The gentle tongues of flames spewed cinders into the reddening noon sky that was shrouded with smoke. Krillin blinked away, slamming his forearm into Android 15's while Lazuli dashed right behind him. The bald martial artist hopped up while Android 18 slipped down under him with a slide that tripped No. 15 up.

Krillin expelled an explosive wave of energy out of him, knocking Artificial Human No. 15 aside before drawing his arms back and pressing them by his side. "Ka… Me…" he chanted out while Artificial Human No. 18 pointed her index and middle fingers at the airborne Android and expelled a Finger Beam. No. 15 halted his wild flight and leaned out of the way of the incoming attack only for Lazuli to repeat it again and again, keeping him occupied with dealing with her Finger Beams.

"Mastered Kamehameha!" Krillin yelled out, thrusting his hands out and releasing the stored energy in a cerulean blast that engulfed the entire fighting stage in its intense luminosity. No. 15 back-handed No. 18's latest Finger Beam away before diving into the skies to avoid Krillin's amazing new form of Kamehameha. Krillin snickered, waving his tensed-up arms upward and bending the beam to pursue the Android from down below.

"You should learn some new tricks, been usin' that for decades already, man," Artificial Human No. 15 expanded his arms out, forming the Android Barrier field around him, but Krillin bent his Mastered Kamehameha out of the barrier's way. Touring around the barrier, the energy wave went off into the atmosphere while No. 15 ceased his Android Barrier and prepared to rush the lively tag team.

"Already did…" Krillin replied, curving the Kamehameha wave even further as he sent it back down at Artificial Human No. 15. The bald martial artist expelled an additional burst of force, channeling all the way through the Kamehameha beam that released a potent blast at the end. This split the curved and bent Kamehameha into a scattershot downpour of energy beams. "The Mastered Kamehameha isn't just a power-up of the original, it's not just Bending Kamehameha either. It's all of them in one."

A cerulean cascade of concussive combustions littered the sky. The emanating shock waves and static electricity fields leveled the burning buildings of the abandoned mining town and snuffed out the flames. Within the epicenter of that blast zone stood Android 15 with his arms crossed out in front of him. He revealed himself still tensed up and clutching for his life, his flamboyant outfit tattered, his shades left in shatters with just one long vizor with complex calculations stretching over the area where his eyes should have been.

"Man… I need a drink…" Artificial Human No. 15 panted after realizing that the merciless nature of the blast had subsided and that he could, at last, relax his overtaxed body.

"Don't start slacking off just yet!" Android 18 teased her opponent while dashing in from the side with a deafening headbutt. No. 18 grunted, and a booming shock wave sent him rolling across the skies away from his opponent. Lazuli dived in with a cross into his middle section, then transitioned into a roundhouse kick before double-ax-handle-slamming him down into the ground and lowering her open palms to take aim at him.

"Infinity Bullet!" she chanted out. A pink energy sphere blinked in and out of her open palms before solidifying for good and spewing a barrage of smaller Ki blast spheres at her downed opponent from up high. The energy blasts began pelting the fallen Artificial Human mercilessly before he could even form an Android Barrier to protect himself. Pink domes littered the background, leaving deep craters in the scorched ground around the battlefield with Android 15 laying sprawled out in one of them.

"You fools!" Android 15 grunted out after rising back on both feet and shaking his fist at the sky where Android 18 peeked at him with her hand, shielding her eyes from the smoke and dust to have a clearer view of her opponent. "Ruined my hat, ruined my drink, getting yourself involved in my hit-job… Just all-around annoying assholes, the lot of you!"

"How are we the bad guys by protecting Lazuli from you trying to murder her?" Krillin squinted at the feisty little murder-bot.

"She's a danger to society. We all live in a society, so she's a danger to all of us, fool! Android 18 and Android 17 worked with Dr. Puri to subjugate our society and turn us all into cyborgs. Just 'cause you grew up in a monastery and can't get it on with a normal girl that's not a murderous robot, don't change that, fool!" Android 15 pointed an accusatory finger at Krillin.

"You've been turned into an Artificial Human despite me and Lapis leaving our old work behind and the old hag having taken off to space. Seems to me that whether we function or not, people will still sometimes get turned into robots either way," Android 18 shrugged.

"I ain't no people," Artificial Human No. 15 barked at the floating Android. "I'm fully artificial. I'm neither an Android nor a cyborg, I'm fully robotic. I've been modeled after a toy that one of the founders of my company used to play with as a child that's become somewhat of a lucky charm for him."

"Oh… Kinda like Artificial Human No. 19, huh?" Android 18 scratched her head. "You seem to give Puri & Co a bunch of flack, but you guys are just ripping what we did off."

"I'm gonna rip a whole lot of things off 'a you off. Right after I murder that damned fool!" Android 15 spread his arms and legs out, forming a static teal electricity field around him. The little toy-man hunched over, drawing his arms and legs in into an almost fetal-like pose while the fluctuating static electricity fields began converging in the center and forming a teal energy sphere that expanded with each new fluctuation adding itself onto the equation. "Murder Ball!" No. 15 yelled out after directing the energy ball to levitate in front of him and propelling it at Krillin with a vertical halo ring of energy, kicking it into rapid motion.

Android 18 dived onto the ground and dashed beside Krillin, raising her hands over her head and then thrusting them forward with open palms while producing a yellow energy blast in them. Meanwhile, Krillin ignited the Red-Hot aura as well as the mighty burst of King Kai's Fist around him and drew his arms back, channeling a Kamehameha of fiery orange color.

"Energy Cannon!" Lazuli chanted out while expelling the charged Ki blast as an intense yellow energy wave right toward the hurling teal Murder Ball.

"100X Hot-Blooded Kamehameha!" Krillin yelled out, stressing his body to the very limits as he thrust his arms forward. The mere fiery sphere in between his cupped hands expanded into the size of a flaming nova dome that burst outward in a tunneling pillar of energy. The combined attacks clashed with the Murder Ball for a second before expanding all over it and swallowing it up. No. 15 didn't have the time to gulp before the rushing tunnel of force engulfed him, utterly obliterated him to bits. Only a handful of measly microchips scattered across the ground.

Krillin grunted and coughed up, collapsing on one knee. The arm supporting his full weight wavered and shook. The tendons around his whole body began tearing up at an alarming rate from the measliest of causes, at the hint of the slightest tension to the muscle. Lazuli approached Krillin and helped him up.

"You idiot, why did you have to go overboard like that? I could've handled that by myself, you know…" Lazuli murmured while stroking his aching and twitching muscles to ease them a little by accelerating the blood flow in the area.

"Heh… Heh… I guess you really do care about me…" Krillin chuckled with a pained wince before transitioning into a goofy cackle at which point No. 18 jumped off of him as if she had scolded her hands on a boiling kettle or something. With the sudden shift of weight transition and nobody being there to help him handle it, Krillin fell flat on his rear before stretching out and panting while staring at the sky with a rich smirk on his pain-ridden face.

"You dumbass, if you break your body, you won't be able to work and make us money," Android 18 crossed her arms. "That's all I meant by that…"

"Right…" Krillin sat up and stared at the smoldering microchips on the floor that had survived the blast. "We should probably take those to Bulma to check out. I bet she can find out who made them and where."

"Forget it, I'm not coming near that self-righteous nerd. I've had enough to deal with from one of my own…" Lazuli rolled her eyes. "Do you have your own place I could crash in while you handle the delivery service?"

"Well…" Krillin rubbed the back of his head with a goofy chuckle. "I've been crashing here and there… You've got to understand that I was moving a lot while looking for you…"

"Ugh… I knew it. Fine, I'll crash at that old man's place then," Lazuli took off, leaving Krillin to limp up to the scattered microchips and gather them one by one off the ground before limply taking off toward West City. He seemed to have lucked out as a violet energy beam enveloped him shortly after taking off and beamed him off into space.


"Well, are you trembling in fear yet?" Super Vegeta turned his face sideways while grinning at his opponent. "Here I've got a power that surpasses even the legendary might of Super Saiyan. Together with the royal blood of a Saiyan super-elite, it makes me the ultimate..."

Artificial Human No. 14 vanished, appearing directly overhead Vegeta while dropping at him with a crucifix-shaped body slam. The impact made Super Vegeta flinch, though it took little time for him to recover and return to the fight. He clashed with Android 14 only to receive a straight to the lower abdomen, then a cross to his jaw. A rocking uppercut socked Vegeta flipping into the air. His powerhouse of an opponent vanished away, appearing right in front of Vegeta, and shot a knee to his face.

Super Vegeta expelled energy from all throughout his body, halting himself and redirecting his next strike, answering the next kick with a knee block and leaning out of the way of the following pair of uppercuts. No. 14 burst with teal energy all around him and slammed against Vegeta with a body gleaming in energy before grabbing hold of his shoulder and flipping him over to the other side only to slam Vegeta's upside-down body into his knee by the king's shoulder and fling him aside.

"You talk too much…" Android 14 stated with an emotionless face while observing his scrounging opponent with his amber-colored eyes.

"I was giving you a chance to beg for your…" Super Vegeta dragged his glove across his blood-stained lip but was once again interrupted by a shoulder charge. This time the King of Saiyans answered with one of his own, colliding with his opponent into a power struggle. A sudden shift of weight balance made Vegeta subject himself to No. 14's control as the Android released all tension and let the Saiyan royalty push him freely while he leaned down and shot his feet up into Vegeta's gut while the Saiyan stumbled.

Android 14 scooped Vegeta's head from the air by grabbing his hair and pulled him in for a slam of his elbow into Super Vegeta's forehead. The cruel powerhouse flung Vegeta like a rag before spinning around his axis and slamming his elbow full force into Vegeta's upper chest. The radiant Super Saiyan gasped for air as his eyes blanked out for a second and he flew off, crashing through multiple buildings and leaving a deep ridge in the ground.

No. 14 raised his arm, tensing his hand up like a blade and imbuing it with a green field of static electricity before swiping it downward in a vertical slice. This released a teal-colored crescent-shaped slashing projectile that the bruiser hurled toward the fallen Saiyan king. Vegeta exploded with golden luster and rocketed off into the sky, avoiding the slashing projectile that sliced clean through an abandoned police hovercar that was in its way and exploded.

Dashing right at his opponent, Vegeta slammed his fist into Android 14's jaw, then drove another straight, having moved past the point of just bragging and being punished for it. The king delivered a decimating uppercut that knocked even the burly No. 14 off his feet and left him floating in free-fall. Super Vegeta didn't let his opponent rest on his laurels, whipping a stiff kick into his wide-open ribs before positioning himself above his opponent and delivering a vicious, almost mechanical beatdown that delivered Artificial Human No. 14 right down into the dirt.

Super Vegeta's rage didn't subside once Android 14 hit the ground. He thoroughly kept on pummeling Artificial Human No. 14 further, grinding him through the pavement and into an underground metro station where the ground under No. 14's back collapsed into. Super Vegeta descended near his fallen foe with his beefy arms crossed over his chest as he stared at him with silent wrath in his eyes.

No. 14's eyes shot wide open as he kicked up off the ground with minor bruises and looked back at Super Vegeta again. The king expected some sort of threat or an acknowledgment that the Android had underestimated his new transformation, but instead, he received a high kick. Vegeta blocked it with both arms but he didn't expect a teal energy burst from a minuscule Ki blast his opponent left behind him on the ground to flinch him up.

Vegeta grunted in pain as No. 14 kicked him right in the back, slamming his body against the station ceiling and bouncing it off of it. Artificial Human No. 14 drew his hand back, producing a Ki blast, and flung it at Super Vegeta, detonating it at a relatively close distance. Before the rattled king could fully recover, his opponent dived from up above with another crucifix body slam and transitioned into a mounted double ax handle beatdown that dug Vegeta into the crater in the station grounds.

No. 14 flipped Super Vegeta up and knocked him back out into the city with a double ax handle slam. Just as the Super Saiyan was beginning to feel the brush of wind against his bruised cheeks, his opponent appeared before him with a follow-up punch, then kneed Vegeta in the stomach and punched him back down on the ground. From up top, Android 14 rammed Super Vegeta into the ground. Utterly manhandling his buffed-up opponent, Android 14 picked Vegeta back up only to headbutt him three times and thrashing him further with a flurry of blows before concluding his wicked combo with a shimmering with teal energy, power-packed haymaker that sent Vegeta flying.

Vegeta let out a pathetic yelp, laying in a pile of rubble on his back. The beatdown had busted his armor on the upper left side while it just barely hung over on his right side and left his whole body littered with bruises. Android 14 appeared right behind him, locking the king's arms behind him as he prepared to make the arrogant king submit to him before he sprained each one of his joints and broke all of his limbs at once. This didn't appear to be the case, as Android 14's lock began slowly unraveling, one forceful twitch at a time.

When it seemed as if the lock was almost broken, Super Vegeta threw his head back, stunning his opponent with a back headbutt before the king dashed up and kicked No. 14 in the neck and slammed his open palm right into Android 14's face only to shift his weight entirely into driving the Android down and slamming his head into the ground. Like an upward shooting star, enveloped in a golden comet tail, Super Vegeta took it to the air and stretched his arms to the side, producing golden energy spheres in each hand that he thrust in rapid succession before cocking them back for another thrust.

A downpour of golden energy blasts rained down upon the fallen and stunned Android 14, lighting up the entire street level of the Central City in golden domes that burst into vivid fireballs once their luster grew thin. Positioning his arms over his head, Super Vegeta produced one more massive Ki blast, easily a dozen times the size of the last barrage, and flung it at his fallen opponent, producing a fireball that surpassed the surrounding buildings in size and produced earthquakes and tidal waves on a whole different side of the planet.

"I am Super Vegeta, a Super-Elite King of all Saiyans!" Vegeta bellowed out at fire, smoke, cinders, and rubble. "No one is on my level! I won't stand for it!"

Android 14 soared out from the smoke with his arms stretched out, seeking to clothesline the King of Saiyans, but Super Vegeta crossed his arms and collided with the rushing Android. The two titans smashed their foreheads against each other, producing electricity around them as Vegeta gnashed his teeth in sheer hatred of this poser that dared challenge his position at the top of the world. Unexpectedly, Android 14's left eye winced, and the brute fumbled back, giving Vegeta his opening.

Super Vegeta answered with a thorough flurry of fists on both sides of his opponent's jaw, before uppercutting him and vanishing over his opponent's head to overhead kick him down into the smoke and blaze of the street level. Vegeta roared out, exploding with a golden outburst of force before diving down with a soaring cross into Android 14's chest that bent the Android's core out of shape and made him spout out black bile from his mouth.

Like a possessed machine gun, loaded with sheer wrath and vanity, Super Vegeta began battering his opponent with a merciless rush of fists, beating him further and further into the ground. With the final touch of his combination attack, the king produced a shapeless golden Ki blast in his right hand that he slammed right into Android 14's chest, detonating it point-blank and making golden rays burst from underground all over Central City before the entire street blew off like a lid of a boiling pot. A geyser of flame and power reduced asphalt to specks of heated dust falling out from the sky while Super Vegeta dashed out from the crater and panted heavily over the body of the bruised Android who laid with that unchanging stern look on his face with his eyes closed.

This much wasn't enough, Vegeta won't stop until that cocky bastard was just nuts and bolts. Artificial Humans were just about the only type of foe that permitted the King of Saiyans to be as brutal as he wanted to be without having to deal with the Earthlings' sentimentality and nauseating mercy.