a hoverbike. The guard whistled and walked over to it.

"Nice! I haven't seen one of these things in 20 years. Capsule Corp just doesn't make stuff like this anymore." He observed, walking around it. It was sleek and engineered completely for speed and maneuverability. It resembled a motorcycle, but had circular anti-gravity generators in place of wheels. It had a detachable side car, but Baumren usually used it, so Ichigo left it at home while he was away. The windshield curved up over the entire seat (which could comfortably seat two average-sized people) and connected to the rear of the bike.

"Okay, I'm clear, right? Just put it back in its capsule and let me go in." Ichigo whined. The guard pressed the button to return the hoverbike to its capsule, but put it in his vest.

"Why are you taking that?! It's not a weapon!"

"No, but kids shouldn't have expensive toys like that. Now get going before I get annoyed." The guard cut her indignant rant short. Ichigo growled but knelt down and scooped the rest of her stuff back into her backpack. She knew arguing with him wouldn't get her capsule back. The only thing she was sure to get was a fist to the face.

Ichigo pushed the heavy metal door open and stalked inside. The front of the warehouse had been made into a sort of makeshift lobby. A long counter spanned from the east wall to the west wall, where clerks checked in all newly salvaged parts and paid for them. There were no other salvagers here today; they were probably out celebrating with everyone else. But Ichigo couldn't afford to take the day off, because she had little mouths to feed.

Ichigo walked up to the nearest clerk and untied her back of loot from her belt. She placed it on the counter, and the clerk began looking through it. While the clerk was busy doing that, Ichigo looked past her at the mountains of stuff in the warehouse behind her. To anyone else, it looked like a disorganize mess, but Crow apparently had some sort of system that only he understood, and could find anything if he knew he had it.

She saw the man in question examining some firearms near the "munitions" pile. Crow was a very tall, thin man with smoothed back black hair, and had a huge crooked nose. He very much resembled the bird for which he was named. Ichigo felt uncomfortable when she noted that the munitions pile was so much bigger than the others. What did he need all those guns for?

"10 zeni." The clerk said, bringing Ichigo back to the task at hand. Ichigo thought her heart actually stopped beating, and forced herself to take a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right. It sounded like you just said all that shit only came out to 10 zeni." She said icily. She didn't usually swear, but her day was steadily going from bad to worse. The clerk readjusted her glasses but didn't back down.

"You heard right, miss. With the end of the Android threat, these items just aren't that valuable anymore. Pretty soon, they'll be commonplace again. 10 zeni is actually a generous offer, if you think about it." She replied. Now Ichigo knew why there weren't any other salvagers here today. They had all found out how Crow was lowering his prices, and didn't think it worth coming in to sell anything.

Not only did she get cheated out of an easy 200 zeni, she had gotten her hoverbike and survival knife confiscated with zero chance of getting them back.

Now she was pissed.

"Oi! Crow!" Ichigo bellowed, vaulting herself over the counter and scaring the crap out of the clerk. Crow looked up at Ichigo boredly as she sprinted over to him.

"You shrieked?" He said dryly when she screeched to a halt in front of him. She grabbed a fistful of the collar of his shirt and jerked him down so he was eye level with her (she was rather short for a fourteen year old).

"What's this crap about stuff not being as valuable anymore?" She growled at him.

"It's true, Ichigo. Everything you see here will be circulating in the world again very soon. They'll be everyday things again, and there won't be a need for this business." Crow explained, sounding wounded.

"But what about the salvagers who relied on this money?" Ichigo's voice shook. All she could think about was the kids at the orphanage, and how in the world she was supposed to feed them all now. Those kids relied on her, and now this asshole was taking away her only means of providing for them.

"To be perfectly honest, they're not my concern. I'm trying to run a business, not a charity. As for you, in a few years you'll be able to work a street corner for your income. You won't even need this job anymore."

Ichigo curled her hand into a fist.

"You son of a- ah!" A knee came out of nowhere and buried itself in her stomach. She immediately let go of Crow and fell to her knees, wrapping her arms protectively around her bruising abdomen. She tried to choke out a threat, but it got caught in her throat and she coughed up some blood instead.

The guard attached to the aforementioned knee hit Ichigo on the back of the head with the butt of his gun, sending her face-first to the concrete floor.

Crow "tsk"ed and straightened his clothes.

"You see, Ichigo, the weak bow to the strong in this world. The Androids taught me that. And the sooner you grasp that concept, the sooner you can avoid future humiliation."

Ichigo wanted to come up with a clever comment, but she just groaned and passed out.

"Are you having a pest problem, Crow?" A silky voice questioned. Crow turned to the pretty woman with long red hair that had just exited his nearby office. She wore a snug black business suit with a short skirt and red stiletto heels.

"Just a disgruntled former employee of mine." Crow assured her, trying – and failing – to not openly stare at the woman. The woman rolled Ichigo's unconscious form over with the toe of her shoe.

"What was her complaint, if you don't mind my asking?"

"She takes care of a bunch of parentless whelps, and was unhappy with the recent change in the economy."

The woman rolled her eyes.

"She fancies herself a hero, then? There won't be a place for people like her in our new world." She said quietly, glaring down at the girl. They heard footsteps approaching, and turned to face the newcomer.

"Sorry I'm late." The young man apologized. The woman smiled sweetly at him.

"Trunks, dear, it's bad manners to make a woman wait." She admonished teasingly. Trunks blushed.

"Sorry Miss Red. Mom insisted I look at a new invention before I left. Mr. Crow." He nodded at the other man. Trunks looked down and noticed the unconscious teenager. He snapped his head back up to look at Crow.

"What's going on here? Who is this?" He demanded, gesturing at the girl. Crow shrugged.

"A thief. I'm surprised she made it past my guards, but she's been put in her place. Shall we start the meeting?"

Trunks narrowed his eyes at Crow. He didn't trust the man at all, but he had certain resources that would help speed up the restoration efforts, so he had to be civil with him.

That didn't mean he had to like him.

"Yes, that would be best. After all, Trunks and I are very busy people." Miss Red cooed, slipping a slim arm through one of Trunks'. Trunks repressed a shudder. Miss Red was a beautiful woman, but something about her scared Trunks. He had the feeling that she'd sink her claws in his back the moment it was turned. The fact that she was General Red's granddaughter didn't exactly instill confidence in Trunks.

"Well then, follow me to my office and we can get started." Crow said, holding out an arm, indicating they should go to his office ahead of him. Miss Red tugged on Trunks' arm and after one last reluctant look at the girl on the floor, he let her lead him to the office. Crow leaned towards the guard confidentially.

"Throw her out with the rest of the garbage."

Ichigo awoke as she was sliding down the garbage shoot at the back of the warehouse. She landed with a thud and groaned. Her abdomen throbbed and she curled in on herself and waited until it subsided before she tried moving. She slowly crawled over the mounds of trash lining the dry dock Crow used as his own personal landfill and struggled to pull herself up over the edge of it. She rolled onto the pavement and panted, gritting her teeth because of the pain in her stomach. She opened her moss green eyes and was shocked to see the sky painted with reds and oranges; how long had she been out? More importantly, how the hell long had Crow left her in the garbage?

Ichigo groaned again and rolled over onto her stomach to try and push herself up onto her feet. She was leaving as broke as she had come, but she had to at least try to get her survival knife and hoverbike back.

She staggered over to the building and leaned against it, already out of breath.

'Ugh, that guy must've had a metal kneecap or something!'

She found a discarded pipe nearby that would make a great walking stick, and used it to make her way to the front of the warehouse.

Ichigo rounded the corner and nearly tripped over a boy with spikey red hair that was sitting there. He looked up at her.

"Watch where you're going!" He complained. His eyes widened as he took in her appearance, confirming for her that she looked as bad as she felt. He leapt to his feet, and Ichigo noticed the hilt of a sword peering over his right shoulder. The sword looked out of place, considering he was wearing a dark green martial arts gi.

"What happened to you?" He questioned.

"You should see the other ten guys." She joked with a half-smile. Incredibly, it looked like the boy believed her because he stared at her in awe.

"Whoa…"

Ichigo sweat-dropped.

"You're… kind of an idiot, aren't you?" She said bluntly. The boy blushed and tried to puff himself up to look intimidating.

"I am not!"

"I think you are."

"Shut up!"

"Tohru?" A different voice cut in. Ichigo and the boy turned towards the voice and saw a man with short lavender hair walking towards them.

"Trunks! How did it go?" The boy asked, forgetting all about Ichigo and bounding over to the man like a puppy.

"Like being in a nest of vipers. Who's your new friend?" The man replied, speaking louder to address Ichigo, who had been trying to sneak away. She jumped, startled, and nearly fell over.

"We're not friends!" Ichigo and the boy snapped at the same time. They glared at each other and then looked away stubbornly. The man laughed and closed the distance between himself and Ichigo. She coiled herself up defensively in case she had to make a run for it; this guy did come out of Crow's warehouse after all.

"My name is Trunks, and that knucklehead is Tohru. What's your name?" The man introduced himself. Ichigo eyed him skeptically.

"Ichigo." She muttered. Trunks gave her another honest, open smile and Ichigo felt her defense slipping.

"What are you doing in this part of town, Ichigo? All the festivals are happening in the center of town."

Ichigo's hands tightened on her walking stick.

"I don't have time for parties – I have mouths to feed." She growled at him. Her anger and frustration finally got the better of her and she began to cry bitter tears.

"Hey, calm down. Tell me what happened." Trunks said gently, crouching in front of her. Ichigo rubbed at her eyes but couldn't stop the tears.

"I feed and clothe some orphans, but Crow screwed me over on my pay. This was the only honest way for me to make money, but now… I don't know what I'm going to do." The weight of her situation settled on her shoulders, and she had to lean more heavily on her walking stick. She could just picture their faces, imagining how much she'd let them down, and felt like she was going to be sick.

Trunks stood and ruffled her hair.

"Come on, we'll take you home."

"I can't leave yet! Crow's goons stole from me, and I need to get my stuff back." Ichigo protested. Trunks cocked his head to the side.

"What did they take?"

"My survival knife and my hoverbike."

Trunks contemplated for a moment, and then turned to Tohru, who had been hanging back.

"Can you take Ichigo home?"

The complaints were instantaneous.

"Why me?!"

"Do you have beans in your ears? I just said I wasn't finished here!"

Trunks groaned and rubbed his forehead.

"Because I have some more errands to do," he addressed Tohru before turning back to Ichigo. "And you're in no shape to go confront two guys with guns."

Ichigo tilted her chin up defiantly, and Trunks cocked an eyebrow.

"I can handle those weenies." She said. Trunks rolled his eyes and tapped Ichigo's walking stick with the toe of his boot, and Ichigo wobbled and nearly fell over.

"Hey! What was that for?" She whined when she regained her balance.

"You can't even stand on your own, and you expect to take on a couple of guys with firearms?" He countered, his hands on his hips. Ichigo blushed and looked away.

"There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity." He continued.

"Okay." Ichigo muttered, thoroughly deflated.

"Like you're one to talk." Tohru snorted, grinning at Trunks. Trunks glared and swatted him upside the head.