For the first couple of days, Trunks cycled between working on the computer's data, all while listening to the radio, and helping Dr Brief and Bulma make a new dome for the Time Machine. She occasionally played with the baby in the late afternoon, much to the delight of photo-starved Bulma. 'Explaining these pictures to Trunksie will be a blast.' she'd exclaimed, and there was no use fighting her, so might as well submit gracefully. Trunks might have been happy working in her loose pajamas in the wee hours of the morning, but she made sure to properly bind the rest of the time, and that included for whatever moments where this version of her mother would surely be taking pictures. She figured getting copies would please her mother.
Once cleaned of all its moss and properly vacuumed, there was little doubt that the Time Machine was an identical version of her own. Seat height, command placements, everything. Because of how uncanny she felt looking at it and knowing it was not the machine she traveled in, she made an impulse decision and with a red sharpie, circled the word Hope that had been written by her mother before her first trip. She needed to focus on that word and that word only to keep putting a foot in front of the other.
Looking at code for hours on end was useless, counterproductive even, and she was still reluctant to let this world's Bulma or Dr Brief have a look, respecting her mother's wishes. Even if it wasn't her mother's machine, stricto sensu. The radio provided a welcome distraction for the grunt work. After the logs, she wrote a small script to compare files and see whether they had changes to them, but it still took manual checks to see whether the differences were something she could understand and were relevant, and discard all changes that were just extra data generated from the return procedure and the 787-to-763 trip her Machine didn't do. Yet?
By the third day and still no news of the Cyborgs, the Cicada-monster, nor Vegeta (although she sensed his energy spike every now and then), Trunks found herself frustrated with the lack of actual physical activity. She considered her options, going to Kame-House, the Lookout or finding Tenshinhan was a bother. Finding Vegeta seemed like a terrible idea. She decided to ask to use the Gravity Room, and Bulma promptly allowed it, creating a new 'user' in the database. That same morning she stood in the training facilities barefoot, with her loose gray pants, binder and black tank top, awaiting instructions. On the screen, she could see a focused, hard-working Bulma and a little piece of the baby's hat.
"Trunks, the one from the future. Sixteen years old. 167cm, 58kg," Bulma stated the teen's information, and Trunks was happy to hear she grew a little taller and heavier since she last checked. She also made a mental note that she was both taller and heavier than Vegeta, as she remembered her checking on his files when she first accessed the servers. She took a moment to correct.
"I was sixteen when I last visited, but my birthday passed in the four months it took to charge the machine. I am now seventeen and two months old, give or take a few days." According to her calendar, she'd left about six weeks after her birthday, but she had to add the extra 22 days she spent in the past to use the Dragon Balls. Trunks was thankful she didn't need to worry about accurate paperwork in her world, and an extra month was no big deal. If she stayed years in the past, then came back with the return procedure, her biological age wouldn't match her actual calendar age, that would be.. interesting.
Bulma corrected the information and continued. "15.6% body fat. Should be a little higher if you're still growing." The baby cooed a little.
"Noted."
"I'll set up a vocal order for you to be able to control the settings on your own. Now say out loud a password so the computer allows you to see your data."
Trunks thought for a moment about what kind of password to use. She used complex ones for the computer and for sensitive files, and gathered using a variation of those would be dangerous in case Bulma got snoopy. She decided to use something she wouldn't forget, wouldn't use anywhere else, and wouldn't say too much about her to this past version of her mother.
"7661121"
The password chosen being a birth date wasn't lost on Bulma. The computer recorded the voice, and 'user: Trunks, the future one' appeared on the screen as well as some data.
"The computer will adapt to your voice commands but right now I'll do it for you. I'll turn on the gravity now and ramp it up little by little, ok? Extend your arms forward, and drop them when it's becoming strenuous."
Trunks agreed, rolled back her shoulders, closed her fists and extended her arms in front of her. She looked at the screen expectant, and the weight of her own body hit her like a truck. She grit her teeth and adjusted, but by the time the number showed 50, she dropped her arms down in defeat, breathing slowly, heart pounding from the effort it took just to stay immobile. Collapsing wouldn't make for efficient exercise, she figured she still needed to be able to move to gain anything from it.
"Can you walk? Jump?" Bulma asked.
Trunks frowned, extended her arms forward again, then crouched, and stood again. Slowly she was able to move a little more freely. She walked, then skipped forward instead of jumping. This was hard but feasible. The hot air and her faster heartbeat was already making her sweat from the effort. Fighting in these conditions was absolute madness. She was glad she didn't try to fight Vegeta, even if he couldn't transform yet, under such strain.
"Yes, this is fine. My body is already adjusting."
"You'll need to ease into it at every threshold, so be more reasonable than your father. That idiot almost killed himself at 300G."
"Vegeta-san is goal oriented." She repeated something she'd said to this past version of Bulma before, and her mind drifted to how her actual father probably did something similar before his death. Her mother had explained he'd trained to the extreme before Goku's return, and even afterwards, so he could catch up to him. Trunks' intrusion and warning about the cyborgs didn't change much of his behavior, it seemed. 300G seemed like madness, but she figured she would be able to take it further if she transformed.
"Yes he is. What do you want to work on?"
"Reflexes." Trunks said while stretching her legs slowly, warming up her muscles little by little. Even just the warm up was stressing her body, in a good way. A good dozen robots activated and flew around the room, on standby.
"When you say 'start', they'll start shooting at you slowly, then they'll adapt to your speed. Just state 'harder', 'faster', 'more powerful', '5 opponents' and so on, to adjust parameters manually. The AI will take a little time to adjust to you, just speak naturally, it'll catch on, ok?"
"Understood." She closed her fists and extended her arms forward again. Her body had gotten used to the new circumstances well enough, the hard pressure she felt at first was now manageable and just felt like a nice resistance to her movements. Part of her wanted to increase again even if she had just begun warming up, but she decided against it. Better start slow, especially for a first time.
"I'll be checking your vitals, but-"
"You needn't worry, I just need a little exercise, I won't push myself unreasonably." She held her extended arm across from her by the elbow, to stretch her shoulder and back, looking at the information on the monitor. Her heart rate had peaked at the initial gravity increase, but was now steadying, even if it was still under stress from the effort.
"Alright smart kid," Bulma approved. "If you need me, say my name and the computer will call me. See you in a few!" The genius closed the communication when she saw Trunks acknowledge the last information given. Trunks promptly commanded for the radio to be on, so she could still monitor potential Cyborg activity, and continued more active warm up activities before actually testing herself against the robots' AI.
The halfling was satisfied with her first test of the tech, and said as much to its inventors, it eased some of her primal need for violence, focused her mind out of unactionable thoughts, and got a good workout off of her. She wasn't sure if it was training but it was pleasant physical activity nonetheless. She kept in mind the information she'd understood from Vegeta's 763-764 logs, and forced herself to trust the data and not her instincts; intense enough to nudge at the body's limits, and harder every time, but short enough to let the body recover efficiently. She took a moment at night to skim the past two and a half years worth of logs, and see whether Vegeta had rested more, and the initial correlation between rest and measurable improvement was confirmed. She could even pin-point, from the data (or rather, the lack thereof, due to machine malfunctions that took longer to repair than usual), exactly when Vegeta reached super Saiyan. During the following days, Trunks integrated gravity training in her routine, giving it a solid couple of hours a day, but never at the same hour as she didn't keep a reliable, predictable sleep pattern.
With the Time Machine's data all collected and mostly compared on key information files, Trunks was disappointed to find no further edits in the code beyond what she'd confirmed from the travel logs. Her mother might be able to look beyond what she could see herself, so she'd have to give the data to her when she'd return home.
She called Kame-House to give Krillin the information she had so he could discuss it with everyone there, mostly that it probably comes from yet another universe. She didn't give him all of the details about the travels and the dates, as it didn't actually matter to the current state of affairs. She was pleased to hear Goku was healing well, had drifted in and out of consciousness, and that the nightmares mostly stopped. She considered finding Tenshinhan to talk about this Mafuba technique they had talked about, but she wanted to test the GR a little more before going.
On May 17th, Trunks decided to test the Gravity Room with super Saiyan, and upped the gravity to 200G. The robots weren't able to keep up with the sudden power surge and absolutely off the charts data from the info the AIs had on her, so Trunks told the console to create a 'super mode' and name the previous algorithm 'normal mode', keeping two different sets of data to adjust from. 'Coincidentally', Vegeta returned to the compound the moment Trunks had intended to come out of the Gravity Room, in time for dinner, but with a simple hungry and pressing stare, Vegeta made her turn around and go back in.
"Brat," the Prince spat as he closed the door, while the teenager walked further inside the GR, tossing her towel aside and bracing herself for further exhaustion. From his voice and look, Trunks recognized a man who hadn't slept for days, exactly like the man she carried back into his bed the first time he fought her in that very same room.
"Vegeta-san," she acknowledged back and turned to properly face him from afar.
"Gravity, 300G," Vegeta responded, fists closed and turning golden, with a strained roar. Trunks barely had the time to summon whatever strength left and transform as well before the room's AI obeyed Vegeta's command.
Arguably, Vegeta was in a worse state than she was, from lack of rest and food, but he had trained under such gravity in his base form and he was driven by the task at hand. His ability to put aside all discomfort was astonishing. The task at hand in this case consisted of launching himself, teeth out, straight at the other, ready to beat the teenager senselessly. Trunks didn't move and put herself in full defense mode, focusing on reading the movements and blocking or deviating whatever she could. Despite Vegeta's utter exhaustion and lower energy levels, he was still fast and vicious and voicing out how he was an elite, that he'd win, that he'd go beyond super Saiyan, and that the blonde bitch would pay, and that he'd show his weakling halfbreed just what he's made of. The few minutes it all took felt like hours and Trunks doubted she'd last much longer, but her salvation came with Bulma's voice.
"What the hell?! Gravity off!"
The sudden screech and subsequent overriding order gave enough of a distraction for Trunks to be able to, through gritted teeth, push her right fist into Vegeta's stomach to force him out of combat. When his hair turned black, Trunks helped him down. She dropped the super Saiyan form more or less against her will, crouching near him, drenched in sweat and wincing at the pain her whole body felt from the gravity stress and the hits she got. She didn't bother wiping the blood off her face. Vegeta fought to stay conscious, keeping his eyes on the brat and grunted something about 'cheap shot motherfucker'.
The door of the gravity room opened and Bulma came in running, first aid kit in hand, and quickly rushed to the two. Trunks dropped back on the floor with a pained grunt, and Vegeta fell on his back, consciousness finally failing him, perhaps somewhat trusting now that he'd be tended by Bulma. The genius first checked Vegeta's vitals, and promptly assessed he was dehydrated and exhausted, but mostly intact, and when she turned to check on Trunks, she yelped at the blood she'd not seen first. Trunks ran a trembling hand to wipe her face, but Bulma shooed it off and used a tissue to wipe her herself.
"I'm fine," the teenager groaned, but the disinfectant to the wounds had her react otherwise. She closed and reopened her hands slowly, wincing at the pain.
"No you're not, what went through your goddamn mind?" Bulma cleaned her face, relieved to see the cut was superficial, then went on to touch her shoulders, palpating them to check for anything broken, checking the collarbones then going to her arms.
"Didn't exactly have a choice… I'm fine," she repeated a little more firmly, but a jolt of pain and a gasp told otherwise.
"Don't you try me young man." Bulma pressed on the right forearm, and Trunks held back a feral growl. The genius moved her hands back to the teenager's front, but Trunks promptly reached with her left hand to grab the wandering hand and push her off slowly, maintaining her away from her chest area.
"I need to check your ribs, Trunks, don't be difficult." Bulma squirmed, the grip may have been weak by human standards, but it was strong enough to bruise.
"My ribs are fine," she narrowed her eyes, without letting go, then breathed in and out slowly, and moved slowly her right forearm to confirm the origin of the pain. "Left ulna, right ulna and radius; stress fractures. Right hand, micro-fractures.." She slowly moved each finger and hissed. "Metacarpal on the thumb, proxima on the index and major. Partial, I think. Couple of strained muscles. Right leg will be sore in the morning."
When the message was clear, the grip loosened, and Trunks used her left hand to help herself back up slowly. The horrified look from Bulma's face melted her inside, she softened her gaze and wore her kind smile again. She wished her own mother hadn't had to get used to treating wounds far more severe than what she listed.
"I'm a tough cookie," she concluded. She got closer to Vegeta and slowly crouched to check his unconscious form. While she naturally reached with her right hand, she ended up properly using her less wounded left one. Bulma quickly caught on to the intent, and despite knowing better, she helped her put Vegeta on the kid's back to carry him back inside.
Instead of bothering with the stairs, however, Trunks prefered to levitate. Bulma was mindful and looked back more often when opening the doors and guiding the young warrior. She was more worried than the last time they walked a similar route, when she didn't know Trunks was a future version of her child, and when said teenager had outclassed Vegeta by simply standing there. And like they'd done about two and a half years prior, Vegeta was placed on his bed.
"He looks like shit," Bulma grumbled.
"He was awake and stressing his body for at least five days," Trunks hissed when her nervous system reminded her of pain when she moved her right hand.
"What an idiot." Bulma couldn't help but land a light punch on Vegeta's left shoulder, earning her a little groan from the Prince of all two and two half Saiyans, then she turned to her would-be child and shooed the teenager out. Trunks obeyed. "And you need a shower. Let's get going, I'll help you out."
"Kami, no. Absolutely not. I can wash myself." Trunked stopped by the door of her room, not intending at all to get any help undressing or showering. She felt Bulma try to insist and she cut her off, her mind panicking, her eyes darting in embarrassment at the idea of this version of her mother helping her undress, when she had a hard time accepting the little privacy she had with her own mother. She promptly closed the door and locked it without even waiting for an answer, and mentally apologizing for the outburst of rudeness. She didn't really wash but at least stepped into the cold water to rinse off, and changed clothes.
Putting on the fabric binder was not an easy task, but she'd done it in worse conditions. A button shirt and some clean jeans later, she was ready to wolf down some well deserved food. She used a scarf to hold her right arm sort-of immobile and gladly accepted her late plate, while Bulma hesitated in helping her eat. While not that confident with her left hand, she could still make it work.
"Why did he come at you like that, Trunks?" Eventually, Bulma broke the silence, and while Trunks had refused help with food, she was happy to refill her glass of water as opening the bottle did require both hands.
"Power calls for power. He must have felt my ki spike when I went super," in truth she didn't really know, she half shrugged, and couldn't really read his intentions, even as she recalled what the Saiyan had told her. Bulma had her own idea, now that she knew Trunks had transformed and that was why Vegeta showed up, but she didn't voice it.
"How's your pain?"
"A solid two out of ten. Goes up to four if I put pressure on it. I should be as good as new in a day or two, he was at the end of his rope," she was amazed rather than terrified at the prospect of going through something similar, but with Vegeta at full strength. She was exhausted and hindered by her workout and a gravity level she hadn't tried before.
"I suppose you've had worse?" Bulma wasn't happy to see the teenager just treat broken bones as if it was no big deal.
"I have. Spiral fractures are the worst, this is around the level of 'perhaps we went a little too far in a friendly spar, oops'," she smiled meekly and ended up using her fingers to grab the last piece of vegetable she didn't manage to catch with the chopsticks on her left hand. Her mind went back to a few of the worst injuries she'd got, including her last hospital stay prior to her first trip to the past. Part of her wanted to let Bulma know she'd stitched herself before, put back a dislocated elbow and a shoulder too, but she kept it to herself, considering how shocked she was with just superficial fractures. Then she recollected further back, and further back, and shook her head, gaze lost in the glass of water in front of her; her body had grown resilient because she'd broken so many bones. She knew her life had been nothing but normal, and she didn't want the baby named like her to grow up in similar conditions. Even if she and the baby were half-engineered for fighting, with all those stupid Saiyan genes.
"Take it easy please," the genius pleaded, and Trunks agreed with a confident nod.
The next morning, Vegeta was back on his feet and training in the Gravity Room. Trunks came down without the scarf, still feeling a little sore, but nothing that would last throughout the day. She helped put back the new dome on the Time Machine in the morning, and with nothing else to gain from it, she put it into a capsule and put it away in her case. She spent the early afternoon checking the GR logs for herself and what was measured the night prior, before heading out to find Tenshinhan, but the radio interrupted her reading.
"We are interrupting this program to inform you that about an hour ago, we started receiving a number of calls from the small suburb town of Gingertown. We sent a team to investigate and found that all inhabitants have mysteriously disappeared! There was no trace of anyone. At this time, the cause remains unknown…"
The whole "who wrote Hope on the Time Machine" debate still burns to this say, between the subs, the viz translations, other languages, and the dubs.
The Manga doesn't put a pronoun, it says "the word that was written before I left", somewhat implying Trunks wrote it himself, and the Anime says Bulma wrote it. I prefer Bulma, as she's the one placing her hopes on her kid, so I'm going with that.