Dragon Blog Z #4: What If GOKU Was NEVER BORN? (Part 2)
Article by Sean Wilkinson,
a.k.a. A MasakoX fan
I forgot to mention it in last week's post, but the reason I started Dragon Blog Z's numbering at three is because it's a re-branding of what I originally called AniMonday Filler, and it has a similar concept to the NP-BAW post I did on Dragon Ball transformations and hair colors. Also, Dragon Ball is popular and good for metrics. Or will be. The titular fanfiction will continue after the image.
Back to the conversation between Kami and Piccolo, Piccolo tells him that to beat the Androids, he will need the help of two Saiyans. But it's not Vegeta and Nappa (they showed they can't be brought on-side in the last part). It's Tarble and Broly!
Piccolo also tells Kami that he should think about retirement. Kami and Guru are getting up there in years, and those new Dragon Balls are more trouble than they're worth. He should let them go inert, and train a few young Namekians to make new ones.
With his time up, Piccolo returns to the Future. Kami immediately heads to Namek to talk to Guru, Dende, and Cargo about what he learned. He also heads to Vampa to pick up Broly (also getting Paragus in the bargain, for better or worse), and then to the unnamed planet where Tarble and Gure are living, and convinces the couple to come with him to Earth, though Tarble is unsure how helpful he will be as a non-combatant Saiyan with less than three years of training.
This is where Kami reveals the Room of Spirit and Time, a chamber on the Lookout that allows one to complete a year of training in twenty-four hours (though he will need to first make some modifications to remove the two-day limit and one-person limit, and to minimize the psychological effects of the Room). While he is repairing it, he takes some time to himself inside, thinking more about his future son's parting words, and when the modifications are complete, he acts on an inspiration to do something he gleaned from the present-day Piccolo's memories: Kami spits out an egg, which soon hatches into an infant Piccolo.
On the outside, Jaco and the humans return from their Black Star Dragon Ball adventure with all seven in hand, and to the tune of many surprises. Vegeta had a nice, kid brother? Killer Androids? Time travel? Kami has a son? Tights and Jaco hooked up? Bulma's pregnant? Whaaaaat?!?!?!?!?!?
And then there's the friendly dynamic that develops between Tarble and Broly, in stark contrast to the elder Paragus, who despises the Vegeta bloodline for what Tarble's father did to him and his son. But Tarble reminds him that King Vegeta did the same thing to him, exiling him to a worthless planet. It's all about what you do with what you're given.
Paragus grumbles at this, keeping his cards close for the time being.
Kami trains Dende and Cargo, as well as Piccolo, in the ways of being a Guardian; and after some time, Dende is able to purify the Black Star Dragon Balls back to their original form. Piccolo picks up on this skill first because of his lineage, but is more interested in combat training than succeeding his father, and so frequently accompanies Tarble into the RoS&T.
Broly and Paragus enter as a pair on their turns (though Broly finds it easier to rein himself in with Tarble as his partner), as do Krillin and Yamcha, and Tien and Chiaotzu.
Being in mixed relationships, Tights and Gure become fast friends while Tarble trains.
Jaco, being the least interested in the rigors of sparring after all that gravity training he did in space, becomes the frantic nursemaid to Bulma, at Tights'...request.
When the three years have passed, everyone is stronger, with Tarble and Paragus having acheived Super-Saiyan Grade 4 and Broly having gained control of his Ikari state.
The human fighters are stronger, too, being able to use higher multipliers of Kaio Ken without wrecking their bodies. But the aces here (as Future Piccolo intended) will be the Saiyans.
Right on schedule, the Androids begin their attack on South City. But something is different than the average Dragon Ball fan would expect. Future Piccolo didn't have time to describe 17 and 18 to Kami, so the Z-Fighters are none the wiser to the temporal discrepancy when they split up to search the city, with Yamcha and Krillin running afoul of a mechanincally enhanced Doctor Gero, and Tien and Chiaotzu surprised to encounter Cyborg Tao. That's right; instead of the ceramic clown in Hammer pants that is Android 19, I'm finally bringing the cybernetic Mercenary Tao into this scenario! His original reappearance in Dragon Ball's third tournament went unexplained beyond "he's back as a cyborg so Tien can have closure." We still get that thematic bit here, but now his cyborg form has an explanation, and he's a lot stronger; kind of a lowballing of what Android 19 would have been. But in the original, Tien alone was able to hold off a well-fed, second-form Cell after a three-year training period, and here, he has Kaio Ken and the Spirit Bomb on top of that. Chiaotzu is also relevant in this story, and because of his smaller frame, he can handle higher Kaio Ken multipliers than Tien. So even with Cyborg Tao being on Android 19's level in this scenario (effectively replacing him), he stands no chance against Tien and Chiaotzu.
Yamcha and Krillin fare worse against Gero, as they are weaker than Tien in this story, and Gero (unlike Cyborg Tao) can absorb energy from them on contact. They fight him for awhile, but are worn down by Gero's Infinity Engine and energy absorption, and Gero eyebeam's Yamcha through the chest to distract Krillin, so he can escape and release more Androids. Unlike the massive chest wound he received in the original, Yamcha is able to survive the eyebeam wounds thanks to Krillin giving him a Senzu bean (I neglected this little detail in the last part, but Korin did introduce these two to Senzu beans during their Sacred Water training).
As Cell is still an embryo here, there's no need for Gero to release 17 and 18 yet, so when he gets back to his lab, he instead activates three others....
Back on the Lookout, the Saiyans, Namekians, and Jaco, Gure, Bulma, and Tights are surprised by the sudden appearance of Future Piccolo, who storms up to Kami, wanting to know why he didn't send the Saiyans down to Earth to destroy 17 and 18. Confused by these identifiers, Kami scans the area around South City and says the four human fighters were able to handle Gero and Tao. This is when Future Piccolo reveals that something is wrong; these Androids are different to the ones who destroyed his world. The ones he knows about look like teenagers, and they're too strong to be taken out by mere human fighters.
At Gero's lab, three unusual figures step out of their numbered pods: a short, purple Android dressed in garish, barbershop quartet attire; a muscular, quiet one dressed like a Roman gladiator, and a tall, blonde one in Red Ribbon khakis and a trucker hat.
Androids 13, 14, and 15 (especially 13) look upon their creator with disdain. He locked them away for being defective models, and now here he was, cowering and desperate for their help?
Gero saw this animosity in their faces and fumbled for the detonator in his pocket, trying to threaten them with permanent deactivation, but 13 was too fast, crushing the old man's shoulder with one hand and chopping his head clean off with the other. With that, they exited the lab and began scanning for Krillin and Yamcha's energy. By the time they found their targets, Tien and Chiaotzu had joined them, earlier sensing Yamcha's ki begin to fail. The three new Androids attacked immediately, and unlike with Gero and Tao, not even the humans' continued number advantage was a match for them.
Though the Androids did not have ki themselves, Kami sensed the danger his...friends?...were in. Huh...in all the time he had known these people, Kami had never thought of putting a label on their dynamic. He was far stronger than most of them (now that he had recruited three Saiyans), and he had watched over them as Earth's Guardian since they were born, but while they weren't equals by any definition, Kami felt no air of superiority over them. After the Black Star incident, it didn't feel right to consider himself a Guardian, either. But he at least cared about them, felt concern for them, and trusted in them to do right where he could not be. Maybe that was friendship? Something else to think about later....
Anyway, before he could even react, Piccolo had already gathered Tarble, Paragus, and Broly together and used his own Instant Transmission to take them to the fight.
South City was in a shambles, but even so, it didn't feel right to take on the Androids here (especially with Broly in the equation). Looks like it's off to a frozen wasteland!
Once they are in the new location, the trios pair off as follows: Tarble (in Super-Saiyan) vs. Android 15, Broly (in Ikari) vs. Android 14, and Paragus (in Super-Saiyan) vs. Android 13.
The matchups are pretty even at first, but Broly takes the first victory thanks to his ability to grow stronger as he fights, wiping out 14 with an Omega Blast.
Originally, Dragon Ball's Saiyan characters (without rival chemistry) would respect each other's desire for a challenging, one-on-one fight. But with Broly being momentum incarnate and not having an opponent right now, he would probably head for the nearest conflict. By this point, Tarble would be on the back foot against Android 15 until Broly shows up and takes him out as well. Paragus would last a bit longer on his own against Android 13, using his combat experience and tactical prowess to prolong the fight.
But when the numeric odds seem stacked against him (Broly and a Senzu'd-up Tarble coming to Paragus' aid), Android 13 activates his failsafe, absorbing the processors and bombs from 14 and 15 into himself and becoming the red-haired, blue-skinned behemoth that is Super Android 13.
Super 13 lacks the consciousness of his normal form, and so lashes out violently at the nearest target: Paragus.
With that, all of the mental safeguards that Broly had built up to control himself over the past three years of training crumbled away. He screamed with a fury that could be heard and felt for miles around, even rattling the Lookout itself, and was engulfed in a column of greenish-yellow aura that stretched tens of thousands of feet into the sky. When the pillar dissipated, Broly was still surrounded by the greenish-yellow aura, but his height and muscle mass had increased dramatically, and his hair had changed color, too; Broly had become a Super-Saiyan.
It's too early in this story for Broly to be at the cosmic deity levels that he is in the Dragon Ball Super movies, but he's still Broly. Let's say for Androids Saga sake that his green-haired Super-Saiyan form is slightly stronger than teenage Gohan was in Super-Saiyan 2 against Cell in the original. Plus, he doesn't have the fatigue or injury that Gohan had at the time. So if it was unclear whether Androids could feel fear, Super-Saiyan Broly is your answer. Also, yes. If Broly could kill Super 13 with a look, the Android would be dead now. Not that he would be alive much longer anyway. Super 13 can only try to run and parry a few blows from "the devil" (that was promotional hyperbole used to get the first Broly film over in the 90s) at first, but Broly's genetic quirk quickly overwhelms the Android, and the fight ends with Broly mindlessly hammering him into spare hardware and scrap metal, only stopping when he makes contact with the three explosive devices, causing them to all detonate in his face simultaneously and knock him unconscious.
Deep in a sub-basement of Gero's lab, a large computer monitor blinks to life, on which is depicted a pixellated image of Gero's face. Standing at the console is a red-haired woman in a lab coat and red-and-blue checkered clothing. She turns to face a massive gestation tank, where an embryo the size of a large cashew can be seen, floating in a greenish liquid.
"In time, my love," says Vomi. "Revenge will come in time...."
And that, dear readers, is where the Androids Saga will end. Tune in next Monday as the world enters a timeskip of relative peace, and we'll see how this new lineup of characters fare in the Buu Saga of "What If GOKU Was Never Born?", all next time, in Dragon Blog Z!
Animeister,
Out.
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