Icy blue eyes stared at nothing, the transparent screen reflecting a pale face and matted blue hair, streaked with blood from the previous battle.
Misaki shivered. She didn’t know why she’d bothered to find her way here, it was hard enough moving around at all with the weight she now carried around with her. She layed a hand on her swollen stomach, not long now… Her eyes flicked back to the figure behind the screen. Everything about him seemed… dead… The only thing that broke the silence was the occasional whir from the monitor nearby and Misaki’s breath. She leaned forwards, suddenly feeling that the labratory seemed more occupied than before.
A warm hand rested on her shoulder, then slid around her back as Goten took his place next to her. He gave her a warm smile, breaking the coldness of the room. Misaki relaxed in his embrace, taking his other hand and laying it on her stomach, she read his expression.
"Two, three months… maybe less," she gave a shrug. She could feel the unborn child moving already, soon, she told herself. Goten answered with a small laugh.
"I can’t wait! I wonder what it’ll be? A girl or a boy?"
"It had better be one of the two." Misaki nudged him on the ribs, "Or I’ll know who to blame."
Goten looked confused for a while. Misaki gave a small sigh, some things just went straight over Goten’s head. The two sat in silence for a while, watching the form that stared completely motionlessly at them.
Misaki pulled away from Goten, standing up and walking towards the screen, "You think Trunks will reprogram him?"
"I dunno. I hope so. We could really do with that kind of strength on our side." Goten moved over to the monitor, peering incomprehensibly at the whirring figures.
Misaki leant against the walls, "I don’t think I’d ever really be able to trust him…it... though… not after what it did to us…" she tore her eyes away from it, "I just… can’t imagine anything like that being on our side. I mean… Juuhachi and Juunana, they were human before, but this thing."
"I know… I don’t even know if it has… well you know, a personality or anything. It was just built to fight."
"Well, that’s all we really need of it I guess… but I still don’t like thinking about it that way."
"Maybe we could teach it?" Goten said almost hopefully.
"Goten, I don’t think it would ever be human, no matter what we do. I guess we’ll just have to see… when it’s safe."
The door slid open as Trunks walked in. He looked restless, as if the only thing keeping him awake was caffiene, which was probably true.
"Trunks?" Goten seemed almost surprised.
"I thought you two would be getting some sleep?" He said, taking a seat on a swivel chair. He turned to the computer, without waiting for a reply.
"Couldn’t sleep," Goten gave a shrug.
"Same here," Misaki agreed, despite how tired she felt. She sat down next Goten, leaning on his shoulder. He put his arm around her again.
You sure about that one? Goten gave her a secretive smile.
Urusai des yo! She joked, but snuggled up further.
"Anyway," Trunks continued, without turning around, "About the android… I’ve been through its data files, and I have to say, the computer’s done a good job. I’ll show you some stuff if you’re interested."
"Huh? …yeah guess so." Goten felt a yawn coming on.
Trunks typed for a few seconds, before moving to the side to let Goten see. The screen was filled with organised data, taking up several pages. The only legiable words that Goten could see was the heading. ‘Goten, Son.’
"I doubt you can understand very much of this, but I’ll show this much. Here’s the main problem…" Trunks scrolled down the screen, "That." He pointed to some writing in the bottom corner.
Goten read the only readible words out aloud, "’Primary enemy’."
"Basically all I have to do is change those little words to ‘Friend’ or the effect of it, and he’ll be on our side. If I put you as the most important source, then he’ll change the other’s on his own, as long as you tell him what’s right, then he’ll obey without question."
Goten shook his head, "That’s just… wrong… You know what I mean? Couldn’t we tell him to obey himself?"
Trunks leant on the desk, "It wouldn’t work, Goten. This thing is designed to obey, if you told it to do what it wanted, it wouldn’t do anything. It hasn’t got a mind like that… it’s just…" Trunks looked for the right word, "…a walking computer. No personality. Nothing. If we didn’t need extra fighters, I wouldn’t be activating it all."
"We don’t have much choice… It would probably be best if we asked the public what they think…"
"Believe me, Goten, they’d say no after what it did to us." Trunks folded his arms, "Since when do we listen to authority anyway? Hell, we are authority."
"I still think it’s right to ask, right Misaki? Misaki?" Goten blushed, realised that she’d fallen asleep on his shoulder.
"I won’t activate it, but it would be safer if I changed the programming now. Just in case…"
"I guess I can’t argue with that." Goten gently picking up the sleeping Misaki, heading back to their room. "Trunks, you better get some sleep sometime soon too."
Trunks typed in a few words, the shut off the monitor, "I’m finished here, but I’ve got some more work I need to do…" He said plainly, then yawned, "I’ll rest when it’s done." Trunks saw his best friend’s look, "Ok, ok, I’ll turn in for the night."
Darkness covered unmoving blue eyes as Trunks turned off the light, "Sweet dreams," he muttered sarcasticly to the android as he left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The gathering muttered a mixture of confusion and anger. It was always hard to organise the population in to any kind of order, particularily at such short notice, and this was no exception. The Z-team stood on the raised platform at the front, safely above the milions of people below. The effect was that of some kind of underground rock concert.
Goten stared out at most of the population of the old Satan city. A decade ago, he wouldn’t have believed it possible to rebuild a whole city underground, particularily not one the size of Satan City, but now there was simply nowhere else safe enough. With what had happened to the surface…
The entire area was several hundred metres underground, and despite the bright lighting, and concrete walls, it still felt like some kind of cave. It had only been… one, two years? Maybe longer. Everyone missed the sunlight. Food and water were running out… The underground farms weren’t anywhere near as productive as the ones that had been on the surface. The surface… had it really only been a year?
He still couldn’t reach his mind around the fact that the people of this city, along with those of three others, were all that remained of the human race. Nothing lived on the surface anymore, nothing living. Goten shook his head, trying not to think about it.
Trunks stepped forwards, up to the microphone, a huge screen nearby projected his face for all to see. Being the president of Capsule Corp almost made you the president of Satan City. After all, Capsule Corp was mostly responsible for digging the place out.
"People of Satan City, as you all know we are in posession of the android that once threatened us," Trunks got straight to the point, "We wish to reprogram the android then re-activate it to fight against the others."
The crowd’s murmurs turned to a deafening roar. Audiable above the racket were screams of, "Destroy it!" "…Pure evil!" "We don’t need it!"
Trunks waited for the noise level to drop, "We assure you, if we reprogrammed it, it would not be capable of evil. In our current state, we need all the help we can get!"
The gathering still seemed unsure. A group of full-sized dogs started yelling ‘Murderer’ at the top of their lungs. Trunks grit his teeth.
"You fools! Listen! It isn’t evil! It was just programmed to be like that! If you have any brains at all you’ll realise it. We’re not invincible, and we’re running out of fighters," Trunks cursed impatiently as the crowd slowly settled.
Goten stepped onto the platform and was handed the microphone by Trunks. The audience gave a few cheers. "Mina-san, I think we should re-activate it. It’s not its fault, and Trunks is right, we do need more fighters right now. Just give us a chance, onegai."
Trunks gave him half a smile, That ought to have done it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Goten gave a contented smile and he and Misaki began the walk back to their room. He was still a little surprised that the bunch of old guys that called themselves ‘the government’ had actually agreed to let them re-activate the android. It wasn’t like it actually made any difference what they thought, Capsule Corp never listened to them anyway, but at least it made the losers think they were doing some good. They were going to wait until the following morning, hopefully before the media burst their way in.
Goten felt in even before the warning lights flashed. It was almost routine, two to three times a month they’d expect some kind of attack. Goten cursed, setting of down the corridor, "Misaki! Get somewhere safe!" He yelled over his shoulder.
Easy for you to say, I don’t think there’s anywhere safe in the whole city… She looked around, then shrugged, heading back to her room.