| Feeding the Flames part 3 By: Juuchan The expression on Bulma's face as she strode toward him was -not- a good omen, Gohan decided. She looked amazingly determined, and the sheaf of papers she was carrying, almost like a weapon, both seemed to conspire to bode ill for him. He definitely wasn't going to like whatever she felt she had to tell him. "I know what's wrong with Trunks." Gohan scrambled to his feet at her plain words. "That's great! Can we do something about it?" "You can." He blinked, and looked at her in puzzlement. "What do you mean, me?" She sighed, "Go inside and sit down," she grimaced, "I need some water." Gohan was getting more nervous as time went by. Bulma was nearly stalling, though she was normally very forward and up front about things. And what could he possibly do to help Trunks that had her so worried? Did he need some kind of transplant or transfusion? His earlier thoughts were quickly shoved off into a corner of his mind, so he could focus solely on the current situation, involving the welfare of his student. He waited as patiently as possible while Bulma poured herself a glass of water, took a long drink, then sat down at the kitchen table, shuffling the papers in front of her. When he reached the point where he had to break the silence, he was so startled as she finally spoke that it took him some time to reply. "Trunks is in heat." "He's.. what?" "In heat. As in, relating to breeding and procreation." She rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes as he simply gaped at her in shock, then waved him down when he looked as if he were about to speak, trying to think past the words reverberating in his skull. "I'll explain all of it at once, with NO interruptions, then you can say as much as you want." She shuffled her papers again, visibly gathered herself, and began. "I only have this information because Vejiita was amazingly insightful, and left the file in my computer, to be automatically opened if medical scans were taken such that the condition of the person being scanned precisely matched what he had on file as being in heat. He wasn't certain that it could even happen, since Trunks is a half-breed. "What's happening to Trunks is a Saiya-jin thing, and only occurs in males. It never happened to you because, apparently, it is a very rare trait. While it would occasionally pop up in the general population, there were more occurrences than average within certain family lines. Namely, Vejiita's. "Yes, this is a trait and not a disease. It seems that it's popping up so early because Trunks is mature. He may be young in human terms, but Saiya-jin reach their equivalent of puberty very young in proportion to the ages they can reach, even before they reach full growth. From what he wrote, Vejiita says that Trunks has probably been 'mature,' as in capable of breeding, since ten. The same goes for you. Saiya-jins who will do so always go into heat some time after they mature, and it will continue to happen to them regularly throughout their lives. Vejiita didn't guess about how long the intervals between Trunks' heats will be. "Our more immediate concern is what to do about it. Vejiita was very clear about this. If Trunks doesn't satisfy the heat in a relatively short amount of time, he will die. "The file tells me what the stages of heat are. The first is the only one which -cannot- be easily recognized, but in some ways is the -most- important one. We might as well call it 'imprinting.' For some time, immediately before he goes to sleep before the first time, the Saiya-jin is in this stage. During it, he will imprint the ki signatures of any males in his immediate vicinity into his memory." Out of everything that Bulma had said so far, this gave Gohan the worst feeling of foreboding. What was happening to Trunks was slowly beginning to sink into place, and he didn't like the picture it was forming. Trunks was in heat, which was deeply related to breeding and sex. He would imprint the ki signatures of males into his consciousness.. and Gohan had been around him all DAY before he'd dropped. And he -had- been concentrating on his ki with unusual intensity.. His attention was caught again as Bulma returned to her narrative after another drink of her water. "Vejiita wasn't specific about the length of this stage, but did say that it could vary from 6 to 24 hours. "After this, the Saiya-jin goes to sleep, while their system is working very swiftly to alter their body chemistry. They begin producing massive amounts of pheromones, to attract their prospective mates, though it will affect any male in the vicinity. Their saliva becomes an aphrodisiac, and their blood as well, which is the main reason they behave as driven as they do. "Once the changes are finished, he wakes up and begins to hunt down those he imprinted, one by one. He'll try to kiss them first, to get the aphrodisiac into their system and make them more tractable. Then he'll.. get himself screwed. Once he's reached all of them, he'll fall asleep again, and apparently 'create' the babies. This is one of the points of the explanation I don't understand. "The most important concern at the moment is that, once he's imprinted them, if he doesn't reach all the males he's done so to, or at least most of them, he'll die. It will be mostly because his body is running itself at a ferocious pace, and if it doesn't receive the signal to stop it'll keep going until he starves, which doesn't take long for a Saiya-jin normally, but is especially fast in this condition. Not to mention what all the different chemicals running through his blood at the moment are doing to his brain. Vejiita seems to suggest that at least -some- changes are going to be permanent, simply because he's now gone into heat, and is 'active,' or something. "The other factor is the signal itself. The Saiya-jin in heat, now matter how things appear, doesn't -really- achieve release until he reaches the last of the males he's chosen. Once this is done, and he's exhausted, he falls into the second sleep. "So, Gohan," he was knocked temporarily out of his shock as she addressed him directly, "go somewhere. He'll be out in.." She checked her watch, "5 minutes." Things still hadn't quite set in yet, but some things were coming to the forefront of his mind. Trunks was in heat, and he needed to.. screw him or he'd die? Soon?! And he'd get PREGNANT? Wait a minute, hadn't she said something about him getting loose? "What?" She blinked at him in exasperation, "I set the restraints so that they'd release him in 20 minutes. You have 4 left, now. I suggest going somewhere private, like your room." She glared at him. "I WON'T let my son die because you refuse to cooperate!" He stepped back in the face of her anger, but it had the effect she'd wanted. Something finally broke through to him. Trunks would die. He would -die-. He. Would. DIE. Gohan couldn't let that happen, even if Trunks might hate him afterward for HOW he'd stopped it. "I'll do it," he said carefully, then turned and walked steadily to his room, trying to drill into his mind that this -had- to happen. It was necessary. And one little corner of his mind was happily counting down the minutes. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *click* It took him a moment to figure out what caused the sound, but when he did his far from lucid mind was flooded with joy and relief. He was free! Trunks immediately set off to find his target, and stop the burn. |