"What the... Did you guys hear that?" a security guard pulled up the beak of his cap and raised his rifle after a cascade of thunderous booms resonated from within the facility they were guarding. The bunch had been awfully interested in Videl and had been hassling her about her father and possibly getting autographs. It took an actual emergency with resonant blasts unraveling the facility's walls and roof for them to get their attention.
With the guards rushing to scan the facility and determine what was going on, Videl breathed out and slipped away. She had to find a point of entry now. If only she didn't have a reputation to uphold, she could've beaten all of those guys with just the shock wave of her snapping fingers. It'd have been a terrible idea though. They were government security workers answering to the King himself. Or so their uniforms suggested.
Finding a hole to enter through wasn't too tough. After all, stray blasts had been leaving openings that spewed fire and smoke all over the compound, which actually left Videl with a choice where she wanted to enter it through. Just as she figured, after seeing faster than light shock waves utterly drowning the facility, laser beams from the eyes of a detached old geezer's head drawing red lines all across the laboratory, and a clash of titans that involved a larger-than-life light show, the guards realized this was far beyond their paygrade and split.
"Handy Cannon!" Artificial Human No. 13 yelled out, extending his hand and emitting a beacon of red light from it. Minute, bullet-sized Ki blasts began pelting Chayote and Gohan together as the two crossed up their arms to absorb as much of the incoming punishment as they could.
While the pair of golden-haired warriors were still dealing with his Ki barrage, Android 13 swooped in with a soaring cross to Chayote's jaw. Seeing an opening in Super Saiyan Gohan's cross-shaped blocking stance, the Artificial Human drove his fist into his gut, opening the young man up. The white-haired Android began overwhelming young Gohan with a barrage of brutal punches before pointing his hands at him and finishing the combination attack up with a charged red energy sphere that detonated in an expansive crimson storm of static electricity.
Chayote grumbled while she let the surging energy expel her from the static field. When she next opened her teal eyes, the smug grin of Artificial Human No. 13 was all over her as he delivered a crashing knee strike. The static electricity from his own detonating Ki sphere had thoroughly encased the Android, enhancing his speed and strength momentarily but also giving a nasty electrical jolt to his moves. With Chayote taking off all the way to the roof, Android 13 raced to catch up with her, preparing an elbow shot to take her down to the ground, but a young woman appeared right in front of him with a loud snap.
"Videl? What are you doing, get out of here!" Chayote barked out as Videl rushed at an opponent far outside her league with a quick combination of three punches that seemed to bounce completely off of her opponent's face. Not feeling like giving up, Videl kneed No. 13 square in the face before switching up to her left leg and driving the front of it into No. 13's face as well. Proceeding with her assault, Videl switched to her right leg and swung it in a wicked roundhouse kick that whipped straight into No. 13 chest. Regardless of Videl's efforts, Android 13 stood still, utterly unmoved.
"Good doctor, if you may remove the secondary X-Factor femoid from the equation so that I may proceed with the violent expulsion of the alien filth infesting our No. 1 Finest Planet in all the World, that'd be nice," Artificial Human No. 13 glared down at the detached head of Dr. Gero dangling in between two thick wires that held it suspended in mid-air and pumped vital supplements and fuel while retrieving raw data and experience input in return.
Dr. Gero's eye lasers pierced the air between him and his target, but Chayote grabbed hold of Videl's shoulders, dragging her back and away from harm while retreating from the unfavorable engagement herself. Videl panted and took a second to recover from nearly getting penetrated by actual eye lasers.
"Thank you, lady, but do I know you?" Videl squinted her right eye, looking right Chayote in the face.
"You're kidding, right? We're wearing the same clothes!" Chayote rubbed her eyes while Gohan swooped up and leveled with the other two.
"Gohan-kun? Chayote-san?" Videl gasped. "What happened to you? Your hair and your eyes are totally different! It's almost like you're different people and your Ki is hardly even recognizable anymore."
"It's a state called Super Saiyan. It amplifies our abilities many times over. Our Ki is actually the same, it's just it's a lot more overwhelming of a feeling when you feel it," Gohan explained. "Chayote-san was right, you should flee now! This place is dangerous. This is an actual Artificial Human we're dealing with."
"No way!" Videl shut him down. "You two look like you're struggling and my dad's far weaker than me, but he somehow pitched in and saved survivors from the Artificial Humans all the time."
"Yeah, when I and Trunks did all the heavy-duty fighting," Chayote squinted. "You're gonna get yourself killed here, kid."
"I say if the brat wants to experience first-hand that a battlefield ain't no place for a little girlie, let her!" Artificial Human No. 13 smirked, charging ahead at the whole band. Chayote swooped in and crossed up her arms, taking the Ki-enhanced blow and bursting with a golden shine of her own to counteract the explosive aftereffects with her own energy. Rolling forward, Android 13 transitioned into an upside-down flurry of kicks, but Gohan snapped over Chayote's head, answering each kick by swatting them aside.
"That's right, let's fight him all together!" Videl cheered for the group and dashed in from Chayote's right side and performed a flashy dance-like aerial roll before transitioning into a devastating roundhouse kick. Seeing no effect from her attack, the young martial artist whipped her leg at Android 13's side, then transitioned into another roundhouse, then a front kick. Even if Chayote commended Videl's strategy of employing slow and built-up power blows to maximize her chance of grazing her overpowering opponent mentally, this would never have worked.
"You really can't get the hint, can you?" Artificial Human No. 13 gnashed his teeth, rushing at Videl with both his arms drawn behind his back and preparing twin energy blasts to dispose of her quickly. Gohan moved in for the assist, redirecting both of the Android's arms with swift smacks to his wrists which left the energy beams blasting thin air and further devastating the lab.
"Your opponents are us!" Gohan let out a furious yell before driving his fist into a quick jab at No. 13's open abdomen, but the white-haired Android caught it. The two combatants clashed with an exchange of punches and kicks before kicking each other away from one another and rolling back into their separate positions through the air.
Before Artificial Human No. 13 could recover from his collision with Gohan, Videl was already behind him. The absolute guts of this insect to hassle him non-stop made the Android's face shift into an expression of genuine surprise as Videl hook-kicked him in the face, then turned around for an elbow slam into his body, and then exploded with a desperation Seiken-style punch barrage. Once her knuckles were red and swelling up, the gutsy combatant shifted her fist into a palm strike and shot an uppercut before kneeing No. 13 on the chin.
All she achieved by that combination was a blink.
"You've got to be kidding me..." Videl winced in pain, rubbing her bruised knuckles and showing weakness and torment in her knees from repeatedly hitting an adamant and utterly immovable to someone of her battle power opponent.
"You're not one of dem aliens. You even fight using our own fighting style, your punches are from Earth's martial arts. There's no use in killing you. Go back home and make more human children. Be advised, I'm not against smacking a female to teach her a lesson," Android 13 clenched his fist and pulled his brown leather glove to make a tighter fit around his fist.
"This asshole...!" Videl smacked her cheeks with her palms, pumping herself up before taking a fighting pose. "I may not be strong enough to make it hurt for him, but I won't back down from someone like him either. If I can just serve as a distraction to give you an opening or support you, I'll do everything I can to make this guy eat his filthy words."
"Chayote-san..." Gohan turned to Chayote, asking her for a battle plan. Since he didn't get one, he spoke on his own. "We need to move this fight some place else. Bulma-san must want this lab as intact as possible and we've already caused this place enough damage. Do you think you can power up to that form you used against Dr. Puri-san? It might be useful."
"I don't think that'll be a problem. I can't enter it without getting proper pissed-off, but with this guy getting livid should be a piece of cake. Problem is, there can't be anyone fighting with me when I'm on a rampaging tear like that," Chayote sighed.
"Conspiring, are you? Well... It's only natural for a den of pit vipers looking to bite unassuming good Samaritans to do so," Android 13 cracked his knuckles and neck in preparation to do battle with the troublesome bunch.
"I don't want to be mean, but I'll need you two to take care of Dr. Gero and bring him to Bulma. We'll have way better odds if I switch locations for this battle and fight this guy alone in my Legendary Super Saiyan form rather than the three of us fighting together with us two being just ordinary Super Saiyans," Chayote didn't want to break the young folks' spirits, but the situation was dire enough to call for some brutal honesty.
"Damn it... There's really nothing we can do to help, is there?" Videl clenched her fists, pressing her arms to her sides as she lamented her own helplessness.
"Don't feel bad, Videl-san. I'm the Super Saiyan here. I should've evolved my Super Saiyan transformation like Chayote-san, dad, grandpa, and Future Trunks-san but... Despite trying to know as much as I can about it, I can't seem to break through that wall," Gohan snickered with a restrained and hopeless, self-deprecating cackle.
"Hey, don't fret. At your age, I wasn't even dreaming of ever becoming Super Saiyan. Besides, can't you see you're doing all the important work with getting Gero to Bulma? All I'm doing is taking out Gero's trash..." Chayote pumped herself up before levitating higher from the rest of the group and turning back at the hole in the roof which a pillar of smoke had been rushing outside through.
"Damn it, Chayote-san is just buttering us up. Artificial Human No. 13 said he's the ringleader of this whole Artificial Human resurgence operation..." Gohan grit his teeth and simmered in silent rage. "She's right though. As a Legendary Super Saiyan, she'll tear this opponent apart easily. It's best we leave this up to Chayote-san."
"And where do you think you're going, alien wench?" Android 13 looked up at Chayote with a hateful gaze. "Do you truly think I'll let you get away after you've presented yourself to my doorstep, seen and heard entirely too much about what we're doing here?"
"I'm off to crossbreed and make a bunch of Saiyan-Earthling hybrid babies, try to stop me if you can," Chayote waved her hand with a nonchalant, stone-faced taunt. This made the trucker-hat-wearing Android flip the lid and lash out loudly.
"What kind of degenerate taunt is that!?" Android 13 shouted out from the bottom of his lungs while using some sort of artificial cybernetic voice enhancer to boost the volume of his voice even further.
"I dunno," Chayote shrugged before running her hand through her spiky golden hair. "Just thought it'd work on a dumbass like you."
"I'll have you know..." Android 13 burst with a crystalline and transparent aura while Chayote unleashed her own golden shimmer and took off through the hole in the ceiling. "That my naturally superior for doing battle masculine intellect had been further augmented by the pinnacle of Capsule Corps technology and multiple storage and processing drives, making me the most efficient and supremely intelligent fighting machines on the planet! Damn you, I won't let you get away after insulting my superior intelligence!"
"W-Wait... No. 13! Where are you going?" Dr. Gero's head muttered after seeing the converted founder of the company behind his restoration and this whole revived Android initiative taking off in a wild goose chase after Chayote. "D-Don't just... Leave me here!"
"Well, well..." Videl landed beside the severely handicapped Artificial Human and crossed her arms. "I seem to remember you firing laser beams at me, trying to kill me."
"Tsk... If only I had the arms necessary to self-destruct!" Dr. Gero wriggled in the restraint of the thick plastic tubes holding his head suspended. "Or the charge..." he barked out as a follow-up.
"It's over, Dr. Gero-san," Gohan landed near Videl and began approaching the handicapped Artificial Human. He didn't rush things to avoid any surprise laser beams. Seeing no openings in his opponent's strut, Dr. Gero didn't bother firing any.
A gust of air pressed Gohan to the ground as a massive cargo mech swooped right over his head and grabbed hold of the plastic wires, keeping Dr. Gero's head suspended. With a crude yank, the cargo mech ripped the entire cybernetic pillar keeping the artificial brain supported, and pushed it into the opening where its own head would be. Gohan and Videl gasped collectively when the ripped and flapping about plastic tubes interfaced with the cargo bot and connected.
"I won't go down without a fight! Artificial Human No. 13 has undone the limiters to my artificial intelligence that kept me from interfacing with any of the technology we built to avoid my betrayal! That may have been the 2nd smartest decision he had made, right after letting me turn him into the most advanced Android following up on my and my wife's breakthrough research that Capsule Corps not only preserved but also added to, and just before restoring my priceless brain to the best condition we could've hoped for!" Artificial Human No. 20 flexed his new mechanical body by performing a few rapid punches. "I must warn you two ruffians to beware, for this mechanical breadwinner can relocate not only entire buildings but also shifting entire mountains and some major, heavy-duty construction work!"
With a horizontal halo of burning fuel pulsing from his feet, the cargo mech with a cybernetic pillar and Dr. Gero's head in a busted jar for a headpiece rushed onward for a juggernaut-like push but Gohan blinked out before appearing over the cargo mech's head and slamming it down into the ground with a diving palm strike. Gohan's palm peeled through the mech as if he had been striking a bucket of water, spewing oil and sparks in all directions.
Videl burst with a bubble-gum pink aura, rushing onward as she felt like she could finally contribute to the battle. Stopping right up to the fallen cargo mech, Videl let out a vocal battle cry while letting her aura explode in a pink destructive energy bubble that punted the fallen mech like a rag doll. The young martial artist vanished and appeared right in front of the airborne mech, delivering a flip kick that tore through the mech's carcass and ripped the cybernetic pillar clean out of its body.
With the container with Dr. Gero's head flopping down through the air, Videl delivered twin kicks from both sides at the collapsing mech, severely bending its frontal plating. Flipping and rolling through the air in an elegant, ballet-like fashion, Videl drilled through the opening where the cybernetic pillar fit in before bursting with the pink explosive energy wave from within the heavy-duty mech, which utterly devastated it in a deafening blast. The detonation left the impressive mech raining down in bits and pieces while Videl dived by Gohan's side and crossed her arms with a content smirk on her face.
"I may not be an off this world scale monster like that white-haired hick, but don't you dare underestimate me or hold back against me during training, Gohan-kun," Videl extended the back of her fist for a bump. With Gohan's Super Saiyan golden shine vanishing with a wave of bright white sparkles washing down his body, young Gohan answered the girl's fist bump with an enthusiastic smile of his own.
"I see now that I may have looked down on you a little because of how fresh you are to this world of martial arts. If Chayote-san saw enough to train you personally, I should've taken that as enough reason to respect your skills as a fighter," Gohan nodded while the two left the building only to be engulfed by a bright beam from space and beamed up aboard the Capsule Corps Star.
*****
Chayote grumbled, rolling sideways in mid-air to evade a cascade of crimson energy beams coming her way. She stopped and turned back at the Artificial Human that flew right up to her with his hand raised up and aiming right at her with a red light shining over his right hand. Once they stopped, No. 13 lowered his hand and adjusted his hat to better fit his head since he had to keep one hand on it to prevent it from slipping off the whole way here.
"Just how long of a ride did you intend to take me on, alien?" Artificial Human No. 13 pointed an accusatory finger at Chayote.
"Aww, don't get mad at me. This isn't my planet. I may have gotten lost on my way to where I wanted to go. Besides, I wanted you to have the home advantage," Chayote played an innocent nitwit in a tease to psyche out her opponent as much as he psyched out her whenever he opened his mouth.
"We may be experiencing a problem in communication with you, alien femoid. This is some rocky, desolate wasteland in the middle of nowhere where you can cook eggs right on the ground," Android 13 scanned the location, getting all the necessary data, temperature, atmospheric conditions, the map of the location, and the exact coordinates as numbers and symbols counted up and down in his eyes.
"Exactly," Chayote's lips extended in a wide and rich smile across her face before she took a fighting pose, ready to crash at her psyched-out opponent.