May 12
East City
Goku flew ahead, following in the direction where they last saw the figures.
Piccolo, stayed behind, looking as though he had something to say to Bulma.
Krillin and Gohan followed Goku, but not quick enough to keep up.
"Bulma. You know where Tien, Chiaotzu, and Yamcha are, don't you." Piccolo said, while then turning ahead to look into the city as the rest rushed in. He decided to rely on his hearing, and then fly in when he heard some comotion.
"How could you tell?" Bulma said. Baby Trunks cooed.
"You usually have something up your sleeve." Piccolo said.
"Ok ok, you got me. So I had a talk with Tien and Yamcha last week. They are working on something around this for when the first set of androids showed up." Bulma said, winking slyly.
"Hey! He's not supposed to know about the second set yet!" Whispered Trunks, as he overheard.
"It's ok. I already knew. You can come out now. I could already sense you hiding." Piccolo said.
"Ah. Great. There goes my cover. How did you know beforehand anyhow?" Trunks remarked, as he stepped out from the side.
"Kami and I had a talk. He told me enough, but he clearly left some things out." Piccolo said, looking a bit frustrated.
"Oh. I see. Hey wait a minute! Mom! Why didn't you tell me about this part of the plan?!" Trunks said, worriedly, and confused.
"Look, I knew if I told you about it, you might have mixed feelings. But, they are headed to Gero's Lab. They're going to pick up the pods for 16, 17 and 18. You said that 17 somehow turns around in the other future and becomes a guardian of Earth." Piccolo grumbled at that. "Metaphorically speaking, sorry, Piccolo." Bulma corrected.
"Maybe you're right. I don't know if I would have agreed with that decision. But won't that mean that we now only have these androids to deal with?" Trunks said.
"Well, yes and no. You did also say that the 17 in the other future was somehow, absorbed by that creature. We can't risk that happening here." Bulma said.
Trunks looked wide-eyed. He still is always surprised at how clever his mother was. "That's a very good point. I thi-"
"Let's focus on the task at hand for now. We need to head towards the rest, and help out. Seems like things are heating up. Vegeta will show up soon, which I'm sure you both know already know. Don't worry. I'll 'play the part' until I need to show the results of my training." Piccolo interrupted.
"Right." Trunks said. He took note of that last remark. Maybe things will play out more smoothly than expected.
They flew ahead into the city, with Bulma flying right behind using her new battle suit.
Goku slowly looked around, trying to pick up on any sounds he could. Suddenly a loud smashing noise nearby came about.
"Dad, over here!" Yelled Gohan from a bit away.
Goku rushed to the sound.
There stood the Androids, staring at Gohan and Krillin.
"The child has been located. Scanning for the father." Exclaimed 19.
"Don't you worry, you won't even get to my father when I'm through with you." Gohan said, trying to sound tough but clearly not getting it right.
"When did you get that confidence, Gohan?" Krillin said, surprised to hear Gohan talk like that. Maybe due to the lack of confidence Krillin was feeling.
"Hey guys! I'm here! Don't worry. They're here for me. I'll take em on. There's no one around, so we can just let loose." Goku said, with confidence.
"Well then Son Goku. Let's see if you can fare well against Android 19." Said 20, with more confidence, somehow trying to upstage all this confidence going around.
"Let's see what you got." Goku said.
Goku powered up to Super Saiyan, much to 20's surprise.
"What is that transformation. I have no data on this." 20 said.
"This is called Super Saiyan. It's a big power boost. I guess if you don't know about this, then you're going to have a hard time." Said Goku, slightly stepping forward.
Piccolo, Trunks, and not too far behind, Bulma with Baby Trunks flew in to watch.
"Something's wrong with him. Something's off." Piccolo said.
"The heart Virus. It's starting to take into effect." said Trunks. He knew this was going to happen, but pretending to be surprised is a hard thing to do.
"Whoa hey! You're that, future guy! This is some awful timing. Say. Why's your hair blonde? Are you Super Saiyan right now?" Krillin said.
"Uh no, I dyed it to stay under cover. I'm sure it'll come off if I really do go Super Saiyan..."
"Wouldnt it have been easier if you wore some suit with a helmet or something?" Krillin remarked.
Gohan gave out a slight giggle at that. Trunks looked a bit annoyed and nervous at the remark.
"Yikes, anyway, I hope we get through this in one piece." Krillin said, trying to get back on track.
"Don't worry, if something happens, I'll step in." said Gohan.
"What's gotten into you, Gohan? You seem... Different." Krillin said.
Gohan stayed quiet. He knew saying anything would tell something about the training he had sometime ago. Trunks told him a lot about what he saw, what he experienced. He wasn't ready to let things play out the way he heard. He was going to try to prevent all that from happening.
Goku charged at 19. Slamming 19 across 3 buildings, into a park. 19 charged back at Goku, trying to hit him, but Goku was just too fast to catch. He was avoiding getting touched by 19.
"19! Get close to him damn it!" Yelled 20.
Gero's Lab, East of North Capital
"This must be where the lab is." said Tien.
"Yeah looks like it. That's a pretty big door. Stand back. Ill blast it open." said Yamcha, with a pretty out of character look of frustration.
"Yamcha, are you ok? You seem to be in a pretty bad mood." said Chiaotzu.
"I don't want to talk about it." Yamcha said, clearly wanting to talk about something else.
He blasted the door with a kamehameha. The door fell down with a big thomp.
"Whoa, be careful, you almost blew the whole lab up..." Tien said.
"I'm sorry, I guess I must've put too much into that one" Yamcha said, lightening up a bit with a small laugh. Felt good to let out some steam.
They walked around the lab, trying to find the pods. Finally they found the 2 labeled 17 and 18.
"There's two of em, but, I don't see the third one." Yamcha said.
"Over here! I see it! Oof. It's pretty heavy, even for my powers." Chaotzu said, trying to lift it up with telekinesis.
"I got this one, grab one of the other pods. I think those are smaller. Let's get out of here." said Tien.
All three of them flew off, flying low just as Bulma had asked.
Suddenly, there was a loud boom noise. An odd looking ship was in the air. It started to fly down into the mountains, slightly catching on fire.
"That must be the weird thing Bulma talked about. She said if something odd happened in the area, to book it out of here faster. I really don't like that weird power level I felt for a few seconds from that ship." Chiaotzu said.
"Yeah, let's get outta here." Yamcha said.
They sped off without looking back.
East City
Goku was struggling to keep up with 19 at this point. 19 came in with a thrusting kick, slamming into Goku's chest. He smashed through a cargo truck, unable to get up, loosing Super Saiyan.
"Krillin, go get him. We need to get him somewhere safe. I'll take him on before Vegeta shows up." Gohan said.
"Gohan... You sure you can handle this?" Krillin said, but Gohan had already flown towards 19.
"This is turning out a lot easier than I expected." 20 said.
Gohan flew in and smashed 19, who was in the air preparing a blast.
"I will stop you." Gohan said. The intimidation part could use some work.
Meanwhile, Krillin flew towards Goku. "Goku! Are you ok?"
"My chest hurts. I don't feel so good." Goku said, before passing out.
Krillin picked him up. He headed towards the Son family home.
Gohan sped around 19. 19 had no chance of keeping up, slowly showing slight frustration.
Gohan finally let a hard kick in, right at the neck of 19. The impact made it's head slightly tear off, but not completely.
"What! How is he that strong! He's not even that odd transformation! That was just one kick!" 20 said.
A loud blast could be heard coming in. Gohan barely got out of the way. It went towards 19, but it absorbed the blast.
"Zzzzz-Energy absorbed. Power leak detected." 19 buzzed as it tried to say with its head half off.
The android started leaking beams uncontrollably from all over their body.
From the origin of the ki blast, you could see a Super Saiyan Vegeta, with a frown.
"Don't you dare start blowing up androids without me, brat!" Vegeta yelled, before speeding into the power leaking android.
"Don't throw ki blasts at it! It's just going to absorb it!" Gohan yelled.
"You ordering me around, kid? Whatever. This things almost finished anyway." Vegeta said.
I've got to get out of here and back to the lab. I need to activate 17 and 18. I underestimated this situation. Thought 20. He escaped, using 19's light show as a distraction. Piccolo noticed, but he didn't follow. He knew that the doctor was going back to a lab without androids.
Beams were blasting all over, blowing buildings and anything around it. One stray beam almost hitting Bulma.
"Phew! Welp! I saw the androids! Glad this suit helps me be quick on avoiding things. Right Trunks?..." Bulma said. Baby Trunks cooed back inside of his protective orb.
Vegeta flew directly, kicking it in the head, finalizing the rip. The rip caused it to make a small blast. in the area it landed.
"Is that it? Where's the other one?" Vegeta said, with a disappointed tone.
"The other one escaped. But I'd leave it, it's not even worth the trouble." Piccolo said.
"I'll go get him. I want at least one victory today." Vegeta said, before immediately blasting off.
"Hmf. No use stopping him." Piccolo said to himself.
He regrouped with Gohan at Bulma's location.
"So, I guess that's it for now then. What do we do next?" Gohan said.
"I have to go back to the lab, and analyze the androids. I could remove the bombs in them, and maybe check for some odd programming, but it'll take a bit to do." Bulma said, with slight excitement.
"What is that odd ki?..." said Piccolo, with a very concerned voice. "It's... Gone. What was that?"
"I felt it too." Gohan said, nervously.
"It's that creature. It's here. It must've finally arrived. But then hid its power level." Trunks said.
"The other android is going in that direction. What do you think will happen if he runs into that thing?" Piccolo said.
"I'm not sure, but we need to avoid that area at all costs for now." Bulma replied.
"But, Vegeta! He's headed there too! We gotta stop him! He's going to get himself in trouble!" Gohan exclaimed.
Vegeta froze when he picked up on that power level. He had no idea what it was, but it was unusual. Strong even. But it already vanished. If this was a new android, then he was ready to finally have a fight worth having. After a small smirk, he blasted off in the direction of the strange ki.
Author's note - There may be a delay between this chapter and the next, so hold on to your butts.