Sorry for the late release! Got a few announcements, some good and some bad, they'll be at the end of the chapter.
Vegeta looked at the dense metal door, pulled his arm back and rocketed it forward a second later, smashing into the hard surface.
THUD!
The flame-haired prince listened to the sound it made after the impact and examined the dent in the door. It'll take forever to punch through this damn thing, Vegeta thought as he looked around the area around the metal again. I'll just have to blast it away! he smirked.
The proud Saiyan flew back a few feet and raised his gloved hands in front of his chest. A sphere of purple-blue energy started forming in between his hands, humming as it did so.. "Gero! I'm going to give you one minute to show yourself!" Vegeta began, yelling as loudly and commandingly as he could, "And after that, then I'm going to blow your door down and start those androids up myself!"
Gero looked at the monitor and glanced back at the screen dangling near 17 and 18's sleeping chambers. The bar that was illuminated showed that there were about halfway ready to be deployed. Hopefully, it would be in time. If not, it wasn't like he couldn't handle Vegeta without too much trouble. If push came to shove he would just have to use Bulma as leverage, which, according to his calculations, would work perfectly.
He looked over at the blue haired scientist, who looked completely miserable. Since he was very positive that 17 and his sister were perfected, he had Bulma working on bettering his older models and making
Vegeta wondered how long it had been since he had issued the warning. It was probably half a minute or so, it wasn't like he was actually going to count out a minute and he didn't carry a watch on him. His biggest virtue was not patience, not by a damn long shot. The energy that was built up between his palms was definitely enough to blow up the door. I've given him enough time; I'm going in, Vegeta said to himself.
Before he was ready to enter the lab he charged up his ki; if he was about to fight the androids he wanted the other Z fighters there. Not because he wanted back up or anything, he wanted them to witness him finishing those mechanical bastards off, proving how much stronger he was than everyone else. He pushed a little bit more ki into the orb and then released it. The blast flew at the door at an incredible speed, smashing into it with full force. In an instant the door was obliterated along with parts of the mountain and a bit of the lab.
Standing in the front of the lab was Dr. Gero, a look of pure surprise on his face.
"What? How?" Gero asked, backing up near his desk.
"I huffed and I puffed and I blew the door down," Vegeta smiled evilly at the doctor. The flame-haired fighter clenched his fist tightly and brought it up near his face. "Now is the time to run, little piggy."
The shocked look disappeared from Gero's face and was replaced by a look of confidence as he crossed his arms. "Bring it on, Vegeta. You're nowhere near a match for me."
Two minutes before hand.
A flash of light and a loud crack interrupted a peaceful field suddenly. A large blue and orange machine appeared in the middle of the field. Birds flew from their perches and a few deer fled into a nearby forest. The glass dome flipped open and Gohan jumped out of it.
"I'm a couple of months early, maybe I'll be able to train with dad and Piccolo a bit before the androids show up!" He said to no one in particular. He took a second just to enjoy the breeze without fear of the androids sneaking up on him. His arm sleeve flapped in the wind.
Peace like this…he was unaccustomed to. Years and years of watching his back, nervous that the two mechanical terrors would sneak up on him, had made him anxious most of the time.
After a little bit he sensed something, a familiar ki shooting up and flaring. It was what he and the other Z fighters used as a signal around this period in his time line, in fact, it was what he and Trunks used before the latter's death. This ki…it had to be Vegeta's, Gohan was sure of it even though it was a few years since he last felt the Saiyan's ki. No other ki was around the man, which confused Gohan at first.
Why would Vegeta be charging up with no one around? He always did prefer to train alone but he usually was out in space a planet or two away, why was he doing it on Earth? If Gohan remembered correctly there was a city not ten miles away from the location he felt the ki signature coming from. Then it hit him: the androids had no ki signatures.
"Dammit! I'm going to have to hurry; he can't take them alone!" the half-breed proclaimed, clenching his lone fist. With that, Gohan took off into the air as fast as he could.
Gero shot off at the hovering Saiyan warrior. Vegeta sidestepped and let the old doctor go flying past him. Vegeta whipped his head around and saw the man's hand outstretched towards him, a red orb in the center of his palm. That's weird, he thought to himself.
Vegeta grabbed his opponent's arm, used the android's momentum to his advantage, and pulled his face into the Saiyan's fist. Gero went sprawling away. Vegeta, not one to let up, flew after his foe. Ki gathered in the palm of his hand as he appeared above Dr. Gero. He released it and Gero was instantly engulfed in Vegeta's blue ki. Vegeta rocketed in once again towards his foe, through the dust that had been unsettled from his attack, and backhanded the old man across the face.
Gero smashed into the side of a nearby plateau with a loud THUD! Ignoring the noise, Vegeta flew over and hovered a few yards away from the old mechanical man. He held his arm out to the side and formed a ki blast above his hand. "Now, old man, tell me where the woman is before I blow you to smithereens."
Gero let out a laugh at Vegeta's threat. "You have nothing on me." Vegeta scowled as he let go of the ki and it hurled at Gero. To his surprise, the cybernetic genius just raised his hand and the energy disappeared before the Saiyan's eyes.
Bulma slowly opened her eyes, feeling a tremendous amount of pain rush through her body. She was covered in rubble from the devastated laboratory; wires stuck out everywhere as well. Luckily, the device on the back of her head that had been forcing her to help Gero had been hit by some debris and now lay on the ground destroyed.
She rubbed the nape of her neck as she shoved some chucks plaster and sheet rock that had fallen on her off. The blue-haired heiress realized that another reason she was lucky was because there were no huge chunks of rock or metal that had landed on her, this was mostly due to being right next to the resting chamber for the other android she had been forced to work on.
The light green chamber had a large black #16 on it encircled by white. She crawled out most of the way and had everything below her hips free before she took a rest for a second.
A booted foot smashed into the ground in front of her. "Going somewhere, Bulma?" a voice said, chillingly smooth.
"What are you laughing about, you old bastard?" Vegeta questioned, irritated by his opponent's actions.
"Your energy attacks are useless against me! I can absorb them using my hands and add them to my own strength," Gero chuckled. Vegeta smirked back at him.
"Fine, then I'll just have to pummel you to death." Gero's good attitude immediately shifted to concern. Vegeta raised his fist and drove it towards the old man's head. Gero thought it might be all over until something grabbed the Saiyan's gloved hand.
"What the-?" Vegeta yelled as he looked over. Standing next to him and holding his clenched fist was a kid that looked like an older teenager. He was about the same height as Vegeta with jet-black hair as well. He was wearing blue jeans and a black leather jacket over a white T-shirt. On the right side of his jacket was a red ribbon symbol; it spanned the back of his jacket as well. He had black steel-toed boots on and an orange bandana wrapped around one of his arms. His eyes were an icy blue and seemed to stab into every thing he peered at. Something else that was troubling was that around the boy's irises were four red lines arranged like cross hairs. "Who the hell are you?"
"My name is 17. You're endangering my master, I'm going to kill you now," He replied coldly and in a monotone.
"So, you're the infamous 17, huh? I was told you're supposed to be pretty terrifying, I have to say I'm quite disappointed. Wasn't there supposed to be another one of you?" Vegeta replied with a smirk.
"I'm right here." Vegeta whipped around to see a blonde. Her hair was in a wild ponytail, unlike her brother's that lay down flat on his head. She was about the same height as 17 and wore a black tank top and a blue skirt. She had fingerless elbow gloves on that were white and knee high black boots. On the backside of her gloves there was a red ribbon symbol. She also had cold blue eyes with the red cross hairs in them. She had her hand extended out and in it she held Bulma by the back of her neck. "Any wrong move and I'll snap her neck like a twig."
"Help! Help me, Vegeta!" Bulma choked out. Vegeta was conflicted; either he pushed through and finished off Gero and Bulma dies, or he buys her a few more minutes as he takes a beating from the old man and the young freak. Who was he kidding, he may have some strange sort of feelings for that woman, but nothing was going to make him lose to some unworthy mechanical people. He was about to make his move when someone else made one. A bullet zipped by and hit 18 in the face; it didn't even leave a mark. She followed it's trajectory and so did the others, right to a scared hunter standing with his rifle aimed at the blonde. Gero nodded at her and with a flick of the wrist she sent an energy blast obliterated the hunter.
All of this took only a second to occur, but a second was all Vegeta needed. He broke out of 17's grasp by bringing his fist in close and kneeing the teen in the chest with full power. With lightning speed, he spun around the raven-haired android grabbed Gero's outstretched arm and flung him towards 18. He had no time to correct himself and he smashed into his creation whom promptly dropped the female scientist.
"Help!" She screamed as she plummeted to the ground. From the distance she was in the air when she hit it would be all over.
Vegeta doubled back and punched 17 hard across the face. He followed up by putting his other fist into the android's gut.
"Vegeta!" She screamed again, almost to the ground. Annoying woman, can't she see that I'm busy? Vegeta said to himself as he rocketed up and performed a roundhouse kick at Gero. The old man went careening into his laboratory at lightning speed.
"Get him!" the doctor yelled quickly. 18 turned around and intercepted Vegeta's oncoming attack by sidestepping and putting her knee into the proud Saiyan's stomach. She followed up by putting her elbow into his back. Before she could continue though there was a blur of motion on the ground. Both she and Vegeta looked down to see what had happened. Standing beneath them, holding onto Bulma, was a man in an orange gi. "I-It's Goku! Finish him off! Both of you!" Gero yelled, he had gotten up and was standing on a ledge just outside of his former lab, watching the battle unfold.
"Not quite. You see, I am the son of Goku; I am Gohan." The one armed warrior placed Bulma down on the ground and took a few steps forward before both androids got there and put up a defensive stance. 18 was the first to reach him. The half-Saiyan blocked the evil Android's fist with his hand, smirked, and swiped her feet out from underneath her and shot a Kiai that blew her back a couple hundred feet.
17 reached him next and threw a kick that Gohan easily used his arm to block, but it was a fake and Gohan realized it too late. 17's leg went down and his other leg shot out and connected with his bad half. Gohan buckled to his knees after the blow connected. They're stronger than they were in my time line! The time traveler realized. Any other thoughts were forgotten as 17 sent his fist in an uppercut to Gohan's face. He sprawled backwards, his jaw burning.
"No one overlooks me!" There was a burst of ki and then an energy attack collided with 17's back. Gohan raised himself up a bit to see Vegeta hovering above them, golden hair waving in the wind.
"Y-you achieved Super Saiyan, just like you did before! Good job, Vegeta!" Gohan yelled out ecstatically. Vegeta let out a chuckle as he responded.
"Of course I did, I'm the greatest Saiyan to ever live!" Gohan smirked at that statement, he would never change. Gohan powered up to his Super Saiyan form as well and leaped up into the sky to join Vegeta.
"Two more power levels are coming, from what I can tell it's Yamcha and Tien, should we take care of these guys before they get here?" Gohan said, playfully issuing the challenge to Vegeta.
"Sounds like a plan, boy." With that, both warriors sped off towards each android.
"Kill them both!" Gero screamed. The androids looked at their creator and then back at their new targets. By looking away, they gave the Saiyans a perfect opening. By the time they had figured out where their opponents were they were each attacked.
Gohan used a spin kick and made contact with 18's hip. She was sent flying to the east, but Gohan wasn't about to let up; he shot off towards her, firing energy blasts and charging his foot with some ki. By the time he reached 18, she had been hit with fifteen small ki blasts and there was a significant amount built up in Gohan's foot. He brought his leg down at 18 and discharged the ki as fast as he could.
Sadly for the Saiyan, it wasn't fast enough as 18 caught him by his calf and flipped him around, sending the built up ki upwards instead of down at the blonde android. She spun him around by his leg, grinning as she released him and sent him flying back towards the lab.
Vegeta and 17's stare down was broken when Gohan flew between them. 17 took it as his chance and rushed in at Vegeta. The later was take almost off guard as 17 buried his fist into the Saiyan's gut. While Vegeta spat out a mix of saliva and blood, his Android opponent spun around and kicked Vegeta in the face with a round house. He tried to finish the former off with an energy blast but Vegeta dodged it and sent his own volley of blasts into the android's side. He placed both hands to his side and used his super speed to get behind 17. Purple energy began to flow around his hands once again.
"Galick Gun!" Vegeta yelled as he brought them both forward and released the energy at his opponent.
Gohan picked himself out of the rumble that used to be a small mountain. 18 was already hovering above him. She raised her hand and punched towards Gohan's head. He dodged it expertly with time to spare.
They may be stronger than they were in my time line, but they are nowhere near as skilled. They seem to be much slower as well; as if something is holding them back from making the fast paced decisions you need to in a fight. I can't win out of strength, but if I fight using all the skills that I've been taught, I can defeat them; I know it! Gohan revved up his ki and shot himself towards his mechanical foe. 18 was stunned for a second, but then she started to react. Just as Gohan had predicted that second was all he needed, he drove his fist into her face and followed it up by bringing his knee into her gut. As she was sent sprawling backwards he grabbed her leg and threw her at the ground.
18 corrected herself before she crashed into the ground, saving herself with less than a foot to spare. Gohan fixed this a second later by flying down and drop kicking the android into the rocky ground.
Vegeta smirked as he saw 17 emerge from the debris of his attack. "Had enough, android?" he yelled down cockily.
"I have had far from enough, Vegeta." He charged in towards his living opponent. He is very durable compared to how skilled he is. Whenever he actually lands a hit it's almost bone breaking, but those are few and far between, Vegeta thought to himself as he stepped out of the way of the android's onslaught of ill-placed punches. Vegeta was about to deliver an axe handle attack to 17's exposed head when the teenaged android was suddenly engulfed in a blue beam. Surprised, Vegeta looked over to his right to see a fighter clad in orange with long black hair standing a hundred feet or so from him. Next to Yamcha stood Tien, the three eyed monk.
"Are we too late to have any fun?" Tien called out. Vegeta scowled as he looked at the two of them.
"This one is mine and the blonde is Gohan's, so you can take the old man standing by the lab over there. He can absorb energy though so if you're just here to watch get the hell out of the way," Vegeta spat out, rolling his neck. "While you two are weaklings compared to me, I think you'll be able to take that old fool. Don't prove me wrong…"
Yamcha, Tien! Mirai Gohan's voice appeared in their heads, take down Gero! He isn't as strong as these androids but I believe he may be controlling them!
Tien and Yamcha looked at each other as Vegeta and 17 locked into combat with one another again and then peered over at the doctor. They shrugged and charged in towards Gero. They knew that Piccolo and Gohan were on their way, only a few minutes behind them and that Krillin was going to be there eventually as well. They reached Gero and decided that they needed a battle plan.
"I'll use my multi-form technique and you stand back and provide support," Tien called to his friend as he crouched slightly and crossed his arms in front of his face, closing his fists a little bit.
"Like hell I'll provide support! I'm getting right in there with you!" Yamcha yelled back, sick of being treated like a weakling. Tien sighed as Yamcha rushed in and kicked Gero across the face with as much strength as he could muster. The cybernetic doctor reacted minimally and grabbed his leg.
"Hmm, barely enough energy to be worth absorbing," Doctor Gero mused as he considered it for a moment. Deciding against taking any of Yamcha's energy, he threw the bandit back at Tien.
The three-eyed monk just dodged his flying friend and rushed in at the mechanical mad man. Keeping all three eyes on the doctor, Tien performed a back flip over Gero after a feign punch and kicked him to the ground. Gero quickly got up and shot towards Tien, both grappling in the middle, the monk's skin unfortunately contacting Gero's palm.
Yamcha was caught mid air by Piccolo, who was all alone.
"If you're just going to be a burden you might as well leave." The Namekian said flatly. Yamcha scowled at first and then let the comment pass over; there was no use in getting pissed off at allies.
"Where's Gohan at? I though he was coming with you," Yamcha responded.
"I sent him back to look after his father, I had Krillin go with him as well. If we aren't able to win against these guys then there needs to be a way we can get Goku somewhere safe while he recovers." Yamcha wasn't surprised by Piccolo's wisdom; he never was one to go into a battle without a few back-up plans.
"Alright, we need to take care of Gero. He is controlling the other androids somehow I guess!" Plus I am going to get revenge for whatever he did to Bulma! Yamcha added inwardly.
Gohan blocked another sloppy punch from 18. It seemed that he was correct; ever since Yamcha and Tien had started to engage Gero the other two android's skill diminished even further. This led Gohan to believe he had been right, the less Gero could concentrate on the fight, the less the androids knew what to do. They weren't like this in his timeline, he was sure of it.
Otherwise they would have had a better shot against them all those years ago. In his timeline they didn't have the red lines in their eyes either. It wasn't like she wasn't a challenge; in fact she could take on Frieza no problem right now he guessed and if he didn't use the majority of his power he would be finished. She just wasn't the same cunning evil machine she was in his time.
From glimpses he caught of Vegeta's fight he surmised that it was going about the same for him, not losing any ground, but definitely not making any headway. IT seemed Gero had made the androids much more durable, but half as intelligent.
Vegeta side stepped another kick and sent his fist flying across 17's face. He flew upwards and yelled at Piccolo. "Hey, come over here and hold this bastard off, I'm going to end this in one move!"
Vegeta hated relying on someone else, but he was tired of getting nowhere in the fight and he wanted to fight against Kakarot already. Piccolo froze for a split second, then nodded and charged in, tackling 17 to the ground. Normally he wouldn't help Vegeta, but it seemed that this might be the only chance he got to fight against the ones that decimate the future according to Gohan.
Once Vegeta was satisfied that Piccolo wasn't about to get himself killed by the android he focused on the ki all around him, gathering it all around his body as he turned to face the lab and Gero, he wanted to obliterate any sign of the old man with this attack.
Tien and Gero were now hovering slightly outside of the lab, Tien's energy being drained slowly from his body by the nefarious doctor. There wasn't any way Tien could break the grapple now, he simply lacked the energy to do so. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead as he struggled to break free.
Yamcha saw this and then looked up and saw Vegeta, he knew immediately what the Saiyan's plan was and knew he had to get Gero near the lab. Vegeta had not seen Gero and Tien exit so he didn't know that his attack would be almost useless. It was all up to Yamcha.
Tien! he called out mentally. He saw his friend glance in his direction for a half second.
What is it Yamcha? Could you give me some help?! The triclops responded.
Yeah but you're going to need to break free of Gero's grip.
DON'T YOU THINK I'VE BEEN TRYING THAT?! Tien mentally yelled at his friend.
Relax, man, I have a plan.
Gohan ducked and punched 18 in the knee, a small grin coming to his face as she fell to the ground almost instantly. Gohan wouldn't let her have a moment's reprieve though, as he leaped into the air with his knee extended, catching on the female android's jaw, she flew into the air and Gohan gave chase. Once he was sure she had peaked, he preformed a front flip and brought his leg down on her face. As she fell to the ground Gohan pulled his arm to the his right side and began charging ki in his palm.
"KamehameHA!" he yelled, putting a moderate amount of his ki reserve into the beam. After a few seconds he let it subside and peered into the crater he had created with the blast. It was deep and narrow, going down about twenty feet or so. He was getting tired now, if it kept up like this the android would win, she would be heavily damaged, but she would win.
That's when Gohan noticed Piccolo fighting against 17. He panicked for a second, thinking that Vegeta had somehow been defeated. He was relieved an instant later when he saw Vegeta hovering in the air high above them all, charging up his ki in a sphere in front of him. Gohan looked down and noticed that 18 still wasn't coming out of the crater. There was no way that he had beaten her already, but it was possible that he had beaten her down enough that she needed a moment's rest. That was all he needed though, he zipped off to help Piccolo out.
Tien smirked at Gero. "What are you happy about? I'm going to drain you dry!" the genius laughed manically.
"Not if I can help it!" Tien pulled his legs up between his and Gero's arms and placed his feet square on the doctor's chest. With all his strength he began to push off the doctor, distancing himself from his foe a bit.
"That's not going to help you! I have a death grip on you, Tien Shinhan!" Gero hollered again.
"It may not, but it might help something else out, something like distancing myself from your body." Tien replied. Before Gero could question the bald man's statement there was a howl to his right. Coyotes have all left the area once the fighting started, what is that? Gero thought to himself as he looked over.
Rushing at him was a wolf clad in ki energy. Once he looked closed he saw that it was Yamcha, his ki in the form of a wolf encircling him. "Neo Wolf Fang Fist!" the human yelled out.
Gero had no time to react, Yamcha was upon him, hundreds of blows making contact each minute. Out of the corner of his eye Yamcha saw Vegeta letting go of the blast. "Big Bang Attack!"
There was no time to lose. After two more hits to Gero's exposed chest, Yamcha drew back and then delivered the last and most powerful hit to the mad doctor's head. The latter went flying off towards his lab, rolling like a soccer ball as it did so. One hand let go of Tien, but the other didn't and the bald warrior went off with him.
Using his skills as a martial artist and ki user, Tien created a ki blast in his free palm and brought it down on Gero's hand that still gripped his. The bionic parts exploded as Tien's highly concentrated blast made contact with them. Tien was freed and not a moment too soon. He quickly flew out of the way as the blast detonated on the lab. The entire area lit up a bright blue as it went off.
Yamcha had used the few seconds after his attack to try and get Bulma to somewhere safe, to his amazement though Vegeta had already grabbed her and was hovering a safe distance away. He inwardly cursed at himself.
Gohan and Piccolo stood in preparation as 17 froze. Ever since the lab blew up he hadn't moved an inch, just twitching slightly every few seconds. Then he suddenly dropped to the ground.
"Haha, it looks like we won!" Gohan said as he scratched the back of his head smiling. Piccolo noted the similarity between Goku and his son from the future. Vegeta floated down to the ground and let go of Bulma. Yamcha and Tien landed around them as well.
"Well, that wasn't nearly as bad as you made it seem like it would be..." Tien said at Gohan, laughing somewhat.
"Yeah, what gives?" Yamcha added.
"Hmmm, in my time line they weren't controlled by Gero. I think he was holding them back somehow," Gohan responded.
"Heh, you've got that right," They all turned to see 17 standing up and slowly walking towards them.
"Yeah, he had no instinct whatsoever." 18 said as she landed next to her brother. Both of the androids were now missing the red lines in their eyes. Everyone took a step back; the real fight was about to start.
Hope you all liked the chapter! Made it to 10 woohoo! There'll be a special type thing coming in chapter 15, so get excited!
Alright announcements! First of all, because of my upcoming schedule Ripple Effect will now be decreased to an update every other week. I'm going to be busy with work, school and a social life so once a week is just no longer possible, sorry guys! These chapters should be longer and a bit more thought out though so that should be good!
Now some bad news. Full Power, the guy that makes these chapters all nice and clean, is stepping down as my beta. It is very sad but I am glad that he was there to help me for the time that he has, he certainly didn't need to concern himself with it and he never got anything in return for it. So please, for one last time, give a huge round of applause to the one and only Full Power! He will be continuing his stories Second Chance and now his new one, Sayian Uprising, so go check them out!
What does that mean for Ripple Effect? Well truth be told I don't know, please bear with me though, I promise my writing and style will improve as the story progresses!
Review Responses:
Luke - Hope this chapter answered your question...kind of.
Balatros - Thanks man!
Ness - Thanks for the review! Yeah I was always a big fan of Yamcha when I was young and thought that his incarnation in the Z half was kinda disappointing. Big plans for Yamcha in the future, stay tuned ;)
FP - What can I say, I like giving introductions! This will be fun, bro!
Ky111 - hope this answered that as well!
Well that's it for this week! See ya all again in another two weeks! Remember, drop me a review and leave your thoughts, predictions or favorite mixed drink!
Later,
treeger