"So, these are the big bad androids," Vegeta smirked with his arms crossed.

"Thaaat's them..." Trunks sighed.

"Run into a few problems, Dr. Gero?" 17 wondered as he noticed his lack of hands.

"Yes, you could say that. Some of Goku's friends proved quite a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. 19 was easily defeated by Vegeta, and the one named Raiza-"

Raiza? 18 thought. That name sounds familiar. It must be in my files on him but... hm, interesting.

"-is the one responsible for my hands," he finished. "Listen you two, I activated you two against my better judgement. In the past you have disobeyed me, and I blame myself for it due to your programming. However, we have a common foe this time around, and I don't think I have to give an order for you two to defeat these people."

"Right. Orders," 17 replied.

"Hm, what's this?" 18 asked as she stepped back towards another container, the large numbers "16" printed on them.

"Step away from there!" Dr. Gero shouted. "You can't open that yet, I'm not yet finished with it!"

"What's the big deal? He's not much in the looks department," she observed.

17 took a step forward and examined his power level, smirking at the reading.

"According to my scanners I'm much stronger than this one. What's so special about him, anyway?"

"Ugh. Nothing you two need to concern yourselves with. If you haven't noticed, we have a bit of a situation right now, so go and take care of it and finish off Goku!"

17 and 18 gave each other quick exchanges before glancing back at their creator. "No thanks," the male twin smirked. "We'll take care of it when we're ready."

"What! Why... you!"

"Relax," 18 calmly said, stepping to the other side of the container with her fingers dancing along the side. "We can get our new friend to take care of Goku's friends for us. That way we can just worry about finding Goku. There's thinking with your head."

Damn it! I've got to get them under control! But I can't deactivate them, I don't have any god damn hands!

"16, he's just a prototype, if you activate him he'll malfunction, I know he will!"

"Don't worry," 17 said. "We'll find out real quick if he is or isn't, and he'll go right back in."

"No! I'm telling you, step away from him NOWWWW-"

In that moment, an eruption of pain and agony split throughout the doctor's body as 17's hand pushed through the other side of Dr. Gero's stomach. The young man grappled his shoulders, pressing his back to his chest as he whispered into his ear.

"I'm tired of eating your crap, old man. I think you've forgotten something. When you created us, you broke the limits of our original capabilities by adding in the emotional stasis. Nothing makes a person stronger than hate, and do you know what causes me so... much... hate?"

Dr. Gero only grunted, shocked at the amount of pain he was in as the Z-Fighters only looked on in horror.

"It's you, you old bastard. I'm not going back into that capsule, I'm going to do what I said I was going to do when you put me under."

Finally retracting his hand from the innards of the doctor, his owner scowled at him from behind.

"You... I... gave you... life... and I can take it away!"

He tossed his handless arm forward, easily sidestepped by 17. In that quick moment, a rare flash of anger crossed the calm android's face as a swift kick severed the head of the doctor, knocking it clean off his shoulders and rolling to the entrance of the laboratory.

Dr. Gero's head rolled to the edge of the door, frightening Krillin as it began to speak right after landing.

"That's... it... now I'm mad!" said the head.

A second later, 17 was in the air, slamming his foot down as it crushed the very last of life within Dr. Gero's psychotically genius mind, silencing him forever.

He smiled at Krillin, obviously terrified of him.

"Hey, don't be scared. Look, I just killed one of the bad guys. Come on, can't you give me a chance?" he sarcastically smirked.

"Is this what happened?" Raiza wondered out loud.

"You say something, pal?" 17 glanced over.

"Yeah, I said something!" Raiza snapped back. "What the hell happened to you two? Is this what happened? You guys just, I don't know, get kidnapped or something and ended up here?"

17 raised an eyebrow. What's with this guy? I've never even met him before and he's acting like I'm a long lost friend. Weirdo.

"God damn it, Andrew, why can't you remember anything?"

"Andrew?" the android wondered. "Listen, man, if you lost a friend you have my condolences, but I'm not your guy. Now if you'll excuse me, my sister and I have some business to attend to. 18. Open the capsule."

"If they activate that android it will be the end of all of us! Nooooo!"

In a flash, Trunks not only transformed, his energy skyrocketed and his hands came together as it blasted straight towards the android pair standing by the container.

The narrow window of time was used as the Z-Fighters quickly cleared away before the cave collapsed around them. When it was over, a large cloud of smoke covered the remains of the laboratory, slowly blowing away with the wind.

"Hey, Trunks! How about a little warning next time?" Krillin pleaded.

"Why'd you go and do that? You just showed them how weak you are!" Vegeta scowled.

"What?"

Seconds later, the smoke finally cleared away to show 17 standing without a scratch on him, 18 all the same, with the capsule lifted above her with one hand like a pizza.

"There's no way anyone could have survived that, that was my most intense blast!"

"Huh," 17 started. "Oh well. Saves us the trouble of blowing this place up ourselves."

"I guess," 18 replied. "What should we do about our friend?"

"Go ahead and let him out."

She nodded as she tossed the container down in front of her. She stepped over and pressed the button to open, and watched as the door opened.

Out of it, a large man stepped out, his red mohawk flowing in the wind as he glanced around at his surroundings.

"Uh- guys, he's- uh, big! He's very big!" Krillin said. "And he's ugly, too!"

Trunks growled at his failed attempt to take them out. Even the androids in his time would have been at least a little shaken up by this attack. But these ones didn't even have tears on their clothes. I didn't know Dr. Gero made another android? How could I have missed one?

"Well good morning," 17 said. "It must feel good to get out of that coffin. How long have you been cooped up in that container for, anyway?"

16 said nothing.

"Come on, speak," 17 said again. "Did Dr. Gero not give you a voice box? He tried to tell us it was dangerous to activate you."

"Why would the doctor say such a thing?" 18 added on. "Do you know?"

Once again, 16 remained silent as he slowly and carefully studied his surroundings.

"Do you have something to say?" she asked.

"Hello? Anybody home in there?" 17 asked. "The strong-silent type, huh?" he sighed. "Come on, let's go."

"Where to?" his sister asked.

"To complete our mission. Are you with me, 18?" he turned his glance back to 16. "16, Dr. Gero programmed you with a mission to destroy Goku, isn't that right?"

He tilted his head to the side, facing his temporary partner. "That's right."

"I'll be. So the big guy can speak, after all," he smirked.

"Dr. Gero must have only programmed him to respond to things that pertain to his main objective."

"Huh. I didn't think the doctor was that smart. Okay, let's see if you can carry out your objective: Find Goku and destroy him," slowly, his body lifted off the ground, followed by 18's, then 16 followed soon after as they rose to the air and flew away, never even acknowledging the fighters that had just tried to kill them.

"Hey!" Krillin pointed. "They're leaving!"

"Ugh!" Vegeta growled. His pride was on the line, and those androids simply ignored him, like he was nothing important.

"Good riddance!" Krillin added on. "We're safe!"

"But, where do you think they're going?" Tien asked. "Should we follow them?"

Piccolo then realized where they were heading. "If they were going that way they wouldn't be going to South City! That's the other way!"

"I've got it!" Krillin spoke up, again. "They've gone after Goku! Yeah, that was Dr. Gero's goal to get back at Goku for destroying his Red Ribbon Army!"

"Do you really think after they just killed their own master they would still follow his orders?" Raditz asked.

"Ugh... ugh!" Vegeta finally had it. "I don't care where they went! I'll track them down myself! They're cowards!... They left because they were afraid of me... and they should be!"

Within seconds, Vegeta had transformed back into a Super Saiyan, catching everyone's attention again. He was really going to go back after them? Vegeta's judgement was definitely called into question by the others at this point.

Trunks desperately rushed in front of him in an attempt to stop his father. "No, stop! Stay here! Don't go after them!"

"Heh. You expect ME to wait for Kakarot?"

"Kakarot?... Oh, you mean Goku. That's right! We need him for this battle! We're only strong enough if we all stay together!"

"Heheheh," he laughed. "Sure! Let's wait for Kakarot! I mean wouldn't it be easier if we all just joined up with the androids instead?" he sneered. "He's history!"

Trunks had to swallow his short temper, clearly inherited from his father. Still, he stood strong.

"Now get out of my way before you get hurt! And let me finish them off, by myself, WITHOUT KAKAROT!"

"YOU CAN'T! IF YOU FACE THE ANDROIDS ALONE YOU WILL BE DESTROYED FOR SURE! DON'T YOU GET IT? THEY ALREADY KILLED YOU IN MY TIME! You must listen to me, stay here!"

The second the words left his mouth, a harsh blow to the stomach left him winded, grabbing his stomach in a wretched pain.

"Now stay out of my way!" Vegeta ordered as he blasted past him, chasing after his new targets.

"Vegeta!" Raditz shouted, but he was too far to be reached, even if he was, he wouldn't have stopped.

"Dad," Raiza said. "I'm gonna go after him."

"What? Why?"

"We all need to! It's like Trunks said, we're only strong enough if we stick together. If those guys start blowing stuff up and Kakarot is still sick, are we just gonna hide under the table until he gets better? Let's do something!"

"You've been acting weird since we got here, boy, spit it out. This isn't just about doing the right thing, now say it!" his father said.

The others glanced at Raiza. He was caught, and he knew it, but he didn't have time to explain. If Vegeta destroyed either of the two, he would never be able to forgive himself, or the prince.

"Forget you guys, then! I'll do it myself, I'm stronger than all of you anyway!"

"Raiza!"

Raditz called out to his son, but he was gone, heading just where the other four individuals had gone down, quickly vanishing from sight.

"Idiot son of mine! He's going to get himself killed!"

"Raditz is right," Piccolo added on. "We can't stop them from going, but we can at least be there to back them up. It might not be as hopeless as we think, but we have to hurry! Let's go!"

X X X

Birds were chirping. A mother blue-bird stopped at a branch, feeding a worm to her hatchlings as a pair of three flying guests descended on the highway nearby. The scene was quiet and relaxed, for the time being. 16 took notice of them the second he stepped down, admiring them from afar, not paying any attention to 18 speaking to her brother.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, don't blow a circuit I just wanted to see the scenery from down here," he replied.

"So we walk?" she asked.

"No, we drive. We're going to take the next automobile that passes by us. So how does that sound?"

She wasn't really buying it, especially since she knew her brother was going to be driving, and if there was one thing she knew, it's that he wasn't one for being slow and steady. Put that attitude behind the wheel of a vehicle and there was no telling how soon they would get into an accident.

"Hm. It sounds to me that you're being foolish. 17, why would we waste our time driving a car?"

"Because we've never done it before," he replied, glancing over to 16 who was still admiring the view. "We're planning on taking a little car ride, 16, do you want to go, too?"

"What? Did you just say Goku?"

17's eyebrows lifted. "... I'll take that as a yes."

"Seems Goku is the only thing he has on his mind," 18 added on.

Yeah... that's strange, 17 thought. It seems Dr. Gero didn't create him with the human personality traits that 18 and I have. I'll be curious to see what other flaws he has in his design...

"Hey, 17," 18 said. "What was with that boy back there?"

"What boy?"

"He called you Andrew."

"Huh. No clue. I guess I kind of do look like an Andrew, but I've never met that person before. I guess it's true what they say, we have look alikes all over the world," he smirked.

"Maybe," she replied. But still... he looks so familiar. Like I've seen his face in a crowd before, or something. I suppose it doesn't matter, but I know if I don't figure it out 17 will start to notice, and it'll only be a matter of time before he starts heckling me about it.

"So, there you are."

They turned to the side at the sight of Vegeta standing not too far from them. He was different now, though. His hair was spikier, golden, and his aura was completely shimmering. Some type of transformation, but they had never seen it before, ever.

"I didn't think you'd be this easy to find. Run out of gas?"

"There's something... different about him," he said to 18. "What happened?"

"I'm showing my true self. I'm the most powerful being on this planet... and you're not welcome here!"

18 crossed her arms. This guy was totally full of himself. "You're awfully brave for someone... all alone."

"Don't worry," his arrogantly smirked. "I came prepared. Heheh, I'm going to put you back in the crates you crawled out of!"

17 and 18 just looked at each other before giving a light chuckle to the situation. They knew Vegeta's personality was arrogant, but this was way over the top. It was hilarious to them.

"You're laughing," Vegeta twitched, he hated it when people laughed at him. It reminded him of Frieza. "Why is that? This is not a joke!"

Finally 17 turned his attention to him. "Tell me, are all of you saiyans so full of yourselves? Is Goku like you? Is this the way you try to hide your incompetence?"

Now the prince was getting angry. He was daring to talk down to him?

"We androids will always be superior to your kind."

"You take that back! You'll regret saying that, you're nothing but a machine made of tin! You're just a bunch of toys made by a crazy old man! And don't forget that tin toys can be broken!"

18 was finally fed up with it. "He talks too much."

"WHAT WAS THAT?"

"16," she said. "Let's see what you can do. Destroy him."

"I refuse."

17 and 18 were surprised by that. He refused to fight?

"So, the big guy's not so dumb, huh?" Vegeta smirked. "Now who's it going to be?"

"He refuses? Who does he think he is?"

"Never mind him," 18 smiled as she began stepping towards Vegeta. "I'll handle this," she tucked her hair behind her ear as she finally came to a stop. "Ready, little man?"

"So, it's ladies first, is it? That's fine with me. Now don't expect me to go easy on you. I fight to win."

18 said nothing as she held her hands to her sides in sort of a loose grip. She wasn't going to take the fight that seriously; she knew Vegeta wasn't that powerful according to her files on him. Still, they hadn't counted on the transformation he had just done, so she would still be cautious.

But before the fighting started, another person dropped down next to Vegeta. Another saiyan.

"What are you doing here, boy?" Vegeta barked. "Didn't your father teach you any manners? Get out of here, I can handle these three on my own!"

"I don't care about that!" he snapped back, jumping in front of him. "I can't let you fight them. Not those two, anyway."

"WHAT? Are you out of your MIND, Raiza?" the prince roared. "Either you move and let me finish these androids off, or I'll finish you off first, and Raditz is going to have one dust bucket of a son when this is all said and done!"

Growling, Raiza swallowed hard as he got in Vegeta's face, transforming himself as they met eye for eye. "Try it."

Vegeta's irritated face turned to an obnoxious smirk as he backed up with his arms crossed. "I get it."

"What?"

"How pathetic. You, one of the last pure-blooded saiyans alive, and you've taken some sort of sick liking to that girl. Is that it? Don't want me to crush your woman's head like a can of juice?"

Furiously trying to hold his embarrassment back, he gritted his teeth to the point of almost breaking them. "No, that's not it! I knew them, I'm telling you, they're not bad people!"

Before he could continue any further, a small and gentle hand grazed his shoulder, crawling up and across his cheek as 18 stepped past him. "That's very brave of you to try and protect me. But the fact of the matter is, you're a complete stranger to us, just like Vegeta," she winked before tapping his nose with her finger. "Do me a favor and stay there, okay, handsome?"

"Don't you worry about him," Vegeta smirked. "He's still just a boy. We tend to grab onto anything with a pair of legs when we're that age, but he'll stay out of this."

"Vege!-" before he could finish, another hand clamped onto his shoulder.

"Hey," 17 calmly said. "Don't worry about her, she'll be okay. Why don't you turn off that light show you've got going on, it'll make me feel a lot better knowing you're not going to jump in."

He grunted, but he complied, powering down.

"Thanks. It's kind of hard to find people who are true to their word now these days. Tell you what: You stay out of that fight, and I will too. I'll even stand here right next to you. How's that sound? You can even tell me about this Andrew fellow you say I look like. I may even help you find him."

"Damn it, you are him! That's what I'm trying to say!" he growled, glancing away from the fight Vegeta and the android were commencing. "Dr. Gero must have wiped that from your memory."

"I see... Oh well," he apathetically said, watching the fight. Interesting, Vegeta is a lot stronger than our data suggested.

"You mean you're okay with not even knowing who you were? Your own name, or your family?"

"I don't really care. Ow! Did you see how he knocked 18 into that mountain? Huh... there they go, 18's probably gonna lead him into a trap."

"God damn it!"

X X X

Far off from the start of the battlefield, crossing the lines into the highway, Vegeta continued his pursuit of the female android, until she finally stopped on top of an eighteen-wheeler. They stared each other down, secretly, Vegeta needed the time to catch a small break from using that much energy just keeping up with her.

Inside the truck, two passengers rode towards their destination. The passenger heard the thumping from outside and turned his head to glance at the two warriors standing on opposite ends.

"What are you looking at, Cleetus?" said the burly driver.

"You ain't gon' believe this, Solis, but there's two people on top of the rig at this very moment!"

"Yeah right. I think you've been on the road too long, little buddy."

"What's wrong?" Vegeta taunted. "Batteries getting low?"

With no response for the next few moments, the saiyan prince rushed at 18, tossing punch after kick until finally, his foot landed into her stomach, sending her into a car driving behind them, crashing it into the wall as it exploded.

He chased after her as she got back to her feet, missing her with a punch as she launched away, another car crashing into the wall. She jumped onto the other intersection of traffic onto the roof of another car as it drove away, tempting him to follow.

"What the?" the driver said to himself. "What the heck was that?"

Vegeta growled as he took off from the ground, accidently exploding the car coming in behind him with his raw aura as he slammed his fist down onto the android, only to have it come crashing through the roof of the car she was standing on.

"Oh shit! A hand! And it's glowing!"

18 simply laughed at him as she flew away from him. She could do this all day, never mind the fact her energy would not run out; Vegeta was just such a fun person to mess with.

"That's the last time you get away from me!" he shouted as he bolted off after her, sending the car he was standing on into a fiery explosion.

X X X

Raiza and the two androids glanced up at the sound of air-cutting flight approaching them.

"Look, they're back," 17 said.

"Phew. Maybe after Vegeta's done we can settle this whole thing," Raiza thought out loud.

"Hmm," 17 remarked. "You sure seem to have a thing for wanting to protect us, or maybe it's just my sister you've taken a liking to."

"What? No, no, no, no, no that isn't it!" he waved his hands furiously. "You guys were friends of mine!... Sort of, enough to where I actually cared about if you guys got hurt or not. Look, man, I-"

"You know if you lose the tail, she'd probably go for you. Not sure how she feels about the whole beastia-"

"GOD DAMN IT, LISTEN TO ME!"

Not too far off, 18 and Vegeta touched down on opposite sides of the road.

"Did you enjoy the ride?" 18 chuckled as she tucked a chunk of locks behind her hair.

"Ugh... your warranty ran out with me a long time ago!" Vegeta growled. "So you're going to be recycled!"

18 said nothing, but rather smiled as she placed her hands on her hips, waiting for Vegeta to make the next move.

Taking the opportunity, he held an open palm out and pointed it straight at her. "Now... be good and be still!"

"That's a horrible way to win a girl over," she smirked. "Don't you have any other lines?"

"Ugh! Quiet, bot! I'm going to wipe that smirk off that pretty little face of yours!"

Not even noticing what was happening behind her, a large semi-truck pulled up behind the android. The door sporting the words 'SPECIAL' with an insignia bearing a very close resemblance to the Ginyu Force's mark.

"-honk, honk- You've laughed -honk- at me for the -honk honk- last time, android!-honk... honnnnnnnkkk-" the sounds of the horn not even disturbing the prince's remarks.

"What are you doing in the middle of the road?" the driver shouted. "Are you guys nuts? Move it! I got a truck load of paperclips I gotta get unloaded! So get out of the way!"

"Any last words before I blast you?" Vegeta asked.

"ExCUSE me! Big truck, paperclips? Come onnn!"

"Hmph," 18 smirked. "Take your best shot."

Not even caring about the truck driver behind her, Vegeta fired a blast towards her, which she quickly jumped away from, but the truck- driver included- could not, as it was blasted away.

17 simply watched in amusement while Raiza clenched his fists. Normally, he didn't care, back in the day, if innocents were killed. Hell, most of his assignments consisted of killing every innocent. But something about Vegeta nonchalantly destroying that truck bugged him.

"Funny. You seem aggravated," 17 said to the saiyan. "Thinking about jumping in?"

"No. I told you I'd stay put if you did the same."

"Good. No offense, but it wouldn't be very even if we both jumped in. I could have defeated Vegeta easily by now, and not to rain on your parade, but you, too."

"Tch," he grunted. "Whatever. You weren't so cocky when you were your old self."

"You know, you keep bringing that up like I'm going to add to the conversation. Let's be real here, there is no conversation. As far as I'm concerned, you're just as diluted as Dr. Gero was, though I find no reason to hate you like I do him, so there is that."

"If you kill Kakarot... my uncle... what are you going to do then?"

"Oooh nice, did you see how much fire that blast caught?" he turned back to Raiza. "I'm sorry, that was rude. I'm sure by Kakarot you mean Goku. Well, once we kill him, I'm not too sure. I might just kill you if I feel like it."

"That was just so poor!" 18 remarked as she landed behind Vegeta. "Your aim was off by ten degrees," she said with a conceited smile across her face. "What's the matter? Did you have something in your eye?"

"Grr..." Vegeta turned back to her. "You can be very quick when you want to be, android. But your speed won't save you from me for long!"

"Don't worry, Vegeta. I don't plan on running from you anymore."

"Huh," 17 observed. "Looks like she's gonna actually start trying. Gotta say, I'm impressed. She actually had to charge up to 100%."

"What? You mean she's just been messing with him?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he glanced down at Raiza's feet, he could tell he moved them slightly. He was getting uneasy. "Just so you know, I'm a lot stronger than her. Her 100 is my 75, so don't think jumping in now is a good idea, friend."

"Yeah... well... I'm stronger than Vegeta. His 100 is my... uh... I don't know," he fumbled, not really sure how to come back from that.

"Heh. Right, I'm sure. Well don't worry, I play by the rules, even if the scene is tempting enough."

Raiza just watched them from the safe distance he had. Even if I am stronger than him, I can't exactly stay a Super Saiyan for that long. If I don't win quick, it won't really matter.

"Face it, I'm a lot stronger than you'll ever be," 18 said with confidence.

"I doubt it," Vegeta smirked back. "You're so weak I won't have to break a sweat!"

"For your information, I've been taking it easy on you. I know how fragile you flesh-and-blood types can be."

"Oh really? Well don't be doing me any favors, because I won't be showing you any mercy!"

She simply smiled. This was going to be fun. "Hm. Well, okay."

End Chapter 14

Come on, you knew I was gonna HAVE to do this eventually. Well, our big meet up comes up at this chapter, and how it will develop will be seen in the oncoming chapters. Don't worry, I actually have Chapter 15 almost finished. I was writing and writing and ended up writing about 25 pages... a bittttt too much (for right now, anyway.), so the next chapter is actually almost finished as this one comes up. Should be up either tomorrow or the day after. Thanks for being patient with the sporadic and sometimes drawn out updates. Stuff happens, so thanks for not killing me. =)

Next chapter shall be up, like I said, in a couple of days at the most. In the mean time, well, you guys know the drill. Cya. -PD