Son Gohan and Trunks: Another Road - The Android Saga Act I (Prologue)
Gohan, 10 years old. Age 767, May 12th - Earth
This is the story about how two boys from Universe 7/Timeline 8 became the best Time Patrollers I ever employed. They are diligent, intelligent, and heroic. I've never met two people who so wholly embody what I look for as an employer. It's the tragedy and the mundane that makes someone who they are. I feel like someone can't really become a Time Patroller unless they've lost something so important that they would be willing to die for it, something so tragic you wish you could turn back the clock…
The sky was uneasy, rainclouds stormed off in the distance next to a dome-like abode. A nearby pond was tainted by the grey above it. Yamcha stood outside the home, a melancholic look in his eyes as he gazed downward. There was shouting that could be heard through the walls of the residence.
"It's cowardice green man, and you know it! Don't you care about Kakarot, or the innocent civilians at all!?"
"It's called strategy, I don't want anymore people to die unnecessary deaths, Raditz! Why don't you understand that!?" Piccolo cried back, his cape flailing from the pressure.
Chi-Chi's wails of agony rang throughout the entire household but the pair continued arguing anyway. The cacophony of noise was almost unbearable for Gohan. He knew what was happening and couldn't do anything, he was far too young and definitely not strong enough.
"I can't believe this! And here I trusted Kakarot's judgement about how you'd changed! You don't care what happens to those who don't deserve it!"
"Raditz you're missing the key ingredient. If I die the dragon balls go too, I have to make the right choices right now! You're not thinking clearly!"
"I am thinking clearly, the blood of the innocents gets to be spilled freely while those robots go unpunished! Kakarot is no longer here and you want to spend your time arguing instead of fighting with us!?"
"LISTEN TO ME DAMNIT!" Gohan had never heard Piccolo get so loud before. Chi-Chi and her father Ox King were startled by the volume.
"I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU! Kakarot taught me the right way to live and I won't waste his sacrifice here!"
Raditz stormed out in a huff. Stomping the wood floor, almost breaking it with each heavy step. He flung the door wide and Yamcha peered back with sorrow.
Gohan, 23 years old. Age 780, November 6th - Earth
"And that was the last time I ever saw your dad. I barely remember what he was like, other than he had strong beliefs. He was willing to stand by Raditz and fight the androids with only one man as back up. The last thing I ever heard him say was: 'I'm sorry, Piccolo.'"
Gohan and Trunks sat atop a large mountain. Trunks was throwing stones down to pass the time as he listened closely to his friend. The young boy had purple hair in parted bangs that hung down to his ears. Trunks wore a blue baseball tee that had Capsule Corp. emblazoned on the front. Gohan wore the turtle hermit uniform with his master's symbol on it: Piccolo. Gohan's sleeves were longer than the traditional costume. Gohan had short black hair in the back with spikes coming out at the front. He rubbed his hand along the back of it.
"Would your mom mind if I came down to get a haircut? It's getting longer than I like again."
"Of course not Gohan. She'd love the company." Trunks threw down more stones. There was a clear discomfort on his face.
"G-Gohan?" He asked sheepishly.
Gohan turned to his friend attentively.
"You've been training me for a while now. When are we going to be ready for the androids?" There was an unmistakable nervousness in his wavery voice as he asked.
Gohan just sighed deeply and laid back, arms behind his head.
"We might never be." He let out in an involuntary laugh. Hurt seared across his eyes. "Those things are twice or even three times as strong as I've ever been and I started taking this seriously when I was 10."
"But Gohan… Why would you even get my hopes up with the training? Are you ever gonna teach me how to use ki!? Are we ever gonna be enough?" Trunks' emotions ran high, he was young but his hope was not full.
Gohan stared at the sky, struggling to find the right words.
"I don't know…" He replied. "This mentor thing is really fucking hard." Gohan kept to himself, not wanting to upset Trunks further.
"All we do all day is train and train and then not fight the androids, they're hurting people Gohan! They killed everyone and they laugh! Why do they laugh, Gohan!?" Tears flew from his eyes as he cried out, memories of Trunks' grandfather and grandmother returned to him.
Gohan simply couldn't find the right words to soothe his pupil's soul and it pained him greatly. Trunks was such a good kid and he felt as if he was letting him down.
"We're all that's left… If we make the wrong move Trunks, it's over. We have to let some of them go for the greater good."
"And you're okay with that!?" Trunks screamed harrowingly.
"No." Gohan quelled Trunks with his very calm, yet troubled demeanor. "But we have to make sacrifices, if we misstep here all of Earth dies instead of just West City or Mount Paozu." Gohan replied as he shifted his right arm over his leg, sitting up.
"When they attack Bulma, or mom… That's when we step in. But until then." Gohan looked to the clouds. "We gather our energies and make a plan. That's where everyone else failed."
Gohan stared into the soul of his new recruit and put his hand out for a fist bump. Trunks met it with conviction.
"I'm putting all my faith in you Trunks/(Gohan), do you think you can handle my training?"
Gohan echoed the words of his master from 13 years ago.
Trunks' eyes lit with fire and he responded with intensity.
"Yes! Please let me learn everything!" His youthful gleam was impossible to ignore and the tiniest bit of Gohan's hope that had been beaten to a pulp rekindled.
"Then let's get to work!" Gohan commanded as he stood up tall. He towered over Trunks and the young pupil looked to his master dumbfounded, he could tell when Gohan was using his energy.
"I have a couple ground rules before we start."
Trunks nodded with complete understanding, maintaining eye contact.
"If I say you do something, you do it! You follow my lead! From this day forth I am your master, NOT Gohan. Got it!?"
Trunks nodded once again, his eyes beaming.
"We use as little ki as possible during training. The androids can sense when energy is being used so we can't just use it as we please."
"Okay!" Trunks just about shouted.
"We now are going to have a schedule and not just practice whenever we hang out."
"Yes, I understand."
Gohan turned his back and peered into the sky blue beyond.
"We practice every day, so make sure to tell Bulma that."
"Alright." He paced towards his master before stepping to his left, they both stared at the horizon.
"And you have to promise to work through the pain."
Gohan glared into the soul of Trunks and the teen almost fell over from the intensity.
"I'm going to push you to your absolute limits like Piccolo did for me, I'm going to force you to grow and you DON'T get a say in it. THOSE are my terms. If you refuse a single one of them, I'm not training you Trunks.
Trunks looked to the ground for a moment before meeting Gohan's eyes again.
"I'll do it! Please! We've gotta get them for what they've done to us!"
Gohan propositioned Trunks for a backfist, Trunks smiled and laughed as he put his own against his master's.
"This one's gonna be a journey, I have a lot of answers I need to find out myself. And I'm just gonna have to play it by ear while we train, that all right with you?"
"Uhhhh… Is this another condition?"
"Nah, I feel like I'm nothing compared to Piccolo, he seemed like he knew everything."
The pair stared out into the aether as the sun set. As night crept upon them Gohan broke the silence.
"We're gonna go have a sleepover at your house, we'll tell Bulma the news and then take it from there to my old man's master."
"Uh~ok-ay."
Trunks, 14 y/o. Age 780 November 6th - Earth 7:41 P.M. Capsule Tower C Ruins
The cracked sidewalk caved in and rustled under the boys' footsteps. They marched in a hurried fashion along the ruins.
The androids destroyed anything they felt like. Ruthless killers with no real ambition. Trunks' mother Bulma had made a hideout in the aftermath of one of the androids first destructive sprees. They didn't like going back to places they had already conquered so it was a smart choice for the widow to make.
The pair arrived at a large and cylindrical building that reached high into the sky. Half of it's large loft windows were smashed in. But this facility fared much better than most of the city which had incomplete structural 'repairs'. Gohan dashed up the steps with ease. Trunks followed the staircase more deliberately and the structural integrity groaned at the teen's thoughtfulness.
"Fuckin'-"
Gohan scanned the area as he went, his guard raised totally, looking out the windows for trouble with competence as Trunks could barely get up the stairs.
"1st floor clear!" He shouted down the stairwell.
"Coming!" Trunks shouted back.
Gohan hit a wall jump off of the second staircase and cleared it like a ninja. Trunks got to the area and just sighed.
"We gotta move, stairs were here last time…" He looked about the area, but it only increased his dismay. "Brooooooo…" He groaned out as he patted the top of his head.
"2nd floor clear!"
"Yeah, yeah, got it…" Trunks grumbled as he rock-climbed the fragments of stairs left.
Gohan stood across from a door labeled room 202 and he knocked in a specific pattern.
Knock-Knock! … Knock!
The door swung open and Bulma's face lit up at the sight of Gohan.
"Hi Son! How are you?"
They hugged it out before returning to a neutral position.
"I have something to say really quick."
"M-hmm." Bulma cleared her throat.
"Me and Trunks are gonna go fight the androids."
Trunks got up the steps just in time to see his mom slap his master.
"Yeah, I deserved that one."
She returned her hand the other way and hit Gohan with the back.
"Now THAT was uncalled for, totally unprofessional." He smiled a bit.
Gohan had inherited some of that natural charisma of his father, Son Goku. He somehow was able to soothe the tensions in the air rather quickly, especially when he smiled.
Bulma teared up a bit and smiled as she hugged him again. Gohan placed his right hand on her back to reassure her.
"How could you do this to me?"
"I know."
"He's only 14, he's my little baby…"
"I know."
"Why do you guys always have to fight!?"
"No one else can do it for us, now I gotta pick up the slack. But I'm NOT gonna fail." Gohan stated proudly, forcibly removing Bulma's grasp on him and grabbing her shoulders.
"I promise you that."
Bulma just nodded as she stared into Gohan's intense eyes.
"You really do look a lot like your father. It's not so much the appearance but just tha- the energy. The vibe."
She looked over to Trunks who was just kind of whistling and twiddling his thumbs.
"Come here baby." She cooed as she brought Trunks in for a bear hug.
"Mom…" He squealed out.
"You're so young. You're like Goku too. Way too young to be fighting but you do it anyway."
"But how else are the androids gonna be stopped mom?" He also fought back against Bulma's motherly embrace.
He looked to the fucked up carpet, searching for the right thing to say.
"We can't just let them do what they want because they're not bothering us. Sure we're getting along now but what happens when we're forced to fight. It's like Gohan always told me-"
"We can't let the fight happen when we're unprepared, WE need to be the ones to choose when we fight. That's how dad got killed and I'm sure as hell not gonna let your son go out like that Bulma."
Bulma's face was worn with worry but she smiled with a little bit of hope as Gohan spoke.
"So you gonna let us in or…"
"Yeah this draft is peepee poopoo mom. I don't fuck with it at all. I don't got my jacket on or anything."
The 2nd floor had a gigantic hole blown in the right side. And air rolled in coldly from the gap.
Gohan, 23 y/o. Age 780 November 6th - Earth 8:01 P.M. Brief's Lounge
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt.
"Phu-phu."
Skweeee.
"Looks done to me." Bulma stated with a dash of mysticism, her brows wiggling a tad.
Gohan ran his hand along the prickles of the back of his head.
"Oh hell yeah, that's the shit." He continued to feel it up for a while as he headed over to the lounge.
The apartment had two rounded off steps out into a loft where you could look at the sunset on the water. Trunks was laying down on the couch as Gohan descended the steps. Gohan smiled and then just layed down right on top of Trunks.
"Dah! Goha-" He cried, muffled by Gohan's large back.
"Oh shoot my bad, I didn't see you there bro. You're just too small." He sassed as he shifted to the other end.
"Oh ha-ha! Maybe if you're training was better I'd be bigger by now." Trunks lashed back, throwing a pillow at his master.
"Ooooooooooh." Bulma hyped it up as she brought in some steaming mugs.
"Is that hot chocolate?" Gohan asked, peering up at the cups in question as he caught the pillow.
Gohan threw the pillow back at Trunks who evaded in a combat roll off of the couch. The young man took one of the three mugs and took a big whiff through his nostrils. Trunks picked up his ammo from the floor and lobbed it at Gohan again.
Gohan skillfully punched the pillow in a three piece combo: One, Two, left uppercut. His speed was fast enough to throw strikes at the pillow and then grab the cup before it fell. He took a sip and tossed the pillow back at his pupil.
Trunks went for a roundhouse kick but whiffed epically and the pillow knocked him over lightly.
"Huh-haaaaaaaah!" Gohan laughed out like a child. "Whiffer sweeper. Sluurrrrrrrrrr."
"Come get your chocolate, Trunks!"
"Yes mom." He replied defeatedly, plopping down on the couch like a dead weight.
There was a long silence as the three sipped slowly on their hot beverages.
"Soooo..?" Bulma broke the ice, looking from Gohan to her son and then back around.
"Well the plan is to beat the androids but we're not strong enough and we're not gonna play it like buffoons. We gotta strategise. My thought process is we run through everywhere my dad's been and see if we can gain some insight from that. You went on most of his journeys didn't you?"
"Slurrrrrrr." Bulma took a sizeable sip from her mug before responding. "Yeah!"
She set down the cup on the plate she had brought it in with. Bulma leaned back in deep, almost being smothered by the couch pillows.
"We were thinking of going to Master Roshi's. I know he learned from him first, so we'll see if we can pick up some techniques and go from there."
"Okay." She nodded. "Are you two going to stay the night?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, I'll go get the extra blankets." Bulma got up and moseyed on up the stairs and disappeared into the hallway.
"How long do you think we'll be training for, Gohan?"
"You already asked me that. I can't place a time or a date on it but we're not engaging until you're 18."
"What!?" He stood up in a huff. "4 years!?"
"Yeap." He leaned back and peeled off the orange vest.
"That's a bruh! Why!?"
"I'm not gonna let you fight until I think you're a man. I'm not taking a kid into a death battle and that's that."
Gohan echoed the words of his master once again. Piccolo never got to fight with Gohan.
Trunks, 14 y/o. Age 780 November 7th - Earth 6:25 A.M Brief's Lounge
"Sorry mom… we gotta go." Trunks said quietly to his mother, grabbing her limp hand softly.
She snored with a low tone as the pair closed the door to the apartment.
35 Minutes Later…
"So we're really not gonna fly there?"
"No, I can't risk it."
"Well then how the heck are we gonna get there!?" Trunks exclaimed as he meandered around the rocky rubble. "You said we were going to an island right!? Are we just gonna swim!?"
"Yeap." He answered back, skillfully leaping from car to car to pavement to rock to an upheaved building.
Gohan looked over the city from the top of the massacred dome.
"I've never tried this… here goes." Gohan took in a deep breath and time seemed to stall around him. Trunks looked at his master in awe.
"NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMBUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSS!"
It was less of a yell and more of a war cry, the reverberations of which played out loudly in many echoes.
"Wha-uh~ Are you trying to lure the androids!?"
"Shhhhhhh." Gohan shushed with his right index.
There was about a full minute of pause. Trunks just kicked the debris on the ground in waiting.
Bwuwuwuwuwwu~
A soft sound played out in the distance as an orange apparition came into view.
"Wow…" Gohan let out involuntarily.
"What's that thing?"
"He really came to help us…"