EP. 9 - Chase

                                    

                                          
After a while, Trunks, Niko, and Krillin landed on the rubble that used to be Dr. Gero's secret laboratory. It was a mess, but they were determined to find the basement and destroy Cell before he could be born in that timeline.
                          
Krillin shivered. "It's cold," he hugged himself, "Hey, Trunks? How do you suggest we go about finding the entrance to the basement under all this rubble?"
                          
Niko held tightly onto Trunks, but Trunks went over to Krillin and set the reluctant little boy next to him. "Krillin, take him and stand back."
                          
Krillin looked down at Niko curiously as Trunks jumped a few feet away and began blasting the rubble.
                          
The four-year-old half saiyan had messy, wavy, onyx locks like his mother, bright blue and narrow eyes like his father, but were a bit wider due to his young age and his mother's wide eyes, a white long sleeves with a heather gray shirt on top, black cargo shorts, long white socks, and black and cream colored sneakers.
                          
Niko looked up shyly at the human, his saiyan tail drooping as he looked unsurely at him. Krillin gave him a smile. "Hey, Niko. I'm Krillin," he gently introduced himself. "How about we help Trunks? Can you do that?"
                          
Niko nodded after a moment. He held up his hands and an energy orb formed. "My Papa taught me. I'm gonna be strong like him one day!"
                          
Krillin simply smiled. The boy was too young and innocent to know what kind of man his father really was. Who was he to destroy the boy's happiness and enthusiasm? "Wow! That's really cool! I can tell you'll be really strong!" he encouraged Niko. "Let's help out now. Sound good?"
                          
Niko nodded with a smile. "Okay!" He rolled up his long sleeves and peered over at Trunks, copying what he was doing.
                          
Krillin curiously observed the boy coping Trunks and chuckled. He figured they were very close. Then, he followed suit and jumped away a few feet. He kept a keen eye on Niko.
                          
"Hey, make sure to be careful!" he warned. If the boy got hurt, surely Niya would beat him up and being on her bad side was the last thing he wanted. Angry saiyan men were scary enough as it was. He could only imagine the terror an angry saiyan mother would bring.
                          
Trunks looked over to see Niko jumping around, blasting the rubble. Niko saw him looking and waved. "Hi!" he smiled.
                          
"Hi," Trunks chuckled. "You're being careful, right?"
                          
Niko nodded and jumped to a different spot. "Uh huh! Always! Just like Mama tells me to be!"
                          
"Okay, good," Trunks smiled approvingly and continued blasting around, keeping an eye on the boy with his peripheral vision.
                          
After a short while of blasting, they all stopped as they let the smoke clear. Trunks squinted as something caught his eye and walked over to it. Niko looked curiously at him from the big rock he was standing on. Trunks laid his hand on a giant rock for support as he looked down into the ground. "Krillin!" he called over.
                          
Krillin turned around. "Huh? What? Did you find something?" he asked as he hurried over.
                          
"I think this is it," Trunks replied "Take a look."
                          
Krillin stood beside him and looked down as well. "Well, what do ya know. That's it!"
                          
There was a hole with a broken ladder leading down into somewhere, which they could assume was the basement they were looking for.
                          
"Come on. Let's check it out," Trunks said.
                          
"Okay," Krillin agreed with a serious expression.
                          
Trunks looked over his shoulder. "Come on, Niko. You're sticking with us, remember?"