17 stepped up to the edge of the road, holding a hand out to the newly arrived Z-Fighters. "Nobody interferes," 17 warned coolly. "If anyone tries to step in and save him, I'm getting involved."
The Z-Fighters hesitated, locked in place. Before the silence could settle, 18 exploded forward with zero setup, cracking Vegeta across the cheek with a lightning-fast right hand.
Vegeta bounced back instantly, returning the favor with a brutal headbutt to her midsection followed by a heavy hammer-fist straight to her upper back. The blow rattled 18's frame, leaving her unable to dodge a point-blank three-piece Ki-blast combo that blasted her into the cliffside.
18 stood up from the rubble, dusting off her sleeves. "You're tough," she admitted coldly. "I'll give you that."
Vegeta closed the gap with a high roundhouse kick, driving her back with a relentless four-strike sequence. High above on the cliff, Trunks watched in absolute awe of his father's fierce combat output.
"It's incredible..." Trunks breathed. "He's actually matching her!"
Piccolo's eyes narrowed sharply, cutting Trunks off. "He isn't matching anything, Trunks. Vegeta is cooked."
"What?!" Trunks gasped.
"Look closely," Piccolo growled, his voice grim. "She doesn't tire, and her energy doesn't drop. She's letting him burn through his reservoir. Every move Vegeta makes takes its toll, while she stays at one hundred percent."
Down on the road, the truth of Piccolo's words manifested. Vegeta's movements grew sluggish. He threw a low kick, but 18 dodged it effortlessly, countering with a sharp back-fist that snapped his head back. He tried to swing again, but 18 blocked, drove a heavy knee into his midsection, and followed with a crushing right hand to his jaw.
Vegeta staggered backward, his golden aura flickering wildly as he gasped for air, his muscles burning from exhaustion.
18 walked him down with a cold, unwavering gaze. Desperate, Vegeta aimed low, but 18 slipped the attack and countered with a thunderous head-kick straight to his temple.
Vegeta's knees buckled. A sharp, sickening CRACK echoed through the canyon as 18 caught his arm, snapping his forearm with a casual, precise twist.
Vegeta screamed in agony, clutching his broken, ruined arm as his Super Saiyan aura collapsed completely.
"I can't take this anymore!" Trunks roared. "FATHER!"
Ignoring 17's warning, Trunks went Super Saiyan on the spot, drawing his broadsword and charging at 18 to cut her down. But 18 didn't even turn around—she casually raised her arm, blocking the razor-sharp edge of the sword with her heavy brass wrist-cuff.
Before Trunks could recover, 17 appeared behind him like a phantom, slamming a heavy strike into Trunks' spine that dropped him instantly.
Tien and Piccolo charged down the hillside, but 17 intercepted them mid-air, dropping Piccolo with a lightning-fast wheel kick to the head before catching Tien in a suffocating chokehold.
"I told you not to interfere," 17 said smoothly.
BOOM!
A violent shockwave shattered the canyon floor as Escallion erupted into Super Saiyan, a blinding golden aura exploding around him. His pupils flashed green as he launched himself at 17.
Unlike Trunks, Escallion actually matched 17's blinding movement, weaving past the android's guard and throwing a heavy, Ki-infused right straight for 17's face. 17's eyes widened slightly as he was forced to drop Tien to raise a full-guard block, the brutal impact blasting a massive crater into the rock face beneath them.
The two clashed in a furious, high-speed exchange, golden shockwaves tearing through the gorge as Escallion traded blows blow-for-blow with 17, holding his ground against the android's overwhelming speed.
On the road below, Vegeta, driven by sheer, unyielding spite, dragged himself off the ground with his one good arm, throwing himself back toward 18 with absolute desperation.
18 ducked under his wild swing, driving a sharp elbow into his ribs. Vegeta collapsed, but forced his body back up, refusing to stay down. 18 unleashed a sweeping head-kick that slammed him flat onto his back.
Stepping over the broken Saiyan Prince, 18 raised her boot and brought it down heavily onto his chest, pinning him to the shattered pavement before stomping hard on his fractured arm.
Pain surged through Vegeta's body, blinding his vision until his eyes rolled back, and the Prince of all Saiyans finally slumped into complete unconsciousness.
Escallion's golden aura flared into a blinding, jagged pillar of Super Saiyan Ki, shaking the canyon walls to their core. Shifting his weight with flawless precision, he ducked under 17's counter-strike, drove a crushing right hook straight into the android's ribs, and followed up with a brutal spin-kick to his jaw.
The force of the blow shattered 17's guard, sending him reeling backward through the air. Escallion didn't give him a second to breathe. Closing the distance in a fraction of a second, he slammed a double-axe handle down onto 17's shoulder, hurling the android like a comet straight into 18.
The two androids collided violently, skidding across the asphalt in a cloud of dust and shattered rock.
Escallion hovered above the wreckage, his golden hair flickering as his sharp, yellow-rimmed eyes cut back toward the battered group. He landed heavily beside the fallen Prince.
"Get him out of here!" Escallion barked to the Z-Fighters, his voice commanding and tense. "Now! Before they get back up!"
Piccolo and Krillin scrambled forward, but before anyone could lay a finger on Vegeta, two sonic booms tore through the dust.
17 and 18 exploded out of the rubble, their faces stripped of their earlier playfulness. The humiliation of being overpowered had turned their cold amusement into sharp, lethal focus. They moved as a coordinated unit, sweeping over the ridge like a hurricane.
17 struck first, driving a knee straight into Piccolo's chest that folded the Namekian like a folding chair and sent him crashing into the rock face. 18 whipped around, delivering a vicious leg sweep to Tien before catching Krillin with a back-fist that knocked him out cold before he even hit the ground.
Within seconds, the ridge was littered with the unconscious bodies of the Z-Fighters.
Only two were left standing.
Trunks gritted his teeth, his Super Saiyan aura flickering wildly as he leaned heavily on his broken broadsword, his knees shaking, barely able to keep his balance from the pain in his spine.
Beside him, Escallion dropped into a low, tight combat stance, his Ki surging to its absolute peak as 17 and 18 closed in from both sides, surrounding him.
"Not bad," 17 growled, wiping a smear of dust from his cheek as he and 18 raised their guards in unison. "Now let's see how long you last against both of us."
Escallion's golden aura expanded with a violent, roaring hum, his energy crackling like wild lightning across the gorge.
17 and 18 surged in from opposite sides, executing a flawless pincer attack. 18 threw a sharp high kick aimed for his neck while 17 drove a heavy straight right toward his ribs. Escallion didn't flinch. Pivoting on his heel with fluid, martial precision, he caught 18's ankle with his left hand and parried 17's wrist with his right, deflecting their momentum into each other.
Without missing a beat, Escallion spun, driving a heavy side-kick into 17's sternum that sent the male android tumbling back down the highway. 18 immediately tried to capitalize on his posture, unleashing a rapid, three-strike combination, but Escallion's defense was an impenetrable wall. He parried every blow with calculated, effortless efficiency, stepping inside her guard to plant a palm-strike directly into her chest that rattled her internal frame and knocked her back.
He was holding them both off, actively controlling the pace of the fight.
Yet, as the seconds ticked by, the brutal reality of their infinite energy began to weigh on him. The rocky ground beneath Escallion's boots crumbled continuously under the sheer pressure of his Super Saiyan Ki, causing him to lose his footing on the loose gravel. Every slide of his boots forced him to expend double the energy just to re-balance.
His fluid, highly trained martial art forms began to fracture under the strain. The clean parries and calculated footwork started to slip, replaced by something far more raw and dangerous.
As 17 lunged back in with a furious flying knee, Escallion didn't bother parrying. He abandoned his refined stance entirely, letting out a guttural, animalistic roar. He threw his arm out in a brutal, wild clothesline that caught 17 straight across the throat, slamming the android hard into the dirt.
18 darted from behind, aiming a Ki-infused strike at his blind spot. Escallion didn't turn to block. Driven by pure instinct, he ducked low, grabbed a massive chunk of fractured boulder off the road with his bare hand, and swung it like a club, shattering the rock directly across 18's face.
His eyes burned with unhinged, feral intensity. The disciplined martial artist was fading, giving way to the unyielding, primal instinct of a true Saiyan warrior battling against impossible odds.
Escallion's wild, primal assault surged past 18's defenses. Abandoning all form, he latched onto her jacket with a vice-like grip, driving a ruthless, bone-shattering knee straight into her midsection. 18 gasped as her breath left her, but before she could regain her footing, Escallion spun and slammed her face-first into the asphalt. Without giving her a fraction of a second to recover, he mounted her frame, hammering a flurry of brutal, heavy punches directly into her jaw that cracked the pavement beneath her head.
18 tried to throw up a guard, but Escallion smashed through it with raw, ferocious power, landing a devastating right hook that rattled her internal wiring and left her dazed in the crater.
"Get off her!" 17 roared.
17 tore across the road like a bullet, delivering a thunderous, Ki-infused kick straight to the side of Escallion's head. The impact snapped Escallion's head sideways and blasted him off 18, sending him tumbling violently across the highway into the cliff face.
Before Escallion could push himself out of the rock wall, 17 and 18 moved as one. Pushed past their limits of patience, their synchronization was terrifying.
18 bounded off the ground, throwing herself forward to catch Escallion with a flying knee that pinned him into the mountain face. As he winced, 17 appeared instantly above him, driving a double-axe handle straight down onto his crown. Escallion was driven down onto the asphalt, but before he hit the ground, 18 caught him with a brutal kick to the ribs, popping him back into the air.
17 spun, channeling a concentrated burst of blue Ki into his palm, and blasted Escallion point-blank into the gut. Simultaneously, 18 flipped over his falling body and delivered a devastating axe-kick straight down onto his spine.
BOOM!
The combined impact created a massive shockwave, shattering the road for fifty yards in every direction. The golden aura around Escallion flickered wildly before shattering like glass, his teal eyes fading back to their normal state as his Super Saiyan form collapsed completely.
Escallion slammed into the cratered earth, bleeding and battered, his body finally giving out as he fell still beside the rest of the defeated Z-Fighters.
17 and 18 stepped back, dusting off their clothes with cool confidence as the thick smoke from the crater began to clear. They turned to walk away, fully expecting the battle to be over, until a low, ragged rasp echoed through the canyon.
"Not quite..."
Both androids froze, turning their heads in utter bewilderment.
Rising from the center of the shattered crater, Escallion forced himself onto his feet. His body trembled violently, his breath coming in heavy, jagged grunts. White steam hissed off his bloodied skin as if his very blood were boiling beneath his surface. The fine hairs on his head stood rigid, vibrating with a volatile, unnatural static.
"What is this?" 18 muttered, her composure cracking as her mechanical sensors registered an erratic, spiking energy reading. "He shouldn't even be able to stand!"
"Finish him," 17 barked, stepping forward with his palm raised.
17 unleashed a massive, high-output Ki blast point-blank at Escallion's chest. But before the beam could make contact, Escallion didn't even shift his stance; he casually threw out his right hand, swatting the explosive projectile away like a minor nuisance. The redirected blast detonated against the distant mountain peak, obliterating it in a brilliant mushroom cloud.
17 and 18 took an instinctive step back, their eyes wide with disbelief.
Escallion let out a deep, gut-wrenching grunt that rattled the shattered asphalt beneath his boots. His body swelled slightly, muscles straining under a surging, primordial force unlocked deep within his Saiyan bloodline.
"I wasn't... going to use this..." Escallion growled, his voice dropping into a doubled, resonant echo, one part warrior, one part ferocious beast. "Not here... but you leave me no choice."
He drew the feral power of the Oozaru into his human form, stacking the primal Ikari state directly on top of his Super Saiyan transformation.
BOOM!
The sky instantly darkened as a massive, blinding emerald pillar of energy erupted from his frame, tearing straight through the clouds and shooting deep into the upper atmosphere. The sheer wind pressure blew 17 and 18 back several yards, forcing them to plant their feet and shield their eyes against the blinding green light.
The ground split into deep ravines, rocks levitating in the crushed gravity of his aura.
When the green pillar condensed back around him, Escallion stood transformed, his hair flared high with a subtle green tint running through the gold, his body bathed in a roaring, volatile emerald aura, and his eyes completely blank, burning with pure, unadulterated white rage.
Before 17 or 18 could process the sudden shift in atmosphere, Escallion vanished into thin air.
SNAP.
In a fraction of a microsecond, his massive, emerald-shrouded frame materialized right between the twin androids. 17's eyes widened in sheer panic, but before he could react, Escallion's heavy, claw-like hands clamped around both of their faces with crushing force.
Without breaking his stride, Escallion hurled them sideways with terrifying power. 17 and 18 tumbled violently across the highway like ragdolls, skipping off the asphalt and blasting through three consecutive rock formations before crashing into the valley floor.
Escallion let out a low, guttural roar, the blinding green aura flaring around him as he stepped toward the wreckage.
"That's enough."
A deep, mechanical voice boomed from the ridge above, immediately followed by the sharp, precise sound of high-heeled boots stepping over the rubble.
Android 16 stepped forward; his green armor hummed with high-output power as his internal sensors redlined in alarm. Beside him walked Android 21, her dress fluttering in the violent gale created by Escallion's aura. Her sharp eyes analyzed the white-eyed, emerald-clad Saiyan, her tail flicking with calculated interest.
"His power output is spiking beyond predicted limits," 21 said smoothly, adjusting her glasses as a cold, dangerous smirk crossed her lips. "17 and 18 will be torn to scrap if we let this continue. We are intervening."
"Agreed," 16 growled, dropping into a heavy combat stance. "He is a threat to our mission."
16's rocket thrusters ignited with a deafening roar, propelling his massive frame forward like a missile, while 21 darted in from his flank, her movement a swift, lethal blur.
Realizing that the twins were completely outmatched, 16 and 21 engaged Escallion simultaneously, joining forces to halt the unstoppable, primal Saiyan before he could destroy them all.
16 launched a heavy, rocket-propelled fist straight for Escallion's face, while 21 darted in from his flank, her hands glowing with sharp, concentrated Ki blades. From the wreckage down the valley, 17 and 18 surged back into the air, their faces flushed with rage as they fired a barrage of Ki blasts to lock him in place.
Four deadly threats converged on him at once.
Instead of exploding into a mindless, animalistic rage, Escallion took a deep, deliberate breath. The chaotic, roaring emerald storm surrounding his body instantly compressed, drawing tightly around his frame into a dense, controlled, luminous green sheath.
Slowly, the blinding white light in his eyes receded, revealing a striking, otherworldly gaze. His irises returned to a deep blue-teal, distinctively ringed by a sharp halo of yellow, all framed against black pupil rims, a look of absolute clarity and razor-sharp focus returning to his face.
Over his three years of intense conditioning while fighting galactic pirates, and his year on Planet Yardrat mastering the balance of spirit, body, and Ki, Escallion had done what no Saiyan before him had ever accomplished. He was experimenting with stacking his Ikari and his Super Saiyan form. Until now, in a life-or-death situation, Escallion had not achieved it.
16's fist struck first, but Escallion didn't even move his feet. With flawless spirit control, he raised his palm, catching 16's rocket-driven punch cold. The shockwave blew the surrounding ground to dust, but Escallion's arm didn't bend an inch.
In the same split second, Escallion pivoted, sidestepping 21's lethal Ki-blade swipe, catching her by the wrist, and using her momentum to hurl her directly into 16's chest.
With effortless precision, he spun and slammed a heavy side-kick into 16, sending both 16 and 21 crashing straight into the path of 17 and 18's incoming blast barrage. The explosion rocked the gorge, but Escallion was already gone.
He reappeared directly above all four of them, his hands drawn to his hip. The green Ki around him hummed not with wild destruction, but with total, harmonious authority.
"I know what this power is now," Escallion said, his yellow-and-black circled, blue-teal eyes glaring down with absolute calm over the howling wind. "And you're not going to break me."
17, 18, 16, and 21 scattered, surrounding him in a four-point grid and charging simultaneously. Escallion met them head-on, weaving through their coordinated assault with fluid parries, perfectly counter-balancing his immense strength with ultimate fighting discipline as he engaged all four androids at once.
Taking advantage of the intense, four-way chaotic clash, 21 suddenly disengaged and leaped into the air directly above Escallion. With zero hesitation, she placed her hands near her temples and shouted, "SOLAR FLARE!"
A blinding, supernova-like flash of light erupted across the battlefield. Even with his heightened senses and sharp focus, the sheer intensity caught Escallion completely off guard, searing through his vision and leaving him temporarily blinded.
"Now!" 17 yelled.
Before Escallion could react to the blinding flash, 16 fired his rocket-propelled fists straight into Escallion's chest, pinning him in mid-air. 18 materialized from behind, unleashing a brutal double-axe handle directly onto his spine. As Escallion recoiled in pain, 17 surged in from his blind spot, driving a heavy, Ki-infused knee straight into his jaw.
The three androids unleashed a relentless, synchronized onslaught, striking him from every angle and giving Escallion no room to deploy his Yardratian parries or recover his balance. The heavy, brutal blows shattered his defense, battering his body until his controlled green aura began to flicker dangerously.
"Clear out!" 21's voice echoed from high above the cloud line.
16, 17, and 18 instantly backed off, scattering across the valley floor.
High in the darkened sky, 21 hovered with one hand raised high, a massive, swirling sphere of dark red and purple Ki expanding rapidly above her head. The oppressive density of the Death Ball crushed the air pressure throughout the gorge.
With a cold, calculating glare, she brought her hand down. "Die!"
The massive Death Ball plunged downward like a falling star, swallowing the blinded, battered Saiyan.
Instead of collapsing immediately, Escallion forced his arms up, his hands pressing against the crushing wall of dark energy. His green aura roared as he dug his heels into the air, holding the giant sphere at bay through sheer force of spirit and Ki control.
But as the pressure mounted, the stark drawback of his refined transformation became clear. Without the wild, uncapped adaptability that his uncontrolled rage provided in his beastly state, his power couldn't endlessly spike to meet the overwhelming force. He was locked at a fixed threshold.
21's eyes narrowed behind her glasses. She extended her second arm, pouring a massive extra surge of power straight into the Death Ball.
The sphere swelled instantly, overpowering Escallion's grip. The force swept him away, swallowing his body whole. Escallion was caught in the dense, churning core of the attack, dragged screaming down through the air as the vortex violently ground against his frame.
BOOOM!
The sphere detonated as it hit the mountain base, triggering a catastrophic shockwave that flattened miles of terrain and sent a towering plume of smoke and fire rising into the night sky.
When the violent flash faded, Escallion dropped from the sky like a stone, hitting the scorched earth with a heavy thud. His stacked transformation collapsed completely.
High above the smoking crater, 17 and 18 landed beside 16 and 21, panting slightly as they adjusted their damaged clothing.
"That was far too close," 17 growled, clutching his bruised ribs with a scowl.
"We need to fall back and recalibrate," 21 said, her voice tight as she checked her arm's internal diagnostics. "We aren't in optimal condition to deal with any more surprises."
Without another word, the four androids turned and flew off into the distance, leaving the battered ridge behind to lick their wounds.
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A/N: It's important to note that the androids are stronger because of Escallion. As Trunks had said, he was supposed to die in the Saiyan saga, but he didn't. The butterfly effect occurs as now Gero, seeing that Cell would take too long, decided to try his hand at using an already formed being, hence the creation of 21 earlier in the story. Only possessing the Z-Fighters ' DNA as well as Freiza and Cold.