Chapter Two
Black Star Dragonballs
Trunks and Goten, both with the potential to reach Super Saiyan Level 3, made quick work of the upper atmosphere and landed on the top of Kami's Lookout in less than an hour. The two mite-sized half-Saiyans made their way down the front walk lined with trees. Trunks walked with a bit more confidence and purpose, while Goten pressed his fingers together as he trailed along after, somewhat uncertain.
"I dunno about this Trunks, this is where my dad is at. What if he catches us and makes us go home?" Trunks scoffed however fearlessly.
"Are you kidding me Goten? You said so yourself, your dad is practically retarded. How hard can it be to fool him? If he asks we'll just lie and say our moms let us come." Goten scowled.
"Quit calling my dad retarded," he insisted angrily. It was one thing for him to speculate on the stability of his father's intellect, but quite another to allow someone else to smear his name. "And I don't know about this lying thing Trunks, I've never been very good at it—,"
"Then just shut up and let me do the talking Goten!" Trunks snapped, effectively cutting his friend up short. Goten pouted, but didn't reply. Both boys made their way to the front doors, but after knocking they got no response.
"Huh, maybe nobody's home?" Goten mused aloud. Trunks however scowled.
"No, they're here. I can feel massive energy levels inside that other big room over there." Goten turned to where Trunks pointed and nodded.
"Yeah, that's the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. That's where my dad trains Uub."
"So Dende and that Popo guy have to be around here somewhere. C'mon!"
Trunks reached up and using a slight grimace and a bit of his Saiyan strength, he forced the massive red doors open. Goten followed after him a little more hesitantly, but helped in closing the door before both boys turned to stare around them. The doors had led into a massive hallway lined with pillars and topiary. It was otherwise empty, so they started forward, staring around them curiously.
Soon they came upon an antechamber, a large circular room with a huge pedestal in the center, draped with what looked like a ratty pink cloth. "I wonder what that is?" Goten mused in a whisper. Trunks continued to stare silently, then shook his head.
"No idea. Let's go take a closer look."
His curiosity getting the better of him, Goten made no protest as the two half-Saiyans crept closer. The massive pedestal was several feet taller than they were, so as they neared they were forced to levitate off the ground. Once they did, they blinked, surprised.
Seven fist-sized white rocks sat on the pedestal. Goten put his hands behind his head, confused. "Rocks? How come they have rocks on a pedestal?"
Trunks however had narrowed his eyes on the display, suspicious. "I don't think these are rocks, Goten. Look, they're perfectly round." He had inherited his mother's inability to leave any puzzle unsolved. Therefore after only a moment he carefully reached out and then tentatively touched one of the stones. They were warm to the touch, but otherwise harmless. So he reached out more confidently and then picked one up. It was surprisingly light. Goten came closer to peer over his shoulder as Trunks shifted the strange stone in his hand. He gasped as—when he did so—his hand was covered in thick dust and the true color of the object in his hand was revealed to be a fiery orange.
"It's not a rock, it's just really dirty!" Trunks exclaimed excitedly, using an edge of the cloth on the pedestal to wipe away the grime. After he did so, both boys gasped in stunned awe at what was revealed. "These aren't rocks Goten, they're Dragonballs!"
Both boys stared down at the fist-sized gem, and the three black stars within.
"Aren't the stars supposed to be red?" Goten questioned. Trunks shrugged.
"I dunno . . . maybe these are super Dragonballs!" Both grinned at the possibility. Trunks chuckled. "Well there's only one way to find out! C'mon, help me get these things cleaned up."
Both quickly rubbed and dusted off the remaining six balls, until they all gleamed dully in the poor light. Trunks gazed down at their bounty with glee, but Goten's eyes were caught by something suspicious on the pedestal. When he inched closer to see, his eyes widened and he quickly jumped away. He jostled his friend, who immediately turned around and delivered a swift punch to the arm in retaliation.
"Geez Goten, watch where the heck you're goin!" Goten however was staring white-faced at the pedestal, pointing with a shaking finger. Trunks immediately stiffened with alarm. "What is it?"
"T-T-T-Trunks, th-there's dead people on that thing!"
Trunks scowled, but crept nearer to see what his friend was talking about. His eyes widened at the sight of several skeletons littering the bottom of the column. He made a face, then backed away. "Gross! What kind of freak does that anyway?" He shivered in disgust, then shrugged and turned back to the Dragonballs—their true purpose. "Okay Goten, it's time to summon the dragon!"
Goten tapped at his chin. "But Trunks, what are we gonna wish for?" The lavender-haired boy hesitated, then visibly deflated.
"I dunno . . . but we'll figure that out later." Trunks extended his hands toward the now-glowing balls, grinning. "Mighty Shenron, I Trunks, Prince of all Saiyans, summon you! Come forth, dragon!"
Immediately the sky outside went dark. Both boys cringed as the Dragonballs erupted in light, and a beam of energy shot out and above them. The light twisted and swirled up and up, and then took on an undeniable draconic look. Soon a massive red form hovered above Kami's Lookout. The boys stared out at the huge dragon's face that lowered down in front of them.
"Why have you summoned me?" the deep, powerful voice demanded. Trunks opened his mouth to speak, but before he could do so, another voice overrode his own.
"Boy! What in the hell do you think you are doing!?"
Trunks "eeped," then both boys spun about to see their worst nightmare standing on the open terrace, expression furious.
"Oh no Trunks, it's your dad!"
"No duh, Goten!" Trunks snapped angrily, gazing up at his infuriated father. He searched frantically for some excuse to give, though a part of him knew it was useless. He might've been able to bluff Goten's clueless father, but his own was razor sharp and just as devious as he imagined himself to be. There was no fooling Vegeta.
"Answer me, boy," Vegeta growled, coming forward. "What is the meaning of this?"
Before Trunks was forced to come up with a retort, yet another voice sounded out.
"What's going on in here guys?" The three of them turned to see Goku—followed by an uncertain Dende, Mr. Popo and Uub—make his way inside. Goku blinked in surprise. "Goten? Trunks? What on earth are you guys doing way up here?"
"Apparently summoning a dragon, you idiot," Vegeta cut in sharply. The others gasped. "What I want to know is why."
Trunks clenched his fists, suddenly as furious as his father was.
"We came here to talk to Dende," he announced, voice trembling. The Namekkian in question was startled to hear this, but Trunks continued before anyone else could say anything. "We wanted to ask him why you and mother can't do anything but fight and scream at each other!"
That actually set Vegeta back a bit, eyes wide. "What . . ."
"Yeah, and why you can't ever stay home with us dad," Goten continued just as bitterly, causing Goku to gasp, "and why all mom ever does is cry herself to sleep at night."
"We want our happy ending, father," Trunks announced. "Dende's supposed to be the Guardian of the Earth right? He'll know how to fix things back to the way they were supposed to be!"
"We were looking for Dende and we just happened to find the Dragonballs on the way," Goten supplied off-handedly, almost as an after thought.
Vegeta didn't have much of a reply to that. How did one explain to a ten year old just why he was having problems with the boy's mother? It was a touchy subject to begin with, let alone trying to make Trunks understand. His and Bulma's relationship—if one could call it that—had never been the most stable of things in the first place. After his moment of weakness in allowing Bobbity to erase his conscience—and the subsequent attack and killing of several innocent people at the World's Strongest Martial Arts Tournament—things had seemed to go back to square one between them. After three years Vegeta was beginning to believe that the woman would probably never forgive him—or entirely trust him—ever again. That certainly wasn't something one could just blurt out to their son, however.
Meanwhile Goku was just plain confused. What was this about Chi-Chi crying herself to sleep? He knew she was upset about him training Uub, but surely she wasn't as bad off as all that? Didn't she understand that he had a duty to Uub? To make sure that he was trained properly, taught to use his power responsibly to help the world rather than destroy it as he was originally meant? As much as he loved Chi-Chi and his sons—and he did, with everything he had—Goku had to make sure he attended his responsibilities to the earth as well. Still, he didn't want to see his wife hurt if he could help it.
"Goten, Trunks, I understand you guys only wanted to help," Dende began, coming forward. "But that's no excuse to have summoned Shenron. Using the Dragonballs can be extremely dangerous, and these aren't just any ordinary Dragonballs. These are the Black Star Dragonballs, made when Kami and Piccolo were still one being. Who knows what the results could be?"
Trunks was scowling heavily before the end.
"What do you know about anything? Don't talk down to me like I'm just a stupid kid!"
"Trunks—!" Vegeta began to scold, but Trunks stood fearless in the face of his father's wrath for once.
"No! You don't understand anything! Neither of you understand! I wish you could just go back to being young again, then maybe you guys would understand just how hard it is for us! You and mom!"
"And mine too!" Goten seconded, if just to show his support to his best friend. At first, no one understood exactly just how life-altering that statement was. That is until a,
"Your wish has been granted," sounded out in the air around them. Everyone gasped, eyes wide, at Shenron's announcement.
Then Goku and Vegeta both suddenly lifted up off the ground. Trunks and Goten watched, unable to speak or move, as their fathers began glowing with an eerie energy. Both yelled out at the power that suddenly infused their bodies. Before their eyes, both Vegeta and Goku began to regress in age and appearance.
"Oh . . . crap," Trunks whispered, watching as his father's body mass shrunk considerably.
Vegeta's tank top and jeans were burned away and he let out a loud yell as his tail spontaneously regenerated. It twitched and waved erratically behind him with his distress. The Saiyan Prince's black hair slowly grew out to his former flame-style flare. In the next instant his body was incased once again in a long-sleeved blue battle suit, complete with white chest armor, boots and gloves.
Meanwhile Goku was going through a similar transformation. His body mass shrank as well and his light-blue shirt and orange gi pants disintegrated a second before his tail grew back with a screaming flourish. His hair style didn't change much, but when his clothes reappeared he was wearing his old orange fighting gi with the symbol on his back proclaiming him to be a student of the Turtle Hermit Master Roshi.
Then the mysterious energy dissipated and both men fell back to the ground and hit their hands and knees. At the same time the Dragonballs rose into the air and—after the massive dragon disappeared and the sky returned to normal—shot off into seven different directions.
No one made a sound at first, save for Goku and Vegeta gasping for breath. Slowly, Vegeta was the first to recover. He haltingly straightened, staring down at his hands in utter disbelief, his left eye now covered in a ruby red scouter. Very slowly, he lifted his gaze from his hands to pin them instead on his wide-eyed, stricken son. "What . . . have . . . you . . . done?!" he snarled in between gasps for breath, his volume slowly increasing to the level of a dull roar by the end. Trunks cringed, then began hiccupping a little for breath, blue eyes tearing up.
"I . . . I-I . . . we didn't mean for . . . I-I'm sorry father—,"
"You're sorry?!" Vegeta sneered, getting unsteadily to his feet. Even his voice had changed, noticeably less deep and laced with a slight, foreign accent. For now, instead of nearly sixty years old, the Saiyan Prince looked no older than eighteen.
For Dende, the man looked far too frighteningly similar to the monster he'd first met on Namek all those years ago.
Vegeta's tail lashed once, then entwined around his narrow waist before he began stalking in the direction of the two cowering boys.
"Vegeta, wait," Dende called somewhat nervously. "D-don't be too hasty."
"Hasty?" the youthful prince demanded in a snarl. "My own flesh and blood attacks me with a dragon's wish, quartering my strength in the span of seconds, and you don't want me to be too hasty?!" Trunks seemed to shrink with every word his father spoke. By the time Vegeta neared, the boy was visibly crying, cringing and clearly expecting the worst. Goten stood near his friend, staring up with wide and terrified eyes at the man who had become a stranger in the span of a heart beat.
"I just wanted us to be happy again," Trunks sobbed miserably, hiccupping.
That stole most of Vegeta's fire. He slumped, glaring down at his errant offspring for a moment before spinning about and firing off a ki blast that demolished a good section of the room with a snarl of pent up frustration. Behind him, Trunks let out a deep sigh of relief.
Better the pillars than him.
"Aw, ease up Vegeta," Goku suddenly called, his own voice an octave or two higher than it had been. He regained his feet with a shaky laugh, wobbling a little unsteadily at first but quickly regaining his bearings after only a moment.
"Ease up? How can you be so cavalier about this Kakkarott? We've been regressed back into our teens!"
"Yeah, it's actually kinda cool!" Everyone else in the room sweat-dropped in disbelief. Goku just chuckled. "Really, it's no big deal Vegeta." He did a few stretches, shifting from side to side and working out the kinks in his back from his tail, which waved behind him excitedly. "All we gotta do is go gather the Dragonballs," he reassured cheerfully, "and wish ourselves back to normal. No biggie." He straightened then, fists on his hips, and flashed his former adversary a bright grin. "Besides, being young again might be fun!"
"Hmph, speak for yourself," Vegeta muttered, reaching up to pull off the scouter still affixed to the side of his face. He stared down at it for a moment, his expression haunted, as if he relived very bad memories from the time he was eighteen for real and still under the oppressive boot of Frieza. Then the Saiyan Prince scowled and crushed the scouter in his fist, ignoring the smoke and crackle of electricity.
"Um, I-I'm afraid it's not that simple Goku," Dende was forced to insert, wincing when the still furious Vegeta pinned his gaze on the Guardian along with a confused Goku.
"Wha'dya mean Dende?" he questioned, quickly followed by Vegeta's demand of,
"Explain yourself Namekkian!"
"W-well, normally when the Dragonballs are used, they scatter all across the Earth. But these aren't the normal Dragonballs. When the Black Star Dragonballs are used, they scatter out across the entire Galaxy! The Dragonballs could be anywhere in the whole Milky Way!"
Goku blinked, Vegeta snarled unintelligently, Trunks put his head in his hands and groaned while Goten winced with a faint, "oops."
"Well . . . why don't you just find the regular Dragonballs and wish yourselves back to normal using them?" Uub suggested suddenly, speaking for the first time since entering the room. Goku brightened, but Dende shook his head again.
"Won't work. The Black Star Dragonballs are far and away more powerful than the ones that I created. They'd never be able to override a wish made on the Black Star balls." Trunks and Goten shrank down a little further.
"Well . . . it's not so bad," Goku announced after a moment of silence, his ever cheerful outlook coming to the fore. "I guess we'll just grow up eventually."
"I'm afraid that's not an option either, Goku," a new voice suddenly called in the minds of everyone present. Everyone save Goku looked appropriately startled. Goku, having experienced this before, was unfazed. He grinned instead.
"Hey, King Kai! Is that you?" Far away on Otherworld, the blue Kai promptly responded.
"It sure is Goku. The one and only."
"Well what did you mean by what I said not being an option?" he quickly demanded, fists going behind his head as he rested his weight on one leg and struck his now-famous pose.
"Well, the problem is the Black Star Dragonballs' power. They're fueled by the life-force of the planet! The Earth cannot exist without them. You have no choice but to retrieve the Dragonballs and return them to Earth, or the planet will explode in only one year's time!"
Everyone gasped, stunned. Trunks groaned pitiably. "Oh, come on! All this because of one stupid accident wish?!" Goten sighed.
"I guess this means we're grounded, huh."
"Oh that will be the very least of your worries," Vegeta snarled, and even Goku didn't speak up to refute that prediction.