Val flew after Piccolo, just behind him as he lead the way amongst the five of them after Vegeta and the old man. She could sense Vegeta and Trunks ahead of them easily, but could work around nothing to sense the old man, who had to be out there somewhere, hiding in the hills. They split up, covering more area in the maze of hills and rocks. If someone got lost in here, they may never be found. She landed on a rock higher in the area than the others, scanning the area slowly, every sense reaching to find the old man.
She heard Vegeta shout impatiently, "where are you?! Show yourself!" She looked over the rocky terrain, seeing him above the area in the distance. He raised his hand up high, energy blast forming.
"Wah! Stop! We're down here, too!" Krillin shouted at him.
Vegeta threw the energy blast anyway, seeing the old man sneak out from a crevice just to snag it out of the air. "I did it! I took his energy!" he cheered aloud.
Val saw Vegeta charged towards him, but the old man fled. He moved so quickly that even Val lost track of him. "Damn him! He's faster than I thought!"
Val huffed, moving towards the direction the old man might have gone, sensing for him. She could sense everyone else no problem, with Piccolo the farthest from her, yet no old man. Her hands heated up in her frustration. She shook them out lest it drive a deeper crack in the already cracked bracelet.
She felt a sudden, gut wretching wave of panic. She gasped sharply, trying to figure out why and where it was coming from. She then sensed Piccolo amongst the six of them, ki driving down too quickly and unnaturally. She flew towards him, seeing Gohan knock the old man off of him as he came into her sight. Vegeta, Krillin, and Tien were there not much long after her. The old man looked around at the six of them ruefully. Val was certain he would not be able to escape this time around.
"Krillin," Gohan called down. "Give Piccolo a senzu."
"Here!" Krillin said, digging the bag out of his tunic and throwing it to Piccolo a lot faster than he had for Vegeta.
Piccolo caught it, energy boosting suddenly. He then removed his head gear and cape, Val feeling a wave of excitement, a bit different to when Vegeta had powered up to Super Saiyan form. "Let me fight him, Vegeta. Stay out of this."
Vegeta conceded, "I don't care if you die. Just don't give him any energy."
The old man watched the exchange, not fast enough for what happened next. Piccolo launched himself at the old man, kneeing him in the chin so hard and so fast with speed only Demon Clansman could manage. The old man managed to halt himself in midair, looking back at Piccolo in shock. Piccolo set himself up in a fighting stance Val had sworn she had seen hundreds of times while they had trained. She felt a flare of pride when the old man charged towards him, only to be knocked down with a well place elbow to the back. The old man fell too fast this time to stop himself before he crashed into the rocky terrain below. He extricated himself from the rocks, angrily spitting, "this is impossible! There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to defeat you! I've already added your energy to my own!" The old man flew back up towards him, only to be kicked right back down. "Damn you!" the old man swore.
"He's strong!" Krillin said near Val, sounding a mixture of nervous in discord with her own growing excitement at watching the fight. He looked over at her. She looked back at him, seeing Tien looking over to hear him speak. "You trained with him for a bit. What kind of training did Piccolo do? He's not even a Super Saiyan. No wonder you went so hard the last couple of months we trained together."
She shrugged and smiled darkly, finding in herself a pang of jealousy that was her own that she could not measure up either. She noticed Tien was looking from Vegeta to Piccolo to Krillin to her, a confused look on his face. She looked away as the fighting resumed just in time to see Piccolo strike off one of the old man's hands, which would make it more difficult for him to steal anymore energy from any of them. "Remember this," he warned the old man. "When a Demon clansman fights, we can explosively cause what you call our energy to increase! So the energy you took from me was really nothing!" Val found she could not block out the excitement rippling off of him.
"He's going to win!" Gohan cheered.
Piccolo struck the old man, sending him down into the rock below. The old man groaned, pulling himself up from the debris. "Damn you!" he swore. "You can't be at this power level!"
Piccolo cracked his neck, looking down at the furious old man. He revealed, "according to the history of the future, we were killed by the cyborgs. It looks like we changed the future. Maybe you weren't as strong as we thought. Or perhaps we just became too strong!"
Krillin asked, "we did it? We beat them without Goku?"
"Yes!" Gohan ruled.
Tien sighed, saying, "I don't like how strong Vegeta and Piccolo have gotten, but it's a pleasant surprise." Val found herself beaming subtly to hear that admission from him.
Vegeta called over, "Piccolo! Finish him off already! Or do you want me to do it?"
"No thanks!" Piccolo called back to him. "I started off as the evil that Kami casted off. So I'm not as nice as Goku."
Before anyone could say anything else, they all sensed another fighter flying towards him. Val frowned, looking in the direction the fighter was coming, finding the sense of him familiar but impossibly stronger than she thought, even though she could not quite place it. The same way she could just not quite place the vaguely familiar look of the old man.
"Who's that?" Krillin asked.
"That's..." Gohan tried for.
Val stared unblinkingly at the fighter coming into sight closer and closer to the lot of them. She knew who it was somehow, but could not pick up on it, much to her efforts. It was quite stronger than it should have been, that was for certain. Once he stopped before the lot of them, she knew him. "Trunks!?" she blurted out his name, seeing the Trunks from the future, not the current, infant one. He threw her a quick confused look when she said his name.
"Val!" she heard Piccolo shout at her. She looked back at him, seeing him looking at her in annoyance, but she was not sure why.
She heard Vegeta gasp and then felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She dug her nails into the palms of her hands. He was staring at Trunks in sudden awareness. She just revealed who the fighter from the future was by accident. She covered her mouth in panic
Trunks stared down at the old man. "Who's that?" he asked, sounding all confused. "You've been fighting him, haven't you?"
Val looked between the old man and Trunks, not sure where the confusion lay. There had been two androids who showed up the day he said they would, so that had to be them.
"What?" Vegeta asked. "'Who's that?' It's the cyborg you told us about!"
Trunks shook his head. "What's going on here?" he asked aloud.
"They aren't the cyborgs?" Piccolo questioned.
"What did you say?" Krillin asked.
"What do you mean they aren't the ones?" Val pressed, Sensing someone else coming, but not quite sure who.
"That's impossible!" Tien exclaimed.
"So who is that?!" Vegeta asked, pointing at the old man. "What've you been talking about?"
Krillin wondered, "it's no problem. Our history is changing from Trunks's past. It's just a different cyborg than the ones he knows."
"I hope so," Tien muttered.
"Huh?" Krillin gasped, looking up to the sky. "Isn't that Bulma?"
Val felt herself cringe, looking up at the transport holding Bulma, infant Trunks, and Yajirobe. She heard Bulma shout a greeting down at them like she had not flown into such a dangerous situation.
"Watch out! Stay away! It's too dangerous!" Future Trunks warned them.
"Now's my chance!" The old man cheered. "I told you the truth when I said you had no chance of winning! I'm going to get #17 and #18 to kill you!"
Val looked down at him, confused, hearing the other two androids named. Then she gasp in frozen horror, seeing the old man take aim and shoot at the transport. She surged forward into the blast, blindly snagging up someone bigger and flailing. Not Bulma. When the dust and debry cleared, she landed on the ground with Yajirobe still flailing a bit as she sat him down next to her. She heard him struggle out yet another thank you, but she did not pay attention to him. She sensed around quickly for Bulma and infant Trunks, feeling overwhelmingly relieved to see future Trunks holding the two of them while the later wailed lively. He landed on the ground with them carefully.
"Phew! That surprised me!" Bulma said, sounding hardly fazed.
"That jerk!" Piccolo swore looking around the area. Val looked around as well frowning. The old man had run off yet again.
"He's gone! Ugh! He ran away!" Vegeta complained.
Bulma stood up and snagged up her infant son from the future son. "Trunks! I'm glad you're okay!" she said, relieved. "Thank you, kid."
"Are you okay?" Krillin asked her.
"Damn it!" Vegeta was still in the air, complaining. Val sighed patiently. "I'm not going to let him get away! I'll find him!"
He started to take off, but future Trunks jumped in front of him. He confronted him, saying, "why didn't you save them? They're you're wife and son!"
Vegeta scoffed, "don't be stupid. I have no interest in them. You're in my way. Move!"
Val felt a quick laugh rise up from her throat at that bold face lie, but quickly changed it to a cough. "Say, was that old man a cyborg?" Bulma asked the group of them, unfazed.
"Uh, yes, he was," Krillin answered.
Bulma nodded, saying, "that was probably Dr. Gero himself." Val gave her a double take. "I've seen his picture in a magazine and in a Who's Who Book of Scientists." She looked over at Val. "Didn't you recognize him? He was on the cover of the magazine I was reading that day when we met up at that café. That's odd that he changed himself into a cyborg."
Val thought and then gasped. "Oh yeah," she recalled, now knowing who he was. The thought sent a cold, wet shiver down her spine, especially with how he had looked at her earlier and mentioned her being a research goldmine. She rubbed her hands over her forearms absentmindedly.
Krillin looked up at the others in the air, revealing, "Bulma said that that was Dr. Gero himself!"
That got everyone to land back on the ground around them, including Vegeta. "Did you say that cyborg was Dr. Gero? What did he do?"
Bulma explained, "I've only seen his picture a few times, but he's pretty famous among scientists. Even though he's pretty nasty. He probably changed himself to live forever."
"But that's..." Trunks started, quieting down.
Vegeta griped, "you lied to us all along. You said Dr. Gero was killed by the cyborgs! Even the cyborgs were different!"
Future Trunks shook his head. "The only explanation is that history is changing," he inferred. "Probably because of my first trip back in time..." He looked at Val. "And what are you doing down here?" he seemed to almost blurt out.
She blinked over at him, not sure what to think of the question. "I-" she started.
"Just because she's as smart as a Tuffle, doesn't mean she hides herself away with computers all day," Vegeta commented rudely.
Trunks frowned, clearly puzzled by that answer. "I survived the heart virus after all. My friend at Capsule Corps and I made a strong enough antivirus that paired well enough with hydrangea extract for me to fend it off," she explained.
He looked even more confused opening his mouth to say something else. Yet Piccolo interrupted him, asking, "he said something about #17 and #18. Those are probably the cyborgs you're talking about. What do they look like? I don't want to make another mistake."
Future Trunks nodded, and revealed, "you're right. #17 is a guy my age with long black hair and a scarf around his neck. #18 is a cute girl type. Her clothes look kind of like mine. They both look cold and have round earrings. they should be easy to identify."
"A girl type?" Gohan asked.
"We already have own one of those," Krillin said, nodding over at Val.
Again future Trunks looked at her, seeming a bit confused to see her with the others. It confirmed to her that she should have died from the heart virus after all. It was not something she wanted to keep talking about. "Do they also absorb energy?" Val asked, reaching for a question to change the subject.
"Uh, no. They don't. They have infinite energy."
"Infinite? You mean they'll never run out?" Vegeta asked.
Trunks nodded. He looked over at Val, gaze lingering, and then at the others. "But what happened to Goku? Why isn't he here?"
Krillin informed him, "he came down with the disease you warned us about. Earlier today."
"Bulma, Val," Vegeta, addressing the two of them. "Do either of you know where Dr. Gero's laboratory is? He's on his way there."
Val shook her head. "I don't know," she answered honestly which made him grimace.
Bulma hummed. "I'm pretty sure it was in a cave in the mountains up near the Northern Capitol. That is if he hasn't changed it. But I never knew that Dr. Gero was a part of the Red Ribbon Army."
"I see what your plan on doing," Piccolo accused conspiratorially. "Beat Dr. Gero to the lab and destroy #17 and #18 before he active them."
Vegeta scoffed, "I'd never do something so cowardly. I just want to take care of the rest of this myself! The cyborgs we just fought were pretty boring!"
Future Trunks raged at him, "don't do it! You're underestimating the cyborgs! You have to find the lab and destroy #17 and #18, like Piccolo said. If we can't do that, we'll have to avoid fighting until Goku gets better!"
Vegeta scoffed, "I don't need to wait for Kakarot! Can't you tell that I've become a Super Saiyan!? And since we're both Super Saiyan, I should be a lot stronger than him because I'm a prince! I won't let you get in the way!" He took off flying at that towards the mountain near the Northern Capital.
"He's gone!" Tien stated the obvious. Val sighed, debating about following after him or not.
Piccolo commented, "since Vegeta's become a Super Saiyan, he might be stronger than Goku."
"He's trained quite hard for today," Val added. "Maybe we should let him take care of this."
Future Trunks shook his head, explaining, "I could change into a Super Saiyan, too, but I couldn't do anything about them. They're too strong. I'm going, too. I may not like him, but I'm not going to let my father die again!" He took off flying after Vegeta.
"Father? Did he say Father?!" Bulma asked in surprise. "I wonder what he means. Was his father killed by the cyborgs, too?"
Val bit her, lip not sure what say. Piccolo revealed, "there's no point in hiding from you any longer. That boy's name is Trunks. His father is Vegeta. And you're his mother." He pointed at infant Trunks. "It other words he's that baby when he's grown up!"
Bulma and the others gasped at that, seeming just as shocked, if not more so when Val herself found out. Bulma asked, "really? I guess they do look like."
"So that's how he can change into a Super Saiyan!" Krillin realized.
"We should help find Dr. Gero's lab as well. The cyborgs must be destroyed," Piccolo decided.
Val looked up at him, nodding in time with the others and their own sentiments.
Meanwhile, Bulma held up her infant, saying, "Trunks! You're going to grow up to be pretty handsome! You looked a little ugly, so I was worried about you!"
"He'll take after his mother," Val said teasingly.
Bulma gave her a sharp look, mouthing, 'you knew?'
Val carefully angled her head slightly at Piccolo. Bulma raised her eyebrows up once quickly. The look told her the conversation would need to be more detailed later.
Gohan stepped over to her, "Bulma, please tell Father about what happened. And that if he gets better, he should come, too."
"Okay... but how?" she asked. "My plane was destroyed."
Piccolo instructed, "Gohan, take them to your house. If all we're doing is destroying the cyborgs, we should be enough."
Gohan sounded a little disappointed. "Okay, but be careful."
Piccolo looked back over at Tien, Krillin, and Val. Val covered the cracked bracelet as she met his gaze. "Let's go! We have to find them before Vegeta does!"
"Right!" Krillin cheered just before the four of them took off towards the mountain.