DB Multiverse

A strong shiver ran through Bulma's shoulders.

How long did she take to write the end of Son Gohan's strange adventure?

Five minutes sounded so little...

And yet... no echoes of happy voice rang out in the underground room... There was only silence... And her...

A heavy silence... A deathly silence.

Now, all the young woman could hear was the distraught beats of her mother heart... The deafening drums of a dread that made all colours run from her face.

Her hand stretched very slowly... and she felt a sort of burn at the tip of her finger when she clicked to make the fateful clock appear...

Her turquoise coloured eyes suddenly seemed to be ash coloured...

The time... present time... past time... future time... Every time just stopped... Earth stopped revolving, any hand of any clock just stopped, as did her heart that paused beating... then exploded!

Half an hour!

The hour was past since more than thirty minutes!!

Everything became surreal... Time, screen, room, ceiling... The floor on which the young woman had collapsed...

It was not only a sob that escaped her throat, her eyes... her whole being... It was a storm, a tsunami of madness that overcome her, it snatched a long and silent scream that faded away only when her lungs ran out of oxygen.

When she finally caught her breath in a series of nervous hiccup that violently shook her... she screamed her sorrow, her despair, her heartbreak... Yelling at the top of her lungs the unfathomable despair of a mother who realised that she had lost her child.

No, there wasn't time anymore... And in a world that had no sense at all, Bulma remained prostrated on the ground, she cried, cried till she hadn't any tear left, cried till her lachrymal glands dried, cried till she hadn't the strength to breathe... Crying to death as a she-wolf cries to a too far away moon...

Yes, she'd like to die... to give her life away, to liquefy her soul for her child of light to come back... To stop living so that she'd not feel the burning bite that was consuming her... To go to him, to find him... To wrap her arms against him and hug him tight... Her miracle of love... Her sparkle of happiness.

When Bulma rose her head, she had a hard time opening her eyelids, too many tears had puffed them and her cheeks were burning due to all the sobs they endured...

She felt dizzy and her ears rang... Getting up on legs she couldn't felt anymore required a superhuman effort in her opinion... And once she was up, she had the surreal feeling that she was floating between two worlds while she couldn't tear her despair veiled eyes off the dreadful screen...

Several hours now... An abyss, an insurmountable chasm between happiness and pain.

She knew... She had understood it quite a long time ago... But her brain obstinately refused to mouth the terrible words, the intolerable words that still tore her heart and her soul apart:

Trunks wasn't coming back!

Very far from this underground laboratory... there was a man, his rare grizzled hair hadn't been brushed for a long time, and his beard hadn't been shaved for almost as long. His flabby paunch could be seen out of the moth-eaten bath robe that the man hadn't bothered closing. He dreadfully looked at the ceiling of his underground refuge. It was crumbling under the dull rumbles that was shaking the walls all around him.

His jaws gritted as he was nervously pacing to and fro through the small space within the nuclear shelter he was living in...

“They had to come back today...” he growled. “The supplies day... these little shits!”

His stomach suddenly emitted a tell-tale whine.

With a sigh, the man took a frame that sat on a pile of crates he used as chest... His look changed, it was filled with sorrow as he passed his hand over the picture of a young girl with a bright smile.

The poor man's heart had been broken forever when he lost this only child he treasured... But at time, just as right now, when hunger and fear argued over the right to torment his guts... he thought to himself that perhaps it was best that this dear girl hadn't lived the hell that the world had become.

An apocalyptic earthquake suddenly unbalanced him as a dust rain fell from the ceiling that already was split there and there.. The light of the only lightbulb flickered... It hadn't fallen far this time!

He could kiss the supplies goodbye... The convoy would have turned around at best... At worst, it would have been destroyed...

If that was the case... It implied that he'd have to wait two long weeks for the next convoy... If there was a next one!

The man's eyes swept his pitiful estate... On the corner of the table, there was three miserable little crackers, they had been religiously piled up, and now were covered with this grey dust... In the corner with the watering hole.. the tortured tube of toothpaste wouldn't give anything now, and his reserve of drinkable water was desperately empty... And the one of the network hadn't been drinkable for a long time now... He was going to be sick as a dog again!

His hands tightened on the frame that he now was holding tight against his hairy chest... For sure, he'd not have endured to see his little Videl go through such torments!

His chin shook as the light of two big tears highlighted the eyelids he painfully closed.

So courageous Videl... His proud daughter... A future star... What a waste!

The sun had ceased shining for some years now... How many exactly? He didn't have the strength to count...

The destruction of these two crazy youth had increased but life was still bearable... The biggest part of town was still standing and almost everything worked... Back then, it was still possible to go on some errands and find whatever they could need.

They only needed to make sure that these two monsters were nowhere near... They had transformed a district so full of life in a smoking graveyard in no time!

Out of sheer luck, their city had been reasonably spared so far... They only had to bear the consequences of the evil twins' destruction lust two times... First time, they had destroyed a shopping district down town, but only four buildings had entirely collapsed... And the second time, they had been interrupted by an incredible fighter wearing a blue and orange fighting suit... It was probably a cyborg too because he could fly, as the other two, and he seemed to be virtually indifferent against blows that'd have knocked out an army of elephants!

He had seen with his own very eyes the guy being thrown through several layers of buildings, and yet, he went back against them right away! He had seen him diverting true fiery missiles and in turn, he threw fire rockets from his bare hands...

No human beings was able to do such wonders!

That day, he had come with his dear little girl to renew her wardrobe.. She was growing so fast.. The radio had reported that the two killers were somewhere in the south... But the piece of informations was apparently not reliable... They had been surprised on the way back by a first series of explosions. It was so close.

In such cases... No place was really safe... The best thing was to flee as fast as possible!

And that was what the dense crowd was doing. The father and his daughter had been caught in its middle and they couldn't leave... His stature and his strength were barely enough to protect his treasure from the rush that threw many poor people on the ground.

At that time, he had shaved his moustache and dyed his thick curly hair in blond so that he'd not be recognised... So he was anonymous amongst anonymous persons and trying to clear a path for his daughter in the frightened flock.

Why this weird measure?

It happened several years ago... Back when the future of the world had started to turn.

Right after the two walking cataclysms had wiped off the map an entire megalopolis in only one day... They seemed to be fighting against mysterious people whose powers were as extraordinary as their own... From then on, they had considerably increased their work of destruction and death... The damages kept getting worse and worrying the population.

They were so worried that a stubborn mob had started lay siege to his luxurious mansion day and night, chanting his name... He had tried everything them... Stomach ache, sprain... He had even had casts been made to fake a broken arm and ankle... But nothing had worked!

One day... The pressure of the mob had been so high that the gate gave in and the populace saw him when he was leaving the shower... Of course, he had removed his false alibi!

And in no time at all, he was dressed and girded with his World Champion belt by hundred of inflexible hands. Then he was lifted and literally carried to a plane that brought him to the neighbouring city's outskirts. Column of black smoke rose above the buildings while the muffled sound of explosions shook the surrounding country.

Another mob had welcomed him with deafening hurrays and he was thrown into an armoured vehicle even before he had the time to say anything. The car set in motion right away.

Trying not to chatter, he had to endure the looks of the soldiers that were with him in the car when, once the hatchway was open, he had hesitated to climb the metal stairs that led to open air... An air that was shaken by titanic explosions and invaded by myriads of fiery sparks that spurted from the fire burning entire blocks.

In the eyes of these men, he had seen admiration and hope...

And when he had claimed another gastric trouble, he had seen the expression in all these eyes going from light to shadow of disappointment and reproaches. Because of this, he had a rise of pride.

After all, he was the World Champion... The hope of these few soldiers had had the power to rekindle the memories of the 'hurrays' and the applauses of a crowd that was devoted to him... The hordes of journalist begging for a word, a smile... the hysterical girls screaming and then swooning in his path... the cameras, the crackling of flashes... He was the only one... the unbeatable Champion of an entire planet...

He was Satan!

He couldn't disappoint these millions of admirers who had given him so much!

So, with courage and determination, he had eventually decided to climb out of the armoured vehicle... The explosions had faded away anyway...

A small walk on the battlefield... and hop! As a flash... He'd have shown goodwill... That would do... In any case, he couldn't fly to go after them... What a good excuse, he he he!

The powerful echo of a gigantic explosion then shook the destroyed district.

An impressive shock wave rose on the ground as if it was nothing but a carpet... The champion, who had lost his balance, found himself sitting, his ass on the ground, as a rain of dust and rubble of any size fell from the surrounding buildings...

Aware of the grotesque of this situation, Satan cast a worried glance towards the armoured cars... to see that they were quickly driven back as numerous rubble fell on their armour, emitting clear sounds.

The cowards!

They dared letting him on his own, he! The champion all categories, in the middle of this chaos... all this destruction... all alone and without an audience!

That was really worthwhile! He had run so many risk... for nothing!

Hey... actually...

No more audience... That was the right occasion to disappear... quick as a flash.

Once last look around to be sure... Oh well, after all... Even if there were eyes to see him, he could always say that he was running towards the enemy!

So better do the complete show, you never know!

Standing up once again, the champion took one of these stance that only he knew, sticking out his chest for an invisible audience... In a majestic gesture, he turned each tail of his long silk cloak on his wide shoulders... He cut a fine figure, and he knew it!

Then, his hands on his hips, in a so virile pose, he slowly turned, as if to scan around...

Suddenly, he excessively bend on the side, one of his hands near his right ear... Then, with a big winner smile and an meaningful lift of his brows, he extended his forefinger, a gesture of triumph...

The next moment, after two swinging movements as ridiculous as the rest of his pantomime, he finally ran to turn at the corner of the closest street.