A week passed and there was still no sign of any other escape pods crashing to earth.  In that time, Bulma work furiously in her workshop creating powerful sensors that Trunks placed around the world.  The sensors would detect the vibrations caused by the impact of an escape pod.  The sensors weren't foolproof, small meteorites that crashed to Earth would set them off, but both Bulma and Trunks felt that they didn't have the time to perfect the technology.

            In her spare time Bulma worked at the plant, still trying to get the power generators online.  That week was a mix of small successes, but new problems arose that set them back.

            For some reason gang activity across the badlands was light that week.  Trunks quietly gave thanks to whoever or whatever was watching over him for that small break.  The weather was unusually hot and humid, and large thunderclouds loomed overhead, threatening to burst, but they haven't yet.

            For his part, Trunks had a lot of free time on his hands.  Placing the sensors around the world didn't take that much time for a saiyan.  The rest of the time he spent brooding over what the dead saiyan warned him and what he could do to prepare.  He already reactivated the gravity room in the training hall that his dad, Vegeta, used to train in, and was already pushing the upper limits of the gravity machine by the end of the week.  It felt good to get back into a regular training regimen, but something was still missing.

            The metal double doors slid open, revealing a pitch black hallway.  The small light from the elevator still gave off enough light for Trunks for him to see the layers of dust that covered everything.  In order to conserve power, vast sections of the Capsule Corporation Headquarters were sealed off after Trunks defeated the Androids and Cell.  The sections that weren't used anymore were abandoned, and it was here that he could feel the throbbing presence.  I never thought I'd ever need you again, he thought to himself as he walked down the hall.  It's been a long time, my friend.  He let his senses guide him, following the presence that he felt so clearly. 

The hallway ended, leading into an open room.  The room was large and was used as one of many storage rooms throughout the complex.  The presence he felt was getting stronger, meaning he was close.  He rummaged through the darkness, setting aside large crates until his hands gripped what he was looking for.  The box was large, thin, and rectangular in shape.  He let his hands glide over it lovingly, wiping off vast amounts of dust.  His fingers searched the long side of the box and found a simple latching mechanism.  He pressed his thumb against it, and was rewarding with a small singular clicking sound. 

He lifted open the top of the box, and again let the tips of his fingers lightly glide over its contents.  As soon as he touched it, the throbbing presence changed to be in tune with his heartbeat.  The stout leather felt rough, and he gently took it out if the case.  His other hand searched upward on the leather until he felt smooth metal.  The grip was as sure as ever and he grabbed the hilt.  Even though he couldn't see in the darkness, the metallic shiiiiing echoed on the walls of the room as he unsheathed the blade.  The sound was music to his ears.  It's time for us to get to know each other again.  He twirled the blade in his hands, testing its balance, and finding it perfect.  He slashed out in a wide arc, relishing in the sound as the keen blade cut through the air.  The sword was given to him by a warrior named Tapion, who was from another time, another world.  The blade served him well in the past, and perhaps the power of his blade would be needed.

After a week of buildup, the clouds finally released their contents in a torrent.  Thunder crashed as streaks of lightning danced across the sky.  Harsh, stinging rain fell to the ground.  In certain places across the land the rain acted like acid due to the severe environmental damage, corroding metal structures and causing more misery for those unfortunates that couldn't find shelter.  The rain wasn't dangerous around Capsule Corp. thanks to the massive atmospheric processors that consume vast amounts of power from the overworked power plant.  The winds were harsh, causing the rain to still sting.  Trunks stood on the ceiling of his home, letting the rain hit him.  His long hair flailed wildly behind him from the high winds, but he didn't pay much attention to it, he stretched out with his ki as far as he could, trying to pick up any sign of anything out of the ordinary.  Even after placing the sensors he still monitored the world himself, trusting more to his own abilities rather than technology.  In the intervening years since the deaths of the androids and Cell he had not done much physical training; there was no longer any need to.  But he never stopped his internal training.  He was at a point now where he could stretch out his senses beyond the boundary of the Earth and the moon.  At times he could pick up the planet Mars, but most of the time the farthest his senses could reach was the vast asteroid belt between Earth and Mars.  Through trial and error he had developed several new ki techniques, and he was itching to find out how well they would perform in combat. 

By keeping his ki sharp he found that his power had increased.  He was still physically fit, and with the old gravity room open again it wouldn't take long for him to get back to top form.  With his increased power he had tested several of his low powered ki strikes to see the difference, and was there ever a difference!  A new canyon in a mountain range was proof enough for him.  He also noticed another difference, when he powered up to full power he used to feel a limit, like the pinnacle of his potential had been reached.  But when he did it again a few months back, that feeling had disappeared.  Intrigued, he continued to increase his ki to its highest limit, but nothing happened.  His power increased normally, but that was it.  Trunks didn't let the setback stop him, the ceiling was gone and he wanted to know what led beyond it.

Lightning and thunder crashed across the sky as he stood there.  It was almost midnight, and Trunks was going to quit for the night.  But before he did, a pang of emotion and energy struck him.  The initial feeling was faint, but it began to grow as the seconds passed.  Soon the feeling separated into individual signatures of ki and emotions.  This is it, he thought with a surge of excitement, they're coming!

Trunks guessed that the signatures were coming from just beyond the moon, and he suppressed his own power level; there was always a need for him to err on the side of caution.  He leapt down from the top of his home and ran inside.  He arrived at the command room where Bulma had fallen asleep over the monitors of the sensors.

"Mom," he said quickly, startling her awake.

"Wha...?" she stammered groggily as she jumped from his voice, "What is it Trunks?"

"They're coming!"

She tried in vain to rub the sleep from her eyes, "Who?  Who's coming?"

"I don't know," he answered, "but there's a lot of them.  They should be landing soon."

"But the sensors haven't picked up any strange activity yet.  Are you sure?"

He nodded, "They'll be here within the hour, if my guess is right."  He closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated, "They just passed the moon."

"The moon," she asked incredulously, "How do you know?"

"I can sense them," he replied, "about fifty or so."

Bulma was shocked fully awake when she finally realized just how far his senses could reach.  "Trunks!  I had no idea your powers had grown so much!"

He grabbed a wrist communicator and put it on.  "There was always the chance of something else around the corner with our home in its sights.  I can't let that happen, you know that, mom."

"Yes, but," she tried to argue, but Trunks was already leaving.  "Hey!  Where are you going?"

Trunks stopped at the door, but he didn't turn around to meet her gaze.  "I'm going out there to meet them," he replied with a hard edge in his voice.

"That's not a good idea," Bulma warned with her 'mother voice'.  "It could be dangerous."

Trunks allowed himself a small smile and he turned around to face her.  Bulma was struck at how much he reminded her of Vegeta when he looked like that.  "I can handle it, mom.  I'll stay in contact with this," he said raising his arm to show her the communicator around his wrist.  "If things go well you might want to get the coffee going, lots of it."

"And if they don't," she asked with a hint of motherly fear.

Trunks tried to suppress his smile but failed, "We'll just have to find out, won't we?"  He pressed a button next to the doorway as he left, the door slid closed behind him.

"Wait, Trunks!" Bulma cried angrily, but he was already gone.

Trunks took to the air and flew above the rain clouds.  The ki signatures were closing and getting stronger and more distinct as the seconds passed.  They were still to far away for him to gauge where they would land, so he wasn't flying very fast.  After some time he could feel their presence entering the atmosphere.  Now he did some quick calculations and determined their approximate landing spot and he blurred to super speed, intent on beating them there.

Trunks landed in a vast wasteland of rock and mud.  The rain still fell, hissing as it hit the ground.  The area was acidic, but not toxic enough to cause any immediate threat.  Craters dotted the area, each a reminder of the power and callousness of the hated androids.  Trunks made sure to keep his power level suppressed and he looked up through the stinging rain.  He made out a streaking ball of flame high in the atmosphere.  His guess was right; this was the spot they were going to hit.  After a few moments the fireball disappeared as Trunks now saw a large outline of a ship through the openings of the clouds. 

The ship was long and looked pieced together from junk.  A shrill whine from the ship's engines grew in strength as the ship came closer, soon eclipsing the hiss and constant noise of the rain.  The ship was now in full view as it came below the dark clouds.  Lights flickered throughout its hull, and smoke poured forth from several large openings in its side.  The ship was coming down fast and one vent-like retro-thruster activated, but the other three didn't.  Trunks braced for impact a moment before the ship came in.  The retro-thruster did just enough to bring the front of the ship up enough so that it didn't smash into the ground.  The ship crashed on its side with a resounding roar, causing the ground to shake.  Trunks was disoriented for a moment as he regained his balance.  The ship skidded on it side, small explosions went off everywhere as the ship finally slowed to a halt a few hundred feet from where Trunks stood. 

For a moment, there was relative quiet.  Then Trunks took a few steps in the direction of the ship.  No movement came from the ship, aside from flying sparks and the constant flickering of lights all around the damaged hull.  Trunks was in awe at the massive size of the ship, it was easily the size of a village if not more.  Small fires erupted, were put out, and erupted again all over the ship.  Trunks reached out tentatively with a portion of his ki and noted that all ki signatures were shaken but otherwise still there. 

Suddenly, a portion of the hull directly in front of Trunks exploded.  He raised his arm up to his face to protect himself from the flying debris.  He squinted to see through the smoke and the stinging acid rain.  He saw flickering lights through the haze and a humanoid figure that was obscured by the smoke and debris.  He heard coughing, and then a voice.

"Hurry!  We must find shelter!"

More coughing followed as a figure came out through the smoke.  The being was definitely a saiyan warrior.  He wore the old armor style that Vegeta and Nappa wore when they first arrived on Earth.  The saiyan's armor was cracked in various places and looked almost useless.  The saiyan was male and had two large scars on both sides of his face.  A scouter attachment was over his one good eye, the other eye was mangled beyond all repair, must have been an old injury, Trunks thought.  The saiyan looked from side to side, surveying the area.  Trunks had ducked behind a large piece of debris to avoid detection.

"Clear," the warrior shouted.

Soon, the rest of the ship's passengers gathered outside and stood under a large overhang of the ship's hull.  They were all saiyans, and there were even a few female warriors scattered amongst the men.  Trunks strained his ears to hear what they were saying.

"She'll find us," one of the saiyan warriors exclaimed, "We shouldn't have run!"

"What should we have done then, Aspara?" a female saiyan asked, "If we didn't leave she would've killed us all and there wouldn't be any of us left."

"She'll kill us for sure now," Aspara responded angrily, "We're all doomed!"

"Be still," a large, burly male warrior commanded.  His hair was long like Radditz, and he darted his head from side to side as if he was looking for something.  "I don't think we're alone," he said darkly.

Trunks was impressed.  His power level was suppressed to nothing, but still the big warrior was looking in his direction.  The other warriors fanned out around the big warrior and assumed defensive positions, raising their ki so that their aura's flared to life..  This could be tricky, he thought.

"Show yourself," the big warrior bellowed as he powered up.  His aura was paler than the others and stronger.

Shit!  That's not good!  He sighed heavily and stood up from his hiding place.  The other saiyans gasped as they saw him.

"Where did you come from," one warrior demanded angrily.

"I didn't sense him, did you," one warrior asked another.  The other shook his head.

"Explain your business here," the burly warrior demanded to Trunks.

"This is my world," Trunks replied in a tone reminiscent of his father's, "Explain your business here."  He folded his arms across his chest.

"No one talks like that to Tomo the Great and lives," another saiyan warrior screamed as he leapt at Trunks.  The burly warrior shouted to the warrior to desist, but he wasn't listening.

The warrior came at Trunks with fists outstretched, violence spiking his ki to a higher level.  Trunks easily dodged the clumsy assault and the next.  Trunks powered up and made a show of it, and then he backhanded the warrior, hitting him square across the jaw, knocking the hapless warrior back to where the others were.  Blood poured from the corner of the warrior's mouth and he clenched his teeth as he got up.  Trunks had his arms across his chest again in a non-threatening posture.

The warrior tried to attack Trunks again, but the burly warrior stopped him with a heavy arm on his shoulder.  One look from Tomo was enough to put the warrior in his place and he skulked to the back of the group.  Tomo looked back at Trunks.

"Who are you?  You aren't one of us, but you do have the bearing of a saiyan in you."

"My father was a saiyan," Trunks replied coolly.  "Now, tell me why you are here."

Tomo's chest swelled in indignation.  It was obvious to Trunks that the warrior wasn't used to being talked to in such a manner.  It didn't matter to Trunks; if they were here to take over the world he welcomed them to try, but they would have to go through him first, his race be damned!

"Do you work for her?" Tomo asked in anger.  "Are you here to kill us?"

Trunks shook his head.  "I work for no one.  The answer of your second question will depend on you and your actions."  His cold stare bored into Tomo.

Several warriors clicked on their scouters.  "His power level is only at 500," one warrior said.  "We can take him with our numbers!"

"You don't seem to be in a position to dictate terms," Tomo said evenly.  "Leave us and we will let you live."

Trunks expression didn't change.  "I don't want to harm any of you, but if you force me into that position..."  He let the sentence trail off.

"Listen to this," a warrior said laughing, "Let's just kill him and get it over with."

An arm from Tomo stopped him cold.  His eyes never left Trunks.  "What are you hiding?" he asked angrily.

Trunks smiled, "Care to find out?"  He crouched in a defensive position.

Now it was Tomo's turn to smile.  "Very well then.  I will give you a warrior's death."  Then he screamed.  His aura spiked higher as Tomo reached his maximum power level.

Trunks was ready as Tomo attacked.  He ducked under a kick and jumped back from the follow through.  Tomo didn't miss a beat and blurred to super speed.  Trunks raised his arm and blocked a forearm that came out of nowhere.  He somersaulted backward and Tomo's foot crashed through the ground where Trunks once stood.  Tomo's fist thrust out and hit Trunks square on the chest, knocking him back a few feet, but Trunks didn't show any sign of pain. 

There was a moment of hesitation as Tomo ripped his leg from the ground.  Trunks dropped his guard, daring Tomo to strike.  Tomo growled and came at him with his full fury.  His fist connected across Trunks cheek and the sound of the impact was very satisfying to Tomo.  He smiled as he landed across from Trunks, thinking of how much damage he did.  He turned around and was shocked to see that Trunks didn't move from the vicious hit, and there was no sign of any fist marks.  Trunks cold expression bored into Tomo.

"What..." he started, "What are you?"

Trunks let his actions speak for him.  He leapt at Tomo with an ease and quickness that years of training had done for him.  Before Tomo could react he was knocked across the ground from a punch.  The wind was knocked out of him and Trunks was on top of him before he could do anything.  The sound of his sword coming unsheathed pierced the air and the tip of the blade was pressed against Tomo's neck.

"Yield," Trunks commanded.

Rage and disbelief burned in Tomo's eyes, and for a moment Trunks thought that the proud warrior would choose death.  Finally the big warrior closed his eyes and nodded in defeat.

Trunks lowered his sword and sheathed it quickly.  He offered his hand to the warrior who took hit, and Trunks helped him up.  "You're stronger than you appear," Tomo said rubbing his chin.

Trunks nodded.  "Tell me what your intentions are on my world."

Tomo sighed deeply.  "We're exiles, the last of our race.  A woman of great power took us in and gave us purpose after Planet Vegeta was destroyed.  At first, she appeared to be a godsend to us.  We had a place to belong and our talents were appreciated, but she hid her true motives from us.  She used us as brawn and muscle much like Freeza did.  We decided to never allow ourselves to be put in that position ever again, so we left.  Now she hunts us.  This planet was the only inhabitable planet in the area so we came here to hide."

Trunks took it all in.  "One of the escape pods from your ship arrived here about a week ago.  He died upon arrival."

Tomo didn't show any emotion.  "Several escape pods were jettisoned, and we didn't hear from them since they launched."

Trunks squinted through the acid rain, "We have to get out of here.  I have a place where you can stay, and I want to hear more about this woman, and why she's after you."

Tomo bowed, "Thank you.  I'll tell you everything you want to know."

"Good," he said, and then he took to the air, "Follow me."

The others powered up and took to the sky and followed Trunks back home.  Trunks looked behind him to make sure that everyone was following and he smiled to himself.  He pressed a button on his communicator.

"Yes?" Bulma's worried voice said through the communicator.

"We'll be having guests," Trunks said triumphantly, "I hope you got a lot of coffee made!"  Then he turned off the communicator and sped towards home.