Lazuli swooped up with a pink energy barrier around her, slowly phasing out. The Artificial Human elevated herself to where Lapis laid stuck inside of a mountain of rock in a crucifix position, looking a tad out of it. Gently, the artificial woman removed her brother from his entrapment and carried him out over on her shoulders. Before a fusillade of deafening thuds made her stiffen her neck and look up.

Shock waves littering the sky with sonic booms and bubbles of bursting air so powerful that the air actually became electrified with meek jolts was the source of the ruckus. After it seemed like the collision couldn't get any louder, Super Saiyan Gohan and newly awakened Artificial Human No. 16 froze in mid-air with their elbows wound back. Time seemed to stop alongside them for a blink, but then they crashed again and the resulting shock wave expanded throughout the entire town, shattering glass panels, crumbling buildings, and wiping the surface of rocky pillars clean.

"Artificial Human No. 16, stop!" Gohan cried out, extending his hand out to pacify the awakened giant. "I'm not my dad and I don't want to fight you!"

"Personality profile missing. Searching for available personality profiles. Proceeding with the secondary default objective subroutine," Artificial Human No. 16 fixed the gauntlet over his wrist before rushing at Gohan again.

The teenage Super Saiyan weaved under the giant's swooping fist and jabbed with the back of his hand into Android 16's gut. Seeing his opponent flinching, Gohan jumped up with a high vertical kick to 16's square jaw that made the Artificial Human cock his head fully back. Spinning around a full 180 degrees while he stiffened his entire body for the strongest roundhouse he had, Gohan cried out from the intense built-up force inside his body. When his roundhouse connected with Android 16, his entire golden aura exploded at once alongside the overwhelming force of the impact that sent Artificial Human No. 16 flying aside.

Enveloped by that flashing aura, Gohan rushed in pursuit of the Artificial Human, throwing hands at both sides of 16's face. The super-powered teenager wondered if he could knock some sense into the rampaging Android. At the moment, just keeping him away from hurting Gohan or any of the other, helpful Artificial Humans would have to do. Gohan drove both his arms down with a double ax handle, sending the Android down like a meteor into a stray rocky pillar that loomed over the abyss leading up to the bubbling magma below.

A pair of detached forearms riding on the fuel of burning rocket jets came in at Gohan, forcing him to evade them mid-air as he swooped down at his opponent with a crushing uppercut into Artificial Human No. 16's gut. This hit made the Android jump up and indented his abdomen for a second while the teenage Super Saiyan glided across the ground and tripped his bulky opponent up while gliding alongside him. "Soaring Dragon Strike!" Gohan yelled out, delivering an undefended straight into 16's gut before unleashing all of his Super Saiyan power at once with an explosive uppercut into the bottom of 16's jaw.

"I don't want to fight you, but I have to hold you off until I figure something out… Kamehameha!" Gohan yelled out, cupping his hands together as he thrust both of them outward and unleashing an azure energy wave enveloping his entire body and beaming out toward the airborne 16. While the initial push made the teenager think he was successful at pushing his opponent away, at some point, the attack must've gotten stuck as the Super Saiyan began feeling an immovable wall resisting his energy wave.

"Kamehameha… Is Son Goku's technique… I am a machine with the secondary objective of destroying Son Goku…" Artificial Human No. 16 spoke as he slowly pushed through the Kamehameha wave. No matter how many more bursts of energy Gohan put into the attack, the advancing giant kept on pushing through. 16's hands burst through the wave before both of his entire arms emerged from the azure flash and grabbed Gohan into a bear hug, pressing him tightly against the adamantine body of his assailant.

Gohan tried wrestling against the immovable hold of his opponent, but, despite the rubbery grunge of the Artificial Human's muscles, his body didn't budge a single inch out of his position of this agonizing hold. Feeling his edge in raw power, Artificial Human No. 16 put more and more force into the torturous hold, tightening the squeeze around Gohan's body which forced the Super Saiyan to cry out in pain as his struggles became less technical and focused and more like those of trapped cattle in the hold of an anaconda, desperately wasting all of its energy to escape the hold of the predator. No matter how hard Gohan worked at it, with each wasted movement, 16 strengthened the hold, squeezing Gohan's lungs even tighter than a moment before.

Then, in a flash, the whole pressure faded away, and a feeling of weightlessness took over. The rampaging brute let the teenager go. Gohan opened his eyes out of shock that this bruiser would let him go, but then things began making much more sense as the giant thrust a ruthless cross into Gohan's face with hydraulic precision. The smashing hit made Gohan's face swell up with red and tears squirt in the outer corners of his eyes. Using his immense bulk and size, 16 put his entire body into a mad charge, carrying Gohan kilometers away in a blink before scooping the boy up and vaulting him over his body and bodyslamming him.

A tight grip locked around Gohan's twitching heel while the teenager hung in an upside-down position with his upper body embedded into the ruptured street. With a backside turn, Artificial Human No. 16 flung the Super Saiyan into the air before charging in pursuit of the young man and unleashing a methodical and stout beatdown of the teenager up in the air. 16's strikes weren't blindingly swift, but they worked like pump-action blasts and each one drove all air out of one's lungs and any will to resist him any further.

16 let out a battle cry. A bright white aura enveloped his entire body as the hulking Android turned himself into a human missile and rushed across toward Gohan with a shoulder slam that punted Gohan like a tiny golden bullet soaring across the region of devastated cities toward the edge of the urban area and closer near the outskirts of West City.

"You're… Not just a machine…" Gohan yelled out while wincing in pain and struggling to return to his feet so that he could intercept the ruthless killing machine advancing with methodical precision and looking to kill him. "You're Dr. Puri's son! Your mother designed you to be a human being!"

"Negative…" a cold and calculated statement smashed the verbal wall that Gohan tried building to connect with the Artificial Human. "My creator designed me with the sole purpose of capturing Chayote and killing Son Goku. You fight like Son Goku. I have identified 62% of Son Goku's movement patterns in your fighting style and you use Son Goku's signature techniques. Your genetic make-up is relatively similar to Son Goku's. For the completion of my objectives, you must be destroyed."

Placing his shoulder out, Android 16 rushed onward again, but he met something rough in his way. The square-headed brute looked up to see Gohan's hands clashing with his shoulders, which formed a competitive power struggle. Gohan ground his teeth and wore a twisted facial expression while his golden aura blasted with all of its luminosity and intensity behind him. The young man put everything he had into stopping the advance of the Artificial Human.

"I need your help and I don't want to hurt you but… I can't allow either of those two things to happen!" Gohan yelled out with his stare widening with battle madness as he shot a flying kick that rocked 16 in the brunt of his head and punted him aside. "Please, stop fighting me!" Gohan clenched his fists and placed his hands beside him as a booming pillar of energy burst into motion, beaming out all the way into space while the young man charged onward, enveloped by golden light in his head-first charge.

16's eyes whited out and his systems shorted out for a moment. The green armored vest that the Artificial Human wore over his bulky body cracked while black, greasy bile spilled from 16's mouth with the Android flying off with his gut sparking up and the metallic casing visible underneath his fleshy outer layer. The energy enveloping Gohan beamed out in the shape of an energy wave, carrying the Artificial Human back to West City while Gohan collapsed to his knees to get a breather after this intense explosion of wrath and power.

The sound of 16's boots tapping against ruined city streets got Gohan startled as he looked up to see the menacing brute advancing through entire ruined buildings by just walking through them. The Android thought little of walls, whether they be building walls or sky-reaching fires consuming the city. 16 would walk through hellfire itself if that meant getting his hands on his target.

"Stand down, damn you!" Gohan yelled out, drawing his hands back as they flashed with electrical crackles that became sparky white auras centered on his palms. The teenager extended his hands, firing off his menacing flare of energy at the enemy as the twin energy flares connected into a singular, intense energy wave.

The energy wave detonated right up in 16's face but, despite that, the Artificial Human continued to walk toward Gohan. He wouldn't have to walk too long. The teenage Super Saiyan vanished as a follow-up to his attack and appeared beside 16, just over his head, with a diving kick to the side of 16's head. The Artificial Human's head slightly tilted to the side in reaction to the kick but he turned to fix his glare right at Gohan, completely no-selling the diving kick.

The Android's eyes lit up with a flash of yellow. Eye beams gleamed toward Gohan's guarding right arm and his exposed shoulder. Everything became white and drowned in complete silence. The young man's consciousness shut down and rebooted to avoid dealing with the searing pain in his elbow and shoulder, both of them had been busted open and bled profusely while Gohan crept with his left side to avoid being crushed or walked over by the menacing Artificial Human.

"I'm not your enemy! I'm just trying to protect your mother!" Gohan cried out, wondering if his reason would breach into his opponent's thick, metallic skull if he only yelled loud enough.

"Negative. Son Goku is no ally of mine," Artificial Human No. 16 shook his head, approaching Gohan while he extended his arms out at him. "Hyper Cannon!" he yelled out. His lime-colored gauntlets sank in a flash of yellow light. A triplet of energy waves went off all at the same time as if racing toward the retreating and desperate teenager.

Gohan's grunt filled the area. His weightless body flew like a sack of potatoes before hitting the street with his injured right side and blanking out for a second. His Ki had been singed off and most of his exposed muscles showed signs of nasty bruising and burns. His arm and forehead had been cracked open and gushed red. Despite all the rampant flame and destruction around him, Gohan heard hydraulic clamps of 16's boots as the Artificial Human advanced closer to him with a one-track-minded desire to kill the young man.

"Hey, blockhead!" Lazuli's voice made 16's freeze up while Gohan turned to where the voice came from with amazement. The artificial woman rushed through the cover of smoke with blue energy shining off of her fists, delivering a barrage of punches and kicks before finishing her combination with an uppercut that expelled all the energy in her fists in a howling, cerulean whirlwind of energy that flipped Android 16 up and sent him hurling back only to land on his knees. "The old-timers kept on going about how kind and peaceful you were in life. Go figure that they are both full of shit. None of that matters now. But don't think you can just knock out my brother like that and just walk away! Gebo or not, you've done it now."

"Lazuli-san…" Gohan returned to his wobbly feet with his expression changing to something more affectionate. "Thanks for the helping hand."

"Whatever, twerp. I'm not pitching in to save you or anything. It's just that bullying my brother is my thing and I don't like this meathead getting in on it," Lazuli hissed back while the oversized Artificial Human slowly rose to his feet and began advancing to somewhere in between the two opponents he had created.

"Gebo… Personality profile identified…" Artificial Human No. 16 muttered. "High compatibility with the current system version and Artificial Human model. Downloading personality profile…"

"Tsk… I can't believe you got us to activate this busted piece of junk!" Artificial Human No. 18 clenched her fists and took off in a rush toward the advancing Android. Lazuli connected with a soaring uppercut before transitioning into an upper body beatdown. Android 16 didn't look too fazed by the attacks, taking them with silent grunts as he partly turned his body in reaction to the flurry of blows, but his knees didn't as much as wriggle.

Gohan drew his arms back and charged at Artificial Human No. 16 as well with reignited fighting passion. His voice resonated through even the howling flames and popping glass panels, as well as crumbling stone and collapsing buildings. Gohan's tiny fists went off like a machinegun barrage going off right at 16's face as the giant stumbled back following Gohan's advance. The teenage Super Saiyan concluded his beatdown with double roundhouse kicks and then punched Android 16 off his feet with a finishing cross to his face.

A pulse of golden energy went off in a ring shape from behind Artificial Human No. 16 as the menacing giant returned to his feet. In his sudden rise, he tackled the pair of fighters opposing him on the ground further away and left them scrambling to return to their feet and keep on fighting him.

"Jeez, what a hassling guy!" Lazuli hissed while taking a shooting stance and raising her dukes up to her face.

"It doesn't matter. We don't have to beat him. We just need to hold him off long enough for his personality profile to set in. You said it, didn't you? Gebo was a peaceful and kind soul, so he'll mellow out once the default profile gets replaced with Gebo's personality," Gohan explained, and braced for a grisly exchange of blows against an overwhelming foe.

Artificial Human No. 16 yelled out from the depths of his lungs as he raised his arms up and smashed them both down at Gohan. Despite Gohan calling forth all of his strength, it felt like being crushed by colliding planets, and before the painful resonance in his back finished coursing through his body, Gohan found himself laying on his back and panting with a handful of battered ribs.

16 leaned under 18's kick and tripped her up with a sweep of his massive arm. The menacing giant grabbed hold of Lazuli's heel and smashed her around the ground before flinging her aside when he saw the artificial woman having been softened up enough to not get in his way. Artificial Human No. 16 grabbed Gohan off the ground and lifted him over his head, only to slam him back down with all of his force again.

The Artificial Human tucked his forearms under his armpits, removing half of each forearm and revealing cannons within his arms. Just as Gohan's vision was clearing out and the senseless shrieking in his head was ceasing, the recovering youth noticed a flash deep inside the barrels of those hidden cannons that was escalating with intensity, spelling out trouble for anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the way of these cannons.

"Hell's Fla… Personality profile download completed. Applying personality profile "Gebo"…" Artificial Human No. 16 said, interrupting his own wrathful assault as the flash at the other end of his cannon barrels died out as the giant stayed on his feet with both of his forearm halves missing and his hidden cannons exposed. Gohan scrambled out of the way after 16 closed his eyes, only to freeze up in terror when his eyes opened again with a bright flash of light scanning through them.

"Please, 16-san! You have to help me! I'm trying to save your mother!" Gohan called out to the giant, wondering just how willing to listen he'll be now that he has applied a personality profile reserved for Dr. Puri's son.

"Impossible, you are Son Gohan, the son of Son Goku," Artificial Human No. 16 responded while reattaching his forearm halves and shaking his head. "Son Goku is a sworn enemy of my father, Dr. Gero, and my mother, Dr. Puri. It's illogical that the son of my target, meant for elimination, would wish to save my mother."

"For Pete's sake, just shut up and listen for once, you stupid blockhead!" Lazuli yelled out, flying in from 16's side with an elbow smash in the side of his cheek that sent the giant stumbling on his feet to the side while the bruised artificial woman joined Gohan's side. "This twerp went halfway around the world to turn you back on. The least you owe him is to listen to what he has to say! Stop being such a drag and listening to those commands you've got stored in that noggin of yours and live on your own for once!"

"That is a ridiculous request. There is nothing inside of my systems except commands and guidelines for my artificial intelligence to best complete them. There is nothing of my own there to act on," Artificial Human No. 16 replied. At the very least, this version of the giant was a lot gentler and more composed. Far less prone to violent outbursts and intent on killing everything in sight.

"I don't believe that to be true. Surely Dr. Puri would have at the very least tried to emulate her son's soul in your artificial intelligence. You must have free will to pass as her son. Either way, that doesn't matter now. That is something that you and your mother will have to work through on your own. But you must help us. You're the only one who can. You must talk her out of doing all of this and proceeding on this path of revenge," Gohan replied.

"Why?" Artificial Human No. 16 wondered bluntly. "Those objectives are the only reason I have programmed within me."

"Give it up, twerp, this guy's a lost cause… Let's just blast him to bits and leave the old biddy to Chayote…" Lazuli sighed, putting up her dukes.

"No!" Gohan lashed out. "Those objectives and commands you see, they've been given to you by your parents. You don't have to be what your parents set you out to be. You're not just an empty shell, you may be artificial, but you're still human too! Humans define their own path in life. If that path still includes your mother, you can still save her by appealing to her. Enough personality profiles and enough other people telling you what you are and what you have to do! It's time that you make that decision for yourself!"

"Who… I am…?" Android 16 looked at his hand and then reached for his head, cracking it on both sides to ease some damage hanging around his neck area and resume normal activity in those areas. "I have no answer to that question just yet. But the only person able to give me those answers is the woman that built me. If you say that she is in danger, we must hurry and do what we can to help her. Without her, I have no purpose for existing. Not yet."

"Well… Those are slow steps, but at least they're in the right direction…" Gohan sighed.

"For the record, brat, this is a stupid idea. Neither I nor my brother will follow you to Puri. This meathead may be an Android but he's also her son. That makes it less likely that she'll assimilate him on sight. Still, such a possibility remains. If she's lost all of her humanity, you're all going to be screwed, you know that, right? There's no way that any of you can oppose Puri with the power of this guy assimilated in her…" Lazuli floated up in the air, delivering a final warning to the two about to depart to try to stop Puri from ending up at the end of the road she's set off on.

"That's okay. I believe that Dr. Puri isn't completely lost yet. If anyone can still reach her, it'll be 16-san!" Gohan nodded, full of confidence.