Bardock tensed up his entire body. A wave of ethereal, golden energy passed washing upward, transforming Bardock's body into that of a Super Saiyan as when the energy washed over Bardock's upper body, his hair turned golden and spiky and his eyes turned teal while his features became sharper and better translating of his rage.
The legendary warrior dashed while retaining his stationary position. Instead of charging at his opponent head-on, Bardock glided across the space between them like a strider, delivering a rushing flurry of punches and kicks and swatting Lazuli aside with an upward kick. After pursuing his opponent in the air, Bardock punched and kicked her a few more times, making sure that each one of his blows carried the will to break his opponent and move on to challenge the one he really wanted to destroy.
With an overhead slam, Bardock sent Lazuli crashing into the North City below. A pillar-sized forceful shock wave of compressed air took off from the crashing zone as violent quakes shook the entire town, derailing monorail trains and shaking the very foundations of the surrounding futuristic skyscrapers. Despite the shocking display of strength, Lapis looked at his sister's crashing zone with a cocky smirk.
A pair of shining energy spheres appeared in Bardock's hands as the Super Saiyan flung a barrage of Ki blasts down to further bombard his opponent while she was down. He saw this arrogant belief that nothing he could do could hurt Lazuli as an invitation to not hold back and utterly obliterate that smug and immature woman. The sounds of snapping filled the air as Lazuli's image blurred in and out, around the airborne Ki blasts.
Bardock crashed against Lazuli in a collision, driving his elbow against her blow. The woman's kick lashed like a whip thirsting for flesh for it to rend. Lazuli then drove her elbow straight into Bardock's nose, cracking blood to drip from it at once. With a battle cry, Bardock threw his own gliding cross to Lazuli's jaw, driving her back staggering the same distance that her attacks sent him gliding back.
The artificial woman charged back at him again with a flying knee. Bardock crossed his arms and absorbed the shock of the hit with his palms. The two erupted in energy aura and took off, exchanging blows as they rose to the lower levels of the atmosphere. Bardock caught a few of Lazuli's jabs and crossed his arms again to absorb the lash of her stiff roundhouse kick. The woman vanished again with a speed that surprised Bardock. Appearing behind him, the artificial woman slammed her hands in a double ax handle slam from behind him. Bardock grunted and caught himself in mid-fall, halting with moderate effort and turning back to his opponent.
"Well, well… You ain't half bad, are you?" Lapis teased Bardock from the sidelines while his sister played with her hair that had obstructed her view in the hectic, hi-speed battle.
"You dumb bastard, are you implying that you're having fun!?" Bardock clenched his fists and grit his teeth, seething in hatred for these artificial constructs of nuts and bolts that yet again dared stand in the way of him saving his family.
"Yeah," Lazuli raised her voice so that Bardock could hear her from higher up. "This is the first time that we get to cut loose like this. It's been so infuriating that the old hag rebuilt us with all this power, but for years, all that we could do was those boring experiments and business meetings. What's the point of this power if you can't use any of it?"
"I see, so she built you from scrap, like that pale-faced bitch from the north…" Bardock spat aside and took a brawling fighting stance in preparation to go at it again.
"That bitch? You must mean Androids One-Nine and 19. You yokel, don't go around comparing us to the likes of them!" Lazuli bit her lip in ire and charged head-first at her opponent.
"Wide open!" Bardock smirked, placing his hand aside and forming a cerulean energy sphere in his left hand. "Riot Javelin!"
The Super Saiyan flung the energy sphere as if he had pitched a playball. Lazuli's eyes widened as she did her best to halt herself in mid-air, but covering herself up and bracing for impact was the best that she could do. The energy orb slammed right into her and detonated immediately, drowning out the skyline above North City in smoke, flames, and blinding flashes of light while Bardock flexed his limbs and cracked his knuckles and neck in preparation to dispose of the other cocky brat.
"You see, Androids with model numbers over 18, are all Mecha-Type Energy Absorption Models, with Android 21 being an exception. 17, 18, that would be us, also 21, are Bio-Type Infinite Energy Models, meaning that we do not tire throughout the duration of the battle," as the feminine, sultry voice filled the air, coming from within the epicenter of the blast zone, Bardock gazed at the mass of smoke and rubble with surprise. When the smoke cleared, Lazuli emerged with minor damage to her denim jacket, skirt, and socks.
"It's because of the Infinite Energy Reactors perpetually generating Ki inside us. Those little buggers adapt to our Ki usage too." Lapis tapped his chest as a signified where his little infinite energy gadget might be located. "As you might imagine, an infinite power core makes us power pretty much unlimited."
"Unlimited? Give me a fucking break!" Bardock seethed, taking a defensive fighting stance as he had predicted all hell to break loose after his opponent had survived an attack that he put a decent amount of effort in with little difficulty. "Take one fancy blow and suddenly your ego's all out of control. That's what's wrong with you kids these days!"
Lazuli extended her hand with an alluring smile, firing a shapeless flasher of pure energy at Bardock. The Super Saiyan clutched himself in time and flipped backward in mid-air, firing a blue energy wave in his retreat that covered his opponent whole in sky-colored, bright light and detonated in a flashy, electrical explosion. Bardock exhaled a light pant as he continued to examine the zone of destruction. Being unable to track the Androids in any other way, he needed to observe them with utmost care.
"The models you faced were Android 19 and Android One-Nine," Lazuli emerged from the smoke, Bardock charged onward to challenge her and answer her knee strike with one of his own before the two threw their hands out and collided in a power struggle. "Android 19 is a Mecha-Type sentimental piece of junk. He's an Energy Absorption Type too, an inferior model to us. His only worth is that he reminds 21 of a toy that her late son used to play with. I guess when the old hag completes rebuilding her son, he would have served as his toy once again…"
Suddenly, Lazuli extended her lips upward and released her push, letting Bardock utterly overpower her but the artificial woman flipped backward, repositioning her stumbling and out-of-balance opponent and then shooting back up with a vicious headbutt that sent Bardock staggering back. Lazuli glided the distance across them with a charging cross to Bardock's jaw, then swept his legs, leaving him tumbling in mid-air. The vicious Android placed her open palms together. Bardock barely had enough time to cross his arms and brace for impact as another effortless energy wave sent him for a diagonal ride upward.
Her energy felt so hot. So hot and strong. There was no way of moving it or challenging it in a meaningful way at all, at least not without decently preparing and building up strength first. Thus, Bardock just let the energy wave carry him up without resistance, relaxing his body and riding it before it lost most of its sting, at which point the Super Saiyan rolled off of its peak and repositioned himself.
"Where are you looking?" Bardock snapped his neck back up, shocked to witness Lazuli over his head with a ridiculously massive sphere of energy accumulated over her head. The damned thing was so overflowing with energy that it sent separate rays shining in all directions, discontent with just flashing around it. The right tip of Lazuli's lip moved upward as the woman drove her hands down and washed Bardock with a blinding energy wave formed out of this massive overhead energy ball.
Everything turned white and gold, the golden energy produced by Lazuli was so intense at its core that it became white and searing, the Super Saiyan heard his clothes rustling and their corners searing up and no matter how hard he tried opposing the crashing of the energy wave, he just couldn't struggle against it at all. It was as if a gnat tried opposing a sledgehammer, trying to crush it down with its tip. The rock-hard ground slammed into Bardock's back but then crumbled, unable to either resist Lazuli's powerful energy wave or to help Bardock push it back.
The wave detonated in a flashing nova of white with a golden outline while Lazuli weaved her fingers into the side of her hairdo, to do her best and prevent this violent explosion from messing up her hairdo. The artificial woman observed the radiant devastation of her opponent with sadistic glee in her eyes. She wasn't marveling at the violence itself but the shimmering display of power that she was capable of. She was just riding the high of her youth and enjoying her newly granted freedom for once.
Bardock's voice, brimming with pain, filled the air when Lazuli dived and placed her boot over his burnt-up chest. The sadistic Android ground her boot in his wound further, thusly grinding Bardock further into the hole in the pavement that he had left of the North City road he crashed into. The artificial woman leaned down closer to him so that Bardock could hear what she'd say next better.
"That other immature brat you've faced. She was one of the One-Models. Mere grunts of Android 21, based on the recovered dead bodies of the Red Ribbon Army officers. To think that you could take us, her greatest creations on just because you managed to barely survive some scrap placed in a corpse's skinsuit is an idea just as ridiculous as one would expect from a brainless old hick." Lazuli kicked Bardock in the gut and sent him out of the dirty crater that the energy wave left him in. With adrenaline pumping through his body, Bardock rolled back and did his best to end up back on his feet to answer the challenge of this artificial woman again when she calls for it.
And Lazuli emerged from the crater with a wide-open and flaunting pose, slowly levitating and very much calling for it.
Bardock scrambled back on his feet, but it was as if the Android moved in a blink, appearing in front of him and socking the Super Saiyan right in the forehead. The attack stunned Bardock and forced him to stumble back, wincing and reeling in pain. With a wave of her hand, Lazuli sent a mass of shining energy as large as Bardock's entire body, though rather malleable. Despite its lack of roughness, the shapeless mass hurried diagonally up in the air, carrying Bardock along for the ride before detonating high in the air in flashy, golden fireworks.
"Surely this can't be everything you've got," Lazuli ran her hand through her hair, teasing the plummeting Super Saiyan as she leaned forward over her opponent after he had planted into the pavement, leaving cracks and piles of pebbles in all directions. "Don't tell me you got tired already. What's the point of that flashy transformation if you can't make it last?"
Bardock's teal eyes snapped open in an instant. The injured Super Saiyan shot his feet up as he placed his palms behind him, pushing his body off the pavement as he blasted Lazuli off the ground and into the air with his upward foot stamp. Rolling backward to return to his feet, Bardock took off enveloped with golden Ki, resolute to destroy the female Android just as he had dealt with her predecessor in the Northern Region.
Bardock vanished and appeared in mid-air with a snap, throwing a stiff kick that sent Lazuli flying away from him while the Super Saiyan clenched a fist and focused his Ki into it. An ethereal golden vapor of pure energy emanated from Bardock's fist before the Saiyan rushed onward, carrying his desperation to destroy the Androids and to cure his sick wife to the sassy artificial woman.
As hardy as Lazuli was, even she screamed out in pain, leaving no doubt on if Bardock's impact had reached her. Her neck stretched out awkwardly and Lazuli's eyes whited out for a moment as she spat slobber up from the brutal nature of the soaring punch. Even Lapis twitched in unease, wondering if he should keep playing around and leaving his sister to handle this Super Saiyan alone.
"Unlimited power!? Don't make me laugh! Years fighting all over the universe and studying the art of combat here on Earth have taught me that there's no such thing!" Bardock roared as he erupted with his brimming, golden vigor and launched himself in a speedy pursuit of his limp opponent. Grabbing Lazuli's head, Bardock kneed her once and flipped backward, kicking her in the air.
"It's just a matter of finding the right opponent, one that's strong or just flat out angry enough to stop having any of your shit!" Bardock bellowed as he dashed over the head of Android 18 and grabbed hold of the sides of her head, flipping over her and kneeing her a couple of times in the back before slamming her back down again with a double hand slam.
"Lazuli! Do you need help?" Lapis asked his sister, hovering above the crater that she left upon slamming into the ground. "Stop messing around, you're seriously freaking me out now!"
"Shut up and stay out of my way…" a disgruntled feminine voice came from the dark crater as a gentle of skin yet bruised and dirty hand emerged and the fallen Android pulled herself out from the dirt and rubble with her outfit torn and hanging loosely over her shoulders because of the rough landing. "I'll kill him now for sure!"
"Come on and try, Android!" Bardock called out, placing his hand beside him as he prepared his strongest attack. As clueless and bratty as this woman was, she wasn't entirely untalented as a fighter. Or, at least, her perception was half-decent. She was already noticing that Bardock's Super Saiyan transformation was draining him ever so slowly. It was, of course, nothing compared to the drain and bodily collapse of the King Kai's Fist, but the tiring effect was there, regardless. Whereas the two started almost as equals, the perpetual drain on Bardock's stamina would seal the deal for him, so he needed to settle this quick.
"You asshole, I'll blow you away!" Android 18 raised her hands over her head, preparing another concentrated and flashing golden sphere just like the one that had grounded Bardock earlier.
The skies became dark, darker than even the usual gloom that surrounded a heated battle that carried a serious potential of devastating the entire planet. Crackles of azure lightning filled the sky, one after another. Starting as a mere handful of lashes of bolts, but then becoming a flat-out furious thunderstorm to where even the airborne Super Saiyan had become distracted. The Rebellion Trigger that he had put all of his power into faded away, with some of the energy returning to Bardock's system.
Initially, Lazuli saw an opening for her to attack but just as she extended her hands out to blast at Bardock and obliterate him, a flash of light far surpassing her own Ki attack made her lose her focus too and choose to cover herself up instead of attacking. When the flash of azure light died out, only a field of static electricity spouting lightning jolts in all directions remained, and when the electricity settled even more–the sight of a donut-shaped flying saucer shocked all observers.
"What the…? Don't tell me, another time traveler?" Lapis gulped, recalling how troublesome that man Future Trunks was when he interrupted the meeting with Capsule Corps.
The upper section, composed of pink-tinted glass windows inside of a white plastic rim, turned with the expulsion of white smoke from within and slid open, revealing a solitary shape to be seated inside at the left side of the donut-shaped vehicle. The figure stood up, revealing an orange Gi, not unlike that of Son Goku's, though his hair looked most streaming upward than wild like Son Goku's. Gazing down at the man inside the donut-shaped ship, one of his arms stood out as being entirely artificial and made of futuristic cybernetics. When the man turned around, a face half-decorated with artificial enhancements met the bewildered Super Saiyan. Although the unaltered side of the man's face was human, scars had ravaged it. And yet still, the soft facial features were all too familiar to Bardock.
"Gohan…?" he muttered. "What's going on…?"
"Gohan?" Lapis mumbled to himself in response to Bardock's reaction. Quickly, the Android turned to his sister with a stern warning. "Careful, Lazuli, this is Son Gohan, Son Goku's son! He must be from the future too!"
"Tsk!" Lazuli grumbled, moving her hands by her sides and preparing a pair of energy waves to take on both attackers. "This is getting ridiculous. Why can't those dumb time travelers just stay where they belong!?"
When Lazuli extended her hands, firing the twin energy waves at both opponents, Future Gohan's eyes turned down toward the source of light. He stood calmly and waited for the coming for the energy blast with a stern look, swatting the attack aside, his hair blinking with a golden color for just a moment when he needed that energy boost, just as 18's attack was about to reach him. Bardock covered himself up, grunting in pain as the flashing energy blitz took him backward with a crude push that opened new gruesome bruises and dirtied him up, leaving his shirt in complete tatters and the burns covering his polished in combat physique completely open.
"Looks like he's going to be trouble, just like that Trunks guy, Lazuli. I'm pitching in." Lapis turned to his sister. Lazuli answered with a grumpy look, wanting nothing more than to dismiss her brother's worries and to smack his stupid face with an open hand slap.
"Sorry, Gohan… I used too much energy already fighting these brats. Maybe even taking on your mom earlier took a bit out of me too… You'll have to take the lead, bud." Bardock cackled as his buff arms weighed down with his bruised muscles twitching. Future Gohan just gave him a stern glare with his one teal eye. The other half of the youth's face had been covered with a black and white plate with complex patterns. A black-tinted lens was where Gohan's other eye should have been. It was tough to say how much and what the traveler from the future could see with it.
A fleshy rip distracted the Androids as they turned their focus up over their heads. Future Gohan was behind his shocked grandfather, who stood frozen in mid-air with an energy wave having blasted a hole through his chest. Bardock's facial expression had the jolt of betrayal sealed in it as his own future grandson moved in from behind and blasted him through the back while the Super Saiyan's guard was down. Bardock slumped, spitting up profuse amounts of blood, and lost consciousness, losing his Super Saiyan form as the traveler from the future grabbed the Saiyan by the belt and held him up, looking down at the appalled Androids below.
"What are you two waiting for? 21 assigned you with a mission, right? Go ahead and fulfill it." Future Gohan addressed the two with a cold and strict tone.
"What are you on about, you imbecile? We're not letting you take that old man anywhere. He threatened to destroy Dr. Puri!" Lazuli clenched her fist, shaking it at the bemused traveler from the future.
"Lazuli… I think… I think he's… On our side…" Lapis grabbed his sister's shoulder and pointed at the traveler's calculated stare down.
"That won't happen. In the future, Bardock is an important asset for 21's victory. He must be converted immediately." Future Gohan replied, waiting for the pair's response as if he was waiting for validation to deal with them as violently as when he knocked out his own grandfather from behind.
"R-Right… Sorry, we didn't know that. We'll just go on doing whatever we want then." Lazuli nodded with a gulp as the two Androids experienced the breach of cold sweat running down their foreheads at the same time. Thusly, Lapis and Lazuli experienced fear first-hand, the feeling they thirsted to inspire in the hearts of others.