7/21/2024:

UPDATE #1: This story is being re-written under the series name Legend & Legacy.

Legend & Legacy is mainly hosted on Archive of Our Own (AO3).

• The prequel, Dancing with Strings, and the spinoff One-shot, Winning Streak, are also hosted on FFnet - you can find them in my profile.

UPDATE #2: For about a year, I updated the first chapter to be the first chapter of Legend & Legacy, but as of July 2024, the first chapter is restored back its version from 2005 - 2023. Since L&L has been taking on a new life, and is no longer a complete parallel of Goku's Humored, I've decided to preserve this fanfiction in its original format. Enjoy!

–––––––

Story Summary: Goku's Humored, in its original writing form, began in 2004, went on hiatus in 2006, and then began to be updated with new content in mid-2023.

The story is an elevated and epic retelling of Dragonball GT, mainly told through Trunks' and Pan's perspectives, in which Pan must grow and mature before her time to become the strongest Z fighter and to free her family and loved ones from evil possession.

It all stems from a twist early on in the Grand Tour, after Trunks and Pan acquire a dragonball after being forced to perform an unintentional marriage ceremony. While Goku and the team look back on it with humor, the acquisition of their mysterious rings has serious butterfly effects on events after they return to Earth and discover everyone has fallen under the mind control of Baby, the Lord of Tuffles.

Training under an unlikely mentor, Pan must rise and awaken a power within her to champion the Kais, and to avenge her family. However, doing so comes at a tremendous cost. Will this power be enough for Pan to save her friends, family, and Trunks? Or perhaps... it may also take love.

Chapter Navigation:
• Black Star Dragonball Saga: 1 - 34 (This will increase as Legend & Legacy's rewrite updates the chapters)
• Baby Saga - Exposition: 35 - 55
• Baby Saga - Rising: 57 - 64
• Baby Saga - Conflict & Climax: 65 - Current (Chapter 76)

Characters & perspectives you will see within this story: Goku, Trunks, Pan, Piccolo, Gohan, Goten, Vegeta, Bulma, Kibitoshin Kai, Ancient Kai, Hercule, Buu, Uub, Baby, Master Roshi, Oolong, Puar, Krillin, Dende... you name it, they're in it! The story encapsulates the DBZ/GT world with twists and turns along the way.

Reviews are like senzu beans after a long time fighting to write. I appreciate your thoughts! Especially since I'm doing a rewrite, I am actually incorporating feedback into my updated rewrite version.

–––––––

CHAPTER 1:
After Escaping M2

Several days after their encounter with the Evil Dr. Myuu and his parasite creation Baby, our three heros are once again on the ship bound for another dragonball...

"Hey Trunks, do you think we could stop by a place to eat?" Goku kicked his legs while impatiently squirming in his chair. "I'm so hungry…"

A moment passed, and he wasn't getting a response. He turned his head to look to Trunks, who was busy observing some readings on the computer board. "Hey Trunks?"

"Sorry, could you give me a moment, Goku, I'm a little preoccupied."

Goku leaned back and put his arms behind his head, waiting patiently. He tried to ignore the pangs in his stomach as he began to recite the alphabet in his head and associate names with the letters. That always seemed to work when he wanted to get his mind off food, and it was a challenge enough to distract him for a while.

AA... Goku scrunched up his nose as he tried to think of a name that started with "A". Ah, Android.. Android 18. B… Bulma… C… Chi Chi… As the list went on, Goku scrunched his nose more as he realized he really didn't know enough names to fill the gaps in some spaces, and by instinct, ended up filling the words with food names, however deconstructive the activity became.

When he got to M, Goku's mind faltered a bit as he thought of the most recent name that he thought started with that letter. Frowning slightly, he turned to look at Trunks and tapped the armrests of his chair patiently, "Hey Trunks?"

Trunks bit the cap off a pen as he filled in some readings. Without looking up, he mumbled, "Hmm?"

"How do you spell Myuu? I know it starts with an M."

"Hmm?" Trunks put the cap back on and eyed Goku with a slightly confused frown. "Myuu?" He raised his right eyebrow, "Why?"

Goku nodded to him and smiled expectantly.

A moment of pause passed between them as Trunks eyed Goku and the boy smiled innocently in return.

Another moment of silence lingered before Trunks cleared his throat, and repeated, in case Goku didn't hear the first time, "Why?"

Goku nodded again and repeated, "Y..."

Another awkward pause passed between them.

Trunks suddenly raised his left eyebrow to match his right as he made a confused face, "Are you trying to be funny or something?"

"Who me?"

Trunks sighed, "Goku, go play with Pan or something. I need to finish these readings so I can map out our projected course." Trunks turned back to his work, "I don't want to talk about that guy."

"Aww, but Trunks, if you don't help me with the name, I don't know what I'm gonna do… I can't spell it, and I'm so hungry…"

Trunks sighed, "What name? Myuu?"

"Yeah, M-y-y..."

Trunks blinked at Goku a moment as the boy's last comments suddenly hit him full force. M-y-y… Trunks cracked a smile and shook his head as he turned back to the computer board, "Goku, you are such a character, you know that?"

Goku blinked and leaned back in his chair for a moment as he began to frown. After a minute, Goku breathed deeply, and began rubbing his stomach. "Oh gosh, Trunks… I'm starving…"

Trunks sighed and put down his pen as he turned his head to face the boy, "Listen, Goku, go ask Pan to make you something. This is really important."

After a slight groan, Goku leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to calculate the parsecs to the next planet," Trunks tapped his pen on the paper he had been working on, "According to these readings, the dragonball is supposedly located in the 495 stellar field, but if that were the case, we'd be passing by a black hole."

The twelve year old scrunched his nose, "Is that a bad thing?"

Trunks looked back to his pen and picked it up as he began to tap it against his wrist, "Yeah, Goku. The last thing I want for us to do is get caught in the orbit of one of those things, so…" Trunks looked up to Goku and then back to the paper, "I have to modify our flight angle in a way so that we don't end up getting lost in space while trying to divert something that has the power to… Goku are you even listening to me?"

Goku smiled and nodded as his eyes glazed over, his mind obviously in some other plane.

Trunks sighed and shook his head, turning back to his notes, realizing Goku had an attention span even less than Goten's sometimes.

Goku blinked and then forced a grin. "Well then!" He swung his feet for a moment, and then hopped to the ground. "You know what Trunks, I think I'll leave you to that then…"

Trunks looked up, "Where are you going?"

"Oh…around…" Goku flicked his wrist as his eyes glinted, "Maybe the kitchen…"

Trunks took his pen and pointed it to Goku menacingly, "You aren't allowed in the kitchen by yourself, you know that, Goku."

"I know, I know…" Goku forced another grin, his eyebrows frowning in desperation, "But I'm so hungry…" Goku looked down, "I don't know if I've ever been this hungry before…"

"Fine." Trunks sighed and shook his head, "Go, then," but as Goku spun around on his heel Trunks called out, "But if you touch that microwave, I'm going to let you have it, got it, Goku?"

"Sure thing!" Goku grinned innocently and sped down the hall.

Trunks sighed with a nervous smirk as he got back to work. He tried his best to prevent himself from imagining the worst. The last thing he needed right now was for Goku to destroy the kitchen. He had nightmares about that sometimes – waking up, to find out all the food was left out and opened, as if a massive typhoon swept the inside of the ship and rained leftovers everywhere.

He heard a slight knock to the open cabin door, and looked up again to see Pan enter the cockpit and sit down in her seat to the left of him. He tried to hold in a growl as he forced his mind to stay on his assignment. If there was any nightmare that kept him tossing and turning at night, even more so than Goku's massive appetite, it was the girl sitting next to him, who so innocently smiled to get his attention.

It wasn't going to work. He had better things to do right now than entertain her because she was bored. He scribbled some more notes and tried to think of happier thoughts.

"So…" Trunks heard Pan shift in her seat, and could feel her eyes on him as he tried to shut her out from his mind, "What'ya workin' on?"

Trunks sighed and stopped his pen as he tried to keep his eyebrow from twitching.

"Was it just me, or did I see Grandpa go into the kitchen?"

It really was more a statement than a question, an obvious trigger for a conversation if Trunks didn't already know about Goku's endeavor.

There was an awkward pause as Trunks glared at his pen, trying to think of home, and how he'd much rather have to endure a day of training than sit next to Pan and have to deal with her right now.

"Are you still mad at me?"

Trunks looked to her and said as flatly as he could manage, "Yes."

Pan sighed and knocked her knees together as she looked down at her hands, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Pan." Trunks growled and let out a frustrated huff, "You almost got us killed back there."

"I said I'm sorry! What more can I do?"

Trunks looked to her a moment and took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. He could feel his right hand squeeze the pen as he observed her face, and tried to hold onto the anger he had been feeling, but the longer he looked at her, the more he felt his anguish drain, to his dismay.

She had been having that effect on him lately. Before, when she first came on the trip, it was easier to hold a grudge against the girl because she never wanted forgiveness. It had been almost above her, to accept the fact that she had done something wrong. But as she started to realize some of the follies she got Trunks and Goku into, it was as if a new word had entered her vernacular, and suddenly, it was harder to maintain spite against her.

Perhaps that wasn't the only reason he had been tolerating her more lately, but he couldn't place a finger on it, and he really didn't want to at this point. The fact of the matter was that he was adapting to her, finally, after almost eight and a half months of the trip, and it took two deserts, a wedding dress, a giant man, a giant doll, the Para brothers, and Dr. Myuu for her to grow on him.

Trunks realized he had been staring at her while his mind had wandered, and shook his head to somewhat reset his gaze. He looked to his right hand and then back to her and then sighed dejectedly as he felt his head slowly shake again, "It's alright, Pan."

Pan's face brightened a bit as she leaned forward, "So I don't owe you any favors?"

Trunks grunted and forced a smirk, "Just don't beg us to go to any more planets like M2, and I'll be fine."

There was a moment of peace and quiet that passed between them as they both looked up to the stars through the round windshield.

Trunks felt a hand suddenly touch his arm, and he looked down in more surprise than shock. It was unusual for Pan to touch him, and he felt a slight wave of uneasiness pass through him as he instinctively wanted to draw his arm away. He never let anyone touch him. She'd better have a good reason.

"I just wanted to let you know…" Pan looked to him with a slight smile, "That… well…" Her hand shook his arm confidently for a moment before she brought it back, "That it was also your fault, and that you owe me an apology too."

Trunks blinked as all amiable feelings were suddenly sucked from his mood, "Excuse me! Me? Owe you an apology?"

Pan frowned and knotted her eyebrows, "What did you think you were pulling, trying to fake that you were in that carbonite block!"

Trunks's eyes widened as he bared his fangs, "I was trying to discover Mr. Myuu's plans! I was working undercover, Pan. And what did you do?"

"I was trying to rescue you!" Pan stood up and crossed her arms, "And it was all for nothing, because you were faking being captured the whole time!"

"And suddenly it's a bad thing?" Trunks glared, "Would you rather I had been captured? Would you rather have had me splinter into a thousand pieces like that?"

"You! You..!" Pan suddenly slumped back into her chair as she began to sniffle, "No…"

"Oh no…" Trunks frowned as he leaned toward her in his chair, "Don't cry, Pan. I didn't mean to upset you like that."

"You… -sniff- you…" Pan tried to control her breathing as she looked down to her knees, "You could have died…"

Trunks sighed and hung his head, "Pan! Why do you think I'm so angry with you?"

"You're… you're still angry…?"

"No! I mean, yes, I mean, I was…" Trunks sighed again and slumped his shoulders, "Pan…"

A sudden crash reverberated through the whole ship. The sound of plates clashing in the kitchen caused Trunks to jerk his head around to the sound.

"Oh no! GOKU!" Trunks stood up and marched toward the door, "I knew he was going to do something like this."

"Trunks, you don't even know what he did."

"Oh I know." Trunks rolled up his sleeve and shook his head in disappointment, "Trust me, I know what he did." He began to march out of the cockpit.

Pan sat up and twisted to frown, "Trunks, go easy on him!"

Trunks snorted and walked out to the hallway, hearing Pan get up to try to follow him before his steps echoed in the corridor. When he reached the kitchen, he stopped and took a deep breath, to prepare himself for the sight.

As he opened the door, he could feel a desperate groan leave him as his eyes took in the kitchen table. The thing was covered in globs of something, and he didn't even want to know what it was.

"Oh noooooooo…" Trunks looked to the counter to see an equally large portion of the green glob. He hung his head and put his hand to his forehead, "Goku, what the hell have you been doing in here!"

Goku turned around, wearing a green apron and a top hat. "Trunks! You're just in time to taste it!"

"Taste it!" Trunks' eyes widened, "Taste what?"

"It's good!" Goku wandered over to him with a tray of the green globs, "I made it with all natural veggies... I have celery… and I have green beans and um… spinach… and… semolina… and…"

Trunks' face turned purple as Goku started naming out the lists of greens he decided to put in the masterpiece.

"Goku…" Trunks tried to cut him off by waving his right hand, hoping his stomach wouldn't reel from the list of ingredients Goku named, "Were you seriously going to eat this!"

"Oh no!" Goku shook his head, "I already ate. This was for you."

"Oh god…" Trunks's eyes widened as his stomach threatened to gag.

"Here, try some." Goku held out the tray to Trunks, "I call it the Myuu Too."

Trunks backed away, "Goku… I'm not hungry…"

"Try some!" Goku took a few steps closer.

"I'm really not hungry…" Trunks backed up against the wall.

"Try it!"

"I'm rea-MMmmrm!" Trunks' eyes shot as wide as they could get as Goku shot up and stuffed a spoon into his mouth.

Trunks could feel his eyes welling up with tears as he forced it down his throat, for humility's sake. He tried to think of happier places, even sitting in the cockpit with Pan…

For a moment, the world threatened to turn black on him as he tried to stabilize himself against the wall. He could feel himself choke out in a desperate voice, "I'm dying… I'm dying!"

"Oh stop acting like such a primadonna!" Pan put her hands on her hips and grinned at Trunks.

"Pan…" Trunks clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he tried to disregard the taste, "Pan… you didn't have to swallow that…"

"There's more from where that came from!" Goku dug the spoon into more of the green glob.

"NO!" Trunks pushed him away, "Goku, you need to clean up this kitchen right now."

"But you're not finished ye–"

"–I tried your invention. Now clean up," Trunks stomped his foot, "NOW, Goku."

"Aww, but Trunks…"

Trunks put a finger up to point at Goku, "And you are never allowed to invent food again. Got it?"

"But, you liked what I invented last time."

Trunks closed his eyes and felt his temple throb. "Goku, that was a cheeseburger. You invented the pickles that went on it."

Pan snorted from laughter in the corner.

Trunks spun on a dime and pointed to her, "I'm not talking to you! Unless you'd like to help him clean up?"

Pan coughed a bit and looked away, suddenly stricken with a serious face.

Trunks looked between the two of them for a moment, feeling a surge of anger suddenly kindle into a raging fire inside him. And, the more he looked at Goku and Pan, the more he realized he needed a break from it all.

–––––––

After the incident in the kitchen, Trunks had turned and left, leaving Pan and Goku to sort out the mess among themselves. He had more important matters to attend to. If they wanted to get to the next dragonball safely, he had to finish up several important calculations, or else it wouldn't be just their lives at stake.

Sometimes Goku and Pan tended to forget the gravity of the situation, how important the mission was. Often times, they treated it like a playground, playing hide and seek or one of their video games while Trunks was left to do all the work. It figured, though, having to travel with two kids. He just wished they'd take their trip a little more seriously sometimes. That excluded tourist trips to hostile planets like M2, and stopping off at every other planet to grab Goku a new exotic meal; but sometimes it was necessary, to keep him from pulling stunts like the one he just did with that green glob.

Trunks sat forward in his chair as he felt his stomach wrench again. He tried not to picture the substance, and even more so to forget how revolting it tasted…

Determined to keep his mind on more productive tasks, Trunks turned back to the control panel and started punching in coordinates. Looking intently at the computer screen, he frowned slightly and leaned back in his chair as he brought his pen to his mouth, chewing its cap thoughtfully.

A sharp movement on the dashboard caught his eye as he was working out some numbers in his head. "-giru giru-!"

Trunks looked up to see Giru chewing one of the wrenches he had brought in earlier when fixing a loose bolt in the main computer. His first reaction was to stare a moment in slight shock, but then a wave of exasperation filled him as he cried out loud, "Oh no!" Trunks leaned forward and grabbed the handle of the wrench, "Give that back, Giru, we need that!"

"-giru!" The robot grabbed the remainder of the utensil and began to tug it his way.

"Give that back!" Trunks tugged harder, "I'll find you something healthier for you. Just don't eat that. We only have two of those!"

"-giru giru-!"

"AUGH!" Trunks yanked at the utensil and cursed everyone and everything on the ship. Nothing was going his way today, nor had it ever. And he was beginning to get seriously fed up with it all. It was hard to imagine… three and a half more months, he'd have to endure this cruel and unusual punishment.

It was times like these he truly did wish that Goten came along instead of Pan. Even if things were looking bleak and everything were going wrong, Goten always managed to alleviated the situation even for a small while – long enough for Trunks to move on to other things and not have to worry about everything going wrong on the trip. But Pan…

Trunks yanked the wrench free with a mighty tug that sent him sprawling back in the chair. "Aha!" Trunks lifted the tool triumphantly with a growing smirk, "I won!"

"-giruuuu…."

"Giru, why don't you find Goku and Pan?" Trunks laid the wrench on his lap and leaned forward to look at his mathematical calculations again, cursing himself for losing his track of thought.

The robot bleeped slightly and then quickly flew out of the room in search for more entertaining things to do.

Trunks smiled then, realizing he was finally alone. Sitting alone and thinking was his favorite thing to do these days. It was good to be able to escape the ship for a bit and daydream of his friends and family back home…. And the merger with Bocks Co… and the marketing campaign of Prime Inc… and the efforts to go public with the company.

There really was a lot to think about. But he mostly thought of his mother back home, wondering how she was handling the company in his absence. The paperwork would have to be re-filed and reorganized when he returned, and…

He was thinking about his job again. It tended be a bad habit of his, having his mind constantly wander back to the office. It was hard not to, considering he practically slaved there every day without breaks. Sometimes, he just had to schedule his own free time, to the dismay of the secretary. But a trip like this… To space, with two attention-deficient children, was not his idea of a vacation.

Trunks looked down a coughed twice before laying down his pen.

"Goten…" Trunks muttered under his breath as his right hand began to drum the control panel. "If only you had come instead…"

Sighing deeply, Trunks picked up the pen again and bit off the cap, chewing it as he took the integrals of several formulas depicting the angle of their route if they decided to circumvent the imminent black hole.

If anything, having Goten along would have definitely spiced up the menu on the ship. No more green globs, no more boots in the stew…

Trunks sighed again and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes to relieve the sudden wave of stress that threatened to swarm over him.

Just three and a half more months…

And as long as they stayed out of sticky situations, Trunks would make sure they would stick to a smooth ride. That was, as long as Pan didn't get involved in his agenda. The last thing they needed was for her to volunteer to 'play hero' again.

He was really getting sick of that.

–––––––

–––––––

–Updated: 4/19/05–