I placed my palm flat against the metal door in front of me, and with a blast of Ki, it went flying inward - being ripped off its hinges entirely. It rolled across the ground a few times, sending a clanging noise throughout the tunnel in front of me, before it finally came to a stop.
As I strode into the laboratory casually, I was grateful at how easily this was going. I didn't know what Gero's day-to-day life was like, but I assumed he didn't just stay holed up in this laboratory every second of the day. Despite that, I was lucky, as I could sense the man inside right now.
I glanced around for a moment, looking curiously at the interior. Around me, there were various computers, screens, and large metallic table-like structures with keyboards on them. I didn't know what half this stuff did, but I also didn't need to.
Gero could handle all of that. And, speaking of the man himself-
"You really thought you could stop me?" I asked, almost bored, as a ki blast launched forward from deep within the lab. I casually raised my hand, letting it slam into my palm and explode in my grip, as it would be annoying if I deflected it and destroyed any of the technology in here
At the end of the hallways was an elderly man with wrinkled skin, and who was wearing a large hat that covered the entirety of his head - and the visible brain that I knew was underneath.
I reached up, tapping on the side of my scouter, and was silently impressed. It was still more than three years before Gero should've released his Androids and attempted to kill Goku, but he was still decently powerful. His power level sat at just over ten million, and I knew he was heavily suppressing it right now. I also had to give the inventor of scouters - who was probably dead right now, and probably by Frieza's hand - a mental pat on the back. Android's had 'weird' energy, so the fact that the Z-Fighters struggled to sense them, but the scouters worked on them, was impressive.
And, I would also give Gero a mental pat on the back as well. If I had been an untrained Frieza, then he would've been a serious threat, even in this early stage of his plan. I would've had to use my final form to handle him comfortably.
But I wasn't an untrained Frieza, so I felt no fear or concern as Gero gritted his teeth at me.
"...Why are you here? How are you here?!" Gero hissed out the last part, his expression a mixture of angry, nervous, and annoyed.
"I just came to pay you a visit," I responded with a smirk, "As for how? Well, I just flew over here. You know about flying, don't you, Dr. Gero?"
"Be quiet with that," Gero snapped, looking more annoyed as I blatantly didn't answer his question how he wanted me to, "How did you know where my laboratory was?!"
"For a genius, you're not very smart," I said bluntly, smirking wider as he grew even more annoyed from my mocking words, "Your energy sticks out like a sore thumb. Even if you suppress it, did you think I'd mistake you for a deer or something?"
This was a major flaw in Dr. Gero's plan, and something that made even less sense to me the longer I was in this world - suppressing energy. The ability to hide your energy signature from others by making it as low as possible.
I had learned the technique myself, and had then promptly realized it was useless - at least, it was useless if your opponent had a working brain. Even if you suppressed 99% of your power, which even I couldn't come close to yet, 1% of one hundred million was still one million.
If you were searching for someone I thought had a fifty to one hundred million power level like Gero, and then saw something with a ten million power level in the otherwise only animal-filled mountain range, what would you think? Just go "Oh, that's ten million! Gero is stronger than that, so it can't be him!'
You wouldn't, because that would be stupid! What the hell else would be this strong in the middle of the mountains?!
It worked for Gohan and Krillin on Namek because they were still pretty weak, and by suppressing their power levels, they could pass for an average Namekian, or even for an above-average animal on Namek.
Here, Gero couldn't pass for a damn deer! How the hell had no one noticed him out here all this time?! I know that the Z-Fighters had a bit of trouble with sensing Androids, but when Gero was this damn powerful? They couldn't sense anything?! Even I was struggling a bit, but he still might as well have been a beacon of light!
"...It worked so far," Gero said slightly defensively, adding to my opinion that all of the energy-sensing people on Earth were possibly morons, "But I assume you're not just here to talk, right?"
Gero shifted into a fighting stance, his body tensing, and I just smirked at him again. Seriously, a lot of the 'geniuses' in this world were lacking in common sense.
"I get it. You might be confident right now - arrogant, even," I started, striding towards him without any sense of urgency. "You've been researching internal energy for over a decade, and you've both created powerful Androids and modified your own body. Right now, you've already far surpassed how powerful you think Son Goku is, but you're over-preparing. Perhaps because of my arrival on this planet a year ago?"
"W-What?! How the hell do you know about my research?!" Gero stuttered, his eyes wide in disbelief as he took a fearful step back.
"Usually, over-preparing is a good sign. It's a sign that you're taking the situation seriously, and that you have the intelligence to not risk your life blindly," I continued, stepping closer and closer to Gero as I didn't respond to his words. "However, in this situation…"
To say Gero was a genius was truly an understatement. The man might've been foolish in expecting to remain hidden by simply suppressing his power, but that was more credit to how heavily he doubted the Z-Fighters' intelligence, or power-sensing capabilities, than his own folly. He had created Androids with unlimited energy - a cheat code in this power-based world - and had essentially cheated death by making himself an android.
His over-preparation for killing Goku was, actually, very intelligent. Even as Goku was walking around at a power level under one thousand, Gero was planning for any possible growth the Saiyan could make, and to create androids that could defeat not just Goku, but all of his friends as well. He had made a plan that he would risk his life to conduct, and as such, making extreme preparations was smart.
"You took too long. You're far too late," I said bluntly, still just walking towards Gero as he raised his palm at me again, "If you had already attacked him, you would've killed Son Goku easily. But now, I have taken an interest in this planet."
In this rare circumstance, Gero's over-preparation, which by every sense should've been 'playing it safe,' was actually the reason he failed. He couldn't have predicted that both Goku and Vegeta would become Super Saiyans, or that they would then train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to ascend beyond even Android 17 and 18.
And, in this world, he couldn't have predicted that I would come to Earth. If he had attacked Goku before he left for Namek originally, or before I arrived now, then his plan would've succeeded. But he didn't. And now, he couldn't.
Gero's palm flashed, and a burst of Ki shot towards me as he took another panicked step back - but the ball of Ki hit nothing but air. It burst through where I had been standing and continued forward - shooting out through the open door and fading from view.
Meanwhile, my body vanished into thin air, and I appeared behind Gero.
"You'll never kill me. You'll never even land a blow on me," I said simply, placing my hand on his shoulder, "But if you monitored my arrival here a year ago, then you should know that. Which makes your actions right now very… ungenius-like."
Then, I squeezed.
"G-Grah!" Gero stumbled away from me as his robotic arm crumbled into a scrap of metal and sparks - literally falling off his body as I casually dropped it onto the ground.
"So, give up on your goal of killing Son Goku. Unless I allow it to happen, it'll never reach fruition," I ordered him, to which, as expected, Gero didn't take my words well.
He stared at me for a moment, clutching at his torn-off arm - could an android even feel that? Considering his expression, I assumed he could - then, abruptly lunged forward, holding up his palm towards my body. As I glanced at the center of it, I was a bit impressed - it seemed that, even three years early, he had already developed the energy-draining mechanism in his palm.
Though, considering that he had already gotten this far in his research, and still hadn't tried to kill the much weaker Goku, maybe I should've been more disappointed than impressed. As he lunged at me, his arm outstretched and his palm aiming for my face, I just chuckled. Then, I didn't move.
"You can't do anything to me," I said simply, complete confidence in my voice, as if I were stating a fact. His palm slammed into the front of my face - resting on my forehead as Gero's face twisted into a massive smirk.
"Hah! You fool!" He said, rather clichely, as the red gem on the middle of his palm glowed, "You have no idea what you've just done to yourself!"
Actually, I knew perfectly well. The scouter over my eye shifted as the number on the screen increased, first moving to roughly twenty-five million as Gero stopped suppressing his power, and then skyrocketed as his hand gripped my face.
It was a strange feeling to have your energy drained from your body. It was like your very essence was being stripped away - your very will to live, and your energy to move, act, or even speak. Your will would slowly be drained away, until you were nothing but a lifeless corpse - until you no longer had the energy to even stand, and you fell onto the ground helplessly.
Gero would stand above me - gloating as his power reached levels it had never seen before. As he took down the only person who could defeat them, purely because of my own overconfidence.
As if. I was never overconfident - instead, I tried to maintain a perfect level of confidence. To believe in myself, and to have faith in my abilities, but not to become arrogant in them.
So, as my energy was drained away, Gero's skyrocketed. It climbed from twenty-five million to fifty million.
"You fool! Feel your energy taken, and then used against you!" Gero cackled, and if I had actually given a shit about what he was doing, he would've fucked himself. Seriously, revealing the whole trick as you're doing it?
These geniuses really did lack common sense.
But his energy kept climbing. It reached seventy-five million. Then one hundred million.
"S-So much power! I'm unstoppable!" Gero stuttered, his eyes wide as his body was filled with more and more energy, practically overflowing with it.
One hundred and fifty million. Two hundred million. Two hundred and fifty million. Three hundred million.
"H-How… how do you… have so much power?!" Gero stuttered again, his eyes becoming filled with shock, and a bit of concern as his body tensed and stiffened.
Three hundred and fifty million. Four hundred million. Four hundred and fifty million. Five hundred million.
"How… how is this… p-possible?!" Now, Gero was filled with more than a bit of concern. His brow was creased, his eyes wide as his breathing started to grow heavy. His body shook lightly, his feet taking an unconscious step back as more and more power filled him.
"You're an android, but you're not one with unlimited energy," I hummed, my voice a bit muffled behind his hand, "There's a reason energy-boosting techniques are so risky, Dr. Gero. There's a reason they put so much strain on one's body."
That was the reason the android's unlimited energy was so impressive - because no normal person, be it a human, Saiyan, or even a god, could handle infinite energy. The Kaio-Ken boosted one's power at the expense of putting immense strain on their body. The Super Saiyan technique was exclusive to Saiyans - beings with abnormally powerful bodies who could handle the massive boost in energy.
Simply put, there was such a thing as having too much energy. You had to gain more as you trained your body - as you prepared yourself to be able to handle the strain of having so much power.
"I wonder how much yours can take," I said simply, watching as his eyes went wide, "A billion, maybe?"
Gero pulled his hand back as his arm twitched unconsciously, but my hand snapped up, wrapping around his wrist.
"W-What are-" Gero grunted as I pressed his hand back onto my forehead, smirking as my eyes bored cruelly into his.
"Two billion, perhaps?" I continued without a care, not budging as Gero tried to yank his hand back again, his eyes filled with horror as he realized what was happening. His breathing became more erratic, and his body started to shake even more.
"Five billion? Ten billion?" I asked, watching as his power level finally reached one billion, "What do you think will happen first, Dr. Gero? Your body collapsing, or my body running out of energy?"
Gero just continued to try and fail to pull his hand away from my face, but I didn't let him. His eyes grew more fearful as more and more energy flooded into his body, and a moment later, it became too much.
As his power level exceeded a bit over one billion, his hand exploded - literally. It burst apart in a rain of sparks and metal scrap, and Gero grunted in pain as he stumbled backwards.
"Around one billion, huh?" I hummed, grinning as Gero stared down at his now armless and handless limbs, "You didn't even come close. Even in just this form, you could only handle a fraction of my power."
I was being honest - at this point, after a year of training, even if it wasn't the most focused and rigorous training, I had far surpassed one billion in this first form. In fact, I had also far surpassed ten billion, and even a hundred billion.
Sufficient to say, Gero never stood a chance.
"How… how could you…" Gero just stared at me with wide, shocked eyes, as his mouth opened and closed like a goldfish, "H-How are you… so…"
"How am I so powerful? Unfortunately, there's no fun story behind it," I shrugged, stepping forward again as my eyes bored into his. "It was because of something that no amount of hard work could make up for. Something that, no matter how much time you pour into your research, you'll never be able to achieve. Simply put, I'm powerful because…"
I grinned, being completely honest with my answer, "I'm Frieza."
In this world, that's all there was to it. When you were Frieza, you got what you wanted.
"Despite how it might look, I didn't come here to kill you, Dr. Gero," I said, raising my hand and placing it on his shoulder as my eyes bored into his, "I'm here to give you an offer you can't refuse."
I meant that in the literal sense - I wasn't going to let him refuse it.
"A-An offer?" Gero stuttered, looking like a mixture of afraid, shocked, and intrigued.
"Your research has interested me. I'll let you continue it forever," I continued, my lips twitching into a smirk again, "For me."
"F-For you?" Gero blinked rapidly, his eyes still wide.
I already had one genius under my command, but having another one wouldn't hurt.
"Welcome to the Frieza Force, Dr. Gero."
An Android army did sound quite nice.
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