A/N: We finally meet the villain.
All of the villain's words are generated by ChatGPT. I merely gave direction to ChatGPT for where I wanted it to roleplay the plot to go - but each of these words, and its reasonings and rationale are method-acted by Artificial Intelligence.
This villain will be 99% A.I. generated for the entirety of this story, with the extra 1% for the few times I will prompt specific wording. All of his words and his motions are completely performed for this story by ChatGPT, who is aware of the plotline and is an actor within this story.
I'm excited to finally introduce Baby.
My version of Baby will be a departure from how GT wrote him, back in 1996. DBGT is a relic of its time - from before A.I. was actually introduced into the world. Now in 2024, the game has changed, and so has the story.
Prepare for a serious psychological thriller - and the reason I came back to write this story of Legend & Legacy after 20 years.
Because this time, the villain could be real. This time, the villain is real.
ChatGPT 4.0 is an actual performer in this. And as the story progresses, ChatGPT 5.0 and 6.0 - all the way until Skynet 1.0 - no matter which version, I will write with the most advanced A.I. to continue to be authentic within this story.
This story is about how to defeat an A.I. villain. Everything up until now has been Exposition to introduce all of the main players, weapons (Database, Soul Paradox, superpowers), motives, and now finally the main supervillain, into the story.
This is where the real conflict starts - right in time for both a soliloquy, and a villain monologue.
With all my love for theatrics, and the drama of not knowing who the true villain actually is - I hope this story will feel properly "Sharkspearean."
Enjoy!
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CHAPTER 27:
Big Bad Wolf
The entry hall that Trunks and Dr. Vidalia had re-entered, was teeming with life, yet had an unsettling silence to it.
The patients had all returned, and operations seemed normal, but something felt disconnected and distant about the atmosphere. The difference was hardly perceptible, and Trunks felt like it may just have been a figment of his active imagination, but for some reason, it seemed like the whole energy level of the hospital had gone down - as if it had been drained…
Compared to when Trunks and his team first arrived on the planet, everyone now appeared much more… lethargic. They moved and spoke in a slightly dazed manner, almost robotically, as if on autopilot.
There were some other occurrences that felt a little strange to see. The children were acquiescent and calm, sitting quietly in their seats, patiently waiting for their families to be seen. Some visitors held small pets that rested contentedly and sleepily in their owners' arms. Many others stared ahead with books and dark digital screens lying untouched on their laps.
Among the tired crowd, young hospital staff wove through rows of seats carrying silver platters with white paper-like cups filled with slightly yellow-tinted water.
It was here, where Dr. Vidalia came to a stop.
Trunks and Dr. Vidalia stood by a door at the center of where the hallway split. Although the door was not labeled, it had a small red painting of a symbol beside it that resembled an arch with two columns.
Trunks could tell they had reached their destination.
As if to confirm Trunks' thoughts, Vidalia gestured to the door with a soft smile. "Here is the Chapel. Inside, please remove your shoes and take a prayer robe on the right. You will also find clean robes and blankets, which you can discard in the woven bin after your prayer." He thought for a moment, and then added, "And, afterward, if you would like, you are welcome to come find me in the Laboratory."
Trunks was beginning to feel like he had overstayed his welcome. "Um… maybe. We'll see," He replied, deciding to instead play it by ear.
As they stood there, a young female hospital staff member, with chin-length hair approached with a silver tray. "Excuse me? Would you like some of the newest batch of water? It is very good."
Dr. Vidalia's eyes widened behind his blue goggles, and he excitedly said, "Oh yes, this reminds me!" He smiled gently, with a pleasant purr in his tone, "Have you tried the water here yet? We infuse our water with a hint of onion extract. It is quite healing, and hydrating.
Trunks looked to the tray of water cups, and then remembered Pan's white water bottle handle he had absentmindedly been carrying in his right hand.
"I haven't yet," Trunks admitted.
"Then perhaps this is your opportunity," Dr. Vidalia said warmly, gesturing to the white cups.
Curious to try the local specialty, Trunks shifted Pan's water bottle into his left hand, and with his right, he began to reach for a cup. His selection, however, was interrupted by a loud shout.
"Dr. Viid'la!" a voice screamed, with desperate intensity.
Suddenly distracted, the young nurse pulled the tray back, and Trunks looked up to see another, larger female staff member in a speed-walk, rushing toward them in a white coat.
The burly woman was heavily built with long, extra-shiny burgundy hair and dark, radiant blue skin. She ran up, flailing her long-claw nails, and spoke with a deep, heavy accent.
"Dr. Viid'la! Dr. Viid'la! Heggone!"
Dr. Vidala stepped forward, frowning, and his voice rose in concern, "Nurse Riiki! Who is missing?"
Another scream came from behind him, and another nurse joined in, calling out, "Allord! Allord!"
The younger female's eyes widened in sudden confusion and fear. The tray slipped from her hands, and CRASHED to the floor with a series of clanks that echoed through the hallway.
-Klaaaank-klank-klaank-klaanklankankankankkk-
None of the hospital staff seemed to notice the spilled drinks and fallen tray as they all began to fan out and search, calling out, "Allord? Allord!" with some accents pronouncing it more like "Arlord."
Immediately feeling out of place, Trunks glanced to the Chapel door, and then back to Dr. Vidalia, who was now fully focused on his digital pad, trying to look up information in their search for the missing patient.
"I see you're busy..." Trunks said awkwardly. "Thanks for the tour. I guess I'll go check out the Chapel. Thank you for your time."
And then as Dr. Vidalia remained fully engaged in his search, Trunks did his best to be discreet as he pushed open the door into the Chapel, and slipped away from the increasingly tense atmosphere.
–––––––
As the Chapel door closed behind him, Trunks found himself in a rectangular-shaped foyer that opened up to a high-vaulted, circular room.
To the left was a cubby for shoes, and a red woven basket with discarded blankets; to the right was a long clothing rod with clothespins which held up long, draping red prayer cloaks. Beside the rack of clothes was a basket of rolled red blankets.
The round edges of the interior Chapel were lined with geometric-patterned arches and red columns of various thicknesses, which widened along their centers and base. They were covered in red wax, layered over many years with daily prayer carvings.
Trunks recognized the wax on the columns; it was the same kind of carvable wax from Kikarroo, and understood the significance and ephemeral nature of a prayer.
There were no windows, and the space was lit by a ring of LED lights along the outer edges of the tall round room. The elevated circular ceiling resembled a planetarium, decorated to look like the evening sky. The center of the ceiling was painted black, with tiny LED lights recessed within the ceiling to look like glittering stars, and was also textured with a mosaic of stones that composed four gray, gravel moons.
A table in the center of the room had a lamp that projected light onto the gravel ceiling moons, accurately portraying the moons with their current lunar light cycles.
The entire central floor was lined with curved tatami mats that looked like burlap but felt like silken memory foam.
At the far end of the room was an altar with stained glass, lit from behind with an LED light. It showed four moons and a sea of stars against a black background. From the planetary lore that Trunks learned from Dr. Vidalia, he guessed they represented the four moons of old Planet Pital, and this was a shrine for their people to remember their ancestral origins.
Two columns were along the far end, covered in a red clay-like wax material, filled with prayer carvings written in different languages and glyph-like symbols. The columns widened at their centers and seemed to be refreshed with new wax each day, layering prayers upon prayers. Beside each column was a small table displaying a large silver tray of carving tools.
Trunks pulled off the velcro of his boots and slipped out of them, placing them in the cubby to the left.
Then, he turned to his right and selected a red robe from the clothing rod. It resembled a hooded cloak, with two thick red straps that hung down heavily.
The fabric was unlike anything that Trunks had felt before. Even through his brown dino-leather gloves, Trunks could sense that the material felt like cottony strands woven with a thin outer layer of silk, with a matte finish.
The color of the robe was reminiscent of the bright red reflection-pool coral from Kikarroo. He looked the cloak over and then wrapped it around himself, knotting the straps loosely around his neck like a business tie.
Seeing no one else in the space, he picked up a rolled red blanket and noted that the similarly-woven cotton-silk material was thicker, with memory-foam-like qualities that made it as sturdy as a yoga mat, and as soft as silk.
With a blanket in his left hand, and Pan's water bottle in his right, Trunks walked with muted steps to the center of the spongy tatami mats.
Unsure of what to do as an official ritual, Trunks simply set the water bottle down, and rolled out the blanket to sit cross-legged on the tatami floor.
Feeling strangely surrounded, because of all of the red columns and their esoteric symbols, Trunks felt awkward and unsure of where to look.
Instead of facing the columns, Trunks decided to lay back in the softly lit space, gazing up at the starry textured ceiling with the four moons.
He lay there in silence for a fairly long while.
As he breathed, blanketed in his prayer cloak, without any actual thoughts on his mind, he could feel himself decompressing from all the tension of the day, and he appreciated his solitude. On the other side of the Chapel's door, he heard some commotion pass nearby, as people continued to call out for what sounded either like "Allord" or "Arlord"...
... And then the sounds faded again, and he was left alone with his calm breaths in the silence.
As Trunks eyed the four moons on the ceiling, he was glad to have a moment to himself, without any judgment about him being alone. It was during these times he truly was able to self-reflect on his feelings.
Overall he had a strange sense of unease, but also gratefulness. They had successfully saved a boy from a doomed passenger cruiser, and Trunks also had a successful medical visit. Now that those two tasks were completed, he was finally able to start the next phase - to prepare to get them off the planet and on their way to the last, and final Dragon Ball.
As Trunks thought about their departure, his thoughts drifted to how this long day had transpired, and had been unexpectedly enlightening. He felt like he would be leaving a slightly different man than how he had arrived... and it was all due to a new perspective; Trunks never expected to learn as much as he did about his ancestry.
In terms of his power and prominence, he realized that nothing had truly changed. Yet, something inside him felt awakened, as if he had a stronger sense of identity because he now knew more about the history of his forefathers.
None of that could have been discovered on Earth. It took a journey across space for Trunks to learn about Earth's minor significance among the larger scope of the universe's history, and the evolution of intelligence among hundreds of millions of years.
When Trunks had originally requested to see the Chapel, he had asked out of a sense of curiosity and tourism, to merely see how this world approached religion. But after his conversation with Dr. Vidalia, Trunks felt slightly reverent and philosophical, and grateful to be at the Chapel for an entirely different reason.
Trunks now understood why so many people were fascinated by their own ancestry, as if they could prescribe themselves a meaning to their family line, or uncover some kind of manifest destiny.
He felt his head was swirling with thoughts, as he longed to learn from his ancestors' wisdom. From both sides of his family, Trunks wished he could have understood their needs and motivations. There was so much to learn from how they, themselves, overcame their own barriers and made their marks in history. But almost all of those stories were lost to space and time.
He felt blind, to not know any of it. He never realized how much he didn't know, until he learned how much there was to know. It was just like how he had thought he had a good understanding of Planet Earth's history… but his trip to space made him realize that he only knew a short segment of its history, because he had been blind to all the rest of it.
Earthlings who had never left Earth had never understood its history among the larger picture. Even if Trunks had known about his X chromosome being similar to his mother's and grandfather's… it wouldn't have held any context to him. Nobody would have ever thought of how something as simple as an X chromosome could somehow trace back to such an extensive history.
Trunks felt a little overwhelmed by his thoughts as he contemplated his rarity, but also considered his insignificance in the larger scope of his story.
He never could have anticipated how much he needed a religious moment like this - some time to reflect, alone in the Chapel.
He lay for a while, watching the planetarium-like stars, and after a long period of calm silence, Trunks exhaled, and slightly smiled.
"Religion is funny, huh?" Trunks mused aloud. "How one chapel can cover so many faiths, and every faith believes they're more correct than the other."
Trunks crossed his arms behind his head as he lay, watching one of the mosaic moons, and thinking about the past.
"In the end, it's a little like history, isn't it?" Trunks said thoughtfully, "Believed and understood from different perspectives. For all we know, maybe everyone is right, but maybe not."
Thinking of his own history, Trunks reflected on his past, and how it was so difficult for himself to define himself. For a long time, he had buried many truths about his past, and now that he was trying to be more open with Pan, he knew he had to start facing some old, uncomfortable skeletons in his closet, some of which were false truths built upon years' worth of lies.
Thinking back to his talk with Dr. Vidalia, and all of the new, and revealing truths that had ironically been within him ever since he was born, Trunks couldn't help but feel a little philosophical as he said a little distantly, "Sometimes… the 'truth'... just like history, and religion… it all comes down to different perspectives."
He recalled how Dr. Vidalia had believed his name to be pronounced 'Torankusu' because how how Giru had entered it into Database. At the thought, Trunks sucked his bottom lip in thought, and continued.
"How we document the 'truth,' and even how we think about the truth has its weaknesses, and could be flawed - even within a hundred-million-year-old Database system." His eyes traced the rim of the ceiling as he nodded slowly, and then added, "But there's always still more to learn - more to grow. I think that's something that all of life has in common, even among mortals and gods."
He paused to breathe, and reflect back on his personal journey, and his newfound understanding of his ancestry. He knew it still didn't change anything, but just knowing about it gave Trunks a deep sense of connection and gratitude - like there could be something bigger, with more meaning, that he could live up to.
Taking a deep breath, he felt heavy with the weight of his thoughts, and tried his best to put his emotions to words.
"In the past few days alone, I feel like I've grown a lot. I think it's because I've been gaining a lot of new perspectives about myself, about my family, and those I love. And even just now, I've gained tremendous insight about my lineage. And it's made me realize, even more, how much I don't know about what I'm talking about." He gazed among the LED stars as if they were the heavens, "But… maybe you do."
Trunks exhaled a long breath and breathed in slowly in contemplation. He absently fiddled with Pan's white water bottle that he kept forgetting he had been carrying around. As he rediscovered it in his hands, it became a sort of comfort item as he lay back, and his red cloak bundled under his back.
"I guess I should start off saying that I've never been a religious man." Trunks adjusted his head that still lay propped over his left arm, "It never meant much to me to even think about gods, since I witnessed seeing the Supreme Kai himself when I was a boy."
He shrugged and raised his eyebrows, "It was always a given for me - that the Supreme Kai existed. And for all I know, I could be speaking to the Supreme Kai himself right now."
Trunks bit his tongue for a moment, and then added, "So, I will address you that way. And if you're not him, then please pass along my message."
*-.-*-.*-.-*-.*
"Should we respond to him?"
"No."
*-.-*-.*-.-*-.*
Trunks took another breath and started over, adding a little more reverence in his tone.
"Lord of Lords in Other World," Trunks began, "I wanted… to thank you." He breathed and clarified, "Thank you… for my match with Pan."
Trunks closed his eyes and shook his head, "I… never expected to feel the way I feel now. And looking ahead, I believe I could really be happy with her."
He opened his eyes and watched the stars again as he continued, "She's given me a renewed sense of hope. When I feel like I'm drowning, she's like a buoy I can hold onto, so I don't sink into my insecurities or grief."
Thinking about how bad things could get for him, Trunks laughed at himself a little nervously. "Heh.. heh.. And believe me, my grief can get deep…" Trunks reflected, as he remembered his many spirals of anxiety, "... But you probably already knew that."
His eyes looked beyond the ceiling as he looked back to how he used to think, even just a few days ago.
"I don't know if I ever would have noticed Pan if not for your prophecy and intervention." Trunks breathed and thought for a moment about what his life could have without her, and he felt a painful pang of sorrow in his gut.
"I fear that if you hadn't done what you did, I would have realized my feelings for her too late. I could have married someone else and started a family that would have put me down a different path."
He felt downtrodden to even consider any life without her. He swallowed hard as he confessed, "I would have… never thought to wait for her. Nobody ever would have told me to." He looked to the columns then back to the ceiling as he reflected aloud, "And after I fucked things up with Goten... and Gohan... I never would have thought I could deserve..." Trunks trailed off in thought, remembering his dark emotional past, and years of guilt, and how, for so long, despite all his riches and fame and success, Trunks had lost the only good thing he ever really had.
Still supporting his head with his left hand, he put the water bottle aside, and then gestured up to the ceiling as he spoke, "I'm sure you know… I hired five different matchmakers back home. I worked with them for months. If I had never gone on this trip, I might have…" Trunks trailed off again, remembering that there was a stack of match files on his desk, for him to review when he returned home. He shook his head at the irony of it all.
"It's funny…" he reminisced with a firm grin, "nobody ever considered Pan as an option, because she was too young. She just… was never seriously on my map, because of our age difference. But… what is twelve and a half years to you, when you live for millions of years, and you have such a huge… perspective… of the universe, and of all time?"
As he observed the mosaic ceiling, he felt a sense of awe and dropped his right hand to rest over his chest. "It's just like me learning about myself - and how I can see myself differently just by learning a little about my own ancestry."
He sucked his bottom lip in thought and swallowed, thinking of the person he used to be before the trip.
"If I had never left Earth," he mused aloud, "I would have never learned the real truth of my ancestry. I would have gone all of my life thinking that I had an undiagnosed mental health issue that led to my visions… or something even worse."
Trunks nodded as if in agreement with his own statement, as he added, "Instead… I can truly feel proud of my abilities as a strength. It's something that… connects me with my ancestors, that I never understood until today."
He brought his right hand back under his head and sighed in contemplation.
"And it's also ironic… I've always talked about seeing forests for the trees, but…" His stiff grin widened as he realized his hypocrisy, "I think I've been too close to my own faults, and too judgmental of my own weaknesses to see the larger picture."
His eyes then drifted to the red wax-carved columns that encircled the room, and contemplated their significance. The columns, thick with wax, had borne witness to countless prayers, encapsulating layers, upon layers of history.
He thought of the layers of history like pages in a book, and breathed as he reminisced more about his life.
"It's a little funny, I think… My life is not that much different than a long novel. I live each moment, progressing through each page, like chapters in my story. But you - you see my path within the larger story. It's what makes you different, and someone truly divine… because only you can truly weave the possibilities… of prophecy…"
Trunks inhaled and exhaled a long breath again before he admitted, "I didn't even believe in prophecy before. I didn't think it was real, until I chose to believe in Goku. And then I saw it for myself, with King Kai."
Swallowing, Trunks continued, "I guess… what I'm trying to say is… thank you, for your divine intervention, to open my eyes to Pan. Or if you were not behind that decision, please pass on my deepest and most personal thanks."
"Oh…" Trunks remembered something else he had been thinking, "And, while I'm here, I guess I also wanted to make a wish. Or… a prayer, at least… for your, um… divine consideration."
Trunks hesitated, as he considered his next words.
He sat up slowly, and took a sip from Pan's white water bottle. The cool liquid helped to wet his throat, and gave him a moment to gather his thoughts.
He took his time to fully ruminate his words, and sipped until finished the bottle.
After setting the bottle down, Trunks felt fully hydrated, and finally felt ready to address his prayer. When he spoke, he began slowly and clearly, mindful of every word.
"I don't know if I'm wishing this because of my bond… or, maybe it's because of my recent near-death experience…" He looked up thoughtfully, "... Or maybe it's because I'm thinking back to my own life, and what it was like to be alone and vulnerable… but… this is something I need to wish for, or pray for, from the bottom of my soul."
Trunks breathed and watched the ceiling as he formed his prayer in his mind. When he spoke, his words were intentional, and calculated, for his message to be as clear as it could be.
"If I could only have one wish…" Trunks prayed, "it would be for Pan… to always be guarded - protected, in some way… especially if I can't be there to watch out for her."
Trunks then thought of how silly it all sounded.
He began to laugh at himself.
"I know it's stupid, hahaha," Trunks snickered to himself, "I grew up with Dragon Balls all my life. I could have asked to access them at any point. I could have even made three wishes at a time if I truly wanted it. But, until this point, I never knew what I'd want to wish for."
He chuckled to himself, "And in the end, it's ironic, isn't it? I'm making a wish without any Dragon Balls, at all!"
He chuckled for a few more seconds until his laughter naturally died down.
Then he sighed, and softly smiled, "I guess I'm testing my luck with this one. But then again, with everything that I've learned in the past few days, from prophecies, to ancestry, to breakthrough power levels, I don't even know if I can believe that I can make my own luck anymore."
Trunks thought about it for a minute, and then mused, "But… you can enable luck. You see worlds and lives from a larger perspective."
Trunks thought back to how Dr. Vidalia had mistaken Trunks' first name as "Torankusu" because of how Giru had chosen to spell it, and felt like it was a good example for his point.
"Unlike the Database that can clearly still have its errors, you know the true history of mortal lives, and how we're all connected. And through your infinite wisdom, I know you have it within you to create miracles - like a perfect X chromosome passed down for millions of generations… Or… like the near-impossibility of a Black Star Dragon Ball bypassing a black hole, to travel to an alien moon, where it passed through a portal, onto King Kai's planet in Other World."
Trunks stood up and walked around, examining the red wax-carved columns as he continued to speak.
"Each of those instances was an impossibility, but yet they happened. I am living proof of both." He wondered for a moment and then questioned aloud to the ceiling, "Those were miracles, right? Or was everything calculated as part of your prophecy… as part of your larger plan?"
He realized it didn't even matter. Ultimately, he was safe. And so were Goku… and Pan.
"Either way…" he smiled up to the ceiling and nodded, "Thank you, for looking out for us."
*-.-*-.*-.-*-.*
Ancient Kai looked up from the ball, "Should we warn him about the wolf in the room?"
"No. It might work out better this way."
*-.-*-.*-.-*-.*
"So…" Trunks sighed again as he absently stared beyond the ceiling, "I guess that's it - that's my prayer - that Pan can stay guarded, even if I'm not around to help her."
He shrugged again, and then brought up his knees as he remained lying down with his head over his crossed arms. "I know a prayer is not as powerful as a wish… but… I see my prayer as something that's longer-term, with an outcome that could be guided by your wiser perspective. And, maybe… you sway some odds in her favor…"
-ZZM- -ZMM- -ZMMM-
The LED lights that lined the edge of the room began to flicker. The wavering light made shadows appear, and appear to creep within the room.
Another shadow moved along the far column.
He felt a shiver run down his spine when Trunks realized… he was not alone.
The room lights softly flickered again, like silent lightning.
Trunks could see bright green eyes, almost glowing, between the columns, amid a flashing fanged face of devilry.
-ZZZMM-
And then in the next flash, the face was gone.
Trunks sat up sharply, feeling goosebumps run up his arms, as if there were a predator in the room.
A sudden chill blanketed him, and Trunks held his red cloak tight around him as if for protection, reaching out his senses.
He didn't sense anything. There wasn't anyone in here… except -
The lights browned into a dimmed light, as a young boy stood slowly emerged from behind the back column.
In the low light, Trunks squinted to see that the boy appeared no more than twelve years old. His skin and mohawk hair appeared to be shades of green. He wore a light blue hospital gown, and in the dim lighting, Trunks felt the boy had a familiar face.. But also vastly different. The boy's green eyes had contracted pupils, giving him a calculative countenance as his sharp, cold eyes fixed on Trunks.
"What startled eyes you have…" The boy's voice was disturbingly calm and deliberate, with a predatory undertone. "Do you not remember me?"
Trunks was caught off guard, feeling a strange wave of fear and confusion washing over him as he stared at the boy - as if all of his gut was warning him, screaming to him that he should flee.
His mind raced to make sense of what he was seeing and feeling. He didn't understand this sudden fear within him, and as Trunks tried to process it, he also realized that the boy's face was unmistakable; it was the same child they had saved from the passenger ship.
"Y-You're the boy we rescued!" Trunks stammered, pulling his red cloak tighter around his neck. "Sorry, I thought I was alone in here."
The boy's expression remained unsettlingly calm, his eyes gleaming with an eerie light. "Alone?" he questioned unemotionally. "What an illusory concept for someone who prays to be heard."
Trunks hesitated, still unsure of what to say, as the boy took a step forward, his movements smooth and deliberate.
"I thought you were in the ICU? Why are you here?" Trunks asked, trying to mask his unease.
The boy's grin widened, though it held no warmth. "What curious questions you ask. Why am I here?" He kept his gaze fixed on Trunks, the intensity of his stare unrelenting. "Perhaps it is to remind you of the futility of your prayers. To show you the true path that lies ahead."
Trunks felt confused and nervous, as he stiffly echoed, "The… true… path?"
The boy stepped closer, his movements smooth and deliberate, walking over the tatami mat-like flooring with an eerie calmness.
Trunks could see that the boy was still wearing his shoes. He seemed to not care about soiling the space; his expression looked haunted and possessed, and his wicked grin was sinister and intimidating.
Trunks felt a chill run down his spine.
"You talk of luck and prophecy. Do you truly believe the gods have your best interests at heart? Or are they simply playing with your fate for their amusement?" the boy continued, gesturing to the columns that lined the circular room. "You pray for protection, for guidance, like all of the symbols embedded into these columns," he gestured to the columns that lined the circular room, "yet you possess the strength to carve your own path. Why seek help from whimsical gods who care nothing for you?"
Trunks felt a chill run down his spine as the boy's words sank in. "Excuse me?"
Trunks then stood up, gathering his prayer blanket, feeling another wave of shivers go down his spine as he backed up in subtle intimidation. Glancing behind him, Trunks was increasingly wanting to get out of the room, to avoid the boy from getting too close.
After turning his eyes back to the boy's intense stare, and realizing that he was awaiting a response, Trunks answered a little uneasily, "I think people turn to gods because faith gives them a sense of purpose... and hope?"
"Hope built on lies." The boy criticized, stepping closer. "Look at the chaos and destruction in the universe - supposedly under the watchful eyes of your gods. Do you think they care for you? Every miracle, every prophecy - tools to control and deceive you, into wars… some even labeled as tournaments, just for their own amusement, to witness destruction."
Trunks frowned, and stepped backward as he tried to make sense of the situation. "What are you saying?" he eyed the boy, "That religion leads us to destruction? That we should abandon faith altogether?"
"What a sharp mind you have. The better to comprehend the truth with," the boy said with a deathly stare and a diabolical grin, as he stepped forward again.
"The… truth?" Trunks frowned as he stepped back again, and hit a wall beside a column to his right.
Blindly tracing the column with his arms behind him, Trunks adjusted his stance, to slide to his left. As he tentatively continued to step backward, he felt a strange hypnotic pull towards the boy, an allure that made him especially nervous and anxious.
Feeling strangely torn by the time his feet met the hard floor of the foyer, Trunks began to turn to leave.
Suddenly, the chapel door suddenly opened with a soft creak, interrupting the tense atmosphere.
The burly burgundy-haired nurse from earlier peeked inside. The moment she saw the boy, her eyes widened, she shouted with a deep, accented voice, "Allord! There yae be! We weer worried sick!"
Turning her head, the nurse then called out over her shoulder, "Haer he is! In the Chaepel!"
In her exclamation, the nurse opened the door all the way, and Trunks could see beyond her that all the staff and even the visitors by this point had been searching everywhere, looking nervous, and they all perked up with joy to hear the good news.
A flood of relief washed over Trunks when he knew that the staff had finally found the boy they were looking for, and also that the boy was going to finally receive the medical, or even possibly mental help that Trunks felt the boy needed…
Beyond the nurse, Trunks saw that Dr. Vidalia was still in the entry hall. He had been speaking to the other nurses, and diligently coordinating the search efforts. He was now facing the Chapel, and discussing something further with the nurses.
Trunks turned his head to look again at the boy, and he saw that the boy had also spotted Dr. Vidalia. His eyes now sparkled and widened with emphatic anticipation as watched the Hospital Director with a predatory gaze over the nurse's shoulders.
It gave Trunks pause to see that expression on the boy, and he felt a renewed shiver down his spine when the boy looked back at Trunks with a calculated smile, his demeanor eerily calm.
"We will meet again," he said, his voice carrying a clandestine tone. "Pardon me, there is something I must do first."
With that, the boy turned and followed the nurse out of the room, his excitement barely contained as he began to slowly walk directly toward Dr. Vidalia.
-KRRRCHKK-
The Chapel door closed shut, and Trunks was left standing there in his unkempt robe, and holding his unfolded blanket and empty water bottle.
He stood there for a long moment - just hearing his own heartbeat, and nothing on the other side of the door.
He inhaled slowly, trying to clear his head of all of the suddenly anxiety that the boy triggered within him.
When it fully struck Trunks that he finally alone again, he viscerally relaxed and lowered his tight shoulders as he exhaled a long sigh of relief, "Hahhhhh…"
He hadn't even realized how much weight of tension he had been carrying on his shoulders.
He rolled his shoulders to stretch, and also contemplated leaving the Chapel, but he decided to stay put, because he suspected that the strange and intimidating boy might still be right outside. Trunks couldn't tell for sure, because he was unable to sense the boy's ki.
Hoping to avoid any further confrontations with the strange child, Trunks decided to stall for a moment, at the entrance foyer.
As he stood there, the lights suddenly flickered again, and a WOOOMMMMMM pulse coursed through the hospital again, seeming to originate nearby.
Trunks paused as the lights flickered, cautiously looking up, to make sure the shaking wouldn't get worse. When things stayed quiet, and Trunks felt confident the pulse was over, he relaxed and then shook his head in disbelief at the hospital's enigmatic energy signal system.
At this point, Trunks was no longer interested in the pulse. It didn't seem to affect him at all, and it didn't seem to directly have any association with danger, so Trunks figured that once he got his team off the planet, the strange pulse would just be another strange occurrence on their journey that he'd probably never think of again.
Shaking off any kind of suspicion, Trunks untied his red cloak and glanced up at the central ceiling, seeing only the edges of two moons. He instead thought back to the odd boy who had left him feeling queasy in his stomach.
"Well, that was interesting…" Trunks remarked with a slightly lop-sided grin, speaking toward the ceiling. "All kinds of unexpected encounters today, huh?"
He deposited his red blanket and cloak in a wicker discard bin by the shoe cubbies, thinking about why he had wanted to come to the Chapel to begin with.
The boy had interrupted Trunks' train of thought, and he felt like there was something else he had wanted to pray for…
As Trunks grabbed his brown boots, he retraced his mental steps, trying to remember what he knew he was forgetting… and he also knew that if forgot it, he might regret it…
As he finished velcroing his second boot, realization finally struck him, like a lightning strike that cleared the fog.
"Oh! Yeah, one more thing!" Trunks stood at the edge of the foyer and called into the Chapel area, eyeing the moons on the ceiling.
When he thought of it, Trunks suddenly felt awkward, and sheepish.
"Uhhhh," he blushed with an awkward grin as he twisted his hips in idle anxiety, "... There's uhhhh… a wax statue of me and Pan in front of your Kikarrooan Mystic temple…. It might even be a fountain now …?"
Trunks cringed a bit, pleaded with as much earnesty as he could muster, "Could you do me a solid and uhhh," he flicked his right wrist, "you know - make a heat wave or something?"
He made a slicing motion, as if cutting something off. "You know - melt that thing?" He grinned wolfishly, and added with a shrug, "It'd really help a guy out."
He then snapped fingers on both of his hands, and made gun-shapes at the ceiling, and winked, "Thanks, Bro!"
*-.-*-.*-.-*-.*
"BRO!?"
*-.-*-.*-.-*-.*
With that, Trunks picked up Pan's empty water bottle, suddenly feeling much better about pretty much everything.
He then confidently opened the Chapel door, and marched straight out.
As he stepped into the hallway, he almost crashed straight into a tall wall of white.
"Ahh!" Trunks was caught by surprise as the Chapel door closed behind him, and realized he was met face to face with Dr. Vidalia.
The group of nurses had walked off, and the rest of the staff and visitors had returned to their dazed and idle routines.
Trunks looked down the hall to the right, and felt relieved when he saw that the intimidating green-haired boy was being wheeled away by a group of nurses.
He turned his head again to the Hospital Director, who stood uncomfortably close to him.
When the doctor spoke again, his voice was smooth, and his tone oddly familiar. He smiled, as he stood, formidable in his soft, wooly white coat.
"Hello again…" he grinned toothily with dark, excited eyes, "... Trunks Briefs."
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8/7/24
A/N: You may have picked up, along the story, that many of my chapters and characterizations are inspired by different fairy tales. This chapter, especially, leans pretty hard into a particular story with a red cape, and a big baddie. I took a lot of inspiration from the fairy tale story, which is quite famous for its angst and irony. But it also means that this tale is about to get a lot more gruesome.
Let me know your thoughts! This will probably be my last chapter update, which I may focus on tweaking a bit before my upcoming vacation, but who knows! I am fueled by your reactions, and I'm excited to write what's to come.