And we're back.
Chapter 2: Awkward Silences
"You know, you don't have to leave so soon," Lazuli said lightly, causing Trunks to blink in surprise. "I mean, you could stay awhile. We do owe you one."
Trunks flushed slightly, a reaction which she found to be strange and slightly amusing. For a renegade cyborg slayer with better ki mastery than both her and her brother combined, he sure did get flustered easily, she had noticed.
"That's ok. I really should be leaving soon," he insisted.
She raised an eyebrow, wondering why he seemed so uncomfortable. Was he this stiff around everyone?
"Oh, come on. At least stay for breakfast before you go off thwarting some other apocalyptic scheme," Lapis spoke up from where he was getting out supplies.
Lazuli crossed her arms. "What he said. We don't get a lot of visitors out here, and all things considered, you're not bad company. So deal."
Trunks looked down, embarrassed, before offering a small, tentative smile. "Well, I suppose I should stay a bit longer...just to make sure there aren't any more coming."
Lazuli studied him closely. "You mean...there could be more? Like, other creations of his?"
Trunks nodded slowly, privately thinking that she caught on pretty quickly. "I like to think that I'd be able to sense them if there were. But prior experience tells me otherwise."
She regarded him, puzzled. "Sense?" she repeated.
"Well, yeah. Since his own design wasn't complete, I could sense his ki. But most cyborgs have artificial ki, which can't be detected by my senses."
Her brows were furrowed. "Can you teach us how to do that? Sense ki, I mean?"
He blinked. "I suppose so. What can you guys do with it so far?"
Lapis answered this time. "Admittedly not as much as you. We can project energy waves and use it to strengthen our bodies, but that's about it."
"Hmm, so you can't fly yet either…" Trunks said, thinking out loud.
Their eyes widened simultaneously. "Fly?" Lapis repeated, his eyes shining with anticipation. "You mean you could teach us how to fly like that creepy old dirtbag?"
"Well, yeah. It's pretty basic actually. You just project some ki from your body and use it to propel you in any given direction," Trunks replied.
"Wow. We never even thought of using it that way," Lazuli admitted. "How'd you learn all this, anyway? Did you learn on your own, or did someone else teach you?"
Trunks visibly recoiled, alarming the two, but he quickly recovered. "I...my mentor taught me," he said reluctantly.
"Oh," Lazuli replied quietly. She felt as if she had just overstepped some boundary. "Are you ok?"
"Uh, yeah...I'm fine," Trunks said, but it was clearly a lie. His face was angled the other way, looking anywhere but at her, as if it pained him to do so, which caused her to frown a bit. A couple minutes passed before Lapis' voice broke the awkward silence.
"Breakfast is ready," he announced.
As the three quietly ate, Lazuli observed their guest. He was eating slowly, almost carefully, as if the food would all disappear if he ate too fast. Little did she know that he was resisting the urge to shovel it all down at once, and to say it could all disappear rather quickly was an accurate assessment should he fail.
"So, do you hunt cyborgs for a living?" Lapis quipped, causing Trunks to start choking. Lazuli shot her brother a glare, which he shrugged off as Trunks finally swallowed his food.
"That wasn't funny," Lazuli said, a hint of warning in her voice.
"Sorry," Lapis said. "It's just he did it with ease of practice. It's like he knew exactly what he was doing. Look, he even carries a sword around with him."
Although rather uncomfortable with the topic of their discussion, Trunks knew that he was acting rather strange at this point, so he answered.
"You could say that," he replied. "Although that would imply that I'm usually successful," he said with a grimace. "It might be more accurate to say that they hunt me."
It took a moment for the two to realize that he wasn't joking. When they did, they shared an uneasy look. "But...you handled that guy so easily. Like he wasn't even worth your time," Lapis objected.
Trunks was silent for a moment. "I've...you could say I've been on the receiving end of the same treatment," he said, fists clenched as he stared down at his empty plate.
Lazuli didn't like where this was going, and she gave her brother a warning glare to back off, which he actually took seriously for once. They fell into another awkward silence until everyone finally cleaned their plates.
"Thank you for breakfast. It was delicious," their visitor said, causing Lazuli to smirk slightly. The guy was polite, if perhaps a bit too formal.
"Hey, anytime," Lapis said. "Least we could do after you pulled our asses out of the fire."
There was another moment of silence before Trunks spoke up again. "Do you guys still want to learn how to fly?" he asked suddenly.
The two twins exchanged excited looks.
On the other side of the planet, a black haired warrior donned in an orange gi sat in the garden of Capsule Corporation, staring off over the horizon with a puzzled frown on his face as Dr. Briefs, the father of one of his closest friends, walked up to him.
"Everything alright there, Goku? I know you're worried about everyone on Namek, but the ship is almost finished. You should be able to leave tomorrow at the latest.
"It's not that, Dr. Briefs," the saiyan replied. "A little while ago, I felt two powerful fighters clashing somewhere on the planet, before the weaker of the two kis disappeared completely. I'm trying to figure out who it could be. I've never sensed them before."
"I see. How powerful would you say these two were?"
Goku crossed his arms in thought. "Well, one of them, the one that disappeared, was weaker than me. The other one...not so much."
Dr. Briefs looked shocked. "You're saying this other warrior is stronger than you are?"
"Stronger than Vegeta and myself combined," Goku confirmed, still frowning. "Thing is, even though I'm fairly sure whoever it was killed the other guy, the ki doesn't seem malicious at all. In fact, it actually feels like I can trust this guy. Weird."
"Well, if you're sure of that, you can always go investigate the source while I finish up the ship," Dr. Briefs suggested.
Goku stood up. "I think I might just do that. The curiosity is really getting to me. See you later, Doc!" With that, he flew off, disappearing from sight within seconds.
"You're still using too much energy. It's not like firing ki blasts. If you do it that way, not only will you waste a lot of ki, but your flight will be uncontrolled," Trunks instructed. "It should be just enough to support your weight, but evenly distributed underneath you. We'll worry about increasing your speed later."
As Lapis tumbled onto the dirt again, he grunted. "This is harder than I thought it would be." While he had made some progress since his first attempt, he still couldn't control his flight for more than a few seconds. While he hadn't stopped trying, Lazuli had instead opted to stay on the ground as she tried to get a feel for the right ki output to keep her airborne. She closed her eyes as she felt it radiate from her, causing a small wind pick up around her. Slowly, her form rose unsteadily through the air until she stopped about 5 feet off the ground. She held herself up for about ten seconds before she let go and landed, a satisfied smirk on her face. Lapis scoffed and grumbled something about beginner's luck, completely disregarding the fact that he was one too.
"Not bad," Trunks said. "It helps that you can already manipulate ki. Keep practicing and it should get easier pretty quickly…" he trailed off as his brow furrowed and he turned his head off to the horizon, catching the attention of the two twins. The last time he had behaved this way, it hadn't been good news. Could there really be more killer cyborgs out for revenge?
They gasped as they saw a figure shooting towards them out of the sky. As it drew closer, they heard the unmistakable sound of the sound barrier breaking, before the figure came to a sudden stop in front of them, causing the twins to cover their eyes from the wind that picked up in the clearing. It was a rather tall man with black, spiky hair, dressed in a slightly ridiculous orange outfit. He was staring at Trunks curiously, who in turn stared back in awe, knowing that this could only really be one person.
"Son Goku…"
A/N: I'll bet you're wondering where I'm going with this. That's ok...so am I.