Chapter 6
Gohan was standing in the middle of the outlaw district of the former East City.
And between the remains of what had once been the self-proclaimed ruler Meison´s personal kingdom.
He was standing right in front of a dead body.
As Gohan had arrived over the ruins of East City a short time earlier he had seen the same dreadfull sight he knew all too well.
The Androids had come and decided to deal with Meison and his self-proclaimed territory.
How could Keira have accepted something so dangerous? Gohan asked himself.
Of course he actually knew the answer. Her daughters actually were the reason she had been doing it.
Because even food and other basic goods were becoming more and more expensive and many wares were hard to get by at all, even in the areas the Androids were not directly attacking. Trade and supply chains had been damaged and in many cases completely broken-off.
Just like politically entire regions, like this town here, were left alone and became lawless areas. The places that the government, the army and law enforcements had still any real influence over was getting smaller every year.
Sooner or later the entire world would become like this.
The Androids were not only destroying cities and villages one by one. Through them, the entire human civilization had now started to crumble as a whole.
xxx
Gohan had gotten a call yesterday from Keira´s family and heard the entire story from them. How she had agreed to come here for an interview with the outlaw leader Meison of all people. And that they had not heard from her since then.
To be more precise it had been Keira´s stepdaughter Mai who had called him. She was a very bright young girl, Gohan knew. Sometimes she clearly seemed too mature for her age.
She had originally been an orphan. As Keira had told him, she had once been found as babies together with two other young children and send to an orphanage. The grown up and spend nearly their entire time together.
Until some day the orphanage was hit by an attack from the Androids a few years ago. Mais two childhood friends and many of the other orphans and their caretakers had been killed. Gohan didn´t really know the details. Mai never talked about it.
Afterwards Keira, who had reported about the incident, had decided to take Mai in.
But now their daughters had lost her as well. Gohan would talk to Bulma.
She would make sure that the two girls are taken care for. She was still the owner of the greatest company in the world. Even in a time where civilization itself was falling apart, this was still worth something. At least for the time being.
xxx
A short time later Gohan was joined by a research and recovery unit send by the Royal Army. Soldiers, accompanied by doctors paramedics, were swarming the entire area, seeing if they could find survivors and treat their injuries when needed.
Knowing who he was, although not by name but as the famous `Golden Warrior´, the only person who regulary fought against the Androids, the commanding officer gladly accepted to cooperate with him.
In fact he was actually more than happy to have him here, just in case the Androids maybe decided to return here. Should that happen Gohan´s presence might possibly save their lives. He was the only being after all who had ever fought the Androids more than once and lived.
Right now however the same Gohan was looking down at Keira´s body. Not feeling like a living legend, but just like a man who had lost far too much.
But it was not one of the Androids who had killed her. He saw the gunshot wounds at both her back and her head. And while he knew that Seventeen was usually carrying a firearm, he rarely ever used it... and the medics from the army confirmed to him that it was a different caliber.
Her killer had been a human, probably one of Meison´s men. And he had probably already been killed himself when the Androids attacked, Gohan thought.
There was not actually anything to do for him here anymore.
Gohan knew he should have dealt with Meison by himself a long time ago. Then maybe this here could have been avoided.
But it seemed if you were fighting the Androids all the time, trying to save as many people from their attacks as you can, while at the same time trying to find a way to stop them for good... then you could easily overlook `lesser problems´ for too long.
Not again, Gohan told himself. If more people like Meison and his followers should appear, he would deal with them before they could harm too many innocents.
But that would not even beginn to deal with the true source of the problem - the Androids. How many more people close to him would he loose? Gohan asked himself. Bulma, Trunks, his mother, his grandfather...?
The truth was, the longer the fighting against them continued, the less he actually believed that he would ever be able to beat them.
Gohan had only gotten a limited training when his father was still alive. Looking back he wished he had trained more with him after he returned from Namek instead of studying.
And training alone by figuring everything out by himself took time, time he wasn´t sure he had.
There was also only a limited number of Senzu Beans, after Master Karin died and there were only a few left. After that ever injury would stuck and he was getting a lot of them. And then it would take a long time to recover from each of them.
Zenkais had barely any effect on him anymore. Maybe there was a limit of how far they could boost a saiyan.
Or maybe he had just received too many when he was younger.
Gohan shook his head. There had to be a way. He had to find it, he promised himself.
xxxxxxx
Somewhere else Seventeen and Eighteen, along with their new `compatriots´, were just busy spending a `normal´ day in one of the areas that were not yet devastated by them.
At least what they understood under it.
That meant in their case that Seventeen and his two new `comrades´ Jake and a man named Haugh they had picked up were stealing a couple of cars - or in Haugh´s case a motorbike - after threatening the owners of course, Jake and Haugh by pointing his guns at them, Seventeen by just being there...
... and were now having a street-race over the still mostly intact streets of the town.
During that Seventeen was actually intentionally running a few people over and causing a few light collisions with other cars. But not so far that it would risk wrecking his own and ending the race prematurely.
Jake and Haugh were trying to copy his `driving style´, as much as it was possible for them. Since in opposite to him they didn´t have the advantage of being practically indestructable.
But they also didn´t want to risk to dissatisfy Seventeen and having him kill the right where they were.
At one point Jake just held his handgun out of the driver´s window and started shooting at other cars. Randomly aiming at wheels, driver cabins or parts of the vehicles.
One of the cars whose driver he had just shot came off the street, run over the sidewalk and crashed with full speed against the wall of a building and ended as nothing but a crunched, burning, wreck.
Another one rolled into Seventeen´s way. But he just used a small ki ball to blast it to atoms... and then drove with full speed through the leftover fire.
There was no telling how many people lost their lives through Jake´s murderous stunt.
Seventeen however clearly like it. As Jake looked over to his car, that was now full of visible scorch marks, the Android gave him a thumps up.
Yes - this was how a race should be, Seventeen thought enthusiastically.
Letting this three stay with them had truly not been a bad idea, he thought. At least for a while.
xxx
Meanwhile Eighteen and Sera were going on a, well - shopping trip.
That meant Eighteen had just landed somewhere close to the town-center, carrying Sera with her. But then instantly dropped her on her own feet as soon as they had landed.
"Come - there have to be some interesting shops here," Eighteen said.
They were walking together through the midtown. With Sera always walking one step behind.
They quickly arrived in front of an expansive looking boutique.
"Now - what do you think? Let us get you some new clothes," Eighteen told Sera.
She opened the door and they both stepped inside.
They saw several ellegant looking dresses and some suits hanging on racks and some people - a middle-aged woman standing behind the counter, a younger one currently advising a man and a woman who were showing interest in a few of the outfits and a few other customers.
"Can I help you?" the middle-aged woman behind the counter said.
"We are interested in some of your outfits," Eighteen stated.
"Young ladies - I don´t think you could effort to by any of the clothes here," the woman - obviously the manager or at least the clerk currently in charge - stated.
xxxx
She was obviously not recognizing Eighteen, despite that her appearance was known world-wide.
On the other side, who had ever heard of the feared female Android roaming the streets of a town together with a human girl. So it was possible that her brain just refused to make the connection between the blonde girl who had just entered her boutique and the murderous Android.
The same seemed to be going for the rest of the people.
xxxx
The saleswoman was looking at the two young women who had just entered her boutique sceptically. One in a jeans-outfit the other in a visibly ragged dress.
A few of the other people were starring at them as well. Ironically more at Sela than at Eighteen, who they should actually be concerned with.
That was obviously because Sela was still in the ripped up and dirty dress she had been wearing since the attack where the Androids had spared her life.
If anyone recognized Eighteen at all, at least nobody said something. Maybe out of fear that they would be killed on the spot if they spoke up.
"That is alright, since we are not intending to pay anyway," Eighteen replied. "Sera," she said and looked at her companion.
The human girl next to Eighteen understood the gesture and was drawing a handgun and pointed it at the other people in the room.
Everyone in the room suddenly froze.
"Y-you," the saleswoman stammered, "the money is here..."
"Did I say we wanted money? I said we want clothes," Eighteen interrupted her, obviously annoyed. "Or can it be that your hearing is impaired? You humans are such faulty creatures after all," she commented.
"You know something? I have enough." Eighteen pointed a finger at the woman and she was killed by a small blast that burned a hole through her chest and blew a hole into the wall behing her.
The shock on everyone´s faces now turned into realization and absolut horror.
There was no doubt anymore who was standing before them.
Sela however was feeling more than a bit distraught at seeing the terrified faces before her.
She had known what the Androids expected from her. She had already agreed.
"Well," Eighteen said.
"You." She pointed at a young woman standing not far away from them, right next to the racks with the summer-dresses, with a young man who was probably her boyfriend next to her.
"Me?" she called out afraid.
"Yes," Eighteen replied, "you will help us with the clothes."
"I - I don´t work here," she stammered. "I am just here with my boyfriend to look for some new..."
"I don´t care about that," Eighteen cut her off. "Just bring us the clothes over we want and hand them to us. You can do that, right?"
The Android now aimed her hand at the young man next to her.
"Otherwise I can also `break up´ you and your boyfriend right now," Eighteen threatened.
"No please - I will do it," she called out.
"Good," Eighteen replied. "Then... bring a few of these dresses over there to me and..." she pointed to a line of fashionate pan-suits and a few dresses.
"And what do you want Sela?" she asked her companion.
Her human `companion´ was looking around as well.
After a few moments, she seemed to have an idea.
"I think this." Sera pointed to a rack where a number of black and goth-like dresses and other clothes were hanging.
"I guess this is my style," she said.
Sera had actually worn goth-style before some times and she really liked it.
But not in the last time.
It was hard to care about things like fashion or any other luxuries when the world was falling into chaos and entire towns were being destroyed around the planet. You just took whatever you could and hoped to get by and somehow survive.
Not that she dared to say that out loud now, since one of the beings ultimately responsible was standing right next to her.
The ripped-up ragged light brown dress she was wearing right now was just been something her mother had managed to snatch for a relatively cheap price.
xxxx
Her mother, who had died just a few days ago during the Android´s last attack, she remembered.
It had not even been intentional. Just a random blast that either Seventeen or Eighteen had fired blindly into the town. And her mother had been too close to the explosion. Sera had barely survived herself. If she had been standing just a couple meters closer...
And now she was here, going `shopping´ with one of her murderers. Not only that she had even agreed to kill people for them. All that to save her own filthy life.
Sera hated herself so much in this moment.
But on the other side... her mother was the one who told her to always do everything to survive.
`Sela - there is nothing more important than that you survive,´ she remembered her words.
Would her mother hate her if she saw her right now? Or would she have even done the same thing had she been in her place? She was not sure, she admitted. And she didn´t really wanted to know.
xxxx
"Well - then let´s try them out," Eighteen said to her quietly with an sweet encouraging tone.
If it were not for everything else, you could think the Android were really her friend.
Eighteen and Sera sat down confortably on two chairs, while the rest of the customers were standing at the other side of the room terrified.
The young woman Eighteen had chosen earlier to serve as their `odd hand´ walked over, looking visibly uncomfortable and took some of the clothes from the rack for them to choose.
"No," Eighteen said.
She carelessly threw a few blouses and dresses on the floor.
"Not that one."
She said as she threw another outfit down.
"And you?" she asked her `friend.´
Sera choose one of the gothic dresses she had been looking at, matching stockings, underwear and a pair of high-heeled boots.
Who took them without a word and went to the changing room.
A minute later she stepped out, fully dressed.
"Not bad," Eighteen commented. "Not really my style, but not bad."
Sera realized, partly to her own discomfort, that she was smiling.
"Well - now me," Eighteen stated and went to try on a set of clothes she had chosen for herself.
She had barely entered the changing room, as the young woman who had brought the clothes for them whispered to her.
"Hey," she said. "Why is the Android keeping you around?"
"Yes - why is she not killing you?" her boyfriend asked.
"I -... I guess you could say she finds me entertaining," she half-lied. "I will live as long as I keep entertaining her." She left the `killing people´ part out.
"Then you can lt us go?" the woman said. "If she likes you so much, she will let you, right?"
"Yes - just let us leave," her boyfriend asked.
"It takes only a few moments for us to leave the room," the young woman said to her.
"I..." For a moment she didn´t know what to say.
Should she? How would Eighteen react if she truly let them go? Would she give her a second chance?
While she thought this however, three of the other people in the room were already running to the door.
"Hey!" Sela called out.
"You already want to leave?" the heard Eighteen´s voice.
She stepped out, still in her regular outfit... and fired a barely powered blast that cut off the fleeing people´s way and stopped them in their tracks.
"Nobody goes if I not say it," Eighteen declared.
"It seems you got `distracted´," she said to Sela.
"Eighteen," she replied nervously.
"Don´t worry about it. You are new in this after all," the Android told her.
She looked from Sela to the other humans - the young couple Sela had just been talking with, the three who had been trying to run out of the door and an elderly woman, who was still standing at the other end of the room - and back.
"Why don´t we play a game?" Eighteen said.
The Android reached into a pocked inside her jeans-jacket and pulled out another pistole she was carrying around with her for some reason.
And she handed it to the young woman who Sela was just talking to.
"Now - whoever of you kills the other one first, I will keep," Eighteen stated.
Sela could not help herself to give a short unsettled look at the Android. She should have expected something like this. But she didn´t do it so early.
To her shock however, the other woman had already raised the gun Eighteen had given her and pointed it had Sela.
They were starring at each other. She hesitated a few more moments before she actually pulled the trigger.
`Click´. They heard the sound.
Sela realized that Eighteen had given the other woman an empty weapon.
But still, she had tried to kill her, after asking her for help to escape. Sela felt the anger rising up in her.
She raised her own gun and shot, once, twice, three times, into the stomach and chest - blood was splattering everywhere and the woman was falling over with a terrible scream.
"No - damn it!" the boyfriend shouted and seemed to want to jump at Sela, but she was faster and shot him too.
Eighteen meanwhile loaded the other gun and handed her to Sela as well.
Who then turned around and aimed at the three who had just attempted to run out of the boutique - a man and two teenaged girls - and fired a literal rain of bullets into them.
Then in the end she turned to the old woman standing at the end of the room who had not done much of anything and killed her as well.
Finally six dead bodies were lieing around them.
Sela , as she was doing this, felt a feeling rushing through her - power. For the first time in her life she actually felt powerful. She was for once not living in fear, but others were fearing her.
Eighteen started to laugh loudly.
"Oh Sela - you were great. I know I was right to keep you."
"Yes," Sela replied in a hollow tone.
"Now - let us try out the rest of the clothes," Eighteen said to her.
xxxxxxx
The Afterlife
Meanwhile in the Afterlife the Z-fighters were currently training with each other on Master Kaios planet.
Son Goku was sparring with a new arrival in their group, Vegeta.
After his death, the Saiyan Prince had spend the first ten years in Hell. It was only a bit under two years ago that he had been released and allowed to join the rest of the Z-fighters. After King Yemma had considered him to be truly redeemed.
Of course, while Goku and the others had been allowed to keep their bodies and train and made incredible progress in that decade, Vegeta had in hell not made any at all.
So Son Goku and even Piccolo had, much to his annoyance been much stronger than him at that time.
But he had been rapidly catching up to them during this last two years.
What truly bothered them however was that they all knew that the Androids were still terrorising Earth. And they were not able to do something about it.
xxc
Powerlevels:
Future Gohan: (12 years after the Android´s Arrival): 4.600.000 - SSJ: 230.000.000
Future Android 17: 280.000.000
Future Android 18: 270.000.000
