Model Number Twenty One
Ch 1 – Designation: Bio-Weapon
"NO! If they release that Android, it'll be the end of everything!" With that shout, a boy with short purple hair released a blinding golden aura, his hair lighting into a spiked golden pattern, a beam of light lunging forth as he thrust both arms forward at what appeared to be two teenagers and a silver coffin. The teenagers seemed to watch uninterested as the blast approached, a massive explosion demolishing the whole of the cavern-based lab. As the boy and his comrades fled, they took to the skies of their own strengths; flying as though it were as easy as walking with no wings or jets to speak of.
While the rubble dispersed and the smoke cloud shrouded the devastated lab, an unseen pod labeled with a large 20 was visible in what seemed to be a bed chamber, the top half of this pod blown away. From within, red energy spilled forth from a freshly severed bottom half, shaping into the silhouette of a man's upper body. Within the cloud bone seemed to form from nothing, followed by veins, organs, muscle and finally skin growing out of the strange cloud. As the head formed, brilliant cerulean eyes shone forth from unruly blond hair that spiked every direction at random. A deep, vertical line from the hairline through the middle of each eye reached to the bottom of the chin, a similar line appearing like a band around the middle of each bicep.
He had strange armor-like sections upon his fore-arms, shoulders and over his abs. It was shiny and blue, looking like a sapphire but bending like flesh. There was a section like this on the back of each fore-arm in a rounded rectangular shape, a semi-circular section forming pauldrons that tightly yet completely covered each shoulder, and a simple rounded triangular plate that perfectly covered the abs. It seemed very much like they were simply different kinds of flesh, but what kind was as shiny as a gem would be a difficult question to answer. As he drew a breath, he ripped his now half-naked self from the pod and looked down at himself.
"Well what do you know… looks like I can heal from more than I'd thought." The man raised his right hand, looking at the differences to his memories. "That's weird… wasn't I… a fox? Or wait no… a kid? What's with this shit?" The man gripped his head in frustration, flashes of memory flying across his mind. "Son Goku? Who the fuck is that?" A multitude of images flashed in pertinence to a boy with a monkey's tail, the words 'Kill Son Goku' echoing cryptically over them. But then those were burnt away as he remembered what had happened.
-Flashback-
"Sasuke!"
"Naruto!"
Two mutated looking teens flew at each other holding a ball of deadly energy each, colliding in mid air. Their corrupt powers interblended as they clashed, forming a dark indigo sphere around them. As one held the upper hand, a boy with dark hair looking dark and almost demonic, he flapped massive hand-like wings and flew back away from it. As he did, a demon sealed within the other boy howled in rage, its crimson power flowing out from himself and the boy he was sealed within.
"No! I do not die without my revenge! No matter HOW I GET IT!"
-Flashback-
'Doctor Gero? Red Ribbon Army? Tch… what shit.' The man looked up and found that he could feel many of the energies surrounding him much more clearly than he'd ever been able to before. It was at that point that he began to sense the energies within him, finding that he had absolutely no personal reference for this level of strength. Its abundance, its potency; the very nature of this energy was completely new to his mind. Fortunately for him, it was far from new to his body. 'Project Twenty One… begun in Age 758, abandoned in Age 765… so I'm at least nineteen now? That's great…' As smoke lifted off his freshly regenerated body, the smell of burnt flesh reminded him of the other thing he'd lost. 'Kurama… if not for me, that name'd be lost to time wouldn't it? ...I'll get your revenge, fur ball.'
The man wondered about the greater power signatures floating about above him, finding himself intrigued by them. He had a strange urge to fight, but it was pressed down more by his intrigue about this world and the power he could feel within. He floated up to set behind three of Gero's other Models, using their position to obscure himself from the power sources and the cliff they stood on to obscure himself from them. "Dr Gero programmed you with a mission to kill Goku, isn't that right?"
"Yes, that is correct." The response was mechanical, and from a clearly synthetic voice by its metallic over-tone. If the man was remembering the models correctly, that meant that it had to be one of the three imperfect models; Fourteen, Fifteen or Sixteen.
"Look at that, he does talk." Seventeen said, making light of something that clearly stressed most of the warriors across the canyon from them. As he and Eighteen went about investigating the Model, the strange man was curious of the people floating across the canyon.
"He must've been designed only to respond to subjects pertaining to his primary objective." Eighteen surmised, perhaps doing the Doctor a credit too many.
"What do you know? The Doctor actually programmed something properly after all. Of course, I was supposed to be obedient as well; who knows how well that programming was designed?" Seventeen said, shrugging his shoulders in amusement. "Let's go." With that, the three began flying away, completely ignoring the others. The man considered the repercussions of going at the others himself, but he knew how to handle the other Models of Gero; one thing the pod had properly instilled into his memory were the capabilities of Gero's Projects. There was one that gave the man worry… but neither Seventeen nor Eighteen were, themselves, the threat. He had better odds tangling with the other Models given their odd camaraderie due simply to the other Model's presence within the lab.
-0-
It seemed the man might have reason to reveal himself, as the strongest power amongst the others grew agitated and took off after the trio. The strange man sighed to himself, speeding off behind the golden aura tailing his would-be allies. As the golden light reached the other Models, so did the strange man reach the man with a shining golden aura and spiky golden hair flowing with said power. As the strange man landed, the other Models all seemed to express interest in him.
"Oh? And just who are you?" Seventeen asked, the gold-haired man growing further agitated at what seemed to be Seventeen ignoring him. The strange man noted but did not comment on the golden man, responding first to Seventeen.
"I'm sort of similar to you, I suppose; I'm one of Doctor Gero's Projects. He made efforts to alter all of us, 'improve' us; my alterations were all completely biological apart from some subliminal information implanting." The man said, Seventeen tilting his head in amusement. The large Model behind him fit the man's understanding of Android Sixteen's appearance, said Android speaking in response.
"Model Number Twenty One; Designation, Bio-Weapon. Primary Purpose; Failed to Program. Base Personality; Data Not Found. Base Power; Data Not Found. Notes; Subject has made a full recovery and draws breath, but all attempts at awakening Twenty One have failed. With no Neurological implants, forced awakening is impossible. At the present time, all that can be done is to wait for him to awaken; until then Model Twenty One is a failure." Sixteen seemed to have a schematic on the strange man within his data banks, the strange man's own memory telling him that the Sixteen Model was completely synthetic.
"Thanks for backing me up there, big guy. My name is Naruto, though; the Doctor never got the chance to ask me that." The man, Naruto said, Seventeen chuckling as the golden haired man bristled with rage. "Hey, you; you're looking for a fight aren't you?" Naruto asked, the golden haired man glaring at him. "Try me on then, I'm curious about how this strange energy of mine works; you stand good chance of helping me learn that."
Instead of a response, Naruto was answered by a swift blast of light launched from the man's hand, surprising the blond. However, he found himself only mildly discomforted as the blast impacted his chest and burned away around him. His skin slightly reddened for a moment before quickly fading to normal, Naruto smirked to himself.
"You see, that's what I mean. That's a very impressive attack; and strange to me, I didn't feel anything but a bit of a push from it. Take this seriously, idiot! I want you to make me work!" Naruto rushed toward the man, surprising himself again as he was immediately within combat range with a fierce punch slamming into the man's face to launch him into a nearby mountain. Seventeen and Eighteen were mildly impressed with the show of force, Naruto gripping his hands tightly in surprise at the insane strength he'd demonstrated. "What the hell kind of strength have I got now?"
"Well, it looks like the Doctor did too good a job with you; healed you to full and made you a great deal stronger. Plus he failed to brainwash you; that's another bonus." Eighteen said, Naruto chuckling.
"I'll be fair… the life I left behind wasn't much fun for me. This is sure a hell of a lot more interesting." Naruto crossed his arms, turning to look to the other three. "I'm not certain, but he's either dead or unconscious; can we go somewhere that I can get some clothes? I don't feel like running around without a shirt on all the time." Seventeen chuckled while Eighteen smirked, Sixteen completely disregarding the others as he looked off toward the north.
"That's what Eighteen wanted to do, sounds like we have a set plan. Hop on into the van, let's get going." Seventeen said, opening the door of a pink delivery van. Naruto raised an eyebrow, but got into the back with Sixteen nonetheless. As the trio went on their way, the golden-haired man had been knocked out and power down beneath the great pile of rubble left behind by his stronger opponent's strike.
"So, you say your name is Naruto, right? Sixteen called you Model Twenty One, and you say you're biological; if you don't have any tech implants, how do you know your own specs at all?" Eighteen asked, Naruto answering calmly.
"I don't exactly know my specs, I just know that whatever Gero did to me he only used organic materials for; there was a voice in that pod that played constantly, it put certain things in my memory." Naruto said, thinking to ask about certain things from his pod he didn't recognize. "What exactly is so special about Son Goku that the Doctor decided to splice his DNA so thoroughly on top of my original body? I still wasn't more than half human anymore, but I'm less than a tenth of that original body with what the Pod told me about his… 'repairs'."
"Son Goku is the strongest earthling alive, an alien called a Saiyan that was raised on Earth through circumstances unknown to the Red Ribbon Army." Sixteen was the one to answer, pleasing Naruto who found his text-book answers easy to understand. "The primary benefits to the genetics of a Saiyan seem to be naturally incredible strength, along with a trait to grow much more powerful upon recovering from near-death. Recent update implemented during my latest repairs state that Model Twenty One was a failure only due to a pre-operation coma from its initial condition. Implementation of Son Goku and Freeza's DNA in large-scale genetic grafting allowed full physical and neurological recoveries, no evidence of the Coma's root-cause remaining while Model Twenty One still failed to awaken."
"Ok… so what? What's so special about Freeza then?" Eighteen chuckled at that, giving Naruto a sly smirk.
"Freeza was a different race of alien, one that can survive extreme dismemberment and breathe in the void of space. According to conversations overheard from Son Goku, Freeza survived having his lower body and left arm chopped off, and a planet exploding beneath him for long enough to be recovered and healed by his Father." Eighteen said, Naruto raising an eyebrow.
"The blast that destroyed the lab obliterated everything above my waist, so I'd say I can survive more than that. Although… maybe Freeza's DNA is why I can heal more than I used to be able to." Naruto said, finding himself lost in his thought as the three drove off toward town. While his healing ability had always been uniquely efficient, it shouldn't have been able to regenerate without any torso or head remaining; or rather it couldn't when he was just human. Maybe Freeza's race could withstand the negative effects of the energy, let him heal more than he used to? Of course, it's also possible Freeza's DNA caused his red power to change as well… he had no way to know.
When Eighteen came out of the store the three had stopped in front of, she found that Naruto found clothes suitable to him and left long before she'd decided on anything. He wore black pants, the combat boots he'd awoken in and an orange tank top; a very simple outfit to suit his color preference. He'd have gotten some blue, but his new arms handled that part of his color scheme.
Seventeen had been bored and frustrated, and blasted the store now that they were done with the place that had wasted so much of his time. Eighteen sighed in exasperation, Naruto chuckling. "Little testy, Seventeen? Relax, we can go find Goku now. That should be fun enough for you." Seventeen didn't respond, Eighteen shaking her head as the others filed back into the van. "We're indulging your van at least, I'd rather just fly there; much less time wasting involved."
"I wanna drive, you can fly if you want but you seem to enjoy company more than you hate waiting." Seventeen said, smirking at Naruto through the mirror. The blond ignored Seventeen's point, a mark that he agreed with the Android. Even still, Seventeen found Naruto amusing to mess with. If he ever had any, Seventeen surely couldn't remember being friends with anyone in his life. But then, his circuitry did a good job of cleaning most old memories away. The only early memory he or Eighteen could recall was the other's face at varying younger ages; they were twin siblings.
"So, what do we even plan on doing when we get through with Goku? It's not like we can get a very good fight out of anyone else, at least not for long; and I personally don't like just destroying things." Naruto said, honestly a little tired of wanton destruction. Part of his original body's memories involved centuries of killing humans who couldn't fight back in a whole slew of interesting ways; but it was always inevitably the same old game. It wasn't very rewarding for him when he'd save strangers, but it always played out more interestingly than simply killing them. And then on top of it, the personality of that original life that remained intact would have been appalled at the killing if not for that perspective, and even still was a bit put off by it. It made him see Seventeen as childish, having a great deal of power and using it for joy killing instead of self improvement.
"I don't really know, blowing stuff up is pretty interesting but it's not properly fun; I'm not exactly sure what I'd wanna do. I guess just go along with Seventeen, see what stupid little games we can come up with." Eighteen said, Naruto sighing.
"Guess I'll be off doing something else then; I never liked killing innocent people. It tends to irk me." Naruto said, Seventeen laughing at him.
"Look who's got a conscience, the one made from the world's strongest man and the universe's greatest tyrant! You almost sound like you're judging me, Twenty One." Seventeen said, emphasizing the Model Number.
"I'll admit that you and Eighteen both have aggression programmed thoroughly in your minds; but mark my words, it'll serve to hold you back. Another thing from my memories before… someone who helped me was an angry warrior, and after everything that happened to have me end up here, my perspective with his memories made it clear where his temper held him back." Naruto explained, Eighteen looking at him with intrigue while Seventeen tried not to react. "He had so much power it clouded him, made him think there was no higher to climb; he was always wrong about that. He just never stopped and used his cunning to fight instead of deceive. You could use that bored ingenuity of yours to train, instead of kill people for fun."
"… whatever, Naruto. I'll do you a favor, I'll consider not just killing everyone on earth after Goku. But I'm still probably gonna do it." Seventeen said, Naruto taking his turn to chuckle.
"Fine, but that means you'd be killing bunches of innocent, lovely women; aren't guys your age supposed to be interested in girls, Seventeen?" Naruto asked, leaving the contrary as a hanging implication should Seventeen choose to ignore his question again. With an annoyed look, Seventeen turned around in his seat a moment to glare properly.
"Yes, I am, but the years of being switched on and off like a toy are still kinda fresh in my mind, you know?" He asked, Naruto grinning toothily at him.
"So you're telling me you're willing to let Gero control your life from the grave? How is that any different than leaving his remote control in his hand?" Naruto asked, Seventeen slamming the brakes at that.
"You know what, Naruto? You're right; this is taking too long. How about we get this show on the road?" Seventeen was not expecting this nature of argument to occur, especially not to someone he'd hoped to call a friend not a whole hour before. The infuriating part was his inability to find a reasonable counter-argument; the Blond using his youth against Seventeen. As Seventeen stepped out and took off toward Sixteen's affirmed heading for Son Goku's house, he found himself riddling over those questions.
'You're willing to let Gero control your life from the grave?' Throughout the flight to Goku's home, this question would echo in the cybernetic man's mind while his three comrade Models followed.
-0-
"You heard me; something that looked like a cross between a Saiyan and one of Freeza's people knocked me unconscious with a single punch into the rock-face." The man who'd been punched by Naruto now stood before his allies, atop a lookout at the highest altitude on earth, above even the highest of clouds. A man with unruly hair sticking about randomly wearing an orange gi with blue obi, wristbands and boots had his arms crossed, a contemplative look on his face.
"No time to lose then, you guys had better get in right away. With Cell going about, there's no telling what might happen while we're busy training up here. We have to make the most of our time." This man was well known as Son Goku, and the one he spoke to was Vegeta. "I'll see you guys in a year; we'll be waiting right here."
With that, Vegeta and the young man who destroyed Gero's lab walked into the structure atop the lookout and entered a pair of large, wooden double doors.
-0-
"I suppose the only other place for him would have to be at Kame House. Better get going, we don't wanna waste any more time." Naruto said, the four regrouping in front before swiftly taking off in the direction of the Kame House, residence of Goku's Martial Arts instructor, the Turtle Hermit Roshi. With Naruto growing impatient along with Seventeen, the group rushed for the area, reaching it in little under ten minutes. When they arrived, they found several of Goku's average human friends along with his wife, and one other being they weren't expecting; a green man known to the world as Piccolo. Naruto, however, did not know that. What he knew was that a Martial Arts Master lived here… and Naruto had a question about Goku.
"Excuse me sir, I must make a request of the Turtle Hermit; would you please ask him to speak with me?" Naruto asked, the other three models looking at him inquisitively. He raised a hand at them, explaining himself. "I was trained as a warrior, I wish to afford a Master the respect due his years and learn about this world in the process." As Piccolo returned outside, an old man with white moustache and beard, Hawaiian t-shirt and red-rimmed sunglasses came out leaning upon a staff with a thick knot at the top. Naruto bowed deeply at the waist, the old man raising an eyebrow in interest. "Hello Master Roshi, my name is Naruto. I'm a Bio-Weapon designed by Doctor Gero, but with the Doctor gone I have no means for learning about this world. Our primary objective is to Kill Goku, but I was a trained warrior and I don't take orders from strangers; I would like you to justify why I should not kill Goku."