legionworld | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who| Trunks and open to anyone
What| Getting used to new surroundings! And other things.
Where| Observation deck, gym
When| N/A
Warnings/Notes| N/A? Maybe some musing about his bad end future.

Waking up feeling like death wasn't exactly new territory. He'd actually died once, not all that long ago, so Trunks had to guess it was almost all uphill from there. But feeling so incredibly weak wasn't normal at all, even on the rare occasions he was sick, or when he'd gotten kicked through a few buildings and was recovering from the broken bones and near-death experience.

It wasn't that he did feel ill, no. He just didn't feel right. He was, of course, in tune with his own body--he sort of had to be--but when he'd picked up the cup of water he'd been left with the usual light grip he'd need to use so he didn't crush it, the cup fell right out of his hand. The medics had insisted on doing tests, of course, but they hadn't found anything that they considered wrong, so when Trunks had asked--politely, of course--to leave, they hadn't had any reason to keep him. Especially when he'd promised he'd come back if he felt sick.

He'd gone to the observation deck, first--staring out into space, then down at the Earth. He took stock of how exactly he felt, mulling over in his head what he'd been told about the Legion and the recent battle and where he was. When he was. He'd say he'd overshot his future, but he knew that wasn't true. He remembered killing Cell, he'd been flying back to West City, relieved it was all over, then...nothing really, before he'd been picked up by the extraction team.

Then, after deciding he wasn't going to feel better until he knew what exactly he was capable of, he asked for directions to the gym.

Trying to lift heavy objects immediately after his release from the medical bay probably wasn't what the doctors had in mind, but Trunks had never considered five hundred pounds to be exceedingly heavy. He'd been able to lift that and more since he was a kid--so he'd loaded up a barbell with that weight, the individual discs not seeming too much. Altogether, though, it was more than he could even pull off the floor.

That didn't exactly make him feel good. In fact, it made him feel uneasy--almost anxious. Anyone walking in on him would find him breaking down everything and putting it away, afraid to even see what he could do now.

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Videl entered the gym just as Trunks was getting ready to leave it. At the sight of an unfamiliar face (or, rather, the back of an unfamiliar head), Videl diverted from her usual track and headed to the weight training area. It had become a habit of hers to try to get to know most of the people who regularly used the gym, in part because she spent a lot of time here, but also because she was still trying to find a good sparring partner. Convincing Gohan to spar with her felt like pulling teeth to Videl; even though the adjustments to their powers put them more or less on equal ground in this universe, Gohan still rarely trained with her.

As she approached, Videl noticed the pounds printed on the face of one of the weights. Between this weight, the others around, and adjusting for however many he had already put away, Videl counted at least 300lbs.

She gave a low whistle, clearly impressed. "Did you really just deadlift three hundred pounds?"

Already on edge, being approached from behind didn't exactly do much to soothe his anxiety--he can't sense people now, either, and in the truest sense of not appreciating something until it's gone, he didn't realize how much he relied on his ki-sense until he didn't have it anymore. He glances back over his shoulder, at the black-haired girl who'd spoken--he doesn't recognize her, but that's not any kind of surprise.

They are in a different universe, after all.

"Not...exactly."

He didn't necessarily want to explain that he was testing his limits. He'd been told, of course, that everyone here had powers--and if he'd had them before, he might notice them changed. But he'd never considered his strength a power. It was just part of him.

Not anymore, apparently.

"I'm sorry, I was just leaving."

As this new recruit --and Videl was sure by his air of dejection that this guy was a new recruit-- turned around, she got her first good look at him and let out an astonished gasp. "Trunks?!"

It was hard to mistake Bulma Briefs's bratty son, especially after the long hours Videl had been stuck with him and the rest of Gohan's friends and family on Kami's Lookout. Except --and here, Videl's shocked expression turned inquisitive and one eyebrow quirked up higher than the other-- she was sure that Trunks had been a kid when she left. No more than eight or nine years old. There was no way he could've already gone through puberty since she'd been gone! ...Right? (But considering he was a half-Saiyan like Gohan, she was starting to second guess her certainty.)

Videl took a few steps closer, peering up at Trunks to get a good look at his face. He looked like like his father in a way that was eerie to Videl, except that he wasn't currently glaring at her like Vegeta did whenever Videl was in his general vicinity (which was thankfully rare).

"You're..." Videl grasped for words. "...Grown up." She paused. "You are Trunks, right?"

Trunks stepped back as she got up in his face, blinking, trying to place her face--but considering he only really knew a bare handful of people, the list came up exceedingly short.

"I'm...sorry, we haven't met."

But he is indeed Bulma's son, though, so he's quick on the uptake. Whoever this is--she must know the younger him, from the timeline he'd just left. Or another one, he wasn't sure.

What else he isn't sure of--he doesn't know if whoever this is has been let in on the fact that he'd come back from the future, but he didn't exactly need to keep it secret anymore. He'd accomplished what he'd set out to do, and considering her words, she'd met him after everything with Cell, and he'd gone back to the future.

"I'm Trunks, yes. Not the one you know."

He'll...just leave it at that.

Videl straightened up and crossed her arms. She stepped back a bit, giving him the space he so clearly desired.

"No, we've definitely met," she insisted, nodding to herself. "It was at the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament this year, remember? You won the Junior Division." There's no way he could possibly forget that. Videl still remembered clearly when she won the Junior Division at the 24th World Martial Arts Tournament, the way the crowd cheered for her and the certainty with which she knew she wanted to keep doing this forever.

Videl shrugged. "I guess it's not like we ever talked much. Even before, well, all that stuff with Buu happened..." She hesitated for a moment. Thinking about those stressful days still unsettled her. "Well, even before then, you and Gohan's little brother were always joined at the hip anyway." The image brought a smile to her face, even though the two boys were incurable little shits when they were together.

"Or maybe R.J. lied to us and time really does pass back home." Videl looked Trunks up and down. "You're, what, sixteen? Seventeen?" She counted the years on her fingers. "I guess that means Gohan and I have been gone for eight or nine years, then."

He relaxes slightly, now that she's not directly in front of him. It's not that he feels particularly threatened, but he still doesn't like it incredibly much when people come up close to him. It's a bit of a subconscious reaction, but usually people getting up in his face is the precursor to getting kicked into the ground.

He shakes his head, then brushes a bit of errant hair out of his face. "No, we haven't. I've never competed in a martial arts tournament, much less the World Martial Arts Tournament, it hasn't been held in years--look, just..."

And there's so much more that he apparently needs to know. For instance, who is this Buu? And then there's the mention of Gohan's little brother--obviously he couldn't have been born in Trunks's timeline, which...so much was different now. He can't even feel sad or deprived at the fact that he'd been denied such a close friendship.

"Technically, I'm nineteen. Look, if you know Gohan, you know about Cell and the cyborgs, right? How much has he told you about what happened then?"

Videl shifts her weight from one leg to the other, drumming her fingertips on one of her arms.

"Of course I know about Cell. Who doesn't?" Although after meeting Gohan, she'd discovered that she knew a lot less about Cell than she thought she did. "I watched it on TV when I was little. The whole world still thinks Papa did it." Videl sighed and shook her head.

"It was Gohan, though." Saying that made her swell with pride, as though she had anything to do with it. "He said it all started years before Cell appeared, because someone--"

The words stopped dead in her mouth. "You're that Trunks," she said wonderingly.

Trunks sighed slightly--after all, he was the one who'd given the monster the idea for the Cell Games in the first place, him and his father. He remembered the man who'd challenged Cell.

Oh. So this was his daughter.

"I didn't exactly stick around for the fallout." He'd been dead for at least part of it on top of that. And he's used to global communications sort of being...non-existent. The radios they use to keep in contact between the settlements left intact is basically it.

"Yeah. That's me. Nice to meet you."

"I guess I know about you, but you don't know me. I'm Videl," she offered, even though he didn't ask.

"My dad's Mr. Satan," she added after a moment. It was a little weird to have to supply that fact for once, though she had a feeling Trunks had already figured that out from context. Based on Gohan's description, this Trunks was smarter than the bratty kid Videl knew.

"This is just too bizarre." Videl shook her head. "Gohan told me about all the time travel stuff and it's not like I didn't believe him, but it just seemed too weird to be true."

"Thanks." He smiled, friendly enough, blushing slightly at the recollection that he hadn't even asked. He doesn't often get the chance to practice introducing himself.

"More or less bizarre than the fact that both of our fathers are aliens?" If he sounds amused, it's because he is.

The reminder that her boyfriend is an alien half-breed makes Videl chuckle. In the grand scheme of things, that's pretty weird.

"That's a hard call," she admitted. "Up until a few months ago, I figured all aliens would be freaky green monsters like Cell."

He grimaces at the reminder of Cell. That thing was a nightmare--he still had to deal with that monster in his timeline.

"And he's not even one. Sort of, I suppose. He had genetics from all of us--except me."

Gohan didn't frequent the gym as often as Videl did. For the most part, he did his training in his biome, so he didn't have a lot of reason to use the gym. As such, when he walked by the gym, he hadn't been expecting to find any reasons to stop in. He figured he'd see a few Legionnaires training, maybe even find Videl, but otherwise nothing of real merit.

At least, until he saw a familiar head of lavender hair. And looked down to see an equally familiar denim jacket.

"T-Trunks...?" Gohan reached up to rub his eyes, making sure he wasn't seeing things. But nope, that sure was the Trunks from the future, looking almost exactly like he remembered him from seven years ago. It would've surprised him more, if he wasn't already aware of the dubious nature of time and space when it came to the rift.

But it was still uncanny, seeing someone he'd last seen seven years ago, who still looked exactly the same. Definitely... surreal.

Trunks was looking around at the other equipment, after he'd excused himself from talking with Videl--carefully not watching other people, because he was pretty sure that was rude to do.

He wasn't looking straight at the door when Gohan came in--but he caught sight of him out of the corner of his eye, turned before he could even think about it, and was then struck by the complete craziness of it all.

He'd thought hearing Videl talk about his younger self, knowing that at least seven or eight years had passed for them, would have prepared him for seeing the past time's Gohan grown up and looking so similar to how he had the last time Trunks had seen him in his own timeline. It really didn't.

It was another couple of moments before he could shake himself out of his surprise, and out of the memories.

"Um. Hey, Gohan."

Because that's totally appropriate when running into someone you haven't seen for years. Though it hadn't actually been that long for Trunks.

"Oh man, it is you!"

If Gohan was aware of how awkward this was for Trunks, he certainly wasn't showing it. Instead, a huge grin spreading across Gohan's face, as he stepped into the gym and went in for a big hug. Sure, it'd been so long, that Trunks was probably not used to seeing him this old. But it'd been much too long for Gohan, and honestly... there was something refreshing about seeing him again after all these years.

Maybe because technically, without Trunks' help, they'd all be dead.

"I haven't seen you in years!" Gohan let go of Trunks then, stepping back after the surprise hug. But still grinning like an idiot, making it clear this was definitely a pleasant surprise. "How've you been? How's your timeline doing? Did you take care of the androids in your time? What about Cell, did you seek him out?"

Finally, something dawned on Gohan. Something that should've dawned on him earlier, given the temporal physics at work.

"... Actually, what's the last thing you remember from back home?"

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