A myriad of shrieks and loud rumbling made Android 21 sigh in frustration and leave her office. The first sight that greeted her after opening the door was a handful of soldiers flung across the hall like rag dolls. The one persistent bruiser that kept up with the approaching threat shook with an expression of pain decorating his body as a bright beam pierced his chest, leaving a hole in the middle the size of a soccer ball.
"Bardock, was it? I thought my sensors picked up your signature." Android 21 sighed and entered her office again, picking up her lab coat off of the chair on the other side of the desk from her own chair and slipped her arms inside of its sleeves as she walked out to greet the unexpected guest.
Something that came off as even more shocking than the first signs of hostile arrival was when a looming, stoic figure of a man that was not Bardock at all stood before her office. This man, in fact, held the collapsed Bardock in his hand by the Saiyan's waist while the unconscious body sprinkled blood all over the floor. Then again, this amount wasn't simple to notice in the excess that this man's arrival had caused.
"That face…" Android 21 placed her index finger on her lips, pinching her lower lip and slightly dragging it down as her ocular scanners assembled the general array of the man's features and compared them to the archives of the entire world's records. "There aren't any records of someone like you around. That shouldn't be possible. And yet… Even if your face isn't one I can find, it feels strangely familiar."
"I am Son Gohan." Future Gohan declared. "Just because you can use your advantages as an Android, doesn't mean you should neglect your very ordinary memory."
"Son Goku's boy? That's ridiculous!" Android 21 spat metaphorical venom in her visitor's eyes. "Unless…"
"Correct, like the version of Bulma's son, Trunks, you have likely met already, I am from the future. Unlike Trunks, however, it wasn't Bulma who sent me back in time, it was you." Future Gohan explained. "First of all, you must convert this man. Beings of flesh and bone die easily. He may very well kick the bucket on us if you don't hurry."
"That's... Bardock?" Android 21 leaned back in disgust. "Why should I trust Son Goku's son asking to heal Son Goku's father? Son Goku is one of my mortal enemies. He may not have killed my husband, but he decimated most of the Rainbow Brigade. He's just as much at fault for ruining my husband's life's work as Chayote is."
Future Gohan took bold and wide steps forward, he moved inside of Android 21's office, dragging the bleeding body of a version of his grandfather from this timeline in his hand until he stopped in front of an ivory coffin-like structure hanging vertically in Android 21's office. Future Gohan allowed his eyes to scan the object before pointing to it.
"Activate No. 16. He will be a useful asset in your takeover and we can use his pod to convert Bardock as well." Future Gohan demanded with a strict look at Android 21.
"Don't presume to be in any position to boss me around! My son isn't ready yet." Android 21 stepped up to the tall and bulky, half-cybernetic assailant that had mopped the floor with her security, dragging the half-dead body of the father of one of her worst enemies. "I can see plenty of mechanical parts on you. That means that I can eat you up and upgrade myself at any point. If you truly are from the future, as you say, then your parts will be simply delectable and they'll kick me up to a level of power beyond anything that anyone willing to resist me saving the world can offer."
"You lie." Future Gohan stated. "Android 16 has been ready for deployment for over twenty years. You recovered his body not too long after your conversion and had been tinkering on 16 since the Tournament of Doom. Let him out, we need a pod to salvage Bardock and convert him to a soldier loyal to you."
"I said… No!" Android 21 grabbed hold of Future Gohan's wrist and attempted to force it away. When it failed to budge, the manager of the Android threat moved her open palm with a pink energy ball channeling from her fingertips. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't eat you up and upgrade from your parts and maybe I'll consider sparing that old bag of bones a pod. He can use 17's or 18's pod. With their battle powers, there are few people that can damage them so they won't have any use out of them, anyway."
"First, you are wrong. Both Chayote and the Trunks from the future are great threats to 17 and 18. Second, 17 and 18 are threats of their own category. You don't trust them farther than you can throw them currently because of their rebellious tendencies. Third–while you are correct that my parts would boost your power greatly, the intelligence I have and my knowledge of the future are of far greater use. Not to mention that you can salvage that same amount of power by absorbing Future Trunks' augmentations instead of mine." Future Gohan replied without as much as a facial tick that being threatened with cannibalism normally would have invited.
"Fine…" Android 21 moved her hand away and dispelled her energy blast. "You can use 17's pod to convert and upgrade Bardock as much as you want. It's not like I can get those two to sit still inside them, to begin with."
Knowing his priorities, Future Gohan approached 17's pod and operated his panel with perfect knowledge of the system passwords and features. He placed Bardock's limp body inside and closed the pod shut, inserting specific algorithms and instructions for the conversion process to model the type of soldier that Android 21 needed.
"I don't understand." Future Gohan said while still working on the conversion operation. "Why not release 16 already? He is one of your most powerful Androids."
"Have you become a father of your own children in where you came from?" Android 21 wondered.
"No." Future Gohan denied with cold and apathy in his tone. "There is no use for that. My time is best spent hunting your enemies and preventing outlandish plots to undo all that you have created like this one that Trunks works on right now."
"Then of course you don't understand!" Android 21 turned her nose up, pitying this soldier that she apparently employs in the future as much as she felt disgusted by his clockwork-like body language. He lacked the subtlety and unity between machine and man that she wanted in all of her creations. Seeing someone like this so important to the future version of her that she sent this one back in time made Android 21 question her own future. "16 isn't meant to be merely a soldier. It's not meant to be just an Android, it's supposed to be a new, immortal body for my son and his entire essence, just like I inhabit mine."
"That is impossible. Dr. Gero, with help from young 17 and 18, transferred your mind and essence into a mechanical body on an operating table. Your son's brain had been devastated into a mash for dozens of years before you ever recovered it. No matter how hard you try, you can only simulate and try to recreate his essence inside of a mechanical shell and not replicate your own transference. Do not waste your time on sentimental and meaningless ventures like those." Future Gohan walked toward the door to Android 21's office. Seeing the shimmers of pink light shining behind him, he understood he had hurt 21 enough with his words to call forth a violent response.
The door and entire rows of walls behind it shattered into meaningless splinters, while Future Gohan leaned aside, avoiding the Ki blast that could have sent him flying. With a calculated stare from his cybernetic eyes, the warrior from the future met the gaze of the past version of his mistress.
"Your victory is certain. That is the future." Future Gohan declared. "However, Bulma sent her kid back through time to change something. It makes little sense because changing the past does not change the future. She might just be following a sentimental gesture, just like you, willing to die as a martyr in her own time while knowing that you failed in the past. Still, the future version of you sent me back in time because she respects Bulma more than to think that. I suggest you respect your enemy as well and stop playing into her hand."
"That's right, Bulma has used some sort of countermeasure to half her conversion, and that of her son and her immediate family. Don't trust that partnership. It's too dangerous to let her live now that Future Trunks is here to meddle with your affairs. He is my enemy No. 1. I suggest you deal with Bulma in due time." Future Gohan said.
"What are you talking about? Bulma would never take the conversion. She didn't take my deal!" Android 21 lashed out at the warrior from the future she supposedly sent to ensure her victory.
"So… Trunks has already meddled so much…" Future Gohan turned around toward the exit again. "It doesn't make sense, he should know that without conversion there's no stopping the heart virus."
"Hmm…" Android 21 turned around to a notice on her screen.
"What is that?" Future Gohan wondered.
"It's a signal of a breach in the atmosphere. I want to know if that cocky bag of macho bullshit Vegeta or some other alien runt decides to show their face here, so I'm monitoring all arrivals and departures closely. I don't want to overlook something. Bulma spawned a runt with that brush-head after all. One thing I will not underestimate is the bond of parenthood." Android 21 went nuts on her keyboard panel, checking up on the readings. "That's odd, they're not going inward, they're breaching out of the Earth's atmosphere…"
"That location…" Future Gohan muttered. "It's the God Temple. It's the only place you couldn't track them from. Not even your drones reach that high and even if they did, Kami's magic would crush them on the spot. So… Trunks advised Bulma to refuse the deal and ditch the Earth."
"This… This doesn't make any sense!" Android 21 collapsed in her chair, feeling helpless as the spacecraft of her mortal enemy escaped the Earth's orbit and disappeared into the cold and merciless depths of space in a blink of an eye. "I knew Bulma can get reckless, deny my deal just because she feels scorned by my betrayal, but… This is the whole of Earth she's dooming for extinction! She can't be that vile of a human being!"
"I agree, it's not much of a rescue from Future Trunks' part if he just lets the Earth die." Future Gohan scratched his chin. "Something about this play doesn't feel right. Luckily, I know just where I can find someone who can help me get some answers. It's about time I wiped that ridiculous place off the map and left no place for your enemies to hide."
"That's right, you can get there, can't you!?" Android 21 spun around in her chair, gleaming with her entire face before realizing that Future Gohan was no longer in the room with her. "Wow, I begin to understand why future me sent this guy. He truly is a man of action…"
Android 21 stood up and approached the 17's pod, gazing inside to see what sort of modifications and programming Future Gohan set in store for the past version of his grandfather. "Hmm… A Bio-Type Infinite Energy Model. I suppose I struck gold with that combo, but… What is up with that mask? Ah, that's right, those two are spitting images of one another. In the future, I must have gotten seriously sick of staring at a spitting image of Son Goku by my side and given him a mask to hide that disgusting kisser. Genius, if I say so myself."
"Now what?" Krillin turned around after the Ultimate Eternal Dragon disappeared. "I guess we've eradicated the virus, but do you think that Puri will stop just because of that?"
"Not a chance," Future Trunks shook his head. "Deep down, she must already foster the master puppeteer that she will become in the future. She'll use that ambition to hide away from the truth that the virus is gone. I don't think there's a different way to deal with her but to destroy her."
"Dr. Puri? Seems a bit rushed, doesn't it?" Goku coughed up. Even though his body had no longer been ravaged by the virus, he still had enough damage persisting to keep him seated and unable to stand back up. He'd need a bit more time to make a full recovery. "She kept staring at me weird all the time, but I don't think she deserves to die for that…"
"Is this really Son Goku? The one that my mother believed could have tipped the scales of the battle and inspired humanity's hope if he was still alive?" Trunks wondered.
"I agree!" Trunks placed his knuckles on his hips, kicking Goku in the shin. "He looks like a chump. If we beat him up, will you train me then?" the toddler looked up to his future version with idolizing eyes.
"Well… He's definitely his father's son." Piccolo sneered at the two versions of Trunks standing side by side from one another. "We better head out for the Ultimate Dragon Balls. Once we're back, we'll still have Puri's Androids to deal with."
"Wait, it doesn't feel right just leaving the Earth for the Artificial Humans to do as they please!" Muten Roshi smacked the end of his cane at the tiles.
"I've planned for that." Bulma closed her eyes. "We can use the ordinary Dragon Balls to revert the conversion process."
"The Dragon Balls? Are you sure that will work?" Krillin turned to Bulma. "Seems like you're putting an awful lot of chips behind that chance."
"It's not like we can resist the Androids at the moment," Piccolo washed Krillin with a cruel wave of truth. "If a Super Namekian and a Super Saiyan fighting side-by-side struggled against the runts Puri left behind to watch over a half-dead test subject, the real deal would sweep aside you lazy lot right now. You need to put that artificial gravity technology in Bulma's spacecraft to good use and get many times stronger than you were in your prime."
"The Dragon Balls will work," Bulma shot her fist up with a triumphant pump. "Otherwise there'd have been no reason for 21 to act behind our backs and try to remove the Namekian Dragon Balls from the equation."
"Hmm… It's a risky strategy," Future Trunks stated. "I think that what Android 21 feared most of all was someone using the Namekian Dragon Balls to revive people that died multiple times here on Earth, although, since the conversion process does not replace the entire human body and just key body parts, reversing or halting the process might be possible with the ordinary Dragon Balls."
"Haven't you tried in your timeline?" Chayote wondered. It seemed like an obvious oversight to her.
"We'd have liked it a lot," Future Trunks sneered in her direction, offended because the Saiyan must have taken them for fools. "Though we're not in any semblance of control to look for the Dragon Balls, 21 has long since gathered them and she keeps them at separate strongholds, giving a ball for each of her subordinates to guard. With how far gone the conversion process had gone in my time, decades of updates and upgrades to the original formula, there's no more hope for humanity in my time, I'm afraid."
"Fine, I'm still the head of Chayote Security. I'm going to stay and fight off those glorified toasters, keep them from converting the largest cities." Chayote clenched her fist with a confident look on her face.
"That is a seriously bad idea," Future Trunks shook her head. "Most of us fell because they didn't have you to rely on. As much as I despise you for underestimating the foe and getting captured, you're still a major hitter against 21. It'd be the safest for you to train up out in space and not get captured."
"Not a chance. If I can fight to protect the Earth and its people, I'm going to do that!" Chayote stepped up in Trunks' way. She didn't even look down to acknowledge the fact that Bulma's undergrown kid had switched his attention to Chayote from Goku and started kicking her shin, trying to get under Future Trunks' good graces.
"Fine, it's not like Android 21 will bother converting you. She hates you the most out of all of us. Feel free to get yourself pummeled, captured, and tortured for the rest of the year. Just stay out of my way while I look for Frieza." Trunks shrugged and let Chayote die on the hill she'd chosen.
"Gohan-chan…" Chi-Chi felt up Gohan's back, stroking it as she tried to guide her son off of the dead body of his grandmother. "That's enough. Your grandma wouldn't have liked you to strain yourself. It's been a long sleepless night for you, let's go to one of Bulma's spaceships and you can rest up."
"I'm going with Gohan." Piccolo declared, shocking everyone around him. "We're headed to the nearest Ultimate Dragon Ball to Planet Namek. We'll be dropping by there on the way. There's something I need to do on Namek, something that's been a long time coming and can't wait anymore."
"What!?" Chi-Chi turned around, taking a fighting stance. "No chance! Now of all times!?"
"Must we really fight over this? I want to train Gohan to prepare him for the Androids. Your training has been adequate, but he needs to be trained right, trained better." Piccolo didn't stand down, sharing a glance and a nod with Future Trunks. "You've done a piss-poor job of teaching him to deal with loss because every instance of loss he's experienced you've just wished away for as long as he's been alive. There are few who have lost more than me. I'm part refugee who lost his family to a cataclysm on his home planet, part a warrior that couldn't protect his home, part demon who had been born having lost everything that his predecessor cherished. Every single part of me has lost everything they ever treasured. There's no better person to guide him right now."
"Piccolo, are you sure about that?" Goku winced in pain, sharing a look with the Super Namekian.
"I don't intend on trying to kill or break your son, Son. I've no interest in raising a demon, in fact, I'm trying to prevent one from rising." Piccolo replied.
"Absolutely not!" Chi-Chi seethed with immovable refusal. "Gohan-chan is coming with us!"
"If… If you're going to Planet Namek, then… Perhaps I can come?" Dende prodded his index fingers awkwardly. "I want to see what those monsters have done with my home and if I can help…"
Chi-Chi's eyes widened a good few inches after she heard a telepathic signal from Dende. An entire spectrum of emotions filtered through the woman's face, anger, denial. For a flick of a moment, she was ready to bargain with everyone who spared the blink to look at her, but then the woman sighed in acceptance.
"I guess you can keep Gohan-chan good company. You're a good influence on him, Dende, and all young boys need good friends like you, that's what all the…" Chi-Chi's words fumbled and tripped over her tongue after she returned to the verbal lashing that her father-in-law gave her before he broke her body too. Even now, after she had taken Senzu, it didn't feel like she had even remotely recovered.
"That isn't a bad idea at all - to keep Dende safe and off-world. We will need the Dragon Balls when you guys return." Bulma nodded.
While Muten Roshi and Bulma reduced their airships to capsule-size, Bulma inflated an entire capsule case of aircraft to send multiple separate parties after the Dragon Balls.
"Hmm… My original idea was to send seven parties, one after each Ultimate Dragon Ball…" Bulma wondered, pressing her index finger to her lip as she turned her eyes up, deep in thought. "I guess Piccolo taking two people with him complicates things, but since it's Dende and Gohan, that's fine. It's not like we'd have sent literal children to hunt for the Ultimate Dragon Balls across the universe.
"If Mr. Popo can interject…" Mr. Popo raised a finger. "If you're going for training, it's best that you leave Earth in groups. Remember what we taught you while preparing for Piccolo Jr's arrival–training together will always yield several times the results of training alone will."
Piccolo rolled his eyes after Mr. Popo namedropped a part of his soul. The door of his spacecraft, also containing the silent and sniffling Gohan and Dende, closed shut, and soon the engine ignited, shooting off the craft to space.
"Um… Since Chayote's staying, and I was about to say how awkward it'd be to travel with her after… You know… Maybe anyone's looking for a companion?" Yamcha raised his finger while Chi-Chi helped Goku up and eased him into a spacecraft. The two were an obvious choice, as Chi-Chi was the best companion to help Goku recover after the virus and then train alongside him.
"Sure, let's go!" Krillin raised his fist up with an enthusiastic nod. The two bumped fists and left to take a nearby spaceship together, taking off not too long after.
"Muten Roshi-sama!" Tenshinhan nodded respectfully. "After teaching martial arts these past years, I've become painfully aware of how inexperienced and unprepared to teach I truly am. If you would do me the honors and train alongside me during our trip, that would be more than I deserve."
"My, my…" Muten Roshi stroked his beard. "I sort of hoped to maybe stay on Earth and have Launch-san serve me… I wasn't sure about leaving to space at all!"
A series of machinegun fire made the old man crouch his head so deep down that for a second it felt like he had no more neck left at all. Everyone winced and turned in shock to see Launch in a spacesuit unloading mags in the air in her blond form until she had to reload.
"Oh, I'm coming with alright!" Launch snickered maliciously to herself. "But I ain't serving your pervy, old ass, geezer, I'm lookin' after Tenshinhan!"
And thus Chayote observed another spaceship take off alongside Future Trunks. Judging by Tenshinhan's confused and very frightened reaction before rushing aboard the spacecraft, she almost pitied him a little. Despite their differences, the two turned their attention to Bulma and little Trunks almost at the same time.
"Wait, we're going!?" little Trunks thrashed about wildly in his mother's embrace. "But the other me was just about to train me!"
"You're a Saiyan, aren't you? You can train yourself. Plus, I've got someone way more suitable in mind to train you. Someone who hasn't been too good in taking up responsibility for you so it's someone who has it coming…" Bulma winked to her little boy who seemed to settle down though it was more because of admission of defeat since he couldn't physically overpower his mother out of fear of hurting her. It still didn't seem like the little boy understood whom exactly Bulma had in mind.
"Are you sure about that?" Chayote wondered. "I don't think that deadbeat will take you too kindly showing up at the doorstep of his high and mighty kingdom and demanding an escort…"
"I agree, mother, this isn't one of your better ideas." Future Trunks looked a bit peeved to be agreeing with Chayote but did so nonetheless. "He hadn't pitched in to help you one iota in the future. He's just as likely to kill you on sight as he would anyone else trespassing in his precious kingdom of self-righteousness."
"Well, if the two of you weren't so stubborn to stay, maybe you wouldn't have forced my hand!" Bulma dealt with the two by wagging an angry finger at them. Both Chayote and Trunks turned their ashamed looks away while the scorned mother dragged her unruly child to the spaceship by the ear and shot off into space.
Not a moment too soon, Future Trunks' look changed to absolute horror as he turned behind and ran up to the edge of God's Temple. This whiff of something he had caught left the warrior from the future trembling.
"That Ki… There's no confusing it, it's… Gohan… He found us here!" Trunks mumbled to himself like a raving lunatic. The fight for the future of Earth seemed to start before the trail of the departing heroes had grown cold.