The pair of pale figures lurking inside of the dark lab lashed out at once, without prior warning. All throughout their focused advance, they've maintained the stone-cold, apathetic glares. Neither Piccolo nor Bardock has ever faced anyone who tried to kill them, meanwhile looking like they didn't even care if they lived or died in the end.
The chubby male dashed up to Bardock, packing a wallop that crashed right through Bardock's attempts to block it. The Saiyan winced and grunted in pain as it felt like the marshmallow-faced assassin had swung a sledgehammer to break mere matchsticks. Air brushed against Bardock's cheeks, as it was tough to orient in complete darkness. It was only when total and overwhelming pain from the back took over that the Saiyan realized his enemy had moved in a split-instant right behind him.
By now Bardock had been so accustomed to being able to carry himself through a battle by tracking his opponent with their Ki that having no awareness of his enemy made the warrior's heart grow ice-cold. The overweight, extravagantly dressed assassin walloped Bardock with a stout and balanced stance, swinging from his hips rather than his whole body and barely employing feet at all. Warmth washed over Bardock from his back as the contrast between light and darkness felt tormenting.
A merciless Ki blast carried Bardock off to the whole other end of the lab, detonating in a splendid display of flash and flare. The Saiyan bruiser peeled his face up off the ground, wiping the blood and slobber from his face with his sleeve as his eyes finally focused on the enemy. A massive and weird-looking guy like that shouldn't have been able to slip away from sight and yet…
"You move pretty quick for a fatso, huh?" Bardock grumbled before taking a fighting stance. The two charged at each other, dashing over the floor of the old lab and shuffling in between various computers and test tubes, clashing in the middle of it with a thunderous smack that devastated the glass tubes and rattled the steel frames. The obese white-skin with an icy stare answered Bardock's backhanded crash with a step-in backhand smack of his own.
Yet when Bardock transitioned into an overhead double ax handle slam, he felt a soft and welcoming, utterly unmoving barrier of his hefty opponent. Something felt off. Bardock should have had more strength than that. The harder Bardock pushed, trying to overwhelm his opponent, the more the enemy seemed to feel comfortable stone-walling Bardock's attempted struggle of power.
A mighty push-kick sent Bardock rolling backward, reeling in pain, while his opponent rushed in with a clocking headbutt that flattened the Saiyan on the lab floor inside of a cracked crater. Not even when he faced Frieza did Bardock feel such immovable hardness and unstoppable force crashing his way. The sound of cloth ruffling through the sky alerted Bardock, albeit too late. The massive human cannonball slammed its rear over Bardock's lower body, robbing the Saiyan of the will to resist as the pale chubby pounded on his grounded opponent from both sides with a sadistic smirk. This may have been the first time that he showed any hint of authentic emotion.
"Your Ki is inconsequential compared to that of King Cold's, yet I will take it nonetheless." The immovable powerhouse declared as he lifted Bardock off the ground by his head, gripping it firmly in his palm. Something glassy and smooth felt like it rubbed against the Saiyan's forehead, at the very center of his opponent's palm, but it wasn't a refreshing feeling, nor was it painful. Bardock felt utterly helpless for a brink of a moment, and that single point in the center of his opponent's hand felt like the reason why that was. That was where all of his fleeting will and vigor went to.
Piccolo collided with the female assailant, exchanging blows without either fighter giving the other too much quarter. It seemed like both kept plenty of their strength back, waiting for the opponent to overextend before punishing them. The instinctual fighting talent and sage wisdom that were part of the Super Namekian made him curious if the enemy knew his strength and would have underestimated him. It was something he intended to punish if he scouted any signs of it.
The cold and calculated female pale-skin might have thought similarly. Because of her Ki reserves being an absolute mystery to everyone around her, she must have thought that Piccolo may attack her with all his might and leave himself open. Therefore, a part of her abilities remained reserved for trying to catch an unaware opponent opening up for a devastating counterattack. Then it hit him. A sense of dread, Piccolo's eyes wandered off for just a moment.
"You idiot, your Ki's evaporating, whatever you're doing–it's killing you!" Piccolo warned Bardock to change his battle plan, but that was enough for his opponent to slither all over Piccolo with a limber and highly flexible stranglehold using every limb on his opponent's body. The feminine figure clutched at Piccolo's mouth letting the Super Namekian feel something glassy rub against his lips as he felt profound weakness washing over him, a draw to just collapse to the ground as if the floor was a welcoming bed after a whole, exhausting day of work.
"You're stuck draining that loser while I get to eliminate Piccolo. After we're done, I'll be even stronger than you, 19…" the female turned her head, cracking her neck to place her face at an unnatural angle, similar to her constricting, flexible limbs that were keeping a firm chokehold on Piccolo.
"That isn't optimal. This could foil 21's instructions." The one referred to as 19 became sour of face upon realizing what his companion meant. "You heard that, Saiyan? Become angry, I need more power, call forth your full power so that I can drain all of it."
"Drain power?" Bardock smirked, expelling a golden bubble of energy as he burst with Ki in a localized explosive wave. Just like the Ki blasts earlier, the obese pale-faced man appeared to make the golden burst of energy disappear inside the centers of his palm. All that energy slurped and whirled inside of 19's body while the chubby bruiser maintained a balanced, wrestling posture. "So, that's what's going on here, huh? I bet you did a number on Frieza's pops here for years, huh? That's why you're so well-fed."
On the other side of the laboratory, Piccolo expelled a violent explosive wave of his own, throwing the female Ki-vampire off of him and leaving her sprawled out on the ground after her oddball chokehold became undone. It only took a few twitches for the young, pale-faced woman to reassemble herself into a proper fighting position, twisting, turning, and locking limbs and joints into position.
Bardock threw a brave uppercut, exclaiming his fighting spirit proudly as he attacked his thick of body and vanity opponent. 19 bent out of shape as his bulk absorbed Bardock's fist, but the Saiyan's attack rung with enough resonance to it to imbed itself into the thick fat of his opponent's body and lift him off the ground. Bardock drove both his hands down in a hammering slam, crushing 19's head to the ground and forcing the pudgy opponent to bounce off while Bardock slammed his uppercut into the bottom of the chubby's chin, sending him flying to the top of the lab's ceiling and bouncing off of it.
Enveloped in a furious, crystalline aura, Bardock spun as he delivered a soaring strike and threw a stiff kick to shatter his opponent's ribs as well. The Saiyan melded both of his hands together into a double ax handle slam and crashed 19 back into the ground, head-first, leaving the obese bruiser stuck in a compromising position as his upper body became stuck in the floor and his bottom and his legs jerked and kicked about trying to free him.
Kicking off the ground, Bardock tried driving his sole of the boot into 19's face to seal the deal of his second wind but the overweight brawler caught hold of Bardock's heel and swung him around, thrashing with Bardock's weightless-feeling body before driving his open hand into Bardock's gut and forming a Ki blast at point-blank range which carried Bardock away before detonating alongside some blacked-out machinery.
"Is that the best that you've got? We thought you would attempt and train yourself up to match Frieza's level after your embarrassment on Planet Vegeta…" 19 crossed his arms, looking unimpressed by Bardock's showing and waiting for the Saiyan to surface from under the rubble. "One-Nine, I shall eliminate Bardock and we will drain the Super Namekian's Ki together. 21 will not approve of you becoming this powerful all by yourself."
"Whatever, 19. Let's switch opponents then? I've just had a grand idea." One-Nine suggested with a shrug. Piccolo tightened his stance, hating that his opponents fooled around with them, underestimating them before the fighting was done.
"You enjoy stretching and flexing your limbs? How about this?" Piccolo hissed out, extending his arm at a drastic race toward the female assassin but One-Nine leaned to the side, gliding across the floor as he raised her hand over her head and formed an energy disc, slashing with it in close distance at Piccolo's exposed arm and removing it by the middle.
The shocked Super Namekian bawled out in torment and retracted his split-limb, grabbing hold of it as it splattered purple blood all over the laboratory's floor. 19 found this moment to be perfect to switch opponents as he dashed toward the suffering Namekian and kicked him square in the jaw, sending Piccolo flying aside. One-Nine, meanwhile, skipped like a gleeful schoolgirl closer to where Bardock had just been resisting 19's overwhelming pressure.
"Do you wanna hear my super-cool idea?" she made an expression of faux-fondness as the young, pale-faced lady leaned down to stare Bardock straight in the eyes, almost at his eye level, while Bardock worked on returning to his feet. "It'll make me more, way more powerful than 19… Maybe even more powerful than the other One-Models…"
With a rowdy growl, Bardock shot his hand out, firing an energy wave at the undergrown opponent who was taunting him by leaving herself completely open and posing right in front of him. A sadistic smirk colored the pale lady's mouth as she dashed back, racing with the energy wave before she extended her hands and stopped it in its tracks. No matter how many times Bardock tried to detonate it with its entire might, it didn't respond. Bit by bit, the entire blue flasher disappeared inside of One-Nine's fragile little hands.
"I'm gonna kick your ass until I push you far enough to become a Super Saiyan." One-Nine licked her lips, dashing toward Bardock with a crushing kick to the Saiyan's side. Even when Bardock tilted his forearm up to block the attack, it seemed like the shock reverberated throughout his entire body, cracking bones all over the place. Everything went white for a few moments because of the influx of torturous nervous signals firing up throughout Bardock's body.
"Come on," One-Nine grabbed Bardock by his collar and lifted him off the ground. The pale young lady had to levitate above ground and smack the Saiyan bruiser a few times to keep him steady. "Transform, transform, transform, transform…" she kept repeating with each front hand and backhand smack. Each of them felt like a titanium plate had smacked a watermelon, bashing off chunks out of it with each relentless and barbarous swing.
"That is not how the Super Saiyan transformation works, One-Nine…" 19 noted while exchanging blows with Piccolo who roared and regrew his lost limb in an instant. The chubby brawler smacked the Super Namekian away with a headbutt before turning to his shorter assistant. "Not even 21 knows how it works yet. The current theory states that it has something to do with emotional stimuli, similarly to Chayote's rage-driven berserk transformation."
"You're awfully well-informed, you trash!" Piccolo hissed before driving his elbow into 19's cheek and malforming the round-bodied bruiser's body. Piccolo swiped with his free arm, clawing at 19's eyes while he repeated his elbow thrust. This time to the core area, lifting 19 off the ground and forcing air out from his gapping lips and hissing airways. "Not well enough to take a Super Namekian seriously though!"
Piccolo swiped his right hand, smacking 19 rolling up in the air like a living cannonball while the Super Namekian charged after him. Like a spear, Piccolo's elbow stuck into 19's soft belly while Piccolo swiped his hands about with his claws open, once his opponent seemed flinching and temporarily blinded by his scratched eyes, Piccolo stomped 19 down before stopping himself and transitioning into a thrusting upward kick with his free leg, shooting 19 into a roll before flopping onto his face down on the floor. 19 rolled backward and recovered remarkably quickly.
"It seems that we have underestimated you, Piccolo. We were under the impression that you lost most of your power on Planet Vegeta, though our intelligence may have been a tad off. It's of no concern, we have all the tools needed to take care of you." 19 replied while charging right back at Piccolo but the backhanded smack of the Super Namekian stopped the charging heavyweight in his tracks, flinching him and opening him up again.
Piccolo skid across the air, sliding with his foot down low and making 19 roll uncontrollably in mid-air. With a resonant shout, the Namekian expelled an electric charge of Ki from his antennae, stunning his opponent in place and paralyzing his nervous system. Piccolo vanished without a trace. By the time 19 heard wind picking up, it was too late. The Super Namekian smashed into the stunned 19 from behind with a thunderous impact of an elbow charge.
"Humph… It seems like you can drain our Ki, even absorb Ki attacks, but you have to block them with your hands to do that, or else you'd have drained my paralysis technique." Piccolo noticed while holding his index and middle finger to the center of his head. The tip of his claws sparked with vibrant, demonic electricity. "Special Beam Cannon!"
19 shrieked in agony as his body bent out in reverse. The penetrating beam of energy hit him from behind, packing enough of a wallop to blow the spiky head right off of 19's head, exposing a glassy dome covering up his open brain. 19's body sparked with minute jolts for a few moments after the Special Beam Cannon had penetrated his head and flopped face-first on the ground.
"That body… What is that?" Piccolo muttered to himself as he cracked his knuckles, staring down at the lifeless body of his opponent.
"Nice… Work… Piccolo… Be right with you in a second…" Bardock chuckled to himself, battered by his petite opponent. "Get off me, ya brat!"
With that proud declaration, Bardock threw his right foot up, decking One-Nine in the nose and making the troublesome, pale teen stagger back. Not being one to let a chance to pummel his opponent into submission get away, Bardock charged onward to keep up with his successful opening. The Saiyan warrior spun around in mid-air, hitting One-Nine with a roundhouse kick before bursting with crystalline aura and switching his motion full one-eighty, sweeping the young lady down low and ruining her balance. Charging onward with a thunderous lariat, Bardock carried the pale teen away and smashed into a pile of computers and servers alongside her, grabbing hold of the youngster's collar, swinging her around, and flinging her the other way while Bardock holstered his right hand by his side.
"You were right before, you creepy bastards. I made a declaration that I won't fold to any worthless loser as I did on Planet Vegeta. This is the fruit of my training to seal that declaration, Rebellion Trigger!" Bardock charged up a blue energy sphere in his open right hand and launched it toward his airborne opponent before she could recover and take the attack all in. The energy wave enveloped One-Nine whole and rattled the entire lab, causing a cascade of blasts resonating throughout the facility and tongues of rampant flames that won't go any smaller with time to appear.
Bardock cursed and spat some blood aside when One-Nine revealed herself to be mostly unharmed and surrounded by a green energy field. Looking peeved that Bardock caught her unaware without him even having to ascend to a Super Saiyan state, the pale teen turned around and punched her open palm.
"That's it, no more playing around. Since this whole laboratory is burning down, we'll need a new toy to experiment on 'cause old man Cold's gonna go up in flames. That's fine. We were going to do away with him soon enough. We've messed him up too badly to convert him, anyway." One-Nine said.
"Convert?" Bardock raised his eyebrows. "Just stop yammering nonsense and spill the beans on what's going on here. The sooner we find that out, the sooner I can go home and nurse my sick wife back to health!"
"You're gonna have trouble with this brat, let me help." Piccolo moved in but then paused. Quivering, unable to resist some unnatural effect keeping him in place, the Super Namekian turned back and noticed a hand wrapped around his heels. "You!" Piccolo hissed, looking down at 19 who still laid prone face-down with just his hand wrapped around the Super Namekian's heel. "I pierced your heart, I made sure of that!"
"You fool!" 19 exclaimed, springing to life in an instant as he wrapped his arms and legs around Piccolo and covered the Namekian's mouth with both hands. "We are both Androids, artificial beings created based on Dr. Gero's grand design by the genius Android 21!"
"Damn, 19 got his hands on Piccolo, huh…" One-Nine cracked her neck, warming herself up for a remorseless pummeling of the Saiyan warrior before her. "So, what's it gonna be? Are you going to transform, or should I do away with you quickly? If you tell me I'll have to slurp up 19's leftovers, it'll make me really mad. I'm warning you!" the female android turned her head up, gazing down at Bardock with a psychotic look.
"It may be because Kakarot's raised himself a fine and proper young boy, but I've kind of grown to hate noisy brats…" Bardock replied, crossing his arms before him. "King Kai's Fist x 20!" he yelled out, exploding in a red aura that blasted the smoldering flames to a lower level and made One-Nine brace for a second.
"Wait, you fool!" Piccolo's telekinetic signal rung in the back of Bardock's head. "King Kai's Fist is the wrong technique here! The enemy is well-equipped for a prolonged engagement by draining your Ki while you'll be burning through your stamina. They're a perfect counter!"
"Get out of my head, you punk!" Bardock yelled, cradling his head in between his hands. "I've got no more time to waste here on some loudmouth brat and a fatso, I've got a family and a wife I love more than anything to go back to so I'm going to use every bit of my strength to crush these two freaks!"
With a cocky smirk, One-Nine prepared to engage Bardock while 19's eyes gleamed with greedy splendor as he feasted on Piccolo's Ki that he drained from his comfortable chokehold position. Piccolo tried to wrestle against it, but it felt hopeless. The draining effect made him feel sleepy and exhausted, and that revolting state would continue for as long as that lump was all over him. Having gained a great deal of power by draining both a bit of Bardock's Ki and a bit of Piccolo's, 19 felt too powerful to resist.
The strength of this mysterious enemy felt too overwhelming and sudden, Piccolo began trying to assemble his thoughts and muster up a strategy that could help them retreat and, possibly, even grab Cold's remains on their way to find out just what the heck has been going on in the shadowy corners of Earth all these years and just what sort of evil was about to emerge.