Chapter 12: Life or Death Battles on M2, Part III
All of the metal enveloping the planet M2 began to convulse and wriggle in synchronization with the infant-possessed Rild.
"D-Dammit! Rild's power has gone higher than ever before, with that infant machine mutant at the helm! A-And you said your fusion won't last much longer?" said Future Trunks anxiously.
"Yeah… Hate to say it, but I might have to sit out of this one. I spent at least three minutes in Super Saiyan 3 form battling that ridiculous Super #17 guy, so I have at most two minutes at full power," replied Gotenks, "and if we haven't gotten rid of this metal monster by then…"
"There's no time to waste on chit-chat!" yelled Piccolo, "as we speak, Rild… or whatever is in control of him, is constantly absorbing new layers of metal into himself! No doubt to protect the mechanical infant in control of his body!"
"Haaaah!" yelled Pan as she fired off a full power Masenko in Super Saiyan form, which did little more than push the possessed Rild's head back a few inches. He then shot a metal ray out of his mouth, which Piccolo narrowly managed to save Pan from by grabbing her leg and throwing her sideways.
"Metal…lizing… rays? I…. Have… Understanding… Of… This… Body, now…" said Rild as he then summoned all of the metal within a 100-mile vicinity into the soles of his feet, twisting the mass of metal into a spiral-shaped mountain of metal which he then formed a number of mouths from, shooting the metal ray in random directions.
"D-Damn! Not only has he strengthened his defense with all that metal, but he's learned to make full use of Rild's abilities! P-Piccolo-san, do you have a plan?" asked Future Trunks.
"Yes. It will be a gamble, but at the moment, you and Gotenks are the only ones with the power to deal a decisive blow to Rild. Pan and I aren't quite as worn out as he is, so we'll just scour the rest of the planet quickly and destroy any metal so that Rild's mountain body cannot grow larger. In the meantime, I need you two to use a massive amount of Zanzoken afterimages to direct his metal rays into the air and not the ground."
"Understood," said Gotenks and Future Trunks both, who flared up auras and pulled off the mass Zanzoken maneuver that Piccolo ordered, at which point Piccolo grabbed Pan by the back of her shirt and said, "It's now or never, Pan! This battle ends tonight!"
The two then set out in opposite directions, blasting any metal in sight. Future Trunks, while dodging the possessed Rild's metal rays, said to his Resistance comrades via transmission, "Mayday! It is far too dangerous for any of you to be outside! I repeat, you must stay inside our underground hideouts and never emerge, until you feel Rild's Ki abate to nothing! This will be my last command as the Resistance leader! Stay inside your bunkers, because we will be victorious tonight!"
As Future Trunks was saying this, a metal ray grazed his brown cloak and began spreading onto the rest of his clothes, at which point Gotenks formed a very small Kamikaze Ghost out of his breath and destroyed it before it could spread.
"Say, don't you think distracting yourself sending commands over the radio is a bit dangerous at a time like this?"
"H-Hahaha! In my younger days I might have thought so, but these past four years have taught me that you can't shoulder everything by yourself! I knew you would save me, we are comrades and so are the Resistance members that have fought with me for so long!"
"Heh, whatever," said Gotenks as he then said, "without turning Super Saiyan 3 my fusion should still last another ten minutes, but I'll definitely need all of my full power to blast that dipshit metal guy past the point where he can regenerate! C-Can Pan and Piccolo-san really destroy the rest of the metal on this planet before my time runs out?!"
Meanwhile, Piccolo and Pan were destroying hundreds of thousands of square acres of metal, seeing little success as some of the metal rays that missed Gotenks and Future Trunks ricocheted into random corners of the planet and hastened the spread of metal almost as fast as the two could destroy and halt it.
"Huff… Huff…" said Piccolo, "I may not have been as worn out as Gotenks, but Super #17 still did a number on my body when he forced me to regenerate everything below the neck! A-And with innocent Resistance members on this planet, we can't think of blowing them up either… Pan, how are things on your end?"
"Not much better than where you're at, Piccolo-san! Some of those metal rays are turning random parts of the horizon into metal, and he's even absorbing machine mutants to make more and more liquid metal! I-I'll run out of energy before we can destroy him!"
"Need some help… Maybe?" said a mysterious, yet familiar voice as a few thousand flying saucers descended into where Pan was blasting the waves of metal, and the one at the center opened up to reveal Motchi from the planet Lood, holding his signature whip.
"M-Motchi! What are you doing here?! Up to your old tricks?!" said Pan sullenly.
"Heh, I can't blame you for being unable to trust me after what we did to you on Planet Lood. But be assured, today your objective and mine are one and the same. We Mochans came to this planet to exact revenge on that treacherous bastard Mu and his idiot henchman Rild! That lying bastard Mu was transparent about one thing, and it was providing me with a radar to learn the locations of the other Ultimate Dragon Balls when he was using us! When we saw four of the balls gathered in this solar system, we knew your fate and ours were intertwined! Mu's treacherous ways are about to garner him the ultimate punishment!"
"He doesn't know Mu was already killed, huh? I think I better keep my mouth shut about that," thought Pan. She then said, "Okay, Motchi! You did say that Rild spread that plague whatchamacallit to you people and used you, so for now I'll let you watch my back! But if me, a Super Saiyan can't destroy all these metal lumps, what makes you think you can?"
"Fu…huhuhuhuhu… Mutchi-sama, we beseech your assistance!" yelled Motchi as he threw a whip onto a mass of metal, at which point the whip disintegrated, let loose an explosion of plasma energy, and Mutchi emerged. Mutchi then used his two whip-hands to quickly suck the energy out of a mass of metal, turning it into a brittle, copper-looking heap which then began to crumble.
"H-Holy cow! His power really is amazing! But how are you still alive? Didn't Trunks kill you?"
"Mutchi-sama doesn't transform into the whip directly, little girl. He converts himself to a mass of plasma energy and then channels the mass of energy into a suitable vessel, such as a whip of my people's tradition, when he is hibernating or otherwise in inactivity. When Lood revitalized him after he was killed and then absorbed him as a mass of energy, he was able to transfer himself into another of our whips when the rest of the Mochans were freed."
"S-Sounds complicated, but I'm not complaining! This could actually turn the tide!"
"Heh… there's one more ability that we didn't show you on Planet Lood," said Motchi as he then took out a walkie-talkie and said to the rest of the Mochans, "Comrades of the Mocha Planet! Descend into the ground now, and take out all of your whips!"
All but three of the flying saucers then descended into corners of the massive tides of metal that were engulfing the planet, and they then emerged and threw their whips onto the metal tsunami, at which point Mutchi extended his two whip-hands to lengths exceeding a thousand kilometers, sucking in a humongous mass of energy from the mass of metal engulfing M2. Mutchi grew into a humongous size and appeared to be unable to handle the overflow of energy, but then shot out streams of plasma energy, channeling parts of his body and consciousness into each and every one of the Mochans' whips. Thousands of somewhat-smaller, but still powerful Mutchi clones emerged from the whips, draining the energy from the planet-wide infestation of metal in no time. The infant-possessed Rild sensed this development, and then transformed most of his mountain body into two massive arms equipped with even more massive fists, dealing a devastating series of blows onto M2's surface.
"H-Holy cow! One blow from that would kill any of us!" yelled Pan in terror, as she barely managed to grab the Mochans and avoid the blows. A few hundred Mutchi clones were flattened by the attacks, as were most of the mountains and cliffs on the planet. The giant infant-possessed Rild then sucked all of the shattered Mutchi-clones and rocks inside his mouth, chewing them into tiny fragments before turning them to metal and then spitting them out of his mouth to form three Meta-Rild clones, which he then sent after Piccolo, Mutchi, and the Mochans (with Pan and Motchi among them).
Piccolo, knowing that he had no chance in his drained state against the Rild-clone alone, quickly flew to convene with Pan, and Mutchi did the same. The Rild-clones gave chase on the ground, turning everything they set foot on to metal slowly. Pan, Piccolo, and the Mochans were cornered before long.
"G-Got any more bright ideas, Motchi? I'm honestly pretty tired from blasting this planet all over, and I never could've taken this Rild thingy on in the first place…" said Pan nervously.
Just then, three familiar figures descended from the three flying saucers that had yet to descend onto the battlefield, revealing the three Para Para Brothers.
"Worry not, little one! The Para Para Brothers are here!" yelled Bon Para, Dan Para and Son Para, the three bumbling nemeses that Pan remembered from Planet Bihe.
"This is your plan? The Para Para Brothers?"
"Don't underestimate them, little girl. They have just the move to turn this battle around," said Motchi as he then commanded to the three brothers, "Use your Para Para Dance, now! Even Rild cannot defend from an attack if he cannot move his body according to his own will!"
"Understood! Para…" said Bon Para.
"Para…" replied Dan Para,
"PARA!" yelled Son Para, as the three got into dance formation upon taking off their armor to reveal a jukebox-like function hidden in the armor, robbing the three Rild-clones of their freedom of movement. They then said, "Even we cannot hold three Rild-bodies for long! Finish them quickly with your ultimate attacks, now! Once they're gone, stopping the overflow of metal will be a piece of cake!"
"You've got it! I really misjudged you guys, your powers are something else!" yelled Pan as she powered up as much as she could and then concentrated all of her Ki into her fist, plowing straight through the cloned Rilds' heads in one fell swoop. She then blitzed right next to Piccolo at which point she gathered the rest of her power and yelled, "Kamehame… HAAAA!" as Piccolo fired off a massive Bakurikimaha in tandem. The Rild-clones, defenseless without their heads, were completely erased, at which point Mutchi and the rest of his clones enlarged their bodies yet again and quickly rendered all but the metal surrounding the possessed Rild's main body useless. Piccolo then said to Gotenks and Future Trunks through telepathy, "We've fulfilled our end of the bargain, Gotenks! Trunks! Now is the time for you to destroy that mountain of metal! This madness ends now!"
"Music to my ears," said Gotenks as he yelled, "Continuous Die Die Missiles!" and destroyed each and every one of the additional mouths through which the gigantic Rild was shooting metal rays, after which he whispered to Future Trunks' ear, "I'm going to cause a huge explosion that will tear a hole through that huge bastard's throat! After that, you chop him to a thousand or ten thousand pieces or whatever, and I'll blast the pieces at full force! Got it?"
"Yes! I've dreamt about the war with the machine mutants coming to an end for so long, and we're on the verge of victory! I won't let you down!"
Gotenks smiled, gathered Ki into his mouth, and then yelled, "Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack… TIMES ONE HUNDRED! Blow the metal heap to kingdom come!"
A hundred Super Kamikaze Ghosts then emerged from Gotenks' mouth and gathered themselves into the gigantic Rild's head and chest area, destroying the area completely and leaving what appeared to be his core exposed. Inside was the greyish-purple infant, maturing slowly but surely by absorbing the energy contained within M2. Future Trunks saw this, and then flared up his aura and yelled, "I won't let even one of you machine bastards ruin yet another life!"
He then powered up, releasing a huge, electric aura which he then concentrated around his sword, forming a massive blade of Ki which he used the cleave the mountain-sized, halfway-demolished Rild into many pieces. Gotenks, seeing this, took a deep breath and transformed into Super Saiyan 3, yelling, "And this…. FINISHES IT!"
Gotenks launched a massive mouth blast, leveling the metal mountain and leaving barely a trace of what used to be Mu's laboratory and control spire, with only a detached, tiny hand of the Machine Mutant infant in the wake of his blast in a wasteland of withered, copper-like metal. Gotenks then spat on the infant hand and crushed it underneath his foot, stomping on it until there was no trace of it left. He then sighed and said, "Finally… it's all over…"
Just then, a rocket punch struck Gotenks in the back of his head from the direction of the outskirts of what used to be Mu's laboratory, causing him to revert to regular Super Saiyan form and collapse onto the ground, grabbing his head in intense pain.
"W-What the hell.. Was that?!" said Gotenks as he and Future Trunks turned around to see a horrifying sight. The Machine Mutant infant, reduced to half a head, had melded himself into the beheaded corpse of Super #17, which then incorporated into itself any vestige of viable liquid metal that it could find on the planet along with the tiny pieces of Super #17's brain and the contents of his skull, restoring the intact appearance of the Super Machine Mutant.
"T-That thing… has gotten inside Super #17's body?!" said Future Trunks, horrified, "H-He was enough of a threat inside Rild!"
"Yes… Yes, I was. Having integrated myself into a second Machine Mutant, I now understand… my purpose, my background. I am the last remnant of the Tsufurian race, a race brutally slaughtered by you filthy, barbaric, genocidal Saiyans. And in your selfish desire to be rid of your opposition, you slaughtered the Machine Mutant race gathered on this planet… It is time that your debt to my people is paid."
"Y-Your people?! Mu's horrifying machine mutant army damn well slaughtered a fifth of the entire galaxy! And reduced the once-prosperous, peace-loving natives of this planet to a mere five-thousand! What you accuse the Saiyans of, you've done yourselves!" yelled Future Trunks.
"I know nothing of that. Mu was seemingly a denizen of a fairly normal planet, who had a foolish dream of having his name known in the universe over. But the hatred that spawned my personality… the hatred of losing not just one, but one billion of our Tsufurian people to you filthy, simian savages… That hatred was carried on in a spore which then infected Mu, and born from the spore was me… And in the name of my people, and in honor of this 'Super #17' body which died resenting the Earthling scientist that kidnapped and cybernetically altered him against his will, but hated you Saiyans far more for killing him, I will kill you both!"
"B-Bring it on, Baby," said Gotenks as he barely managed to stand on his two legs and powered up to Super Saiyan 2, and then whipped out Trunks' sword.
"B-Baby… Yes, that's what you are! Nothing but a sad, infant parasite, always using other people's bodies and powers! If killing you is what it takes to end this madness and restore peace, I will see to it that you're dead… even if I draw my last breath today!" yelled Future Trunks as he formed another massive Ki blade, and then charged the Baby-possessed Super #17 alongside Gotenks, using the hundreds of Zanzoken afterimages to hide their movement hoping to strike Super #17's body at its vital spot again.
"Hmph, you monkeys really have no creativity at all," said Baby as he returned the rocket punch fist onto his right arm, at which point he used the liquid metal he'd gathered from Rild to create two blades on his wrists, striking each and every one of the afterimages precisely and nearly taking Gotenks and Future Trunks' heads off, a fate they only managed to avoid thanks to using their weapons to block his swings.
"You think you two are safe?! I beg to differ!" yelled Baby as he then caused his metal blades to take the form of claws, forcing the swords off of Gotenks and Future Trunks' hands before then launching his arms as rocket fists, piercing both of them in their right shoulders and crippling them. Future Trunks fainted from the impact and reverted to normal, while Gotenks barely managed to tear the clawed rocket fist out of his shoulder and then blew it up with a Kamikaze Ghost. Baby simply smirked and shot a lump of liquid metal onto the shattered rocket fist, repairing it instantly and then returning it to his side.
"T-This is bad… I probably don't even have two minutes of fusion time left, and with these injuries, not even Super Saiyan 3 will be enough to stop him! That Baby thing's made Super #17 more dangerous than ever… Is this really how it ends?!" thought Gotenks.
Just then, Motchi and Mutchi flew into the battlefield and unearthed the three-star Ultimate Dragon Ball that was in the ruins of Mu's laboratory, throwing it to Gotenks' good hand.
"You're not alone, lad! All of us who suffered under the tyranny of Mu are by your side!" said Motchi.
"Yes, we have a thousand army of Mochans… not to mention, a lot of me," said Mutchi as he then gathered all of his clones into the vicinity, who enveloped the Baby-possessed Super #17 completely and made him wither.
"Y-You… PESKY LITTLE ANTS!" yelled Baby as he shot a large wave of reddish-black energy out of his mouth, targeting each and every one of the Mutchi clones and destroying them, at which point the real Mutchi used his two whip-hands to tear an X-shaped hole into the Machine Mutant's chest. Inside was a core not unlike the one in Rild's gigantic body, from which Baby could be seen.
"Now!" yelled Mutchi as he turned back into plasma energy and encircled the unconscious Future Trunks to wake him up with the shock, before then returning to one of Motchi's spare whips. Future Trunks awakened to see a glimpse of Baby and Super #17's core, at which point he flew out of control and transformed into a Super Saiyan, punching Baby and tearing Super #17's torso skin right off. Baby said, "Tch!" and then formed a series of liquid metal spikes from Super #17's ribcage, severely wounding Future Trunks but being unable to kill him due to Super #17's condition.
"Huff… Huff…" said Future Trunks as he extended his hand toward Gotenks, saying "Y-Your Fusion hasn't expired yet, has it? Baby is definitely inside that machine mutant's chest, I think if I give you the rest of my power, you should be able to destroy it in one fell swoop! After all, from what I could see his internal anatomy isn't that different than his base form from when he was Dr. Gero's artificial human! He even has that bomb still inside hi-"
"Forget your plan, I have a better one," said Gotenks, "Motchi! I won't even need this guy's Ki, so evacuate this place as quickly as you can! But Trunks, give me your sword before you leave, mine might not have the necessary length to pull my plan off perfectly!"
"W-What are you trying to do?! A-Are you going to sacrifice yourself? I told you, we know where Baby has situated himself inside him, you just need to attack that spot-"
"If he knows we're onto where he normally keeps himself inside that thing, he'll just move his main body somewhere else like he did when we destroyed Rild. Don't worry, I don't plan on dying… After all, I have comrades..." said Gotenks as he then went Super Saiyan 3, saying "I won't even last 30 seconds in this form with how much time we've spent! Give me your sword now! This is the only way!"
"I-I've got it! I'll put my faith in you… After all, half of you is me!" yelled Future Trunks as he hurled his sword at Gotenks, at which point he took off with Motchi saying, "Don't die!"
"Heh…" said Gotenks as he saw that the Baby-possessed Super #17 had finished using nanotechnology to repair his body from the damage that the Mutchi clones did to it, at which point Gotenks charged him at full force. Baby smirked and combined the liquid metal claws on both his arms into a large broadsword and knocked Future Trunks' sword off of Gotenks' hands, at which point Gotenks simply drove the large sword straight into his own chest and grabbed Super #17's body tightly before yelling, "You… Have hurt me like no one ever has. But payback for that'll be…" said Gotenks while spitting blood, "A BITCH!"
With his one free hand, Gotenks grabbed his sword as it fell onto the ground and then pierced his own ribcage and Super #17's chest and then drove the sword further into his abdomen, rupturing both the Machine Mutant's core and the bomb inside him, muttering "Sometimes… Ya gotta take a little risk… for some payoff."
Super #17's body then bloated like a balloon before glowing green from the inside, at which point Gotenks pulled out his sword from his and his adversary's bodies as he barely managed to put his index and middle fingers on his forehead as the bloated Machine Mutant exploded, leveling the area completely and shaking the planet.
Pan, Piccolo and Future Trunks, who along with Motchi had managed to reach where the Mochans were finished dismantling the remnants of the metal enveloping the planet, heard the explosion and panicked.
"T-That explosion… You don't think my uncle and Trunks…" said Pan as tears began dropping onto the ground when she collapsed to her knees, "NO! Tell me this isn't true!"
"It couldn't be helped, Pan. With so little of Gotenks' Fusion time remaining, this was the only way," said Piccolo as he placed his hand on Pan's shoulder.
"I think you guys are jumping the gun. Gotenks assured me he wouldn't die. I would never lie to anyone who loved and believed in me about my own survival, and neither would he," said Future Trunks at which point blood began to trickle from the left side of his shoulder as Gotenks' dying, near-exsanguinated form suddenly teleported behind him, and Gotenks said, "S-Senzu… I need… a… Senzu…"
"P-Piccolo-san, you still have a spare Senzu, don't you?! Gimme, gimme!" yelled Pan frantically as Piccolo then tossed a Senzu right into Pan's palm, who forced it down Gotenks' throat as Gotenks then recovered from his wounds and jumped hundreds of feet above the ground saying, "Woohoo! My plan… actually worked!"
As soon as Gotenks said this, he defused back into Super Saiyan Goten and Trunks, who fell onto the ground, still breathless after the entire turn of events. Pan grabbed both of them and cried tears of relief, at which point Future Trunks and Piccolo both collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted from the battle.
A few hours later, the Mochans prepared to relocate to a new planet now that they could not find a cure for the Styxxan Plague in M2's ruins. Trunks, Goten, Piccolo, Pan and Future Trunks sent a recorded message to the Resistance saying that their battles were now over, at which point Trunks took out OctoPUS 9000's capsule and placed the three-star Ultimate Dragon Ball they found in M2 with the other three they gathered on the journey, saying "I suppose we're not completely out of the woods yet, with three balls still remaining… But Baby, Rild and Mu are all toast! And Goten, I take it you don't have any problems with joining us on this journey and helping us gather the rest of the Dragon Balls?"
"Heh, do you even have to ask? Why do you think I deliberately volunteered to train on Kaio-sama's cramped ass planet? It was to help you! We're like brothers, you and I!"
"Me three. With the Resistance's goals achieved, I wouldn't mind joining you on this quest so we can return to Earth afterwards. I need to get back to my own time somehow," said Future Trunks.
"Whatever the case, we're off now! And thank you for all that you've done, the Mochans killed by Mu through the Styxxan Plague can now rest in peace!" said Motchi as he prepared to take off, at which point one of his Mochan followers said, "Sir, I cannot find my spacecraft anywhere! It was lined up with the rest, and it suddenly vanished, as if someone stowed away on it and stole it!"
"S-Stowed away?! Y-You don't mean…"
"Baby!" said Piccolo, "Baby survived that explosion, and while we were distracted healing Gotenks before his Fusion would expire, he took your spacecraft! The danger… is still upon us."
"He'll be back for revenge before long…" said the four Saiyans, knowing that their greatest foe was still out there…
To be continued…