Chapter 22: The Decisive Final Battle, Part I: Arrival
Many thousands of light-years away from New Namek, Baby was beginning to sense the developments that had been taking place.
"Fufufufu… So, the grandson of King Vegeta has finally begun his move, has he? A most reassuring news, I can finally put my plans to remake this universe into my ideal world into motion!"
Baby's two right-hand men watched in silence as the dark, dimly lit throne room Baby was sitting in was lit in a blinding flash by many lightning strikes.
Meanwhile, at the Kaioshin-kai…
"So it's finally about to begin… the hectic and grueling final battle between the last descendants of the Saiyan race and the lone Tsufurian survivor…" mused the Rou-Dai Kaioshin anxiously, "Baby's power has grown far too great for any living being anywhere in this universe to curb, but if my premonition is right, if anyone can bring us salvation, it's those three! The three young Saiyans who've finally completed their training to stop him!"
"You never did like the Saiyans, though, great ancestor," replied Kibitoshin, "all I have ever remembered of you when it came to the subject of Saiyans is that they're nothing but a troublesome bunch, always getting in over their heads simply for the sake of enjoying a good fight."
"Perhaps I did with their fathers' generation," said the elder Kaioshin, "but those three are quite different. They fight not out of a raw zest for battle, but in order to prove the sincerity of their resolve and conviction, and to protect what is dear to them. Perhaps Goku and Vegeta did learn those feelings over time, but in their sons that mindset is stronger than it has ever been with them."
"It isn't like you to be so optimistic, sir. When Vegetto fell, I remember you being nothing but a devastated wreck."
"Feh! Kids these days, that's no way to speak to an old man! But even in your inexperience you must see that those three house the strength of character and potential that eclipses the previous generation, am I wrong?"
"Yes, sire. They are clearly not the same greenhorn brats they were during Majin Boo's rampage on Earth. They've grown into entirely different beasts this past half-year… Even with the fate of the entire multiverse at stake, after having lost Earth and their own fathers to Baby… They keep pushing forward, and moving on… There isn't an ounce of hesitation in their hearts, their souls… not in the glint in their eyes! If I am being honest, when those two gunmen went and caused the evil side of Boo to emerge and take control, I'd almost lost faith in the human condition… But even with the barbarism of Saiyan blood, even with the inherent weakness of Earthling blood coursing through their veins… Those three are resolute to the extreme, and have a will to succeed no matter how dire their circumstance…"
"Yes, adversity tends to bring out the real you that was underneath the surface. If those three wanted a reason to give up, they've had a hundred chances. But they move forward, and they move on… They are almost the epitome of strength. It may seem like a reckless gamble, but I have the greatest faith that if anybody can put an end to this conflict, it is them."
"I couldn't agree more, ancestor. What hasn't killed them yet has only made them stronger. The hands of fate are guiding them toward their destiny, and I see at the end of the tunnel the brightest hope!"
Twenty days passed in a foreboding, dreadful calm, the calm before a great and terrible storm…
"Trunks-kun, we're almost there! Earth is within reach, we'll be landing in just fifty minutes!" said Goten as he began to stretch and drink a few energy drinks in preparation for the massive battle that was to come.
"I-I'm not scared, I can do this!" said Pan as she continually slapped her face to bring about clarity.
"Don't be taking too much of that energy drink stuff now, you two. It's fine to be alert, but we can't afford to be overly anxious. A calm and level head conquers all. I can't wait to get my hands on Baby either, but knowing him he has plenty of surprises in store. Take deep breaths, keep calm, we have what it takes."
"This isn't like you, Trunks-kun, but I guess it just shows we're not the same people we were when we both left Earth. Our paths diverged at that moment, but like the pieces of a puzzle, we found ourselves back in our rightful place! And I believe that it's our destiny to end this madness!"
"You said it! Now give me a hug, bro! We have gotten through everything so far, that's half the battle already! Our bond, our resolve… It can take on anything Baby has to throw at us, we have to believe that!"
"Hey! Don't leave me out of it, I've been trainin' my butt off, myself!" pouted Pan.
"We're all in this together! The final battle begins now!" yelled Trunks and Goten both as they huddled together with Pan, as Baby and his henchmen sensed this development and said in unison, "That's it, boys… The more hope you have for a positive outcome, the greater the despair you'll fall into once you realize that it was all for naught… We will give you the final battle that you want, and from it you'll garner nothing but despair and the utmost grief! Bwahahahahahaha!"
Forty-five minutes passed, and the ship was now five minutes from landing on Earth.
"With Baby's clairvoyance, it goes without saying that he knows we're almost on Earth. I doubt I can fill in Piccolo-san's shoes all that effectively, but I have fought alongside him the longest, so I'll take the helm. Either of you got problems with that?" asked Trunks sternly.
"Not in the least, brother. As much as I want to avenge my father and brother and restore the peace we fought to protect, if anyone knows Baby inside and out, it's you, who was merged with him for a time. I'll defer to you, no team is complete without a leader!"
"I'll let ya boss me around for the time being, Trunks, but remember, you can't baby and sugarcoat things for me anymore, 'kay? I mastered Super Saiyan before we arrived here as I always said I would, ya gotta trust me a little too!"
"Good. Now that that's settled, here's the course of action… We go to Capsule Corp…. or as much as I hate to be usin' this moniker, KaibaCorp, and we destroy all equipment there! But of course, we don't kill anyone, we force Baby's eggs out of them by attacking their heads and chests, unless it is tactically dangerous to spend time making that effort, got it?"
"Whoa, that seems a little drastic, ordering the destruction of the company your grandfather built, Trunks-kun! What gives?"
"The reasoning is simple. My dad hypothesized for the longest time that the key to surpassing Super Saiyan 3 may lie in the primal transformation of the Saiyan race, the Oozaru form! And although none of the surviving Saiyans have tails at this moment, my mother halfheartedly entertained his idea and built Bruitz Waves Amplifiers of progressively greater intensity over the years, and if my guess is correct, Baby more than likely can retain control even while transformed since he manipulates his hosts independent of their free will! And of course, we destroy any other cities that could house such advanced technology, while sparing as many people as possible! The Dragon Balls can undo the damage caused in our effort, so there's no need to hold back!"
"A little on the extreme side, but I see the point you're arguing. Pan and I will attack advanced cities as a team, since I can teleport to your location with her at my side! If you need help, simply go Super Saiyan 2, that will be our signal!"
"Right! Let's do it!" yelled Trunks as he punched straight through the spaceship door before it even finished landing, and then used the genocidal blast attack that Piccolo'd shown him on Planet Bihe to wreck every major city while sparing the inhabitants.
"Gill! Quickly calculate how much of the planet's advanced technology was eliminated by my attack!"
"Gill! Gill! Your attack wiped out 77%, KaibaCorp and other major corporations have hidden their most advanced equipment in underground shelters with nuclear blast doors, directly infiltrating them is recommended!"
"Goten, suppressing our Ki is unnecessary with Baby being able to see all through his telekinetic powers, you take out most of the other 23%, I'll go ahead and beat up everybody at KaibaCorp and then destroy what they could have of the Bruitz Wave Amplifying equipment!"
"Right! Make sure you don't go Super Saiyan 2 until you need our help, though! If you run into a trap, you don't dawdle, you call us in right away, you got that?!"
"Feh, you don't need to tell me twice! Baby knows that I know Capsule Corp. like the back of my hand… but that's all the more reason why I need to be cautious, I can't afford to be careless with that devious sneak at the helm! We'll meet again soon!"
The Dragon Trio split up and before long, Trunks had transformed to a Super Saiyan and charged straight into West City, where he suddenly ran into a city-wide barrier composed of plasma energy that Bulma had devised, only much more advanced due to the addition of Machine Mutant technology.
"Feh, is this one of Baby's tricks, trying to force me to raise my power to blast through this barrier more easily?! You won't dupe me that easily, asshole! My strength of will surpasses your machinations!"
Trunks used his Grade 2 form to enhance his arm strength significantly without alerting Goten and Pan with the power increase of Super Saiyan 2 and cut through the barrier using Future Trunks' sword, at which point he reverted back to his regular Super Saiyan form and homed in on the Ki signatures present in KaibaCorp, which did not seem to include Kaiba himself.
"Kaiba… certainly someone I'd have wanted to get my hands on six months ago, but right now he's just an annoyance on the side of the path I walk. My score with him will be settled later, right now destroying Bruitz Wave equipment comes first!"
Trunks ran into a riot of crazed Baby supporters who came rushing out the front door of KaibaCorp, at which point Trunks simply attacked their heads and chests with mid-air shockwaves caused by a flurry of punches, only to realize that they were not possessed by Baby's eggs after all.
"I guess it shouldn't come off as too much of a surprise… Baby's charisma and devotion to upholding his brand of justice moved even me, so in the past few months, it makes complete sense that he's gained some devout followers. If this is your attempt at shaking my resolve by turning Capsule Corp. employees and my own people against me, though, you don't know me well enough! My willpower is sublime, and it will be the key to taking you down, Baby!"
Afterwards, Trunks went and destroyed any kind of advanced technological equipment he could find, and eventually reached the bottom bunker, at which point he debated whether or not he should turn Super Saiyan 2, but thought to himself that revealing his full power in a tiger's den wasn't prudent. Instead he simply kicked down the blast door, and ran into Bulma's Bruitz Wave Amplifier technology, surprisingly appearing untouched despite Baby's ample share of opportunities to advance it in the past few months that he had been ruling Earth.
"Feh! This your attempt at rubbing your 'composure' in my face?! You thought we weren't even worthy of upping your power with an Oozaru transformation? I'll smash it anyway!"
Trunks blasted the amplification equipment with a Kiai and reduced it to rubble, at which point the entire corporation exploded into a smoldering mess, which barely shook the young but resolute half-Saiyan.
"So far, this raid has been surprisingly full of mundane 'surprises'… Baby loves toying with and taunting his enemies with his brand of 'twists' at every opportunity, so it's a bit strange even that he'd let this equipment and the most advanced corporation on Earth get destroyed with such little resistance… What exactly is he scheming?"
Suddenly, Trunks was sucker-punched by someone who instantaneously pervaded his range, in a style highly reminiscent of the charge of the Turtle School.
"T-This punching style… It's like Goku-san's, did Baby brainwash Goten…? Or... Pan?! Or is it… Baby himself?!"
"No to all three! Baby-sama awaits your arrival, but first I am to keep you company! Say hello to the new and improved Super Oob!"
To Trunks' shock, his attacker turned out to be a heavily malformed version of Oob with the fat Good Boo's head growing out of his chest like a parasitic organism, and pink discolorations with dozens of veins bulging in various parts of his body, which was exposed through the same vest that Boo wore.
"T-This… It… It isn't what can be called a fusion, it's more like Baby forcibly merged Oob with Boo-san, in the most grotesque manner possible! And from what I can glean from their disgusting visage, he didn't gift Oob any of Boo's immortality, only his infinite stamina! Y-You bastard…."
"I'll allow no insults toward Baby-sama to stand! He has granted me ultimate strength!" yelled "Super" Oob as he shot a series of Kienzan at Trunks, forcing him to resort to multiple Zanzoken to evade the attacks and push them to the ground using a Kiai, which Super Oob simply canceled out with a stronger Kiai, knocking Trunks sky-high and veritably knocking the wind out of him. Trunks went Grade 3 to use its stout build to withstand the attack easier and then shot a Big Bang Attack at Super Oob, who only needed his palm to cancel out the attack.
"What's wrong, Trunks-san? Don't tell me you still haven't managed to achieve the Super Saiyan 2 form, what happened to that rage of yours…? Surely the heir to Capsule Corporation must have the skill to put up a better fight than this?"
"Baby and the servants linked to him through his eggs are part of a shared consciousness, Oob is merely baiting me to turn Super Saiyan 2 so he can lure us all into a trap…!" thought Trunks, "But quite honestly, with the Bruitz Wave Amplifier already destroyed, there's little to no need to stay in this city anymore… If anything, that puts more people at risk! If I fly toward Goten without activating Super Saiyan 2, he'll know that it's dangerous for us to convene the traditional way, and ambush Oob accordingly! My best course of action is to simply lure Oob away from this place!"
Trunks then put his hands on his forehead and yelled, "Taiyo-ken!" to activate an incredibly blinding flash of light, which was enhanced further by his Super Saiyan Grade 3 light energy. He then reverted back to his regular Super Saiyan form and flew toward the same sector of Earth that Goten was destroying technology on, while gradually lowering his speed and power to signal to Goten that he was to also lower his Ki.
Before long, they were within several thousand kilometers of where Goten and Pan were actively destroying technological equipment, but at the same time unable to detect the two any longer because Goten quickly understood Trunks' message. Soon after, Trunks took out his blade and swung precisely at Oob's Boo-infested body parts, only for the same parts to be regenerated and for the disembodied body parts to regenerate into miniature copies of Super Oob, themselves.
"Fufufufu… For someone so highly educated as CEO of Capsule Corp., you are incredibly stupid. How can you possibly hope to improve your chances by multiplying your enemy?! Is this the kind of thing they teach you in business school?! Eh?! I almost regret wasting two weeks of my time teaching you the ropes, old man!"
"You know what? I give up, just absorb me already. If I don't stand a chance against you, then I can't hope to amount to anything against Baby. Just finish me off and get it over with," said Trunks in "despair."
"So this is the true character of the grandson of King Vegeta, exposed for all to see… How pathetic, Baby-sama need not even bother with you! Nor shall you enjoy the honor of getting to see his Utopia, come to life! Instead I shall grant your wish, you will be absorbed into my being, the grotesque being you despise so much!"
Super Oob gathered the disembodied bits of himself together and completely swallowed up Trunks in them, at which point Trunks instantly activated his Super Saiyan 2 form, both destroying the blobs of flesh that were about to consume him and calling Goten, who teleported behind Oob and together in unison with Pan, attacked Oob's head and chest, causing Boo to be split from their malformed fusion.
"Y-You! You tricked me! You were waiting to be absorbed?!"
"That's right. Once you may have been the master, but now, things are back to their rightful place! I wouldn't let a kid who isn't even eighteen yet show me up, with or without Baby controllin' him!" yelled Trunks as he then fired simultaneous blasts at Oob's chest and head a second time, forcing Baby's eggs out of his being. He then crushed the eggs with his boots and said, "This's just the first step in ensuring Baby's defeat, the real battle is yet to come!"
"Yeah, he isn't even hiding his presence, he's at the peak of Dende's palace! Trunks-kun, should we destroy that whole place in case he has Bruitz Wave Amplifiers installed there?!"
"No, if Baby had felt like it he could've easily advanced that equipment to make Bra or my uncle Tarble turn to Oozarus to shake my morale. It seems I was off about Baby saving that as his last resort for a power-up, he more than likely just doesn't care for enhancing his power to fight us! If anything, destroying that palace so hastily may result in him getting what he wants, like us… killing my mother and Bra by accident! We will seal Oob and Boo-san into bottles with the Mafuba that Piccolo-san showed me once when we were image training in case Baby has something else planned with them, and then we'll toss them into outer space! Leaving anything Baby can leverage as an asset on Earth will prove to be a huge liability!"
"I know you used to be CEO, but you really have the makings of a leader, Trunks-kun. Your orders are always precise, quick, and on the mark."
"I guess that's my father's blood in me, and Piccolo-san and my mother's teachings paying off at last. That aside, we don't have much time, we'll topple Baby, save Gohan-san and Piccolo-san, and ensure that nobody on our side dies all before the sun sets tonight! We're going to meet all the deadlines for keeping our promises, including even that frivolous one to Kaiba!"
"That's the spirit! The Trunks-kun I know values his pride and integrity above all else!"
"Shut up and keep things moving! Let's go, now!"
"AYE-AYE, SIR!" yelled Goten and Pan as they all powered up to their highest powers, and headed toward Kami's Palace…
To be continued…