"Gohan! Gohan!" Videl yelled out through her cupped hands while desperately scanning the wrecked engine room that was drowning in flames and smoke, with only steel wreckage heated to the point of glowing red beamed through the haze. "Damn it, his Ki is way too small to pick out where he is exactly…"
"Eek, I can't see anything. All this smoke's getting my eyes too itchy!" Trunks whined out while rubbing his moist eyes and staggering back through licking flames. Startled by the biting heat, the youth jumped up and down, patting his thigh to snuff out the rising flames. "We should leave and let mom put out the fire in the room, then we can look for Gohan-san again."
"Shit… There may not be another way…" Videl grit her teeth and covered up her face from the unpleasant scorch spreading from the oven of the fully ablaze engine room. "Gohan! You better stay alive!" she yelled out. "You owe me those expensive martial arts lessons!"
"Come on!" Trunks yelled out, punching a sliding mechanical door that had gotten stuck because of an error caused by the heat out. In the hands of the rampaging preschooler, the thick metal door bent and flew off its hinges like a flung pillow. The two ran off into the hallway with Videl looking for a way to contact Bulma.
The teen dashed up to the control panel by the door that had been showing static and began bopping and dragging her fingers across the touchscreen to reach the mistress of the station, in control of all the proceedings going down there.
"Wow! You almost look like you know what you're doing…" Trunks noted with a surprised look on his face.
"As I've said, I'm the daughter of Mark Satan. I've been learning how to work with security systems since I started grade school because of my dad's job and my dad's rich enough for us to afford to buy any tech gizmo as soon as it comes out. I know what I'm doing," Videl replied with a sweaty and worried face while seeking a way to connect to Bulma.
"Hmm… I've always meant to ask this your dad, what's with the weird name anyway? It doesn't sound like a real name… Mark Satan…" Trunks winked his right eye while letting his face shrivel up deep in thought. "It sounds really cool, but there's no way it's real, right?"
"It actually is," Videl blurted out, half-lost in her screen-tapping crusade. "It's my dad's former ring name from back when he used to be a martial artist. He thought that Mr. Satan was a cool name. Satan suggested how hardcore he was and the Mr. part relayed what a cool and laid-off guy he usually was, or so he explained it to me. Everyone on Chayote Security used to tease my dad about it by calling him Mark Satan and it kind of stuck on him so he had it legally changed after the government came back after the Android Conflict."
"Whoa! I should have my name legally changed too! All this confusion with that future version of me gets really annoying!" Trunks scratched his head.
"There's no need. For helping my project get off the ground, I'll spare dear King some money and civil servant effort by snapping both your necks…" a firm, cybernetically altered voice made Videl and Trunks jump up with startled looks on their faces.
"The Android… Here?" Videl gasped.
"N-No way… Then… What about my dad!?" Trunks clenched his fists while gnashing his teeth in brave opposition to the approaching immovable dread.
"Your father's bark was far worse than his bite, as usual," the Ultimate Artificial Human took a moment to pose before the two with his massive arms crossed over his chest and his perfect teeth shining before the two underneath an orange brush of his lush mustache. "At this point, how bad his bite is spoils the quality of his bark."
"N-No way!" Trunks shook his head in disbelief. "You couldn't have beaten my dad, no way!" bringing both of his arms back to the side of his torso and charging his Ki, the young boy prepared a twin yellow energy sphere attack with one blast shining in each of his hands. Joining them together as he extended his arms, Trunks fired the yellow energy wave at his opponent.
The Ultimate Artificial Human turned to pose with a flashy flex of his chest, shoulders, and biceps as the blast collided with him and ripped through the hallway. Despite the strident roar of the attack and its flair, the ultimate result was non-existent. The smoldering smoke cleared out around the flexing Artificial Human, showing no signs of damage or bruising.
"You need to reach my mom! Get her to put out the flames and get Gohan out of here!" Trunks cried out while bursting with a brilliant, clear burst of Ki around him that made his hair flap about madly to match his hectic expression stuck in between despair, terror, and wrath.
"Don't be ridiculous! I'm older than you, I will fight!" Videl objected, but the young man took off without waiting for her response. A bright-white arc flashed in between where young Trunks had been standing and where his hated enemy was.
"Oh? How about I give you a free shot, pipsqueak?" The Ultimate Artificial Human made a mocking, cartoonish expression as he leaned down and stuck out his chiseled jaw for a free punch. The braggart even went on one step further and pointed at his chin, signaling for the scorned boy exactly where he should strike for maximum effect.
A beam of teal lit up in the center of the hallway, cleaning away the trails of blazes from Trunks' previous attack. Despite the light show, young Trunks rushed on ahead, caring little for his own life or what his opponent might have done to threaten it, yet he collided with something gentle and subtle. The barrier halting him was warm and silky to brush against instead of cold and adamant like a chiseled artificial jaw would've been. Almost at the same time, a thunderous clap sent the Ultimate Artificial Human flying back in a moment of dropped guard.
"Chayote-san!" Videl cried out. The sudden flush of relief washing through her body made the show of emotion break through the cool and collected façade she tried to maintain in front of her peers, especially younger kids. When her painful death seemed all but certain, the sight of her mentor who seemed could never lose a battle had such an effect on the teen.
"What are you still doing here?" Chayote muttered with a peeved tone of voice. "If your dad finds out that you snuck out to fight Androids alongside me, he'll kick me out of the house and I've got no plans to become a single homeless mom."
The screen that Videl was busy tapping just a moment before shuffled with static before Bulma's face became clear. The president of the Capsule Corps crossed her arms and spun left and right in her chair with halved rotations. From the looks of it, she feared what might have come from her action though it was self-evident that she'd have chosen any other option than to beam the Saiyan she had a mean falling out with and risk the fate of her entire station.
"Before you lose it, you should know that I only beamed you up because I had no other choice. Vegeta, Krillin, Gohan-kun are all beaten, I can't reach anyone else and I'm not calling Yamcha," Bulma leaned in on the monitor.
"Don't sweat it," Chayote waved her hand with a roll of her eyes. "As I've said, I need to bring Videl back home, so I should thank you for making my trip up here easier, I suppose."
A loud, mechanical growl rumbled from the side of the busted metal wall as the Ultimate Artificial Human walked through the open hole. Even Chayote's usually nonchalant look widened upon seeing the enemy that she'd have to tangle against. Despite its peculiar appearance, skin coloring, and exuberant vizor, the peculiar facial features of the Artificial Human made Chayote's back shiver for a handful of meek twitches.
"For all the disdain that my wife has recorded toward King Vegeta from your side, Chayote, you sure like making outrageous excuses exactly like the King of Saiyans himself," the Ultimate No. 20 proclaimed while cracking his knuckles, eager to crash against the young woman he once saw as a terrifying extraterrestrial threat. Now, the look of confidence and mockery on Ultimate Dr. Gero's face suggested he felt like the roles were reversed. This time it was Chayote who was the soft and easily broken thing coming up against the mightiest of the entire universe.
"Man, you really dropped the ball with this one, letting this asshole fuse with his cohorts…" Chayote scratched the back of her neck with a perplexed look on her face. "Why haven't you beamed him off into the nearest black hole or something?"
"Don't think I haven't tried. He's not using Ki, like other martial artists, he's actually using electromagnetically charged photon particles that interfere with my quantal matter beam. The best I can do is apply a negatively charged photon particle field around him that debilitates him but even severely hampered he still tore through everyone like no tomorrow…" Bulma groaned, rubbing her tired eyes as the Ultimate Artificial Human proved himself an impossible threat to overcome, even to her boundless scientific mind.
"You know, I didn't really intend to kill the lot of you initially. That being said, all that meddling that you inferior runts are doing really acerbates me…" the Ultimate Gero adopted a wrestling position and began slowly approaching Chayote and the two younglings she protected that stood behind her.
"Bulma-san! Gohan is stuck in there and his Ki is too low to find him. We need you to extinguish the engine room!" Videl called out to Bulma while Chayote calmly stared at the approaching mound of muscle and knack.
"Wait up before rescuing Gohan… There's something I need you to…" Chayote muttered just before the Ultimate Artificial Human raised his arm over his head for a hammering smash. In a flash, a golden resonance pulsed down her body, picking up her hair and spiking them up gold while significantly amping up the Saiyan's bulk as she jumped into the fray.
Chayote crossed her arms, lighting up with an emerald bubble of energy around her as a degree of additional protection from the brutal strike. Regardless of the protection, the entire station quaked and shook in rampant ruptures and a bright flash lit up where the smashing fist contacted Chayote's energy shield. White fractures littered its round surface before the entire shield crumbled into ethereal shatters. The Saiyan reacted to the failure of her shield with shocked eyes. The surprise at the failure of her defensive measures assisted the Artificial Human in landing a swift hook right at Chayote's jaw.
Everything went lights out. The voice of her bawling son formed a solid rock bottom to drop an anchor and dive toward to avoid the hazy lights and delirious images of stars forming in Chayote's brain. It seemed like it would only take a snap instant to return to her grips, but by the time Chayote snapped out of it, a backhand strike slammed her against the wall, denting it to the point of fracture. The cornered Saiyan felt the taste of blood in her mouth and a familiar burning sensation in her gut. The moment she even thought about turning her neck, the sprained muscles screamed their objections loud into her ear.
As the Ultimate Artificial Human stepped out in front of Chayote and raised both his arms over his head to smash her into the laboratory complex, the Super Saiyan saw her vision blurring. Mercilessly, the Ultimate Artificial Human drove both arms down but Chayote raised her feet and expelled a pair of shapeless energy jets from them to crash through the wall she was stuck in and fumble into the medical lab lying therein. This may not have made for a graceful landing, but the Ultimate No. 20 missed his smashing pound and was forced to lean and step through the hole of Chayote's making with a rich smile on his face.
"Even though I feel grateful to you for setting in motion, the procession that has led up to me taking this ultimate form, extraterrestrial, it is a matter of closure and pride to smash you to bits and make you rue the day of crossing the Red Ribbon army!" the Ultimate Android taunted Chayote while slowly making his way into the medical laboratory. Cracking his knuckles, the musclebound titan approached from the other side of a medical table. The right side of the Ultimate Artificial Human stared at Chayote through a medical tube pumping some sort of liquid through it, shifting his proportions in how the augmented doctor's image came out.
"You know, your wife's accomplished your mission. She rebuilt your son as an Android and they're living a family life out in space somewhere. Just because I've discovered a family life of my own and can wrap my head around the pain of losing a child, I'll give you a chance to shut the hell up, take off and become a family man," Chayote wiped the trail of blood that was drooling relentlessly off her busted lip. The aggravated pounding her face took made drops of red coat her hand from her nose as well. Just a few hits and Gero already had her pummeled proper. This would turn ugly if they truly came to exchange blows.
"Now why did you have to say something like that and insult my ultimate intelligence?" the Ultimate Artificial Human struck a flashy pose before scooping up a sheet of black cloth with a Red Ribbon symbol on it, recovered from one of his own and wrapping it over the exposed dome of his brain. "I have no need to obsess myself with past creations. I strive for new, ultimate heights, befitting the ultimateness of my body and mind. I, the Ultimate Artificial Human No. 20, shall create a being more ultimate than I and forever solve the omnipotence paradox!"
"Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that. I mean… Not those exact crazy words, but something crazy, nonetheless…" Chayote sighed and cracked her neck, giving herself a mental prep for a slugfest of her life.
"Be careful. The Data Input ability of Artificial Human No. 13 has passed down onto this Ultimate Artificial Human too," Bulma's voice reached Chayote from a computer screen that had turned on and began transmitting Bulma's face all on its own. "Gohan-kun discovered the solution, you must use moves and attacks that you've never used before and never adhere to a single martial art or a fighting style."
"That's a problem of future Chayote, right now, I need you to wait for my signal and beam us off somewhere far away," Chayote kept on dragging her knuckle across her nose while her opponent slowly walked around the medical table, forcing the Saiyan to move in an opposite direction and play psychological tag with her physically superior foe.
"Haven't you been listening? He can resist the…" Bulma was about to object in a very loud and overly wordy way, so Chayote shut her down.
"Let me worry about that, you start looking for a planet to send us to," the female Super Saiyan growled while taking on the offensive role in the engagement by extending her hand and blasting away the medical equipment in between her and the toying Ultimate Gero. Giggling, the muscle-headed titan covered himself up with his hand, but when he lowered it to look again, Chayote was all over him overflowing with a lime-colored aura burst.
Knowing she was wasting her time trying to jab at her juggernaut of an opponent, Chayote roared out while charging with a dashing clothesline aimed straight at his gut. This didn't split him in half as it should have, but it made the aggravated Ultimate Android flinch a bit, seeing an opening, Chayote began vanishing around while appearing for a single jab and snapping away again, creating a cascade of invisible golden burst concussive shock waves all over the room. This didn't come even close to ragdolling her opponent, but it made the titan stonewall himself by tensing up his whole body and crossing his arms in front of him for a perfect guard stance. This was exactly what Chayote was waiting for.
A rubbery grip made the Ultimate Artificial Human gargle as the Saiyan wrapped her arms around him in her best attempt at a rear-naked choke against a neck that was as thick and bulky as a sequoia tree. Unable to yell anything cohesive and intelligible because of the severe physical backlash that her opponent returned the favor to her with, Chayote just bellowed out a grunt and extended it long enough for Bulma to get the hint.
A beam of teal light showered the pair from up above. Like a waterfall but one of the basic quantal particles, it engulfed the two and sent all the particles comprising them far off into the further corners of the universe. The beam of teal smashed against six hundred kilometers of solid ice, returning the fundamental composition of the two fighters it had transported away the way it found them and assembling them together in just the right order that it beamed them off in. The Ultimate Artificial Human scooped Chayote off his back, pounded her once in the gut, and flung her away to buy himself some time from the rabid Saiyan woman so that he could get his bearings in.
Strident lashes of sizzling electricity danced all around the breathable gaseous atmosphere of the faraway world that Bulma beamed the pair off to. Clutching at her busted ribs and throwing up mouthfuls of blood, with her Super Saiyan flickering on and off because of the severe pain of the free shot she took and the extreme stress of struggling against a physically more imposing foe, Chayote did her best to pick herself back up.
"Ah… What an uncharacteristically clever ploy, interloper…" the Ultimate Artificial Human continued to scan and be amazed at the immense size of the stormy atmosphere and the titanium-dense layer of ice, compressed by hundreds of kilometers of expansive gaseous atmosphere into a diamond-hard state of roughness. "You've meddled with my electromagnetic photon field by distracting me with a close-range struggle and shuffling inside the photon particle formation with your unfurling Ki aura. You almost forced my hand, really. By submitting to the quantal matter beam, you made me risk losing a few body parts in the questionable transportation process, so even if I raised the magnetized photon field in time, I'd have risked dismemberment. Of course, even dismembered, I am more than a match for you foreign greenhorns…"
"If so, then why let the beam take you along?" Chayote chuckled with a malicious wink from her right eye, laughing through a world of hurt coursing through her body.
"Because mine is an ultimate body. I cannot afford to spoil it," the Ultimate Artificial Human tightened the Red Ribbon bandana over the top of his head and extended his hands in preparation for the power struggle to resume. Chayote had different plans, and so did Bulma, it seemed. The teal transportation beam blasted through the storm clouds, seeking to wash over Chayote and swoop her away from the planet that'd serve as the Ultimate Android's prison for the duration it would take him to fly across the South Galaxy and cross into the North Galaxy.
In a shocking twist, the beam splintered into hundreds of pitiful strands of light and washed away, lost in the stormy atmosphere. Chayote's jaw dropped. The Saiyan staggered back in a show of lost composure.
"Hey, what the heck gives, Bulma!?" she grumbled out, shaking her fist at the actual sky as if it could hear her.
"Surely you didn't think that I didn't see your play coming a mile away. The moment you tricked me into landing on this planet, I expected you to take off like the frightened little vixen that you are. I wouldn't have teased and commended your deceit if I had no way of countering your obvious next move, alien," the Ultimate Artificial Human laughed it off from the bottom of his chest in a peal of hilarity. "As you may have noticed, the atmosphere of this planet is highly electrically charged. Where there's electricity, there's electromagnetism. This peculiar planet is in constant atmospheric turmoil with the worst space cyclone phenomena and cosmic lightning vortex storms you can imagine. This makes it much easier than it was back on Bulma's cybernetic station to use electromagnetically charged photon particles. In fact, I can easily coat the entire planet in them by just sending them to ride the electrical currents in the entire atmosphere. I know you to be a primitive simpleton, Chayote, so I'll make it clear for you–you're going nowhere!"
Chayote's mouth stretched out in a bitter cocktail of terror and ire as her opponent couldn't stop mocking her with his thunderous laughter and his constant flashy flexing of his ironclad body. She got herself into a real sticky situation, the likes of which she struggled to remember anymore. If only they didn't try to be clever about it and Bulma would've beamed her off somewhere on Earth…
Now she had this whole ridiculous scenario to deal with!