(Do I really have to say that I don't own Dragon Ball? Will anyone think that I own dragonball?)
South City.
It was a simple place, relatively large with an urban city environment. Its shopping district was a decent size with a large variety to choose from. The mall overall was generic, but there were a handful of shopping centers that Eighteen found actually had good taste. It'd been a surprise, but one that the android was all too willing to take advantage of.
The blonde raised a black top she thought might be cute on her with the right bottom. She paid no mind to the flood of people racing out of the store, their eyes filled with terror as they ran.
"It's the monster! Run!" She heard one of them shout. Eighteen frowned as she pulled her gaze away from the V-neck to spot the person who'd just called her a 'monster'. A 'monster' to her implied a creature of a hideous nature, a disgusting, vile creature who's very appearance would force those with weak stomachs to belch. She hardly considered herself hideous by any means. Sure, she and her brother were responsible for several accounts of mass genocide, but that didn't make her hideous, now did it?
In fact, she figured that she was quite pretty by many standards, especially after she tried on this new top. Eighteen doubted a person alive could consider her a 'monster' once they saw her in her new outfit.
Ofcourse, that didn't mean that they didn't deserve to die for insulting her.
Raising a single finger, Eighteen aimed it at the back of the fleeing man, a young pale creature with blond hair in his twenties. The android prepared to fire when she froze, her eyes wide.
The man was running through a section of shoes she was hoping to explore once she was done trying on tops. If Eighteen executed him there, she risked splattering the section with his entrails.
The Android breathed a sigh of relief at her close call, waiting until he was in front of the exit before firing a single golden beam that tore through his midsection, splitting him in two. She watched with a smile as his face melted into a permanent scream as red ichor spewed from his body. A few seconds of feeble crawling later, the man collapsed, his face permanently contorted to reflect the pain of his last few seconds of life.
Phew, that was a close one.
Eighteen made a mental note to be more aware of her surroundings the next time she went shopping. She always hated when her brother would ruin a clothing store before she was done, she would never live it down if he found out she'd done the same.
Eighteen smiled as she draped the shirt over her arm and began to walk calmly towards the dressing rooms, ignoring the sound of explosions off in the distance.
Looks like Seventeen already started.
She mentally chimed to herself as she entered the changing room.
Eighteen was right, the top did look good on her.
In the distance she could hear the rumblings of buildings collapsing nearby, the sounds of screams and people running frantically for their lives as Seventeen continued to play.
The android paid little mind to the commotion as she studied herself in the mirror. It was a strapless form fitting black top that showed off a little bit of her midriff. Eighteen had to admit that it punctuated her cleavage excellently.
She frowned.
She also had to admit that the top made her look a little slutty too. The top was just a bit too revealing for her taste.
Eighteen sighed, preparing to remove it before pausing and looking at herself in the mirror a second time.
Smiling, she said to herself. "Oh what the hell, it's not like I can't kill anyone who looks at me the wrong way." Eighteen swifty threw on her signature sleeveless jean jacket and looked at herself again.
I look good.
The woman strutted out of the dressing room feeling confident as she began to make her way towards the shoe section she'd spared earlier. She needed some matching pumps for this outfit.
"Hey! Eighteen! Come look at this!" Seventeen's voice echoed out abruptly from the entrance where the man she'd savaged minutes ago still remained.
Eighteen sighed as she turned to look at her brother, wishing it had taken him a little bit longer for him to find her. Undoubtedly, Seventeen would want to play some type of game with her, and she really, really wanted to check out what the footwear section had in her size!
"It's a dummy!" Seventeen laughed as he'd picked up the torso of the man she'd previously killed before violently shoving his own arm up the corpse, through his chest cavity and into his throat. Blood coated her brother as he moved the jaw with his hand.
"Whoa mama am I in a pickle!" Seventeen began in a mocking, southern accent. "I was trying to get ready for work when I realized that I had the right top to head out, but absolutely, positutely no bottom!"
Seventeen laughed as he tossed the top half of the man on top of where his legs lay.
Eighteen raised a hand to cover her mouth, stifling a laugh.
The teen casually began to strut in, blood dripping from his arm as he walked towards the selection.
"So sis, what do we got here-"
"Not. Another. Step." Eighteen demanded, pointing a dangerous finger in his direction.
Her twin shot her a sideways look, "Huh?"
Eighteen fumed, "You are absolutely covered in blood, and the last thing I want is you ruining all over the clothes I plan to get."
Seventeen sighed as he crossed his arms, covering his other forearm in blood. "Whatever Sis. C'mon, it's not like we can't go find another store for you to get all girly in."
Eighteen frowned. She absolutely hated it when Seventeen would call her girly for caring about how she looked when they went out to rampage. It wasn't her fault she had taste.
Rolling her eyes, Eighteen responded. "Yeah but this place actually has a good selection. Something a bunch of those other shops we visited didn't."
Seventeen groaned, his arms drooping to his sides as his head fell back dramatically. "Ugh, please tell me you aren't going to spend the whole day shopping like last time!"
Eighteen snarled, "I didn't spend the whole day shopping last time!"
"It was like, two whole hours last time! All the people were practically dead by the time you got out!"
"Not my fault you like to race through the humans like they're not gonna run out some day! If you'd actually be patient for once and spend your time killing them—rather than just blowing them all up with massive explosions—then you might get more out of it."
Seventeen brought his bloodied hand to his chin, considering his sister's words as he adopted a puzzled expression.
"You know what?" He responded quietly, a bright smile pulling at his face. "You're absolutely right!" He let out a laugh. "Man! I've been killing so long, I forgot how to have fun with it! Matter of fact, why don't you and I play a game?"
Eighteen's frown deepened as she pulled off a pair of pumps that looked particularly cute to her. "Can't you see I'm busy? Why don't you go ahead and try playing with yourself for a while?" She smirked to herself at her own joke.
Rolling his eyes, Seventeen responded. "Nah sis, it's waaay less fun if you're playing by yourself! C'mon! If you play with me just this one little game, I promise that I'll leave you alone to shop for the whole rest of the day."
Eighteen's gaze pulled away from a set of sneakers she thought might look good for workout attire and met Seventeen's gaze, studying him to see if he was being honest. Her brother crossed his heart before pushing out his bottom lip in a pouting motion, bringing his hands together as he dramatically begged her.
Eighteen had to admit, spending a day away from Seventeen's incessant whining about her shopping was an enticing proposal.
"...How long's the game?" Eighteen finally responded, setting the sneakers back on the rack and crossing her arms.
"How about this!" The Android eagerly exclaimed, forming a pistol with his thumb and index finger. "We pretend we're cops hunting down the criminal scum of the mall! We have to go store to store searching out each nook and cranny to make sure we get each and every one of them!"
Eighteen sighed as she approached her brother, forming a finger gun of her own.
"Alright, any rules?"
"Yup. First rule: You can't use anything except your finger gun. If you use a normal blast with your hand, or hit someone—oh, and no flying—if you do any of these things, you lose automatically."
I swear, he can be so childish sometimes. How is it possible that we're the same age?
She thought to herself as he continued. "Also! You have to keep track of your score, and you better be trying! Because when we've finished off the mall, If your score isn't close to mine, then our deal is off."
Eighteen growled at this new rule, but complied. "Fine. When do we start?"
"We start riiight..." Her brother paused, a mischievous grin on his face. "Now!" Seventeen shouted as he turned heel and began to dash down the walkway towards the other shops, all the while holding his finger pistol like a cop would with a real gun.
Eighteen shook her head as she turned the opposite direction and started to jog towards a pizza place where she'd seen a teenage girl peek her head out from behind the counter.
Let's get this over with.
I'm really beginning to regret my advice.
Eighteen thought to herself as she finally found the young boy who'd been hiding in a storage closet in the back of a bookstore. She'd spotted the little bastard dart into this store, but it'd taken her ten whole minutes to figure out where he'd run off to once inside.
Eighteen smirked as she watched the quivering, crying boy collapse to the ground, a golf ball sized hole in his chest. She listened to his gargled sobs for several seconds, a satisfied smile resting on her face as she watched the child drown in a growing pool of his own blood.
A few moments later, the boy's last desperate cries for help were silenced as she aimed a finger and forced another beam straight through his skull.
Serves him right for taking so long to find.
Eighteen thought to herself as she left the shop and walked over to a store selling what appeared to be workout equipment.
Fifty-seven…
She internally calculated as she stepped into the establishment. The android smiled as she heard the quiet squeak of a terror filled sales associate hiding just behind the counter.
"You know," Eighteen began as she casually made her way toward the counter, the clicking of her heels echoing against the walls of the store. "I probably wouldn't have found you if you weren't such a coward squealing like a dumb pig."
The charm in Eighteen's smile turned sinister as she listened to the muffled sound of crying from behind the counter; the sound of someone who knew they were already dead.
The blonde stepped up to the counter. The tip of Eighteen's index finger began to glow as she aimed down at where she could hear the person behind the counter trembling below—before something out of the corner of the android's eye caught her attention.
Looking up, Eighteen could see a man who appeared to be roughly in his fifties sitting calmly in a chair with one leg lifted to casually rest on his knee, a paperback book in his hand. As far as Eighteen could tell, he hadn't noticed her as he calmly turned the page and continued reading.
Eighteen stared at him for a long time, her expression shocked that someone had failed to notice her.
"...Ahem." She projected as she watched the man, waiting for him to respond to her presence.
Rather than look up and cower in fear as she'd expected, the man raised a finger instead.
Did this asshole just tell me to wait!?
Eighteen stared in disbelief at the older man as he licked his finger and turned the page a second time. Did he not know what was going on? That was impossible! There was no way he hadn't heard the shouting and running. The screams that the androids were here. There was even this idiot under the table trembling and probably pissing themselves in terror, there was no way this guy didn't know what was going on!
So, why isn't he scared?
Eighteen raised an eyebrow as she slowly rounded the counter before positioning herself directly in front of the man. She pushed her glowing finger inches from his head as she waited for a response.
"Are you too stupid or senile to understand that I'm about to kill you right now?" Eighteen asked as the stranger continued to read.
A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth as his eyes scanned the words.
A moment later, the man closed the paperback with one hand and tossed it to the floor beside him, mumbling to himself." What a shame to end on a cliffhanger…"
"Hey, dumbass, I'm talking to you!" Eighteen roared, growing increasingly annoyed that someone was ignoring her. She was used to people recognizing her, trembling in fear at the sight of her and knowing exactly what was about to happen to them upon that recognition. She considered herself something of a celebrity; arguably the most important celebrity in the world—next to her brother. She'd built up a reputation over this past decade and a half of destruction and torment, and she would not accept this level of dismissal.
"I'm sorry about that." The stranger said, shifting his gaze to meet hers. "I wanted to finish the chapter I was on before I died. And also, no, I'm not senile, or all that old I don't think. I'm actually only forty-nine, although I guess to someone so young that's probably considered old, isn't it?"
Eighteen blinked, this had not been what she expected. "Do you know who I am?"
The man smiled. "But, of course, how could I not? You and your brother are the most recognizable faces on the planet. I know exactly who you are."
Good.
She thought to herself, before frowning.
But why isn't he scared? What's going on here?
"What are you-"
"Is there something that you love?"
Eighteen blinked a second time, first registering that this filth had just interrupted her, and then what he'd just asked her. She continued to aim her finger gun directly at the man's face.
Eighteen wanted to snap and blast this fool away, to kill him for being so ignorant and rude. But, the situation, the question, this man was so out of the ordinary, so bizarre that she found her words caught in her throat.
"I-...what?" Was all Eighteen could stammer out in response. She silently cursed herself for sounding so dumb at that moment. Eighteen wanted the stranger to fear her, to see her as the mistress of death that she was. Right now, Eighteen felt more like a child who'd spaced out after being asked what they wanted to order at a fast-food joint.
"Is there something you love?" The man repeated in the same, calm, peaceful tone.
Eighteen stared down at the older man with furrowed brows, studying him curiously. He had a bald head that gleamed from the luminescent lights overhead, a five O'clock shadow and tired, baggy eyes. He seemed like he would be tall if he stood up straight, his body large and reminiscent of someone who used to be very muscular, but hadn't touched a weight in years considering how large his stomach bulged out. Overall, he looked like a grandpa.
The blonde smiled as she began to understand what was going on. Eighteen had seen this before. It was rare, but from time to time she and her brother would find people wandering around the desolate wasteland that so often came after one of their 'play sessions'. The person would appear unresponsive, in a daze that sometimes even left them walking straight toward the twins as they laughed. The two of them had quickly come to the conclusion that sometimes the death and destruction that would come in their wake was too much for some people, and so their minds would break. Eighteen would find these people simply wandering through the streets, their mind absent to the world going on around them, unable to understand what was happening anymore.
It was a special treat whenever the twins would find these people. The pair had already developed a game to see if they could bring them out of their daze before killing them. It involved torturing the individual until they finally came back to their senses, like slapping a panicked friend to get them back to their senses, only far more brutal.
This is going to be fun…
Eighteen aimed her finger gun downward and immediately fired a ki blast into the man's leg. It tore through the limb like it was nothing, forming a hole in his thigh the size of a quarter.
Her smile widened as Eighteen watched the look of pain develop across his features. His teeth clenched as his hands curled into fists, tightening as he struggled to come to terms with the pain.
Eighteen patiently waited to see the stranger finally come to his senses and start bawling on the ground, begging for his life like so many had done before.
Instead—much to her amazement—he began to softly chuckle.
"Well…" He said, hunched over with a gruff voice in an attempt to mask the pain. "That was certainly unpleasant." Leaning back in his chair, the stranger took a deep breath before smiling and meeting the android's gaze again. "But, unfortunately, it doesn't answer my question. Unless you're meaning to say that you love hurting people." He shrugged. "Which, admittedly, makes sense."
Eighteen's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
What the hell is happening right now?
"I-...?" The murderer found herself at a loss for words. This wasn't the dazed, shell-shocked type she'd initially thought. This was...this was something the android had never encountered before.
"Maybe that's too hard a question." The man shook his head. "That's my fault. Let me try something a little different: do you have any hobbies?"
Eighteen felt her mouth dry up as she stared down at the man. "What's going on here?"
"Hm?" He responded, looking up innocently at her. She could see the stranger's blood beginning to pool at her feet. The wound in his leg was bad.
"Why aren't you scared? You're bleeding out right now, don't you realize that?" She asked, pointing a finger at the injury.
The man briefly glanced down at the wound before smiling and meeting her gaze once more. "Oh yes, I'm very aware, haha. It'd be hard not to be with how painful it is. But. I figure, if I'm going to die, I might as well spend my last moments smiling rather than crying scared for my life."
Eighteen's lips pulled into a frown.
...I...guess that makes sense…
"So," He asked while casually putting a hand over the top of the wound and applying pressure. "Any hobbies?"
"..."
Eighteen stared at the man. She didn't know what to make of him. She'd just attacked him, he was literally dying as they spoke, and he was asking about her hobbies? She couldn't decide if she wanted to blast a shot through his head and get on with her day seeing as Seventeen was undoubtedly pulling ahead of her in this moment—or entertain the dying man and see where this went.
Something possessed her to choose the latter.
Slowly, Eighteen responded, "Why do you care?" Her response was cold, her finger gun still pointed at his face.
"Oh, I just think it's a question that no one has ever asked you. I'm sure that you get plenty of people asking 'why?' or 'What are you?' but I doubt there's too many who've asked you what your hobbies are."
"...I like to pick out nice outfits…" She slowly admitted, glaring at him with narrowed eyes.
The man's face lit up like a person who'd just received a gift. "Ah! That's great! And, I can tell that you're probably really good at it too! I mean, not to overstep, but that top really does look good on you."
Eighteen pulled away, her hands moving to close her jean jacket around her exposed cleavage.
"Oh, no need to blush! I'm just paying you a compliment, besides, I'm going to be dead soon anyway, right?"
Eighteen frowned as she realized that she was blushing. A moment later, her face twisted into a scowl.
How dare he make me blush! I am a God of death among these pieces of filth. They are all mere playthings to me. He has no right to make me blush!
Snarling, the woman aimed her finger gun and fired a second beam directly into the man's bicep. Blood ruptured from the wound immediately, spilling even more of the crimson liquid onto the floor.
The room started to collect with the familiar scent of copper.
Eighteen watched with satisfaction as the stranger grunted in pain, throwing his head back as tears began to form in the corners of his eyes. His remaining good leg stomped against the tile as his face tightened into a deep grimace.
There, now he should be getting the picture-
"I'm...sorry about that...didn't mean to offend…" Releasing the pressure on his leg, he motioned with a hand for the blonde to step back. "Careful...don't step in it. Those look expensive…"
Eighteen looked down and realized that the blood was getting dangerously close to her brown-leather-boots. The woman adhered to the warning and took a step back.
What the hell is happening?
"You're seriously confusing, old man." She snarked, crossing her arms. "I shoot you twice and you tell me to watch my boots?"
The man's voice had grown quieter, clearly an attempt to suppress the pain that he could barely conceal. "You told me that you like to pick out outfits as a hobby... I'm sure you don't like your clothes getting messed up…"
Eighteen couldn't say that he was wrong, but she also couldn't understand his reasoning either. All the android wanted was for him to cry out in terror, to feebly attempt to crawl away as she slowly and effortlessly tracked him down and killed him in the most painful way possible.
Is that too much to ask for?!
It was a game to her, but it wasn't fun if he didn't want to play.
"So…" He began, his voice raspy, his head lulling to the side as his eyes began to unfocus. It was clear to Eighteen that the blood loss was starting to take effect. "This question may sound strange but...were you ever a little girl?"
What type of question is that?
"Of course I was. The blood loss is getting to your head." Eighteen said with a frown.
He chuckled in response. "Yeah, probably...so, when you were a little girl...what did you want to do when you grew up?"
Eighteen's eyes flashed wide at this question. What had she wanted to be when she'd been just a little girl? The android found herself staring down, an eyebrow arched curiously.
"Just...humor me." He said with his best attempt at a smile under the immense amounts of pain.
"I…" she paused, realizing that she couldn't remember. Eighteen found herself exploring the deepest recesses of her mind as she tried to recall what she'd wanted to be as a child.
Finally, she remembered.
A brief smile pulled at Eighteen's lips as she recounted. "I wanted to be a clothes designer."
The man smiled in turn. "That's a...nice dream. Did you...ever pursue it?"
The android frowned. Did it look like there was a line of merchandise with her brand on it? What a stupid question.
"What do you think, old man? Look at what's going on around you, take a good long look and really think about it."
The dying man let go a soft, weak laugh as he shook his head. "I guess…that's fair."
Eighteen frowned as she watched the stranger continue to bleed out. Her arms were crossed, her back leaning against the counter as she awaited the next question, assuming that there would be another.
"So…" He began slowly, his hands hopelessly pushing at the wounds in his leg and arm. "Why didn't you?"
She paused, eyeing him for a moment. Why didn't she? Because that bastard Dr. Gero stole her and her brother away from the life they'd had, experimented on them, and turned them into the…things they were today.
"I didn't really have a choice in the matter." Eighteen said with a dismissing sneer.
"Oh…" The stranger frowned as he answered, his head slowly lowering. Eighteen predicted he only had a matter of minutes before he'd pass out. "Could you...try...now?"
She snarled at him, "Yeah! Let's just see how that goes! Let's see how many people will buy a product made by someone responsible for literally millions of deaths over the last couple decades. Seriously, do you even know what you're saying at this point? Do you know who you're talking to?"
He smiled at her; a warm, fatherly smile. "I'm talking to...a beautiful… young woman… who's telling me… about what she dreamed of becoming… as a child…"
Eighteen's frown slowly shifted into a thin line. "...So?" She said, turning her head away from him.
"So...you'll never know...until you try...you could always...create an alias…or something…"
Why was this man trying to help her? In a matter of minutes she was going to literally be the one responsible for his death. This whole situation made zero sense to her.
"Why are you trying to help me? Is it so that I won't have enough time to kill anymore? Because that won't work!" Eighteen snapped, bawling her fists..
The stranger slowly shook his head. "I don't...really care what...happens anymore...I haven't cared...for a long… long… time…"
Eighteen blinked, her head rearing back in surprise.
"...So what's your goal in all this?"
"I…" The man began to teeter off his chair and collapsed onto the floor, laying sideways. Eighteen could see that his eyes were closed, having already passed out. She snarled at the pool of blood on the floor.
He's dying.
Eighteen frowned as she examined the dying man. His chest was still rising and falling, but that would change in a matter of minutes if the wounds she'd inflicted were not treated soon.
For a handful of moments, the android remained still, simply accepting the reality that he was about to die. Eighteen considered perhaps raising her finger and blasting away his remains to see what type of design he'd create upon splattering against the wall. Lifting her finger pistol so that it was aiming down the man's face, his mouth labored as he struggled to take in each and every breath, Eighteen prepared to fire.
But hesitated.
...He wasn't afraid...even when I attacked him…
Eighteen's finger continued to aim at the man, something in her unwilling to fire as her mind played out their interaction.
He was reading a book when I entered and barely raised his head when I walked up to him. He wasn't even scared. It wasn't like Blondie either, he wasn't bravely facing us down despite the odds, he's like all the other magots who know that they are nothing to us but toys for us to play with and break at our will. Then he started talking to me...as if he had any right to speak to me being the lowly little bug that he is.
Eighteen snarled as she watched his labored breaths growing raspier and strained. She began to reason to herself that the man was insane, shell-shocked as she'd seen with so many others before. For a moment, that was enough for her, and Eighteen prepared to unleash a blast of energy she'd been preparing for what felt like ages now. But, once again, that conclusion was easily disproved by their simple interaction. He hadn't been shell-shocked, he couldn't have been because he hadn't even been slightly scared of her. He'd been coherent and sensible, nothing about his demeanor had been anything remotely crazy.
The truth was, he hadn't been scared, he hadn't been powerful, and he hadn't been like anyone she'd ever met before, but, most importantly...
He didn't answer my damn question!
Turning to look over her shoulder at the still trembling girl behind the counter, Eighteen shouted. "Hey! you! Go in the back and grab some towels or something to stop the bleeding, got that!?"
She watched the girl—a petite creature with brunette hair and freckles staining otherwise pale cheeks—meet her eyes with a wide, terrified gaze, remaining motionless like a deer in headlights.
"Move. Now." She growled dangerously, shifting her arm to aim the finger pistol at the girl as her index finger glowed with dangerous golden energy.
Immediately, the cashier leapt to her feet before racing out from behind the counter and into the back.
Eighteen eyed the man before her. She didn't want to save his life of course, but she did want to finish this conversation...wherever it was going.
In a matter of moments, the young cashier came sprinting back with a handful of thick white towels and a large bottle of water. For a moment Eighteen questioned where the cashier had found these items before remembering that they were in a shop dedicated to exercise and working out.
The girl stood trembling beside Eighteen, offering out the items to the android.
"What? Do you think I'm going to do it? Wrap him up already, dumbass!" Eighteen snapped at the young woman.
The girl jumped at the android's voice as she quickly set to work, pushing the heavy man back onto his seat before tightening the towels around the two wounds the best she could and setting the water bottle in the man's lap. Eighteen watched as the blood loss began to slow as the white towels turned red. Judging from the stranger's larger size, Eighteen figured that he hadn't lost enough blood for it to be fatal, but it had been enough for him to be properly dazed.
Taking a step back, the girl stood there nervously, covered in blood, shifting her gaze between Eighteen and the stranger with nervous anticipation..
Eighteen held her gaze with her own. "Well?! Go back to cowering!" she commanded.
The cashier was quick to comply as she retreated back into the cubby she'd been hiding in before.
Returning her attention back to the man, she shouted. "Hey! Old man! Wake up!"
There was no response.
"Old man!"
Nothing.
Growling in frustration Eighteen raised her finger pistol, pointing it at the stranger's forehead before firing. The blast was weak, barely visible in fact as it contained only enough force to knock his head back.
The man groaned as he slowly raised a hand to his forehead. "...What the…?"
"We weren't done talking." Eighteen said in a dangerous tone.
The strange man paused as he noticed the towels around his wounds and the water bottle sitting in his lap.
"Did...did you do this?" His voice asked as his hands shakily took the water bottle from his lap and began to unscrew the top.
Snorting, Eighteen responded, "Hardly," nodding her head toward the counter, the android added."The girl did."
For a short time, the only sound to be heard was of the old man drinking down the bottle in one long gulp.
"Well," He said once he'd dropped the empty piece of plastic on the floor next to him. "I am definitely grateful to both you and Melody." He nodded his head toward the girl still cowering behind the counter.
"Don't be." Eighteen snarled, her arms folding beneath her chest. "I still plan to kill you both. Nothing will change that fact."
The android studied his face as she said this, looking for the slightest inclination that the strange man was even the tiniest bit afraid. She found nothing.
"But," Eighteen added with a sneer, feeling annoyed that she was doing this in the first place. "Only once we're done with our conversation."
The old man chuckled softly, only serving to annoy Eighteen further for having spared him for even a few minutes longer.
"Well then," His voice began slowly, the color slowly returning to his face. "What is it that you wanted to talk about again? Forgive me, my memory isn't what it used to be."
"Why aren't you scared of me?" She said as the harshness in her eyes eased, replaced by a glimmer of curiosity. "Why are you doing this? Talking to me, being civil, and acting like I didn't just attempt to kill you a minute ago." She placed extra emphasis on the words, trying to get her point across. "So, why? What's in it for you?"
For the first time during their talk, Eighteen watched as the smile slipped from the stranger's features. His eyes reflected a deep sadness as his lips pulled into a somber frown.
"...I used to be famous, did you know that?" The man said slowly, his words coming out aged and strained. "I used to be a name that almost everyone knew. I was 'the strongest man in the world'. Women would swoon at my sight, people would ask for my autograph on the street, I was rich beyond reason. All in all, it was a pretty sweet gig."
Eighteen rolled her eyes. Did Grandpa over here honestly believe that this was the answer Eighteen was asking for? The android started to raise her finger-gun once more to blast away the man when some he said… made her stop.
"The fame was nice...engrossing even. It was fun, being this star for the world. But, it didn't take long for me to realize that I was losing those I truly loved."
Eighteen raised an eyebrow as her mind immediately returned to the first question he'd asked her.
"Is there something that you love?"
"My fame was pushing away the people that I cared for. My wife left me after she grew tired of my flirtatious advances towards the women who would literally throw themselves at me. A short time later, the attacks began, and I lost her...well, at that time…she had already been lost to me, but I suppose I should say that my daughter lost her, too.
A slow sigh escaped the stranger's lips. Eighteen crossed her arms as she impatiently waited for the story to draw back towards her question.
So me and Bro killed his wife. Ex-wife? Baby mama. So what?
Eighteen sneered at the loss. It was strange to listen to the struggles of such weak and pathetic creatures from the inside. She only ever got to see their misery from the outside.
"My daughter blamed me for her death. I never really got the time to talk to her about it. I was too busy burying my namesake into the dirt. So many celebrities and famous people were being found and killed. I knew immediately that it was only a matter of time before 'the strongest man alive' was drawn out and slaughtered for the sport of it. The majority of my funds bled away once the world realized that I had no intention of fighting you two. I mean, no amount of push ups would lead me to leveling entire cities. No point in trying. I chopped off my hair, shaved off my mustache, and spent the last of my riches moving me and my daughter away, changing our names in the process. The world forgot about us, and we were about the safest we could be."
"You know, I realize that this is really sad and all," Eighteen snarked mockingly, "But I'm getting seriously bored and the idea of blasting you through the torso is starting to sound nicer and nicer by the second." Eighteen added rudely.
The man paused, looking up to meet her gaze, his eyes studying her with a level of understanding that made the android uncomfortable.
Snarling, Eighteen spat, "Stop looking at me like that! Finish or die!"
The stranger averted his gaze, staring at the ground as his lips parted, "I'll wrap this up quick then. Long story short, I couldn't live with myself. I started to drink. I would do anything I could to forget the life I had before all of this, forget about all that I lost to make my daughter safe."
Eighteen rolled her eyes with a sigh. She was bored now. At first, the man had seemed interesting due to the way he looked back at her with seemingly no fear in his eyes, but Eighteen was beginning to gather that she'd maybe overestimated him. He was, afterall, only a human. Eighteen quietly began to list the many possible ways she might go about torturing him for consuming so much of her time within her mind.
I could flay him, disembowel him, maybe drag him along the street until there's a fresh new line of traffic paint on the street…
"It was fun, for the most part." He continued, unaware of Eighteen's malicious glare. "While I was drunk, I felt invincible. Me and my friends would enter a bar, get completely shit faced, and then start picking fights throughout the night." His face fell as he continued. "I hurt a lot of people during these drunken rampages. It made me feel confident about myself when I'd thought I'd already lost…everything. It made me feel in control within a world where a city could be obliterated in a day, but, most of all, it made me feel like I had power in a world where I had never been less significant. It was like, during those times, I couldn't be stopped by anyone. Even when the bouncers would jump in and try to stop me, they barely took a second of my time to lay out flat, their noses usually bloody from how hard I hit them."
The man sighed, his voice small despite his large size. "I did this every night I got the chance. Getting into bar fights and drinking until I blacked out. It felt good. It made me feel like I could do anything because no one could stop me when I decided to start fighting."
Eighteen's sneer slowly softened as she continued to stare at the man, her lips pulling into a thin frown. The thoughts of torture slowly began pushing to the back of her mind as Eighteenwatched the man struggle to move forward with his story, his voice choking up as he continued.
...Because no one could stop me…
The words repeated in Eighteen's mind over and over again as she tried to…make sense of them. The phrase was something she'd heard her brother quote hundreds of times over the years. Hell, she could remember herself sharing the very same sentiment a countless number of times whenever she heard the screams of 'why are you doing this?' in between the pleas for her to stop.
"Why? Why not? It's not like anyone can stop us!"
Those short few words were Seventeen and Eighteen's entire rational being their actions, their justification, the mantra they lived by because it was the truth. Who could stop them? Sure, there was Blondie, and every now and then he'd swing by to challenge them, but even then, it was clear that nothing he could do would ever put one of them down for good as long as the twins stuck together. The world was whatever they decided to do with it. If Seventeen and Eighteen decided they wanted to destroy it, then they had every right to because there was absolutely no consequence in doing so. The Earth was theirs to do with as they please, and that fact was one that Eighteen was all too comfortable with.
But…to hear another person reflect this mentality, even on a much smaller scale was...unsettling. She and her brother always drew a divide between themselves and the people they killed, tortured, and otherwise terrorized. How could they not? The humans were weak, pathetic creatures who, as far as Eighteen was concerned, only existed for their amusement. Mere humans were nothing like herself or her brother, or at least, she'd thought so.
To realize that she could relate to this man, even on the smallest of levels...it had been something Eighteen could have never predicted happening. It was jarring, the very existence of someone else who felt the same way she and her brother did challenged the very notion that humans were nothing like herself or Seventeen. Because…clearly, this human had at least one thing that Eighteen could relate to.
The android frowned as she immediately dismissed the thought. So what if this singular person could relate to her? That didn't mean anything in the long run! It was just one guy! This conversation didn't mean that everyone was like this. Even if this lone stranger was the same as them on one level, that didn't mean that the rest of the world wasn't pathetic, weak willed, nobodies who deserved any more than the way she and her brother treated them.
They are scum, disgusting cockroaches at the bottom of our feet.
Eighteen told herself, reminding herself that nothing this man could say would shake her resolve to kill and destroy. That's exactly what he wanted, that's what they all wanted, and there wasn't a chance in hell Eighteen would give it to them.
Looking down at the man, she sneered.
You and I are nothing alike, you pathetic, disgusting insect crawling at my feet!
But...something inside her wasn't so sure.
"It didn't take long for the consequences of this lifestyle to catch up with me." He continued, his hands cupped around each other, the memory clearly paining him to say.
"Consequences?" Eighteen repeated, confused.
You already said that no one could stop you, what consequences could there be?
Her eyes flashed wide as she tried to put the pieces together herself. A knowing grin pulled at the side of her mouth.
You found someone that could stop you didn't you old man?
She snickered.
Of course you did. You're nothing more than a lowly little maggot. Even if you pretend to be like us, you don't have the power to back it up. That's the difference. When you say that no one can stop you, that's only because you feel like that's the truth. Whereas with us, it's reality.
The man nodded slowly. "No one could stop me. I broke bones, and I gave black eyes. It was what I was good at. It was easy, and it was fun. Soon it wasn't enough to just attack the bar-folk so I started to turn on my friends too. I broke their arms and bruised their bodies until eventually I stopped hearing from them. I kept returning to the bars, the bouncers couldn't hope to keep me out, but in time, my pockets ran dry. I couldn't afford the bar-scene, and I couldn't afford my fun. I was forced to stay home and drink, and when I did, the urge to hurt, the urge to feel powerful again crept up in me…" His voice trailed off, taking a shaky breath before continuing. "So...I turned on the only one left in my life."
She could see tears beginning to form in his eyes as he recounted this part of the story.
"I turned on my daughter. I beat her into submission, I broke her wrist, and bruised her until her skin was more black and blue than normal. She tried to fight back, she'd studied under me as a martial artist. She was my greatest student, even back when I still had my dojo…" Eighteen could see the tears pouring down his cheeks now, sniffing, the man continued. "I wish she'd been strong enough to beat me then." He snarled, disgust at his own actions written on his face. "I wish she'd flipped me over her shoulder like I taught her and snapped my arm right there and then. I wish she'd gotten on top of me and started to pummel me to the point that I couldn't do anything to fight back." He sniffled, "If I could make a wish to have had the roles reversed that night…I would do it in a heartbeat."
Eighteen stared at the man with wide eyes. He wanted to be beaten? This idea, this concept made zero sense to her. Why would anyone ever want to be the lesser? Why would anyone ever wish to be weak?
"But that's not what happened." He grimaced.
"...What happened?" Eighteen suddenly said. The words had shocked even herself, as the android had no idea why she'd felt the need to ask. She obviously didn't care...right?
The man paused, seemingly just as shocked as Eighteen as he glanced back at her with wide eyes.
Eighteen snarled, looking away as she said "Nevermind, I don't give two shits either way about what happened to your daughter-"
"What happened was, I beat her until she was unconscious, and then I stumbled to my bed and passed out. In the morning, she was gone." He sniffed. "I never saw her again. I cried and shouted, cursing the world for doing this to me when I knew damn well it was my own actions that left me where I was."
He sighed before continuing. "I fully expected police to bust through my door and arrest me for child abuse, but they never did. It occurred to me after the fact that, with all the attacks frequenting the area, the police likely don't have the time to deal with each and every crime going on in the city anymore. Or…maybe she never even went to the police. I don't think I'll ever know the answer to that question."
Eighteen was quiet now, her arms crossed in a dismissing manner, but her expression had softened. She wanted to know where this story was going.
"I'd done it." He finally said after a long pause. "Even after all the fame and riches had left me, I continued to prove to the world that I was still in fact the strongest, and that no one could stop me." He took a long breath, his gaze lowering to study the tiles as he sighed. "By the end of all of it…all I had to show for my monstrous ways were the broken ruins of what had once been a good life. I had no friends, no money, no family...at the end of it all, I was left all alone with my strength...and nothing else."
Eighteen fell quiet at this.
"...Did something happen next?"
The man raised an eyebrow in her direction, but she didn't react this time. Eighteen didn't care if he knew that she wanted to know the end of the story any more.
"What happened next was I cleaned myself up and got a shift working here." He motioned a hand to the workout equipment all around them. "I dedicated the rest of my time to searching for my daughter, to finding her and figuring out a way to apologize and hopefully make things right again. I stopped drinking, took up reading, and dedicated everything to finding the last thing in my life that I still cared about…that I still loved."
Is there something that you love…
The words repeated in Eighteen's mind as she continued to listen to his tale.
"I'd later come to find out that she'd pursued the powers that you and the Golden Warrior have. She learned how to fly, and she learned how to shoot those beam things out of her hands. She sought to help the people she could after each of your attacks. She became a small-time hero, flying around, carrying people to safety and doing everything she could to help those who could not help themselves." Eighteen watched as the old man's eyes adopted a look of joy mixed with sorrow, his lips curled into a smile as his eyes formed large tears that rolled down his cheeks.
"I couldn't have asked for a better, braver, more incredible daughter." He said with pride surging into his voice, "Of Course...I only learned of this after the fact. Her body…was eventually found and brought to me. The people she'd saved described her as a hero, obviously unaware of the events that had driven her away from me in the first place. If they'd known, I doubt they would have brought her back."
"...What happened to her?" Eighteen's voice was quieter than usual, nothing like the snarky, cynical tone she took with the majority of people she talked to outside of her brother. Despite having asked the question…Eighteen had a feeling that she knew the answer.
The older man looked straight into her eyes, a deep, and yet subdued rage to his words as he said, "You know exactly what happened to her."
Eighteen's gaze fell away as she found she couldn't maintain eye contact. Her brow furrowed a second later. So what if she and her brother were responsible for the loss of this man's daughter? They'd killed literally millions of people. Why should one more matter?
...But it does matter…
A voice in the back of her mind quietly said. It was barely a whisper, but she knew that at least a small part of her felt like this particular loss of life was significant.
Whatever.
Eighteen quickly righted herself, lifting her chin proudly as she began to look down on the stranger with a sneer once more.
Even if I do feel something right now, it's just like a sad movie. I'll get over it once I'm done here.
...Right?
"She was what I loved. She was my everything. You asked why I wasn't afraid of you? Well the reason is that you've already taken away everything that ever mattered to me. I have nothing to fear anymore." He said flatly, the emotion drained from his voice. Eighteen could see a tiredness to his eyes that she hadn't noticed before. It was the look of a man who wanted to sleep, the look of a man who wanted to rest for a long, long time.
"Which is why I asked you." He said, his intense stare locking eyes with Eighteen's. "Is there something, or maybe someone that you love?"
Eighteen didn't answer the question. She could understand what he was saying without saying it. He was suggesting that somehow, someway, her story would end the same way as his. Eighteen couldn't believe it, wouldn't believe it. There was no way that she could ever wind up like this fool.
…Right?
"What was your daughter's name?" Eighteen finally asked. She didn't know why it mattered if she knew the girl's name. It wasn't like she'd miraculously recall the specific face of the person she'd killed if she knew the name. But, something within her yearned to know more, to know more about this girl Eighteen never properly met.
"Well, when we got our names changed, her name was Luna," The man said, shaking his head. "But, her real name, the one my wife and I picked out together, was Videl, Videl Satan."
"And yours?"
"Mark nowadays, but at one point, it had been Hercule, Hercule Satan." Slowly, his body still weak from blood loss, he stretched out a hand toward the android. "Nice to meet you."
Eighteen stared down at the hand for several seconds, considering whether or not she should take it. Slowly, she uncrossed her arms and began to reach out towards the man's hand.
Their hands had only just touched when she heard a noise from behind her.
"Kill–steal!"
Eighteen's eyes snapped open wide as she recognized the voice immediately.
No!
Her mind screamed as Eighteen whipped around to try and stop what she already knew was coming. Just as she did, a tiny golden sphere of energy no larger than a tennis ball shot past her face.
And then everything went crimson.
"Oooohhh, sorry sis! I didn't know he'd splatter that much!"
Eighteen's eyes were wide. She could feel it all over her right side. Her head slowly turned back to the man, his hand still in hers. She could see the shocked expression written on his face, the light slowly dimming from his eyes. The blast had ripped straight through his upper-torso, leaving a gaping hole where flesh and skin had once been. Eighteen could feel his blood dripping down the side of her face, down the side of her torso, down the side of her hand, the hand that could feel his grip slowly easing until there was no strength left in their handshake.
"...I'll be there...soon...Videl…" Eighteen could hear in a faint whisper as Hercule slumped from his chair and fell to the floor, creating a splash of blood to splatter across the tiles onto her boots.
"You're not too mad, are you? I know that you'd just gotten that top…" Seventeen said nervously. He knew full well that his sister didn't like her clothes ruined.
Eighteen didn't respond. She simply looked down at the limp corpse currently occupying the space at her feet. This was how it was always going to end...wasn't it? Eighteen had even said that once their conversation was over, she was going to kill him. The android had even mentally gone over all the glorious possible ways she could end his life during their conversation. It wasn't as if Eighteen had been denied the end of the conversation, either. As far as Eighteen could tell, that had been the end of the story, there had been nothing left to share between the two of them.
Then why...why do I feel so...weird?
She asked herself quietly as she continued to stare down at the body at her feet. Why did it feel like her brother had just…cheated her out of something? Like she'd just had something valuable, something special, stolen from her, snatched away before she'd been ready to let go.
"Uhhhh, sis? What are you doing?"
Looking down she noticed what her brother had noticed.
Eighteen had yet to let go of his hand.
"Ugh!" She exclaimed as she immediately released the corpse, letting the hand slap against the pool of blood on the floor.
"Disgusting!" She sneered as she stepped away from the body. Out of the corner of her eye she could still see Melody quietly shaking beneath the counter, her two hands tightly gripped around her mouth as she stared at the body of Hercule Satan, tears rolling down her cheeks.
She didn't know why, but Eighteen decided to meet her brother halfway, stopping him from going behind the counter and noticing the girl.
"You okay? Sheesh, you're probably gonna wanna get out of those clothes, huh?"
Eighteen nodded, her expression one of pure rage as she shot her sibling a glare that made Seventeen visibly nervous. It was a glare she reserved only for Blondie when he was being particularly difficult, and for when Seventeen ruined a set of clothes she'd set her eyes on.
It was clear to Eighteen that he assumed her anger was due to the blood coating her face and body. Even she was quick to assume that was the reason...but something told her that wasn't the only reason.
"Uhhhh," Seventeen began as he took a step back. "You win!" He suddenly exclaimed.
Eighteen's eyebrows furrowed as she slowly repeated, "I…won?"
"Yeah! The game! You won!" He exclaimed, clearly trying to subvert her anger.
Eighteen's arms folded beneath her chest as she was reminded of the game she'd been playing with her brother at the start of all of this. For a moment, Eighteen considered ignoring his declaration and instead chewing him out for killing the man so near her, splattering his remains onto her person. Then she recalled the spoils for winning the game, or, 'coming close' as he'd put it.
"So you're gonna leave me alone and let me shop now, right?" Her voice was sharp and heavily laced with annoyance.
"Yes, ma'am." Seventeen nodded with a smile on his face.
"And you're not gonna bug me for the rest of the day, right?" Eighteen said dangerously.
Seventeen raised his hands in with clear surrender. "Not a peep! You won't see me till the sun goes down."
"Good."
Seventeen began to backpedal out of the store as he said. "Welp! Wouldn't want to annoy you anymore than I have, so, I'll see ya later." He said as his feet lifted off the ground and he left the store.
Eighteen watched him go, the anger in her face easing until she was wearing a mask of no emotion. Seventeen always said that she had a bad case of resting bitch face, but she never saw it.
Slowly, Eighteen's head turned until she was looking over at the girl cowering behind the counter again. Their eyes met, and Eighteen could see the terror in the teenager's eyes as her trembling began to grow worse.
Eighteen considered blowing the girl away with a single blast, but hesitated before she could even lift her hand. Something about it…just felt empty. Eighteen didn't want to kill, or rather, she didn't feel like killing right now.
"It's your lucky day, kid." Eighteen murmured before turning and starting toward the front entrance. Before the android exited, she turned and stole one last glance at where Hercule had once been sitting, studying the way his blood had stained the wall behind him, before turning away and making her way back to her original shop.
The android knew that she would make better time if she'd decided to fly there, but walking felt more appropriate…for some reason. As her feet clicked against the tiles, Eighteen replayed the conversation she'd had with the man in her head.
"-I continued to prove to the world that I was still in fact the strongest man, that no one could stop me. And at the end of all of it, all I had to show for my monstrous ways was the broken ruins of what had once been a good life."
Does he think that could somehow happen to me? As if our lives are similar in any way?
The very thought was incredulous to her. The notion that Hercule and she were the same in any capacity was absolutely laughable.
...isn't it?
It was painfully clear that mankind wouldn't be around forever. The rate at which Seventeen and she killed them was far faster than they could reproduce; that fact was abundantly clear. Eighteen knew that there would be a time in the future when she and her brother had finally finished off the last of the pathetic human race.
What then?
The question made Eighteen nervous. What would the twins do once all the humans were dead? When all the fun was over? Would she turn on her brother like Hercule had his daughter? Would Seventeen turn on her simply out of sheer boredom?
No! Of course not! I love my brother and he loves me!
Eighteen sneered at the thought, disgusted that she had considered turning against her sibling for even a moment. Seventeen was all she had left in the world. He was the one person she had always been able to trust, to count on when things got tough—even before they'd become androids. There was no way she'd ever betray him. Eighteen loved her brother more than anything in the world!
...And Hercule loved his daughter...That didn't stop him, did it?
Eighteen snarled as she pushed the thought out of her head.
Enough of that. I finally have time to properly shop. None of that stuff matters anymore. Stop thinking about it.
The blonde slowly made her way to the dressing rooms, planning to strip away her ruined attire and start picking out a new one immediately.
She shut the door behind her before turning around to face the mirror to differentiate which articles of clothing had been properly ruined and which had been fortunate enough to get little to no blood on them, when she froze.
Eighteen could remember being covered in blood, hundreds, maybe thousands of times over the decade of time she and her brother had spent killing and destroying this world. Blood was hardly anything more than an annoyance at this point. It was just another factor Eighteen had to consider whenever she decided to slaughter another of this world's weaklings. Oftentimes, it boiled down to answering the simple question: 'do I care about this outfit I'm wearing?' and little else.
But as she stared at the reflection, her reflection stared back. Her eyes lingered on the dark red coating her entire right side in contrast with the untouched skin of her left. It wasn't just blood...it was his blood, Hercules' blood that coated her skin and clothes in that instant. Looking at herself in the mirror, no matter how hard Eighteen tried to rid the thought from her mind, no matter how hard she told herself that she'd been covered in more blood than anyone could ever hope to measure.
All Eighteen could see looking back at herself was a monster.
Author's Note:
And that's all folks! If you've made it this far then it's likely that you enjoyed what I wrote. Please drop a review and tell me what you thought. It's a staple of my work that I respond to each and every review I receive via PM, so if you'd like to talk to me about what went into this, please review!
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Until next time!