Artificial Human No. 18 launched herself onward in a one-track charge toward the remaining triplet of Krillins. Despite her cold and stoic demeanor in battle, the Android halted a bit when she noticed Krillin moving his hands over his forehead. She just wouldn't believe that this bald numbskull would attempt something so pointless in such a clutch moment and yet…
"Solar Fist!" he yelled out while all the doppelgangers closed their eyes. As the brilliant flash filled the devastated mountainside with radiance, Lazuli tsked with her tongue before throwing her hair back with the back of her hand.
"You dumbass, I can adjust my ocular receptors to filter out the light. Your feeble escape technique won't work on us…" she taunted Krillin, but, before she could finish doing so, a Krillin dashed through the light having blasted the ground underneath to propel himself at 18 for a blitz headbutt. A stiff clang filled the air as the artificial woman staggered back and the rocked duplicate fell on his butt, caressing his busted forehead and whining in torment through eyes full of tears.
"Stopped you long enough to brag about it," Krillin gave his opponent a confident thumb up while his doppelgänger rushed in for an attack, bursting with the King Kai's Fist aura around him.
The rushing martial artist threw a swift jab at his opponent, but Android 18 locked her grip around his wrist. Having enough battlefield experience, Krillin transitioned into a shoulder charge, but his opponent padded his slam with her open palm. Another Krillin charged in from the side, glowing bright red as he shot a wild uppercut and sent Artificial Human No. 18 flying while the two cupped their hands together.
"Ka-!" one of the Krillins yelled out.
"Me-!" the other one chanted.
"Not gonna happen!" Lazuli barked out while correcting her position in mid-air while readying her hand for a wide swing. Before she could execute a toss of Ki blasts to throw the pair of Krillins for a loop, a petrified yell froze her in place.
"Stop!" the third Krillin yelled out from down below, forcing the artificial woman to halt her motion and pay dividends when a Kienzan disc buzzed right past where the woman would have swung her arm to interrupt the channeling combination attack of the two. Instinctively, Lazuli's hand moved to her chest as she turned her attention to the Krillin that prevented her from losing a limb with a timely warning.
"Ha-Me!" the two Krillins chanted out in unison before throwing their hands out and unleashing the combined King Kai's Fist Kamehameha howling on its devastating path right toward Artificial Human No. 18. Startled by the sudden problem she had to deal with, Lazuli heaved back, rushing to get away from the danger zone of the overwhelming pillar of energy.
"Scattershot Kamehameha!" the sole Krillin with arms to spare drew his hands back, creating two separate Kamehameha in each hand before unleashing them as twin destructive waves that then split off into scattershot energy waves. The other Krillins intensified the glow of their King Kai's Fist, putting the integrity of their duplicated bodies on the line while yelling "Scatter!" and splitting their Kamehameha waves into dozens of smaller beams.
By the time Artificial Human No. 18 realized that the Krillins had trapped her, it was too late as the sum of the scattershot trio detonated all at once, decorating the skies in a fusillade of chain-reaction explosions. The scarlet glow around the two enhanced Krillins snuffed out, leaving the most crippled one of the trio to collapse, with the least injured Krillin catching the duplicate mid-fall and helping him stay on his feet while the three of them stared at the skies. While all three of them hoped for success, they knew there had to be a reason their opponent didn't plunge out from the smoke and debris and hit the wasteland floor.
Soon enough, Lazuli's yelling penetrated through the cracking and the rumbling of the aftershock of the riotous Kamehameha rampage in the skies. The artificial woman emerged from the devastation surrounded by a glowing bubble of golden energy. A destructive but also protective dome around her. It was far from a perfect barrier technique, but it pushed away most of the damage that such a rampage would have left on her.
"Damn… We're running dry of options here, huh?" Krillin panted, scanning over his companions.
"Can't you just make more duplicates?" the least injured Krillin that wasn't the original wondered.
"Sorry, with how tapped out I feel right now, it'd take way too much time to get that sort of focus together. Not until you can hold her off for a good while…" Krillin shook his head.
"We… Need to return…" the battered Krillin huffed out, surprising the other two. "You must have noticed it the other time, right? Our Ki doesn't split off of the original's but… When it returns, the total is still more than what it was in the beginning… Right?"
Krillin looked down with a sullen look. The Yardratan Multiplication Technique differed from the Fist of Four Bodies. It didn't split apart the original's Ki to create duplicates but multiplied it through extensive mastery of Ki manipulation and spirit control before splitting the excess off into its own entity. When it returned, the complete mass of Ki present in the original formed the average of the two lesser parts. If done right, it may have enhanced the final Krillin's strength slightly in the end and given him a lively kick in the behind needed to finish this fight.
"Alright, that's the only chance, while she's still engaged with the destructive wave, let's mold back again!" Krillin commanded with the other two nodding and becoming humanoid shapes of radiant light that then blasted off toward the original and fused with him. The remaining Krillin had a shine pass his settled singular shape before he settled in his fighting pose.
"Huh? Where did the other two go?" Artificial Human No. 18 wondered, scanning through the battlefield and missing the least and the most injured Krillin from amongst the flock.
"Damn it… It didn't quite work…" Krillin winced with his right eye. "I knew I should've measured our energy more carefully…"
While he read the inner workings of this technique he lacked experience in, his execution was flawed as the sum average of all of their Ki that he was left with after the merger was actually less than what he had while the three of them were separate. While one duplicate had a much higher Ki total, the fact of the matter was that one of them was utterly beaten to the point of passing out or death. That third one must have dragged the average down beneath what Krillin had hoped for hitting.
"Oh, well… It doesn't matter. Photon Buster!" she yelled out, extending her hands out while creating a massive, violet energy mass in both of her palms that then turned into a powerful energy wave and crashed into the area where Krillin braced himself for impact.
The devastated martial artist flew out from the blast range as the explosion violently yanked him out. His Ki had been in tatters and loosely hanging over his bruised body while every single muscle in Krillin's body ached and pulsed with burning sensations. His bruising hurt just about appropriately, as this specific amount of bruising should have hurt. Still, Krillin fumbled over and returned to a semi-kneeling position while drawing as much breath into his burning lungs as he thought he'd need to stand back up.
"This isn't some misguided attempt at trying to convert me through pacifism, is it?" Android 18 wondered, landing in front of Krillin, who could only stand on shaky legs and pant in return instead of attacking to protect his personal space.
"No. As a martial artist, I respect you way too much to hold back against you even a little bit. I fought with everything I had, I tried even the riskiest moves… I'm willing to see this battle to the end proudly. It's that I fought with my full strength against insane odds that I can even say this," Krillin shook his head. Despite the dire odds, he couldn't help but smirk just a bit as he felt satisfied with everything he gave this battle.
"Huh? You mean you won't run or beg me to spare your life? That's odd…" Android 18 moved her hand to her chin, scratching her cheek with her nail as she worked through what it was exactly that her opponent was trying to pull here. "You know, you did incredibly well. I'm sure if I were Lapis, I'd be excited to let you go and try this another day. You did kind of mess up my outfit and ruffle up my hair, though, not to mention leave scratches all over my complexion."
"You're right, I won't run or regret anything," Krillin shook his head. "That's because I'm happy with this…"
"Wait… You're… Happy with this? You're happy… You lost?" Android 18 shook her head, combing through her hair and scratching her head in a wild attempt to grasp the logic of her opponent she saw as incomprehensible.
"Yeah, I know it may sound weird to you but… It's something I've learned to appreciate recently, while I was training to prepare for this fight up in space. I've learned that sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind, sometimes you have to pick up all of your best bits and run out and challenge yourself, throw yourself out there and risk losing everything. If it's for the right things, it's worth it. In fact, right now I feel like this is the only way to experience happiness, not through a safe and lengthy life, but through a challenging one that demands everything you have to offer but offers the spoils of content in return…" Krillin spoke with a shaky voice, feeling his impending death coming and hoping that he could impart his opponent with as much of his feelings as he could, hoping that one day, she'll get to see the goodness and potential in herself that Krillin sees in Lazuli.
"Jeez, can you shut up for one second…?" Artificial Human No. 18 shoved her hand in Krillin's face and shoved him by planting her palm on his cheek and pushing him back while she turned her attention up into the sky behind her. Something calamitous was going on, and it was about to rattle this battlefield as well. Shining, electrical orbs began pouring down from the sky, almost as if it had cracked and begun bleeding in raw energy from another dimension. This, of course, was just the first impression, as Krillin could recognize the huge energy signature responsible for this blizzard of power.
"It's… Piccolo…?" he muttered. Without wasting too much time on thinking why or how his friend had made it so a field of shining energy spheres began hurling from all across the globe toward this one specific region, the bald martial artist jumped forward, pushing Artificial Human No. 18 aside and running out in front of her with his arms spread out.
"You…" Lazuli's eyes widened and quivered with confusion giving way to fondness and then fusing with the first feeling and becoming something else entirely as Krillin grit his teeth and tensed up his body, hoping to protect the artificial woman to the best of his ability. As the ground shook and crumbled and ruthless energy spheres bashed the area, not a single one of Piccolo's Hellzone Grenade blasts hit either the Android or Krillin. Still, Krillin shook on his feet long after the calamity had ceased and the true degree of devastation revealed itself with the two standing atop of an untouched pillar of grass, surrounded by the scorched or collapsed ground that gave way to bubbling flow of magma from beneath.
"Wow!" Krillin patted his chest and felt his still-intact body up with a goofy chuckle coming up from the bottom of his chest. "I guess Piccolo really knew what he was doing. He must've made sure to miss me…"
"You jumped in to protect me, even though you're weak and injured. Why?" Android 18 stood up and dusted the dirt off of her own ruined outfit before turning full attention to Krillin. "Piccolo can't sense my energy, so his attack would've undoubtedly hit me, even if it's by accident. In my current state, you may have even lucked out and won the battle this way. It's almost like you want to die!"
"I don't," Krillin shook his head before leaning to pat down his tattered trousers from dust and gravel that had accumulated in the wrinkles, tears, and ridges by the handful after the winds turned violent in the devastated region and sought to reach the degree of turbulence present during Piccolo's down-pouring assault. "But I'm not afraid to either. It's like I've said before–some things are worth risking your life for and if you're not free to risk your life, well, you're not really alive. Even an eternal life is meaningless when you can't live it your own way."
"Tsk…" 18 turned her head away and gazed at the shrouded sky that spat out electric nets all over the heavens. "Whatever, I've gotta go. See if Lapis doesn't need my help after that wild attack."
"Huh? You're just… Gonna go?" Krillin hunched over and sank his head down as his jaw dropped.
"Yeah, be seeing you…" Lazuli approached Krillin and leaned down close to him. Even if just a moment ago Krillin felt ready to accept death at this artificial woman's hands, feeling her breath so close to him it brushed his cheeks and lit up the nervous ticks of pain in his bruises and spread a refreshing cool over his sweaty forehead freaked him out. Without warning, the Android pecked him on the forehead and took off. Midway from departing completely, she turned around and waved to Krillin. "So long!" she yelled out.
"What… Just happened…?" Krillin scratched his cheek while staring at the woman fly off.
"Darn it, Bulma…" Dr. Puri swung in her chair while overseeing the data flashing on her monitor screen. "What's your plan? How are you doing this? My brainwashing signal, my conversion centers, my military factories, and machine duplication facilities… I can't reach any of them."
A masked figure with a modified black and golden version of the Saiyan battle armor and a strap of brown across his neck approached Android 21 from behind. The man with wild and spiky hair didn't have to say anything, and yet his mistress understood the meaning behind his appearance.
"You've sensed them, didn't you? It doesn't appear like Chayote and Son Goku are going to keep hiding anymore. They're coming right toward us. They must see this massive system failure as their chance to finish this, finish me. You wouldn't let that happen, would you?" Dr. Puri spun around in her chair and turned her leg over the other.
The masked warrior in altered Saiyan armor and a tight bodysuit with flashy, angular patterns took a bold step forward and raised his fist, pulling his deep-red armbands to tighten their grip and fix their position over his muscular arms. The fractured, ivory mask with cross-shaped black spaces in the middle had a single Red Ribbon mark over the forehead. The warrior's eyes glowed in red beacons from within the shade of the mask's cover.
"Oh, don't worry, I will convert Son Goku and Son Gohan whenever you capture them and bring them to me, just like I promised. Son Goku played a secondary role in toppling the Rainbow Brigade and he played almost no part in the collapse of the Red Ribbons. It will take plenty of punishment, but I can forget and forgive, for the sake of humanity's best interests. Just spank your son as far away from West City as possible. I won't forgive you or your family if any harm from your rabble-rousing comes to my son, you hear me? As a family man yourself, I'm sure you'll understand…" Dr. Puri crossed her arms after carelessly waving her hand in the assurance that she would keep her word to the Saiyan warrior. "Maybe after you're done disciplining your little boy, you can take care of that bothersome asteroid for me. It must be the reason there's been so much static throughout this day… Unless…"
Uninterested by the prospect of finding out whatever had just struck Android 21's mind, the masked warrior turned tail and walked off. His mistress, however, ran her hand across the keyboards and various control schemes, turned switches and triggers all over the control panel before snapping her fingers. One of her transmissions returned, altered in a way that only a piece of machinery could pull off. This was no asteroid obstructing her communications and the functions of her entire cybernetic army. It was no mere static that made Puri's satellite systems unreachable.
That "asteroid" was as alive as any of her soldiers or finest Artificial Humans were. This meant that, just like any piece of cybernetics, one could hack it. Dr. Puri wasn't a programming specialist per se, but she's spent so much time programming and been in the same room while her husband discussed his breakthroughs with so many revolutionary heads in the field that she was undoubtedly the greatest programmer alive. Not to mention the fact that over time she's devoured so many inventions and Android prototypes that she herself was the world's most sophisticated batch of code.
"Bulma, humility was never your strong suit. In bringing this marvelous gem of cybernetics to my attention, you've just handed me my greatest weapon yet!" Dr. Puri stood up and approached the holographic blueprint of the readings a select few of her innovative drones sent to her before shorting out and failing too high in the atmospheric altitudes they were never meant to operate in. "And yet…" Android 21 rubbed her chin, "None of my usual bugs seem to work on this system. Being around that smelly Saiyan must've rubbed some of his machismo on me. I'm growing a tad excited to crack this puzzle and crush this minor rebellion now that all of you showed your faces."
Thus 21 sat back down, preparing to cook up a personality and coding for another prototype Artificial Human. Nothing fancy on the outside, just a frame of a metal skeleton, unable to walk or resist meaningfully, but with a programming mind of gold. This program would combine together all the marvelous scientific breakthroughs in information technology and, once Dr. Puri devours it whole, she'll take that marvelous mind and unparalleled artificial intelligence all to herself.
The thought of Bulma bringing doom to her friends in her hubris before a superior, artificial, scientific mind whom she held down for so long and saw only as a pawn made it so Android 21 simply couldn't keep a straight face while doing what most would've seen as menial labor. Bulma and her crew must have thought they were winning by undoing the cybernetic revolution that Dr. Puri has brought about, but all they've done is step into an open bear trap. Soon enough, they'll either accept the conversion or go extinct and after humanity is safe and prosperous, Puri can devote eternity to enacting her revenge on Chayote for what she did to her husband and son.