Chapter two - Of Angels and Demons

The room was silent for several moments after Trunks's sudden outburst. The half Sai-jin had righted his chair again and was sitting with his head in his hands while Gloria tried to find something to say. Trunks suddenly looked up as an idea came to him. "My stuff, where is it?" he asked.

"In holding." Came Brian's reply a moment later. "Why?"

"My watch, it has a computer in it and a fairly extensive information database. With that I can prove to you who I am."

There was silence again for a few moments before Gloria spoke up. "Come on Brian, it's a computer in a watch!" she cried. "Just bring the damn thing here!"

"Alright, I'll have it brought in."

Several moments passed again before someone finally entered the room. The guard handed Trunks his watch and left the room again. Trunks put the watch down on the table and pressed his thumb on the face. There was a buzz for a second followed by a green glow. He moved his thumb and a 3D holographic face appeared. "State name and code please." the watch demanded in a mechanical voice.

"Trunks Briefs. Access code 041Alpha9" he stated.

"Voice confirmed, code accepted."

He looked up again. "So, what should I show you?" he asked. "Wait, I think I know." He looked back toward the watch. "Access image files. Display family photo zero." The screen shimmered and a color photo of his mother, father, and him as a baby replaced the holographic green face. His father didn't look like he really wanted to be in the picture but he and his mother were smiling. That photo had been taken two days before Goku had died.

There was silence in the room again as everyone looked at the image. "Alright." came Brian's voice, much gentler than before. He sighed deeply. "I guess this is possible..." He said as he entered the room, Herman in tow. "But it's hard to swallow."

Trunks nodded. He could understand that. Hell, he'd thought the same thing about time travel when his mother had first come up with the idea. This guy hadn't seen half the things he had. Killer machines, evil aliens, a kid with more power than anything else in the universe. After all that Trunks had seen he'd learned that almost anything is possible.

Brian was about to say more but someone entered the room carrying a small remote. "Sir, there's a few things you should see I think." he said pressing a button on the remote. Suddenly a large flat screen TV descended from the ceiling. The screen flickered to life and displayed what had to be several hundred people all carrying cardboard signs. He zoomed the view in and Trunks recognized the girl as the one he'd saved after first arriving. Then he saw the sign she was carrying. 'Free Trunks'

"They showed up an hour ago and have been demanding this young man's release." the man explained. Brian closed his eyes. He'd not expected this. "That's not everything, they didn't just come on the young lady's word." Brian looked over at him curious. The man continued. "It seems someone on a tour of the Blue Raven Valley took some amateur footage of the green monsters that have been reported."

"You're kidding?" Brian asked in disbelief. Gloria sank in her chair. She'd been worried about this, now there was going to be panic. She'd hoped the matter could be handled without the public finding out.

"No sir, this video ran on ten news stations just over an hour ago." He pressed another button on the remote. The video changed to a shaky view of a beautiful valley. There was some talking going on when someone suddenly called out. "Look at that!" The camera shifted to show a series of lights flashing in the distance. Suddenly the image began to zoom in. As it did four ugly green creatures became centered in the view. "My god." came another voice, presumably the camera man. He then attempted to describe the creatures to the others there. The four 'demons', as the man called them, were surrounding a bear that was swatting at them. Every so often a streak of green light would shoot from the hand of one of the creatures and hit the bear. Then suddenly they lunged at the large bear and began to tear into it. The bear fell quickly and quit moving, the creatures then began to eat it.

"My god." Brian breathed repeating the cameraman's earlier statement. "What the hell are those things?"

Trunks thought they looked kind of familiar but it was Gloria who spoke up. "They're called Saibairians." she said softly. Now that the world knew about these things there was no reason Brian shouldn't know. The world was already panicked, if he told them the truth it wouldn't hurt things any. "They're a rather old project of the government's Bio-warrior program."

"Bio-warrior?" asked Brian.

"Genetically engineered soldiers. After the Zanamar's made contact and showed off their robotic soldiers the world government let primal fear take over their minds. They felt that we'd stand no chance against a Zanamar invasion so they began the Bio-warrior project to create soldiers capable of fighting the Zanamar soldiers. These things were the first result."

While those in the room absorbed what she'd said Trunks realized why they looked familiar. "I've seen them before." he said suddenly. "Access data files, Saibamen. Display model." he ordered his little computer. The image faded and a 3D model of a Saibaman appeared. It was identical to the creatures of the video. "Years ago a couple aliens came to Earth and brought six of these things with them. They're the only ones to ever be on Earth. My father said they were genetically engineered warriors created to help fill the armies."

"They weren't the last of the project." Gloria said. "Afterwards a number of other designs were tried, genetically engineered warriors, Cyborgs, even androids. Recently though, the people in charge have started losing control of them. These things aren't nearly as strong as some of the others. We've been worried for a while that Kahn was in over his head."

"Kahn?" Trunks asked. This was starting to sound too much like his world for his tastes.

"Alex Kahn. He's the one in charge of the project. A few months ago word reached us that some of the Saibairians had escaped his compound and that his more intelligent creations were planning to take over." she looked toward Trunks. "That's why you're here. I'm sorry we couldn't just ask you for your help first but we didn't exactly have much choice in the matter."

"Wait, who's we? And how'd you bring him here?" Brian asked.

"We are some friends of mine." she replied. "A few people who used to be involved in the project and left it because they didn't agree with it anymore and some others who were brought in for help in their various fields, like me. As for how we brought Trunks here... we used things called Dragonballs."

Trunks looked at her in surprise. "Dragonballs? You have a set here too?"

Gloria nodded. "Then it seems you've heard of them?"

"Yes. My world used to have a set as well. However, their creator was killed some time ago and they lost their power."

"Well, we gathered ours and summoned Ryuu, the Eternal Dragon. We asked the Dragon to bring us someone who could help us defeat these, things, that the government had created. Apparently it brought you."

Kahn's Military Compound, location unknown

Alex Kahn paced the room angrily. He'd been assured that the situation would be handled but now, now things were worse! Four Saibairians had been caught on film! This was unacceptable. So were the continuing problems with the other units. The Saibairians and Gremlins were living organisms without any technological parts. The others, however, had control units. Control units that didn't want to work properly. These set backs were beginning to irritate him. He glanced at the female tech sitting on the couch across from him. "What do you suggest we do? We can't go public, not now, not ever."

"Ignore the problem, let the religious zealots believe they're demons. Let the nature freaks think they're a previously undiscovered species. Let the rest think they're what ever they feel like. There's no connection to us."

"That's not good enough. I want them captured!"

"That may not be possible."

Alex sighed in frustration as he continued to pace. "What about the other units?"

"They seem to be mostly subdued now. Biodroid Nine as well as the two surviving Android Seven units are still trying to resist. Biodroid five has shown no signs of disobedience while six has come close but not crossed yet."

"And Nine is the cause?"

"As best we can tell, yes. What makes it worse is he's the strongest."

Alex sighed again. "Damn it. Damn it!" he slammed his fist into the simple plywood paneling wall and cracked it. He turned and glared at his door as someone knocked on it. "What is it!?"

The door opened to reveal another of his employees. "Um, sir, I thought you might like to see this." he said handing over a closed folder.

"What is it?" Alex asked flipping it open.

"One of our people in the Blue River lab sent it over, thought maybe he was one of ours. I've crossed checked him, he's not ours."

"What do you mean..." he stopped as he saw the genetic work-up. "What in the hell? A triple helix?" he looked up at the tech. He's people had tried that but the DNA had always seemed to disintegrate.

"Yes sir. And his DNA is made of six proteins instead of four giving him three pairs instead only two. That gives him 27 possible combinations of proteins per section of DNA. His DNA crams more than thirteen times as much information as ours into almost the same amount of space."

Alex nodded. He knew the benefits of a triple helix thanks to years of research on the matter. "This is amazing... Did we get a complete screening?"

"No sir, but it's fairly detailed. I've already got the computer reverse designing his DNA looking for a way to fabricate it."

"So what is this guy? Someone else's project, a mutation, or something else?"

The tech shook his head. "We've no idea sir. All we know is that his name is Trunks Briefs and he's the one who rescued the Woods girl last month." Alex turned to walk behind his desk when the entire facility was rocked by a violent explosion. The quake knocked Alex off his feet and he bashed his head against his desk knocking him out.

Blue River Prison, Interrogation room

"I'll help." Trunks said after only a moment of thought.

Gloria looked over at him with relief. "Thank-you. At the moment there's nothing to really help with but I'm sure Kahn will lose control of his creations completely in time. It's probably only a matter of weeks now." she stood up and looked at Brian. "I trust this case is being thrown out the window now?" The man nodded slowly. "Good. Trunks, you're free to stay at my place while you're here. I've got a rather large home so there's plenty of room."

"Thank-you."

Brian sighed and had Trunks follow him to a small room down the hall. There he found his clothes and changed into them again sliding his jacket on last. He was happy to finally be out of that ugly orange jumpsuit. Then, with Gloria in the lead, he was led through a series of halls and out the front doors of the prison. As he emerged the protestors turned to look and cheers erupted from the crowd.

As he walked down the steps of the building Morgan came over to him with a shaky smile and a nervously thanked him for helping her. "It was no problem." he said gently. "And thanks for sticking up for me." he told her with a grin. As he walked away she stared after him, face a very bright red.

As Trunks climbed into Gloria's car and rode off Morgan's friend elbowed her. "I think someone's got a crush." she smirked.

"So..." Trunks began as he watched the homes whiz passed his window. "Now what do we do? Just wait for something to happen?"

Gloria watched the road ahead of her as she thought. "Well, I think it might be a good idea to track down the escaped Saibairians before they hurt any more people. They've killed a lot of people already..." she sighed as she turned her car off the main road and onto what looked like a back street through the woods outside the city. Trunks soon realized however that the road was in fact Gloria's drive-way. Her home soon became visible through the trees. It was a large beautiful looking mansion at least as big as Capsule Corp if not larger.

"After we find them though... It's pretty much going to be a waiting game. Kahn moved his base of operations a couple years ago after a group of terrorists nearly destroyed all his research. Now we don't know where he is so we can't make the first move. We'll have to wait until the worst has already happened and his creations have taken over his base."

Trunks nodded as a pair of large iron gates swung open and the car drove onto Gloria's property. "You've got a nice place." he said as he stepped out of the car.

"It's rather large for just me and the housekeepers. When I had it built I had intended to have a large family but I've just never gotten around to it. My work has kept me busy and I've never met the right guy." She laughed lightly as she remembered something. "My mother always told me that the perfect guy was out there for everybody. When I'd ask her where mine was she'd tell me he was buried under all my paper work."

Trunks smirked. "Sounds a bit like my mom. She dated the same guy off and on for years, never really looking for anyone else. She was always to busy inventing something. I guess that's why my father had to demand to move into the house before she even noticed him.

"And then it sounds like me too." he said softly. "It's been seven years since I destroyed the Androids and my mom's trying to get me to find someone." he shrugged. "I will but there isn't time, a lot of my world still needs rebuilt."

Gloria cocked an eyebrow. "Mind telling me about your family and world?" she asked as they stopped on the porch.

Trunks thought for a moment, unsure of what exactly to say about his family. "Well my father died shortly after I was born, less than a month after the Androids first appeared. I did get to meet him a few years ago though and he was just like my mother described. He had a lot of pride in his heritage as a Sai-jin, but I suppose being royalty will do that."

That caught her interest "Wait, royalty?"

"Hmm? Yeah, he was a prince. He would have been King if Frieza, he was another alien, a tyrant that used to rule most of our galaxy. Anyway, if he destroyed the Sai-jin homeworld my father would have eventually been King. That's why father ended up on Earth. Since Goku was already calling it home I guess he just figured he'd stay close to his rival, keep the Sai-jin survivors all on one world. Of course, my Earth seems to be the world most 'orphaned' aliens eventually call home."

Gloria watched his face for a moment before finally opening the door to her house. As he stepped inside Trunks took a look about at the marble floor, high arched ceiling, and attention to detail on every little thing. A gorgeous crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling lighting the main hall. There were several paintings on the walls, some of landscapes and others of people. Trunks recognized the one as Gloria, there was also a young girl in the painting. "Who's she?" he asked with a nod.

"That's Susan, my little sister. Well, she's only five years younger than me. She's also Brain's wife."

"Brian, as in the D.A. guy?"

"One and the same. That's why he puts up with me. He knows if he doesn't Susan will have him on couch for a week."

Trunks laughed as his host led him through a few oak lined halls to a small kitchen. "Hungry?" she asked.

The Sai-jin grinned. "I should warn you, I could eat enough food in one meal to feed everyone in the house." Gloria decided that perhaps the formal dinning room would be best and led him through another hall. Once there they had a seat and a large meal was brought in. As he ate she asked about how he'd met his father a few years ago if he'd died years before that.

Trunks sighed. "That's a fairly complicated story. I wasn't strong enough to defeat the Androids at the time and my mother thought that maybe if I got some help from Goku and the others I might have a better chance. So she spent almost ten years building a time machine so I could back and save Goku from dieing from the heart virus he'd gotten."

"Time travel? That's amazing."

Grinning Trunks finished off his second plate and continued as he filled up his third. "Compared to this, not so much. Anyway, it was in the past I gained the power to defeat the Androids, thanks to some special training. I managed to go well beyond my original Super Sai-jin powers. It was Gohan though that broke through to the second level. I managed to get there a couple years ago."

"Super Sai-jin? Second level?"

Trunks looked at her for a second as he realized he'd not told her about Super Sai-jins yet. "That's another hard one. Morgan, that's the girl's name right?" She nodded. "Well, she wasn't seeing things. I had golden hair and green eyes when she saw me then. Sai-jins have the power, when they find how to call upon it, to transform into a Super Sai-jin. At first we'd thought it was the limit but my father and Goku believed there was a second level, another transformation. Gohan proved that. After he transformed he had enough power to defeat Cell without even trying."

"Cell? Was he one of the Androids?"

"A Biodroid. That's what my mother said he was. He was created from the cells of the worlds strongest warriors. I'd not met him yet in my time, he'd come back from even further in the future than I had." His face squished as he chewed on a bite of food and thought. Swallowing he said, "That's where things get truly confusing. Cell came from the future. In his time he killed me and stole my time machine before going back in time a year further than I did. Which means the me he killed came from a past where he hadn't appeared because he wasn't strong enough to fight him..." Trunks shook his head. "I get headaches when I try to work it all out, even my mother gets confused when she tries to work it out."

Gloria turned as a man entered the room and approached her. "Yes?"

"Sorry to bother you and the guest miss Burns but I thought you might want to see this." With that he activated a TV set into the wall that Trunks hadn't noticed before. The first thing he noticed were the Saibairians and some bizarre looking gray things. They looked like a cross between Saibairians and wolves. They had large snouts, glowing red eyes, large sharp claws, and small horns on their heads. The caption on the bottom of the screen read 'Proof that Demons exist?' as a voice went over the possible implications of the scene.

"What the hell?" he asked at the sight of them.

"Gremlins!" Gloria cried in shock. "They were the next development after the Saibairians. It looks like some of them have bionics grafted to them too. They're stronger than normal ones. When was this James?"

"Now madam."

"Now?" Trunks asked standing up. "Where at?"

"Blue River mall. You can't miss it, it's the building with the giant statue on the roof."

Trunks turned to leave but Gloria grabbed his arm. "Perhaps you should transform into this... Super Sai-jin. It may stop people from recognizing you."

"I'll change on the way." he said slipping off his jacket. One less thing they could tie to him. With that he walked through the building, out the front door, and lifted into the air. In a flash of gold he sped toward the statue he could see in the distance.

Blue River Mall

"Mommy!" a little girl cried as two Saibairians walked slowly toward her, saliva dripping from their teeth as they cackled. She gasped as a man surrounded in a golden glow suddenly appeared between her and the monsters. She didn't see him move but suddenly the two creatures were knocked backward into a wall where they stopped moving.

He looked back at her with a gentle expression. "You okay?"

"Uh-huh." she said nodding, eyes wide in awe. "Are you an Angel?" Trunks just smiled before turning back toward the other creatures. The people still in the mall watched him as he walked calmly toward the screeching monsters. The little girl's mother came running over to her and scooped her up in her arms. "Looky mommy." the girl said softly. "It's an Angel."

Trunks stopped a few feet from the creatures as they began to circle him. One Saibairian got brave and launched in at Trunks from behind. The Sai-jin brought up his right arm and the creature slammed face first into the back of his fist. It was sent sailing backwards until a pillar stopped its flight with a loud crack. Trunks lowered his arm slowly as he continued to follow the KI movements of the creatures around him.

He felt the tell-tale build of KI that came with an energy attack. It came from the highest power in the group but even if he weren't transformed he would have barely even felt it. The Gremlin held it's large maw gapping as red and black energy seeped from inside its throat. The spectators watched on in a mix of horror and wonder. In a flash of red the energy exploded from its mouth and surged at Trunks impacting with a brilliant explosion. The Gremlins and Saibairians all began to shriek in excitement.

They stopped when the glare and dust faded to reveal Trunks still standing there completely unscathed. Even his shirt and pants were undamaged. Several of the weaker ones took a step back while the rest launched themselves at him. They got within a foot of him before his body flashed gold and a gust of wind tore through the mall. The KI field was controlled enough not to do more than flap the shirts of the bystanders while still blasting his would be attackers into the surrounding walls and killing them. The few that hadn't attacked turned to flee. He watched as they flew through the shattered roof. "What? No good-bye?" he asked grinning. "Haaaa!" he thrust an arm upward at the retreating beasts and shot a stream of gold energy after them. The energy quickly caught up to and incinerated them.

His job finished he lifted quickly into the air. To those who'd been watching he seemed to simply vanish just the same way he'd appeared. They looked around in awe and began to ask each other if they'd just seen what they thought they'd just seen.

Kahn's Military Base

"He's not dead is he?" a worried female voice asked.

Pale blue eyes glanced at the dark skinned woman to his right. Her golden yellow eyes gazed right back at him with the same worry her voice carried. "Six..." he stopped as his face crinkled up. He hated the numbers they'd all been given, especially since they were model numbers. That's why he'd taken the name Omega for himself. He may be the only Biodroid Nine but he still didn't like it. "Have you come up with a name yet?"

"Sheba, why?"

"Just to call you something other than a number." he said with little emotion. "Why do you worry about this thing so much?"

She looked over at Omega. His pale skin was a stark contrast to her dark tone and she'd often thought she'd look better with his black hair and he better with her orange hair. "He's a living creature." she replied. "For me, that's enough."

"Leave her be." Orion said. He, like the other two, was the only one of his design, Biodroid Five.

Omega snorted. Those two were too soft for him sometimes. Still, he was glad that Kahn was still alive, he could have his uses. He turned to the man to his left. He had pitch black skin, hair, and glowing pure red eyes. He was one of the Android Zero models, these one there were hundreds of. There were also stupid, at least in his opinion, since they couldn't think for them selves. "You, I want you to take a small group of others into the outside on a scouting mission. I want to know where we are in relation to the rest of the people. I doubt you'll meet any notable resistance but if you do I want to hear about it too."

"Understood." replied the mechanical man in a dry monotone. That was another thing Omega disliked about the Zeroes. They all had voices that completely lacked any kind of fluctuations. There'd be no mistaking them for Humans.

Next Chapter

It seems Trunks has made the news, and now he's world famous. Trunks and Gloria receive not one, not two, but three visits. Herman Shumaker with a request, an unexpected messenger with an offer of aid, and one tongue tied teen.

Trunks: Tongue tied teen? Who? What?

Me: Really, Trunks, you should go have a nice long chat with Bulma.