<>br> "Heya, mom!"

Trunks happily entered the house. Bulma, however, looked worried when she greeted him.

"What's the matter, mom?"

"I just got a phone call. It was the father of one of your classmates."

The boy paled slightly.

"He said you attacked his son."

"He attacked me first. It was in self defense."

Bulma shook her head.

"That's not what the boy said. And he has his friends to back him up."

"Well, too bad."

The bluette was slightly taken aback by her son's reaction.

"What happened, Trunks?"

"He accused me of being a rebel, then tried to punch me. What was I supposed to do, let him?"

The genius knew that her son wouldn't have been scratched by the hit, but Trunks probably didn't. And besides, he wasn't one to not fight back.

"Ok. I believe you, sweetie. Oh, and some good news. Gohan called."

This mad the boy even more on edge.

"He said he can't tutor today."

But to Trunks, that was anything but good news.

"Ah, damn it."

He was about to run upstairs when Bulma grabbed his hand.

"Trunks, follow me. I have something to show you."

Trunks was clueless as his mother led him through their house to a large chamber with a machine in the middle.

"Welcome to the gravity chamber."

"Neat. What does it do?"

Bulma fell over at that comment.

"It's a special room. You can train at higher gravity levels than normal."

Having learnt a bit of physics, Trunks knew what it meant. But that wasn't what got his excitement going.

"Your father wanted this built once the Androids arrived… I figured since he's gone, I might as well let you use it."

"…Great! So, say 10 times'll be harder and harder etc?"

"Yep! But don't you overdo it, son. I'll be downstairs."

She left and Trunks looked around him, finally realizing the room's potential.

"Let's start small."

He turned it up to 10g, and blinked.

"Maybe it's broken."

Your father wanted this built…

Gritting his teeth, Trunks set it all the way up to 100g and blinked again. And then hit the floor rather hard.

"That's… better."

17 read the reports with interest quite unlike himself. Upon accusation of treason, the boy acted violently. Of course, the tyrant knew, he was missing many things. The jocks, when questioned separately, told a different story.

"Self Defense."

He smirked. According to the witnesses, Trunks wasn't even anywhere close to breaking a sweat.

"Yes… he's certainly his father's son."

He pondered what to do next.

'If he turns against us it can be dangerous.'

Glancing at the book case, 17 smirked. There stood his insurance, on a small red cushion. The one thing that kept them from wishing the Androids' downfall. The 4 star Dragonball.

"Come and get it. If you dare!'

Bulma went to the control room, coffee mug in hand, and glanced at the gravity level. She expected Trunks to have improved over the hour, but the number gave her a spitshot. It was set to 102. But then she looked at Trunks and the sight made her grin. The boy didn't know the entire truth about himself, but that didn't stop him from hopping around like a bunny rabbit. He ran on the walls. Backflipped. Whatever.

'If only his father could've seen him…'

Deciding against her better judgment, Bulma raised the gravity level to 150g. The gravity change caught Trunks in midair, and he fell to the floor. However, he managed to land rather gracefully.

"Sorry, sweetie!"

He looked up at her and smiled. It was hard, but he managed to wave at her.

"Not too much, is it?"

"Give me… 15 minutes."

Trunks almost flew when he walked out of the gravity room.

"Wow! Such a difference!"

Looking at his watch, the boy cursed.

"Oh, darn, and I didn't even get started on my homework yet!"

Running past the living room, he grabbed his bag and rushed upstairs.

"You better grad a shower, or else your entire room'll stink!"

Ah yes, dearly beloved mother and her supportive nature.

"Will do, mom!"

Throwing his now sweaty clothes in the laundry basket, Trunks relaxed his somewhat aching muscles under the water. One single question ran in his mind- was this the way his father really would've trained, had he been there?

Bulma sighed in relief when she finished her latest invention. It was a duplication machine. Hopefully, it'll solve the rebellion's supply problems.

She was about to get herself something to drink when the phone rang.

'That's strange.'

She thought, looking at the phone.

'It can't identify the number.'

The woman answered anyways.

"Hello?"

There was static, then a voice came in.

"Your son… danger… look out."

Frowning, Bulma did all she could to get the line fixed.

"Hello? Hello!"

"Look out for your son. That's all I have to say."

The dial tone came back up, and the bluette blinked. Look out for her son? What was going on? What was going to happen?

'Must, must've been a prank call. Yeah, that's it. One of Trunks's friends is pulling a prank… yeah.'

"Trunks, honey?"

No reply. At the back of her head, an alarm went off.

"Trunks? Sweetie?"

Then several red lights. This wasn’t funny.

"TRUNKS!"

She ran to his room, but all she found there was her son, safe and sound, doing his homework with his earphones on. No wonder he didn't hear her, Bulma thought. The boy looked up from his notes, smiled, and continued his math assignment. In reality he felt like puking on the notebook, but he had to keep his A- average, ne?

The child whimpered in the darkness.

"Tell us what you know, and we will let you go."

The cold, metallic voice said.

"I told you, I don't know nothing!"

She cried out.

"We have reasons to believe otherwise."

"Then those are false reasons! Why would I know any rebels?!"

"You do. Tell us what we need to know, and we'll let you go."

But the girl remained adamant.

"Very well. You leave us with no choice."

Her screams rang through the night.

Trunks hit his alarm clock, effectively breaking it. That startled him wide awake.

"That… wasn't suppose to happen. MOM! I NEED A NEW ALARM CLOCK!"

He heard his mother laugh from her room across the hall.

"Ok, honey. Come down to breakfast first, though."

He ran downstairs and ate breakfast as quickly as only Saiyans could.

"Gohan called."

The boy cheered up noticeably.

"He said he wants to meet up at 'his place' for the 'tutoring'."

Trunks couldn't hide his grin.

"All right!"

It was a while ago that Trunks just came to accept that his mom knew stuff he didn't need to know her knowing. Gohan training him was one of them.

"Now you better get going, hon."

He rushed off, and Bulma smiled.

'That boy really has his heart in the right place. I hope his father'll see it as well.'

"Marron! 'sup?"

Running up to where his friend was waiting, Trunks smiled. Marron looked up from her feet and smiled back.

"Heya. You're kinda early."

"Well, my alarm clock gave me a good wake."

He scratched the back of his head, chuckling, and she blinked.

"Ok. Come on, let's go."

She poked his arm and raised her eyebrows.

"Wow. You weren't this buffed up yesterday."

"How would you know?"

He smirked. She sighed.

"Come on then."

Marron led most of the way, blabbering about whatever. Trunks mostly nodded and smiled. And kept quiet. Then he was snapped back to reality and looked around him. Marron kept talking.

"Marron, this isn't the way to school."

"Huh? Oh, it's, er, a new shortcut. Trust me."

Glancing at his watch, Trunks had to chuckle.

"Shortcut. Right. We're gonna be late, Marron! Not that I mind that much, I hate literature, but still! Hey, wait up!"

Trunks had to catch up with Marron and looked around. They were in an alley. A dead end alley.

"Marr…"

"OK, I BROUGHT HIM!"

"Wha…"

Marron ducked behind a trash bin, and three uniform-wearing men stepped out from behind whatever they were hiding.

"Surrender, and you will not be hurt."

Trunks couldn't help but smirk.

"I suggest you be the ones to surrender."

"Very well."

The first up front charged forward. Trunks ducked when his opponent punched, and sent a punch of his own at the man's gut. The man was sent backwards, holding his stomach in pain. The other two grabbed the boy's arms and smirked.

"Let's see how tough you are now, kid."

"Oh no. You got me."

The sarcasm was painful.

"Damn kid. I'm gonna hurt you now. You should've just come with us peacefully."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Why you little…"

The man punched Trunks in the gut as hard as he could. To his amazement, he was the one hurting. Trunks smirked.

"My turn."

Trunks threw his legs upwards, kicking the man to the wall behind him. Completing the summersault, Trunks broke free of the men's grip, and hit them both hard in the back. One connected with the wall. The other landed in a trash bin.

"Damn, I'm good!"

"My. God."

Trunks's smile faded when he noticed Marron. She seemed regretful and almost broke down into tears. Trunks wanted to say something, but he just turned around and began to walk away.

"Trunks, wait!"

But he never got a chance to actually leave, as 16 fired an energy blast at him, causing the boy to fly through the wall; and a few others after that. The girl watched in horror, tears now streaming freely down her cheeks.

"Your cooperation will be well rewarded, miss Marron. The Androids thank you."

She watched as the Android picked Trunks's limp body and flew off. She held her friend's bag and fell to the floor, sobs rocking her body.

"I'm sorry. Oh, Trunks, I'm so sorry. I'M SORRY!"

But Marron wasn't the only one watching the scene, as Gohan, too, watched 16's disappearing figure, rage burning in his onyx eyes.

[[Previous]], [[Home]], [[Next]]