Chapter Three:
Yamucha's eyes sprang open, the pain quickly melting away. He supposed he had been out, knew it. But he still could notice the faint aftertaste that was mostly pleasant but slightly bitter at the same time. Someone had crushed a senzu bean and let the powder dissolve in his mouth until it was digested.
He lay on his back for a minute, savoring the absence of pain. He had been in so much of it until a second ago, and now it was just gone. It took his breath away, and a few seconds were required for him to adapt to get used to it. Above him, he could see a domed roof, not all that big from the curve, made of clean white marble tiles. Having been here many times, he had no trouble guessing where he was.
He sat up slowly, his head still a bit light, and saw that he was right. Propped up on one knee, he could see Korin near the railing of the platform, talking loudly and quickly with Piccolo, sounding very worried. Or maybe just agitated. With Korin, sometimes it was hard to tell, the cat never showing much emotion other than quiet amusement.
Closer to him, Tienshinhan was sitting with his back rested against the cool stone of the central pillar that went up to the roof, all three eyes closed, perhaps meditating, perhaps just shutting things out.
Krillin was kneeling next to him, pale green powdered senzu still dusting his palm, which was open, his arm draped across his knee as he stared intently into Yamucha's face. His eyes were grave with concern.
"How you doing?" he asked.
"Fine." Yamucha grinned slightly, though he surely didn't feel like smiling. "Now that you gave me that senzu. My head still feels like an elephants stepping on it, though." he reached one hand up, rubbing his temple absently.
"I'm not surprised." The former monk replied, answering Yamucha's grin with his own, though the bandit's had disappeared. "You took quite a beating."
"Don't remind me." Yamucha frowned. "Where are the others?"
Krillin sighed. "I sent Juu-chan back to the temple to stay with Marron." He said. Juuhachi-gou had protested at first, not wanting to leave the others with one less fighter, but in the end she had gone because if she hadn't Krillin would have, and she knew that if worst came to worst, it would set her mind much more at ease to be there herself. "Yajirobi went up to the lookout to explain all this to Dende, and Videl's down on earth trying to do something with the media. We figured she would be the best for the job, being Mr. Satan's daughter and all."
"All that…?" Yamucha raised an eyebrow. "How long have I been out for?"
"Just over an hour, I think. It's been kind of hectic."
Neither said anything about what they were really thinking. Androids. That word circled through both their minds like a mantra, or a snatch of song that couldn't be forgotten. Androids. That meant Dr. Gero. Was Gero alive? They had seen his head rolling across the floor, then crushed under Juunana-gou's foot. They had seen his brains on the floor, for Kami's sake. He couldn't be alive.
But then how were these androids made? Android 22, the machine had called himself. And he had mentioned Android 21. Gero had called himself twenty. The continuity fit, but that didn't have to mean they were built by Gero. That could mean someone who knew…
But no one knew. There was no possible way that anyone could have known.
Then how? They had destroyed the lab, and the bunker beneath it. If they had missed one thing, they could have missed dozens. Gero's computer had finished Cell on it's own. Could it have made new androids? But where would it's directives have come from? As far as they knew, no computer could program itself. Unless it had artificial intelligence. But AI had proven to be dangerous, case in point was the way Gero had died. You couldn't trust something to do what it didn't want to.
And in the end, it didn't really matter anyway. What mattered was how to kill the bastards.
Yamucha tuned his own thoughts down and stood up, the lightheadedness he had experienced at first now dissolved into a low red glare behind his eyes, throbbing. But he could still function, so he guessed he could deal with it. Right now he wanted to see what Piccolo and Korin were discussing so heatedly.
He took a few steps closer, neither of the two noticing him at all, it seemed.
"It doesn't matter how they were created." Piccolo said, his arms crossed over his chest, face set into stern lines. "I could care less about how they were created. I only care about how they can be killed. This android said number 21 will come kill us all, and that means there's at least one more of these things."
Korin only looked at Piccolo, shaking his head. "I expected a little more thought from you, ya know." He said wryly. "If you find out how the android was made, you may be able to find the source. If you find the source, you can shut it down."
Yamucha raised a hand, cutting into the conversation, and the other two turned to look at him. "Piccolo, I'd say you pretty well annihilated that android easily. What's your worry?"
The namek grunted. "I caught it by surprise. If I had to fight head to head, that thing might have given me a challenge." He paused, looking as thoughtful as he could with the same grave expression etched into his face. "Besides, from the way that thing sounded, the next one will be stronger."
"Well, yeah." Yamucha shrugged. "but still, how much stronger could it possibly be? I mean, the last one wasn't really much stronger than Juuhachi-gou, even when he was powered up. He caught me off guard, and he was stronger than me, by a little, but I don't think any more androids will pose much of a threat to us."
Piccolo just stared at him. "and what if the next one vaporizes a few cities, or a few really big cities, like Satan City, instead of just one small one, before we get to it? What if one of us gets there first, without the others, and get killed trying to fight it?" he snorted. "I think you're a little overconfident, Yamucha."
The human said nothing, but his face fell. His problem was that he was always either too confident or not confident enough. For some reason, any middle ground was very hard to reach. Yamucha sighed, reached his hands behind his head, tightening his ponytail nervously, then dropped to his sides again.
"Well," he said finally, "What are we supposed to do then? You blew the android to pieces, as I recall, so it's not like we can get any data from it's computer chips. There's no way to find out where it came from."
Korin spoke up.
"Wrong. We can at least try."
The other two snapped their gaze to him, and so did Krillin. No one had noticed that he had come up behind Yamucha and was listening, but not talking.
"Find where Dr. Gero's old lab used to be, and look under the ground. Maybe further below the bunker Cell was in." he paused, running a hand over his chin. "I have a feeling you'll find something."
Yajirobi had finished giving a brief version of the latest events to Dende, making sure not to draw things out or make any assumptions on what might have happened that he didn't yet know about. Straight and to the point.
Of course, Dende was Kami. He watched over the entire earth, so he probably knew more than any of them did.
The namek who had been a young boy was now full grown, nearly as tall as Piccolo, though his face was much less stern and forbidding. He was dressed in the normal white robes of Kami, with a blue cape draped over his shoulders and a staff in his hand. He looked worried.
"I saw everything." He said when Yajirobi was done speaking. "I guess Dr. Gero isn't done with the earth or it's people yet, even in death."
The samurai looked at the guardian quizzically. "So, Gero is dead, then?"
Dende nodded, looking at the floor. "The first thing I did was to contact Kaio-sama telepathically, and ask him to check. It's confirmed by Enma-sama, Dr. Gero is in hell."
"Then where did the android come from?"
The guardian shrugged. "I guess that's one of the things we have to find out."
All of the conversation going on in the tower didn't concern Tien in the slightest. For all practical purposes, he wasn't even there. Thinking ahead, he had had the same idea as Korin aboiut going to Gero's old lab. But there was no way to know if these androids could sense energy or not, and his own power was just to big to hide totally.
So, he was looking through the eyes of someone else. Someone who was capable of moving in complete stealth.
Choutzu moved quickly from behind one boulder to another, careful that nothing was around to see him move. This was the place alright; broken bits of machinery still littered the ground.
He had been capable of masking his energy signal completely for as long as he could remember. It was really more of a psychic talent, blocking your specific ki signature from someone else's mind. It took a lot of skill to block it from everyone, though.
He could feel Tienshinhan's presence in the back of his mind, an old friend that didn't feel like an intrusion in his brain as someone else would have. Tenshin was really just along for the ride, to see what could be seen. He would have come himself, but for the reasons he had already explained.
The former emperor darted again across a barren space, concealing himself well. He was almost to what was left of the hatch into the lower bunker. There really wasn't much of the place left after what Krillin and Trunks had done to it, but he had to at least go see.
The heavy metal door that had once covered the hatch had been blown away, and now lay a few yards away, twisted and bent by the force of ki. Nearby was the hatch, now merely a rough tunnel into the ground, the twisted remains of a ladder still partially attached to the side. he Dashed to the hole, then slowly floated down into the dark.
Of course it was pitch black in there, and the only way he could tell that he was at the bottom was the slight change in the air. It just suddenly felt more open, the air moving instead of being closed up. But it smelled stale, as if no one had been here or moved anything for years.
Well, he couldn't explore in the dark, that was for sure. This would take some concentration…
Choutzu brought a little ki out, struggling but maintaining his concentration so that no one would sense anything. A small orb of white blazed on the end of one finger, which was pointed upward as if he were about to deliver the word of god. The light wasn't all that bright, but it was enough to see by.
The room was a mass of rubble. Destroyed computers, destroyed rock, destroyed everything. It looked like someone had just gone through and ground everything up into pieces. Which, actually, was pretty well what had been done. What was left of the walls was charred black by ki blasts.
There was no clear sign of a door anywhere.
Not that a door would have survived the barrage of ki blasts the room had been subjected to. It could be buried anywhere in the rubble. There had to be a more efficient way of finding it that simply sifting through the crap by hand, but… who was to say that there was even a door to find? Wouldn't Krillin and Trunks have found it when they were here before? They had thoroughly searched while looking for the plans to Juunana-gou, and you would think that they would have investigated any strange door.
Choutzu slowly floated around the room, simply gazing over everything with his sharp eyes and psychic enhanced senses, looking for anything that might stick out as unusual among the rubble. Nothing on the floor, at least nothing visible. Only the smashed machines and pieces of rock from the decimated walls and ceiling.
He scanned the walls slowly. Aside from the random patches of black, there was nothing. All was cracked, domed backward by the force that had filled the small room… but wait…
Along the very back wall, furthest from the hatch to the surface, was at last a different feature, something that stuck out from the rest of the room. It only stuck out if you knew what you were looking for, but Choutzu did.
Over the entire room, the walls were bowed out from the force of ki filling the room, but along the back wall was a strip, about three and a half feet across, from floor to ceiling, that was bowed out. As if something…
"…burrowed upward…" Choutzu muttered to himself. Perhaps the door wouldn't be necessary after all.
Tien, are you seeing what I'm seeing?
Yeah, the tri-clops' voice echoed through his head. It looks like something was digging a tunnel through the ground just on the other side of that wall.
Should I go through?
…it's up to you. It could be dangerous.
Choutzu considered this for a second. He was here, he might as well.
Okay, I'm going.
The ki ball on the end of his finger vanished momentarily, plunging the room into instant dark. But that didn't last, as ki then began to glow around Choutzu's fist. He drew his small arm back, and punched the crumbling wall hard.
It gave way with ease, crumbling inward, pieces of rock falling down the long tunnel. When Choutzu pulled his fist back out, the entire surface crumbled and fell to pieces, a few falling into the room, most falling downward into the darkness. The ki surrounding Choutzu's hand re-focussed itself, moving back into a small ball on the end of one finger, outstretched again. He leaned his head into the now gaping hole in the wall, and looked down.
The small ball of energy didn't give enough light to see much. About five feet down, the darkness cut back in. but what he could see was just like the tunnel he had descended into the bunker in, only rougher, and fresher looking. No fine layer of dirt and grime covered the stone; it looked as if it had only been recently cut.
He floated forward until he was in the tunnel, and began to slowly go down, the ki on the end of his finger slowly lighting the way.
The tunnel was long, a lot longer than he thought it would be. He floated downward for a while, speeding up as he went until the wind was whistling past his ears. He had no idea how fast he was going, or how far down he was, when he felt the bottom of the tunnel on his feet.
He stopped instantly, so as not to burrow his own tunnel further down with the speed he had been traveling at, and looked forward. In the dim light of his energy, he could see the end of the wormhole, and the beginning of a room. Further than the light would reach very well, he thought he saw the gleam of metal in the dark.
So there was another bunker out there.
He walked forward, letting the ki ball get brighter as he went. He stepped out into the room, and the dark was chased away, the energy on the end of his finger now the size of a tennis ball.
In the middle of the room, there was a huge computer console, monitors dark and covered in a layer of dust, but a slight humming noise letting him know that it was working. Every few seconds, it let out a short beep.
Near the hole he had just come out of, to the right when he turned to face it, was a large glass tube, a hose running into the wall and, presumably, to the surface, or at least the bunker above this one. On it was a printed label, reading: Experimental Virus Number 179. Choutzu didn't have to use to much thought to guess what the now empty container had held.
On the left side of the hole were two stasis tubes, the same kind that had held Juunana-gou and Juuhachi-gou. On one was printed the number 21. The other was open. Presumably, whatever had come out of the tube had made the tunnel.
Choutzu felt Tien's alarm as he saw this, and it was mirrored in his own. They had been right, and apparently, so had Korin. More androids, but at least there was only one more.
Choutzu shifted his gaze from the pod to the computer, then back again. The stasis tube seemed to draw his sight.
What now, Tien? He asked mentally. I know I can't destroy the android by myself. But there must be something I can do.
Maybe… if you mess with the computer a little, you could cut off its life support…
No good. Androids don't need to eat or even breathe. I could sink it to the bottom of the ocean, and it wouldn't do any good.
Tien seemed to brood on that for a second. Then,
Why don't you just destroy the computer, then? That might do some good.
Okay.
Choutzu turned back to the computer, and it let out another beep. He extended his hand, palm flat, facing the huge console. A ki blast formed it his hand, the one on the end of his finger melding into it as it grew. It got bigger and bigger, now the size of a basketball.
He let it fly.
The ki tore through the circuitry and metal casing, ripping a huge hole through the computer like it was made of tinfoil, and exploded against the far wall with a roar, tearing even more of the machine to pieces. It wasn't that big of a blast, but even when it had done it's work, the computer was burning, the room not lit by a pale orange glow.
A sound made him turn. The same sort of beeping the computer made, but frantic sounding, over and over. It was coming from the stasis pod, and a small panel over its head was flashing red.
There was a gust of steam, and the pod's door began to open.
Choutzu's heart clenched in fear. He could sense something in there. Not ki, but some living thing, something powerful. Dangerous.
The door was moving slowly, apparently too slowly for whatever was inside. It had opened perhaps a quarter of the way when it was blasted off from the inside, flying across the room faster than Choutzu's eyes could keep up with and embedding itself nearly a foot into the wall.
Choutzu's eyes had shot after the flying door of the pod, but now they flew back to it's occupant.
An android, of course. It was taller than average, maybe Piccolo's height. It was wearing loose fitting blue pants and a black gi top, a black belt holding it shut. It's hair was a mass of medium length gray spikes, swept back from it's face to stand out at odd angles in the back of it's head.
It's forehead was a plate of something clear, like glass, though it was undoubtedly stronger. Visible through it's blue tint was a human brain. So this thing had once been human. The blue tinted glass went all the way to just over it's closed eyes. it had no eyebrows.
Then he opened his eyes. when he did, he really became he, instead of it. He looked at Choutzu, and a smile spread over his lips, showing small very white teeth.
The former emperor had no chance to move or speak, or even prepare himself for an attack. The android was just too fast. He darted forward without appearing to even move, and he had him by the throat. He surged his ki as quickly as he could, a futile battle to get loose, but it was over too fast.
The smile stayed on, if anything widened, as android 21 reached up with his free hand and grabbed the emperor's leg, turned him to the side, and literally ripped Choutzu in half.
The various little arguments and conversations at Korin's tower suddenly stopped as Tienshinhan's ki flared dangerously. He leapt to his feet, veins standing out on his neck and arms, muscles clenched tight. All three eyes were wide open, a little bloodshot. He screamed.
"CHOUTZU!!!"
