Disclaimer: I do not own DC or DB.

Two Weeks Later

Forged in Fire

"Push yourself!" Gohan shouted with his hands cupping the sides of his mouth at Trunks standing on a grassy hill a few feet away, he was powering up with a flowing clear aura of Ki surrounding him, "Dig deep, Trunks!" He smiled at his first pupil as he made significant progress in the last few weeks; his power level had gone up with his training and he could easily rival Freeza's First Form by himself. Impressive, however; useless against an enemy like the Androids. Waves of pulsating energy flew off of the young-teen in jolts as his hair sprung upwards and he keeled over in writhing rage until… something snapped and he lost it all, falling to his knees still not transformed.

"Damn it all!" he shoved his fist through the Earth, upheaving a half-ton chunk of rock, "Stupid, son of a-"

"Language, kid," Gohan stepped forwards handing him a towel with a smile, "I wasn't much stronger than you at that age so, don't beat yourself up."

Trunks took the towel with an attitude, "Maybe if you weren't always splitting your attention-"

"You'd still be weaker than her even if you turned Super Saiyan; so, on that note, it's obvious who really needs the training," He got to eye level with Trunks and placed a hand on his shoulder as the angsty boy looked up, "One day, you'll be the strongest person on the Planet, I promise, for now though?"

Trunks nearly kicked himself for not jetting off faster than he could speak, "Twenty Kamehameha's before dinner," He turned on a dime as the boy sighed in exasperation.

"Damn it all."

…

"Agh!" Kara took a forced step forwards as she attempted to march through-out the gravity augmented room; the door slid wide open and Gohan stepped in without so much as flinching. The meter on the training grid read, "30Gs, huh?" Gohan noted tapping the digital numbers.

"Don't… brag…" she muttered taking another forced step as each step was easily thousands of pounds of force; her blood was thirty-times harder to pump, her bones were thirty-times more difficult to maneuver, each muscle was thirty-times as stressed with each movement.

"Not bragging; it doesn't take a certain level of strength or power to resist this type of strain, it just takes time," He leaned against the wall and tilted his head back watching as she struggled to move.

"Did… Trunks… Transform?" She grunted in-between each word to refocus her strength on her limbs. He sighed with great exasperation, looking up and reminiscing on the Saiyans of the past, "Not yet, I'm not completely sure he ever will," Gohan thought back to what he truly knew about Super Saiyans and broke it down as best he could, "It takes severe emotional trauma to unlock the transformation, family dying, or loosing something precious to you; Vegeta managed to transform just by focusing on the one constant in his life, his pride. And he took his secrets about the form to his grave as did the only other Super Saiyan I ever knew, my father."

Kara was silent as she listened only nodding at some point before finally adding her two cents, "You… can't… hurt him… like that… there has… to be… another way!" each step she took she felt sweat dripping from her brow; she closed her eyes tight as the sweat stung her eye and once she opened them she noticed him standing before her with the towel in his hand. She was under too much pressure to jump back or shout but, she would have out of pure surprise. He dabbed her forehead with the towel and smiled, "I noticed you could use a hand…"

"Thanks!" She shouted now able to fully reopen her eye, "What would… I do… without you?" He took a few steps to the left and placed a hand on the control console as Kara suddenly became as light as she normally would be and tripped over herself overzealously landing on her face. She held her head for a moment and looked up to find his hand out generously offering support, "What kind of man are you, Son Gohan?" she gripped his hand and pulled herself to her feet with his leverage, she was several inches shorter than he was so the moment she did she looked directly up into his eyes. They stood almost uncomfortably close to one another for several long seconds before the door sliding open behind them snapped them out of their trance, "Gohan!" Bulma ran in with haste, not wasting a moment, "We need you in the lab, now."

…

Bulma led Kara, now outfitted in her white solar-suit, and Gohan into the laboratory where a team of men and women on computers typed away, with schematics of different kinds on each screen.

"We've gone over the prospects of possibly traveling back in time with the energized star-core and Kara's ship, however; that's not all we need," She focused her attention on the main screen directly in front of her displaying a large map of the country, "There's a specific containment unit built by my father's corporate rival from before the war; the star-chamber was never released to the public but, they did build a prototype."

Gohan folded his arms, "Why do you need me? Send an extraction team to-"

"The Androids are in the city," Bulma quickly cut him off by focusing on the maps zoomed in image of West City in ruin with explosions lighting up all around it, "The city with the corporate-lab, I mean, if they destroy the building and the chamber…"

"Nothing will be able to process the star-core and we'll be stuck with a time-line with them in it," Kara rolled her eyes in distaste, "But, do we know the chamber hasn't already been destroyed?"

She looked up with a good point at the unfortunately sorrow group of unsure scientists, "We know the building is standing but, for how much longer is anyone's guess," one scientist put his clipboard down with a long-face.

"You two are the only ones to come in contact with the Androids and live, it has to be you."

Gohan turned to the logistic maps with the Androids location appearing only a few miles away from the extraction point, "God, what I wouldn't do to know Instant Transmission right now," he got closer to the screen and narrowed his eyes, "We can't just fly right in, no matter how fast we are, they'll see us ten miles away." He suddenly noticed a collapsed ally way bridging off from the main road in front of the corporate building, "What's this road here," he pointed directly at it as it was zoomed in further on.

"Looks like a collapsed ally," its large and closely placed walls covered it from view of the outside world, limiting noticeability,
"We enter through there; that way we don't get seen," Gohan turned around with a serious glare back towards the exit, "We take off in five."

Bulma stomped her foot, "Promise me you'll stay away from them!"

Gohan stopped, considering her suggestion before continuing through the room and out the corridor without a word, "You're his girlfriend, do something!"

Kara scoffed impressively loud and backed away with her hands up as a blush creeped across her cheeks, "That is so not… ugh!" she blew the bangs from her hair and turned to follow after her comrade, "Gohan, just wait up!"

"I told you it takes an emotional toll to be a Super Saiyan; every time I power up to fight them I see the faces of my dead loved ones," He continued walking without looking back at her, "You wouldn't understand what I have to go through being a powerful warrior in a world where being powerful is useless."

Kara looked away with her ocean blue iris' brushing a blonde strand of hair behind her ear, "That doesn't mean you should purposefully go head to head with them either, we have to bring the other Saiyans back, your father, Trunks' father," just thinking about hearing Vegeta's voice again almost made him cringe on one hand and on another it would be useful to have his impeccable wit and genius fighting style back on the battlefield.

"Time travel? Really? We're betting our futures on a theory!" Gohan didn't stop as they approached the hangar deck and automatic doors slid open, "Something I've known since I was little fighting an alien dick measuring contest at age five, I learned something, at the end of the day, the powerful get what they want. The Androids will always be the most powerful pair of fighters in existence but, my Saiyan blood and decades of fighting battle after battle have urged me to challenge them regardless. I'm sorry but I can't sit around and watch them destroy the world!" Gohan stopped and pounded his fist into the metal corridor wall; knowing he could easily topple the entire facility it was obvious he'd held back significantly.

He had his eyes shut tight, remembering the pain he'd endured through his entire life, the fighting would never end and he learned that a long time ago. Suddenly, he felt a warm sensation wrap around his torso and back; he opened his eyes to find a head of silky smooth blonde hair inserted into the crook of his neck. Kara had embraced him tightly and didn't seem like she planned on letting go; he blushed slightly before returning the embrace with one of his own, pulling his fist from the wall and wrapping both arms around her slender-waist.

They stayed hugging for several minutes until Gohan pulled away running his fingers along her arms as he did so until her hands fell into his, "I'm sorry to worry you, I just can't watch them kill so many people knowing I could do something about it, no matter how small the contribution."

Kara met his onyx eyes with her own sapphire iris' seeing the pain in his eyes brought her to an understanding, "Okay, but, only on one condition."

The Half-Saiyan blinked for a moment, "Uh, sure, what is it?"

"Take me with you."

He pondered her remark for a moment before allowing a smile to grow, "Alright, lets see if your training payed off at all."

…

After flying across the sky for nearly thirty-minutes they finally approached West City; Gohan narrowed his eyes at the dim explosions in the distance, he halted his flight and dispersed his aura, "Let's stop here!" he shouted as Kara flew passed him and stopped as well turning toward him with a questioning look.

"What for?"

He turned towards the explosion and prepared to explain, "We don't want to attract their attention till we get that containment unit," he floated towards the ground and landed on a sidewalk that shook with the force of the nearby detonations. Kara followed suit lowering herself gently before dipping behind a half-destroyed building with Gohan mimicking her actions.

"The explosions didn't even stop for a second which means they haven't noticed us," Gohan turned back to the sidewalk and stepped out into view, "Let's run the rest of the way, wouldn't want any attention."

She nodded in agreement stepping next to him on the walk-way, "Lets go," she muttered as they both took off at super-speeds, sprinting thousands of times faster than the fastest human that ever lived. They dashed across the street and through the city always staying neck-to-neck, never once passing one-another, she was honestly surprised he could keep his pace without transforming. As they turned their final corner they came to a perfect and abrupt stop in front of the ally sending a gust of wind across the ground; burnt newspapers flew through the air around them as they settled on the concrete gently.

As they approached a false brick-wall, Gohan immediately used his Kiai shout to quickly obliterate it sending bricks flying around them and revealing a thick steel vault-door hidden beneath the brick.

He turned to Kara, "Use your vision," he said quickly, "What're they doing?"

Kara nodded, "Right," she turned and focused her vision on the distance using her+new-found X-Ray vision to see through obstructions easily and viewing the Androids as they strolled through the streets firing beams from their fingers annihilating buildings at a time for the fun of it, "Looks like they're about ten miles away, they haven't noticed us yet."

Gohan flashed a faint smile before turning back to the door, "Good, so they won't hear this," he tightened his fist and pulled back before quickly slamming it through the metal, tearing through steel like tissue-paper. He pulled the door with a little jolt of force and ripped it off its hinges with his fist alone, he tossed it behind him and as it landed Kara could see that it was over 4-feet-thick.

They stepped through as dry-wall dust fell from the ceiling above due to the nearby explosions; the metallic-décor reminded them of Capsule Corp only, this facility had obviously been abandoned for decades, with moss and mildew growing across the computers. Vines ran up and down the walls they passed until they reached a large room labeled 'prototype projects' on the door missing letters and obviously rusted over; "It should be in here," Gohan swiftly kicked the door in with little effort and peered in as the dust settled.

They took a few apprehensive steps into the dark room, covering their mouths to avoid breathing in dust; soon they were met with several long rows of different types of devices each varying in size and shape, "How do we know which one the containment unit is?" Kara asked as she felt that it was safe to uncover her mouth.

Gohan pulled a device from his Gi without breaking his attention from searching the room, "It should look like this," the device projected a small holographic image of the cylinder unit from the palm of his hand.

Kara took a look before turning back to the room, "It would help if we could see anything in this rat-hole," Gohan nodded and formed a blue sphere of Ki in his other hand projecting an aqua-blue hue onto the entire room and illuminating most of the devices.

"Find it and capsulize it so we can get out of here," Gohan stated firmly as the explosions grew stronger suddenly nearly throwing Kara off balance. She gulped and nodded ignoring the bead of sweat forming above her brow; dashing through the rows and using her photographic memory it only took seconds to locate and shrink it down. "Got it!"

Gohan dispersed his energy and turned towards the door suddenly narrowing his eyes at the distance, "What?" She asked from behind as she tucked the capsule into her sleeve.

"I think they're getting closer; I can't sense them but every time they fire off an attack I can feel a little tickle, its artificial Ki but its still Ki," he looked back to her and nodded towards the door motioning for them to make their super-speed exit. Rushing through the corridors in less than a second, they made it into the ally-way where smoke came billowing from the streets clearly from a nearby explosion. They immediately heard voices erupting from around the corner causing the both to jump and place their backs to the wall.

"This is getting dull; lets go to a different continent already," Eighteen mumbled as she kicked a red tattered hover-car into the air crashing through the degraded windows of a nearby building and collapsing several stories to the ground.

"Now, hold on," Seventeen added, "If we move on we may not run into our special blonde friends again," he smiled a sent a beam from his index finger completely obliterating the building juxtaposed to him without ever taking his eyes off his sister.

"Which is the only reason I've entertained this ghost town for so long, Seventeen, you know how I feel about being bored for too long though," She leaned against a concrete shard pultruding from the ground-level of a wrecked building, she sighed loudly and blew strands of blonde from her view, "This totally blows."

Gohan turned to Kara quickly and placed his hands on her shoulders, "We need to run," he forced himself to say quickly before changing his mind.

"I thought you said-"

Gohan looked back in the direction of the corner separating them from the Android's view, "I was wrong, we can't win today, we need to go, now!" He shouted in a whisper, just barely keeping it from reaching the cybernetic ears of their enemy.

Suddenly, a loud whaling erupted from around the corner causing both Saiyan and Kryptonian heads to turn; a small girl, no older than five or six, came walking out of the rubble covered in ash and dirt. She must've been unconscious and presumed dead during the initial attacks with her parents losing her or their lives; now she was inadvertently walking directly into the conversation between the robotic demons. Her crying caught their attention quickly as they ceased their idle talk as Eighteen narrowed her eyes with the girl aimlessly walking towards them with her hands in her face, "Looks like we missed one…"

Seventeen yawned, "She'll hardly scream; should we just let her go?"

Eighteen chuckled loudly with a bright smile on her face, "No," she kicked herself off the concrete wall causing it to crumble into ash behind her, "I need this, I haven't seen anything I can kill for hours!" She formed a purple orb of energy in her left hand and approached the small child, "Hey, little girl, you lost?" she asked with a sinister under-tone.

Gohan tightened his eyes for a moment, "Gohan?" Kara asked as his anger boiled inside of him; his rage was always his best fighting attribute and to let it loose now could be exactly the edge he needed. The girl continued to cry loudly without fail even as Eighteen approached, Kara used her enhanced vision to see the events through the wall as the Android slowly approached the innocent soul searching for any sort of safety.

"Gohan?"

Bulma's warning echoed in his head as Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Yajirobe, Chaotzu, and Piccolo's death flashed before his eyes; Eighteen lifted her hand above her head prepared to incinerate the poor child on the spot, "Gohan!"

His eyes snapped open with turquoise iris' and a blonde explosion, "I'M SEEING RED!" His Super Saiyan rage exploded and destroyed the wall they were hiding behind, his fist slammed into the female Android's right cheek with a scream and a crunch sending her through the street, passed Seventeen, and into the front of a building.

"What the what?" Seventeen was at a lost for words when a right hook suddenly clapped the side of his head and launched him through several walls of a totally different building than his sisters. Gohan's Super Saiyan energy exploded as he touched down and flexed his muscles; Eighteen was the first to emerge from the rubble with her trademark stripped long-sleeve torn nearly to shreds, her hair a frizz and scratches across her cheek, although, nothing severe enough to draw blood.

"You?!" She shouted in disgust, "You are so dead!"

Kara used her super-speed to rush in and grab the crying child, holding her close to her chest and away from the evil duo, "It's okay, sweetie, it's alright."

"Get her out of here!"

Kara blinked and stood keeping the child behind her, "What about you?"

"I can hold them off for a bit, just get her to the bunker and leave the rest to me," Gohan never took his glare off Eighteen until the second building exploded with dust and rubble flying across the asphalt road revealing Seventeen stepping out relatively unharmed.

"Don't you dare die on me, Son Gohan," Kara grabbed the girl and held her in her arms, close to her chest as she floated up and slowly accelerated to keep the child safe. Eighteen smiled before lifting a finger and shutting one eye to keep better aim, "If nothing else, I always did enjoy a moving target…"

Before she could fire an attack, her wrist was gripped by Gohan's raging strength, "Did you forget about something?!" She was almost surprised at his strength, it had definitely increased since their last battle only a few weeks prior, it was most certainly an impressive jump to make, however; Seventeen landed his boot on the Super Saiyan's face throwing him through the air and landing back first on the ground with a grunt.

"It's two versus one, amigo, and I'm sure you remember what those odds feel like," Seventeen chuckled as he and his sister walked side by side towards him with an ominously slow strut.

"You know you can't win! You can't kill what I am! Even if you manage to kill this body, someone stronger will surface and take my place!" Gohan eyed them both as Eighteen used her super-speed to appear behind him before he could consider a retreat.

"That was quite the entrance you made," She announced drawing his attention to her, "I hope you enjoyed it because it's going to cost you your life! And you tore my favorite shirt…"

"There is no end to me! No end!" Gohan shouted as his aura exploded in a golden furious blaze around him; Eighteen and Seventeen both grew smiles across their sinister expressions.

"Actually, you just settled up a little problem of ours; killing you will be the perfect time-killer, boredom relief at its finest," Seventeen brushed raven locks from his view getting a better look at the battle field.

"Not one death will go unaccounted for! Not one!" Seventeen charged with anger after hearing Gohan's insolent-toned threats, Eighteen followed his lead as they both attacked from either side.

Gohan formed an orb of energy in the palm of his right hand and slammed it into the ground below his feet tossing up a cloud of dirt and dust covering his escape into the air. He flew directly up, moving into the skyline at eye level with skyscrapers and abandoned towers alike; the two demons followed close behind firing beams simultaneously at him.

"Energy Shield!" a barrier of Super Saiyan Ki formed as a sphere around his body taking the blasts head on but, dealing no damage to the mortal within. Eighteen waited for the nanosecond the shield went down to come in with a right-straight which Gohan perfectly caught in his left palm. This was only a momentary success as Seventeen came from behind and spiked him in the back with both hands cupped together.

The Saiyan collided with an old monorail track collapsing it as he flew through it and into the ground; they landed next to him and attempted to put their foot down on his chest but, he back flipped out of the way, backwards hand-springing to his feet. Quickly he flew through the motions of the signature turtle wave and fired his most fearsome quick Kamehameha as the blue beam made a bee-line for his target.

They stood back to back and fired off twin beams of yellow Ki which, standing at such close proximity, formed a single thicker beam that collided with the Kamehameha. They struggled to gain any footing over one another for a moment or two until the rage inside Gohan overwhelmed him, his aura grew, his Kamehameha grew, and soon the energy overpowered the Androids and sent them skidding back on their heels until they jumped back to avoid its path. They both landed side by side on their backs, Seventeen seemed beat until he smiled and sent a beam of yellow Ki at Gohan whom had jumped into the air to attack.

Gohan forced Ki into his arm and deflected the blast in time only to receive a right-hook to the face that sent him jumping backwards from spot to spot as Seventeen followed quickly behind; Suddenly, Eighteen appeared above Gohan attempting a roundhouse kick but, was avoided and accidently kicked her brother back towards the ground hundreds of feet below them. The clever Saiyan took this opportunity to grab her by the open ankle and drag her at half the speed of light towards a twenty-story building which was still standing, he halted his flight at the last second and flung her overhead by the ankle into the building causing each and every story to explode as she fell through them.

Gohan landed on his feet breathing heavily, each breath burning more energy than the last, each movement straining his every muscle further until soon he wouldn't be able to keep up with himself. This pace wasn't healthy even for a Super Saiyan; the sad truth was, they could do this forever but, he could not. He shook the thoughts from his head as they stood, dusting themselves off with obvious rage in their eyes.

"Haaa!" His aura exploded once more, the clouds above them turned grey, rain began falling from the sky little by little until it was soon enough pouring. The water was cold against the heat of his golden energy, it was soothing at first but, soon it was almost stinging his skin with its temptation of sweet relief.

A clap of thunder signified the beginning of the second act, the battle was nearly through, "This thunderstorm will make the perfect back-drop for your demise," Seventeen stated seriously, more seriously than Gohan had ever seen him before, it was almost truly terrifying.

Suddenly, Seventeen and Eighteen slid into perfect unison; apparently, they only now had begun taking things seriously. They charged into battle as Seventeen attempted a right straight, Gohan dematerialized from sight and appeared landing a heel to his chin as Eighteen landed behind him and punched the Saiyan in the lower-back before spin-kicking him in the face sending him on the defensive. They traded blows, each one more devastating than the last, two against one, Androids versus Super Saiyan; the ground shook with cataclysmic might as Gohan met fists with Seventeen. This only lasted a moment as Eighteen took over and right-hooked him into the ground, they repeated this process of bullying him through out the rest of the battle until Gohan was nearly at the end of his wits.

Blood streamed from his lips and nose; he huffed as he could feel his stamina draining by the second, he eyed them both as Seventeen charged forwards immense speed. Gohan threw his left arm up in defense but, what came next was truly agonizing.

"AGH!" To the ground feel eight-pounds of muscle and appendage as Gohan nearly tripped backwards as splatters of blood hit the concrete beneath his feet. He soon fell to his knees in writhing pain, nothing had ever been so excruciating, it trumped being crippled by Recoom and beaten down by Freeza; he'd never felt such agony before.

"Look, Seventeen, stumpy looks like he's in pain," She smiled as their confident façade returned to the forefront.

He chuckled before answering, "What do ya say we euthanize this puppy, shall we?" they opened their palms and flashed yellow orbs of light in his face as he looked up and suddenly realized he'd been consumed by pain too long. He would throw up a shield but, even that wouldn't guarantee survival at this range; he closed his eyes and prepared for the worst.

Before they could fire their attack though, they heard a brief female grunt before a sharp pain hit Eighteen in the neck; a foot pushed Eighteen into her brother and through the air slamming into a car before two beams of red detonated the gas tank and caused an explosion that covered her entry.

Kara landed and threw Gohan's remaining arm over her shoulder; she had no time to look for the separated appendage as an orb of Ki flew blindly from the smoke destroying a building not too far from her. She took off into the air at hypersonic speeds, so fast that once the smoke had cleared enough for the mechanical monstrosities to see the sky, she was gone.

"I hate her so much!" Eighteen shouted stomping her heel into the concrete, shattering several dozen feet of it.

…

Gohan's eyes fluttered open, he was in the bunker or at least he really hoped he was; the med-bay mattress felt awfully familiar though which was not the ideal way to know he was at least safe. Everything was in pain aside from his left arm, which was no longer attached to his body, "Could really use some Namekian genes right now." He attempted to sit up but, was stopped by a surgery table still set up above his body, he was in worse shape than he first felt and that was saying something.

Bulma approached from the right with a bloody rag and sutures; "I'd tell you not to sit up or you'll pull your stiches but, you'd probably decide to perform the next surgery by yourself without help," her sarcastic tone was as refreshing as ever but, he simply plopped his head back on the pillow.

"At least I know your hands haven't lost their steady touch after all these years," Gohan chuckled before breaking into a short cough which ended with splattered blood on his white sheets. "Where's Kara?"

Bulma motioned to the other side of the mattress, "She refused to leave your side the entire time you were on the table," Gohan turned his head finding her asleep with her head placed gently where his left arm would've been, her blonde hair covering her peaceful sleeping face.

"Bummer, I really liked that arm," he closed his eyes trying to ignore the extreme pain that surged through every nerve in his entire body.

"Be serious, you're down an arm now and Trunks isint anywhere closer to being ready to fight with you two; we need him," Bulma washed the rag in the nearby sink watching as the blood funneled down the drain.

"There's gotta be a way you can fix the whole arm issue, right?"

The genius company tech-giant thought for a moment, "Let's say I could make you an arm from spare-parts and some left-overs from Kara's ship, do you honestly think it would help?"

He looked down at his torso which he could barely see from his position, not answering knowing very well that she was right, she pulled a bottle from the cabinet directly above the sink labeled 'Oxycotton' before tossing it on the bed.

"Do you really think time-travel is possible?"

"We've seen demons, aliens, magical dragons, and evil androids; I don't think anything is impossible anymore; it's just a matter of how much effort I'm willing to put into it," she wiped her hands with a rag and tossed it into the sink before sitting in a chair not too far from his bed, "But I can't keep splitting my time between fixing what they do to you and making the impossible."

"Even if we save my father, and Vegeta, there's no way to know that it'll be enough…"

"I dunno, if you five team up, I'm not sure infinite stamina will be a factor for them," she pulled a red and white box from her coat pocket and placed a cigarette in her mouth before sparking it and taking a long puff.

"You haven't see what I've seen; they're methodical, rhythmical, like nothing I've ever fought before," Gohan sighed and cracked his neck with a motion of his shoulders, "Tell ya what; you make me that arm you were talking about and I'll consider hanging back on the war against those monsters but, only until you finish the machine. Deal?" Gohan gave Bulma a look they'd come to share, one that was an unbreakable bond between life-long friends.

She smiled and pulled the cancer-stick from her perched lips, "Deal, now get some rest, you three have a lot of training to do when you're healing factor kicks in."

There was no telling how long it would take but, the longer it did, the more time they had to prepare; the clock was ticking by the moment, can they really save Son Goku? Or is it all for-not?