Chapter 7: Cyclopean Guards
Trunks flew just ahead of Avien, staying quiet and focusing on everything around him. He reassured himself that there was at least one Namekian still here. Shell wouldn't have sent him to the far reaches of space to discover that all the Namekians were dead… Would she? He shook it off. No, they were here somewhere; suppressing their power levels, no doubt. He would find them.
"Trunks, could you slow down some?" Avien asked straining.
Her question snapped Trunks out of his trance, and he immediately began to slow his pace.
"Thanks," she said, catching up. "Trunks, who is Frieza? You mentioned him earlier."
"Frieza," Trunks began hesitantly, "was a monster. He destroyed the Namekians' original home planet when he invaded, looking for the Dragon Balls. He was beaten in a battle with a hero, named Goku."
"Then, this power you're sensing on this planet couldn't be Frieza, right?" she asked. "He wouldn't have survived the battle, would he?"
"It happened before I was born," Trunks answered. "I, I don't know."
"Well, this hasn't exactly been our day for luck," Avien mentioned lightly.
"That's true," the Saiyan agreed. "But I wouldn't worry about it. Frieza wasn't that powerful. And I'm certain that he would not have forgotten what it was like to fight a Super Saiyan. It won't be something he'll want to do again."
"Super Saiyan?" she asked. "What's that?"
"Me," he answered. "Or rather, me when I'm angry. Remember when I destroyed that Phyramare in the coliseum? And my hair turned gold? That's what a Super Saiyan is. Think of it was an amazing power-up technique."
"Oh," Avien replied understandingly.
"We're nearly there," Trunks said seriously. "Keep an eye open for anything suspicious."
"Right," she affirmed.
She followed immediately behind Trunks as he flew down to the ground, landing a solid mile from where the wall of the structure touched the ground.
"We'll have to find a way inside that big thing," Trunks instructed, once on the ground.
"We could–," Avien began to say, "Wait, what's that sound?"
Immediately, Trunks jumped on top of her, burying her body under his. An instant after they had heard the subtle hiss, a deafening explosion quaked through the ground, shaking them both wildly. With the shockwave past, Trunks jumped to his feet and put an energy shield around himself and Avien. Smoke and debris rocketed past the energy shield, blocking any view of what had caused the explosion.
"What was that?" Avien shouted as she stayed crouched behind Trunks.
The Saiyan didn't answer. He used all his senses to search for any energy signals, but found nothing. It had to have been either a defense system or some type of robot. Patiently, he waited for the smoke to clear. As it did, he slowly began to make out the solid shapes of metallic bodies all around them. There were twenty of them.
"Surrender now," a robotic voice commanded.
Trunks looked around from within his shield. Twenty white, metallic robots stood in a circle around them. They each had a single blue optical receptor in the center of their heads.
"Surrender to whom?" Trunks replied coolly. "There's no one around to surrender to except for you spare parts, and I know that's not gonna happen."
"This will be your only chance," the leading robot announced. "If you decline, your lives are forfeit."
"And what if we surrender?" Avien asked quietly.
"Then your bodies will be integrated into useful parts for our master," the android answered emotionlessly.
"That's not much incentive for us to negotiate a mutually beneficial surrender then is it?" Trunks challenged. "You damn androids never get it do you?"
"Your answer is void," the robot confirmed.
"The hell is that supposed to me–, ah screw it!" Trunks said angrily. "Avien can you generate your own shield?"
"Yeah, of course," she replied quickly.
"Good, do it," Trunks said, dropping his shield.
He immediately flew forward, driving his fist through the robot's big, blue bubble in its forehead.
"Damn, that brings back good memories," he said cynically.
The robot's metal body flinched slightly, before sparking randomly at the shortage and exploding all around Trunks. Immediately, the others sprung to life. Out of the smoke two robots appeared, one on each side of Trunks. The one on his left swung, but Trunks ducked low, and retaliated with a swift reverse kick up into the middle of the robot's optical receptor. Stunned, it stood motionless for a moment. However, it was all of the time that Trunks needed. While still ducked down, Trunks retracted his boot instantly and swept the robot on his right off its feet with a quick trip of his foot. Following through with the motion of his outstretched foot, Trunks spun back around and grabbed the left robot's leg and slammed it into the airborne robot on his right. Broken metallic parts splintered through the air, as the two robots flew across the countryside into a rock face. In the blink of an eye, Trunks was already back on his feet.
"Is that it?" Trunks asked confidently.
Six robots were immediately moving in for attack. Trunks took to the air and exploded in power, bringing out his Super Saiyan form. The first robot to reach him, threw out its arm and its claw opened, emitting a large blue beam. However, before the beam had finished firing, Trunks appeared behind the robot facing the others, his sword unsheathed and pointed at them. Behind him, the robot's arms, legs, and head slowly fell apart from its body, and it exploded.
Two robots attacked simultaneously, but Trunks quickly slashed past both of them, their bodies falling in half behind him. Out of his spin, he threw his sword; it impaled the next robot in front of him. He disappeared quickly and reappeared instantly in front of the falling robot. As gravity pulled on the robot Trunks held onto his sword, and the machine slipped slowly off of his blade and fell away.
The remaining two robots were joined by ten more. Trunks retracted his blade and floated motionless, waiting. The first two machines disappeared and reappeared behind him. He turned to attack both of them, but was caught by something behind him. Trunks looked over his right shoulder. One of the mechanical creatures had elongated its clawed hand and locked onto his right hand. Instantly, he felt locking claws on all four of his limbs. Trunks pulled hard to escape, but their grasp was more powerful than he had guessed. As more claws locked onto his torso, the Super Saiyan lost grip on the Z Sword, and it fell down to the ground, stabbing blade-down into the dirt.
Trunks looked down below at his sword and then back at his enemies.
"Bastards," he grunted.
Without any warning, the extensions providing the machines' grappling hooks became electrified. Trunks screamed loudly as they ran as much current as their mechanical bodies could produce into him.
Back on the ground, Avien was faced with only one machine, but it was still proving too powerful for her to successfully bring down. When the others had left, she had dropped her shield and attempted to take on the one left to guard her.
"Why won't you go down?" she shouted as she launched an energy attack into the robot's face.
Unfazed, the machine walked blindly through the explosion. She flew forward, unleashing a barrage of attacks on the mindless, mechanical minion. Eventually, her attacks began to take a toll on the robot. As each blow connected, the machine slowly began to flinch more and more. She pulled back her fist, and charged a large amount of energy into it.
"Chew on this," she muttered as she slammed her glowing, red fist forward into the robot's gut.
A loud, metal crunch followed, and the machine showed signs of submission. Unfortunately, despite the fact that she had beaten it, the robot fired out its hooked fist as it fell. The claw was unimaginably fast, and caught Avien's left arm, pinning her to the ground. She looked over at the robot with a triumphant smile. She had beaten it. As she lay there catching her breath, she suddenly felt the tips of her hair standing on end. A look of panic spread across her face, and suddenly the robot's electric security system kicked in. Blue sparks shot from the robot's arm as electricity surged through it and Avien. She screamed out in agony.
Above his own screams, Trunks immediately heard Avien cry out. He looked down to where she was. If he didn't get out of his mess fast, Avien would be dead. He could feel her life force draining fast. He charged up immediately, screaming loudly. The sky started to glow around his body, as Trunks pushed his power as high as he could. Suddenly, a huge release of energy came over him, and he awoke a second level Super Saiyan. Lightning arced wildly around his body, and began working its way against the current surging through the machines' hooks.
Trunks stopped screaming, collected himself, and then released an immense wave of energy from his body, causing an instant overload on all the robots' electric appendages. One by one, their bodies began to crack and break, and then simultaneously they exploded in a blinding light. In a flash of light, Trunks was outside the cloud of smoke from the midair explosion and on his way towards Avien, except… there was no Avien.
"Avien?" Trunks cried. "Avien!"
He searched frantically around the area. The robot's arm had been severed where it lay, but she was nowhere near it. Then he felt her. He turned to his right, and there on the ground was an unconscious Avien with a medium-height green body crouched over her. Trunks slowed his sporadic breathing, and calmed himself back down to his normal form. He floated down to the ground and retrieved his sword, sheathed it, and then made his way over to Avien and the Namekian.
