11 - Her Origin and The Fearsome Pictoro!

Jesse, still sitting in the dirt, finished his thoughts and looked over to the still stunned little girl, breaking the silence.

"So... who are you, whats your story?"

The little girl was snapped out of her astounded state and immediately got on the ground in a begging position in front of Jesse.

"M-My names Vidya, thank you for saving my life sir!"

She yelled, her voice genuine and thankful, though she was still shaking. He noticed her name seemed to be a pun of the word "video", but that was just standard in the world of Dragon Ball. Jesse sighed and gripped his head.

"Yeah yeah, your welcome and all that. Right now I just need to know what I'm gonna be dealing with."

This was all beginning to be a bit of a headache, he felt this girl was important to whoever sent those men somehow, and he didn't think he'd be having to basically take on a whole organization himself this early.

"Y-Yes of course sir!"

Vidya replied.

"No need to call me sir, my names Jesse. Oh, and by the way, you're a vampire right?"

Vidya hung her head down.

"No si-, Jesse… I mean, I sort of am, but I'm also not…"

'Really? I could've sworn she was a vampire. What exactly does she mean by sort of is but isn't though?'

Vampires did in fact exist in the Dragon Ball world, and she had the pale skin, the sharp teeth and the bat-like wings, so he assumed she was.

"So what are you then? You don't look human."

Jesse asked, tilting his head a bit.

"W-Well, im a uhhh…"

She seemed to be racking her brain, trying to remember. It was pretty weird to not remember your own race, but the whole situation was decently weird already.

"They called me a Biological Android I think."

Jesse's eyes widened immensely in shock.

'A bio-android?! So there were others made before Cell...? She doesn't seem that strong though, so I guess the technology isn't there yet, a precursor to him I guess…?'

Before he could ask any more questions, Truffel appeared through the trees, a bit confused at the sight.

"Who's this little girl, was she the one that was crying? And what was all that screaming about, you weren't doing something bad to her right…"

"Of course not!!! What do you take me for!?"

Jesse yelled, somewhat annoyed. Truffel just giggled, it was clearly a joke, a somewhat out of place one but a joke none the less.

"Is this your friend Mr. Jesse?"

Vidya questioned, tilting her head a bit innocently, she was also no longer shaking which Jesse was happy about.

"Not Mr. Jesse! Just Jesse. J-E-S-S-E."

He corrected her, he didn't really like formal titles much.

"And yeah, she's my friend, my best friend I'd say."

He said with a small smile. He no longer felt Truffel was "too young" for him while also being "too old" for him, but he also just wasn't really attracted to her, so they were just that, friends. Their relationship was more like a brother and sister anyway, and he wasn't from Alabama.

"Well, I won't question it, how about you come back to camp with us and you can eat dinner with us Vidya? You seem hungry."

Truffel had an idea of what happened here, based on the gun shards near Jesse and all the screaming, she didn't really care all that much at the moment though.

"Yeah, lets go back to camp, we can talk more about this Bio-Android thing and where those men came from after we eat."

Vidya just cutely shaked her head in agreement and followed them both back to their camp. After a delicious, hefty dinner that filled them all up, Vidya and Jesse were seated at opposite sides of a table, staring at eachother. He had explained to Truffel what happened earlier, and she was cleaning the dishes at that time.

"Alright, now tell me everything."

He said with a somewhat serious expression.

Vidya took a deep breath and began to explain.

"Alright so… You were partly right earlier about me being a Vampire. A large bulk of my DNA is made up from a vampire's after all. You see I was made by an ambitious Red Ribbon Army scientist, they were trying to create the ultimate weapon."

'So the Red Ribbon Army's involved after all… I wonder if that was Gero that made her, maybe not.'

"Were those two men chasing you Red Ribbon soldiers then? They didn't seem to be."

Jesse questioned.

"No no. You see, the scientist, he mostly failed in his creation. Instead of creating one ultimate warrior, the opposing DNAs counteracted on each-other and the body became entirely unstable. So all the DNA was forcefully ejected out of the main body as 12 separate bodies. I come from most of the vampire DNA of it of course, but theres plenty of other DNA samples in it, I believe some martial artists like the Great Kamesennin even had some of their DNA thrown in. A-Anyway, none of us were really strong at all totally separated like that, so ummm... the Red Ribbon army threw just threw us out as total failures."

Jesse scratched his chin.

'I guess my knowledge of the Dragon Ball world isn't gonna be absolute or anything. There's bound to be a ton of information and events that were never covered in the series after all.'

"So what happened after that? If you're a failure as a bio-android why were those men chasing you?"

"Those soldiers belonged to the main body, Pictoro. He found some kind of way to re-absorb all the other bodies that were separated from him and hes been getting stronger and stronger and building a small army."

Tears began to build up in Vidya's eyes.

"H-He even captured and a-absorbed my b-brother, Audo… He was gonna absorb me too but I escaped… If he captures me, he'll be complete and his strength will increase a ton, then he'll be unbeatable... That's why I was gonna stab myself! If I died my lifeforce will fade away and I'll be useless to him!"

Jesse thought to himself for a bit, closing his eyes as he did.

"Wouldn't he just be able to absorb your dead body anyway and become complete?"

Vidya continued her explaining.

"No, its not just my DNA he needs... he basically can't access almost any of his power cause his soul itself is incomplete, shattered."

'That makes sense, it might be totally impossible for him to use ki with a shattered soul like that I'd assume.'

"So…"

Jesse stood up from the table, slamming his hand on it and putting on a wide, somewhat cocky smile.

"Since this guys obviously not gonna let up til he gets you, how about we get him instead!? You know where he's at cause he captured you once already right? So you can lead us to him"

"R-Really? Take him out? But he's really strong… even in his fractured state…"

Jesse grabbed his bicep and continued to wear his wide, cocky and happy smile.

"Hey hey, don't doubt me, I'm really strong you know! And so's my friend Truffel!"

Tears began to fill up Vidya's eyes once again, this time however they were joyful tears.

"T-Thank you Jesse… I didn't know what I was gonna do..."

He put his hand on her head, patting it to reassure her. She was unsure if he was strong enough, even he was unsure, but she was putting her trust in him. Jesse felt excitement rush through him, he really wanted to fight this guy anyways. Mixed with his exhilaration, he also felt responsible, he had to save this girl, and he had to stop Pictoro from absorbing her. It would be his fault if he became incredibly strong and threw the timeline out of wack. The chain reaction from such a thing could be devastating after all.

Hundreds of miles away, a mighty castle stood. A Frankenstein of a building. It seemed old, yet had highly technological chrome advancements spread throughout it. Inside the castle, seated on a comfortable old chair in a dark room was a Frankenstein of a man. His skin was different colors all around, a single small horn was sprouted from his head. His body was massively tall, yet he was slender for his height, seeming almost sickly. His skin looked somewhat gooey.

"Lord Pictoro! These are the two that failed in their mission!"

Dande and Lion were thrown at Pictoro's feet by two guards as the nearby fireplace crackled and burned. The two men begged down on their knees as they explained what happened, and the message the boy who beat them had sent. Taking a sip from the cup of wine in his hands, Pictoro spoke in a quiet, deep voice.

"So, that is all that happened?"

"Yes sir! That's all that happened!"

A deep fear was clearly present in the men as their voices and bodies shook.

"Describe him to me. The boy."

After the men described him, Pictoro stood up, his gooey skin seeming to drip down slightly. He began to unbutton his shirt, revealing his shredded physique.

"That will be all. However, your failure will not be forgiven."

"E-Eh…?!"

Before they could do anything but yell, Pictoro yelled out, his gooey skin opening up and revealing a large hole in his chest.

"Absorption! Kamuuukiiii!"

He stretched his arms out to the sides of his body, and then his gooey skin reached and shot forward, grabbing the two screaming men and pulling them into his open body, they were entirely absorbed within seconds. His calm face from moments ago had almost immediately morphed into a furious expression.

"This bastard boy will pay for standing in my way! I'll eat him up and get the last piece of my soul! Then I'll be a god!"

Jesse sneezed as he lay down to sleep, Vidya sleeping soundly one bed away from him. Both Jesse and Pictoro were preparing themselves, both ready to kill the other.