~Chapter 25: The Day~
I woke up that morning and put on my Kame School uniform. My thoughts had taken a dangerously fatalist turn. For the fact that I knew where and when our enemies would appear, I really had no idea what to expect. There was one thing I was fairly sure about, however, and it wouldn't stop cycling through my mind that horrible morning.
In the battle to come, I would be little more than collateral damage.
Sure, I got pretty strong in the three years we had to train. I suppose my power level must have been eight or nine million - nothing to sneeze at. However, it wasn't even close to what Frieza had been, and I knew for a fact that the androids would be far stronger than that. If there was any hope, I remember thinking, it would be in the Saiyans. Even though I was thinking mostly of Goku, it seemed a little ironic to be depending on them.
All the residents of the Kame House gathered outside to see me off. We all stood there for a few minutes, unable to say much.
"Kuririn..." said Roshi-sama. "Good luck."
"Thanks," I said, "But it won't be my fight."
"Then stay home!" said Oolong. "Why go get killed? Just stay here and let those crazy Saiyans fight!"
"...Sorry," I said. As when Frieza had come to Earth, I had to go. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I hadn't, no matter what the outcome. I powered up and prepared to leave.
Roshi-sama was sweating, but he kept a brave face. I won't forget what he said.
"Kuririn is a true warrior. He's one of the greats." Praise like that from Muten Roshi put a lump in my throat.
He reached through my ki flare - that white barrier that I so often find separating me from people that I care about - and took my hand.
"Good luck, just the same," he said.
I bit my lip to keep from crying. I tried lamely to say something for a few seconds, and then I took off.
I met Goku, Gohan, and Piccolo in the air.
"Hey, Kuririn!" said Goku. "Why do you look so sad?"
I was shocked at his comment, but from looking at him, I could tell that he wasn't troubled at all by everything that impended.
"I'm sorry, Goku," I said. "I'm not a Super Saiyan."
We found an island at more or less the coordinates Trunks had described. Things looked pretty bad - there was a heavily populated town there, full of people who could get hurt. On a mountain to one side of the island, we met Yamucha, Tenshinhan, and surprisingly, Bulma. Whatever Tenshinhan had done to train, he'd done well - he was a bit stronger than I was. As for Bulma, she was holding a baby.
I couldn't believe it - Bulma, a mother! I hadn't heard anything about this. "Did you and Yamucha-san get married?" chimed Gohan.
Yamucha folded his arms and grunted. "That child... is not my son."
Oddly, it was Goku, not Bulma or Yamucha, who revealed the identity of the father. He even addressed the baby by name! "Your father's Vegeta, isn't it, Trunks?" Goku had to do some frantic covering-up after he remembered that he wasn't supposed to know that. I had somewhat of an idea from that moment about who that mystery man from the future had been.
Of course, everyone was shocked to hear that Bulma and Vegeta were parents of a child. Bulma insisted that she didn't care about Vegeta, but didn't give us any more details. Yamucha seemed to have already known everything. Sorry, there's more stuff going on there that I'm not the right person to ask about. No one is, really - Yamucha and Bulma clam up on the subject.
We waited, and we started to get anxious. Periodically, we told Bulma to go home(not a chance). Tenshinhan told us that he'd left Chaozu because he wasn't strong enough - that was no surprise to me. Why am I the only one who senses these things? Besides Vegeta, the whole group was there, with one important exception - the androids that we'd gathered to fight! It was already past the time Trunks had said they'd show up, and we couldn't sense a single strong ki. That was the reason we were anxious.
A skycar came to the mountain where we were standing. It contained Yajirobe, who gave us a bag of senzu beans - those would prove very important. He stuck around only long enough to tell us that we were crazy, and then left; he didn't make it far, though. Yajirobe's sky car exploded in the air.
We were totally shocked; we saw two figures fly away from the spot. I didn't understand - we had still felt no ki at all. Gohan figured out that since they were androids, they had no ki - ki is a force held by living things. That seemed to make sense, but I couldn't quite wrap my mind around the concept - no ki? Huh? We'd gotten so used to sensing our opponents.
Gohan went to save Yajirobe, and the rest of us - not Bulma, of course - went down into the town to look for them. It was really frustrating. Not only did we have to find them by sight, we didn't even know what they looked like. Whether we found them was up to total luck. I kept looking for their kis, despite what I knew. Although what we'd discovered about their lack of ki made sense logically, emotionally it felt impossible. You wouldn't understand if you've never felt ki, but it was just something that we came to take for granted. Unfortunately for Yamucha, he was the one to find them first.
I felt Yamucha's ki take a swift dive. I ran to the place I'd felt him. My god, what I saw...
The ground was littered with horribly deformed dead bodies. There were two strange-looking figures. One of them - Android Number 19 - looked like a big, fat version of Chaozu. The other, Number 20, looked like an old man. They were both wearing hats with the logo of the Red Ribbon Army on them. 20 was holding Yamucha in the air by the mouth. Yamucha had been impaled. I could actually see through him. It makes me shake violently in my seat just to think about it.
Number 20 saw us and dropped Yamucha. I ran to him and stared at the androids for a moment - I hated them! How dare they do that to Yamucha? I took him back to where we'd left the senzu.
Bulma, Yajirobe, and Gohan were there. They panicked when I got there carrying Yamucha.
"Oh my god, Yamucha!" said Bulma.
"Senzu, senzu, senzu!" I screamed.
Yajirobe gave it to me and I force-fed it to Yamucha. His gaping wound resealed itself. As relieved as I was, I'll never get used to seeing that.
Yamucha didn't even have time to stand up before an explosion hit the island. It wiped out half the town. We knew immediately that it had been the androids. It was horrible. "They're as terrible as we've been told," I thought.
A few seconds later, we saw Goku, Piccolo, and Tenshinhan take off along with the androids. They were moving the fight. Yamucha said that they had to be warned about the androids - he claimed that they'd used a technique to drain his ki from him when they were holding him. Gohan said that that was terrible and took off immediately to warn everyone. I took off too, bringing the senzu, which we were pretty sure to need. Yamucha said that he didn't want to come, but a few seconds later, I noticed him following me.
The three of us came to a raised plain surrounded by hills. There, Goku was beating up number 19 as a Super Saiyan.
Goku seemed to have the battle pretty well in hand until he fired a ki blast at 19. 19 put its hand out and absorbed the blast. I should clarify that: he didn't just block it, he actually absorbed it. The blast seemed to be sucked into his hand. Yamucha had been right about the energy stealing - they did it through special nodules in their hands.
We told Goku this, and he acknowledged it, but he did so between gasps for breath. The Super Saiyan was acting very strangely - had he been drained that much?
After that, the battle turned. 19 beat up Goku, and he didn't seem to be able to resist much. He was clutching at his chest.
"Oh!" screamed Gohan. "Father has heart disease!"
I thought that I felt MY heart skip a couple of beats. I didn't believe it; really, I didn't want to believe it. All of my hopes had been on Goku. If he was really sick, then we...
I told Gohan not to be ridiculous and threw Goku a senzu. He ate it, but it didn't help. He really did have heart disease. Senzu doesn't cure diseases. Goku had always been healthy, so he'd simply never thought to take the medicine. I hate to disrespect the man, but that's Goku, all right.
Goku was really being beaten up. Soon, he wasn't even a Super Saiyan anymore. 19 leapt on top of him. We all flew to try and rescue him, but 20 got in our way. There was nothing we could do. Luckily, that was when Vegeta got there. He kicked 19 off of Goku.
For once, I was relieved to see Vegeta. However, I wasn't very relieved. I was thinking of what the young man from the future had told us. He'd said that we'd fought the androids and that we had all died. I was worried that it was impossible to change the future. The only thing that had changed my mind was that in his time, we'd not had Goku, but in this time we did. If Goku couldn't fight, I couldn't help but think that history would run its course.
Vegeta cast a disgusted look at Goku and kicked him at us. "Give him his medicine," he said. Yamucha took Goku away from the fight. I was relieved to see him go-- Yamucha, I mean. The fight was way too far out of his league. Actually, it was out of mine as well. I wanted to run.
Vegeta cast a look around, and talked to the androids, who scoffed at him. Vegeta smiled and turned into a Super Saiyan.
I was filled with fear. Vegeta's ki was huge and, disappointingly, as evil as ever. I realized then that Vegeta had never really changed that much. All that had happened was that he'd been humbled by the presence of people stronger than him. Now Vegeta looked as confident as he'd ever been. He laughed madly, proud of his power. Vegeta, Prince of the Saiyans, had returned at last!
I was worried about Vegeta being a Super Saiyan. Sure, it meant that we had a chance against the androids after all, but what would happen after that?
19 attacked Vegeta, with little effect. Vegeta smiled at him.
"You don't feel pain, do you?" he asked the android. "Lucky you."
Vegeta beat the hell out of 19. The android absorbed some of Vegeta's energy, but he broke its hands off and killed it with something he called the "Super Vegeta Big Bang Attack" or some ridiculous garbage like that. It was just a big ki blast. Names like that should have died with the Ginyu Force.
Even though 19 had died, Number 20 still seemed confident. "No matter how strong you are," he said, "You won't be able to defeat the cyborgs." Promptly, he ran like hell.
Vegeta told me to give him a senzu. I was hesitant, but I did it. Vegeta told us to stay out of his way - "Go home and drink your milk" - and then he took off after 20.
"Damn that Vegeta!" I found myself shouting. "I don't even like milk!"
Gohan and Piccolo gave me strange looks. Why in the hell did I say that?
That's just me, I guess... comic relief for the ages.
We all went after him, of course. Number 20 had hidden in the hills. I didn't see anything until I saw Gohan knock 20 off of Piccolo somewhere in the sky. Piccolo asked me for a senzu, which I gave him, and then he faced off with 20.
Amazingly, Piccolo began to beat the crap out of Number 20! I had never even considered him - he was as strong as the Super Saiyans! It seemed that we'd changed the future after all.
Speaking of the future, the young man from the future showed up then. Piccolo absentmindedly shouted, "Trunks!", eliminating any remaining doubt of who he was - this was Bulma and Vegeta's kid. At least that explained how he could become a Super Saiyan.
He looked down upon the battlefield. I wondered idly how he would react to seeing how easily we'd defeated his fearsome cyborgs. He stared right at Number 20.
"Who's that?" said Trunks.
Well, it goes to show that no one - not even time travelers - can really predict everything. While we were trying to figure out what he meant, Bulma showed up in a helicopter. Number 20 took advantage of all of the confusion.
"I'm going to get Number 17 and Number 18 to kill all of you," he said, and he let out a massive ki blast that obscured his escape. It also destroyed Bulma's helicopter, but Trunks saved her - and Trunks(the baby), paradoxically.
Bulma actually turned out to have some useful information. She'd seen 20, and she said that he was really none other than Dr. Gero himself. Apparently, she'd seen his picture some time. Somehow, Gero must have turned himself into a cyborg, which is quite an astonishing feat to accomplish upon oneself. He must have been a genius. Man, I hate that scumbag.
We talked to Trunks, who said that history must be changing. He said that the "17 and 18" Gero had mentioned were the androids that he had warned us about. He described them to us - "A cute girl and boy about my age, with hoop earrings". I blinked several times. That was what the fearsome androids looked like? Actually, Trunks clarified then that they weren't even androids at all. They were cyborgs; the only real androids we met that day were 19 and 16.
Let me explain the difference between cyborgs and androids; it's an explanation I've made before. Androids are robotic constructs designed to look and function like humans, and occasionally having some added biological parts. Cyborgs are basically humans, really. They're just humans that have had some of their natural parts replaced with robotic parts. If I've said anything to interest you in this process, I've misled you terribly. It is cruel and terrible and only a moralless bastard like Dr. Gero would ever even consider perpetrating such a crime. You have no idea what is involved... the entire body is cut open and... well, I'll spare you the details. Brrr. To think that Gero would do this to himself, and that Taopaipai actually volunteered for it... they must have been truly mad.
Bulma told us that Gero's lab was in the general area of the Northern Mountains. We reasoned that that had to be where he was going to go to activate 17 and 18. According to Piccolo, our best plan was to beat him there and destroy the cyborgs before they could be activated.
Predictably, Vegeta was having none of that. His stupid Saiyan arrogance was on full blast. Trunks got very angry and told him that 17 and 18 were so powerful that he had no chance. He said that Vegeta had no way of even conceiving of their power. Of course, the more he said that, the more excited Vegeta only became. Poor Trunks. There was a lot of pain in his eyes and his voice. He had witnessed a global holocaust and only wanted to prevent it from happening again.
Vegeta took off like a comet constructed of hardened pride. Trunks angrily took off after him, shouting that he wasn't about to let his father die again. We had to explain to Bulma that the man from the future was Trunks - it didn't seem to put her off much. Her only comment was that she was glad her baby would grow up to be handsome.
Piccolo, Tenshinhan, and I went off into the Northern Mountains to try and find Gero's lab. Again, Gohan didn't come with us; this time he stayed behind to take Bulma home. Although Gohan was between Tenshinhan and Piccolo in strength, we were making an effort to keep him out of the fighting - his mom didn't want him to fight, and he was still only a kid.
The three of us split up when we got there, planning to raise our ki quickly to let everyone know when we found it. I remember the Northern Mountains being very, very cold, and, oddly, I remember being surprised by that. Obviously, they were going to be cold. What was I thinking? Tenshinhan told me not too kindly to deal with it.
So, I flew around. I wasn't even exactly sure what I was looking for, and the mountain region was very large. I recall thinking to myself, "This is ridiculous! I'm really cold, and I'll never find anything in all of this--"
Oddly enough, it was about precisely that moment when I saw Dr. Gero hop into a carved-out portion of a mountain with a large metal door. I was so dumbstruck by the sight that I just floated there and gaped at him for a few seconds. He turned around and looked back at me, alarmed at being followed, but seemed unworried after he discovered who I was. He was right to be - had I attempted to fight him, he would have kicked my ass, although he's the last of our enemies that I can probably lay claim to being strong enough to defeat if I were to fight him now.
Finally, it occurred to me to do something - I had to act, and hurry! It was almost too late! I raised my ki as quickly and as high as I could, and then flew down to the door of the lab, which he'd already closed behind him, in an attempt to get it open. I was soon joined by Tenshinhan, but not even our combined strength was enough to damage it(you have to wonder what that thing was made of. Tenshinhan and I were more than strong enough to break practically anything.)
Piccolo quickly joined us and prepared to blast the door, but we heard noise from the other side. Dr. Gero was yelling at someone that he called "17". Tenshinhan and I went pale - the cyborgs had been activated. Gero hadn't wanted to resort to this, but we forced him and carelessly allowed him to do it, and we were doomed as a result-- or so it seemed at the time. Fortunately, the cyborgs weren't the same as the ones of which Trunks had warned us.
Sorry, I'm getting ahead of things. Anyway, it was Vegeta that finally blasted down the lab door.
Even with Trunks' description, I wasn't prepared for the appearance of the cyborgs. Unlike the others we'd seen, nothing about them looked artificial; they seemed completely human. The only way that you could tell otherwise was that there was no ki to feel.
They looked very much alike. They were tall and slightly pale. The male one, 17, had long black hair and was actually quite handsome. As for 18, I gasped a bit when I saw her. She was beautiful. She had shocking blue eyes that were intense, yet exquisitely pretty. The understated features of her face seemed to be lit by surrounding locks of blonde hair. I remember thinking that she was even more beautiful than Maron, and I'd never thought that about anyone before.
I couldn't help but stare at her. I remember thinking that she didn't notice me. She informs me currently that she did. Crap.
I was finally shaken out of my trance when Dr. Gero ordered the cyborgs to attack. They didn't. Well, now we knew why he hadn't wanted to use them. 18 noticed an inactivated android in Gero's lab. Gero told her not to touch it, whereupon 17 swiftly killed him by decapitating him and squashing his decapitated head. Even if that feat failed to impress Vegeta, it scared the hell out of me. Number 20 had been stronger than Frieza, and it had taken little effort for 17 to kill him. Since I couldn't feel their ki, there was no way of knowing just how much more power they had.
18 went back to trying to activate the android. Trunks suddenly seemed to realize that this new android might be even worse, and he blasted the entire lab to pieces. It was an impressive show of strength, but 17, 18, and the unawakened android were unharmed. The android was activated after all. It was a large and unattractive thing called Number 16 who proclaimed that his mission was to kill Son Goku, who had destroyed the Red Ribbon Army(It was also the mission of 17 and 18). 16 was bulky, coarse, and ugly - in sharp contrast to 17 and 18. You would never have guessed from looking at 16 that he was a hero.
Then, the three of them just left us there. There was general panic about them going off after Goku. We knew that if they did find him, poor Goku would be as good as dead; with his heart disease, he couldn't even fight back. Vegeta, as usual, couldn't care less about "Kakarotto" - he was just pissed off that the cyborgs had ignored him, and went after them. When Trunks tried to stop him, Vegeta punched him. I think that Vegeta even knew who Trunks really was at that point, too. What a great guy, huh?
After the beleaguered Trunks recovered from that punch, we went after Vegeta. It wasn't hard to follow him, although he had a huge head start. Super Saiyans tend to have ki like a fire alarm. It's almost impossible for a ki-sensing person not to know where they are.
Emotionally, I was a mess. I was terrified, of course, but I was also confused and angry, mostly with myself. What was wrong with me? We were facing possibly the most fearsome enemies yet, so what the hell was I doing thinking about how pretty one of them was? I was incredulous at myself. Was I really that desperate? Was I really that crazy? The other thing was bothering me was that I didn't know whether we were making a mistake. To me, they didn't look evil. I didn't know whether I was just being shallow and judging by appearances, whether I had a stupid crush, or whether I was simply insane. Yet I couldn't stop wondering - if they were really that evil, why did they just leave us there? Were we not worth the effort to kill?
By the time we caught up with Vegeta, he was already fighting 18, and he didn't seem to be doing well. In fact, she looked ready to finish him off. Poor Trunks, who was still trying to protect his father, lost it and flew at her as a Super Saiyan. He swung that sword - the executor of Frieza - at her head. She blocked it calmly with an arm. It chipped.
That's when things got really bad.
Piccolo and Tenshinhan flew to Trunks' aid. If I'd had any courage, I'd have done the same, but I was rooted to the spot by fear and confusion. Besides, the battle happened so quickly. No one landed a blow on the cyborgs. 17 felled Trunks - a Super Saiyan - with a single punch! Tenshinhan was grabbed and strangled. 18 took out both Trunks and Vegeta with no problem. Actually, Vegeta lasted the longest - he was trying to get up at the end, but a swift kick from 18 put an end to that. When it was done, Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Trunks, and Vegeta were all soundly knocked out and some of them were dying. I'd say the whole thing took maybe 40 seconds.
It was terrifying. I couldn't believe they had such power - no one had power like that. The way that they fought was very strange. There didn't seem to be any malice in it. They had a kind of calm grace about it, as if they were barely even trying - as if they weren't even really there. I also felt guilty for not doing anything, but I wouldn't have made any difference. Trunks was right; they were just too strong.
Abruptly, they came up to the highway where I was standing. I panicked and struck a fighting stance, expecting to die within seconds, but they made no move to attack me. Instead, 17 told me that no one was dead, but that I had better heal them.
I couldn't believe it! What did this mean? Obviously, they had left everyone alive on purpose - they would never have done that if they were really as evil as Trunks had told us. What were they really up to, anyway?
"See ya," said 17 to me.
They had a very calm conversation, as if they were pondering their next move in some kind of game, and then they simply met 16 and walked away. They didn't even care!
They kept walking. I had to do something. I had to do something. I had to do something.
I did something. I ran up to them and screamed, "Wait! Stop!"
They stared at me. "What?"
Good question. I really had no idea what I was doing. I had initially planned to attack them, but I quickly saw that for the ludicrous folly that it was. I asked them, as gravely as possible, what they planned to do.
Their response was a veritable shrug! "Oh, I guess we'll kill Son Goku. That's what we were made to do, right?"
I was livid! How could they talk about such things with such abandon? This was the big showdown! This was for the fate of the world! What in the hell were they pulling? They told me that it was just a game. A game! I thought I'd explode. I stood there and fumed at them.
"You should really give your friends senzu before they die," deadpanned 17.
18 walked up to me, leaned in, and kissed me. It was on the cheek, for about two seconds. I told my body to pull away, but actually, I kind of leaned into it.
"Bye," said the cyborgs.
So, that was the cyborgs. Not exactly what we'd been expecting, except in the power department.
If I had to summarize my thoughts then, in order, it would probably come out like this:
"What the hell is going on?"
"Are they really going to kill Goku?"
"She kissed me."
"This is insane! What are we going to do?"
"After all that training, we were so helpless!"
"It wasn't a bad kiss, actually. She has soft lips."
"Wasn't there something I had to do?"
"Oh, crap! Senzu!"
I ran embarrassedly down the road to save the lives of four fallen warriors. What a strange day.
--END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE--