Trunks, Goten, Marron, Bra, Pan and #17 found themselves in a state of darkness as Mirai Trunks' world gradually disappeared. But soon they could see a dim light. It grew larger and closer to them.Finally it engulfed them in a bright light.This must be the portal, Trunks thought. Suddenly it was dark again, and a hole opened in the darkness, letting the light from outside in. "Looks like we're home, guys." Trunks said to the others and stepped outside the portal. The others followed suit.
They found themselves not at home. Hundreds of men surrounded them, some armed with guns and grenades while some were unarmed but were in fighting mode, with more coming from all directions. "Surrender! In the name of the Red Ribbon Army!" One of the men yelled. Trunks blinked. He turned to Goten, who also blinked. They both shrugged and grinned mischeviously. After doing all the good works in Mirai Trunks' world, surely they're entitled to a bit of fun, right?
And so the (one-sided) fight began between the two Super Saiyajin level young men and the entire Red Ribbon Army. The three girls sat at the side and watched, while eating a packet of popcorn Bra had mysteriously found there. Pan had wanted to join in, but didn't get a chance as everybody got thrashed before she got to even touch them. So she sat at the side with the others and had some popcorn too.
Exactly two minutes later, Trunks and Goten emerged from the dustcloud. They looked just fine, not even a hair out of place while the Red Ribbon men lay unmoving on the ground, defeated. Trunks grabbed the popcorn from Bra's hand, but found it empty. "Hey! You finished all the popcorn!" "Well, you didn't need to fight that long." Bra shot back. "You could've finished them all in 5 seconds, but no. You had to fight for a full two minutes."
"Guys," Marron said. "We're obviously not in our own timeline. What do you say we go back to the portal before it closes and we're trapped here forever."
"You're right," Goten said. Indeed, the portal was still there. Maybe they had got out too soon and ended up in the wrong timeline, or maybe Mirai Bulma had miscalculated. As they started to head back to the portal, Trunks finally noticed someone was missing. "Hey, where's #17?"
Indeed, where was he? They all turned and looked around but he was nowhere to be found. And as he was a cyborg he couldn't be detected using ki. Then suddenly they heard a high-pitched scream of terror, and they rushed to the source.
They found #17 standing over an old man with white hair. #17's right hand was ablaze with ki he obviously intended for the already unconscious old man.
"Uncle, wait!" Marron cried out. But it was too late, as #17 threw the ki ball at the old man. Thankfully, he was already unconscious, so there were no screams, although what was on the floor now was not a pretty sight.
#17 turned around, a strange expression on his face, almost like pure hate. But it was there for only a second. His expression turned to normal again as he faced his niece and the others. "Don't worry, I didn't kill him," he said, his tone strangely expressionless. Marron opened her mouth to say something, but a soft whimper in the corner caught their attention.
A little boy and a little girl stood huddled in the corner. Fear showed on their tear and snot-stained faces. Marron walked over to the two little children and knelt in front of them so she was at the same eye-level as them. "Don't worry. Everything's OK." she said to them kindly. "I'm Marron. What's your name?" She asked the black-haired little boy. The (cute) little boy frowned as if concentrating very hard on something before replying, "#17."
Everybody (except for chibi #17 and his sister) fell over in shock. When they've recovered, Marron shakily asked the similarly cute blonde little girl. "And you are...?" Although she already knew the answer.
"I'm #18," she said between sniffs.
"What happened here?" Marron asked.
"That bad man, he was going to hurt us again," chibi #18 said pointing to the burnt figure on the floor, "but uncle here saved us." She looked at (adult) #17 adoringly. After a bit more questioning, they found that chibi #17 and chibi #18 had been brainwashed and could remember nothing about themselves except for their numbers. #17 flew them to a nearby house, whose owners promised to try to contact their parents. Or if they couldn't, the couple were more than happy to adopt the twins. Then the time-displaced people headed back to the Red Ribbon headquarters to find the portal nearly closing. Everybody jumped back in time before it disappeared again.
***
Kamesennin, Yamucha, Bulma, Kuririn, Lunch, Oolong and Puaru came out of hiding when they found that the thing in the sky was only Goku, riding on the Kintoen. Goku jumped down when he saw them.
"Goku!" Kuririn exclaimed. "We found out you were going to attack the Red Ribbon Army all by yourself, and we came to help."
"I was going to," Goku answered. "But when I got there, the whole place was already destroyed. But I got the dragon balls." He showed them the bright orange balls he found at the ruined Red Ribbon headquarters.
"Destroyed? By whom?" Yamucha wondered. "It's true." Puaru had just flown there and confirmed Goku's story. "The whole place was thoroughly destroyed."
"That's really strange." Bulma said. "I wonder who did it."