Chapter Eleven - New Threats, Hidden Foes
Mizuna sat up with a pained exhale of breath and could only watch as the androids sped away through the clouds. She took a quick look around. Trunks and Vegeta were both unconscious Tien and Piccolo looked pretty banged up as well, but they were picking themselves up slowly too. They had almost done it. Victory had been so close and just like that it was gone. 17 and 18 were strong but there were beatable, that other one though was in a different league altogether. Even if she had seen him coming, there wouldn't have been anything she could do to stop him. She just wasn't strong enough, and that was a very frustrating thought.
Mizuna walked over to Trunks and gently shook him, he immediately woke up with a start and sat up. "What happened?"
"We lost." Piccolo answered with a grumble.
"How? We had them both on the robes!" Trunks exclaimed.
"We didn't account for that big guy. Who knew he'd be so powerful, and since we can't sense them, he caught us off guard easily." Mizuna said, as she awoke Vegeta who smacked her hand away and stood. He was immediately furious. "You weaklings ruined my victory. If you had done the one thing you're good at, standing there and watching. Maybe you could've mentioned the giant androids sneaking up behind me."
Tien rolled his eyes. "A lot of good that would've done."
Vegeta growled in anger. "Ridiculous. The next time they show up. I'll defeat them alone." Then with a burst of energy, he was in the air and gone. Trunks went to follow but Piccolo stopped him. "He needs some time to cool off. His egos been off the charts recently since he transformed and he was humbled. He'll get over it."
"Something I was curious about," Mizuna wondered aloud. "Who released the androids? 20 was dead, and I thought he was the only one who could let them out."
Trunks shuddered at the thought. "I'm hoping it was just by chance, perhaps he had a fail-safe or something in case he died. I have no idea who else out there would release them."
The group of them stood in silence for a few moments before Trunks spoke up again. "So, what do we do now?"
"We get stronger," Mizuna stated as if it were the only logical choice. "We have a good gauge of their strength now. We'll just need to completely surpass them."
"I'm not sure we have that sort of time if they'll be roaming around looking for Goku." Tien interjected. "It could takes months."
Piccolo began walking away from the group. "I have an idea." Then he also took off into the air to leave.
"Couldn't possibly be any more cryptic." Mizuna said with a sigh, then looked at Tien and Trunks. "Let's get back to Goku. We'll figure out a plan once we're all together."
They took took to the skies together to head towards Kame House, where Goku was most likely headed by now. They'd wait there for him.
A few hours later, Krillin, Yamcha, Gohan, Trunks, Goku, Chi Chi, and Mizuna were all tucked away on Yamchas air plane, flying towards Kame House. They figured sticking around with Goku while he recovered was the safest thing to do, and there wasn't much else they could do right now. They were in the middle of a conversation when the ships phone rang, it was Bulma asking for Trunks. Apparently, someone had reported another time machine, a wrecked one. Mizuna, Gohan and Trunks decided to go check it out. Bulma met them there.
"That's my time machine alright." Trunks said, looking it over, "But this isn't right, you only made one, and it's definitely not all banged up like this." Trunks said, checking the interior. "There's a strange egg inside here." Picking off both halves of it, he handed it to Bulma. "I've never seen an egg like this before." She commented.
Trunks sat down in the cockpit and looked over the controls next. "This came here three years before I did!" He exclaimed in shock.
"So, something clearly stole a time machine from a different you and came to the past for some reason?" Mizuna asked, concern evident in her voice. "I wonder what it was, it must've been what blew a hole out of the top of it as well."
Gohan had wandered off exploring when he called for their attention a distance off. "Guys! I think I found what it was!" When they all caught up to him and found a giant bug like shell sitting in the grass. Bulma put a hand to her mouth in disgust. "What is that thing?!" Trunks stuck a hand in to see if anything was inside, a disgusting pink slime covered it. "Oh no, I really wish I hadn't done that."
"I can't wait to see what crawled out of that thing." Mizuna muttered, as something caught her eye. It couldn't be. "Trunks, look." she said pointing and moving towards it. "Another time machine." This one was in perfect condition.
"What the hell? Another one? What's going on?" Trunks yelled as he walked over to it. Mizuna had decided to inspect the inside of this one to see when it came here and where it was from. There was an impression on the seat, someone a good sized butt had been sitting here. Her stomach dropped as she realized the seat was still warm, whoever this was only just got here, they probably didn't even have time to put this into capsule form before they had arrived. And the cockpit smelled of perfume as well, it was pleasant. A woman?
Trunks also inspected the ship when she got out, to get a look. "The batteries are fully charged. This is in even better condition then mine, it's updated and seems to have a better power supply, one that can be used repeatedly without worry. It's solar powered."
Bulma spoke up then. "Did I make it solar powered? That's not a bad idea."
"No way!" Trunks said. "You didn't have the resources for this, someone updated your design."
"I think whoever this was just left as we arrived. It doesn't say from when it came either, it was erased." She said as Trunks hoped back down. "This isn't good guys."
"I didn't realize my traveling through time to effect things like this, it looks like two others have done the same, but I worry for who they could be." Trunks said quietly.
"It's not your fault Trunks, if it wasn't for you, my dad wouldn't still be around. We'll fix whatever this is." Gohan said giving him a smile.
Then he put both of these time machines back into their capsule form and gave them both to Bulma. She'd find a use for them, I'm sure. "Keep these safe, mom." Bulma accepted them with a nod, but she was a bit pale from all this. "I'm going to head back. I don't like it here." Gohan, Trunks and Mizuna said farewell to her and stood there in silence. "I don't know what any of this means, but we should head back."
Kami felt too presences down on earth that both suddenly appeared, they were both powerful but trying to keep hidden. He walked to the edge of the lookout to get a better feel of things.
"Did something happen?" Piccolo asked, but Kami did not answer him.
Two images appeared in Kamis mind, they weren't detailed, but they were there nonetheless. A tall, green bug like creature, and a pink feminine figure with baggy pants with an M symbol and a black top. Their boundless power shook him to his core. "What is they?" He muttered. The fighters on earth were powerful and constantly growing, but this threat far surpassed their current strength.
"They!?" Piccolo asked again. "Who are you talking about? Is there another threat?!"
Kami only shuttered in fear as he continued to look out. "There's only one way for you all to grow strong enough to defeat these foes. You'll know after we merge."
Several days later
Mizuna and Trunks were standing outside Kame House by the water, they had all decided to stick around protect Goku in case the androids had managed to find him, no one had shown up so far. They had spent their time trying to come up with a method to surpass the androids, but nothing came to mind. Mizuna had a growing worry in the pit of her gut as well.
"You really feel like there's a greater threat then 17 and 18?" Trunks asked as they watched the rolling waves.
"I do," Mizuna answered. "They didn't awake by themselves, I feel like whoever let them out is a cause for concern."
"Whoever they are, I'm sure they'll show up sooner then later. We'll be ready next time." Trunks gave her an assuring smile, but Mizuna couldn't give him one back. There were so many foes now, and while it excited her to fight them, she cared deeply for earth now and didn't want to see it destroyed. "There's something else too. King Cold. I lost handily to him before, and he knows I'm here. Why he hasn't come knocking, I don't know. He'll have to be taken out too."
"Freeza wasn't all that impressive, he died in no time at all." Trunks commented.
"Freeza and Cooler were nothing compared to their father. I didn't even face his full power and he almost killed me. I shutter to think what he had in reserv-" A presence suddenly spiked up nearby, Trunks noticed it too. It didn't make sense It felt like various people that all in one spot. Freeza, Vegeta, even Goku. But he was still upstairs.
Everyone came running outside, Roshi was the first to speak. "I've felt this presence before!" He said. "Freeza!"
"It doesn't make any sense," Yamcha cried, looking at Trunks. "You killed him yourself, didn't you?"
"I did, and it feels like he's there with Krillin, too. As well as two Piccolos?"
"Me?" Krillin said, pointing at himself.
"Whatever is going on over there, we need to see." Mizuna said, taking to the air. "Let's go!"
"I'll join you." Trunks said, following after her.
Gohan moved to go as well but was stopped by Chi-Chi. "Stay here, Gohan! Someone need to protect Goku. You can't all leave." Gohan sighed dejectedly, but he understood.
Mizuna and Trunks both raced towards the powers they were feeling and when they arrived, they found a destroyed town and Piccolo and a strange bug man fighting each other. Piccolos power was far greater then what she remembered it being. How'd he get so much stronger in no time at all?
Mizuna and rest landed next to Piccolo and the tall green creature seemed surprised to seem them. "Trunks, I'm surprised to see you alive. I see another you has made it to the past."
"How do you know my name, who are you?" Trunks demanded of it.
His question was ignored as Cell looked over at Mizuna with a calculating gaze.
"I think this is what came from the destroyed time machine. Give up, monster. You're outnumbered."
"Good guess." Cell hissed at her. "But fighting all of you would be a bit too much for me right now." He jumped further back. "I will attain the androids and become perfect! Stay out of my way!" He lifted his hands to either side of his face. "Solar Flare!" A blinding light took them all by surprise as Cell lowered his energy and ran for it.
"Damn it!" Piccolo screamed, his power shot up around him. Stunning Mizuna and Trunks. "I should've finished him! Now he'll only get stronger."
"W-wow." Trunks mumbled.
"What's going on? Who was that?"Mizuna asked after he calmed down.
"Another android called Cell, but he's a biological one made up from the cells of some of us, as well as Freeza." Piccolo explained as Vegeta showed up next to them.
"What the hell is going on here, Namek?"He demanded to know, but Piccolo shook his head. "Never mind that! Gather everyone at Kamis look out. I know of a way we can all get stronger in a hurry." He said.
Within a few hours, everyone had gathered on Kamis as he requested. Other then Goku, Gohan, Chi-Chi and Roshi who had stayed behind to watch over Goku.
"The Room of Spirit and Time, a place where you can train up to a year in only a days time." Piccolo finished explaining.
"Why didn't we hear about this sooner?" Trunks asked.
"Kami was hesitant to let anyone know about it, it's incredibly demanding. It can only be used a few times in a lifetime." Mr. Popo explained.
"So, who'll go in first?"
"I will, of course." Vegeta said, to everyone's annoyance.
"So will I." Trunks said.
Piccolo nodded. "Fair enough, you can enter now. It's fully stocked. We'll keep watch of things here." The prince and his son entered the chamber together.
Mizuna spoke up next. "I'm going to Geros lab. I feel like there's something we missed there." Krillin offered to tag along which she gratefully accepted and they were off. The others simply hung around the lookout for the time being and kept watch on events.
When Mizuna and Krillin arrived back at the lab, they found it as it had been previously. An utter ruin. The day was still early, so at least they had the sunlight to work under. They both landed and began looking around, moving rocks and such.
"What are we looking for anyway? Krillin asked as he worked.
"I don't know," She admitted, unsure. "If Cell was from the future, there must be a version of him in our time too, right? I'm thinking he's buried under here somewhere."
"Good thinking. Wouldn't want to fight two of him."
"I think I found something." Mizuna said as she cleared away another rock and revealed a sealed passage going further down into the mountain. "This must be it."
They climbed down the ladder and flipped a light switch near the wall that lit up the room. It was a surprising sight. In the center of the room was a large container with a tiny organism inside. They both looked at it closely. "This must be Cell. Tiny little thing." Mizuna said quietly.
Krillin looked around the rest of the lab and found blue prints for the androids 17 and 18 sitting on a table off to the side. "I found the blue prints for the androids. Maybe Bulma could make something useful with these."
"Maybe." Mizuna agreed as she kept looking around and found another large vet like Cells, this one was in less developed, but looking like something was growing in this one too, and was labeled as Android 21. "There's another one here."
"21? But we never saw this one, maybe this one was never finished?" Krillin asked, uncertain.
"Maybe, but I have a feeling that this one is also around somewhere. But they haven't revealed themselves for some reason." Mizuna said, thinking back to the other time machine. "There's so many foes out there, I don't know how we'll win this one."
"We will, like we always do. No matter what it takes. After you and the others finish your training. All these androids won't stand a chance!"
Mizuna flashed him a smile and briefly hugged him. "Thank you Krillin. Sometimes the most simple answer is the best one."
They left shortly after and Mizuna completely leveled the mountain to it's foundation with one energy blast. No more surprises would come from here, at least. "Give me the blueprints, Krillin. I'll get them to Bulma. Why don't you go check on how Gokus doing?" Krillin smiled and nodded. "You got it." Then they parted ways.
Mizuna arrived at Capsule Corp some time after, she took her time getting there and thought things over as she flew. She'd be the last to go into the time chamber. She didn't want to go in alone however as solo training only helped so much. She'd ask one of the others to join her for another year. Would there even be anyone to fight after that? Vegeta and the others would probably wipe out all these androids by the time she got out. Hopefully not. She was excited to test her new power, even though she hadn't acquired it yet.
She landed at the door as Capsule Corp, and as she entered a woman came running out of the building and ran directly into Mizuna. They both fell over, the women landed on her. They both looked at each other for a moment, they were very close, but the woman blushed and got off of of her. "I'm really sorry about that. Are you okay?" She had a pleasant voice. Mizuna took her in. She had very long brown hair, and bright blue eyes. She wore glasses and a tight red and blue checkered dress that did nothing to hide her incredibly curvy figure with a white lab coat over it. She scattered to pick up the few papers she had dropped during the collusion.
Her scent filled Mizunas nose and the perfume she was wearing was oddly familiar. She couldn't place it, but that was hardly what she was focusing on. The woman was stunning. Plain and simple, she had never had an attraction of an earthling, but this one did it for her. She found her cheeks burning and her heart flutter a bit. She got to her feet and she uncharacteristically pushed her hair out of her face a bit and smiled awkwardly. "That's quite alright, Just an accident." Mizuna couldn't think of what to say next. "I hope you're alright." The beautiful woman smiled back. "I'm just fine, thank you." Then a realization seemed to hit her. "I have to get these papers out for Mrs. Briefs. I hope you'll excuse me. I hope we meet under better circumstances next time."
"So do I." Mizuna said as the woman walked past her, she couldn't help but watch her leave. Bulma was the next to walk out of the entrance. "Mizuna! It's good to see you again. Sorry you ran into her. She just started here the other day as my new assistant."
"No trouble at all."Mizuna said only half listening, then remembered why she was there. "Oh that's right. I have something for you. We found blueprints for the androids." Then she handed her the blue prints. "Can you make a remote shutdown switch for them?" Bulma gave one of the papers a brief look before nodding. "It won't be easy, but I can do it. Give me a day or so! I'll bring it to the lookout." Then she reentered the building. Mizuna turned to see if the woman was still nearby but she had vanished. A shame, but she had a reason to come back now. She hadn't noticed it at first, but she had a glimmer of an aura about her. Nothing Mizuna had ever seen before. It only made her more interested in the woman.
A presence suddenly filled her mind. It was Goku, he was finally awake.
"Uh, ma'am. You can't just take that without paying." A terrified shop clerk was trying to tell the blonde woman who was trying to leave his store. "You have to pay!" Android 18 only rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Be grateful I even wanted this outfit, there's barely anything here worth wearing. She casually pushed him aside and headed for the van that 16 and 17 were waiting in.
"Don't make me call the police!" He said, his finger over the emergency button on the shops wall.
"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and do that." 18 said, not breaking stride as she hoped into the car and they sped off.
"This is the fifth clothing store you've forced me to take you to, 18." 17 complained. "You have an outfit, now can we go look for Goku? 16 is getting irritable." Knowing that 16 barely had anything close to actual emotion aside from his one track determination to "Kill Son Goku."
"Fine, whatever. Let's just go to that Kame House place. He'll probably be there." 17 said, suddenly excited. "But we can't get there driving, so there's only one thing to do now."
"Fly?"
"Better! We get a boat!"
"Christ, what's your obsession with vehicles, we can fly across the world in the blink of an eye!" 18 screamed, getting furious with the slow pace.
"Where's your sense of adventure, sis? Sometimes you have to take it slow and smell the roses." 17 said, smiling to himself. "You did say earlier we could do it my way if we took you to that last clothes store."
18 only rolled her eyes in protest.
Cell was sprinting through the forest, he sensed a decent sized village just up ahead of him. Perfect. Another meal. The fourth one of the day. He was powering up considerably at this rate. There was no sign of the androids at this rate, but that was no problem. He'd take his time finding them. Anything worth doing was worth the wait. Perfection would be his soon enough. He considered absorbing of the Z fighters, but that would be equivalent to kicking a hornets nest. They'd all come running then. He wasn't ready for that battle just yet, but very soon. He had the perfect plan on how to draw them out.
Mizuna had arrived on the lookout just after Goku, Gohan, and Krillin had arrived. Everyone rushed over to greet Goku, and welcome him back. "It's so good to see you all again. I have some idea what's going on. I saw it in my dreams. So we're really in a pickle this time, huh?"
"We sure are." Mizuna said, joining the group. "But I just delivered the blue prints of the androids to Bulma and she'll have a deactivate switch made soon."
Most of the group seemed happy at that, aside from Goku. "Aw, come on. I didn't even get to fight them yet. Turning them off doesn't seem fair."
Everyone face palmed at that.
"Normally I'd agree with you, Goku. But if Cell gets his hands on them. Things could be really bad, really fast."
"Don't be so negative. We'll be able to take him down once our training is finished." Goku said positively, punching one fist into his other open palm.
She sighed but relented, she couldn't help feeling hopeful around him.
Gohan spoke up next. "Are we going into the Time Chamber after Vegeta and Trunks get finished?" He asked, looking at his father. Goku nodded and smiled. "Sure are."
"Who are you going in with then, Mizuna?" Krillin asked her and she could only shrug in response. "I don't know yet, whoever wants to. Someone has to keep an eye on things while we wait." She said.
Yamcha pointed at himself and grinned. "I'll be your training partner."
"Not even in your dreams, wolf boy."