Reprogrammed

The Last of the Androids

The masked man laughed. "About darn time you'll figured it out. Honestly, the name I gave you was a dead give away. You city folk really are slow."

Reaching up, he removed his mask. Trunks' eyes narrowed at the familiar face of 13. He was the same as he was in the past, and Trunks kicked himself for not realizing it. As a last adjustment, 13 took of his jacket to reveal that it was inside out. Putting it on properly, the Red Ribbon Army logo was seen on it. Now it made sense. He hadn't been suppressing his power, it just couldn't be felt.

Fanning out his white hair, he grinned at 18. "So, I reckon this makes me yer adoptive big brother."

"I hereby disown myself from the Gero family." 18 told him.

13 chuckled. "Aw, now don' be sayin' that. You don' want the last words you have with me to be harsh now, do ya?"

"What are you doing here?" Trunks demanded from the sideline.

The announcer glanced at Trunks. "Hey now, don't bother them. The battle is still in progress."

13 just waved it off. "Aw, it's all right, I don' mind none. The lad's just curious." He turned to Trunks. "Well, you see, son, I was programmed for world domination and to kill Goku. Seein' as one of them there objectives is done, I reckon you can figure out what my intentions are. This here tournament is me makin' myself known to the world."

Trunks' fists clenched. He remembered facing 13 when he had gone back in time. Were 14 and 15 on the loose as well? How long had 13 been around? He had destroyed Dr. Gero's lab months ago, meaning 13 had to have been created before then. But then where had he been all this time? And why only now was he coming out?

Such questions didn't occur to 18. The moment 13 stated that he was bent on world domination, she considered him an enemy. "I won't let you." she told him.

"You ain't got much choice, little lady. I'm a lot stronger than you."

18 smirked, moving a strand of hair out of her face. "Is that so? Lets see."

She fired a powerful blast of energy. 13 just grinned and held up his hand to catch it. He did so, and the attack soon vanished in his hands, much to 18's surprise. 13 grinned and motioned for her to try again.

"Care to try that again, missy? Come on, give me everythin' you got."

18 glared at him. "Fine, then, take this!"

She fired off several more blasts of energy. 13 held up his hands and the blasts of energy disappeared. The lack of damage infuriated 18 and she began firing faster and stronger blasts.

Trunks watched with a feeling of foreboding. Something about this was ringing a bell. And then suddenly it hit him. "18, stop firing!"

She stopped, glancing at the saiyan. "What?"

Trunks looked carefully at 18's final energy blast. Once it hit 13's hands, it didn't disappear, it was sucked into his body through strange red devices in the center of his hands.

"Energy absorbers!" Trunks cried.

"That's right." said 13. "Energy attacks won't work on me. They'll only make me stronger."

So that was the secret. 13 hadn't been rendering his opponents unconscious by simply touching them. He'd been sucking out their energy, draining them of their strength until they passed out.

But wait, the 13 he had fought in the past hadn't had the ability to absorb energy. So how was it this one was able to do that while the other one couldn't?

'Time displacement!' he realized. 'The change in time has caused a change in his design, just like the appearance of 16 and 19 when I went to the past.'