Dr gero (cell dr) si

by Dextrode

Posted for tts. Still updating every few months. Og author sb. /threads/the-pinnacle-of-humanity-dbz-doctor-gero-si.1155028/reader/

1. 1

Doctor Gero finds himself mightily inconvenienced when he collapses in his lab one day, and wakes up with a set of memories from an old life. Now he has to deal with all these new impulses and desires from a life far less grand and younger than his own, and the annoyances that brings him. Still, with the new knowledge that old life has given him, perhaps the headache from dealing with petty things like 'morality' and 'ethics' will be worth it. Perhaps, with the help of these new/old memories, he can create machines that will become the very Pinnacle of Humanity, and surpass anything these pesky alien invaders have to offer.

Gero jolted into consciousness with a startled gasp, which quickly transformed into a hacking cough. He brought a hand to his mouth, covering his coughs up as best as he could, and was faintly relieved to see that no blood stained his palms in the aftermath. After the last of his coughs subsided, he did his best to calm his rapid breathing, and slowly took in his familiar, yet strangely unfamiliar, surroundings.

He was lying on the floor of his laboratory, just in front of one of his work benches. A vast array of scientific equipment and engineering tools were dotted all over the lab, each machine designed to complete a wide variety of purposes. On the floor scattered around him were a set of lab equipment, tools he had been working with not too long ago.

Had he fallen? That seemed to be the only logical explanation here. But how had that happened? Had he slipped on something? Was he having some sort of medical episode? How long had he been prone like this? Not long, if the throbbing pain in his head and back were any indication.

Gero winced as he fully registered the waves of pain crashing over his frail body, most of it centered over his protesting back. Not for the first time, he cursed his advanced age. This inefficient, fragile shell of a body couldn't tolerate pain near as much as it had in his prime…

Wait. Wasn't he only thirty?

Gero blinked rapidly, caught off guard by that sudden incongruence. He…hadn't been thirty in a long time. He was sixty-four years old now, heading into the twilight of his biological age. So why had he thought he was far younger than that?

With a grunt, Gero sat up from his prone position, and quickly checked his head for any signs of outer injury. There was some tenderness, sure, but he felt no blood pressing against his palm or any wet substance sticking to his long mane of hair. So he didn't have an external head injury, at least.

Gero gingerly got to his feet, huffing with effort as he put his old bones to use. Once he was up, he scanned his laboratory, making sure nothing was amiss. "Computer, how long have I been unconscious?"

There was a moment's silence in the wake of that question, and Gero felt a hint of confusion creep through him. Why did he say that, as though expecting an answer? This wasn't Star Trek, he didn't have a computer that would—

Wait. What was Star Trek?

"You have been unconscious for approximately two point five hours, Doctor Gero," the feminine voice of his Supercomputer answered, dragging his attention away from his confused musings.

Gero grimaced at that fact, and quickly took stock of his body once again. No external injuries that he had seen, but it was the ones he could not see that would be of real concern. He had to make sure he didn't have a concussion, or any internal bleeding.

"Computer, prepare the bio-scanner," Gero commanded in an authoritative tone.

His Supercomputer gave an affirmative chirp in response, and the lab around Gero started humming to life. With his advanced age and lack of proper assistants, much of the lab was automated and keyed into his Supercomputer. The flooring in front of him shifted into an elevated platform, and Gero stepped onto it with practiced ease. A holographic panel projected itself in front of his eyes moments later, displaying a variety of information related to his biology. Meanwhile, an automated drone flew over toward him and started taking minute scans of his body, with those findings sent to the projected screen in front of him.

Gero hummed idly to himself as he took in the results. Overall, nothing too bad. A bit of bruising on his back and legs, but he could recover from that with time. No internal bleeding, no concussion, no other head trauma or injury that his scans could pick up. Still, it was very concerning that he'd lost consciousness in the first place. This wasn't some cartoon or movie where someone could be bonked over the head and wake up fine hours later, very bad things happened if people suddenly just lost consciousness—

Wait. Wait. What was this? Why would he think something like that? Sure, taking a hit to the head wasn't good, but if the right amount of force was used, one could be rendered unconscious without lasting harm. That was a plain, common biological fact of this universe. At least, as it pertained to the human body. So why would he think something to the contrary?

Gero frowned to himself, and took another look at the results. Something wasn't right here. He must have had some sort of head trauma. Why else would he be having these errant, disparate thoughts?

And then he remembered.

A flood of memories from another life assailed his mind all at once. Gero's eyes widened and he let out a strangled gasp, almost losing his footing as he struggled to reconcile the new life that flashed before his eyes. He staggered forward, hastily grabbing onto a chair in order to keep himself upright. At the same time, he grit his teeth, groaning as his head throbbed in pure agony: it felt as if his brain was on fire!

How long this sensation lasted, Gero couldn't say. It felt like an eternity, however, and the pain grew to be so much that Gero almost blacked out again. But he managed to soldier through the agony, and came out the other side. Eventually, the mental pain started to fade, and Gero felt himself coming into his own again. He took long, desperate gulps of air, and shakily sat down on his chair. He brought a wrinkled hand to his throbbing temples, massaging them as best as he could.

"This isn't my first life," Gero whispered to himself, all at once finding the sound of his own voice strangely foreign and unfamiliar.

He could remember it now. Living life on a more mundane world, with no threats of a Demon King or alien invaders. A world only inhabited by humans, with continents far different from his own, and a world still divided into numerous, competing nation states. A world where he'd had a loving family and hopes and dreams of a still distant future ahead of him.

But in comparison to his own life, the life he had lived here, it felt so less real and impactful to him. The life he had lived on this Earth was so much more vivid and real to him than anything in the memories that now plagued him. He had been through so much, and had so many more life experiences.

He had barely reached thirty years of age in that old life, but here? He was well into his sixties. He had been one of the most respected and famous scientists in his field, if not the world over; he'd had a wife and a son, and loved both of them very dearly until they'd been taken away from him. He had had a job he had loved, been part of a greater organization that could have changed the world for the better, only to have it all destroyed by a single, superhuman boy.

He had loved, and he had lost. And all of that pain towered over the losses of this other life.

"I'm still me," he whispered, as if to reassure himself of that fact. "I haven't changed. I've just had some new…data input. That is all."

Yes, yes. These new memories were certainly confusing, to say the least, but…not a cause of concern. He still felt every bit of himself as he did before: nothing had changed in the slightest. Sure, the knowledge that reincarnation was real did intrigue him, and made him wonder what new field of science he could create by studying that further. And sure, he had to now reconcile two very different lives and worldviews together…and wasn't that vexing.

But, he was still himself. He could take some assurance in that, if nothing else.

Gero settled back into his chair, taking a few moments to center himself. Any other day…any other day, such a revelation would be a scientific curiosity, to be sure. But, it would be something that he would ultimately put aside, in favor of his overarching goal: in favor of getting his revenge on that damnable Son Goku.

But memories of another life weren't the only thing he had. No, he had something far more valuable than that in his head, now.

He had memories of a future that was, and could still be. He now had intimate knowledge of his enemies, and the power they were capable of. And most important of all, he had detailed knowledge of his own failures, and how his grand plan for revenge had ultimately come undone. Which in turn, meant he had some changes to make here.

"Computer," he spoke aloud once more. "What is the date?"

"It is December 13th of 761, Doctor Gero."

Gero steepled his fingers together, and hummed some more as he mulled that matter over. So, 761, eh? If he had his calculations right…

"What is the current status of Son Goku?" he called out.

"Son Goku is currently deceased, Doctor Gero. According to the report of your tracking device, Son Goku died in battle against the alien invader self-identified as Raditz," the feminine voice of his Supercomputer dutifully reported.

Ah, just as he thought. This was a few months after Raditz's arrival and the death of Son Goku. The Saiyans Vegeta and Nappa would be due to arrive on Earth in almost a year's time. Right about now, Gohan would be training with Piccolo, while the rest of the Z Fighters would be undergoing their own training.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Now…what was he going to do with this handy bit of new knowledge?

Gero frowned again as he considered that vexing question. In theory, nothing had changed with the overall plan, but in practice…well. He had so much more information to work off of, now. A reassessment of the plan was all but inevitable, distasteful as the idea was.

"Computer, compile a comprehensive report as to the current status of the Android Project," he ordered, standing up from his chair. "I need to know what our current rate of progress is."

He already knew, of course, but at the same time, the memories felt…oddly fuzzy to him. Perhaps a side-effect of the introduction of these foreign memories? At any rate, a reminder of the current state of affairs would not be remiss.

His Supercomputer chirped positively in response, and Gero walked over to a nearby console to view the results.

Time to get back to work.

Spoiler: Author's Note

615

Magus1108

Apr 6, 2024

View discussion

Threadmarks Project Android [Arc 1 Start]

View content

Magus1108

Magus1108

Apr 10, 2024

#16

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. Androids Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen also 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, if just 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.

Last edited: Apr 10, 2024

594

Magus1108

Apr 10, 2024

View discussion

Threadmarks The Pursuit of a Better Tomorrow

View content

Magus1108

Magus1108

Apr 14, 2024

#46

The following days blurred together as Gero worked feverishly in his lab, only taking breaks for food and sleep. It was, to say the least, an arrangement his body did not appreciate: it had been years since he had worked so tirelessly. After all, he had been under the belief that he had plenty of time in which to pursue his revenge. And, in a way, that was still true. But now that he was faced with a threat that superseded his own ambitions, things had dramatically changed.

At that moment, the only thing that mattered to him was completing the upgrades for Androids Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen. And no matter how much his withered body protested such a rigorous schedule, Gero persisted. He had to move forward with this new plan, no matter what.

Finally, after nine days of nonstop work, his task was complete. The last of the updated battle data had been uploaded into his creations, and each of his three working androids were installed with the latest iteration of his Infinite Energy Reactors. He'd also taken the time to patch some of the other existing flaws in the Androids, such as the corrupted voice files for Android Fourteen, and the errors in Android Thirteen's personality matrix. All that remained now was to activate his machines and conduct some field tests.

Gero sagged into his chair, wiping sweat from his brow as he stared at the three stasis pods in front of him. After a moment he stretched out his back, wincing as he felt several corresponding pops from the aforementioned area. He also couldn't help but wince as he felt his joints throb with a dull pain, a side-effect from working so hard for so long. God, what he wouldn't give to have that Android replacement body finished. Screw unlimited power and eternal life, he'd just be happy to get rid of his damn arthritis.

Once he felt sufficiently rested, Gero reached over to his work console to activate the Androids. He paused a moment later, though, as a distinctly unpleasant aroma reached his nose. He cautiously sniffed himself, and recoiled from the resulting smell. Dear god, when was the last time he had bathed?!

Ah, right. Nine days of work, breaking only to sleep and eat. That would do it.

Reluctantly, Gero moved away from his work station, and made his way over to the adjoining living quarters attached to his lab.

The living quarters were rather sparse and spartan, in all honesty. Gero previously hadn't paid much mind to creature comforts, and so his attached live-in area only consisted of a small bedroom, a kitchen, a laundry room, and a bathroom. And his bedroom only really contained a small bed and a closet for his clothes, and literally nothing else, whilst his kitchen was mostly stocked with nutrition pastes and military meal kits leftover from his days at the Red Ribbon Army.

Hmph. If he was going to stay here long term, perhaps he ought to start thinking of ways to…spruce up the place. If nothing else, buying some books and a tv would be good at relieving some of the tedium and boredom that he sometimes felt. Perhaps he ought to look into creating a robot chef, or some such thing as well. Surely it wouldn't be hard to program some culinary skill into a rudimentary mechanoid?

Gero mulled over those thoughts as he stripped and showered, going through the motions of bathing himself. Some time later he emerged from his quarters, clean and dressed in a new set of clothes.

He walked back to his workstation and started typing at his console. Then, with the push of a button, he activated Android Fifteen.

The door to Android Fifteen's stasis pod slid open with a hiss. Android Fifteen stepped out a moment later, his distinctive purple skin and small stature standing out right away. That, combined with his large green hat, large yellow overcoat, light blue pants, and sunglasses gave him a very memorable appearance.

Hm. Why had he made Fifteen a purple dwarf again? Try as he might, Gero honestly couldn't remember.

"Yo, doctor. Wassup?" Android Fifteen casually asked as he stepped out of his pod. "Hmph, my internal chronometer says it's been a few years since you last activated me. Hardly looks like the lab's changed that much, though. Aside from your wrinkly ass gettin' older."

Gero let out a soft growl, while his eye twitched with faint annoyance. He was starting to remember why he considered Android Fifteen a failure.

"Show your master some more respect," he grumbled, trying his best to push past his growing ire.

"Ah, you know I'm just messin' with ya, Doc. Besides, you literally built me to be like this, ain't got no one but yourself to blame if ya mad," Fifteen flippantly replied. Then he took out a flask from within his overcoat and took a swig from it.

"...Where did you even get that? I don't have any alcohol here," Gero declared in a bewildered tone.

Fifteen just shrugged and continued to drink.

Gero gave his creation one more irate glare and shook his head in dismay. Then, before Fifteen could anger him any more, he decided to go ahead and activate Android Fourteen next.

Fourteen's pod cracked open and he stepped out next. In contrast to his counterpart, Fourteen was a tall, very muscular man with an albino-white skin tone and long, braided black hair. His upper torso was nearly bare, covered only by a brown brassard and belt, while his lower half was clothed with a large green skirt.

"Doctor," Fourteen gave him a curt nod, his brown eyes assessing the room. "I thank you for seeing fit to activate me again."

"Kiss ass," Fifteen snorted, and took yet another swig from his flask.

Gero smirked and nodded at Fourteen in turn. "You are most welcome. See, Fifteen, your brother here actually uses the manners I programmed into him. You could learn a thing or two from him."

Then, he typed in one final series of commands into his console. With that, Android Thirteen's pod was unsealed, and he was activated next.

Thirteen stepped out of his pod with a slight grunt, idly rubbing his left wrist as he did so. In contrast to the others, he was most human-passing in his skin tone, with the only oddity being his shoulder-length white hair. Thirteen also had a somewhat more conventional outfit too, dressed in a green and yellow hat, gray suspenders, baggy green pants, and a yellow-brown vest that exposed his bare, muscular chest.

There was a reason behind his more human-like appearance, as well. Much like Android Sixteen, Thirteen had a human model he was based off of. Specifically, Thirteen was based on how Gero himself had looked back when he was a strapping young man. Well, mostly, at least. Gero himself had never been that in shape, in all honesty.

Gero certainly wasn't being vain in modeling one of his own Androids after a (superior) version of himself, though. It was merely down to a lack of good candidates to model his Androids off of. That was all.

"Mighty kind of ya Doctor," Thirteen said with a smirk, his tone carrying his signature, distinctive Southern drawl.

"Oh for crying out loud! I just finished patching that!" Gero groaned, gripping his long mane of hair in despair and frustration.

"Come on now, there's no fixin' what ain't broke," Thirteen declared with an unrepentant grin.

"Goddamnit! How do you even have a Southern accent? There isn't a South in this reality!" he growled out, resisting the urge to tear out his own hair.

"Well, I wish I could help ya there Doctor, but my database doesn't really know what you're talkin' about," Thirteen replied with a careless shrug.

"Perhaps the Doctor is referring to the southern sectors of the world continent? If that is so, then those regions do very much exist. Though Android Thirteen's accent does not exactly match the dialect used by the residents of the southern sectors," Fourteen mused.

"Heh, maybe the Doc's goin' senile. I mean, he's getting close to that age, ain't he? Maybe he activated us so we could start changin' his diapers n' shit," Fifteen chortled. "In which case, not it."

"Not it," Fourteen instantly echoed.

"Not—damn it!" Thirteen swore and crossed his arms in distaste.

Gero ignored the byplay amongst his creations, and instead settled back into his chair. He massaged his temples and closed his eyes, doing his best to try and center himself.

Clearly, reactivating Androids 13 through 15 was a mistake. But he'd spent the last nine days upgrading them, so it was too late for him to back out now. Especially with Sixteen and Nineteen still another year away from completion, if not far longer.

"If you all are quite done, I have some orders to give," Gero said at last as he opened his eyes.

Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen all snapped to attention at that and fell silent as they all awaited his command.

Gero breathed a sigh of relief, glad that they were at least sensible enough to know when to take things seriously. "You three know why I've reactivated you. I've updated your databases with all the knowledge I have pertaining to the upcoming Saiyan invasion. Vegeta and Nappa will be on Earth in less than a year's time, and we must prepare for it. Much as it pains me to ally with Son Goku and his friends, they are the only ones standing in the way of complete annihilation of the planet. Once the Saiyans arrive, I shall be tasking you three with their defeat.

"We shall talk strategy about the Saiyans later, however. For now, I have some missions I need you three to do, and some tests to run on your current capabilities," he said.

"Fourteen, Fifteen: I want the both of you to go explore the ruins of Doctor Wheelo's base in the Tsurumai-Tsuburi Mountains. Scavenge what you can from his fortress, and prioritize taking what information you can from his surviving computer records," he ordered.

That had been quite the shock, to say the least. Alongside his Androids, Gero had concrete proof that some of the movie plotlines and characters existed in this worldline. He had vivid memories of looking up to Doctor Wheelo in the past: in fact, Wheelo had been one of his main inspirations when he had first become a scientist. Knowing what he knew now, Gero couldn't help but wonder what sort of team they might have made, had they worked together. Alas, the good doctor was already dead.

A quick check of the battle-data his spy bug had recorded had proved that a version of The World's Strongest movie had occurred a year ago. The specific details didn't line up with the events of the movie perfectly, but the broad strokes remained the same. Wheelo had tried, and failed, to steal a new body for himself, and he and Doctor Kochin had died in the subsequent struggle against Son Goku, Master Roshi, Krillin, and Piccolo. His lair had been left in ruins thereafter, and as far as Gero was aware, no one had tried to scavenge anything from there. Not even his past self.

Well, that would change. He wasn't sure what, if anything, of use he might find at Wheelo's fortress, but it couldn't hurt to look all the same. Which brought him to his next order.

"Thirteen, you will be going to Mount Paozu to search for Son Goku's space pod," he declared. "I do not have a specific set of coordinates to give you, so you will need to conduct a thorough search of the area. As far as I'm aware, the pod should be near the vicinity of Son Gohan's former residence, so I would suggest starting your search around there."

He'd almost forgotten all about Goku's attack ball until fairly recently. As far as he was aware, it had been left completely undisturbed all these years, and would remain so until Doctor Briefs went looking for it. That meant that he could send Thirteen out to find it and bring it back. That way Gero would be able to study some genuine alien tech, as well as get a head start in building his own brand of spacecraft and interstellar technology. And then, once he was fully done studying the space pod, he'd have Android Thirteen drop it back off where he'd found it. That way Doctor Briefs could still acquire it in the near future.

"Understood Doctor," Thirteen replied. Fourteen and Fifteen echoed their own acknowledgements of his orders as well.

"Good. Then go out and do as you are commanded. And remember: keep contact with outside parties to a minimum. I do not want any of Son Goku's allies to catch wind of any of you before the arrival of the Saiyans," Gero declared.

His creations accepted the additional parameters with ease, and soon after that, they flew out of his lab.

Gero leaned back against his chair, letting out a soft sigh in the aftermath. While his Androids were busy with that, it was time to consider another matter. Namely, the creation of a new Android. And not just another mechanoid, but a bio-android, like Seventeen and Eighteen.

He had been mulling over the idea for some time now, in between his feverish upgrading of his current batch of Androids. As strong as he could make his mechanoid creations, his memories gave him undeniable proof that cyborgs would almost always have better overall potential than their mechanoid counterparts. Seventeen and Eighteen could train in the traditional way to gain strength, after all, unlike his mechanoid creations. And the benefits that came with being a cyborg, namely his Infinite Energy Reactor, gave them far more power than any normal, baseline human could ever enjoy.

But that just left him with the question of who he could possibly make into an Android. Seventeen and Eighteen were crystal-clear examples of the perils of just kidnapping a random person off the streets. No, if he was going to make another bio-android, it would have to be someone he could control. Someone who would willingly undergo the conversion process, and remain his ally.

With the newfound knowledge in his head, Gero had plenty of candidates he could choose from…it was just a matter of figuring out who the best fit would be.

Mercenary Tao leapt to mind: the man had already undergone some cyborg conversion, given his modifications in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. Turning him into a full-fledged Android would no doubt make Tao a formidable threat to anyone standing against him. He also had a bone to pick with Son Goku, making him a good ally of convenience. But, Gero wasn't so certain he'd be able to control Tao. He was an assassin for hire, after all, and loyal to no one but maybe his brother Shen. Not to mention that Gero's own intentions of playing the long game might run counter to Tao's own probable desires for more immediate revenge.

So, if not Tao, then who?

Chi-Chi could be a formidable fighter on her own, one made infinitely stronger with an upgrade to being an Android. But satisfying as it might be to turn Son Goku's own wife against him, kidnapping Chi-Chi would almost certainly just turn out like it had with Seventeen and Eighteen. Even erased of any memories of her son and husband, Chi-Chi would no doubt try to kill him in retaliation for attempting to control her.

Besides, some part of him was extremely uncomfortable with the idea of using her in such a way. Gero just chalked that up to some lingering remnants from his old persona, however.

So then, who would fit the critical criteria of remaining loyal to him after being transformed into an Android? Gero wasn't left with a lot of good options, nothing he could think of, at least.

Well, no. There was…one candidate whom he could think of. Though thinking about it gave him another distinct feeling of unease and uncertainty.

Perhaps…perhaps it was time that they met again. Especially if she was slated to die in the near future. Even if he didn't turn her into an Android, there was still plenty left unsaid between the two of them, and Gero did not want to miss out on seeing her before it was too late.

"Computer," he spoke aloud. "Find the current whereabouts of Doctor Vomi."

His Supercomputer chirped positively in response. While it searched, Gero tapped his forearm impatiently, already brooding over the uncomfortable meeting to come.

"Doctor Vomi's last address on the available public databases list her as living with your son and daughter-in-law," his computer answered after a few moments.

Gero blinked in surprise, before an immediate grimace of distaste flashed over his features. Ah, great. So she was living with Ponshu: the son that had disowned him for working with the Red Ribbon Army. Well, wasn't that perfect. An uncomfortable meeting with his ex-wife would now be transformed into an overall awkward family reunion.

Fantastic.

Gero issued a heavy sigh and brought his hands to his temples, already feeling the start of a massive migraine. A few moments later he abruptly stood up, grumbling to himself the entire way as he marched back to his living quarters. Once there, he started searching through his threadbare wardrobe, desperate to find something presentable that would also flatter his figure.

"The things I do for love," Gero muttered distastefully to himself.

He paused thereafter, frowning as his mind caught up to his choice of wording. Love? He wasn't…no, this was merely a way to advance his overall project. He had no lingering feelings for Vomi whatsoever. Nor was he eager at all to meet with his estranged son for the first time in over twenty years. No, this was all toward progressing his Grand Plan. He was only doing this to get his revenge on that accursed Son Goku!

"Now, do I still have that tie Vomi bought for my 45th birthday…" Gero murmured to himself, eyeing his wardrobe with a critical gaze.

He needed to make sure he looked presentable, after all. To show up at his ex-wife's door in anything less than his best would be a grave insult to the both of them.

So Gero continued on, spending the next hour mulling over his choice of attire.

Last edited: Apr 25, 2024

580

Magus1108

Apr 14, 2024

View discussion

Threadmarks An Unhappy Reunion

View content

Magus1108

Magus1108

Apr 24, 2024

#128

Gero eventually settled on a light blue pantsuit that matched well with his eyes along with the tie Vomi had gotten him. Appropriately attired, he set about activating his lab's automated defenses to ward off any potential intruders: defenses that could only be deactivated by Gero himself, or his Androids. Such measures were likely unnecessary and overly paranoid, but Gero hadn't lived this long without a healthy degree of paranoia.

Once that was done, he traveled to his lab's underground garage, the vast complex lighting up as he walked inside. Once, during the heyday of his career with the Red Ribbon Army, he had used this garage to work on a vast array of vehicles and automated craft: but now, so many years later, the only thing left here was his beat-up old hovercar. Considering the size of the whole garage, it looked pathetically lonely just sitting there by itself.

At any rate, he clambered into the car, taking care to set the data pad he'd brought with him on the other car seat. He turned the engine on, furrowing his brow as the car didn't immediately start up, but after a few seconds of delay the vehicle roared to life.

Hm. Perhaps he'd been neglecting this thing for far too long. It was clearly overdo for some careful maintenance.

With the push of a button, Gero opened up the garage's hidden entrance, and flew out of it thereafter. He crested toward the sky as he raced away from his lab, already preparing himself for the long journey ahead.

Vomi and Ponshu lived in the suburbs of the creatively named Central City, the capital of the World Government. His lab, meanwhile, was located in the mountains surrounding North City. The trip to Central City via hovercar would thus take him a little over three and a half hours to complete, much to his chagrin.

Well, it would be worth it. Assuming, of course, he could convince his ex-wife to come with him.

Gero immediately banished that thought away, and instead focused on driving.

Eventually, after a monotonous trip across the grassy plains leading to Central City, he arrived at his destination. Gero swooped down toward a certain neighborhood, and parked his car on the street of a certain one-story house.

Gero took a moment to prepare himself, his hands gripping the steering wheel of his car tightly. Then, he reached over to grab his data pad, and exited out of his car. It was a short march to the front door of the idyllic home in front of him, and once he was at the porch, Gero lightly rapped on the door.

There was a minute of silence on the other end, and then Gero heard the rapid movement of feet from within. The door opened up seconds after that, and Gero was brought face to face with his son for the first time in almost two decades.

Ponshu froze upon seeing him, his eyes widening as he registered just who was at his door. And in that moment, Gero took the chance to really look at his son, carefully studying his features.

It was like looking into a distorted mirror. Ponshu had always taken after Gero himself in terms of his appearance, and growing older had not changed that all that much. Ponshu had the same, somewhat gaunt face that Gero—and Android 13—had, though he had his mother's lighter skin tone. He had also inherited Vomi's auburn hair, and her poor eyesight, if the glasses framing his face were any indication.

Ponshu looked so much older as well, though that was to be expected. Gero hadn't seen his son since he'd disowned the rest of the family as a teenager. Instead of that same fiery youth, Gero was faced with a young man almost thirty years of age. Heavy bags were noticeable under Ponshu's eyes as well, and a short goatee circled along his son's chin and mouth.

His son was almost as old as Gero himself had been when he'd first had his family. It was a startling realization to make, especially after not seeing him in well over thirteen years.

If that was such a strange sight to Gero, he couldn't help but wonder how Ponshu himself must feel. After all, Gero wasn't exactly a spring chicken himself. His blonde hair had long since turned white, and his body had aged so much in that intervening time. Did his son even recognize the man in front of him?

Well, if his eyes were any indication, he clearly did. Ponshu glared at him hatefully, with such force and intensity that Gero found himself startled again.

"Father," Ponshu curtly greeted him, his tone dripping with venom.

"...Ponshu," Gero greeted him in turn, doing his best to sound cordial and civil. All the while, he tried to ignore the odd twisting pain he felt in his chest.

"Why are you here?" Ponshu pressed, still glaring daggers at him.

Gero repressed the grimace that threatened to overtake his features, and instead presented a calm, uncaring facade: as if his son's hatred of him didn't matter one bit to him. With that neutral expression fixed firmly on his face, he said, "I'm here to see your mother. I know she's here."

Ponshu narrowed his eyes, and for a few moments Gero thought he would shut the door in his face. Instead, his son gruffly told him to wait, and he ventured back into the house.

Gero did as he was told, and spent the next few minutes waiting awkwardly on the front porch. Just as he thought his son might have abandoned him—or worse still, called the police—he heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

Ponshu came back into view thereafter and he gestured for him to come inside before walking away. After a hesitant pause, Gero followed.

The interior of the home was as quaint as the exterior suggested. A modest living room filled a few comfortable looking chairs that were all angled toward a mounted tv, a well stocked kitchen, and a larger hallway that held a series of doors and rooms. Photos lined the walls as well, showing a variety of moments from Ponshu's life. A picture of a family vacation taken in his youth; a photo of Ponshu and Gevo rough-housing as children; then another of Ponshu at a wedding standing next to his bride; so on and so forth. Gero himself, however, was conspicuously absent from any of the framed photographs, even those taken from Ponshu's youth.

That little fact stung Gero more than he would have guessed, though he tried not to let it show on his face.

His attention was stolen, briefly, as they passed by the living room. There, he could see a black-haired woman playing with a young toddler on the floor. Gero had never seen her before in his life, but he could only presume that she was Ponshu's wife.

Which made the toddler on the floor his grandson Hedo.

Gero felt another uncomfortable tightening in his chest, though he tried his best to ignore that unwelcome sensation. Ponshu's wife glanced up at him as they passed by, a wary look on her face, though his son quickly ushered him away from view.

From there, Gero was led to a bedroom at the end of the main hall. Ponshu knocked at the door once, and Gero heard a feminine voice telling them to enter. His son stepped back, and Gero took that as his cue to walk inside.

Vomi was waiting for him, sitting on her bed with a closed book in her lap. Her eyes locked onto him as he came inside, and for the briefest of moments, Gero found his entire world coming to a stop as he met her gaze.

She was as beautiful as the day she'd left him.

That single, errant thought raced through his brain, and Gero found himself unable to disagree with that assessment. Time had been far kinder to his wife than it had to Gero himself, even accounting for the ten year age gap between them. Her auburn hair had a few streaks of grey in it now, but otherwise retained the same luster it had in her youth. Furthermore, a few additional wrinkles and other signs of age lined her face, but she otherwise looked just as she had the last time he'd seen her. It was, quite honestly, remarkable just how young and vibrant she still looked, especially compared to him.

In short, she was still the same gorgeous woman he'd married more than thirty years ago.

That moment of assessment and reflection came and went, and the normal flow of time was restored. Gero heard the door shutting behind him, leaving the two of them alone.

He didn't say anything. He couldn't, no matter how hard he tried. Words failed him completely, so Gero was just left standing in front of his wife, his mind searching for the right thing to say.

It was an undeniable mercy that Vomi ended up being the one to break the silence between them.

"Why are you here, Gero?" she asked, a weariness to her tone.

Gero frowned at her words, but refrained from saying anything. He hadn't been entirely sure how this would all play out, but it was clear Vomi wasn't in any mood to entertain niceties. Not that he blamed her, really, given the hurtful things that had been exchanged in their last meeting.

Straight to the point, then. She'd surely appreciate that as a fellow scientist.

"I need your help," he said.

Vomi's eyes narrowed at him and she crossed her arms in defiance. In a testy tone she declared, "We talked about this before, Gero. I am not helping you in this senseless vendetta of yours. If that's the reason you came, then—!"

"It's not about that," he quickly interjected. "This is something else. A new development."

Vomi did not drop her suspicious gaze, but it was clear his words took her aback all the same. She cocked her head and after a few seconds she gestured for him to continue.

He nodded and said, "As I said, there's been a new development. I happened upon this information while conducting spy work against Son Goku. I think you're going to want to see this for yourself."

He brought out his data pad, tapping at its display a few times before offering it to Vomi. She took it, her eyes quickly flickering through the available information.

The contents of the data pad were everything he had compiled on the upcoming Saiyan Invasion. Recordings taken of Raditz boasting about being part of the Planet Trade Organization, and what the Saiyans did under it; detailed analysis of the subsequent battle between Goku, Piccolo, and Raditz; recordings of Raditz's warning of the arrival of two even more powerful Saiyans in one year. Everything Vomi would need to be brought up to speed on the current situation.

She consumed the knowledge there with brisk efficiency, her eyebrows raising up to her hairline by the time she was finished. She set the data pad aside afterward, saying nothing as she composed her thoughts.

"This is what you need my help with?" Vomi questioned.

"Yes, exactly. I've been making preparations for these new Saiyans, but it's become clear to me that I require specialized assistance in pulling off some of my more ambitious ideas," Gero confirmed. "And before you say anything, no, I am not just going to wait around for Son Goku to take care of the threat. These aliens are far stronger than anything anyone on Earth has faced before, and they won't just conquer the planet, like Demon King Piccolo and his successor attempted. The moment they're finished with Earth, the Saiyans wouldn't hesitate in blowing up the planet. A threat this genocidal is something I cannot ignore. I might not be able to fight myself, but I can at least create machines capable of combating and neutralizing these threats. But to do that, I need your help."

Vomi remained silent for quite some time, her eyes staring off to the side as she clearly pondered his words. Gero let her do so in silence and took the opportunity to study his ex-wife some more.

What was going on in that head of hers? Gero wasn't entirely sure, but he could take a few guesses. Perhaps she was wondering if he was telling the truth: after all, the tale he brought to her was rather fantastical, and Gero might not believe it himself if he didn't have the data and new memories to back it up. He wouldn't blame her if she was a little skeptical about the information he'd provided. And if she did believe him, would she still agree to help him? Gero honestly wasn't sure. He hoped she would, but…

The fact was, he didn't know her nearly as well as he used to. Toward the end of their marriage, Gero had found himself utterly bewildered by Vomi's behavior and subsequent actions. Looking back on it now, though, he couldn't help but wonder how much of that was him being blinded by his own grief and hatred.

"And what about Son Goku?" Vomi pressed, drawing his attention back to the present. "Have you given up on your vendetta against him?"

Gero pursed his lips in response, his mind racing for the ideal answer here. His desire for revenge had been a point of contention between the two of them, and played a significant part in their eventual divorce. Vomi also knew him well, and had always had the annoying ability to tell when he was lying. Perhaps that ability would be rusty now, but he didn't want to gamble on that. Not when the stakes were so high.

Well, he could always tell the truth. Or part of it, at least.

"My vendetta against Son Goku is on hold," he finally said in a disgruntled tone. "Much as it pains me to admit it, he will be a key factor in the fight against the Saiyans. So I'm dropping my plans against him."

Now, that wasn't a lie. He was putting that grudge on ice for the time being. But, after the Saiyans and Freeza were taken care of…

Vomi furrowed her brow, mulling over his statement as she studied the data pad again. Then she said:

"Why me? I know you're still on the RPC's payroll. Surely they have a whole team of scientists you can bring in on this."

Gero gave a small, dismissive snort and shook his head. "Please, as if any of them would measure up to you. I'm looking for a partner, not a glorified lab assistant. There are only a handful of people on this earth that could ever hope to match your brilliance."

Vomi made an odd face at that, but otherwise didn't comment. Instead she closed her eyes, remaining silent before she uttered a soft sigh.

"I'm not so sure I'm the brilliant scientist you remember, Gero. I haven't been in a lab since I left the RRA. Besides that, I have a life here. With our son. Ponshu is always busy with work at the Palace, so Laofeng needs all the help she can get taking care of the house," she replied.

Gero blinked rapidly as he absorbed that information, absently filing away his daughter-in-law's name for future reference. He would have thought, given the continuity of the Kakarot game, that Vomi might have gone back to Capsule Corp after leaving him. The Vomi he knew certainly wouldn't have settled for being a stay-at-home grandmother.

Well, it had been a long time: almost twelve years since they last met, in fact. A lot could change in a decade and change. Still, maybe he could stoke some of that old ambition back to life?

One thing at a time. He still needed to win her over.

"If you want help, go back to Doctor Briefs. He is still active and making miracles everyday. He'd make a far better partner for you than I," Vomi continued, utterly derailing his train of thought.

Gero couldn't hide the scowl that stretched over his lips. His hands clenched into fists, his stomach roiling at the very thought of going back to that infuriating man.

"I'd rather let the Saiyans blow up the planet," he instinctively snarled.

"There it is. There's that flaming ego of yours," Vomi scoffed and shook her head. "I was wondering where you were hiding it. Seriously, after all this time, you still hate him? Might I remind you that it was you who burned bridges with him? I was just stupid enough to go along with your whims. Besides, whatever grudge you two have against each other can be put aside for the sake of protecting the world, if that's what you're really interested in. Can't it?"

"Briefs can go straight to hell! He was the one who drove us out of Capsule Corp for refusing to recognize my brilliance!" Gero thundered furiously.

"And Briefs didn't think your new project was safe enough to invest his money in! But you never let his concerns stop you, did you? No, instead of trying to moderate your proposal, you decided jumping ship to join a terrorist organization was the better plan!" Vomi countered, glaring sternly at him.

"Oh, don't think you're blameless in that! Or did you forget that you came with me!" Gero immediately replied, his tone dripping with venom.

"Because I loved you, you stupid, arrogant jackass! And I wanted to keep our family together! Gevo was only four, and Ponshu wasn't even a year old! So yes, I followed you, and I've regretted it every day since!" she heatedly declared.

Gero bristled all the more at her hurtful words and snarled, "Oh, and don't you love reminding me of that! As if our achievements with the Red Ribbon Army meant nothing to you! We accomplished more there than we ever could have at Capsule Corp!"

"But I never cared about that! All I ever wanted was to raise our family and just be happy! But that was never enough for you!" Vomi hissed. Her eyes lit up with fury, and in her growing ire, she jumped up from her bed and marched over to him, backing Gero against a wall.

"All you ever cared about was satisfying your vicious pride! And it was never enough for you. You were always so obsessed with making the perfect creations. You barely paid any attention to our sons the moment you started that damn Android project! You barely paid any attention to me! You just expected me to keep my mouth shut and raise our kids like a good little wife!"

Gero let out a soft growl, glowering hatefully at her. That was an argument he was more than familiar with, given how often it had come up near the end of their marriage. The death of Gevo had only added further fuel to that fire.

"It was a project of a lifetime, Vomi! Real, genuine artificial intelligence just as good, if not better, than human intelligence! Our name would have gone down in history if I'd been successful!" he insisted.

"And what were those androids going to be used for, Gero? For a jumped up billionaire to play god and conquer the world? We should consider ourselves lucky you never got the project working before the whole organization was destroyed," Vomi replied.

Gero recoiled back as if struck, and spent a long moment staring at Vomi in open mouthed shock. "You speak as if the Red Ribbon Army's destruction was a good thing! We devoted our entire lives to that organization! Gevo devoted his life to it! How dare you sully our son's name with such talk!"

"And maybe," Vomi snarled, her face growing flushed with anger. "Gevo would still be alive if he hadn't joined the Red Ribbon Army! Maybe both of our sons would be alive and well, and our family would be whole, if you hadn't let your stupid pride damn us all to hell!"

Gero felt his temper flare, his body trembling with barely repressed rage. He opened his mouth to retort his next scathing reply, but stopped short as he noticed the tears gathering in Vomi's eyes. It was such an unexpected and shocking discovery, contrasting with the absolute anger that dominated her face. And, thankfully, this revelation was enough to shock some sense back into him.

It was as if his body had been dunked into a bucket of ice cold water, as all of the surging anger he felt vanished in an instant. Instead, all Gero was left with was the hollow, numb feeling of despair.

What was he even doing? Was he trying to recruit Vomi, or relitigate their divorce?

He gave a frustrated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to center himself.

"I'm sorry," he said.

A long moment of silence stretched out between them. Vomi blinked rapidly, her own fury rapidly dissipating as she registered his response.

"What?" Vomi asked, clearly taken aback. "You're…actually apologizing?"

She sounded so shocked, and her eyes looked at him with so much mistrust and disbelief. Knowing all that made Gero sick to his stomach. But, he couldn't exactly blame her either. With the added perspective of his new memories, Gero could clearly see just how awful he'd been to her, especially in the last years of their marriage.

God, what kind of monster was he in her eyes?

"Yes. I'm sorry, Vomi. I didn't come here to pick a fight with you. It might not seem that way, but that's the truth. I know there's a lot of bad blood between us, and I know how much you hate me. But my intentions were honest: I need you, Vomi. I need your help and expertise. Your genius rivals my own, and further still, you're more of an expert in areas I never paid much attention to. And more to the point, you're the only person in this world I trust to help me," he declared in an earnest, heartfelt tone.

Vomi was left speechless, her mouth hung open slightly as she simply stared at him. Gero looked away in response, another ache in his chest making itself known to him.

Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he'd just screwed up any chance he had at gaining Vomi as an ally…or restoring any sense of normality between them. Whatever the case was, Gero felt as if he was overstaying his welcome.

"You don't have to give me an answer now," he said. "I'll give you some time to think it over. You can keep the pad: use it to contact me if you decide to take me up on my request."

With that he murmured a final farewell to Vomi and made to leave the room.

"Wait."

Gero paused and turned back to Vomi. She stared back at him, a wary, conflicted expression over her face.

"You've never apologized before," she slowly said. "Not since we joined the Red Ribbon Army. Maybe even before that. But now, now—!"

She trailed off, disbelief clear in her tone. And in a heartbroken, confused tone she asked,

"Why now?"

Gero stared down at the floor, unable to hide the grimace that tugged at his lips. The mere fact she had asked him such a thing made his heart clench with agony, and for the first time in a long time, Gero felt the pinpricks of tears gathering at his eyes.

Perhaps these foreign memories were good for something else, if it gave him a new perspective like this. Just how much of an awful monster had he been to Vomi, for her to even ask such a thing?

In a soft, broken tone he uttered a truth that he had been unwilling to admit to until now.

"I don't want to lose another son. Or worse, you."

Vomi had no answer for him, and only stared at his face, her eyes searching him as if seeing him for the very first time.

Gero took that as a cue to leave, and without another word he turned around and left the room.

He walked briskly out of the house, only glancing briefly at Laofeng and Hedo as he passed by the living room. Ponshu saw him out of the house, glowering at him and slamming the door shut as soon as he walked out the front door.

Gero made the trek back to his car in silence and started up the beat up vehicle. It hovered up into the air, and Gero began the long trek back to his lab.

The lengthy journey gave him nothing but time to look back on his own actions and reflect upon them. And for the first time in a long time, Gero did not want to be alone with his thoughts.

Last edited: Apr 24, 2024

558

Magus1108

Apr 24, 2024

View discussion

Threadmarks Interstellar Dreams

View content

Magus1108

Magus1108

May 20, 2024

#157

The moment Gero returned to his lab, he threw himself back into his work. Better to work than to think over just how much of a disaster his 'recruitment' of Vomi had been.

The first thing he did was do some overdue maintenance on his damned hovercar, giving it the tune-up it was in clear need of. That managed to occupy him for at least an hour, and by the time he was finished, the car may as well have been brand new. After that he returned to the upper floors of his laboratory, deciding to tackle creating that chef-bot next.

That took another three hours to do, and he was rather pleased with the end result. The robot itself was given a rudimentary, humanoid frame, with little in the way of polish or accessories. What it lacked in its appearance, however, it more than made up for with its programming. Gero had downloaded a hastily compiled file of the world's greatest chefs into the robot's positronic brain, giving it the culinary skill it needed to create fantastic meals. Getting the ingredients it needed to make said meals would be another matter entirely, but he could always take a quick trip to North City to rectify that.

"Alright, let's see here…" Gero murmured to himself and reached over to activate the mechanoid.

Its simplistic, ruby-red eyes lit up moments later. The mechanoid craned its head this way and that with the muffled sound of grinding gears. Finally it regarded him directly and tilted its head.

"Greetings, father. What is my name?" it intoned in an emotionless, robotic voice.

"Hm," Gero stroked his chin in response. He should name the thing, shouldn't he? Just calling it a chef-bot would grow tiresome quickly.

"Akira," he decided, plucking the name at random.

Akira nodded and looked down at himself. After taking careful stock of his body, he asked a followup question.

"What is my purpose?"

Gero shrugged. "You make food."

Akira was silent for an uncomfortably long time. Then he brought up his claw-like appendages to the sides of his head and uttered, "Oh. My. God."

…Hmph. Well, this is what he got for doing a rush-job. Clearly the personality matrix had some kinks he needed to work out.

An alert from his supercomputer distracted him and Gero promptly forgot about Akira's existential crisis. He quickly dashed over to the computer's main console, letting out a relieved sigh as he read the notification.

His Androids were on their way back, and would be here at any moment. Perfect.

"Thirteen," he spoke aloud, his voice transmitted directly to the long-range communications link in his creation. "Bring the Attack Ball to the garage. I'll inspect it momentarily."

"Will do," Thirteen acknowledged. "Hm, actually, I had a question for you, Doctor. You see, while you were out of communications range, I—"

"Bring it up later," he gruffly interrupted. He was in no mood for whatever Thirteen wanted to talk about.

The last time he had allowed Thirteen to speak freely, he'd gone on an entire tangent about the benefits of creating a third Android who could be compatible with him. A female Android. He had been very particular about that, to the degree that it had been especially off putting. Gero had gotten tired of that real quick, and that had resulted in Thirteen's initial decommissioning some years ago.

While Thirteen deposited the Attack Ball, Gero waited to receive Fourteen and Fifteen. After another ten minutes, they both arrived and flew into the lab's main entry chamber. Gero raised an eyebrow as his gaze latched upon Fourteen in particular, who was carrying what looked to be a corpse over his shoulder.

"Yo Doc, it was freezing up there," Fifteen greeted, giving an exaggerated shiver. "I mean, we don't really feel the cold like you humans do, but goddamn. My hooch ended up frozen solid while we were there too, which didn't make things any better."

"Doctor," Fourteen gave him a more formal greeting as he nodded his head. "We come bearing gifts. Fifteen and I scoured over what remained of Wheelo's computer system and salvaged what files we could. We also found this: I thought it might be of interest to you."

With that said, Fourteen deposited his load onto the floor. Gero blinked rapidly as the unseeing gaze of Doctor Kochin stared back at him.

Kochin's body was torn in half at the waist, and what remained of his torso carried extensive battle damage, with large cuts and gouges all along his body. Furthermore, his face was half burned off, revealing the metallic chrome beneath the artificial layer of skin. And to cap it all off, his cranium was partially caved in, causing his remaining eye to bulge out of its socket.

"Intriguing," Gero muttered to himself.

So Wheelo's assistant had survived? Or at least, his body was still intact: clearly Kochin was in a nonfunctional state. Still, he could work with that. While Kochin himself was by no means a valuable find—Gero could already tell that he was the most rudimentary kind of mechanoid, and nowhere near as sophisticated or as powerful as his androids—the information he might have in his head was another story.

"Excellent work Fourteen, Fifteen. Go ahead and put Kochin in the operating bay, and deposit the data files you salvaged into one of our isolated networks," he ordered.

Fourteen nodded and bent down to pick Kochin's torso back up, walking away with it a second later. Fifteen, however, remained behind.

"Yes?" Gero questioned with an arched eyebrow. He swore to Popo, if this insubordinate fool started going on about something nonsensical—

"Need more hooch Doc," Fifteen declared, and shook his empty flask for emphasis.

"Oh for the love of—does it even do anything for you?!" Gero asked incredulously.

Fifteen just shrugged and shook his flask again.

"Oh fine, fine! Ugh, the lot of you are like a bunch of unruly children," Gero groaned, before reaching into his pockets.

"I mean, we are all under ten years old," Fifteen replied with a cheeky grin. "Should we be callin' child services' or something? Pretty sure you had us violate a lot of child labor laws today."

Gero rolled his eyes in response. He pulled out his wallet and car keys a second later and tossed them to Fifteen, who deftly caught both.

"If you're so eager to get yourself more alcohol, then you can take my car and go into North City to buy some. And while you're there, there's a list of groceries I need you to pick up as well," he said. "I'll have the Supercomputer transmit it to you once you've arrived."

Fifteen glanced between him and the keys and wallet in his hands before stowing them away into his yellow overcoat. "Can do Doc, but you sure you want the purple dwarf runnin' your errands for ya?"

"Oh just go already!" Gero hissed, his frayed nerves growing more incensed with every word coming out of the android's mouth.

"Aight, aight. But if the police end up pullin' me over, I'm blamin' you," Fifteen countered.

Gero rolled his eyes and stalked away, heading back towards the garage.

It was a short trip, and Gero soon found himself face to face with Goku's original spaceship. He took a good minute to study its design, slowly walking around it as his eyes scanned its spherical shape. It wasn't in the best of conditions, as far as he could tell, but most of that was likely due to disuse and lack of maintenance. Considering that Briefs had converted the thing into an entirely new spacecraft, he knew that some parts of the ship still could be salvaged or repaired.

A pity he couldn't completely convert the craft himself. Tempting as the idea was, he didn't want to meddle with the timeline too much, especially when it came to the pivotal events on Namek. He'd need to leave enough of the ship intact for Doctor Briefs to find in a year's time.

Still, even if he couldn't take the ship apart, he could still scan its inner workings and take a look at its innards. Perhaps he could even reactivate the old flight navigation? Surely the Attack Balls had to have some sort of navigation system or a star chart that one could look at to select their destination. Which meant, in turn, that he could possibly salvage a working map of the local galaxy.

It would be twenty or so years out of date, admittedly. But it would give him a head start when it came to his future galactic travels.

First he had his drones take detailed scannings of the pod's inner workings, uploading that information into his Supercomputer's database for further analysis. After that was done, Gero spent the next several hours knee deep inside of the pod's guts, grumbling to himself as he tried to restart the sphere's computer system. The technology was far outside what he was used to working with, but Gero was enough of a genius to figure out what he was doing as he worked.

After tinkering with the system some more, he managed to boot up the ship's power system, causing the entire pod to vibrate with life. Gero excitedly watched as the pod's computer system loaded up, and soon enough the main navigation screen flickered to life. The display rattled something out in a language Gero didn't understand, but that was something he could deal with later. He—

Huh. Wait. If the Saiyans had their own written, and presumably spoken, language, then how did Vegeta and Nappa speak English when they first arrived on Earth? How had Raditz known the local language, for that matter? There wasn't any language barrier issues on Namek either.

Gero furrowed his brow, momentarily perplexed by the conundrum. Perhaps the Saiyans, or maybe the Planet Trade Organization, had installed some sort of universal translator in their soldiers?

He shrugged to himself a moment later, deciding to table the issue for now. He focused back on the display in front of him, his eyes sparkling with an almost childish glee. The secrets to intergalactic travel were now at his very fingertips! The things he could do with this knowledge…

An incessant beeping noise filtered through Gero's perception, dragging him away from his thoughts of galactic exploration. He frowned in confusion, going back to the inner workings of the computer system as he tried to figure out just what was causing that sound.

After another ten minutes of work, he managed to divine the issue. There was a device integrated into the outer network of the computer system, though as far as he could tell, it was not an integral component. Furthermore, Gero figured out that the device's purpose was to broadcast some sort of electronic signal. Though what that signal was, he couldn't say, not without a detailed examination. Perhaps it was connected to the communications system? Or—

Or it was a tracking beacon.

Gero felt a chill run down his spine. With all due haste, he yanked the device out, cutting off the signal entirely. The computer beeped angrily at him in response, but Gero paid it little mind. For good measure, he swiftly exited out of the pod and deposited the mysterious device onto the floor, stomping on it until it was completely and utterly destroyed. Once that was done he settled back into the comfortable interior of the pod, letting out a heavy sigh.

The Saiyans were long dead, so there was no risk of anyone there picking up on that signal. Still, he could only hope that someone from the Freeza Forces hadn't received something before he cut the broadcast.

After taking a few moments to rest and calm his racing heart, he returned to work. It looked like he had a long night ahead of him.

The next few days passed by in a blur. Gero put everything else he'd been working on to the side as he focused solely on the Attack Ball: even his examinations of Kochin's remains, and the data gathered from Wheelo's fortress, were put on hold. Every minute of his available free time was spent analyzing the data he gathered from the marvelous piece of alien technology sitting in his garage, Gero shuffling back and forth between the pod itself and his Supercomputer as he went over the details of his findings.

The spaceship was, in essence, the most advanced piece of technology he'd ever seen. It was far outside anything Gero had ever worked on himself, and made him feel like a strapping young lad, discovering his passion and love for science all over again. A whole new world of scientific advancement and discovery had been opened for him, and Gero thus greedily devoured every new nugget of knowledge he was able to decipher from his latest project.

Whoever had first pioneered these spaceships was clearly a genius of the highest caliber, and one of the most intelligent beings in the universe. A hyperbolic statement, perhaps, but it was true nonetheless. The Attack Ball was undoubtedly a marvel of alien engineering, combining together several different elements and technologies that, together, came to create a near perfect invention.

The exterior of the pod itself was a marvel in and of itself, created out of an alien metal that Gero had never seen before. The metal itself was far stronger than anything on Earth, the outer casing of the pod impervious to almost any attack one could throw at it. Gero had even calculated that it could even withstand the force of a nuclear explosion. Though it was still vulnerable to damage: Gero also calculated that someone of an appropriate strength could ultimately crush or destroy the pod, though it would require sustained effort and work to achieve this. And, of course, the softer interior of the pod left it vulnerable to damage that might not affect the ship otherwise.

Nevertheless, the uncommon sturdiness of the ship's metal framework left him with a variety of ideas. If he could find some way to replicate this material, adding it to his Androids would increase their defenses tenfold.

The pods were also equipped with a Faster-Than-Light drive that Gero could barely begin to understand, and its fuel source was just as mysterious and fantastical. Furthermore, the pod's environmental systems were just as marvelous as the engine that powered the ship, capable of putting its users in a state of suspended animation for up to three years. And then there was the navigational system…

It felt as if the navigational system had half the galaxy filled out in its star charts. Numerous different planets, space stations, moons, and other celestial bodies were mapped out in the charts, all scattered about dozens of different solar systems. Some of these pre-programmed destinations even had pre-typed notations attached to them, though Gero was still spending some time deciphering the Saiyan language.

All in all, the contents of the Attack Ball were set to advance his own scientific understanding by decades, if not centuries. Not to mention all the various scientific applications of the pod's different systems! Creating his own brand of spacecraft was just one of many different things he'd be able to do, once he fully reverse engineered the technology behind the pod. The suspended animation technology alone was a goldmine, and was already giving him plenty of ideas on how to double the security surrounding Androids Seventeen and Eighteen. Not to mention the practical applications of being able to put himself, or other humans, in such a state.

Of course, breaking everything down would take him a great deal of time. Not to mention the additional time it would take to recreate the technology himself. Still, that wouldn't impede him for long. After all, he had plenty of free time to analyze and decipher it all.

Gero was in the middle of translating the Saiyan language when an incessant beeping noise erupted from his computer, tearing him away from his work. He blinked rapidly, frowning as he stalked over to his main console. He typed away at his controls, spending a few seconds to figure out the cause of the alert. When he did, Gero froze in place, his eyes widening in disbelief.

Vomi was calling him.

Gero spent a few seconds frozen with indecision before he managed to shake some sense into himself. He quickly looked himself over, making sure he was in a presentable state before answering the call.

His Supercomputer projected Vomi's face over the main screen. Gero felt a painful twinge in his chest as he looked at his ex-wife, a rush of memories assailing him as he recalled their last, disastrous meeting days ago.

"Vomi," he greeted her, nodding at her respectfully.

She didn't reply right away, choosing instead to scrutinize him with her piercing gaze. Gero fidgeted slightly in response.

"I want you to make me a promise," she finally said, still staring at him with a watchful look. "And I want you to consider my promise long and hard before you respond. Don't think about trying to lie to me, either. If you do, then that will be it. I'll break this pad and we'll never speak again."

Gero couldn't help but bristle at her words, but he did his best to restrain his anger. He wanted her help, after all, and nothing would drive her away faster than getting into another argument with her.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I want you to promise me that any technology we work on, that we invent together, won't go toward hurting innocent people," she said, giving him another hardened stare. "I will not contribute to the defense against the Saiyans if defeating them means you'll just use what we made to hurt innocents later on down the road. I will not have my hands stained with any more blood than they are already."

Gero furrowed his brow, weighing her ultimatum seriously. On the surface, it wasn't an unreasonable demand. Gero had been ambivalent at best about civilian casualties in his prior calculations and projections, though he'd since grown ill at ease with the idea. No doubt that was due to the influence of his extra memories. Normally he'd be annoyed by that, but in this case at least, it wasn't an unwelcome development.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Vomi quickly cut him off.

"And before you say anything, I'll let you know that this promise extends to Son Goku and his friends as well. When I say I don't want to hurt any innocents, I mean it. So think carefully about this before you say anything, Gero."

Gero shut his mouth with an audible click, a grimace flashing over his features. Now wasn't this a clever little trap?

Perhaps it was harsh to think of it in such terms, but Gero felt that way all the same. Of course Vomi wouldn't want anything to do with his vendetta against Son Goku. She'd made that clear multiple times. With that in mind, it was reasonable that she wouldn't want any new research of hers applied in that direction. Still, the fact she was twisting his arm like this irked him to no end. Gero had half a mind to break off the deal then and there…

But he needed her. If she wanted to keep her hands clean so badly, then fine, that was an acceptable compromise. He was already putting his vendetta on hold until the Saiyans and Freeza were dealt with, after all. And besides that, he had enough ideas up his sleeve that he wouldn't need to use any of Vomi's future breakthroughs to go after Son Goku.

Hell, alternate versions of himself had been capable of making Androids powerful enough to overpower and kill Son Goku's allies in multiple timelines. Clearly, he didn't need Vomi's assistance in making that a reality.

"Fine. You have my word," he finally said, giving Vomi a curt nod.

She didn't say anything, choosing instead to stare him down, as if challenging him on that statement. Her eyes sought his own out and Gero met her gaze, hoping that his intentions got through to her.

Whatever she saw in his eyes seemed to satisfy her. Vomi slowly relaxed, her features softening as she gave out a small sigh.

"I'll hold you to it then," she said.

Gero smiled gratefully at her, though that action seemed to alarm her as she gave him a weird look. Gero just as quickly wiped that smile off of his face and adopted a more stern, professional expression.

"In that case, do we have an agreement? Will you help me in preparing for the Saiyan Invasion?" he asked.

She nodded, looking off to the side as she spoke. "Give me a day to put my affairs in order over here, Gero. Ponshu won't be happy about this, but I'll talk him around. When I'm ready, I'll give you a call. Okay?"

"Very well, that is fine by me," he replied.

With that done, there wasn't much else to say. Vomi ended the call soon after, giving him one last look as she hung up.

Gero leaned back in his chair, sighing softly to himself. Despite his own efforts at self-sabotage, it looked like he had successfully recruited his ex-wife. Soon enough, he'd have a partner working at his side, and a new set of eyes to look at all the problems set before them. In a way, it'd almost be like what they had done in the past: working side by side as they made new advances in scientific theory.

Gero smiled to himself, his mind temporarily lost in the memories of better times. All too soon, however, he dragged himself back to the present with a thoughtful frown. Despite his nostalgia, his new partnership wouldn't be able to capture that same magic. Too much time had passed, and too many wounds had opened up between him and Vomi. They might be able to maintain a professional partnership, but there was no way they'd be able to recapture that easy-going friendship they'd maintained in their youth.

God, he'd screwed up so much with her. If only…

Well. Short of using the Dragon Balls, or a time machine, there was no changing the past. And Gero was not about to attempt to use either. He'd have to live up to his mistakes, for better or worse.

Gero stood up from his chair a moment later, stroking his mustache as he glanced around his lab. This base was his main workplace, but he had other, auxiliary laboratories hidden throughout the world, locations that he largely had prepped in the event he needed to abandon this specific facility. That way he'd always have a base to fall back to in the event this laboratory was destroyed, or otherwise compromised.

This base still had a great deal of purpose to fulfill, but it might not be a bad idea to relocate his main headquarters to one of those auxiliary labs. Perhaps one closer to Central City. He was already going to need to set up some firewalls and other protections in his Supercomputer, to ensure that Vomi wouldn't accidentally stumble upon any information relating to the RPC or Androids Seventeen and Eighteen. Relocating would also ensure that Vomi couldn't discover the stasis pods for Seventeen and Eighteen in the sub-basement.

Gero knew that if Vomi found out anything about his wayward cyborgs, she would freak out. And rightfully so, he had to admit. That sort of knowledge would break their already shaky partnership, and worse still, she might try to free Seventeen and Eighteen. He was sure that wouldn't end well for anyone involved. Of course, it also gave him additional motivation to figure out what he was going to do with the twins…though that was also easier said than done. If he could, he'd turn them back into normal humans and just let them go, but that wasn't an option. The process of converting them into cyborgs was completely irreversible.

No, best to leave his main base behind, and set up shop elsewhere. That way he could keep Vomi in the dark about his more morally questionable projects.

That decision in mind, Gero started moving about his lab, barking out orders to his Androids as he did so.

If he was going to move labs, he'd need to bring Sixteen, Nineteen, and Twenty with him, and that was going to require some careful handling.

A massive space station flew through the deep recesses of space, far away from any habitable planets or locations of importance. The interior of the station was large enough to house thousands, but at the moment it was host to only one person. Since the destruction of Planet Vegeta, the station had skirted the edges of known space, avoiding any contact with those connected to the wider galaxy. And those few it did come into contact with would come to regret their association.

In many ways, the station could be considered a floating tomb. Its sole resident had long thought of it in such terms, though she had never been bothered by the idea. With the annihilation of most of her race, the Saiyan scientist Nion had long since come to terms with the idea of this being her final resting place.

But Saiyans lived long lives, and were able to enjoy the prime of their youth for longer than most species. Thus, Nion intended to enjoy every moment she could, carrying out her one major passion: to seek out strange new life and civilizations, and study them to her heart's content. With no King to answer to, and no loyalty to Freeza, Nion had spent the last two decades under her own command, traversing the galaxy as she sought to unravel the secrets of life.

Nion was in the middle of her latest experiment, which involved dissecting the corpse of an Arlian, when she heard a chime from her computer. Nion cocked her head, taking a second to remember just what that chime was supposed to alert her to. She put down her tools thereafter, discarding her blood-soaked gloves as she made her way over to her main computer console.

Nion typed rapidly at the console, smiling to herself as she keyed up a specific set of windows on her computer screen. The alert had been for the activation of a Saiyan Pod transceiver, letting her know when the remnants of her race were on the move.

Truth be told, she had tracking beacons installed on every spaceship used within the Planet Trade Organization: the perks of being one of the main engineers behind the latest model of modern PTO spacecraft. She could slip in a covert tracking beacon into the schematics of the ship design, and no one would be the wiser.

However, she had a separate program to keep track of any spacecraft used by what was left of the Saiyans. Perhaps it was nostalgia for her dying race, or a desire to know what the remains of her people were up to: whatever the case, Nion made sure to keep a close eye on their movements.

"Now then, just what caused that alert?" Nion mused to herself, her eyes browsing through the latest updates.

The Prince and his entourage were still on the move, heading steadily toward the planet Earth. Turles was still in deep space, doing god knows what with his special little tree. Paragus and his brat, if they were even alive, were still on Vampa, their marooned ship blasting out a distress signal that no one would ever pick up. Then there were the few other survivors, each making out meager existences throughout the universe. And…

And there was a new signal.

Nion blinked rapidly, checking her instruments again to make sure she wasn't just experiencing some computer glitch. But no, it was real: there was a new signal being broadcast from a previously inactive Saiyan pod.

She put all of her attention on that anomaly, her brow furrowed as she typed away at her console. A quick search revealed that the pod itself had been registered to a Saiyan named Kakarot, in the hours before Planet Vegeta's destruction. Hm, Kakarot, Kakarot…ah, hadn't that been Bardock's new whelp? So he'd been sent out to conquer a planet or die trying, it seemed. Not too unexpected: it was the designated fate for lower-class Saiyans of a certain power level. Though not an assignment handed out to newborns, typically.

"Are you still alive, Kakarot? After all this time? Or is someone tinkering around with your old pod?" Nion mused to herself, her eyes sparkling with delight.

Before she could investigate any further, though, the signal abruptly cut off.

Nion frowned, typing away at her console again, but nothing she did could bring the signal back. So nothing was wrong on her end: meaning something had happened to the pod itself. Either someone had destroyed the craft, or they'd damaged the tracking beacon in some way.

Nion hummed in thought, drumming her fingers against her keyboard. She decided to bring up Kakarot's profile thereafter, looking to see where it was that he'd been sent to. It was always possible someone had found the pod and flown it elsewhere before reactivating it, but that seemed unlikely. No, it was much more probable that it was still right where it had originally landed, which was…

"Planet Earth?" Nion questioned aloud.

Kakarot had been sent to Earth? Interesting. Earth, the same planet where Raditz's transponder had gone dark; Earth, the same planet that the Prince, the General, and the General's daughter were traveling to even now. Earth, the same planet where after two decades of silence, Kakarot's old pod had been reactivated.

Curious. Very curious.

"Now," Nion mused to herself, a devilish smile spreading across her lips. "Just what am I going to do with this information?"

Last edited: May 21, 2024

483

Magus1108

May 20, 2024

View discussion

Threadmarks A Fragile Alliance

View content

Magus1108

Magus1108

Aug 28, 2024

#204

It took the rest of the day to move Gero's necessary and vital equipment from his main lab to the auxiliary lab he had near Central City. It was an annoying, tedious task, thankfully made easier with the help of Androids Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen. With his Androids doing most of the heavy lifting, Gero himself did not have to do too much work: his job mainly consisted of transferring his Supercomputer's AI to his computer system at the other lab.

It was irritating he had to do this in the first place, but it was ultimately a better move than bringing Vomi to his main laboratory. He didn't want to risk her stumbling upon the stasis pods for Androids Seventeen and Eighteen, after all. Perhaps it'd be better to destroy them altogether, and thus eliminate the chance of Vomi ever discovering them…but, Gero was still uncertain about that idea.

Frankly, he should have gotten rid of those rebellious Androids by now. With what he knew from his meta-knowledge, keeping them around would only prove hazardous to his future health. And yet, he hesitated all the same, his cold logic at war with his conflicted emotions. The newly created aspect of his personality, born from his memories of another life—the same memories that had given him so many welcome advantages—was ill at ease with the idea of just killing Seventeen and Eighteen. A part of him now felt guilty on turning them into guinea pigs for his experiments: Lapis and Lazuli had never asked to be turned into all powerful, ruthless cyborgs, after all. And Gero was now certain that a degree of their ruthlessness came from their anger at being experimented on in the first place. Much like in the anime, they'd undoubtedly try to kill him the moment they came online again, but Gero couldn't even blame them for that.

So here he was, keeping them in hibernation and making them a problem for his future self. It was the coward's way out, but it at least bought him more time to consider how to deal with them. Perhaps if he got his own space program running, he could dump them both off in the deep darkness of the void, and make them someone else's problem...

Either way, doing nothing was a risky decision: perhaps even one that would bite him in the ass when he least expected it. Still, his safeguards over the Androids were near absolute. They remained in a deactivated state, and would stay that way unless awoken by himself or his Supercomputer. So there wasn't any inherent danger in keeping them in their current situation. His Supercomputer would also continue to monitor and control the lab in his absence, and would thus alert him the moment anything abnormal occurred with the twins.

It was far from the ideal solution, but it was the one he'd stick to all the same. Besides, until he figured out what he was going to do with Cell, it was best to keep Seventeen and Eighteen lying around in reserve. And if worst came to worst, he could always wake them up and try to send them to fight Vegeta, if both his loyal Androids and Goku failed to defeat the Saiyan Prince.

Though if things truly became that desperate, perhaps he'd be better off stuffing himself and his family onto a spaceship, and getting the hell out of dodge.

At any rate, Gero had set up shop in his auxiliary lab by the end of the day: and the moment everything was settled, Gero swiftly retired to bed, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

He spent the following morning doing various tasks throughout his lab, passing the time as he waited to hear back from Vomi. He did not have to putter around all that long, thankfully: he received a call from his ex-wife around noon, saying she was ready. Gero hopped into his hover car right away, and flew the short distance to Ponshu's house.

The entire family was waiting for him when he arrived. Laofeng and Ponshu were standing side by side on the front porch, while a fussy Hedo was carried in Laofeng's arms. Meanwhile Vomi stood apart from them, standing on the lawn with two suitcases on either side of her.

He spared his son a brief glance before looking right back at Vomi. He got out of the car, murmuring a greeting to her as he reached to take one of her suitcases.

Her hand moved to seize his own, latching tightly onto his wrist.

Gero paused, his brows furrowed as he looked back at Vomi. She stared at him for a few moments, before wordlessly gesturing over to their son.

"I can take care of the bags. Ponshu wants a word with you before we go," she said.

Gero grimaced, glancing again toward his estranged son. He gave a jerky nod and left Vomi as he walked toward the front porch.

Ponshu moved to meet him, climbing down the steps and marching until they were face-to-face. He stared at Gero with a steely, hardened gaze, not a hint of warmth present in his blue eyes.

"If you hurt her," his son stated, venom clear in his tone. "I will kill you."

Gero barely resisted the urge to flinch, Ponshu's words hitting him as if his son had actually slapped him. He likewise managed to smother any reaction from showing on his face, a faint twitch of his brow being the only sign of how his son's words affected him.

"I'd expect nothing less," he finally murmured, trying to keep his voice steady.

He felt tempted to add something more, to add some words of reassurance, but he dismissed that impulse just as quickly as it came. Ponshu wouldn't trust him, after all. And why should he? Gero had never given his second son a chance to believe that there was any hint of goodness in him.

Yet another regret he could truly only appreciate now, with the influence of his other life. And perhaps for the first time since he'd Awakened to his old memories, Gero cursed himself for getting them so late in life.

If only he'd gotten them sooner, when he could have changed things with his family. Gevo would undoubtedly be alive. And—

Well. There was no use fixating on what could have been, was there?

Ponshu glared at him in response, his eyes narrowing slightly. Then, without another word, he turned around and marched back over to his wife.

Gero let out the smallest of sighs, giving his son one last stare before turning around himself. Vomi was already waiting in the passenger seat of his hover car, her bags stowed away in the vehicle's trunk.

He strode back over to his car, getting into the driver's seat moments later. He glanced over at Vomi a moment later, observing how she pressed herself as far away from him as she could manage.

"Not going to say goodbye?" Gero questioned.

Vomi raised an eyebrow and craned her head to look at him. Crossing her arms, she gave a small scoff. "I already said my goodbyes before you arrived, Gero. Now, let's not waste any more time."

Gero felt his brow twitch again, her cold tone eating away at him. Nevertheless he did as she said, turning the car back on a moment later. He brought it back up into the sky before racing across the skyline, soon leaving the Central City suburbs behind.

It was a mercifully short trip to his new lab. They arrived not twenty minutes later, parking in the garage of his lair. Vomi's eyes lingered over the Attack Ball he'd move there, though she said nothing about it. She also, not unsurprisingly, dismissed his offer of help with her bags, and he instead led her to the garage elevator, bringing them to the first floor of the lab.

He began to give her a tour of the laboratory thereafter, figuring that would be the best way to start things.

"There's the garage, of course, which you just saw. Fairly empty outside of my personal hover car and the Attack Ball I found. I'll...tell you about that later. There's also a sub-basement located between the main floor of the laboratory and the garage. I largely use it for storage and secondary experiments. The frames for Androids Twenty, Nineteen, and Sixteen are currently stored down there, as they are all incomplete. Ah, and down there is the centralized processing unit for my Supercomputer as well. It is, of course, networked into a wider array of units across the world, so damage to one physical server will not outright destroy the wider network." he said.

Vomi gave a small scoff, bringing him up short. "I know how your Supercomputer works, Gero. I helped you build your very first one, after all."

"Ah. Right," Gero replied awkwardly, giving a grimace. He'd expanded on the concept so much during his solo years, it was hard to remember that his wife had been at his side when he'd first pioneered the project.

He cleared his throat a moment later, resuming his tour and ushering her deeper into the lab. "The main floor of the laboratory is divided up into several different areas. The main access terminal for my Supercomputer is located near the center of the lab. Then there's the operating bay, where I make most of my Mechanoid creations. Adjacent to the operating bay are the stasis pods for my active Androids. Currently Androids Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen are all in hibernation mode whilst undergoing a new update. I also have a section of the lab devoted toward biological examinations and experiments. And, of course, there are the living quarters. A little rustic, perhaps, but nevertheless adequate. There's the kitchen, the shower, the dining room, and the bedroom; if you require any other separate areas there, do let me know—"

"Gero," Vomi interrupted him again, a hint of tension to her tone. "You said 'bedroom', singular. Yes?"

"...Correct?" Gero affirmed, glancing back at her to shoot her a puzzled look.

When it became clear he didn't catch what she was hinting at, Vomi sighed again and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay then, let me make this simple for you: where am I staying?"

Gero blinked rapidly, fully turning around to face her. Vomi stared back at him with an unamused glare on her face.

"Pardon?" he asked, flummoxed.

"Bedroom, singular, Gero," she repeated again, placing a hand on her hip.

It took him an extra moment, but Gero nevertheless caught her point. His eyes widened and he gave an immediate grimace. "Oh, find me in the alps."

Gero had been working by himself for well over a decade, and thus when constructing his labs, he only ever needed to construct a single bedroom in his living quarters. Now, however, he was to have a partner: and one he doubted would tolerate sharing a room with him. In fact, Gero knew Vomi would try to throttle him if he so much as suggested the possibility.

It would be awkward enough, sharing a workspace with his ex-wife. To make her stomach the indignity of anything more would no doubt break their already fragile partnership.

Well, now. Wasn't this endlessly embarrassing. How had he not foreseen an issue like this? The most brilliant mind in the world, and yet mastery of any social interactivity constantly eluded him.

"My apologies," he stiffly replied a moment later, his right eye twitching with faint irritation. "I will...build a second bedroom posthaste. In the meantime, I'll just...move a mattress into the operating bay, I suppose, and sleep there."

"Is that so?" Vomi questioned, surprise flashing over her face. "I half expected you to fight me on who'd get the bed."

"Please, I'm not that much of a petty tyrant," Gero snorted. Then he shot Vomi a wry look and added, "Besides, we both know who would win that fight."

A fleeting smile stretched over her lips in response. Then, Vomi's expression returned to a more taciturn look, and she gave a single nod. "Good. Now, you can save the rest of the tour, I already have a fair idea of where things are. You really haven't changed your laboratory layout designs at all, Gero. It's almost the exact same from when we worked together."

"Ah. Right," he noted, giving a small wince. Yet another thing he'd overlooked.

"So," she continued, giving him an imperious stare. "You wanted my assistance. And here I am. So how do you want me to help? You weren't all that clear on that."

Gero nodded, clearing his throat a moment later as he slipped back into a more clinical, professional demeanor. He felt a sense of relief as he did that: he'd always felt more comfortable and sure of himself when having a social mask like that on, so to speak. "I had some ideas, and I'm sure you'll have some of your own once I give you a full debriefing. First, I think it would be best to show you what I have managed to do so far."

With that declaration given, he led her over to the stasis units, stopping in front of the pods for his active mechanoids. He checked each of their display panels, ensuring that everything was in working order. Seeing that the updates had been installed without issue, Gero proceeded to activate his Androids one by one.

A hiss of steam echoed through the lab as the pods for Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen slowly slid open. Each of his creations stepped out of their stasis units seconds thereafter, their eyes naturally gravitating toward Vomi as they regarded the newcomer.

Well, Thirteen and Fourteen did so, at least. Fifteen seemed far too busy taking a swig from his flask. Which reminded Gero, where did he get that?! He'd thoroughly searched Fifteen before putting him in stasis, so how…

Ugh, what an infuriating creature.

"Vomi, may I introduce Androids Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen," Gero announced, trying to push past his exasperation. His own natural arrogance and pride indeed returned to the forefront, as he gestured toward his creations with a haughty, superior smirk. "If all goes well, they shall be my frontline fighters against the Saiyan menace."

Unfortunately for Gero, his gravitas was utterly ruined when Fifteen opened his mouth to speak.

"Yo yo yo, what's crack-a-lackin'!" the short Mechanoid declared, before his attention shifted over to Vomi. A roguish smile spread over his artificial lips as he added, "And how you doin', good lookin'?"

Oh sweet Kami, no.

"Fifteen," Gero growled, staring daggers at his creation. "Control yourself! And do not hit on my ex-wife!"

"Oh ho! So that means you're single, then?" Fifteen followed up, giving an unrepentant grin.

Vomi blinked rapidly, looking down at the short mechanoid with a carefully blank look on her face. Slowly, she turned back to face Gero, remarking, "I was expecting many things today. Being flirted with by a three foot tall purple clown was not one of them."

"Psh, I ain't no clown, baby. 'Sides, that's all Nineteen's schtick anyway. Or it will be when he's finished," Fifteen retorted, before taking another swig from his flask.

"...He can process alcohol?" Vomi questioned, looking at him again.

"Please, let's not get started on that," Gero groaned, shaking his head. He gave Fifteen another dark glare, hoping beyond hope that Vegeta would soon rid him of this troublesome machine.

"Doctor Vomi, it is a pleasure to meet you," Fourteen interjected, giving her a nod and a polite, formal bow. "Doctor Gero has told us much about you, and what to expect from you. I look forward to having you work on my programming."

Vomi raised an eyebrow, though a pleased smile crossed her lips all the same. She returned Fourteen's nod and said, "Well, aren't you a polite one. I look forward to working with you as well, Fourteen."

"Kiss ass," Fifteen groused, muttering to himself.

"Yes, the good Doctor Gero has told us a great deal about your genius," Thirteen declared, grinning as he stepped forward.

He reached over, taking Vomi's hand before she could give a word of protest. He then bent down to gently press a kiss against the back of her hand, rising back up a moment later with a smile designed to charm her. "Though I must admit, he failed to educate us on just how beautiful you truly are."

Oh God damn it! Now there were two of them! Ugh, if he didn't need all of his active Androids to face the Saiyan menace, then he'd scrap Thirteen and Fifteen both in a heartbeat! Goddamn lousy, good-for-nothing ingrates!

"Christ alive Thirteen, keep it bloody professional!" Gero thundered, barely resisting the urge to throttle his creation. Not that it would do him any good, anyway.

"Of course, Doctor, of course," Thirteen demurred, shooting him a smug stare. "I'm just letting Doctor Vomi know how much we appreciate her presence. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"What's a 'christ'?" Fifteen asked aloud, to which Fourteen just shrugged.

Vomi, meanwhile, stood frozen in place, her eyes wide as she stared at Android Thirteen. She hardly seemed to notice all the banter from the Mechanoids, her eyes blinking rapidly as she took in every detail of Thirteen's artificial face.

When she finally looked over at him, Gero was stunned to an expression of absolute disappointment: in fact, it felt as if an entire aura of profound despondency had shrouded his ex-wife.

"Gero," she intoned, her voice dripping with scorn, mixed with pity. "This is just sad."

"Wh-what?!" he sputtered, giving her a perplexed look.

She stared at him a moment longer before looking back at Thirteen. Then, she turned back to face him and said, "If you're seriously going to tell me you didn't base Thirteen off of some deluded version of your youthful self, then I'll just let you know now: I'm never going to believe you."

Gero reeled back, his face coloring with anger and embarrassment. His mouth stuttered and stammered over his words until he finally managed a solid response. "I, I don't, I would not put it like that! I mean, yes, obviously, I modeled Thirteen's facial structures off of my own from my youth. But that was the best model I had available when I was constructing him—!"

"Gero," Vomi cut him off, shaking her head. "I am not the same lovestruck, foolish young woman I once was. When I see your bullshit, I will not hesitate to call you out on it."

"Oh, what! What on earth is wrong with Thirteen's appearance?!" Gero finally thundered, crossing his arms as he glared daggers at her.

Vomi raised an eyebrow and simply stared at him.

Gero gave a frustrated growl, throwing up his hands as he declared, "Fine, fine! I'll admit it's narcissistic, but—!"

"And delusional as well, as I said," Vomi rebutted. "Or are you seriously going to tell me that you had half the musculature that Thirteen does, when you were that young? Gero, he has abs. You never had abs, not even once."

"Oh, so I'm a superior specimen to Doctor Gero in his prime? That is handy to know," Thirteen crowed with a smug grin.

"You stay out of this!" Gero hissed, before looking back at his ex-wife. "For the love of…can we just drop this? Thirteen's appearance doesn't have any bearing on our discussions whatsoever!"

"I beg to differ…but, yes, we are getting off track," she acknowledged, bowing her head.

Gero rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as he muttered darkly under his breath. It was not nearly as bad as Vomi was making it out to be! It simply wasn't!

While he fumed and growled, Vomi took a moment to study his Androids again, assessing their worth with a more clinical eye. When she was done with her evaluations, she spoke up.

"Alright, then. So these are your frontline fighters, as you said. You're confident they can stand against these Saiyans that are coming?"

Gero jerked slightly as he was brought back to reality. He quickly pushed his smoldering anger aside, focusing instead on her question.

He opened his mouth to speak, but he hesitated, at the last second. He spent another moment mulling over his thoughts, stroking his chin before he said, "I admit, I am not entirely sure. Right now, I am confident their base power level output is superior to that of Raditz, the Saiyan that fought Goku and Piccolo. The battle data from that fight alone has boosted the power of my Androids tenfold. But the two Saiyans that are coming to the Earth now are far, far stronger than Raditz ever was."

Gero had to admit, this was quite the frustrating issue, and it'd been vexing him for some time. Without a proper Saiyan scouter, he wasn't able to measure the power level output of his Androids in a satisfactory way. Bulma had Raditz's scouter, if he recalled right, but getting it from her would be no easy task: not if he wanted to retain his anonymity.

He could always build his own variant of the power level detection technology, of course: in fact, Gero was confident he'd be able to do so. However, he had a million and one things to do these days, and building his own scouter would involve cracking into a scientific tech base he'd been previously unfamiliar with. It would take a great deal of time to properly do that project, not to mention double that amount of time to build a functional prototype—especially one that wasn't liable to blow up in his face during the first test.

Wait. His Mechanoids were, as the name suggested, wholly mechanical and nonbiological. The Z Warriors had been unable to detect ki from any of his Androids, including Seventeen and Eighteen, who were more cyborg than android. So that meant that conventional scouters probably wouldn't be able to detect any ki or power level signatures given off by his creations…

Oh, blast it! That meant he'd have to pioneer a distinctly new and separate form of ki detection devices, that could measure the power output of his Androids. Ugh, when would he ever have time to do that?!

Screw that nonsense. He was going to get his hands on a proper scouter the first chance he got, and then reverse engineer the technology. That would provide a much easier starting base for his own brand of Android-friendly ki detectors.

"Gero?" Vomi prompted him, raising an eyebrow.

Gero gave a small start, coming back to the present moments later. He cleared his throat, taking a moment to compose himself before he spoke again.

"As I was saying, while I am confident in my Androids' capabilities, I am unsure if they are at the required power level necessary to match, or best, the coming Saiyan incursion. I will continue to feed them any more battle data from the field, as it becomes relevant, though there are other ways to compensate for their potential weaknesses. Most importantly, I have an Infinite Energy Reactor that I've installed in them to increase their power, so that should further fortify their power against the Saiyans. Android Thirteen also has a unique transformation feature that I am perfecting, though that requires the destruction of Fourteen and Fifteen to accomplish, so it would be a last resort of sorts. Regardless, this is where I hope you will come in, Vomi."

She gave a light nod, her eyes drifting back over to the assembled Androids. "You said you had Androids Twenty, Nineteen, and Sixteen under construction as well. Are you hoping that they might be your trump card?"

"To a degree," Gero acknowledged with a nod. "Truth be told, I'm not confident I can get them done in time. Twenty and Nineteen both require extensive overhauls to their designs that I haven't truly even started with, yet. Sixteen, meanwhile, is closer to completion, but I am…hesitant to send him out until I am sure he can dominate the Saiyans. But, with your help, I am hopeful that we can get these other Androids finished in time."

"Hm, with the two of us working together, it's…possible, I'll grant you. I'll need to know what your intentions are with the remodelings for Twenty and Nineteen, though. And take a look for them myself, as well as with Android Sixteen," Vomi said, closing her eyes in thought. "Though I'll remind you, I was never fully comfortable working on your mechanical creations. Biology was always more my area of expertise."

"I am aware of that," Gero quickly assured her. "And had some thoughts on how you might contribute there. I've gotten hold of some research from Doctor Wheelo recently, that I'm still sorting through. It is my hope that we can repurpose what he learned for our own benefit, in creating potential Biomechanical warriors of our own. Perhaps they'll even end up surpassing my own Androids in terms of their final power output, though of course that remains to be seen."

"Doctor Wheelo? How…? Nevermind, I probably don't want to know," Vomi dismissed, shaking her head. "But…he was one of the foremost experts in biomechanical technologies. Studying from his work would be…intellectually stimulating, to say nothing else."

Though she tried to downplay her interest, Gero could spot the keen shine of excitement in Vomi's eyes. That sight brought back pleasant memories, and he couldn't help the fond smile that slipped over his features.

Just as quickly, however, that smile disappeared from his face. He didn't have time to reminisce over pleasant visions of the past. Besides, he doubted Vomi's good mood would last much longer. He was already dreading showing her the frame for Android Sixteen: there would be no mistaking who he was modeled on, and he didn't have a good read on how she would react to him.

And, of course, there was the issue of why he really wanted Vomi around. Having her help and second opinion with his Androids was a nice benefit, of course, but it was not why he had really brought her into the fold.

"Then, of course, there is the final project of mine that I am…hoping you can help me accomplish," he said, trying to muster a calm and cool demeanor.

However, his efforts were in vain. Vomi had been married to him for well over twenty three years, and knew all of his tells: including when he was holding back an uncomfortable truth from her.

Her eyes narrowed at him moments later, her arms folding over her chest as she focused her full attention onto him.

"And what project is that?" she icily asked.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. This, if nothing else, would determine if their partnership could truly stand.

"My project to create a biomechanical android. Well, that's not quite true. The project would really be about turning a human into a type of specialized cyborg," Gero finally said.

Vomi said nothing at first, though her eyes continued to lock onto him. After a long, tense moment, she motioned for him to continue. Gero paused a moment longer, doing his best to read his wife's feelings through her stony expression…

Alas, he'd never been able to fully analyze her emotions. Perhaps that was yet another reason as to why their marriage had failed.

"Now, before you say anything about who the test subject would be, well. I will not lie. I had…considered you, first and foremost, as I trusted you with the unbelievable power that would bestow upon you. However, I realize you'd be heavily reluctant to undergo such a process now, in light of our…current relationship. No doubt you'd be suspicious of my intentions, to put it generously. So with that in mind…"

Gero took a deep, calming breath, doing his best to calm his racing heart. There would be no turning back after this.

"With that in mind, I would instead submit myself as the subject for this experiment. I want you to help me turn myself into a cyborg."

A deafening silence filled the room as Vomi stared at him with wide eyes, a mixture of astonishment and horror written clear across her face.

Spoiler: Author's Note

Last edited: Sep 7, 2024

478

Magus1108

Aug 28, 2024

View discussion

Threadmarks A Second Opinion

View content

Magus1108

Magus1108

Sep 7, 2024

#264

"Are you insane?!"

Vomi's incensed tone thundered through the lab, causing Gero to give a small wince. The echo of her words rang harshly in his ears, while his eyes matched with Vomi's for a few moments. He was captivated by the mixture of fury and horror in her gaze, her eyes drilling into him relentlessly. It wasn't like anything he'd seen from her before.

Well, no, not quite. She had given him a similar look, once: on the night that their marriage had ended. Gero would never forget that, not for as long as he lived.

"Pretty sure the Doc has a few screws loose," Fifteen chimed in, not helping the situation whatsoever.

"Please, Doctor Gero is not insane. Merely…" Fourteen paused, searching for an appropriate term. "Neurologically divergent from mainline humans."

"Sounds like a fancy, egghead way of sayin' he's insane in the membrane," Thirteen quipped with a smirk.

Gero glared at them harshly, silencing any further byplay from his rogue creations with a growl. Once they were taken care of, he turned his attention back to his ex-wife.

"Now Vomi—!" he began, but she immediately cut him off.

"Oh don't you 'now Vomi' me! I swear, if you try to say that I'm overreacting, I will smack you on that oversized head of yours!" Vomi hissed, glaring daggers at him.

Gero bristled in response, a vein nearly popping on his forehead as he tensed with mounting anger. The snickers from Thirteen and Fifteen did not help his mood either, his hands curling up into fists as a surge of righteous fury flowed through him.

But before that rage could boil over, Gero abruptly closed his eyes. He employed a few breathing exercises Doctor Briefs had taught him in his youth, doing his best to calm himself down and restrain his fury. He did not want to make another mistake here, like had at Ponshu's house. Blowing up at Vomi would not help him in the slightest. If he wanted to make his wife understand, then he needed to try and peacefully argue her down, and not let things devolve into a childish tantrum.

Though she made that so hard for him: Gero couldn't help but wryly reflect on that. Intentionally or not, Vomi really did know how to work him up and press his buttons.

"Fine. Then do me the same courtesy, and do not call me insane," he bit out, his anger leaking out despite his best efforts. "Instead, tell me why you are against this proposal: like a proper scientist."

Vomi narrowed her eyes, giving him a dark look. In a clipped and irate tone she began to say, "Fine. In that case, let me be clear. You are volunteering to undergo a process that, to my understanding, has not had any prior testing on humans before. You have no way of knowing if this will work, nor how it might affect your body. Hell, for all we know, such an attempt could kill you, Gero! How does that not sound insane to you?!"

Very carefully, Gero smoothed out his features, trying not to react to his wife's words. It wouldn't do to give her a hint about Androids Seventeen and Eighteen, after all. Though their omission nevertheless put him in a bind. Without their example to fall back on, how could he prove that his cyborgization process would work?

Then again, there wasn't a guarantee that it would work on him. If he were a younger man, Gero would be certain of the operation's chances at success. As he was now, however…

"You are…right, to a degree," he begrudgingly admitted, frowning in distaste as he stroked his chin. "I have run simulations that indicate a high chance of success for a cyborgization process on human test subjects. But, those chances of success lower the older the subject is. The strain such a process takes on the human body is immense, and the older one is, the greater the likelihood is of sudden death, most likely through a stroke or heart attack. Like with many things, the young take better to these surgeries better than the old. So engaging in a conversion process on my body, at my age, would be…fraught with risk. I do acknowledge that."

Gero paused, gauging her reaction so far. Vomi's eyes remained narrowed into slits, but she gestured for him to keep speaking.

Emboldened, Gero felt an unseen tension wash away from his shoulders. Feeling more at ease and in familiar territory, he continued with his argument.

"Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile risk. While my Androids are formidable and mighty, they face frustrating limitations. They cannot train to grow stronger, like with most organic beings. Instead I must feed them combat data from battles I have spied on. The resulting calculations and analysis can increase their strength tenfold, but it is an inefficient way to do so. Much as it pains me to admit, my research has confirmed that training and actual combat are the best ways at sharpening one's own physical power…and both methods are unusable for my Androids. Their frames cannot change or develop the way organic bodies can, leaving the constant feed of battle data as their only method of advancement.

"And when I have no more data to give them? In that case, they will become stagnant, and their organic foes will almost assuredly pass them in strength. While they are superior to organic beings in most ways, this one frustrating limitation will ensure they always remain a step behind, and at a disadvantage. That is why a proper cyborg is the best of both worlds!" Gero declared, a passionate air suffusing his words.

Truth be told, his words were not entirely correct. His Energy Absorption model of Androids could, in theory, obtain far greater power than their battle-data provided through the absorption of ki. But the fatal flaw of the Energy Absorption model was that they would need constant replenishment, as Energy Absorption was their only method of sustaining themselves. With no Infinite Energy Reactor, Energy Absorption Androids had a finite supply of ki to work with at any given time, and running out ran the risk of them malfunctioning, and eventually ceasing to work entirely. In theory, they could operate indefinitely, but eventually they would run out of a readily available source of ki to drain.

Regardless of that issue, though, was the fact that that model of Android would also face similar limitations, in terms of increasing their power level. Perhaps that flaw could be mitigated some with the combination of the Infinite Energy Reactor and Energy Absorption models: but alas, such a thing was impossible. The two model types were utterly incompatible.

Though Gero knew it could be done, all the same: Super Seventeen was evidence of that, after all. But that had required extraordinary circumstances to pull off, and he doubted he would get access to Doctor Myuu or the Machine Mutants anytime soon, if they even existed here.

Vomi furrowed her brow, mulling over his argument. After a long minute of silence she said, "I'm not nearly as much of an expert on Mechanoids as you are, but it does all make a certain amount of sense. Using your logic, I suppose I would concede to the superiority of a cyborg over an android."

She paused for a few moments, gathering her thoughts. But before she could speak any further—

"Please, I'm superior to any cyborg or android, any day of the week," Fifteen declared with a scoff. Taking a swig from his flask he added, "And I'm superior to that old sack of bones for that matter. Ain't any creature, past, present, or future, who is superior to this love machine."

Fifteen waggled his eyebrows for good measure as he gave Vomi the most perverse grin that Gero had ever seen.

Immediately, the lingering tension in the room deflated like a popped balloon. Gero and Vomi both turned to stare at the Mechanoid, who matched their combined gaze with a smug grin. And in that moment, Gero wanted nothing more than to throttle that unrepentant bucket of bolts.

Thirteen snickered with amusement, while Fourteen shook his head in forlorn sadness, already murmuring apologies for his compatriot.

"Gero," Vomi spoke up in an incredulous tone. "Did you actually give him a functional penis?"

He sputtered in response, his face reddening from a mixture of outrage and mortification. "Don't be absurd! I—that question is completely and utterly irrelevant!"

Vomi blinked rapidly, sending him a flat look that left Gero further at odds.

"Only one way to find out, ain't there?" Fifteen leered.

"Enough!" Gero barked, letting out a soft growl. "I will not be made a fool of by my creation! Or made a cuckold, for that matter! All three of you, back in the stasis pods, and power off until I bring you back online!"

"Whelp, ya done gone and done it now," Thirteen bemoaned, giving a frustrated sigh. "Seriously Fifteen, learn to read the room."

"Hey, she left me a wide openin', and I was happy to take advantage of it," Fifteen chortled, sounding utterly unrepentant.

"My friend, that mouth of yours is going to get you killed one day," Fourteen rebuked, arms crossed as he stared sternly at the diminutive Mechanoid. "Mark my words."

Some more banter was shared among the Androids, but they walked back to their pods all the same, climbing inside. Once the pod doors hissed shut on them, Gero let out a sigh of relief.

"I swear, those three are more trouble than they're worth," he grumbled, muttering darkly under his breath. "Now, where were we? Right, cyborgs. So, then, you concede that a cyborg would be a better overall fighter for our intervention against the Saiyans. In which case—!"

Vomi cut him off, once more giving him a stern glare. "Just because I agree with you doesn't mean I will help you with that, Gero. Our deal was quite clear: I will not help you with any technology that would go toward hurting innocent people. And that would include turning you into a cyborg. Or are you going to tell me you wouldn't use your new power against Son Goku, the first chance you got?"

Gero scowled, glowering darkly at his ex-wife. Yet she held her ground, meeting his gaze with a burning fire of her own clear in her eyes. A terrible silence stretched between them, and the tension that had been dispelled returned in a great rush, suffusing the air around them.

Gero again closed his eyes, memories from another world causing him to send a brief prayer for patience to a deity far outside of his current reality. At the same time he pinched the bridge of his nose, doing his best to head off the migraine that was threatening to erupt.

"I suppose I could not simply promise you that I would never personally fight Son Goku?" he finally asked, his voice as dry as a desert.

As he suspected, Vomi shook her head in response. "You know that wouldn't be good enough, Gero. I'm already suspicious that you might try to break our deal, or weasel your way through it via some loophole. You and I both know you couldn't hold to a promise like that. Not when you hate Goku that much."

Gero grumbled under his breath, yet he did nothing to contradict her words. It was true, after all: after he had enhanced his body, either by turning himself into a cyborg or depositing his brain into an Android shell, he planned to take the fight directly to Goku. Not anytime soon, of course...but eventually, yes. He would be ultimately satisfied if a future creation of his was the one to deliver the killing blow on that abominable man-child, but the thought of doing it himself was just as tempting, if not moreso. Vomi had every reason to be wary of his intentions, put in that light.

Then, as if struck by a bolt of inspiration, a fitting solution came to his mind.

"In that case," he slowly said, testing out the words. "I would give you permission to modify my mind so there wouldn't be a risk."

Vomi's eyes grew wide with alarm, and she took a step back from him. She stared at him for a long minute, before she finally managed to utter, "What the hell are you talking about?"

Gero frowned, irked at the need to repeat himself. "You heard me, Vomi. As part of the operation, some bio-mechanical parts would need to be installed in my brain. That would allow you to program and install certain...shall we say 'parameters' into my consciousness. It's not flat out mind control, to be clear: that is difficult to achieve, and would need to be constantly maintained, lest the subject wrestle back self-control. But certain guidelines could be written, and in a willing subject, they would be followed flawlessly."

Vomi remained silent in the face of his explanation, staring at him as if he'd grown a second head. Gero patiently waited for her to collect herself, though his brow twitched with faint annoyance all the same. Was it really such a difficult concept to grasp?

"You'd," Vomi finally said, her voice cracking. "You'd let me mess with your mind like that?"

"Why not? You'd be just as qualified as me to do the necessary programming," Gero replied matter-of-factly.

"That's not the issue here! You, you can't just—!" Vomi abruptly cut herself off, a laugh of disbelief escaping her throat. "You cannot expect me to believe that you'd let me…Gero, do you know what I could do?! I could do a hell of a lot more to your mind than just putting some sort of anti-Goku limiter on it! If I could program you just like a machine, there's no limit to the potential abuse! I could erase your memories, make you follow my commands, alter your personality…gods above, Gero, the potential for abuse is insane!"

Gero's eyes lit up with realization, and he immediately looked off to the side. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, absently running a hand through his long mane of hair. "Ah, I see now. Yes, those are some…valid points."

Admittedly, her fears were somewhat overblown: he had just said total mind control wasn't possible, after all. While he had psychological inhibitors installed in Seventeen and Eighteen to restrain their actions and make them follow orders, they were still able to wrestle with, and eventually overcome, those mental constraints. His death in multiple timelines at their hands was more than enough proof of that, to say nothing of their generally rebellious nature. There was only so much he could also do to modify their personalities too, given that his attempts to make Lapis and Lazuli into obedient slaves had ended in failure. The rest, however, was another story.

Memories could be erased, that much was true. And he'd be putting a lot of trust and faith in Vomi that she wouldn't wipe his mind. Or, for that matter, add other limiters that might hinder his future goals. The prospect of not being able to fight Goku personally as an Android was grating, but one he was willing to tolerate, given he still had his other Mechanoids to fall back on. But if Vomi tried to use this as an opportunity to make him give up on his vendetta entirely…

And yet, would she do such a thing?

Their relationship may have drifted apart since their divorce, but Gero believed he still had a good handle on his ex-wife's character. She'd always been more hesitant about doing unethical studies, and had always refused to do especially heinous things, such as experimenting on human test subjects. And unlike him, she had been the one more inclined against exploring the true boundaries of science, especially when that meant getting your hands dirty. In the past, that had endlessly frustrated him, and been a source of contention during their employment under the Red Ribbon Army. Now, however…

"You wouldn't do such a thing," he murmured softly.

"What?" Vomi questioned, giving him a bewildered stare.

"You are a different breed of scientist, Vomi. That has been a controversial issue between us in the past, I will admit. But here, it serves as a reassurance. That is to say, you're not like me at all. You're…"

Weak-willed. Childish. Scared of progress. Craven.

These words and more flashed through his head, as Gero sought out the appropriate label. In the past, he had said these things and more besides to his wife, especially on the infamous night their marriage ended. But at that moment, all of those words felt wrong to Gero, tasting like ash on his tongue. For a reason he couldn't quite explain, he didn't want to call his wife any of those words.

So instead, he went with the first positive thing that flashed to his mind.

"You're a better person than me, Vomi. You'd never do anything to alter me in such a fundamental way. So I can trust you to have my best interests at heart, if nothing else," he finally said, keeping his gaze fixed away from her.

A long, bewildered silence settled in between them, as Gero looked anywhere but at Vomi. He still caught the look of wide-eyed shock that flickered over her features, and even more confusingly, the flash of hurt that followed her surprise. But Gero kept his eyes locked elsewhere and pointedly did not say anything else.

It was only after a long, suffocating amount of time had passed, that either of them spoke again.

"This is all still…hypothetical talk. We have no idea if your body would even take to such a conversion process," Vomi said in a shaky tone.

"Yes, that is…a fair point," he conceded, grasping onto the change of subject like a drowning man clinging to a piece of driftwood. "That would need to be established more than anything else. There are some tests we can run, to ensure that my body is compatible with being turned into a cyborg. And if it is not…well, it is a bridge we shall have to cross at that point."

Vomi nodded weakly before turning around suddenly. In that same, jittery tone she said, "I'm feeling tired right now. I think I'll go unpack and rest for a little bit, if you don't mind."

Gero murmured his assent and just like that, Vomi shot off, speed-walking away from him and over to the living quarters. When she was out of sight he let out a small sigh, and settled down in front of a nearby workbench. All of a sudden he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, and Gero wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and rest.

But sleep eluded him. Instead, the screams of terror from a certain set of twins echoed harshly in his mind, as did the last, haunting message from Gevo on the day of his son's death. Those harsh memories, and more, mingled together in his mind, relentlessly reminding him of his own past sins and failures. And as he sat there alone with his memories, a most insidious idea wormed itself inside of his head.

Gero tried his best to ignore it, but it clawed its way to the surface, bursting into the forefront of his mind with ease. And once it had taken root, it was nigh impossible to banish.

Would a memory wipe really be that bad? At this point, his long life was filled more with heartache and mistakes than success and triumphs. To erase the pain he felt, to wipe away the agony from his son's death, and his divorce from the only woman he'd ever loved…

Would unburdening himself from the past, and establishing a clean slate, really be so bad?

Time passed slowly, as it so often did. Gero busied himself in the lab after a point, getting some minor work done until Vomi re-emerged from the living quarters. She didn't say a word to him, but with a look and a gesture invited him back inside the quarters with her. She led him through the kitchen area and to the adjoining dining room, where a deactivated Chef-Bot, and the scent of a delicious meal, awaited him.

"You cooked?" he murmured, staring first at the prone form of Akira before looking at Vomi. "You know, I had this Chef-Bot made for a reason."

"I felt like cooking for myself, and your creation seemed to relish the chance for a break," Vomi replied simply. "I happened to make more than enough for two, however. Force of habit, I suppose. Care to join me? We may as well not waste the food."

She then took a seat at one end of the table, and after a hesitant pause, he sat opposite her. After that he diverted his attention to the food itself, his brows rising in minute surprise at the meal before him.

"Fried Paozu fish and rice?" he questioned, looking over at her. "You…made one of my favorite meals?"

Vomi gave an effortless shrug and simply said, "I felt like cooking it, Gero. It's as simple as that."

With that declaration given, she started eating from her plate.

Gero copied her actions a few seconds later, only pausing as he savored the welcome flavor of the meal. He gave a satisfied sigh, moving a little faster as he started eating more eagerly. God, it had been years since he'd enjoyed a home cooked meal, let alone fried Paozu. He'd spent so much time mindlessly consuming half-expired Red Ribbon Army ration meal-kits that tasting real food was like a godsend.

The sound of clattering silverware filled the room as he and Vomi ate in relative silence. At the same time, Gero felt his eyes drift over the table, thinking back to the last time he and Vomi had enjoyed a meal together. It had to have been years ago, far longer than he could reliably remember. They certainly had shared few meals together during the heyday of the Red Ribbon Army, he'd been far too busy with his work back then. So it must have been before that...back when Gevo was just a young boy, and Ponshu had just been born.

Christ, that had to have been thirty years ago. How could it have been so long? More than that, how could he have allowed himself to neglect his family? Had his work really been so important? Yes, it had, considering all the progress he had made and the accomplishments under his belt. Hell, he had pioneered an entirely new form of life, and stood poised to make further strides still.

But at what cost? One son dead, the other hating his guts, a grandson he'd never be allowed to see, and an ex-wife who loathed him utterly. His precious family, left broken and ruined upon the alter of his ambitions.

Was it really worth it?

For a brief moment, Gero felt his mind's eye project an image of the past onto his present. Vomi, Gevo, Ponshu, and himself, all sharing food at a dinner table at the Briefs estate. Gevo, a hellion already at four years old, ignoring his food in favor of making faces at his baby brother; Vomi, trying and failing to get Ponshu to eat a vegetable mush as he laughed at his older sibling's antics; and Gero himself, a fond smile on his face as he took the entire scene in.

And just as quickly as that memory came to him, it vanished, replaced by drab reality. He took stock of the present once more, of him and Vomi sharing a table together in a dimly lit, cramped room. No children, no love, and no warmth: just two old, lonely people barely able to tolerate one another.

Gero felt a tight pain erupt in the center of his chest, and his hands shook with barely restrained emotion. He immediately turned his attention back to his half-eaten meal, shoveling more pieces of fried Paozu and rice into his mouth. Its delicious flavor only made him feel worse, however.

"Gero?" Vomi suddenly spoke up, a mixture of incredulity and concern in her voice. "Are you...crying?"

He started at her accusation, bristling as he instinctively readied himself to deny her claim. But a wet, damp feeling along his cheeks put out the fires of his retort before it could even be born. He quickly brought up a free hand to his eyes, and discovered much to his alarm, that a steady stream of tears were leaking out from him.

He hastily stood up, wiping away the tears with the sleeve of his lab coat. He then shook his head and blatantly lied, saying, "Of course not. Don't be ridiculous."

In that moment, Gero knew he needed to get out of that room, and fast! If he did not, he would surely fall apart before Vomi, and he would sooner die than expose to her any moments of weakness.

"Thank you for the meal," Gero choked out, before striding out of the dining room.

Vomi called after him, but he paid her no heed, marching away as fast as his feet could carry him. Once out in the lab, he took the elevator down to the sub-basement, and swiftly rushed to the back of the wide, open room. He strode past a multitude of stored materials and machinery, stopping only once he arrived at the stasis pods for his incomplete Androids. It was there that he opened up the pod containing Android Sixteen.

The capsule door hissed open with an eruption of steam, and Gero quickly found himself staring at the facsimile of his dead son. Android Sixteen's cold, unmoving gaze met his own, and Gero swiftly forced himself to look away. His eyes drifted downward, looking at the exposed wiring and machinery visible from Sixteen's half-open torso. He'd been so busy with his other works, that he hadn't had any time to make any more progress with Android Sixteen.

Though perhaps that was for the best, considering what he felt now as he gazed upon the half complete Mechanoid he had built to mimic his long lost son.

Gero balled his hands up into fists, while the tears flowing freely from his eyes fell at a faster rate. Then, a fresh wave of grief hit him like a freight train, causing Gero to sink to his knees.

He let out a shuddering gasp, just barely holding back a wail of agony. Through a heavy, sorrow-laden voice he called out, "Computer, play back file G-750-Final Log."

An affirmative chime echoed through the room, and seconds thereafter the long dead voice of Gevo filtered down to his ears.

"May 12th, Age 750, 1630, Red Ribbon HQ. Hey Dad! I, uh, I'm here at headquarters, getting everything put away. No bunkmate, so...room to myself, which is good for a guy of my size. Heh, had a hell of a time sharing a room with Ponshu anyway, so I'm kinda glad I don't have a roommate here. So, uh, I just wanted to...you know, record something for you, since you and Uncle Frappe are busy building robot guys and stuff. How's, uh, how's Mom, by the way? She still working hard in her biology lab? Haven't heard from her in awhile, you know, but uh, the same goes for you too. Guess you guys are just pretty busy these days. No worries about that, though, I totally get it. I mean, we're all doing important work here, right? Working our butts off to replace that Dog King and his cronies with a real, competent government! Haha...well, anyway. Just wanted to let you know that I miss you, Dad. You, and Mom, and Ponshu. I know...things have been difficult between us all lately, especially with Ponshu running off on his own. But I actually got in touch with him recently, and he wanted to hear what I had to say. Surprisingly, we, uh, had a pretty civil conversation. So, it got me thinking: maybe, someday soon, we could all sit down and, you know, talk things out? It's been so long since we all got together as a family, I think it'd really do us all some good. I know what we're doing here with the Red Ribbon Army is important, but surely we can set aside a little time for ourselves, right? I mean, you've more than earned enough vacation time. Just...something to think about, I guess."

And from there, the rest of the message played out as Gero knew it would. A sudden blaring of an alarm, while an off-screen voice said that something was tearing its way through the base. Then:

"Uh, sorry, looks like I gotta go. Love you, Dad. Good luck with your—!"

There were no visuals playing to accompany the audio, but Gero had watched the the entire thing enough times to know what happened next. The chilling voice of a child drowned out Gevo's final words, and his son's entire existence was consumed in a wave of blue light.

And just like that, the recording came to an end.

Gero let out a choked sob thereafter, his hands clawing at the sterile floor beneath him. Curses freely flew from his mouth, passionate anger the only weapon he had left with which to wield his grief. He cursed Son Goku, for being the one to slay his bright, stunning little boy; he cursed Commander Red, whose incompetence had engineered the doom of the Red Ribbon Army; but most of all, he cursed himself, for shunning Gevo for so long, and not being able to tell his own son he had loved him too.

"Why didn't these memories come in sooner?!" Gero wept, his entire body shaking and shuddering. Another choked, ugly sob escaped his lips, as he wailed, "I could have saved him! I could have! I should have! My baby boy, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

All other words of self-recrimination were lost as Gero buried his face in his hands, crying the entire time.

He stayed like that for quite some time, utterly alone in his grief.