Mirai no Senshi
by ICYSHADOWNINJA@AOL.COM
Chapter 2:
"Ainiku Suteki"

An’ya’s gaze flowed over every feature behind the door, though all was complete silence, it seemed the an old bald man with a long, white beard and a little robotic garbage can were getting ready to open a bunch of coffin-like machines. An’ya wasn’t quite sure of the significance of the coffins, but she _could_ see a large chalkboard along the far wall that apparently the old man had used to keep track of his plans. The plan read as follows:

Goals for Tomorrow:

Phase one: Awaken Dr. Gero’s ‘failed’ Jinzouningen.

Phase two: Gloat about the Jinzouningen to Trunks.

Phase three: Kill Trunks.

Phase four: Celebrate.

Phase five: Gloat about killing Trunks to Trunks’s Students.

Phase six: Kill Trunks’s Students.

Phase seven: Rule the World!!

Phase eight: Have lunch

It wasn’t the most interesting or inventive plan in the world, but parts of it sent warning bells through An’ya’s consciousness. The first was the word ‘Jinzouningen’, which was repeated several times. The second was the fact that it was a plot against Trunks’s life. The third, was the fact that the guy was planning on doing everything on the schedule before lunch.

I’ve got to tell Trunks-sensei! She thought, with no small amount of consternation. But I know I’m too far for psychic contact... Maybe one of the other students... Setsuna would be my best bet, I just hope he’s closer than Trunks is.

An’ya focused on her alien friend... well, OK, maybe friend was too strong a word. Comrade maybe?... no that didn’t fit either... Ally?... possibly... Acquaintance? Yep, that one fit perfectly. Well, anyway, she attempted contact with the Yardratto sei-jin, but quickly grew frustrated with her lack of progress.

"I’m hungry."

An’ya blinked, and knew instantly she’d found who she’d been looking for. Yardratto sei-jin, Setsuna... I need your help.

"Huh? Who said that?" came the confused reply.

Setsuna, it’s me, An’ya... I’m speaking to you telepathically.

"Really? Wow, can you teach me to do that?"

Later. I need you to do something, Setsuna...

"Nani?"

I was just getting to it, hold on a second! You can sense Ki, right?

"Hai, but why do you need to know?"

Can you find me after I break off contact?

"Ha.. Hai..."

Good. Look, Setsuna, I need you to teleport to Trunks and bring him to me, as quickly as you can!

"And break my vow not to teleport?"

THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT! An’ya mentally screamed at him, before taking a moment to compose herself. Look, Setsuna, I think I’ve just stumbled onto Dr. Gero’s old laboratory... And I think there’s someone here trying to resurrect some of Dr. Gero’s failed androids!

"Shimatta! That is serious! ... You’re telling me the truth, right?"

Na.. Nani? Bakayaro! Of _COURSE_ I’m being serious! Hurry, damn it! This dude could notice me at any time, and I’d damn well like Trunks _here_ before he does, Kami-Sama damn you! Get Trunks here _NOW_!

"Ha.. Hai, Ryuu An’ya-sama."

You can teleport now. An’ya thought to him angrily, breaking her psychic connection. Communication telepathically was exhausting, and An’ya needed a minute to recover her strength.

***

Trunks was sitting at the kitchen table, eating dinner, of course. He’d just come out of the ‘weight room’, as his students had taken to calling the gravity chamber. Without his students around, it had been a peaceful couple of days. His mother smiled at him as she set another tray of rice down.

"Goodness, Trunks-kun, you’re eating as much today as your students and you usually eat combined. You keep this up and you’re going to get fat."

"Kami-Sama knows I’ve earned it, today, Okaasan." Trunks said, between mouthfuls, "I put in a good six hours of training in the gravity room today. I don’t expect my students to be the _only_ ones with increased Ki’s when they come back from their survival training."

Buruma smiled. "You’re really taking their training seriously, aren’t you, Trunks."

"Of course I am, they’re the future..."

Setsuna appeared standing on the table, one foot next to a cup of water, the other in Trunks’s bowl rice. Trunks and Buruma facefaulted, but Trunks recovered quickly enough. Narrowing his eyes, Trunks opened his mouth to speak.

"I know, I know, no teleporting. Trunks-sensei, An’ya contacted me, because she’s too far away to reach you. she’s found something important, something that could prove to be very dangerous if we don’t deal with it now."

Trunks blinked. "Nani?"

"An’ya’s discovered Dr. Gero’s old Lab, and there’s someone there trying to recreate some of Gero’s androids."

"Iie! Impossible! The lab was destroyed, I did it myself..." Trunks trailed off, and looked at his mother. "... In the _past_! Kuso! How could I have forgotten? Shimatta, I really screwed up." Leveling his gaze on his student, Trunks spoke again. "Can you teleport me there?"

"I believe that was An’ya’s purpose in contacting me." Setsuna said, grinning. He put a hand on Trunks’s shoulder...

***

... both warriors found themselves in a dark cave, An’ya standing before them. All they could really see of her in the dim light was some of her hair and the light glinting off of the water in her eyes.

"It’s about time, I was about ready to go in without you." The woman said, though she wasn’t as sure of her abilities as she tried to make her teacher and... comrade... think.

Trunks took no notice of her, instead he walked to the large, armored, steel double doors that, in an alternate past, Vegeta had melted with a low-power Big Bang Attack. They were still in place, which showed that Trunks had indeed forgotten all about the lab. Unsurprisingly, he felt like a bit of an idiot for forgetting about such an important detail.

Well, I’m going to make _damn_ sure the lab stays destroyed this time. Trunks vowed, as he knocked the doors of their hinges with one swift kick. His student’s jaws dropped, as did that of the old man with a familiar glass bubble-dome on top of his head. Obviously another one of Gero’s creations, the old man let out a couple of choicer curses before slapping a button on a control panel. The lids of three of the coffin-like storage / maintenance / construction pods, marked with the numbers 13, 14, and 15 opened, and three androids Trunks had never seen before stepped out.

The first was huge, and looked quite a bit like a farmer, looking to be more at home on the seat of a tractor rather than fighting in battles. Second was an even bigger blue android who managed to look quite impressive. The third? The third was a short, purple alcoholic android with a big hat who seemed more interested in the whiskey bottle he held in his hand than he did in listening to the first android.

"Juusan! Juuyon! Juugo! Kill the intruders!"

Trunks’s eyes narrowed. "An’ya, you take Farmer John, I’ve got Big Blue, Setsuna, take the Purple Drunk."

"Oh, sure, give _him_ the easy job." An’ya said, grinning. "I take it this means that the survival training is off."

"Do you even have to ask?" Trunks said, grinning. He was somewhat pleased, this proved that all of his hard work wasn’t for nothing after all. Trunks looked back to his opponent. "Come on, butt-ugly, let’s see what you can do!"

The blue android growled in anger and charged, without first thinking through his actions. Trunks grinned, and easily dodged the monster’s clumsy attack. Quickly gagging his opponent, Trunks realized that he was probably the strongest of the androids present, albeit the slowest as well. Strength without speed was useless in battles, Cell had taught Trunks that, both literally and by later proving his own statements to be correct. The android’s next punch forced Trunks out of his revere, though Trunks dodged it as well.

It’s one of Gero’s all right... I don’t know if I can beat it without becoming a Super Saiya-jin, though. Strange, even though I may not win this fight, I’m not afraid at all... maybe this is what dad was talking about when he spoke about ‘Saiya-jin pride’. Trunks grinned, dodging another two attacks from Juuyon Gou. In a flash, Trunks transformed, surrounding himself with a glowing golden aura. His hair spiked up, and turned a bright gold, his eyes turning an interesting shade of turquoise.

Trunks grinned and punched the blue android in the gut. Something inside the robot snapped, sending a gout of oil out the monster’s mouth. It dropped to the ground in the robotic equivalent of pain. Trunks smiled, and smashed the robot’s head. The old man reacted with abject horror, and started backing away. Trunks glanced at the other two fights. Setsuna and Juugo appeared to be evenly matched, though An’ya was having some major problems with Juusan.

She’s tired, Trunks realized, She came in here looking for a place to spend the night. I wish she’d told me that, I would’ve sent her back to Capsule Corporation, and taken care of this myself! Juusan is going to kill her.

As if on queue, Juusan struck An’ya hard in the shoulder, sending her sprawling backwards. Eager to capitalize on his enemy’s weakness, Juusan charged, intending to repeat Trunks’s earlier deathblow attack against Juuyon. Before Juusan could strike, Trunks got an attack in of his own, delivering a flying ax kick to the back of Juusan’s neck, and moving between Juusan and An’ya. To his suprise, the attack didn’t even phase Juusan.

"An’ya, I’ll handle this big oaf, you help Setsuna. He needs your help."

"Hai, sensei..." The young warrior said, jumping to her feet. She moved to aid Trunks’s other student, obviously grateful to break with Juusan.

"Interfering whelp." Juusan said. Trunks found his voice to be grating, and severely lacking in even the most rudimentary emotion.

"Jinzouningen Juusan Gou, your time of death is now." Trunks replied, staring the big robot in the eyes.

"I doubt that." Juusan said, phasing out. Trunks dodged left, expecting an attack, but none came. Juusan reappeared near the remains of Juuyon. He began searching through the destroyed android for... something.

Trunks wasn’t about to let him find whatever he was looking for. Immediately on the offensive, Trunks launched a series of rabbit punches aimed at his opponent’s face and upper torso. Juusan was ready for this, however, and went on the defensive, blocking all but a few punches. Those that got through did minimal damage to the tough android.

"Is that all the power you have?"

Trunks grinned, and increased his Ki, delivering a flying elbow slam to the Jinzouningen’s face, sending it sprawling. "Nope."

Juusan stood, rubbing his jaw. "So, you’re tougher than I thought. No difference, it’s nothing I can’t handle."

Trunks coughed, "Bullshit, farm boy!"

Juusan glowered, and, as expected, launched an attack.

"You know, you really are dumber than you look." Trunks said between blocks and dodges. "You’re tough, I admit, but Cell was tougher, and I’m stronger than even his perfect form now."

Juusan grunted in annoyance as Trunks playfully tripped the android, Juusan hitting the stone floor face-first. It wasn’t enough to actually hurt the android, but it was humiliating, which was just what Trunks had been trying for.

Juusan stood, only to be showered with parts of Juugo Gou, as An’ya finished the robot with little help from Setsuna. Juusan grabbed the smaller android’s head out of the air, and took a small microchip from it. Trunks blinked in suprise.

That was when he noticed a similar microchip in Juusan’s other hand.

Juusan noticed what had captured Trunks’s attention. The android grinned, and took both microchips in his right hand. "Your doom." He offered, by way of explanation, and then swallowed the two microchips, and began to change.

"Damn! An’ya, Suna, to me now!" The two warriors were beside him before he finished saying the word ‘to’. Turning to Setsuna, Trunks asked a question. "Setsuna, can you teleport again today?"

"Hai, sensei! Two... maybe three times..."

"Good. Can you sense Gyou’s Ki?"

"Hi!"

"Bring him here, we’ll need his help."

"But... If I teleport, I’ll be useless when I come back. I won’t have enough Ki to help you with your fight."

Trunks looked at his student. "With Gyou, we’ll have enough strength to beat him, but you’re exhausted as it is Suna, and this guy is going to be hard to beat without Gyou."

Setsuna looked Trunks in the eyes. "Hai, sensei." He said, vanishing via teleportation.

Trunks looked at An’ya. "You know, now’s the time a football coach would give a pep-talk to raise the morale of his team."

"You never were good at stuff like that, Trunks-sensei." An’ya said, grinning. "It’s been an honor fighting with you."

"You too." He said, drawing his sword. "You know how to use this?"

"Hai..."

"Can you use it without turning me into Trunks the Sushi Saiya-jin?"

An’ya smiled. "Hai."

He handed her the sword. "You’ll need all the help you can get until Gyou gets here."

"What about you?"

"This guy’s big, but my guess is he’s still slow. I’m going to go Ultimate Super Saiya-jin, that should match us about evenly in power and speed."

"So, in other words, you hold him, I punch?"

It was Trunks’s turn to smile. "In a way."

"How touching." Juusan said, grinning literally from ear to ear. Striped blue and gray, with bright red hair, the Jinzouningen managed to look comical, not to mention less dangerous, than he’d been before. "Maybe if you stand really still I’ll make your deaths quick and painless."

Trunks grinned. "You think you’re a real hiretsukan, don’t you? Well, I’d say you’re partly right, you motherless tin can."

"You talk big for such a small man, Trunks." Juusan’s grin turned into an evil smirk that reminded Trunks of his father, in a way. "You won’t be laughing when I crush you into dust."

"Oh shut up and disappear already!" Tired of the monster’s boasting, Trunks powered up to his Super Saiya-jin maximum... and then past it, his muscles bulging as they expanded, his hair spiking away from his head wildly. An’ya gasped, and took a step away from him. He’d talked about Ultimate Super Saiya-jin before, but she’d never seen it. Trunks knew better than to use it, it slowed him down far too much, in his opinion, but in this case, his opponent would probably be just as slow.

Lumbering into action, Trunks started off with a roundhouse kick that probably would have taken his opponent’s head off... had it connected. Juusan was huge, but his size was deceptive, because he was just as quick as ever. Easily ducking out of the way, Juusan focused mainly on dodging Trunks’s attacks. He didn’t bother to attack or to even attempt to block, because such blocks would be folly against Trunks’s increased power. Instead, the never tiring android preferred to allow Trunks exhaust himself trying to hit him.

Only once did Juusan take advantage of an opening Trunks had left. His punch snapped Trunks’s head back, and stopped the Saiya-jin in his tracks. To everyone’s suprise, Trunks powered back down to Super Saiya-jin.

"It seems I’ve underestimated your speed." Trunks said, wiping blood from his lips. His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Something I’m not going to do again."

"You’re pitiful warriors. A Saiya-jin and his alien wench. How quaint."

An’ya, eyes glaring with barely repressed rage, managed a reply before Trunks. It came in the manner of a kick right to the android’s face. Juusan just laughed, and swatted her into the fourth, and final android storage pod. The woman warrior staggered to her feet, bleeding from a multiple cuts, though blood was hard to see against her dark skin. Judging by the way she held her left arm close to her body, it was fairly obvious that she had an injury more serious than a little cut causing her pain. An’ya pushed herself away from the machine she was leaning against, unwittingly pressing a small red button on its side.

Juusan grinned. "Like I said: pathetic."

The chamber An’ya had been leaning against started opening, just as Setsuna returned with Gyou in tow.

"Hey, guys, I’m here! ‘Suna explained everything."

Trunks’s eyes narrowed dangerously as he stared at his opponent. "Chikushoume! You’ll pay for that..." Trunks brought his hands behind his head, as if about to throw a basketball. "Finish Buster!" Inside the cave, Trunks’s massive Ki attack was devastating, it shattered stone, steel, and Jinzouningen Juusan Gou. When the dust cleared, everyone still alive found themselves looking at open sky... and Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou.

Trunks and Juuhachi stared into the other’s eyes. Juuhachi seemed suprised. "T... Trunksu? Trunks-chan?"

Trunks’s eyes narrowed. "It’s been a long time, Juuhachi."

Juuhachi looked down at the ground. "Perhaps... not long enough."

"What’re you waiting for, Juuhachi? Kill him!"

Juuhachi glared at the old guy with a beard. "Shut up, old man!"

"I’m Doctor Nijuuichi! Your re-Creator! You _will_ obey me!"

Juuhachi’s eyes narrowed. "I seem to recall Dr. Gero thought the same thing. He was a chijin too."

Nijuuichi’s eyes widened, he seemed shocked that Juuhachi could disobey him. "You... You... Traitor! DIE!" Nijuuichi thrust his right hand forward, ready to let go with what he considered to be a devastating barrage.

Juuhachi’s eyes narrowed. "You first." Raising a finger, she shot the ‘old’ android through the eye. It’s head exploded in a shower of glass, metal, skin-like plastic, and oil. An’ya and Gyou gasped, Trunks, knowing what to expect, showed no reaction. Juuhachi looked up at him. "I’m the next one to die, hai? To end Dr. Gero’s legacy? I’m too much of a threat... I can’t be allowed to live."

Trunks nodded.

"Thought so," Juuhachi said, looking down again. "Try to make it as painless as possible. I won’t resist." With that, she closed her eyes, and stood very still.

Trying to focus, Trunks raised an arm, palm towards the Jinzouningen. He was still a Super Saiya-jin, so he didn’t need much of a power-up. A glowing ball of energy appeared in his palm, but he didn’t fire, expecting some duplicity from the Jinzouningen. She didn’t move. Come on... She’s evil, she destroyed everything and everyone I loved except Okasan... so why does this seem so wrong? Trunks cursed mentally when he realized the answer to his question. I forgave her for her crimes after I killed her... I can’t take a life without reason, not sense meeting Son Gokou and the others anyway, and Juuhachi... _this_ Juuhachi... hasn’t given me one. My mind is trying to tell me that she’s the same person, but... could I live with myself if I killed her in cold blood?

The answer to that was simple. It was a resounding ‘No’.

End of Chapter 2

Author’s Notes:
Aniku Suteki translates to ‘Unfortunately Beautiful’
Hiretsukan translates to ‘Mean (person who doesn’t know who his/her parrents/father/mother ar/is)’
Chikushoume translates to ‘Son of a (female dog)’
Chijin translates to idiot
See you in Chapter 3!

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