Piccolo had gone to the Lookout right after the defeat with Seventeen and Eighteen. Kami knew exactly why he was there, but he refused the fusion right there and then, stating he needed to survey the situation more and that something didn't feel quite right. Piccolo decided to stay and meditate rather than leave, letting the old man drag things out if he wanted, eventually he'd agree to the inevitable. And yet, despite the warnings and Trunks' world being what it was, the Cyborgs spared their lives. Nineteen and Twenty had been dealt with after their destruction of the first city, but the other three? They seemingly 'only wanted to kill Son Goku' (and who didn't? ). Piccolo had to begrudgingly agree with Kami, something didn't add up. Later in the afternoon, Yamcha, Krillin, Tenshinhan and Chaozu joined them; Krillin explained Trunks would be on his way and wanted to talk about his findings, briefly explaining that a vehicle of 'his' was found by Gingertown. So eventually they got to talking while waiting for the time traveler, and finally bounced ideas about the fight with the Cyborgs.
Trunks' fixation on the two younger looking enemies was not lost on anyone, and Piccolo didn't doubt his world had been indeed slaughtered by Seventeen and Eighteen. His jumping in battle when Vegeta got wrecked by Eighteen was beyond reckless, and still he was compelled to help, as much as he loathed Vegeta. Tenshinhan and himself had followed suit when the distraction the teen had created against Seventeen proved useless. The fight ended poorly; Seventeen absolutely dominated Tenshinhan and Piccolo, and he then went to help Eighteen and put the half-Saiyan out of combat. The blonde then went on to punish Vegeta's bravado, and broke his other arm in the process. Piccolo kept to himself that he heard her say to Vegeta he was weak, she was looking for a better challenge with Goku, and that was greatly disappointed when Vegeta said he was 'stronger than Kakarot' (which Piccolo didn't doubt, and that was a problem). Piccolo also heard Krillin's conversation with the three of them before he went off and helped them all with a Senzu bean.
Piccolo told the other fighters on the Lookout about the conversation he had with Trunks, Goku and Gohan about the Cyborg strength when he stayed over the Son household three years prior, after Trunks and Goku had fought in their super Saiyan state. The teenager seemed fairly lucid in his assessment of his enemies, but this was way above what he'd told them then. Trunks saying these two were stronger than the versions he knew in his world caused abject terror in the fighters. The three years warning had been just about short of useless. His Seventeen and Eighteen were not as strong as this world's Seventeen and Eighteen, and Sixteen remained an unknown variable. This is why Piccolo wanted to fuse back with Kami; there's only so much strength he could get in his 'incomplete' state.
Yamcha who hadn't met the three new Cyborgs wasn't exactly trusting of the whole situation, he was well over his head, and knowing that this teenager was actually an older version of the baby his ex-girlfriend had with Vegeta of all people didn't help. Goku's health putting him out of commission that very same day added to the unease. Piccolo also mentioned that Trunks and Vegeta were stronger than Goku in the current state of affairs, as he had trained with him for the past couple of years, he had a good idea of Goku's strengths before he fell ill. Unless he was ill all that time and the symptoms didn't show.
Kami eased some of the fighters' worries about perhaps having been fooled by Vegeta's kid, stating things seemed simply different between the two worlds; the Dragon had said it was another universe altogether, after all.
Their discussion was cut short when ki spikes alarmed their senses. Krillin realized he'd forgotten that Trunks had said he'd talk to Vegeta about hearing the information he had to give them all and coming up with a plan as a group. Instead of being reasonable, Vegeta seemingly transformed and fought Trunks. Kami stopped them from going; he felt no ill intent on either party. Piccolo muttered 'stupid Saiyan genes', clearly Vegeta was still a sore loser.
When Trunks finally arrived, bruised and scratched, his only explanation was that he 'poked the bear', and left it at that. No matter how much Yamcha distrusted Vegeta and how much he knew the kind of monster the Saiyan prince had been, his treatment of his son was especially unforgivable, and the teenager treated it like it had been a perfectly normal 'talk'. His heart broke for Bulma's son, whom he knew had grown without any sort of father in his world.
The explanation about the afternoon's findings was given sparsely, measured and restrained. It was clear to all that Trunks tried his best to not go into details about the Time Machine(s), perhaps because he didn't fully understand it all, perhaps because he was scared, perhaps because he doubted the fighters would get it, or perhaps because it really didn't matter, to them . Time travel, and universe travel, wasn't relevant to them as he was the 'intruder' and these problems shouldn't plague them in their own world. Twice of the exact same object was hard to grasp, especially with the different years, and that it hadn't been used by a future version of 'Trunks from the future' was just more confusing than helpful in the grand scheme of things. They could see how Trunks was morose about the prospect of dying in the future at the hands of whomever sent that Time Machine back, and Krillin and Yamcha even noted how reluctant the teenager had been about sharing the information to begin with, mostly refocused on the 'potential new threat' to keep an eye out for. Krillin later guessed the teenager came forward with the information only because he and Yamcha had heard the conversation with Bulma, and would have probably kept the issue to himself if he could. Whatever that was, 'giving the details to Vegeta and working as a team' was something Trunks dropped, but at least the decision had been somewhat justified considering who Vegeta was. Tenshinhan and Piccolo both knew the Saiyan prince would come and fight if something happened, so 'talking about it' was unnecessary, and Piccolo noted how well Trunks had read his father. A little like how he had read his own relation with Gohan, before his departure almost three years prior. The teenager knew them both in a way that felt especially uncanny to Piccolo. Considering Trunks' reserved, need-to-know approach of everything up until then, Piccolo suspected he had not told anyone else that Gohan had been his teacher, and especially not Gohan himself, and that he had probably told Vegeta things he wouldn't say to anyone else.
The fighters also took note of Trunks' arguably justifiable hint of venom considering how they treated the Cyborg threat, having had the luxury of foresight, and while Krillin knew he was right in telling Bulma a 'common threat would keep us somewhat safe from Vegeta', he couldn't help but regret not using the Dragon Balls, and be smart about it. The teenager might have kept quiet his 'I told you so', mostly because the Cyborgs had proven much stronger than those in his world. Krillin concluded Trunks was more of a 'looking ahead for solutions' rather than looking back at past mistakes, despite him actually being there to 'fix a past mistake' with his Time Machine. Yamcha and Krillin later at Kame-House talked and came to the conclusion that Trunks could have traveled further back when seeing things didn't work out as intended, going to 'another universe', but chose not to.
The news that the Cyborgs may have not rampaged yet because of their programming was somewhat reassuring, if the guess was correct, this gave them hope, time, and the ability to move Goku until he recovered. Krillin gathered Seventeen and Eighteen might actually postpone the fight until Goku was well, considering their idea of 'fun', but he wasn't sure about Sixteen, whose whole raison d'être seemed 'killing Son Goku' (as an end all and be all of his existence, while Seventeen and Eighteen seemed to have more fun in the actual journey to get there). Krillin wouldn't mention that to the others, especially as he didn't fight them, and they all seemed pretty pissed about their loss. The Mafuba being mentioned immediately changed the mood as it was a potential solution that had a solid chance of success, and Tenshinhan took a good note of Trunks' willingness to risk his life to save a world that wasn't his, and accepted to teach him once his whole 'data analysis' was over.
When they left, Yamcha tried speaking to him, but the teenager stubbornly refused to accept he was part of their team, despite vowing to not let any of them die, even at the cost of his own life. Even if he came from a different universe, the bandit couldn't understand his refusal to accept Bulma's love, even as Bulma had talked about him in such terms ever since they saw each other on that island that early morning, when it had been clear to all that Trunks, the baby, was the same person as the teenager who had saved them all from Freeza and the other guy three years prior. He figured he'd try and get insight from Bulma about why 'Big Trunks' put in so much effort in distancing himself all while fighting with them. He couldn't reconcile that behavior with the fact that he put everything he could in ways of saving this world.
Over the next couple of days, Yamcha managed to get a hold of Bulma on the phone to ask her about Trunks and whether the teenager was staying at her place and behaving. Bulma was eager to confide in her ex, explaining it'd been hard being denied some proximity, but allowed other instances of bonding, and Bulma couldn't quite figure out where the teenager's boundaries were, nor why he had them to begin with. The genius had been ecstatic being 'allowed' to take pictures of her future son with the baby she gave birth to, the teenager eventually eased into it, and despite some stiffness, even posed for her. The teen was autonomous in his schedule, and more or less adapted to the Brief meals, was of pleasant company, and offered assistance for menial tasks politely, but still guarded the Time Machine like a hawk, locked everything, and kept the procedures notebook on him. Bulma didn't like being distrusted, even if it had been by her own orders in an uncanny way. And despite it all, Trunks helped with the baby occasionally and didn't cause trouble as a guest. Bulma half ranted-vented at Yamcha about the occasional 'fight', when Trunks had let it slip he only slept sporadically, when he went out to town without telling where he was going or what he was doing, when Bulma reached for a hug but he kept her at arm's length, but had allowed her to touch his hair or arm. It took some time and a couple of other phone calls for Yamcha and Bulma to figure out that Trunks only acted hostile when Bulma tried to mother him. There was something beyond upsetting for the Capsule Corp heiress being denied mothering who she deep down understood was her own child, because said child already had another mother that was herself. The photo she'd seen of Trunks as a teenager, with an older, crippled Gohan, and and older version of herself still haunted her, and Bulma kept it secret from the bandit; despite it all, she would respect the little trust Trunks had put in her by allowing that peek into his world.
The following days had been calm and uneventful overall, they had to deal with the stress of waiting, alert. If this had been Trunks' whole life, the others empathized. It would break anyone. The occasional spike of ki from Vegeta reminded them he was out there (and still dealing with his loss to the bonde cyborg), until they felt a similar spike by West City in the mid afternoon, which caused Vegeta to rush over and yet again confront Trunks. It thankfully didn't last.
Later that evening, Yamcha gave a call to Bulma to know just what the hell happened. Bulma had held on through dinner with her wounded son, wondering if he had put his arm in a scarf just to reassure her, but broke down needing someone to confide in when Yamcha called. She explained in tears how Vegeta had broken at least three of Trunks' bones in his forearms, and the kid just treated it all as if it were simple scratches. 'Tough cookie' was such a cavalier way of saying survivor. She'd seen her share of wounds in the past few years, including wounds that Vegeta had inflicted on Goku, Gohan and Krillin, but there was something different. Trunks' ability to know what precise bone was broken and which type of fracture he had shattered Bulma, because she knew that such knowledge only comes from repeated experience and that peek in the teen's world, alongside the photo, only let her mind understand how dark it truly was.
On May 18th, the Briefs finished putting the new glass dome on the Time Machine, and declaring it fixed, Trunks put it and his equipment away. Bulma saw him mark the capsule with the red sharpie, and something in her mind whispered how the teenager had only stayed there to get access to the lab, and would be gone the moment he didn't need them anymore.
Kami suddenly felt a wave of fear, and approached Piccolo to do the inevitable. He'd seen the monster that started attacking Gingertown. "This world needs a powerful warrior, not a god. You'll see what I saw when you absorb me, Piccolo," he told his 'other half' (or the descendant of him, somehow) and gave a warm goodbye to his attendant Mr Popo, to whom he gave his staff.
That same afternoon, the TV program Bulma was lazily watching after putting Trunks to sleep was interrupted by worrying news, and Bulma promptly warned Kame-House to tell them to watch the news.
"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!-"
She then rushed to Trunks' room, knocking, then opening the door, but the teen was gone, he'd just darted out of the window, leaving the radio on and the computer on the desk open to what he was reading; his own GR logs.
This chapter was hard to write; I didn't want to write every single dialogue/interaction, and tried to keep it to "updating some facts and opinions". I may come back to this at a later point, but what's important is a sense of distrust because Trunks is filtering info and ultimately, none of them know -who- the teen is, a sense of "why are they fighting" when it comes to Vegeta and Trunks encounters, and how contradicting certain behaviors seem to the rest of the gang.
They're catching up on how distant Trunks has been all while fighting for them.
The Cell arc is right around the corner!