Tempest of the Tirani
With a slight burst of sound and light, Goku and Uubu materialized on the shiny white tile of Kami's lookout, to find Piccolo, snare, and Dende waiting patiently for them both, white capes billowing in the thin but chill air. Uubu, having never encountered Snare before was surprised to see the smaller namek, only a few inches taller than he, yet ten years younger. "Uh…hi," he managed to say.
Goku as well was more than a little taken aback by the newest addition to the namek family on Earth. "Nice to meet you," he said heartily, a pleasant grin on his face.
Piccolo interjected before Snare could issue a reply. "Goku, long time no see. This is my progeny, Snare."
Goku fell flat on his back in surprise. After a few awkward moments, he stood back up. "You're a…mommy?"
Piccolo groaned. "Namek's are asexual, Goku."
"A sectional? Who's singing?"
"We birth through eggs, remember?"
Goku grinned like an idiot. "Oh, yeah! Haha! I forgot!"
For the first time ever, Piccolo rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I take it you have sensed the same thing we have? That there are no gods in the heavens?"
Goku nodded solemnly, suddenly serious. "Yes. Neither the Kaioshins nor Kaiosama are anywhere I can sense. And there's that force; well concealed, but still…"
"That's not all. Dende said it felt to him as if the very fabric of reality has been torn apart. Right, Dende?"
The timid god of Earth nodded his agreement. "Yes. It was horrible. All of my godly senses were bombarded with pain, as if my body were filled with acid and hot barbed wire. I called out to the other gods, but apparently, King Yama and the rest of the Kaios have vanished as well. There is a sentient force behind all this; an intelligent and deadly one."
Nearby, Snare nodded. "And believe me, there are more than one." And then, from above, Goten and Gohan were descending towards them. Goku saw them and waved, grinning.
"Gohan! Goten! Good to see you!"
"Hey, dad!" Goten exclaimed while Gohan just nodded.
"It has been a long time, hasn't it?" Goku stated. "And it looks like both of you have been keeping up with your training. I've been keeping busy myself-" he motioned over to dark-skinned 16-year-old behind him, "-training Uubu. You remember him, don't you?"
"Hi," was all the youth said.
"Enough of this foolishness," A familiar voice rasped from nearby. And with a few cocky strides, Vegita came into view, decked out in his blue bodysuit that he had adopted ever since after Cell had died. "We have a great force approaching us. It is time to get down to business." He eyed Goku with a feral anticipation that the saiyan had not been on the receiving end of in awhile. "Hadn't we?"
Just then, there was a great flash of white light, and a long-haired being appeared between the warriors. He was clad in blood red robes, with a face as pale as an albino's, but with pale blue eyes and chiseled features. On either of his temples were strange metallic devices, like plug-ins to a wall socket, but with round apertures and tiny wires running around them. His ears were pointy and long, which matched his elfin size and face. Even though his body was filthy and unnaturally thin, he carried with him a sort of effortless grace which immediately made the fighters sure that they were meeting one of the gods.
"My name is Banira," he said in a high tenor voice, "and I need your help."
* * * *
Trunks made a triple loop in the sky, happy to finally be free, at least for a little while, of the tedium that being head of Capsule Corp brought. Unfortunately for him, this was not a very frequent occurrence. He was always either working or training with his father(far more the former than the latter); he didn't have much time to himself. Nor, even, was there much to do in his free time. Everything was so damn peaceful…
Trunks' flight path was abruptly interrupted by the appearance of a hooded figure. With a cry of surprise, the purple-haired youth halted directly in midair.
"Who are you and what the hell are you doing?"
The dark form shimmered with a pale blue light, and Trunks suddenly felt a chill. "I am the Sentry, the guardian of all time and space. You are Trunks, the one whom I seek. The scientist."
The youth gulped and nodded, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. "Well, yes."
"Of course you are. Now, I must show you something. Please, take my hand." He extended a cloaked wrist, a pale blue glow emanating from his fingers. Nervously, Trunks took it, and his world turned upside-down. His vision went black, then was filled by small pinpoints of light. He looked around, to find himself in the depths of space. Reflexively, his hands went to his throat, and he gasped for breath in a panic.
"I know you are a scientist, Trunks, but must you be so predictable?" the Sentry asked from next to him, hovering in the void. "Don't rely on your senses here. You can breath. This is not really happening, at least not in the sense that it can affect us, or vice-versa. Now, look."
He pointed below, where an area of space was rippling and distorting, as if it were a liquid of some sort. At once, it burst into a massive display of colored light, tendrils of luminescent energy lashing out as an aperture opened wide in space. Slowly, the Tirani ship emerged, brown and ugly, like a cocoon belonging to some giant monster. As Trunks watched in awe, the Sentry continued.
"Your timeline is in danger. A race of powerful interdimensional conquerors called the Tirani have breached the veil of time and space so that they may take control your dimension and add it to their empire. They have conquered many universes, and yours is next."
"This is impossible! No one can cross between realities like that!"
The Sentry looked at him coldly. "It's not as impossible as you may think, Trunks. In fact, wasn't it your counterpart that first utilized time travel to come to this timeline?"
"That's not the same thing," Trunks shot back. "Besides, my counterpart was only able to cross to our timeline and his own, not multiple ones like you claim this group is doing."
"Oh, but he could have, but only if certain circumstances were met. You see, Trunks was only able to time-travel to an alternate timeline because it is impossible to do otherwise. For, you see, time is constantly erasing itself as it progresses. True, it is possible to slow time, and even travel to the future, but not the past. In Mirai Trunks' case, the time-machine took him to the closest possible timeline within the grounds he set."
"But don't all timelines progress at the same rate?" Trunks inquired.
"Oh gods, no! While time does erase itself, new timelines are created in their wake. Eventually, all timelines end and are reborn. It is the cycle of entropy."
"So my counterpart did not create the timeline we're in now?"
"Well, he had some role in it, but not that much. The time when Goku contracted the heart virus had nothing to do with Trunks' appearance here; in fact, it was about the only major difference in this timeline, except for his appearance, and the fact that the androids were much stronger here."
"So you're saying that Mirai Trunks could have traveled even further into the past, but it would have been a different timeline form than either that one or this one?"
"Exactly. Note that every time he came to this timeline, it was in a time later than this one. For some reason, the fact that the machine had attuned itself to this reality, as had Mirai Trunks, it kept returning."
"But how could he do that? I mean, the timelines couldn't have been in sync all those times for him to be able to return here as often as he did."
"You're getting quite good at this, Trunks, and of course you're right. But I personally made sure he returned to your timeline each time, in order to limit the damage he'd do. There was no way I'd let that warrior corrupt that many timelines."
"So what does this have to do with the invaders?"
"They are using a form of time-travel, but not one that I can control. Instead of traveling to a specific time, they travel aimlessly outside of time until a current catches them, leaving an anchor of sorts behind them so that they can return, much in the same way I did for Trunks."
"How are they doing it?"
"If I knew that, I might be able to find a way to counter it. I believe it has something to do with the gods of each universe. But as it is, they already have three different conquered universes under their belts, each in different stages in their personal timelines, and are meaning to conquer this one as well. There is no real strategic advantage to coming at this time or this universe; this is just the first one they happened upon."
"So what are you doing here? What's your stake in all this?"
The Sentry's glared at him then, his hood seeming to be a cyclopean void. "I'm the guardian of time, which includes all dimensions, no matter where they are in development. I mean to stop them here. I am coming to you because the rest are already hearing the same story on the place that you call Kami's lookout. You must go there, but make no mention of me, though you are welcome to use the rest of the information I have given you."
At once, they were back to Terra Firma, both still hovering in the air.
"For now, farewell, Trunks. May you and your fellow warriors find the strength to defeat this foe."
With a shimmer of light, the Sentry vanished, leaving Trunks alone, and very confused. Reluctantly, he took off for Kami's lookout.
With a slight burst of sound and light, Goku and Uubu materialized on the shiny white tile of Kami's lookout, to find Piccolo, snare, and Dende waiting patiently for them both, white capes billowing in the thin but chill air. Uubu, having never encountered Snare before was surprised to see the smaller namek, only a few inches taller than he, yet ten years younger. "Uh…hi," he managed to say.
Goku as well was more than a little taken aback by the newest addition to the namek family on Earth. "Nice to meet you," he said heartily, a pleasant grin on his face.
Piccolo interjected before Snare could issue a reply. "Goku, long time no see. This is my progeny, Snare."
Goku fell flat on his back in surprise. After a few awkward moments, he stood back up. "You're a…mommy?"
Piccolo groaned. "Namek's are asexual, Goku."
"A sectional? Who's singing?"
"We birth through eggs, remember?"
Goku grinned like an idiot. "Oh, yeah! Haha! I forgot!"
For the first time ever, Piccolo rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I take it you have sensed the same thing we have? That there are no gods in the heavens?"
Goku nodded solemnly, suddenly serious. "Yes. Neither the Kaioshins nor Kaiosama are anywhere I can sense. And there's that force; well concealed, but still…"
"That's not all. Dende said it felt to him as if the very fabric of reality has been torn apart. Right, Dende?"
The timid god of Earth nodded his agreement. "Yes. It was horrible. All of my godly senses were bombarded with pain, as if my body were filled with acid and hot barbed wire. I called out to the other gods, but apparently, King Yama and the rest of the Kaios have vanished as well. There is a sentient force behind all this; an intelligent and deadly one."
Nearby, Snare nodded. "And believe me, there are more than one." And then, from above, Goten and Gohan were descending towards them. Goku saw them and waved, grinning.
"Gohan! Goten! Good to see you!"
"Hey, dad!" Goten exclaimed while Gohan just nodded.
"It has been a long time, hasn't it?" Goku stated. "And it looks like both of you have been keeping up with your training. I've been keeping busy myself-" he motioned over to dark-skinned 16-year-old behind him, "-training Uubu. You remember him, don't you?"
"Hi," was all the youth said.
"Enough of this foolishness," A familiar voice rasped from nearby. And with a few cocky strides, Vegita came into view, decked out in his blue bodysuit that he had adopted ever since after Cell had died. "We have a great force approaching us. It is time to get down to business." He eyed Goku with a feral anticipation that the saiyan had not been on the receiving end of in awhile. "Hadn't we?"
Just then, there was a great flash of white light, and a long-haired being appeared between the warriors. He was clad in blood red robes, with a face as pale as an albino's, but with pale blue eyes and chiseled features. On either of his temples were strange metallic devices, like plug-ins to a wall socket, but with round apertures and tiny wires running around them. His ears were pointy and long, which matched his elfin size and face. Even though his body was filthy and unnaturally thin, he carried with him a sort of effortless grace which immediately made the fighters sure that they were meeting one of the gods.
"My name is Banira," he said in a high tenor voice, "and I need your help."
* * * *
Trunks made a triple loop in the sky, happy to finally be free, at least for a little while, of the tedium that being head of Capsule Corp brought. Unfortunately for him, this was not a very frequent occurrence. He was always either working or training with his father(far more the former than the latter); he didn't have much time to himself. Nor, even, was there much to do in his free time. Everything was so damn peaceful…
Trunks' flight path was abruptly interrupted by the appearance of a hooded figure. With a cry of surprise, the purple-haired youth halted directly in midair.
"Who are you and what the hell are you doing?"
The dark form shimmered with a pale blue light, and Trunks suddenly felt a chill. "I am the Sentry, the guardian of all time and space. You are Trunks, the one whom I seek. The scientist."
The youth gulped and nodded, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. "Well, yes."
"Of course you are. Now, I must show you something. Please, take my hand." He extended a cloaked wrist, a pale blue glow emanating from his fingers. Nervously, Trunks took it, and his world turned upside-down. His vision went black, then was filled by small pinpoints of light. He looked around, to find himself in the depths of space. Reflexively, his hands went to his throat, and he gasped for breath in a panic.
"I know you are a scientist, Trunks, but must you be so predictable?" the Sentry asked from next to him, hovering in the void. "Don't rely on your senses here. You can breath. This is not really happening, at least not in the sense that it can affect us, or vice-versa. Now, look."
He pointed below, where an area of space was rippling and distorting, as if it were a liquid of some sort. At once, it burst into a massive display of colored light, tendrils of luminescent energy lashing out as an aperture opened wide in space. Slowly, the Tirani ship emerged, brown and ugly, like a cocoon belonging to some giant monster. As Trunks watched in awe, the Sentry continued.
"Your timeline is in danger. A race of powerful interdimensional conquerors called the Tirani have breached the veil of time and space so that they may take control your dimension and add it to their empire. They have conquered many universes, and yours is next."
"This is impossible! No one can cross between realities like that!"
The Sentry looked at him coldly. "It's not as impossible as you may think, Trunks. In fact, wasn't it your counterpart that first utilized time travel to come to this timeline?"
"That's not the same thing," Trunks shot back. "Besides, my counterpart was only able to cross to our timeline and his own, not multiple ones like you claim this group is doing."
"Oh, but he could have, but only if certain circumstances were met. You see, Trunks was only able to time-travel to an alternate timeline because it is impossible to do otherwise. For, you see, time is constantly erasing itself as it progresses. True, it is possible to slow time, and even travel to the future, but not the past. In Mirai Trunks' case, the time-machine took him to the closest possible timeline within the grounds he set."
"But don't all timelines progress at the same rate?" Trunks inquired.
"Oh gods, no! While time does erase itself, new timelines are created in their wake. Eventually, all timelines end and are reborn. It is the cycle of entropy."
"So my counterpart did not create the timeline we're in now?"
"Well, he had some role in it, but not that much. The time when Goku contracted the heart virus had nothing to do with Trunks' appearance here; in fact, it was about the only major difference in this timeline, except for his appearance, and the fact that the androids were much stronger here."
"So you're saying that Mirai Trunks could have traveled even further into the past, but it would have been a different timeline form than either that one or this one?"
"Exactly. Note that every time he came to this timeline, it was in a time later than this one. For some reason, the fact that the machine had attuned itself to this reality, as had Mirai Trunks, it kept returning."
"But how could he do that? I mean, the timelines couldn't have been in sync all those times for him to be able to return here as often as he did."
"You're getting quite good at this, Trunks, and of course you're right. But I personally made sure he returned to your timeline each time, in order to limit the damage he'd do. There was no way I'd let that warrior corrupt that many timelines."
"So what does this have to do with the invaders?"
"They are using a form of time-travel, but not one that I can control. Instead of traveling to a specific time, they travel aimlessly outside of time until a current catches them, leaving an anchor of sorts behind them so that they can return, much in the same way I did for Trunks."
"How are they doing it?"
"If I knew that, I might be able to find a way to counter it. I believe it has something to do with the gods of each universe. But as it is, they already have three different conquered universes under their belts, each in different stages in their personal timelines, and are meaning to conquer this one as well. There is no real strategic advantage to coming at this time or this universe; this is just the first one they happened upon."
"So what are you doing here? What's your stake in all this?"
The Sentry's glared at him then, his hood seeming to be a cyclopean void. "I'm the guardian of time, which includes all dimensions, no matter where they are in development. I mean to stop them here. I am coming to you because the rest are already hearing the same story on the place that you call Kami's lookout. You must go there, but make no mention of me, though you are welcome to use the rest of the information I have given you."
At once, they were back to Terra Firma, both still hovering in the air.
"For now, farewell, Trunks. May you and your fellow warriors find the strength to defeat this foe."
With a shimmer of light, the Sentry vanished, leaving Trunks alone, and very confused. Reluctantly, he took off for Kami's lookout.
