The story is a crossover between Dragonball GT and Stronghold, a fantasy novel by Melanie Rawn. What happens if Marron accidentally push the red button in a time-dimensional vehicle that Bulma and Trunks had invented? Where will the contraption send them? Will they still be able to get back to their own dimension? What adventure awaits them in the next dimension? The story revolves around these questions.
In this story, Trunks is 24 yrs. old; Goten=23; Marron=18; and Son Goku already became the Cosmic Guardian.
CHAPTER 1
"Ohayou, Bulma-san!" greeted Goten as he landed infront of Trunks' house when he saw Bulma getting into her car, probably heading for the Capsule Corporation.
"Ohayou, Goten-chan! You're bright and early today! Are you and Trunks going somewhere?" asked Bulma as she started the car.
Goten gave her a grimace and scratched his head, just like the way Gokou did when he was caught in an embarrassing situation.
"Ano... not really. Trunks have been harassing me to get a look at the prototype that you both were working on. He won't spar with me unless I do so," he shrugged his shoulders.
It had been months since Gokou was appointed as the Cosmic Guardian riding on top of Shen-Long's back. Peace had settled over the land and Goten was feeling a little restless with all the energy inside him with no outlet at all. Trunks and him had been sparring continuously since then to keep themselves on their feet. Who knows what menace would come along... It wouldn't do to catch them with their pants down, so to speak. But lately, Trunks had been running late on their sparring schedule and when he did come, he was too bushed to give him a good bout. Then suddenly two days ago, Trunks showed up ahead of schedule and just started pounding at him repeatedly. Caught unaware, he was slammed hard on the mountains by his punch.
"What the—? Hey! What did you do that for?" he yelled as he picked himself off the ground. "You seem to be all pepped up today. What's going on?" Goten queried as he revved up to Super Saiyajin when he saw Trunks doing the same thing.
They were moving so fast that their punches and feints could hardly be seen by the naked eye. One could only hear the impact and see bursts of energy of two objects hitting each other.
"You'd better do your best today because we won't be sparring for a long, long time after this..." Trunks warned Goten as he gathered energy between his palms for a small Kame-hame-ha blast.
"What do you mean by that?" inquired Goten as he readied himself for the same blast.
Kaaa—Mee—Haaa—Meeeee——HAAAAA!!!!
The question was ignored by both as they shouted and blasted each other. A full-blooded human would have been annihilated by the blast, but then, both of them are only of half human blood. Half of which belonged to their fathers, Son Goku and Vejiita, the last full-blooded Saiyajins, an alien warrior race. The two collapsed on the ground after the strenuous training.
"Whew! That was great, Trunks!" Goten propped himself up on his elbows, and looked across Trunks with a huge grin on his face.
"I kind of missed it," admitted Trunks as he slowly got up.
"So—what did you mean by not sparring for a long time?" Goten remembered his earlier question. He slung his arm around Trunks shoulders and tightened his hold on him.
"Well… it's just that Mom and I were able to finish the prototype we've been working on and now we have to test it out… we don't know how long that would take?" he replied as he shrugged Goten's arm off his shoulders. Then he brightened up when an idea popped in his mind. "Hey! If you take a look at our project and help me out in its test drive, we might be able to finish it all up early and continue with our training," he suggested to Goten.
"Hmmm… I don't know… I'll think about it first. What is it anyway?" Goten wondered.
"Well, it's a time-dimensional dilation capsule… it's kind of hard to explain really. Why don't you come over to my place and see for yourself. It's much better if you see it while I explain how it works." Trunks said.
BWAARRKK---
"I'll think about it after I replenish my energies…Man! Am I hungry!!! Was that my stomach that just complained or was that yours?" he wondered. "Talk to you later, Trunks! I've got to go now. Okaasan might be wondering again where I've been. Thanks for the exercise, pal. See you on Thursday for another round, okay?" he waved as he was about to fly home.
"Hey, Goten! If you want us to spar again, you'd better come over to my place on Wednesday and check out our new invention or there won't be any sparring at all." He threatened.
Goten paused in midair and decided to take up Trunks offer. He didn't want them to miss out on their routine. It was the only way for him to relax after his time in the office. And besides, he knew that unlike him, Trunks could still train by himself using the gravity room.
"Okay, okay…kuso! I'll be there on Wednesday. Jeesh, what a man has to do to get his exercise these days!" he complained as he flew home.
-----------------
"Hey, Goten! Wake up, kid!" Bulma was shaking his arm.
"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry about that." He replied peevishly when his mind was brought back to the present.
"Why don't you just go to the Work Room. Trunks is waiting for you there. And by the way, you'd better be nice to Marron. She came over to work on her cooking lessons with Bra. She's improving but I don't recommend eating everything that she would set out for you. There are still some small amount of toxicity in her food." She winked at him and chuckled when she saw him winced at that thought. She motioned for him to get closer. "That's just between the two of us, okay? Don't tell her I said that," she whispered conspiratorily then drove out of their compound heading for the office.
Inside the Work Room.
"Konnichi wa, Trunks! Oi! What do we have here?" he greeted when he entered the room. He was astonished at the Trunk's invention. He circled around the machine in awe. It looked so much like a helicopter without propellers and it was really big. But the gadgets inside were totally radical! He could clearly see them since the thing was mostly made of fiberglass. There seemed to be an altimeter and the whatnots of a helicopter except when he looked closer, it didn't seem to measure the altitude but something else. He didn't know exactly what since he was not really familiar with gadgetry. He was only familiar with an altimeter because his sister-in-law, Videl, happened to point it out to him.
"Tell me, what does this thing do?" he asked pointing at the altimeter look-alike.
"Oh that. Well, that's the TDmeter. It would tell us when in time and which dimension we are likely to go," replied Trunks without looking up from his work. He was just doing some finishing touches on the machine. Just a few tightening here and there, and some double-check on some of the computerized gadgets inside it.
"Glad you could make it. I'll be with you in a moment. Just don't touch anything, okay?" he cautioned as he dusted himself off.
Unbeknownst to them, Marron had slipped quietly inside the workroom when she got a glimpse of Goten going in. She found out from Bra, while they were cooking up a storm in the kitchen, that Bulma and her brother were working on a machine. Trunks and her were involved with each other three years ago but both admitted that it wouldn't work out and so parted ways. She was too jealous of the attention that her parents would bestow on him to make their relationship work. Whenever Trunks would visit her, most of the time, her dad and mom would drag him to a deserted valley and start sparring. When she broke up with him, she forced her dad to teach her martial arts. Her mom took over her training and was placed in a very strict regimen, thus in just a year of training, she learned how to manipulate her ki to not just levitate but also fly. Then her dad taught her to further manipulate her ki to create destructo discs that his father was noted for, although his destructo discs were way bigger than the ones that she could manage.
Slinking her way inside the room, she hid herself behind a huge mainframe as she eavesdropped on their conversation.
"So, what do you think?" grinned Trunks as he stood when he was done with his tinkering. "I know its huge but then again, just like any other machines that the Capsule Corporation does, this beauty can be encapsulated," admiring his contraption. "It's all done. We can test her out right now if you're up to it," looking at Goten with an eyebrow raised in challenge. "Mom and I aren't sure yet what things we will encounter during the test drive since we don't know what this beauty has in store for us. But it will definitely be an adventure."
"I'm as ready as I can be! Just be sure that we get back before the day ends because I still want to spar with you as you promised. Now that I'm here, you'd better fulfill your side of the bargain," threatening Trunks with a raised fist and a flare of energy but with a smirk on his face.
Both of them entered the TDV (Time-Dimensional Vehicle). Trunks was busy showing Goten how to operate the machine that they didn't notice Marron getting in behind them. Marron looked around with wide eyes. She marvelled at the machine being spacious despite of all the gadgetry inside, . Eyes alighting on that notorious red button that was the bane of all machines, Marron couldn't help being curious what it can do that she pressed it. Surprised at the sudden tremours around them, both Trunks and Goten turned around, just in time, to see Marron pressing her palm on the red button.
"Darn it, Marron! Do you know what you just did? You just pressed the ignition key!!!" shouted Trunks looking alarmingly at the TDmeter. Since the meter hasn't been set to a particular time and dimension, the meter is running at random. The door slid shut, the whole glass paneling has been sealed by titanium metal and the countdown had already started. He saw the startled look of his mom through the screen when she entered the room to investigate the rumbling sound she heard.
She just came back from the office to warn the kids not to test the TDV yet because she hadn't been able to install the mechanism that will allow the vehicle to get back to their original timeline and dimension. She neglected to tell her son about it. When she got back, she heard a rumbling sound coming from the workroom, giving her a very bad feeling about tremours. Looking in with horror, she saw them disappearing right before her eyes. Fearing the worst that could happen... knowing that without return console, the chances of the children coming back was next to zero.
The last thing that Trunks saw through the screen was his mother crying out for them before he and his friends lost all consciousness.
"Oh, Dende!" she wailed at her loss. "Please guard our children from harm. Oh please guide them back to us. I just hope that whenever and wherever the children may end up, they would survive." She prayed as the machie disappeared. She collapsed on the floor and screamed her loss. "NOOO...!!! TRUNKS...!!!!"
Coming out of the gravity room, Vejiita felt three familiar ki's winked out of existence just as he was startled to hear his wife scream. He hurried to where his wife was and saw her slumped on the floor, crying out her grief. He slowly approached Bulma, snapped at her, "What is the matter with you, woman?!" but concern can be heard from his voice.
Bulma looked behind her and saw her husband as he snapped at her. She suddenly stood up, rushed to him and hugged him tightly. "The children, Vejiita! Trunks, Goten and Maron! They're gone!!!" she sobbed heavily against his chest. "And it's all my fault!!!"
He looked down at her in shock as he wrapped his arms around her. "What happened Bulma? I felt their ki disappear. What do you mean, it was your fault?" He gently asked her as he raised her chin up to make her look at him.
"They used my invention. I neglected to inform Trunks that the return console wasn't installed yet. Trunks and I made a time-dimensional vehicle. They're gone, Vejiita. There is no way for them to get back to us. Oh kami, I'm so sorry!" she cried out her anguish.
"Calm down, woman. It isn't the end yet. Trunks isn't just my son, he's also yours. If he helped you build the blasted thing, then he'll be able to find a way to come back. Except for Marron, those two are warriors. They are not helpless." Uncharacteristically, he kissed Bulma's forehead and tried to comfort her, reassure her. "He'll find a way back here," he whispered while staring blankly at the scorch marks where the TDV stood before it vanished.
--to be continued.
In this story, Trunks is 24 yrs. old; Goten=23; Marron=18; and Son Goku already became the Cosmic Guardian.
CHAPTER 1
"Ohayou, Bulma-san!" greeted Goten as he landed infront of Trunks' house when he saw Bulma getting into her car, probably heading for the Capsule Corporation.
"Ohayou, Goten-chan! You're bright and early today! Are you and Trunks going somewhere?" asked Bulma as she started the car.
Goten gave her a grimace and scratched his head, just like the way Gokou did when he was caught in an embarrassing situation.
"Ano... not really. Trunks have been harassing me to get a look at the prototype that you both were working on. He won't spar with me unless I do so," he shrugged his shoulders.
It had been months since Gokou was appointed as the Cosmic Guardian riding on top of Shen-Long's back. Peace had settled over the land and Goten was feeling a little restless with all the energy inside him with no outlet at all. Trunks and him had been sparring continuously since then to keep themselves on their feet. Who knows what menace would come along... It wouldn't do to catch them with their pants down, so to speak. But lately, Trunks had been running late on their sparring schedule and when he did come, he was too bushed to give him a good bout. Then suddenly two days ago, Trunks showed up ahead of schedule and just started pounding at him repeatedly. Caught unaware, he was slammed hard on the mountains by his punch.
"What the—? Hey! What did you do that for?" he yelled as he picked himself off the ground. "You seem to be all pepped up today. What's going on?" Goten queried as he revved up to Super Saiyajin when he saw Trunks doing the same thing.
They were moving so fast that their punches and feints could hardly be seen by the naked eye. One could only hear the impact and see bursts of energy of two objects hitting each other.
"You'd better do your best today because we won't be sparring for a long, long time after this..." Trunks warned Goten as he gathered energy between his palms for a small Kame-hame-ha blast.
"What do you mean by that?" inquired Goten as he readied himself for the same blast.
Kaaa—Mee—Haaa—Meeeee——HAAAAA!!!!
The question was ignored by both as they shouted and blasted each other. A full-blooded human would have been annihilated by the blast, but then, both of them are only of half human blood. Half of which belonged to their fathers, Son Goku and Vejiita, the last full-blooded Saiyajins, an alien warrior race. The two collapsed on the ground after the strenuous training.
"Whew! That was great, Trunks!" Goten propped himself up on his elbows, and looked across Trunks with a huge grin on his face.
"I kind of missed it," admitted Trunks as he slowly got up.
"So—what did you mean by not sparring for a long time?" Goten remembered his earlier question. He slung his arm around Trunks shoulders and tightened his hold on him.
"Well… it's just that Mom and I were able to finish the prototype we've been working on and now we have to test it out… we don't know how long that would take?" he replied as he shrugged Goten's arm off his shoulders. Then he brightened up when an idea popped in his mind. "Hey! If you take a look at our project and help me out in its test drive, we might be able to finish it all up early and continue with our training," he suggested to Goten.
"Hmmm… I don't know… I'll think about it first. What is it anyway?" Goten wondered.
"Well, it's a time-dimensional dilation capsule… it's kind of hard to explain really. Why don't you come over to my place and see for yourself. It's much better if you see it while I explain how it works." Trunks said.
BWAARRKK---
"I'll think about it after I replenish my energies…Man! Am I hungry!!! Was that my stomach that just complained or was that yours?" he wondered. "Talk to you later, Trunks! I've got to go now. Okaasan might be wondering again where I've been. Thanks for the exercise, pal. See you on Thursday for another round, okay?" he waved as he was about to fly home.
"Hey, Goten! If you want us to spar again, you'd better come over to my place on Wednesday and check out our new invention or there won't be any sparring at all." He threatened.
Goten paused in midair and decided to take up Trunks offer. He didn't want them to miss out on their routine. It was the only way for him to relax after his time in the office. And besides, he knew that unlike him, Trunks could still train by himself using the gravity room.
"Okay, okay…kuso! I'll be there on Wednesday. Jeesh, what a man has to do to get his exercise these days!" he complained as he flew home.
-----------------
"Hey, Goten! Wake up, kid!" Bulma was shaking his arm.
"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry about that." He replied peevishly when his mind was brought back to the present.
"Why don't you just go to the Work Room. Trunks is waiting for you there. And by the way, you'd better be nice to Marron. She came over to work on her cooking lessons with Bra. She's improving but I don't recommend eating everything that she would set out for you. There are still some small amount of toxicity in her food." She winked at him and chuckled when she saw him winced at that thought. She motioned for him to get closer. "That's just between the two of us, okay? Don't tell her I said that," she whispered conspiratorily then drove out of their compound heading for the office.
Inside the Work Room.
"Konnichi wa, Trunks! Oi! What do we have here?" he greeted when he entered the room. He was astonished at the Trunk's invention. He circled around the machine in awe. It looked so much like a helicopter without propellers and it was really big. But the gadgets inside were totally radical! He could clearly see them since the thing was mostly made of fiberglass. There seemed to be an altimeter and the whatnots of a helicopter except when he looked closer, it didn't seem to measure the altitude but something else. He didn't know exactly what since he was not really familiar with gadgetry. He was only familiar with an altimeter because his sister-in-law, Videl, happened to point it out to him.
"Tell me, what does this thing do?" he asked pointing at the altimeter look-alike.
"Oh that. Well, that's the TDmeter. It would tell us when in time and which dimension we are likely to go," replied Trunks without looking up from his work. He was just doing some finishing touches on the machine. Just a few tightening here and there, and some double-check on some of the computerized gadgets inside it.
"Glad you could make it. I'll be with you in a moment. Just don't touch anything, okay?" he cautioned as he dusted himself off.
Unbeknownst to them, Marron had slipped quietly inside the workroom when she got a glimpse of Goten going in. She found out from Bra, while they were cooking up a storm in the kitchen, that Bulma and her brother were working on a machine. Trunks and her were involved with each other three years ago but both admitted that it wouldn't work out and so parted ways. She was too jealous of the attention that her parents would bestow on him to make their relationship work. Whenever Trunks would visit her, most of the time, her dad and mom would drag him to a deserted valley and start sparring. When she broke up with him, she forced her dad to teach her martial arts. Her mom took over her training and was placed in a very strict regimen, thus in just a year of training, she learned how to manipulate her ki to not just levitate but also fly. Then her dad taught her to further manipulate her ki to create destructo discs that his father was noted for, although his destructo discs were way bigger than the ones that she could manage.
Slinking her way inside the room, she hid herself behind a huge mainframe as she eavesdropped on their conversation.
"So, what do you think?" grinned Trunks as he stood when he was done with his tinkering. "I know its huge but then again, just like any other machines that the Capsule Corporation does, this beauty can be encapsulated," admiring his contraption. "It's all done. We can test her out right now if you're up to it," looking at Goten with an eyebrow raised in challenge. "Mom and I aren't sure yet what things we will encounter during the test drive since we don't know what this beauty has in store for us. But it will definitely be an adventure."
"I'm as ready as I can be! Just be sure that we get back before the day ends because I still want to spar with you as you promised. Now that I'm here, you'd better fulfill your side of the bargain," threatening Trunks with a raised fist and a flare of energy but with a smirk on his face.
Both of them entered the TDV (Time-Dimensional Vehicle). Trunks was busy showing Goten how to operate the machine that they didn't notice Marron getting in behind them. Marron looked around with wide eyes. She marvelled at the machine being spacious despite of all the gadgetry inside, . Eyes alighting on that notorious red button that was the bane of all machines, Marron couldn't help being curious what it can do that she pressed it. Surprised at the sudden tremours around them, both Trunks and Goten turned around, just in time, to see Marron pressing her palm on the red button.
"Darn it, Marron! Do you know what you just did? You just pressed the ignition key!!!" shouted Trunks looking alarmingly at the TDmeter. Since the meter hasn't been set to a particular time and dimension, the meter is running at random. The door slid shut, the whole glass paneling has been sealed by titanium metal and the countdown had already started. He saw the startled look of his mom through the screen when she entered the room to investigate the rumbling sound she heard.
She just came back from the office to warn the kids not to test the TDV yet because she hadn't been able to install the mechanism that will allow the vehicle to get back to their original timeline and dimension. She neglected to tell her son about it. When she got back, she heard a rumbling sound coming from the workroom, giving her a very bad feeling about tremours. Looking in with horror, she saw them disappearing right before her eyes. Fearing the worst that could happen... knowing that without return console, the chances of the children coming back was next to zero.
The last thing that Trunks saw through the screen was his mother crying out for them before he and his friends lost all consciousness.
"Oh, Dende!" she wailed at her loss. "Please guard our children from harm. Oh please guide them back to us. I just hope that whenever and wherever the children may end up, they would survive." She prayed as the machie disappeared. She collapsed on the floor and screamed her loss. "NOOO...!!! TRUNKS...!!!!"
Coming out of the gravity room, Vejiita felt three familiar ki's winked out of existence just as he was startled to hear his wife scream. He hurried to where his wife was and saw her slumped on the floor, crying out her grief. He slowly approached Bulma, snapped at her, "What is the matter with you, woman?!" but concern can be heard from his voice.
Bulma looked behind her and saw her husband as he snapped at her. She suddenly stood up, rushed to him and hugged him tightly. "The children, Vejiita! Trunks, Goten and Maron! They're gone!!!" she sobbed heavily against his chest. "And it's all my fault!!!"
He looked down at her in shock as he wrapped his arms around her. "What happened Bulma? I felt their ki disappear. What do you mean, it was your fault?" He gently asked her as he raised her chin up to make her look at him.
"They used my invention. I neglected to inform Trunks that the return console wasn't installed yet. Trunks and I made a time-dimensional vehicle. They're gone, Vejiita. There is no way for them to get back to us. Oh kami, I'm so sorry!" she cried out her anguish.
"Calm down, woman. It isn't the end yet. Trunks isn't just my son, he's also yours. If he helped you build the blasted thing, then he'll be able to find a way to come back. Except for Marron, those two are warriors. They are not helpless." Uncharacteristically, he kissed Bulma's forehead and tried to comfort her, reassure her. "He'll find a way back here," he whispered while staring blankly at the scorch marks where the TDV stood before it vanished.
--to be continued.