2/19/24 Update - Chapter 15 and 17 has now been written in full.
Co-written by SuperSaiyan2Link.
Earlier
"Come to Papa."
When Lord Slug opened up his gloved hand after Towa dropped something into it, he was surprised to see that it turned out to be a vial.
"Huh. No big pill?"
"No. All in liquid form."
"Guess I won't be needing a glass of water to help it down... then again... depends on how it tastes."
Mira caught the old Namekian gesturing to him.
"You there, sport. Be a dear boy and get me one."
"My sweet lord," went Towa. "Why wait to be young again?"
"Well, when you put it like that..."
He undid the cork-esque lid on the vial and was just about to drink from it.
"And you're absolutely, positively sure there'll be no side effects?"
"None whatsoever in any of my virtual scenarios. It is perfectly fitted to your DNA."
With a flip and a gulp, Lord Slug downed the formula, then all three waited.
"Hmm... I don't feel any different yet. Do I look any different?"
"Your skin!" shouted Mira. "It's changing from green to...!"
Lord Slug quickly found a reflective screen to confirm this, but found his skin remained unchanged in color and age.
"That's some sense of humor your boy's got there. My soldiers never once tried pulling a stunt like that on me..."
With the time that had passed, his patience was starting to unravel as he cornered Towa.
"...and if one of my scientists didn't deliver results on the spot..."
"The formula is not instantaneous," she explained. "Once it reaches its destination, it will spread and take full effect."
"And now I'm starting to think this youth serum of yours is a counterfeit."
Mira got behind Lord Slug in the case he actually tried to do harm to Towa.
"Though it didn't taste half bad, actually. Almost has a hint of..."
He then felt something and grasped what, to a human, would be his stomach, stumbling backward. As he placed his right hand onto a thick metal counter, Lord Slug bumped into Mira.
"Back it up, why don't you!"
With his left hand, he pushed Mira back with such force that he flew to the other side of the room, crashing through several pieces of equipment and having to catch himself against a wall. Seeing a glare from Towa from what he just did...
"Sorry! Don't know my own strength!"
Lord Slug then realized with how little effort he had done that, as well as feeling his right hand pressing down deep into the metal counter it was on...
"Hey! This strength! Why I haven't felt this strong in years!"
Mira, slowly hovering and then stepping back towards him and Towa, closely noted that the spaces where Lord Slug appeared to be missing teeth were soon filled by fangs. Shortly afterward, the Namekian lowered his black hood and took off his helmet, seeing that his wrinkled face slowly morphed into that of a younger one.
"Ah, and this is the face of my youthful conquests!"
His right hand, now dug in so far into the counter that his elbow was all that stuck out of it, tore straight through it as Lord Slug took off his glove to see the last of his green hand's wrinkles fading away.
"Oh how splendid. Stupendous. It's good to be young again."
While Lord Slug was in awe at his returned youth and might, Towa cleared her throat and he attempted to show his appreciation.
"I'm sorry I ever doubted you, my dear."
He also came to realize much of the room's equipment was either knocked to the ground or smashed apart from him pushing Mira earlier.
"S-so about the damages..."
"Now that I have held up my end of the bargain, you have your mission."
A screen showed him the target.
"The Namekian named Nail must perish. He must not be allowed to fuse with Piccolo."
"The Demon King?! Oh, you mean Junior. Right, right, right."
"Then you shall depart for Namek shortly."
As Towa set up coordinates and all the necessary procedures for his travel, Mira noticed Lord Slug holding and looking over at his helmet.
"Do you really need your helmet as you are now?"
"You know, I don't really need this thing for protection..."
Tucking his antenna flat with one hand, he began putting it back on.
"...but it does complete the look."
Strapping it back on entirely, he saw his youthful face underneath it once more.
"Besides, it keeps my antenna snug and comfy."
Present
Pan had to help the Z-Fighters against Vegeta as a Great Ape, but Lord Slug now exceeded that form in sheer scale. And after reaching his towering true form, the first thing Lord Slug did was start lifting his helmet up just slightly to tuck his one exposed antenna back inside.
"There we are. Back in you go. Now that's much better."
She saw Yajirobe clearly intimidated at the scale of their opponent, try as he might to conceal that by keeping his hands on his sheathed katana.
"He makes that great big monkey Saiyan look too short for rides..."
She then saw Kami still lying down, having yet to pick himself up until Launch did it for him, pulling him by his cape.
"Snap out of it! Now come on! Catch him this time! He's a bigger target, ain't he?!"
"It's not that simple."
"Well make it simple! What's the hold up here?!"
"The change in power makes it an entirely different endeavor from what it was before. To catch him with the Evil Containment Wave now, I... I might not survive it."
Pan immediately made her way towards the group.
"Not if we can wear him down first! Right?!"
"R-right."
As Lord Slug continued to take his time with distractions...
"Without all the skyscrapers, the view here is really something special."
...Pan tried to think of something, anything, to even the odds they were stacked against.
"Trunks! Supreme Kai of Time! Do either of you have something we could use here?!"
Once Trunks heard this, he immediately transformed into a Super Saiyan and flew across the library's halls, going through books.
"I know! We have something for it around here!"
Chronoa heard books scatter and peered herself for any answers.
"It shouldn't be this hard to find!" shouted Trunks aloud in the distance. "Where is it?!"
Just from across the room, she zeroed in on a shelf in particular and with a telekinetic pull...
"Found it, Trunks!"
He flew back, reverting back to normal and seeing the book they were looking for floating towards them.
"There! That's the one!"
As he opened the book...
**CLATTER!**
What may have been an entire bookshelf falling hard onto the ground somewhere in the library could be heard where they were.
"Uh, I'll fix that later, I swear."
"Just..."
Realizing they had left Pan practically on hold this entire time, the Supreme Kai of Time decided to give her an update.
"We just found an old text on Namekians. The moment we find something for you to use, we'll let you know first thing."
Pan, hearing this, then heard Lord Slug crack his neck and knuckles, the enlarged sound almost akin to grinding landmasses.
"I think I've been quite charitable giving you this much time. So if everyone's said their prayers, good-byes, etc..."
A simple step forward caused another massive quake, one that shook the surrounding trees...
"Let's have some fun."
Lord Slug hunched over and swung his right arm downward where Pan and the others stood.
"Grab on!" she shouted.
Kami took hold of Pan and Launch and Yajirobe held onto the Guardian of Earth, then she flew off before his fist struck. This impact left a crater and several trees nearby were downed.
Pan kept relatively steady even with her wound, though she wasn't sure how long she could hold them for.
"This angle's fine for now, but..."
"His arm's stretchin'!" Yajirobe warned.
"Six o'clock!" shouted Launch.
With their warnings, she flew upward, but now doing so with them in tow was not only starting to get to her, but she had to consider...
"The higher up I go, the worse the drop will be if any of them fall off me."
"You need covering fire!"
Launch managed to wrap her legs around Kami's waist, lied back to face Lord Slug, then fired at his stretched arm with her machine gun.
The bullets, however, bounced off, having accomplished no damage to either him or even his clothes.
"I'd say it tickled, but honestly, I didn't even feel a thing."
Charging ki in his gigantic hand...
"With your luck, you won't feel this either."
What was a basic projectile for him revealed itself to be massive as it raced towards Pan, seeming to arc right where she was going.
"Hold on tight!"
As if knowing Pan was going for a nosedive, Launch kept her legs around Kami's waist, but did wrap her arms under his arms and across his chest. Pan felt Kami adjusting his position, wrapping his left arm over her left shoulder and his right arm beneath her right armpit. Yajirobe, holding onto Kami's right side during this adjustment, tried to find a more secure region to hold onto with his right hand...
"AGH!"
He had accidentally gripped Pan's wounded right shoulder.
"I-I'm sorry!"
The pain from this caused Pan nosedive to start earlier and unsteadily, avoiding the projectile just in the nick of time. Kami and Launch had mostly ideal positions to remain gripped to Pan, but now Yajirobe lost his grip, passing Launch and trying in vain to grab hold of one of Kami's legs.
"SHOOT!"
Seeing the position the four were in, Lord Slug had his arm out in a chopping stance.
"Welcome to the chopping block."
He swung, certain he'd strike either the falling Yajirobe or Pan and the other two as she nosedived.
Pan felt at the angle of the chop and the speed Yajirobe fell at that he would be its victim. She used her ki to propel herself downward faster, Kami and Launch holding on even tighter to account for this.
"Agh! There's no trees to break my fall this time!"
Yajirobe flailed his arms again, then peered to his left to see the giant orange glove coming right for him in a chopping stance.
"But I don't wanna get chopped!"
Then he saw himself flying right over the hand as it passed him.
"Huh?"
He looked up, seeing Pan was holding him up by his yukata's black obi belt with her right hand.
"Urgh..."
"Is your arm going to be okay?" he asked Pan.
He and the rest then caught her starting to drop a few feet all of a sudden.
"It's..."
Another drop.
"I'm going down!"
Once she could tell Yajirobe was at a safe enough distance to drop, she released him...
"Just warn me when you're about to... hey, hey, HEY!"
Yajirobe practically did a belly flop into the grass below as Kami and Launch saw Pan rotating herself to land on her right side.
"If I can just cover this arm..."
Her ki shield did start to envelop her right arm, but...
"Too late!"
Meanwhile, a distance away from the fighting, the projectile Lord Slug threw eventually arced downward...
"Father! Up there!"
Two men standing by a body of water saw the projectile coming down towards the ground nearby.
"Get down!"
The larger of the two tackled the other down as an explosion shook the ground violently and caused various pieces of rock and trees to fly straight towards them. This man then stood in front, shielding the other, his impervious body withstanding every piece of debris that touched him without even the slightest injury.
"Are you alright, Father?"
"Of course. But whatever that was..."
Pointing in the direction it arrived...
"It came from the village. We must go."
As they both began to leave this region...
"Wait Father, that's...!"
The larger one was surprised to hear his son reacting so strongly to something until he caught a glimpse of the item in question.
"Out here? But that's..."
The two saw the Power Pole partially embedded into the ground.
Pan lied still, breathing heavily as she saw the far-stretching trail of dirt behind her going so far that she couldn't see the initial point of impact. Kami and Launch, having let go in time, made their way back to her.
"That was one hell of a landing you pulled off there," began Launch.
But Kami, seeing that Pan had yet to touch her right shoulder...
"Are you alright, Pan?"
"Please don't say..."
Pan then adjusted to try getting up, but Kami and Launch could tell she was lifting with her left primarily.
"Easy does it."
Launch helped lift her into a sitting position as Kami saw that her right arm's jacket sleeves were torn to shreds, revealing the blue shirt it was worn over. Upon closer inspection, her skin beneath the sleeve, while bruised somewhat, didn't appear to be suffering any cuts.
The white bandage Kami had materialized for her, however, had now turned crimson red.
"Don't cry too hard on me, girlie."
Launch started undoing the knot, but did catch Pan trying to hide her initial wincing.
"I didn't mean it. After saving our skins back there, you can let the water works run all you want."
Launch slowly took the bloodied bandage off, then tried to glance away from how it looked now...
"Don't want to tell you how to live your life, but you seriously need to get that shoulder looked at."
She then saw Kami had begun wrapping a new bandage over it.
"Well aren't you just a walking bandage emporium..."
"When Goku trained with me, believe me when I say I had to give him his fair share."
Pan, knowing any further impacts to her shoulder would be catastrophic, and just recalling then that Kami could materialize such things on the spot, was curious about its extent.
"Is there any way you could make the bandage more durable?"
"It's not an exact science. I mean since we are talking about magic..."
"Yes or no question, Kami!" interrupted Launch.
"Then I suppose I cannot alter something's genetic makeup to that extent. Can't turn the bandage into steel any more than I can make air into gold."
Pan did jump to a different solution.
"Then could you make me a shoulder piece or something?"
"I've never tried materializing a piece of armor before."
Kami put both hands over Pan's right shoulder and she could tell he was trying to focus.
"Let's see..."
A white glow went from his palms, then enveloped her shoulder. It almost appeared to be a solid white layer over it, but then it appeared to expand and take on a new shape.
Launch, tying something, saw the white glow give way to what emerged: a black pauldron that covered the entire right shoulder. She gave it a light knock, feeling and hearing that it was a sturdy and solid metal material.
"Look at you, Kami. Now you're also a blacksmith."
Pan saw it, then moved her arm to feel that it supported the bandage and didn't weight her down.
"Wow Kami, this is..."
But then she caught something beneath it.
"Is that a...?"
Pan saw that during this time, Launch had taken her old bandage and tied it into a ribbon.
"I have to wash my hands because of that thing anyway, so I figured what the hell. Looks cute, doesn't it?"
Thus far, they hadn't felt the Earth quaking from Lord Slug's steps.
"We didn't land that far from Lord Slug, did we?"
Almost in sync with Pan's thoughts, Launch had her mind on the same thing.
"That jolly green jackass just standing around or somethin'? We'd feel him coming a mile away from so much as walking."
"Yes, it is rather strange that it has been this quiet," Kami added.
"We're gonna need some serious firepower."
Launch started reaching into her pockets on her shorts, pulling out various capsules from each.
"No. Not that one. That won't do it. Nope. This one neither."
With Launch searching for a capsule she couldn't find and Kami otherwise taking in the calm, Pan took this time to reach out to Trunks and the Supreme Kai of Time.
"How's the search going? Find anything yet?"
"J-just a sec..."
Trunks, standing with the book opened atop the octagonal table, used his fingers to point out a specific passage.
"From the quick reading I've done just now, I've found out that Namekians have immensely greater hearing than humans."
"And that helps us how?"
"Their ears are especially receptive to high pitch noises... like whistling!
Then using a ruler, as if trying to measure something he was visualizing...
"To a Namekian as massive as Lord Slug is now, his eardrums the size of trash cans..."
"That's... oddly specific..."
"That type of frequency would be increased fifty times, if not a hundred."
Launch was crouched over, reaching into her green socks for capsules, but still not finding the one she was looking for.
"Oh, of all the days to leave my rocket launcher at home..."
She then couldn't help but notice that Pan, for some time, hadn't said a word, simply looking into the distance with her left hand over her ear.
"What are you staring at?"
So far, no response.
"Hey."
"I believe she is preoccupied with something, Launch," Kami explained.
"Really? Because it looks like nothing's going on in her head right now."
She was tempted to wave her hand in front of Pan's face, just shy of doing so.
"I hope she didn't take too big a hit to the head back there."
"I don't believe that to be the case."
"Why? Because Goku takes hits to the head all the time?"
"No... though granted, he certainly..."
Pan then turned back to them mildly irritated.
"I'm in the middle of something!"
Both stepped backward, giving her space.
"Thank you."
She turned away again, still appearing to stare off into blank space.
"So then what is she doing?" Launch whispered.
"I believe she is communicating telepathically," he answered back quietly.
"Oh, so that's your theory?"
Their whispered conversation continued as Pan filtered it out and got back to listening to Trunks.
"Sorry about that. So he has fifty to a hundred times the reception to high pitch noises. That enough to make him vulnerable?"
"It wouldn't just make Lord Slug vulnerable: it'd be agony to someone like him."
"That's great!"
The two caught Pan standing up and throwing her fist into the air.
"So how do we take advantage of it? Got some way we can make high pitch noises?'
"Here's the deal, Pan: all you need to do is start whistling and Lord Slug'll be..."
Now they caught Pan pouting, both her arms down.
"I don't know how to whistle!"
"Sorry. I thought since your father knew how..."
They could see and even hear her stomping her feet.
"What's riled her up?"
"That's not how that works! And right now, my dad is kind of on another planet fighting another conqueror!"
"You guys gotta move!"
All three turned to see Yajirobe running in their direction, his legs moving so fast as to almost be invisible save for oval-like flashes of his feet.
"Where were you, big guy? Playin' dead?"
During Launch's remark, Yajirobe took a moment to catch his breath.
"I'll have you know tunneling underground isn't..."
The sun slowly began being blocked out, the four seeing a shadow looming in their direction.
"He... he's..."
"There's no way someone that big could hide from us."
"Oh no?"
They looked up and saw Lord Slug was floating just above them.
"Did you forget I could fly?"
He rotated so he could land on his feet, the impact practically causing a wave with the grass. Pan and Kami hovered off the ground as Launch quickly took a hold of Yajirobe's shoulder, then climbed and hopped off it to a tree branch.
"That's totally disrespec...!"
He was caught up in the ensuing wave, to which Lord Slug looked over in his direction with his eyes glowing.
"Can't have you served raw."
Eye beams bigger than Yajirobe's body followed him with the ronin's back to a tree and effectively pinned. In the nick of time, he felt someone grip and pull him out of the way, soon finding that Kami had stretched his arm some distance away.
Pan decided to try obstructing Lord Slug as best she could and began firing at him from various trees, hanging from branches on her arms and legs, and hopping between them when Lord Slug went for straight jabs or blasts.
Just then, he found himself seemingly surrounded by what he thought were various Pan's all at once, some in battle-ready stances and others making mocking expressions.
"Okay, so you're fast..."
Then with an arm stretched into the air...
"But you forgot about my horizontal attacks."
A chopping arm struck through various trees all at once, including the ones Pan stood on with the afterimage technique. Pan narrowly ducked underneath the chop's finish, dropping to ground level, then realizing...
"Launch is on one of these trees!"
She caught the blonde-haired woman near the treetop of one of them Slug had just chopped through, and found her trying to keep her balance amidst this.
"Steady, steady..."
Pan flew up to help, her hands out to catch her...
...but the tree came down faster and at a more awkward angle than Launch anticipated and she just missed Pan's hand. Launch's left hand desperately tried to grab hold of something and Pan felt herself dragged down just slightly.
"That accessory's a life saver."
Pan saw that Launch was hanging on by the chain on her belt.
"Good thing that belt's indestructible..."
"Beneath you!" Launch then shouted.
Lord Slug stretched his arm to reach for them, so Pan descended down with Launch hanging on with one hand, then fired with ki blasts while Launch used her other hand to fire at Slug's arm with a sawed-off shotgun.
"Feel that?!"
Their opponent found himself only mildly irritated by Pan's projectiles, but still indifferent to Launch's attacks.
"Still no tickle."
He then went for a booted right kick, one Pan couldn't avoid without Launch getting hit or being forced to let go. Swerving to face it on her left side...
"Kaio-Ken times ten!"
Launch saw and felt this red aura around her, then saw Pan with both hands, halting the boot entirely with the left taking center stage.
"W-whoa!"
With a shove, Lord Slug awkwardly hopped backward on his left foot, flailing his arms to keep from falling backward.
"Easy does it..."
Then Launch felt a massive surge on Pan's left side, seeing her hands cupped.
"Kamehameha!"
This fast-firing Kamehameha seemed more comparable to a fully charged one from her base form, striking at Lord Slug's waist and causing him to fall straight onto his back.
"Timber!" went Launch, her shotgun holding arm pumped into the air. "How do you like that, Big Green?!"
But then she felt the red aura was no more and caught Pan hovering downward in controlled, but sudden bursts. Once the two touched down safely and Launch let go, she immediately caught Pan hunched over, then catching herself with her left hand.
"That super red form take a lot out of you?"
"Y-you could say that..."
"Her battle with Lord Slug has been long-running," added Kami, him and Yajirobe meeting up with them.
"So you two make that big earthquake?" the ronin asked.
"You should've seen what Pan here did:"
As Launch told the others about Pan holding off the giant Lord Slug just earlier, Pan conversed elsewhere.
"Trunks, in a battle of attrition, Lord Slug's true form will outlast my reserves. I'm not on empty, but another Kaio-Ken or two and I will be."
"And I guess whistling's off the table..."
Unknown to them, Lord Slug was hovering just above the ground in a lying position, trying to keep quiet.
"...unless..."
Looking up to the sky, as if Trunks himself could see her "Really?" expression...
"I mean... it wouldn't hurt to ask if any of them can whistle."
They then heard and saw two trees being dragged aside, their foe poking his head out at them.
"Peek-a-boo!"
Just as ki began to glow from his mouth...
"Do any of you know how to whistle?!"
Lord Slug couldn't help cease this attack but crawl backwards upon hearing Pan shout this.
"Agh, no! That's the ONE THING I do not need right now!"
"Wh-what does that have to do with anything right now?!" went Yajirobe.
"Whistling?!" exclaimed Launch. "You kiddin' me?! What kinda question is that in the middle of a scrap like this?!"
"Well... no," replied Kami. "Certainly not. I have had neither a desire nor a reason to."
Lord Slug seemed content with their answers, trying to hide any semblance of his earlier reaction.
"Dodged a really big bullet there..."
Pan could think of only one person she knew off the top of her head that could whistle...
"...and unless one of you can pick up my grandmother and inform her of the situation..."
But then Lord Slug struck the ground with both hands, sending everyone onto their backs. As her allies at first scurried in random directions away from one another...
"GET BEHIND ME!"
Upon hearing Pan's order, the three did so, then saw as she stood between them and Lord Slug once again about to fire a mouth beam.
"W-what is she playing at?!" asked Yajirobe.
The beam fast approached and from how wide it was, had they scattered like before, they couldn't have avoided it if they tried. Pan faced him left side-first once more, taking a breath and knowing what this'd mean...
"Kaio-Ken times ten!"
From a bird's-eye view, the four appeared enveloped by the beam, but upon closer inspection, an almost shield-like construct kept them untouched.
Knowing Pan and company would survive this, but uncertain of how long they could hold out for with Pan reaching her limits, Trunks put a hand on the scroll.
"I should help her."
Last time Pan was in severe trouble and he insisted on helping her, he tried taking the scroll from the Supreme Kai of Time by force and caused minor harm to Chronoa as a result. This time, he didn't try to tear it out of her grasp and tried considering the consequences.
"It wouldn't be like Goku or my father meeting me."
"We need to make sure you never interacted with any of those three down there," the Supreme Kai of Time cautioned.
"Not Launch... and definitely not Kami..."
But when he thought on the last person...
"Damn it all..."
"You mean..."
"Yajirobe helped my mom with me... my counterpart..."
He put both his hands atop the octagonal table, his head lowered to hide his frustration.
"If there's even the slightest chance Yajirobe figures out after seeing me..."
"Now wait, Trunks. By that point, would Yajirobe figuring out that the baby Trunks is... well, another you... would that change anything?"
Trunks took a breath, then turned back to her.
"I don't know."
"Well let's see... Goku knew the baby was your counterpart..."
"As did Picco..."
She caught Trunks trailing off, then pausing.
"That's right, Trunks. Piccolo knew too."
Trunks just realized...
"I didn't even think of..."
She didn't hear anything else from him.
"Trunks?"
"By the same principal of them recognizing Pan and then remembering when they last saw her, Piccolo would do the same with me and..."
His eyes began to widen, as did his open mouth.
"I told Piccolo what I could and he agreed not to tell anyone, but... after going through the battle he's about to..."
His mind raced with the horrors to come for those that battled Frieza, Piccolo included.
"...going through that kind of hell..."
"Trunks, what are you...?!"
She saw him practically frozen in place and yet shaking in fear of what would come from the gamble he took.
"Oh God, I've jeopardized everything!"
Trunks imagined himself after having slain both Frieza and his father King Cold in a desert wasteland. Having sensed the Z-Fighters alongside his mother floating a distance away and counting on their arrival being a possibility, he carried a set of capsules on his person including one housing a refrigerator filled with various beverages for them.
"I'm going to meet Son Goku! Want to join...?"
But he then found Piccolo picking up speed.
"YOU!"
This younger Trunks, not having met Piccolo prior, didn't know what to make of this.
"P-Piccolo... I..."
"YOU SENT ME TO MY DEATH!"
Piccolo tackled him from midair straight to the ground.
"Piccolo! W-what are you...?!"
"You didn't tell me Frieza's final form would be far beyond me! That we'd all nearly die! That Dende, Vegeta, and Krillin would die!"
Gohan, Vegeta, and Krillin couldn't help but hear these words regarding their battle on Namek.
"Mr. Piccolo knows him?"
"H-he knows about my death?!"
"But how could he know?"
He knew nothing about what Piccolo was shouting at him.
"Piccolo, I've never met you until now!"
"LIAR!"
The enraged Namekain shoved Trunks back downward.
"You knew EVERYTHING that'd happen! You know WHAT WILL HAPPEN!"
"Piccolo, PLEASE...!"
"You had all that power and did NOTHING until now!"
"I don't understand what you're talking about, I swear!"
Piccolo took a closer look at Trunks' utterly panicked face, especially...
"Your eyes..."
Now Trunks' greatest fear was coming to pass.
"No..."
"I know those eyes!"
Piccolo turned around as Trunks tried getting back up, putting a hand out to him.
"Piccolo, wait!"
"He knows the future! And not just that...!"
He practically crawled forward, still trying to gesture to Piccolo to stop.
"PICCOLO, DON'T!"
"He's your child, Vegeta!"
The Saiyan Prince was aghast at what Piccolo had suggested.
"M-my child?!"
"Well, have you had one?" Bulma asked.
"Certainly not! There's no one from any species out there worthy of the privilege!"
"Well you'll certainly never find love with that attitude, you jerk!"
"Like I need the approval of some broad from a backwater planet!"
Seeing his father and mother scorn one another so openly...
"You stuck-up creep!"
"You blue-haired bit...!"
"LOOK!" shouted Gohan.
Trunks saw his right hand's fingers start to fade away completely.
"NO!"
His worst fear imaginable had happened: his parents would never get together and as a result, now he would never be born.
"What's happening to him?!" went Krillin in shock at this.
Trunks tried crawling forward, but suddenly couldn't feel his legs.
"His legs! They're...!"
Gohan ran over to Trunks, seeing him reach into his jacket with his left hand. Once Trunks had that hand out again, the son of Goku took hold of it.
"Hold on."
The son of Goku turned to the others, shouting, "Is there anything we can do?!"
Bulma, as much of a brilliant scientific mind as she was...
"I... I don't know if there's anything we can do..."
"Gohan."
The young half-Saiyan heard this purple-haired man address him by name.
"Y-you know my name?"
"There's no time!"
The child felt Trunks trying to open his left hand...
"You have to do something for me, Gohan."
...then no longer felt it, seeing that hand had vanished as well, but also saw a bottle fall to the ground, the pills inside making a clattering sound upon impact.
"You have to get that to your father!"
As Gohan held the bottle in his hand...
"It's medicine for...!"
...it disappeared.
"Wh-where did it go?! I was holding it!"
And now Trunks' purpose for going to the past was all for nothing: the cure to Goku's heart virus was gone.
"I failed..."
The child saw Trunks' left arm had disappeared, his entire lower body was gone, and now the rest of him was fading away from his torso upward.
"Don't go, please!" Gohan cried.
"It's too late."
Trunks looked over at the child who would've been his mentor as he knew he only had seconds left...
"Mother, forgive me..."
...and once they elapsed, Trunks was gone.
"Trunks, is something wrong?"
Chronoa then caught Trunks starting to look faint.
"Trunks!"
Once she caught him starting to slump over...
"TRUNKS!"
...she caught him using her freed hand to lower him down gently with telekinesis.
"Trunks, are you alright?"
Lying on his side, now quivering, he couldn't make eye contact.
The three watched the spectacle of Pan going Kaio-Ken Times Ten, this being the second time for Launch, as well as saw her ki shield manage to split the beam in two. They could feel the heat from the split beam, knowing they wouldn't have survived it dead-on, and were in awe as it finally dissipated.
"Hell yeah!" went Yajirobe. "Now that's what I call a..."
But he trailed off upon seeing Pan hunched over looking even worse in her stance, steam visibly coming off her. Launch, guessing that Kaio-Ken took a lot out of a person, wished she had been wrong in this moment.
"Poor girl's not gonna be able to keep this up..."
Her left arm's light gray sleeve was effectively seared off, now leaving the jacket short-sleeved.
"Trunks?"
Trying to stand on her feet, but then catching herself on both hands...
"T-Trunks, are you there?"
"Talk to me, please," Chronoa pleaded. "What's happening, Trunks?"
"Piccolo, he..."
He finally broke the silence and looked Chronoa in the eyes with what he had to reveal to her.
"When you sent me to Namek to make sure he fused with Nail, Piccolo... caught me."
Still, Pan heard nothing on her end from either Trunks or the Supreme Kai of Time. A rare occurrence, since they were always on comms save for an emergency where they were needed elsewhere, but at this moment in time...
"One of you... I need your help or I'm going to..."
"Aww, c'mere, you..."
Lord Slug began to gesture his right hand out to grab her, but saw the other three, despite the difference in power, running in to cover her.
"Back off, creepazoid!"
Launch fired her machine gun at his face, not even caring about its effectiveness against their enemy.
"Or I'll find something that can actually hurt you!"
"You so much as touch her..." Yajirobe began to threaten with his katana drawn. "...and I'll take one of your fingers."
Kami, the most aware of their power difference from having faced him since Lord Slug and Pan arrived on his lookout, stood directly in front of her.
"You will have to go through me."
The Supreme Kai of Time absorbed what made Trunks so petrified in that moment once he revealed what had transpired on Namek earlier. In a combination of caring for Trunks' current state and to keep calm herself, she put a hand to his face.
"What does Piccolo know?"
"Only that he'll meet me again... but after going through the battle with Frieza... "
"He'll wonder why you didn't help?"
"Why I helped on Earth, but not on Namek. When it would've been easy for me to do so."
As calm as she tried to remain for Trunks' sake, even she didn't know a solution for what to do, at least not right at that moment. But with the changes in history Towa was already trying to create already, both on Namek and Earth...
"We'll cross that bridge when we've stopped Towa's alterations, Trunks. We'll find a way."
All three continued covering her, Lord Slug not moving his right hand.
"All right, you got me."
He gestured his arm away from Pan and into the air.
"I will leave her be..."
A sudden rumble beneath their feet...
"With THIS ARM!"
His left hand, having burrowed underneath them, grabbed Pan, then she found herself pulled through a tunnel, everything going dark, then light again. Pan glimpsed him crouched over like a child playing with toys and once he brought her closer to his face, absolutely massive compared to her, the difference in scale registered with her especially in that moment.
Now the others saw Lord Slug readying his right hand to try grabbing one of them.
"Now who wants to play action figures?"
Yajirobe went for a swing with his katana, but found his sword hadn't cut through Lord Slug's ungloved hand, then was struck backward. Kami instinctively tried catching Yajirobe, but the force was too great for him to halt, the two rolling backward.
"Do you volunteer?"
Launch saw Slug's hand about to close around her.
"Hell no!"
She hopped upward, just avoiding his closing grip, then ran up his arm while biting a pin off a grenade.
"Use that shield thing now!"
Pan did generate enough ki to accomplish this as the grenade was thrown straight at Lord Slug's face. The explosion, even for someone with her training, clouded her vision for a moment...
...but Lord Slug remained unharmed by everything Launch had thrown at him.
"Oh, for f...!"
She then felt Lord Slug's arm rotate, immediately left with nowhere to stand.
"Didn't see that coming, did ya?!"
Pan watched Launch falling with neither Kami nor Yajirobe in range to help, and at best, the fall from that height would severely injure her.
"Tell me..."
She felt his grip tighten ever slightly, the shield holding up at first...
"Do you squeak?"
...but then shattering from the pressure.
"One more Kaio-Ken and I'm done for... but if I don't now..."
Trying to push back against it was a losing battle as it was obvious Lord Slug was slowly increasing the pressure.
"You wil..."
He had a sudden sharp pain in his wrist.
"Ow."
It harmed Lord Slug just enough for her to get out of his grip and drop down before he could recover. Looking at his wrist, Pan couldn't quite make it out, but it almost looked like...
"A spear?"
"Okay, who threw that?!"
Lord Slug looked down to his left seeing a tall and muscular bare chested human man of slightly darker skin, red marks on his face, and black hair in a ponytail. Pan recognized him immediately from having encountered him as an older man from this very region as a child.
"Bora!"
Pan then turned back to where she last saw Launch, seeing that Launch didn't crash land to the ground, but was instead held by another man, one shorter and less defined with lighter colored pants, a bow on his back, and a feather in his hair.
"Upa!"
On the ground level, Upa helped Launch back onto her feet.
"Happy to help. May I ask what you were doing by our village?"
Launch tilted her head and grinned.
"She can probably answer that."
He turned around to see Pan landing towards them.
"Thanks for saving her. It's a long story. I..."
She then noticed something he was holding on his back besides his bow: her Power Pole that was lost just earlier in the battle. She pointed to it.
"That..."
"Yes? What about it?"
"I was using it earlier and..."
"What are you talking about? That is the Power Pole. It is Goku's. He's used it since we were children."
Launch jumped in upon noticing it.
"I haven't seen Goku in ages. And you just found the Power Pole lying around?"
"Yes. Which makes no sense to me. Unless Goku were here... but he would never be that far from it."
"I..."
Pan tried to come up with an explanation, but had to put her attempt to reacquire her grandfather's polearm on hold as she, followed by the others, looked back at Upa's father and the giant Lord Slug, the two conversing rather than fighting.
"Let me take a wild guess: you want me to leave because I'm on sacred ground."
Despite the difference in size between them, Bora was unintimidated.
"No. It is because you have ill intentions."
"What, you think I'm going to destroy this place? If anything, I think it'd make a lovely place to live."
"And what about the people living here?"
"What about them? Land's always up for grabs. Gotta get ahead of the market."
Bora crossed his arms.
"You are not unlike the conquerors of the past."
This comment combined with Bora's judgmental expression began to rub Lord Slug off the wrong way.
"Why I'll have you know the scale of my empire will be unmatched."
"That is what they thought as well."
"Oh, don't even go there! I'm my own conqueror, thank you very much!"
He raised his left arm to crush the human in one fell swoop.
"Father!"
Upa began to run over when he, Pan, and Launch saw something tiny atop Lord Slug's left hand.
Bora remained standing, even as the shadow of Lord Slug's fist loomed.
"If you've got nothing nice to say, then how about a dirt nap?!"
He was going to create as deep and massive a crater as he could with this punch, curious just how deep he could make it go even in the midst of his anger...
...but then there was another pain, this time much worse. The conqueror looked at his left hand and saw nothing out of the ordinary...
...until he saw his pinky finger fall off and the ronin from before having gone through it with his katana.
They saw this sneak attack transpire and Pan quickly turned back to Launch and Upa.
"Launch, do you have any more grenades?"
"Bunch of them. Why? You saw it did jack crap just now."
"I think I know somewhere they can do some damage."
"They'd better."
Launch started sorting bunches of capsules in her hands as Pan turned to Upa, then whispered to him. The blonde haired woman didn't hear any of this, but did see Upa nod back to her, then make his way over to his father.
"What was that about?"
"First things first: is that all the grenades you have?"
Yajirobe saw Bora's spear and took it with him on the way down.
Lord Slug cried out, practically roaring due to his size.
"Sneaking up on me?! Nobody's that quiet...!"
But seeing Yajirobe falling before him, he put this aside enough to aim his left hand at the falling swordsman.
"You'll fry for that!"
The blast at its apex, milliseconds from release, he then caught something with a cape in front of his right eye:
Kami, his hands about to unleash a blast of his own.
"How could I not hear you?!"
A point-blank blast to Lord Slug's eye had the blast from his right hand just narrowly avoiding Yajirobe. Now Lord Slug rose to his feet, his hand covering his right eye. After this, Yajirobe used his katana against Lord Slug's leg to slow down his fall, not piercing through it entirely, but enough to accomplish the task at hand.
"I can obliterate these twerps the moment I get my hands on them! I just need to...!"
Kami then fired ki bullets at him, not doing much in the way of harm, but the fact that Kami was still in striking distance even after what he pulled off...
"TAUNTING ME...?!"
He swung his left arm at him, but Kami flew to his right side, and with Lord Slug's right eye still covered, he couldn't track him as effectively.
Unbeknownst to him, Pan flew around towards his left side during Kami's distraction, holding onto Launch, who had daisy chained her grenades together. They made their way to his left ear and Pan, not wanting to risk the Namekian hearing them, mouthed "Go." With a toss, the grenades made their way in, then, as they went further down his ear, a tug on interconnected strings undid the pins.
"WHAT THE?!"
Lord Slug heard something and felt something tiny in his ear canal. His first instinct was to put his pinky finger into his left ear to try fishing out whatever it was...
...but realized this was the same hand whose pinky was sliced off earlier. He did spot the two responsible, the human grinning at him.
"None of her Earth weapons have done a thing to me, so why the...?!"
A boom, followed by ringing in his left ear: the grenades, while not about to damage his actual body, made such a loud noise that deep in his ear, if not directly in front of his ear drum, that he covered it with his hand and fell onto his front.
"The noise! THAT AWFUL RINGING!"
He tried lifting himself up with his right, but was struggling to support himself, not in regards to his strength, but instead...
"Balance! I can't keep my balance!"
Pan landed quickly, then made her way to Bora, whom lifted one foot upward. Pan put her left hand underneath it, then began to lift him off the ground entirely. Her right arm tried to anchor him as best she could given her shoulder, but for this...
"Gotta use both! Need aim for this, not just strength!"
Lord Slug, his right eye's vision blurry, but otherwise not blind, saw the two of them in the distance. Now using his left hand to anchor himself off the ground, he aimed with his right at them.
"Whatever you're planning, it won't...!"
He then saw Yajirobe lunging for his right hand.
"Maybe just a few more fingers!" he taunted.
The katana dug into the back of his hand, causing the beam that released to go below his intended targets, but he flicked it back into the proper position, the beam traveling upward towards Pan and Bora.
"Kaio-Ken...!"
Pan had to consider just how hard she was about to throw Bora, less for his safety, but due to what it'd mean in the aftermath. And now she had substantially less time to do so thanks to the beam rising from the ground below towards them from Lord Slug.
"If I lose consciousness... get back up."
"Times Twenty!"
A substantial gamble on her part, but once she threw him, the time it took Bora to reach Lord Slug was so fast as to be instantaneous to the average human eye. But her Kaio-Ken gave out immediately afterward and, try as she could, the beam was already going to hit her and she couldn't move in time to avoid it or use her ki in time to block it.
"This is it. If this doesn't stop Lord Slug..."
"Hey!"
Pan found herself tackled out of the way by Launch, the beam's only point of impact being the soles of Launch's shoes. But as they lied down and Upa, Yajirobe, and Kami watched the final attack transpire, they heard the loudest cry of pain from Lord Slug by far soon transition into a whimper, then silence as the gigantic evil Namekian fell onto his back. This impact especially caused another massive quake and Pan found Launch unintentionally covering Pan as if to protect her.
"I've got you, girlie."
As different as Launch's blonde haired personality was from her blue haired one, Pan suspected that there were some traits shared between them both.
"Different as they are, both your personalities care."
Once the quake had passed, Launch got herself up, then dusted off Pan's face.
"Other than a little dirt, you look okay to me."
Pan then caught Launch wincing slightly and noticed her wrist and elbows were fairly scraped from their roll earlier.
"I-I'm sorry, Launch."
"What do you got to be sorry about? You scratch my back, I scratch yours."
She put her right hand out to help Pan up, which she took.
"Now come on. Let's..."
Pan immediately groaned just from trying to get up onto her legs.
"Hey! Someone gimme a hand here?!"
Launch got behind Pan and lifted her right side up as Upa helped her up on her left.
"Aaand up we go."
The two got her to her feet, then helped her over as they walked to see how the other three were doing by Lord Slug.
Trunks and the Supreme Kai of Time saw the conclusion to the battle, feeling a combination of awe and relief.
"I don't know how Pan does it... but when she finds a way..."
Towa simply took a breath as Mira turned his back to the screen.
"Another one. Just like Turles."
Yajirobe, tugging on his katana to free it from Lord Slug's hand, heard something atop of the conqueror's head coming from his left eye socket. Kami investigated this and found a hand outstretched:
Bora, managing to climb out of it, took Kami's hand and he and his spear made their way out of it. After they made their way back to solid ground, Kami put out his hand to Bora once more.
"You have done exceptionally well," complemented Kami.
He returned it with his own, shaking and genuinely appreciating hearing that from the Guardian of Earth.
"Thank you, Guardian... but it was her plan."
He gestured towards Pan, who managed to stand on her own, but with Launch and Upa next to her just in case.
"Yeah, this is all well and good, but could anyone help a guy out here?!" shouted Yajirobe.
Bora left to help, the two tugging on the katana in the back of the hand as Kami faced Pan, Launch, and Upa.
"Would you excuse us for a moment?"
Launch and Upa nodded, stepping aside as Kami stepped to her right, both facing forward.
"I do not know how the both of you arrived, but with what you have given not just for me, but for the people of Earth... I am in your debt."
He put out his left hand to her, accounting for her right arm and shoulder.
"I must say..."
Pan went to shake his hand as he started.
"The Supreme Kai of Time chose her protector well."
As much as she appreciated what he had to say, this last comment by Kami had her slightly on edge.
"Y-you know about the...?"
"I arranged for Mr. Popo to bring Goku to Capsule Corp when she asked for my help."
Past events then clicked into place with this new information.
"That was back when Chronoa stopped time with the Ginyu Force... and when Towa sent Turles..."
She then had to ask Kami something important:
"About my name..."
"I can assure you it will remain secret."
"Oh thank..."
Pan heard something familiar...
"T-there's no way...!"
A massive four-fingered gloved hand punched Kami directly, having stretched over from a distance. Pan, shaking Kami's hand in that moment, was taken in tow before crashing into a tree, losing her grip on him.
"Kami!"
Just then, Yajirobe and Bora felt Lord Slug's right hand twitch.
"I SHOULD BE DEAD!"
As Lord Slug shouted this, he then swung his hand with such force that both Yajirobe and Bora were rocketed far into the sky.
Pan, feeling splinters in her jacket, could only slowly walk over to where Kami landed: directly into a boulder, purple blood across him and his white robes.
"No, no, KAMI!"
"FATHER!"
She heard Upa shout this from a distance, then heard and felt the steps Lord Slug took, each one alone nearly forcing Pan to keep her balance.
"This can't be happening...!"
As she made her way towards the sound of machine gun fire, no doubt from Launch, she saw her firing away and Upa firing arrows with his bow at the once seemingly dead Lord Slug, his aura one of sheer rage.
"Get out of here, BOTH OF YOU!'
But despite Pan's warning, Launch saw a giant gloved hand do a basic flicking motion in front of her machine gun, rocketing it out of her hands, but also sending her upward into several tree branches.
"LAUNCH!"
Upa, meanwhile, seeing how dire the situation was becoming, peered at his childhood friend's Power Pole on his back, and without knowing this Power Pole's true origins...
"GOKU! IF YOU'RE HERE, WE NEED YOUR HELP! NOW!"
"Aww, look at that..."
Lord Slug's humor was starting to come back to him as his hand chopped at Upa's bow, smashing it to pieces and grounding Upa immediately.
"Still treating that Saiyan like a god..."
"UPA!"
He continued his way to Pan, who was in disbelief at just how he was still going.
"One hell of a side effect Towa had with this one! Literally sprung me BACK TO LIFE!"
"Is that possible, Towa? Did your formula have an after effect bringing Lord Slug back to life?"
Towa was certainly as surprised as he was to see this transpiring.
"It was designed to restore his youth. I couldn't have begun to predict that could've resulted from the formula."
He found Pan wasn't trying to get away, wondering why that was.
"Too stubborn to run? Or too tuckered out to even try?"
Trunks and Chronoa found themselves in another situation that would bar Trunks from joining the battle.
"Lord Slug's alive and Pan's practically out of juice. You've gotta send me in there!"
"Yajirobe or Bora will die wherever they land if they aren't saved now!"
"Couldn't you just freeze time or something to keep them from touching down?!"
"I can't stop two points in time at once!"
She handed the scroll to Trunks.
"Please..."
Begrudgingly, he took it.
"But if Pan dies...!"
"I was trying to hit both of you earlier! Aim might've been a little off since, y'know, BACK FROM THE DEAD!"
Now that Lord Slug was getting closer, she could see the damage her Kaio-Ken Times Twenty throw of Bora and his spear did to his left eye, which took on a piercing white hue with the damage done to the pupil and iris.
"But YOU, oh, you're gonna get it!"
Pan looked up into the sky as if wondering if the Supreme Kai of Time could see her, or...
"Pretty boy Trunks won't save you!"
Amongst the information he retrieved from Pan's mind, much of it regarded her interactions with this Trunks who changed the future before her birth.
"Poor lad! Goes on and on about losing his big brother! And he's competing with a blondie whose long gone to you!"
She thought she had protected her mind enough, but considering one of the last things Lord Slug learned from Pan was her name...
"How much more did he get from me?! How could he know about Colm?!"
Stomping on the ground with the most might he had so far, causing trees to uproot, had Pan fall onto her back immediately followed by two trees landing atop of her.
"But don't worry: he'll never get a shot at you!"
He flicked the trees off of Pan, then grabbed her with both hands.
"You cost me MY EYE! So I'm going to crush you into such a small quantity that what's left of you will be untraceable!"
Pan tried using any ki she had left to shield herself, but it shattered almost immediately under the pressure.
"I'm... I'm drained..."
She felt her arms being slammed into her sides, her legs against each other, and then trying to compress themselves further.
"When time resumes on Namek, they'll..."
She gritted her teeth as she felt what might have been her ribs starting to crack. Attempting to turn her hands to push back was entirely futile, her fingers already digging into her hips.
"Dende. Krillin. Vegeta. Bulma."
Lord Slug had been quiet, watching her face until his hands managed to close all the way, Pan no longer visible to him.
"Dad... Trunks... Grandpa... everyone..."
This was it. She could do no more. It was all over.
"I'm sorry."
"Lord Slug has finally succeeded where the others failed..." thought Mira with a smirk.
The former Time Patrol member saw her crowning moment: the defeat of the patroller.
"Without any further opposition, Lord Slug could alter history any way he chooses with no one to stop him..."
...and despite her opinion on the mysterious patroller souring when Pan's ploy on Namek led to Mira's defeat and severe wounding at the hands of Vegeta...
"...she could have left him to Vegeta, but she couldn't. Just as she was compelled to save Yamcha, she was compelled to save... Mira."
She had won, her enemy slain, but now in this moment, Towa was once again conflicted.
"NO!"
Mira slammed his hands onto the console, startling Towa, who then looked over at the monitor, seeing...
Lord Slug felt something pushing back at his hands.
"Oh that is such poppy...!"
His hands slowly separating, he began to make out a yellow glow.
"Oh don't tell me...!"
Now that his hands were forced open enough to see Pan...
...he saw Pan's pupils and irises were completely white, her hair rose slightly, the edges taking on shades of red, and she had a golden glow around her skin.