#blade wears a hard hat while swimming in the shark tank | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fullbattleregalia · 7 years

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(The Android 20 Universe continues with Part 4! And, er, I’m tagging @chestnutisland and @deadlybeautydbz since you’re both interested in this story. Yay!)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

For the first time since leaving Gero’s lab, gray clouds were beginning to pile up and hang low in the sky. 18 stared up at the clouds. She had joined 20, perching on the backseats next to him when 17 had whined his way back into the driver’s seat two hours earlier. The wind riffled through her hair. The air was soft and cool against her face with the promise of rain. No wonder 20 seemed to be enjoying sitting back here so much.

18 glanced over at 20. The lines of tension leftover from last night’s fuel station incident had finally smoothed away completely from around his eyes. His chin was tilted up slightly, and a small, contented smile was pulling up the corners of his mouth. 18 looked away again. Her cheeks felt ever so slightly warmer than usual. It was probably just windburn – nothing important. It didn’t occur to her that, with Gero’s modifications, windburn was likely something she would never experience. She shifted through her memories to try and see if she could remember ever actually experiencing rain. On the radio someone was playing a truly spectacular rift on the electric guitar.

Just as 18 was coming to the conclusion that she had no memories of what rain felt like against skin but one of a storm so violent that she had been able to hear the rain rattling against Gero’s thick metal doors, the entire car jerked to the right. Only their superhuman reflexes kept 18 and 20 from being flung out onto the highway as the car skidded across three lanes of traffic and down an exit ramp.

“What the hell, 17?!” 20 yelped, clinging so hard to the side of the car that he was in danger of leaving a dent. Behind them on the highway, tires screeched, horns blared, and drivers swore.

“We are going to the aquarium,” 17 announced cheerfully.

“What?!” demanded 18 and 20 in unison.

“There was a billboard back there for an aquarium, and they have a petting tank. I want to pat a stingray. It said something about being able to pat jellyfish, too.”

“I thought jellyfish were poisonous,” 20 put in hesitantly. It sounded more like a question than a statement.

“Yeah,” 17 grinned. “It sounds like a challenge!”

“Huh. Okay. Sure, why not,” 20 nodded.

18 considered the prospect of fish. Bright, colorful fish. Something old and forgotten and buried beneath programming and trauma stirred and brightened at the idea.

“Okay,” she agreed as well.

“Good,” 17’s grin widened, “because you two didn’t actually have a choice.”

20 laughed, and 18 rolled her eyes at her brother’s antics, but she wasn’t actually annoyed. With every mile farther that they drove in the lime green convertible, the pressing need to find Son Goku seemed to wane further and further. It was a good game, a good excuse, but 18 was starting to wonder if she just might be happy if they never quite made it to Mt. Paozu.

The aquarium was a massive building with wide, dimly lit corridors. Most of the bright light came from the floor to ceiling glass tanks embedded in the walls where schools of exotic fish darted around reconstructed segments of coral reef and rainforest tree roots. 17 dragged them past all these without pause, following the signs to the petting tank area.

Even their first visit to the restaurant with the moo shu pork hadn’t prepared 18 for this many people. The petting tank room was large, brightly lit, and packed. Excited, babbling young voices practically drowned out 18’s own thoughts, and she was tempted to clamp her hands over her ears.

17 elbowed his way to the front of the crowd without care for subtlety or politeness, rolled up his sleeves, and stuck his hands in the water of the shallow, sandy-bottomed tank to touch the first thing he could reach – a horseshoe crab. His face brightened with almost childlike delight.

20 peered at the side of the tank where tank a small ray about eight inches across was pressing its belly to the glass.

“It looks like it’s smiling.” 20 gently touched his fingers to the clear barrier.

“Be very gentle.” A cheetah woman wearing an aquarium employee shirt was showing 17 how to touch one of the little rays. “Just let your fingers skim over its back. Any harder and you might hurt or stress the animal.”

18 rolled up her sleeves and plunged her hands into the cool saltwater as well. She let her fingers trace over the back of a ray as it swam serenely past. Rubbery sandpaper with sharp ridges of spine. Next to her, 20 had his red wrist bracers tucked under one arm and was laughing at the texture of the starfish under his hand. 18 looked from her brother’s delighted expression – possibly the most relaxed and happy she had even seen him – to 20’s massive grin as he helped a freckled little girl to pat the starfish as well. Then 18 reached out to touch the hard, smooth shell of a horseshoe crab. This had definitely been a good idea.

The jellyfish were in a separate tank and turned out to be moon jellies and nonvenomous to humans – much to 17’s disappointment. You didn’t so much pat them as hold your hand in the water and allow the jellyfish’s translucent white doom to bump softly into your fingers. 18 found the moon jellyfish peaceful and soothing despite the cacophony of children going on around them.

“We’re going to the jellyfish exhibit next,” announced 18 when they finally left the petting tank room.

17 blinked at her.

“But sharks.” He pointed down a different hall.

“We have all day. Sharks later – jellyfish now.” 18 caught 17 by the wrist and 20 by the hand and started towing them in the direction of the jellyfish exhibit.

“And then the coral reef fish,” 20 added. His cheeks were tinted the slightest bit pink.

“Coral reef fish and more prawn crackers,” 17 agreed.

“Haven’t you had enough of those?”

“You can never have enough prawn crackers.”

Hours swirled by in colorful splashes and sparkles of chaotic, breathtaking life. There was a massive oval tank that you could walk down the center of like you were swimming with the fish themselves, and on the level below that sharks drifted by with graceful menace. Jellyfish trailed tentacles like ribbon and lace streamers beneath ruffled skirts, and silver hatchet fish flashed along the bottom of a fake rainforest riverbed.

They had been at the aquarium for almost four hours when 18 caught sight of her reflection in the glass of a dark, underwater shipwreck display. She hadn’t thought much about her appearance in a long time, because until now it hadn’t been hers. The image in the glass was shadowy and a little fuzzy. The low lighting caught her face oddly and made half her hair look shorter than it actually was. In her earliest memories, 18’s hair was long, falling past her shoulder blades. Then between one awakening from stasis and then next her hair had been clipped to above shoulder length to match 17’s. 18 considered her distorted reflection. She looked… good with short hair. Less like Gero’s doll in a box. She wasn’t in a box anymore. If she wanted to cut her hair so it didn’t match her brother’s, she could. It was a surprisingly liberating thought.

20’s reflection joined hers in the darkened glass. The strange cast of shadows made his face look solemn. It didn’t suit him. She looked away from the glass and down at 20. He gave her a smile. She gave him a small smile in return.

“I’m getting a haircut,” 18 told him just so that she could hear the words out loud.

20’s eyebrows furrowed together slightly,

“I don’t think that’s something you can do at the aquarium.”

18 snorted and then, after a moment’s hesitation, reached out and bumped 20 lightly in the shoulder with her fist like she had seen him do to 17.

“I meant after we leave the aquarium.”

“In that case,” said 17, leaning in and startling them both, “I want a hat.”

“A hat?” asked 20 skeptically.

“Yup. A hat. It saw a sign that says souvenirs, and I want a souvenir, and that souvenir is going to be a hat.”

17 could not be talked out of buying a hat, though thankfully 18 did manage to convince him to buy the baseball cap with the stylized shark rather than the stupidly grinning purple fish. Somewhere in the melee of the gift shop, 17 acquired another wallet since their current one was almost out of zenni.

18 stared at her reflection in the mirror as the hairdresser removed the drape from around her shoulders. A ‘pixie cut,’ the hairdresser had called it. 18 didn’t think much of the name, but she did like how it looked on her. She ran her hands through her hair, enjoying the sudden feel of air on her fingers so much sooner than expected. Her head felt lighter.

“Huh.” 17 was peering around the corner at her. Apparently he’d acquired a new bag of prawn crackers while he’d been waiting. “Now you and 20 match.”

“We do not,” 18 scowled, crossing her arms.

“Yeah,” agreed 20, leaning around 17, “hers is way longer and doesn’t stick up in the front. You look really nice, 18.”

“Thank you, 20. And for that comment, 17, I’m driving next.”

“Awww,” 17 pouted, but she ignored him.

18 glanced at her image in the mirror one more time before turning to go. The different hairstyle made her look a touch older, and for some reason, her eyes seemed a little brighter. There was a light to them that she didn’t remember seeing before.

She headed for the door.

Around dawn the next morning 18 finally relented and let 17 have the steering wheel back. They were getting steadily closer to Mt. Paozu. Even on the meandering backroads 17 had taken them back onto, they should be there by tomorrow. 18 had stopped trying to direct 17 using their map. She wasn’t reluctant to find Son Goku but- but-

Well, whatever the reason, she was content to just let 17 take them in more or less the right direction.

20 was flipping through radio stations, pausing on one for barely a few seconds before switching to the next. 17 finally caught 20’s wrist before he could press the button again.

“Yeah, no. That is both annoying and distracting.”

“You’re hardly one to talk,” 20 shot back good-naturedly. 17 made a ‘this is true’ face. “Besides,” 20 commented off-handedly, “I’m supposed to be distracting.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked 18, twisting to look at him from the passenger seat.

“Hm? Oh, it was just something Gero said once,” 20 shrugged.

For some reason, that comment left a bad taste in 18’s mouth.

#i totally didn't steal a real life aquarium - definitely not at all #android 20 universe #android 18 #android 17 #krillin #k18 #fanfiction #dbz #agentmalkere #17 and i had a fight about that hat #guess who won #it wasn't me

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