AAAAAAAGH

AN: Shout out to the guy who caught the OPM reference LOL

Trunks followed her to the conference room where Zatanna had dropped the bomb, seeing the other 18 superheroes waiting for him. Oliver and J'onn looked fresh from another fight. He met eyes with Zatanna and the sorceress winked at him with a sly grin. Trunks cleared his throat. "Everyone, can I get your attention. I have something very important to tell you."

The chatter stopped and the Saiyan had the floor. He and Diana went back and forth filling the rest of the League in on what Malefic had told them and the Dragonballs from his world, from the rising of Shenron and to the circumstances that led him here. Darkseid was enough to keep them captivated and ready for action, while the thought of him gaining infinite power rattled them to the bone. "Furthermore," the Saiyan said, "I believe that Darkseid has the monster I brought here and only knows about the Dragonballs because of me," he said, looking down with a grimace as feeling harbored from his time to now started boiling. "If Darkseid is more powerful than any of us, then giving him access to Buu is one of the most horrific things anyone could ever do." He balled up his fists. "If Darkseid gets the Dragonballs, it could very well mean the end of all of us."

"Just Darkseid alone could mean the end of us," Flash said, receiving several dirty glares. "Oh! I was thinking out loud again. My bad."

"Because this is my fault," the Saiyan said, looking up at the League with an expression of hard conviction. "I'm staying in this world until I find all seven Dragonballs, I destroy Darkseid, and I eradicate Buu from existence. I don't know how long that will take, but it isn't right that I raise the stakes infinitely higher and leave you all here with it."

"Whoa, buddy," Superman said, "where did all these 'I's' come from?"

"What, exactly, is your fault?" Power Girl asked. "You were surprised and the demon broke the machine; I'm not saying you shouldn't leave, but don't look for pity where it isn't needed."

Was that Karen's way of lifting the pressure? He wouldn't ask. "I wasn't looking for pity," Trunks said. "I'm solving the problem I created."

"I don't think you've noticed," Batman said, "but you can't really pull rank here. Calm down; going on a mission of this magnitude alone won't end well for you."

"We've handled Darkseid before," Superman said, "and don't worry, I'm sure he would love going up against you."

"And if we both have one ball already," Wonder Woman said, "neither one of us has a net advantage yet."

"Finally," Green Lantern said, "you don't have to do everything alone."

"And you can't handle Darkseid's army by yourself," Aquaman said, "it wouldn't be much of a League if no one helped each other, yes?"

A strange calm fell on the Saiyan. His fists loosed and his grimace was less soured. "Are you sure?" he asked. "My League membership expires in two weeks and I could even take the Dragonball with me to keep you all out of the fight if the Dragonballs are the goal."

"Why are you so intent on working alone?" Supergirl asked.

"I'm pretty sure that was rhetorical," Zatanna said, "because if you look around, you're not alone in this."

"I'm not going to have any of you die on my behalf," the Saiyan said. "Not more passing casualties, not again. After I find Prometheus, I'm doing this on my own."

"Hate to break it to you, pal," Green Arrow said, "but you don't really have a say on what we do. You might be able to control matter, but matter with a mouth is a bit more stubborn."

"Here, here!" Aquaman exclaimed, hitting the butt of his trident on the ground twice while the newer members of the League clapped for Oliver.

"When people get involved on my behalf," the Saiyan said, "things don't end well for them."

"Get out of the mindset that you're the only one who can save everyone," Diana said, "because that will get you killed far before Darkseid will. A threat against humanity, no matter the source or who is to blame, is our fight, and there is no way, even with your powers, that you would be able to take him on alone."

Trunks struggled to swallow his pride. His brow twitched. He was becoming like his father. "Then I am honored to have you all fight by my side."

"It is not your side any longer then, now is it?" Hawkgirl said.

"Save it," Batman said, "whether you choose to leave us after this business or stay in the League, right now you don't have a choice. In between your icebreaker missions, you may assemble a portion of the team to help you with your search. I assume you know how to build a device that can detect energy signals like the ones given off by the Flaws."

A small victory grin could be seen on Diana's face.

"Considering Darkseid already has one of the seven," Batman continued, "we'll need it if we want to catch up, but we won't know where to start looking until we get in touch with Prometheus."

"He will set out to search to Prometheus in three days," Diana said, "albeit this is only the beginning. I am going with Trunks, and anyone else who is up to going for the contact mission must talk to him within two days."

"Batman and I will come supervise Prometheus and track him," Superman said, "if what you say carries over into our world, then he's the king of this chess game. As for everyone else, it's up to him in who comes along."

The League mumbled their understanding over the ruling.

"Alright," the Saiyan said with a serious and determined expression, nodding to the three founding League members. "Let's do it."

"Dismissed," Diana said. The League quickly dispersed and Trunks took a deep breath, leaning against the wall. Diana saw the worry in the Saiyan's face. She, along with Batman, Superman, Karen, and Oliver, quickly moved across the room to console the fretted super. "Trunks, have faith in us; you have seen what we can do and we can handle anything."

"I have full faith in all of you, trust me," the Saiyan said, "I'm just worried about what is to come. The Dragonballs turn good men into killers, killers into warlords, and warlords into gods; in the end, no one wins, whether the wish is used for good or for evil."

"Wishes," Diana corrected, "at least from my knowledge, whatever dwells inside of them grants three wishes to the summoner, no matter what the motive."

"Three reasons we need to keep them out of Darkseid's hands," Superman said, "and why do we need Prometheus if you have a device capable of finding the Dragonballs-"

"Flaws of Prometheus," Diana said.

"Dragonballs," Trunks said.

"Flaws of Prometheus," Diana said. "My world."

"Since when is Wonder Woman petty?" Oliver whispered.

"She can hear you," Karen whispered.

"I can hear you," Wonder Woman said, "and I'm not petty, I'm correct."

The Saiyan prepared to rebuke. "But-"

"This is besides the point," she said, "Prometheus should have a form of life link with the manifestation of the flaws, yes?"

"If he gets killed, the Dragonballs become inert," the Saiyan said, "and since we don't know how much Darkseid knows about the Dragonballs, then we need to keep Prometheus safe."

"You're being defiant on purpose," Diana said, "Superman, he's being defiant to me on purpose, do you see it?"

"Anyway," Batman said, "Saiyan, once you build this device, deliver it to me so I can install it in our surveillance monitors." His belt beeped loudly. "Gotham needs me. Good luck, Trunks."

The Saiyan looked up and leaned back against the wall. "Will do, Batman. When will you-"

"He's gone," Karen said bluntly.

Trunks looked around the room. No sign of the bat. "How does he keep doing that?!"

"He's Batman," Oliver said.

"What kind of sense does that make?" the Saiyan exclaimed.

"Oh, so magical balls, bubblegum demons, and spiky-haired young men from an alternate future is normal?" Karen asked.

Trunks wanted to argue, but after thinking about it, his adventures were pretty eccentric. "Still!"

"I'm going to workout before I go to work," Karen said, turning around and heading toward the exit. "Cousin, you're starting to stretch that spandex."

Superman rolled his eyes. "Ha ha, very funny; I'll meet you there in five minutes," he said, hearing the door slam as she left. He turned back to Trunks and still saw the growing stress in his face. "Trunks, everything will be fine if we're working together."

"I'm just concerned about the contingency that has us using them," Trunks said. "They get scattered across the globe usually, but there have been times where they have been found in various parts of our solar system, or if we're just that lucky, across galaxies. The search begins again, with our enemies learning more and more from their mistakes. We have to be especially careful."

"Trunks, if we didn't know how to handle Darkseid, we wouldn't be this calm," Superman said. "Of course it will be tough, but as long as we're around, you can count on us."

Trunks took another deep breath. "Thanks, Superman, Wonder Woman." He started walking toward the exit. "If you need me, I'll be checking on my students and after that, I'll be building for the rest of the evening." He closed the doors, leaving the two senior League members alone.

Diana looked at Superman with concern. "Keep an eye on him," she said. "Even with all of surveillance watching his every move, he could end up doing something drastic."

"That's what I was thinking too," Superman said, seeing the Saiyan run toward the staircase with his X-ray vision. "Does that stubborn caution and drastic all-or-nothing attitude remind you of anyone?"

"The gadgets, inability to listen to authority, resilience of a roach, always taking 'you can't' as a challenge," Diana said. "The list goes on."

"You know," Superman said with a smirk. "I would like to be the fly on the wall during that mission."

"That can be arranged," Diana chuckled.

Later that day

"I can't," Beast Boy panted, leaning forward and putting his hands on his wobbling knees. He looked up at the setting Californian sun, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "I just-" He coughed up blood as the Saiyan's clone kicked him in the ribs.

"You just let your friends die," the clone said, standing Beast Boy up and running him back into the line of skipping kicks the Titans were doing around the Tower in circles. "The words 'I can't' will get you killed in combat, now get them out of your vocabulary or I'll smack it out of your heads, got it?"

"Yes," Beast Boy said quickly, covering his mouth afterwards.

"Hai, Sensei! I'm not going to tell you again!" the clone barked. "One more lap!"

"Hai, Sensei!" the six Titans shouted, throwing a jumping front kick that barely made it above the ground.

The clone looked up and saw the original in full costume slowly descending from the sky with a big, brown cloth bag labeled "WayneTech." The Saiyan touched the ground as the Titans finished their lap. "Take off the gear; you're done for the day," the Saiyan said. "Put the gear into your rooms, and in between now and next lesson, I want you in the ankle and wrist weights while you're not fighting crime. Train all the time, turn all of your time into training."

"You call what we did today training?" Cyborg said. "A bunch of random activities to hurt us isn't training, it's not knowing what you're doing."

"Actually," Robin said, "this is the precursor to actually learning the art; I still find the whole 'no powers' game absolute bull, but I'll give it to you that you're an authentic con, Saiyan."

"I like your cynicism," Trunks said, "but I want you to tell me that when you're flying." He and his clone morphed together once again. Trunks rotated his shoulders and cracked his neck. "Listen up, everyone. The seven main things we'll be working on throughout your training: endurance, Ki training, offense, defense, agility, raw strength, and willpower. Every lesson will feature some drill devoted to that. The set you just completed was for agility, raw strength, and endurance, and learning how to DODGE tests all of them."

"I know I'm working on endurance tonight," Terra said, rubbing the side of her head.

"The best thing for you all to do is to eat, meditate, and go to sleep," Trunks said, "it might sound a bit hypocritical, but overworking yourself is only going to stunt your progress."

"What is the ranking system in your program?" Robin asked as if he were a plaintiff. "Surely you must have one when we reach an advanced level, if you let us reach an advanced level."

"I'll give you your uniforms during your next lesson," the Saiyan said, "and it's just the standard belt system."

"Finally, what martial arts are the main constituents of your style?" Robin asked, getting glares from the rest of the Titans as they were still wearing the shells.

"There are 372 of them, but Wing Chun, Jeet Kune Do, Daimao Long Fist, Turtle Style Dropping Palm, Saiyan Self-Defense, Nanquan, and Wushu take up a good 60 percent of it," the Saiyan said, "do you want me to list out the other 40?"

Robin smirked. "Yeah-" Starfire clamped her hand over Robin's mouth.

"No thank you!" the Tamaranean said quickly.

"Thanks for the lessons," Beast Boy said, trudging forward in his shell and weights toward the Saiyan. "I'm kinda stoked for next time, despite the kicking and all."

"Really?" the Saiyan said, surprised Garfield out of all of them would be ready for more. "That's great; make sure you do what I tell you, alright?"

"Hai, Sensei," Beast Boy said, turning around and following his turtle-paced companions back to the Tower.

Trunks' spike in mood quickly soured again as he looked at the WayneTech bag in his hand. He felt the familiar shock down his spine and he was in the Watchtower again. He waved to Martian Manhunter before vanishing, appearing in the workshop with his bag. "Oliver," the Saiyan said, seeing the Green Arrow slowly filling arrow tips with a gaseous, red liquid, "what is that?" He looked at the table next to Oliver's, seeing Kimiyo banging out dents in her helmet with a hammer.

"Don't get him started," she warned.

"I'm glad you asked," Oliver said, firing a rope arrow around the Saiyan and pulling. The Saiyan didn't move and Oliver's showy grin faded. "Man, come on-"

"Whoa!" the Saiyan exclaimed, spinning around and tripping forward, putting the grin back on Oliver's face.

"That's better," Oliver said. "These are my latest toys. Batman might have gadgets, but I have- oh, hi, Batman."

Trunks jumped as the set of black ears poked in between them to view the line of arrows. "Kuso!" the Saiyan exclaimed, hopping all the way across the room. "How do you do that?!"

"Tell me how your Scouters keep breaking into my network, and I might tell you," Batman said in his usual grim tone, "go on, Green Arrow."

"These are my latest toys," Oliver said, "I re-tuned my stun arrows to include 800 milligrams of doromephrane."

"800?!" the Saiyan exclaimed. "That'll stop your heart from beating!"

"What may stop him will just annoy guys like Bane and Black Adam," Batman said, "just make sure you're hitting the right target."

"Come on, do I ever miss?" Oliver said.

"Yes," Batman said bluntly.

"Name one time I-" Oliver stopped himself. "On second thought, don't. What are you working on, Trunks?"

"Just the Dragon Radar," Trunks said, "the tracking device."

"Good, the quicker we get these done, the sooner we can move out," Oliver said, "by the way, I want to come with you."

"Decided already?" the Saiyan said, slightly surprised.

"I thought that would be expected," Oliver said with a determined grin. "We're in the same matriculating class so how else can I show you up better than during your own quest? Right Batman-" He looked around and saw no sight of the Batman. "Oh, he's gone."

Trunks sat down at a workbench and laid out all of his supplies. "I can get competitive, just saying."

"Yeah, the itch to spar with anything that moves wasn't enough evidence of that," Oliver said.

"It's more productive than the urges you're having," Trunks said.

"What's that?" Oliver said, "I couldn't hear you over your loud lacking of a superhero girlfriend."

"That may change tomorrow at five so figure out a better comeback," Trunks said with a smirk, "hopefully it won't crash and burn like your senate campaign."

"You would know all about crashing and burning, wouldn't you, spaceman?" Oliver said, seeing the Saiyan's bested face and bursting out into laughter. "I got you!"

"Damn," Trunks said, "just, damn!"

"Maybe next time, pretty boy," Oliver said, seeing Trunks' surprise swell into sudden anger. "Okay, okay, that last comment is taken back. Who's the girl?"

"Zatanna," Trunks said, seeing Oliver's jaw drop. He stood up and walked over to Trunks' workbench, seeing a pocket-sized, round device with a green glass interface and white zooming button on the top and wires coming out of everywhere in near completion.

"Well the hell done," Oliver said. "Dinah's told me a lot about her and she sounds like quite the catch, then again every woman in the League is. "

"She's the one who caught me," Trunks said, sounding a bit more worried. "It's my first date so I really have no idea how to go about any of this."

"This is your first date?" Oliver said, slightly taken back. "You're joking, right?"

"With society trying to rebuild itself in my world," Trunks said, "I didn't think anyone would've had time for a trip to the movies."

"Sorry," Oliver said quickly.

"No, it's fine," Trunks said. "I just need your help."

"I thought you liked working alone," Oliver chuckled, mimicking Trunks' brooding voice.

"You know what, Oliver?" Trunks shouted, half-laughing.

"And do you think it's the best idea to get into a serious relationship with the whole 'if Darkseid uses the Dragonballs we're all royally screwed' thing?" Oliver asked.

"Son Goku once told his son and I never to worry about the Yeti at the peak until you've climbed the mountain," Trunks said, "as much as I want to worry over everything for the next two days, doing so won't defeat Darkseid and Buu any faster." He raised the finished product and clicked the white button at the top, seeing a small orange dot in the center of a green grid. "Perfect."

"That was surprisingly profound," Oliver said, "and I agree; of course, we still have the regular rabble to deal with, but compared to this, we're relaxing."

"So you'll help me?" the Saiyan asked.

"I want you to teach me something first," Oliver said with a smirk. "I want to know how to use the Kamehameha and your other energy blasts. If I can channel them through my arrows, that would be quite the surprise."

"You can't just jump into the Kamehameha!" Trunks exclaimed.

"Then I guess you're going to tell me all about how you messed up with Zatanna," Oliver said, "I teach you how to act like a 'superhero' here and suave around the women, you teach me how to hang with the big leagues, starting with that Kamehameha wave. Got it?"

"It's a major risk," Trunks said, "in my right mind I cannot-"

"Hey, Trunks," Zatanna said as she walked past the entrance to the workshop. "I'm excited for tomorrow night; I hope you are! I'll put a note on your door for where you'll be picking me up."

"She's giving you the eyes," Oliver whispered. "Do you want to be the guy who passed that up?"

"Don't expect any planet destroying beams coming from your end for a long time," Trunks said, feeling angry at himself for letting Oliver get to him. 'Damn it, you're a politician. Let's go."

"What about your device?" Oliver asked.

"Done already," Trunks said, "I'm going to teach you now, if you want."

"Yes!" Oliver chuckled. "This is going to be awesome!"

"Until the pain starts," Trunks said with a wide smirk, seeing Oliver's victory face soften as they gathered their projects and left the room. "In your arms, your thighs, your back, your head; just remember that what you want to learn requires two months of ki training." He pulled Oliver into the elevator before the latter could escape. "If you do it right, you'll need a day off or two."

"Seriously?" Oliver asked. He swallowed hard. "Great."

CAN OLIVER HANDLE THE KAMEHAMEHA WAVE? CAN THE SAIYAN'S STUDENTS HANDLE IT? HOW WILL THE DATE TURN OUT FOR OUR HERO? WHO ELSE WILL JOIN THE SAIYAN ON HIS QUEST? THOUGHTS?