Step by step, Chayote proceeded onward and approached her opponent. With each passing step, Chayote's feet dug into the ground, rupturing it with fissures in a rich network of shattered ground. Emerald light gleamed from underground, shimmering through the fissures with radiant rays that provided for an impressive contrast to the murky skies above the battlefield.
"Oh, I see how it is…" One-Nine staggered back, putting her hands up like an animal, whom a predator chose as prey, offered their spikes, claws, or a shell as a natural defense to intimidate the voracious enemy. "You've become a Super Saiyan and so you now believe that you're stronger than me, is that it?"
Without waiting for Super Saiyan Chayote to approach her and have her way, One-Nine charged across the space between them and took a leap off of the gliding rock platform to launch herself across the magnetized field of floating stones toward the approaching Super Saiyan. The sassy Android threw a palm strike, aiming to both strike at her opponent and nab a bit of her Ki, but Chayote's adamantine grip locked around One-Nine's wrist.
Before One-Nine could answer by grabbing onto something of Chayote's, a lightning-stiff roundhouse kick dented One-Nine's jaw and launched her as if from a catapult, soaring through stones straight skyward. One-Nine flew like an arrow, bashing through every flying stone platform overhead and reducing it to a blizzard of airborne pebbles. Chayote vanished with a flashy blink of emerald and golden lights colliding together in starry rings and then bursting from the speed of their mistress moving across the distance between her and her opponent.
Chayote's bulky foot whipped with a spinning kick that lashed at the opposite side of One-Nine's body, bending it further out of shape and forcing the Android to spit out a goopy mixture of blood and oil from her mouth. Smashing a lariat into One-Nine's face that busted the mended nose of the Lolita-styled Artificial Human, Chayote sent One-Nine flying before pursuing her with a burn of a golden aura and kneeing the Android into the stomach, forcing the Android to vomit the mahogany-colored bio-mass flowing through her body as she collapsed into a helpless plummet down like a sack of bricks.
Not feeling like letting her opponent plummet to the ground, Chayote pressed her elbows to her sides and dashed downward, riding the crackling electricity and her opal aura downward. The Super Saiyan's iron grip wrapped around One-Nine's head with a tight facelock. Chayote's arms reached back and grabbed the Android's head, pulling One-Nine's jaw over Chayote's shoulder while shooting down backward while riding the fall diagonally forward to slam her plummeting opponent into the abyss below.
A thunderous crack filled the ruined landscape and a rising pillar of magma burst from underground, washing over the floating rocks and showering them as the pillar ran out of vigor to keep booming and began down-pouring with tiny, scorching droplets. Super Saiyan Chayote levitated out from the shadowy depths surrounded by a golden force field of energy, from which the pouring magma simply ran over, causing no harm.
"I'll let you know…" One-Nine's panting voice came from down below as the undergrown Android emerged from the depths covered with trails of magma that she wiped off of her with the back of her hand. Only her frilly dress smoked and scorched on contact with the blazing shower, but the Android's skin appeared to carry only light dirt tracks and bruises. "I've fought Super Saiyans before, even when I was not yet a Super Android. You may act tough now, but all that power that courses through you is about to be mine. You just don't realize it yet! Not to mention, that all that flair only further drains your stamina while I remain eternal and can feast on yours freely any time I want."
"Outlast me?" Chayote smirked with a teal stare that began to fade out as more and more energy pumped through her system, rising and overflowing, bursting outward from her body with ethereal, sharp, and spiky opal flares. Even in her half-conscious state, with violent thoughts rushing through Chayote's head at each twist and turn and them becoming more vivid and powerful as her immense power multiplied more and more with each passing second, demanding release and glorious violence, One-Nine's plan of lasting Chayote out sounded laughable.
With her arms tucked by her side, Chayote dived downward, rearing her teeth while gritting them like a snarling wild animal, and her teal eyes disappearing into the white void of madness. One-Nine grumbled and flipped backward, smacking her long, leathery boots into Chayote's chin and whipping the Super Saiyan's head back. With a disgruntled and manic stare, Chayote lowered her head back down, no-selling that impact and making One-Nine's eyes bulge in shock as she lashed out with a shrill shriek of shivers.
"Don't you dare approach me, you savage!" One-Nine screamed out as she jumped into the air and drop-kicked Chayote right in the chest, forcing the Super Saiyan to slide back only to dust her chest right off and begin to levitate closer to the Android once more. "Your Wrathful State was already a power-up from your base form that with time rivaled the power of a Super Saiyan. This is nothing! Just a tiny step-up compared to it, do you hear me!?"
One-Nine grabbed hold of Chayote's throat as the Android vaulted over the Super Saiyan and applied a bold choking hold with both of her hands wrapped around Chayote's bulky neck. With a cocky grin, Chayote flexed her muscles and expelled an explosive energy wave from her body that flung One-Nine off of her like a rag doll. One-Nine clutched herself and charged up with a rising uppercut but it didn't seem to leave much of an impact, the Android turned around, swinging her burnt-up frilly dress like a flowery ring around her as the Artificial Human drove her elbow into Chayote's gut only felt a painful resonance passing through her own metallic skeleton.
The parasitic Super Android didn't feel like caving in just yet. Caressing her own busted elbow, One-Nine vanished and dived back down with a dive kick into the front of Chayote's face. Not looking too amused by that, the Super Saiyan grabbed hold of One-Nine's heel and spun the Super Android around and over her head before flinging her away and through rows and stacks of lined up floating boulders.
"All this radiant power! It will be mine!" One-Nine screamed out with salty rage, driving a bold approach with a backhanded smack that was to rock the core of Chayote's ribcage. The Super Saiyan grabbed hold of One-Nine's wrist and lashed her kick into the upper left side of One-Nine's face, cracking it open and letting drops of mahogany to flow freely over One-Nine's face as an oily sprinkle ruined One-Nine's puffy and curly wig.
The Android staggered back, her malfunctioning body too occupied with keeping hold of herself as the shot rocked her sensory systems and sent everything into a fritz. Riding the momentum of her spinning kick, Chayote whirled like a gale, throwing a wide backhanded strike, then leaning down to shoot an equestrian-like kick that sent One-Nine flying. The Super Saiyan vanished with a blink of golden light.
Chayote let out an unintelligible, barbaric roar as she plunged down like the blades of the guillotine from the upper layers of the atmosphere she dashed to in microseconds. Goring One-Nine like a rhinoceros that had an uncanny ability to charge vertically, the Super Saiyan wrapped her arms around One-Nine's knees and lifted the Android's body into the air only to begin spinning.
As Chayote spun around, the helpless Android in her hands, a whirlwind surrounded the two and swallowed them up into dusty rubble, riding the tornado given birth by Chayote's uncontrollable might. The tornado soon turned opal before flashing with golden colors and expelling sparks of opal dust away. Electrical crackles rode those specks of dust-like conductors across the vortex before it became emerald green.
Once the Super Saiyan released of her opponent, a light-speed trail of railgun-like blast shot diagonally upward with the tornado of energy dying out in reverse order of its forming and Chayote placing her hand over her eyebrows to scout out where her enemy had gone off to. Sparkling novae flashed in the skies, testaments of the Android crashing through planetoids and remote planets on her wild, cosmic ride through the galaxy, until not a trace of her current location remained and Chayote completely lost track.
The Saiyan collapsed on her knees and began panting. The golden-colored and the spiky exterior of her hair began blinking and changing into black as they settled down on the woman's shoulders. Chayote's eyes returned from a mindless, barely traceable teal dot racing all across the white void, to a full, round teal circle and then back to an obsidian black pearl. With burning muscles, Chayote straightened her back, still staggering as she looked around the devastated battlefield.
She should have ripped that Android apart limb from limb. To translate the over the top violence that Chayote intended for One-Nine, the Super Saiyan had to remove her from the surface of the Earth so that the entire planet didn't pay the price for One-Nine's transgressions in thoroughly pissing Chayote off though the Super Saiyan couldn't even begin to calculate her base Super Saiyan strength, let alone the wild offshoots where it skyrocketed during a battle.
The floating stone platforms began collapsing and falling down to the ground they levitated over. Chayote clung up to hold to the stone she stood on top of when the meteoric shower of levitating stone began and grunted in pain when the stone hit the ground and shattered, filling the abyss partly with only a massive ragged crater showing off the apocalyptic transformation of the field that had happened there. Smells of smoldering stone and bleeding Earth still lingered in the atmosphere. Chayote choked up and coughed from the noxious and hot fumes.
The Saiyan rubbed her bruised hand across the solid ground she kneeled over. It was her pathetic attempt at an apology for her wild transformation nearly destroying her own paradise that she sought to protect with all her heart. Even if Chayote's death would have meant the end of the entire universe, the Saiyan was ready to put it on the line to protect the Earth because this planet was her entire universe now.
One-Nine wasn't entirely wrong. Chayote wasn't ready for that transformation just now. She didn't even have the strength to pursue her opponent all the way into space, where she had gone off to. It was like after the spin and release trick had ended, all air, all stamina, and strength just left Chayote's body and the Saiyan couldn't even find the strength within herself to fly anymore. Chayote's body had been too bruised and worn out after fighting Future Gohan to accomplish much in her Super Saiyan state, especially given the massive influx of ever-surging power that came with it.
Just when Chayote thought she got the basic hang of martial arts, a new technique reared its head that showed that Chayote still needed years and years of training to polish it to where she was happy with it. Just like that, the Super Saiyan transformation was like a martial arts technique, and Chayote would have to learn to tap into it on her own terms, control its adverse effects on the planet and her own wild, manic outbursts during it, as well as master her Ki control during it so that she could use it under direr circumstances in the future.
"Ey!" a shrill and annoying voice echoed from far, far away, with the more pleasant hum of a hovercar engine rumbling alongside it. Chayote fell on her back and stretched her limbs out as if trying to rest up to enough strength to getting back on her feet. A hovercar vaulted over the edge of the crater and did a sharp turn to halt just beside Chayote, while a chubby ronin reared his black curls and a coarse stubble over the edge of the hovercar door.
"It's you…" Chayote panted with a heavy breath.
"Ya look like yer all tapped out! Dat dumb old cat said that the Earth's crackin' open 'ere and all hell's spillin' over, so I came over ta check it out. Doesn't look like there are any demons 'round though… Was this 'cause 'a demons?" Yajirobe wondered, scanning the place and smelling the putrid, drying stains of hardening magma all across the mountainous field.
"Well… At least one she-devil reared her horns…" Chayote sat up and shook her head to stop the ringing in her head and to make the pulsing pain to go away.
"Don't give me any 'a dat metaphorical crap!" Yajirobe shook his fist over his head. "I've come ta like how 'dem diabolical beasties taste, so when I figured dat hell is breakin' loose again, I came as fast as I could ta nibble on some demon loins! Are dere demons 'round, or not!?"
"Sorry, the enemy this time would be a bit too greasy and too rough for your teeth to chew on," Chayote stated, standing back up on shaky legs as she slowly crept up to Yajirobe's car and flipped over the car door to fall onto all the back seats as she stretched out in the back and panted to get some oxygen that she wasted while getting into the car back into her lungs.
"Frickin' smartass…" Yajirobe grumbled. "I assume ye'll want me give ya a lift somewhere?"
"Wherever you're going is fine…" Chayote groaned. "You've probably got a bunch of food stacked there anyway and I could use a bite or twelve thousand."
"As if I'm lettin' yer half-naked butt eat up all 'a my food!" Yajirobe shook his fist over his head, growling like a rabid dog. "I'm dumpin yer sorry ass at Korin's! He can stuff ye full 'a dem magical beans or somethin'!"
"Thanks!" Chayote snickered, giving Yajirobe a thumb up.
Rays of light stabbed at Chayote's eyes as a slim crack formed between her eyelids. While she rested in a peaceful slumber the whole time she was out, the moment that Chayote opened her eyes, the headaches came back with a vengeance though now they've felt like a nasty after-effect of a big fight rather than a direct cause of the fight itself.
The dimly lit and reserved chambers of the God Temple looked familiar to Chayote, as she had spent a bit of time here preparing for the return of Piccolo Jr. many years ago. With a sigh, Chayote stepped out from the bed and found a dress styled after the natives of the Karinga Tribe placed on the covers for when she wakes up. Not only has Chayote totaled her own work outfit, but also the replacement she took from Capsule Corp after recovering from the first encounter with Artificial Humans.
As the Saiyan slipped into it and put on the headdress with sticking out dinosaur feathers, she could only hope that this robe would meet a more dignified fate and that Chayote wouldn't end up indebted to Upa too. Stretching her sore shoulders and joints out, Chayote walked out into the light and onto the square of God's Temple. Upa and Mr. Popo had been standing on the edge examining the events transpiring on Earth while Trunks had been training. His jacket and his sword laid by his side, the mechanical half of his body was now in full display as it didn't look like Trunks took that much effort in trying to hide it anymore.
"Chayote, you're awake!" Upa clapped his hands, approaching the Saiyan and wrapping his arms around her. It felt weird being manhandled by the little shrimp that Chayote used to look after during her time training with Upa's father and learning Earth's customs from the boy himself. "You've saved my life, I've heard. Mr. Popo told me."
"Mr. Popo is so grateful!" Mr. Popo ran up and grabbed Chayote's hands, pressing them with his own large, almost amphibian-like hands and his stubby fingers. "Mr. Popo is sorry for not seeing your potential and kicking you off the God's Temple all those years ago!"
"Yeah…" Chayote nodded, feeling too overwhelmed to address everyone and their words individually. "I guess since Dende's gone, I had to recover naturally. For how long was I out?"
"A couple of days." Upa's joyful expression became more serious. "21's Android army is proceeding with the conversions, I'm afraid. I would like to invite as many people as we can to hide here in the temple. Trunks wants to focus on finding Frieza instead."
Trunks stopped training and drew his ruined blade, only to look at the shattered edge and its fractured and stumpy remains before sheathing it again. Judging from his disdainful eyes, he had considered discarding the sword altogether as in its current state it had been utterly useless, which was why Trunks was polishing his martial arts skills with Mr. Popo and Kami Upa.
"Kami told me that this was the first time you've become a Super Saiyan. Is that true?" Trunks wondered, brushing past the subject of Upa's request to save some people by bringing them up to God's Temple to avoid conversion.
"Yeah…" Chayote nodded. "Why? Is it that big of a deal? I mean… You and Kakarot can both do it. From what I've seen, Gohan and even Bardock can also pull it off."
"That's right, however… This makes me anxious. We would be wise to stay here for a little while, maybe at least until we find Frieza or one of the mother's spaceships return." Trunks answered. "In the future, from what mother told me, you could transform into a Super Saiyan when the Androids kidnapped you. You didn't when fighting them because you underestimated them since you couldn't sense their Ki."
"Huh, didn't you say that it was 17 and 18 that kicked my ass back in your timeline all the way during the first meeting between Bulma and Dr. Puri?" Chayote ran her hand over her messy bed hair. All this thinking and things not connecting right all over the place across multiple timelines and the potential implications running through her head didn't help her morning headache.
"Correct. That is why our situation has just become so much worse," Trunks pointed out.
"You got me… I'm completely lost…" Chayote kept scratching her head to pick up the pace of her blood circulation to maybe flush her thoughts out and make her thinking faster.
"There cannot be any changes between two separate timelines unless outside factors are interfering. The reason this timeline differs so significantly from my future is that I came back here and made a mess of things by getting involved and telling mother all the information about the future. Also, because Future Gohan came back here and made an even bigger mess of things by telling Android 21 everything as well…" Trunks explained. "There should be no reason things before my arrival and involvement should be different, unless…"
"Oh, no!" Kami Upa freaked out. "There's another time traveler interfering with our timeline!?"
"Correct. However… Given the nature of Chayote's role and her incredible strength, it is impossible to say for how long they've been altering things and what the exact ramifications are. As far as I know, Chayote being unable to transform into a Super Saiyan is the only difference I've spotted until now but… We need to find that time traveler and investigate their goal here. If what I'm afraid of is right, they'll have been involved with this timeline for years, if not decades and who knows what their goal is if they're present here for so long." Trunks pointed out with a dire expression on his face.
"What trouble…" Kami Upa smacked his forehead and shook his head in distress. "And here I wanted to evacuate as many people as we can and bring them here. Then, Trunks still needs to find Frieza and now this…"
"Yeah, it looks like we'll have our hands full while everyone's having a blast in space," Chayote grumbled, rubbing her numb neck.