AN: Well, here's chapter 11. FINALLY! Sorry about the large delays, but I had stuff to do, and like I said, my muse died on me.
Until next time, keep on rockin' *winks again*
Chapter Eleven – Chicken Stew...
Brolli sat on the sofa watching that inane botch Earthlings loved so much. The meal had been good, the company was good, and the evening was just generally 'good'. Now it was time to leave, and Brolli was glad. He had been civil too much today, and now it was time beat up somebody.
"You guys be sure to stop by next weekend!" Cukumbri cried as Brolli and Raditz lumbered away. The pair ducked under the outside doorway and into the evening air, not noticing the collection of squad cars, riot vans and police cruisers parked en masse outside.
"With food like that? Of course!" Raditz replied waving as he lifted into the air.
BLAM!
The gunshot rang out across the street, and Raditz's head snapped around. Something bounced off his forehead, leaving a small red mark.
"Ow, hey, what was that?!" he cried. Looking below him. More gunshots rang out, and a cascade of bullets showered around Raditz. Coiling his tail around his body in case a stray projectile struck it, Raditz glared at police gathered below.
"Hey! You could really hurt somebody with these things!" the Saiyan shouted, snapping out and grabbing a bullet. "Oh hey, it one of the things the Earthling fired at me when I first got here."
"Raditz, stop playing about and destroy them already," Brolli said with a sigh.
"But… Chi-Chi…"
"What about Chi-Chi?" Brolli asked.
"She'll uh… not be very happy."
"Oh for…" Brolli turned around and hurled a small charge of green kai into the cluster of police cars. There was an explosion, and the vehicles and police were scattered across the road, the air was pierced by a cry moments before a vehicle exploded in a torrent of fuel.
"Heh, that'll keep them occupied for a while," Brolli said with a smirk and flew off. Raditz lingered in the air, not sure what to do, and eventually flew away.
One thing was for certain, when Brolli was around, it was never a dull moment.
** * ** * **
Mirai, Tomatta and Bulma sat at their respective workbenches in a Capsule Corporation research and design lab, and generally tinkered. Tomatta and Trunks' arms moved quickly and delicately; adding pieces here, soldering devices there, making sure the current flow was all correct.
"I finished the main boards," Bulma said, tugging the protective goggles from over her eyes with a sigh and running a hand through her hair.
"Okay mom, I've almost finished the transchonometer devices," Mirai shouted.
"The displacement inhibitors are all done, I'm just working on interspacial-phase mechanisms," Tomatta replied. "Oh, and the nifty little hour chime mechanisms too."
"Right, good. Now all we have to do is add them to these watches," Bulma said, picking up one of the cheap plastic wristwatch she had a lackey buy at the local flea market: there was no point in buying expensive goods for mere proto-types.
There was a hiss, and light spilled into the room forming a perfect rectangle on the floor with a spiky-haired silhouette in the middle.
"Woman!" Vegeta growled. "You've been in this blasted laboratory for several hours now! When are you going to make me something to eat?"
"I told one of the chefs to do it," Bulma said.
"Wait, is the chef the one with the white hat?"
"Yes, Vegeta."
"And the apron?"
"Yes, Vegeta."
"And the foreign accent?"
"Yes, Vegeta."
"And that thready little moustache, right?"
Bulma sighed. "Yes, Vegeta."
"The one who I just threatened to kill if he didn't get out of this house."
"Yes, Veget… what?!" Bulma cried, looking in disbelief at her husband. "You just threatened to kill the head chef?!"
"He tried to feed me raw vegetables! Said I was eating too much meat!" Vegeta complained.
"That's no excuse!"
"I'm a Prince," Vegeta sniffed. "Nobody tells me what to eat."
"… Fine! Just for that, you're volunteering to try out these new watches."
"I'm what?!"
"You heard me."
"Uh… okay…" Vegeta said, not bothering to argue. "When?"
"Whenever we're ready."
"Fine. Just make sure you feed me before you do any of these test things." And with that, the Saiyan Prince walked out the room.
"Arrogant son of a… " Bulma muttered.
"There's always other chefs," Mirai said reassuringly, adding the finishing touches to the gadget he was working on. "Besides, Dad was right; he does try and force us to eat way too many vegetables. That just can't be healthy."
"Saiyans," Bulma muttered.
"Yeah, Saiyans, pfft!" Goten said, right behind her.
"Argh!" Bulma screamed, falling off her chair from shock.
"Argh!" Goten cried running about in circles, Bulma's scream scaring him half to death.
"Goten! Where did you come from?!" Mirai asked.
"Oh, sorry. I was aiming for Trunks' room. Guess I concentrated on the wrong Trunks. It's really hard to tell you guys apart when you're not Super Saiyans." Goten chirped.
"Uh… aiming?" Mirai asked, a look of bewilderment on his face.
"Yeah, for my Instant Trance Fishing," the youngest Son explained.
"Instant Tran…. Oh right, I get it. It's Instant Translocation, Goten."
"That's what I said: Instant Trance Vacation. Duh, I thought you were smart." Trunks was about to reply when Goten held his fingers to his forehead and vanished again.
"Uh… well that was random…" Tomatta said, staring at where his cousin's son had stood moments earlier.
Bulma picked herself up off the floor with a groan. "Somebody please remind me to put some sort of bell around that boy's neck…"
** * ** * **
"And it looked like they were making stuff!" Goten said excitedly, finishing off his sentence. Trunks looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"It's a lab, of course they'll be making something. Besides Tomatta and mom often tinker about in there."
"Yeah, but you were there too."
"Goten, how many more times do I have to explain this? I'm not Trunks!"
Goten looked confuse at this, the narrowed his eyes threateningly.
"If you're not Trunks, then who are you?! And what have you done with the real trunks!"
"… I'm Trunks!"
"You just said you weren't!"
"I meant I'm not Trunks!"
"But you just said you were!" Goten wailed.
"I'm talking about the Trunks from the future!" Trunks cried.
"Oh…" Goten said, looking slightly less confused, then asked "So you don't think they're up to anything?"
"Na. Probably just messing about. Knowing Dad, he probably just wants his bass to be louder."
"Oh right. He's stopped calling it a Guitar, then?"
"Sort of. He's started calling it 'The Infernal Machine' now."
Goten nodded knowingly. Unless it was food or training related, sooner or later every device became "The Infernal Machine."
"But still…" Trunks mused. "Maybe we should keep an eye on them."
"Yeah, that's what I've been thinking all the long." Goten said, exasperated.
"Right, okay then. We'll keep an eye on things. Maybe we can fathom out what they're working on, and then sabotage them, heh."
"Sabotage?"
"Y'know, mess things up a bit."
"Ooooh, like that time we change Vegeta's shaving foam for whipped cream?"
Trunks hesitated. "That wasn't so much sabotage… more sort of like, suicide."
"We escaped though." Goten reminded him.
"No Goten, you escaped. I had to go back there eventually. I was grounded for a whole day!"
"Now way!"
"Yeah. My mom is really strict with me sometimes. Still, I suppose it could have been punished by dad."
"What would have happened?"
"Well let's put it this way… by the end of it, one of us wouldn't be around today."
"Ah."
"Exactly."
The pair tried hard not to think of a world with Trunks, and then sighed with relief.
"So what are we gonna do now, Trunks?" Goten asked.
"Now, we take our plan to phase three."
"What was phase two?" Goten asked, surprised.
"… We haven't done phase two yet?"
Goten shook his head.
"Hmm… you're right. Okay, now we take our plan to phase two!"
"Yeah, phase two!" Goten cried. "Uh… Trunks?"
"Yes Goten?"
"What's phase two?"
Trunks cracked a grin and Goten raised an eyebrow curiously. "Phase two, my dark-haired companion… is 'fun'!"
** * ** * **
Chi-Chi looked at the assembled standing about in her kitchen, the table and chairs all piled to one side to clear an area in the middle of the floor. Chi-Chi stood to one side, her back to the wall, her hands clutching a formidable-looking weapon. Videl, Fru and Cukumbri stood in the middle of the floor, watching on and swallowing nervously as Chi-Chi tapped her foot impatiently.
The door opened, and Bulma rushed into the room, casually followed by 18, who flipped her blonde hair behind her ear.
"Sorry I'm late, I was caught in the lab adding the finishing touches…"
"Fine, that's okay," Chi-Chi interrupted, then nodded to a place on the floor. "Just take a position and we'll begin."
Bulma nodded and stood in amongst the ranks, and 18 strolled nonchalantly towards the back, taking a position behind the others. Technically, she didn't really need to be here, seeing as her husband was getting older and weaker as the years crept by. But, she did have a troubadour of Saiyans to keep in check, and since Chi-Chi was giving lesson in Frying-pan Fu, 18 had decided that she wouldn't miss out on such a blatant opportunity to get one over on Vegeta.
"Ladies," Chi-Chi began, 18 gave a sidelong glance to Fru and Cukumbri, muttered "Ladies indeed…" under her breath. "Since you're all gathered together, I think it's time we began our first lesson of Pan-fu."
An approving murmur came from the crowd.
"Now, this, as you are well aware," said Chi-Chi, pulling a frying pan from somewhere behind her back, "is a common utensil used in the preparation of food." Everybody in the room nodded. "What most people are not aware of, is that is also the most dangerous weapon known to Saiyan-kind. In the right hands, or rather; in a woman's right hand, (in the Other World, King Kai laughed at the pun, and made a mental note for it's future use) it can be the most powerful weapon in your arsenal. Some of you are well aware of the potential stopping power the common frying pan holds, but with my training, I can teach you to be a force more powerful than a Super Saiyan!"
All the women, bar 18, gave off a loud cry and excitement filled their eyes.
Chi-Chi began her first lesson, spending the majority of the time showing her pupils the correct way to hold the weapon, for maximum impact with the least strain on the wrist. They didn't mind the tedious lectures, and the mind numbly boring explanations of the way you could tell a good hit by the way the frying pan rings. They practiced what they were taught with the eagerness of the young, and they added to it with the determination of the mature, and they learnt quickly.
** * ** * **
"Woman!" Vegeta called. "Woman!! Where the blazes are you?!" A towel hung about his bare shoulders, and his face was clad in white make-up, black makeup surrounding his eyes and lips. No matter what he tried, he couldn't remove it. Trunks zipped past quickly, a bag slung over his shoulder, and Vegeta's arm snagged out and expertly caught the demi-Saiyan.
"Brat, where is your mother?" Vegeta demanded. Trunks squirmed for a while, then gave up trying to evade his father's tyrannical grasp of his purple hoodie.
"She's at Goten's house, I think." Trunks said. Vegeta released the boy, and Trunks straightened the garment.
"Why?" Vegeta asked simply. "Doesn't she know she's disrupting my plans?"
By now, Trunks had taken a good took a look at his father and tried to suppress a snigger. "She said there was something they had to talk about… she said she wouldn't be long."
"How long ago was that?"
"About an hour I guess…" Trunks said with a shrug. Then: "Uh, dad?"
"What?"
"Why are you wearing make up?"
Vegeta hesitated.
"Shut up."
"But…"
"Listen, you. I won't put up with your intolerable babbling."
"But I…"
"If I wanted your opinion, I'd give it to you!" Vegeta snapped. That always shut the older version up.
"Yeah, but…"
Curses! Thought Vegeta, then spoke: "Haven't you got… things to do? Some sort of… human things?" the Prince asked, waving his hand vaguely.
"Well… I guess so. But if you need help…"
"I do not require your assistance, boy!" Vegeta snarled. "I am a Saiyan warrior, not some earthling weakling that cannot even deal with the inept attempts of taking over the earth by that fool Garlic!"
"Who?"
"Never mind!" Vegeta snapped. Trunks blinked for a moment, confused and slightly bewildered, then headed into the gravity room, slipping out of his hoodie and shorts. Opening the bag, he took out his training gi and pulled it over his head, sliding up the loose purple fighting trousers that matched his top.
He was aware of the distant sounds of explosions from the distant end of the chamber, and as he tightened the chord of his gi about his waist, a figure smashed into the floor before him and rolled away. Beside him, Applor groaned and pushed himself up onto his elbows, his golden spiked hair drooping slightly from the gravity. Trunks looked across to his right where Goten hung in the air, smiling in satisfaction as his golden aura pounded the air around him. Lightning radiated across his body, earthing itself into the near-by wall of the chamber every now and again.
"So, you guy's started without me, huh?" Trunks said with a smirk. "Well I'll tell you what. I'll take you both on, how's about it?"
"You sure that's a wise idea?" Goten asked, lowing to the floor and descending to Super Saiyan with a golden flash of energy.
"Of course I'm sure, Goten." Trunks said, and powered up in the blink of an eye, his hair raising and flashing golden as his eyes faded into green.
"Well, if you say so…" Applor said, pushing himself up to his feet.
Goten and Applor circled Trunks, as the young Prince watched his two opponents. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Applor pounce suddenly. Hoping to the side, Applor turned away in a feint, and Trunks spun around just in time to block Goten's elbow that had been aimed for his cheek. Trunks kicked out to dislodge Goten, but the blow was knocked aside by Goten's own knee, and countered with a quick punch from the Son. Trunks dodged that, and flicked his head to the side as Applor's fist thundered in, passing his ear. Trunks heard a gasp and a thud and felt Goten move away.
Applor's attack must have struck Goten! Trunks though and hopped away, trying to keep both his fellow combatants in his view. Goten and Applor turned their green eyes on Trunks, who narrowed his eyes to slits as he studied them. They're working in harmony… but Applor's used to fighting as an individual or in a trio, not as a pair… that's their weakness! Trunks thought and allowed himself a smile.
"Don't get too cocky yet," Applor said mirroring the smile.
"Oh I won't," Trunks replied. "I'll wait until I've won." He said, and lunged through the middle of the last word without hesitation. Applor backed away, blocking the kick that lashed out to the side his body, then ducked the sweeping lunge by Trunks' fist. Goten charged in and brought his knee up in a kick to the side of Trunks' own body, but hit nothing but air. Turning quickly, Goten blocked Trunks' downward sweeping kick, then grabbed the back-heal kick from the same foot in his hands. Pitching his body aside, the youngest warrior hurled Trunks aside and across the chamber. Applor vanished in a blur of speed, appearing behind Trunks in wait. Trunks stopped himself in the air, and in an instant he turned and struck Applor in the side of the head with his boot. Applor staggered to the side, and was barely able to block the barrage of punches that rained in on him from Trunks. Goten charged in, shouldering Trunks' aside, then blocked the golden bolt of energy that shot towards him, the kai exploding against his arms crossed over his chest. The blast sent Goten sliding back through the air, and as he opened his eyes, he saw Trunks swooping in towards him.
With an explosion of speed, Goten was above Trunks, hammering down with both feet, catching Trunks across the top of the shoulders. Trunks gave a cry as he crashed into the floor, then exploded out of the dust with a snarl spread across his features. The two best friends parried blows with each other, then Applor joined the fray, hurling punches in, only to have them blocked by Trunks' nimble hands and legs. Goten gave a signal to Applor, who nodded and swung his knee in straight to Trunks' gut. Trunks blocked the blow, but was surprised when Applor's forehead crashed against his cheek. Trunks growled and turned to face Applor, when a light caught his attention from the corner of his eyes.
"Surprise," Goten said, then cried: "Kame-hame-HA!"
The energy wave surged forward, and Trunks barely had time to guard himself as he was caught in the wake. The blue-white beam condensed into a sphere of energy around Trunks' body before exploding wildly, sending Trunks hurtling through the air, before he finally hit the chamber floor hard enough to shake the entire structure, stess fractures ripping tearing across the ground. He skidded to a halt, then quickly pushed himself away from the floor as Applor's foot smashed down, sending up shards of reinforced plasteel.
"You'll have to be quicker than that!" Trunks taunted as landed in a low defencive stance, hands raised, legs apart, spreading his body weight across his feet.
"Quicker you say?" Goten asked with a smile. "If you insist." With a cry, Son Goten was Super Saiyan 2 and charging in towards Trunks. Applor charged in at the same time, and Trunks gritted his teeth, flicking his glances across to his two opponents. Summoning every ounce of energy he had kept in reserve, Trunks surged his power level, getting the energy from deep within himself and sending it pouring into his body. His hair grew longer, almost trailing down to the floor, and his eyebrows faded then vanished. His aura erupted around him, and lightning cascaded across the golden flare of energy.
Applor's eyes widened, and then narrowed in determination. Trunks merely smiled and vanished. Goten cursed and looked around, and was swatted to the floor by a viscous kicked to the die of the head. Rolling to his feet, Goten lunged where Trunks had appeared, but hit nothing but air. Applor swooped around, and found himself slammed against the wall. The reinforced sheet metal buckled and widened into a crater before Applor dropped to the floor with a groan. Picking himself up, he managed to duck Trunks' second kick, but reacting quickly, Trunks swept his foot around and down, catching Applor on the back of the head with his heel. Applor hit the ground chin-first and remained still, his golden hair drooping and darkening to black.
Goten's knee rose into Trunks back, causing the older boy to momentarily arch in pain. Trunks growled and spun, swinging out with his elbow in a blur of speed. Goten was sent spinning through the air, and was then kicked into the floor as Trunks appeared above him. Goten bounced, and was sent sprawling across the floor from a swift kick to the gut. To finish the battle, Trunks closed his hands together at the heel of his palm, fingers splayed, and sent a bolt of blue-white energy surging towards his friend. Goten rose to his feet and yelped, hurled his hands to his side, and summoned what energy he had left into a last-ditched energy barrier to protect himself. The explosion from the Final Flash erupted around the barrier, then the field shimmered and collapsed as Goten's energy dropped severely. Trunks hand thrust through the flames and punched Goten in the forehead. The young Saiyan staggered back clasping his head and growling through gritted teeth.
"Ow! Hey, that hurt!" Goten complained, descending out of Super Saiyan.
Trunks grinned and descended himself in a flash of energy. "We were training, not playing games," Trunks reminded his friend.
"Yeah, but still…"
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. C'mon, lets go get something to eat."
"Food!" Goten cried happily.
A moan from the wall made them both turn as Applor picked himself up. "I could murder a curry," he said, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
** * ** * **
Brolli and Raditz slumped into Capsule corporation's front door, and headed straight into the living room. Slumping into the settee either side of the belligerent prince, Raditz grabbed the remote and switched the television channel over. Vegeta's eye twitched as he looked from Brolli to Raditz with annoyance.
Goku appeared next with a flicker, and slumped into the chair, and Vegeta's gaze drifted over to him.
Mirai sauntered into the room towel-drying his wet hair, and slouched onto another chair, whilst Nappa and Turlus came in arguing, and sat down on the sofa. Vegeta yelped as he was suddenly crushed between Brolli and Raditz who towered over him.
Applor, Goten and Trunks scurried in and sat on the arms of various chairs and the sofa, watching the TV and munching on sandwiches. Vegeta's eye twitched and a vein pulsed on his forehead. Soon, the talking volume began to rise, and at egging from the kids the television's volume rose to try and out-do the conversation.
Bulma ran into the living room and said something. Mirai Trunks nodded something, and stood up, tossing the towel aside. As luck would have it, it fluttered through the air and dropped expertly in the gap between Brolli and Raditz' large forms, covering Vegeta's glowering face.
"What the blazes is going on?!" he cried, grabbing the towel and hurling it aside. Everybody stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him with shock on their face, as if they'd just seen him for the first time. In background, the TV blared away to itself.
"Don't you have homes to go to? Why are you here?!"
"Uh… because Bulma called on us…" Goku said.
"Oh is that so?" Vegeta replied crisply, looking at Bulma.
"I need their help with an experiment, Vegeta," she said sternly.
"And I suppose my help isn't good enough," Vegeta said.
"Actually, I want your help too. But I was going to wait until later to tell you."
"Hmmph," Vegeta snorted.
"Come on you lot, follow us," Bulma beckoned, and she and Mirai headed away to one of the labs. Everybody trudged after them, except the three kids who stayed and watched the TV, free of the adult interference.
The adults clustered around a lab table and peered curiously at the items that were arranged neatly on the surface. They appeared to be wristwatches, cheap plastic things bought from the local market for a fiver each – capsule corp. had spared no expense!
Goku reached to the table and picked up one of the six watches and looked at it this way and that.
"Watches?" Goku asked with a frown.
"You brought us here to look at these basic time keeping devices?" Vegeta growled.
"Not just ordinary ones," Mirai said with a smile. "These ones have been modified with temporal synchonronisers."
"Oh, obviously." Vegeta said with a roll of his eyes. "Now won't you explain what that means in English?"
"It means that they will, theoretically, keep perfect time." Bulma answered.
"Only on Earth," Vegeta countered.
"Well where else are we going to sell them?" Bulma asked. Vegeta opened and closed his mouth a few times.
"Shut up," he replied eventually.
"So why have you brought us here to see these watches?" Brolli asked, taking the watch from Goku and ignoring all subsequent complaints.
"We want you to try them out, for a few days. See how they keep the time." Mirai said.
"Compared to what?" Raditz asked, picking up a watch himself and peering at it this way and that. It felt heavy, but Raditz just guessed that all watches felt that way.
"All the digital house are tied in to a nuclear clock," Bulma said, then saw the blank expression on the Saiyan's faces. "That's a clock that counts how many times a certain atom vibrates, and translates it into seconds." She explained.
The Saiyans nodded in a "We knew that" sort of way.
"We only made six of the devices, though. So only six of you can volunteer."
"Well, I'm in," Raditz said, strapping the watch to his wrist.
"Me too," Goku said cheerfully, picking up a watch and trying to do the same, with a certain amount of failure.
"If he's doing it, then so am I!" Vegeta said and grabbed his own watch, strapping it to his own wrist.
"Same here," Brolli said, attaching the watch.
"I'll take one," Nappa said hurriedly, poking his tongue out on concentration as he fastened the watch in place.
"Anyone else?" Mirai asked. Turlus edged away from the thing.
"Oh no, I'm not wearing one of those things," he said. "Something'll happen and I'll die. Again."
"Pfft, wuss," Brolli sneered.
"No, I'm cautious that's all." Turlus replied.
"Fine, I'll take the sixth watch," Mirai said with a sigh, strapping the watch to his wrist.
"Okay, to start the watch, press the little red button's on the side," Bulma instructed. "That should set the phase verification diodes working in synch with the rest of time/space."
"The wha?" Goku asked, looking to Bulma.
"It'll set the watch inline with the rest of the time and space continuum which feeds time into the universe," Mirai translated.
"Muh?" Goku asked, spinning and looking at the lilac-haired genius.
"You see, the watches work by harmonising themselves with how fast the universe is working, and then catching up with time," Bulma tried again.
"Eh?"
Trunks sighed. "It's a magic box."
"oh, magic! Then why didn't you say so?" Goku said.
"… W-… never mind." Mirai started, then gave up.
"Okay, lets start this off," Vegeta said, his finger hovering over the red button. Every voiced their agreement, their own fingers hovering over the buttons. Turlus licked his lips nervously.
"Go!" Vegeta ordered.
Everybody pressed the red buttons…
Everybody vanished with a blue flash of light.