1
The Multiverse, a place so vast that we cannot comprehend it, even in writing; a sprawling vastness of mostly nothing that is periodically punctuated with things. These 'things' are called Universes. The Universe, a place so vast that we cannot comprehend it, even in writing; a sprawling vastness of mostly nothing that is periodically punctuated with things. These 'things' are called…
Finally, the Planet, a celestial body so vast that we can barely comprehend it, even in writing… There are thousands if not tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of these that hold life. One in particular, however, is the setting of our story. This is Earth, one of twelve Earths, one for each Universe. This Earth is the Earth of Universe 8. Earth.
On this Earth, past the mountains and the cities and the plains and the deserts and the tundra, lies a workshop nestled in a place fashionably titled 'The End of the World.' Fittingly, this place is an archipelago that falls into the sea with such rapidity that the land itself seems shocked by its end. 'The End of the World' indeed.
In this workshop, which is built inside one of the jutting spires of rock, are two people. Consider them: the shorter, black-haired woman and the willowy, blonde-haired one. The former is Sara and the latter is Dróide. The former is an Earthling and the latter is an Earthling turned Android by her own hand. And so it was that these two were the focal points around which their universe revolved, even if they did not know it.
At this moment in time, frozen in perpetuity, at least for the time being, the pair stand near a workbench. Dróide has her forearm's plate swung open to reveal a chaotic and yet uniquely beautiful array of multi-colored wires and robotic circuits. With her still-functional left hand, she's in the midst of sticking a small screwdriver into it. Her face is contorted into an expression of concentration. Sara stands across from her, mouth open in conversation and eyes scrunched in apparent distaste of the machinery that made up the robotic portion of her body.
Time is released and she begins to speak.
"Are you really modifying yourself again?"
"Yes, dear."
"Are you really sacrificing your humanity for… for-"
"The pursuit of scientific perfection? Yes, yes I am."
You see, the Android was not only partially-robotic, but she was also a genius. This genius was, like many geniuses, not entirely stable in mind or character. Her parents were well-to-do and stable. Her home was large and stable. This, inexplicably, produced someone who was… less than stable. During college, she grew bored of the monotonous work that she was offered and disappeared off of the face of the 8th Universe's Earth.
They then came to the Earth's rescue during the events of Universe 8's Premier Prequel: Dragon Ball Unwritten (In Stores Now!). For those unable to afford (or pirate) a copy of Universe 8's Premier Prequel: Dragon Ball Unwritten (In Stores Now!), here's a recap for you: on a mountain shrouded by shadow, dubbed Ombragé, monks labored and lived peacefully in a monastery for centuries to offset the darkness. This proved foolish, and they were eventually placed under the control of the nefarious spirit of the mountain, Sedohr. Sedohr used their bodies to first spread the darkness further and further from the mountain and, before long, the spirit of the mountain was embodied in the form of the most powerful monk. Darkness threatened to engulf the Earth, but fast-forward to the end and Dróide defeated him at the urging of Sara. This freed the monks and the world from all of Sedohr's control, but the android disappeared before she could be recognized as Earth's savior.
In the intervening years, Dróide has further modified herself and created more ingenious inventions that still no-one besides Sara and her see. Such is the price of genius. Sara has repeatedly tried to force her out into the world and, strangely, things always seem to go awry when this happens, thus why she hides at 'The End of the World.' Anyway, her loss of biological components does not equal a loss of humanity, at least in her current form. It's more of a Ship of Theseus problem.
While all of this thinking has been going, Sara has reached out to the workbench, which is piled high with tools and scraps of machinery, and grabbed a wrench, one of good size and heft. While Dróide remains concentrated on her tasks, Sara brings it down on the back of her head with a metallic clang. It bounces high off of her skull and a metallic sound rings out, as if a tuning fork was struck against metal.
"What the fuck?!" Dróide cries as she flips her forearm panel closed.
"Someone has to stop you from being an idiot! What about your humanity?!"
"What about the Earth?"
"Is that really all you can consider?" Sara asks. "Doesn't your life have any worth outside of being a savior?"
"I'd be more than happy to cede my mantle as impromptu defender of the Earth if there were anyone who could take it up. I'm the only one standing between humanity and a thousand catastrophes…"
"What kind of a life is that? You suffer for all of them, and they offer you nothing in return! Why must you-"
Her words are cut short by a violent tremor that shakes the laboratory; tools and components come clattering down from shelves and tables, creating a cacophony of noise that nearly drowns out the automated response from the lab's systems: "Anomalous seismic instability detected," it warns, "Brace for impact." Sara catches herself on the edge of the workbench as Dróide's gyros kick in and keep her upright. Before long, the earthquake subsides just as quickly as it came. The couple share a knowing look and rush out of the lab's entrance. In the middle of the day, the sky has gone pitch dark; there's little doubt what the cause is.
"So someone's collected the Dragon Balls, have they?" Dróide says, scratching her head. "Know I should've made that radar sooner…"
As the pair look upward and wonder where in the world the dragon balls have been assembled, the answer bursts forth: Rêve, the eternal dragon of Earth, coils upward into the sky from a valley surprisingly nearby. Her wings expand outward, and the resultant blast of wind can be felt all the way at the End of the World. What words she speaks, however, don't reach as far; neither does the wish she's granting.
Sara cocks an eyebrow. "Someone's really assembling them this far from civilization…" she says.
"Why don't we go see what the lucky winners have in mind, hm?" Dróide suggests.
"Don't think we're done with this!"
Sara turns from the sky and rushes out of sight, disappearing around the rockface that constitutes the side of the lab as she heads for the ledge that overlooks the sea. There are a few sputtering bangs and then a boisterous revving before she erupts out of the overhang on the back of a sleek sport motorcycle. She rears it off of its front wheel in a show of prowess before sliding to a stop in front of Dróide.
"Get on!" she yells.
Without delay, Dróide hops on behind Sara, and the two speed off toward the valley. As the two emerge onto the verdant summer grass that delineates the start of the continent from the End of the World, the sky remains darkened and the eternal dragon remains in the sky, a fact that perturbs the both of them. The previous wishes on the dragon balls, all three of them throughout the history of Earth, were all immediate affairs; Ichha had wished for eternal life so that he could rule his empire in the north for the rest of time, Souhait had wished for eternal wealth so that he could fund his dreams, and Opto had wished to unseal the cursed letter sent to him by his father. Each of them had come to an early end: Ichha had remained elderly and senile for all eternity, Souhait had been crushed by the appearance of his obscene wealth, and Opto's letter had been burnt to a crisp. It seemed that Rêve had something of a wicked sense of humor. Perhaps, then, those who assembled all seven were simply trying to word their wish carefully to avoid past mistakes. Yet, in the back of both their minds, the pair know that nothing is ever that easy.
"Why go to all these lengths to conceal their wish unless it's something full of malice," Sara yells over the bike's rumbling.
"Right?" Dróide agrees. "Why wait, though? Couldn't they have just written it out beforehand?"
Sara leaps the bike over a rock formation, and she guns it down the slope of the valley, the bike's engine roaring. Dróide's eyes, outfitted with the latest innovations from their lab, zoom in on the area before Rêve; she screams in anger, the noise audible even above the sound of the motorcycle. Sara squints, but she can see only specks of color, three of them to be exact. Before she can ask her girlfriend for clarification, Dróide primes the glass dome attached to her palm. It flashes a brilliant crimson, but Sara brings their arm down before it can fire.
"What's going on?!" she shouts.
"Those bastards!" Dróide says. "They went and collected the dragon balls in secret!"
"You know these guys?"
"They're from my days in college, I-"
She's interrupted by a sudden blast of ki from the rightmost figure; it whizzes by Sara's shoulder, and Dróide dodges with inhuman speed. The impact is enormous as it lands, blowing a large crater in the dirt. Just as the dirt stops raining from the sky, a flash of color indicates another blast being readied. Sara slides the bike beneath it as it fires and stops just before the three figures. Dróide jumps off the bike, and she sprints straight towards them.
"What in the hell are you three here for?!" she shouts.
"Why, if it isn't our old friend, Dróide." A tall, middle-aged woman points an accusative finger at the android. "You saved us the trouble of coming to your door…"
Rêve disappears from sight, the sky lightens, and the Dragon balls turn to stone before scattering to the four corners of the Earth. A new figure has appeared in front of the three wearing lab coats, a woman with long and unkempt brown hair that runs down her back. The woman points to the new arrival, a smug smile on her face. Droide's eyes scan the threat, and she gasps audibly.
"You couldn't have…" she says, exasperated.
The three in lab coats begin to cackle. Sara, having jumped up from the bike, finally reaches Dróide; she eyes the four strangers with suspicion. The middle-aged woman stops laughing as Sara arrives, and the rest of those in lab coats follow suit. The mysterious woman remains stoic, her arms folded in front of her chest.
"Who are these guys, Dróide?" Sara asks.
"Go ahead," says the graying, mustachioed man who made the wish, "tell her who we are."
Dróide puts a protective arm in front of Sara. "These guys are old rivals, Drs. Goetta, Shaker, and Packos. They used to run Tentacorp when I was in college."
"Tentacorp?" Ali says, surprised. "Weren't they big back then?"
"We were," the third scientist, a strapping man with a large brow, answers. "That was until she got us shut down!"
"You were stealing my technology and selling it!" Dróide screams. "You also attempted to kill me numerous times!"
"You were threatening our share of the market!" the woman retorts.
"You bugged me, so I proved your practices were illegal and shut you down. You then tried to kill me for that but failed. So, as a last resort, I'd wager a guess that you've spent the intervening years searching for the dragon balls."
The woman nods. "Indeed," she says. "We'd searched all over the globe for them, and, finally, we had assembled all seven. Knowing that you had taken up residence here, we kept the full set apart until we could arrive here. See, our first instinct was to wish back Tentacorp, but we realized that, as long as you lived, there was no chance of us continuing unopposed …"
"So," Dr. Goetta continues from her left, "what wish could solve both our problems at once?"
"...an android," Dróide says, gazing at the fourth figure.
"Correct!" Dr. Packos exclaims with a smug grin. "We wished for an android that would be the most powerful being on Earth, perfect in form and in function, able to drive entire nations under heel with its power!"
Dr. Shaker nods in agreement and turns back to Dróide. "Our first order of business, however, is exterminating you. Cube, we hereby order you to kill this android using whatever means you see fit!"
The mysterious woman, confirmed by Dróide's scans to be a fully-fledged synthetic android as opposed to her biomechanical model, suddenly comes alive; her eyes, before dull and unfocused, turn sharply lucid, a cold glint coming over them as she regards her opponent. Dróide steps forward and thrusts her chest out. The height difference between the two is apparent, though, with Cube looming over Dróide, an impressive feat considering the latter's decent height. As Dróide glowers at her opponent, no expression crosses Cube's face; the Tentacorp android remains stone-faced, and Dróide's auxiliary systems register a scan originating from her eyes. As it's completed, an eerie smirk crosses Cube's face, and she shakes her head derisively.
"What a shame, I won't have the chance to use my full power…"
Her voice is metallic and cold, devoid of all emotion save for the artificial sneer that colors her words. The doctors chortle, reveling in their android's boast; however long they had struggled, it was all worth it now. Dróide, meanwhile, remains stoically glaring upward into Cube's eyes. In confusion, Sara looks between Dróide, Cube, and the doctors, her eyebrow cocked. Dr. Shaker steps forward from the three, and she shakes her head at Sara.
"You must forgive us," she says. "Your girlfriend isn't long for this world."
"Shut it before I beat your asses myself!" Sara shouts.
The doctors chuckle once more, and Dr. Goetta begins to speak, "Cube doesn't take such threats idly."
The sinister android turns her head toward Sara in a strangely stiff way; her eyes narrow in on her new quarry, doubtlessly scanning for her power level and other pertinent data. On instinct, Dróide goes to dash in front of Sara, but she's stopped in her tracks as Cube loses interest, apparently satisfied that there's no real threat to her charges. Sara pushes past Dróide, and moves for the scientists.
"I won't let any man or woman trample on my girlfriend!" she shouts.
Dróide grabs her gently at the arm and ushers her backwards. "I don't want you getting hurt, OK? Stay back, I need you for whatever comes next."
"You don't mean that you could…"
Dróide kisses her and then turns to face Cube once more. The doctors behind the synthetic android are all too pleased to see their machinations coming to fruition while the artificial being herself wears an ambivalent expression. Sara steps backward with tears already forming in her eyes; her hatred toward the doctors, however, still burns brightest of all. A powerful wind begins to kick up around Dróide and Cube, their power finally beginning to climb to the inhuman heights that set them apart. Sara brandishes an arm to block the gusts while the scientists simply stay rooted in place, their lab coats billowing out behind them. A silver aura begins to form around Dróide, and the energy composing it begins to crackle and whine. Cube forms her own aura made up of a resonant whitish-purple energy. The two women come face-to-face once more, their eyes meeting in mutual hatred. They linger like this for a moment, posturing at each other with the raw energy they're outputting.
Then, in a blink, it begins; Dróide flickers backward past Sara and puts her palms outward. A corona of silver flashes outward from them, and, in the following instant, a thin beam fires, darkening the area and rocketing toward Cube. The synthetic android doesn't dodge from its path, however; she merely stands there, a neutral expression on her face. The silver glow of the beam's energy throws her face into shadow as it approaches, but, just as it's about to make contact, Cube bats it away toward the sky with a dramatic swing of her arm. It hurtles upward before exploding into a starburst of color; after a few seconds, the sound reaches those in the valley, and the ground begins to shake at the sheer magnitude of the explosion. The doctors, calm up to now, are somewhat perturbed by the displays of force. Sara, meanwhile, is focused on the fight at hand.
Dróide remains on the offensive as she jets forward with a fist extended. It takes her only another blink to reach Cube, but it's more than enough time for her target to react. Cube twists her neck to the side, and the fist goes flying by, missing only by a matter of inches. There's another beat,
both women remaining still in their positions, before both into an all-out flurry of attacks. They exchange blows at an inhuman speed yet none land at first; each weaves around the other's attacks, their speed an even match. A breath later, however, and Cube slams her fist upward into Dróide's gut. The force of the blow brings the woman halfway off of her feet. She attempts to return the blow, unleashing a kick toward Cube's head. Her leg only finds air, however, as Cube reappears behind her. Before she can react, Dróide finds her arms wrenched behind her back; the evil android's strength is unlike anything she's ever felt.
"What a waste…" Cube says.
She lifts a few inches off of the ground with Dróide in tow before launching the woman forward at a blinding speed. As Dróide hurtles through the air, Cube takes off flying after her. The doctors roar with cheer below both androids; Sara stands with her hands cupped over her mouth in horror. Cube races past Dróide's speeding form before turning on a dime and using a hammerblow to knock her opponent back the opposite direction. She smirks and blinks out of sight, her speed too great to see; the sinister android reappears just above Dróide, spiking her downward with a fierce kick from both legs. The resultant impact resounds like thunder. A great crater has formed with Dróide's body at its center. Sara rushes forward to try and assist her girlfriend. Before she can reach her, though, Cube appears hovering just above the center.
The expression on her face is one of mild annoyance, like a child realizing they squashed the bug they were playing with. She drifts slowly downward, her arms once more folded across her chest. To the surprise of all involved, Dróide flashes to life again; she speeds upward like a rocket and drives a skull-crushing fist into her jaw. Cube's head is thrown violently back by the impact, and Dróide follows up with another powerful blow to her gut. The shot lands flush and Dróide remains with her fist driven into her opponent's stomach, but Cube has already recovered; she clamps a hand onto Dróide's shoulder and, with terrifying ease, throws her into the sky. The aura around her becomes taller before it coalesces at her right hand.
"Elimination Directive engaged!" she shouts.
A ball of energy manifests suddenly in the center of her right palm, and she hurls it toward Dróide. Sara screams out in terror as it streaks toward her girlfriend while the doctors rejoice with each other. The resultant explosion of color is even larger than Dróide's beam; it paints the sky with blinding light and shakes the ground violently.
"No!" Sara cries.