Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Burden of Hope ❯ Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Once again, Dragonball Z does not belong to me, though I wish it did, and not just for the money; I mean for the fact that it is a truly fantastic story.

The Burden of Hope

CHAPTER TWO: "I Thought We Killed You!" The Survivor Intervenes!

The humans weren't much fun today.

Android Eighteen sighed in boredom and tucked loose strands of blonde hair behind her ear. A hoarse shout to her left drew her attention; she casually turned to see a human woman, made even more pitiful-looking than normal by her ragged clothes and tangled hair, rushing toward her with a cocked fist. Lazily, the android pointed a slender, delicate finger and fired a laser-thin beam; it burned through the human's forehead with the same ease as burning through a sheet of paper. Eyes now forever wide in surprise, the human dropped to the ground. That had been, Eighteen decided, mildly entertaining.

Looking up, she found that her brother was having no trouble amusing himself. Seventeen let fly blast after blast, bringing buildings crashing down upon the humans' heads; he waded into groups of the filthy creatures, killing them with short, sharp blows as he laughed wildly and called out mock-apologies. He was such a child.

"Hey! Aren't you through yet, Seventeen?" Eighteen asked irritably, placing her hands on her hips. "This is getting boring!"

Seventeen turned his head her way, not bothering to drop the human youth that he held by the throat; the youth made faint choking noises, feet dangling inches off the ground, hands clenched ineffectually around the android's wrist. "Boring? You call this boring? You've forgotten how to have fun, Eighteen. I suggest you loosen up before you rust."

"Oh, shut up!" she shot back. Her head raised as she heard a soft sound from behind her; she smiled cruelly. "Hey, we missed some. Come on; let's make this batch more fun than the rest."

Seventeen shifted his gaze onto the ragged group of humans to which his sister had referred. Nonchalantly, he dropped his current victim. "So, what did you have in mind?"

In answer, Eighteen leapt into the sky, fluidly twisting her lithe body to face the pathetic creatures who foolishly believed that they could escape by moving quietly. She lifted both hands above her head, gathering her pseudo-ki into a brightly flickering golden ball; she held it for a few seconds, then released it.

The blast tore through the ground just beside the fleeing humans; screaming in terror, the bedraggled masses abandoned stealth for speed and tripped over each other in their pitiable attempts to retreat. A few of them stumbled and fell, but most managed to break into a run. The panic-stricken were always more fun than the prone, so Eighteen flew after them, chuckling softly; her brother took up the chase as well.

The two androids glided low over their prey, thoroughly delighted by the fearful glances that the humans darted at them every few seconds. To the humans, the pursuit seemed to last forever, but in actuality, it only continued for a few moments. Then it turned into a slaughter. Seventeen and Eighteen pointed slender index fingers and fired thin beams of pseudo-ki, counting ten points for every kill. Only a few stragglers remained by the time they reached a once-populated area that was empty even of ruins; only deep holes marked the locations of dwellings.

"Two hundred and thirty," Seventeen tallied as the last human, a dark-haired male, dropped lifelessly to the ground. The android landed gracefully amid the scattered corpses.

"Unbelievable," Eighteen muttered irritably. "He always wins this game." She landed near the last kill, cursing her mere two hundred and ten points as she surveyed the dead.

A small movement caught her eye; looking down, she saw the body of the last kill start to shift. Her first thought was that Seventeen had missed his mark and had only two hundred twenty points, but then she noticed a tiny had claw its way out from under the limp form. This hand was followed by a head of pale hair---a shade that humans may have called lavender---that was cut in a short sweep. Eighteen smiled wickedly.

How nice, she thought. A child.

She waited as the child pulled himself clear of the corpse and slowly lifted his gaze. Her smile broadened as his deep blue eyes filled with fear at the sight of her. With elaborate slowness, she stepped closer to him; he shrank away only slightly, unlike most humans, who buried their faces in the dirt and waited for the end. Eighteen found herself mildly impressed.

"Well," she began softly. "Aren't you a cute little thing. And all alone now, too. You poor baby; you must be lonely. Don't worry; you won't be by yourself for much longer."

She arched her leg back, preparing to deliver a kick to the child's head; he cringed, squeezing his eyes shut in anticipation of the blow. Amused, Eighteen paused, and waited until she saw him cautiously open one eye. Her smile more cruel than ever, she shot her leg forward---

---and an intense golden light blazed in front of her; the kick connected with a blocking arm.

Eighteen pulled her leg back, startled. Standing protectively in front of the young boy was an older one, scarcely into his teens. His frame was well-muscled without being bulky, and his face bore an expression of grim defiance. His eyes---a pale colour humans would have called aquamarine---locked on hers. Waving in the flaming yellow aura that surrounded his body was a shock of short, stiff blond hair.

Thinking that he looked familiar, Eighteen scanned her memory bank; old files sprang up, and an image of a long-ago battle flashed through her circuits. She gasped softly as recognition came. It couldn't be him; he was dead. They were all dead…

"You!" she exclaimed, half-surprised and half-angry. "I thought we killed you!"

"Well, we apparently didn't finish the job," Seventeen said calmly, coming to stand beside her. The blond adolescent's eyes darted a glance at him. "It's nice to see you again, Gohan."

I must be crazy…

Gohan stood before the two androids, a living wall between them and the toddler. His body wanted to quiver in remembered fear, but he would not allow it; he could not afford to become distracted. Android Eighteen stared at him with a mixture of shock and rage, while Android Seventeen regarded him with amusement. From behind, he heard a soft scuffling sound; the toddler had scrambled backward a bit, unnerved by his sudden appearance and the golden nimbus around him.

Android Eighteen's expression slowly changed to a chilly smile. "Nice indeed," she said softly in response to her brother's earlier statement. "And how noble of you: coming to the aid of a helpless little boy. Too bad, though; you'll give up your life doing this and the kid will die anyway. Such a pity."

Her leg swung out again. Jumping the kick, Gohan somersaulted over the toddler and knelt beside him. Hastily, he gathered the small child into his arms and blasted into the sky just before a bolt of pseudo-ki obliterated the ground on which they had been. Playfully, both androids followed.

The young Super Saiyajin twisted his body about to evade Seventeen's punch and Eighteen's knee, the toddler's fingers clutching his clothes fearfully as he did so. A sharp blow to the base of his spine dropped him a few feet; taking advantage of the fact that he was no longer surrounded, Gohan shot forward, searching for shelter.

He chanced a look back; both androids sped along behind him at what he assumed was, for them, a leisurely pace, their shoulder-length hair streaming in the wind. Gritting his teeth, he focused his eyes ahead again. He was flying at close to his maximum velocity, and it wouldn't be long before Seventeen and Eighteen got close enough to pummel him senseless---or lifeless. It didn't matter which; either way, he would fail his task.

No. He wouldn't fail. Not this time.

Gohan glanced down at his charge. Apparently having forgotten the seriousness of the situation, the toddler had his angular blue eyes directed wonderingly at the ground; he was quite obviously entranced with being in flight. Irritated at the younger boy's ignorance, but also---strangely---fighting the urge to smile, Gohan spoke above the roaring wind in his ears, "Hang on tight, kid."

He channelled his ki through his body; a bright flash of gold briefly lit the sky, a shockwave radiated out in all directions, and he reached his full speed. The toddler squealed in surprise and dug his fingers into Gohan's flesh; amazingly, this almost hurt. He's got awfully strong fingers for being so young, the older boy thought. He has to be…

A startled gasp escaped his lips as a blast of pseudo-ki narrowly missed his head. Another beam grazed his arm. Desperately scanning the landscape, his aquamarine eyes darted about in search of a place to hide; the androids were getting bored with him and that meant, if he couldn't find concealment, both he and the child would die.

Below, dead blades of grass swayed slightly in what must have been a gentle breeze. Entire copses of once-towering trees lay in broken tangles, each trunk appearing as though it had been split by a great, Kami-hurled lightning bolt. The highway that once, a mere few years ago, served as a link between cities, looked as if a massive giant had chosen to trod upon its pathetically fragile concrete on his ramblings across the land. In the distance, to either side of the remnants of the road, heaven-piercing spires rose out of canyons like stone fingers. Overall, the wide-open scene was unsympathetic; it refused to offer any scrap of shelter.

"Perfect," Gohan spat bitterly. "Just perfect. Now what am I supposed to do? Those first two blasts were warning shots; the next time those mechanical demons fire, they aren't going to plan on missing!"

Confirming this statement, two more beams raced toward him. Twisting his body more quickly than any human could hope to do, Gohan barely dodged them; he felt their heat on his cheeks as they passed. He didn't have time to relax, though; a furious volley of pseudo-ki turned the sky into an expanse of lethal, lurid light, and he was forced into nanosecond-long evasions.

It seemed a miracle that none of the beams scored a direct hit; one grazed his arm and a few clipped his hair, but that was all. He heard the toddler utter a high-pitched shriek of pain, but now was hardly the time to check on his injury; the fact that the child clung to him even more tightly was proof that whatever wound he'd suffered was not severe.

To both his relief and dismay, the late-afternoon sky reverted to its normal magenta-tinged blue; the androids had obviously grown bored with trying to blast him out of the air. They had always found it more enjoyable to kill though physical contact, which meant that Gohan had very little time to find cover before they decided to catch up with him.

As he looked up, thankfulness almost did the androids' job for them; a partially restored city lay just ahead. Using speed he didn't know he had, he streaked toward the outskirts. He shot past the first few small buildings---

---and pulled up sharply; floating a mere two feet in front of him, arms crossed and eyes cold, was Android Seventeen.

"Hello again," the machine greeted. "You're awfully nimble today; I didn't expect you to make it this far. But I'm afraid you won't be going any further."

"It was a nice chase, though," came a sultry voice from his rear. Glancing back, Gohan saw Android Eighteen's demonically beautiful face. "This is the most fun we've had in a long time. It's too bad that you and your little friend won't be able to entertain us again."

Before Gohan could move, Seventeen backhanded him across his face. Pain exploded through his cheek as he felt his body begin to plummet. His grip on the toddler loosened, but he managed to maintain it. Twisting himself so that he faced upward, the adolescent Super Saiyajin slammed through the roof of a building, then onto the ground; a grunt of pain escaped him with each impact.

Like smoke from a bonfire, clouds of dust billowed up from the crater they'd formed; the pale-haired child coughed violently as debris entered his lungs. Wasting no time on pity for the boy, Gohan extended his arm to one side, palm facing outward; he fired a golden ball of ki at the nearest wall. Concrete blasted apart and more dust filled the air, mingling neatly with that which already obscured the androids' vision.

Scrambling to his feet, he kept the hacking toddler tucked under one arm and darted through the opening he'd just created. His legs unconsciously followed the path of the cloud, ensuring that he remained out of sight. The air started to clear and he took advantage of his last moment or so of invisibility to find the ever-elusive thing known as cover. Finding nothing better than a recessed doorway, he hurriedly ducked into the deep shadows.

Carefully, Gohan knelt and set the toddler down beside him. The small boy was still coughing, his left hand propping him up and his right holding the base of his throat. With each heave of his chest, dirt fell in a fine mist from his filthy lavender hair. Gently, the adolescent boy patted his back, helping to clear his breathing passages.

"Curse those brats! Where have they gone?" Android Eighteen's furious voice caused Gohan to freeze. "This is all your fault, Seventeen! You should have gone after them as soon as they crashed through that roof!"

"Knock it off!" Seventeen snapped sharply. "I don't need any fighting tips, all right? Besides, it isn't like you couldn't have done anything!"

"Oh! As if you ever like it when I interfere with your fun! The one time I stay out of your way, you mess everything up! You're an incredible waste of good circuitry!"

"I'm a waste of circuitry? At least my programming doesn't require me to go into those ridiculous human shops to try on clothes for two hours!"

"Shut up! You just don't have any fashion sense." Eighteen's voice was shattered with impatience. "Now let's get back to the runts. I say we just bomb the whole area; that will draw those two out of hiding."

The concussion from the first blast caused both Gohan and the now steadily-breathing toddler to lose their balance. As the ground continued to shudder as though the same giant who'd trampled the highway had decided to visit the city, Gohan crawled over to the younger boy and shielded the tiny body with his larger one. Beneath him, he could feel the child tremble nearly violently enough to rival the earth.

"Try to stay calm," the adolescent whispered to his charge as loud as he dared. "if you can do that, then they won't find us."

A heavy chunk of concrete glanced off Gohan's back; the androids had turned their attention to the shelter-giving building. The adolescent pulled himself and the toddler into a sitting position in the doorway as the structure above avalanched upon them like a relentless stone rain.

When the rumbling stopped, Gohan slowly opened his eyes. Darkness enveloped his vision; only a few slivers of light managed to pierce through the cracks of the walls of rock that surrounded him. He released his small companion, who cautiously crawled out of his lap.

"Who…" the child began, but Gohan hushed him; he heard two pairs of soft footsteps from outside. Peering through a crack, he saw blue denim over slender legs.

The androids.

"Well, I hope you're happy, Seventeen! They probably got away and it's all your fault!" Eighteen scolded.

"Don't start that again!" Seventeen retorted. "Look, if we missed them, we'll just get them the next time they turn up. It'll give us something fun to do later."

"Yeah, I guess," Eighteen conceded, mollified. "So what now?"

"Let's go home. Come on."

The legs in Gohan's vision slowly levitated, then vanished completely. Several long minutes passed in perfect silence. Once he was satisfied that the androids had left, he turned his attention back to his companion. "I think it's safe, now. Let's get out of here."

"Who are you?" the toddler asked, finishing his earlier question. Though his voice was not a whisper, it was nonetheless quite soft.

"I'll tell you once we get out," Gohan replied shortly. "Now stand back."

Scooting the child out of the way, he rose to his full height. Spikes of golden hair bent as they pressed against the ceiling of rubble; had he reached his pubescent growth spurt, he would not have been able to stand up straight. Calmly, he lifted his hand and splayed his fingers. A searing bolt of ki shot forth from his palm; rock debris blasted away like discarded trash in a hurricane.

Turning around, he saw that the toddler had huddled against the ruined building's door, trembling in fear of the display of power he'd just witnessed. Gohan took a step forward, and the younger boy tried to slide back a little further, only managing to press his back more firmly against the portal.

"It's all right," Gohan said soothingly, letting himself slip out of Super Saiyajin; he looked far less threatening with his natural dark hair and dark eyes. "I wouldn't have helped you if I were going to hurt you."

The two stared at each other for a long moment, neither one daring even to twitch for fear of sparking an unwanted reaction from the other. At last, the little boy inched out of the shadows and stood. The feeling of familiarity struck Gohan again; he was now certain of the child's identity. There was no way to mistake it: the slim build; the lack of stature---even for his age; the sharp, regal features, the cerulean eyes…

"My question?" the small child prompted softly.

"Hmm? Oh, right." Gohan jolted himself out of his musings. "My name is Gohan. And you would be…" he trailed off, though he was quite sure that he knew how to finish the statement; he wanted to hear the confirmation of his conclusion straight from the source. After a brief silence, he received it; the toddler hesitantly spoke.

"My name is Trunks."