CHAPTER 19:
Half-Cooked

The star was gigantic. It spanned from wall to wall as a massive ball of light. The entire cockpit window flared from its solar brightness that spanned from end-to-end of its glass frame.

Trunks heard Pan shift in her seat behind his left side, "Wow, Trunks, aren't we a little close?"

Trunks agreed as he announced, "Yep. And this is as far as we go."

"Wow, it's like a Solar Flare," Goku complained from his seat, "Isn't there any way to make it less bright?"

Trunks thought the idea was ridiculous, and quipped in a snarky tone, "Sorry, Goku, we never thought to install curtains."

Trunks was overall in a fairly bad mood as he slowed the ship to a stop. He was still feeling spiteful and even a little resentful that he had been talked into this rescue mission. He mainly didn't like the feeling of all the alarm bells that were pinging at the back of his mind.

He grumbled, mainly at Pan, "I didn't think I'd ever be talked into flying straight into a star."

"Hey, don't you blame me!" Pan shouted back from her seat, "I didn't know they'd put us this close to an inferno!"

"Would that really have changed anything?" Trunks spat in a pout, not even looking at her as he pressed buttons on the monitor to power down the rockets. He worked around a cable that was plugged into Giru, who was synced with the navigational controls.

"Anyway," Trunks absentmindedly pressed a few buttons he navigated the ship's fuel controls. "I'll try to boost the window dimmers. But this is as powerful as they can go."

As the rockets powered down, Trunks diverted more energy into the window-dimmers. They darkened slightly, as if the window had put on a darker set of sunglasses.

Despite their slight alleviation from the glare, even on its highest setting, it was still glaringly bright. It hardly helped to shield their eyes against the star's glare, but at least they could all keep their eyes open if they squinted.

Fires, and flares danced in a blinding blaze, making stark contrasts in shadows that flickered behind their chairs.

Trying to keep his eyes away from looking directly into the star, Trunks kept his gaze on the dashboard and monitor to re-confirm their life support functions. He paid special note to the status of the Heat Shields.

The Heat Shields were Trunks' biggest priority, and he mentally estimated the additional fuel expenses at jeopardy if they approached any further.

They were already dangerously too close to the star. Any closer, and they would also risk being caught in the star's gravitational pull. Feeling pressured and slightly surprised, Trunks frowned with concern as he plugged several numbers into the keyboard.

"Do you see anything out there?" Trunks triple-checked the coordinates, and picked up his pen to scribble down some numbers on his notepad.

"What do you mean?" Pan asked from her seat behind him, and he could hear her fidget in her chair. "Where's the ship?"

Trunks scratched the back of his neck with his hand that held the pen. He compared the numbers to the coordinates on the ship's last positional ping. As he analyzed the data, his stomach dropped a bit. He realized that the passenger ship was in serious trouble.

"The mayday signal came from here," Trunks stressed, "But it moved…" he pointed his pen ahead of them, toward the blaze of light, "To there."

"To where?" Goku questioned from his seat.

"Somewhere there," Trunks kept pointing his pen forward, toward the blaze. "They're caught in the gravitational well."

"What does that mean?" Pan asked.

"It means," Trunks turned to Pan, "they're falling into the star."

Pan gasped at the revelation, "What!"

Goku pulled off his belt strap, and asked thoughtfully, "But if we get closer to save them, won't we all get sucked in too?"

"Exactly, Goku,"Trunks spun right in his seat to point his pen at Goku and smiled, feeling proud of Goku's display of intelligence, "So, I'm parking the ship here."

"What?" Pan squirmed in her seat, "But why here?"

Trunks tapped the dashboard, feeling proud of his genius idea, "So we can rescue the passengers remotely!"

"Huhhh? Remotely?" Pan shifted.

"Yes, remotely." Trunks beamed as he turned to his back left side to gleam at her.

Pan's voice was sour as she tried to unbuckle herself. "How do you rescue people remotely?!"

"Simple," Trunks' eyes sparkled as he pointed his pen upward as if toward a light bulb. Trunks turned to his right to acknowledge Goku to his rear. He waved his pen like a wand, "We let Goku work his magic."

Goku shuffled in his seat to stand up. "What magic?"

"You know," Trunks turned to Goku and flicked his right wrist, "Your OP move."

"What's an OP move?" Goku questioned.

"It means overpo-" Trunks hesitated and cut himself off with a shake of his head.

Trunks started again, remembering that Goku had no idea of gamer-speak, "I mean, instant transmission."

"But that's not magic." Goku walked to the side of Trunks' chair to look at him.

"Well, it's magic enough." Trunks unbuckled his seat belt, "You're the only one who knows it, so you're going to do some wizardry today, Goku."

Goku seemed thoughtful for a minute, as Trunks then focused on calibrating the navigational controls with Giru's co-piloting calculations, on the monitor.

Trunks grinned toward Goku, as he kept his hands busy, "We should be close enough, right? Can you sense the passengers from here?"

"Where?" Goku walked to the window to peer out against the brightness, "Straight ahead?"

"Well, obviously straight ahead." Trunks gestured to the window with his pen, and kept up his smile.

Goku looked perplexed.

Trunks' smile faltered.

"They're about to fall into the star," Trunks emphasized as he gestured again, with both hands toward the window, "Can't you sense them?"

"Uhhh," Goku looked out toward the star with a doubtful frown.

After another few moments of Goku's doubtful face, Trunks could feel traces of his hope receding.

Goku looked at Trunks, with the same doubtful look in his eyes, and then returned his gaze toward the solar flares, squinting hard to try to discern any shapes against the blinding brightness.

As Goku scrunched his eyebrows, trying to focus, Pan approached the window and stood to his left side.

Pan leaned into the glass, putting her hands over her eyes to shield them as she peeked through her fingers.

Trunks was feeling uncomfortable at the silence and doubt in Goku's expression. Trying to take initiative for an alternative plan, Trunks focused on pressing a few more buttons to recalibrate their navigational controls.

Against the window, Pan and Goku were silhouettes against the hellscape, and their figures made high-contrast shadows that danced behind them on the walls. Pan's shadow helped to shield Trunks' eyes from some of the brightness, which helped him as he started to unhook Giru from the control panel.

After a moment of peering out the window to the star, Goku again turned to Trunks. His face betrayed an undertone of insecurity.

"Uhh," Goku shrugged a little sheepishly, "It's really hard to sense in that direction."

Trunks didn't like those words at all, and stopped what he was doing at the dashboard to look up at Goku, "What do you mean?"

Goku spoke with a tone of resignation, "Sorry, Trunks, I don't know what to say."

Trunks curled up Giru's attachment cable, as his countenance darked into disappointed disbelief. He raised his tone slightly, as he complained, "But, there's nothing else between us and the ship. You really can't find it?"

"The star is really powerful and its energy is making anything else hard to sense," Goku pouted dejectedly. "Can't we get closer?"

Trunks looked concerned as he stored Giru's cable away, and prepared to do a little mental math, "How much closer?"

"I don't know," Goku frowned, "I just can't feel any energies, at all."

Trunks looked up to Goku with an irritated glare.

But then Trunks' face softened as he remembered his strange dream that kept him up that night. He was thoughtful for a moment, trying to make sense of their situation.

Trunks didn't like to think pessimistically, but he tended to be a realist.

"Do you think…" Trunks asked slowly and thoughtfully "... everyone's dead?"

"No!" Pan instinctively reacted and gasped at the idea.

"I don't know," Goku looked at Pan, and spoke in an hopeful tone, "Maybe there are survivors, but their power levels are too low to sense from here."

"So instant transmission…," Trunks confirmed sullenly, "... is definitely a no-go?"

"Yeah," Goku nodded dejectedly, "If I tried it, I'm pretty sure we'd end up inside the star."

Trunks tapped into his temper as he cursed under his breath, "Fuck."

This threw a wrench into his plans.

Trunks scowled heatedly, and grumbled in agitation, "Then we need a Plan B…"

Just his luck, instant transmission was off the table. They were going to have to do this the hard way.

He had not calculated this. This was going to be a problem.

Trunks looked down at Giru, who was still resting in Sleep Mode on the dashboard.

Scowling with an intensely far-off gaze, Trunks ran different thoughts through his mind. He tried to mentally calculate the chances of their success with each option.

The best way to calculate it would be to allow himself to daze, and to daydream the numbers.

He let his eyes relax, as he normally did, to try to…

-KZZT-

They were screaming, desperately pleading for their lives as it turned its own ship's security system on them. The more wounds, the faster it could travel. The injured became the enemy.

-KZZT-

"AAAAHHH!"

Trunks reeled his head back as he gasped and refocused his eyes. What the fuck…

Pan and Goku spun, naturally surprised by Trunks' outburst.

"What happened?!" Pan shouted, powering up as if there were an intruder on the ship.

"Ahhh!" Trunks was suddenly embarrassed, and all of his surprise energy manifested as nervous laughter, "Ahahahahahaha!"

His temples were sweating. He couldn't explain what he just saw. There was no reason for his heart to be racing this fast. He didn't want to sound like he fell asleep on the job.

He didn't want to lie, but he also didn't want to present any kind of red herring to throw them off their mission. "Oh, nothing…" Trunks spoke with a tense and nervous laugh, "Ahaha! Just keeping you on your toes…"

"Really?" Pan just gave him a deadpan face with a curled lip in distaste. "You and your stupid pranks."

She turned away to look out the window again. Goku's eyes lingered slightly longer on Trunks, as if he were able to gauge that Trunks had dodged a truth.

Trunks mentally kicked himself.

He was angry that he had fallen asleep for a moment. He had completely blanked out, and had a lucid hallucination of a nightmare. That had never happened before, even with all of his instinctive visions. What he normally saw were numbers and angles… not entire horror scenes.

Fuck! Trunks felt more angry than confused as he mentally kicked himself. He was letting the stress get to him, and it was probably all because he didn't get a full night's sleep.

Of all the fucking days to have not slept … It had to be the day that he'd need to prevent them from falling into a star.

Trunks sighed, feeling like luck wasn't on his side today. He was also feeling like the brightness was getting to him. He felt a mild headache coming on as he considered how they were working against time.

"Wait, I see it!" Pan squinted against her hand on the glass, and then with her right hand, she pointed, "There it is!"

Trunks rose from his chair, picking up Giru as he stood.

With Giru in both hands, Trunks took a couple strides to see where Pan was pointing - about 60 degrees off the starboard bow. It was allegedly ahead of the ship, toward the right side of the window, appearing as a blurry dark blip that could easily be mistaken for a sunspot.

Trying to squint toward the solar flares, Trunks' eyes had not adjusted well enough to spot it, but he took her word for it.

Goku had the best eyes of all of them and was able to adapt his eyes to the brightness. "Wow good find, Pan!"

"I still can't see it," Trunks murmured as the glare began to hurt his eyes.

Goku's eyes had adapted best to the light as he focused on describing what he saw, "It looks like a cruise ship. But it's weird - the ship is fine… but all of its back engines were blown off."

"The engines were blown off?" Pan wondered aloud as she looked out the window. "Why would anyone do that?"

Trunks had trained in battle strategies with his father, so he had a good idea.

"Think about it," Trunks shrugged as he turned his aching eyes to Pan, "This is a classic battle tactic, you should know."

"What tactic?" Pan's glower conveyed her displeasure with Trunks' tone.

"To strand a ship." Trunks turned Giru in his hands, "It makes it vulnerable."

Pan frowned with a pouting lip, and put her right hand to her jeans hip, "But if it was stranded, then why is it falling into the star?"

Trunks frowned, looking down at Giru, and tried to imagine reasons why anyone would want to burn an entire ship. Even space navies tended to salvage enemy ships to incorporate into fleets.

As Trunks turned Giru in his hand, his mind continued to wonder about how even scrap spacecraft technology was a valuable resource that sold at a high price in the interplanetary marketplace. So then why -

-KZZT-

It spread like wildfire. I had to contain it. Even the ship was compromised. The only way to stop it was to kill the engines. The only way to kill it was to shove it all into the oven… and burn it.

-KZZT-

Trunks sharply inhaled, reeling back to reality from the daydream.

In his surprise, Trunks' hands lost their grip, and he dropped Giru. The little robot bounced and rolled backward on the carpeted floor.

Trunks' head was suddenly filled with a swell pressure that felt as blinding as the star's light from the window.

He groaned and brought both hands to his temples, and doubled over in a sudden overwhelming whirlwind.

Giru continued to roll and stopped by the pilot's chair, just as Pan turned to see that Trunks was feeling ill.

"Trunks… are you okay?!" Pan tried to reach out to touch him from the side.

Trunks swatted her hand away, recognizing the ache as a migraine, "It's okay… I'm okay."

He backed up and muttered as he he stood by the dashboard, regaining his bearings as he noticed Giru still on the ground.

"You're not okay," Pan stressed as she took a step toward him, obviously not fooled by his words. "You're acting weird."

"I'm okay," Trunks lied to assuage her fears as he brought his eyes to look at her, trying to ignore the pain in his head.

"No you're not," Pan pressed.

Not wanting to cause a scene or distraction from their main mission, Trunks tried to pivot the focus away from him. He learned that if he simply talked about something else, he could distract someone away from a topic. If he came off as agreeable, he could steer conversations quickly.

"You're right," Trunks led the conversation, "Something is weird."

Pan opened her mouth, but Trunks kept speaking, "Something about all of this…" He looked down at Giru by his feet, "... feels wrong."

Pan closed her mouth and looked at him with a hard expression as Trunks leaned down to pick up Giru. She brought her arms in front of her to cross along her chest, "So what do you think it could be?"

As Trunks gathered the little robot in his hands, he tried to not think about whatever strange vision he had before.

As soon as he let the memory go, he could feel the swell of his headache recede into the background, like mental static. And then, within moments, it was gone, as if it had never been there.

He mentally scolded himself again for not getting enough sleep. It was slowing him down, and whatever was going on felt like it risked incapacitating him.

This wasn't the time for him to worry about such things, though. He straightened and contemplated, turning Giru absentmindedly in his hands.

He kept thinking about the spaceship and its destroyed engines, to try to infer some insight as to who may have done the attack.

Something about this attack… felt calculated… but he couldn't place what.

"I wonder -" Trunks pondered for a moment as his eyes searched Giru's frame, trying to understand any of this. He didn't know the answer, but all of the signs were starting to lead him toward a hypothesis. "I wonder if… this attack was some kind of sabotage..."

Pan was taken aback, confused "Sabotage? But… who would want to sabotage a civilian ship with children?"

"I don't know, Pan." Trunks looked at her with a forlorn grimace and half-hearted shrug, "Maybe they were rescued already?"

Pan's expression tightened as she searched Trunks' eyes, "How could we know if someone showed up already?"

"I'm sure there'd have been some kind of radio chatter…" Trunks frowned, "I tried to send a signal before, but they haven't pinged back. Their radio might be jammed."

"But how would we know that?" Pan inquired.

Trunks felt irked at her impossible questions, "I said I don't know."

Pan put her hands on her hips indignantly as she repeated with a rising temper, "Then how do we find out?!"

Trunks felt aggravated. They were losing time, mainly because they had no good ideas.

Trying to avoid repeating himself, Trunks looked to Goku, hoping for some better news.

"Hey Goku," Trunks nodded his chin to him, "Now that we've located the ship, can you sense any kis?"

Goku looked bright for a moment, and then his expression turned contemplative.

Goku's brow knitted as he brought his right hand to his forehead. He unfocused his eyes and turned his lips down to hold a stern frown. His stance tensed as his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

He held the pose for a moment…

… And then Goku relaxed, looking disappointed as he shrugged with a resigned sigh.

"Sorry," Goku wore a sheepish frown, "The star's super powerful."

"Yeah?" Trunks looked at him expectantly despite the bad news, "And the ship?"

"I can't sense it," Goku pouted.

Trunks didn't take rejection well. "Why not?"

"I told you - the star's power is flooding all of my senses and drowning everything else out."

Trying to quickly pivot their strategy, Trunks asked, as he rotated Giru in his hands, "How can we make it so that you can sense the ship?"

Goku looked back out the window, "I think we have to get closer. I need to sense in a direction away from the star…"

Just his luck. Trunks felt disgruntled as he confirmed, "Right… away from the star…"

Instant transmission was not an option. Trunks had to quickly think of some alternative ideas.

Trunks was fairly good at being quick to ideate, but he always did it better with the help of artificial intelligence.

Trunks looked down at Giru in his hands, turning his back flap to face him as he pondered their situation a bit.

Trunks opened Giru's flap, and pressed his Startup button.

-Beep…. Beep boop… boopeeboopbeep!-

Giru's gears whirred to life. "DANGER! DANGER! -giru giru-"

"Yes, we know, Giru," Trunks closed Giru's flap just as his little limbs started to flail, pinging a repeating alarm of DANGER! DANGER!

Trunks looked down at Giru in his hands, and before he could even think to give Giru a prompt, Trunks got an idea.

Trunks brightened and perked up, feeling like a sparkle of light bulbs surrounded his idea.

"Okay guys, how about this Plan B?"

Trunks released Giru, who floated up to Trunks' left shoulder and grabbed onto his black shirt.

"We can do a compromise," Trunks started, as Giru settled onto his shoulder.

Pan and Goku both turned to him and nodded, following along.

Trunks spread his arms as he talked, and Giru mimicked his movements. "We have mini transport ships, right?"

They nodded.

"Here's the plan," Trunks spoke with his hands, gesturing toward imaginary figures in the air as he spoke, "We fly our personal ships to the stranded passenger ship."

"Yeah?" Pan followed.

"It'll be easy for us to get there quickly, since we'd be flying toward the star's gravity. And once we get to the stranded ship, we can instant transmit from that ship, to bring the survivors back onto this ship."

"Well, uh," Goku looked hesitant to interrupt.

Trunks continued, to clarify the plan, feeling more excited with each word, "So, the plan, again, would be for us to drive to the ship, find some refugees, and then pop back to our spaceship."

"Uhhh," Goku continued to look doubtful, "What would be the energy signal?"

"What energy signal?" Trunks asked.

Goku awkwardly shifted his stance, "I need some kind of energy signal to go to."

Trunks thought for a moment, feeling Giru's weight on his shoulder. And then his brightened again, "Giru can stay on board. We don't need the Dragon Radar for this, anyway, and he'd be a good energy beacon!"

Pan perked up and smiled, "That's a great idea!"

Trunks felt a swell of warm feeling, and he smiled back at Pan.

But then Trunks saw from his peripheral vision how Goku's expression darkened into a glower.

Goku looked emotionally torn as he brought his eyes back to look at Trunks and Pan.

"Uhhh, guys…" Goku looked doubtful, "... I don't think that's going to work."

The warm feeling inside Trunks cooled, then heated as he felt his temper begin to trigger.

"What do you mean?" Trunks felt his frustration rise as his body tensed, "It'll be easy for you to find an energy signal when facing away from the star, right?"

"It's not that… " Goku pouted a frown, "It's just an instant-transmission thing. I travel by sensing energy."

"Exactly!" Trunks swept his hand to gesture back at Giru as he adamantly spouted, "Robots have energy!"

"I know, but I can't sense robots."

Trunks was aghast, "What do you mean you can't sense robots?!"

Goku shrugged, "It's like a robot or Android's not even there."

Trunks felt confused. "But what about the Cell Games? I heard you used instant transmission with the Androids."

"No," Goku clarified, "The normal Androids didn't have readable energy signals. I used it only with Cell, and he was a bio-something Android."

They didn't have time to argue. Trunks didn't like how Goku was unable to present any kind of solution. Trunks knew it was pointless to continue his argument, but he felt personally affronted. His brilliant plan had been thwarted, and it still didn't make sense to him.

Trunks felt flooded with wild irritation, "But you instant-transmitted to machinery before… Like during the wedding. You instant-transmitted to the ship to get your camera, right?!"

"Yeah, but…" Goku scratched his head, "I'm not accurate at all. I mean, I overshot the ship by a lot. It was like… a whole five minute flight."

Trunks felt lead weight form in his gut.

"I mean…" Goku hesitated, "I could try to instant-transmit back to the ship without an actual energy beacon." In his effort to sound helpful, Goku's cheery tone sounded a little forced as he tried to warn his team, "But, I mean… there's a real chance I could miss the ship and pop up in space… "

Trunks groaned.

"And…uh…" Goku continued with an awkward grin, "I don't think the refugees would like that very much."

Pan frowned as she paced back and forth by the window. "That won't work then." Pan then stopped, looking at Goku, "What counts as an energy beacon, then?"

"Uhhh, I usually use people."

Pan suggested with a wave of her hands, "Can we use heat as an energy signal?"

"Uhhh," Goku turned his head up as he considered the thought, "Yeah." Goku nodded, "Heat has readable energy."

Pan brightened as she came to an idea, and stood straight as she put both hands on her hips, "Then why don't we use the engine heat?"

Goku smiled and relaxed, "That could work!"

"No," Trunks shut down the idea. "It won't work."

Pan spun on Trunks, looking defiant, and angry that Trunks would voice dissent. "What do you mean, it won't work?!"

Trunks grumbled as he stood his ground. He spoke with his hands as he argued, "We need to conserve fuel. The rockets are not an option."

Pan stopped and glared at Trunks, "Well, if we can't use Giru, and we can't use the rockets, then what do you suggest, Mr. Tenacious Trunks, huh?! Any more clever ideas?

Trunks could feel his temper pulsate. He tried to envision the ramen bowl. This exact kind of exchange reflected the kind of tone that he and Pan had with each other for the first half year. He wanted to try to avoid falling back into their typical argumentative dynamic. But damnit, it was hard to avoid it when Pan could act like such a brat sometimes.

He scowled at her prominent sarcasm, and he could feel a spiteful pool of energy threatening to rise. He wished he could somehow drill a lesson into her for her tone at him.

As he felt the waves of spite swell, he also thought of a Plan C.

And the more he thought of Plan C, he realized just how well it was going to work. Plan C should have been Plan A from the beginning.

The more he thought of Plan C, the more Trunks liked the sound of it. All of his negative energy melted, and converted within his core. He could feel his prank energy rising in response. He did love a good sense of irony.

Trunks' lips turned into a half-grin. His sudden shift in demeanor was noticed by Pan, who straightened her stance, recognizing his prank grin.

Trunks spoke decidedly, "Alright. It's settled. Goku needs a person to be the energy beacon." He then grandly gestured to Pan and then put a hand on his hip in finality.

Pan folded her arms, glowering with eyes that sparked with adversity, "Sounds like you're staying on board, then."

Trunks' voice became pointed as he maintained a forced grin at her. "No, Pan. You need to stay on board."

Pan immediately became livid, "There is NO WAY you're keeping me away from saving those babies!"

Trunks put his foot down as he maintained his authoritative posture, "It's exactly for the same reason as protecting those babies, that you need to stay on board to be the energy beacon."

"What are you saying?!" Pan's countenance darkened with a fierce stare.

Trunks dropped his smiling pretense.

His face darkened and he leaned down to look hard into her eyes. His tone was stern and commanding, "You're the youngest and this mission is too dangerous for you."

Pan grimaced in rage, and then broke out into a full-bodied rage that resembled Chi Chi's as she spat, "And you think I'm going to let you go off and do something dangerous without me?!"

"Listen," Trunks tried to keep calm while stressing his points, "We have a larger mission to save Planet Earth!" He spoke with his hands that sliced through the air as he made his points, "We can't all risk dying here! This is just a side-quest!"

"Side-quest?!" Pan snarled and raised a clenched fist as if she wanted to box his face, "You think saving children is just a GAME?!"

"No!" Trunks stomped his foot, with a snarled lip, "We need a designated survivor to finish our actual mission!"

Pan seethed, "You're the pilot!" She stomped back, "You can go finish the mission!"

"Woah," Goku remarked in shock at the scene as he backed away from them.

"Giru knows how to fly the ship!" Trunks sneered, and noticed Goku trying to remove himself from the scene, "If something happens to me, you and Goku can still make it to the final Dragon Ball."

"NO!" Pan stomped. "I'm GOING WITH YOU!"

Trunks turned to the Saiyan, and then looked sharply back at Pan as he growled through gritted teeth, "Goku, let's get ready."

Pan stomped her foot again, "NO!"

Trunks snarled with blazing eyes, "Don't argue with me, Pan. Both Goku and I have been tasked with keeping you safe. You're staying on board!"

"I said NO!" Pan was obstinate, as she raised both fists, as if preparing to box Trunks. "YOU'RE NOT WELL, and I am COMING to SAVE THE BABIES!"

Trunks bared his fangs like an angry wolf, "DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME."

Pan held her fists out like a pawing bull, "YOU CAN'T CONTROL ME!"

"Aaaahh!" Trunks screamed at the top of his lungs and smacked the dashboard in rage. "Alright, Fearless Leader, do you have a better idea?!"

Pan raged, "Yes!"

Trunks spread his arms in a hot-tempered challenge, "Well?!"

"The-the…" Pan suddenly lost her confidence as she looked around and paused, trying to think. "The-uh… rice cooker."

There was a pause.

Trunks brought his hands to his head, suddenly filled with angst, "The rice cooker?!"

Pan suddenly flushed, realizing she had committed to such a radical suggestion.

Pan turned to Goku with a hopeful expression as he extended her arms out, "Grandpa… you said you sense heat, right? Like the star? That counts as energy?"

"Yeah," Goku nodded.

Pan turned back to Trunks with a triumphant grin, "So… let's use the rice cooker!"

Trunks pulled at his hair, "Are you serious right now?" He threw his hands forward to gesture toward the cockpit door, as if gesturing to the kitchen, "You're leaving the fate of the Earth to a rice cooker?!"

Goku was thoughtful as he mused, "That wouldn't be the first time…"

"What?!"

Pan huffed with a cocky grin, "Yeah, either that, or we could bake bread!"

Trunks pulled his hair in a melodramatic stance, "Now I know you are joking!"

Pan chuckled and put her hands on her hips, "No, silly. Let's just keep some rice hot. Grandpa can always target food."

Trunks smacked his face with his hands, covering it with a groan.

"Are you SERIOUS, PAN?!" Trunks moaned, "Are you really leaving the FATE OF THE EARTH to a RICE COOKER?!"

Pan rolled her eyes and half-pointed at Trunks before gesturing to herself, "Well your idea sucks, and mine is much better."

"Yeah," Goku nodded to her, "I think a rice cooker could work."

Trunks flung his arms up, "I can't even - with this idiocy! I just can't." He shrugged his arms forward in resignation, "Fine! You win, Pan."

Pan made double-pumped fists. "Yes!"

Trunks sighed and stood up straight, wondering if this was real life.

"I can't believe I'm saying this…" Trunks sighed again.

And then Trunks stated the words that would save the world: "Giru, please steam eight cups of rice in the rice cooker."

Giru whirred and twirled with a chipper beep.

"Okay, Trunks!" Giru said with a chipper, melodic whistle, "Eight cups of rice, preparing now! -giru giru!-"

And then Giru flew off, out of the cockpit doors to go prepare the rice.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Trunks reached into a dashboard drawer. He pulled out three bracelets and a metal box with transport ship capsules.

"Pan, Goku - get your suit-bands on and set a timer for twenty minutes," Trunks tossed a bracelet to each of them, and spoke pointedly he held up their ship capsules, "Just long enough for the cooker's switch to flip."

Snapping the bracelets on, they each pressed their bands, and POPPED into their quick-change spacesuits.

As Trunks synced his watch and returned his eyes to watch his teammates getting ready, his mind wandered, and he couldn't help but realize the whole irony of it all.

The fate of the Earth came down to a rice cooker... And it wasn't even the first time.

Sometimes, Trunks felt like they lived in a cartoon.

But… funnily enough… these kinds of moments made him feel the most alive.

–––––––

–––––––

–A: 5/2/24–

–F: 7/23/24–