After Senga disappeared for a while, No. 18 turned around and went into the room.
But as soon as she entered the house, she noticed that something was off.
She clearly saw Lapis's motorcycle at the door just now, which means Lapis has returned home, but none of the lights in the house are on.
Lapis disliked the darkness; as soon as it got dark, he had to turn on the lights.
No. 18 tentatively called out Lapis's name twice, but after waiting for a long time, there was still no response.
"Could he be asleep?"
She turned on the light in the entryway and called out as she changed her shoes.
"Lapis! Wake up! It's time to eat!"
Seeing that there was still no response, No. 18 shook her head helplessly. She went upstairs to Lapis's room and found that his door was not closed. After she entered, she immediately saw Lapis lying on the bed.
No. 18, swaying her hips, walked to Lapis's bedside, patted him hard, and said irritably,
"Hey! How long are you going to sleep? Get up now!"
No matter how much Ren No. 18 patted Lapis, there was no response. She finally realized something was wrong and quickly helped Lapis up. Lapis's head was drooping weakly, and it didn't look like it was asleep at all.
No. 18 panicked too; she shook Lapis violently and shouted,
"Little brother! What's wrong?!"
With her shaking, Lapis finally opened his eyes, and he spoke very weakly.
"Sister... run!"
No. 18 was taken aback and asked,
"Run? What on earth happened?"
No. 18 collapsed weakly onto the bed. Behind her, a woman with short purple hair and dressed in military uniform appeared out of nowhere.
There was a red ribbon pattern on the left breast of her dress, with two white letters "R" on it.
Lapis struggled to his feet to protect his sister, but the purple-haired woman snorted and delivered a chop to the neck, knocking Lapis unconscious once more.
Seeing that both siblings had fainted on the bed, she grabbed one of them with each arm, kicked the glass, and jumped out, disappearing into the night in a few flashes.
After an unknown amount of time, No. 18 groggily woke up. She tried to move her body, only to find that she was tightly bound to a cold experimental table by several leather straps, with Lapis lying next to her.
In front of the testing table stood the purple-haired woman who had knocked the two women unconscious. Standing opposite her was an old man in a white lab coat with a fierce-looking face.
The old man was none other than Dr. Gero, who was speaking to the woman opposite him with a sinister grin.
"Well done, Colonel Violet! You've really done a great job this time!"
"Hehe, it's all as it should be. I should thank Dr. Gero for giving me such great power. Now I prefer the name No. 12."
She was a remnant of the Red Ribbon Army, found by Dr. Gero and transformed into Android No. 12.
Of course, her model cannot be compared to any of the androids that appeared later, but it is definitely much stronger than Android 8, who appeared earlier.
Dr. Gero was still quite satisfied with Android No. 12 because she was obedient and did not resist fighting.
Judging from the androids he created afterward, there was practically no one who could satisfy both of these conditions simultaneously.
No. 18 struggled twice and shouted,
"Who are you? What do you want to do to us?!"
Dr. Gero turned to look at No. 18 and said with a smile,
"Little girl, we are the Red Ribbon Army. Have you heard of that name?"
"The Red Ribbon Army? That terrorist organization? Weren't you all wiped out?"
A surge of rage welled up within Dr. Gero; he clenched his fists tightly and hissed, "..."
"Hmph! If it weren't for that damned Sun Wukong, our Red Ribbon Army would have conquered the world long ago!"
When it came to conquering the world, Dr. Gero's eyes gleamed with fervor as he stared at No. 18 and spoke to Lapis.
"Now that I have you, I will grant you eternal life and unimaginable power. Don't you feel incredibly lucky?"
"What do you mean? What exactly do you want to do?!"
Dr. Gero chuckled and glanced at Android No. 12. No. 12 immediately understood and, to No. 18's astonishment, she pried open one of her wrists, revealing the dark, gaping cannon beneath.
No. 18 cried out in terror.
"You, you're a robot?"
"Robot?"
A look of disdain flashed across No. 12's face. She snapped her wrist shut and said,
"Little sister, you'd better not compare me to those pieces of scrap metal."
Dr. Gero, with his hands behind his back and a smug look on his face, said...
"This is the artificial human I've developed; it's the greatest invention in the world!"
"You want to turn us into that? No! I don't want to become some kind of android!"
No. 18 felt nauseous at the thought of being completely transformed into metal. At that moment, Lapis woke up, and before he could figure out what was happening, he heard Dr. Gero's voice.
"You must have misunderstood something. You won't be transformed into something like No. 12, don't worry."
As he spoke, Dr. Gero turned around and pressed a button. Two glass containers slowly rose up, each containing a metal ball about the size of a baseball.
Dr. Gero stared intently at the two energy spheres and said,
"These are the Eternal Energy Furnace I created. Look how beautiful they are! You should be happy because they will soon be implanted into your bodies!"
"No!!!"
No. 18 was still just a young girl who had just come of age. She shook her head frantically, and Labis, who was standing next to her, roughly understood what had happened to him and his sister.
They were captured and used for experiments by a deranged scientist!
However, he was quite tough and directly cursed back.
"You disgusting old man, let go of me and my sister right now, or else..."
Dr. Gero raised an eyebrow and asked,
"Otherwise what?"
"..."
Lapis hesitated for a long time before finally managing to utter a sentence.
"Otherwise, the police won't let you off the hook!"
Hahahaha!
Dr. Gero burst into laughter, finding it to be the funniest thing he had ever heard.
"Police? You're so cute! I thought you were going to talk about Uchiha Senga!"
Lapis paused for a moment, thinking,
"Senga? My sister's boyfriend?"
No. 18 also remembered the Flying Thunder God that she had made into a necklace and hidden in her chest. She bit her lip and began to call out Senga's name repeatedly in her heart.