Chapter 11: Life or Death Battles on M2, Part II
Minutes after the masked stranger fetched Pan and Piccolo's unconscious bodies, he laid them onto a pair of gurneys and then flared up an aura, shouting "Haa!" and pumping some Ki into them both.
"Cough! Cough!"
"Uhhhh…." Said the barely conscious Pan, "where am I? I remember blasting those Sigma meanbeans into pieces and giving Piccolo-san my energy in case I didn't finish them…"
"Yes, you did marvelously," said the masked stranger, through a digitally muffled voice. He was wearing a mask with scarlet-colored eye-shaped slits on a white mask with a black flag and the image of a sword inscribed on it, while wearing a brown cloak, black boots and black gloves. A Doppelhänder sword was strapped to his back. He then said, "you two were moments away from being captured by Mu's patrol agents. I could not let potentially invaluable allies be captured by the enemy."
"Potential… allies? Does that mean you're part of the Resistance the machine mutants were talking about?"
"Their leader."
"W-Wow! So you've been fighting the machine mutant army all by yourself?" exclaimed Pan as she grabbed her ribcage in pain, realizing that her wounds weren't healed yet.
"You must not speak. And do exactly as I tell you to, because I have protocols in place so that if my power were ever raised for any reason, such as when I pumped you two a bit of my energy a minute ago, my specially designed belt would inform my comrades on opposite ends of the planet to raise their Ki to a similar level so as to not have this hideout discovered. I will now administer the antidote to your Namekian friend's poison, but it will be several minutes before it takes effect. When it does, I trust that you two know what to do. Do not make yourselves conspicuous in any way. This planet is watched over highly advanced satellite surveillance to the tenth of a millimeter."
"S-Sounds hectic… But you saved us, so I'll do as you say!"
"Thank you," said the masked leader as he took out a needle, administering the antidote to Piccolo and causing his darkened, lifeless looking skin to return to its original color. Just then, a siren rang, and members of the Resistance that were stationed in the base ran to the masked leader's location frantically.
"Sir, the ground above us is being bombarded by a mysterious machine mutant enveloped in a green barrier! T-They must have figured out where we are!"
"How?! We had protocols in place so that any rises in our Ki would be replicated by agents on the other sides of the globe!" said the masked leader frantically.
"I think I know what is going on," said Piccolo as he just barely managed to get up from the gurney he was laid in, "although you took measures to make sure that the exact amount of Ki you radiated would be replicated, Mu must have managed to hone onto your exact Ki signal. And even supposing you factored that in and gave the job of masking your location to people with similar Ki signatures to yours, Mu's new machine mutant must be highly intelligent… He realized that not only is this hideout not terribly far from where Pan and I passed out, but it must be masked by the few forests, canyons or other types of natural barriers that are left on this metal planet! You were too hasty. Pan and I weren't on the verge of death, you could have taken us someplace farther."
"I-I suppose you have a point…" said the masked leader, "at this point, it's sink or swim! The new machine mutant appears to have a power that none of us can compete with! He is only giving out a smidgen of his power right now, but once we show ourselves, he will go all out, and there will be no stopping him! Operation Teleportation Circle is now underway!"
"Teleportation circle? You mean that you have built some kind of warp portal that leads to Mu's base?"
"Yes. Our undercover agent, a reprogrammed machine mutant patrol robot, disguised the warp portal as a landing spot for Mu's space spies. It can only be activated from here, and it can take three people into the base at once. If the new machine mutant is looking for us here, then that just gives us the slimmest window of opportunity to infiltrate Mu's base and assassinate him!"
"I don't think that's going to be as easy to do as you say with Rild around. Having fought him for as long as you have, surely you must be aware of his power?" said Piccolo.
"I am very aware. I have fought him for the past four years without success. I have even escaped death's door many times… as you did today. If you have any medicine to restore your stamina, please do so and follow me to the warp portal! If the three of us can destroy Rild, and rescue the Saiyan captive that Mu has taken, there is a possibility that we could discover the new machine mutant's blueprints and somehow or other shut him down! I calculate this gamble has not even a 10% chance of success, but anything above zero is still hope!"
"Strange. Him knowing that Trunks is Saiyan is one thing, but it's as if he knew that we had medicine on us…" thought Piccolo, "but I suppose in this moment of urgency, now is not the time for questions."
"Are you in, or are you not?"
"Very well," said Piccolo as he took out the bag of Senzu at his belt, eating a Senzu to restore his stamina while still suppressing his Ki while instructing Pan to do the same. The two were healed, at which point the Resistance leader guided the way to the warp portal.
The masked leader then took out a series of advanced machinery, pumping the portal with enough plasma energy to start up. He then pressed the Enter key on his miniature laptop, sending the signal for the warp portal on the other end in the landing station of Mu's laboratory base to flip from its disguised form and start running. He then took out a remote from the bag the machinery came from, and stuffed it into his breast pocket.
"This is a one-time-only portal, once we make it inside we won't be able to come back. If you would like to turn back and escape, now is the time to say so."
"Don't give me that crap, stranger. Mu's defeat is as crucial to our cause as it is to yours. Pan and I are prepared for the worst."
"Very good. Then, follow me!"
The three jumped into the warp portal, ending up on the landing station at Mu's laboratory base as the masked leader said. Once there, however, the very machine mutant they were desperate to avoid was waiting next to the portal.
"W-What?! T-This can't be! Y-You were at our temporary base!"
"Fuhuhuhuhu… Dr. Mu-sama caught onto you fools reprogramming that patrol robot months ago. Unfortunately, you Resistance rat shits were still smart enough to take out any kind of tracking devices from the robot as well as disable Mu-sama's shared vision function, so we decided to let you install the portal at our base because we knew you would make your way here once cornered. I had merely detached one of my arms, which can be temporarily remote controlled for about ten minutes on its independent power supply, and then substituted the rest of my image with hologram projections to falsely give the impression that I was attacking your base! We lured you here!"
"T-This isn't possible…" said the Resistance leader, at which point he then took out the remote that he brought from the hideout, pressing it and detonating the base. To his surprise, at around the same time suddenly Mu's entire laboratory exploded as well.
"WHAT?!" yelled the Machine Mutant as he then turned his attention to the exploding laboratory, at which point the masked leader powered up and flared a powerful aura with electricity circling it in the inside and attacked the mutant, knocking him back but barely causing a small gash to appear on the right side of his neck.
"I-I don't know what is going on," thought the masked leader, "but somehow or other, undercover agents must have been able to install explosives in Mu's laboratory that were built to sync with the bombs we installed in our temporary base! I have to keep up the bluff that this was intentional, because this machine mutant appears to have a will of his own unlike the others! If he's distraught, there may be another opening!"
"You… filthy cur," said the Machine Mutant as he flared up a dark, electric aura of his own and then shot his one good hand at the Resistance leader as a rocket punch, knocking him away several miles. However, thanks to the specially designed, enhanced durability of his sword, he managed to avoid fatal injuries. Seething with rage, the Machine Mutant melted away brown, artificial skin that was covering his face, revealing himself and announcing himself: "I am the great Doctor Mu's most advanced creation, a combination of Earth's artificial human technology and the finest of Machine Mutant weaponry! Super #17!"
"S-Seventeen?!" said the shocked Piccolo, "This can't be! We've kept in on and off contact with Earth's #17, a humble park ranger! H-How on Earth did Mu end up modifying him?! If Gohan and the others were attacked by machine mutants, we would have already heard it through transmission!"
"It's been a long time, Piccolo… Or, I guess it has been in another life. As smart as you are, you must already understand what I mean."
"I-I understand! When Pilaf and his underlings busted the Room of Spirit and Time's entrance open, a space time distortion must have opened up that allowed Mu access to the alternate future! The #17 that Trunks informed us that he defeated… was kidnapped and modified by Mu!"
"Hehehehehe… It was quite a while before that that my weaker self was procured by the great doctor, actually. It has been years now since Dr. Mu began work on fusing the modified, mostly organic #17 with the greatest that Tsufurian Machine Mutant technology can possibly offer, and through years of painstaking labor the great Super #17 was born!"
"A… A fusion?! This is bad! Just fusing two Saiyans with equalized powers produced beings that could go toe to toe with Majin Boo! If Mu has managed to evolve fusion technology…"
"It means your end!" yelled the all-powerful Machine Mutant as he retrieved the rocket punch fist that he shot at the Resistance leader, grabbed Piccolo's neck before the image of himself reflected onto Piccolo's retinas even vanished, casually tearing Piccolo's neck off and throwing it in the distance. Pan, who sensed Piccolo's turmoil a second too late, went Super Saiyan and tried to launch a blast at Super #17, but the instant she looked in his direction, she was captured in a completely paralyzing fear and collapsed onto her knees, vomiting out of her mouth.
"Heh. For your meager power, your senses are quite sharp. Your body simply cannot move against me, because it knows that despite what your mind tells it to do, one step closer to me will instantly mean your end."
Just then, the masked resistance leader, with his aura flared up again, appeared behind Super #17 and tried to stab him in the back, only for Super #17 to grab his wrist simply by coiling his hair around him.
"Fuhuhuhuhu… Don't get cocky just because you've destroyed this base. Even if I cannot project what I am seeing onto Dr. Mu-sama, you're a million years too early to try a sneak attack on me. I am the finest warrior that technology on any universe can create, and that means there are no openings."
Just then, Piccolo shot a Makankosappo into Super #17's mouth, which he simply absorbed into his own being.
"Fuhuhuhuhu… Don't tell me the wise and crafty Piccolo has gotten desperate and tried the old 'if he's hard on the outside, let's see how hard he is on the inside' routine. I told you, I am without flaws. No energy attack can harm me while I have even one hand attached to myself, don't you see this on my palm?" said Super #17 as he showed Piccolo the same red energy absorbing jewel that he was familiar with from his battle with Dr. Gero decades ago.
"T-This could get rough…"
"It already is rough! But it's about to get rougher! Although don't you worry, even though you were mere ants against a dinosaur in the face of my might, you three have amply proven that you were more worthy candidates to be modified into stellar Machine Mutants than anyone else that was on this pathetic mudball! And with your sacrifice will come the gateway to Dr. Mu's dream, of ruling the entire multiverse!"
"Y-You're definitely the fusion I expected you to be, #17," said Piccolo, "but having twice your former strength doesn't mean your character has evolved with it."
"Oh please, what is this tactic? Are you trying to argue your way out of your impending cybernization?"
"Before, you were rash and impulsive, but at the same time proud and headstrong. You refused to be controlled by anyone, and your sense of self was so great that you did not back away even when faced with the likes of Cell. And even after returning from death, you carried on #16's legacy and devoted your life to protecting the animals of Earth!"
"#16? You mean Dr. Gero's defective, clunky robot? Hahahahaha! Dr. Mu-sama has given me a purpose! One that transcends your meager, tiny mind and understanding!"
"The one who has a tiny mind is you!" yelled Piccolo as he pointed his finger at Super #17, "Dr. Mu thinks so little of you that he has even given you free will rather than controlling you remotely like Lood, because even a puppet-eating giant mechanoid has more autonomy than the shadow of a person you have become! Once you were willing to defy your own creator, defy his programming and you refused to take innocent life! You instead devoted your life to the wildlife of Earth! And here you are, a mere puppet!"
"I-I did no such thing! In my original timeline, I killed you! And the rest of your friends! I killed your beloved student Gohan as brutally as I could, even letting him wallow in despair as I informed him I wasn't even at half power when I defeated him the time before!"
"And now here you are, the subject of another controlling scientist's orders! Once you had the agency to make the world your own, but now you don't even cast a shadow of your former self!"
"I-I… I have been renewed with a new purpose! And given the most powerful body! You won't get in my head!" yelled Super #17 as he raised his hand up and formed a black orb of energy with a blindingly white glow emanating from the core, which then crackled with red electricity.
"Dr. Mu wants you alive, so this will only hurt as much as your bodies can take! But don't worry, you three won't die!"
"You've bought enough time, Piccolo-san," whispered the masked leader to Piccolo as the Namekian nodded, at which point the leader flared up his electricity-imbued aura once again and charged at Super #17.
"Ha! Jumping to your death, are you?! Very well, even though I held back plenty, at this range you will definitely be blown to bits!"
"Now!" yelled the masked leader, at which point two figures rose from the ruins of Mu's laboratory and flared up Super Saiyan auras, kicking Super #17 in the back of his head and knocking him into the landing dock, blowing it up completely in a massive explosion that shook M2 and all neighboring planets.
"W-Who was that?!"
"Hello, #17… fancy meeting you here. I suppose you've come as long of a way as I have, wandering so far from Earth," said one of the shadowed figures, obscured by the smoke, which cleared to reveal a Super Saiyan Goten, dressed in a green Gi with Kaio-sama's symbol emblazoned on his shirt.
"My close friend Goten came all the way from Kaio-sama's planet in the afterlife to help me destroy this dump of a lab. Back in our day, Piccolo-san considered us the last hope of humankind. And I'll let you know why that is, soon enough!" said the other shadowed figure, which was revealed to be a Super Saiyan Trunks. He then grunted and powered up further to Super Saiyan 2, releasing a strong gust of wind.
"T-Trunks?! H-How did you escape?!" yelled out Pan, coming out of her fear-induced paralysis, "Gill betrayed you! And that projection of Rild they were showing in Mu's hallway showed a metal plate you were caught in!"
"Gill and I planned this. I knew that taking on Mu and the machine mutants head-on was tactically dangerous, so I had Gill craft a metal plate in my likeness over the past month, had Gill have Resistance members sneak inside the lab and put it where I was placed, and when I was about to blow up the laboratory as soon as that masked guy pressed the switch to detonate his hideout, Goten joined me with Shunkan Idou!"
"And… You think you're slick?! No matter how many transformations you stack onto your pitiful base powers, you won't stop me!" yelled Super #17 as he went into his full power, releasing a massive, black aura with pure white electricity shooting out into the ground, enveloping the entire planet in an electric storm. "Dr. Mu-sama wanted all of you alive, but I've changed my mind! You'll all die, and I will have your heads converted to Machine Mutant form instead to satisfy my anger!"
"I talked up a big game, but there's no way we can take him without fusing," thought Trunks, "I didn't have Goten fuse with me on the way here because there was the risk of getting caught in another poison trap or something and wasting our fusion time, but that might have been a mistake…"
The masked leader then blitzed his way behind Trunks, whispering in his ear, "For you two to have been called the last hope of Earth, you must have some sort of plan to defeat him, correct? Perhaps another stage of transformation?"
"Yeah, but we need at least three seconds to pull it off. If you can just buy us three seconds…"
"Three seconds… that'll be tough. But I'll try."
"If you insects won't come at me, I'll come at you!" yelled Super #17 as he fired off bullets from his missing rocket hand like a machine gun volley, forcing Trunks and Goten to dodge, and they then speed instantly into his range at which point Super #17 simply grabbed hold of Trunks' neck, having known that at Super Saiyan 2, he would reach him a fraction of a second sooner. He then kicked Goten away, causing him to land on metal debris.
"Hahahahaha! Your energy shall be my first delectable meal in this scrumptious revenge dish!"
The masked leader blitzed Super #17 as he said this, at which point Super #17 caught his sword with his teeth. As if he had anticipated this, however, the masked leader let go of his sword, and then yelled, "Everyone close your eyes! Taiyo-ken!"
The masked leader let out a massive flash of light, which Super #17 intercepted by closing his eyes himself, and he then shot an eye laser onto the leader's mask, saying, "Ha! What kind of ambush is this?! You think I can't close my eyes before these weaklings?!"
"You attacking me was what I was counting on," said the masked leader as his mask came off to reveal the same face as Trunks'.
"W-What?! How are there two of you?!"
"It's been a long time, #17. I came through the same portal that Mu's patrol agents took you in with. Your sister #18 was already dead, and I knew letting someone who can manipulate time and space get ahold of you was dangerous. You really thought I would let you escape me like that, after you killed Gohan-san?"
"Tch! It makes no difference, I will still have your head!" yelled Super #17 as he threw Trunks at the unmasked Future Trunks, who simply used Zanzoken to avoid his counterpart and appeared behind the distracted Super #17, driving his sword further into Super #17's mouth and buying Trunks the three seconds he needed.
"Fu-Sion…"
"No!"
"HAAAA!" yelled Goten and Trunks, who fused in the regular Super Saiyan state and released a powerful maelstrom of energy. Emerging in the massive crater that the surge of energy caused was Super Saiyan Gotenks, returning again after over a decade since his last battle.
"I must say, it's good to be back," said the newly formed Fusion warrior, who stretched a little bit before cracking his neck and blasting Super #17 with a kiai, causing him to let go of Future Trunks and fall to his knees, still shocked at the turn of events.
"Heh… Hehehehehe… I will commend you for tricking me into allowing your fusion, that much I will grant," said Super #17, "but if that was the limit of what you can do, all you've done is make yourself stronger only so I can suck out more of your energy."
"Don't get delusional. This isn't my only transformation," said Gotenks as he then took a deep breath and yelled, "HAAAA! We start off with this one!"
Gotenks transformed into Super Saiyan 2, blitzing Super #17 at blinding speeds and pushing him toward the defensive, eventually exploiting the opening caused by Super #17's missing hand and landing a kick clean onto his chin.
"Booya! And there's plenty more where that came from!" yelled Gotenks as he threw another series of kicks at Super #17, which he avoided through tracking Gotenks' movements using his advanced sensory recall, eventually grabbing onto his leg after Gotenks landed several more kicks, knocking out a few of Super #17's teeth.
"I told you you had only made yourself a bigger meal!"
"Don't get cocky. If you were in the know about Piccolo-san being the former Kami, how stupid are you to think that was my final transformation?"
"W-What?!"
"Haaaaah!" yelled Gotenks as he powered up further, kicking Super #17's hand away from his other leg, at which point his aura expanded massively and all of the clouds on the planet dissipated as a blinding flash of light illuminated the landscape as far as all the combatants can see in gold. Emerging from this explosion of power was Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks.
"T-This is the form that Freeza Force spies supposedly saw Son Goku using against Majin Boo!"
"That's right. I guess they must've chickened out and left the planet too fast when Boo wiped out the Earth's population, so you weren't aware I can pull it off too."
"This makes no difference! I will still kill you!" yelled Super #17 as he formed a massive ball of energy, far larger than the one he was using against Future Trunks and Piccolo, at which point Gotenks said, "Oh please, you can't bait me into using a massive Ki attack, what kind of idiot do you take me for?" and formed a series of Galactic Donuts with his right hand, which then encircled Super #17's power ball and squeezed it with billions of metric tons of force, causing it to dissipate instantly.
"And this… is the end."
Gotenks blitzed Super #17, first crushing his palm with a powerful punch before then elbowing Super #17's chin, knocking him high up into the stratosphere of M2 before appearing behind him and yelling, "SPIKE!", knocking him into the outskirts of Mu's destroyed lab and disfiguring his face with the indentation of a dual backfist.
"Super Gotenks… never loses!" said Gotenks as he stood over Super #17's disfigured body, completely caught in the moment of basking in the glory of his win.
"I… I…"
"What's that? I can't hear you," said Gotenks as he mockingly put his hand on his ear, "you'll have to speak up!"
"I am the one who wins, after all! Hahahaha!"
True to his word, Super #17's other hand, which all of the spectators had forgotten about because they assumed it was destroyed along with Future Trunks' base, grabbed onto the back of Gotenks' neck, siphoning his energy and then sending it into Super #17's main body as streams of yellow lightning. Super #17 smirked and raised himself up as if he were a zombie raised from inside its coffin, and then repaired his face using nanotechnology and let go when Gotenks reverted to his regular Super Saiyan state.
"Ha! Hahahahaha! It is amusing indeed how easily the tables turn, is it not? If only you had punched me a little harder… if only you had destroyed the entirety of my brain, you might have won!"
"I see… So that's your weakness?"
"Yes. Did I let that slip? There's no harm in it now that you're drained, anyway. I doubt you can-"
Gotenks flared up a red aura, hitting Super #17 with ten times the force of a regular Super Saiyan kick, and leaving him staggering.
"W-What?! How did you muster that kind of-"
"A lesson on fused fighters. We can take a lot more punishment than regular Super Saiyans, and we also have a hell of a lot of a higher threshold on the strain we can take. Combining Kaio-ken with Super Saiyan would have killed a living being, but in this body that learned Super Saiyan 3 in only a week, it was at least worth a try."
"Y-Your little attack makes no difference! I will still win-"
Before Super #17 could finish his sentence, Gotenks transformed again into Super Saiyan 3 and then kneed Super #17 on the neck, causing the small gash Future Trunks made on it earlier to tear open.
"Trunks! Give me your sword, now!"
"You've got it!" yelled Future Trunks as he hurled it at Gotenks, who then took out a capsule and took out the sword Present Trunks took from Planet Lood, driving them both into Super #17's neck and tearing his head off. He then threw both swords aside, leapt into the sky, and then threw his knee at thousands of times the speed of light and smashed Super #17's disembodied head. He then took a deep breath, gasped and collapsed to his knee, returning to his regular Super Saiyan state and doing a thumbs up to his battered allies.
"Well, well… That was a battle of many twists and turns, but in the end you pulled it off, Gotenks. You've come a long way since your battle with Boo," said Piccolo.
"There's no time to celebrate! Using Super Saiyan 3 and Kaio-ken definitely shortened my fusion time significantly, so we'll teleport right to where Rild and Mu are and finish them off before my fusion expires!"
Future Trunks, Piccolo and Pan all grabbed onto Gotenks' shoulder, who teleported them straight into Mu's underground bunker. Rild was in his base form, trying in futility to pump his energy into a tube containing a very small Machine Mutant strapped to a large cord on its bellybutton, as Mu was completely at a loss for words, grinding his teeth and merely muttering, "Baby… My Baby…" repeatedly.
"It all ends here, Mu! The natives of this planet are freed from your tyranny today!" yelled Future Trunks as he flared up an electric aura, transforming into Super Saiyan 2 and trying to slice off Mu's head. Rild separated his hands from the contraption that was linking him to the small Machine Mutant and morphed his arms into liquid metal to block Trunks' strike, at which point Gotenks transformed into Super Saiyan 2 and severed his liquefied arms before kicking Rild's head off.
"Piccolo-san! Destroy it before he can reattach himself back to his body!"
"Yes, you're smarter than you used to be! Without transforming his entire body into his liquefied form like earlier, his head's as vulnerable as Super #17's was!" yelled Piccolo as he vaporized Rild's head with a mouth blast. Future Trunks spent a few seconds glaring angrily at the man who had enslaved the planet he had fought to defend for years before closing his eyes, slicing Mu in half and saying, "It's all over… Hope has been restored to this planet."
"And here's the finishing touch!" yelled Pan as she flared up a powerful aura and threw a large Ki blast at the infant Machine Mutant, blasting it to bits and opening a large hole in the wall, through which Super #17's beheaded corpse could be seen from afar.
"Well, that was a disappointing ending," mused Gotenks was he wiped some blood onto his armband, before then turning to Future Trunks saying, "I- or, half of me, heard a lot about you! So you're the reason my father… er, half father, didn't die from his heart virus! In a sense, we owe everything we are now to you!"
"The one who owes everything is me! For four years I fought and fought, and I even lost my closest friend on this planet not even two months ago to Meta-Rild! You've single-handedly liberated this planet, no, perhaps the whole universe from Mu's tyrannical clutches! I cannot thank you enough."
"I know we're in the mood for celebrations, but when we came here we detected an Ultimate Dragon Ball amidst this planet. If it's anywhere, it's bound to be here in this underground bunker. Call Gill here, Gotenks, and we'll find the Dragon Ball stashed here and resume our journey-"
Before Piccolo could say this, an eerie, powerful surge of energy emerged from the ruins of the tube that Pan destroyed, as the pieces of the infant Machine Mutant assembled themselves into the form of a purplish-gray infant, which then muttered in a ghastly voice, "I… I… Cannot… Die… Here… Not… Until… Vengeance… Has… Been… Sought…"
"T-That thing isn't dead! Shit!" said Gotenks as he lunged at the infant Machine Mutant, which then had its eyes glow and attacked Gotenks by remotely controlling Rild's headless body and having it kick Gotenks away with a surprise attack. The infant then went inside Rild's throat, instantly converted him into his Meta-Rild form, and then sucked in all the metal in the destroyed laboratory into the combined form, restoring Rild's head.
"I… I… Sense… The… Presence… Of… Saiyan… Energy… Saiyans… I… Will…Not… Forgive…" said the as of yet premature Machine Mutant through Rild's mouth as their combined form let loose a massive, green aura...
To be continued…
A/N: I dedicate this chapter to the memory of Kentaro Miura, one of my favorite manga artists who passed on the 6th of May, 2021. May his eternal soul rest in peace.