Chapter 7: Piccolo vs. Piccolo
Piccolo-6 flew toward the forest where he and Gohan-6 had lived in their time. All the Z fighters were a little overwhelmed by everything that was going on, and it was worse for Piccolo-6 and Gohan-6, having lived alone most of their lives.
Everyone pretty much avoided seeing Gohan-7 too much. It was creepy thinking that the serious, friendly guy most of them knew, whether as a child, teenager or adult, could be so evil.
Tam had flown off somewhere. She was a little uncomfortable around all the Gokus, since in her time every incident was the same, except that she was there instead of Goku.
Piccolo halted suddenly. There was a high power level coming from the forest. It felt strangely familiar, so he flew closer to investigate.
He centered in on a small wooden shack nestled among the trees, almost hidden from view. He heard conversation coming from inside and crept closer.
"Now that we've taken care of the scrap metal we can concentrate on the others."
That was a voice that sounded vaguely familiar, although Piccolo couldn't quite place it. The reply came in a voice he did know: Android 17.
"Relax why don't you. We've got plenty of time to kill every pathetic creature on this planet. I want to have some fun first."
Piccolo moved closer until he could see in the small, dirty window.
Android 17 was sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching someone pace across the floor. The someone moved into view.
He was almost an exact copy of Piccolo, but he seemed different, different from Piccolo 1, 2 and 6, though he couldn't quite see how.
And then he realised: the difference was the utter evil emanating from the other Namek.
This must be King Piccolo… Piccolo-4, Piccolo thought. Gohan-4 had explained how, in his world, King Piccolo and Android 17 were allies. And an almost unbeatable team that had destroyed most of the Z fighters, doing what Cell couldn't.
King Piccolo's eyes suddenly shifted to the window. "17, I think we have company."
The two flew outside, where Piccolo-6 was waiting for them. The sight of another him, working with something so evil, filled him with disgust. King Piccolo laughed. "Well, 17, we faced your copy, now it seems it's time to face mine."
"You did that to 17?" Piccolo asked, horrified. The injuries the android had sustained were awful; he'd been in the regen tank for two days with no sign of changing.
King Piccolo grinned. "I certainly did. And I believe I killed the woman you call Chi-chi."
No, that was wrong. Chi-chi had been hurt, but after a senzu bean she was fine. Why let King Piccolo know that, though.
17 looked from one Namek to the other. He shook his head. "Whatever. I don't need to see this."
He took off. Piccolo tracked his flight with his eyes, trying to figure out where he was headed. And in that moment, King Piccolo attacked.
They used hand-to-hand mainly, since the small clearing they were in was too small for energy attacks, and neither wanted to turn his back on the other long enough to get into the sky.
King Piccolo landed a hard punch on Piccolo's jaw. Piccolo retaliated with a kick to the other Namek's gut. And then the fight was too fast to follow.
Caught up in the action, Piccolo barely had time to telepathically contact Gohan-6.
Gohan! Be careful, I think an evil Android 17 may be heading your way! Was all he got out before turning back to the fight with his evil counterpart.
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Gohan-6's head jerked up as he heard Piccolo-6's urgent telepathic message.
Gohan! Be careful, I think an evil Android 17 may be heading your way!
Evil Android 17? Actually, from what Gohan-4, Chi-chi-4 and Krillin-4 had said, that made a lot of sense. It also made a lot of what 17 had said while he was barely conscious make more sense.
The other Z fighters who were there looked at him curiously. He said, "guys, Piccolo thinks an evil 17 might be coming here. I'm not sure where he is but he sounded in a hurry so he's probably battling someone."
Trunks-3, Tien-3, Tien-2, Piccolo-2, Trunks-1 and Yamcha-3 were the only ones there. However, they were pretty confident that they could deal with Android 17, when he showed up.
And he did show up. Only it was from a direction they hadn't expected.
A scream came from inside, cut off midway through. The Z warriors ran inside and stopped short. 17… the evil 17, since he didn't look beat up… was holding Bulma-7 tightly around her waist, one arm around her neck, cutting off a lot of oxygen. He grinned at the warriors.
"So nice to see you all again. Nicer to kill you all, of course, but that can wait. For now I only want my brother."
"He's kind of indisposed right now," Gohan-6 said. "You know, on account of you almost killing him?"
"What was the point?" Trunks-3 asked. "If you were going to come back for him why try to kill him first?"
"Oh, that was King Piccolo's idea," 17 said dismissively. "I've talked him round; we both agree it makes more sense to try and make my brother rejoin us."
He looked down at Bulma. "It would be a pity if I had to kill this pretty woman," he said, "but I'm willing to, if you don't help me out here. I want my brother and you're going to tell me where he is."
"He's hurt," Tien-2 snapped. The android laughed. "Of course he is. That makes it easier to control him until we can change his programming back to what it should be, before the Briefs woman in his time meddled with him."
He pulled his arm tighter around Bulma's neck, choking her. "Now tell me where he is. Or be prepared to lose another Bulma-san."
A blast suddenly hit the android in the back, sending him sprawling across the floor. Bulma twisted out of his grip and jumped up. They all stared at Gohan-4, who was standing behind the android, an unreadable expression on his face.
"Get out of here, scum," Gohan-4 hissed angrily. "Get out of here before I destroy you where you stand."
"I'll be back," 17 snarled before taking off and flying toward the mountains.
Gohan-4 stopped beside Bulma. "You okay?" he asked, that unreadable expression still on his face. She nodded wordlessly and said, "I'm gonna go check on 17… 17-3."
"Gohan, are you okay?" Yamcha-3 asked. The teenager just looked at the scar-faced fighter for a few seconds before sitting at the table and burying his face in his hands.
"It's like it's happening all over again," he said, the words coming out muffled. "In my world, this happened. Or something damned close.
"After Cell attacked, we managed to get 18 away. Bulma reprogrammed her… not that she really needed it. She'd fallen for Krillin long ago… 17 also got away, but with King Piccolo. Things were intense for a while; getting rid of Cell, dealing with the aftermath. But once everything was calm again, he showed up at home… he threatened Okaachan, said he'd kill her if we didn't give him 18.
"We didn't, of course; she was one of us by then, and you don't betray a friend. But 17 found out that she'd been reprogrammed and he's had a personal vendetta against all of us, especially Bulma, Vegeta, and Trunks, once he was born.
"18 was killed trying to protect Goten and Okaachan from King Piccolo. Since then, 17… it's like he just snapped. He doesn't care about anything except killing us all now."
There was silence for a few minutes. They'd known that AR3 was a bad place; they just didn't know it was that bad. Gohan-4 stood up suddenly. "I'm going out for a while," he said, flying off.
Piccolo-2 suddenly looked toward the mountains. "There's something going on up there," he said. Yamcha-3 nodded. "Yeah. But… but it feels like… two Piccolos."
Okay, there's the update. Sorry it's so short. Anyway, I'll be writing more soon. =)