The following is a story of what could have been, reminding us all that even the smallest decisions can bring about the largest impacts on the world around us...
This tale began when an imp called Pilaf, and his gang made a dangerous, and rather foolish, attempt at world domination. Having gained no knowledge of the dragon balls unlike before, they released King Piccolo instead, believing that with him at their side, their place as rulers was assured. But it was the other way around. Once released, he knew that those bumbling idiots would be of no use to him, and so they were disposed of. Knowing full well that his reign would be put at an end should he be locked away in another rice cooker, Piccolo gave birth to his first two sons, Piano, who would become his personal lackey, and Tamborine, who was given the order of killing off any known martial artists who were capable of performing the dreaded Evil Containment Wave. Matters only escalated as the situation became truly dire.
Learning the existence of the dragon balls, which were said to be the key to summoning a dragon capable of granting almost any wish, Piccolo created another son, named Cymbal, and assigned him with the task of gathering all seven of the magic orbs. The spawn did as he was told by his father, and with no one to stop him thanks to his brother, he returned with his mission successful in three days time. Upon summoning Shenlong, Piccolo wished for youth eternal, restoring his body to its prime. His power reached even greater heights than before, and with the dragon now out of the way, there was but one thing left to do.
Upon finding the Lookout, and his other half, Piccolo forcibly fused back with Kami, becoming stronger than ever before. With the world now under his thumb, Piccolo killed the king of Earth and took the throne for himself. Knowing full well that no one could stop him, he and his offspring had claimed their victory. As King of Earth, Piccolo had released all imprisoned criminals, having somehow seen sympathy with them, as well as destroying an entire world district within a years time as of the day he took over. West City was the first to fall.
Two years have passed since then, and yet still no one is safe. People everywhere are living in fear, trying to find shelter inside their destroyed homes, and praying every night that they will see the sun for another day. The unlucky ones become the victims of the demon spawn. During this time, however, a rebellion is stirring with the intent of overthrowing King Piccolo once and for all. They have only been successful in securing a fraction of the planet's remaining population to a safe haven amongst their few operational bases. Unfortunately, some of the rescuers have not returned alive. Piccolo's forces are growing stronger, and should this keep up, all will be lost. There is but one person who can stop this once and for all.
And that is…not who you would think it would be...
"This is so her." I mutter in my head.
I seriously wish that they would stop pairing me up with that woman. She always has to be so full of herself, thinking that she does her job better than me. So I have not found any survivors recently, so what? It is not my fault that they are hard to find, I bet the run and scurry if they hear a needle drop from ten feet away. The people here have either been killed or have killed themselves, and truth be told, we get more of those than you would think. But from living in a place like this with hungry demon spawn circling the whole planet really kind of justifies that.
There is not much left of East City, after I arrive at the outskirts, in fact, there is not much of anything in the world anymore. Or at least, that is what I have come to learn. East City Elementary is a place that is made of a few standing walls, much to my surprise. I do a quick search in any closet, or crawlspace only a small child could fit into. All I manage to find in the entire school, hell, the entire city, is a stuffed bear with its left arm ripped off, and its eyes were missing. I start to head back to base once I realize there is no one left out here.
Already I can feel the dry, cold wind picking up by the time I am outside of the city limits, walking on a field of cracked dirt; the ground crumbles with every step I take. After a while, maybe say, half an hour or so, I begin to make it into a much hillier environment, which also comes complete with bigger stones. Looking off into the distance, I can see a couple of cumulonimbus clouds beginning to converge on the horizon. Lightning is randomly hitting the ground; some bolts are striking more than one at a time. The mid-afternoon storm really ties in the scenery of what was once a bustling metropolis, that would be seen from the top of the hill I was standing on, but from whatever view you stand, the whole place looks like a fallout zone. I have never seen the sky when it was not dark and gray, nor have I ever seen a fully structured building that was not made of shattered glass and rubble, or even seen any grass that was actually green. This truly was what some people had called "the Apocalypse". I realize that I have brought up the whole "death and desolation" thing over and over, but seriously though, the whole world has pretty much gone to complete shit. Those of you who fantasize about living in this type of world, you really need to think about what you are wanting, because take it from me, you are not going to like what you see. And no, there are no zombies around, so sorry if I disappointed you.
It is about this time that I hear the flap of a heavy wing. The few hairs on the back of my neck stand up before I spin around to get a faceful of only what I can describe as a violet-colored energy blast. The blow is enough to knock me back a few feet down the hill into a boulder that crumbles upon catching my back, and burying me in a pile of stone shortly after. I can barely make out what they are saying, but I can see my assailants just fine through gaps in the pile where my eyes have not been covered. One of them is a large, muscular teal-colored dragon, and the other is a taller, thinner looking gargoyle…thing…The images I have seen of them were blurry, but I can definitely identify the two as Bell and Tambourine. Piccolo's kids. And I did not expect them to be thinking about anything else but ripping me in half.
"These humans only seem to get weaker and weaker every time we catch 'em." Bell comments.
This makes Tambourine chuckle.
"That's just because we're getting stronger while they all stay puny and helpless."
Bell starts making it toward the pile that I am under.
"Well, let's take this one back to Father and ask him what to do."
Tambourine only holds his arm out to restrain him.
"Father has enough slaves. He'd probably just tell us to kill the kid anyway." He explains before aiming his index finger at the base of the rock. "So why wait?" With a green beam of light, the surrounding area erupts in an explosion. Nothing could have survived. The area has gone completely silent, save for the few rumbles of thunder rolling off in the distance.
They both take to the skies.
"Is this starting to bore you?" Bell asks.
"What, this? Please!" Tambourine laughs.
"Just checking."
"We better check in with Father before we go off anywhere else. We have been out for almost a month." Bell advises.
"Eh, if he worried about us he probably would have sent…I don't know, Piano or someone else pathetic like him-"
Their conversation is cut short when Tambourine gets his left wing shot off by a small ki blast, causing him to fall to the ground.
"Tambourine!" Bell calls out as he shoots down to his brother's side.
"What happened?" The wounded Namekian spawn asks clutching the spot on his back where his wing was attached to.
They hear a scoff in the distance, and to their wide eyes, they see a teenager with slate gray hair in a black jacket with the Capsule Corp. logo on the left side; the jeans he wears look new, but his red trainers look worn. His sapphire-colored eyes are dead set on the two, with a cocky smirk on his face.
"Yeah, still intact if you had not seen it before! Gave me a pretty decent wake up though!"
Tambourine growls in anger.
"How is even possible?! He should be a pile of ashes after a blast like that!" Bell said with a tinge of cowardice in his tone.
"Calm yourself Bell, we've got this!"
Tambourine gives the kid a matching smirk, telling him that the two brothers would not soon fall for whatever their opponent had planned. They had seen plenty of the 'struggle' the humans could put up, and surely this would be no different. But something was off about this kid.
"Guess we'll have to escort him to his grave personally!"
They both lunged forward but missed the teen when he jumped high into the air at the last minute. Tambourine landed face first alongside Bell into another boulder.
"Come on guys, that is not all you got, is it?" I laugh while suspended in the air.
Bell roared in anger, and lunged upwards,
"I'll get you for taking off Tambourine's wing!"
As he tried to grab me, however, I did the smart thing by going just a few feet higher and kicking his face in. The blow was enough to send the demon spawn hurdling back to Earth before slamming into the ground next to his brother. Before Tambourine has time to react, I do the same to him from the left, and in a matter of seconds, he has a face full of dirt. It almost makes me laugh when I can see the resemblance between Tambourine and an ostrich. To make sure I have space away from the two, I take to the air once more.
"Gah…kid what the hell are you made of?! Pure metal?!" Tambourine growled.
"Close! It is…somewhere along those lines!" I tell them. There is no point in keeping it a secret from them now.
Bell heard this and shot up from the dirt pile he had landed in.
"Tambourine, wait!"
"Ha!" Tambourine cries out as he throws another ki blast at me. I raise my arm in defense to block it, but it does knock me down a few feet while I am still airborne. The smoke clears and the expression on Tambourine's face is almost priceless. I examine the damage was done to my forearm, and notice that he left quite a scratch on me.
"That hurt a little, not gonna lie." I laugh nervously.
"That's why we haven't been able to kill him! H-he's one of them! He's one of them Tambourine, we have to get out of here!"
I can see the fear growing in their eyes as I land not ten feet away from the two, not letting my grin die away.
"So, if introductions are in order, then I know you two as Bell and Tambourine. As for me, well…" I say as I reveal to them, my damaged limb, which is all metal, with some wires exposed. "Call me Android 99."
Dragonball, Z, GT, and Super are own by Akira Toriyama. Android 99 is my own.