"My name is Trunks, and I'm a time traveler. Well, that's not entirely true. I can't travel through time exactly, more like, across dimensions. I know, it's complicated. I'm not quite sure I fully understand it myself.
I'm the last remnant of the Saiyan race, as well as the last remaining Z-Fighter, the sole protector of planet Earth. A role I've filled in the years after the Androids assault and even more recently, in preventing the awakening of Majin Buu. Though that time I had some help from Supreme Kai and his assistant. Both of whom lost their lives in the fight against Babidi and Dabura.
Though it wasn't in vain. Before his death Supreme Kai gifted to me a new sword, and with their greatest foe vanished he was able to leave this world in peace. My work isn't finished though, I must return to 'The Past' and warn Goku and my friends about the threat of Majin Buu."
Trunks made his way to the basement of Capsule Corp; a large, dome shaped building of glass and metal that once served as the headquarters for the prestigious technological marvel. Over the years though the elements, and more recently, the powerful enemies he fought had driven the building to become a decaying shell of what it once stood for.
He descended a set of stairs leading to the building's lower floors, which, unbeknownst to the public, served as bunkers that housed his mother's more prized inventions. As he pushed aside a steel door the motion sensing lights of the laboratory came on and displayed a laboratory with bare metal flooring and paneled walls.
The room was filled with stacks of books and blueprints that were sprawled over various tables. Schematics of his mother's half-finished inventions and prototypes of devices that had long stopped working, despite his best efforts, made up a cluster of tables that had been pushed aside. Over the course of the past couple of months Trunks had gradually lost the motivation to finish them so there they sat, collecting dust.
His mother, the genius and former CEO of the tech empire Capsule Corp, Bulma Briefs, had died during his second visit to Goku's timeline. Another casualty of the Androids' destruction. Trunks discovered this when he returned to an empty house and a note from the Androids, 'Should've stayed out it Blondie, xoxo.'
The pain he felt was unbearable and his hate for the villainous Androids intensified, but his grief triggered something, power he once thought unattainable and with it he wiped out Cell, the Androids, and even Majin Buu, but it still couldn't bring his mother back. Or so he thought...
"Good evening, Trunks!" A chipper voice resonated throughout the basement. A light-blue hologram popped up on one of the back-lit tables and it displayed a petite woman in a lab coat and blue hair that was braided in a loose ponytail. A name tag on the coat read 'B. Briefs'. Though occasionally it would flicker to display 'Mom.' A detail she no doubt added to remind him of her once playful and humorous nature.
"Productive day?" She asked.
"It could be worse." He sighed and set his newly acquired sword down, the weight of which impaled itself into the ground. He stretched his arms to relieve some of the soreness from carrying such a weapon. The sword was a gift from Supreme Kai, the 'Z-Sword' he had called it, and it was impossibly heavy. But through a rushed and vigorous training regimen Trunks had learned to wield it properly, with the assistance of his Super Saiyan forms. Though here in his base form he couldn't carry it for very long.
Trunks laid onto a cot that was set up for the nights he would spend in the lab which was every night. He stared up at the ceiling and thought about the events of the day, "Majin Buu could've been awoken." he clarified. "And I had to fight a few aliens. Not to mention the Devil himself."
"I hope you're exaggerating" The hologram shimmered.
"Yeah. Which reminds me, I have to warn Goku and the others about Buu."
"I'll power up the time machine."
"You know it's not a time machine" he sighed and massaged his brow. He could feel a headache beginning to form.
"Well Dimensional Divergence Travelling Device doesn't quite roll off the tongue." The hologram remarked back.
Trunks yawned, "I'll think of a name… later." Within seconds the Saiyan's eyes shut, and he was snoring softly.
Trunks snapped awake not realizing that he had fallen asleep. He sat up and wiped the drowsiness from his face. The room was dark, and the motion sensing lights weren't responding to his movements.
'Another short.' He thought as he fumbled around. It took a second for Trunks to realize a soft glow was pulsing from somewhere, bathing the lab in a rhythmic blue hue.
He looked around trying to locate the source. The light was coming from within his 'time machine'. He flew over to the ten-foot device to investigate it and as he approached, the dome slid open and revealed the single seat interior. Strangely, the main console was powered on. It stood idle with a flashing Capsule Corp. logo on it. This device was his mother's most impressive form of technological ingenuity. Built while the world had begun to crumble and with limited resources, it was a testament to her undying spirit.
As Trunks went to tap on the screen to wake the device from its sleep mode the basement lit up in a blinding light as the power turned back on, A screeching sound played through the speakers and Bulma's holographic figure popped up on the machine's main console. "Surprise!" She yelled; the figure's hands thrown up in celebration. Trunks reeled back and, in the process, pushed several buttons, unknowingly changing the prefixed coordinates.
In his hands he had summoned a ball of ki that almost wiped out the machine he sat in. "W-what?" He stammered. The glow of energy radiating from his hands began to dissipate as he calmed down.
"Happy birthday." His mother said, a big grin on her face.
"What?" He repeated. The 'screeching noise' turned out to be a tinny version of 'Happy Birthday' playing on the lab speakers.
"It's your twenty-first birthday." She said, "You think your own mother would forget your birthday?"
Trunks was confused, by his estimate his birthday wasn't for another two days… Unless… "How long was I asleep?" he asked.
"Thirty-seven hours, forty-seven minutes aaand fourteen point three seconds." His mother answered.
"I was asleep for a day and a half?!" He asked, shocked that he slept for so long. "Why didn't you wake me?"
"You looked so peaceful sleeping. And your vitals weren't alarming. You just needed some rest, so I let you lay."
He stared blankly at his mother. It was hard to argue with her when she was a program dictated by logic and sound reasoning. Finally, he said "I have to warn Goku about Majin Buu." He descended to the ground and began to pack his few belongings.
"Well, you better get going. You're an entire day behind." The hologram said with a cheerful grin. The music in the lab subsided as the hologram followed Trunks throughout the room popping up on various tables.
Trunks pulled the Z-Sword from the ground and flew towards the time machine before he felt a powerful and malevolent presence approach the basement.
"Preparing to commit another atrocity, sinner?" An unseen voice called from the shadows. It sounded deep and hoarse, but it was unmistakenly familiar. "Goku?" Trunks asked straining to see who was descending the basement stairs. "Not quite, boy." True to his suspicions the figure revealed itself to be none other than Goku, but something wasn't quite right with him. His clothes were dark and there was a sadistic glint in his eye. "Although I wear the appearance of that wretched Saiyan I am something more… beautiful. I am Justice incarnate. And I am here to bring reckoning upon you mortals for being blights of the gods. Beginning with you, Trunks."
"W-what?"
Goku Black peered at Trunks' time machine and smiled, "Is that contraption how you've been violating the laws of time?" Black raised his hand and a ki ball began to form in his hand, "No matter, it ends now." The doppelganger aimed his palm at Trunks' time machine and prepared to fire his ki blast.
Trunks' eyes widened in horror as he realized what the man planned to do, "No!" He shouted, swinging his sword at Black. The villain grinned and caught the blade with his free hand and fired his blast. A loud metallic clang echoed in the lab as the sword collided against Black's ring. Both of the Saiyans stepped away as they felt the air begin to vibrate and a green glow emanated from Black's ring.
The time machine erupted in an explosion sending tendrils of lightning across the lab. One made its way to Black's ring, causing a vortex to open up and begin sucking in everything that wasn't bolted down in the lab, both Saiyans included. Black was lost into the abyss first, attempting to fly away. Trunks dug his sword into the floor and held on with all his strength until the time machine flew into him and sent him tumbling soon in after.
So, this is my version of "The Last Hope" by The Animated Gamer, who did give me their blessing to adopt this story. I've been wanting to do this for forever but always seemed to lose motivation while writing. This story was largely inspired by Jdaello's story "The Malfunction" and Comorep677's "The New Face of Justice". Hope y'all enjoyed it and I hope to put more chapters out, no promises though. Please leave a review and tell me your thoughts. Thank you for reading.