Man, can't believe we're actually starting the Android Saga. Feels almost surreal, soon we'll be at the Cell saga and many things I've been planning will play out. I really hope it works out as planned

Also, can't believe I managed to get the time skip done in three chapters, though it thematically worked out like one chapter per year. Cannot promise similar results for future time skips.
I have also already commissioned a new cover for the Cell Saga. I think I'll update it around the time of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber

In regard to the kid. I'm feeling a bit arrogant. Cocky, if you will. I am so confident that no one will guess it I'll even give you a hint. I have Technically* referenced the child's existence at some point in this fic already

Phreak91: You are correct on the age range, you are also right in that it is none of them

dragonbornthesam: The point of the fic is that she's been put into Gohan's position. If you don't like it you can write your own story

Tinfoot: Goten'll be a teenager by that point, legally a child, but not colloquially one. And just barely at that

Bureno: Thanks ^.^

thewittywhy: Thanks ^.^
And I do have some plans as to how the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and after will go. It will not be as canon. I will not elaborate further, because reasons.

SoralTheSol: Brilliant. I wish I came up with that

"Welp, final day. Wanna check your progress?"

Raditz hesitantly handed over his scouter. Despite having learned how to sense energy, he still defaulted to the scouter most of the time.

I hooked it over my ear, pressing its buttons. It was obviously too big for me but that didn't matter for such a temporary use.

"Hmm, welp you're still a bit shy of a million, but over nine hundred thousand's not bad."

I looked up when Raditz didn't reply right away.

"…don't. Don't lie like that. It's not very nice."

"Why would I lie?" I tossed back the scouter, "what's even be the point of lying about a number still weaker than mine?"

Raditz didn't seem to have a response.

…

I couldn't sleep that night. I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to do about 19 and 20. Obviously whichever one was Gero had to stay alive long enough to wake up 17 and 18, even though I'd personally want to smite him myself. It's his fault any of this is even a problem after all.

It'd be worse if Cell were to show up and those two were still asleep. It'd be way too easy for him to find them and everyone else would have thought the threat had already passed. And I don't know where the lab is to do anything myself.

I don't know if I even could do anything to change anything. I don't know if I'm stronger than, on par with, or weaker than canon Gohan. I don't know if that matters.

Maybe, maybe I don't even have to fight Cell. Maybe if I can just make sure he doesn't get to 17 and 18, or even just one of them, we wouldn't have to worry about the fight. Or at least I wouldn't.

It didn't matter how this went though, because regardless, the end result wouldn't be the same. Not as things were before, and certainly not as canon.

I still don't think I can beat Perfect Cell.

I know, I know there's still training to be done in the time chamber, but I- I don't know.

I couldn't sleep. That was annoying.

…

"Oh, promise me that you'll all take care of each other! I've packed you lunch and- and-"

"Ah, don't worry Chi! We'll be fine," Goku smiled.

"I'm serious Goku! All of you had better come back safe! That includes you two! Raditz? Piccolo?"

Raditz responded in animation easily enough, Piccolo on the other hand…

"Piccolo?"

"I will, ensure your husband and kid get back safely."

"And?"

"And, your brother-in-law."

"And?"

"…"

"And?"

"It's like watching someone get their teeth pulled," Raditz couldn't help but comment.

"…and….myself…" it was muttered quietly as if he was hoping it wouldn't actually be heard.

"There! Now was that so hard?"

Obviously, it was.

Piccolo was now staring ahead, assumably silent until we left.

I glanced up, "hey uh, dad, did you ever take that medicine from the future?"

"Huh? Well no, I never got sick. Guess I must have missed the virus while training," he grinned.

And I hated that. I hated that the medicine had to be taken after showing symptoms. That meant there was nothing I could do to prevent it.

If I couldn't even prevent that-

Nope. Stopping there. We are leaving now.

"For three years, we trained for this moment. But was it enough?" Piccolo asked, ever the optimist.

"Ask me again this afternoon," Goku smiled in response.

Honestly, I wasn't concerned about 19 and 20, at least in terms of strength. Piccolo was certainly the strongest person on Earth, that's currently awake, at base form, and Goku had gotten a hold on being a Super Sayain fairly quickly. He mostly practiced that on days when Raditz was at Capsule Corp and I was training with Piccolo. He said he didn't want to train with others with it until he knew how strong it really was. It didn't take long for him to start incorporating it into sparring bouts with Piccolo though.

Right, 19 and 20 I'm not too worried about. Even if things don't go as canon, it should work out fine. Whichever one was Gero has to wake up 17 and 18 though, which means he has to get away.

He was quick to run away in canon. So it should be fine.

"If those two can't beat them we're pretty much screwed anyway so-" Raditz was muttering, probably not meaning to be heard.

With me, I only had my Gi, sword, and backpack. In my backpack I had my water bottle, some snack bars, a small sketchbook because I am compulsive, and, most importantly, the leftover Senzu Beans from the Cooler shebackle.

I had ended up using one during training, but since Chichi had obviously noticed that I wasn't hungry for ten days after, I avoided them for the rest of the time, so I still had three left. I don't know if time messes with their potency or not, but having them is still better than not.

Piccolo and Goku were just, wearing what they always wore. Shocking I'm sure.

Raditz had strayed away from armor over the years, now wearing loose blue pants he often wore in training and a white shirt that might have been a size too small instead.

It didn't take long until we ran into Krillin on the way.

"You ready to bash in some Androids?" Goku asked in levity.

Krillin looked down in doubt, "Well, I'm as ready right now as I'm ever gonna be."

We reached the island soon after that. It was, surprisingly populated. The city while not as big as West City, certainly met the criteria as a city rather than a town.

Landing we found Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu, Bulma, Ocari, and Nappa already there. the last of which was hovering around Bulma who was very conspicuously carrying an infant.

"Why are you here, and why did you bring the child?" Raditz asked the moment we landed.

"Is that, your baby Bulma?"

"No Krillin. I kidnapped him. Of course he is!"

"Oh, huh. Congratulations? Is he your's Yamcha?"

Raditz snickered and Bulma sent him a pointed glare for it.

"…ok…that was funny for some reason…I'm guessing not then," Krillin concluded.

"Just wait until you find out who the father really is."

"Is it Vegeta?" I asked.

"Vegeta." Raditz affirmed.

"Vegeta." Piccolo agreed.

"Vegeta." Nappa nodded.

"Yup, Vegeta, right Trunks?" Goku said, having walked over so he could coo at the baby.

"Ok…that was nearly as secret as I thought it was. I knew Nappa and Raditz knew, but really? Did you tell them? I wanted it to be a surprise!" Bulma half glared at Raditz, who did not seem to care.

"Wait, wait wait. Are you serious? Vegeta? And you? How?"

"I assume you know how babies are made, Krillin."

"I- yeah- but-"

"While we're on the subject," Piccolo mercifully interrupted, "where is Vegeta?"

"Hm? Oh I have no idea. I know he was planning to be around here, but with the baby and all, I just lost track of him."

"What? Vegeta can't even be bothered to be around his own kid?" I asked, redundantly since I already knew as much.

"Ha! I don't think he's even looked at Trunks! That doesn't matter though, does it? Does it?" Bulma turned to coo at the baby.

"He'll show, he wouldn't miss a fight this big," Goku was confident in that much.

Piccolo was looking over the edge of the cliff to stare down at the city. I sat over the edge as I looked down. Ten o'clock came and went with no change. The only conversation to be had at this point was cooing over the baby.

"Someone's coming," Piccolo stated, otherwise unmoving.

I glanced up and sensed out to find that a Ki signal was, in fact, approaching quickly.

"Is it the Androids?"

I shook my head, knowing that the mere fact that I could sense them meant it wasn't, but since I shouldn't have known that, "it's not nearly strong enough for what was described, besides, there's only one."

"Hm, good point. Even if they were suppressing their power, there are supposed to be two of them," Goku noted.

The Ki approached until it was clear that whoever was approaching was driving a flying car instead of flying. I'd say that was another giveaway, but I'm pretty sure 17 did like cars in canon.

The car landed and out from it came, the guy. You know, the one, the one who cut off Vegeta's tail. At what point of not knowing his name is it just willful ignorance? I mean, it's not like I see him ever. Once every few years is hardly notable.

"Hey! Yajirobi! You came to help us fight!" Goku declared for him.

"Are you crazy?! Of course I didn't. I'm just here to drop off these Senzu beans for Korin. Then I'm out," he held up the bag to prove his point.

"Ah! Thanks a lot! And give my best to Korin!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever. I'm out of here," the guy climbed back into his car and took back off.

Ok, I'm aware of the fact that I can fly…but flying cars still seemed so surreal.

"Well, it's after ten. And there's no sign of those Androids," Tien commented, looking over to the city.

"Man, I can't believe I actually believed that kid," Yamcha laughed, "time travel, Androids, I mean come on? I know we've seen some weird things, but I think that crosses the line."

"Oh don't be so literal, it's only ten seventeen," Bulma looked down at her watch, "just because the time wasn't exact doesn't mean that boy was wrong. He must have been pretty young when it happened in his time after all."

"I think we would have sensed their power levels by now. Sorry to disappoint you, but those world-ending Androids just aren't coming."

As if on cue our attention was brought back to the sky as the guy's flying car (hover car maybe?) exploded.

Not waiting for a cue, Ocari took off to the vehicle that was now falling into the ocean.

"Look up! The Androids!" Piccolo shouted drawing everyone's attention upwards, and sure enough, two figures too far away to see much more than dark specks in the sky were floating where the guy's car used to be. As soon as they were seen, they vanished into the city.

"Where'd they go? I couldn't even sense their power," Tien stated as now everyone stood over the edge of the cliff, trying to spot the Androids, which seemed kinda silly since, well it's not like they could see people down there, why'd they be able to see the Androids?

"Well, they're machines, aren't they? Don't know about you but I certainly can't sense it when a machine is using power," Raditz mentioned, much to the shock of everyone else.

Still, my lip twitched, "or at least whatever's powering them we can't sense," I added, because 17 and 18 weren't machines. They were just normal people, until Gero got to them.

"Can you pick up anything on the scouter?" Nappa asked, since Raditz was the only one who still used them.

"The Scouters work on life energy too," Raditz said, clicking at the side buttons, "nothing that couldn't be sensed, though much more detailed. If humans start to drop dead, that's probably where you'll find your Androids."

"Well, we should probably try to find them before that happens," Krillin glanced away from the city only to continue.

"If we can't sense them, how are we supposed to find them?" Yamcha asked.

"Well, I guess we're splitting up and searching until we find them. If anyone sees anything suspicious, flare your energy," Goku decided.

"But we don't even know what they're supposed to look like, did future boy even give a description?" Yamcha once again asked.

"No, he didn't," Piccolo said, "but that brings up another point, we can't assume everything he said is going to be true. We don't know if his interference changed anything. And do not let them know we know more than we should, if possible we should let them believe we were here by coincidence." It was something Piccolo and I had discussed earlier, but decided it'd be best if he explained it because he actually looked like an adult.

"I mean, I doubt they'd buy that, but otherwise I'd agree," Tien nodded.

"Hey Bulma, it's time for you to leave now," Nappa said, "you've seen the Androids, like you wanted, so, take you and the little prince and leave."

"Uh, no! I didn't see anything! I'm not going anywhere!"

"Hey, well if you're gonna stay anyway, look after these," Goku tossed her the Senzu Beans, "Yajirobe's probably gonna need one when Ocari gets him back here."

"Can't you just leave her one, or-?" Raditz questioned.

"One of Cooler's guys was able to destroy a bunch of them because they were too close to the battlefield. It's probably safer if we keep them away."

I sighed, unable to fault his logic. I mean, it'd be better to keep them with us, but it'd also be pretty bad if 19 or 20 destroyed them, I'm pretty sure they destroyed the city a bit in canon, which sets a dangerous standard for valuables.

We split off to search. I did try to stay near Yamcha for a bit, but he eventually noticed and questioned me, so I split off.

It was probably a bit silly for me to think things would be exactly like canon anyway.

I strolled the city, keeping my eyes open for any Red Ribbon logos, but really just keeping my senses out to see if any of the others flared their Ki, or started dwindling.

"Man, I doubt anyone could have survived that!"

I looked over to see a couple of men looking over to where the guy's car blew up, the blond one noticed my gaze.

"Hey kid, did'ja see that? That sky car blew up! Man, I knew those things weren't safe!"

Sky car? That's a much worse name than Flying car, or even hover car.

"Huh, no. Must have missed it."

Besides, asking a kid if they saw a terrible accident? I can't be the only one who thinks that's weird.

I continued walking until I felt one of the Ki signatures quickly dropping.

Yamcha.

Stupid. "Things might not go exactly the same". Of course they would! Without outside interference, they always seem to. What, did I expect adding Nappa and Raditz to the mix would change things that drastically?

I rushed over as black smoke started billowing over the area.

I ended up being the first to arrive, not that it mattered since the rest came in shortly after. The fire was apparently caused by a crashed fuel truck.

I couldn't quite say if it was shock, or some form of bystander effect, but no one acted immediately as blood dripped onto the street, its source being Yamcha held up by the face with a gaping hole through his stomach.

That, is horrifying actually.

The Android dropped Yamcha to the ground.

Gero.

I had to school the flash of rage that went through me at the sight of him. Not only because of Yamcha bleeding out in the street, but also because it was entirely his fault any of this was happening.

Of course, it'd probably be easy to account my anger as being caused by the critically wounded Yamcha.

"There's still time to save him! Krillin, take him to Bulma and get one of the Senzu Beans," Goku ordered.

"I'm on it," Krillin nodded. He cautiously approached, but the Androids did nothing as he hooked Yamcha's arm around his shoulder.

"And bring them back this time! Leaving them was a bullshit idea to start with!" Raditz yelled after Krillin as he flew off.

"Now then, before we begin, I must ask. That man referred to us as Androids. How is it that he knew of our existence?" Gero asked, "although, I find it even more interesting that all of you anticipated our arrival to this island."

"Mhmm, what a well-planned coincidence. It doesn't matter. We're here, you're here. Let's move on," I inputted, because this was dumb.

"Fine then. I guess I'll just have to make you talk."

Most of them fell into a fighting stance as the fire raged behind us.

"There are too many people here. We need to lead them out of the city," Goku whisper-yelled towards Piccolo, who nodded.

"Yes," Gero heard anyway, "it is too crowded here. Many people may get in our way, I will see to it that they do not."

Gero's eyes glowed red before firing eye lasers directly behind us, causing the fire to expand further. He then turned his head, blasting at buildings and cars, anything to cause massive amounts of destruction.

Goku rushed forward, punching Gero in the face with a shout to end the attack, knocking off his Red Ribbon hat, revealing a disturbingly blue brain within a glass covering. Was it the tinting of the glass making it look blue? Or whatever liquid that kept it viable? Weird.

Looking back the part of the city behind us was kinda, destroyed. That should probably be the first priority.

"You monster!"

Gero simply picked his hat back up and fixed it onto his head, "I cleared the area of innocents, as according to your wishes. Do you disagree with my methods?"

"Yeah. Clearly," Raditz drawled, not nearly as affected by the carnage as Goku.

"Leave these people out of this!"

The, not Gero Android smiled, "there are no people left to leave out."

"Very well then," Gero inputted before anyone else could respond, "I will allow you to lead me somewhere else."

Police sirens blared in the distance, and Goku decided that was the time to leave, and the group took off into the sky, leading the Androids off.

I don't know if there was much for me to do here, at least not until these two were taken care of, but I at least wanted to be there for anything that might happen. Just in case.

Yeah I couldn't decide on how strong I wanted to make Radish sooooo, over 9000 joke it is.