Infiltration

The snow-capped peaks of the Far Northern Mountain Range glowed a cold white in the morning light. At the foot of the mountains, an old mining district abandoned for decades lay silent atop the frozen earth. The wooden frame at the mine entrance had long since rotted away, but a brand-new alloy blast door set into the rock wall behind it revealed signs that the site had been reopened in recent years.

Ji Ming stood before the door, his scanner wristband showing a steady, low-frequency energy source operating beyond it. Nappa, who was in charge of sealing off the mountain, had already arrived with the mobile unit. Their presences were scattered across the ridges on both sides of the range, like a net slowly drawing tight.

"Map." Ji Ming held out his hand, and the three-dimensional map Bulma had sent projected a small holographic image from his wristband. The underground base had seven levels. Dr. Gero's main laboratory was on the bottom floor, while the energy core was on the second-lowest level. There were at least six sensor-based defense systems between the entrance and the laboratory—infrared, thermal, air-pressure differential—and at the deepest point, there was an energy barrier powerful enough to supply a medium-sized city for an entire year.

"Breaking in through the front entrance will trigger every alarm. We'll go through the ventilation ducts."

After saying that, Ji Ming raised his hand toward the rock wall beside the alloy door. A golden ki blast the size of a fist gathered in his palm. It did not explode. Instead, its high-frequency vibrations ground away layers of rock into powder. Seconds later, a half-person-high opening appeared in the wall. Just inside was the metal exterior wall of the base. In the narrow gap between the metal wall and the rock face, a rusted old ventilation pipe was exposed.

Ji Ming pulled off the iron grate over the pipe and slipped inside sideways. The navigation signal on Bulma's wristband flickered slightly under weak interference within the duct, but the direction was still clear. He descended through the pipe, followed by soft, orderly footsteps—Vegeta, Piccolo, and Nail entered one after another. The exit at the end of the duct was located on the third level of the underground base, a defensive blind spot identified by Bulma's scan.

"We split up here." Ji Ming lowered his voice. "Vegeta, take the Saiyan mobile unit and block every passage between the fourth and fifth levels. Cut off the laboratory's escape routes. Piccolo, Nail, go seize the energy core. Shut it down in ten minutes, starting now. I'll find Gero."

Piccolo raised a finger from beneath his cape, a mass of purple light compressed to the extreme already gathered at its tip. "The core room guards are energy-type androids. Once we shut the door and trap them, it won't take ten minutes."

"Don't underestimate him." Ji Ming glanced at him. "If Gero could create models that absorb energy, then he could have left behind contingencies."

Nail silently nodded, his antennae sensing the low-frequency fluctuations radiating from the direction of the energy core in an instant. Vegeta did not join the conversation—he had already walked several meters away with his back to them. Raising a hand, he gestured for the formation to regroup, and purple flames flashed briefly through the dim duct.

Ji Ming moved forward alone. He did not need a light source in the darkness; his ki sense had already outlined the surrounding structure with perfect clarity—the cables inside the walls, the pipes overhead, the automated sentries moving slowly in a distant stairwell. When he continued down to the fourth level, a dull tremor suddenly came from above, followed by a string of alarms. Vegeta had made his move.

Ji Ming no longer concealed his presence. White ki flames abruptly lit up the passage. With a kick, he shot straight toward the seventh level like a cannonball.

Several minutes later, Ji Ming stood at the entrance to the main laboratory.

The laboratory door had already been blown open from within, its warped alloy panels hanging crookedly from the frame. Son Goku stood in the middle of the laboratory in a fighting stance, but he had not made a move. He had arrived before the infiltration team—according to the plan, while Ji Ming led the group inside, Son Goku had drilled a vertical shaft directly from the summit of the snow peak down toward the seventh underground level. He had been stopped by an energy barrier at the end of the shaft between the fifth and seventh levels. He had just broken through it.

At the far end of the laboratory stood an entire wall of surveillance monitors. Dozens of screens were lit at once, each showing live footage of corridors and passageways throughout the base. On the screens, Vegeta was leading the mobile unit in close combat against a group of humanoid battle robots on the fourth level. Piccolo and Nail had already broken into the core room and were fighting a massive mechanical humanoid with an energy absorption device in each palm.

And directly in front of the surveillance wall sat a gaunt old man in a wheelchair. Dr. Gero. His hair was completely white and the wrinkles on his face ran deep, but his eyes were like two icy cameras, without the slightest cloudiness of age. His hand rested on the wheelchair armrest, his fingers calmly tapping the control panel built into it.

"As expected of Saiyans capable of defeating Frieza. Your infiltration was much faster than I anticipated." Dr. Gero watched the screens, his voice as flat as if he were evaluating experimental data. "However, my test subjects have been waiting for you for quite some time."

The moment he finished speaking, the walls on both sides of the laboratory folded outward. Two figures emerged from hidden compartments. On the left was a tall girl with short black hair, a red scarf, and eyes as cold as blades. On the right was a black-haired boy wearing an orange-and-black striped scarf, a carefree smirk hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Android 18. Android 17.

Android 18's gaze swept over Ji Ming and Son Goku. She tilted her head slightly, her tone completely flat. "These are the intruders Gero mentioned? They look pretty capable."

Android 17 rolled his wrist, his knuckles cracking sharply. "Especially the smaller one. Gero's database says he once fought Frieza to a draw. But that data's old. No idea whether he's improved since then."

"Yeah, maybe the data is outdated." Ji Ming calmly took a step forward.

He raised a hand, thumb pointing behind him. The gesture was quiet yet openly provocative—Android 17 raised an eyebrow.

"This is where the first load-bearing pillar above the sixth level stands. If you fight here, this entire base will collapse completely within minutes. Gero and all his equipment will be buried beneath it. Want to test that?"

Dr. Gero's fingers stopped.

Android 17's smile faded slightly. Android 18's eyes remained cold, but she did not attack.

During those few seconds of deadlock, Son Goku had already appeared behind Dr. Gero. One hand reached around from behind and rested lightly on Gero's shoulder, his tone as casual as if he were visiting a neighbor. "Old man, you built this place pretty deep."

Dr. Gero's body stiffened.

The standoff between Ji Ming and Androids 17 and 18 continued. Of course, he knew the siblings were not truly enemies—though Android 17 and Android 18 had been designed by Gero as killing machines, their natures were not evil. The key to dealing with them was not defeating them with brute force, but severing Gero's control over them and ensuring that the Emergency Shutdown Controller remained under his control.

"Android 17, Android 18," Ji Ming said without hostility, "Gero gave you the mission of killing me. But have you ever considered something? Why did he need an Emergency Shutdown Controller? If you really were perfect killing machines, why would he install a switch on you that could paralyze you at any time?"

Android 17's playful expression paused for a moment before returning to its usual nonchalance. "Do I have to listen to everything you say?"

"You don't have to listen to me. Ask Gero."

Android 18's gaze finally turned toward the old man in the wheelchair. Dr. Gero's expression changed. His hand suddenly slapped toward a red button on the armrest, but Son Goku reacted faster—he grabbed Gero's wrist and gave it a light lift, prying the withered hand away from the control panel.

"Don't touch the button, old man. Electronics break easily."

Dr. Gero's teeth ground together. He turned his head toward Android 18 and forced several words through clenched teeth. "Kill them. That is an order."

Android 18 did not move.

"So there really is an Emergency Shutdown Controller." Her voice was cold as ice.

Dr. Gero's pupils abruptly contracted. Ji Ming saw his left hand quietly reach beneath the armrest, where an inconspicuous secondary switch was hidden—Bulma's scan had marked that location. He flashed to the side of the wheelchair, pressed the secondary switch on the armrest, and removed the entire control panel from the wheelchair intact.

Android 17 watched the scene in silence, all playfulness gone from his face. The laboratory was left with only the distant, muffled sounds of explosions. Piccolo and Nail had successfully cut off the main energy supply in the core room. The base's lighting system flickered violently several times before the backup power activated automatically, changing the lights to a dim red.

"You were always guarding against us." Android 17's voice was quiet, but every word was clear.

"It would be strange if he wasn't." Android 18 picked up his words, her gaze settling on Dr. Gero. For the first time, a trace of killing intent appeared in those cold eyes. It was not killing intent driven by programming. It was her own.

Dr. Gero's hands trembled. He was not a fighter, and he never had been. His power came from the androids he had created, but once those androids no longer obeyed his commands, he was only a shriveled old man trapped in a wheelchair.

For the rest of the operation, Ji Ming quietly directed every step. He let Android 17 and Android 18 decide for themselves whether to stay or leave, while coordinating with the backup Namek sealing technique to seal Dr. Gero inside the underground laboratory on the spot. In the core room, Piccolo and Nail successfully shut down Cell's unfinished cultivation chamber, destroying the biological samples still in their embryonic state along with all the experimental data.

The evacuation signal was sent from Kami's Lookout to everyone's navigation wristbands.

As Bulma counted down the time limit for evacuation over the channel, the fighting on every level gradually subsided. The Saiyan mobile unit withdrew toward the surface along the pre-marked routes, with Vegeta bringing up the rear to ensure that no active automated weapons were left behind.

Chi-Chi stood at the edge of Kami's Lookout, with Dende and several Saiyan logistics soldiers beside her. When Ji Ming became the first to break through the clouds below and land steadily in the plaza of Kami's Lookout, she realized that the hand she had been clutching around the edge of her apron could finally relax.

Bulma closed the holographic terminal and walked over to Dende, watching more and more people fly back from beneath the clouds. Vegeta landed in a corner of the plaza and brushed the dust from his battle suit. Piccolo pulled his cape back around himself, while the Planet Namek warriors behind him were unharmed. Krillin had a small new scrape on his head and was having Tien Shinhan rub medicine onto it. Chiaotzu carried over a pot of warm tea, handing cups to the returning warriors one by one.

Ji Ming turned and saw Son Goku sitting cross-legged on the stone railing of Kami's Lookout, fiddling with the Emergency Shutdown Controller he had casually brought back from Gero's laboratory. Its core energy block had already been removed, leaving it as nothing more than a harmless metal shell.

"This thing's useless now anyway." Son Goku looked up at him and smiled.

"Keep it as a memento. This was the first time you won without fighting."

Son Goku thought about it for a moment, then laughed and tucked the metal shell into his clothes. The wind passed through Kami's Lookout, scattering snow dust from the Far Northern Mountain Range into the daylight. Android 17 and Android 18 remained for the time being in the outer section of the abandoned underground base and did not return to Kami's Lookout with them. Ji Ming had already extended them an invitation—the Saiyan settlement would always leave a door open for them. Android 17 said nothing, while Android 18 merely nodded in silence.

The stars crept up from the edge of dusk, and sparse lights came on in the direction of West City. Bulma leaned against a stone pillar of Kami's Lookout, the coffee in her hand replaced by hot cocoa. In the distance, Vegeta entered the Gravity Chamber, and the numbers on its panel glowed as a row of pale green points in the twilight.