The Last Hope

Prologue to Battle; Trunks' Great Escape

"My name is Trunks. In my time, I am the last remnant of the Saiyan race, as well as the last remaining Z-Fighter, the sole protector of planet Earth.

In the years following the fall of the Android assault, the world was finally enjoying an era of peace and rebirth. That is until, the evil wizard Babidi and his lackey Dabura appeared. With help from the Supreme Kai (and my new sword, the Legendary Z-Sword), we were able to stop them achieving their dastardly goal with little loss of innocent bystanders and minimum collateral damage.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Kai and his assistant both lost their lives in the battle, but with their greatest foe vanquished, Supreme Kai left this world with no regrets and peace returned to Earth…until HE showed up.

This new menace appeared out of nowhere and started aimlessly killing everyone without a hint of regret or remorse, spouting nonsense about cleansing this world from the stench of mortals. That's bad enough, but it gets worse; he introduced himself as Son Goku and looks and sounds just like him (not wanting to taint her best friend's name, my mother calls him Goku Black), but it doesn't stop there.

Whoever this fake Goku lookalike really is, he's strong; INCREDIBLY strong. He makes everyone from the Androids to Cell to even Dabura look like rank amateurs in comparison. I can't defeat him alone. Even with help from the newly assembled suppression squad, led by my friend Mai, we were no match for Black's unreal, destructive power.

Unable to defeat him and at the end of our rope, my mother and I were left with only one option: to go back in time again and get help from my father, Gohan and the others. It took an entire year, but miraculously, Mother managed to recreate the fuel for my time machine. The bad news however, was that there was only enough for a one-way trip.

Our quota for miracles must've ran out the day Mom finally got the fuel, for not even five minutes after I received it, Black found Mother's secret lab and obliterated it…taking her with it.

Unable to save my mother, Mai was the only person left I could rely on to help me reclaim what's left of Capsule Corp. and get to the time machine!

We almost made it without a hitch, but at the last possible moment, Black managed to find us yet again. I told Mai to go on without me while I attempted to hold Black at bay long enough for her to escape.

While I fought Black (and got my ass handed to me pretty damn hard), Mai managed to fuel up the time machine, but instead of going to the past, she came back to save me from Black. I still remember it clear as day.

Black had me by the throat and was no doubt about to finish me off, but then he stumbled backwards clutching the side of his face (he appeared uninjured, but he no doubt at least felt whatever hit him). I turned to the side to see Mai holding her trademark sniper rifle (She must've fired that special bullet the suppression squad developed). Mai then started running to where Black and I were while loading a shotgun.

Black recovered from the shock of Mai's shot and he was looking more pissed off than hurt. Before he could make a move though, Mai threw something at us and yelled "Shield your eyes!"

Flash grenades!

While Black was blinded from Mai's grenades, I took the opportunity to rush backwards to Mai using what little energy I had left.

I was about to tell Mai off for not going to the past, but she stopped me by saying, "It has to be you Trunks! It's what Ms. Bulma would've wanted. You're the last hope for this world!"

Before I could reply, Black finally recovered from the flash bangs and was looking even angrier than before.

"Irritating human!"

As soon as those words left his mouth, Mai shouted "GO!" at me and ran at Black, shotgun at the ready.

I wanted to grab her arm and take her with me, I didn't want to make the trip alone, but I knew in my heart that without a distraction, Black would catch us effortlessly and I didn't have the energy to try and fight him again. Turning around and not looking back, I ran to Capsule Corp as fast as I could.

I finally made it to the time machine which was powered up and had the coordinates set. All that was left to do was hit the "GO" button, figuratively speaking.

As the time machine rose into the air, my eyes widened as I saw Black's cursed energy sword hand pierce through Mai's chest. Before the spark of life left her eyes though, I was able to read her lips and make out a final message: 'I love you…Trunks'.

At that point, I couldn't hold the tears back anymore. That bastard Black had taken EVERYTHING away! Countless of innocents, the cities we worked so hard to rebuild, my mother, and now the woman who I just learned returned feelings I secretly had for her. I inwardly swore I'd make him pay. My thoughts of grief and vengeance were cut short by a loud 'CLANG' sound followed by a small 'BANG'. I looked through the transparent dome to see…BLACK!?

'How the hell did he get to me so fast!?' I thought. 'And what was that sound?' My answer came in the form of sparks flying off the side of the time machine. You didn't have to be a genius to figure out that he damaged the time machine somehow. We were still airborne, but I knew it was only a matter of time before it came crashing back down.

"Did you really think you could escape me, Saiyan?" Black asked, his hand on the dome.

'So this is it,' I thought. After all the hardships and sacrifices we made to get this far, it was all for naught. In the end, I wouldn't make it back. Back to the past. With the time machine damaged and me out of energy to resist, I closed my eyes as I prepared to join Mai, Mom and the other Z-Fighters in the next world. 'I'm sorry everyone…I failed.'

To my surprise, we were suddenly bathed in a green glow. Also to my surprise, it was coming from Black's ring. Even more so, Black looked just as shocked as me. Neither of us had time to ponder as lightning flew out of the time machine and electrocuted us both. Before I finally lost consciousness, I took one last look out of the dome to see Black get sucked into a black vortex that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

I could feel the vortex pulling at the time machine and knew that I would be following Black into the dark hole but with no way to prevent it, I finally let the darkness take over my body and passed out. Little did I know that when I woke up, an adventure greater than I could've expected was about to begin.

[To Be Continued]

(A/N: Welcome to my new story. This one's a Dragon Ball/Justice League crossover. I've had this idea in my head ever since the Goku Black Arc in Dragon Ball Super ended, but this story was also inspired by two stories with similar premises of Trunks appearing in the DC Universe [A Malfunction by JKFallen and The New Face of Justice by Comorep677. I highly recommend both stories] Any ways, this chapter was just a set up so there's not much explicit action. That should change in the next 1 or 2 chapters. Before I forget, the DC side of things will be PRIMARILY based off of the DC Animated Universe with possibly some snippets of other animated DC properties(such as Young Justice and the Justice League animated movies) thrown in for good measures, so some of the DC Characters may not be as strong as their comic book counterparts(Most of my DC knowledge stems from the cartoons, and while I have been reading SOME old and current DC comics in my spare time, my overall DC lore PALES in comparison to my DB knowledge). Also, while this chapter was from Trunks' point of view, the rest of the story will be in the third person.)

P.S: Sorry fans, but Mai's ACTUALLY dead this time so I doubt we'll be seeing her again. And that sucks because I really liked Trunks and Mai together, but it had to be done.

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