Chapter Twenty-Five

Author's Note: Double update, same day... just thought I should do something for the summer season. btw, the story really begins to get into its own starting now. It doesn't feel as much like a DB copy. Also I'm going to update this to a M rating as things are getting real now.

Raditz looked at the beheaded body of the ninja lying by his boots. Stepping over him, the Saiyan felt a sigh escape his mouth. He carried up the stairway to the next floor, wondering what would await him.

"Why is it so dark?" The Saiyan asked, flaring his aura for a source of light. He had entered the next floor of the tower and to his surprise, nobody awaited him. The room was just dark. Too dark.

Raditz cautiously stepped forward, wary of any boobytraps that might have been laid for him. Before he could take another step though, he felt a pain in his gut as he was pushed to the ground. Looking up he couldn't see what had hit him. He searched the room until another punch hit him.

"What the hell?" The Saiyan barked in confusion, pressing his Scouter. To his surprise, he couldn't see anything. "What is this trickery?"

Braced for whatever had attacked him, Raditz was struck once again, this time by a bladed strike. Narrowly avoiding having his neck cut off, the Saiyan backflipped out of the way of his quick assailant, feeling as the blade sliced him across his chest, easily splitting the armor he wore.

"There's no point, Saiyan," A voice spat through the room. Raditz didn't recognize the voice but it seemed it recognized him. Feeling as another punch and then a kick shot into his body, Raditz screamed out in anguish. His insides burned, whoever this was hitting him hit with the power of a small tank. He looked forward into the dimly lit room, only to be knocked completely across the room by another blow.

"W-Who are you?" Raditz grumbled, bringing his hand to his ribcage and checking for breaks. Thankfully, nothing was broken yet. Flaring his ki, the Saiyan saw a gleam coming his way and using his reflexes, narrowly dodged another strike from his assailant. "Fight me like a man!"

"Oh my machines aren't men," The voice snickered again. Watching from the other room, Doctor Gero smiled at the Saiyan's struggles. He had longed for this day. The day that humankind fought back against their galactic invaders. "And neither are you…"

*FLASHBACK START*

Doctor Gebo Gero had always had a thing for machines. They understood him better than his colleagues. They understood him better than his friends. They understood him better than most people.

He had been working as the robotics professor at Orange Star High School for the past three years. It was a good job in some ways. It paid well. He met some smart children and some that weren't so smart. Still though, it didn't satisfy him or his brain. He had always been way ahead of the competition. Graduating at the top of his class all the way to his Master's, Gebo knew that he could do better than… this.

He was going to change the way men lived.

Shortly after classes had finished for the day, Gero packed his things and drove to his apartment. Entering the door, the doctor smelled the scent of oil and metal flood his nose. His mouth curled into a smile at this. He loved coming home and working on his research. He was going to build the world's first sentinel android, something that could help out the elderly and sick. He was finally going to use his brain for some good.

Rolling his sleeves up, the doctor was at work most of the evening on his craft. It was very hard work plugging in the data to the motherboard. Even harder to build an entire mechanical base and artificial intelligence from scratch with the salary he was getting from Orange City. Before long, he had been working seven hours straight without so much as anything to eat or even a smoke break.

"I might as well take a break now," The doctor said to himself, using an oily rag to wipe off the sweat from his forehead. "Or next thing I know, I'll look up and be in front of my students."

Rustling through his black beard, Gero rose to his feet and grabbed the pack of cigarettes from the countertop of his kitchen. Hitting the bottom of the pack to wake up the tobacco, Gero walked out of his apartment down to the park below. It was late, nobody should be out to disrupt his peace at this time of the night. He needed the air anyway.

"A shooting star? I wish for the knowledge to get my project up and going," The professor halfheartedly said to himself, watching as a meteor shot across the sky. Lighting his cigarette, Gero took in a breathful of tobacco-filled air. He wasn't much of a superstition but at this point, this was all he could do.

Exhaling the smoke, Doctor Gero looked back up towards the sky. Noticing that the meteor was getting closer, he realized that the shooting star was not actually a shooting star but something coming his way and quickly at that. Barely getting out of the way, the Human's eyes widened as he witnessed something smash into the Earth below him, making the ground around him quiver and break apart.

"A-Am I drunk?" The scientist said to himself, rubbing the bald top of his head. He did have a habit of downing entire packs of beer when he was in his zone. Maybe he had fallen too far off the boat tonight.

Stepping forward into the pool-sized crater that the meteor created, Gero's eyes widened at what he saw. In the high school teacher's face was an oval-shaped pod with black indentations in it. He had never seen anything like it before.

"Such advanced technology," He shuddered, still not sure whether or not he was dreaming. The scientist pulled a glove off of his right hand and ran it over the sleek frame of the strange object. "It must have struck the ground going over a hundred miles per hour yet its surface is unmarked! If I can find a way to harvest this strange metal, it could make the perfect polymer base for my design."

The doctor stared at the sleek ball of metal for a few more seconds until suddenly, he heard something inside. Stepping back, a hatch opened and Gero saw as a strange alien with the head of a fish stepped out of the device. The purple alien was adorned in a set of tattered robes and seemed to be bleeding.

'Please help,' Gero heard the Kanassan speak to him telepathically. The doctor looked around, nobody else was around and here this alien was speaking to him without even talking. Gero stepped forward, helping the strange being to his feet. 'My planet… I must return. A terrible fate is heading for my people. I must be there to protect them.'

"Your people?" Gero started. Was this really some alien? "What planet are you from?"

'Kanassa,' The alien telepathically shared, too weak to do so much as even look up at the man. The ride over had been terrible. Such was expected when you passed through two of the wicked Cooler's quadrants. 'But my ship was hit with an EMP some light years away. My autopilot barely landed me on this piece of hunk without hitting an asteroid.'

"Well, welcome to Earth then," Gero responded. He cared little for this being but just maybe he could help him. He looked over the alien's body sickly as he pulled him to his feet. He then caught sight of the weapon that the alien had tucked in the side of his robes. "This your ship?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid until I can do repairs it won't be going anywhere," The creature finally managed to speak, opening his mouth. Doing this, some blood leaked from the golf ball sized hole in his abdomen. Gero stared at the wound in horror, something had shot straight through it with what seemed to be some heated bullet.

"I could help you with that," The doctor said with a toothy grin, moving to grab the firearm without the Kanassan noticing. Even then, the alien was far too exhausted to even do something had he noticed. "You know, this ship of yours would work wonders if you let me." He added.

Without allowing the Kanassan time to speak, Gero dropped the alien from his arms, watching as he fell to his knees in pain. Confused but noticing the weapon now aimed at him, the capacitated alien had but a second to lunge forward at Gero. Striking the man with a chop to the side of the neck, he heard an echo ring through the sky and felt an intense burn in his chest. Looking down, he saw a new stream of green colored blood leaking from it. Just as he had struck the Human he had been shot point-blank range with his own weapon. 'Was this finally peace?' The alien thought as he dropped facefirst to the ground.

Gero sighed as he dropped the weapon, rubbing the side of his neck in pain. A smile curled on his face as he realized that the threat had been dealt with and now, not only did he have a highly advanced spaceship to study and use for scrap metal but he also had a perfectly preserved body for his robotic base. However, before he could do anything after somehow pulling he and the corpse into his apartment, the scientist fell over, unconscious before he could even hit the floor.

Some time had passed since his encounter with the strange alien, yet Gero still thought about it everyday. He had long quit his job teaching, now dedicating every hour of the day to his research. He had even gotten a job as the lead scientist for a small-time gang. Still though, the encounter had changed his mind. The people of Earth didn't need android slaves to do things like housework and lawntending, they needed android slaves to fight back against whatever else was out in space for them.

He hadn't slept in weeks. Not that he didn't want to but he couldn't. Each time he did he would have nightmares. Nightmares of tailed men turning into apes. Nightmares of a lizard-like alien destroying entire planets with just his fingertips. He even had visions of another alien coming to Earth. These kept the doctor on his toes, he had to be ready. His people had to be ready… he had seen their end through multiple visions. A flash of pink light and pink missiles colliding with the Earth, ripping through entire bodies as if they were tissue. A fiery explosion.

The scientist welded together two pieces of the strange metal he had harvested from the space pod. He had no idea they were this malleable, it made working with them so easy. Casting aside the stench of tobacco and rotten fish that flooded the air, Gero fused the metal plating onto the chest of his machine. Soon, his first Android would be complete.

*FLASHBACK END*

Raditz spat out a blood engulfed loogie, moving forward with the swiftness of a bullet. To his surprise though, he was once again caught by whoever was attacking him in the dark. Knocked to the ground, Raditz's temper rose as he was unable to fight back against this foe.

"Stop playing with me," The Saiyan demanded through gritted teeth, sinking into a fighting position. Knowing he was on the top floor of the tower, Raditz flared his ki to the max, blowing the ceiling off of Muscle Tower. "Now no more of that darkness stuff. Your fight is with me." He growled, looking forward to his foes.

Raditz gulped as he finally saw who had been attacking him. It was strange, his Scouter wasn't picking up any energy levels from either of the two behemoths that stood in front of him. The first was a stocky man in a blue suit. He reminded the Saiyan of Frankenstein. The second was taller and more muscular with blue frog-like skin. While the first man wore a suit, this one wore just tattered robes that revealed some of his mechanical biocomponents underneath.

"Who are you two?" Raditz asked the stoic men. "My Scouter can't pick up anything… what's the deal?"

"I am Android Null," The second of the two unemotionally replied, launching himself at the Saiyan. Now, with the lights on, Raditz had a better chance of dodging the cyborg's strike but even then, he moved with such speed that the Saiyan narrowly avoided him.

'He's fast,' Raditz grumbled to himself, backflipping out of the way of a hook. Looking over to where his opponent had come from, the Saiyan saw that the second man had vanished. 'Where'd he go?' The Saiyan thought before instincts told him to look up.

Looking up, Raditz saw the silhouette of Android 8 bearing down on him with a double handed ax strike. Unable to move quick enough due to seeing him at the last minute, the Saiyan was knocked to the ground with a loud thud. Once the dust had cleared, Raditz looked up to see both of Gero's creations floating down to the crater he had created.

"So, you actually decided to follow the creator's orders, huh Eight?" Android Null scolded his brother. This was a first. "What, you think I couldn't take on the Saiyan on my own?"

Android 8 looked over at his fellow creation and then down at the Saiyan covered in blood. Usually he wouldn't fight. Not that he couldn't but more so as in defiance of the sick doctor. Eighter never enjoy fighting. He never enjoyed hurting anyone.

"He has already killed dozens of men," The Android countered with the same emotionless tone his stature gave off. "My data gives you a 65% chance of survival had I not intervened as well. I am a later model, trust me. You cannot win this fight on your own."

Android Null's lip sunk into a frown at this. He was the professor's first creation and the strongest. What business did this pacifistic piece of junk metal have telling him that?

"Oh yeah?" Null said with a sinister snicker. He had scanned the boy, he was an alien! His job was to eradicate all alien species on account of the doctor. "Let's see what he does to stop this!" He added, opening his mouth and letting his energy build up between his teeth.

"Mouth Missile!" The Android screamed, letting loose an entire beam of golden colored energy at the crater. Being so close, Raditz wasn't given a chance to dodge and the entire crater was bombarded with the energy of a small energy reactor. When the energy finally died down, the Saiyan was nowhere to be found in the charred ground. "See… pest eradicated." He added, flying upwards away from Android 8.

Android 8 sat in place, looking at the hole his colleague had created. This couldn't be right. That blast couldn't have killed the Saiyan. His data showed that he was stronger than that! Still he'd let Null have his fun. Then he'd never have to fight again.

Power Levels

Raditz: 415

Eighter: 420

Android Null: 60 (as a Kanassan)

400 (rebuilt)

Gero: 7 (youth)