Shooting Stars

One Month Later-Age 780

After spending hours per day every day learning about Earth's history and lore, Kara had just about gotten the gist of the situation that plagued this planet for over a decade now. In a small conference room containing no more than a single round table and a pitcher of water, Bulma, Gohan, Trunks, and Kara gathered to discuss the ever-looming threat of the Androids.

"Something has to be done!" Kara announced after several long drawn out minutes of silence which to her passed like eons, "Sitting in this base isn't going to help anyone!"

"Agreed," Trunks stated but closed his eyes perceiving what would come next, "Three, two, one…"

Bulma broke her train of thought and slammed a palm on the wooden table, "This base is more secure than the King's Bunker and it's the only thing keeping us alive! What's your idea pretty girl?" She walked around the table without taking her daggers off of the Kryptonian.

"I… well I…"

"You wanna go punch them really hard? Go right ahead, no matter how many times you do, if you even can, they get right back up!" She put a finger in the young girls face spitting venom with her eyes alone, "Ask my husband, or my best friends, or the entire Earth Militia!"

"They may have passed on but, at least they didn't die hiding in a cave!"

"You bit-"

Gohan stepped between them placing his hands on either of their shoulders separating them, "Let's take it easy, have a glass of water, Bulma."

The blue haired scientist turned her head in disgust, "I'll have a glass of whatever I want…" she mumbled under breath in a passive aggressive grunt. The two women had been butting heads recently on which natural instinct to follow now that they have another Super Saiyan level fighter with them, fight or flight? Bulma having seen all of her friends and family fight and die against the Androids was sternly rejecting facing the cybernetic monstrosities until they were certain the results would be in their favor. Kara, on the other hand, wanted to throw caution to the wind and confront them as soon as possible which even Gohan agreed might be a bit hasty for her first month on the battle field.

She had explained her past, she was only twenty-one years old when her Father built a ship for her to escape their planet on. The problem was that her home planet of Krypton was inhabited by sentient life for over a billion years, its natural resources were gone, the sun had long since become a red-dwarf, and the core of the planet was becoming unstable as the inhabitants continued to suck what little energy the celestial rock had left. In short, Krypton was old and her Father and his Brother, her Uncle, were the only two scientists who realized their fate in time to send their children to a better world with better opportunities. The explosion of the planet that followed minutes after the two were sent into space caused her pod to be thrown uncontrollably through the void. This was all she remembered as the next thing she knew the stasis sequence in the pod took over and she opened her eyes here on Earth. Bulma surmised that her pod must've hit a piece of debris that simply knocked it off course sending it to a different planet than her cousins but, the tachyons told a different story. The only way to find out for sure was to retrieve the remains of her ship which was directly in the middle of Pepper Town which was Android territory at the moment as they hunted down every single human they could find.

"What if we just host an extraction, that way we don't fight anyone; we get in and out, Trunks and I can-" Gohan attempted to continue but, was cut off by Bulma nearly losing her mind and tossing the glass of water against the wall.

"I'll be damned if you're taking my Son out there with you again! He's not even six-teen yet, Gohan!"

"Mom!"

"How old was I when I fought Raditz? Or Nappa? Or the Ginyus? What's the difference between then and now!?"

"Because we don't have Goku now, or Vegeta, or Krillin… or anybody to look after such a young boy! He's too tenacious anyways he'll get himself killed!" Bulma crossed her arms as a tear nearly slipped down her cheek, "I can't lose my son, he's all I have left," Silence erupted throughout the room as Trunks stood from his seat, "Mom…" he muttered with a more sympathetic tone.

Gohan was about to insist, however; Kara cleared her throat interjecting in their argument.

"I'll go…" She said blatantly.

Bulma scoffed looking for a moment, wiping her cheeks quickly, "Finally, we agree on something…"

"Bulma," Gohan replied to her insulting comment, "She hasn't a clue what she's doing out there; she wasn't a fighter, she was a civilian!"

"You've seen her power levels! She's stronger than your own father was when he straight up cut King Cold's head off!"

Kara blew her bangs out of her sight, "Okay, I'm not a kid…"

"Hey!" Trunks shouted but fell on deaf ears.

"So, if I want to go get my ship, then I will and neither of you can stop me," She folded her arms across her chest as the blue-haired commander smiled and pointed her finger at her.

"Her words!"

Gohan cleared his throat awkwardly, "I know we've tested your speed and strength to be very impressive, Kara, but these are martial artists we're talking about," he raised his hands in the air waving them towards her, "Perfect fighters that even I can't keep up with most of the time…"

"I don't care! I need to know what happened to me, you said it yourself, someone could be out looking for me!" It was clear as day on her face, the determination, the stubborn need to defy authority, she was young. Too young, perhaps but, just young enough to be blissfully ignorant of the situation eager to prove herself. She obviously didn't have time to mature before she left her home-planet, and perhaps someone was looking for her, hell, maybe whoever finds her can help this planet as a sort of 'thank you'. All this and more rushed through his thoughts as he stared the young girl down, still contemplating whether he should allow her to join him.

"We never trained you properly," Gohan stated bluntly with a defeated look growing in his eyes.

"I wont stay locked up in here forever."

Gohan closed his eyes and took a deep breath just like Piccolo taught him; a calm mind was a sound body and vice versa, how old was he when he fought his own Uncle? Three, and the Saiyans? Four. What about the Ginyus? The point being if he could handle those threats as a toddler than handling the Androids now can't be too dissimilar besides she was right about her Power Level being close to a Super Saiyan's and almost as great as his own but, he couldn't express the caution enough so he sighed and reopened his eyes seconds later, "Fine; we extract the ship and bring it back here… but, we do not want attention from anyone, especially them."

"They can't sense power levels, thankfully, so you should be fine to fly in and out at top speed without being too noticeable…" Trunks mentioned tipping his chair back in boredom as his mentor approached him.

"I want you to do twenty Kamehameha's and twenty Masenko's before I get back; and focus on controlling your energy," He put his hand on the boy's head whom gleefully sat up and nodded in agreement.

"Of course, Master!"

The Saiyan man turned to the Kryptonian woman with a knowing smile, "Let's suit up."

…

The shutter to the garage closed down as it slid over the light to the room, a bulb sparked above them illuminating their surroundings as Gohan, Bulma, and Kara approached the armory. "This used to be a Militia outpost before the government decided to wage an all-out war with two teenage death-bots, ya know…" the rest of the lights flickered with power barely lit up at all as they approached the wall.

"So?"

"SO, they left a bunch of their stuff behind!" Bulma approached a long silver cylinder-pod with an old tarp lazily thrown over it, "And after we discovered your power, I figured I'd start a little project of mine, to kill the time."

She yanked the cloth off the tube as the LED's on its metallic-structure began to light up and the inside was revealed by a large solar-lamp hanging over a white female-body suit; Kara walked up to it and put her hand on the glass staring up at it.

"It's a high-density, light weight, friction proof compound with a dwarf-star alloy lining and a durable yet, light and flexible material I used from the old Saiyan battle suits," She marveled at her creation as it hung on the mannequin in front of her, "It's a work in progress but, it's got solar energy already absorbed into it to keep you powered up and it should absorb more while you fly."

Bulma moved to a monitor before pressing a long sequence of codes as the machine lowered the tall mannequin down to ground-level; Kara placed her fingers on the sleeve and ran them all down the lining that practically glowed with white light, "You made this for… me?"

"Well, it's not like it'll fit Gohan…" Bulma chuckled without smiling and continued to type, "Look, I may not like you but, Gohan trusts you and he's the only help I have left so, I have no choice but to play with the cards I was dealt."

The Saiyan flashed her a smile as Bulma turned around with a capsule like device, "This'll capsulize your ship down for extraction; this is how I play."

Kara blinked looking back and forth from her to the suit and back, "Let's play then…" she looked back at the suit and what she was venturing out to do and wondered if she'd ever have the courage to go back out there without Gohan and Bulma's support. It wasn't so long ago that she was practically frightened by her own shadow and now? She was ready, or so she thought.

…

Downtown Pepper Town; Age 780; 9:22AM

They flew through the air at thousands of times faster than the speed of sound moving through the clouds as a blur of motion; as they did so, Gohan peered to his left and watched as Kara burst through a massive cloud leaving a trail of water-vapor in the form of clouds behind her.

"You sure are soaking up the sun; beats the hell out of solar-lamps, am I right?"

"Sure does!" Kara flew closer to him and kept on his lead as they had a fifteen-minute flight left to pass, she wanted to spark a conversation, "So! I know the Androids are super dangerous but, who built them? What's the story on that?"

Gohan frowned, "Bulma didn't tell you?"

Kara shook her head receiving another firmer frown as he looked back to his flight path, "It started with my Father; as a child he faced the Red Ribbon Army which was a group of mercenaries and extremists bent on world domination, when he was thirteen he single-handedly destroyed their entire roster aside from one man. The brains behind the army, Doctor Maki Gero, whom fueled by hate and revenge spent the better part of two decades pent up in some cave somewhere kidnapping people and turning them into Androids."

She could visualize the story in her head, and damn his father had to be impressive to wipe out an army on his own as a child, "Wait? Kidnappings? How many Androids were there?"

Gohan smirked at the thought, "Only two, thankfully. They are Dr. Gero's sole successes but, they don't appreciate his hard work all too much."

"And this guy," She started with curiosity fueling every question, "He's in prison, right? He doesn't get to walk free with all of this, does he?"

Gohan stared at her for a moment as if he'd thought she could figure this one out on her own, "Kara, I know you mean well but, this world is destroyed and it has been for nearly ten years. There are no more prisons or prisoners, police or judges, they're all dead. Including Gero, when the Androids first appeared they told us they killed him in cold blood the moment they awoke from his experiments," He stared back out at the wide-open sky as towers in the distance could be seen with mold growing over them approaching; he thought it best to change the subject, "We should be arriving soon."

Kara felt bad for putting him on the spot but, she had to know the story before facing them again; she'd needed to know why she was punching them in the face as hard as she could. Hopefully, it wouldn't need to come to that and they could get in and out with relative ease.

Suddenly, she saw it, the clearing of buildings surrounding a crater sat amongst the rubble and destroyed city. It was where the last battle between Gohan and the Androids had taken place, it was also exactly where she landed.

"There it is!" She flew down at high-speeds approaching the ground at Mach 50 landing with her feet uncontrollably shattering the concrete and asphalt below her carving her feet into it.

Gohan landed beside her as she slowly approached it; the silver pod was still gleaming in the sun-light wide open with some foliage and mold growing in it. "It's not in the best shape but, I think I can access the computers," she dusted the control pad before turning on the emergency battery, "There; I remember this, it's not too hard," she pressed a few more buttons as Gohan looked around keeping his head on a swivel; He stared into the distance peering through cars and sensing the area for any disturbances.

"I was probably just foggy from the stasis being on a bit longer than it was supposed to be; let's see…" She entered the command code and summoned the stasis log to check how long she was hibernating for and she almost didn't believe it was true, "This can't be right…"

She stared at the time spent in stasis written in Kryptonian, "Sixty-four cycles? How can that be, it didn't feel that long at all!"

"Cycles? How long is a cycle?" Gohan was momentarily distracted by her discovery as she counted on her fingers how to count cycles into years.

"Almost thirty-years!"

Gohan widened his eyes for a moment, she didn't look at all like she was forty-eight and still it was true she was even older than him, technically. He didn't age normally either so it wasn't so odd to find another species that shared that trait, "it's okay, we can figure this out let's just capsulize this thing and get it back to Bulma."

She reached into her pocket grabbing it before they heard a loud chuckle erupting from the distance spurring Gohan to throw up his guard and fierce glare to match.

"Well, if it isn't faggoty Andy and on the raggedy-Anne?" Android Eighteen spoke with a clear distaste in her voice but, almost as though she wasn't expecting them, "You were right Seventeen, they did show up here again." The blonde android toppled over a car laying motionless on its side with a finger as she casually walked over, "A bet is a bet; you can have her."

Kara shook at the sight of the Android, backing away slowly only feet from her ship, the Android began strutting the gap and closing the distance as she quickly stuck the capsule into her skin-tight sleeve.

Gohan stepped between them slamming his feet into the space that distanced them, "Not so fast!" He puffed his chest up and gained a fake grin.

"And oh look, the fake-blonde is back, now you're trying to copy me?" Android Seventeen rounded the corner of a collapsed bank turning and looking at Gohan as he spit his words. The Saiyan tightened up at the sight of the second robotic demon; he could get away from one of them, he has before, but both?

He stepped out in front of Kara putting a hand out in her way, "You're fighting me, not her…" She gasped but, couldn't object spite not wanting him to fight alone.

Eighteen chuckled, "Oh blondie, hold that thought," She vanished in the blink of an eye right crossing him through the air as he hit a building and flew through it, she took off on hot pursuit but, before she had, Kara saw him. Flying through the air, blood slipping from his cheek and surprise overcoming his expression, she saw true fear and froze up completely as things progressed in real-time.

"Hey there, sexy," Seventeen poised as he approached with his hands stuck in his pockets, "I liked your outfit better the last time you were here. This'll do." She stepped back in fear when she saw him but, suddenly her grip tightened; she couldn't let Gohan do this alone specially not because of her, she has the power to fight this time.

She leapt forwards at super speeds and her fist out in front of her aimed for the robotic demon; Seventeen crossed his arms and dipped his head back with a smile, "Oh, so close!" she jumped again determined as ever, grunting each time with effort but, it did no good. Seventeen let out a chuckle before catching her on her next sloppy attack by the throat, "Sorry you may be strong but, you're no fighter…" He tossed her through the air before meeting her momentum with an elbow to the back sending a loud crack through the abandoned city.

Gohan dodged Eighteens advance before hearing the sickening crack echo through the buildings, "Kara!?" Gohan's raven black locks exploded with a golden fury; he caught Eighteens fist in his palm and clocked her chin at ten times the speed of light slamming her through several walls and out the building they were in. He shot out at the same speed towards the sound with an enraged roar he put his foot down on Seventeen's cheek with the force from his approaching speed sending him through the ground and into an abandoned subway station. Gohan picked the nearby barely conscious Kara up bridle style levitating upwards towards her ship; he moved as quickly as possible grabbing the capsule from Kara's sleeve and attaching it to the pod. The building he knocked Eighteen into exploded with a wave of ash billowing through the city streets, "Come on, come on, come on!" an explosion of smoke shrunk the vehicle down into a capsule landing on the ground as Gohan kneeled to pick it up. The ground beneath him shattered from raw force applied from below; a punch, no doubt, ruptured the landscape for miles as the device fell between the cracks of the ground.

Gohan would have screamed if not for the knee slowly crushing his wind-pipe as a demon even faster than his Super Saiyan senses caught him and pinned him down, "Is he stronger than he used to be?" Eighteen asked as she dusted herself off from all the soot.

Seventeen growled holding him down, "Yea, he sure is! I needed to go all out just then, maybe if there were one of us, you'd have a chance but, all ya got was barbie, a weak-ass kid, and two nightmares that you can't wake up from!" Gohan struggled and charged his aura but, it was crushed underneath Seventeen's grip, he screamed but, the only one who could hear him was Kara. She heard him so clearly and plenty loud in her ear, which was just playing this constant ring that wouldn't go away. Was that blood she tasted, iron, sodium? light pierced her eyes and she saw everything, the inner structures of the walls, the insides of houses and huts, in between each crack of every pattern on every single foot of the ground around her. She spotted her capsule and reached for it, she dug through the ground and lifted a boulder to find the capsule beneath some dirt.

"What should we do with the barbie-doll from hell?" Seventeen asked as they focused on how to kill her, she pocketed her capsule as Eighteen appeared and pinned her against the wall of an abandoned building sending cracks through out its structure but, Kara didn't feel it. She felt her cells though, each and every single cell in her body, trillions upon trillions of them, burning in a raging fire. The rage came after the second punch to the face that she endured without noticing until her eyes lit up crimson and suddenly… she exploded. With a scream of intense release her eyes spewed a beam of crimson energy twice the heat of the sun vaporizing everything in her sightline at the time pushing Eighteen back and through half a dozen buildings before they melted and crumbled on top of her. The beam dissipated as did her rage and with an inhale of exhaustion her eyes flickered back to normal, the burning sensation was relieved and smoke drifted from her eyes reeling from the heat.

"Woah, was that her just now that did that?" Seventeen asked as he could feel the heat coming from her in waves, "Eighteen…" He dashed off towards his sister's fiery prison leaving Gohan unattended and choking.

Kara could barely breath and every breath she managed was stressed to the core; her chest hurt, her eyes seared but, her vision was still clear as day and she spotted Gohan. With the last of her strength she stepped towards him before collapsing from exhaustion into the dirt. The Saiyan gasped and stared up for only a second before hearing Kara's body hit the ground, "Damn it…" He coughed, spitting blood from his lungs as he stood and floated towards her gripping her by the waist lifting her up to his side, "Ha!" His aura exploded and he got them away just as the melted sculpture was engulfed in explosions that released the metal maniac. She spotted her through the flames and narrowed her eyes at her unconscious form, "Bitch."

…

Gohan was flat on a medical-cot wrapped in bandages especially around his ribs and neck; Kara sat not too far from him with her head promptly between her hands, attempting not to look as Bulma worked on his bandages quietly.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Kara asked through her fingers, peeking an eye through the gaps in her hair that hung in front of her eyes.

"Nope," The scientist responded bluntly as she put the hydrogen-peroxide on a shelf behind her and removed her gloves, "He's been through worse, trust me."

The Kryptonian was only slightly comforted, "You've never told me how you two met; you seem awfully close," Sher lifted her head as Bulma grabbed a coffee mug and filled it to the brim with the steaming beverage.

"Want a cup?" Bulma asked nonchalantly.

"No thanks…" Kara waited a few moments for Bulma to sip her caffeinated fuel and sit down beside her; the beeping of Gohan's heart monitor filled the silent room until Kara shattered that peaceful silence like glass, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Bulma asked seriously putting her mug down beside them and turning towards the young woman, "Gohan tends to get himself into trouble a lot, he's just like his father."

"It was my fault!" Kara shouted with a forced shout, "I'm the one who wanted to get the ship, I'm the one who attracted their attention, it's all my fault that Gohan-"

Bulma giggled, "Did I ever tell you about the time Gohan saved me from Planet Namek's destruction?"

Kara blinked for a moment, she'd been told very little about the past before the Androids; she was surprised that Bulma of all people wanted to share with her, "No, I haven't…"

Bulma grabbed her coffee giving it one last sip before setting it down once again, "We were on a distant planet to retrieve new Dragonball's to revive some friends who were killed. I never got to see most of the fighting but, I was stuck as the planet was about to explode. Gohan was ready to leave but, he refused to go without me. We had just revived Piccolo, the one whose death took our Dragonballs from us, so he could have wished me back but, he couldn't do it." Bulma looked down at the mildew-ridden hospital tiles and reminisced of her time on Namek when there was still hope. "You see it didn't matter if he could wish me back or if there simply wasn't time to save me and himself, he just knew he had to save me because that's who Gohan is. Just like his father."

Kara grimaced and looked back to his unconscious form, "I just wish I could have helped somehow but, all I did was burden him."

The bluenette picked her coffee mug up and sipped from it before releasing a gasp of satisfaction, "You've got the strength, the speed, but… you're missing a crucial element. You need to learn martial-arts if you want to fight Androids."

"I… I don't know if I can do that; what if I fail again and get Gohan killed?"

Bulma took the last gulp of her drink and set it down before standing up, "Then he'll die…" She turned to her and gave a reassuring hand and a smile, "And you'll be the only one left to protect us."

"How come you're being so understanding? So… nice?!" She grabbed her hand and was pulled to her feet.

"I was wrong to be that way with you; Gohan can't do this alone and Trunks' just isn't ready. If we're going to work together than we need to be a team and that means fighting the enemy and not each other," Bulma released her hand and waved for her to follow, "I have something to show you."

They walked down a long hall before reaching a fork that lead either left or right, they stopped in the center as Bulma looked around, "What're we-" she was cut short when she was hushed by the middle-aged broad. She placed her hand on the wall and it suddenly scanned her palm with a blue light that flashed green with approval; the walls split apart revealing a dark room that slowly lit up with LED bulbs. The room wasn't very big but, it was big enough to lay her pod outside its capsuled in the center with machinery and tools all around it.

"The technology is pretty advanced but, it wasn't too hard to crack; I found data files that are running through a translator as we speak."

"That's great!" Kara exclaimed, "This way I won't be a living dictionary for you guys!"

Bulma stepped up to a monitor and began bringing up files from the ships log, "That isn't what I brought you in for; the pod was definitely set towards Earth but, something went wrong during your exiting Krypton's atmosphere that has me stumped."

Kara scoffed, "You? Stumped?"

"I know but, check this out…" the screen displayed a video of her in her pod and another of the same events only outside the pod facing the Planet she was escaping. They watched as she was slowly put in stasis so, they moved to the other point of view; the planet grew smaller as her distance grew until suddenly a beam fired up from the Planet clearly at light-speed not hitting the ship but, firing passed it. The ship suddenly entered a portal where the camera sees the planet disappear behind a void of darkness the feed then goes offline; Kara narrowed her eyes in distaste and moved closer to the display.

"Rewind that last part; that energy looks familiar," Kara leaned in closer as Bulma assisted her and enhanced the video, rewinding to the moment the beam was fired, hitting pause as the girl examined it.

"That looks like… but, it can't be…"

"What?"

Kara looked back to Bulma with a serious face, "Our world was very devoid of any crime, almost a utopia so, when someone did commit a crime they were sent to the Phantom Zone. An alternate dimension where beings are trapped in eternity and that's the beam they used to open it," Her finger tapped the screen for a second before she came to yet another realization.

"This… this isn't even my Universe."

"We don't know that yet," Bulma reassured as she turned back to the space-pod while Kara stood frozen in place staring at the paused screen.

"The stasis log said I was asleep for 29 years," Kara looked down at the keyboard as tears welled up in her eyes, "Someone sent me into another dimension and somehow I came out the other end here."

Bulma put a finger to her chin as she thought, "And once you were in this Universe the navigation located this Earth and headed straight for it." It made sense but it confirmed that there was likely no one looking for her, Krypton was likely destroyed as her Father had predicted so it didn't matter who sent her into the Phantom Zone to begin with.

"Look, you may not be in the right Universe but… maybe this happened for a reason? Maybe, you were meant to land here and meet us?" Bulma put a hand on her shoulder turning her around, "You can help people, you can save lives, Kara. Does it really matter where you do it?"

Kara wiped a tear from the corner of her eye before smiling, "You really think I can be a hero?"

"All I know is you can't change the past but, you can mold the future…" After she said this, something hit her like a ton of bricks; it was so obvious, right in front of her the entire time. The past, the key was in the past, with… him.

Bulma had been staring into the distance for a minute or two now and Kara decided to wave a hand in her face to check if she was alright, "Earth to Bulma? I get it, I can make a difference, are you okay?"

The scientist turned around and began typing in the ships computer bringing up a list of items all in Kryptonian, "I just had an idea, read this list off for me, in English."

Kara raised a brow and knelt over brushing her hair behind her ear taking a look at the screen, "Hydraulic insulator, carbonized gas-cube, energized star-core-"

"I knew it!" Bulma shouted as she pounded her fist into the ship with excitement.

"Ah!" Kara exclaimed with a confused stare, "What?"

"An energized star-core? That has enough power to run a city for a century by itself!"

Kara blinked, "Yea, it's for inter-galactic travel; everyone had one on Krypton."

"Do you know what I could do with something like that?"

Kara tapped her chin, "Space ship? Super weapon?"

"Think bigger…"

"Time tra-" Kara suddenly realized what the blue haired scientist was trying to convey, "You're gonna try to build a time-machine!?"

"With a star core to power it? I only need a few other things outside the base to get the job done, I could have it done in less than a year's time!"

"And then what?" Kara folded her arms and walked around Bulma analyzing the screen she was typing into, "Kill the guy before he builds them?"

"No, the only people who know where Gero's lab was are either dead or trying to kill us; I have another plan though, remember Gohan's father?"

"I remember you talking about Gohan's father," Kara leaned against her pod and put her hands behind her head, "Didn't the Android's already off him?"

Bulma stood upright with a smile, "They never got to, he died of a rare heart-virus months before they were activated," She stepped over to a row of cabinets and began rummaging through them, "He was a Super Saiyan too, the best of the best, if anyone can make a difference it's him," She stood with a bottle of pills in her hand and a grin plastered across her face.

"I get it now, go back to the past and cure him?"

"Bingo," She placed the cure down on the counter and stepped towards her closer almost whispering range, "You can't tell Gohan, not yet, not until I have something concrete to show for it."

"You want me to lie? I don't know…"

"Please, Kara, he was very close to his father and if he gets false hope it might crush his spirit; promise me you won't say anything until I'm ready?"

"Okay… Okay, fine, I won't say anything."

…

Kara sat at to Gohan's bed-side, she'd given the suit back to Bulma who claimed there were major modifications to be made, and was now wearing a white crop-top with baggy pants and no shoes to speak of, "I'm so sorry, Gohan," she looked away for a moment in self-hatred but, it wasn't long before she felt the bed stirring.

"You got… a pretty good lick… in there," Gohan muttered through a rough cough as his heart monitor picked up its pace, "Eighteen never saw it coming…"

The blonde smiled as a tear formed in her eye once again; she leaned over in excitement and embraced the Saiyan as he smiled and gladly reciprocated by placing a hand on her back, "I'm so, so, sorry! I should've listened, I never should have gone out there."

"It's not your fault, this would have happened either way; but that power you used, what was it?" He asked as they separated and she used her sleeve to dry her tears of happiness.

"I have no clue, I was just backed into a corner and… everything went red," She blinked in confusion which Gohan found adorable as he slid his legs over the edge of the hospital bed sitting up revealing his muscular torso, "Stay down, you'll pull your stiches!" she put a hand to his chest but, he just smiled and pulled it away.

Gohan stood and tightened his eyes in minor pain grabbing his shoulder and cringing at the broken bones, "If we can train you to harness that power, we could finally defeat the Androids, I just know it."

Kara stepped next to him and wrapped his arm over her shoulder for support, "If I agree to train with you will you please lay down?" She gave him a heart-felt smile as he reached up and brushed a strand of her hair from her eyes; she blushed in response and evaded his gaze. Gohan chuckled at this as the pain soon began overwhelming his muscles and he caved, "Fair enough," he coughed as he sat back down on the cot and Kara knelt down to get to eye level.

"So, where does this training start?"

"Ever heard of a little method known as 'gravity-training'?"

…

For the record, this is Future Gohan not Canon Gohan. He is not a passive fighter; the Androids took that from him. He's been Earth's only warrior for nearly 15 years and he's been fighting this war since he was seven years old. He never became a scholar, he lost that trait.