Separated From One Another

Chapter Twenty-seven: Pocket Full of Shells

Gohan was sent to take Bulma and little Trunks to where Goku was. You had elected to go with the other group was was aiming to beat Vegeta to Dr. Gero's lab. The small group was made up of Piccolo, Krillin, Tein, and you. You were not too sure of anyone elses skill levels, Piccolo at least seemed sure of himself.

It took a few minutes for the group to reach the city limits, you hovered next to them as you look down on the city below.

"Dr. Gero hides his base in one of the caves around the city, correct?" Piccolo asked retorically, glancing over the city.

Krillin wrapped his arms around his body, shivering like mad. "He could've picked someplace warmer."

"What's the plan?" Tein asked, gesturing towards the mountain range. "There are mountains as far as the eye can see. Not to mention Gero can sense our energy while he doesn't give off any energy of us to sense."

"We'll have to split up—if you see anything signal the others, don't go in alone," Piccolo commanded.

"What kind of signal?" Krillin asked.

"Raise your energy as high as you can."

"Good thinking, Piccolo," Tein praised.

Krillin let out another whine at being cold, you did not even feel cold and you were wearing about the same amount of clothes as Krillin. Maybe he was just sensitive to the cold or something. Tein was not having as bad of a reaction as Krillin was—though maybe he was just toughing it out.

"You humans are so sensitive," Piccolo huffed, moving to fly off.

"Wait!" Krillin called out, "You should take some senzu beans before going."

"Good thinking," Tein murmured.

Krillin cursed softly under his breath, as he poured the beans out into his palm. "There is only six of them—how are we going to split them?"

You rolled your shoulder before speaking up, "I don't have as much experience so the rest of you should split them amongst yourselves."

Piccolo gave you a dubious look but did not say anything as Krillin gave two beans to him. Your shoulder still ached from where you had cauterized it, you were not going to be much help anyways with your dominate arm weakened. Taking a senzu bean just to fix your shoulder would be a waste, and it was not like you would be much help in a fight. Your janky ki would surely fuck everything up.

Without another word the group split up, taking different parts of the mountain surrounding North City. Your gaze raked over the surrounding mountains, looking for anything potentially odd in the cliff faces. Frustration bubbled up in your chest as nothing seemed to be out of place, you noticed Tein out of the corner of your eye.

You dropped to the ground when you noticed a cave partially covered by trees, there was no knowing if this was the right one or not. Poking around for a moment seemed like a bad idea without backup, but Tein has already flew off. Pushing down your worries you walked into the cave, gathering a miniscule ball of ki into the palm of your hand for light.

The cave winded on and on, you were not sure where it was leading you. There was no light besides the dull glow from your palm. There was a flicker of energy somewhere nearby, you recognized it as Krillin, his energy kept raising. It seemed that he had found the base. You were about to turn around when a shine drew your attention away from Krillin's energy. There was a panel across from you with a glass cover, with your interest piqued you went to investigate. You could not tell exactly what was inside the panel, turning you walked a bit deeper into the cave.

There was a loud explosion somewhere above you, quickly covering your head with your hands. Bits of rocks were knocked loose from the explosion shaking the mountain. You continued onwards, finding a ladder over in the corner of the room. It was far too dark to see anything with the miniscule light from your ki. Snuffing out your ki you clammered up the ladder in the chilly darkness.

At the top of the ladder there was a hatch, you pushed with all you could in such an awkward position. After a few heaves the hatch finally gave way, with a loud groan it swung open. Blinking away the spots in your eyes you hoisted yourself out of the hole. You were not alone in this new room, it appeared that you found the backdoor to Dr. Gero's lab.

"You again?!"

Speak of the devil, Dr. Gero was standing in the middle of the lab with two other people—or androids if their lack of energy was anything to go off of. It seemed like the others along with Vegeta and Trunks were already on the scene, they must have been the cause of that explosion earlier too. The girl android—Eighteen if you remembered correctly—pressed a button on the weird machine in front of her.

Dr. Gero whirled on her, rage in his eyes, "Eighteen I'm warning you, don't touch that!"

A hand erupted from the android's chest, it seemed Seventeen had enough of his creator. Dr. Gero screamed out in pain, without another word Seventeen yanked out his hand. Gero kept blathering on and on about "owning" the two androids, your stomach twisted uncomfortably. In one swift movement Seventeen kicked off the old android's head and crushed it under his boot.

Your attention shifted to Eighteen who was looking at the group, her gaze drifted over to stare at you. She tilted her head before turning her attention to Seventeen.

"Let's get on with this, Eighteen," He said motioning for her to push the button on the device.

Trunk's power shot up, "Stop! I won't let you activate another android!"

He went straight to Super Saiyan and shot a ki beam at the pair; you quickly slid back into the hole. Your ankles hit the ground with a groan, a sharp pain shot up them as your momentum made you tumble over. The whole room trembled under the blast, the dust it kicked up obscured your vision.

Stumbling around in the dark, you used the wall to balance yourself, lighting up the room again with your ki. Beside you was a light switch, quickly you flicked it on, you could hear a generator whirring in the background as it powered up. The lights flickered on and the room was bathed in fluorescent lights.

Your attentioned turned to the strange machine in the middle of the room, it's function was not immediately obvious. Switching your attention to the other large thing in the room, you took in a big tank filled with odd green liquid. It looked like a weird healing tank, though not the same design and possibly function. Walking closer you noticed a strange little thing curled up inside of the tank, some sort of lizard fetus or something. Frowning you peered at the little thing, it must have been another one of Dr. Gero's experiments.

Skirting around the tank you noticed a table with various papers on them, picking one off the top your eyes were drawn to the large "17" at the top. They were blue prints for the androids it seems, you also noticed on that was for Eighteen. Rolling up all of the plans you decided to take them with you, now all there was left to do was get out of this place.