8. The Device
Trunks easily overpowered Juuhachigou, but Leela had trouble with her brother.
"I thought you were scared and wanted to run away like the chicken you are?" Juunanagou said amused. He finally had the opportunity to not only make fun of her, but to defeat her in battle as well.
"I changed my mind so I could kick your ass." Leela said offended.
"Really? Then why aren't you trying?" he said smirking. He found it wonderful that she was doing her best to fight him and the fact that she couldn't hit him made it even better! He was mocking her for it. "Or is it that you have become slow?"
"I am not slow!" she shouted and increased her speed to prove her point.
"You know, our other little fights where you seemed to be better than I, was because you simply caught me off guard. But this fight will prove that I'm much stronger and faster than you are. My technique is superior. Yours is just too predictable. Plus your fear is blocking you from reaching your full power, not that it would improve anything." Juunanagou chuckled, amused to see Leela getting more and more frustrated. He only blocked her every move just to prove she could never hit him. But he thought wrong.
She kept kicking only, so his eyes would be fixated on her legs. Then she hit him face-high, letting him dodge it and she vanished, making fun of him by leaving him behind in confusion.
He hated it. He hated her! He knew she wasn't at all slow, or weak, for he had to do his best to keep her from hitting him. He would almost come to respect her!
He expected her to come from behind, after all, that was her style, but again he thought wrong. She appeared right in front of him.
She made a somersault over him and placed her feet in his back. He cursed her as he went for the building below him. Not being able to stop, he flew right into it. Dust was everywhere, but it didn't stop Leela. She flew after him into the dust, finding him somewhere between fallen walls. She grabbed his collar and hissed: "I thought I was too predictable for you?" and planted her fist in his stomach.
He bowed down, spitting up blood. He would take revenge! He wouldn't stand for this any longer. This time he would finish her off!
Leela raised her fist to punch him again, but he straightened up and caught her hand, glaring at her. She saw his eyes were filled with anger. She had to do something fast if she didn't want to be hit herself. Therefore she tried to punch him with her other fist, but he caught that one as well. She put much strength behind it when she tried to push him back, but he bowed his hands, making her hands go backwards.
It was hurting so badly that she fell on her knees to weaken the pressure on it. But it didn't work; he would only strengthen his grip. She screamed as she felt one of her wrists snap. He pushed further, slowly so it would hurt more.
The pain increased, making tears well up behind her eyes. She had to push back if she wanted to kick his legs from underneath his body so he would let go. But it was hurting too bad and she doubted she could handle any more pain. She could feel he was close of breaking her other wrist. The agony made her weaken. No, she couldn't faint now; she had to do something!
Should she call for help? Trunks' help? No! She had to do this alone! She had to figure something out to... That's it! She gathered as much energy in her body as she could and concentrated on to ignore the pain, so she could use it for her plan. She powered up, as fast as she could.
An unnatural wind blew extremely hard into Juunanagou's face. It was hard for Leela to keep focusing because of the pain she had to carry. Though Juunanagou had trouble with holding on to her, he wouldn't let her go.
Leela made a brick from one of the fallen buildings next to her fly up with the wind and let it hit Juunanagou full on his forehead.
He screamed when he felt the stinging pain. He swung back at the force of the rock hitting his head and he was forced to let Leela go.
Leela took this moment to stand up and to kick him several times wherever she could. "I'll kill you!" she yelled and wanted to kick him again if it wasn't for the look upon his face. She saw him hurting. Blood was all over his body and clothes, but the wounds weren't that big.
He looked right into her eyes. She gazed back at him.
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"Leela! How are you doing down there?" Trunks called from behind her, up in the sky. He was still battling Juuhachigou, but he was clearly winning.
Trunks' sudden interference startled Leela and thus let her guard down to answer him. But her answer couldn't get through, for she got knocked down from behind.
Juunanagou had planted his elbow in her back and had her breath knocked out of her. She fell on her stomach which made it all worse. She tried to gasp, but Juunanagou wouldn't let her. He let himself fall on one knee, right on top of Leela's back.
Her last bit of breath inside, along with the energy she had left, were forced to leave her body. She had to catch her breath quickly if she didn't want to faint, but it was too hard. And still she tried. Everything inside her was hurting.
Good. Juunanagou thought proud because he succeeded in knocking her down and she couldn't get up anymore. "And now for the final blow..." he said and held his arm up a bit, pointing his finger at his victim below him. He hesitated. It made him narrow his eyes in shame and frustration. But then he said to Leela: "Time to die." and fired his Ki-blast without any further thoughts that might stand in the way of his actions.
The smoke disappeared where Leela got hit. But she wasn't there! Juunanagou searched the area for Leela when he heard a voice.
"You didn't think I would allow you to kill her, did you?" it was Trunks, floating in the air. He had wrapped one arm around the unconscious Leela, letting her head rest on his chest. His other arm was around Juuhachigou's waist. She seemed knocked out. He wasn't as gentle with her as he was with Leela.
"No…" Juunanagou could barely get it out. He had clearly underestimated Trunks. How could Trunks have beaten his sister so easily? She was just as strong as Juunanagou himself was! No, he was stronger, even if it was just a little bit. He could still defeat Trunks. But could he handle Trunks alone?
"I guess you want your sister back, huh?" Trunks' grip around Juuhachigou's waist weakened and finally he dropped her, right at Juunanagou's feet.
He knelt down beside his sister. "Juuhachigou." he panicked a bit, but realized she was still alive. Then he picked her up. "This isn't over Trunks!" he shouted and fled.
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Trunks watched him go. He would finish them off later. Right now, Leela was the center of his attention. He gently lay her down on the ground. She opened her eyes and met his. Scared as she was, she sat up and backed away, feeling tremendous pain in her left-wrist. She grabbed it with her other hand.
Trunks moved closer to look at it, but Leela's words stopped him to move further: "Please don't kill me…"
He looked in her eyes and remembered what he had said about killing her the next time he saw her. Then he thought about the reason and got to the memory of what she had done to Qiana. It raised all the anger and sadness inside of him again.
"Why shouldn't I?" he said with a hiss in his voice.
"Because…uhm, I have things to do tomorrow." she tried.
"You killed Qiana. She was defenseless. She couldn't even walk because of you. You deserve what's coming."
This subject made Leela angry. Again that Qiana-brat! Why wouldn't he believe she didn't kill Qiana? It was really getting on her nerves! "I don't know what makes you dumb, but it really works."
"What did you say?" he demanded her to take it back.
"If you had a brain, which you clearly don't, you would have wondered how she could get all the way at the place where she died when she couldn't even walk, according to you."
"You must've taken her there so you could do your thing without any interruptions."
Leela waited a while to give him a chance to figure out that what he had said sounded ridiculous. Instead, he found it justified. She sighed and decided to point it out to him: "You have no idea how stupid that sounds, do you?"
"She told me it was you, just before she..."
"She actually said that I was the one who murdered her?"
"Not in so many words."
"Well, then in how many did she, Trunks?"
"..." he didn't know what to answer. Qiana looked at Leela when he asked her who did this to her. But he wasn't there when it happened. Could it be that Qiana lied? "I..."
"Trunks, listen to me." Leela's voice softened. "I would never kill Qiana. I know how much you liked her. I would never hurt you." she confessed. "At least not in that way." she mumbled. "I'd probably poison you or something."
"Why thank you." Trunks said, not exactly relieved.
"You're welcome." she grinned.
Trunks' eyes gazed in hers. He still had doubts. Sure, it sounded ridiculous that Leela would bring Qiana someplace else to finish her off. But the fact was that Leela and Qiana hated each other from the beginning.
"Fine. I will drop the subject for now, but only because I need you to back me up in defeating the androids. When that is done, we'll see what really happened."
"Trunks, you're so damn ignorant!" Leela called out.
Again Trunks tried to move closer to check Leela's wrist, but she stood up fast. "What do you want?" she got scared again.
"Come back with me." he said.
Leela hesitated. "So you can kill me in my sleep? I don't think so." she said.
"You need your arm checked."
"Are you a doctor now?"
"Would you just come back with me?"
"No."
He thought he would increase the odds of her coming back with him by hitting her where it hurt: "You need training. You suck."
"I do not suck, you suck." she regarded him in exasperation.
"If you'd come back and train with me, you'll be great."
"Your back must be aching."
"Why's that?"
"Because of the heavy burden of a big ego you must carry. How can you possibly stand up straight? Besides, it is you who can learn from me."
His expression was almost cynical: "Your back must be aching."
She laughed.
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"Trunks! Leela?" Bulma stood in her lab.
"Hi." Leela said emotionless and looked in the room. It was almost empty if it wasn't for some rusty machines.
"I thought you two had a f..." Bulma begun but saw her son making a waving gesture, making clear Bulma shouldn't talk about it. "Anyway," Bulma got the hint. "Heather and I finally have something that could stop the androids for good!" she said with enthusiasm.
"Really? That's great!" Trunks called out. "Let me see." he said curiously.
Leela too got a little curious and looked at Bulma.
"Here it is!" Bulma had the small black device she and her friend had worked on for years, in her hand. "You simply push this button and it will kill every machine, no matter what it is, within 16 feet." Bulma was proud.
So was Trunks: "You did a great job, mom." he smiled. Finally he had those androids right where he wanted; shut down.
"Shall I demonstrate it?" Bulma asked, hoping for a 'yes' so she could show her creation.
"Of course!" Trunks said and Bulma's finger went for the button. The machines around her weren't really valuable anyway. They were no use at all, except maybe to fulfill their job as a target.
"No wait!" Leela called out.
Both Trunks and Bulma looked at her with raised eyebrows, wondering what it was Leela had to shout for.
"I...I need to check up on someone I met some time ago." Leela started walking backwards to the door. "Don't worry, it won't be long." she had reached the door. "By all means, please continue without me." she left.
"What was that all about?" Bulma asked.
"I have no idea." Trunks answered in the same puzzled way as his mother.
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That was close. Leela thought. She would be dead by now if she didn't get away on time. After all, she was an android too. The thought of Trunks finding out what she really was, made her shiver. It would make the whole Qiana-issue worse. He hated androids. He would sure hate her so much for even being one that he would blame her for whatever he could and actually kill her this time.
Leela couldn't blame him for hating androids so much. They were the ones who murdered his father, his friends, other innocent people and whatever else they found. But still, he didn't have the right to blame her of killing Qiana. She didn't do that! Why wouldn't he believe her?!
Speaking of killing, she herself was close of becoming just a spirit herself during the fight with Juunanagou. She owed her life to Trunks. Juunanagou would have finished her off for sure.
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There it was: the forest. She would visit Adam and his little siblings. She could speak about her problem between her and Trunks with Adam. Maybe he would understand? Or maybe not...probably not...Then maybe she could help them with something, as long as she was away from that machine-killing-device.