Both Ranch and Goten were on opposite ends of the school's cafeteria, and paused what they were doing when they felt it: Trunks had gone Super Saiyan. He stayed like that for a little while before powering down again. Shrugging it off, they went back to what they were doing. Goten continued telling his friends about a really pretty girl that he knew, while Ranch went back to the textbook.
Her brow furrowed, she was reading up on animals that regrow limbs, and it confused her. Apparently some animals could regrow parts, but they mostly seemed to be small. Then how the heck does Piccolo do it? While she's never seen it for herself, Ranch has heard about how he can regrow an entire arm in an instant. Then again he's an alien, so normal biology rules would go out the window for him.
"Hey, Ranch!"
Startled, Ranch nearly dropped her fork when the seat in front of her became occupied. "Oh. Hey, Micah," she said to her friend.
Micah looked at what Ranch was reading and made a face. "Studying during lunch? Really?"
"So what if I am?" she shot back defensively.
Micah leaned forward. "You just don't seem like the type. What? Are you going to become a scientist or something when you grow up?"
"Well, if I did my aunt would certainly be thrilled," Ranch commented thoughtfully.
"Oh that's right," Micah remembered, "you once said your cousin is some hotshot scholar, right?"
"Yeah, that's about right."
"In that case it must be genetic," she stated confidently.
At that Ranch burst out laughing. She laughed so hard that she could barely as she doubled over and banged on the table with her fist. "Genetic?" Ranch said back, still laughing, wiping away tears. "You seriously think smarts run in the family or something? Oh man, Micah, you're frickin' hilarious! You do know that Goten over there is my cousin right?"
Completely taken back by Ranch's reaction, Micah huffed, "I don't see what's so funny!"
"Allow me to enlighten you then," Ranch said, still chuckling. "My dad and my cousin's dad are brothers and they are two of the biggest meatheads on the planet! I mean seriously, if they see a problem in front of them their first instinct is to punch it away!" Ranch continued laughing at the thought her dad and uncle even managing to perform basic math.
"Wow, sounds rough," Micah said with concern.
Ranch then stopped laughing and looked at her friend. Putting on a reassuring smile, she told her, "It's not. Despite being rough around the edges and…not all that smart, those two are some of the sweetest guys you'll ever meet. In fact, they're the total opposite of my boyfriend's dad. That guy also likes to—"
"WHAT?" Micah exclaimed loudly, causing other to stare.
"What?" Ranch asked back, confused.
"What did you just say?"
"I was just saying how my boyfriend's dad is—"
"Say it again!"
Annoyed, Ranch repeated, "My boyfriend's da—"
"Right there!" Micah said accusingly, standing and pointing at Ranch. "You have a boyfriend?"
"Yeah, why?" she asked, bewildered.
"You never told me you had a boyfriend! We're supposed to be friends! How is this the first time I'm hearing of this?" Micah demanded.
"Because I never mentioned him before now," she explained. "What's the big deal?"
"What's his name?"
"Trunks."
"How long have you known him?"
"Since we were really little."
"How far have you…" Micah blushed. "…have you gotten?"
"What does that mean exactly?" Ranch asked.
"Like…have you kissed and stuff?"
"We've kissed yeah," she stated plainly. Tired of the conversation, Ranch went back to her meal. "Honestly, we've been going out for a while now, so it'd be weird if we hadn't."
"And how long's a while?" Micah asked.
Ranch thought back. "Hmm…around the time of that whole thing with Majin Buu."
"Wow, but you guys must have been so young!" Micah said in amazement. Then for some reason she began to smile serenely. "Wait, I get it. I know exactly why you got together back then." When all Ranch did was stare blankly back at her, Micah went on, "I mean, that incident was totally scary, right?"
"Well yeah," Ranch said obviously. "The world was almost destroyed." Again.
"And when you two thought the world was going to end, you young lovebirds threw caution to the wind and professed your feelings for each other," Micah said blissfully, her eyes closed as she imagined the romantic scene. "And then—" Micah threw her fist up into the air in triumph "—Mr. Satan showed up and saved the day like he always does! And from that day forward, you and Trunks didn't shy away from your confession and lived life to the fullest."
Ranch started to snicker. "Yup, that's exactly how it happened," she told Micah, who threw her an inquisitive look. She was actually amused at how the whole world actually believed that that buffoon really was a hero after he took the credit, when in actuality it was her dad and uncle that finished off Super Buu once and for all when they fused. But he couldn't be all bad, Ranch supposed, seeing as Videl, his daughter, was married to Gohan.
All of a sudden somebody appeared out of nowhere right next to Ranch, who yelped in surprise and collapsed out of her seat. Looking up she saw the source of the disturbance. "U—Uncle Goku!" She stood back up and got in his face as best she could. "What the hell were you thinking just using Instant Transmission in the middle of my school?"
Perplexed, Micah stammered, "You—who? Instant what? Ranch, this is your uncle?" Looking around, Ranch saw that everyone in the cafeteria was now looking their way. They had to get out of there.
"Hey, dad!" Goten shouted, running up to them. "What's up?"
"There's stuff going on at Capsule Corp, and I'm here to get Ranch, since it kind of involves her," Goku explained.
"Wow! Can I go, too?" Goten asked.
"Sure!"
Aunt Chi-Chi isn't going to like that, Ranch thought dismally. "What sort of stuff?"
"You'll see after we get your mom." Goku then held on to both of them, and before Ranch could protest, Goku teleported them away. They were now outside of Ranch's house, and Goku knocked on the front door.
When blue-haired Launch opened the door, she was shocked to see who it was. "Ranch, Goten, what are you two doing out of school?" she asked disapprovingly.
"We've got time travelers at Capsule Corp," Goku told her.
While Ranch and Goten were confused by that, Launch yelped and grabbed onto Goku's ghi, forgetting all about how the two kids that were ditching school. "Let's go!"
"At least close the door first!" Ranch quickly said, doing just that before they teleported away again.
They ended up at Capsule Corp in front of a room filled with a bunch of people—including Beerus and Whis, for some reason. Goten immediately spotted Mai and made a beeline to her, greeting her enthusiastically. Normally Ranch might have made fun of him for that, but she had noticed what seemed to have everyone else's attention: a boy and little girl lying on gurneys. The boy had black, spikey hair, and the girl had blue hair like Bulma's with a…red ribbon…and a tail? What the hell?
"Hey, Ranch," Trunks greeted, looking nervous.
"What's going on?" she asked. "Who are those two, and why do they seem so familiar?"
"Well mom mentioned something about gran—"
"Goku, do you have it?" Bulma asked, interrupting them.
"Yup," he said, producing two Senzu beans from a pouch.
"Oh my. Are those…?" Launch asked, looking at the kids with a soft expression.
"They have to be, right?" Bulma replied in concern.
"But where are Trunks and Ranch?"
"Uh, we're right here, mom," Ranch replied obviously. But she went completely unnoticed as Goku fed the kids a bean each.
"I don't know, it was just them," Bulma said cryptically, watching the kids chew the beans.
When they swallowed the beans, the kids stirred and opened their eyes as they sat up. They looked at all the faces staring in their direction, when both of them noticed Goku. "IT'S HIM!" shouted the boy. As the girl screamed and curled up in terror, the boy charged up a shot and sent it right at Goku. Despite how surprised he was by their reaction, Goku caught the ball of energy and crushed it in his palm. The boy then hopped off of the gurney and threw his arms around the girl to shield her. "LEAVE US ALONE ALREADY!"
"Yeah, go away!" the girl cried desperately.
"Hold on!" Bulma said, going up to them. "I don't know why you're so scared, but everything is okay! That's just Goku. I promise that he won't hurt you."
"Yeah, you don't have to worry about me," Goku assured them.
The boy blinked. "Grandma?" he asked. "And…Goku? Mom's uncle?" He breathed a sigh of relief, and let go of the girl. "Oh wow, mom wasn't kidding. It actually worked."
"Is that grandma and granny? What's going on?" the girl asked her brother.
"Don't worry, we're safe for now," he explained, causing her to calm down.
"So I didn't mishear," Beerus said to Whis quietly. "Those are her grandchildren?"
"It seems so, my lord," Whis replied in an undertone. "But not just hers, though, since Bulma was talking to both Raditz and Vegeta on the communicator, referring to them as our grandchildren." Rubbing his chin and looking at Launch attending to the kids, he went on, "But that leaves me puzzled, because as far as I know Vegeta and Bulma only have one son, while Raditz and his wife Launch have one daughter. And I do not believe that those two have produced offspring of their own."
Frowning, Beerus stepped forward. "You there," he barked at the boy.
Startled, the boy replied, "Uh…yes?"
"Oh wow, big kitty!" the girl said in wonder.
"Who here are your parents and grandparents?" Beerus asked sternly, ignoring the girl.
Uncertain, the boy looked at Bulma, who nodded in encouragement. "Well…they're our grandmas," he answered, pointing at Bulma and then at Launch. "And I suppose they're our grandpas—although we never met them." He indicated Raditz and Vegeta. He then looked over at Trunks and Ranch, who both grew increasingly distressed at the information he was presenting. "And they're our mom and dad."
"Whoa, hold on there, kid!" Ranch exclaimed with a mixture of alarm, embarrassment, and confusion. "Just how old do you think I am?"
Trunks said, "Yeah, seriously! We're too young to have kids, and even if we did you're way too old to be ours!"
"Really?" said Beerus, looking down at Ranch and Trunks. "So despite this child's claim, you say that you two have yet to mate and reproduce?"
"That's just what we said!" Trunks shouted, glowing red from embarrassment. "Are you nuts or something, of course he—"
Ranch punched the back of Trunks' head to shut him up, and then bowed deeply to Beerus, while in the background she could hear Goten laughing hysterically. She quickly said, "I humbly apologize for my stupid boyfriend, Lord Beerus! What he meant to say was that from a cultural, biological, and emotional outlook, the two of us are not in a point in our lives where we would want to have children of our own. And even if it were to happen by accident, I can confidently say that the opportunity won't present itself for several years!"
"Several…years?" Trunks asked, actually looking slightly disappointed.
Still bowing, Ranch turned her head to glare at him. "Yes. Several years—whether it be with each other or someone else."
Taking the hint, Trunks bowed and said, "She's right, Lord Beerus."
Accepting their apology and explanation, Beerus said, "Care to explain all this, Bulma?"
"Well you see this Trunks and Ranch obviously haven't had any kids. But there's a future version of them that have. And their kids came back in time using a time machine of my own design," she explained with pride.
"Oh my, I had no idea that humans were capable of building such technology," Whis said.
"Well, when you're a genius like me nothing is out of the realm of possibility," she said smugly.
Beerus wasn't impressed. "Do you have any idea the kind of trouble time travel causes? It can rip apart the fabric of reality," he yelled, knocking her down several pegs. "Even among the gods it is prohibited!" He stared at her, and added, "Destroying you all might just be the easiest way to deal with this."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Bulma said in a panic. "What I should have said was that it was the me from the future that figured out time travel! I had nothing to do with it!"
"I fail to see the difference."
Bulma immediately prostrated herself before him. "Please, Lord Beerus, I'm so sorry. I had no idea! Please forgive us!"
"Oh come on, Beerus, can you just let this slide?" Goku asked complacently.
Thinking about it for a second, Beerus said, "Fine, but only for something delicious I haven't had before."
"On it!" Bulma left and quickly came back with a plate of fish sausage, which she passed around to everybody.
After taking a bite, Beerus said, "Very well, transgression overlooked."
With disaster averted, Launch approached her grandchildren from the future, and kindly said, "Hello, you seem to know most of us here, but I'm afraid we don't know you. What are your names?"
The boy said, "I'm Gohan." Ranch and Trunks looked at each other. It was a nice gesture, but for what reason would they have named their son that?
"And I'm Bulla!" announced the girl.
Bulma smiled and patted her head. "That name was clearly my suggestion."
Scratching his head, Gohan said in wonder to Launch, "Geez, it's weird seeing you all so young, granny."
Bulla suddenly got off of the gurney and ran up to the younger version of her parents. "Yeah, even mommy and daddy look different!" She then reached up and rubbed Ranch's left cheek. "Really different!"
"Alright, enough of this," Vegeta said impatiently. "Explain yourselves. How come it was you that came back in time and not your parents? And why did you attack Kakarot like that?"
Confused, Gohan said, "Kaka-who?"
"That's just what your grandfathers call Goku," Bulma explained, shooting Vegeta a reproving look.
Bulla then gasped. "That's right, we have grandpas now!" She immediately went up and hugged Vegeta, who amazingly went red as he lost his composure, and didn't try to disentangle her.
Raditz glared jealously at Vegeta, but went up to his grandson. "He could be a bit more delicate, Gohan, but he has a point. What is all this about?"
"Yeah, did Majin Buu show up and start causing trouble?" asked Goku.
"Who's that?" Gohan asked.
"Buu, the one Babadi and Dabura tried to revive," Goku explained.
Those names Gohan recognized. "Oh. Them. Nah, mom and dad took care of those guys easy a while ago, back when Bulla was still a baby."
"And that wouldn't explain why he attacked you," Raditz said obviously. He turned back to the kids. "So tell us what happened."
And so Gohan began to explain. He told them of a mysterious being that looks just like Goku, except he wears black clothing, so they started referring to him as Goku Black. Gohan described the massive amount of death and destruction Black was causing, and the inability of his parents to put a stop to him. The children had been sent to the countryside to stay with Launch and Chi-Chi so they could stay out of harm's way. But after several months of not seeing their parents, with only minimal contact before that, Gohan got sick of it and snuck out in the middle of the night. Unbeknownst to him, Bulla had followed.
The two had gone to Capsule Corp, where they waited. Finally their parents showed up, and from there Gohan gave them a rundown of what he remembered of the encounter with Black. The last thing he recalled was his mother telling him that they were to go to the past to seek help.
"Mommy…daddy…" Bulma murmured, now tearing up before burying her face into Vegeta and crying.
"Um…there, there," Vegeta said awkwardly, patting her head. "Rest assured, though, they stayed behind to fight like true Saiyan warriors."
"Damn, we have to do something," said Raditz earnestly. He then looked over at Vegeta, who met his gaze. And then, by some kind of miracle, they nodded at each other in understanding.
"Bulma, can you get the time machine to work?" asked Vegeta.
Bulma nodded. "I'll see what I can do to get it up and running."
"We'll also need you to figure out how to pilot it so you can take us to the future," Raditz added.
"Yes, without the other Trunks or Ranch here, you're the only one who can do it," said Vegeta.
"Don't worry, I'll definitely get it to work," she said confidently.
"It's settled then," Vegeta boasted, raising his clenched fist. "We are traveling to the future and meeting this threat head on!"
"Oh yeah!" Goku cried out eagerly, pumped up for the fight to come. "Let's do this!"
"NO!" cried two voices.
Thrown off his game, Goku asked, "What?"
"You aren't going, Kakarot," Vegeta told him.
"Huh? But why?" he asked, befuddled.
"Because between myself, Vegeta, and Bulma, there isn't going to be any room," Raditz informed his brother.
"Oh come on, guys, we can all squeeze in!" Goku said desperately.
"Still, these are OUR children and grandchildren," Vegeta said hotly. "Raditz and I will be the ones to take care of this. In actuality I'd rather do this myself, but even I know that it'd be futile to keep Raditz out of this. You, however, are a different story!"
"Hey, wait a minute," Gohan piped up. "I want to go too!"
"Yeah, me too!" said Bulla.
"No, it's too dangerous," Gohan told her.
"The same goes for you," Raditz said to Gohan. "Leave this to us, Gohan, I promise it'll be okay."
Goku started again, "This isn't fair! Why I am being left out all of a sudden?"
"The answer is no, Kakarot, and that's final!" Raditz said sternly, as if talking to a child.
"Now that that's settled I'm going to the gravity room," Vegeta announced. "I don't know how strong this Black is so I want to be prepared as possible. Let me know when we're ready to go." Vegeta began to walk out, saying as he went out the door, "Well, Raditz, aren't you coming?"
Sighing, Raditz reluctantly replied, "Very well." And he followed, leaving behind a room stunned into silence.
"I don't know what was weirder," said Ranch, staring as they left, "the time travel or that."
"Definitely that," said Trunks. "No question."
"Don't get used to it," Bulma said. "They're only in sync because for the first time ever they've actually found common ground. Once this is all over they'll be back at each other's throats."
"I might actually prefer it that way," Launch admitted, with a nervous smile. "That was really unsettling."
"I'm going to take a look at the time machine, then," Bulma said, also taking her leave.
"Are you two hungry?" Launch asked the kids.
"Yeah," Gohan said, cheering up some at the prospect of his granny's cooking. "I'm starved!"
"So am I!" Bulla confirmed.
"Ranch, dear, could you get something started while I go call the twins' school?" she asked.
"Sure, mom."
"Wait, mom is going to cook?" Gohan asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, what of it?" Ranch asked, annoyed.
"Actually I'm not hungry," Bulla backtracked.
Ranch growled, and took her future children by their shoulder and led them out the door, followed by Trunks, Goten, Pilaf, Mai, and Shu. "Oh yeah? I'll show you just what I can do!"
"The girl is going to cook? Interesting," Beerus commented, following them. "I wonder if she inherited any of her mother's ability."
"Either way we shouldn't judge too harshly, my lord," Whis advised sagely. "She is still a novice after all."
"Man, this isn't fair," Goku continued to pout.
Gently, Launch said to him, "You should get Gohan and Chi-Chi. I think they'd like to know what's happening."
"Yeah, okay." Still sulking, Goku teleported away.