Boom!
The gates slammed shut, and the men disappeared from sight.
Sloan?
Uncle Sloan!
Dia's tear-streaked face broke into a radiant smile.
It was the first time he'd learned Uncle Sloan's name.
Ten years.
Every time he'd asked the man his name,
the man had always said it didn't matter and that he could just call him Uncle.
No one at the entire base knew his name.
The older folks called him Big Beard.
The younger ones called him Uncle.
Ever since Uncle Sloan had rescued him from the ruins ten years ago, Dia had stayed by his side.
After all these years, Dia had come to regard Sloan as his father.
He wiped the tears from his face.
There was no time to wallow in sorrow.
They had to leave at once.
Otherwise, the men would have sacrificed themselves for nothing.
Dia raised the gun Uncle Sloan had given him and roared, "Move out!!"
Bulma also put her grief aside, inwardly cursing herself for being useless.
She was a genius scientist,
but her skills were heavily skewed.
She could even build a time machine,
yet she'd never made any progress with weapons.
On top of that, the Androids had been hunting her constantly,
and she hadn't had enough materials to research weapons.
As a result, all she could make over the years were ordinary weapons.
Though her weapons were already more powerful than the ones from before,
they couldn't hurt the Androids in the slightest.
Even if the Androids stood still and let them attack, they still couldn't wound them.
In the end, these weapons were practically only good for hunting.
"Rumble!!"
The blonde girl and the black-haired boy fired beams of light from their hands.
Everywhere the beams struck, violent explosions erupted.
The flames dyed the land and sky crimson.
The boy and girl gazed at the flames, faint smiles on their faces,
as if they were admiring a fireworks show.
Not far away, several weathered men hid behind rocks, occasionally peeking out to fire their guns at them.
They were excellent shots; seven or eight out of every ten bullets hit their targets.
But the bullets seemed to strike indestructible steel, sparking on impact without causing the slightest injury.
The boy and girl seemed to be getting annoyed by the bullets.
They raised their hands and fired several beams at the men's hiding place.
Flames flashed, leaving behind only charred corpses.
"Damn it!!"
Sloan had just emerged from the base when he saw this. His eyes widened until they nearly split.
An endless fury blazed in his heart.
He pulled out a grenade and hurled it at the Androids with all his might.
Android 17 saw the grenade flying toward him and gave a scornful laugh.
Without a second thought, he slapped it with his hand, intending to knock the thing away.
But the instant his hand touched the grenade,
its surface filled with countless cracks, and brilliant light shone through them onto the faces of Android 17 and Android 18.
"Rumble!!"
A deafening explosion rang across the land.
A small mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
The blast wave knocked Sloan and the others off their feet, though they were hundreds of meters away.
"We hit them!"
Sloan lay on the ground, staring at the mushroom cloud with hopeful eyes.
Bulma had spent a vast amount of resources to make that grenade.
It was a hundred times more powerful than an ordinary grenade.
Looking at the huge explosion it had caused,
Sloan didn't dare claim that it could wipe out the Androids in one go, but surely it could at least injure them, right?
The dust slowly began to settle.
Sloan and the others stared fixedly at the center of the blast.
The smoke gradually drifted away in the wind, revealing two vague silhouettes.
"How is this possible?!!"
When the smoke cleared, Sloan and his group stared in disbelief at the two figures standing where they'd been.
The two Androids stood there with their arms folded, sneers on their faces.
Their clothes were a little tattered, but they didn't have a single wound.
Sloan and the others had never faced the Androids directly, so although they had some idea of how powerful they were,
they hadn't expected even a grenade that powerful to fail to hurt them in the slightest.
A sense of helplessness welled up inside them.
They couldn't help wondering: could humanity really defeat these two monsters?
Android 17 dusted himself off and said listlessly, "Android 18, I don't want to keep playing. This is too boring."
Android 18 gave a slight nod. "It really is boring."
"Right? Let's wipe out all the humans, then go play on another planet!"
From the casual way they spoke, it seemed as though wiping out humanity was a trivial matter.
"Yeah, let's go!"
Android 18 had no objections to Android 17's suggestion.
She'd been playing this game of hunting humans for twenty years. She was long since sick of it.
It was time to try a different game.
Perhaps wiping out humanity?
Or... destroying Earth?
A cruel smile curled Android 18's pretty lips.
They'd decided to stop playing this game.
Android 17 and Android 18 didn't want to waste any more time here.
They intended to wipe out every human on Earth as quickly as possible.
They'd start with the few insects in front of them!
Seeing the cruel expressions on the Androids' faces, Sloan and his group knew they were up to no good.
"Stop them!"
Sloan roared as he pulled out a grenade and threw it at the Androids.
The dozen or so people behind him also pulled out grenades.
In an instant, grenades rained down on the Androids.
Android 17 and Android 18 acted as if they hadn't even seen them.
They let the grenades strike them.
"Rumble!!"
"Rumble!!"
The explosions came one after another.
Watching the Androids disappear beneath the blasts, Sloan didn't dare let his guard down for a moment.
He knew these grenades were useless.
But they hadn't expected to kill the Androids.
They only wanted to hold them back and give the others more time to escape.
For some reason, Sloan had a bad feeling.
The mocking smiles on the Androids' faces before the grenades exploded kept appearing in his mind like a nightmare.
"Hurry up and throw them! Throw every last grenade!"
"I'm out! I threw them all!"
"Me too. They're all gone."
Everyone said they'd thrown all their grenades.
And with the grenades gone, they had no weapons left on them.
Sloan and the others braced themselves.
Next, they'd have to face the Androids barehanded.
"Get out of the way!"
Sloan saw a flash of light in the smoke and immediately shouted in alarm.
In an instant, everyone scattered.
At the same time, a beam shot out of the smoke.
It struck the spot where they'd all been standing.
"Boom!"
The ground was instantly blasted into a crater about ten meters across.
Several men who hadn't run fast enough were killed outright.
A few others had their legs blown off.
"Bastards!!"
Seeing his companions' gruesome state, Sloan flew into a rage.
Android 17 and Android 18 liked the look on Sloan's face right then.
They loved seeing their prey rage helplessly.
It gave them a strange sense of satisfaction.
Android 17 and Android 18 raised their hands again, light flickering at their fingertips.
"Dodge!!"
Sloan's heart lurched, and he shouted a warning to his companions.
Android 17 and Android 18 watched the people fleeing in every direction with cold eyes, their lips curling into smiles.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~"
Beams shot from their fingertips, fast as lightning.
Suddenly, Sloan felt a sharp pain in his chest.
Then he saw a beam emerge from the other side of his chest.
He stumbled forward two more steps before finally collapsing, powerless.
At that moment, he seemed to see his parents beckoning to him.
"Dad... Mom... Have you finally come to take me home?"
Sloan knew he wouldn't survive.
His heart had been shattered.
Still, they'd managed to buy enough time.
Everyone must have escaped safely by now!
Now he could rest, too.
So tired...
Sloan slowly closed his eyes.
A smile lingered on his face. There was no resentment, only relief.
"Dia... Make sure you live well!"