"What do you see? Did you find her?" Tien asked quietly as he approached Krillin who was sent ahead to lookout for 18.
Krillin turned to Tien, fear racking through his body as he gripped the ruined wall they hid behind. "We need to help her."
"What?! Why would we do that?" Tien asked, his eyes sharp.
"Gero is back." Krillin said as he turned back to the view. "He's basically going to kill her."
"That's a bonus, you moron!" Vegeta barked as he caught up behind Tien and joined the conversation.
"In any other scenario it might be." Krillin replied his voice still soft and quiet.
"What did you hear?" Tien asked.
"Well…" Krillin started his explanation.
18 couldn't move when she felt the grotesque energy approach her. She turned to face the old man who resembled more of a monster. His skin a putrid muddy green with dark splotches as if cysts or blood pooled underneath. All hair on his head was lost and in it's place crested two large horns. His eyes were sunken with deep purple bags. Behind him swung a long tail tapering to a proboscis with a fine point.
"My dear 18. You're done." Gero spoke with an unsettling gentility.
"What?" 18 was confused. She felt fear grip her throat once she spotted 16 lurking nearby. "No, he's hiding around here I know it. He'll be dead soon and-"
"I know." Gero interrupted. "And soon I will have the strength to kill him myself."
18 hated how he stared. A cold glare that dissected her; it made her desperate to change his attention to anything else. To focus on Goku instead of her. "I-if we wait for 17 we can all kill him together right now… then you'll be all done. You won't have to wait."
"17 has already assisted me." Gero said as he flexed his now healed arm and floated closer. "It's your turn."
18's eyes widened. Everything in her body told her to run but she also knew with 16 present, it was impossible for her to run fast enough to escape him. She would have to do what she was told and let Gero have his way. "Where is he?"
Gero was now close enough to see the small stitches in her blue jacket. The edges of each flounce and cuff worn and damaged by her own explosions. He quickly grabbed her neck. "I'm so close to perfection; to having ultimate strength. Consuming the normal low quality people isn't moving me fast enough. I need what's left of my work. The pieces of my formula that rest inside you should bring me to completion."
18 grabbed his hand to pull it away but couldn't loosen his grip. She then kicked at his side many times to fight him off. "Let me go!"
"I'm already much stronger with 17 a part of me now. Even you can't stop me." Gero said, his tail aimed at 18. Before he could strike, he was knocked back.
18 looked to 16 now before her as he glared at Gero. "What are you-"
"Leave!" 16 yelled at her before flying after Gero.
18 only watched the two fight for a moment before she felt a tug on her arm. She was more confused than surprised by the short man now beside her. Where did he come from?!
"Hurry! I can get you somewhere safe!" Krillin declared with quite some confidence despite the fear shaking his hands.
There is no reason for him to- but he's!? 18 couldn't understand why he was offering to help her escape but if anything she could fight him off if he turned against her. "Ok."
As they flew away, 16 pinned Gero to the side of a building. Gero sputtered "16 stop! You're processor must be malfunctioning! Recognize who you're attacking!"
"I'm functioning at 100%." 16 replied.
"You were designed with features to protect me!" Gero argued. He struggled against 16's hold.
"I am programmed to protect Gero and safeguard his work. You're DNA is no longer a close enough match to his on file." 16 explained. "You've damaged one of Gero's projects and are intending to destroy another. These factors permit me to terminate you."
"You all belong to me! I will do whatever I wish to any of you!" Gero bellowed. "Now release me!"
16 was silent as he raised his arm as if to strike Gero. His hand shifted and, with metal cranking, moved to the side of his wrist revealing the gears and odd parts inside; at the center of which was a cone shaped grate.
"No." Gero stared angrily at the grate, knowing what he was about to endure.
Fire streamed out of 16's arm, roaring as it blasted over Gero and the building. Gero's screams were only partially muffled by the power of the flames. 16 continued the fire for seemingly long seconds until Gero suddenly kicked him away. When he hit against another building, he returned his hand to it's proper place and inspected the damage to Gero.
Gero took heavy breaths as he stood, so much of him burned away. The left side of his head and his left arm and shoulder now ash marks on the building behind him. "I made you just strong enough to keep 17 and 18 under control and it seems I've come to surpass that. I do regret that I will have to decommission you myself."
Borrowing from a list of techniques he had seen too many times, Gero gathered energy into his hand. He knew he wouldn't be able to perform a refined attack nor one as strong as his enemies but he did know where 16's weaknesses were. The small points he could never get high enough quality or the few bolts that were more trouble than they were worth. Before 16 could move or retaliate, Gero fired his energy blasts.
"We shouldn't just jump in. He actually had her with only one hand and she couldn't fight him off! We need to be strategic with this!" Tien argued with Vegeta as they ran through the debris of the streets.
"Look! There's not much of him left. He's weak enough to be an easy win." Vegeta declared.
"We need to see how much that other guy can do to him. We've been outclassed this whole time, the more advantage we can squeeze out the better." Tien explained. "The whole point right now isn't even to engage Gero in a fight. We're a distraction so everyone can get out of the church safely."
"I am no mere distraction; I will not sit on the sides!" Vegeta yelled as he took off.
"Damn it." Tien cursed. We can't afford for Gero to get anymore powerful.
Vegeta did not hesitate to charge behind Gero while his attention was on the large stranger, unleashing relentless energy. Looks like he wouldn't have lasted against Gero anyway. Vegeta built up his own energy before he landed. Taking place just behind Gero, he unleashed it from his index and middle fingers like a bold laser through Gero's chest.
Gero halted his barrage of attacks on 16 and slowly turned his good eye over his shoulder to his new target. In a calm voice he said "Vegeta… I believe I have the time to kill you now."
"I don't think you're in any position to claim that you could even harm me." Vegeta taunted. "Last time was luck and there isn't much left to you. I'd even bet you just unloaded all of your energy."
"There is more to me than you will understand." Gero replied as he turned to properly face Vegeta. His face and arm regenerated to perfect health. "I made sure to pick a few useful traits for these eventualities."
Vegeta grit his teeth as he initiated the first strike, locking them in his favorite one on one type of fight.
Krillin and 18 took cover under the sudden eruption of blasts.
"Sounds like Vegeta couldn't wait anymore." Krillin said softly.
18 wasn't surprised. Having fought them so often for a while she had more or less picked up what each of them were like. Though she decided it best to expect some surprises from here on with Krillin already showing his willingness to help her despite the cowardice she had seen of him so far. She caught a glance of the battle between Vegeta and Gero, a safe enough distance away.
Where is 16? She finally spotted him struggling to pull himself up and out of the crater of the building he was blasted into. Bricks fell with every staggering step. His head had broken open with wires now exposed and sparking.
"This is our chance." Krillin said. He stood ready to move out but still had a sense of patience when he regarded her. How he looked at her or spoke without commanding.
18 wasn't really sure how she was supposed to respond. "I'm sure it's really nice of you to help me escape, but I can't leave yet. Why don't you just go by yourself?"
Krillin turned to face her. "Alright, what do you need?"
"Why are you staying? Why are you HERE?! You have no reason to assist me." 18 yelled.
"Trust me, I would love nothing more than to run away right now but I've been on earth's defense team long enough to recognize when someone is a victim and not a minion or companion to the enemy." Krillin said.
"I'm not a victi-" 18 hissed before she was interrupted.
"No one wants to hear it or be labeled a victim but sometimes we are." Krillin argued. "You never went out of your way to kill anyone so-"
"I've been trying to kill Goku and I nearly let his son die." 18 spoke up.
"If you really wanted to get to Goku, you wouldn't have let us live after so many fights would you?" Krillin asked. "Gero forced you into this position didn't he?"
18 clenched her teeth and did everything she could to not reveal herself entirely. In a shaken whisper she asked "How do you-?"
"I heard everything he said to you." Krillin explained softly. "What he did to 17. Consuming all of those people, everything."
18 forced herself to straighten. Damn it! I can't handle all of this right now. He's right, we need to move. With a loud huff she said "I need to get 16. I can't leave him here. If you want to risk your life helping me, then I won't stop you."
Krillin glanced to the stranger with red hair still crumpled and now limp in the rubble. Hearing that he was called by a number like her, Krillin didn't need any further convincing to help. He nodded and prepared to follow her. "Alright."