章 37: Defeat

Kakarot managed to push #17 away from his friends. However, to his surprise, no matter what attack he tried, he was unable to penetrate the green barrier the cyborg produced. The force of the Super Saiyan's fists against the barrier rocked the surrounding area.

He assumed that he could eventually wear down the shield, but it showed no signs of losing strength. #17 appeared bored as he watched Kakarot relentlessly attack his barrier over and over again. The young cyborg saw Dr. Wheelo approach the area.

"I don't want to rush you, but we should go retrieve the pods." Wheelo shouted.

"It's fine. I was bored anyways." #17 answered.

The cyborg extended his arm towards Kakarot and his green barrier rapidly folded over containing the Super Saiyan. The now trapped Kakarot, pounded against the inside of the barrier in a desperate attempt to free himself. The orange scarfed cyborg clenched his fist, causing the barrier to shrink in size, further restricting his opponent's movements. When #17 opened his palm, Kakarot was hurled inside the green ball far into the distance. Dr. Wheelo and the young cyborg watched as a green explosion bloomed on the horizon.

"I can't believe you an Dr. Gero were worried about such weaklings." #17 commented to the doctor.

"I hope I didn't miss #18's fight."

Vegeta wasn't faring any better than Kakarot against his enemy. Even when was able to get an attack in, it had no visible effect on the cyborg. He could see the other two cyborgs flying over, which meant the others didn't fare any better. Despite the damage he suffered during their fight, Vegeta was getting even more enraged by the fact the blonde cyborg was lazily batting his strikes away.

"Hey, #18, Wheelo wants to go on a scavenger hunt to collect the pods. Plus, I want to go find something more entertaining to do." #17 joked.

Annoyed by the nonchalant conversation, Vegeta decided to use the distraction by throwing a punch directly at the face of #18. He was stunned by the blonde cyborg's ability to effortlessly catch his fist in her palm. What was even more surprising, was the fact she didn't even turn in his direction to see the incoming attack.

#18 smirked at the shocked Super Saiyan, while putting pressure on his trapped fist. Vegeta struggled to free his hand by trying to pull away from the cyborg. The Super Saiyan felt the bones in his hand start to break from the extreme grip of his opponent. In an attempt to get her to release him, Vegeta tried to kick the girl, hoping she would let go to dodge. Contrary to what he believed would happen, she instead caught his leg with her other hand.

She wasted no time in breaking the leg of the Super Saiyan, Vegeta. The snapping of bone was loud enough for her companions to hear where they were hovering. Vegeta grimaced in pain from feeling the bones in both his hand and leg getting pulverized by the young cyborg.

ZAP!

A golden electrical energy surrounded #18 causing the captured Vegeta's eyes to turn solid white from the pain of the extremely high voltage coursing through his body. The pain from the electrical shock felt like it lasted for any eternity. Vegeta's golden hair reverted back to black and his golden aura disappeared.

When the cyborg was satisfied with the results of her bio-electricity, she released Vegeta, delivering a massive kick to the side of the Saiyan. Vegeta felt the bones in his arm, ribs, and back shatter from the impact of the kick. He was propelled into the distance. His body skipped across the nearby body of water, finally coming to rest on a nearby island.

"Well done, Sis." #17 clapped as he landed next to his twin.

"It wasn't hard." she answered and asked, "You mentioned something about a scavenger hunt?"

"Yeah. Unless you have a better idea?" he asked.

"No, I just want to get a change of clothes on the way." she said.

"I'm sure we can do that." #17 glared at Dr. Wheelo.

"Of course, we can get all the clothing you want." Dr. Wheelo readily agreed.

After deciding their next move, the three cyborgs flew off, leaving their broken opponents behind. The group quickly recovered Kakarot and Vegeta. Both of the Saiyans were on the verge of death after their encounter with the cyborgs. If the team was any slower in giving the Saiyans a Panacea bean, both would have died. Kakarot lost much of his blood and over half of his body was covered in burns.

"This doesn't make sense!" a recovered Vegeta fumed, "We are Super Saiyans, the ultimate warriors. We shouldn't have lost to cyborgs! There must be a way to get stronger, to go beyond the limits of a Super Saiyan!"

Kakarot looked excited by the thoughts of getting stronger than a Super Saiyan. The cyborgs proved that there were still challenges to overcome. If they had time to train even harder, he was sure they would pull through in a rematch.

"I'm all for trying to go beyond a Super Saiyan, but we don't have time." Kakarot said, "It probably won't take long before the cyborgs start destroying the planet."

"Kakarot's right, Dad, we don't have time to train long enough to stop them. We need some other plan of attack." Eschalot voiced her opinion.

"I know exactly how you can do just that." Piccolo spoke up, "I know where you can get an entire years worth of training in a day."

"You don't mean the Room of Spirit and Time?" Kakarot asked.

Piccolo was somewhat surprised Kakarot knew about the mysterious room, "How did you know about that?"

"When I was younger, I tried to trained on the Lookout and tried to last a full day in the room. It was too hard at the time, and I never tried again." Kakarot explained.

The cyborgs were gathered outside of a ruined clothing store in West City. They stopped there so #18 could update her wardrobe, but destroyed the store after the cashier threatened to call the authorities over them not paying. #18 made Wheelo carry her eight shopping bags while her twin brother went to steal a vehicle.

The trio had spent the last two hours in the store waiting for the blonde cyborg to pick out the clothes she wanted. As much as Wheelo hated the delay, he didn't have the power to force the twins to work according to his schedule. #17 returned a few minutes after he left with a stolen hovering moving van.

"At least I won't have to carry bags anymore." Wheelo thought to himself.

"Good work #17. Transporting the pods will be easier with this." Wheelo praised.

"Thanks Doc, I thought you'd like it." #17 replied. "Now get in."

After #18 and Wheelo were in the van, #17 flew off in the direction of the closest pod. According to the data screen Wheelo was using to track the pods, the nearest one was located just outside of West City. Once all of the pods were secure, he could focus on using their data to continue his research into creating the perfect body.

In the forested area on the outskirts of West City, the trio of cyborgs found the pod they were searching for at the bottom of a crater. As they approached the pod, the group could see that it was already opened. When they drew closer they could see a large gray body hanging outside of the pod.

Dr. Wheelo scanned the area and saw on the lid of the pod an unknown viscous substance. Whatever the substance was, it seems to have eaten through the locking mechanism of the pod allowing it to be opened.

"#14," Wheelo sighed, "His CPU, Power Source, and Processors are all missing!"

"But how?" #17 asked, "Nobody could have known about his technology to randomly steal it."

"This is bad, we should probably get to the other pods faster." #18 said.

Raditz was finally back on his feet after he was cleared to take a Panacea bean. Being fully healed from his ordeal still didn't calm the anger the Emperor harbored towards the cyborgs. Though he felt perfectly fine, the doctors ordered him to stay in the sickbay for a few more hours just to make certain his condition was normal.

The Empress was in and out of the Sickbay visiting Raditz after he was healed. She explained the situation about the finding the Shadow and its missing crew.

"Raditz, can you hear me?" a female voice asked.

Raditz looked around the room to find the source of the voice, but he didn't see anyone. He was also sure the voice was inside his head, but he wanted to look around just to make certain he wasn't hallucinating.

"Yes, I can hear you." he answered. "Who are you?"

"I'm East Kai." the voice introduced herself, "You are in my East Galactic Area."

"A Kai, this is the first time I have spoke to one of your kind." Raditz mused.

"I know your brother trained with North Kai. That's how I know about you. I made some inquiries after you appeared in my Area." she informed him.

"What do want?" Raditz asked. He wasn't in the mood to waste time while the cyborgs were doing as they pleased.

"I wanted you to look into the Bojack Syndicate that is terrorizing my sector." she said.

"What's in it for me?" the Emperor didn't feel like assisting the East Kai if there wasn't anything he could get from it, especially when he had his own goals.

The East Kai didn't know Raditz wouldn't be willing to assist one of the gods. Most beings would be pleased to be of assistance to the overseer of one of the four Galactic Areas. North Kai informed her that even though the Prometheus Empire was spreading out from the North Area taking over worlds, it was mostly improving the lives of the galaxy.

For most of his life, Raditz had avoiding trying to communicate with any of the godly beings of the universe. He blamed their lack of activity as one of the reasons he needed to work so hard to improve the universe. He felt the Kais were overly lax in managing their affairs for whatever reason.

"I can give you permission to come to my world to train. I'm positive my instruction would be better than anything you could pick up from North Kai."

"No." Raditz flatly refused the offer.

"What is it that you want?" East Kai chose to just ask what could move the Emperor.

"I want you to owe me a favor to be named later." Raditz offered.

"You want a god to owe you a favor?" East Kai sounded like she was offended by the suggestion.

"It's either that or you can find someone else to deal with your problem." Raditz really didn't care either way. If he helped the East Kai there was a strong possibility he could rescue the crew of the Shadow. If he went back to Earth the could vent against the cyborgs for what Wheelo did to him.

"Fine, I'll owe you a favor." East Kai sounded defeated. "I thought you Saiyans were a warrior race that loved to fight."

"East Kai, you aren't dealing with an average Saiyan." Raditz laughed.