SailorStar9: The prologue goes up. This is Chapter 1 of the Androids Saga. Read and review.
Disclaimers: Only the plot is mine.
Chapter Summary: Android 20 blasts Bulma's plane and causes it to crash. This diversion makes it possible for him to flee the scene with out being spotted by the Z Senshi. When the smoke clears, we see that Future Trunks has saved Bulma and baby Trunks from the crash. Future Trunks is angry that Vegeta did nothing to help his wife (supposedly) and his son. Vegeta doesn't seem concerned about either of them and is only worried about where Android 20 has gone. Meanwhile, Yamcha and Chi-Chi are caring for Goku, who is suffering from another heart attack. Chi-Chi and Yamcha are afraid that they gave him Future Trunk's medicine too late and now it won't work. Back at the canyon, Bulma drops a bombshell when she tells everyone that Android 20 is really Dr. Gero. She also tells him that his lab was in a cave to the north, but doesn't know exactly where. Future Trunks tells the guys about the Androids who terrorize his time, Android 17 and Android 18, and Piccolo suggests that they find the lab and destroy them before Doctor Gero can wake them up. Vegeta calls the plan cowardly and declares that he can tear both robots apart with his bear hands, then leaves for the lab. Future Trunks tries to stop him, determined not to let his father be killed a second time. But Vegeta ignores him and flies off. Future Trunks follows him. Before leaving for the lab, Piccolo tells Krillin, Gohan, Tien, and Bulma that the young Super Saiyan from the future is the who the baby in Bulma's arms grows up to be. Then he has Gohan take Bulma, Baby Trunks and Ami back home. He, Tien, and Krillin then fly off to find the lab. Meanwhile, Dr. Gero sees the Z Fighters fly over him and realize they're headed for his lab. He freaks out and becomes determined to reach it before they do and set Android 17 and Android 18 on them.
Chapter 1: Follow Dr. Gero
"What's that?" Krillin gasped. "You say he's different?
"What?" Vegeta growled.
"It can't be!" Tien was shocked.
"Who's been carving up the earth down there?" Yajirobe inquired.
"Look over there." Bulma voiced. "Over there! That's where everyone is! That's them right? That's Gohan and the others."
"Stop you idiot!" Yajirobe stammered. "You seriously want to go there?"
"It's alright, I tell you." Bulma assured. "If everyone's still alive, that surely means it's all over."
"You take us any closer, and I'll drop this rugrat right out of here!" Yajirobe threatened.
"Oh?" Bulma remarked. "Be my guest. Or didn't I mention that his father is Vegeta?"
"Vegeta?" Yajirobe stammered. "This rugrat, er rather, this handsome young man's the child of yourself and Vegeta-sama, isn't he? That case, let's go!"
"Now you're talking." Bulma beamed and sped up.
"Different?" Vegeta echoed. "He's different, you say? Well then, who is that guy? Tell me what he is!"
"It's no great matter, is it?" Krillin reasoned. "After all, our history may have just changed slightly from the one he told us about. The Androids we're facing have also changed from the ones he knew."
"That's fine if it's true." Ami admitted.
Now then, what should I do? Android 20 mused. How can I get back to the laboratory? If I try to fly away, I'll likely be overtaken. The only thing I can do is use this terrain to conceal myself as I go.
"Hey, isn't that Bulma's?" Krillin noticed the jet.
"Yoo hoo!" Bulma waved.
"Hey look!" Yajirobe noted. "That's an Android! One of them is still around."
"Doctor Gero?" Bulma blinked at the human-turned-Android.
"Watch out!" Trunks barked a warning. "Don't come any closer!"
"Now!" Android 20 decided. "I wasn't lying when I said there's absolutely no way you could win!" he declared. "No. 17 and 18 will be coming soon to kill all of you!"
"No 17...?" Piccolo echoed.
"No. 18...?" Vegeta repeated.
Laughing manically, Android 20 fired a blast to cover his escape.
"Why that lousy..." Piccolo growled, having been forced to shield his eyes from the explosion.
The discharge was devastating as the entire canyon exploded and causing Bulma's transport pod to bes blown off course. Trunks managed to get Bulma and his infant self to safety.
"Ah, what a big surprise!" Bulma sighed in relief as Ami flew back to avoid the energy ripple and landed beside the worried mother. "Trunks! Oh, Trunks!" she took the wailing infant from the future Trunks' arms. "Oh thank goodness. Thanks pal."
"Oh dear." Ami muttered, recognizing the glare Trunks cast at the hovering Vegeta.
"He's vanished!" Vegeta cursed. "Dammit! He got away!"
"Bulma!" Gohan called, landing with Krillin beside Bulma.
"Are you okay?" Krillin asked.
"Fine, fine." Bulma assured. "This boy saved us."
"Really!" Gohan noted.
"Thank goodness." Krillin added.
"Damn!" Vegeta growled. "You're not getting away from me!"
Glaring at his father, Trunks took off to the sky, stopping Vegeta in his tracks.
"Why didn't you help them just now?" the teenager demanded.
"What?" Vegeta inquired.
"They're your wife and child, aren't they?" Trunks barked.
"How insignificant." Vegeta snorted. "I have no interest in any of that. You're in the way, mind your own business!" raising his Ki and took off, leaving a stunned Trunks in his wake. He's not flying up in the air, which means that he is running away on foot so that we can't locate him. He couldn't have gone very far yet.
"Say, was that strange, old geezer earlier, an Android?" Bulma asked. "There, there." she cradled her wailing baby.
"Why, yes, he was." Krillin replied.
"There, there." Bulma soothed her child. "That was probably Doctor Gero himself. I've seen him in a book of scientists. That is strange too. I wonder if he's converted himself? There, there." she turned her attention back to the baby.
"Ain't anyone gonna pay me no attention?" Yajirobe muttered in the fallen canyon.
Startled by the new information, Krillin shouted up to the fighters in the air, "Hey, that Adnroid just now was probably Doctor Gero!"
"Doctor Gero?" Trunks echoed.
Tien, Piccolo and Vegeta were alarmed by the news.
"That was Doctor Gero?" Vegeta repeated as everyone crowded around Bulma. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Like I said, I've seen his picture before." Bulma replied. "He spoke of Doctor Gero, so I looked him up. There, there, now." she rocked her baby. "Yes, he's pulling a scary face, isn't he? You know what? Doctor Gero is quite gifted and famous, especially among other scientists. It seemed that he was rather hard to get along with though. Oh, there, there!" she rocked the wailing infant.
"Everything you've told us has been completely false!" Vegeta snarled at the future self of his child. "Wasn't Doctor Gero supposed to have been killed by Androids? And these Androids are different from yours!"
"The only thing I can figure out is that history has shifted somehow." Trunks reasoned. "Most likely due to us coming back to the past before now."
"He mentioned No. 17 and No.18, right?" Piccolo reminded. "More than likely, those are your two Androids. Tell us how we can distinguish them. We can't afford any more mistakes."
"Yes, you're right." Ami relented. "No. 17 is a young man with long black hair and a scarf around his neck."
"No. 18 is a pretty female type, dressed in clothes similar mine." Trunks added.
"A female type?" Krillin echoed.
"They both have cold eyes and round earrings." Ami continued. "I think you'll know them when you see them."
"They would have to draw energy in through their palms, wouldn't they?" Piccolo pressed.
"No, they aren't not like that." Ami replied. "Their energy is... unlimited."
"Unlimited?" Vegeta demanded. "You mean it never runs out?"
"There, there!" Bulma rocked the crying infant.
"Say, more importantly, what is Goku?" Trunks asked, noticing the missing Saiyan.
"That heart disease, the one you warned us about?" Krillin replied. "He just barely came down with it."
Ami and Trunks looked at each other in mild surprise.
Wrong timing. Ami grimaced.
"Is that how badly time has been shifted?" Trunks noted.
In the Son household...
"Goku, hang in there!" Chi-Chi pleaded, seeing her suffering husband.
"You don't suppose, we might be too late with the medicine, do you?" Yamcha wondered. "You've got to hold on, Goku.
"Goku!" Chi-Chi wailed.
In the canyon...
You just wait, Vegeta and Piccolo. Androids 20 grinned as he hurried back to his laboratory. You're about to get a taste of just how terrible we Androids really are!
"What do you think you're doing, Vegeta?" Bulma backed off from the enraged Saiyan Prince. "If you come any closer with that scary face of yours, you're going to make Trunks cry again. There, there now." she rocked her wailing baby. "I know, it's surprising how scary his face is, isn't it?"
"Bulma, do you know where Doctor Gero's laboratory is located?" Vegeta asked the mother of his child. "He's heading back that way, for sure!"
"The location?" Bulma repeated. "Well, as I recall, it was somewhere in the mountains surrounding Metro North. There's a rumor that he converted a cave up there into a laboratory."
"Well, he's long gone by now." Krillin reasoned. "Even if we were to take off after him..."
"We're alright." Vegeta assured. "Did anyone see him flying away?"
"Now that you mention it..." Gohan voiced.
"He intends to use the topography here to help him get away again." Vegeta concluded. "He must be running through an arena not far from here."
"I get you." Piccolo realized what Vegeta's intention was. "All we have to do then is get there first, and then destroy No. 17 and No. 18 before Doctor Gero has a chance to activate them."
"I won't do such a cowardly thing." Vegeta snorted. "I just want to be first in line to put the others away with my own two hands! The Androids we just took on gave us such a poor fight, after all."
"You must not!" Trunks protested. "You must not. You underestimate the Androids. As Piccolo said, we should destroy them before they are started up. If we are too late to do that," he blocked Vegeta from heading off. "We should avoid battle until Goku has recovered from his illness."
"We don't have to wait for Kakarot's strength." Vegeta snapped. "Can't you tell? I've become a Super Saiyan too! With him and I turned Super Saiyans, my elite skills obviously place me several steps above him. Now move it! You're in the way!" he declared. With that, he took off.
"Hey, he's gone, alright." Tien noted.
"Vegeta has become a Super Saiyan now, and has gotten even stronger than Goku." Piccolo remarked. "He just might be able to beat the Androids as he says."
"I can turn into a Super Saiyan as well." Trunks admitted. "However, there isn't any way I can match up against them. They have unbelievable strength. I'm going too. He may be a jerk, but I'm not going to let my father die again!" gritting his teeth, he took off after Vegeta.
"Father?" Bulma echoed. "Did he just say father? I wonder what he meant?"
"There's no reason to keep this secret any longer." Piccolo begun. "His name is Trunks. His father was Vegeta, and you are his mother. In other words, he's the grown-up version of the baby in your arms."
"He's right." Ami confirmed.
"You're kidding!" Gohan gaped.
"Is that right?" Bulma gave her baby a good look.
"Come to think of it, they do look alike." Krillin stammered. "Now it all makes sense about how he is able to be a Super Saiyan."
"You guys come with me and help search out Doctor Gero's laboratory." Piccolo instructed. "It seems best to destroy the Androids before they even get started up."
"You got it." Krillin nodded.
"Ok." Gohan agreed.
"Trunks, you grow up to be a pretty good guy after all." Bulma beamed. "Thank goodness. Your Mom was worried because you have such a mean look about you."
"Bulma, please let my father know about all of this." Gohan requested. "And tell him if he gets well in time, we'd like him to join us."
"That's fine, but how am I supposed to tell him?" Bulma inquired. "My airplane's got all smashed up."
"Gohan, you take her with you." Piccolo stated. "The rest of us have what it takes if we're just destroying the Androids."
"Okay, but be careful." Gohan replied.
"Alright, let's go!" Piccolo told the rest. "We have to find it before Vegeta does!"
Krillin and Tien nodded and the three took off.
"Okay, we'll be going pretty fast, now." Gohan cautioned, taking Bulma in his arms as Ami carried the infant version of her lover, the Master Healer preparing to spread her wings.
"Hey, don't forget about me." Yajirobe sounded out, climbing out of the crevice he fell in. "You're taking me too, you're taking me."
Back with Android 20, he was running off towards his lab. I should be okay now. Having run this far, I should be able to fly without being seen. When his sensor sounded and he hid under a overhanging hedge. Vegeta! He gasped, seeing the Saiyan fly overhead. Shoot, is he still trying to search me out? Him too. He noticed Trunks flying past. They're both flying in exactly the same direction as I'm headed. Could they possibly be headed for my laboratory? No, it' just a coincidence. It has to be a coincidence. There's no way they could know where my laboratory is. Only a few scientists even know about this. Then, it struck him. Was it Bulma? The first daughter of Capsule Corporation? She could have asked her father about me. He realized. Sensing another three Ki, he hid behind a solid stone wall. As Piccolo, Tien and Krillin flew past, he was certain, that must be it, alright! They're all headed towards my laboratory. So, they intend to destroy No. 17 and No. 18 before I can start them up, do they? There's no way I'm letting them get away with that! I never told anyone the exact location, so they shouldn't be able to find it without some searching. I can still take the roundabout way and get there first. That decided, he took off.
"Hey Gohan, you can speed up a little if you want." Bulma stated.
"Right." the young half-Saiyan nodded, carrying Bulma in his arms and Yajirobe on his back.
Ami was flying beside them, a baby Trunks cradled safely in her arms.
Piccolo had told them who she was and Gohan was more than happy for the girl to come with them.
Meanwhile, Vegeta was heading towards Dr Gero's lab with Trunks close behind and the teenager recalled a conversation he had with his mother earlier.
"Your late father?" Bulma echoed. "He sure did a lot of wicked things. He'd be in Hell now, no doubt about it. But he had his good points too. He was always so full of pride, he never showed his gentle side clearly to anyone. But I knew..."
"Is he thinking of accompanying me the whole way?" Vegeta looked over at Trunks, seeing how he had refused to give up. "How interesting."and sped up.
Frowning deeply, Trunks, too, powered up, speeding alongside with his father.
That's right, he can become a Super Saiyan too. He is my kid, which explains where he gets his Saiyan blood from. Vegeta thought proudly
"Yajirobe, why don't you get down and walk already?" Bulma retorted.
"Stuff it!" Yajirobe snapped.
SailorStar9: Phew, another chapter down. Stay tuned for Chapter 2: Nightmare Comes True.