RR76: You'll have to forgive my lateness in updating.

Anyway, notes. For my faithful reader, SaintH, Sound and Fury is a work in progress, though this time there is some marginal progress going on.

School has a tendency to interfere with life though, so updates will appear sparingly, but I'll try to keep them regula

That's about all. Get on with it.

Hours earlier

Babidi trudged, shivering, through the arctic snow. His teeth chattered in his bulbous, yellowish head, and he wrapped his cape around his torso in a vain attempt to keep warm. The blizzard raged with an insatiable fury, striking up a haze of snow that nearly blinded the wizard.

True, conditions were poor. But they could have been far worse. Having felt the rigors of extra-dimensional travel in the past, Babidi had the good sense to throw up a barrier around himself to allow easier passage during his involuntary journy, and upon his egress from the portal, he found himself quite conscious and in one piece.

The same could not be said for his lackeys. Majin Satan and Buu were both out cold. Babidi had written off Majin Satan immediately--he was, after all, a cronie, and there was never any shortage of those. As far as Buu was concerned, Babidi had taken care to seal him once again, that no damage might come to him in the absence of his master. With these loose ends tied, Babidi had begun his trek through the tundra, while attempting to discern where, exactly, he was.

He was quite certain that he had passed into another dimension. How he came to be here, he knew not, only that he was, and if Buu and Mr. Satan had passed through the dimensional barrier, then the boy who'd challenged him would no doubt be there as well.

And here I am, completely un-escorted, Babidi thought, grimacing. Perhaps I should have brought Mr. Satan along anyway...

His train of thought was derailed suddenly. Directly below him, Babidi could feel some kind of presence--it was human, but there was something else about it, something different, something more than human. It was strong--not nearly as strong as even the weakest of his Majins--but certainly significant enough to warrant an investigation.

Focusing his energy, Babidi nullified his corporeal body, phased through the ground beneath him, and dropped down into some kind of cavern. It was pitch-black; Babidi could see nothing around him, but on the bright side, it was warmer than the blizzard he'd come out of. Overall, the situation was an improvement, and Babidi was quite content to lick his wounds and plan his eventual victory.

But still...the matter of that unknown power nagged at him. It was in this chamber, somewhere, it simply had to--

A massive, eardrum-shattering crash rang in Babidi's ears, and a sudden gust of frigid wind nipped at him. He whirled around, ready to unleash his power upon whatever intruder dared to challenge his might.

"Lord Babidi! Thank goodness I found you!"

Babidi's entire body slumped. The idiot had survived.

"Majin Satan! I'm certainly glad you managed to survive in these conditions," he said, forcing a smile and managing to keep his tone convincingly upbeat. "Who would have known that you'd pull through...in sub-zero temperatures...without freezing to death..."

Mr. Satan struck a pose, and said "What can I say? I'm of hardy stock, master!" He belted out a laugh; a loud, obnoxious, unbelievably irritating laugh that, for a split second, made Babidi contemplate freezing to death topside over remaining in this compromised shelter with the buffoon he'd found to serve him.

Still, good help was difficult to find. With Majin Buu sealed away again, it seemed that he was back to square one, except with fewer resources and less help than before. Mr. Satan did go about his job with gusto, and he seldom let his master down, though he was an insufferable nuisance. Under the circumstances, however, it seemed that Babidi would be forced to make due with what he had available.

Waving a hand almost casually, the ceiling of his new lair reformed and sealed itself back up. Babidi strode further into the chamber, Mr. Satan close behind. "I assume," said Babidi, "that you can feel that presence as strongly as I can?"

"Of course, Lord Babidi," replied Mr. Satan. "In fact, I don't suppose it'd be coming from that?" He raised an arm and pointed over Babidi's shoulder.

Babidi kept walking. "Coming from what? How is it possible that you can see in the dark better than I--" He slammed into something cold and hard, and bounced backward a pace.

"Lesson learned," Babidi muttered, rubbing his bruised scalp. Light seemed to be an essential here. How that had missed his notice was beyond him. Must be getting senile...

At a whim from Babidi, bright light filled the chamber, and for the first time, he was able to get a good look at his surroundings. The chamber was vast and mostly empty, with no sign of recent habitation. A thick layer of dust had settled on the floor; every footstep Babidi or Mr. Satan took echoed loudly and threw up a sizable amount of dust. Against the far wall sat a black throne, carved from what appeared to be obsidian. A pedastal sat in front of the throne, with a (rather dusty, more so than the rest of the room) crystal ball set atop it.

The object Babidi had collided with was, itself, a massive ice crystal. There was no apparent purpose for it being there, and Babidi was about to write it off as a strange decorating choice, when he noticed that the crystal had a single occupant--no doubt, the energy Babidi felt came from him.

Upon closer inspection, Babidi saw that he was definately human. Blonde hair adorned his head. His face was young and handsome, and he was clad in a grey uniform of some kind. His body and face were frozen in an expression of terror, true, unfiltered terror. His end had not been a pleasant one, Babidi surmised.

Mr. Satan stepped up behind his master and gazed into the ice crystal. "Wonder what the dead guy's for," he muttered, folding his muscular arms. "Whoever lived here before must've had some kinda weird fetish for dead bodies, or somethin'."

"He's not dead," Babidi corrected. "In fact, it appears as though he's very much alive, and in some kind of stasis. It's not unlike what I did to Majin Buu, really..."

The thought of the sealed-up Buu appeared in his mind, and he made a mental note to check into that. "I can reverse the effect," said Babidi, "but I can't guarantee what state he'll be in when he awakens."

Mr. Satan smirked, and pounded a fist into his open palm. "Hell, if he gives you any trouble, his ass is grass, master."

The ice climbed, further and further. It was beyond futile to resist at this point, yet Jadeite struggled against the rapidly growing ice crystal to his last breath, begging and pleading for Queen Beryl to grant him mercy. His pleas fell on deaf ears, and with one final cry of terror, the ice crystal finished its growth, and sealed the Shitennou within.

As quickly as it had sprung up, it seemed to recede. At first, Jadeite believed it to be merely wishful thinking. Within seconds, though, he found that the crystal had completely fallen from his body, leaving him a free man once more. His first act as a free man was to collapse to his hands and knees, as he found his entire body to be quite numb from exposure to the cold. His eyes hurt, and he daren't open them. For the longest time, his teeth chattered, and he could not, try as he might, form words.

"Don't force yourself to move," the voice of Queen Beryl said to him. "You were in there far longer than you think, I believe."

He had been given clemency. His queen needed him once more. "Thank you...my queen," said Jadeite, laboring to form a proper reply.

A derisive snort met his ears, and he flinched. Have I offended her somehow?

"He's just tryin' to insult you, master. I can take him out for you, if you want," said another voice, one that Jadeite didn't recognize.

"Open your eyes, human," said the first voice--now that he had a chance to really listen to it, it sounded nothing like Queen Beryl. He wondered how, in hindsight, he could have mistaken the voice for hers. Though it hurt to do so, Jadeite complied with the request and opened his eyes.

His queen's chamber was in a state of disrepair. Queen Beryl herself was nowhere to be seen. The only beings other than him in the room were a squat frog-like creature with a bulbous head, and a heavily muscled, bald-headed man with an "M," tattooed on his forehead. "Where is Queen Beryl?" asked Jadeite.

"Tut tut," said the smaller of the two. "How rude of you. Aren't you in the least bit curious about who it was that freed you?"

"As far as I'm concerned," said Jadeite, rising to his feet, "you're intruders in my queen's realm. I demand an explanation, in the name of Queen Beryl of the Dark Kingdom."

The small one raised an eyebrow. His companion cracked his knuckles, sensing that the situation was reaching a boiling point. Chuckling slightly, the smaller one met Jadeite's challenge with his own brand of rhetoric. "I'll make this easy for you, human. I was the one who freed you from your prison. I can return you there, if I so desire, or I can have my muscle-headed friend here beat you to death. Or--and here's an idea--you could shut your mouth and listen to what I have to say."

Jadeite's anger boiled over. "You don't know what you're up against," he snarled, and charged at the annoyance, murder in his eyes.

Quick as lightning, his larger companion had interposed himself between Jadeite and the wizard, and shot out his right fist. The punch struck Jadeite in the stomach, and he collapsed to the ground, clutching the organ in question.

The wizard laughed. It was a high-pitched, grating, warbling sort of noise that hurt Jadeite's ears as much as the brutish enforcer's fist had hurt his torso. "P-point taken," Jadeite gasped out through tightly clenched teeth.

Idly floating a few feet in the air, the wizard spoke. "Now then, Mr. Jadeite, I will lay things out for you in the most simple and easy to understand terms. I am called Babidi. The man who so thoroughly emasculated you is my associate, Mr. Satan. We hail from another dimension, and have become trapped here under some unusual circumstances."

"What does this have to do with me?" growled Jadeite breathlessly. His stomach still ached from the blow, and his lungs had yet to completely refill with air.

"It's quite simple, young man," said Babidi. His eyes narrowed to slits, and a greasy, smug grin crossed his face. "I need you."

Several hours later

Having narrowly escaped performing manual labor in exchange for lodgings, Goten and Trunks now sped through the air. They cruised at a high altitude, so as to avoid being seen by the populace below. Goten felt guilty about rushing off in such a hurry--his mother had always taught him that when meeting new people, it was important to remember to use good manners, and he felt he had let her down in this regard. Trunks had a saying, though: "What moms don't know can't hurt them," and Goten often found himself telling him this, after each and every scheme he and Trunks pulled off.

"Say Goten," his friend piped up suddenly, his first words since they escaped from the shrine. "When you said that this city didn't have a single dull grey boxy building, what you really meant to say was that it was completely full of them, right?"

Shoot, he found out. "Uhh...yep! Guess I just didn't use the right words, eh?" Excellent cover story. No seeing through that.

Trunks just looked at him. Goten felt his pride in his cover story literally melt away, like so much hot butter on oatmeal. "Okay, okay, so I lied to you, but can you blame me? Look at this city! It's so...dull!"

"I know what you mean," said Trunks, sniffing the air. "And it smells funny. Like an airplane's fart."

Goten giggled. "That's probably a'cause there's an airplane flying, like, right above us."

"W-what?!" Trunks screeched to a halt in midair, and Goten overshot him before realizing his friend's sudden drop in velocity. "An airplane?! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I didn't think it was important," said Goten. "I mean--"

"Dummy!" snapped Trunks. "They can see us flying, you know!"

"...So?"

"So?!" Trunks sure was taking this hard, for reasons Goten knew not. "People back home freak out everytime they see us or one of the others flying. How do you think these guys are gonna react, huh?"

"...Well, gee Trunks..." Goten tapped his index fingers together repeatedly, a nervous habit he'd picked up somewhere. Probably from Krillin. "I'm sorry, I didn't really think about it like that..."

"You didn't think about it at all, goof." Trunks sighed and hung his head in exasperation. "At least they didn't see us, right?"

As if on cue, the airplane began to descend. Not twenty yards away from where Trunks and Goten were floating, passengers on the plane's right side were staring out the windows, mouths agape, at the pair of flying children.

"Goten," said Trunks to his friend, who was currently waving to the passengers with a grin. Trunks covered his face with his palm, blushing. "Remind me to kill you later."

BOOM!

A head-splitting noise rocked the two boys as the plane exploded in midair. Orange and red flames flared up and danced in midair, before blinking out as quickly as they'd appeared. Black smoke billowed in the air where the plane had been, where hundreds of people had been blissfully unaware of their imminent demise. Goten and Trunks stared in disbelief at the explosion they had witnessed.

"I-it wasn't you, was it?" stammered Trunks to his friend. "D-did you...?"

"N-no, never..." Goten stammered back. "I didn't even see--"

A purple aura suddenly parted the smoke. Goten could clearly make out a human form, though he didn't recognize the person to whom it belonged. His brown gi billowed in the wind around his muscular body, and his bald head shone in the bright sunlight, a fact which brought a smile to Goten's lips in spite of himself. "Aww, he doesn't look that tough, does he?"

Trunks made no response. "Trunks? Hey, Trunks?"

"Goten," breathed Trunks, just loud enough for the two of them. "Look at his forehead."

Goten did. Indeed, it was quite a difficult thing to miss, and he wondered how it was he could have overlooked that. Branded on his forehead was, written in curling, flowing script, the letter "M." Goten recognized it immediately. "You don't think..."

"Yeah, I do," snapped Trunks. "Doesn't mean we can't take him." With a flash of light, Trunks assumed his Super Saiyan form and flew full-speed at the intruder.

He smirked, sidestepped Trunks, and smashed his right forearm into the back of his neck. Trunks gave a brief cry of pain, overcome with the force of the blow. His attacker, laughing triumphantly, began methodically pummeling Trunks' body, smashing his fists into the boy's stomach, chest and face mercilessly.

"Trunks!" Goten felt his golden aura wash over him, and he soared to Trunks' rescue. The attacker noticed Goten immediately and shot out his left leg, aiming for Goten's head. Goten saw the attack coming and veered to the left, flying straight past the attacker, and several feet behind him.

The attacker whirled around, raised a hand, and fired off a blast of scarlet energy. Goten ascended, and the attack sailed harmlessly past him. He continued flying upward until he was absolutely certain that he was out of his opponent's sight, before stopping and taking a deep breath.

He stretched out, sensing the ki around him. He felt the enemy's location, felt Trunks firmly in the man's grasp, felt something else entirely, something big and powerful and heading their way.

Goten knew he didn't have much time. Cupping his hands behind him, and trying to ignore the new, frighteningly strong ki he sensed, he began to focus his energy into a single blast.

Trunks' tiny body was wracked with pain as his enemy continued smashing away at him. He was laughing, laughing heartily, clearly enjoying himself as he pummeled poor Trunks into oblivion.

Goten, where the heck are you? screamed Trunks in his mind. I'm dying over here!

From above, he received his answer. "Kamehameha!"

Bright blue light lanced towards them at an alarming rate. The attacker saw this, panicked, dropped Trunks, and flew off to avoid Goten's attack. The Kamehameha wave hurtled towards the ground, and Trunks silently prayed that, by now, Goten had learned to control his energy attacks. The blast did a sharp, 45 degree turn, and headed off in another direction. Trunks let out a sigh of relief as the wave faded and dissolved, leaving no trace of its existence.

He heard the sound of an energy blast, turned his head to the sky, and saw Goten dropping down, a trail of smoke curling out of his back. He regained control, halted his descent, and floated next to Trunks. Their attacker dropped down to join them a moment later, fists clenched and resting on his hips, grinning a smug, self-satisfied grin.

"This guy's too much," grumbled Trunks to Goten. "He's alot stronger and faster than either of us."

Goten looked at Trunks, his face alight with excitement. "What about the fusion? That'd beat him for sure!"

Trunks shook his head. "We'd have to land, perform the dance, and power up, and while we're doing all that, he could kill us both and blow up the city in one shot."

Goten's ears practically drooped themselves. He gulped as he turned back to face their attacker, who still floated in his ridiculous posture. "Th-then how do we fight him? There's no way we can take him on alone..."

"Then we won't take him on alone," said Trunks. His voice was firm and resolute; he had never felt more like his father's son than at that point. "Goten, listen to me: We can take this guy, but we need to work together. This has to go off perfectly, or else we don't have a prayer. Got it?"

Goten gave a shaky nod. "Good," breathed Trunks. "Now, on the count of three, I'm going to do a nosedive, and when I do that, I need you to charge at him and keep him busy. I'm gonna fly up behind him, and when that happens, you need to knock him backwards, and we'll hit him from both sides with ki blasts. Do you understand?"

Goten nodded again. "Good," said Trunks. His aura flashed again, and Goten's did likewise alongside him. "Now, on the count of three. One...two..."

"Burning attack!"

From out of nowhere, a sphere of yellow ki collided with the enemy. He roared in pain at the unexpected attack, lurched forward, and whirled around to face his attacker.

The one who fired that blast appeared, quite suddenly, and as if out of thin air, right next to Goten and Trunks' attacker. There was a flash of steel, another roar of pain, and in a split second, the enemy was clutching at the side of his head, as thick red blood seeped out from between his fingers. As quickly as he had appeared, the attacker turned tail and ran, speeding away from the scene as fast as he could.

The new arrival folded his arms and watched him leave. Trunks stared at him in awe. He was clad in a pair of black trousers, a black wife beater, and a navy blue jean jacket. The Capsule Corp. emblem was emblazoned on the jacket's shoulder, which, while shocking in itself, was not the biggest surprise that the stranger had brought.

Goten stared at him, awestruck. "You...you look just like--"

"Me." The stranger blinked, turned his head, and looked at Trunks. His eyebrows arched in surprised. "You're him, aren't you?" continued Trunks. "The other Trunks. The one from the future. That's you, isn't it?"

A little shakily, the other Trunks nodded his confirmation. "I didn't expect to find you here. Or, well, anywhere for that matter." He looked from Trunks to Goten, trying to process this sudden turn of events. "How did you two...?"

"It's really a long story," said Trunks, "but in short, we don't know. Any ideas?"

Mirai Trunks shook his head. "A few ideas, but nothing really concrete. Especially after seeing..." He stared in the direction that the attacker had fled in. "This might be a bit more complex than I'd thought."

Nothing really to say here. I never saw the first season of SM, so I'm a little shaky on the details of Jadeite's demise, personality, etc. but I did do some research, and I think I got it down well enough.