Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Hopeless Future, Shattered Past ❯ HFSP - CH. 3 ( Chapter 3 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: VegetaDaimoh 
Trunks' introduction.
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.11.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 186 | Status: Work In Progress
Trunks' introduction.
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.11.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 186 | Status: Work In Progress
Finished 08/10/2008
HOPELESS FUTURE, SHATTERED PAST - Ch. 3
By VegetaDaimoh/animegrrrl/piccolo_yaoi/ma_junior117
Time: The Past and The Present
It started out with a bang. Or perhaps a scream?
Yes, I remember now. I had heard the hoarse sound of man's startled cry, right before the explosion. Then definitely a scream, as my mother screamed for her father in fear. Then coughing, as she blindly tried to make her way through the hazy smoke.
"Hold on Dad, we'll get you out of there." she said, as she dropped to her knees in front of the wreckage. "Trunks! Where are you!"
"Here, Mom." I immediately set about digging Dr. Brief's free. Even back then I was an abnormally strong kid. I easily tossed the last jagged piece of metal clear of the old man's body. But then I stopped and stared, and asked a stupid question, blurting it out in shock. "Grandpa, where is your leg?"
The old scientist had enough strength left in him to chuckle. "Who knows."
That was when Mom got really hysterical. "Trunks!" she ordered, "Go hurry and see if you can get a senzu! No- wait! Stay here, we need to stop the bleeding first! Oh my Kami, where is the first aid kit!!" That was when I noticed Grandpa clearing his throat and trying, though too weakly, to get my mother's attention.
"BULMA!" I yell, startling her enough to make her stop running around. "He wants to talk to you."
She was immediately by his side, holding his hands and murmuring meaningless words of comfort. "It's going to be OK. Does it hurt anywhere?"
"It's too late, I am clearly bleeding to death. No, listen!" Grandpa cut Mom off before she started trying to find the first aid kit again. "I must tell you, it's very important. I believe Scratch got away in time. Find him, he is necessary for the completion."
"Dad, what are you talking about?"
"The time machine! It worked." Mom looked around in confusion, as we were sitting in the blasted and burned ruins of the failed experiment. "Look down at my leg." the old man said, by way of explanation.
Blood. Lots and lots of blood. I had to force myself not to wretch, and Mom really wasn't doing any better. But I started to look past that, and noticed something off about the leg. It wasn't mangled, crushed, or twisted like you would expect in an accident. It was just missing, like something had cleanly cut right through cloth, meat, then bone. "It's somewhere in another dimension, or timestream. Which one I don't know. But it worked! Bulma, you can change things now. You must carry on and perfect it for me."
"Dad," Mom sobbed as tears squeezed out her eyes. "I don't want you to die."
"It's alright, I've had a good life. Just promise..."
"But it's dangerous!" The old man renewed his grip on Mom's hands. His breath become even more labored, and Mom caved in just to get him to calm down. "Alright! Alright, I promise."
Grandpa sighed and immediately relaxed. "Good." he whispered. "I'll tell Bunny you said hello." I watched him close his eyes and fall off into sleep. "I wonder if she'll have tea and honeycakes waiting for me..." he murmured, with a faint smile on his face. Mom started to cry as she clutched his hands tighter and hunched over his prone form.
It wasn't for a few minutes afterwards that I realized we were sitting in a pool of blood, and the red that stained the hem of my mother's white lab coat had soaked up all the way to her pockets. Dr. Briefs, world renowned brilliant scientist, inventor of capsule technology, and my kind grandfather, was never going to wake from sleep again.
*****
I blinked, and shook my head to let the wind whip stray bangs of hair out of the way of my stinging eyes. Must be the wind. Oh no, that couldn't be me crying. That had happened years ago and there was nothing to be tearing up over. In fact, I was flying on my way right now to spend time with Gohan-sensei. Apparently there was some new amazing technique that Piccolo had thought of to make us become stronger. I was looking forward to it. Still...
"Oh! Hey Trunks, are you going out?" I paused in midstep and turned around. Mom was in her favorite mechanics's suit, crouched down over something and holding a wrench. She flipped her long ponytail back over her shoulder and lit up a cigarette.
"Mom!"
"What!" She looked at me blankly for a second before she realized what I meant. "Oh, this?" she said, waving the cancer stick in my face as if my anger was nothing. "You know they help me concentrate."
"You said you would quit. Remember?"
"Well, it's not like the cigs will kill me before the Androids do!"
My mouth clicks shut and I can't help but glare at her. She had the nerve to smirk. "You look more like your father when you do that." That was it. I spun back around even as I heard her call my name.
"Trunks! Trunks, wait!" The woman caught my arm. "I put it out. Come here." She said, making a gesture with her hand. I wouldn't come to her so she came to me. She put her arms around my shoulders and started to rub my back. "There, that's my sweetheart." she murmured. "That's my boy." Her breath tickled my hair as she inhaled my scent. I was 14 and nearly the same height as Mom now, but when she did this I knew she was getting nostalgic. Probably thinking back to when I was a sweet, useless, diaper-crapping baby who couldn't talk back to her, back to when all of her friends and Father were still alive. I found myself starting to relax. "I'm sorry I said that."
I puffed the cigarette scent out of my nostrils. "No, it's okay."
Mom immediately brightened and in perfect imitation of Grandma Bunny, pinched both my cheeks, giggling and smiling so wide her eyes disappeared. Aggravated with her all over again, I pulled away and rubbed a cheek. "Mom, did you want something, or are you just having fun harassing me?"
She laughed. "A little of both. But actually-" and here she flourished a blueprint and pointed, "I want this."
All I saw were a tangle of twisted tubes. "Um..?"
"It's a car engine. Here." Mom circled something on the top of the picture. "This is specifically what I need." Noticing my confusion, she kept explaining. "Here's a picture of the car model. They're quite common actually. On your way out, go find and get this for me. You might find it in a city, someone's abandoned car you know."
"I doubt it. What's the point?"
"The POINT is that's a part I need for the time machine. I promised Dad I would finish it, and I will. I know, I used to think he was crazy for working on this too. But people used to think storing objects into compressed hyperspace was impossible, and we made that an every day commodity! The more I work on this, the more I understand what he was doing. We already have the spatial technology, I just have to fine tune the intersection of the fourth dimension of time-"
"Ok, ok, I get it. I'll try to look for it, alright?"
"Alright." Mom kissed me on the cheek. "Say hi to Gohan for me."
"Sure, whatever." I mutter. The last thing I saw before walking out the door was Mom holding Scratch, our favorite housecat, and asking it questions. He meowed back and she nodded, as if in understanding. "Oh yes, aren't I a genius Scratch, making a time machine out of scrap parts? Genius descended from genius!"
"Meooow!"
Honestly, Mom.
*****
I shook my head again. Okay, enough daydreaming. At the rate I'm going, I was going to end up flying into a tree or cliff and not know it until too late. I can just hear Piccolo chewing me out by now. "Always pay attention to your surroundings! The androids have no ki to sense. They could come upon you at any moment..." I felt my eyes rolling in my head at the imagined lecturing voice. First my mom, then Piccolo. Adults were crazy, what did they expect of me? What did they want from me? I wasn't as smart as Mom. Other than gathering junk and moving stuff around for her, I really wasn't much of a help. I had felt her frustration, felt her wishing she had a scientific partner that could take the place of the brilliant Dr. Briefs, and wishing it could be me. I disappointed her in that way. But I felt like I could fight, and that's what I would do. I had taken more after my father in that area, I suppose. From the stories I had heard, he was monstrously strong and only second to Goku. But my father had died still, as the golden fury of Supersaiyan wasn't near powerful enough in the face of the androids. And I had a long way to go to even compare myself to Vegeta, according to Piccolo. Sigh.
My eyes automatically traced the outline of a singed hole, blasted earth made by the destructive hands of the androids. That was the beginning, there were a series of craters that connected and led up to the city of- You know, I don't remember the name of that city anymore. I remember it had an amusement park, the first and only one that Mom had taken me to. Among the toppled buildings and flooded streets, I couldn't even pick out where the Ferris wheel once stood. The destruction of this city wasn't recent, it had the stillness and silence of a cemetery. And if I couldn't pick out the amusement park, the dumpster area in contrast stood out in clear relief. I'm surprised that it was this large for that small of a city, but it looked promising... Well, I was a bit early. Maybe I could stop by and scout around for parts. If I did find anything, I could come back for it later. After all, it wasn't the first time I had done that. It would make Mom happy, whether the crazy time machine worked or not, and getting a smile out of her would certainly cheer me up.
I touched down gently and walked quietly. The habit of caution kicked in. I was reluctant to disturb this strange atmosphere, to make any noise in this graveyard of parts was to shatter it. Walking forward, I tried to identify the broken and rotting pieces around me. Here was a half burnt chair, and I could tell that was an old mattress by the springs sticking out. I was in the wrong section.
"CAW!" I spun around, startled at the harsh sound. I spotted the offender, who was perched on top of a large mound of twisted metal. The dark bird started to preen his glossy black feathers; they contrasted quite noticeably against the red piece of metal it was sitting on.
Red.
I blinked, and quickly pulled out the diagram that Mom had given me. An old looking styled car with modern hover wheels, red with chrome trim and white sides, and most notably, giant red fins jutting out like gaudy wings into the sky. I found myself grinning despite my disbelief. What luck, I couldn't believe it was that easy to find what I was looking for. It was dented, banged up and rusted, but it was definitely the same type of car in that picture. I started walking quickly toward the pile and squinted. Was there an engine underneath the hood? There was! I started to fly up, since it was too high for me to reach standing, and I didn't want to risk knocking the unstable pile over. The crow started to hop about and make chuckling noises, as if he was nervous at my approach. Up here I noticed that there were more birds, a lot more, perched on top of other piles. All with their beady black eyes and sharp beaks watching me. I was suddenly reminded that these opportunistic birds were carrion eaters. But what would they find dead to eat among piles of rust?
With one last sneer at the agitated bird, I shooed it off with a wave of my hand. My heart sped up while I peered underneath the hood. I felt like I had found one of the legendary dragonballs Mom had always told me about, instead of the simple mechanical piece she wanted. I could see that it would twist off easily. I reached for the small part, suddenly jerking back as I collided with a pale hand that wasn't mine. I yelled as I felt myself falling backwards and the old car pile came crashing down around me. Afterwards, while I lay trembling as the last of the crows' cries faded, I managed to shove a car off myself. This dead city and creepy dump had me seeing ghosts. "Stupid." I said, "You imagined it."
"Imagined what?"
My heart stopped. Yet through no will of my own, my head slowly turned and looked up. Piercing blue eyes. Long dark hair. A scarf... and a black shirt that said Red Ribbon. My heart started again, as it tried to jackrabbit it's way out of my chest. And I realized, looming up over me, was something so much worse than any malicious ghost.
"Well, well." the cool voice said. "What do we have here?"
End Ch. 3
Author's Note: I don't know about normal dumpsters in America, if they have a dumpster dedicated to just cars or something, but that's how they were Iraq on my base. Everybody's smelly refuse piled together in mounds, spilling down into the valley and the river, and something always burning while you had to shoo away the scavenger birds. If you stood on top of one of the piles, you had a great view of barren land and half bombed out buildings. Bleh. So yeah, that's what I was picturing as I wrote this. Anyways, I usually do Gohan angst. It feels a bit odd having another teen whining in my stories. And I don't know why I chose to write that in 1st person either. Let me know if it actually sounded like Mirai Trunks thinking. Think King Kai's classic car. Oh, and a warning: possible character death in the next chapter. Yay! Please review!
P.S. And a thank you to Volcanic and Space Weazel, because your reviews made me feel guilty enough (lol) to sit my lazy, distracted ass down and finish this chapter.
HOPELESS FUTURE, SHATTERED PAST - Ch. 3
By VegetaDaimoh/animegrrrl/piccolo_yaoi/ma_junior117
Time: The Past and The Present
It started out with a bang. Or perhaps a scream?
Yes, I remember now. I had heard the hoarse sound of man's startled cry, right before the explosion. Then definitely a scream, as my mother screamed for her father in fear. Then coughing, as she blindly tried to make her way through the hazy smoke.
"Hold on Dad, we'll get you out of there." she said, as she dropped to her knees in front of the wreckage. "Trunks! Where are you!"
"Here, Mom." I immediately set about digging Dr. Brief's free. Even back then I was an abnormally strong kid. I easily tossed the last jagged piece of metal clear of the old man's body. But then I stopped and stared, and asked a stupid question, blurting it out in shock. "Grandpa, where is your leg?"
The old scientist had enough strength left in him to chuckle. "Who knows."
That was when Mom got really hysterical. "Trunks!" she ordered, "Go hurry and see if you can get a senzu! No- wait! Stay here, we need to stop the bleeding first! Oh my Kami, where is the first aid kit!!" That was when I noticed Grandpa clearing his throat and trying, though too weakly, to get my mother's attention.
"BULMA!" I yell, startling her enough to make her stop running around. "He wants to talk to you."
She was immediately by his side, holding his hands and murmuring meaningless words of comfort. "It's going to be OK. Does it hurt anywhere?"
"It's too late, I am clearly bleeding to death. No, listen!" Grandpa cut Mom off before she started trying to find the first aid kit again. "I must tell you, it's very important. I believe Scratch got away in time. Find him, he is necessary for the completion."
"Dad, what are you talking about?"
"The time machine! It worked." Mom looked around in confusion, as we were sitting in the blasted and burned ruins of the failed experiment. "Look down at my leg." the old man said, by way of explanation.
Blood. Lots and lots of blood. I had to force myself not to wretch, and Mom really wasn't doing any better. But I started to look past that, and noticed something off about the leg. It wasn't mangled, crushed, or twisted like you would expect in an accident. It was just missing, like something had cleanly cut right through cloth, meat, then bone. "It's somewhere in another dimension, or timestream. Which one I don't know. But it worked! Bulma, you can change things now. You must carry on and perfect it for me."
"Dad," Mom sobbed as tears squeezed out her eyes. "I don't want you to die."
"It's alright, I've had a good life. Just promise..."
"But it's dangerous!" The old man renewed his grip on Mom's hands. His breath become even more labored, and Mom caved in just to get him to calm down. "Alright! Alright, I promise."
Grandpa sighed and immediately relaxed. "Good." he whispered. "I'll tell Bunny you said hello." I watched him close his eyes and fall off into sleep. "I wonder if she'll have tea and honeycakes waiting for me..." he murmured, with a faint smile on his face. Mom started to cry as she clutched his hands tighter and hunched over his prone form.
It wasn't for a few minutes afterwards that I realized we were sitting in a pool of blood, and the red that stained the hem of my mother's white lab coat had soaked up all the way to her pockets. Dr. Briefs, world renowned brilliant scientist, inventor of capsule technology, and my kind grandfather, was never going to wake from sleep again.
*****
I blinked, and shook my head to let the wind whip stray bangs of hair out of the way of my stinging eyes. Must be the wind. Oh no, that couldn't be me crying. That had happened years ago and there was nothing to be tearing up over. In fact, I was flying on my way right now to spend time with Gohan-sensei. Apparently there was some new amazing technique that Piccolo had thought of to make us become stronger. I was looking forward to it. Still...
"Oh! Hey Trunks, are you going out?" I paused in midstep and turned around. Mom was in her favorite mechanics's suit, crouched down over something and holding a wrench. She flipped her long ponytail back over her shoulder and lit up a cigarette.
"Mom!"
"What!" She looked at me blankly for a second before she realized what I meant. "Oh, this?" she said, waving the cancer stick in my face as if my anger was nothing. "You know they help me concentrate."
"You said you would quit. Remember?"
"Well, it's not like the cigs will kill me before the Androids do!"
My mouth clicks shut and I can't help but glare at her. She had the nerve to smirk. "You look more like your father when you do that." That was it. I spun back around even as I heard her call my name.
"Trunks! Trunks, wait!" The woman caught my arm. "I put it out. Come here." She said, making a gesture with her hand. I wouldn't come to her so she came to me. She put her arms around my shoulders and started to rub my back. "There, that's my sweetheart." she murmured. "That's my boy." Her breath tickled my hair as she inhaled my scent. I was 14 and nearly the same height as Mom now, but when she did this I knew she was getting nostalgic. Probably thinking back to when I was a sweet, useless, diaper-crapping baby who couldn't talk back to her, back to when all of her friends and Father were still alive. I found myself starting to relax. "I'm sorry I said that."
I puffed the cigarette scent out of my nostrils. "No, it's okay."
Mom immediately brightened and in perfect imitation of Grandma Bunny, pinched both my cheeks, giggling and smiling so wide her eyes disappeared. Aggravated with her all over again, I pulled away and rubbed a cheek. "Mom, did you want something, or are you just having fun harassing me?"
She laughed. "A little of both. But actually-" and here she flourished a blueprint and pointed, "I want this."
All I saw were a tangle of twisted tubes. "Um..?"
"It's a car engine. Here." Mom circled something on the top of the picture. "This is specifically what I need." Noticing my confusion, she kept explaining. "Here's a picture of the car model. They're quite common actually. On your way out, go find and get this for me. You might find it in a city, someone's abandoned car you know."
"I doubt it. What's the point?"
"The POINT is that's a part I need for the time machine. I promised Dad I would finish it, and I will. I know, I used to think he was crazy for working on this too. But people used to think storing objects into compressed hyperspace was impossible, and we made that an every day commodity! The more I work on this, the more I understand what he was doing. We already have the spatial technology, I just have to fine tune the intersection of the fourth dimension of time-"
"Ok, ok, I get it. I'll try to look for it, alright?"
"Alright." Mom kissed me on the cheek. "Say hi to Gohan for me."
"Sure, whatever." I mutter. The last thing I saw before walking out the door was Mom holding Scratch, our favorite housecat, and asking it questions. He meowed back and she nodded, as if in understanding. "Oh yes, aren't I a genius Scratch, making a time machine out of scrap parts? Genius descended from genius!"
"Meooow!"
Honestly, Mom.
*****
I shook my head again. Okay, enough daydreaming. At the rate I'm going, I was going to end up flying into a tree or cliff and not know it until too late. I can just hear Piccolo chewing me out by now. "Always pay attention to your surroundings! The androids have no ki to sense. They could come upon you at any moment..." I felt my eyes rolling in my head at the imagined lecturing voice. First my mom, then Piccolo. Adults were crazy, what did they expect of me? What did they want from me? I wasn't as smart as Mom. Other than gathering junk and moving stuff around for her, I really wasn't much of a help. I had felt her frustration, felt her wishing she had a scientific partner that could take the place of the brilliant Dr. Briefs, and wishing it could be me. I disappointed her in that way. But I felt like I could fight, and that's what I would do. I had taken more after my father in that area, I suppose. From the stories I had heard, he was monstrously strong and only second to Goku. But my father had died still, as the golden fury of Supersaiyan wasn't near powerful enough in the face of the androids. And I had a long way to go to even compare myself to Vegeta, according to Piccolo. Sigh.
My eyes automatically traced the outline of a singed hole, blasted earth made by the destructive hands of the androids. That was the beginning, there were a series of craters that connected and led up to the city of- You know, I don't remember the name of that city anymore. I remember it had an amusement park, the first and only one that Mom had taken me to. Among the toppled buildings and flooded streets, I couldn't even pick out where the Ferris wheel once stood. The destruction of this city wasn't recent, it had the stillness and silence of a cemetery. And if I couldn't pick out the amusement park, the dumpster area in contrast stood out in clear relief. I'm surprised that it was this large for that small of a city, but it looked promising... Well, I was a bit early. Maybe I could stop by and scout around for parts. If I did find anything, I could come back for it later. After all, it wasn't the first time I had done that. It would make Mom happy, whether the crazy time machine worked or not, and getting a smile out of her would certainly cheer me up.
I touched down gently and walked quietly. The habit of caution kicked in. I was reluctant to disturb this strange atmosphere, to make any noise in this graveyard of parts was to shatter it. Walking forward, I tried to identify the broken and rotting pieces around me. Here was a half burnt chair, and I could tell that was an old mattress by the springs sticking out. I was in the wrong section.
"CAW!" I spun around, startled at the harsh sound. I spotted the offender, who was perched on top of a large mound of twisted metal. The dark bird started to preen his glossy black feathers; they contrasted quite noticeably against the red piece of metal it was sitting on.
Red.
I blinked, and quickly pulled out the diagram that Mom had given me. An old looking styled car with modern hover wheels, red with chrome trim and white sides, and most notably, giant red fins jutting out like gaudy wings into the sky. I found myself grinning despite my disbelief. What luck, I couldn't believe it was that easy to find what I was looking for. It was dented, banged up and rusted, but it was definitely the same type of car in that picture. I started walking quickly toward the pile and squinted. Was there an engine underneath the hood? There was! I started to fly up, since it was too high for me to reach standing, and I didn't want to risk knocking the unstable pile over. The crow started to hop about and make chuckling noises, as if he was nervous at my approach. Up here I noticed that there were more birds, a lot more, perched on top of other piles. All with their beady black eyes and sharp beaks watching me. I was suddenly reminded that these opportunistic birds were carrion eaters. But what would they find dead to eat among piles of rust?
With one last sneer at the agitated bird, I shooed it off with a wave of my hand. My heart sped up while I peered underneath the hood. I felt like I had found one of the legendary dragonballs Mom had always told me about, instead of the simple mechanical piece she wanted. I could see that it would twist off easily. I reached for the small part, suddenly jerking back as I collided with a pale hand that wasn't mine. I yelled as I felt myself falling backwards and the old car pile came crashing down around me. Afterwards, while I lay trembling as the last of the crows' cries faded, I managed to shove a car off myself. This dead city and creepy dump had me seeing ghosts. "Stupid." I said, "You imagined it."
"Imagined what?"
My heart stopped. Yet through no will of my own, my head slowly turned and looked up. Piercing blue eyes. Long dark hair. A scarf... and a black shirt that said Red Ribbon. My heart started again, as it tried to jackrabbit it's way out of my chest. And I realized, looming up over me, was something so much worse than any malicious ghost.
"Well, well." the cool voice said. "What do we have here?"
End Ch. 3
Author's Note: I don't know about normal dumpsters in America, if they have a dumpster dedicated to just cars or something, but that's how they were Iraq on my base. Everybody's smelly refuse piled together in mounds, spilling down into the valley and the river, and something always burning while you had to shoo away the scavenger birds. If you stood on top of one of the piles, you had a great view of barren land and half bombed out buildings. Bleh. So yeah, that's what I was picturing as I wrote this. Anyways, I usually do Gohan angst. It feels a bit odd having another teen whining in my stories. And I don't know why I chose to write that in 1st person either. Let me know if it actually sounded like Mirai Trunks thinking. Think King Kai's classic car. Oh, and a warning: possible character death in the next chapter. Yay! Please review!
P.S. And a thank you to Volcanic and Space Weazel, because your reviews made me feel guilty enough (lol) to sit my lazy, distracted ass down and finish this chapter.