"Do you think they will just let us dock?" Artificial Human No. 16 turned to his mother with a cold and analytical look. He still wasn't the fondest of the idea of attacking this cybernetic planetoid floating in open space, though the case about eliminating a potentially perilous tourist trap from the face of the universe won him over in the end. That only went as far as him pitching in to stop this mechanical star from its machinations, it didn't mean that 16 had to enjoy bringing more violence to the universe.
"I don't see why not. I believe that is exactly what they'll want," Dr. Puri licked her lips while turning her left leg over the right, seated in the commander's chair, and observing the docking procedure.
"It's disappointing they didn't send any drones to fend us off," Super One-Nine grumped out, staring at the porthole with a scorned look. "It could have been fun playing with them."
"Don't underestimate the threat, mother," Android 16 warned the matriarch of the Android family. "Just because we are incredibly powerful compared to most beings in the universe, it doesn't make this any less dangerous. We still have no clue what's going on aboard that star, how it disposes of its victims, and why it's doing any of this."
"Don't worry, Gebo, I wouldn't let anything bad happen to either of you. Don't forget, I'm only doing this because of your best interests. I want you to have a nice place all to yourselves where you can live the best possible life. Being confined to a measly cruiser spaceship your entire life is hardly any way of living. Besides, there isn't a mechanical entity in this universe I cannot devour whole and upgrade myself," Android 21 stood up and approached closer to the porthole, examining the continent-sized docking bay shell sliding up on the mechanical star and letting the spaceship they were in to land in a cluttered docking bay.
"See, big bro, they let us right in…" Super One-Nine's face colored with a malevolent grin while a sadistic glee shimmered in her light blue eyes.
An entire group of raggedy humanoids dressed with pointy-eared red hoods rushed out in front of the docked spaceship. The red hoods had holes cut out in the front through which white light beamed from what seemed like mechanical lamps installed as a replacement for eyes. One could not make much of the details pertaining to these mysterious humanoids, though they appeared to be mechanical.
"Are you going to eat them up, mother?" Super One-Nine turned to No. 21 with an excited glint in her eyes.
"I can't imagine them tasting too good or being worth the hassle. I'd much rather play along until they lure out the big fish," Dr. Puri waved her hand in dismissal, letting the red-hood-dressed cultists bustle around them with meaningless high-pitched gibberish flowing from their voice-boxes.
Artificial Human No. 16 cast a sullen stare at the red-hood machine cultists, terrifying them from approaching the tall and burly giant any closer. Super One-Nine took a fighting stance as the bunch surrounded her, though their slow and non-threatening moves kept her from retaliatory action. Much to the young Android girl's confusion, the cultists gently guided her toward the mechanical door on the western wing of the docking bay.
"My, my… Such gentlemen…" Dr. Puri cast a cheerful and polite look at the bumbling cultists she couldn't make any sense of.
"Your communicator is by far the most advanced out of all of ours, mother. You are, after all, an Ultimate-class Android. Can you make any sense of what they're saying?" Artificial Human No. 16 inquired of No. 21 as the red-hooded measly Machine Mutants guided them further and further along the relatively neglected hallways of the cybernetic star.
"Of course, they communicate in advanced 7680-bit encryption based on the Tsufurian alphabet. I'd have had a much tougher time if Frieza Army equipment I had the chance of studying didn't have Tsufurian serial numbers on it…" Dr. Puri replied without dropping her polite and stunned by the Machine Mutant hospitality socialite impression.
"Tsufurian…?" Android 16 mumbled to himself while strutting forward with a militaristic step. The terrified cultists with beaming lamp eyes just quivered from a distance they considered safe from No. 16's retaliation if he ever planned something of the sort.
"They intend on disassembling our vessel to extract every ounce of fuel from it, then burning it for energy to fuel something called "Luud". I wonder if I am translating something wrong, but… It appears they intend on draining us of energy as well," Artificial Human No. 21 said with an excited look on her face and a smile to lull the cultists into believing they had no clue about the ruse.
The hallways of this cybernetic star moved and shifted around similarly to the Capsule Corps Star. It was an entire configuration of laboratories, offices, and facilities and, to prevent the hassle of its worker bees navigating through something of a malleable size that could grow as large as a red giant or as tiny as a miniature planet, depending on the need, constantly moved around the configuration. Unlike the polished plating of the Capsule Corps Star, however, this place had a more ancient, jagged, and abandoned temple vibe to it. The steel its walls had been made of was finely polished into a biomechanical style of construction made of obsidian-colored unidentified alloy.
The final mechanical door hummed and opened into a massive room that must have been the equivalent of the core room found on the Capsule Corps Star. Instead of conveyor belts and a core engine pillar, however, this room had a colossal, demonic-looking statue made from identical material to the rest of the temple. The religious biomechanical statue was shaped like an obese humanoid with small horns and a square chin, two spread bat-like wings and four spread arms. The platforms were rusty and brass-colored while the walls were decked with horned fiend heads, skeletal or mechanical renovations. The walls looked so dark that it was difficult to say if it was the texture and color of the alloy or if the room was simply sunken in darkness.
In front of the central core statue, the platform extended to a taller stage stand where a figure cloaked in red with a black hood and a golden and red crown stood with his arms raised as if tending to his congregation of hooded cultists and terrified dancing aliens. In front of the large cardinal of the Machine Mutant cult, stood a trio of bizarre, blue-skinned humanoids with egg-shaped heads, completely stuffed inside tight red skinsuits and repeating the same dance that the congregation of aliens and cultists has been performing.
"Now that is a curious sight. I don't think the whole bio-mechanical gig quite mixes with the cult vibe though…" Dr. Puri waved it off to her children.
"They're all dancing, mirroring the movements of those three. Even the aliens look completely entranced," Super One-Nine noted, pointing at the massive crowd of aliens. While his sister and mother had been examining the scene that the cultists led them into, Android 16 had been examining the other bridges in the core engine room that had scurrying cultists scampering about with massive ship parts hanging over their heads. Sensing something suspicious almost immediately, No. 16 turned to the dancing congregation.
"Unlike those three, the dancing aliens don't seem to be enjoying their time here. They're afraid, crying, desperate for help," Artificial Human No. 16 pointed out with a stern voice. "We must stop this now."
"Hmm… I'd rather see how this all plays out, but if you insist…" Artificial Human No. 21 sighed in disappointment. "I suppose I can always analyze the machinery here myself. Oh! Maybe it has a manual file stored somewhere?"
The Android extended her hand, making a handful of cultists near her light up with sparks as an electrical jolt sparked off their bodies, completely stunning them and making their lamp-eyes switch on and off erratically. The other cultists began barking something with unintelligible gibberish, staggering off and isolating the newest group to be brought to the cult masterminds, while the other cultists were hustling and stripping their ship for parts in the landing bay.
"That's odd…" Android 21 looked down at her sparking hands. "It doesn't seem like I can sample these machines like usual. This hasn't happened to me yet."
"Oh, well… That only makes it more fun, anyway," Super One-Nine flashed a sadistic smirk before twirling off and kicking a cultist's head off, expelling sprays of machine oil and sparks that ignited it and burnt it up with green flames in mid-air. The flashy light show made the terrified cultists flee further and form a scorned circle of bumbling mechanical menaces while the big cheeses across on the platform stand finally noticed the mess their newest arrivals had been causing.
"Troublemakers? Para Para Brothers, hmm… Better wipe the slate clean now instead of waiting for the room to fill," the hooded cardinal whipped the air with a yellow, mechanical whip. A powerful earthquake locked the rebellious Android crew to the bridge while the eyes of the massive statue lit up red. In a flash, they fired a scan of a powerful violet beam with a red energy spiral that filled the entire room. The ray's brilliance elevated the dancing aliens and surrounded them with a flashing electric aura, before reducing them to toy size and dropping them down as helpless dolls.
Artificial Humans No. 16, Super One-Nine, and No. 21 both set off Android Barriers, fending off the transformative effects of the statue's Doll Ray. Further shaking the whole cybernetic structure, the core furnace of the four-armed fiendish statue rumbled open and began drawing air in with a tremendous suction force that required a massive effort to resist. An effort that the dollified victims of the cult didn't possess. Thus, the fiendish statue drew in transformed dolls by the hundreds and thousands within the energy furnace in its core before shutting closed and locking with a turn.
"This is horrible!" Artificial Human No. 16 shook with a sweaty face and a horrified expression, contemplating the hundreds of thousands of deaths of these poor souls having been drawn into the trap of what seemed like an active refueling base or a space station, only to become toys and get sucked into this massive statue to fuel the very brilliance that allured other victims here in the future. It was a perpetual energy scam. A deadly one at that.
"Hmm… I don't recall Bulma having needed to turn people into dolls and burn them up in furnaces for fuel. Then again, maybe she just never told anyone that side of the story?" Dr. Puri expressed interest in the morbid scheme of the cult of Machine Mutants.
"Troublemakers!" the largest of the three blue-skinned Machine Mutants in red bodysuits and egg-shaped heads pointed at the Android family hovering in the air. "Get ready to throw down!"
"Be careful what you wish for, creep," Super One-Nine bent her head to the side with a wide-eyed, chilling look. Visibly intimidated, the Para Para Brothers grabbed a human-child-sized barrel-shaped gadget and slammed it out and in front of them, pressing a few buttons.
"I meant on the dance floor!" the tallest and bulkiest of the Para Para Brothers declared before turning around his axis a dozen times and freezing into a flashy pose, then pumping his crotch.
"Excuse me, what?" Artificial Human No. 21 fixed her glasses.
"Hit it, Son Para!" the tall and slender member of the Para Para Brothers pointed to the short and stout one, the short one dashed to the barrel-shaped device that the Para Para Brothers put down and pressed a button while the other two brothers began a warm-up dance, swinging in place as if preparing to break it down on the dance floor.
A crimson eye laser ripped through the space and decimated the extraterrestrial musical box with a powerful blast that scattered the three goofballs all across the stage. The glasses of Artificial Human No. 21 had been hot-red from reflecting the blood-red Bionic Punisher emitted from the Android woman's eyes. With horrified expressions and quivering in fear, with the largest of the Para Paras hopping into the hands of the slender and tall one, the three brothers turned to the monstrous Android woman.
"I'm afraid most definitely not…" she forced out through her frustrated lips. "Whatever operation you are running here, it's mine. You can throw yourself out into space and vacate this space station for me, or you can perish."
"Hmph… A stubborn cow, isn't she?" the burly cardinal lashed his mechanical whip that emitted an electric hum every time it swung through the air before bursting with an ear-ripping crack upon lashing its end. A lion-like roar augmented with the clamor of a mechanical engine tore through the core chamber. "Step aside, you good-for-nothings. Be grateful that your ability to keep small-fry dancing while Lord Luud transforms them into dolls to fuel the Luud Star and send energy to the other Four Stars is of profound use to the Machine Mutants!"
"Y-Yes, Cardinal Mutchy!" the Para Paras cried out with teary eyes and stepped back.
As the curious Androids scanned the biomechanical engine room for the source of the thunderous, ripping noise, a night-blue lion with an electric-yellow mane, eyes and golden rings around its paws appeared from a vent pipe positioned inside of a double-bun motif opening in the upper walls. Roaring with a clamorous shockwave once again, the colossal lion plunged down to rip apart and smash the interlopers messing with the affairs of the Cult of Luud.
Artificial Human No. 16 dashed off into the air, delivering a rising uppercut to the jaw of the lion guardian for the Cult of Luud and manhandling the cybernetic beast. Android 21 raised her hands and lit them up with red crackles, the night-blue lion with a yellow mane let out a vociferous roar, but the Ultimate Android didn't appear to be able to devour the Machine Mutant.
"Hmm… Curious, just like with the cultists, huh? I've reconsidered my offer. You can no longer dump yourself into space. I need to study you and find out why I can't absorb you and upgrade like I can with any other technology," Artificial Human No. 21 pointed her finger at the cumbersome Cardinal Mutchy.
"Heh… You're out of your league here! Whatever backwater rock you come from, your technology can't hope to measure up to Dr. Lychee's genius. He spent entire centuries upgrading himself and Dr. Myuu and making them into the first prototype Machine Mutants. We are as far beyond mere machines as a spaceship is more impressive compared to a wooden float!" Cardinal Mutchy lashed his cybernetic whip as a warning that he would be defending himself. "Leon, rip these interlopers apart!"
The night-blue lion with a lemon-colored gemstone on its forehead roared and pounced at the airborne No. 16, forcing the muscular Artificial Human to evade the beast's claws in mid-air, then switch the direction of his dash into a body slam. The lion's own weight and strength seemed to be fully sufficient to resist Android 16's charge, leaving the blue lion stuck to the wall while Artificial Human No. 16 bounced off and slammed into the four-armed statue with his back.
"Y-You ruffian! Don't you dare scratch Lord Luud!" Cardinal Mutchy's eyes widened in terror upon seeing Android 16's sizeable shape slamming back-first into the raised overhead arm of the fiendish statue that governed this entire cybernetic star.
"You should be more worried about your own well-being," a quiet, feminine whimper reached the distracted cardinal, before he could turn to the direction of the voice, a stiff kick from Super One-Nine sent him flying off while the gothic-fashioned doll-like Artificial Human charged after the cultist leader with a punishing barrage of blows.
With both of her children engaged with these Machine Mutants, this cleared the path for Queen Bee herself to approach the four-armed colossal statue and begin examining it from the outside. The artificial woman gently felt the statue's outer layer up, noticing that it must have been made from the same material that comprised the rest of the Luud Star's interior. That could only have meant that the true source of immense power that this statue generated could only have come from the inside. This fiendish appearance of the machine was only the outer layer. A shell, so to speak.
Artificial Human No. 16 spread his arms out, forming a transparent energy bubble around him while throwing his entire body at the night-blue lion, only to be met by a resistance of equal force. With the bursting of the force field, Android 16 hurled upward and slammed through a couple of bridges leading from various other hallways throughout the station to the core statue in the main chamber. In a snap, the massive lion shocked the Artificial Human with its speed and slammed its paw down to send No. 16 crashing through a handful of other mechanical bridges with a feline smack.
"Good, good, Leon!" Cardinal Mutchy laughed out with triumph seeping from his voice. "Show them your power! Teach these primitive alien machines what an astounding mechanical marvel you are!"
The doll-like Super Android snapped directly in front of the hooded cardinal, throwing a handful of swift punches his way and making the pummeled head of the Cult of Luud stagger back on the mechanical bridge, reeling in pain. Another stiff kick bent the bulky cardinal over a railing on the side, like a piece of wet laundry hung up to dry.
"For your information, my big brother is just fooling around. He's only recently been upgraded, and he hasn't yet assimilated that surge of power into his system. Not to mention, he's a bit of a blockhead, so he doesn't even want to use that power, for some reason. He should be a bona fide Super Android class threat, more than enough to flatten the likes of you," Super One-Nine pointed out while proceeding to put the hurt on the cardinal, pummeling him with quick shots to the face, busting his body with stiff body kicks, sweeping the legs and then slamming him down with knee and leg strikes from above.
While analyzing the inscriptions on the outer shell of the Luud statue, Android 21 noted something peculiar, something that made her lean closer to it and fix her glasses to help her peer into it. Upon translating the inscription, the artificial woman gasped and looked up, only to see the lined-up cultists raising their hands over their heads. A bright white aura shined around them, sending sprinkling white stardust across to their lion guardian and the cardinal headmaster of the Cult of Luud.
"That's… Spirit energy, like the Spirit Bomb…" Dr. Puri realized.
Kicking out the residents from their new family home proved to not be quite as easy as Android 21 had initially thought.