Sequence I
The Past Retold
Chapter One: The Heroes
That night, it had been a wretched one. Trunks had awoken to the feeling of rain soaking his skin, gasping as a single word burned his mind.
"Gohan…" He breathed out, feeling his mentor's energy level diminishing by the second. The lavender haired boy immediately stumbled to his feet and shot into the sky, Peppertown in his sights. But as unfortunate as it was, it seemed the young hybrid hadn't flown fast enough. The hero of the future's broken body lay face down in the pouring rain, energy so low he could be only lifeless. Trunk's stiffly approached him, shakily falling to his knees.
"Oh god no…what did they do to you Gohan?" He questioned the frail body, receiving no reply. Tears began to stream down his face, unrelenting. "You were my best friend; you were everything to me…. everything, this just isn't fair!" He murmured, clutching the body closely.
"Gohan…Gohan? GOHAAAANNN." An unearthly cry ripped from his throat. In his fit of rage, he dropped his mentor's body and stood up, clutching his fists with such anger his palms began to bleed. As the scream ravaged his throat, Trunk's mind began to cloud. His rage consuming him, he opened his clenched eyes but all he saw was pure gold filtering his vision. Losing consciousness, the fourteen-year-old never even noticed the faint spark of life right in front of him.
That was all he remembered of those three years ago on that awful night. He'd woken days later in the Capsule Corp's underground bunker, utterly relieved to see Gohan lying in a bed only a couple of yards away. Through some incomprehensible means his mentor had survived the bout with the mechanical terrors.
But that day was then, and this day is now. The Saiyan-Hybrids had grown much stronger in the past time, disappointingly though not strong enough to defeat the androids. But it seemed that they might not have to destroy them after all.
Twenty something years ago the general population might've thought the act of time travel impossible, and until now, it was. But through the works of Bulma's genius, Gohan's meticulous nature, and Trunk's quickly prospering mind they had made it possible. The slender golden machine, harboring the power to manipulate time and space, was set to launch tomorrow.
"Heya mom, how goes it?" Trunks inquired as he quietly walked into his mother's lab. Bolts, screws and the likes scattered about, grease and soot spread around. His mother simply huffed as she continued to tinker about with something, her back turned to him.
"Same old Trunks, terroristic androids purging the earth with no hint at survival," The teenager frowned, his mother usually wasn't this pessimistic. The time machine project must be keeping her on edge. Trunks sighed and tried another question.
"So what're you messing with mom?" As soon as the words left his mouth, however; his mother set her project down and turned around revealing her soot stained face.
"I want you to call Gohan down for me sweety, it's important," Trunks raised an eyebrow but complied anyways. He gave a slight flare of his energy and the orange donned fighter appeared instantly.
"Hey, what's going on? I felt Trunks' energy rise," Gohan asked in a concerned tone. Bulma simply gave a wave of her hand.
"I just wanted Trunks to get your attention. I've got something very important to show you," Bulma explained scrabbling around behind her, finally pulling a slender gray item. "I've been on this as a side project, along with the time machine. It shouldn't break easily since I've alloyed it with that stuff from Frieza's ship and that ship Dad made for Goku's trip to Namek," Trunks narrowed his eyes a bit I was wondering what she wanted that stuff for. He thought, Bulma continuing her explanations, "I also tried to use that concept Gero had with the Androids, infinite energy and all. I couldn't figure that out but you should still be able to channel your own energy through it." Bulma finished.
Gohan only stared in amazement, mouth agape, "Bulma this is amazing! I never thought I could use both arms again. Only one question though, how are we going to get it on?" He asked. That's when Bulma's eyes started to shift around, she fidgeted.
"Well because of your unique Saiyan physiology we can't do normal surgery, since the tools would break against your skin. So, just take this." Bulma explained, handing him a metal bar.
Gohan held out on yelling, as Trunks energy pierced his skin helping to fuse the metal with his flesh. Bulma had explained that this was the only way since it was the only thing strong and precise enough to break the skin. Still, he had to let down his defenses for it to be as effective and it wasn't any more fun.
The structural integrity of the metal bar finally snapped just as Trunks energy beam left the surface of his skin, metal bits flying around. Gohan spat the remaining metal out of his mouth and stood up flexing the new appendage.
"Gohan are you sure you don't want to rest for a bit?" Bulma asked. Of course it was expectedly shot down with a shake of Gohan's head Saiyans… she mentally murmured. Seconds later the radio at the table crackled to life.
"Please help! Someone? Anyone? Orange City is under attack!" Came a distressed and horrified voice, replaced moments later by a scream of agony. Bulma turned towards the Saiyan martial artists and attempted to say something to stop them. But she looked up to see the fury and determination in Gohan's eyes and before she could say anything they were gone in a flash of gold.
"Saiyans…" She vocalized this time.
A young woman knelt and sobbed over her father's body. She had told the man that he didn't stand a chance against the androids, but the warning had fell on deaf ears. She didn't even notice her own wounds seeping blood from her torn black leggings and ragged pink shirt.
"Haha, nice shot on the afro man, sis! Straight through the head!" Came the cruel voice of 17. That was what separated these monsters from humanity. They didn't even have names, only numbers. It's as if they were forged from hell for the sole purpose of terrorizing this planet. "So what do you wanna do about girly down there?" He asked, a malicious glint evident in his eyes.
"Ugh, just finish her off already. Her whimpering down there is getting annoying." This time 18's smooth voice resounded. 17 grinned as a glowing orb formed in his palm and he reared his arm back. But amazingly her death never came. Instead two more glowing balls of energy came crashing into the ground, kicking up an immense cloud of dust.
"Arrrgghhh! What the hell?!" 17 screamed right before she felt herself whisked off to an entirely different location. When she opened her eyes to see the ground moving thousands of feet beneath her. She would've screamed but she was too terrified to open her mouth.
"Gohan! I can't believe we found a survivor this time, it's been years!" A voice yelled excitedly from beside her. It was true, the androids had been growing even more merciless and rarely left anyone alive. Even those who did didn't stay alive long. She looked to her left and saw a young man with bowled lavender hair carrying her father's body through the air.
"I know Trunks, let's hope they aren't too traumatized by the event for us to help them though," Came the voice of the man that had been carrying her. The lavender haired teen gave an understanding nod and they started to descend. They were landing near the ruins of the old Capsule Corp building, which confused her but she was happy just to be away from the twins.
"This whole ordeal may be awful, but I think we hit a lucky break with the androids not being able to sense energy." The lavender hair boy spoke as they landed. The larger man set her down and backed up a few feet so she could get a full view of them. On the right there was the purple haired boy, he had a black tank top and gray cargo pants with yellow boots. Strapped around his back was the sheath of a sword with a silver guard, leather grip and round silver pommel peeking out from it. On the left there was a man who looked to be about her age with spiky black hair. He sported an orange and blue dogi, the boots being dark blue with orange stripes. What stood out most though was the metallic gray arm that emerged from his left sleeve.
"Please, please don't kill me!" She yelled stumbling back and placing herself in the best fighting position she could manage. Gohan looked slightly baffled at first, why woul they think he'd kill her? He stood confused for a few minutes longer until he followed her gaze towards his arm. He glanced down at the shiny metallic limb for a few seconds and sighed, wires twisting together in his mental preocessing.
"I'm not an android or anything if that's what you're thinking. I have this-" He said raising the robotic arm, "Because of those bastards in the first place," She slightly lowered her defenses, but her suspicions weren't cleared yet.
"Who are you people?!" She asked angrily.
"I'm Son Gohan and this is Trunks you may know his mother Bulma. We've been trying to defeat the androids ever since they arose." He stated. She lowered her defenses a bit more.
"Bulma? Is that why we're at Capsule Corp?" Both of them nodded.
"We have an underground bunker the Androids never found. We've been trying to find survivors, but as of late there haven't been any. Do you mind telling me this man's name? We'll want to write it on his grave marker." Spoke the younger one, Trunks.
"It was Mark." She said softly, holding back tears.
"And yours?" Asked the older one, Gohan.
"I'm…my name is Videl."
"Well it's nice to meet you Videl. We're going to save the world."
So I finally got around to starting this story. I'm really looking forward to working on this one. By the way in case you were wondering Videl's design is basically the same as her GT one just without the jacket and skirt. This won't really be any romance either, I'm going to be using Videl later on in the story so I brought her in. They'll be leaving for the past in the next chapter, so no worries.