No Surrender (Artery Gear Fusion / Dragon Ball Super)

[Stimpak Medic]

Prologue: New World, Old Android

"The Frontier is always hiring".

I've heard that slogan more times than I'd like to remember, and I haven't been on this world for more than a year at most. The thing is, it's not the jingo or some patriotic call to action you might imagine. It's the reminder of the reality this world finds itself in. We face a foe that is relentless, and even with my power, I doubt we can end this war so soon.

Our enemy is The Puppets. Don't let the name fool you. These are not cloth dolls, or wooden mannequins. These are an alien species resembling mannequins of pure white metallic substance that assimilates and destroys everything in it's path with strange abilities that alter the very reality around them, and the very atoms that make up anything they touch, puppetizing it and adding it to their army. I don't know how many worlds they have conquered before this one, but Earth can't be their first. Of that I am sure.

If I were to take drastic action, there would be no life at the end of this war. Our enemy is not just one strong being, or even an army of them. They are in the tens of millions, and multiply faster than even I can comprehend. They appear and disappear like a ghost, leaving behind only bits and pieces of the armies that destroy and corrupt.

They're not dangerous to me much, but I'm not their main target. Humanity is, and I can't be everywhere at once.

With every person I save, every child I defend, a city falls elsewhere on the planet.

When I sleep at night, there's a war still raging, and I can do nothing but let it happen. I've tried learning to sense energy, but it's almost impossible for me. Maybe in the future I will find a way, but for now I can do none of the sort. I live my life in the Frontier, and save who I can, when I can.

Now, I can hear you asking me "What is The Frontier?", Well, Let me explain.

First you need to know about this Earth and it's history. It's far different than the one I come from.

This Earth is split between two Nations. The Frontier, and Autoluna.

The Frontier is an Anti-Puppet Alliance formed by the nations of the ground after the puppet war broke out. It only existed in name at first, since few nations acknowledged each other at first, but once the Puppets destroyed over sixty percent of the world's land, finally the world leaders were forced to work together as to defend the human race from this threat.

The Puppets were too strong as a force for Humanity to deal with alone.

Their jets were ripped apart in the sky. Their ships blown apart at sea. Guns were equally inefficient and worthless. Puppets are faster than bullets and shells. No amount of infantry would matter.

So what did the nations do?

They traded off lands in order to frantically develop weaponry capable of killing puppets.

It took several years, but Anti-Puppet weaponry became a thing. Guns capable of disrupting their molecular structure and stopping their regeneration were developed. And soon those weapons were deployed with robotic soldiers and vehicles. Now, Humanity holds the puppets at a standstill, while slowly recovering in numbers. However, this isn't a pretty story, not by a long shot.

Just as Humanity has developed technology of fighting puppets, the puppets have begun advancing their own beings, making such weapons less effective, and in turn, Humanity has created super soldiers capable of going toe to toe with even the strongest of puppets: Artery Gears.

With most of the men on the planet lost in the war, Women have taken up the call in their honor. Those who were once housewives, office workers, and teachers have taken up the call just as the brave men did before them, and the lucky few have survived the process of the technology, becoming Artery Gears.

However, just as The Frontier has advanced, so has the last safe haven of Humanity.

Autoluna.

As for Autoluna, It was a space colony used by the United Nations. A prototype of the soon to be created Frontier.

As country after country fell to the puppets, Autoluna gave haven to the best and brightest of the remaining humanity below. And well, in the face of the puppets, a safe haven with seemingly unlimited resources was too much to turn down. So, what was once a small space colony grew both in size and in technology having taken many nations best and brightest.

In short, it became the functional opposite of The Frontier.

While The Frontier is at constant war with the puppets, and it's citizens face large scale puppet attacks daily, and many of it's citizens are poor and in abject misery, Autoluna operates on a Nobility system, and resources and food are plentiful. I've heard from some sources that Autoluna is capable of creating matter from nothing, and that is how they keep their populace rich and well fed.

I've also heard that anyone who doesn't fulfil their roles and jobs in Autoluna is cast out, and sent down to the Frontier. Noble or not.

It's strange. I haven't been up there to check it out, as I'm not exactly a big fan of the whole caste system or whatever they have going up there, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I want to see how things worked up there.

Anyways, Autoluna declared itself an Autonomous nation, and the immigration process, if you can call it one, is strict. Anyone who wants to go up there has to be pre screened by their Queen, and have something they can offer Autoluna that it doesn't already have. Needless to say, that's not many people anymore these days.

But me. I'm sure I have more than enough to offer that lady who sits up on her throne playing God.

Regardless of what I've just said, I wouldn't turn down an offer from Autoluna, but I only work as a mechanic in Azure City, and I protect the people of this city. That's enough for me for now.

Eventually I'll make it home and see my family again. Gods above know that I miss my wife and kids. Still, I have things to do, and I can't keep being stubborn about this.

Who knows, maybe the Queen of Autoluna can help me get back home?

Whatever happens to me, I hope my family is okay and my kids don't get into trouble while I'm gone.

Don't you worry kids, Your dad is coming back one way or the other.

 

[ArsMagna1337]

Artery Gear Fusion

Click to shrink...

Watched immediately. Sad that the servers shut down.

 

[Stimpak Medic]

Watched immediately. Sad that the servers shut down.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the watch! It sucks the game shut down since it had some really fun lore that just went unfinished when it shut down. I'm going to try to put everything to gather that I can as to not butcher this fic too much. I hope you stick around.

 

[Stimpak Medic]

Chapter One: I See You

Azure City was quite large for a post puppet war city, boasting a 800 square mile rectangular shape and size, with a well founded defensive force, including dozens of Artery Gear squadrons, and defensive fortifications that could hold off a land assault from puppets for many days on end. However, puppet assaults were never so simple. They appeared as if materialized from nowhere before causing mass casualties.

Still, Azure City was much safer than the outlying cities and outposts. Those were death traps for anyone sent to do their duties there, which were mostly criminals sent there with promises of lowering their sentences should they serve time there. Only the most desperate took those jobs. And very few returned from their second tour of duty.

Now Azure City itself was a city of pure efficiency in design, with almost no aestheticism of the earlier ages in their buildings. They were thick metal buildings of steel and titanium, with very few windows that weren't reinforced with glass and metal that could withstand rockets, and even minor attacks from Artery Gears. This wasn't only due to puppets. Not by a long shot.

There were various factions at war. Some terrorists, and others corporations that would be more than willing to stage attacks on each other, innocents nearby or not. Several dozen Artery Gears had fallen to these bitter conflicts, and even the strongest of them would be wary entering certain districts in the labyrinthine city of dark metal and neon signs.

In one of these buildings of dark metal, lived Android 17. It was a short flat square building of three floors, in which the whole first two floors had been renovated into a machine shop. The whole front wall of the shop had been blasted out, and replaced by large sliding metal grate doors that would open to reveal the large open machine shop. There were all sorts of tools and hangars for various vehicle.

From end to end, the first floor could hold a dozen vans side by side with ample room to work on each of them all at once. Of course, Android 17 wouldn't just employ any old man or woman who walked in off the street- he knew better than that. Such was the general situation in which Android 17 found himself with a pretty young lass by the name of Samantha Green as an assistant. She was a young woman of gentle bearing, and was quite good at the more precise aspects of working on vehicles.

In fact, she was the daughter of the man who gave the building to Android 17 who used to be a mechanic in his youth, before he took to investing in high risk real estate all across The Frontier.

The young lady had a long head of red hair that she tied in a long braid down her back, and a pair of wide green eyes, a thin nose, normal face, with thin red lips and healthy pale skin. She was on the closer end of twenty than approaching thirty, likely either twenty two or twenty three, being a good seven or eight years younger than the Android she was hired by. She could usually be seen with a green bandanna tied over her head with a brown leather apron with many pockets over her white cloth shirt and blue jeans. She wore a pair of blue running shoes which she sometimes swapped out to a pair of brown work boots depending on how heavy the workload was.

This was an apprenticeship with the Android in which her father paid a pretty penny, almost spending a small fortune to keep her safe while in the city. You see, the only reason the man knew the android could keep his daughter safe was to the sole fact that Android 17 had saved him from a kidnapping attempt and attack in a local mall he had taken his daughter shopping at when looking for a buyer to a nearby hotel chain he had been looking to sell.

A group of thugs armed with high end anti Artery Gear tech and weapons had been hired to kidnap him and his daughter for ransom they expected to extract from his wife when Android 17 who had been in a nearby store heard the commotion and gunshots as the thugs killed several security guards and bystanders in a quickly ended gunfight. The android quickly incapacitated the thugs and crushed their weapons into small balls of metal in seconds, rescuing the man and his daughter.

It had made such an impact on his life, that he had given the Android the property and paid for it's renovation along with offering him the job of protecting his daughter under the guise of an apprenticeship whilst he had gone up to Autoluna to handle business there for two years.

Since the android showed no signs of malice nor made any attempt to take advantage of either of them, and the lady of the house wished to finally move out of the mansion, the three had come to a conclusion.

Since the young lady had rather expensive tastes, her father had given her a card which had all she would need, even for such an affluent girl as herself.

And so we find ourself in the present, where Android 17 found himself repairing a delivery companies truck's engine. This was thanks to many things programmed into him by Dr. Gero. The mad doctor had programmed many skills into the two androids, and Android 17 found himself the recipient of the utility and combat information, whilst Android 18 found herself with information on cooking, cleaning, gardening, sewing, and other home related issues. After all, Dr. Gero had the rather standard preferences of his time when programming the information into the androids.

This combined with his training as a ranger which involved repairing vehicles that had broken down among other things gave him the perfect chance at becoming a mechanic.

Android 17 would never thank the doctor, but he would begrudgingly feel a sense of completeness from it. Android 17 wasn't a gregarious man, but he wasn't completely antisocial. He was somewhere in-between arrogant, patient, and pragmatic after all these years had passed. A far stone's throw from the arrogant cocksure nature he had in his youth.

"Samantha. Can you bring me a rag? Some oil spilled on the cylinder" He called from his position as he floated above the engine. The truck's hood had been held aloft and was barely above the floating android's head.

"Coming right up boss!" The cheerful light voice of the young lady came from across the room as the sound of someone getting up from a chair and the patter of shoes over concrete before stopping next to a sink at the back of the shop. Then after a slight muffled sound of cloth, she sped up and came over to the android, passing him the cloth rag.

"Thank you" the android said, taking the rag and wiping off the bright metal cylinder. The clear oil dyed the rag brown over a few moments, and Android 17 smiled at his work.

"You consider that to be important?" Samantha asked, taking down mental notes.

"Yeah. You don't want any loose oil getting caught up in the engine, especially on trucks like this. It could catch fire and do major damage, even if it's only a small spill" He explained, looking towards the young lady before folding and placing his rag atop a small rolling toolbox next to him.

"Alright, I'll remember that" She answered, nodding her head vigorously and giving him a firm determined look.

"Good, it's about 2 o'clock now and this truck is nowhere near fixed yet, how about we get some lunch then close up shop for a few hours?" Android 17 asked, closing the hood and wiping his hands on his gray apron that rested over his blue T-shirt and blue jeans.

"I'd love that. How about burgers?" she asked with a somewhat pleading look. Both of them knew she could go out at any time and order burgers, but as someone who grew up with a respect for authority, she deferred to him on most things. Besides, her diet had been heavily curated and monitored back at the family grounds, so burgers, fries, chicken tenders and soda were her treats that she didn't tell her father and family about.

"Sounds good to me. I don't really care what we eat" Android 17 shrugged and floated down to the ground next to her.

"You always say that. Do you really not care?" She asked, finding it hard to understand why her temporary guardian never seemed that excited about food, and just treated it like something ancillary.

"How do I explain this?" Android 17 asked, putting his right hand to his chin and looking up in thought. She had asked similar questions before, and they were beginning to get slightly annoying.

Samantha just looked at him expectantly. This was the superpowered man, so surely he would have some logical explanation.

His eyes lit up at a realization, and he looked to her and explained his situation somewhat vaguely. It was the same explanation he told her father before, but hadn't broached the topic with her yet.

"Consider me like an Artery Gear in that regard. I don't need to eat. It's something I do to feel more human" He explained, trailing off at the end. It should be noted that he wasn't entirely sure if Artery Gears needed to eat or not, but they had an almost mythical presence to most of the general populace. So he went with that explanation, and it seemed that that worked.

Samantha's eyes lit up with excitement.

"This is the first time I've heard of a male Artery Gear! I have to tell all my friends about this!" She shouted with excitement, pulling out a phone, standing next to him with a grin and flashing a peace sign before snapping a photo of the two of them.

"What are you doin-" Android 17 could only ask in confusion before she shared it to social media with the hashtags #MaleArteryGear #Teacher #Savior #Hero

Android 17 froze, a look of horror on his face. He didn't want his face plastered over a rich girl's social media.

"And done. You're now known among my friend group as my mysterious Artery Gear teacher" She laughed, only to stop upon seeing the horrified look the android was giving her.

"Did I do something wrong..." She asked sheepishly, trailing off at the end as if she had been struck by him.

Android 17 closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"No, probably no harm was done if it's just your friends, just please ask me before taking pictures ok? I'm not exactly trying to stay hidden, but I don't want any rumors spreading" Android 17 sighed and slumped down a bit before composing himself.

"Anyways, lets go get lunch. Want me to drive?" Android 17 asked, his calm demeanor returning to his face after a brief moment.

"Ahh, don't worry big man. My friends know there's nothing between us. I'm just super excited to hear my teacher was an Artery Gear. Like c'mon, who wouldn't be excited about that?" She asked, nudging the android in the shoulder, and that seemed to convince him.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm probably just worrying for nothing. Let's get out of here" He said, walking to the door to the stairs going up to their temporary home.

After the two had cleaned off and changed into more comfortable outfits, Android 17 and Samantha got in the sleek but defensible car her father had sent down for the two. A moment later they were speeding down the road to the steakhouse not too far away.

--------------------

In a spacious lowly lit black walled command center sat a young girl atop a spinning chair. She had long sliver hair, a tiny frame garbed in a black military jacket, sleek black pants, black boots, and a commander's hat that was just as black as the outfit itself aside from the silver spread winged eagle insignia at it's face. The outfit was vaguely reminiscent of the Hugo Boss outfits the National Socialists wore back in World War Two. She had large red eyes that were halfway lidded like rubies against her ghost white skin.

She slowly and lazily spun around in the black leather chair, occasionally playing with a strand of her long silver silky hair. A large holographic screen opened in front of her. On it were thousands of posts on social media passing by in a blur that no normal human could have processed at such a speed.

"Stop" She commanded in her soft youthful voice. Instantly the screen stopped on a post by a young lady named Samantha Green. It was of the young lady posing next to a surprised man in his very early thirties, though he looked more in his mid twenties.

"I've been seeing this man on video feeds and satellite imagery a lot lately. Teufel, is this one of your projects?" She looked up, raising her silver eyebrow to a woman who was standing nearby ready to receive commands. She passed the screen to the woman who looked at the man.

She wore a similar outfit to the young girl's except instead of covering her stomach and legs, it was cut to show her sleek and firm stomach, and quite attractive legs. She had long white hair that was slightly wavy tied in two puffy twin tails and bright pink eyes. Her large breasts were barely contained by the white shirt she wore under her open jacket, and a large black serrated great sword was secured to her back.

One would not like to be struck by such a blade, as the wounds it would leave would be fatal if it somehow did not bisect you completely.

"No My Leader, I did not create him, and what's this about a male Artery Gear? There are no male Artery Gears. That would be impossible" The lady named Teufel responded with a vigorous voice that was quite deep and imposing. It fit her slightly crazed and violent smile.

"Impersonating an Artery Gear is a serious crime. Find me his name, where he lives, who he lives with, and where he was born. I want everything about him you can find as soon as possible. I believe there is more to this man than meets the eye" The young girl commanded, and the woman named Teufel bowed.

"Of course My Leader. Do you want me to bring him into custody?" Teufel asked, reaching over her shoulder and gripping the hilt of her sword.

"Not just yet. If he is really impersonating an Artery Gear, he's bound to slip up, and then we'll take him in" the young girl said, spinning around on the chair again, and pulling out a red lollypop that she gave a small lick of.

"Of course My Leader" Teufel bowed again before running out of the room.

"So, Mr. "Artery Gear" What's your next move?" She asked, looking onto a screen that was quickly filling with various video feeds and satellite images of the man doing extraordinary things at incredible speeds over the past year.

Long snaking silver cables slithered out from the walls nearby and plugged themselves into the back of the young girl's neck, and she shuddered for a second before her red eyes began flashing brightly.

Then, when her eyes stopped flashing, a sinister grin formed on her small face.

On the screen was the video feed of the dining room of the steakhouse the android and his charge were eating at. The two were casually conversing at a table and the camera zoomed in to the android's face.

"Gotcha" The young girl exclaimed, making a finger gun with her tiny right hand, pointing it at the android, and making a bang sound.