Dr. Gero

Snow and wind filled the sky, swirling over the ruins of the fortress. Son Goku stood still atop the shattered reinforced concrete, in no hurry to leave.

He closed his eyes and relied on his keen perception of air currents and life signatures, teasing apart the tangled mess as his senses probed deep into the ruins.

"There's still someone breathing down there. Their vital signs are very stable—they weren't affected by the battle at all." Son Goku opened his eyes and tilted his chin toward the ground.

Bulma had been fiddling with the Dragon Ball in her arms. At his words, she stopped and frowned at the twisted metal supports. "You mean there's someone else here besides that Red Commander and Black Advisor?"

"That fish is probably the smartest and most important person in this fortress."

Son Goku said no more. He pressed his right hand downward, sending a domineering wave of Saiyan energy straight through the broken load-bearing walls and into the ground.

Rumble—

A dull tremor came from deep underground. Under the forceful pressure of his energy, a hidden passage that had been sealed by rubble was forcibly opened into a deep vertical shaft. Son Goku wrapped an arm around Bulma's waist and leaped into the darkness.

Thirty meters underground, the scene changed completely.

There was none of the crude, cold smell of engine oil from the military camp above. Instead, it was almost excessively clean. The corridor walls were cast from special anti-magnetic alloy, and the temperature-control system was still faithfully running.

Son Goku led Bulma to a stop before a heavy sealed door with a flashing red light. Rather than smashing it open with his fist, he sent a thread of energy through the crack in the door and directly destroyed the electronic lock inside.

Hiss—

The door slowly slid open amid an ear-piercing screech of metal.

Inside were tangled transparent tubes, strange tissues soaking in green nutrient fluid, and dozens of monitors frantically scrolling data. In the center of the laboratory, a middle-aged man with a thick handlebar mustache and a white lab coat was hurriedly stuffing hard drives into a briefcase. Sweat streamed down his face as he cursed under his breath.

"That idiot Red Tess—I knew he wouldn't be able to hold this place! How can the research I worked so hard on be buried alongside a moron who only wants to get taller?"

"Dr. Gero, you really have wasted enough talent in the Red Ribbon Army," Son Goku remarked casually as he strolled inside.

Dr. Gero's body went rigid. Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, he spun around in terror. The briefcase in his hand slapped onto the floor. Staring at the young man and woman before him, his eyes nearly popped out. "You... how did you get past the four security robots outside?"

Son Goku glanced at the pile of sparking wreckage in the corner—Dr. Gero's early, defective models.

"If you mean that pile of scrap metal, they already fell apart."

With a casual gesture, Son Goku drew Dr. Gero's briefcase into his hand with his energy.

"Give that back! That's the work of my entire life!" Dr. Gero lunged at him with a twisted expression, but before he could even touch Son Goku's clothes, an invisible gust of force sent him sprawling onto the floor.

Son Goku looked down at the future father of the androids, calculations clattering away in his mind. In this universe, where fists ruled above all else, Dr. Gero was one of the very few ruthless figures capable of building combat power beyond that of a Super Saiyan through nothing but keyboards and screwdrivers.

If Saiyans wanted to grow stronger, simply getting beaten up wasn't enough. They needed high-quality sparring partners. If he could recruit this old man and have him develop Cell's prototype ahead of time, wouldn't he have an endless supply of high-level punching bags at home? And with a few modifications, Earth's local defensive forces would be completely secure.

"Doctor, you should be glad you ran into me today instead of the Earth Defense Force. Otherwise, you'd be sewing uniforms in prison for the rest of your life." Son Goku crouched down and stared into Dr. Gero's eyes.

"What do you want? Steal my technology and sell it for money?" Dr. Gero panted heavily, his face full of wariness.

Son Goku smiled. "Sell it? We don't lack that sort of thing. What interests me is what's in your head—the fusion of biology and machinery, and... your concept for the ultimate lifeform."

Dr. Gero's pupils shrank sharply, his face looking as though he had seen a ghost. "You... how do you know about that? I haven't even finished drafting it on scratch paper!"

Son Goku had no intention of explaining. He shifted aside, revealing Bulma behind him.

"Old man, the energy circuit in this mainframe of yours looks like a dog chewed it up." At some point, Bulma had already moved to the main control screen. Her slender fingers flew across the keyboard as she mocked him without looking back. "You're trying to use nuclear fission as the foundation, so your energy limit is bound to hit a ceiling sooner or later. But if you switch to this kind of miniaturized gravitational-field attraction pump design..."

As Bulma pressed Enter, the laboratory's red warning lights immediately turned green, while the central simulator's energy-output curve shot upward at an absurd angle.

Dr. Gero was utterly dumbfounded. He scrambled over to the screen, his thick glasses nearly pressed against the glass. After staring for a long time, he collapsed onto the floor, muttering deliriously, "A gravity pump... it can be used like this? I've been boxed in by conventional physics all along..."

"Her name is Bulma. She's the daughter of Capsule Corporation's owner, and one of the few people on Earth whose intelligence doesn't fall short of yours." Son Goku straightened and laid out his offer.

"The Red Ribbon Army can give you nothing but endless fighting and killing. But I can give you more research funding than Capsule Corporation can burn through, the best laboratories on Earth, and... a real chance to create that thing."

The moment he heard that, the way Dr. Gero looked at Bulma changed completely. It was the feverish gaze of a research fanatic who had found a kindred spirit.

"What if I say no?" He swallowed, trying to salvage a shred of dignity.

"Then I'll have to pretend I never saw you. This place will collapse in five minutes, after all." Son Goku pointed at the cracked ceiling overhead.

Dr. Gero gave a bitter smile and sighed, then nodded firmly. For a pure research fanatic like him, this temptation was impossible to refuse.

"Fine. Dr. Gero's brain will be at your disposal from now on."

Son Goku clapped his hands in satisfaction. "You have ten minutes. Pack up all the useful data and take it with you. We won't be coming back to this dump."

Bulma efficiently pulled out a high-capacity Capsule, directly storing the vital equipment from the main control console inside. She gave Son Goku an OK sign.

Son Goku turned and headed outside. As he listened to Dr. Gero noisily gathering his things behind him, he considered their next destination.

"First, we'll send this old man back to West City and get him settled," Son Goku said, turning to Bulma. "Then we still need to find the remaining two Dragon Balls. Those Red Ribbon people were far too slow—five Dragon Balls in over half a year. We'll have to make the trip for the last two ourselves."

"No problem. We've been cooped up in the gravity room for so long, so let's call it a vacation!" Bulma patted the Capsule in her pocket, clearly in high spirits.

As the three of them left one after another, the steel fortress that had once given the regular army endless headaches was reduced to a heap of unwanted scrap amid the howling snowstorm.