Disclaimer: Hiya folks! Many views, but no reviews! That doesn't really matter though, seeing as it means people must be at least fairly interested in my story. I know the one I love most has a HUMONGUS interest in this story! :D Which flatters me! Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter as much as the last three- especially you babe!
"Hey guys, yall wanna' come over in the next hour? I've got a cookout going on. It's gonna' be lots of fun." Bulma spoke to Krillin over the phone.
"Sure!" Krillin replied over the line. "Master Roshi said he's coming, too."
"The more the merrier." Bulma replied happily. "So I'll see you guys soon. Bye!"
"Wait!" Krillin raised his voice a little to get Bulma to not hang up.
"What is it, Krillin?" Bulma asked curiously.
"How's 18?" Krillin asked concernly.
"Krillin..You need to get over 18. She's a lost cause." Bulma replied sadly. She truely felt that way. Besides, she did not want her friend getting hurt by 18 any longer.
"I can't, Bulma. I know that she hurt Yamcha. Part of me tells me to try to help her, and the other part tells me to never even speak to her again." Krillin responded very openly. "Speaking of...Is she coming to the cookout?"
"No, I plan on leaving her in the lab. It'd probably just be a waste of my time to offer her to come, anyways." Bulma said. "Anyways, I gotta' go now Krillin. Bye."
"Bye." Krillin replied, the two of them hanging up the phone at about the exact same time.
"Here" Bulma handed over some food and a bottle of water over to 18. How dare Bulma! She would surely pay for this when the right time came. None of this was fair, none of it! Not only was she dangling her freedom in her face, but she was now dangling food in front of her face!The insulence! She must have trusted that controller a real lot to be so bold with the way she was acting. She hated it...She was like a little puppy, begging under Bulma's grasp. She felt so...so patheticly weak.
All 18 could do was stare at the food and drink with lust. It smelled so delicious...Her stomach growled loudly as pain jolted through her spine due to bring immobolized. Not only did her spine hurt, but her stomach was dying of hunger and hurting really bad. In fact, if it was not for that darned controller that Bulma was using, she have been groveling in pain, bent over on her knees.
Oh how bad she wanted that delicious scrumptious looking food...
"Oh I'm sorry." Bulma played along, sounding quite rude. She knew she was the dominant one in this situation and was totally taking advantage of the situation. "I totally forgot!" What a horrible liar Bulma was.
Oh how bad she wished she could speak up and reply to Bulma. How much longer would this take?! This was way worse than prison; being locked down by a stupid little remote. Bulma sure was telling the truth when she had told 18 she didn't like her!
A grunt of pain escaped 18 as she felt a jolt of pain shoot up her spine.But of course it was muffled seeing as her mouth was forcibly closed. She slightly squinched her eyes in pain as hard as she possibly could. If only she could see Bulma expirience pain this intense...
"You got to be kidding me." Bulma sighed, pulling out the remote from her pocket. "You act like this thing hurts. It's not supposed to you know. It's only made to immobolize you, so I dont see how it hurts."
'Let me loose and I'll tell you!' 18 thought inside her head irritably. She wanted so bad to let Bulma have a taste of her own sick medicine. She wished so bad to see Bulma gnashing and nawing in complete, absolute torturous pain. But for the moment she was just focused on the remote in Bulma's hand; hoping she would press the button.
Realizing 18 had her icy blue orbs set on the remote, Bulma felt a surge of control attempt to overtake her for a split second. But, she realized it would be much easier on herself to start being a little more nice to 18. After all, 18 was much stronger than her and could easily take advantage of her when the moment occured. So, she decided she would just go ahead and press the button and let 18 eat.
Immediately 18 felt relief all over her body, and her muscled raxed. A relieved sigh escaped her dry, pinkish lips. Without even speaking, she did not hesitate to pretty much pounce on the food Bulma had sat down on her lap so teasingly.
The food was still considereably warm, and tasted almost heavenly. Man, darn Bulma! Not only was she a world's genius. but she was a good cook!
"Wow, you must have been pretty hungry. How long has it been since you ate?" BUlma spoke in shock. She truely was shocked at 18's monster hunger.
Of course, 18 didn't even acknowledge Bulma, but intstead took a big chug of water and went back to her food, which she was already almost done with. She'd probably get really hungry again pretty soon, but at least this would last her awhile.
In a matter of moments, she had eaten all her food and all that was left was just a sip of water. Bringing her arm up and wiping her mouth, she sighed. Finally her long lasting, miserable hunger has been quenched.
"When can I leave?" 18 asked after a few moments of nothing but silence. If it wasn't for Bulma's remote control, she'd have already got her tail out of this dump. Not only that, but she would have left a dead corspe behind. And as you can guess, that dead corpse would be Bulma's. She hated this place with a passion. After all, who wouldn't after what she went though? Just looking at laboratories made her sick! But to be in one...Ugh! All she could think of when she saw a laboratory was Dr.Gero. Just the sight of a syringe, needle, or even those tranquilizers made her want to throw up.
"I'm not sure." Bulma continued. "It wasn't even my idea to keep you here in the first place." She had answered very honestly. She had not even asked Gohan or Krillin how long was to stay here. After all, she had been busy making that controller for 18.
Bulma realized she needed to start being a bit more friendly to 18 despite how much she disliked her. She really didn't see why Krillin and Gohan didn't just finish 18 off after all the destruction she had caused earlier. Who was to say she wouldn't do it again? 18 was not to be trusted!
"You can't keep me here forever, you know. I'm not some caged up animal. I'm not just some robot programmed to kill, as you have recently discovered!" 18 raised her voice a little on her last sentence.
"Speaking of robots!" Bulma spoke up excitedly. "You say you used to be all human, right?"
18 nodded in response slowly, not kn owing where Bulma was taking this conversation. "Why?" She asked curiously.
"Well, is Gero really that sick? I would never have imagined he'd take a real human and operate on one. I mean, sure, I had heard a rumor in a magazine that he was thinking on such terms, but I never would've guessed he'd really done it!" Bulma sounded like a real geeky nerd just now.
Who would've thought? Gero on a magazine! Haha, make her laugh! She had never known the old geezer was famous. But with that information a question came to mind. If he was so famous to have pictures of himself taken, wouldn't people have known where his lab was? Which meant...Did they just not say anything if they saw her and her brother in that dreaded lab?
"Yea, you'd be amazed." 18 replied calmly, deciding to not be rude sounding so Bulma would not get mad and turn the controller back on.
"What all did he do?" Bulma suddenly realized she had gone too far already. She was going into a personal area and probably a very sensitive one at that. Covering her mouth in apology, she apologized. "Sorry."
Bulma was getting already getting pretty good at reading her, 18 realized. If Bulma had not taken that back, she would have pretty rude towards her in response. So instead, she replied a lot more friendly than intended. "I really don't like rehashing those things. I try to forgot, actually." It was amazing 18 was even that open, seeing as she was so usually kept to herself and reserved about things.
"I'm sorry. I can only imagine how aweful it could have been." Bulma, despite her total dislike of 18, felt a bit of sympathy for 18.
"You couldn't even begin to imagine how much physical pain I went through. But let's just close this conversation and never open it back up again." 18 replied, sounding a bit cold again like normal.
"Alright." Bulma agreed. She knew she needed to change the subject. Maybe she could...No! She told Krillin she wasn't going to invite 18. But...18 had seemed to open up a little to her. Maybe, just maybe she would say yes. After all, it would be something to talk about. "I'm having a cookout within the next hour or two. Your more than welcome to come if you like."
"Where?" 18 asked, just making converation. She already was not interested in the offer. Then again, she would probably be hungry pretty soon, and she had no money to feed herself. So maybe she could take advantage of this little cookout. She was sure all of Goku's friends would be there.
"Out back." Bulma replied. She decided she was doing this for Krillin because she really did not prefer to invite 18.
"I might if I feel like it." 18 replied, sounding bored already. "But don't count on it."
Bulma shrugged it off. "Your the one who will be missing out."
After a few minutes of nothing but disturbingly uncomfortable silence, Bulma dismissed herself from the lab. "There probably on the way now, so i better get going." Bulma turned around and walked out the exit, shutting the door behind her.
"Bye." 18 murmured. This was going to be one boring night ahead of her...Then again, maybe she could take advantage of Bulma's absense.
"Hey guys!" Bulma greeted all of her friends. She was amazed that everyone was arlready here despite it being earlier than said for them all to come.
The sun was already setting out behind capsule corp. It was a beautiful sight. There were beautiful, peaceful looking clouds covering the orange sky, causing a wonderful scenery for a cookout. Gohan, Chichi, Krillin, Ox-king, Piccolo, Vegeta, who was holding a whining baby Trunks in his arms (Who not to mention seemed very relieved to find Bulma had finally came out), Tien and Chiatzu, and last of all Yamcha amazingly. Yamcha must have been given a senzu bean.
A grill was to the side of the crowd. It was humongous! Not to mention it was filled with plenty enough hamburgers for everyone.
"Hey Bulma!" More the half the crowd replied.
Chichi walked over to Bulma and smiled at her greetingly. "So, what's up? I was talking with Yamcha about what happened today. So you really have that monster locked up in the lab?" Chichi sounded very nasty towards even the thought of 18.
Bulma realized Chichi must not like 18 very much for being reconstructed to kill Goku, her husband. She could easily understand why Chichi would feel that way. Though, she didn't, even though she disliked 18, think of 18 as a monster. Just more so a very cold person that was lost. "Yea, I do. I'm kind of at a loss as to what I should do with her, though."
"I can tell you what to do with that thing! Kill it!" Chichi replied almost hysterically. "I can not stand that thing, knowing its alive while my Goku is dead all because of that thing's stupid creater!"
"Chichi, honestly I don't think 18 had much of a choice in the matter." Bulma replied. She might've disliked 18 very much, but she wasn't going to make out like 18 was totally evil.
Chichi seemed to start to be cooling down all of a sudden. "As long as I don't have to see that thing I'll be alright."
Bulma began to get fidgety. "Uhm..well, I kinda had to invite 18 to the party. So she might be coming out, but i highly doubt it." Bulma hoped she was right.
"I better not see that thing or I'll-"
Chichi was interuptted by Krillin of all people. "I don't think 18 is bad as what you think, Chichi." It was quite odd for Krillin to speak up seeing as he was scared of Chichi's unforgiving wrath. He must had really had it for 18.
"How would you know, Krillin? Last time I checked she had no problem with hurting you!" Chichi replied back to Krillin, but not as loudly as with Bulma.
Krillin felt himself stumble because he knew Chichi was right. But he knew there was something about 18 that was different than everyone else...Not in a bad way though. But in a good way. "I think she is just going through a lot."
"You don't even know if shes real or not to know if she even knows how it feels to 'go through a lot'!" Chichi replied angrily.
Krillin felt himself tense up nervously and he began to clam up. He knew Chichi was exactly right. For all he knew 18 could be a pile of circuits just like Android 16. But...but...there was something so different about her than Android 16. Deep down, he could sense a presense. A presense of a young, beautiful human woman. But then again, feelings were not everything these days.
"You're right, I guess.." Krillin finally answered, lowering his head dissapointedly.
"How repulsive!" 18 remarked with disgust as she stopped in front of a desk in Bulma's lab that held many 'heartwarming' pictures of Goku's friends. They were all disgusting to her, but the most repulsive one of the bunch happened to be a picture of Goku, his wife Chichi, and his son, Gohan. As always. Goku seemed as happy as ever with that ridiculous smile plastered on his ugly face. Just looking at his pictures made her hate for him stir up inside her.
18 had been snooping a little through Bulma's laboratory to see what she could find. Well, mostly it was out of boredom, but still. She was in a very curious mood. Besides, she felt like breaking something of Bulma's. Not to mention, maybe she could get away from this...Well, she was about to call this place a dump, but it was sadly everything but. After all, Bulma was the richest lady on the face of this earth just about.
Not being able to stand looking at Goku's stupid face any longer, she raised her arm slightly and slapped the picture off the desk. With a loud crack, the picture fell to the hard ground, causing the frame to crack inbetween Chichi and Goku. If only she really could seperate the two of them and make them miserable. If only she could wipe that goofy smile off the man's face! But, oh no! No matter how hard she ripped that stupid picture up or cracked the frame, he would still be smiling. Heck, even though he was dead, he probably was still smiling. Urk! How dare he have such a good life and not her?!
A scowl began to form 18's pretty features, until she didn't look so pretty anymore. In fact, she looked totally transformed with that nasty scowl on her face. She looked jealous and very miserable. It was very noticeable. She was lucky enough to not have anyone else in the room but her to be able to see her. Her eyes slightly got darker all of a sudden, like she was possessed in a weird way. But of course, she was not. She just looked really hateful right now. Maybe it is true that bottled up hate towards someone can change you; control you...
Deciding she had enough of being in this corner, she walked away, making sure to step right on Goku's face and smash the picture frame up a little more even. Her scowl slowly disappeared into a miserable looking frown; one that would make someone want to come up to 18 and try to hug her to try to make her feel less sad.
A sad sounding sigh escaped 18. It was so odd. Her emotions had been skyrocketing as of lately. First off she was depressed, then she was mad, now she was sad; but not on the verge of depression like last time. But...Why was she sad? Maybe she needed to get out of this lab and get some fresh air. Or maybe she needed someone to talk to about how she was feeling...That probably was the case, she realized to her dismay. She knew had no one though. Well, she might have had Krillin supposedly, but she didn't feel like accepting him. But every time she thought of considering his offer of staying at his place, she felt warmth...acknowledgement for the first time in years, and like she wasn't quite exactly a nothing. It was just so hard though because she did not want to get hurt by Krillin. She could not afford to be hurt again by the likes of a mere person. Then again, she was a mere human before...But...It was so long ago. Three years, maybe four...
Deciding she should maybe go outside, 18 stopped in her tracks and looked around for the exit. Quickly finding it, she walked towards the exit and out it; shutting the door behind her. She felt kind of nervous. They probably hated her just as much as she hated them. After all, she was programmed to kill their prescious Goku! But it wasn't like she really even cared about their opinion of her. She just thought she should get some fresh air and maybe some more of Bulma's delicious food. Boy was Bulma a good cook!
Once she entered the hall, she saw a bunch of doors leading to places. Wow, this would be quite hard. But hey, if it was meant to be, she'd find the door that led to out back. She just hoped she did not get too lost and have Bulma or one of the others walk in and find her looking for the exit and think she was trying to do something bad to Bulma's place.
Deciding to pick the closest door to go through, she walked over to it and opened it up; shutting the door behind her quietly. Walking through the small hallway, she opened the next door, and to her amazement, and not to mention satisfaction, found it to be the exact door she was looking for. She was greeted by dim light outside. Just as she expected, the fresh air was refreshing. Closing her eyes, she inhaled slowly, enjoying the sweet smell of the outside. It smelled a lot better out here than in that disgusting old lab she had been in. Her whole expression had changed yet again; but this time into a peaceful looking one. It wasn't like she was smiling or anything, but there was just a shine suddenly and an aura briefly reflecting from her features. Exhaling slowly, she opened her eyes again to see the beautiful sunset. She felt so relaxed all of a sudden. Like all her worries and pain had been lifted off from the heavy load she had been carrying on her back for so long now.
Taking her sights off the sunset, she realized all of Goku's friends were only a few feet away from her and were all staring at her. She felt so embarassed...After all...She had let her gaurd down. Without realizing it, her cheeks had turned a cute shade of red; she was blushing. Everyone else could see it but her and were very shocked to see any emotion coming from her. Chichi had abviously quit her gossip about 18 and was now instead next to Gohan.
Not knowing what else to do, 18 walked forward into the crowd. "Uh...Hi." She spoke meekly to everyone, but loud enough so everyone could hear her. "Have I interupted anything?"
"Of course not." Bulma replied back, sounding more friendly than usual. "I'm surprised you came."
"So am I." 18 replied back comically, but didn't expect any laughs in reply to her lame response. "So how much longer before the food is done?"
"Uhm...I don't know, you'll have to hang out with us to find out I guess." Bulma replied back, sounding very unsure of her answer. She knew everyone must be wondering why she was being so welcome to 18. Honestly, she didn't know either.
"I see...So what are we supposed to do? Just talk, right?" 18 replied curiously. She felt very uncomfortable in front of Goku's friends. Not to mention, she hated being the center of attention. Especialy in an atmosphere like this. She could tell not many in the crowd liked her.
"Yea...You know everyone, right?" Bulma responded.
"Of course." After all, 18 had their names programmed inside her memory, much to her dismay. After a few seconds of silence, 18 spoke again. "It gets quite boring in that lab, you know..." 18 glanced over at Krillin to find him also looking at her; right in the eyes. Feeling uncomfortable with him staring at ehr like that, she turned her glance the other way, over to Vegeta of all people, who did not fail to speak.
"What are you looking at, android?" Vegeta sounded quite tough and gruff. He sounded like he wanted to start a fight, which he did. Being a saiyan, he wanted to regain his pride that had been beaten upon when 18 beat the dog stew out of him. "Wanting to start something, huh?"
18 didn't want to get into a fight right now. Man, if only Vegeta would have arrived sooner back when she was in the forest. She would have been happy to let him kill her. But now that she wasn't feeling as down, she had a little bit of willpower to live. "No." She replied back carefully, taking her eyes off of him.
"Scared? You should be." Vegeta responded with a bit of dissatisfaction. He had wanted to fight her...
"Vegeta, I don't want any fights going on, so please stop trying to antaganize!" Bulma stepped in briefly.
Vegeta made a scowl at his wife, but listened to what she had to say. When someone as strong as Vegeta was afraid of Bulma's rage, you knew she could be quite scary. Averting his eyes from either one of the two, he crossed his arms coldly.
Everyone was still staring at 18, like they were expecting her to attack one of them. She could understand them feeling that way, though. But she still couldn't help but speak her mind with that mind boggling question on the tip of her tongue. "Why are you guys staring?"
At that, everyone took their sights off 18 and averted their stare. "Sorry." One of them said, which was Krillin of all people.
"Don't aplogize to it, be a man for once, Krillin!" Vegeta snarled at Krillin. "You have the right to look at anyone you want." He was speaking out of spite for 18. Oh, he must have been itching for that fight! And that was just what he might end up getting...18 did not care how strong he was now, she'd still whip his wussy behind.
"Can you stop butting in?" 18 shot at Vegeta crossly, looking a little aggitated. "I felt uncomfortable was all with everyone staring like that. Don't you ever get uncomfortable?"
Vegeta did not even answer her, but broke into a small fit of laughter. Eventually he stopped, and spoke. "A thing like you can feel uncomfortable? Wow! Gero must have really outdone himself this time! Tell me, can you fear, too?" Vegeta had a nasty smirk on his face.
That little dig made 18 so mad! She absolutely hated Gero! And here they were thinking she was made by this man and giving him credit for 'creating' her! How dare they?! They had no respect for her! Especially not Vegeta! She didn't care that Vegeta had the upperhand in this fight, she had to show him who was boss! If only, oh if only he could have taken Yamcha's place earlier!
"Gero has nothing to do with the way I feel." 18 growled, her eyebrows furrowing and a look of hate beginning to form visibly on her face. Just like earlier when she had been in the lab, she looked as if she had transformed.
"Guys, you need to stop fighting!" Bulma could sense that a fist fight was about to stir up pretty soon if she did not put a stop to this. "I will not have you two end up in a fist fight!"
Ignoring Bulma, Vegeta responde back to 18. "Oh really? If it was not for Gero, you would not even be standing!" Vegeta continued. "That's why you can be controlled with a simple push of a button!"
18 balled both her hands into fists. She grit her teeth together in a fit of rage as a low growl escaped her. "Stop talking like you know me because your just making yourself look like the stupid monkey man you really are!"
Vegeta ignored 18's reply, and instead said yet another insulting dig towards her. "Your just a nothing now that Goku is dead and gone. There isn't any reason for you to be here, so why don't you just go kill yourself?"
That hit a soft spot..She had already thought on that border line before, and it had hurt. She had hoped she was the only one who thought that way about herself, but obviously there were others. So she really was nothing now...Vegeta was right. But she refused to kill herself, just despite Vegeta. She would stay alive, just to aggravate this disgusting saiyan.
Instead of 18 shooting back another reply, Vegeta spoke yet again after he realized she did not look like she was going to respond. "Did I hit a soft spot?" He antagonized.
18 had finally officially had enough of Vegeta's cruel words, and decided she would do her best to beat the tar stew out of him. Suddenly, she burst forward and raised her fist slightly behind her and thrust it forward dead smack into Vegeta's nose, most likely breaking it. The impact of her punch caused him to fly backwards a few feet, but only a few feet because he had used his energy to control his flight backwards. Grinning nastily at 18, not to mention competitively, he spoke. "Nice punch. But it's the last one you'll ever get in on me."
Vegeta flew towards 18 full force. As he got close enough to her, he raised his leg and swung it into 18's side. He was so much faster than the last time, and he was not even a super saiyan! 18 soon realized she was in a much more bigger predicament than she had ever expected. Due to the impact of his powerful swing of the leg, 18 flew to the side, slamming into the ground eventualy; causing the grass to be destroyed. Pain shot all through 18's side, causing a grunt of pain to escape her lips. She wanted to just lay down and rest her already obviously injured body until the pain eased, but she knew she had no time to rest or Vegeta would only hurt her more.
Attempting to push herself up, to her dismay, she felt a foot impact with her back, slamming her back into the ground; only deeper into it this time. Now her whole front had pain shooting through it uncontrollably. Squinting her eyes in pain, she felt Vegeta's leg being lifted off her back and soon being pounded into her back yet again, this time even harder. She could feel the ground shake under her every time he pounded upon her fragile, hurt body. She hated to know Vegeta had the upper hand now, and all she could do was sit there and let him kill her...
As she felt his foot move off her, she tensed her body up in expectance of another devastating blow to the back, but was surprised to find no blow to the back again.
"Stop it, Vegeta!" It was Gohan! If she could have seen, she would have seen Gohan attacking Vegeta away from her defenseless self; sending him flying the opposite direction. Ignoring the pain in her body, she slowly twisted herself around the other way to see Gohan up in the sky a few feet above her. He was looking down at her only at first, but eventually flew down to help 18. "Are you okay, 18?" He extended a hand for 18.
She knew he was only helping her because it was Bulma's place. If it were any other place, they would have just let Vegeta finish her off. They didn't care a thing about her...But she still reached out and grabbed his hand; him pulling her up. There was dirt all over her clothing, and a little bit of blood coming from her nose and mouth. Feeling it slowly ooze, she wiped it away. "I guess..." 18 finally replied.
Suddenly, Vegeta flew up from where he had been sent flying to and with a loud yell, his hair transformed into a shiny yellow, and an aura enveloped him that was yellow. "I'm not finished yet!" Vegeta came flying at Gohan full speed. Gohan turned around and prepared himself for a defense against Vegeta, but just to his shock, Vegeta had teleported right when he got up in front of Gohan. He ended up reappearing behind Gohan.
"You get away from my son!!" Chichi shouted wildly, having one of their friends holding her back from going to try to save her son.
Before Gohan could totally react, Vegeta had already delivered a devastatingly painful punch in the back of the neck, causing him to fly forward. Not stopping, Vegeta raised his arms up to chest level and put them together. A blue orb of energy began to form, and immediately he shot it at Gohan before he could do anything to defend himself. "That should hold you off!" It seemed as if he had totally forgotten about 18, so 18 took advantage of Vegeta. Also raising her arms up to chest level, she began to form a powerful blast inbetween her two hands that was the color pink. Gritting her teeth, she shot the blast directly into Vegeta's back, causing him to fly forward just like Gohan.
"Gaaah!!" Vegeta shouted as burning pain shot through his back.
Taking advantage of him being hit already, 18 shot forward after him and raised her right leg behind her and once she got close enough, she thrusted it forward into his back, causing him to fly up into the sky. Then, flying as fast as she could up to the sky before him, she stopped at where she predicted he would fly up to, she raised her arms up and balled her hands up together; making them hold eachother. Once Vegeta got up to her, she attempted to slam him in the gut, but to her dismay and utter shock, he disappeared without a trace. Unclutching her hands from eacthother, she looked left, right, up, down, side to side frantically in search of Vegeta.
Just as she thought he might have wimped out, she heard a voice. "Right here, android!" Behind her! But before she could respond in time, she felt his fists connect with the top of her head, causing her to slam downward towards the ground at full speed. Not one to stop with that, Vegeta dissapeared again without a trace, and reappeared on the ground, looking up at 18 with his arms extended upwards towards her. A blue orb formed in his hands again, but a different strain of blast...Like a much more powerful blast. 18 could see it slightly as she flew down towards him, but could not find the strength in her to stop herself from making contact with the blast. Preparing herself for a mighty and very painful expirience, she squinched her eyes shut.
Just as she was about to pretty much land on Vegeta, he left it his blast shoot forward into her gut. It was humongously wide! Pain shoot through her whole stomach. Oddly enough, the blast did not send her flying, but instead a flash occured and a loud BOOM! The blast that had hit her suddenly dissapeared into nothing. 18 fell to the ground, limp on her back. Smoke slowly lifted off her body into the air. Bruises and scratches were scattered all over her body now. Even parts of her clothing were torn, and you could see her slightly burnt skin. Blood was oozing even worse out her nose now. Not only that, but her lip was busted and blood was also slowly oozing out of it. At first everyone thought she was dead, but soon realized she was not, for she was still breathing.
"Thats what you get, android." Vegeta remarked pridefully, raising his leg behind him and then thrusting it forward into her side, causing her eyes to squint in pain even worse than before. A grunt of pain escaped her slightly parted lips.
Bulma looked to be in utter shock at what had happened. She knew it would have not stopped him any way if she would have tried to tell him to stop, but still. 18 wouldn't be in this position if Vegeta hadn't had started all this. She was actually a tid bit on 18's side. But that didn't make her like her anymore because obviously 18 did not like her husband.
Suddenly, 18 spoke up to everyone's surprise in a very shaky voice. She sounded like she was in real bad pain; like it hurt just to talk. "I..hate...you.." Another grunt of pain escaped 18. "Uhn!" She grit her teeth in pain. It was very visable she was in monsterous pain.
Ignoring 18's words, Vegeta said something of his own. "Well, it's obvious now you can expirience pain. But what about fear? Anything?" He sounded very cold and cruel. A grin of satisfaction was planted on his face.
When 18 made no reply, Vegeta laughed. "How about I do what nobody else will and just finish you off?" He offered, already raising his arm level to where she was laying down in absolute pain.
Despite wanting to die, 18 felt a will inside of her...The will to live, maybe? Why, though? She really was nothing! Heck, she could not even defend herself now against this monster of a man! How dare he call her a thing when he was the one being so heartless! She didn't come out here to start something like this! How dare he!! "N..no, don't..." 18 replied back meekly.
"Don't Vegeta!" Bulma shot at Vegeta.
Just as he was beginning to power a mighty blast up, Krillin jumped in front of 18.
"What are you doing, midget? Get out of the way!" Vegeta spoke in shock.
Despite his fear of Vegeta, he still stood his ground. "Don't hurt her. Please." Krillin gulped nervously. For some reason, he felt like this was the right thing to do.
18 looked at Krillin in shock. Bulma must have been right...He did care. It sort of touched her. But still, she would never let him get close to her. Never.
"I'll take care of her at Master Roshi's. Just please, don't kill her. She obviously did not come here to fight you, Vegeta...Give her some slack!" Krillin explained her position. "She can hardly even move! Isn't that enough for you?!" Krillin still stood his ground.
Amazingly, Vegeta let a scowl come over his face, and with that his blast dissapeared without a trace. "Fine! But get her out of my sight immediately!" Vegeta twisted around the other way and his hair suddenly turned normal again.
Everyone looked awestruck that Krillin was going to take 18 to Roshi's. After all...It was a good chance she'd kill Krillin or either hurt him. It was obvious though that Goku's friends held it against her that she had ever hurt Yamcha because only Gohan had helped them, who by the way was knocked out cold by Vegeta still. Taking Vegeta's word, he walked over to 18 and looked her in the eye. She had a questioning look in her eyes...A confused, pained look. Even though Krillin did not love her, he felt so sorry for her. He hated seeing these nasty scratches on her. Especially the blood on her beautiful face.."I got cha." Krillin whispered to 18, grabbing her up in his arms.
"Sorry guys...I'll be back. I'm going to take 18 to Roshi's..." Krillin felt uncomfortable kind of, but knew he had to do this so he blew off his feelings.
"I can not believe you, Krillin." Tien murmured. "You better be careful with that thing..."
"She's not just a thing, Tien. She's just a teenage girl whose life has been transformed into a living nightmare by a mad scientist, I think." Krillin replied, lifting himself up into the sky shortly after, flying towards Kami house.
Disclaimer: Wow, this was my longest chapter yet! O.O I hope you guys enjoyed it and did not give up on me cuz this took awhile to write! You see, I am writing two stories. One is one that God has laid on my heart to write, and the other is this. My story for God is kind of like my previous story 'Be careful what you wish for'. Anyway, I hope you guys tell me how you liked this chapter. I loved writing it!