Staring at the Sun
By Saiyanx
A fanfic based on the Dragonball Super Z series by Juuachigou and Mirai Bulma.
(A small note. In the series, 18 doesn't know 17's still alive, at least I don't think so, but in this story she does.)
(A second small note. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read the series first. Do a google search.)
Chapter 1
Maybe life is like a ride on a freeway
Dodging bullets while you're trying to find your way
Everyone's around but no one does a damn thing
It brings me down, but I won't let them
17 was seriously beginning to doubt that he'd survived Vegeta's final flash. The more days that went by, the more likely it seemed that he really had died and was now serving time in Hell.
Chiara had hold of his arm and was half leading, half dragging him through New Hope City. While pretending to listen to her aggressively cheerful chatter, he'd spotted a newly finished building that towered above the city, a park full of young couples indulging in nauseating displays of public affection and a bus full of, can you believe it, nuns! All of this made him long for the days when he could just point a finger and reduce everything before him to rubble. If there was a god, he must be splitting his sides with laughter, waving these wonderfully tempting targets in front of 17 and knowing full well he couldn't do a thing about it.
"Oh, 17! Look!" Chiara pointed ahead of them. There stood a newly opened pet store. The number of homeless animals left by 17's and 18' destruction was just as vast as the number of people. Thanks to generous donations and help from Capsule Corp, these animals were finally getting loving owners, as could be seen by the small children walking out with puppies and kittens in their arms. As Chiara watched the scene with shining eyes, 17 turned his skyward.
"You're loving this, aren't you?!" He muttered under his breath.
From the rooftop of an apartment building, hazel brown eyes watched the pair through a set of specially made binoculars. Commander Simmons turned on his walkie-talkie and spoke into it.
"This is Simmons. I've found them."
There was some static and then a much more elderly voice replied,
"Are you positive?"
"Yes sir. There's a male and a female, and neither of them is giving off any excess body heat." He looked down at the scanner his binoculars were hooked up to. It showed an infra-red image of everything that he saw through the binoculars. Right now, it was showing the outlines of the two androids and the people around them. Every person had red light radiating off them, indicating the energy given off by their movements. Even the small dog, the female was patting, was giving off this energy, but she and her male companion were not.
"Excellent!" Simmons' superior couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice. "Don't lose them. Keep us informed of their position and we'll wait for the right moment. We don't want to risk any civilians getting in the way."
"Yes sir… But sir, there's something strange here." Simmons took another look through the binoculars. "Eye-witnesses always described the female as blonde, and resembling the male in appearance. But she's got red hair and, from what I can see of her face, it has a more roundish shape than the males'."
"Need I remind you Simmons," The elderly voice interrupted his thoughts. "That many of those eye-witnesses only saw the pair at a distance and, if they can dress and talk like humans, I see no reason why they can't do something as simple as dye their hair! Now stop wasting time with pointless details and keep them in your sights!"
"Yes sir!" Simmons turned off the walkie-talkie and resumed watching his two targets.
17 just stared out the jeep window while Chiara continued her verbal torture. They were speeding along, just above the ground, through the woods back towards the lab. A sparkling blue river flowed beside them. It was the perfect scene of tranquil, quiet nature. Well okay, scratch the quiet part.
"Weren't those animals just the cutest 17?" Chiara said while guiding their vehicle over the woodland brush. "And the way that puppy licked my face, awww."
'She wouldn't be so happy if she'd seen what it'd been licking ten seconds earlier.' 17 thought to himself.
Chiara gave 17 a sideways look, trying to spot some kind of expression on his face.
"Come on 17, say something. You've hardly spoken a word all day. You can't just sit around and brood for the rest of your life. You should take this opportunity to get out, see the world." Her face suddenly lit up. "And I know the perfect way to do it."
Keeping one of her hands on the steering wheel, she used the other to open the glove compartment and reach inside.
"Look what I found yesterday when I was going for a walk." She took her hand back out of the compartment and in it was clutched an orange sphere with two red stars shining within it. It was a dragon ball.
Chiara smiled broadly.
"So what do you say?" she asked. "Want to go on a dragon ball hunt? I hear they're really fun!" She turned her eyes back to the woods ahead and a pink tinge came to her cheeks. "I could even go with you if you want."
Chiara never got to hear 17's response to that because at that moment, the jeep was knocked sideways by an unknown force and landed in the river! Shoving open the door and jumping out onto the bank, 17 scanned the surrounding woodland for any sign of their attacker. The damn collar around his neck may have been suppressing his ki, but his senses were as fine tuned as ever.
He jumped to the side just in time to avoid the blast as it came from the cover of a bush. Except it wasn't a blast. It was some sort of strange glowing line that that came out of the bush like a snake. It was quickly pulled back and a man dressed in a military style uniform stood up with his arm pointed towards 17. On his fist was a strange looking device which 17 guessed must be the launcher for that odd weapon. Already knowing what the fool was going to do, 17 dived forward to avoid the line that came shooting out, crouched briefly on the ground and used his hands to thrust himself at the assailant. His physical strength may not have been enough to kill a man with one blow anymore, but he still possessed his knowledge of martial arts and of the weak points of the human anatomy. The soldier let out a slightly high pitched cry as 17's boot slammed sharply into his groin. He bent forward, just to get a palm to the chin. He fell backward, stunned and 17 stood over him.
Reaching down, 17 removed the launcher from the fallen man's arm. He looked it over in his hands for a few seconds, then turned and threw it at the second man who'd been trying to sneak up behind him. It hit the soldier square on the nose, causing it to bleed. This distracted him just long enough for 17 to run forward and drive his knee into his enemy's gut. Then, clasping both his hands together, he hammered the guy in the back of the head, laying him out on the ground.
Looking at his two fallen opponents, 17 could feel the familiar smirk on his face. Even unarmed and outnumbered, he could still inflict pain on humans if he wished.
Truthfully, Simmons felt bad about using Benjamin and Walker as decoys. But he knew there was no way these androids would be taken, using a direct attack. From his hiding place, in the thick branches of a tree, he aimed his binder and pulled the trigger.
As 17 headed towards the, half submerged, jeep to see if Chiara was alright, Simmons line hit him from behind and instantly coiled round his arms, pinning them to his sides. He was instantly struck by mind-numbing pain! It felt like his whole body was on fire! He jerked involuntarily and landed on his knees. His teeth had been clenched up to this point but, as the pangs intensified, he couldn't hold his screams of agony in anymore.
Chiara swept her soaking hair out of her eyes as she clambered from the water. The first thing she saw was 17, on his knees, crying out in pain with some sort of glowing rope wrapped around him. Her eyes followed the rope up to the top of a nearby tree, where a man sat with some sort of device on his arm.
Running towards the tree she cried out,
"Stop that!" and kicked the tree trunk with all her strength.
On realizing that the tree he was in was toppling over, Simmons leapt from the branches, and landed on the ground with a roll. This caused him to release his grip on the binder's trigger, and the line automatically returned to his arm launcher. The tree landed in the river and was swept away.
17 landed, face down, on the ground and Chiara ran over to him. She turned him over to see if he was injured. There didn't seem to be any damage, but his eyes were closed and he still looked like he was in pain. She hoisted one of his arms over her shoulders and took off into the air.
On the ground, Simmons quickly grabbed his walkie-talkie and shouted into it,
"Backup, move in!"
Suddenly, from straight above Chiara, there appeared literally out of nowhere, a sleek black helicopter. Three men leaned out of its' open side and each of them had a binder on their arm. Chiara knew, even before they fired, that they'd got her. But she wasn't going to let them get 17 as well. She threw his unconscious body down to the river and saw him disappear beneath the water's surface, just before her whole world was overtaken by pain.
Simmons watched the female android fall out of the air, only to be stopped by the binders still around her body. The helicopter landed and the android was laid on the ground. Simmons bent down beside her. She'd passed out, or shut down, or whatever it was these things did.
"Good job men. We got one." He said.
Two soldiers carried Chiara onto the helicopter, while two more went to help Benjamin and Walker. Simmons walked over to the river's edge and peered into the water. As he'd expected, there was no sign of the male. The current was fast moving and he could've swum a mile downstream by now. No matter. Coronal Jesper had said that they only needed one of them.
Simmons turned to rejoin his men, when something caught his eye. The jeep the androids had been riding in. There was something shining in the passenger seat. Wading in, Simmons peered through the open passenger door and picked up the shining object. It was a small, orange orb with two stars within it. Simmons had no idea what it was or what the androids had been doing with it, but something told him to keep hold of it. Something he might have heard a long time ago, but couldn't remember at the moment.
17 hadn't been completely unconscious, as Chiara had thought. He now lay in the branches of the tree that she had sent crashing into the river. It had gotten pinned between two large rocks and 17 had just managed to grab hold of it as the river carried him under. His body was still aching all over though, and he could barely lift his head to watch the helicopter taking off into the air. Despite the distance between them, 17 could see Chiara through the open side doors. He could also see the dragon ball clutched in their leader's hand. But suddenly that, as well as the whole helicopter, simply vanished into thin air.
And he was alone. The quiet surrounding him seemed to negate all that had happened in the last few minutes.
What the hell had just happened anyway?!