Chapter 2:
Cracks
A/N: Congratulations to Gothic Angel5 for being my first reviewer! I've just read that fic of yours, and look forward to its continuation. Anyway… Onto the story! By the way, I've revised the last chapter, but all I did was fix some grammar errors and add the story advertising so you don't need to read it again.
The planet Earth is very large, and the man sweeping the already spotless tiles of the courtyard did not envy its guardian. For hours Kame had floated silently just above the surface of the lookout, his legs crossed, hands in his lap. The situation on the planet below had been grave for a long time now, ever since a certain Saiyan space pod had fallen out of the sky in the East District, and a strange boy was gently lifted out by old master Gohan. That alien boy, who had forgotten his Saiyan ways and become Earth's champion, who had faced dangers like Piccolo, Vegeta and Freeza, had now been defeated by a heart virus from a planet Goku had traveled to in order to help defeat an evil that would never have bothered him had he not wanted to help his friends, and a crazy old scientist who was still alive only because of Goku's kind heart. It seemed unfair that such a noble person should ever have to fall, but now Goku, and all the other Z fighters were gone, and the fait of the world rested in the hands of Kame's darker side, who had once wanted to destroy it.
Three years ago, a boy named Trunks had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, just as the Z fighters were about to fight the robotically enhanced Freeza, and his father Cold. With his super saiyan power he had easily taken down both, and upon Goku's return, had gave him the antidote to the heart virus from which he would suffer in the future, and warned him about the androids that would appear in three years time. Trunks had then returned to his own timeline, and the others had undergone intensive training until the androids arrived. When they came, Goku had suddenly been struck by the heart virus, and had to retreat from the battle. The prideful Vegeta had appeared then, and showcasing his newly acquired transformation he had destroyed Android 19 with little trouble. Then, Android 20 had struck from behind, absorbing the Super Saiyans energy, and leaving him to bleed to death, helpless and alone out on the battle field. In the next few minutes, Krillen, Tien and Gohan suffered similar fates. Piccolo had managed to escape with Bulma and her son, but a few hours later he had been captured by two previously unknown androids, androids that were much more powerful than anything he had ever seen. He was forced to watch as Goku and Yamcha were robbed of their energy and killed by Androids 17 and 20, while 18 held him back, and forced him to look down at the cruel and bloody demise of two of his friends.
Android 20, who Kame had said was really Doctor Gero, had then undertaken various operations on Piccolo, in an attempt to make him into another cyborg, but the crafty Namekian had turned Androids 17 and 18 against their creator, and together they had tried to escape. Android 18 had been destroyed, but 17 and Piccolo had gotten away, and had miraculously avoided capture ever since.
Mister Popo leant his broom up against a wall and walked over to his silent companion. "Kame? Is everything all right?" he asked worriedly.
Kame's feet touched the ground, as he unfolded his legs and stood again. "No, nothing is right any more, I fear. I have just been speaking to King Kai. He tells me that small cracks are beginning to develop in the barrier between this world and the next. It is as if some force is attacking the formation of the universe, pulling and pushing at the dimensional boundaries that have held for millions of years."
"What does it mean?" Popo asked.
"I don't know, I'm afraid. King Kai has only told me what his feelings say. He is talking with the other Kais now. He will inform me and all the other planet guardians in his galaxy what action they have decided to take once their meeting is over."
"And then?"
"That remains to be seen. The problems our planet is facing at the moment however are more important. Until we learn more about these anomalies there is little we alone can do, but we may be able to help Piccolo a little."
"How can we do that Kame?"
"Well firstly, I think a quick visit to an old friend of mine is in order." Kame's face showed a small smile at some unheard joke as he teleported off the lookout. Mister Popo was not nearly as optimistic. With a sigh, he picked up his broom and continued with his sweeping.
"I hope you'll be all right Kame."
.
Android 17 flew silently over the grim plateau that was labeled in his memory banks as Yunzabit Heights. He new exactly where he was, though he never once looked down at the ground he was flying over. He was hardly even aware of his body at all, in fact, as his mind was focusing on other tasks.
In the days when Doctor Gero had been working for the Red Ribbon army, before Goku had single-handedly destroyed it, he had been asked by some of the more ambitious generals to pass on the task of finishing his eighth android body to the recently kidnapped Doctor Frap, the only member of the Red Ribbon Science Division to possess a similar level of skill. The task he was to work on instead was to construct a system of computers containing all the data in the world, regardless of its form or relevance, and capable of predicting the most likely result of any given action by using the data available to it concerning the person/persons involved, the possibility of any variables that may effect the outcome, and the results of similar actions recorded in history. He had immediately agreed to perform the task, seeing that it was a challenge worth the application of his skills, and at the end of that year, he had completed and presented to Commander Red the Probability Analysis and Logics network (P.A.L network), which, as he was eager to demonstrate, could easily predict the next move he would make in a Chess game, and tell him whether or not a missile would hit its intended target before it was even launched. Sadly, Commander Red didn't seem to appreciate the brilliance of his creation, being too distracted at present by his quest to find seven magical balls, that, at the time, Gero had believed to be little more than a legend. Later on, a small boy had appeared seemingly from no-where, and displaying powers beyond anything within living memory of mankind, had single-handedly defeated the Red Ribbon army, down to the last soldier. Only Doctor Gero had survived, hidden away in his laboratory in the Southern Continent, and his dreams of scientific advancement were gone. Still, he worked on, if at a slower pace, and with far less funding than in his glory days. He kept his P.A.L network in his lab to help him with any "fortune telling", as he called it, and connected most of his future android models to it in order to let them make more informed decisions. Of course, they had their own set of logic circuits installed, so they would not be unable to think properly were the transmitter to malfunction, but it is just not possible to integrate such a large and advanced system into such a small body, and considering the amount of money he had at his disposal, this was the most practical way. In between operations on Piccolo, Doctor Gero had set up connections to the P.A.L network for Androids 17 and 18, a task he had been meaning to complete before he was distracted by difficulties with his android parts, which had lead him into a long and detailed investigation into cyber-organic interfaces. He had obviously forgotten to disable their connections, because 17 was still able to log in at will.
That, of course, was what he was doing now.
In the top right hand corner of the main screen that appeared in 17's mind's eye was a "red alert" icon, flashing urgently for attention. At first, he ignored it, but when it moved it self to directly on top of the menu he was about to enter, he decided that something that Doctor Gero would consider more important than his work must be a great calamity, and that he had better make sure it wasn't dangerous to him before he continued, if indeed it would let him.
The graph that appeared in 17's mind when he activated the alert icon was a representation of unusual temporal activity relating back to that particular era. His programming didn't include temporal engineering, but he new enough from what he had seen of Doctor Gero's papers and diagrams in the lab to tell that something was quite significantly wrong.
Instead of the complicated but unbroken web that usually appeared on a timelines chart, the web was now punctuated by large cracks outlined in red. At the top of the graph, written in bold letters, were the words:
"TEMPORAL DAMAGE DETECTED. IMBALANCE REACHING CRITICAL LEVEL. REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ATTENTION."
A/N: Is it good? Is it bad? Please review! And a better title would be nice as well…
Story Advertising
ID: 982432
Title: The Saiyan War
Author: Arthain
Summary: Gohan/Videl: The saiyans have been at war with each other for the past 100 years, but the end of the war is near, for good or for evil. Reposted as R-rated
JDX's Comments: The grammar in this isn't that good, but the story is, and it is the prelude to a sequel which is even better!