Yamcha vanished, dashing instantaneously, and slamming into Super Mega Turbo Sigma with his entire body. The instant strike sent the giant merged robot flying aside and switching its attention to Yamcha while the Earthling martial artist rippled in place again, turning his particles fluid and beginning to appear as a mirage as he attacked his opponent once more. This time, the instantaneous flash strike made Super Mega Turbo Sigma's body splash like a pool of liquified metal, which made Yamcha's hands become stuck in it.
With both of its arms, the merged Sigma slammed Yamcha's head with sideways hammering strikes, stunning the speedy combatant in place. With both of Yamcha's arms stuck in the body of the merged alien robot, he had no options for defending himself. Tiny holes opened up in Sigma's body, shooting out a swarm of iron balls that riddled Yamcha's body with vicious cracks and left the flashy martial artist slumped and battered.
"Yamcha!" Krillin called out, rushing in to his friend's aid though lagging because he didn't possess the instantaneous speed to keep up with him. "Kienzan!" Krillin exclaimed with his arm raised over his head, forming a yellow disc of energy that he sent hurling at the fighting robot fusion, but it merely passed through a liquified mass with little resistance.
"Giga Ocular Beam of Darkness Piercing Heavenly Brilliance!" Sigma chanted out with a mechanized voice as the vizor in the center of its head lit up with red colors and so did all the gem-like orbs decked around the merged mech's body. All the heated reflective sources emitted a red transparent ray of energy that merged into a bright and hot-brisk beam that set the surrounding air on fire from its intensity. Krillin bellowed in pain as the beam smacked him with the brunt of its force and sent him spinning down with scorched clothes and burns that trailed with black smoke, looking like a beaten aircraft.
"King Kai's Fist…!" Tenshinhan flexed his body to its limit, intending to push his severely injured body to produce as much strain which he could then recycle back with his Spirit Cultivation Method to amp himself up. Because of his crippling injuries, he could only push King Kai's Fist to about 5X with Hot-Red added on top. Even with such lacking bolstering, the pressure mounted to Tenshinhan's body locked him in place, as if he had the weight of the entire world stacked on his shoulders.
With a cumbersome rush, Tenshinhan took off flying toward Super Mega Turbo Sigma, enveloped in a fiery red-hot aura with a blazing core glow and trails of smoke. The martial arts master was radiating so much heat that it bent and rippled the air everywhere around him. This instantly registered in Super Mega Turbo Sigma's sensors, prompting the fused fighter to turn to his incoming opponent.
"Miraculous Mirage of Myriad Multiplication!" Sigma turned his arms around him in a dance and positioned them to the right side, bent out in front of his chest while tip-toeing with both his legs until freezing in place with his left leg bent out in front of his chest. In a flash, Super Mega Turbo Sigma split into dozens of afterimages that then in terms split into dozens more.
"Which one will it be, which one will it be?" Sigma taunted Tenshinhan, who could only scowl. If he had stayed calm and didn't set himself and his crippled body on actual fire, he'd have had the time to concentrate and try peering through the illusion with his third eye but even then, given that his opponent was a fighting robot and had no Ki to sense or track, it would've taken a precious couple of heartbeats to track his opponent's true location.
"There!" Tenshinhan turned around with his index and middle fingers pressed to his third eye. He burnt out through most of the strength, wasting time trying to find his opponent, but Tenshinhan's third eye didn't lie. Sigma's vizor lit up with a red flash and both fighters emitted energy beams from their eyes that collided in the middle with Sigma's wave overpowering Tenshinhan's in almost an instant.
Tenshinhan's eyes whited out as the returning flash became too bright to tell anything and his double-edge power-up burnt him out to the point of paralysis. Colorless images of his childhood training with Taopaipai, Crane Hermit, and Chiaotzu flashed through Tenshinhan's eyes as all time seemed to stop. Color returned to Tenshinhan's world as he could see his own excited face meeting Goku and Chayote in the World Martial Arts Tournament and facing Piccolo and the Evil Tribe together, the Demon Clan, the Saiyans, Frieza and then the Androids. Happy memories of living and training in his dojo with his students.
"Chiaotzu, we'll see each other soon…" a smirk colored Tenshinhan's lukewarm expression.
"Stop daydreaming, you idiot!" Lazuli yelled out, kicking Tenshinhan aside with a stiff roundhouse to his side while placing her arms out in front of her and taking the returning energy waves for the pummeled three-eyed warrior. No. 18's scream nearly deafened the remaining three as they stared at the cloud of smoke where the Artificial Human had just placed herself in harm's way.
Lazuli hovered in mid-air with her right side still turned in the beam's direction. She was completely singed on that side, and her body was charred with burns and scrapes, extending to the third quarter of her body. With static, choppy movement, Lazuli turned to Super Mega Turbo Sigma and pressed her knuckles, signaling that despite these gruesome injuries, she wasn't done fighting yet.
"Artificial Human No. 18…" Tenshinhan muttered as his bulged-out eyes and jarring jaw barely let him stutter anything out. He had resigned himself to death here already and yet… Even if someone could have saved him from harm, No. 18 was the last person Tenshinhan would've expected. "You saved me…?"
"Of course, you nincompoop," Lazuli turned her healthy left side to Tenshinhan with a warm smirk. "You're Krillin's friend or something, so if you kicked the bucket, it'd have sent him spiraling into depression. Krillin spends more when he's happy and smiling. Besides, anyone else would've died taking that hit, so I had to step up. That's all there is to it, got it?"
Lazuli took off toward Super Mega Turbo Sigma, who in terms activated the barrels sticking out from the back of his body and emitted flaming jets of burning fuel to send him on a collision course with the Artificial Human. The two collided against one another, exchanging blows before Sigma froze with his arm extended in front of Lazuli. A puff of green smoke spat out from the barrel sticking out from an open compartment in Super Mega Turbo Sigma's forearm.
"Stream of Super-Sound Sleeping!" Super Mega Turbo Sigma chanted out but Lazuli just smirked with boundless confidence and drove a strong right into the fused robot's gut, bending him up before double ax handling him away.
"Imbecile, I'm an Artificial Human, remember? You can't put me to sleep with some sleeping gas or whatever…" Lazuli ran her hand through the remaining left side of her hair. "Hey, three-eyes…" she turned to Tenshinhan with a sullen look on her face. "Don't go calling me Android 18 or No. 18 or whatever, like I'm some doll or a weapon. I just saved your life and I've got a name, it's Lazuli…"
"R-Right… I apologize, Lazuli," Tenshinhan nodded his head.
"There's not much use introducing yourself to each other since you're going away in a second!" Super Mega Turbo Sigma shouted out while positioning his arms up over his head while undergoing a transformation by sprouting mechanical plane-like wings on the upper diagonal side and the lower diagonal side that then further transformed into gun barrels and bent out aiming in front of the merged battle bot while his rubbery fingers popped up and revealed ten more smoking barrels. "Mechanized Machinegun Mashing of Myriad Mini-Missiles!"
All the aimed barrels unleashed blazing hell at once, overwhelming Lazuli with the sheer number of high-caliber machine gun fire streams and homing missiles coming at her at once. Just when everything seemed hopeless, Lazuli tucked her head from a booming rip of a howling detonation farther away to the right from her. With a bulged left eye, Lazuli turned to the site of utter obliteration and came to the grim realization of how close she was to being killed just now. But… How did Super Mega Turbo Sigma miss?
"Thanks for helping Tenshinhan back there, my head was too loopy, and I got knocked out for a bit by that beating I took…" Yamcha snickered. "Glad to see you fighting on our side, Lazuli."
"You… Saved me?" Lazuli blabbered, overcome with surprise.
"Guess so. I know this might be new to you but… We kind of look out for each other when we can," Yamcha rubbed his nose with embarrassment. "Can't let Krillin's hot girlfriend get herself killed when I can move in an instant, right?" he cackled in a goofy manner before getting silenced by a pulled punch to the gut from Lazuli and bending over.
"Krillin and I aren't like that. Krillin just pays for my house, my clothes, and everything I want. The only reason we're engaged to get married is to wrap him around my finger and make it official, so that he can't get away, got it?" Lazuli yelled at the reeling goofball. "I'm not your friend or whatever, I'm just looking out for my own interests here, and helping Krillin is in my best interests at all times."
"I can… See your left side blushing… You know…" Yamcha wheezed out after Lazuli frantically dashed off back to the battlefield to avoid having to face her own lies. Still, she was pretty aggressive in her denial, so Yamcha spoke only when Lazuli was too far away to hear him wheezing, just to avoid another pound.
"Funneling Flames of Fiery Ferociousness!" Super Mega Turbo Sigma chanted out, opening up hidden compartments in his forearms while spewing out jets of flames engulfing the entire ruined wasteland and drowning it in walls of fires that reached the skies and erupted in vicious firestorms. Krillin and Tenshinhan lowered their hands that they had crossed up and covered their faces with only to see them standing around on both sides of Yamcha who dragged them away in an instant.
"Yamcha, you're back in action!" Krillin pumped his fist.
"Thanks to you. By making Sigma liquify again with your Kienzan, you let me slip out of his grasp. He got me pretty good, so I was still loopy for a bit, but I can't sit around feeling sorry for myself," Yamcha nodded with tilted corners of his lips.
"Sorry, everyone, I feel like I'm just getting in your way," Tenshinhan scowled.
"Nonsense, you can still use Spirit Cultivation to keep fighting with King Kai's Fist, right?" Krillin turned to Tenshinhan.
"There's another option, actually. Though I'm hesitating to use it after I've become indebted to Lazuli for my life. I could fire my most powerful Spirit Cultivation Cannon, putting my vital energy and my very own life on the line. If I recycle that spent life energy back with my Spirit Cultivation Method, I could regain a lot of my lost strength and get back to nearly full power," Tenshinhan explained.
"Hmmm… We're kind of having our butts handed to us here so we might need whatever we can get, but… Are you sure you want to put your own life on the line, Tenshinhan?" Krillin turned to his friend.
"In the moments leading up to what I thought was to be my death, I had the defining moments of my life flashing through my eyes and… I think that I have lived a satisfying life and accomplished as much as I could. My only regrets would be that I never had the chance to test my skills against all of you, also Chayote and Goku again, but I'd get to meet Chiaotzu in the Otherworld too…" Tenshinhan nodded with solemn acceptance of the risks involved.
"Hmm… This guy seems to have a perfect response to my Instant Movement with his liquifying ability, so I'm not sure how much more useful I could be than pulling you guys out of the line of fire," Yamcha sighed. "Could you power up more by multiplying and absorbing your clones again, Krillin?"
"I might, but…" Krillin scratched his head with a drop of sweat running down his forehead. "It's not a sure deal. It's math, you know… When I produce a healthy clone, power-up, and merge, I can create a more powerful original until the swelling Ki bubbles down and balances out. But if I murk up the Ki even more by splitting and merging, especially now after having my face busted by that guy… I might end up way weaker than I even originally started."
"Enough!" Tenshinhan swiped his arm to the side. "Lazuli doesn't have much time, who knows for how long she can hold her own against that merged behemoth. I'm putting it all on the line because there's no other option."
"Yesh, when was the last time a guy pushed all of us this far?" Yamcha sighed and cracked his neck to both sides while rolling his knuckles. Krillin smacked his cheeks and toughened himself up before Yamcha reached out to both of their backs and used Instant Movement to dash back to the battlefield.
A nasty scene of Lazuli enveloped in a cocoon of liquified iron, turning her into a half-burnt punching bag while Super Mega Turbo Sigma danced, bobbed, and weaved around it while throwing nasty jabs, hooks, and haymakers at her greeted the returning members of the Dragon Team.
"You asshole…!" Krillin seethed. With one devastating haymaker, Super Mega Turbo Sigma knocked Lazuli's limp body out from the layer of liquified metal by splattering the metal all around and hardening them back into its original iron ball shape. While Krillin swooped down to grab Lazuli, the balls all rushed back and merged with Super Mega Turbo Sigma's body while the invincible battle bot flexed before his struggling opponents who, so far, failed to find their chance for an opening.
"In this form, we can even pressure General Rilldo himself! Mere Earthlings like you stand no chance against the Titanic Merged Fighting Form of Super Mega Turbo Sigma!" the merged mech flexed, switching between the individual poses of each of the Sigma Force members. With his arms lowered and hanging by his side, Tenshinhan lifted off the ground and centered himself over the battlefield. "Huh… What's this now?" Super Mega Turbo Sigma chanted while tracking the now ant-sized bleep on his radar that had a waned energy signature.
"Again and again we end up fighting powerful warriors who would threaten Earth and again and again they make the same foolish mistake and end up paying for it," Tenshinhan mumbled to himself. "It is because you're making the same mistake that I am confident that everything will work out and Earth will be saved from Machine Mutants. King Piccolo, the Evil Tribe, the Demon Clan, Saiyans, Frieza and his family, Lord Slug and his minions… All of you keep underestimating Earth!"
Tenshinhan put his hands together by the tips of his fingers and thumbs, then he opened them up and focused his third eye to peer through the opening. This made it look as if he zoomed the view through the opening between his fingers while remaining in the same place and barely doing anything at all.
"New Spirit Cultivation Cannon!" Tenshinhan yelled out before beginning to channel and build up power in the rest of his body. He didn't have the Ki to perform the move anywhere near full power, so he had to wager his own life force in order to pull this move off in even its weakest incarnation. He had little life to speak of left, so even in the best-case scenario, he'd have a lousy shot at defeating Super Mega Turbo Sigma. Though the thought of the merged behemoth feeling pressured by Tenshinhan's new ace move made the life-threatening risk somewhat sweeter. Yellow electricity crackled around Tenshinhan while veins rippled throughout his body and a white-clear aura ignited around his body.
"Wh-What!? That energy… It's absolutely spiking! Unbelievable!" Super Mega Turbo Sigma let out a mechanized yell while staggering back in mid-air. Every system in his body demanded a retreat, but the merged intelligence of the Sigma Force members overpowered the countless artificial intelligence prompts with a direct command to stand here and face the threat. Artificial intelligence could never comprehend the concept of pride. There was no possible way that, having just pulled off the rare occasion of a four-member fusion, Super Mega Turbo Sigma would retreat from something as meek as a handful of Earthlings.
Not to mention, with how swiftly the energy reading was spiraling out of control, Super Mega Turbo Sigma doubted he even had the time to retreat from the incoming blast.
"Tenshinhan… That's… Absolutely incredible!" Krillin gasped while his face twitched in shock at how much power even a cornered Tenshinhan could produce.
"That's the power of an Earthling pushed to a corner. An Earthling martial artist fighting to protect their home. Go, Tenshinhan, show those goons why you're my favorite rival!" Yamcha pumped a fist with an excited look on his face. This wasn't a technique that the three-eyed warrior would pull off during a friendly competition but seeing someone in the same dimension of power as him being capable of cultivating such unparalleled strength rivaling if not surpassing the Super Saiyans… It made Yamcha excited and eager to pick up his training, push himself to the limits again, and see how far up the tower of strength he could dash.
A golden aura sparked around Tenshinhan that soon enveloped the entire upper hemisphere in a blinding flash of light. The New Spirit Cultivation Cannon wasn't just an energy blast, it was an all-encompassing pressure of untethered energy. It wasn't just Tenshinhan's Ki; it was his very life essence, the sum of his fighting spirit, everything that he was as a man and as a martial artist all flung right at his opponent. Super Mega Turbo Sigma hunkered down, declaring to itself that it would withstand any blow that these Earthlings could fling at it, but the moment the golden pressure enveloped him, the merger realized just how out of its depth it was.
With an uncompromising stomp of force, Tenshinhan flattened Super Mega Turbo Sigma into the ruined wasteland that was once Orange City, leaving the humbled battle bot battered and mangled on the ground, sparking with electricity from loose plugs and all of its sensory systems rebooting at once. This was not it, however, Tenshinhan howled again, releasing another pulse of energy, then another, then another… With each vicious pound, drilling Super Mega Turbo Sigma deeper and deeper down and lodging more and more scrap out of the busted bot.
Each successive pulse widened the square-shaped crater that Tenshinhan drilled his opponent into, forcing Krillin, still holding Lazuli, and Yamcha to promptly flee from the battlefield to avoid getting caught in Tenshinhan's life-threatening gamble.
"You… You, dumbass!" Lazuli called out, turning back but failing to see Tenshinhan high in the sky, breaking his body apart and burning through every speck of energy sustaining the bodily functions and keeping the flame of life blazing in his chest. Her burnt right side had been too injured, with her artificial flesh being completely charred over her steel skeleton. "I saved your life…! You owe it to me! You owe it to me, damn you."
A trail of tears extended down Lazuli's left cheek since her right side had been thoroughly singed to a crisp. Krillin closed his eyes, struggling against his tears while Yamcha was getting choked up too, but each of them knew they had to flee the scene to a safer place from which they could survey what came out of this reckless gamble. If Tenshinhan died–they'd be unable to bring him back again, that thought persisted in the thoughts of both Earthling martial artists.
And then… The rumbling, the quaking, the flashing, the roaring, and the ripping destruction. It all went quiet with just a greyed-out image of petrified Tenshinhan hovering above the ground. His arms were frozen halfway between flopping limp by his side and the position of his New Spirit Cultivation Cannon.
Tenshinhan's life force was spent.