AN: Enough Talking! It's time to FIGHT!
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As they were flying through the air, as casual as if they had been born doing it, Goku, Gohan and Piccolo spotted another trail of ignited ki ahead of them and put on a bit of extra speed to catch up with the fellow warrior.
"Heeey, Krillin!" Gohan called to his friend, laughing when he recognized the other warrior's shiny scalp. Looking back, the former Oran Monk waved back and fell into formation with them smoothly.
"So, it's time," he stated, unrepentantly nervous. He felt as though the three years had vanished in a few blinks, and he hadn't progressed nearly as much as he would have wanted. But there was no looking back now, now that they had reached the prophesized date. For better or for worse, today they would face the creations that had slaughtered alternate versions of themselves, and their own future depended on the outcome.
"Yeah, but I've got a good feeling. As long as we stick together and watch each other's backs there's no way those androids can take us on," Goku confidently declared, pumping a fist close to his pectorals. Gohan saw Piccolo roll his eyes at the show, but neither said anything, silently hopeful that the full-blooded saiyan was correct.
The rest of the trip passed in silence, save for the 'whish' of their steady flight. There really wasn't much to say at a time like this, when the next moment of silence and peace might be a very long time in coming. Pretty soon, they had passed South City and were headed towards the island city that they still didn't know the name of. Sensing several other high level energies at the mountain range bordering a quarter of the coastline, they angled their flights and descended to join with the other Z-Fighters.
Surprisingly, Chioutzou was once more absent from the group, having been successfully persuaded to wait at Kame House. Yamcha and Tien were talking quietly to themselves, but when they saw the new arrivals they walked over with smiles on their faces, but there was hollowness behind the gesture. Over by a wall of sheer rock, Bulma was walking around in small circles, bouncing a gurgling baby in her arms and cooing to it lovingly. Sitting a few feet away with his back against the cliff, Vegeta was waiting with his eyes closed and arms crossed, but anyone who knew him could tell that he was hyper attentive right then.
"Hey Bulma," Goku greeted his oldest friend, walking over to look into the bundle of blankets she was carrying to see the pudgy face of the child. "Wow! So this is Trunks?" Krillin had phoned Chi-Chi after the delivery had gone by without a hitch and the boy had been named while cradled against his exhausted mother, saiyan father watching over them both protectively.
As for the Prince, he made a small noise at hearing the name, clearly not content with it. While Bulma had insisted that they uphold her family's naming tradition, he had likewise insisted on giving him a saiyan name. Their argument had carried on for several minutes until the baby had released a squeaky yawn, stretching his little arms out and grabbing hold of his father's index finger like a teddy bear. Vegeta had relented on the name.
"So, what are you doing here?" Gohan asked curiously to the scientist. He was wearing the purple gi that Piccolo had given him four years prior, complete with neck ruffle. "I don't think it's safe with the androids coming."
"Oh I'll be alright," Bulma waved off his concern casually. "I'm not going to go down there to see the fight; I just wanted to get a decent view from here while I had the chance. Y'know, I never even got to see Frieza once?" Vegeta was rubbing his fingers into his forehead, clearly having already had this conversation with her as well and being equally unsuccessful.
Goku left the mother to her motherly business so as to have a word with the two human fighters looking out over the landscape before them.
"So, you guys ready for this?" He asked cheerfully, easily able to maintain his high spirits despite the circumstance.
"Only one way to find out," Tien shrugged. He looked bulkier than before, shoulders incredibly broad to match his wide chest. Goku often forgot that non-saiyans had to physically bulk up to keep their increased ki energy in check and not running rampant through their systems.
"Everything's been said already, so there's no point in doubting our strength anymore," Yamcha sighed wearily. He had cut his hair short for this day, a spiky crew cut that made his head look larger than his wild mane had.
"How'd you take it when Bulma hooked up with Vegeta?" It was a question that had nagged Goku since he had learned of the unforeseen pairing, and now was as good a time as any to ask.
It was Yamcha's turn to shrug, slowly rubbing the back of his head. "She and I weren't very close at the end. We've grown up, and we just don't have that childish view of the world anymore. I always wanted to be free and she wanted to settle down. Just decided to split as friends. As for Vegeta," he was suddenly grinning with a hint of maliciousness, "I'll only say that I wish him luck."
The three of them laughed at that, knowing full well what was being implied. Their camaraderie over the years had been built on two different pillars of life: Goku had a way of making friends with just about anyone, and Bulma got what Bulma wanted.
Vegeta had gotten up from his seat and walked around the perimeter of the cliff side to work out the kinks in his joints, arms still crossed. Goku hadn't noticed at first, but the Prince had made a change of wardrobe for the event: his usual blue singlet no longer had sleeves, leaving his arms bare save for the customary white gloves. He had also donned a new armor vest; the exact same style as the PTO model except that all of the sections that had been yellow were now a dark, blood red hue and the lines that bordered each section were streaks of black instead of white. His gold-tipped boots were the same as always, and the overall effect was heartening, though it took a moment for Goku to figure out why: Vegeta was becoming more and more his own person, free from the direction and control of others to make his own choices (like wearing the royal saiyan family colors, for instance).
"How's it like being a father?" Gohan inquired, having approached Vegeta from behind. The casual way about it was testament to just how much he had become one of them, a trusted ally and part of their mismatched family, though he would undoubtedly deny it to his dying breath.
"The brat screams at every hour of the day, he constantly requires changing, he wakes you up at two in the morning, he needs more milk than Bulma can produce at one time, he can literally break out of his crib when we're not watching, he can potentially turn into an Oozaru (Gohan and Goku both looked over and saw now that Trunks had, indeed, kept his tail), if he squirms too hard he could harm his mother, he has limp, purple hair and is named after underwear." Vegeta recited it all mechanically with a low and tired voice, pretty much the default for a parent of an infant.
Seeing the way the Prince was staring blankly into space, Goku chuckled while remembering how quiet and tame Gohan had been as a child. It seemed that Vegeta's restlessness and Bulma's free spirit had actually been genetic after all by the sound of it. Something told him that the Prince would be changed forever by the next few years of raising his progeny. His ties to Earth had now become permanent.
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The canvas pouch landed in Goku's palm with 'swat' and the beans inside shifted noisily. "Thanks Yajirobe!"
"Yeah yeah, just don't expect any more for a while; these things take months to grow, and that's pushin' it." The squat samurai waved lazily as he hopped back into his air car and took off, his crimson scarf trailing behind him like an old time aviator.
"Wasn't he the one that chopped my tail off?" Vegeta wondered aloud, but everyone ignored him as they were now on high alert. The designated time for the androids arrival had come…and passed. Nothing whatsoever had happened to mark the premiere of two apocalyptic beings and now the silence filled air was as tense as it had ever been during periods of doing nothing but waiting. The city was quiet and peaceful under their vigil, without even Trunks' crying to disturb the portrait.
What did shatter the silence, however, was an explosion; thunderous noise carried to them over the water. Startled, they all assumed their fighting stances out of instinct, Goku even transforming. Scanning every direction for a possible threat, it was Piccolo that spotted the source of the disturbance: Yajirobe's aircar had been shot from the sky, a thick smoke trail marking the uncontrolled descent and subsequent crash into the ocean.
Scrambling, Gohan and Tien blasted off to save the overweight fighter if they could. As they did so, the others spotted two speck in the skyline dart down into the city from where they had been hovering.
"Androids!" Vegeta growled, clenching his fist tightly. The others knew it to be the truth, easily bridging to the conclusion that they had been the ones to open fire on Yajirobe for no apparent reason. But something else became clear in those moments of flowing adrenaline and clarity: they couldn't sense the androids at all.
This meant that they would totally be in the dark on how to locate them and would be blind unless looking right at them. For the first time, their energy sensing skills were now rendered totally redundant in the face of technological monstrosities.
"Aw crap," Yamcha dropped, summing up what they all felt. Presently, Gohan and Tien returned with the soaked and sputtering swordsman held between them.
"I just got that car," he was complaining loudly, though no one was listening.
"So," Goku started, turning to face the others, "this obviously changes our plans a bit. We'll need to look for them the old fashioned way and search the whole city. Who knows how long it is before they start killing innocents."
"If we split up we'll have a better chance of finding them," Piccolo added, to which they all agreed.
"Someone mind filling me in?" Bulma asked the group as a whole, frustrated by their less than descriptive talking. Goku gave her the brief version, adequately clamming her up with the knowledge that any of them could walk right into the androids and never know it until it was too late. Trunks began to scream.
"Can you hold on to the senzu beans for us?" Goku inquired of the bluenette, holding up the bag in question."
"Shouldn't you keep them in case you need them?" Vegeta answered his mate's question, stepping in front of her to look her in the eye.
"If the one carrying the beans is attacked by the androids, then we could potentially lose the whole stock. Besides," He drew a senzu bean from the inside cuff of his glove as all the others checked their own hiding spots, "we all carry a spare ever since dealing with Broly. That lesson was hard learned, but nonetheless useful."
Satisfied for the moment, Bulma accepted the small pouch with her free hand and tucked it into her pocket. The Z-Fighters didn't hesitate from there and began their flight towards the urban island. Without speaking a word amongst each other, they divided in half, one heading to one side of the city and the other to the opposite. They divided again and again until one person landed in a different point, pretty much creating a five pointed star with two of them towards the middle.
And then the search began. Walking through alleyways, gazing down from rooftops, quizzing passing locals, looking into stores, skimming the harbor. It wasn't exactly quick or efficient, but they did their best. None knew what the androids looked like, but it was reasoned that they would know when they saw them (many sci-fi movies had been watched in the weeks before).
Yamcha was humming to himself when he heard the crash. Well, not a crash exactly; more like the scream of tearing metal. Following the noise to an ordinary road, the scar faced fighter came face-to-face with a the ravaged carcass of what had once been a luxury car, the entire front ripped to shreds and the engine lying several feet away, crushed and deformed. The driver was missing, but the opened car door suggested he had run off.
Looking around, Yamcha saw an elderly man in brown and mustard clothes standing on the sidewalk, looking in the opposite direction of the crash as though nothing had happened. More than likely he was hard of hearing, but he still might have seen something so Yamcha approached him. But as he neared, the man turned his head to look at him from over his shoulder, cold grey eyes assessing him like a book.
"Excuse me, but have you seen a couple of weird looking guys around here?" He knew that it wasn't the most descriptive of questions, but he had already received more than a few weird looks by saying 'android'.
"…" The older man narrowed his eyes slightly and pursed his lips, pushing his bushy white mustache a fraction higher up his face. Yamcha got the impression that he wasn't wanted there so he edged backward, nodding slowly as though agreeing to something the man had said. Abruptly, he backed into something solid and thought it was a wall. But as he turned to see what it was, his eyes went up and up to the face of the man he was pressed against. The pale white skin glowed dully under the sun and the unmistakable "RR" symbol was tattooed onto his forehead. Cold and dark eyes glared at him as he opened his mouth to reveal pitch black teeth, apparently carved from some kind of metal.
"Subject confirmed as Yamcha, Number Twenty," the giant growled in a voice barely more than a rumble.
Yamcha looked between the two men and swallowed hard. He didn't need any more hints to figure out who these guys were and just how screwed he was.
"Indeed, Nineteen. Indeed." The old man fully faced him and calmly strode towards him, showing off the red ribbon on his cylindrical hat. Yamcha swallowed again, aware that he was trembling. He had no doubt that he was more than likely dead already, but that didn't mean it would be for nothing.
Without any delay or warning, the human flared his aura and power as high as they could go at only a moment's notice, creating a nice homing beacon for the others even as the older android rushed forward faster than he could follow and grabbed him around the mouth. Lifted clear off the ground, Yamcha grabbed at the arm holding him, but it was completely solid and his attempts were utterly useless. Just as the android pulled his other hand back, fingers fully straightened to make a spear head, Yamcha was aware of a sickening feeling swelling over him as his power was siphoned from his body.
And then there was an arm through his chest.
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They set down in a rocky and barren plain, just one of the many on this planet apparently. The Z-Fighters were grouped together and the two androids stood opposite them. The one designated 'Twenty' stood just as tall as Goku, but he was scrawny as most humans his age would be, completely belying the unbelievable strength he could call to bare. The other one, Nineteen…
"Is it just me," Goku whispered to the friends at his shoulders, "or does the big one kinda remind you of Broly?"
Goku was right. Though not a dead ringer, Nineteen did carry a noticeable resemblance to the Legendary Super Saiyan, if only in the generalities. Not quite as tall, he was still half a head over Piccolo and his musculature matched Broly's before he had transformed. His face even held that look of pure maliciousness that they had seen before when hearing of the pitiless slaughter of trillions. From there, though, the similarities ceased. Nineteen was garbed in a short sleeved black undershirt and poofy yellow pants. A cream colored vest was tightly encircling his broad chest, tied closed by (har har) a red cord in the shape of a ribbon. A blood red sash was draped about his waist and his feet were hidden in boots not unlike Vegeta's, only with solid black tips and heels. His head was proudly bald, the same immaculate white as his face and any exposed skin they could see.
"We have arrived at our destination," Twenty announced, rather unhelpfully. "Now, Goku, you will fight whichever of us you want, and Gero's plan shall be fulfilled with your death."
"I want to do it," Nineteen growled, tilting his head forward slightly and revealing twin hoop earrings that had previously been hidden by his hunched shoulders. For a creation of science and metal, he had terrible posture.
"Patience Ninteen, you will get your chance to fight; whether against Goku or his cohorts." The towering assassin machine scowled even deeper, lip curled at one end to show his onyx teeth. "So, the choice is yours Son Goku. We are gracious and will give you the opportunity to pick you executioner."
Goku eyed both androids cautiously. He couldn't sense their powers, but he knew that either of them was probably immensely powerful. The big one looked stronger, but that was a very stupid assumption to make about machines. Not to mention that he didn't trust them not to double up on him and overwhelm him easily.
The choice was made much easier when Vegeta suddenly walked forward until he was shoulder to shoulder with the Earth-raised saiyan, cracking his knuckles excitedly.
"Do you think us morons? Nobody would take those odds, and you can be sure as hell that we won't either."
Twenty glared at the Prince, but otherwise maintained his composure.
"You will be dealt with soon enough, but for the moment our focus is on Goku. You have no right interfering with-"
"I have EVERY right!" Vegeta snapped, taking a single step forward. The venom was so raw in the saiyan's voice that Twenty actually flinched, moving a foot as though to retreat a step, but he soon replaced it on the ground and was as cool as before. "I am the Prince of all Saiyans, and Kakarot here," he jerked his head sideways at the taller man, "is a saiyan." A sly grin slid onto his face, making his eyes shine with a dangerous light. "What kind of ruler would I be to stand by while a subordinate fought alone?"
Goku didn't look at Vegeta, but he was grinning as well and felt a great deal of kinship right then. Vegeta had never before openly admitted that he and Goku were anything more than uneasy allies. But now they were the last of the saiyans, and that made them peers equal by any standard.
Twenty was glowering now, frustrated to no end by the prideful saiyan's insistence. They watched him mull it over for a few seconds before apparently coming to a conclusion.
"Very well; you may fight as a team against Nineteen and I as we will against you. It ultimately makes no difference to the plan."
Nineteen was already in a fighting pose before Twenty had finished speaking. Crouched low, he held a clawed hand near his forehead and another a bit behind and to the side of his head.
"Cute," Vegeta spat, recognizing his old fighting style. He had developed an entirely new one since coming to Earth, one focused more on momentum than strength and so his center of balance was his concentrated point, not his hands. Sliding one foot behind the other, the Prince bent his forward facing knee by a small degree. Holding up one unclenched hand, his right arm cocked out, almost horizontally, and pointed his fist at his targets. "So, which one of you washing machines wants the honor of fighting a super-elite?"
Goku did laugh at that, recalling nearly identical words being spoken several years back, in a place just like this.
"I get shorty." Nineteen's declaration was rougher than before, as though it was becoming harder for him to speak with the prospect of a fight so close.
"Very well," Twenty uttered, which seemed to be his catchphrase. "Son Goku, your last opponent shall be me. You will now learn what happens when you oppose the Red Ribbon Ar-"
He was interrupted by a fist catching him square in the cheek, just like what had happened back in the city when he had been exterminating the citizens. On the other end of the fist, Goku blinked in surprise.
"Sorry, you weren't ready? I thought that was 'go'."
Vegeta laughed a second before Nineteen charged him, bringing his full weight around to better crush the saiyan. Jumping, Vegeta avoided the initial strike, but when the android stopped dead in his tracks and rocketed backward with a javelin like elbow, it caught the Prince in the lower back hard. Grunting in pain, Vegeta tried to get some distance between them, but Nineteen was already moving again, twisting around with a haymaker punch that actually had wind shearing off of it. Knocked away like a cardboard cut-out, Vegeta reeled from the strength behind that attack, knowing full well that several more would probably finish him off.
Waiting for the last moment, that span of a frenzied heartbeat in which conscious decisions couldn't be made, Vegeta weaved sideways so Nineteen's next punch barely skimmed the saiyans skin, as close as it would ever get. But the android had done most of the work needed for Vegeta to counterattack, closing the distance between them and getting each other in very close range. Vegata's size was a distinct advantage in these situations, allowing him to slip right through an enemy's defense and hammer them as hard as he could while they tried to get some space between them.
This was not the case that day. Just as Vegeta slammed his fist into what felt like solid iron, the tree trunk arms of the automaton crossed around him and the Prince found himself in a torturously brutal bear hug. Yelling in pain and anger, Vegata tried to force himself free, but the might of the being that now held him was inescapable. Trying to concentrate through the ordeal, he mustered up his energy and fired off a kiai wave to break the hold, but Nineteen seemed barely phased. Trying again, Vegata threw more power into his next attempt, this time managing to buffet the android but still not break his hold.
Seeing inky splotches of darkness crowding the edges of his vision, the saiyan let his anger wash over him, frustration at his immobilization and the general rage towards these arrogant monsters. That fury sharpened his mind to a scalpel edge even as his body dulled. Emotion was a saiyan's greatest trump card, but logic was perhaps their most dangerous tool, natural battle instinct providing a nearly insurmountable advantage. This was why Vegeta had lived so long in an organization comprised of powerful beings that would have gladly killed him given half a chance.
Summoning up what was his last chance amount of ki, Vegeta slammed his head into the android's barrel chest until he looked down at the breathless saiyan in irritation. Looking it dead in the eyes, Vegeta gasped out, with the breath he still had, the name of the technique he had resented for a very long time.
"Solar Flare!"
Even without positioning his hands, he managed to execute the blinding flash pretty much normally. And while Nineteen had actually been equipped with UV filters to prevent such a move from working on him, they weren't exactly much help when he was this close to the source. His photoreceptors shrieked warnings to his internal CPU as the components tried to repair the overloaded sections. It would only take a second or two to complete, but in those few moments where his software was focused elsewhere, the grip on the saiyan slackened. Seizing the opportunity, Vegeta planted his feet against Nineteen's chest and kicked off, succeeding in separating them and propelling him into flight.
Time to even the odds.
Flipping in midair while stopping and seeing Nineteen rushing towards him like a battleship and without impaired eyes, Vegeta tapped into that stream of power that now permeated his every fiber, that legendary power of old that so many of his race had dreamed of. Screaming right along with his rise in power, the Prince transformed into a Super Saiyan, golden light dancing off of him in waves. Aquamarine eyes narrowed at the approaching android, now seeing him in veritable slow-motion.
Lifting his foot, Vegeta met Nineteen's face with a brutal stomp, halting the machine's flight cold. Kicking upward to catch his albino enemy under the chin, Vegeta sent Nineteen backward and opening him up nicely for a barrage of jabbing punches to the midsection, each blow now feeling like they were actually impacting against flesh, culminating in an open palmed strike infused with a sizable charge of energy to where the stomach should have been, doubling over the giant with a shockwave. Grabbing Nineteen by the face with both hands, Vegeta roared as he poured golden hued energy into his palms before detonating them point blank.
The android was blasted away from him, smoke trailing from his face like the trail of a firework. But before he could go very far, the hulking killer stopped himself easily and righted the coordination of where he hovered so as to face Vegeta. Wiping away some of the soot that had clung to his cheeks, he smirked vilely.
"Super Saiyan. Good. Don't need to hold back."
"As though I would spare your sorry self," Vegeta grinned back. Bit his mirth died a slow death as Nineteen guffawed, booming voice so bass that the full-blood actually felt it in his gut.
"Not you: ME!"
And then he unleashed his restrained power in a storm of electrical bolts, creating a cocoon of white energy that almost passed for an aura. A grating, jagged metal sound filled the air as Nineteen's entire body unexpectedly bulked up, muscles expanding the point of near grotesqueness. Now the likeness to the late LSSJ was uncanny, and undoubtedly deliberate at this point.
Though the increase in strength was undetectable by any means but visual, Vegeta determined that he was now facing something specifically designed to combat super saiyans. A Super Android, as it were. Instead of doubt, Vegeta felt the unmistakable thrill of battle-lust fill his veins, focus his vision and pulsate within every cord of muscle. To face the strongest opponent they could find was the very reason for saiyans to exist. They were true weapons of war, not this synthetic wannabe.
"So, this is your full power?" Vegeta rolled his shoulders back once, just enough stretch to ease the fire in his arms. "Well then," and here he took a page out of the Earth's pop-culture, to add further bite to his quip, "come at me bro!"
Nineteen obliged.
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As the conflict between the Prince and the brute escalated, Goku had himself already transformed to combat the foreseen strength of android Twenty. They were zipping across the sky, trading blows in what almost seemed a choreographed performance. But for every punch or kick that Goku dodged or blocked, the same happening to his own attacks, he was full aware of the danger he was in. These androids were coping with two super saiyans, a feat that neither Frieza nor Cooler could have hoped to achieve. And the blows that did land on the saiyan were decidedly painful, even transformed.
But there was one thing that comforted Goku in the middle of the struggle and that was realizing that, while they were defiantly tough, the androids were no Broly.
"All of this," he grunted in between weaving around a flurry of two-fingered jabs targeting his nerves and weak spots, "for a twenty year old vendetta. How desperate is Dr. Gero to devote most of his life just to kill me?"
Twenty kept up the methodical movements that allowed him to remain equal with Earth's saiyan savior, but his mustache was pulled up into a sneer of contempt as he responded.
"Dr. Gero's livelihood was invested in the Red Ribbon Army. All of his research went into their ranks and built them up from the petty thugs they had been to be superior to any man. And then a fourteen year old boy comes along and single-handedly dismantles twenty five years of work and patience. What was there to do but swear revenge? You are a cretin, destroying what you do not understand in a blind attempt to save humanity, when you are really damning it to inevitable death."
"Like you'd know!" Goku grabbed Twenty's oncoming fist and pulled it past himself to bring the android straight into a rocketing knee to the stomach. Letting go of the extremity, Goku rammed his elbow repeatedly against Twenty's back, preventing him from falling with his still upraised knee.
To escape the onslaught, the elderly android curled his legs backward, almost completely surpassing the flexibility of most humans (and doing a very good impersonation of the Nike logo while he was at it), and locking his ankles around Goku's throat. Wrenching the alien backward and readjusting so he was above him, Twenty began spinning like a top at turbine speeds, Goku, trapped in the leg lock, spinning right along with him.
When they had achieved a speed that actually left mini-afterimages in their circuits, Twenty shot downward and crashed into the Earth, Goku taking the full brunt of the attack while still being ground against the stones. The android and his enemy descended like a drill further and further into the ground until there wasn't a scrap of light for either to see by.
From on the surface, the Z-Fighters that weren't fighting watched the perfectly circular hole with mingled amounts of surprise and worry. With only the sounds of Vegeta's fight raging from behind them, they waited in silence for something to happen. For fourteen seconds, nothing did. And then…
A rumble from underfoot sent vibrations coursing up their legs. Further shockwaves were felt, not as large as the first but still sizable enough to be setting off all the delicate earthquake detectors the world over. Reaching out with their senses, the earth's defenders observed a show without seeing or hearing it: Goku's power was sporadically rising in small leaps and falling in equal measure. He was still about as powerful as usual, so they just assumed that he was blocking whatever Twenty was throwing his way.
"How are they fighting under literal tons of rock and in the dark?" Krillin asked aloud, kneeling to appraise the dirt better. Piccolo snorted in response, as though to say 'it's Goku' and left it at that. The others nodded, glancing back toward the Prince as he successfully stopped a punch with his face. "Saiyans," Krillin murmured in resignation.
Like the Great Sarlaac pit of Carcoon, a sinkhole…erm…sank into the ground a few dozen feet away. The sandy soil roiled like water for a moment before both Goku and Twenty burst free, dirt trailing off of their clothes and hair like Jetstream of plane. Exchanging several more punches midflight, they forcefully separated and hung in the air several meters apart. Goku was breathing heavily and bore a few scrape marks along his arms and face. Twenty was completely missing his tube hat, showcasing the semi-opaque bowl like addition on his scalp, and his fingers looked like they had been rubbed raw with the synthetic skin bone white under the pigmented outer layer.
"Ah, I see that caution was my ally after all," Twenty spoke, voice smooth and without any labored breathing to obscure his words (his lack of needing to breath was pretty much the only reason for that though). "After witnessing what a Super Saiyan could do, I knew that adjustments needed to be made to Nineteen's and my own designs. Those changes are now paying off very well indeed."
"What do you mean 'witnessing what a super saiyan could do'?" Goku threw back, confused.
"Well I suppose you may as well know. I would not deny a dying man's last question." The mustachioed android sneered wickedly, the first real show of expression he had made that day. Any semblance of grandfatherly geniality was wiped away and left nothing but the villainous veneer. "A year ago, the spy bots that I had on automatic surveillance picked up on increased activity among your group. When I saw that you were preparing another voyage into space, I smuggled one of the bots on board. It was fortuitous that I did, otherwise I would not have seen the recordings of your fight with that brute, Broly. My eyes were opened to the capabilities of your race and I adapted my designs to accommodate your unexplained increases in power. Thus were the 'Super' Androids conceived!"
"Alright," Goku spoke slowly, nodding his head at an equal speed, "that's good and all, but it doesn't answer my question."
Caught off guard by the remark, Twenty lowered his arm from the dramatic pose he had taken and stared widely at his nemesis. He had been rehearsing that speech for the past two weeks.
"What are you talking about?" He spat out, frowning deeply in his puzzlement. Unfortunately, the expression did…interesting things to his heavily wrinkled skin and the raccoon tail mustache, nearly making Goku laugh out loud at him, only just stifling it behind a coughing fit.
"Well, I asked what you meant because I'm not sure how you would have been able to see all these things and make designs and stuff when you weren't even created yet," Goku pointed out simply, pointing at the android for whatever emphasis was left.
Twenty froze, realizing he had all but revealed his identity in his tirade. Not wanting them to know who he truly was yet, he tried to come up with some way of turning the conversation in his favor.
"Well…a computer system that-"
He was interrupted as Vegeta and Nineteen came hurtling past, each grabbing each other with one hand and punching each other in the face with the other. The saiyan grabbed the next incoming attack and fired off another point blank ki blast to knock away his adversary. Given a seconds reprieve, he turned towards his lone kinsman while wiping some blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Damn it Kakarot! It's obvious that one is Dr. Gero! Look, you can actually see his brain through that skylight; and last I checked, androids don't customarily have those." He was smug in his deduction for all of a second before Nineteen bodily tackled him through the air, dragging both of them back into their fight.
Twenty, or rather, Dr. Gero growled in anger towards the royal saiyan. He still could have utilized the anonymity, but now any chance of that was ruined, forcing him to step up his plans a bit earlier than anticipated.
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In the disguised mountain laboratory of Dr. Gero, one of the computers received an electronic directive from the professor himself and hummed to life, beeping as a countdown appeared on the glass monitor.
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"So you're the guy that caused all this," Goku stated, returning to his Turtle style stance. Anger played along his face like a flame in the darkness. He hadn't been particularly angry at the androids themselves, since Gohan had explained to him that they had been programmed to do what they did, but the man responsible was a whole 'nother story.
"Well, I suppose there is no point in denying it." Gero set Goku with a steely cold look, one that focused all the anger and frustration over the past two decades he had stifled under. "Yes, I am the mastermind behind the greatest fighting force this universe has ever known. I am the architect of ruin, the sculptor of destruction, and the author of your complete and utter demise Son Goku."
"Whatever," Goku muttered a half second before moving with barely a blur of speed and slamming his super saiyan powered fist into the deranged madman's face at, more or less, the force of an extinction level event.
Sailing away like a discarded candy wrapper, Gero tried to play back the information and see just what in the Ogre-Managed-Hell had hit him, but he was halted unexpectedly when Nineteen's cumbersome body was thrown into his path and they both fell to the ground in a frenzy of flailing limbs. In the air, above where the two androids had collided, the super saiyans hovered cautiously.
Goku felt the anger searing through his veins, eradicating the vestiges of fatigue that had been clinging to his muscles and joints. Being a saiyan, he was strengthened by his emotions and that meant he was more powerful than usual, if only by a little bit. But he knew now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that these were two villains that couldn't be redeemed in the slightest; Gero had ample opportunity over the years to drop his grudge, but he had wallowed in that misguided hatred and now civilians had been killed because of him. There wouldn't be forgiveness this time.
Oddly, it was Vegeta who was out of breath and seemed the worse for wear. He had taken an equal beating as had been delivered onto Nineteen, but flesh and bone tended to hurt more than ceramics and alloys. But the Prince could usually spend a whole half hour to fight before he went all out.
"You alright Vegeta?" Goku inquired, looking sideways at his wingman. The other saiyan nodded mutely, still not breathing any easier and holding a hand to his throat, apparently having taken a chop there.
Deciding that it wasn't a concern yet, Goku looked back down at the androids just as two blurs of speed shot up towards them, one orange and the other white. Goku crossed his arms in front of his face in time to absorb the entirety of the strike, Gero's sneering face pressed alarmingly close. But Vegeta…
With a crack, Vegeta was smashed in the face by a two-fisted hammer, recoiling backwards as a spray of blood and spit escaped the confines of his mouth. Before he could even regain his bearings, he was under attack again, Nineteen raining punches down on him like a storm of fists and brutalizing every inch of the Prince's body. The form of resistance that he managed was a strangled cry of pain and half-way raised arms, but he was overtaken instantly and his vision flashed white and red with each successive blow.
Goku was engaged in his own struggle, but the Z-Fighters on the ground rushed forward to help in any way they could. Seeing them coming, Nineteen grabbed Vegeta by the leg and swung him around like a club towards the approaching warriors. To his surprise, Yamcha and Tien, the vanguard of the group, caught Vegeta before he could impact with them and stopping his trajectory cold. Yamcha grinned up at the hulking android.
"You think we've forgotten that little trick?" He taunted defiantly. This was not the best course of action. Nineteen snarled at them and swung his other arm towards them in a massive backhand, taking them both from their vulnerable sides and sending them and the saiyan hurtling through the air.
Piccolo appeared before the albinoid in a burst of speed, having discarded his turban and mantle a few seconds before. Lashing out with a clawed hand, he swiped Nineteen across the face with a feral yell. Unfortunately, he did nothing but turn Nineteen's head to the side, his long nails only glancing off of the synthetic skin.
"You're annoying," the android guttered (a combination of growling and uttering) as he drove his own fist into Piccolo's stomach. Bereft of breath, the namekian couldn't have avoided the follow up kick if it hadn't been for the combined effort of Gohan and Krillin. Rushing in from behind, they simultaneously drove the heels of their feet into the back of Nineteen's skull with jarring force. Distracted from the violent half of the Earth's Guardian, Nineteen swung about to clobber the late arrivals, only managing to catch Gohan with his open palm.
"Gohan!" Krillin called after his young friend, weaving away from another swiping attack but flying straight into an axe kick that downed him in one. Rocketing to where the half-saiyan had landed, Nineteen stomped the boy into the ground with an earthquake inducing boot, following that with several more of the same and driving Gohan further into his crater.
"RRAAGGHH!" Vegeta charged back into the game, his fist connecting with the android's back and succeeding in toppling it forward. Nineteen countered by allowing his fall to turn into a roll and shooting his legs up to catch the Prince as he flew overhead. Growling from exertion, Vegeta bit down on his pain and grabbed Nineteen's foot and held it to his chest as he rushed back upward into the sunny blue sky.
When they were high enough, Vegeta released his grip and let the pale creating continue rising for second before driving his fist once again into Nineteen's back, this time putting plenty of energy behind it. The resulting explosion sent the android plummeting away in another plume of smoke, but the effort had a profound effect on Vegeta: Grimacing with barely contained pain, he held his right arm protectively as he heaved in huge breaths, his lungs screaming for more while the rest of his body tried to fight against it.
Yamcha, Tien and Piccolo picked up the assault, firing consecutive energy beams at the stunned machine and giving it something else to think about while it fell to earth in a shower of loose rocks. Vegeta wasn't watching them; instead trying to regain control over his bodily functions and failing rapidly. 'What's going on? It feels like there's a planet on my chest! It's not as though I've got-'
The horror that came with his realization paralyzed the Prince with icy fear. If what he thought was true, then…
"Oh, gods, no," he whispered to himself, eyes dilating as he lost the strength to maintain super saiyan and returned to normal, the pain following him doggedly. All the other combatants stopped momentarily as the large power of the Prince shriveled up. The Z-Fighters were openly shocked at the turn of events and couldn't make sense of it until Goku loosed a chocked gasp. He had figured it out as well, the consequences all too readily apparent.
"He's…he's…got…" He stammered, unwilling to believe it but unable to deny it. Goku wasn't an idiot, despite what some people believed, merely uneducated. He could understand situations and events that didn't require any form of mathematics higher than addition or subtraction, and he was naturally attuned to the goings on in a combat-zone.
So it was that he knew he had killed the Prince of all Saiyans.
"He's got the Heart Disease."
And Goku had drained the only antidote several months back.
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AN: And that, as they say, is that.
Did 'ya see that twist coming? I hope not, but it's pretty irrelevant now. So, does this mean that Vegeta's fate is sealed? Or can he fight through the viral condition and return to the fight in time to finish off the malevolent androids once and for all? Find out next time.
Later all!
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