[dream//INTERACTIVE]

[fighting4afuture]

[oh look it's another one of those dreams. and it's traumatizing. my, how original.

The city--the sky--it's all burning. Acrid smoke and dust from destroyed buildings fills the air, coats the lungs, makes it difficult to breathe. For a city, everything is oddly quiet--there's no sounds of people, of the screaming and crying that might be expected in a scene of such destruction.

Everyone left living knows better, they know to stay out of sight, stay quiet. The creatures responsible for the destruction can't find you if you hide.

There's only one person out in the streets, a young boy crouched in the ruins of a collapsed building with dust and blood in his light-colored hair and a sword across his back, looking at once determined and hopeless.

There's two people floating above him--young adults by the look of them, one black haired and one blonde, their faceless heads turning this way and that as they search the rubble. Search for him.

Trunks' hand clenches in the dirt for a brief moment, and then he's flying--streaking through the air to attack in a flurry of kicks and punches that ends with him being tossed backwards, crashing through another crumbling building.

Maybe he lands at your feet, battered, dazed, and bleeding. Maybe he just rolls over and tries again, an aura like fire exploding around him and hair spiking upward and turning brilliant gold, only to be repelled again just as easily, the fight--if you can call this exercise in futility that--just repeating, ad-nauseum.

That depends on one thing. Are you watching, or are you there?]

((ooc: Interactive dream, go wild. There will be things exploding.))

Comments

[saiyan_prince]

[The prince is more than a little disoriented to be thrown into the midst of a battle. It lasts only a moment as Trunks is thrown to the ground at his feet, looking dizzy and beyond beaten. Seeing another Saiyan, his blood tossed around like this sparks his anger. It doesn't even matter anymore that Trunks is just a boy, obviously younger than the one Vegeta knows. It doesn't matter that Trunks is still stronger than Vegeta. This is a battlefield, and it's time to choose sides.

He steps in front of Trunks, mustering all the power that he can and hoping that it's enough.]

Get up, boy.

[fighting4afuture]

[It's never enough. Trunks staggers to his feet, wondering just how hard he hit his head, considering he's seeing his father--his dead father, mind you--in front of him. In his dream-mindset, he doesn't remember Vatheon, doesn't remember meeting and getting to know the man in front of him--though he has a vague, bothering sense that he's missing something.]

F...father?

[He doesn't get a lot of time to be surprised, as a ki blast strikes the none-too-stable building they're in, staggering him for a moment. There's laughter on the wind, human laughter, but in the setting it seems wrong to say the least. A mocking voice follows:]

Come on out kid, we're not going to hurt you!

[saiyan_prince]

[The level of power he can feel coming from whatever is outside is overwhelming. Vegeta sucks in a deep breath, not looking back at Trunks directly. He struggles with the instinct to yell back at the ones trying to goad them into revealing themselves, to fight, to conquer.]

...we are beaten. We need to retreat.

[Can they both make it out? Vegeta isn't sure.]

[fighting4afuture]

[He's right, but oh--how it chafes to be outright told it.]

R-right.

[But he knows better than to go straight forward, up and out through the holes in the ceiling. They'd be seen for sure.

Instead, Trunks wipes the blood out of his eyes and starts picking his way through the debris, heading towards the back of the building. It seems the beings above have gotten tired of waiting, though, they're pelting the surrounding area with ki blasts, now, causing everything to shake dangerously.]

[saiyan_prince]

[Vegeta powers down like Trunks taught him, trying desperately to keep suppressing the urge to fight. There's no sense in a hopeless battle. He ignores the shaking as best he can - ignores it until he sees a beam falling right for Trunks, at least. He has no doubt that the boy can take it, but he's already been beaten so much. Would he stay conscious? Vegeta isn't sure. Releasing his ki could prove deadly at the moment, so he runs forward and lets it fall on his back instead, shielding him.]

[fighting4afuture]

[He's still driven to his hands and knees anyway, losing his footing due to the shaking and sudden proximity.]

Father!

[No he still doesn't know why you're here but he's not going to complain. Trunks turns to help heave the beam off him, hoping that Vegeta isn't hurt.]

Are you alright?!

[saiyan_prince]

[Vegeta's voice is quiet when he speaks.]

It's just a piece of the building. The gravity here is weak, anyway.

[It feels... strange to have Trunks call him "father" so openly. They aren't that far apart in age, but Vegeta's rather animalistic instincts keep confirming for him that yes, this likely is his child. That doesn't mean that he wouldn't still kill Trunks to achieve his goals, but it does mean that he'd rather see him alive otherwise.]

Don't be so loud. Does this city have an underground sewage system?

[fighting4afuture]

Y-yeah. There should be an access this way, this is a Capsule building...the layout should be similar to home...

[They tend to have similar layouts, Trunks could probably find his way around in his sleep, y'know, if everything wasn't falling down around their ears. And if he wasn't already asleep.]

[neededahand]

[Gohan is there. Gohan is always there, on his knees in the debris. This is the world he lived in for the last thirteen years of his life. The sight of crumbling buildings, the smell of smoke, the sound of explosions-- each of these are as familiar to him as his own reflection in the mirror. It's enough to make him question the last few weeks-- was Vatheon, was the bubble city underwater, just a figment of his imagination? A hallucination, a fairy tale, the last-ditch effort of a dying brain to be at peace with the end of his earthly life? The world where Trunks was grown-up, where Bulma was young, where Vegeta was alive, where Bulla--

The thought of Bulma and Vegeta's daughter snaps him back. Gohan knew he didn't have an imagination fanciful enough to concoct that. His memory returns, and Gohan remembers that he was staring at the strange device which replaced the SFC, when Trunks appeared on it.

He looks down again, where Trunks landed. Young again, just the same as when Gohan left him on the cliff side. Hand on Trunks' shoulder and eyes darting in every direction because there won't be any other way to sense them coming, he speaks.]

C'mon, kid. You need to get out of here.

[fighting4afuture]

[Ooh, pretty birdies.

...wait, there's a hand on his shoulder and it's attached to a familiar arm clothed in a familiar sleeve and my that's a lot of orange.

Wait.

But that's wrong, Gohan's gone, gone because he wasn't strong enough (and still isn't, or he wouldn't be here, on his back in the dirt) but he remembers...

Something. An underwater city? Ridiculous.

Blood drips into his eyes as he sits up, dazed and confused and getting the distinct feeling he's forgetting something important. It's probably the concussion talking. He's seeing things. That can't be a good sign.]

Gohan...?

[He even sounds young. Young and impossibly old at the same time, tired. And now he's talking to those concussion-hallucinations, great.]

I can't, there's still...there's still people here, they can't get away unless I distract them.

[neededahand]

[Gohan shakes his head, jaw set, mouth a firm line, and eyebrows knitted together darkly.]

I'll take care of that.

[Gives Trunks' shoulder a harsh squeeze, before taking to the air and shouting recklessly:]

You hear that, androids? I'm your opponent now!

[He growls fiercely as his aura flashes gold, both arms thrown out to his sides, lightening his eyes and hair. He waits.]

[fighting4afuture]

Gohan, wait...!

[Ooh you're going to get yourself killed. Again.

Trunks' own aura flares around him, he's not going to get left behind again. He refuses.

He swipes the blood out of his face angrily, feeling his power rise as his emotions do--connected, as always.

His own transformation happens as he rockets out of the building--there's two of them, they might actually be able to win.]

You're not leaving me behind again!

[neededahand]

[The transformation only sets him back a little; he knew Trunks could do it in Vatheon, there was no reason he couldn't do it here. It's the waiting that's going to kill him, the waiting for them to show their faces...]

I told you to get out of here.

[Do you not get this? Do you not realize that he'd rather you just... not deal with this? He knows you'll have to, one day, because he wasn't good enough, and while Gohan's done his best to prepare Trunks, to give him what he'll need to win and to keep down the obstacles that got in his own way, but until that day arrives...]

Wake up! I can't afford to spend the entire fight keeping you alive.

[fighting4afuture]

[As he hovers there, Trunks' mind clears more, recalling the last couple of months--Vatheon, his father, Gohan's arrival, his mother and sister, and now most recently...the strange transformation of the island and the new posts on the network.

Wake up? Not quite, though he's become lucid. And with that, his dream-appearance shifts--he becomes older in front of Gohan's eyes, still bloodied, but with quiet determination on his face warring with the jaded tiredness in his eyes.]

When are you going to realize I'm not a kid you can order around anymore? You can't protect me forever.

[The time for protection is pretty much passed, as one of the faceless monster androids haunting Trunks' subconscious attacks.]

[neededahand]

[Yet Gohan's going to try, purely on reflex, purely because protecting people, trying to step into his father's shoes-- that's just what he does. At some point, it became all he could do.

Purely because he sees the jaded tiredness in Trunks, and remembers how he could feel his own life begin winding to a close when he saw it in himself.

So he tries to grab Trunks by the shoulders and throw him aside, just to dodge the attack.]

I'm listening to you. Actions aside. The answer is, I don't really know. I probably won't. There's a reason I survived the initial massacre, and it wasn't because I was so much more powerful or so much more skilled than the others.

[angelphones]

[There's a boy with blue hair and a white cape flowing behind him and he raises a hand, shooting lighting at the two figures trying to hurt the other boy.]

[Without even checking to see if they're defeated, the blue-haired boy goes over to the purple-haired one, holding a hand out to him and casting a healing spell over him.]

Come on. Let's get you out of here.

sorry I am derping all over the place

[fighting4afuture]

[Trunks' head shoots up--there's still blood in his eyes but he can feel the wound it came from knitting closed (a very strange sensation, at that) and, well...he has no idea what's going on.

Well, aside from the usual.]

...it's fine. They won't kill me. Probably. You should leave, it's dangerous.

[...boy that sounds weird coming out of a kid with a 13 year old face.]

It's okay.

[angelphones]

I don't want to take that risk. And I'm used to danger. I can run fast, and I can probably carry you.

[He looks up to stare at where the figures were before. If they're still there he'll charge up a ball of energy and throw it towards them, letting it explode on contact.]

[fighting4afuture]

[His entire life is danger.]

Not as fast as them, trust me.

[As for being carried? He doesn't need it. He gets to his feet, bits of dust and rubble falling from his hair and clothing--eyes tracking that ball of energy, because indeed they are still up there and looking distinctly unruffled, if they had faces to look unruffled with.

This is going fantastically. And if those heads turning directly at their hiding spot is any indication, hands going up and glowing with violent red energy, it's about to get even better.]

Get down!

[candidblue]

[ Unsure as to where she is, Bulla looks around at...a very war-torn city. It feels very nostalgic, but with the destruction, it's difficult to place how she knows the place. Home? No, it couldn't be. Dad and the others would stop something like this from happening...right?

She doesn't think on it much longer, as at the moment, her focus is to the sky, and to the two figures--one of which is also very familiar--floating above. Searching.

She has a bad feeling about this. ]

What...Hey--[ She spots a much, much younger Trunks a few feet away and hurries closer, looking nervous. Worried. Whatever this was, it wasn't good. ] Bro? What's...going on here?

[fighting4afuture]

[Welcome to your brother's subconscious, it is a fucked up place. His head jerks up at the approach, looking lost and confused--and bleeding, but with their family that's a fairly common state of being. The afraid, however, is probably not.

It takes him a few moments, in the state of mind he's in right now, to even remember who Bulla is.]

I don't know. They shouldn't be here.

[Neither should you. You shouldn't have to see this--whatever this is. He can't say it isn't real--because it is, but...he'd left this fight back home.]

[candidblue]

[ It was definitely strange, seeing him like this. Seeing, well, all of this. It was something that was almost surreal. The differences between their worlds--between him and the Trunks she knew--kept piling up.

She shakes her head, stopping that train of thought in it's tracks--No. No, different or not, he was still her brother. ]

Who...are they? [ She can guess, but she doesn't really want to believe it. ]

[fighting4afuture]

[Now she just needs to see them side-by-side, for it to really hit home...]

Androids.

[The venom in his voice is unmistakable. Yeah, believe it, sis. Your friend's mom? Kind of a genocidal bitch where Trunks is from.]

[candidblue]

Wait, you don't mean--[ She looks again, and....yeah, she can see the resemblance, even without defining features. 'Androids' makes it pretty clear, anyway. ]--18!? But she's...


[ Obviously not the 18 Bulla knows. This alternate timeline is insane! 18 was...well, not the sweetest person around, but she wasn't a psycho! And she was pretty cool, most of the time. ]

[fighting4afuture]

Yeah, 18. Her and her damn brother.

[Insane is a very good way to put it. The familiarity in Bulla's voice is echoed in Trunks', except in his there's an undertone of fury. Probably more than what she'd ever heard from him before.]