Goku froze as the thing crawled out of the crater, his body flushed hot and cold at the same time. Freeza just kept giving it that fond little smile. The expression was so unnatural on his face that it was like looking at a photo instead of the real thing.
"Metal Bender, my dear prize! How was the trip for you?" Freeza ignored Goku's shock and turned towards it with outstretched arms. "So sorry I had to give you that shot before we left, but I know how you can get in small spaces. And we couldn't have you acting so hysterically, could we?"
'Metal Bender' just stood at the lip of the crater, hunched down like an animal. Goku noticed the upper part of his torso from his sternum to halfway down his neck was… wrong. His belly was facing up, but it looked like his shoulder blades were where his pectorals would- should be. Metal Bender's head was twisted around to look forward. With his palms flat on the ground and knees seemingly bent backwards, he began to crawl forward.
Goku yelped and jumped back, instinctively putting distance between himself and that thing. The only thing he could compare it to was a spider; each leg moving independently and fluidly.
Then he stood up.
Nothing could've prepared Goku for it. Metal Bender slowly rose backwards, twisting his shoulders counterclockwise while his head turned clockwise. It made a god-awful metallic sound, like a tinkertoy being wound up for the first time in years. Nausea hit Goku hard, and he swallowed to keep the bile from rising too far into his throat.
Despite the gruesome display, Metal Bender seemed to be physically fine. His back faced them and Goku thought he could see jagged shards of metal in various shapes and sizes protruding from the discolored scar tissue on his back. He saw what he could only assume to be a tail of some sort. A gnarled mess of wires surrounded the base, covered with what appeared to be metal 'scales', suggesting that the tail was much thicker at one point before being messily ripped away. The metal vertebrae was slightly covered in thin ropes of flesh and muscle; wires and rods randomly adorned the length of it. The rods were tipped with small sheets of plated scales. His tail ended in a metal club, about the size of Goku's head. It looked to be made up of scrap metal that had been melted together haphazardly.
He turned around, his light gray hair covering most of his face but did nothing to hide his long pointed ears. His right eye, the only one visible, was completely black, save for a small white dot that seemed to be his pupil.
Freeza sighed as if a large weight had been lifted off his chest. "I know you hate needles and flying, but we had no choice. Now we're safe, you're safe my dear prize. Now don't be shy, come on over and meet Son Goku."
Metal Bender's eye flicked back and forth from Goku to Freeza as if debating something. Then he faced the two of them fully and shuffled forward. His gait was robotic and stifled. Goku continued to take in the creature in front of him. His shins and forearms were covered in gauntlets designed with similar scales, his feet were made to look reptilian, three large toes on each foot ending in ong, black claws. His right hand was huge, the palm alone bigger than his own head. Of course, each finger was tipped with elongated black claws as well. On his left hand, however, the claws fused together to form a spade-like shape.
He stopped right in front of Freeza and leaned forward, resting his head on the tyrant's shoulder. Freeza reached up and stroked his hair, like a pet.
"What the hell?" Goku blurted out.
"Seeing how it's woken up, I believe introductions are in order," Freeza addressed him without pausing his movements. "Goku, this is Metal Bender. It's my. . . well, I suppose you'd call a creature like this a pet, wouldn't you?"
"Pet ain't the first word to come to mind," Goku exclaimed, "Pets are cute, not. . . Not. . . whatever that is!"
Metal Bender noticeably stiffened and begon to growl lowly. Freeza shushed him and continued as if Goku didn't interrupt him, "My Metal Bender here was the only one to survive the experimental prosthetics. Weren't you, my dear prize?"
Metal Bender stopped growling and grunted in response, face still buried in Freeza's shoulder.
Goku's ears pricked up at the word 'prosthetics'. He'd heard Bulma and her father talking about prosthetics before, hunched over blueprints of human limbs and gesturing over the finished product before shaking their heads and starting over from scratch. Bulma never let anything less than top quality leave her lab.
But Goku didn't understand what that had to do with Metal Bender. He looked normal, for the most part. Goku's eyes scanned his arm and noticed the tangled mess of scars that gave way to the armor.
His heart stopped. Metal Bender looked normal for the most part. Unless he. . .
"Whaddya mean, prosthetics?" Goku asked cautiously, already knowing and afraid of the answer.
Freeza chuckled darkly, still petting him as if he were a damn dog, "Haven't you thought about it, Son Goku? You sliced me into slivers on Namek, yet here I am, standing on my own two feet. How do you think such a thing could be possible?" He directed Goku's attention to his hips, which upon closer inspection he saw a small seam circling his waist. Freeza's legs and tail was a slightly darker color and the 'skin' looked leathery and rubbery.
Goku's mouth went dry.
(not done yet, just wanted to post this)