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Broken
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Dusk, the Capsule Corps Lab...
"Yamcha?" Puar squeaked. "Yamcha, are you awake?"
As his head jerked up, Yamcha blinked a few times to clear his eyes. "Huh, whu..." Yamcha found himself looking down at Puar, who was sitting on a console, nudging his arm. Yamcha sighed, realizing he had been drifting off again. "Oh, sorry there, Puar. Guess I wasn't. Anything new going on?"
Puar shook her head. "No. Bulma and Dende started talking about antigones, or something, but they weren't making much sense. So I came to talk to you. Sorry if I woke you..."
Yamcha shook his head. "Ah, don't worry about it Puar. I shouldn't be sleeping here anyway. Though maybe I should talk to Bulma's mom about getting some cots down here..." Yamcha trailed off and leaned back in his chair. At the same time, he reached out and ruffled the fur on Puar's head. "But actually, I think they were probably talking about 'antigens.' They're a... Part of a virus. Bulma thinks they may be a weak point of the virus, which her nanites might be able to exploit..."
Yamcha sighed. "But its still just hypothetical at this point. Everything Bulma knows about this virus is based on what Dende has been able to tell her. And everything he knows is based off of what he can 'sense' about the girl. Godlike awareness and all that..."
Puar responded with an empty "Oooh..."
Yamcha chuckled at his friend's reaction. "That's about what I thought. Y'know, as much I enjoy not being beaten within an inch of my life, I am starting to miss the old school threats. You know the type, Puar... The 'arrogant villain.' Those diminutive twerps or sick muscle-heads who love to stand up and boast about how unbeatable they are... I guess its just hard to feel threatened by someone strapped on a table and under glass..."
Puar sighed, and plopped down on Yamcha's shoulder. "I don't know, Yamcha. This virus thing seems scary enough for me..."
"Yeah, I guess you've got a point there..." Puar yawned, loudly, and Yamcha had to stifle a chuckle. "You've got a good point there, too..." Trailing off, Yamcha closed his eyes.
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The same, ten minutes later...
As he dozed, Yamcha felt something. A slight, yet persistent tugging in the back of his mind. It was a sensation he was all too familiar with. It was the sixth sense he had first noticed back when he was a teenager. The one that usually meant that something life-alteringly bad was about to happen.
Fully aware, Yamcha opened his eyes, and stood up. Puar was knocked over by his sudden movement, and gave a squeak of dismay. Yamcha however, ignored her and quickly glanced around the laboratory. Despite the spotty lighting, everything seemed in place. Nothing was overturned or disturbed, save for Puar, and Bulma, Doctor Briefs, and Dende were all huddled around a drawing board on the far wall.
Then his gaze fell on the stasis unit. As if in a fitful sleep, the girl was sporadically tugging against the bonds that held her in place. And as he watched one restraint was torn out.
"Ooooh shit!" Yamcha took a step back in fear. "Bulma!" He yelled out. "It's waking up! The Saiyan is waking up!"
Across the room, Bulma whirled around in surprise, disrupting the papers around her. Instantly, she saw the saw the fitful movements of the supposedly unconscious Saiyan. "No," she muttered quietly, "it can't..."
Dende, remaining surprisingly calm, rushed to Yamcha's side. "It's... The mutations. Her physique has been altered, as if specifically to resist stasis! She... Must have mutated while she was unconscious! But... But she wasn't supposed to..."
By that time, Bulma had come out of her stupor and had rushed to one of the consoles. "Her life signs are... Oh Kami, her temperature is above standard. But her metabolism--its still the same..."
"Ki," supplied Dende, gripping his staff tightly. "It's the power the viruses are pouring into her. That's what's keeping her warm. But..." Dende closed his eyes in concentration. "But if I can disrupt her power..."
A glow formed around Dende's staff as he prepared himself. Abruptly, there was a flash of light and an explosion of power, and Dende was thrown across the room.
"Dende!" Called out Bulma, quickly rushing to his side.
Having himself been knocked over by the explosion, Yamcha quickly scrambled back to his feet. He looked frantically at Dende, then back at the Saiyan. The manacle holding the other arm had given out. Steeling himself, Yamcha threw caution to the wind and rushed towards the stasis chamber.
"Yamcha," commanded Bulma, kneeling by the prone Namek, "Dende is out cold. Help me--" Bulma looked up, only to see Yamcha unlocking the clamps that held the glass tube in place. "Yamcha! What are you doing?!"
Yamcha ignored her. After undoing the last clamp, he swung the tube open and thrust in his right hand. Gathering his own power, Yamcha formed a tiny ki ball in his hand.
At that point, the Saiyan woke up. She blinked, and her eyes met Yamcha's. For a second, neither of them moved.
"Teaaahhh!" Though muffled by her breather, the panic in her scream was evident. Frantically, the Saiyan tried to back away. "Zea hanea!"
Not acknowledging the Saiyan's reaction, Yamcha withdrew his hand, leaving the ki ball hovering in place. With more force than was necessary, Yamcha slammed the tube back into place, and hastily welded the edges with a low ki blast. Meanwhile, women on both sides of the glass were screaming at him.
"Yamcha!"
"Pea ajaaaaaon!"
With a determined scowl on his face, Yamcha took a step backwards, and raised his right hand. In response, the ki ball inside the stasis tube shot upwards, blasting though the machinery above the tube. Her attention caught by the sudden movement, the Saiyan reflexively looked up. A fraction of a second later, a sudden burst of liquid nitrogen splashed down onto her face.
The Saiyan's scream degenerated into a strangled grunt, and she slowly slouched forward. Nitrogen continued to pour down, and the liquid began to fill up the chamber. Steadily, the Saiyan's breathing slowed, and she eventually collapsed forward onto the glass. By the time the nitrogen had stopped pouring in, the tube was almost completely filled, and the Saiyan was once again safely unconscious.
Exhaling loudly, Yamcha wiped his forehead with his arm. "Wow..." He breathed out. "That actually worked..."
"Yamcha," Bulma began, apprehensibly approaching her ex. "What... What did you do?"
"The storage tank..." Answered Yamcha, still catching his breath. "Which holds the coolant for the stasis unit. It's directly above the tube that holds the girl. I figured if the tank is breached, the coolant would flood the tube, and refreeze the girl."
"And... It worked..." Bulma trailed off, staring off at the Saiyan.
"Well, for now, at least."
Slowly, Yamcha turned to face Doctor Briefs, who had just now joined them from the back of the room. "For... Now?"
"Well," the Doctor continued, "with all the coolant exposed, and uninsulated, it'll warm up rather quickly. That, and I doubt the glass will hold out too long. It's probably already brittle, and all in all I'm surprised it hasn't broken under the weight already." Stroking his beard, the Doctor glanced at a deformed patch of glass near the Saiyan's chest. "Especially where that first blast melted through..."
A concerned expression formed on Yamcha's face. "Um... Please tell me we can fix this..."
"Well obviously our first unit didn't work. And this technique does seem to. At least momentarily... And seeing as how the old unit is somewhat damaged..." The Doctor paused, as both Yamcha and Bulma expectantly looked on. "I suppose if we want to submerse the girl in coolant, the best way to do it would be in a pressurized vat of nitrogen. Insulated, of course..."
Yamcha looked at the Doctor, dazed. "Pressurizable, airtight vat. Right..." Yamcha glanced around the lab. "Maybe you've got something in the garage. Or maybe in the other labs..." Still with a dazed look in his eyes, Yamcha headed towards the exit of the lab, with Puar following him. "Man, I wish I had gotten more sleep last night..."
Bulma watched him leave. "Ho, boy..."
After another moment of scratching his chin, the Doctor also walked away. "And I suppose I should go about finding some more liquid nitrogen. I wonder if we have some warehoused in town..."
Bulma watched her father leave. In the silence that followed, it dawned on her that she was now alone in the same room as a potentially very violent Saiyan. She had forgotten how... Intimidating that situation could actually be...
The mood was broken by Dende's groan. Quickly, Bulma knelt back down to help the Guardian up. "Uh, easy there Dende. I've got you."
Between the assistance of Bulma and his own staff, Dende stood up. "That..." He muttered, "was enlightening..."
Bulma balked. "Enlightening? Care to enlighten me?"
Readjusting his weight, Dende tightened his grip on his staff and looked at Bulma. "The virus, did indeed lash out at me. Though not as I expected..." Dende tightened his grip on his staff and began moving towards the Saiyan. "The blast that you saw, the one that incapacitated me, did not come from the Mystic Realm. It was an attack directly from the virus. It noticed me, or perhaps just the power I was summoning, and it lashed out at that. It used its own power to attack me. And I believe it may well have drained most of its power reserves in doing so."
Bulma stared at Dende, blankly. "Dende?"
"Most enlightening indeed," Dende continued, without hearing her. "My earlier assessment was wrong. There is no consciousness behind the virus. The consciousness is the virus itself. As they gain power, they send transmissions to each other, creating their own neural net inside the girl. Latching itself to her own nervous system, and overwhelming it." Dende paused again, thinking. "Which is why it acts as it does. It cannot act without active nervous impulses. And it does not appear to be able to generate those impulses itself. So it waits for the impulses to begin, for the girl to wake up, and then assume control over her consciousness."
Turning slightly, Dende noticed Bulma's questioning look. Anticipating her remark, he continued. "Which reopens the question of why I was attacked, and not Tenshinhan. Tell me Bulma, did Tien ever mention whether or not the Saiyan was conscious when he drained her life force?"
Bulma bit her lip. "Err, not directly, no. But I think he implied that she was unconscious..."
"Which would fit the new theory." Commented Dende, somewhat proud of his deductions.
"Hold on, Dende," began Bulma, now firmly. "If that's the case, why did the Saiyan power up while she was in the stasis chamber? And how?! If she can only--"
Dende hastily cut her off. "Vegeta called the virus 'Auto Mutation Syndrome.' Though I doubt he knew the truth behind the virus, he undoubtedly knew the truth of what it does. Randomly mutating the victim. ...Though perhaps not so randomly as it would first appear..." Dende shook his head once again. "Though as for how, it is possible that the girl had already achieved some degree of consciousness before she was placed in the stasis unit. That the effects of Tien's actions had already begun to wear off. Or that the virus can begin to work using subconscious impulses..."
Turning around, Dende began walking back to the table he had been working at before the disturbance. "But that is all academic. It tells us little as to how to defeat the virus. Come, Bulma. We still have much work to do."
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