Gero frowned to himself as he digested the information before him. As he'd requested, his Supercomputer had provided a full, comprehensive report as to the status of the Android project, and true to his somewhat fuzzy memories, the current state of affairs was…not ideal.

He sighed, massaging his temples as he felt a migraine starting to shape up. It certainly didn't help that the information before him was, unintentionally, causing a level of cognitive dissonance. The blasted memories of that old life, particularly as it pertained to the 'source material' of his current existence—the existential nightmare of being an apparently fictional character in a supposedly fictional universe wasn't helping things either—was clashing fiercely with his own knowledge of the situation.

His old life's knowledge of the Androids had been sparse, not at all helped by the fact that so little of it, and the timeline around it, had been elaborated on by the source material. There was next to no material available about Androids 9 through 12, dubious canonical material related to Androids 13 to 15, and no concrete timeline available for the acquisition and/or construction of Androids 16 through 20. Then, of course, there was the nightmarish headache of figuring out how Android 21 fit into things…

Confound that old persona of his! Why couldn't that lazy jackass have played a simple fighting game to learn the full story there?! Or read up on it after the fact? It would definitely be handy right now to know what information, if any, existed about Android 21 and her origins! Especially since she was based on his own ex-wife, who apparently was slated to die in the near future, so why—!

Gero heaved a frustrated groan and abruptly tore himself away from that derailing train of thought. He couldn't afford any distractions right now, no matter how vexing they were. Circling back to the Androids…

The clash between his lack of knowledge in his old life, and his extensive, detailed knowledge here was creating some headache-inducing cognitive dissonance, but it was just something he'd have to power through. Hopefully he'd be able to better adjust to any more hurdles thrown up by these troublesome new memories.

So, Androids 9 through 12 were abject failures, and had been completely dismantled in the years past. Android 9 in particular had been a vanity project insisted upon by that idiotic Commander Red, who had wanted an artificial android model based off of him. Thank goodness that prototype had been demolished during the destruction of the Red Ribbon Army Headquarters.

Hmph. If his new memories were good for one thing, it was confirming his suspicions that, all along, Commander Red had been a blithering idiot. Honestly, wasting a wish from the Dragon Balls on something as petty as growing taller?! Staff Officer Black had had every right to shoot the man dead for that!

Regardless, Android 9's prototype had been lost at the Headquarters, and Gero had purposefully scrapped any remaining schematics for the mechanoid. Androids 10, 11, and 12 had been similar failures, though for different reasons. He'd still been trying to perfect the personality matrixes for the androids, and his experiments with them had resulted in utter failures. Android 10 had been far too gullible and stupid to tolerate, and thus had been scrapped; meanwhile, Android 11 had been too damn nice and cheerful and preppy, and worse still, malfunctions from her personality matrix rendered her unable to follow any of his orders, so he deactivated and dismantled her within the day; and finally, Android 12 had been so dour and dark, with much of that faulty persona caused by a malfunctioning positronic brain, and that in turn had ultimately left him unable to function.

Now, Androids 13 to 15…that's where things got a little more interesting.

It seemed some vestiges of that anime movie were 'canon' to the worldline he inhabited, as Androids 13, 14, and 15 had the same models as they did there. And unlike Androids 9 to 12, these set of Androids were fully operational, albeit in a deactivated state. Unlike the earlier series of Androids, he had not fully dismantled these mechanoids. Still, they weren't the perfect creations he was searching for.

But…strangely enough, the flaws that he had seen in them in the past seemed so petty and minor now. It was almost as if he were looking at them with fresh eyes.

Regardless, he had been working on other projects for the better part of a year now. Which brought him to Androids 16 to 20.

Android 16 was still in the prototype phase, and would not be completed for at least another year. Gero had been putting a lot of care and attention toward this particular model, given its importance to him. And even then, Gero felt a strange reluctance to put Android 16 out into the field. He objectively knew that his son Gevo was dead, and that Sixteen was simply modeled after his son's physical appearance. And yet…

Well. Regardless, Android 16 was a ways off from completion. As was Android 19, in all honesty. Android 19 was closer to completion, compared to his 'brother', but he was still a ways off from activation. Not to mention that now, Gero would have to start over from scratch with him. The weakness of the Energy Absorption Model of Androids was proven clear with his new memories, so Android 19 would need to have his own Infinite Energy Reactor installed into him. As would the Android 20 model for that matter. If he was still going to install himself into a new body, Gero wanted it to be as strong as possible, and clearly an Energy Absorption Model would not make the cut.

So, all said, that just left Androids 17 and 18. Now they were going to be a problem.

Currently, the beings formerly known as Lapis and Lazuli were in suspended animation. He'd already performed most of the surgeries needed to convert them into biomechanical androids, including installing the specialty Infinite Energy Reactors into their bodies. Seventeen and Eighteen were, in essence, the perfect combination of mechanical engineering and human biology. But their initial activation had led to…complications. At the time, Gero had believed their modifications made them harder to control, and so he had immediately deactivated them.

Now, of course, he knew better. And with the full benefit of his new memories, well, it seemed utterly foolish to believe Seventeen and Eighteen would ever react any other way. He had treated them like glorified lab rats, kidnapped them, and turned them into mechanoid monstrosities. Why wouldn't they hate him and seek out his death?

And in at least two separate timelines, they had managed to kill him.

Gero grimaced at the thought, and once again berated the previous iterations of himself. His foolish actions with Seventeen and Eighteen set the stage for his death in multiple timelines, and even here, there was still a degree of danger. If the two of them ever awoke again, he was almost certain they'd try to kill him. Which left him with quite the pickle on his hands, given how pivotal they were toward the final completion of his magnum opus, Cell.

Cell…

One thing at a time. He'd circle back around to him later.

And finally…there was no official Android 21 in production. No schematics existed, no prototypes, nothing. What that meant for him and his ex-wife, Gero was uncertain, but it left him ill at ease all the same.

So, in summation: he had three working Androids that he had deemed imperfect and thus relegated to eventual destruction, two Androids that would kill him at the first given opportunity, and a further two Androids—three if he counted his Android 20 model—still in the prototype phase, with no chance of completion in the near future.

"Well," Gero muttered to himself. "I'm downright fucked right now."

An overstatement, perhaps, but it encapsulated how he felt.

Gero gave a disgruntled sigh and settled into a nearby chair, brooding over the results before him. He had all of this foreknowledge to take advantage of, all of these secrets of the universe previously unknown to him, and he couldn't even capitalize on it!

Well, that begged the follow-up question: what did he even want to do with this goldmine of intelligence?

Gero drummed his fingers against his forearm, seriously considering the matter. His other persona's knowledge of the source material wasn't encyclopedic, but he knew enough to be able to take advantage of certain things. Gathering the Earth Dragon Balls for any use would attract immediate attention from Son Goku's allies, but they weren't even aware of Namek yet. Plus the Namekian Dragon could grant an extra two wishes!

…And he had absolutely no idea where Namek was.

Well, alright, there was still the spaceship the Nameless Namekian used to arrive on Earth. The coordinates to Namek had to be on the ship's computer system, right? And if his other memories were correct, it was located somewhere in the Yunzabit Heights. He could use his operational Androids to grab it and study its inner workings in minute detail, and grab the coordinates to Namek at some certain point.

Ah, but the ship only operated with Namekian commands. And he did not know the language, nor could he hope to learn it from anyone on Earth. Well, anyone who would want to teach him, anyway. Well, that was fine, he'd just take the ship apart and use it as a model for his own brand of spacecraft!

…

Well, now he was just getting ahead of himself. First off, did he want to build his own spacecraft? Second, did he really want to disrupt the timeline that much by stealing the ship? There was no telling how close of an eye Popo and Kami kept on the ship, as well. He was fairly confident his Androids could fight both of them with ease, but he still didn't want to attract any undue attention. Were three wishes from the Namekian Dragon Balls really worth that much of a risk?

And there was the elephant in the room: the Namekians themselves. They wouldn't hand their Dragon Balls over willingly, and while Gero was confident his creations could take on the average Namekian, they were not yet at the power level needed to surpass Nail. So going to Namek would only end in failure.

Okay, Namek was a bust, at least for the time being. He could always steal the Dragon Radar and use it to track the balls himself. But that begged the question: what would he even Wish for? Restoring his youth might be nice, but ultimately pointless if he still planned on placing himself into an Android body.

Perhaps he could use the balls to gain control over Bulma in some fashion? Now that was more of an enticing proposal. He'd knock out a key ally of his enemies and create a strong new partner for himself in one fell swoop. Alas, he had no idea if the Dragon Balls were even capable of magical mind control. He had the faint recollection that they couldn't force people to fall in love; was general mind manipulation off the table, then?

Of course, he didn't have to use magic to gain some control over Bulma. He did have…other methods at his disposal. Something to consider for the future, perhaps. But they felt less secure and permanent, as compared to magical mind control.

At the end of the day, though, any crack at getting the Dragon Balls, no matter how carefully he planned it, ran the risk of alerting Son Goku's allies. Whatever he might want to use the Dragon Balls for, that was attention he could not afford. Not when his position was still so precarious.

Okay, so no Dragon Balls period right now. What other advantage could he acquire from his newfound knowledge?

Gero grimaced, no ready ideas leaping to mind. His other persona had been…less than knowledgeable about the original series, including all the mystical elements that might offer him some advantage. Probably best not to meddle with magic, anyway. And there was no guarantee that items and concepts from the movies, such as the Tree of Might for instance, existed in this worldline. So there was no point in making any overt plans to acquire such items or power-ups.

Then there were the things he knew of that he just couldn't capitalize on whatsoever, due to a variety of reasons. Fusion, the Namekian power to unlock one's hidden potential, using gravity chambers to accelerate training, so on and so forth. All virtually worthless to him or his Androids.

Wait. Could his mechanoid Androids use fusion? Did that ritual require both participants to be organic in nature? Hm. Something to experiment with later, perhaps.

At any rate, he'd have to think long and hard about what knowledge he could use to his advantage. Better to focus on the more immediate threat of the Saiyans, anyway.

Speaking of…

Gero knew that the smart play would be to let things proceed as he knew they would, and use his foreknowledge to give himself a leg up over his foes. He could let Goku and his friends take care of the upcoming Saiyan invasion, let them go to Namek in their subsequent quest to revive their fallen comrades—and this time make sure to send the spy bug to record their battles in space—and improve upon his own plots. He'd never awaken Seventeen and Eighteen, and instead work on perfecting the designs for Sixteen, Nineteen, and his own android body. By the time Gero added the battle-data provided from Namek, he and his loyal androids would be able to wipe out Son Goku and his allies with ease.

…But of course, that brought up a rather thorny issue here. The fact that with time travel involved, he couldn't just trust in this modified version of the Grand Plan. If Bulma Briefs survived his future attack, it was almost certain she'd invent time travel, and find someone to go back in time to circumvent his plan, if not go back herself to stop it. That in turn opened the door for some variant of Cell to come into play, and Gero was honestly unsure if his strongest creation would listen to any orders that went against his overriding desire to be perfect. Or, frankly, if he'd listen to any orders after attaining perfection.

He could always make sure to kill Bulma Briefs, or otherwise compromise her, but even that didn't guarantee no interference from a wayward time traveler. For all he knew, some variant of Trunks would show up regardless, even if it wasn't his past. After all, this wasn't technically time travel, but multiversal travel instead. Going back into the 'past' merely created a new, branching timeline that left the previous timeline unaltered. That, or the dimensional traveler merely traveled to a worldline that already existed—

"I fucking hate time travel," Gero growled out, gripping his long mane of white hair. "I swear to God if I ever see the Supreme Kai of Time, I will strangle her myself!"

And of course, all of this presumed he stayed a silent party to the Saiyan invasion and the events on Namek. Which…well, to a degree, felt like a waste. And, quite honestly, a dangerous risk as well.

After all, there was no guarantee that events would play out as his memories foretold. The mere presence of them in this worldline was a big change in and of itself, and that incidental change could lead to massive butterflies that radically altered the future he thought he knew. For all he knew, going with inaction could inadvertently lead to a timeline where Vegeta emerged victorious over Son Goku, which would almost certainly end with him blowing up the Earth. Not to mention that there could be other changes present to this worldline that he was as of yet unaware of.

And who even knew what specific continuity he belonged in. GT? Super? Some abominable mix in between?

Well, the existence of the Red Pharmaceutical Company in his primary memories testified that, if nothing else, this worldline leaned toward the Super continuity. Which didn't help him all that much, given his old persona had never actually watched, or read, the Super anime or manga…

Oh, blast it. He could worry about continuity far, far later down the road. Besides, threats like Majin Buu, Beerus, and everything else were so far away as to be insignificant to him right now.

So, then. His androids did not have any conventional ki signatures that could be sensed by either the scouters the Saiyans used, nor by the allies of Son Goku. Meaning that they would be able to sneak up on the fighters, and they wouldn't be any wiser until it was far too late. Thus, he could use the distraction of the Saiyan invasion as a prime opportunity for an ambush.

Gero would need to work hard to ensure that they were sufficiently upgraded and ready by the time of Vegeta and Nappa's arrival, of course. He still had battle data from Piccolo and Goku's fight against Raditz to upload into their combat matrixes. Plus, Androids Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen didn't have the new model of Infinite Energy Reactor he'd created for Android 16. And he still needed to perfect the absorption technology that would allow Android 13 to turn into Super Android 13 upon the probable destruction of his comrades. That would all take a great deal of time to do.

But between those factors, he could easily increase the battle strength of his Androids to at least Nappa's power level, and Super Android 13's potential power to Vegeta's current level. Or, so he hoped. He wouldn't know for sure until he uploaded the data and ran some tests. Perhaps they'd be stronger, perhaps they'd be weaker. Without actually doing it, it was hard to say.

Hm. Could he get access to a scouter? Alien tech like that would give him a leg up in building better battle data parameters for his Androids. Didn't Bulma currently have Raditz's scouter? In which case, there was no retrieving it, not unless he could steal it from her. But of course that also ran the risk of potential exposure…

Well, thoughts for later.

Gero nodded to himself, feeling the pieces of a masterful plan falling into place in his head. As much as the thought of working alongside Son Goku or his friends pained him, it was a better alternative to taking the chance that things would work out exactly as his new memories had foretold. At least Goku wouldn't blow up the planet if he won against Nappa and Vegeta. So, he could prepare his Androids for eventual combat against the Saiyan incursion.

And he could use this alliance of convenience to infiltrate Son Goku's inner circle. Perhaps playing the long game with Son Goku was the better strategy in general: using the threat of the Saiyans, he could plant himself, or rather his Androids, as beneficial allies for the 'heroes' of Earth. Then, when the time was right, he'd have his creations betray Son Goku, and achieve the revenge he'd been working so hard for.

Still, that would likely have to wait until after Namek. Namek itself was a goldmine for potential battle data acquisition, and Freeza was too much of a threat to Earth's future survival to go unaddressed. But after, there would be a great reckoning against Son Goku and his allies.

He'd just need to make sure and include Bulma on his list of priority targets to eliminate, when the time came. At least he could nip the possibility of her inventing time travel in the bud, at least in this particular worldline. And if a meddlesome time traveler still showed up? He'd deal with it then.

Hm. Speaking of meddlesome troublemakers, he'd have to keep an eye out to see if any foes from the movie continuities came before the Saiyans arrived. The last thing he wanted to deal with was an invasion from Turles or Lord Slug, especially before Son Goku was brought back to life.

"I think things are starting to come together nicely," Gero murmured to himself, a pleased, vicious smile etched over his lips.

Now, all he needed to do was start work on Androids 13, 14, and 15. And the sooner he started, the better.

"Computer, bring Androids Thirteen through Fifteen out of storage and over to my work station," he ordered aloud.

His Supercomputer gave an affirmative chirp in reply, and the sound of whirring machinery could be heard echoing from his sub-lab.

Gero stood up from his chair, wincing softly as he felt his poor back crackle and pop. He straightened out as best as he could, growling as his old, bruised body protested every single movement.

"God I miss being young," Gero groused to himself, before making his way over to his work bay.

The stasis pods for the three requested Androids were now stacked along his work station. Gero approached Android Thirteen's pod first, and typed furiously at his work console.

It was going to be a long work day, but the results would be worth it.