The silence within the room was thick.
For a long time, Gohan felt nothing, his unconscious state slipping into the depths of a deep sleep.
As he was left suspended in the air, he dreamt of a simpler time in his life.
A time before his friends had died by the androids' hands, before his father's death, during a simple summer day.
He was with his father and his Namekian mentor as they sat around a lake, Gohan's father trying to teach his son to fish.
Piccolo had been telling the Saiyans about the standard diets of Namekians, and how they only needed water to stay alive.
As Gohan wondered about the biological make-up Namekians had, Goku turned to look at Piccolo, speaking a question that came to his mind.
"Wait, Piccolo, if you only need water, then is there any way that you'd like any kind of soup?"
Piccolo seemed to want to respond, but then looked slightly stumped.
The question had simply never come up before.
Piccolo had never been very picky about anything, making do with what was needed and using that to its fullest potential in order to solve problems.
When the concept of needing water to survive was brought up, Piccolo only needed to drink it and any problem would likely end quickly.
For him, the notion of drinking water was simply a means of survival, never a means of enjoyment.
WIth this realization, Piccolo relented that he had no idea.
While giving the Namekian the same smile that tended to make most people around him grin just by looking at it, Goku decided for Piccolo that he'd ask his wife to make some soup to test the idea out, whilst the makeshift fishing rod Goku made twitched ever so slightly.
Feeling this, Goku moved, disappearing one split second with a large splash filling the air, an invisible object having crashed into it, with a large fish being punched out of the water in the next fraction of the second, it sailing through the air and falling on its side.
Goku reappeared instantly after, holding his fishing rod in the same position as if he never moved, him smiling over at Gohan.
"You ready to try Gohan?"
The boy nodded in his fascination, his father handing over the rod, Gohan holding it steady, waiting in silence as he closed his eyes, sensing out the power levels of the fish, faint as they were, allowing his hands to be as sensitive to the rod's movement as possible.
There came a small jolt.
But that wasn't right, Gohan thought.
There was supposed to be a small jerking motion, not a jolt.
And even more so, there should have been a feeling in his rod, not on his body.
Something wasn't right.
There came another jolt, and it was then that Gohan realized that he was dreaming this up.
The memory was lucid, yet something was obviously wrong.
He could feel a type of detachment, as though this wasn't his real body, and at another jolt, the detached feeling lessened.
By the time the fourth jolt came, Gohan had started to wake up, his eyes clenching tightly before opening, his expression groggy as he woke up.
It was then that he realized he was hanging in mid-air, limbs suspended as they were grasped by the wires.
He raised his gaze, eyes widening as he saw the outline of what he thought was someone's head suspended in the air.
"Cooler?" Gohan asked hesitantly, him not seeing very far ahead of himself.
"You're finally awake. That's good." Cooler's hollow voice spoke back to him.
With Cooler's voice there to clarify his suspicions, Gohan's eyes hardened, him struggling against the wires that binded him.
"Don't resist. It'll be over more quickly that way." Cooler said, and the next second, Gohan's body jerked violently, his body engulfing itself in light.
The light was blue at first, but then shifted into a golden one, Gohan's screams of agony falling onto two uncaring ears, his struggles against the wires still there but being nulled in effectiveness by the shocks that went through his body.
His scream reached a new height before it suddenly stopped, his body hanging limply while being suspended in the air.
Within the place Gohan was inside of, two more people stayed suspended in the air, their bodies as limp as Gohan's, androids #17 and #18 not moving at all as the purple glow from their bodies finally faded, Cooler's already red eyes glowing instead.
Trunks saw this with a stern expression, his body solid once again.
"Alright, all of you, support Tapion until Cooler leaves him be." He ordered, the four time patrollers who'd entered the Scroll at that point responding with a simple word of affirmation.
T.P. held a fighting stance as he looked at the army of Meta-Coolers as they slid themselves down from their hill, the three female time patrollers who were now with him holding stances of their own, one, with jet black hair and white irises, standing to his right, the other two standing to the immediate left of Tapion, the one who stood closer to Tapion having white hair and gray eyes, the one who stood farthest from the swordsman having green hair with brown streaks in her hair, her eyes brown.
In the middle stood Tapion, his sword drawn out as he gazed at the army of Meta-Coolers, his right hand's grip on the sword tightening.
"All of you, take a step back." He ordered, lifting the hilt of his blade, pointing it to his left, grasping the rest of his hilt with his free hand.
The four patrollers jumped back simultaneously, Tapion breathing in deeply and slowly, concentrating his power into his blade, it glowing brightly for a split second before he sliced it horizontally through the air with all of his strength.
All of the Meta-Coolers who'd reached the ground were cut through from the waist up, them falling over.
There was a moment of silence, before Tapion saw that the cut in half Meta-Coolers recreated their severed bodies, them doubling in number as they stood back on their feet.
Tapion scowled as this realization came to him.
He sheathed his sword, lifting his hand up so his palm pointed towards most of the robots present.
"Brave Cannon." He whispered.
A ball of blue light formed in his hand, wider than Tapion's shoulder span, and it launched itself towards the Meta-Coolers.
Anticipating the attack however, the foremost Meta-Cooler lifted his index finger up, shooting through it with a thin beam.
The second the ball of light dispersed however, the many Meta-Coolers would have a surprise in store for them.
As soon as Tapion had launched his Brave Cannon, all five warriors flew forward at full speed, them flying in a straight line behind the ball as cover before the Meta-Cooler shot through it, at which point, they veered off of their shared course of flight, flying around the dispersing ball of light and attacking them.
The first to attack was the girl with black hair, her touching down on the ground and ducking under a punch a Meta-Cooler sent her way, her left hand whipping up and gripping it tightly, her standing straight up again, sensing the movement of the wind behind her.
She grunted, thrusting her elbow behind herself, it colliding with the knee of a Meta-Cooler, the knee breaking upon impact.
Carried by momentum, the Meta-Cooler couldn't stop itself from still flying forward, and the girl straightened her arm, aiming her palm at the Meta-Cooler's torso.
"Ha!" The girl grunted, a beam of ki bursting out of her hand and engulfing the Meta-Cooler, making its body dissipate from existence.
Once again, she sensed there being movement in the air next to her, and the girl bent her arm once more, thrusting it back and slamming it into the knee of the Meta-Cooler who she held onto, him trying to knee her while she wasn't looking.
Like the last Meta-Cooler, this one's knee broke upon impact, yet the girl wouldn't be able to do anything about a new Meta-Cooler that she had only just noticed flying towards her, her getting a powerful punch to her stomach before she could retaliate.
Her only response to the punch was to grip the Meta-Cooler she faced away from more tightly, her fingers making a dent in it.
Another punch came towards her the next fraction of a second, and without any other course of action in mind, she lifted up her left knee, blocking the punch with it, the impact strong enough that she skidded back somewhat as she stood on one foot.
Hoping to return the favor, the black haired girl narrowed her white eyes, jerking her left knee so that it moved the Meta-Cooler's fist out of her stomach before bending her right leg and jumping up, grunting and swinging her right leg up in a left diagonal direction, the Meta-Cooler being thrown to the ground as her foot slammed into the side of his head.
She levitated a short distance, flipping herself backwards and bringing her knees to be on both sides of the head of the Meta-Cooler she held, releasing his arm in exchange, clasping onto the metal head harshly enough to hold onto him.
It tried to grasp at her, swinging its body around in a bout to throw her off, and she only took advantage of the jerking motion, a beam of ki shooting out of her hand, it becoming a wave as the direction she faced arced by several degrees.
The girl with white hair ducked down to her knee as she dodged the wave, it crashing into many of the surrounding Meta-Coolers, cutting them in half instantly.
She dropped down onto one knee, thrusting a palm into the ground, her sending a pulse of her ki through it, it digging into the ground before spreading beneath her feet.
There came a split second of stillness, and in the next moment, there was a wave of energy shooting up in a fixed perimeter around her, making a wall of energy form that went high into the air, it being thick enough to blow several of the severed Meta-Coolers into the sky.
As they were blown up into the air, the girl, feeling the ground beneath her start falling, due to gravity's effects on the foothold she had turned the it into, launched herself into the air with a kick to it, the kick having just the right amount of strength to put her in the relative center of the Meta-Coolers, the foothold blowing up dust as her energy gathered within and around her body as she closed her eyes.
A glow formed around her as she crossed her forearms in an "X" pattern, bending her knees, the built up energy reaching the peak she needed for this attack.
With a grunt, she uncrossed her arms, thrusting her hands as far apart as possible, her legs straightening in a similar fashion.
A dome of bright yellow energy burst from her body, taking the shape of a rapidly growing dome, and the remains of the Meta-Coolers disintergrated upon contact, the same going for whatever parts of the Meta-Coolers that came into contact with it.
Her comrades looked in her direction as she breathed, her body descending as she lost her grip of her bearings for a moment.
T.P. reflexively started to fly towards her, but someone else moved faster than he did, the girl with long green hair and brown streaks reaching her ally's side and gracefully catching her in a bridal style.
The girl who fallen opened her closed eyes and met the green haired girl's brown eyes.
"Thanks Terra." She smiled.
"Think nothing of it Orora." Terra replied, the crashing of metal against something hard filling both girls' ears.
Terra looked behind herself, seeing that T.P. had followed her in hopes to help Orora.
Due to a Meta-Cooler following suit however, T.P. was forced to take action when it grabbed his ankle, the red-haired Saiyan replying as kindly as he could with a kick to its face.
The impact shattered its facial structure, yet even without its face, the Meta-Cooler perservered, grabbing T.P. by his other ankle and pushing it out of his face, it reforming itself in a second, into a smile.
While deepening his grips on the Saiyan's legs, the Meta-Cooler's eyes glowed for a short moment, before it shot T.P.'s forehead with an eye beam.
He threw his head back from how searing hot the attack felt on his skin, in an effort to alleviate the pain it caused him, and taking advantage of his lost concentration, the Meta-Cooler swung T.P. towards the ground with all his might, T.P.'s body making a small crater in the ground when his body slammed down on it.
The robotic being raised his hand towards him, a ball of energy forming, only for the girl with black hair to shift herself backwards, in a very abrupt manner, with the head of the Meta-Cooler still clapsed tightly between her knees, and touched down on the ground with her outstretched hands, her swinging the Meta-Cooler off of his feet with a swing to the lower half of her body, throwing him harshly towards the Meta-Cooler aiming to shoot its ball of energy towards T.P.'s fallen body, doing a back-flip onto her feet as she crouched down for balance, looking behind herself.
The throw held enough force behind it for the Meta-Cooler to fly straight into the other one, the collision of the cloned monstrocities throwing their concentration off for but a second.
In the second it took for them to recover, both T.P. and the black haired patroller moved.
With a scowl, T.P. lifted his right elbow and thrust it into the ground, forcing himself up into a sitting position.
Adding a thrust of his foot into the ground, he flew into the air with a burst of speed that deepened the crater his body had made, the Meta-Cooler aiming his ball of energy at him again.
Seeing this, T.P. made a ball of energy of his own, thrusting his left hand into the gathering energy ball before the Meta-Cooler could do anything.
The two energies collided, yet T.P.'s tore through his enemy's ball and into its palm, boroughing itself into his arm.
As T.P. flew past him, he heard the explosion of the Meta-Cooler as it was consumed in the burst in size his energy ball underwent.
Seconds before the explosion, the patroller who'd distracted the Meta-Coolers had flown up, seeing that the one she'd thrown was flying towards Terra and Orora after recovering, and, in an attempt to distract the Meta-Coolers more, had kicked him into his doppelganger, just as the energy ball T.P. had thrown burst, consuming both of them.
At the sight of the burst of energy, the girl gave a surprised expression, not understanding the reason for the explosion at all.
T.P. descended next to the three patrollers, looking over at Orora, "Are you okay?"
She nodded and smiled, floating up by herself now, "Yes, I'm fine."
"Good." Terra turned around, looking down at the Meta-Coolers on the ground as they surrounded Tapion, lifting up her hand and releasing a thin beam as she aimed it at an arc, anything the beam hit exploding upon contact, half of the Meta-Coolers that surrounded the swordsman being caught up in them.
T.P. looked over at her at this display of power, eyes widened in surprise, Terra meeting his eyes after a moment.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
He didn't say anything for a moment.
"Awesome." He said quietly after a moment.
She smiled lightly at that. "Thank you."
The four looked down as the Meta-Coolers ascended up into the air, all of their bodies glowing a dark purple glow the next second, them all flying off in a fixed direction.
Tapion looked up in surprise at this, then floated up, looking in the direction they flew off towards.
"Where are they going?" He muttered to himself.
"They're going to where Gohan is!" Dende's voice cried, and Tapion looked behind himself at the Namekian.
"They are?" He yelled over to him.
"Yes! We have to hurry!"
"Alright." Tapion watched as Dende flew up to his side, a white aura covering his body.
"Are you ready to go?" Dende asked.
"As ready as I'm going to be." Tapion looked in the direction of the retreating Meta-Coolers, eyes narrowing before he looked up at the four Time Patrol members. "Are you coming with us?"
"Yes." T.P. said before the others could, floating down slightly. "Lead the way."
Tapion nodded, looking down at Dende, "Alright, then let's go then."
Dende nodded, turning before flying forward with a burst of light and speed, Tapion following suit, the patrollers being close behind at a safe distance.
"Is there something more that we have to do?" Orora asked T.P. with a glance, to which he nodded.
"What else do we have to do?"
"Judging by that purple glow those things had on them, I'd say that the changes aren't done being fixed yet."
"What else could go wrong then?" Terra asked.
"A lot of things frankly. We'll find out when we get there." T.P. replied.
Then he realized something else.
"What are you guys' names, while we're flying like this?" He glanced at everyone.
"I'm Orora." The girl with greyish-white hair smiled at him, "This girl with green hair's Terra," she nodded at Terra, who nodded, "And the girl flying next to you is Coahla."
T.P. looked over at the girl with black hair, her looking back at him.
"Kawhala?" He asked curiously.
"Coahla." She corrected him lightly, her enunciating the syllables for him. "CO-AH-LA."
"Okay, sorry about that." T.P. replied, looking forward again. "My name's T.P."
"We know." Terra said bluntly. "You already introduced yourself during the testing."
He smiled lightly.
"Alright, then I can skip the formalities then."
Soon, the group of six caught up to the Meta-Coolers, who had now stopped in front of a colossal metal shape.
As they stopped, Tapion looked down at Dende, "Is this it?"
He nodded at the question, "Gohan's inside. I can sense the others too."
"I see." Tapion reached up, grasping his sword by its hilt. "It'd be best if you went to hide then. I wouldn't want you getting caught up in the crossfire."
Dende nodded, then pointed towards the metal shape, its many tentacle like arms extending everywhere, "My people are near the end of that tendril going into the ocean. Gohan is near the center of it."
"Understood." Tapion watched as Dende fell back, looking down at the Meta-Coolers and speaking to the four patrollers around him. "Would it be alright if we split into groups to find everyone?"
"I'm not sure if I want to." Orora replied, looking at the metal shape with a small chill down her spine. "That thing looks like something out of some weird sci-fi movie."
"We'll have to focus our attention on getting to the Namekians first then. The less casualties the better." Coahla said, looking down at the tendril Dende pointed out to them.
"We'll need to force a way in then." Terra clenched her right hand into a fist, tightening it for a moment, before opening her hand, a bright ball of ki forming and growing there. "Will it be me on offense or you this time Coahla?"
The girl narrowed her eyes, then looked at Terra, "I'll be on offense this time around. You be defense."
Terra's smile at this comment looked several times scarier with the shadow her ball of ki cast on her face, T.P. noted.
"Understood." She threw the ball up into the air, holding her hand up at it, before closing her hand roughly, swinging her raised fist down.
Arrow-like beams of energy rained down on the sky, several of them slamming into the Meta-Coolers near the metal shape, consuming them before they could even tell what had hit them.
The aerial attack blew them down into the water, several of the following ki arrows falling down randomly into the water, only one striking the metal mass, blowing a hole into it.
Tapion looked at her in surprise, T.P. mirroring his expression.
"What are you doing? You could have hurt the Namekians!" He yelled.
"Calm down." Coahla said as she looked at the swordsman. "We can all sense energy, and Terra rarely misses a target. None of them were hurt." She looked down at the hole Terra had made. "How long do you think you can defend?"
"That will depend on whether there are more of those replicas." Terra answered.
"There most likely will." T.P. answered, looking down at the hole Terra put in the Big Gete Star. "How many, I don't know."
"Then I'll hold off as many as I can." Terra looked at Orora now, "Can you help me?"
"Anything to stay out of that giant thing." She answered bitterly.
"It's decided then." Coahla looked at T.P. and Tapion, "Are you guys ready to go?"
"Yes." They responded in unison.
"Let's get moving then." Coahla's body became encased in ki, and she flew down towards the hole, T.P. and Tapion following suit.
When they neared the opening however, countless balls of ki shot up at them from below, each one nearly harmless on their own, but quite painful in severe number.
The three warriors, who were quickly overwhelmed by the ambush, shielded themselves as much as possible from the onslaught.
Several curved beams of ki that originated from behind them shot into the water that concealed the Meta-Coolers that attacked, this seeming to halt their method of attack for a short moment.
Taking advantage of the window of time made available to them, the three flew into hole.
Seeing that her comrades were safely inside of the Big Gete Star, Terra raised her palm to the waters.
"Come out, come out." She said in a soft sing-song voice, a ball of energy forming in her palm.
Upon it launching itself through the air and shooting through the water, the forms of the many Meta-Coolers who were underwater then revealed itself via the ki ball's light, a massive explosion blowing the body of water into oblivion.
The Meta-Coolers all looked shocked at this, as the momentary lack of water revealed to the girl, and simultaneously, both Terra and Orora moved, light forming on both of their bodies as they confronted the replicas.
Upon landing in the Big Gete Star, T.P. looked behind himself at the sound of a person grunting, accompanied by a fast whirring type of sound.
The sight revealed to him was of a Namekian about to be cut open by a large electric chainsaw.
His reaction was like a reflex, him lifting his hand up and shooting the chainsaw with enough ki to blow it through the air, over the other Namekians' heads, bouncing as it rolled away from everyone.
"Is everyone okay?" T.P. asked loudly.
He only recieved a shocked stare in response from everyone.
"You two go on ahead." Coahla walked past him, giving him a look, "I'll handle getting everyone out of here."
"Are you sure?" T.P. asked.
"Very." Coahla pushed her right hand to her left, then swung it back out to her right, a beam of energy blowing a giant hole into the wall of the Big Gete Star. "Get going before that kid gets into even bigger trouble."
"Alright." Tapion said, running in the opposite direction from the Namekians.
T.P.'s gaze found Hoi there however, and meeting his gaze, the man smiled calmly at him.
T.P. narrowed his eyes at him, but then heard the wail of Gohan's scream.
Turning around, T.P. buried the emotions he felt towards the wizened old man, running after Tapion, him taking flight when he did seconds later.
Hoi's smile dropped at their leaving, but then regained its former strength when he looked at the children, speaking almost jovially, "See? I told you everything would be alright, didn't I?"
By the time Tapion and T.P. reached the source of where the scream had come from, T.P. knew they would already be too late.
When they arrived, they found the child hanging limply, held up by many large wires, the twin androids #17 and #18 in similar positions.
"What have we here? Two more sources of energy?" Cooler's voice spoke to them from the shadows.
Tapion grasped his sword, scowling, "What have you done to Gohan?"
"I needn't tell you." Cooler's voice replied.
Wires were poising themselves towards the duo, as though aiming for a lunge, and without warning, they shot forward, wrapping around T.P.'s limbs and grasping Tapion by the wrist that he used to grab his weapon.
Upon wrapping themselves around their targets, they both felt an extremely painful wave of electricity flow through them, both men's bodies becoming frozen as this happened, them hardly able to scream or move.
Amidst the pain, Tapion felt his strength slowly being drained from him, and realizing this, he closed his eyes, his voice coming out lowly, it becoming a steadily growing roar, before he, with his free hand, gripped the wire holding his wrist.
When his brain confirmed that he indeed held the wire, he tore it into three pieces, one holding his wrist, another held in his fist, and the third falling to the ground, it hastily slithering away like a snake.
Drawing his sword out quickly, Tapion whipped around, four slashes of his sword cutting through the wires draining his comrade's energy.
T.P. felt his mobility return to him, and he looked at Tapion with a grateful smile, Tapion not able to confirm this as he turned, him lunging up into the air and cutting all of the wires above Gohan that clasped around him, T.P. moving forward and catching the unconscious ten year old as he started to fall.
Tapion landed on the ground behind T.P., cutting through the wires that held Gohan's legs, T.P. pulling the wires off of Gohan's body before Cooler's voice chuckled behind them.
"You are all quite persistent. If things could've turned out differently in my battle against that Saiyan boy's father, I'd consider recruiting you."
"I wouldn't dream of being your soldier." Tapion replied, holding his sword tightly.
"Considering the lengths you'd go to protect the Namekians, I could understand that." Cooler said calmly to him.
"Why have you kidnapped them?"
"I believed them to be quite suitable to achieving my goal."
"Your goal?" Tapion replied in disbelief. "What goal could you possibly use them to achieve?"
"I'll say it again, I needn't tell you." Cooler replied.
As though on cue, the ground beneath them started to shake violently, the two men losing their balance in their surprise and falling to their knees.
"Considering I have more than all the pieces ready, I'd say it's time to put away needless things."
Tapion looked up at Cooler, struggling to find his balance, and yelled at him, "There's no point to this! The Namekians are in enough danger as is!"
He blinked when he realized something else was amiss.
From the shadows, Tapion saw two glowing red eyes staring at him, the sound of rumbling meshing with the sounds of gears churning loudly.
Despite the cantankerous nature of the sounds he heard, Tapion heard a voice, Cooler's, he realized, steadily rising in magnitude, soon drowning out the other sounds as the red eyes slowly grew in their width apart from one another, ascending higher and higher in the air.
Tapion's eyes narrowed, and he kicked off the ground, sword in hand, and thrust his free hand forward, a ball of blue ki forming there as he aimed for the center of the red eyes.
The next moment however, Tapion was suddenly kicked forward, his concentration lost for a moment before he turned around, barely able to make out the shape of a Meta-Cooler in the darkness of the room.
Knowing the lack of lighting would be a strong disadvantage to him, Tapion raised his hand up, his Brave Cannon shooting itself up into the roof, bursting through it and letting sunlight wash itself into the room.
Even with the still limited sight that this provided him, Tapion was still surprised at what he saw.
Several Meta-Coolers floated around the room, and like bees in a bee hive, they filled the space they occupied completely.
Whether they had been there from the beginning or had just arrived, Tapion didn't know.
He only looked down at the sound of screams that rivaled Cooler's voice, Tapion realizing #17 and #18 were being pulled somewhere behind him.
Turning around, Tapion's eyes widened as their bodies, covered in wires, were pulled into a much larger Cooler than the rest of the Meta-Coolers, getting entangled into a mesh of wires and machinery turned into what seemed to pass for muscles, disappearing from sight, as the larger Cooler's body grew the same metal skin that all the other Meta-Coolers had, him smiling at Tapion.
Looking up at the sight from the ground, T.P. narrowed his eyes.
Cooler had just fused with the Big Gete Star.
A/N: It feels weird to end the chapter like this, but a bit appropriate at the same time.
On the one hand I could go about writing this the usual way I do it and have the entire fight written out, or splinter it accordingly to how much of a cliffhanger can be wrung out from it.
It feels like my storytelling bone said that enough was enough at this point, so this is the end result.
Extra
Confrontations of the Time Patrol Squad
Case #1: The Electric Man (Part 1)
For the portly man that sat on the rooftop that had been turned into a makeshift living area, he was unsure of what to say as the young man before him repeated his words to him.
"My name is Trunks. I came here on business to speak with your friend Cole MacGrath." Trunks said with a much more happy expression than was normal for him.
"I heard you the first time." Zeke replied in a shocked tone. "What I can't understand is why you want to talk to Cole."
Trunks opened the vanilla folder in his hands as he stood next to the television owned by the man sitting across from him, his appearance like that of Elvis Presley, in all things except for his golden sunglasses and clothes.
Reading it, Trunks looked back up at the man, whose name was Zeke Jedediah Dunbar from the information the folder said, and tried to elaborate himself as best as he could.
"I'm here to talk to Mr. MacGrath about his experience with a man named Kessler."
Behind his sunglasses, Zeke narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "What group are you from?"
"If you're wondering about which organization I answer to, you don't have to worry." Trunks closed his eyes. "But I bet that doesn't help my case at all, does it?"
"No." Zeke replied bluntly. "In fact, that just makes me not want to trust you more!"
"That's understandable." Trunks said coolly. "Considering the things you've been through, distrusting me isn't surprising."
"What do you mean? What do you know about the things I've been through?"
"Well, for starters," Trunks held his hip, "Ever since this city fell into quarantine, your friend has constantly been out and about using his powers as he and the rest of the city needs. You tried to help, but you never felt very adequate for doing so. You thought you could get powers like Cole did, but then after that..."
Trunks deliberately trailed off, knowing the subject was a sore one.
"What the heck are you? Some kind of Conduit?"
"Of a kind." Trunks answered honestly.
In this world, a Conduit was a person who had genetically given supernatural powers, whether dormant or active, he thought to himself.
Since, barring the abilities ki brought him, he was part Saiyan, this described him rather well.
"Though I honestly don't want to fight against you or Cole. I'm only here on business concerning Kessler."
"What kind of business?"
"Concerning his usage of time travel. If my information is correct, then he digressed details of it before his death to Cole."
"How do you know all this stuff?"
"Because time travel is in my job description. I need to know all there is to know about it to prevent it happening again."
Zeke stared at him for a moment, trying to see if Trunks was truly serious, and when he realized the swordsman indeed was, sighed.
"Alright, but you'll have to explain this to Cole when he gets back." Zeke said while rubbing his forehead.
"That's fine." Trunks started walking over to the edge of the roof, "I'll bring food for the both of you then."
He disappeared in a burst of light that had many pieces of a clock churning inside of them.