Super Android Eighteen

By Moonraker One

CHAPTER SIX – Where'd that M come from?

            The tension in the room was so thick that you could probably cut it with a knife. Goku assumed his cautious fighting stance as Eighteen circled around him, a look of anger in her eyes. She was not the usual female android that he had grown to respect as a friend; this was the deadly Eighteen of the past that had only his death on her mind, and he didn't know why. Krillin swallowed hard as he wondered what the reason was that his wife had gone back to her old ways. Maybe, he thought, that damned chip should be removed and destroyed. Was he right? Only time would tell. As of right now, however, they didn't have time. If she was going to act on the threat that she said just a few seconds ago, they'd have but an instant to react. All of them had seen the power and speed that she'd employed in the process of destroying Majin Buu.

            "Eighteen!" Goku said, not taking his mind off of the stance. "Why are you doing this?"

            She said nothing in response, just kept up the attack. As Goku watched her movements, trying to read whether or not she was actually going to attack, he noticed that there was a rather unusual looking "M" symbol on her forehead. He'd seen the m that was the Majin symbol; this wasn't it. But, if she wasn't under the control of a sorcerer, what was that symbol exactly? He did not know. After about seven seconds of just the two circling each other, Goku let his posture down and went back to normal standing straight up.

            "What the hell are you doing?!" Bulma shrieked. "She's about to kill you! Why are you just standing there?"

            Goku smiled and looked at Bulma. "Well," he replied, "I know Eighteen's posture when she's about to launch an attack against an opponent. She's not going to strike at me."

            "Are you sure?"

            "Have I ever lied to you?!"

            Perhaps he was right; she circled him once more, and then went back over and sat down on the worktable. "Modifying friend/foe records," Eighteen said. "Subject Goku is clearly not an enemy. Resuming standard access mode."

            She leaned forward and fell off of the table; Krillin caught her before she hit the ground. He helped her back up onto the table. She swept her gaze across the room, and then back at Krillin. "Krillin?" She asked, seemingly confused. "What the hell is going on?"

            Krillin raised an eyebrow. "You…don't remember?" He asked, suspicious about her strange lack of memory of two seconds ago.

            She looked up in the usual fashion of someone trying to recall a memory. "Oh wait," she said. "I remember now. Immediately after going online again, my CPU goes into 'safe access mode'. In this mode, only my basic friend/foe record matrix is in control until a full system diagnostic can be performed. After that, I go back to standard data access mode."

            Just about everyone in the room raised eyebrows. "Eighteen?" Goku asked. "Exactly what the hell does that mean?!"

            Bulma turned to Goku. "That means that she doesn't have full control over her body until her systems make sure they're all working properly," she explained.

            "Um, okay," Goku replied.

            "I just have one question," Krillin asked. "What's with this 'M' on your head?"

            "Oh this?" She replied, pointing to the symbol on her forehead. "The chip that entered my head sometime earlier this week was manufactured on planet Morruko. They like their military symbol on the heads of all androids enhanced by self-thinking chips."

            "Ah, more clever explanations," Goku sarcastically replied.

            "Don't worry, though," Eighteen reassured the group. "Now that I've been modified, I should be in perfect working order."

            As Eighteen stepped off the worktable, Krillin took her by the hand. "Let's go home," he said. "I'm tired after all of this fiasco."

            She smiled back at him. "Yeah, me too."

---the end---

Author's note:

I hope you've enjoyed the basic explanation of how Android Eighteen became Super Android Eighteen. I've drawn a basic bio of her, and it shall be posted on my website sometime before next year. The reason is that my scanner is at home and I won't have access to my OWN computer for some time.

I guarantee you this is NOT the last you'll see of Super Eighteen. She'll be coming back in a future story, an actual story. This was just an intro onto how she came to be, so that you could understand her for future stories.

Auf Wiedersehen, Aloha, Ciao, Good-bye, Tschus, See ya, Pachimsotelkaban,

And just plain "until next time,"

Moonraker One