Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ DragonBall Zenith: How Young Hearts Bleed ❯ The Local Yokels ( Chapter 6 )

Episode 6 - The Local Yokels

If you do not clearly see the words "to be continued" at the bottom of the page, then it hasn't loaded completely or properly.

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ, its characters, story line, or any likeness of the characters. My name is not Akira Toriyama. However, this story line has been created by me to be used by me and to be written by me. You know that drill. Also, I do not own Mountain Dew, though I really wish I did. I am not endorsing any brand names I use here in any way either, along with the future topics of gangs, fighting, and the like. If you look carefully, you'll notice that I am strongly against those things and try to make that clear to you, the reader.

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A/N: Didn't that title just catch you? I mean, come ON! Who can resist a title like that, especially in such a serious story? Don't worry; things are going to be much more fun after a while, we just need to get through a pretty hairy part of the story. Well, at least I think it's pretty hairy. And Trunks's hair isn't pretty, it's handsome! And never, EVER call him "shrimp". Eh… You'll find out in this episode…

Broken bodies, broken dreams.
All is lost, or so it seems...

""The whole world needs ladders. Without ladders, you can't get high." - A.J.

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Trunks arose slowly after the crash. He had saved most of the ship including the frame, main computer, most of the engine system, a large portion of the gravity chamber, and all of the storage area, but it wouldn't be able to fly again for a while.

"Owww…" He rubbed a sore spot on the side of his head. He had miscalculated how much energy it would take to keep the ship from crashing and ended up being driven into the dirt. It was only by blasting his way through the ground that he had gotten out. "Time to assess the damage…" he mumbled to himself.

It was bad, very bad. The training center and engines were still in tact and functioning more or less and the cargo area was just great (everything had been secured anyway), but the side of the ship had taken a direct hit and the living area now resembled a wheel of Swiss cheese with a large, charred bite taken out of it. There must have been an explosion. Trunks flew in through one of the large holes and arrived moments later in the frayed, sparking, dim, flickering command center.

"Computer, damage report." He ordered.

"I am sorry, Captain, but the main line past the living area has been severely damaged. I can not provide a reading." The computer replied calmly.

"Awww fudge." Trunks crossed his arms. He looked silly like that; he was the strongest warrior his planet knew of and he was yet to utter a cuss word… "Stand by, computer. I'm going to gather some essential capsules and check this planet out."

"Alright, Captain."

Trunks gathered a few rations of food, toiletries, and a change of clothing, then returned to the bridge and prepared the ship to be capsulated. Once that was done and the crash site was cleaned up, Trunks secured the capsule box to his belt and considered taking out his sword. He didn't want to appear threatening to any natives, but didn't want to be attacked either. If this place was known at all in the galaxy, however, word of an exceptional fighter would spread like wildfire. In the end, he left the sword in its capsule and flew above the canopy to get a better view.

The planet was composed of a large, seemingly deciduous forest that stretched as far as he could see in all directions. He could sense that it was full of animal life, though sparser than his own Earth. He could also sense a large collection of kis to his left side at a long distance and noticed that several were quite powerful. It was probably a large city.

"Well, the sooner I can get the parts to fix the ship, the sooner I can get out of here." Trunks thought as he flew off in that direction.

Trunks loved every second he flew over the alien landscape, feeling the wind in his hair and executing lazy loops in the air. He vented more energy and flew faster and down into the trees, dodging and weaving at a maddening pace. "Wahoo!" he yelled happily in excitement. With this much ki being vented at once, a tree would snap in half and fall over if Trunks was even barely not fast enough to dodge it, but his many years of training had provided him with reflexes fine-tuned enough so that no tree was harmed.

After a while, he noticed that he was quickly approaching the city. He dropped his speed and tried to mask his ki while flying. The basic fact that he was in the air prevented him from masking it completely, but he was able to appear non-threatening to any beings this planet might harbor.

Trunks quickly few downtown and landed in an alleyway, then masked his ki almost totally. It was surprising to him how similar the architecture in this area was to Earth's late 20th century inner city slums.

Despite lack of physical or sensory evidence, Trunks contracted an eerie feeling that he was being watched. Looking around quickly, he discovered nothing and returned to his plans.

He would need a job, definitely. The parts he needed and the amount of them were probably going to cost a pretty penny.

Trunks walked out of the dank alleyway and onto a main walkway, instantly plunging himself into a vast assortment of aliens all in a hurry to get somewhere.

"Out of the way, runt!" one particularly tall one growled as he shoved Trunks aside. Due to his unguarded state at the time, Trunks was thrown back a few feet… Right into on-coming traffic!

A squeal of air brakes, an alien shriek, and Trunks seemed to disappear. Actually he had used a super-fast movement technique to get himself out of the way and back into the crowd. No people even stopped to look, being too immersed in their own business to care. There was a flood of cuss words and various alien babblings in the area Trunks had just caused a stir in. An air car tried to get untangled from the reigns of a gigantic alien animal. It looked like an elephant with a very long neck, long tail, and large dinosaur-like head. After a few moments, traffic was running smoothly again and the thick stream of people ushered Trunks roughly along.

The only thing that seemed odd to Trunks was the fact that the tall alien spoke English. He shrugged it off. Most of the alien visitors to Chikyu spoke his language anyway. It really shouldn't have come to such a surprise to him. He just followed the current of the crowd as they traveled along the side of the noisy, busy street, cringing every once in a while as an alarm screeched or a horn blared.

Eventually, he came upon an area where the pedestrian traffic thinned out a bit, so Trunks gained more breathing room. The young man was mildly claustrophobic due to his Saiyan genes, so this came as a relief.

Trunks still felt as though he was being followed, but not as urgently as before. "Now, where to go…" he wondered out loud.

Far too immersed in his plans, he failed to noticed he had walked too close to a suspicious group of loitering aliens until a particularly rough one stepped aggressively in his way, causing Trunks to stop abruptly and look up… and up… and up. The guy had to be at least three times Trunks's height!

"Well, well. What do we have here?" the scaly, horned, deep crimson, lanky, bipedal alien asked sarcastically in a low, gruff voice.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I must be going. I'm new around here and I'm looking for a job-" Trunks began, but was cut off by a shorter, purple, lumpy alien. "Damn right, he must be new. No one messes with the Silverarm gang, ain't that right, Schrecker?" he asked the large, deep crimson alien from before.

"Right, Lee! Let's show him who's boss!"

There were about ten large aliens in the group that Trunks could see and a few he knew must be hidden behind them.

"I'm terribly sorry if I have offended you in any way; I am not used to the customs here. If you would kindly excuse me, I must be going now." Trunks turned to leave, but found his way blocked by an extremely large, tall, robust alien with a mean scowl. The alien smirked. "Excuse me sir." Trunks insisted.

"Oh, you're excused." He replied sarcastically. The alien, obviously the leader of this little group punched Trunks in the face and knocked him into the wall of the run-down stone building behind him. He made a nice Trunks-shaped dent.

It wasn't like Trunks was no match for the gigantic lummox. He had just decided not to let onto his real strength this early on. That and he didn't want the whole group to be on him at once.

The aliens laughed and jeered. "Hey!" one yelled out. "The ocean called! They're running out of shrimp!"

"Shrimp?" Trunks thought. That was it. No one but no one called him "shrimp" and got away with it.

But he still didn't want to blow his cover, so he came up with a compromise.

"Hey! Little man! You gonna sit there and cry to your mommy or come here and fight back?" The leader jeered.

"Gladly." Trunks mumbled, his father's famous smirk widening over his face. "If it's a fight you want, I must warn you that I'm pretty good where I come from."

"Humph! Must be a peaceful place, shrimp! Kick in his purple head, Riigo!" another alien jeered.

"Better not make it a one hit knockout or I'll be the talk of the town… Yeah, this guy's ki is one of the highest I can sense." Trunks thought.

"Bring it on, Violet!" the tall alien laughed haughtily and swung another punch, which Trunks dodged gracefully by jumping up and out of the way.

While the larger alien searched for Trunks along the ground, the young man brought a relatively careful pile driver down on the back of Riigo's neck. The blow made the giant stumble, but that was it.

The lummox laughed. "Wow, you actually hit me! Not many fighters can do that, and you made me stumble too!" he stood up and laughed heartily. "You'd be a fun one to spar with sometime, how about joining the gang?"

"Wahoo! Riigo never asks anyone to join the gang like that, shrimp!" a short green alien guffawed, excited.

"Yeah, mate! You'd better accept! Join, or face the consequences!" a medium-sized red skinned alien with long, fuzzy white hair told him in a thick, somewhat Australian accent.

Trunks gulped. He didn't want to join, but refusing would put him in an even worse position. Sure, he could probably defeat the entire group without breaking a sweat, but who knew how many of these Silverarms there are, or how strong they are?

Trunks laughed weakly and put a hand behind his head. "Where do I sign up?"

The entire group cheered.

"MONKEY!" Riigo yelled condescendingly into the crowd. "Get over here now!"

To be continued…

Heh heh... I'm going to introduce a new character next time... Gee, isn't that obvious? Well, I hope you enjoyed this one... Feedback is always welcome... **hint hint**