Oh, boy. There's a lot to unpack in this chapter, so I hope you're ready for some more plot development as well as some character development. Last we left off, Chinku and Yamcha were taking Goku home so he could get the life-saving medicine he needed. What awaits our heroes as they deal with the Androids? Find out, now!
The Son Squad Ch.36
Chi-Chi tried her best to distract herself from the bubbling worry she had in her stomach. She had had that feeling ever since her children and husband left earlier with Piccolo. Shouldn't they have been back by now? Surely with all the training they did, the androids would've been dealt with by now, right? Why didn't she push Goku to get a phone? She got him and Piccolo to get their driver licenses, but she didn't have them get phones to keep in contact with her? That didn't make much sense. "I'm sure they'll be back soon," She assured herself as she finished drying the dishes.
As she put the last plate up, she poked her head outside to see if she could catch a glimpse of her children or husband flying home to tell her it was all over. She didn't see anyone coming down the sky; all she saw were the clouds floating overhead.
Coming back inside, Chi-Chi went to the living room and saw her youngest daughter sleeping in her playpen while her youngest son was practicing hanging upside down from the couch. He was trying to break a world record or something, and he kept insisting to his parents he'd break it and become a world record holder for sure. This was different from the last record he tried breaking the previous month, where he would hold his breath for the longest time in history.
"Daichi, be careful," Chi-Chi slightly scolded her young son. "All the blood is gonna rush to your head, and you'll get sick."
"Nuh-uh," Daichi said back, not being rude but slightly bratty anyway. "Gonna break record." This only lasted for a few more seconds before he decided to quit because his head was hurting.
"When's Daddy coming back?" Daichi asked Chi-Chi as he went to the kitchen to get some juice for his now slightly throbbing head.
"He and your siblings should be back soon, Daichi," Chi-Chi assured her son, trying to continue to push down that ever-bubbling worry that was brewing in her stomach.
As Chi-Chi prepared him a cup of juice to help with Daichi's sore head, the door to the front of the house slammed open and caused her to jump in fright. The noise woke Chibiko from her slumber, and she began to wail after being woken so suddenly from her sleep. The first thought Chi-Chi had after being startled was that the Androids had come to the house to hurt her and her kids. She always feared that that would be the case; that the red ribbon army would want to wipe out the entire Son family to get revenge for her husband getting rid of them when he was a child. It also woke the fear in her that something had happened to her husband and three older children.
She was about to grab the nearest kitchen knife, vowing to defend her two youngest to the end. However, she stopped when she saw Yamcha come in with her husband passed out on his back and Chinku following right behind him. They both looked like they had just rushed over as fast as they could with Goku in tow, and for a moment, Chi-Chi was relieved to know that Goku and Chinku were away from the fight.
Before she could question where the twins were, Yamcha spoke, "Chi-Chi, we need that heart medicine, now!"
Getting Goku home seemed to be the easy part. Now came the tricky part, waiting through his screams of agony as his body fought against this virus to see if the medicine actually worked. Each one was loud and echoed through the small house, terrifying everyone inside.
Daichi was too young to understand what was going on, but he knew for sure that his Dad was in pain. He kept wanting to go into the room to ask his Dad what was wrong, but he was kept out by Yamach and his Mom. No book or toy could distract him from the noise that was sure to haunt him for years to come. Chibiko's response to this whole situation was to cry. I mean, she was a baby after all. What else could she do when her vocabulary was limited to a handful of words?
And Chinku? Well, being old enough to understand that her Dad could be dying and that she couldn't do anything about it wasn't exactly producing fun times for her. She ended up sitting outside the house, trying to calm her shaking nerves as Goku continued to bellow out in pain in his sleep. The 6-year old girl lost track of how long she had been sitting outside when Yamcha came out to tell her that her Dad had finally calmed down and had appeared to get through the worst of it. That was at least some consultation for this whole debacle of a day.
Despite this good news, though, Chinku stayed in her spot and used a stick to dig around in the dirt. She was still thinking about everything from before and her screw-up in the city. Now that things were relatively calm, the events of the day were washing over her.
Yamcha noticed the glum mood Chinku was in and sat down next to her. He didn't consider himself an expert when it came to kids, but he figured he'd give it the old college try and see what he could get out of the young girl It was the least he could do, considering how useless he was before. "Hey, kid, what's wrong?" the scarred-up warrior asked the girl. He expected Chinku to be overjoyed at hearing her Father was improving compared to before. Instead, she just looked like he had told her that he was getting worse. "Everything okay?"
"…. I'm not good enough," Chinku said after pulling her knees up to her chest. She placed her head between her knees and stared down at the ground, refusing to look up at Yamcha, who was flabbergasted to hear that reply from the young girl.
"What are you talking about, Chinku?" He probed further.
"Daddy was mad at me earlier for charging in to fight the androids," Chinku replied, slightly looking up at Yamcha, but only so slightly. "He said what I did was reckless. Then Krillin kept me from helping Daddy when that Android was hurting him. And Chiyo and Gohan wanted me to go home instead of staying and helping. Even Piccolo wanted me to leave. I could just tell by the way he was looking at me." Little tears gather in Chinku's eyes, and she quickly blinked a bit to try and hide them from Yamcha. "It's not fair. I trained just as hard as everyone else, and I'm being treated like I'm just a little kid!"
"….But you are a little kid," Yamcha stated.
"But I can still fight!" Chinku quickly rebutted. "I should be strong enough to handle it, but I'm not. So maybe…..maybe I'm just not cut out for this. Maybe I should just quit…."
"Woah, Woah, Woah; back it up, Chinku." Yamcha couldn't believe what he was hearing. One of Goku's kids was wanting to call it quits just because of a few little setbacks? He thought he was hearing things or something. Goku never was like that from all the time he knew him. He may not have known Goku's kids all that well, but he sure didn't like hearing this quitter talk coming from one of them. "You can't quit now."
"Why not? Everyone else is already strong enough. They don't need me. Why bother training when there's someone else already stronger than you?"
"….You know, if your Dad had that attitude, he wouldn't be where he is today," Yamcha stated, picking up a stone that was on the ground. He tossed it in his hand a bit before flinging it up towards a tree and knocking a few leaves to the ground. "He had a few setbacks, but he always got back up again. You shouldn't put so much pressure on yourself."
"But, Gohan and Chiyo are so strong, and they're not that much older than me. I'm not even close to their level. What good am I if I'm not that strong?"
"I see your point, but you're forgetting one important thing."
"What's that?"
"You're six. Yes, you're part alien, but you're also still six years old. When I met your Dad, he was twice your age, and he still had a long way to go before reaching the level he did. You think he got that way overnight? No! He worked his butt off training like crazy and pushing himself to his limits." At this point, Yamcha was standing up and going off on a long tangent to Chinku, telling her all this. She didn't stop him since it seemed like he was on a role.
"I should be better though. I've trained-"
"And each person is different," Yamcha interrupted that train of thought. "Some people need to work harder than others. You're still learning. There's no rush to get to the level of your Dad and older brother and sister, Chinku. You need to go at your own pace."
Chinku was slightly starting to feel better after hearing that. She hadn't felt completely better, but she was feeling a little better. "You think I can get better?"
"Absolutely. You just need more training. Moreso in being a bit more tactical. Today was your first time in a real fight. Once you get a bit more experience under your belt, you'll be a fighting machine in no time."
"But I'm not wearing a belt."
"It's a figure of speech, Chinku. It just means you just need to learn more to get better."
"Can you teach me, then?" Chinku asked, jumping to her feet. "You've been training for a long time, right? You can teach. I've already gotten training from Daddy and Mr. Piccolo."
Now Yamcha was truly blown away. She wanted him to teach her? Didn't she understand that he was the least qualified person to ask for help? He had never really trained anyone before. He trained with people, but he never taught someone through training. "You….you want me to teach you?"
"Uh-huh! You can teach me. You seem like you know a lot about that sorta thing."
"…..You sure you don't want to rethink that, kid?"
So….Vegeta can go Super Saiyan now…Oh boy. Yeah, that was a surprise for everyone. You'd think a legend that talked about the pure of heart only being able to go Super Saiyan would mean guys like Vegeta were exempt from ever becoming one. But no, he managed to spin it around to where his heart was indeed pure, pure evil to the core! (Chiyo wasn't really buying that, but she didn't voice that opinion at the moment since the androids were a bigger fish to fry).
Without even breaking a sweat, Vegeta took out Android 19 like it was nothing. He lost some energy, sure, but he quickly got back up to power when he got a senzu bean from Krillin. (It took a bit of threatening, but the end justifies the means). Besides, Android 20 was making an escape, so now wasn't the time to be arguing semantics. The hunt was on for the old-looking Android before he did something drastic.
Easier said than done, though. Even with everyone looking around, Android 20 was hard to find due to his lack of showing off any energy form. On top of that, Piccolo had given everyone specific instructions to avoid fighting the Android if they ran into him. He believed that only he and Vegeta were any match for the machine at this point. (That kind of hurt the twins, but they quickly understood their limits here).
As they searched around for any sign of Android 20, no luck could be fund in locating him. It didn't help that he got a bit of a boost from Vegeta when he threw down a blast of energy out of anger. Chiyo kept in constant contact with Gohan as the two searched around for any sign of the Android. Anything on your end, Gohan? She asked, looking around a large rock formation.
Nope, not yet, Gohan reported back, checking in his own area. Do you think he ran away completely?
I don't know, Chiyo admitted to her brother. It'd be a good idea, but with so many people looking for him, could he pull it off without being seen?
Probably not, Gohan replied back. He did get a bit of energy from Vegeta's blast from earlier, after all. That might give him some more confidence.
True. After searching around another set of rocks, Chiyo pondered whether the Android was anywhere near where she was. She doubted he'd go after her. In terms of power, she was nowhere near the same level as Piccolo and Vegeta. Still, she wondered if the Android would go after her just for convenience. She tried not to let her mind wander to that possibility, remembering what happened to Yamcha when he had his energy drained. Hey Gohan, since we're here, can ask you something?
Sure, Chiyo. What's up?
Do you think we were a bit hard on Chinku earlier?
Gohan had to pause to think about that. True, his twin sister and him hadn't been outwardly condemning their younger sister, but he wondered if they may have been unconsciously harsh about the whole thing. Still, he thought the intention behind it all was to protect their little sister from danger. I'm sure Chinku didn't take it that way, Gohan tried to assure Chiyo.
Still, I know she really wanted to help with everything, and we just sent her home.
It was starting to get a bit dangerous, though. And from what it sounds like, she almost got hurt trying to take the androids on by herself. We can't have her being reckless, you know?
True. That's what Vegeta's here for.
The twins shared a silent laugh between each other at the little joke. With how things were going, it was good to joke around a bit. Anyway, maybe they'd find the Android soon, take care of the whole mess, and be back in time at the house to apologize to Chinku and train her a bit more to help her out.
Just as the twins continued their search, a new voice popped into their heads from out of nowhere; Gohan, Chiyo. The Android. The Android! Piccolo's voice rang in their head.
Piccolo! The twins thought at the same time, fear from before gripping them once more. It took them a moment to sense their mentor's energy, but they soon felt it and found it draining fast. Although they were on opposite sides of the mountain range, the twins made it to Piccolo and Android 20's location simultaneously. Both children delivered two mighty blows to the machine. They sent him straight down to the ground below before he could sap all of Piccolo's energy. In doing so, the Android's hat fell off entirely and revealed his brain once more in a glass jar for everyone to see.
Before the Android could make a hasty retreat, the others soon showed up and surrounded him from all sides. No way was he getting away again. And Piccolo was going to make sure to deal with this guy personally.
The scene of the city wasn't a pleasant one. In fact, it looked just like the future that Trunks had just come from. The destruction wasn't absolute, but it was enough to send shivers down his spine based on the similar parallels.
"I don't see Goku or the androids anywhere," Trunks stated aloud.
A young man, who looked to be about Trunks' age with familiar fluffy black hair, floated by his side on his left. He wore an orange jacket with the Capsule Corp logo on his right shoulder. Under his coat was a dark blue shirt that could be mistaken for black and black pants. On his left cheek was a scar that ran from the tip of his nose to his ear. His eyes black eyes glared down at the scene below with intense anger. "They probably moved the fight to try and keep more people from getting hurt," The young man guessed, his arms crossed over his chest.
To Trunks' right, a young woman also around the age of Trunks with extra-long black hair running freely down her back floated by his side. Her jacket was light sky-blue color with the Capsule Corp logo on her right shoulder. Her undershirt was a black one like Trunks, and her pants were black like the young man's. Her dark eyes looked down at the scene, and just hidden under her left sleeve could be seen what looked to be a recently healing burn around the back of her hand. "Should we try using the time machine to go back further?" The woman asked, looking over at Trunks and the young man.
"Mom said the machine's not very precise, so going back might throw us into the wrong place," Trunks reminded the woman. "And besides, we only have enough fuel left to get us back home. The last thing we want is to get stuck here and not be able to help Chinku out."
"Fair point," The woman nodded. "So if they're not here, then where did they go?"
As if on cue, the three felt a sudden spike in energy that wasn't that far off from a super saiyan's power. (Maybe just a little bit weaker, but it was still noticeable). If that wasn't where the fight was, then what else could it have been?
"There's your answer, sis," The young man stated. "Let's get going!"
With that, all three of the young warriors rushed off in the direction of where the battle. None of them noticed the rocket car they passed along the way, but they sure took notice of the crater in the ground not too far away from the mountains. "Looks like we're on the right track," Trunks commented as they were flying over the crater.
The two guys were speeding ahead but stopped when they noticed their female companion had stopped in mid-air. The two came to a stop and turned to face her. "Hey, Chibi," the young man called out. "Why'd you stop? They're not here."
The young woman known as Chibi said nothing as she slightly shook and stared down at the crater below. Her face held a look of shock and horror, and she pointed down to the smoldering android head that laid right next to the large crater. Both Trunks and the young man could only look down in horror as well at the grisly discovery.
All three soon made their way to the ground below and examined the head of Android 19 sitting there on the ground. Its face held one of sheer pain, something they thought Androids couldn't experience and was smoldering from the end where it should've been attached to a neck of some sort. The young man in orange went over to the head and slightly kicked at it with his foot just to make sure the deed was done. It didn't make a beep.
"Daichi, what'd you do that for?" Chibi questioned, slightly furrowing her eyebrows at her brother.
"Just had to make sure it was actually dead," Daichi stated, looking between her and the head. He looked perturbed as he stepped back over to Trunks and Chibi.
"Guys, this is definitely an android," Trunks spoke up, after finding his voice that seemed to get lost in his chest. "But if that's what they've been fighting, then what does this all mean?"
"Maybe Android 17 and 18 were activated along with this one," Daichi tried to reason. "There's no reason to freak out too much, right?"
"I mean, there was bound to be changes brought about by you and Chinku time traveling," Chibi tried to reason. "Maybe we're overthinking all this. I'm sure once we see what's going on, we'll be more at ease."
"….I hope you're right." Trunks remarked, his shoulders slumping down in slight defeat. He had a feeling that things weren't going to be that simple. They never were that simple anyway.
Over with the Z-fighters, Piccolo was kicking Android 20's metal butt like it was nothing. He had already managed to take off one of the thing's arms, so you could say he disarmed the tense situation. (I'll see myself out). Victory seemed all but assured, and Android 20 didn't like that idea one bit.
"How?!" He growled after yet another blow from Piccolo sent him to the ground. He barely managed to get to his feet as he glared up at Piccolo and the five other warriors on stand-by. "I calculated for every contingency! This can't be happening!"
"My understanding of all this is that the battle we're currently fighting ended with the defeat of myself and the others by two androids," Piccolo told Android 20, a smirk of pure confidence on his face. "It seems history has changed, though. Either you aren't as powerful as we were led to believe, or perhaps we're stronger than any numbers you could ever account for."
Android 20 didn't like this. He could tell his end was here. There was no way to get away from these guys without getting himself obliterated.
Everyone else, apart from Vegeta, was relieved. The nightmare they had been told about three years ago was now going to be over. Sure, Goku was still out, but he was slated to recover with the help of that medicine. Things could finally be normal and calm again.
"We did it!" Krillin prematurely celebrated. "We didn't even need Goku's help, after all!"
"I'll admit, I'm uneasy about Vegeta and Piccolo being so powerful," Tien admitted, sweat slightly dripping from his forehead. "But as long as they're on our side, I guess I can't complain." He was starting to see, similar to Yamcha, that he was just not as strong as these alien warriors. Still, if it meant getting back home to Chiaotzu, he wasn't going to complain too much.
"Hurry up and finish this, Namekian!" Vegeta shouted at Piccolo. This was a waste of his time. He did all that training and attained super saiyan just to have this fight be ended by the Namekian. Oh well. At least he could focus on besting Kakarot once and for after he finished recovering from that heart virus.
Before Piccolo could finish off Android 20, he and the others noticed the three powers rushing towards them. Trunks, Chibi, and Daichi all came into view and stopped not too far away and were horrified to see that this Android was neither 17 nor 18.
"Trunks?" Piccolo questioned aloud upon seeing the purple-haired teen. He also took stock of the two new warriors with him. Neither of them was Chinku, but he quickly remembered the woman in red talking about "others" that would be coming back with Trunks. At the same time, she stayed behind to defend the future. It didn't take him long to piece together and guess that these two had to be Daichi and Chibiko's future counterparts. It would explain how they were of similar age to Trunks.
Vegeta, meanwhile, was reeling after hearing Piccolo mention the purple-haired teen's name. He had to heard him wrong, right? That couldn't have been Trunks; the little baby he conceived with the blue-haired woman! T-That's impossible! Vegeta thought to himself as he looked at Trunks. You're telling me that's my son?!
Chiyo, meanwhile, was also in the processing of piecing things together. Had she heard Piccolo right when he said that that was Trunks? But, Trunks is just a little baby, Chiyo thought to herself. Then again, he did say he was from the future. She glanced over to Chibiko and Daichi floating by his side. If that's the case, who are those two? What happened to the woman he came with before?
So, yeah, that's where we are right now, guys. Also, this time around, since some people were upset I dragged out future Chinku's identity being a secret for a bit too long, I decided to get the identities of future Daichi and future Chibiko out there so it's done and over with. So now you know. And now that you know all this, what do you guys think? What's in story for our heroes and the trio from the future? What more will change with the coming battles? And who else is going to join the fray? Find out next time on, The Son Squad.
Thank you all so much for the continual support. If you want to see some cool fanart for this story, check out my Instagram: liztriesart for some more Son Squad content. Also, let me know your thoughts on everything in the reviews below. Anyway, have a good day guys and remember to wash your hands!
