Chapter 4: The first mission

This chapter took longer to upload I'm currently writing on a mobile device as just finished year 12 but our grade had to return our computers, also I'm currently on schoolies which for you non-Australians is just partying for a week once finished Year 12 so I doubt I'll get any writing done. I'm also going to an island for 3 days with my family which is fun but no internet so I'll probably upload this when I get back.

Sour felt the warm but irritating light shine through the blinds of his apartment causing the human to open his eyes slowly. Blinking a few blinks Sour started to remember how he woke up in this random bed in this random room. After becoming basically an employee due to blackmail he had joined the stupidly named time patrol as what is essentially a slave. He supposed it could be worse. He was given a free apartment in the housing section the city which he discovered was called Cotton City, so not really a slave but he liked to think he was. That name was better than Time City at the very least. The apartment was nothing special, something anyone would expect from a basic hotel with all the necessities. Sour decided to finally get out of bed his feet touching the carpeted floor sending small tingles up his spine. He liked the morning as little as everyone else but the light from the windows stung his bloodshot eyes. It probably wasn't the best idea to stay up all night.

Sour tiredly shut the blinds to his bedroom before heading to the kitchen. It was supposed to be his first day as a time patroller and he just knew this day wasn't going to be the best day of his multiple lives. Sour went to the fridge to scout what possible options he had for breakfast only to open up the empty fridge. Oh, shit was he supposed to buy food? He knew he had a limited amount of money he could spend per month but he didn't think he would have to be self-reliant. He rarely lived longer than his teen years, he had never really learnt to be responsible for himself. The last time he was a proper adult he spent all his money investing in property. Worst mistake of that life.

Scratching his spikey black hair Sour evaluated what options he had left. He could try quickly heading to the mall that was near the school to pick up some food. It was weird that the time nest even had a school. But apparently if children are born by two-time patrollers, then they are also able to exist in multiple timelines. I doubt Chronoa had an issue with provided services to accommodate children as she seemed like a person who would adopt anyone she could. Also, the extra numbers would help as the time patrol was a horribly under staffed due to the conditions to become one and the high death rate. Deciding to shut the fridge and explore alternative food options Sour left his apartment.

Cotton city all in all was quite a pleasant place to live. The population was low so there weren't too much people which Sour found beneficial. Crowed environments made Sour panic like crazy. Not to mention everyone was aware and capable of using ki which was fortunate as he didn't have to hide his power and there was access to T.V and food throughout the timelines. This was brilliant as usually Sour found this amazing food but it was only exclusive to one timeline and was forced to learn how to cook in order to try recreate throughout the restarts. To say it often didn't go well would be an understatment. Thankfully, English also happened to be the universal language basic, that was probably because some sort of powerful race like the kai's came to Earth during humanity's developing stages and taught them basic which they changed the name later to English. It was also nice to see different races. Since anyone in the timelines could be a time patroller and most of the universe wasn't human a lot of the people here at Cotton City were a mix match of races which lead to some interesting combinations.

Sour mused on these thoughts as he flew through the air to the mall. The time patrol should theoretically remember ought his restarts. To be honest Sour didn't know how he should feel about such revelations. On one hand he could finally meet people who could accompany him through the restarts but now his actions had consequences again. Sour has lived so long consequence free that to have people who were not only stronger then himself but also capable of hunting him throughout the time lines put him on edge. He could no longer try different routes to get the perfect outcome. Towa also was problematic as she could also travel through time lines. That made two different factions capable of making Sour's immortal life more annoying then it had to be. That was going to be an issue over time. But nothing he can't deal with. He is a natural charmer, he's been told he was deplorable which is a word he refused to research.

Landing down on the ground he looked at the mall. A quick pop in get some delicious fruit loops, get home watch some T.V and maybe do a quick paradox to make Chronoa like him and it would be an full day. Easy. He was about to enter the mall when he was cut off by the sound of ringing. What was that? Sour looked around but found the ringing originated in his back pocket. Pulling the ringing out of his pocket he looked at the slightly banged up time phone.

It wasn't like Trunk's which he held for brief moments during his fight against Mira and towa. His weird device had scratches and dents which Chronoa assured him were purely aesthetic and functioned just as well as a new one. Sour had a strong feeling that instead of just giving him a new time phone that they just gave him on from some recently deceased time patroller if the name Dave sketched in the back was any indication.

He fiddled around with the item in his hand still not totally understanding what all the little knobs did. The only way to find out is by touching everything he guessed.

"Sour! I thought we were going to meet together at 7 to help you on your first mission." Chronoaks voice blared through the speaker on the time phone. She clearly wasn't in a good mood which was just so so so so great, Sour can't wait to deal with whatever this was.

"Yeah we are? So what?"

"It's 7:20!"

"You meant a.m?"

"I said 7 in the morning!"

"I thought you were being ironic!"

"Why would I be-, doesn't matter just get your ass here as quick as possible." Chronoa rubbed her tired eyes putting down the cross multiverse communication device. Sour was going to be an issue in due time. He seemed capable enough though. But she doubted he would stay in the time patrol. He would stay until she solved his issue or get tired of waiting rather spending eternity being bored then be at the mercy of another. Mortals just couldn't handle immortality. They were built to fill their life with short life with pleasures and die and spend the rest of their eternity relaxing in the afterlife sipping on cocktails or whatever mortals do.

Chronoa ki sensed Cotton City finding Sour's ki signature. For someone who was suppose to be hurrying over he sure spent a lot of time at the food court. She shook her head trying to get the immortal human out of her mind. She had a failing time patrol to run. Chronoa pick up a file she had placed on her desk for Sour. Usually she wasn't in charge of handling out mission dossier. Hell she even created an entire branch of time patrollers to handle this. One branch of time patrollers to fight another to deal with watching the time lines, mission briefing and keeping the fighters alive.

She ran her hand along the file. One of her time patrollers were meant to wait till the paradox occurred then stop it and get out. Keep your head down and solve the problem when it happened. But it appears that not being the centre of attention was a common issue for her time patrollers. Now not only did she have a paradox to deal with but also a M.I.A time patrollers with a broken cross multiverse communication device. That needs a shorter name.

Chronoa didn't have to wait long before she sensed Sour approaching. The spiky black haired boy strolled into the Time Nest with a cinnamon scroll in hand happily taking piece by piece into his mouth. He seemed happy to be there but his smile was obviously fake and he had bags beneath his eyes, Chronoa could smell the reek of alcohol from already so far away. Clearly his first night at Cotton City wasn't one of rest and relaxation.

"Sour good of you to finally join me. Although in the future do try to arrive on time or at the very least presentable."

"As long as I show up within thirty minutes in any sort of clothing you have nothing to complain about." Chronoa glared at Sour as he walked around the marble table dragging his cinnamon covered fingers along it.

"I see you were in quite the rush. You must of flown right through a bakery, a brewery and by the smells of it a sewage treatment plant." He took his fingers from the table looking at Chronoa for a few brief seconds before flashing a smile.

"A couple of women too." Sour added bringing down the collar of his shirt slightly to reveal bruises that originated from his neck, but as she looked closer she could see that the little bruises at his neck slowly traced down his neck down his chest and continued further down. Chronoa gagged at his actions much to Sour's delight.

"You've been here less then twenty-four hours and already causing more problems then you are worth."

"Hey! It's not my fault. Everyone here is so... boring. The muscle brained morons are all busy training to gain a fraction of power to ever so slightly improve past their minimal potential, the nerds are caffeine chugging workaholics. The only people I've come to respect are the healers, they have access to drugs throughout the multiverse and drugs plus the trauma from having patients die on the table equal a good time for me."

"Excuse me!"

"Oh relax I only sleep with the sober. I'm an asshole but I'm not a monster."

"You're using medical drugs for a high? Drugs meant for those who need it!"

"What? I would never take from those who need drugs. I just happen to be among them. I find me without drugs to be very harmful... to others."

"You're an addict."

"An addict?" Sour looked almost offended her at the accusation. He held his fingers to his chest and mouth hanged wide in fake offence. "I was once. But I've been to every so called best hospital in the restarts." Chronoa flinched at the word. To call a universe nothing more then a restart seemed callous. "And in those restarts with all those so called best doctors and psychologist, I've learnt a few tips and tricks to stop that little dopamine button in our brains from pushing to hard."

"Unbelievable."

"I'm going to assume your talking about my incredible fight against addiction. In which case thank you." Chronoa resisted the urge to point out that he didn't fight addiction he merely avoided it but she bit her own tongue. She needed time patrollers and she was already one down she didn't need another.

"What's the deal with this?" Sour noticed the file on the desk picking it up flicking it around in his hand with mild interest.

"That's why you're here. One of my time patrollers is M.I.A while waiting for the paradox to show up. You'll be sent to an Earth where Goku never died against Raditz. The Sayians never found out about the dragon balls and without king Kai's training he never got strong enough to beat Vegeta and so now Earth is currently being sold. You said you're about Vegeta level, well he is the only threat... not that you should even be fighting him. The tech branch has analysed timeline and they've found that it's gonna be something huge being taken from one Earth in another multiverse to this one. All you have to do is destroy whatever appears and if you could find the time patroller and bring them back."

"Jeez is that all?" Sour rolled his eyes at the Kai.

"I know you care little for other people. I get it. But if you want me to research your condition I suggest you keep me happy. And what makes me happy is keeping a universe form collapsing and killing countless amounts of lives."

Sour glared at the Kai who glared back twice as hard. She too had bags under her bloodshot eyes. Sour sent her a snarl, "You think you can blackmail me?"

"No, we had a deal. You're service for my help in the possibility that you can die. You can back out of our deal anytime."

Sour felt something he felt that he hadn't felt in a long time. For once he would have an enemy that could fight him throughout his restarts. He longer was consequence free and as much he loathe to admit it he was powerless against her this restart. This restart was suppose to be a break after all not some sort of time war. Although if the time patrol was going to become an issue maybe the next few restarts could be interesting. The problem with fighting an immortal is that eventually they will win.

"I wouldn't dream of it master." The black haired boy gave a small bow. His smiled irritated Chronoa but she got what she wanted.

Letting out a deep growl Chronoa turned her head away from the immortal jackass. "Just hand that file to one of the people running time portals at the time nest they'll take care of the rest."

"Don't you mean the time file? Should I take the time path or maybe I should just time fly? Oh how about I just time email it. That should save time time. Time do time you time get time what time I'm time doing here time?"

"Get the out before I shove my time foot down your throat."

Following her request Sour casually took a stroll outside the time nest file in hand. Today was going to be a good day. Letting the feeling of ki surround him he let out the breathe he was holding in allowing the warm glow to envelop him. Levitating above the ground he shot of towards the time plaza.

He glanced towards the file in his hand as it fluttered in the wind. Sour got the gist of the plan from Chronoa and how complicated would it destroy stuff. Worse comes to worse planets are easily explodeable. Is explodeable a word? Doesn't really matter, Sour had his back up plan and as long as he stops the paradox Chronoa can't really complain. Could she?

As much as sour loved the thoughts of how much he could get away with, the time plaza was closing in over the horizon still as busy as ever. People running into portals, people coming out of portals. Same stuff as yesterday really. Sour allowed himself to lower to the floor avoiding the small patches of dried blood. Gross. This place has such low standards for sanitation.

Around Sour there were people gearing up for some sort of battle with all sort of weapons including alien guns, stupidly large swords and armour. A lot of these people were strong by a civilian standard considering how most aliens weren't obscenely strong like Saiyans. Although even compared to Sour most of the time patrollers were weak. Sour figured most of these people were probably civilians or just some regular non-ki martial artist on their own planet and then got a job application by a certain pink skinned time Kai and then took a crash course on how to use ki and not die in the first five seconds.

Sour did find a few interesting individuals, while most were below Sour's strength which Sour compared relative to Vegeta in the timelines when he first lands on Earth. Of course different multiverses have different Vegeta's with varring power but they generally have an average power level of around eighteen thousand. But getting back on topic Sour could sense a few powerful individuals, although they were in the minority.

The weakest of all people were the people who looked to be operative the time portals with those large computers that looked like those computers in old movies were they tried to predict was the future computers would look like along with literal piles of files. Mah as well add to the pile. Sour walked over to the nearest desk which he noticed had the same red skinned girl from yesterday.

"Well good evening my dear!" The black haired teen opened his arms wide and wore a happy go lucky smile as he approached the desk causing the girl to look up with an expression of boredom and lack of work ethic that only an I.T assistant can muster.

"Just hand me the file and stand clear of the portal." The alien girl spoke in a hurried and rushed tone looking back to her computer.

"Right into business and no foreplay. You must be popular with the guys and gals." Sour remarked earning the quick glare from the worker.

"Stand clear of the portal please."

Sour rolled his eyes at the girl. Clearly she was going to be the highlight of his first mission. The way her eyes sparkled like mud really lifted his spirits for his first mission. Right from really not excited to please let me do anything else. Sour took a step back from the portal as the she typed away mercilessly at her computer. The sound of tap tap tap was replaced by a low hum from the portal arch. The arch started to have electricity jump across it and it began to shake as the middle of the arch replaced the empty space which white light.

The small little glow began to expand and expand till eventually the small light took up the entire arch. The humming stopped after a few seconds and the arch slowly stopped vibrating on the spot as the portal became more stable. Sour was slightly memorised by the pure white glow but was quickly cut off as something was starting to come out of the arch. A figure slowly came out of the portal which filled the air with the reek of bodily fluids.

Step by step the person came out of the arch and wore a similar smirk he had seen a over a hundred times. The perfect life form Cell. To sour he looked like an oversized cockroach with beetle like wings tucked behind his back which served no purpose other then appearance as everyone could fly. The bio Android stood remarkably tall towering over Sour drip drying in blood. Cell was covered in it among other bodily fluids. Although the most interesting part of his appearance was his colour, and no not the blood stains. Sour was quite accustomed to the familiar look of the perfect green form of Cell but now he lacked that green colour. Instead the towering being was blue.

The blue Cell took a deep breathe in which if his appearance was any indication he hasn't had in a while. "Cell Jr, Chronoa has scheduled a meeting with you in two weeks." The alien girl said. To be honest Sour didn't remember her name.

Clearly Cell was as thrilled to have a meeting with Chronoa as Sour was if the scowl he wore was any indication. Cell Jr just rolled his eyes. "Oh good, I wonder what she could want this time." Sour didn't even have the chance to talk before Cell Jr flew away.

"Cell Jr... I remember them being shorter." Sour mused to himself.

"That Cell Jr is from a multiverse where one of them got away. He hid and cowered till he eventually grew up and the time patrollers found him unfortunately."

"Not a fan? Gee what a surprise and here I thought you loved everyone."

The red skin girl stuck up a finger to Sour in a very unkind gesture. "If your talking about yesterday then you should know I don't like Trunks because Chronoa plays favourites. As much I loathe to admit it Trunks is a good guy which makes hating him even more annoying. Cell Jr however is just an awful person. A powerful asshole with daddy issues is not a good combination. I would suggest you stay away from him."

"Don't worry, with the amount of blood on him he's probably a walking STD index." Surprisingly enough that did earn a small nose exhale from the alien.

"True but not the point I was getting at. Every mission he shows up covered in blood. He's got his father's bloodlust and none of his respect. The fact that he's covered in someone else blood is a big red flag."

"So? I thought fighting was like ninety-eight percent what you do. The other two being dying."

"Ki cauterises a wound. So why so much blood when he looks uninjured?" As much as Sour doesn't like being wrong. Which he's not if someone asked him, she had a point. Clearly Cell Jr took less pleasure in fighting and more in the agony of his opponents.

"Fine I won't befriend the big scary bug. However, don't blame me when my raw sexual charisma eventually brings him in. Which let's face it, look at me. It's gonna happen."

"I'm sure." She at least had the curiosity to not complete ing ore Sour. "Can you just hand me the mission documents so I can find where I'm suppose to send you."

"Don't you mean 'when' I'm sending you." Sour gave a bright smile to the girl much to displeasure.

"Congrats you're probably the billionth noob to say that."

"Well glossing over the fact you just used 'noob'." Sour made little air quotes highlighting the word. "Here is the time papers." She raised one brow at time papers but gladly accepted them from Sour.

"Time papers?"

"You weren't there you won't get it."

"I see." The alien went back to her computer typing away mercilessly. The portal in the arch had died down by now so Sour assumed portals couldn't last too long. Regardless Sour stood in bored silence a feeling he had long frowned accustomed to as his new best friend typed into the bulky computer.

Sour didn't know how long time portals were suppose to take back after two minutes the arch hummed with a familiar sounds and started to shake as copious amount of energy went into the multiverse time machine. Soon the arch was filled with the same white glow that he had travelled through once before.

Welp here's to being a time patrollers. Sour gave himself a quick mental pat on the back before taking a step through the portal hoping that either a it would kill him permanently or give him some sort of crazy multi-trans-dimensional high that he saw in movies. Unfortunately neither happened as when Sour stepped into the portal being enveloped in the white glow once more he was almost instantly transported into a familiar environment.

It looked the like the restart before he decided to take a break from trying to be a hero, a city in ruins except this time it wasn't on fire. Looking around he saw almost every building with their doors ripped off, windows smashed and anything inside was stolen. Sour was currently in the middle of a street that looked like it had suffered from multiple robberies. Sour found even more interest in the people on the street. None of them were human. There was all different races walking down the streets observing some of the houses or just walking by.

What was happening again? No matter he can just read the mission files and... and he never grabbed the back. He had been to focused on the portal and forgot to get the thing that held all the information he needed. Thankfully Sour saw a small fur ball of an alien that wore his own little suit carrying a small suitcase trying his best to do a power walk but came more out as rushed waddling with all the fur.

Sour moved quickly blocking the little fur balls path much to his displeasure. "Get out of the way." The small alien was probably trying not sound frustrated and demanding but it came out more as a squeak. Sour grabbed the alien by his tie lifting him up which was unsurprisingly easy.

"What's the deal with this place? Why does everything look like its been ransacked?"

"What? Wait... are you an Earthling? Hahaha that's hilarious. The Frieza army is currently selling your planet, everything that isn't being put up for auction has been stolen. The fact that you haven't been sold off yet is a miracle. Actually just this morning I bought this human weapon a four pronged spear dagger so get you're filthy hands off me." The small fur ball had reached over and pulled out a fork.

Sour let a out a laugh seeming the small fur ball in a suit whip out a fork and threaten him with it but did the mature thing and let the alien go. Loosing his grip on the alien, he fell to the fall with a soft thud. "So, where is this auction might I ask?"

"The auction. It's around... what's it in basic? Around froqae monfor. I don't know what that is in basic measurements." Ugh typical, of course the alien wouldn't know Earthling measurements, hell Sour had learnt a few alien languages like Namekian over his resets but there was a lot of species with lots of different languages.

Forgoing the idea of wasting this reset by learning a language he just let out his ki sense. Fortunately the idea worked quite well as there was a large cluster near the centre of the city. Sour's plan was simple. Find a large group of people then waste time till the paradox shows up. Oh wasn't he suppose to be looking for another time patroller. Though how strong was he suppose to be, besides Sour the strongest being on this planet was Vegeta who apparently has taken role of overseeing the auction of Earth. Well no matter, he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it. Right now Sour wants to see whatever Earth has to offer at the auctions.

Well sorry for the long wait but I won't lie and say it'll be the only one. Don't worry red skinned girl isn't going to play a big part in the story the only OC is Sour. No one wants a story of tons of OC's where there only flaw is being too perfect. I will be trying to make Sour more flawed and not the "Oh I'm a cool antihero who doesn't follow the rules" cause that's a pretty weak character flaw.