Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ My Beloved Monster ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4

Back in the bunker, Gero couldn't help but overhear the small discussion.

"Gah." He growled. "I didn't like the sound of that. I hope 21 doesn't start running with the wrong crowd like that, or he'll become worse than both 17 and 18…"

He had the test results to vouch for his predictions that 21 could soon be a danger to him…

…With 18 being the bad influence.

*******

Over the next week, Gero kept an eye on 21's interactions with 17 and 18. 21 frequently hung out with 17 and 18 no matter what they were doing…but when the twins decided to cause trouble, 21 wisely kept out of their business. Sneaking into Gero's steady supply of beer was a fairly good example. 21 did help them find it, tricked into thinking it was another test for him to complete, however once he found it he refused to drink a drop of it. 17 and 18 helped themselves while 21 watched from a far corner. Another example was 17 and 18's torturing of Android 19. 21 only watched from the other side of the room, constantly suggesting that the troublesome two shouldn't be picking on their fellow android. Even though they ignored him, he kept out of the bullying.

Hmmm…Gero thought to himself. Perhaps 17 and 18 will not influence 21 after all…

However, when the day comes he decides to be rebellious…

He will still be a danger to me.

21 is very strong…

…although he is not exactly what I wanted him to be.

What happened? What went wrong?

Why is he not perfect?

*******

"You really shouldn't be smoking." 21 suggested to 17 as the android lit a cigarette. 17 glared at the bio-android.

"Why not?" he dared.

"It's bad for your health." 21 tried to explain. "Lots of humans are killed by smoking."

"Hmph." 17 grunted. "I'm not human, remember?"

"I know, but still…"

"Jesus Christ…" 17 groaned, putting his lighter in his pocket and puffing on his smoke. "What is your problem, 21? You keep nagging on us not to do something, and you don't do a damn thing about it. What, are you trying to be my mother or something?!"

"Shut up, 17." 18 snapped.

"Uh-uh." 17 shook his head. "Not today. I'm not putting up with it anymore." He put his hands in his jean pockets and slowly marched up to 21 with a deadly glare. "I'm tired of being mothered around. Look 21…"

21 gulped and backed away from 17 until his back was to the wall. 17 stood on his toes and glared in the bio-android's face.

"…I dunno what you're trying to accomplish by nagging us whenever we do something, but it's got to stop. You either do something about us, or just walk away. You got it? If you just stand there and talk, I'm going to do something not very nice to you." He took his cigarette out of his mouth and blew a huge cloud of smoke in 21's face. 21 gagged at the dusty smell, and covered his beak as he coughed. "Aaaaaaaand," 17 continued, "I don't know what that not very nice thing is, because people do what I say." He twirled his lit cigarette in-between his nose and Cell's beak, showing off the dull-red end of the lit paper. "And so that you know, bug boy… Just cause you're taller, uglier, and have a deeper voice than I do doesn't mean I'm afraid of you."

Then, 17 pressed the dull-red end of the cigarette into 21's neck, and the android yelped in pain. Not able to go anywhere, 21 ended up pressing his back onto the wall and writhing in pain under 17's fiery torment. 17 smiled and licked his lips menacingly.

"Stop it, damn it!" 18 shouted, pulling her brother's hand away from 21's neck and dragging him to a respectable distance. "You dumb bastard! Why'd you do that?!" As 17 frowned at his sister, 21 slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, rubbing his hand over his burned neck.

"Geez, sis. I was just teasing him…"

"That wasn't funny."

"You thought it was funny when I did that to 19…"

"I don't like 19, I don't care what you do to him. Just go easy on 21, okay?"

17 shot a disgusted look at 21, and the bio-android flinched.

"Hmph." 17 grunted again, shoving his cigarette back in his mouth. "That one's no different from 19…" he informed, walking around 18 with a hateful glare. This glare wasn't as menacing as the one he gave 21, it was more lenient and held back. "…both are childish retards."

That did it. 18 exploded in anger, powering up her artificial ki.

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL 21 THAT AGAIN, YOU JACKASS!" she screamed. 17 walked out of the room with a casual goodbye wave of the hand.

"Whatever." He dismissed. 21 watched 17 leave with fright.

"He…" he stuttered. "He never did that before…"

"Kinda odd…" 18 bit her lip in agreement. "I thought he'd come to like you by now…" She turned her head to him. "Are you alright?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore."

"Show me."

She walked over to him, and knelt down as he removed his hand from his neck.

"Where's the burn?"

"Here." The tip of his claw pointed to a small, gray circle just under his jaw. 18 put her hands on his shoulder as she looked. 21 blushed at her soft touch. She found the small spot, and smiled.

"I can't tell if it's a burn or another spot. You're fine. Now get up, let's go do something fun."

"Like what?" 21 asked as he put his hand in 18's for help up. She tugged him up to his feet.

"I dunno…let's go look for something fun." She walked for the door, and 21 timidly followed.

I hope we don't run into 17 again…

I don't want him to hurt me anymore…

*******

"Hey, doc." 17 greeted as he entered the underground bunker. Gero was at the main computer once again, typing at the keyboard. The old man looked over at the android with a suspicious glare.

"What?"

"Can I hang out down here? 18 and 21 are being asses."

Gero blinked a couple of times.

"21? Is he giving you any trouble?"

"Like hell." 17 agreed, taking the cigarette out of his mouth, and tapping ashes onto the floor. "He's like a frikkin child…or like that little angel thing that sits on the shoulder opposite of the little devil thing. He's always telling us what we should and shouldn't do…" He sat on the worktable, and bent his head down with a disgusted sigh. "Doc, if you don't like him, why don't you just scrap him?"

"I'm just trying to figure out what's wrong with him." Gero explained. "If there's a problem with him I can't fix, then I'll kill him. So far, I see no real flaws except for his looks."

" 'Looks?' " 17 blinked. "I'll admit it, he's a face a mother alligator could love…"

"Here." Gero got up from his keyboard, and walked over to a desk on the other side of the master computer. He pulled out a long sheet of white planning paper, and handed it to 17. "This is a composite sketch of what he should look like."

17 looked it over with a studying face. The face Gero drew was much more human: sharp jaw, flat cheeks, a steep sloping nose, stone hard eyes, and thin lips. The headcrest was different too: instead of fanning out in front like 21's was originally, the crest rose around the sides like the Pope's crowning hat. The sketches included full body planning. 21 had turned out to be completely green with black spots, and rather insect-like in build and appearance. However, the sketch showed that much of 21's body should have the shiny black shell surrounding his shoulders, the top of his head, and around the shins of his feet. The wings also were black shells, and the long tail was snaking up from behind and raised alike a scorpion's tail. There was even a colored picture 17 looked at. The face was completely green with the orange muscle his beak was as stripes down his face.

17's nose wrinkled at it.

"He's still ugly." He disapproved.

Gero shook his head, taking out a sheet of writing paper.

"Then I discovered that he had DNA of a fighter I didn't intend to collect. So, I figured that at least his face should turn out like this." He slid the paper in front of the plans, and 17 looked at those.

There wasn't anything much different about the head except for the color of the skin. Instead of green all over with framing orange muscles, the face was pale white and was framed by long, indigo stripes. The eyes were also the typical shade of blue all androids had. 17 frowned even deeper.

"Hey look, it's Powder." He dryly poked fun.

Gero snatched the papers away and put them back where he had found them.

"Well, now you know."

17 grunted out of his nose as he stared at his sneakers.

"Hmph. 18 would have liked those." He glanced back at Gero. "Hey, can I have that last sketch? I'll give it back."

"Why do you need it?" Gero asked suspiciously, handing 17 the paper again. 17 looked at it with a smirk.

"Oh, nothing. I just got an idea."