Reprogrammed

From Bad to Worse

Under 18's control, the Big Gete Star detached itself from Earth. At this point, Trunks had already left the giant ship. He now stood outside on top of one of the many piles of broken robot warriors. He looked up as the Big Gete Star drifted further and further away from the planet.

"18." He whispered, hoping she was ok.

But he didn't need to worry. The android soon came flying down from the sky, the large ship burning behind her.

Landing next to him, 18 gave Trunks a smile. "Miss me, big boy?"

Rather than being happy, Trunks was upset. "That was dangerous, 18. What if you had gotten stuck in there?"

18 just waved it off. "It was all under control. I merely entered the Big Gete Star's database and overpowered Cooler. Then I set the ship to self-destruct once it was away from Earth and went back inside my body. Nothing to it."

Trunks cut his eyes at her. "Yeah, nothing to it…" he muttered, looking back up at the Big Gete Star. "But Cooler is still in the system. Since you're not controlling it anymore, couldn't he take over again and stop the self-destruct sequence?"

18 rolled her eyes. "Have some faith in me, will you. I made sure to damage things enough so even if he does resume control, he won't be able to stop it. Now stand back and watch the show."

The Big Gete Star continued to drift away until it was far away enough that it could do no harm to the planet. Then the sky lit up as the Big Gete Star exploded. Trunks and 18 shielded their eyes against the light as even the night side of the planet was engulfed with light. When the light faded, there was nothing left of the oversized spaceship except for debris.

Trunks breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed to his knees. "It's over."

"Yeah." 18 replied. "Quite an interesting day." She smiled as she looked up at the sky, seeing pieces of the Big Gete Star fly by before they burned up in the earth's atmosphere. "It's kind of pretty, huh?"

Trunks looked up at the sky. "I guess."

Something shiny twinkled up above. A star. Too bad he couldn't make a wish on it and fix the damage Cooler had just caused. But he supposed he could settle for using the Dragon Balls.

A frown suddenly crossed his face. 'Wait a second. A star? In broad daylight?' The twinkling star he saw suddenly launched a blast of energy at them. "Heads up!"

He and 18 took to the air as the energy blast created a large crater in the ground. They reappeared up in the air, looking down at the damage that had been caused.

"That was close." Said 18. "Where'd that come from anyway?"

Looking up, they saw the very person they thought they had just defeated. Cooler was still alive, once again in a brand new body in perfect working order. But there was one minor difference in this Meta-Cooler from the others. The whites of his eyes were pitch black, glaring at the two of them furiously.

"You again?" 18 muttered. "I thought we killed you."

Cooler glared at them. "Almost. Fortunately for me, I had an escape route that you weren't aware of. You see, unlike those other Meta-Coolers, this one is different. I'm not controlling it from a distance. This is the real me."

"Can't be." Said Trunks. "I destroyed the real you not too long ago."

"Idiot boy." Cooler grunted. "My consciousness had already fled and entered this body a moment before you're attack hit. What you destroyed was a brain-dead flesh of meat. Everything that I am is now in here."