Bait

"So, you must be King Cold. I've been waiting a long time to meet you face to face," said Trunks.

Most of Cold's guards began backing away, cowed by the slaughter of their comrade. But not all of them were afraid. A tall, scaly green warrior with a grey fin on his head pushed forward, activating his scouter. The device cycled only briefly before beeping with the result. "Don't be afraid, you fools. His power level's only 5." Confidently, he raised his blaster and fired at the stranger's head.

Trunks didn't even glance in his direction. Raising two fingers, he released an invisible kiai that sent the green-scaled warrior somersaulting backward into the chamber wall. The blast from the warrior's gun was reflected by the invisible wave of energy, smashing into the warrior's body and showering the guards with shards of ice.

"He's a monster!" screamed one of the former inhabitants of Xylon-38, fleeing. The enormous soldier had escaped the slaughter of his species by betraying the leaders of the slave revolt, receiving a post in Cold's army as a reward. King Cold stepped forward and sent a death beam through the terrified creature's chest, killing him instantly.

"If you know who I am, you should know that bursting into my chambers with your sword drawn is a good way to get yourself killed," the towering frost demon said calmly, crossing his arms. "What is your business here?"

"I'm not here to trade pleasantries." Trunks returned the sword to the sheath on his back. "Now pay attention. I'm here to give you information that I think you'll want to hear. I have something to tell you about Prince Vegeta."

"Oh, really?" intoned Cold. "I'm afraid 'Prince' Vegeta doesn't work for us anymore. What are you, a disgruntled employee?" The king showed obvious amusement mixed with curiosity. This intruder couldn't possibly gain anything by his insolence, besides a quick death, so why was he here?

The expression on the young man's face didn't change. "Who I am is none of your business, Cold. Now pay attention, because I'm only going to say this once. The Super Saiyan who killed your sons is on Earth, the third planet at coordinate 1368-63XY. If you leave here now, you can get there in time to catch him. Got it?"

"Oh, really? Well, I must say I am quite curious to meet this Super Saiyan." Cold's voice dripped with sarcasm. "After all, I've heard so much about him; one could hardly blame me. Tell me: what do you hope to gain by sharing this piece of information? Your attitude amuses me."

Trunks smirked. "Think what you want; I don't care. But one more thing. When you fight Vegeta, you need to attack him with full power. He will show no mercy."

"Full power, you say?" The amusement on Cold's face was even more evident now. "Why ever would that be necessary? Haha. If nothing else, I'd say you're quite the comedian! Surely you don't think that a mere Saiyan has a chance against me. "

"You're wrong, Cold." The young man's grin was gone, replaced with steely resolve. "If you don't take the fight seriously, Vegeta will kill you instantly. I'm guessing you can transform just like your sons. Well, you'll have to if you want to live longer than five minutes. Do you understand?"

Cold laughed. "Well, what I do understand is that you're crazy if you think you will leave this place alive."

"I can see that you don't believe me, so I'm going to let you in on a little secret." Trunks lowered his arms to his sides and clenched his fists. "You're about to learn what it's like to fight a real live Super Saiyan...and I'm not talking about Vegeta." He began to power up. "AAAAAHHHHH!"

Energy erupted around his feet, lifting shards of ice and chunks of rock from the floor. His long lavender hair, tied in a shaggy ponytail, stood up in jagged waves as the flow of ki engulfed him, the entire room threatening to collapse under the sudden display of power. Then, his blue eyes flashed to green as golden light streamed through his aura, a hint of a smile revealing itself on his face.

"What is he?" cried King Cold, taking a step back defensively. The golden-haired warrior was standing motionless, energy pulsing around him like a living flame.

Trunks spoke. "I'd kill you myself, but I'd rather leave it up to Vegeta. Don't worry, though; I'll teach you a lesson just to make this little trip worthwhile. Maybe now you'll believe me when I tell you that your current strength is useless against a Super Saiyan."

"IMPUDENT SCUM!" roared Cold as he extended his arm, firing a deadly flurry of purple energy beams at the intruder. Lifting his right hand, Trunks deflected each of the beams in turn, sending them ricocheting into the walls and ceiling of the chamber. Debris showered the two fighters as the entire room shuddered.

Enraged, the frost demon launched himself forward, his powerful right arm pulling back to deliver a devastating punch. Trunks leapt forward to meet him.

Dodging the far-too-obvious punch, Trunks threw a spinning kick that connected with the center of Cold's enormous chest. Immediately, the frost demon was bent double and launched to one side. The Super Saiyan teleported above him and smashed an elbow down into the back of Cold's neck, sending him crashing into the floor.

The two blows had completely knocked the wind out of King Cold. Gasping for breath, he tried to rise, but Trunks fired a compact ball of energy that smashed him down again with a blinding flash.

The mysterious youth waited, hovering in place, until Cold had recovered enough to make sense of his surroundings. "Now maybe you'll take me seriously, Cold!" Gathering his energy, he blasted through the ceiling of the chamber, causing it to collapse behind him and bury the crippled frost demon.

Outside, several squadrons of lightly armored soldiers waiting in midair immediately charged him.

"Staying in my Super Saiyan form seems like overkill, but I can't risk that Cold will follow me," thought Trunks. "Now that he's angry, I'd be no match for him in my normal state. I guess I'll have to deal with these goons quickly." Closing his eyes, he cleared his mind. He could vividly sense the energy and trajectory of each soldier charging at him. His sword slid from its sheath with a single smooth motion.

Trunks disappeared, and the soldiers looked around frantically. Flashes of golden light began to explode like fireworks in midair, each one accompanied by the slash of a sword. Less than a second later, Trunks reappeared on the other side of the group...a group that began dropping to the ground where his sword had cut them all into pieces.

He slid his sword back into its sheath and pulled a tiny capsule from his pocket, allowing himself a momentary smile. His mother didn't like to talk about Vegeta, but she had once told him that his father had been able to sense energy distinctly enough to vaporize his opponents with nothing but a twitch. Vegeta might have been a murderer, but Trunks still secretly admired his father. He had developed the same technique, except that he used Tapion's sword. There was something deeply thrilling about carving his way through a horde of adversaries with nothing but the sword to guide him.

Finally allowing himself to drop out of his Super Saiyan state, Trunks activated his capsule and climbed into the ship that emerged with a puff of smoke.

"Coming here was a really big gamble. I hope it works," he thought as he began programming the time machine's computer.

Traveling through the time-stream hadn't been quite what he had expected; there was no way to control temporal trajectory once the wormhole had been stabilized. "I'm glad, at least, that I got here before Goku. That would have been incredibly awkward. It's strange to imagine: everything that happened was because of him, yet I've never even seen him. I just hope that Cold is strong enough to give my father a challenge. If nothing else, history will be changed...hopefully for the better."

There was a low hum, and his ship disappeared with a flash.

"My lord, one of your men spotted the intruder getting into some kind of ship, but we've been unable to chart its trajectory. It doesn't seem to be anywhere in this sector." The scrawny scientist addressed the king with his head down, wisely avoiding eye contact. The furious frost demon killed him anyway. Being humiliated by a mere boy in front of his men had sapped him of any restraint.

Tossing the scientist's body aside, Cold began giving orders. "Ready my fastest ship immediately! We are leaving for the Earth system within the hour."

One of the other scientists spoke up. "Lord, our scans did pick up a Ginyu pod headed this way. It will be here tomorrow - would you like to wait until it arrives?"

The look Cold gave him could have frozen a dinosaur in its tracks. "Absolutely not. I will not waste another day on this pathetic little ice-ball, understood? One hour, no more. Then we pursue the intruder...and I will settle my score with Vegeta."

Though bruised and hurting - a sensation decidedly unfamiliar to the massive frost demon - Cold allowed himself to reflect for a moment. He hadn't considered ever transforming to the next level; the risks were too high. Even his transformation to his current form, forced by Frieza's unexpected strength during his son's final test so many years before, had destroyed an entire continent. He hadn't even dreamed of the next transformation in decades. But that had been long ago, and he now had full control. The Super Saiyan was impossibly strong...maybe he should prepare himself.

Two months earlier...

Another exhausting day passed at the Brief residence. The crew of the Bringer of Death was working hard on repairs under the leadership of Bulma, whose ingenuity more than made up for her lack of experience with Arcosian machinery. In addition to the repairs, she planned to completely overhaul the ships power systems. The crew's chef had become quite comfortable in Mrs. Brief's kitchen, which was now forced to operate at all hours of the day to sate the appetites of all the guests as well as the ravenous Super Saiyan. On top of all the day-to-day business, everyone was frustrated at the prince, who made it continually clear that his expectations for treatment were not being met.

After only three days of training in the Capsule Corporation ship, Vegeta had accidentally blown a gaping hole in the side of it. He blamed it on the servant woman, of course; his own gravity room was designed to absorb any excess energy released and prevent stray blasts from doing any damage. Not only did he find himself cramped in this 'other' training chamber, but it did not have the proper safety precautions built in.

"When something breaks that directly hinders my training, it should be your first priority to repair it for me, woman!"

Bulma enjoyed working on technology; she always had. What she did not appreciate was being yelled at like she was some sort of slave.

"I will get to it when I get to it, Vegeta. And, for the last time, my name is Bulma! B-U-L-M-A." Since arriving, she had done nothing but bend to the many needs of her 'guest', who had not thanked her even once. 'Gosh, why do I even bother dealing with this?' she thought. As frustrated as she was, she couldn't help but feel that Vegeta was just acting the way he always did. There was no intentional spite, it was just the way that Saiyan royalty were expected to behave. 'Well, I guess he doesn't know any better.'

"Pfff. Well, 'BULMA'," the prince said with as much hostility as possible, "just what do you suggest that I do with my precious time since I cannot properly train?" The prince was so tired of being corrected that he finally stopped calling her 'woman', at least for now, if only to save himself from frustration.

"Gah, Vegeta. You're like a child! How should I know what you need to do? Just go train with Gohan or Piccolo or something. Anything to get you out of my hair." Bulma was amazed at the Saiyan's level of dependency. For a warrior whose strength was unparalleled across the universe, he sure complained a lot. Stranger still, his crew seemed to think this was completely normal for him, which bothered her almost as much. "I don't care how strong he is, as long as he is a guest in my house he is not gonna boss me around like I'm some kind of servant." Bulma muttered under her breath, doing her best to maintain what little cool she had left.

"FINE!" Vegeta yelled, rudely blasting off into the sky. The gust of wind from his ki knocked the earth woman against the outside of the building. Training with the two earthlings actually wasn't that bad of an idea after all, providing that he could convince both of them to fight him at once. Had he been anywhere else in the galaxy, there wouldn't even be warriors worth fighting for two minutes. He was, in fact, quite lucky. The half-saiyan runt had at least shown that he had guts in his fight against Frieza, although the more he thought about it the more he doubted that the Namek would agree to train with him.

His red cape rippled violently in the wind as he flew. Something about the planet's lower atmosphere was soothing as he zoomed over puffy cumulus billows, but it could have just been the peaceful silence; after all, he was finally free from the earth woman's nagging. A wispy trail was left in his wake as he zipped down through a group of stratocumulus clouds, parting the white vapors down the middle. Vegeta smiled to himself as he came up with an idea. "I think I know the perfect way to get the Namek to train with me."

Landing just over Mount Paozu, the prince finally spotted his target. Gohan was relaxing in a tree, concentrating his very best on his physics book, no less, when his surroundings were abruptly incinerated. The boy was hurled into the air from Vegeta's blast, which wasn't really strong enough to hurt him, and spun several times before catching himself in midair. When he saw the prince of Saiyans, Gohan wondered why he hadn't sensed any energy approaching. He had been studying very hard, though; he must have been distracted.

"Ah, the son of Kakarott." Vegeta was grinning, crossing his arms across his chest. "Listen, I'm bored and I need someone to train with. Seeing as how your idiot clown of a father isn't back yet, I find that the duty of being my punching bag falls to you."

Gohan balled his tiny fists, furious at the Saiyan who had interrupted his studies. "Vegeta," his eyes narrowed. "And just why do you think I'd help you train? You're the one who said you were going to kill my dad in a year." Gohan's black hair had been growing since Namek and his bowl cut now reached down an extra few inches, covering his ears. He wasn't wearing training clothes, but instead a pair of blue jean overalls and a backpack, useful for carrying all his study materials around.

"Oh I am definitely going to kill your father, kid, whether you like it or not. His betrayal on Namek cost me my life, and while it was restored to me when you idiots wished back Frieza's victims, it is a debt I still intend to repay in kind." Vegeta spat. Even the mere thought of Kakarott's soft-heartedness was infuriating. A true warrior would never have interfered in his battle. "I had everything under control until HE intervened, boy!" Vegeta rushed the half-saiyan and delivered a gut punch. Caught off guard, Gohan was flung back a few feet, although the attack hadn't been particularly damaging. He quickly ripped his pack from his shoulders and let it drop to the ground.

Vegeta followed with an energy blast, designed more for provoking Gohan than hurting him. "He has stolen my honor, and for that I will murder him, runt!" It was an effective choice of words, at least for the purposes of the prince.

"You leave my daddy ALOOOONE!" The boy ignited his white aura in a burst of anger. Vegeta's energy blast had hit him square on, but he had blocked it without suffering any injury. Gohan's legendary fury was once again released, his ki skyrocketing. Vegeta smiled, welcoming the entertainment.

"AAAHHHH!" The boy screamed as he charged. To Vegeta's surprise, the boy's power level was much higher than when fighting Garlic Jr just a few days before. Two tiny fists were suddenly clobbering him, the enraged little scholar throwing repeated uppercuts into the prince's stomach. Pleasantly surprised, the Saiyan tried to use his knees to counter. But Gohan was too quick, throwing his left elbow into Vegeta's nose, causing a momentary burst of pain. His wrath continued to build as he spun around, kicked the prince in the back, and began charging a Masekno.

"Not bad, boy!" Vegeta shouted, flipping his body around.

"HAAAAAA!" screamed the half-saiyan. He fired his energy from two hands, the left one braced behind the right, the beam glowing yellow around the edges. Vegeta lifted his arms, crossing them in front of his face defensively. He welcomed the challenge of tanking the boy's fully enraged power.

Suddenly, a second Masenko appeared behind Vegeta. His attempts to provoke a sparring match had indeed been successful, as in a fraction of a second Vegeta identified the energy of the second beam as belonging to Piccolo. 'To Super or not to Super?' the prince thought to himself; the combination of the two beams might actually damage him in his base form. He was here to train, though, not show off.

The blasts exploded together and, from the dust, the form of Vegeta emerged towards the ground in a downward, face-first spiral. His body was smoking and his cape was singed around the edges, but his armor was still fully intact. Before he could crash into the trees, his body veered diagonally in a curve as he swooped, narrowly avoiding impact with the ground below. The prince landed roughly on his his hands and knees, rather impressed with the combined strength of their attacks. This was turning out to be better than he had anticipated.

"Great shot, kid. That'll teach that arrogant prince."

Gohan smiled, seeing his mentor. "Mister Piccolo! Do you think we got him?" Before Piccolo could respond, a voice from below interrupted.

"Haha. Got me? I'd say if anything, I've got you." Vegeta bolted upwards, angling himself behind Gohan, and kicked the boy directly towards his Namekian teacher. Piccolo quickly opened his arms and skillfully caught his friend, the boy looking up and grinning.

"Thanks, Mister Piccolo!"

"No problem, kid. Now let's teach this guy not to mess with us." The two warriors, side by side, entered identical fighting stances.

"Yeah!" Gohan confidently agreed.

"Oh, by all means. Please, give it your best shot," Vegeta mocked, smiling. Today's training might be useful after all.

They both rushed him simultaneously, the tall Namekian firing a series of blasts as he flew. Vegeta waited until the last moment before dashing upwards and out of the way, responding with his own pair of blasts that forced his opponents to change course. He teleported behind Gohan, intending to land a kick in the boy's mid-back, but his leg was suddenly caught.

Piccolo had extended his arm nearly twenty feet, using his grip to pull himself forward. The tug caught Vegeta off-guard, but he twisted away in time to dodge the Namekian's eye blast. Before he could counterattack, a powerful kick from Gohan caught him in the small of the back, sending him flying upwards.

"Well, it seems like Kakarott's boy is getting stronger," Vegeta thought as he stopped himself in midair and dashed back toward the pair, powering up as he flew. "He's definitely been training; I guess he took my promise seriously. Foolish boy probably thinks he can save his father."

Piccolo and Gohan were fighting in a perfect rhythm, their blows expertly timed. But Vegeta was in his element now, and he felt the thrill of battle building inside him as he blocked each attack at full speed. The flurry of attacks and counterattacks continued for several minutes. The Namekian, it seemed, had become several times stronger than he had been when he fought Frieza. "I didn't think you had it in you, green freak!" Vegeta blocked several more blows then spun around, landing a kick to the green warrior's ribs.

The Namekian recovered quickly, lifting two fingers to his forehead as he began to charge an attack. "You thought wrong! My fusion with Nail is allowing me to reach greater heights than ever before. You'll find I'm full of surprises, Saiyan. Speaking of which, let's see how you handle my SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!"

Instantly recognizing the intensity of the concentrated beam, Vegeta darted to the side, only to be intercepted by a double fist from Gohan. The impact launched him back into the path of the attack. With no time to dodge, Vegeta immediately released his dormant power.

"HAHHHH!" The burst of golden energy violently hurled both Gohan and Piccolo backwards, stunning them. The beam, however, struck the Super Saiyan full in the chest, exploding with the concentrated force of a small nuke. Unharmed, Vegeta teleported forward through the shockwave, striking Gohan to the ground with a powerful backhand and sending a ball of energy into Piccolo that sent him tumbling end-over-end. Fighting as a Super Saiyan made things far too easy, but then again it always did.

Victorious, the prince cocked his head and placed his fists on his hips. "Well done, both of you. I didn't expect to get to show off today. Thanks for the training, suckers!" He ignited his aura and took off in the direction he had come from, laughing loudly as he flew out of sight.

Gohan shook his head, dazed. "That jerk! He was only using us to get stronger!"

"I wouldn't have expected anything else. Vegeta is a warrior; fighting is all he knows," replied Piccolo. "At least now we have a slightly better idea of what we're up against. He was only using a fraction of his power when he defeated Garlic Jr."

The boy nodded. "Mr. Piccolo, do you think you might be able to stay and train with me the rest of today? Technically, I did already finish my homework, although Vegeta blew it up. Maybe mom won't ask to see it tonight. If she does, I can always tell her that a Super Saiyan came and destroyed it! Then again, that sounds even sillier than saying the dog ate it." Gohan's innocence seemed to shine through even in the toughest of times, a fact that the Namek deeply cherished. The son of his greatest enemy had taught him as much about friendship as he had taught the boy about fighting. "Well, what do you say, Piccolo? It looks like my dad is going to need all the help he can get."

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Ok, I'll try this again. The first time I wrote this note my browser crashed and I lost the entire thing right as I finished. Ugh.

Anyway, Happy Tuesday. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. So, Trunks has revealed a little more about himself and his mission. A couple of you guys had some very close predictions in your review for last chapter. I'm sure you can now start putting together the pieces even more, although the whole of his story will not be revealed for a little while longer. Remember to take notice of the state of this Trunks: noticeable differences in the state of his clothing and hair, etc.

Next, I have to say that writing Vegeta/Bulma stuff has been really enjoyable for me. I love their banter and I want to explore an area that DBZ kind of skipped over, at least when it was in its developmental stages. Part 21 and 22 both have considerable amounts of V/B stuff, which I hope that you all will enjoy as a nice change of pace from the usual BoD gore.

Also I hope that the inclusion of Gohan and Piccolo in this chapter was enjoyable. I wanted to check in on some of the other Z fighters and show that they hadn't forgotten about Vegeta, nor were they failing to train. At this point, Gohan (angered) has a power level of 8 million, although he can probably only control half of that. Piccolo, however, is at 7.5 million and is in full control, in addition to growing rapidly in strength. The fusion with Nail has allowed him to greatly exceed his former limits.

For any nerds in our audience - the coordinates given by Trunks represent an actual set of meaningful directions; they aren't just made up. They fit the same model as the coordinates for Namek and Alpha H-Z given by King Kai to Bulma and to Goku. The coordinate system David has developed for the DBZ galaxy provides accurate directions within two light years to anywhere in the North Quadrant; that's enough specificity to locate an individual star system.

Now for some Q and A!

Q. The Future Trunks that is visiting King Cold, does he come from the timeline that is in the original manga (where Goku transforms into a SSJ after Krillins death) or does he come from this timeline (Bringer of Death)?

A. This Trunks is from the Original Timeline of BoD. When Vegeta ascended to SSJ against Frieza, this time split off from DBZ Canon, which would now only be accessible through Multiverse travel, like DBM.

Q. I wonder, however, how Cell will look without Frieza's DNA inside him... as we all know, much of Cell's power came from Frieza...

A. Hmmm. (Spoiler Alert) If only Dr. Gero had some way of acquiring Frieza's DNA...hmmm. But I wonder, where might he find Frieza's remains?

Q. Would Yamcha still be able to be brought back by Earth's Dragon Balls like he hoped to? I mean, Shenron is still being all stingy and saying, "You're wish cannot be granted. This person has already been brought back once. It is beyond my power to bring this person back to life... again."

A.To my knowledge, Yamcha has never been revived by Shenron. In BoD, he was revived along with Tien and Chiaotzu by three wishes to Porunga. This happened shortly after the events of Cooler, though we didn't directly explain what happened apart from a summary. So Yamcha can return by a wish to Shenron, if someone decides to waste a wish...

Q. What do you think about the fact that gotenks could transform into a ssj3 despite the fact that neither goten nor trunks could, and there was no significant event to trigger it the first time?

A. Great question. Unlike SSj1 and SSj2, Super Saiyan 3 seems to be reached by simply powering up rather than an emotional catharsis. Gotenks didn't have the patience, skill, or control to reach SSj2, but he had the raw power necessary to "break through" to SSj3. It's David's theory that the "Ultra Trunks" transformation works the same way, but that Trunks didn't have enough power to break through.

Q. Hey, it would be great to see C-47 do something funny while hanging around at Capsule Corp.

A. Yeah I know, his dry sense of humor is hilarious. He has some banter written in part 22 that I enjoyed doing, which you'll get to read on Thursday.

Q. Also, really enjoyed the dialogue between Vegeta and Bulma, so very in-character for the both of them.

A. Thanks, buddy! Yeah I really want to do justice to their unique relationship. It's just so great seeing Bulma step all over his toes while he can do nothing about it. I hope the stuff from this chapter and next is as "in-character" as the stuff from ch. 20.