Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Growing Pains ❯ Test results ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3

 

Every day, Gohan had visited Bulma, asking her whether she knew what was wrong with him. The first few times, she had gently told him off, but then, she had become increasingly irritated with the frequent visits of the demi-Saiyan. The last time he had visited her, she had yelled at him that it didn't help any if he was constantly interrupting her work, and that she'd tell him when she was done, not any minute sooner. Hoping for the best, he had left. But he hadn't gotten any news yet, and he was already sitting on hot coals, feeling his urges become more and more pronounced.

 

After his last visit to Bulma, he had stayed at home, studying most of the time. It had taken almost a week until his anger had recovered enough to make him hurt somebody yet again. Luckily, he had been able to curb his energy long enough to flee from the house so that his Mom would be out of danger, but how he had ended up at the place Juu-hachi-gou had been in, he didn't know. She had been fully recovered from their last episode, something that had made him even more angry. He had attacked her once again until she had managed to knock him out, but he knew that she had suffered a lot of damage.

 

No, he couldn't go on like that. It was pure luck that he had pitted his strength against the only woman on this planet who was strong enough to not cave in immediately under his assault. It bordered on a miracle that he had only gone after her so far, that he hadn't killed anybody yet, and he couldn't always rely on chance. No, he had to take matters into his own hands, making sure that he didn't pose a danger to anybody else.

 

Leaving a short explanatory letter on the kitchen table of his home, he sadly looked around one last time. Until he was in full control again, he wouldn't return; it simply was too dangerous. Spending some time in the wilderness, far away from any humans, far away from the android woman, was the only thing he could do now that he couldn't trust himself in their company anymore. Sighing heavily, he ghosted into his room and grabbed all the school books he could get a hand on. No sense in wasting the time completely. At least he could study to make his Mom happy even if he wasn't there.

 

Stretching his senses, he felt her come closer to the house together with Goten on her back. He knew that she always did the laundry in the mornings, so he had waited until she had left. But now he would have to hurry before she saw him. Shooting out of the window, he quickly gained altitude until he was sure that he couldn't be seen by a normal human anymore, and then he shot off with a last glance towards the tiny figure on the ground moving towards the dot that represented his home.

 

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Lying on her back, the android woman leveled her sensors at the vast expanses of blue sky, her circuits pondering the problem of the small Saiyan Halfling. One day, he would attack her without any reason, and then, the next day, he would come to apologize, and then he would stay away for a week or two until the next time he attacked. It was almost like a pattern she couldn't quite grasp, but she was sure that with a little bit more data, her logic chips would be able to extrapolate some regularities.

 

And taking in account the personality of the boy, she was going to get the necessary data. With a probability of more than 90% she had calculated that the half-Saiyan would return again until either she was damaged beyond repair or the boy got rid of whatever disturbed his mental stability. It seemed to be a Saiyan trait to focus on strong women, and at the moment, she was the strongest female being on the planet, even if she wasn't completely human. The boy's human side was also drawn to her because she was the only one who could withstand him without being pulverized immediately, so she was the safest possibility for him to let out his aggressions. It was only logical that he would return to her.

 

But that did not mean that it was desirable that he returned.

 

His attacks had become stronger every time, and slowly, she had come to fear them; not so much because of his violence towards her, but because of the healing afterwards that left bigger and bigger parts of her flesh and blood.

 

Deep inside her body, nanobots had always repaired her cellular structure, the only way of healing she had known since the day she had woken up in that Doctor's lab, next to her brother. Strangely though, the nanobots replaced any damaged tissue with more organic materials than had originally been there, even the circuits and metal-infused bone splinters were slowly being turned into nerves and bones again.

 

She didn't know whether the organic parts were weaker than the rest, but judging from the damage that the boy inflicted upon her in more or less regular intervals, it was not. Strange that simple flesh was as strong as an unfeeling body made from metal and wire. Perhaps that was the secret of the Saiyans - flesh was just as durable as metal.

 

Still, it was unsettling to watch as more and more of her body became living, breathing tissue, because together with the flesh came the disturbing feelings that were pulsing through her systems more and more often. Did the Halfling feel that insecure, too? Did he feel the same way when he was sane again after a mental attack? What about the small change she felt in her mind, reflexes and emotions that she had never experienced before, suddenly emerging at unpredictable times, nearly tearing her brain apart? Or was the concept of her own mind only a figment of her imagination?

 

But slowly, one serious problem was turning up. The metal in her body had allowed her to store every kind of energy, no matter if it consisted of her own ki energy, somebody else's ki energy, or electricity. Now that organic tissue was starting to replace the metal, it was only a question of time until she lost those capacities. Her fighting style though relied heavily on this capability, taking her opponent's energy to defeat him. In case of the demi-Saiyan, it was the only thing that had kept her alive so far.

 

But lately, the foreign energy she absorbed was getting harder and harder to move around in her body, with only a strong assertion of will-power allowing her to absorb it at all. How should she deal with the external energy that her increasingly fleshen body couldn't store anymore in contrast to the metal she had been before?

 

The background surveillance programs installed in her mind were once again doing a checkup of all high ki-forces, something that was so deeply ingrained in her circuits that she didn't have to think about it. This time though it alerted her that the two strongest kis on the planet were right next to each other, and they were not fighting against each other.

 

Her memory bank provided some data on the second ki. It belonged to the prince of the Saiya-jin who was mated to a scientist called Bulma Briefs. And the boy had mentioned something about asking a Bulma for help, so she deduced that the boy was seeing her to obtain new information about his condition.

 

It did not take long until her senses notified her of the Halfling heading into her direction. Having already prognosticated that the boy would inform her of anything he had learned, she was not surprised to see him drop out of the sky. She was looking up into the face of the demi-saiyan who wore an expression that was intended to convey sadness and defeat. Apparently, the visit to the genius Bulma Briefs had not brought the desired results. Waiting for him to tell her, she watched as he flopped tiredly down onto the grass. A strange silence spread between them, vibrating in the sunshine. Finally, the boy told her the results.

 

“Bulma said she can't help me. It's linked to my hormones, something about my Saiyan hormones clashing with my human ones. The only possibility would be to reduce the amount of them in my blood stream with some inhibitors, but she has no idea in which way hormone inhibitors would affect me, and anyways, she could only make inhibitors for my human side. But there is no knowing what that would do to my Saiyan half, because in all samples she had taken from me, the tests had turned out negative. Whatever worked for my human side was neutralized by my Saiyan side, and everything that was strong enough to subdue my Saiyan side killed my human side. She told me that it would be faster to wait for the Dragon than to hope that she can find a cure.”

 

The dragon. Her data bank provided an image of a huge snake-like reptile which had emerged from seven glass balls on top of that floating platform. Her circuits had almost been blown to bits by the realization that you could ask the dragon for anything, and it granted the wish - as long as it was in its power to do so. That was a good idea she hadn't considered before.

 

“So why are you not calling the dragon?”

 

The boy's face contorted in displeasure. “It's been only a little bit more than half a year since the last time. The Dragonballs won't be active for another few months.”

 

That was indeed a negative aspect of the solution. But she was reasonably sure that she could survive the remainder of the time until the dragon could be summoned, so she didn't quite see the problem.

 

Gohan studiously didn't look at the android woman, not wanting to see her reaction. He was ashamed of his lack of control that led him to hurt her again and again, but when the anger overcame him, his body acted on its own. It was as if suddenly, he couldn't think of anything else than hitting something, hitting it over and over again until it was reduced to dust. The wasteland he had been living in for the past 6 weeks resembled a huge battleground, craters littering the earth like pockmarks, huge ravines crossing the plains, and mountains reduced to ash and dust.

 

That in itself wouldn't be so bad; hell, the place the Cell-games had been held in didn't look much better. But then, there were times when some feelings that made him giddy combined with his anger. The giddy feeling made him look for other people; it was as if he would suffocate from loneliness, longing for something only talking to other sentient beings could provide. And then, when he had found somebody, the anger would burst out, directed against everybody in front of him.

 

He was ashamed that he couldn't control himself better; he shouldn't have hurt her. But when that giddy feeling took over, he always went looking for Juu-hachi-gou for reasons he couldn't quite understand. A need to be near her usually took over, and in his slightly foggy state, he forgot every reason why he shouldn't go to her. And then, when he saw her, the anger welled up, completely out of control, turning his vision dark red, making his limbs tremble with hatred.

 

She interrupted his thinking. “I am reasonably sure that neither one of us likes the situation, but blaming yourself will not have any positive effects at all. Would sedatives or ki-inhibitors help?”

 

Grimmacing, Gohan shook his head. “Bulma has said, that the sedatives have the same problems as hormone inhibitors: whatever works on my human side is neutralized by my Saiyan one, and the ones that work on my Saiyan side damage my human one. But perhaps, I can try ki-inhibitors. That might work.”

 

Although he didn't have much hope for that. Even ki-inhibitors had limits as to how much power they could absorb, and his full power in SSJ 1 was almost enough to overload them. But perhaps, it would work with his spiking ki. He would have to try.

 

“Thank you for the tip. I'll go and ask Bulma.”

 

She nodded, not averting her gaze from him. Taking off, he once again headed for Capsule Corporation with the hope of solving his problems. But he had a feeling that Bulma wouldn't be able to help him this time. Well, there always was the dragon…

 

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The Saiyan boy was dropping by again; she had not expected him again for the next few days. Looking at his nearing form, her circuits tried to tell her to run away, fleeing in self-preservation, but she stayed where she was. Why, she even didn't know herself. Probably because she could.

 

The boy was angry again, very much so. His ki was sparking and rising, with the usual vibrations, but something darker underneath. The ki-inhibitors apparently were active judging from the blue glow around his wrists and ankles, and his energy was almost nothing compared to his real potential, but still too strong for her. This time though, his energy wasn't what worried her. She sensed something different with him, something she hadn't sensed before. Before she could get a hold of what it was, he was already upon her, pinning her to the ground in fury. His hateful words hissed at her, blaming her in his incoherency for the heritage his parents had left him.

 

“This anger, that's all your fault! Why did you have to curse me with that? Wasn't it enough that you killed my father? I am going to make you pay for that!”

 

She was quite aware of the fist descending towards her face, but unable to move away, his ki pressing her harshly against the ground despite the ki-inhibitors. Looking up at him, she saw an expression of venom before the knuckles exploded against her jaw with so much force that her vision receptors went blank for a while. When she could perceive his form again, his formerly black hair had flared into a blinding white-gold, evidence of his increasingly uncontrolled state. A sudden heave, and she was slammed against the grass, face down this time.

 

“You don't have to say anything to that?” he demanded.

 

Knowing that her words wouldn't reach him in this uncontrolled state, she merely kept quiet, her logic chips frantically calculating the chance of escaping the Saiyan boy somehow. Unsurprised she read the result, that with 94.3% probability she would end up destroyed, so she didn't even try to get away. He would do damage to her, but not lasting, and afterwards, when he had excised whatever had him in a tailspin, he would be normal again until the next time.

 

Tonight was full moon though, so his attacks would be especially furious. Already, he had belted her once more across the face, and his legs that he used to immobilize her own were tight as a vice, making her bones creak despite the extra-strong metal alloy supporting them. Blows started raining on her back before a hand fisted into her hair, drawing it back sharply to overstretch her neck. His glowing eyes shot murder at her as he grit his teeth.

 

“I will show you what I do with people who think they can hurt me…”

 

Even in his uncontrolled state, he knew how to inflict lots of pain, the damage following only a step behind, but still not impossible to heal. Her circuits were carefully shut off; she would not need to use them for the next future as it didn't matter to the Saiyan how responsive his subject of anger was. In an ingrained self-preservative action, she absorbed some of the energy he transmitted with each punch, reducing the force just by that little margin that had kept her alive so far. After seemingly forever, the blows abated slowly,

 

The wires in her body jerked as she gradually took in more and more energy; as her energy banks had been partially destroyed the last time, they had regenerated as flesh, and her flesh somehow couldn't store foreign energy for an extended period of time. From the sizzling in the air, she could feel that the boy was powering up some big energy attack, and she used part of the energy she had sipped from him to make her body stronger, tougher, and more resilient.

 

Nonetheless, the unbelievable power spreading from his fingers nearly overwhelmed her, leaving a deep crater in the landscape. Her arms crossed in front of her face, she had taken the brunt of the blast with her forearms, leaving them blistered, red, wet. But now, he was coming closer again and if she could find the right moment, she would be able to subdue him - before he killed her.

 

Just when she was ready to give him a strong blow to the head, he suddenly pounced onto her, pinning her arms to the floor with only one hand. As fired up as he currently was, it posed no problem for him to hold her immobile, and all her tries to escape were prevented by his deceptively small body leaning across her. Looking at his face to get any hint of what he was planning to do, she noted the lips that were slightly curled upwards in a grin that showed more teeth than happiness.

 

Suddenly, he flexed his hips against her, and the heartbeat in his throat accelerated while his pupils dilated a fraction wider. Her acute sense of smell told her that some hormones had been released within him, but she couldn't exactly tell which. He ground his hips against her again, and this time, she caught the hints of arousal in his eyes right before he bit her neck hard.

 

Setting up a more or less regular pace, he kept writhing against her, the fingers around her crossed wrists tightening more and more until she felt her bones give way. He kept biting her neck, drawing blood from the feel of it, his panting getting harsher as he was writhing more frantically against her, his by now erect penis grinding into her abdomen.

 

As a cyborg, she had no such needs of her own, but Dr. Gero had supplied her with a data base that also contained an interpretation to what the Saiyan boy currently was doing. Shoving his erect sex at her was a sign for the boy's will to copulate with her, something that was also called `having sex' or `making love' by humans. But some further investigation discovered that the term `making love' was also linked to other terms like `caress', `kiss', `gentle', `marriage', and the definition of those did not hold an accurate representation of the situation. Why though would the Saiyan Halfling want to `have sex' with her? In the definition, it said that `having sex' was a way of procreation, the male sperm fertilizing the female ovum, ensuring that genes mixed to create diversity in population. Didn't the boy know that she was incapable of procreation?

 

However, the boy didn't seem to be interested in making sure his seed was injected into her as he kept grinding his still fully clothed sex against her in an increasingly vicious manner. The bones in her wrists were by now broken in several places, the pain signals arriving in her main circuits together with the information that she had been bitten once again, and that this time, the teeth had not released the flesh caught between them. A growling sound reached her ears, the low vibration coming from the Saiyan Halfling going rigid on top of her.

 

As he seemed distracted for the moment, she used the chance and took some of the energy she had absorbed from him to guide a concentrated ki-blast straight at the place where his tail used to be, a spot that was guaranteed to knock him out when the right amount of force was applied. Being caught in the rush of endorphins that the ejaculation of his seed caused, his guard fortunately had been lowered, so he fell unconscious just like she had planned.

 

Letting the boy's limp body tumble to the side, she sat up and brought her arms in front of her, examining her wrists that were bent at an unnatural angle. Without the ki-inhibitors, her bones probably would have been ground to dust. As it was, they only were fractured in 3 different places. A quick twist later that sent more signals of pain straight into her main CPU, her two wrists were considerably closer to their natural position. For some time, she held absolutely still as she accessed the program that controlled the nanobots responsible for her healing. Urging them to fix the damage of her wrists first, she felt her bones mend in record speed, and within minutes, her hands were partially mobile again.

 

All the time, the static within her body had been charging from one cell to the other, not finding an outlet. But for the first time, she found out that her body had changed enough so that she couldn't safely let out the foreign energy anymore, and so the ki she had absorbed from the demi-Saiyan was wreaking havoc within her even after he was unconscious. Shuddering from electric convulsions, she jerkily flew a few miles away until the rampant power in her body had built up enough energy to paralyze her circuits. Strangely enough, it was her flesh that hurt, but it was the only thing that functioned, too. All metallic parts of her body were resonating with the static buildup, making it impossible for any voluntary electric currents to pass through.

 

Just when she thought she would collapse from overload, a blue arc of lightening burst forth from her fingers and impacted into the ground, leaving black scorch marks both on her hand and on the vegetation. The foreign ki within her body was suddenly diminished so much that was now able to regain control over her limbs, and the remaining energy stores that had not been damaged yet were able to absorb the power and convert it into energy she could use. Panting, she knelt on the ground, her chips whirring frantically with calculations and extrapolations.

 

Every time that more parts of her body were replaced by flesh and blood, she would be able to store less energy. If the fit she'd just had was any indication, the additional energy would search for an outlet until her body could handle the rest. She estimated that at the moment, she was still metal to approximately 63.5% of her body volume, whereas in the beginning, 95.8573% had consisted of inorganic material. With further violence against her, the flesh-metal ratio would swing even more in favor of organic materials, and her capacity of storing and converting foreign energy would be reduced even more. It was only a matter of time until she wouldn't be able to defend herself against the Saiyan boy anymore because at the moment, she was heavily relying on turning his own energy against him. If she had to rely on her own energy banks, she would have no chance against him.

 

But she had deduced that his intentions were not focused on killing her because of the fact that she was still alive. If he had wanted her dead, she would have already met her demise. No, apparently, part of his instincts were telling him to use her as a means of procreation. The ki-inhibitors reduced his energy enough to let him follow those instincts, so at the moment, she was safe. The only question was if she was able to last until the dragon was called.