Android 18 Finds Herself on an Alien World

On a small planet a few hundred lightyears away from Earth, a woman with blonde hair tapped her foot impatiently against the soggy ground. She wore a pink tracksuit with a pair of grey sneakers; this earthly attire may seem out of place on an alien planet, but that would be due to the woman hailing from Earth. Her name was Android 18, formerly known as Lazuli; despite being called an android, 18 wasn't a robot but instead an enhanced human, one that had been kidnapped, alongside her twin brother, by a mad scientist when they were young. Despite being "created" for nefarious purposes, 18 and her brother found themselves on a good path in life. 18 had a longing husband and an adorable daughter, meanwhile her brother also has a family and a job that he loves. He worked as a park ranger on a remote island, protecting exotic wildlife from poachers. Which is why 18 was wondering why she was here instead of him. Well, she knew the reason, but she was still somewhat annoyed.

Within 18's friend group, there's a semi-competent space-cop named Jaco, who is barely her friend, more like an acquaintance, a friend's friend. Jaco had asked 18 to help defend some random planet from poachers, not that she was his first choice. Essentially, Jaco was supposed to take over the duties of one of his fellow Galactic Patrolmen while they went on vacation. But since he didn't want to do it, he decided to go over to Earth and have one of his much, much stronger allies do the job for him. But everyone was either busy or uninterested in doing his job for him. Even her brother, 17, had been asked to do the job, though he declined due to his own duties on Monster Island. But, when Jaco started bringing up compensation, of course her brother would then recommend her for the job. Normally, 18 would never do a job like this, but that was before Jaco showed her the numbers he was willing to pay her for completing it, as well as the fact that the job was simple. Most of the poachers that came here would be small fries to her, meaning most of the job would be waiting.

The issue was that the job required a total of five days of sitting around on an alien world with nothing to do. 18 let out a sigh of frustration; she should've brought a book with her. The planet she was working on was interesting, though that was a given since it is not Earth. The sky was a dark pink, most likely due to the atmosphere being composed differently than Earth's, though it was still breathable to 18. Most of the planet is either oceanic or this jungle-swamp mixture. Which meant that the ground that 18 stood on was constantly wet. 18 glanced down at her sneakers, which were covered in blue grass and red mud, causing her to let out a harsh breath in frustration. She was somewhat happy that she hadn't brought any of her good clothes with her. The wildlife and plants here were also interesting; the trees tended to be incredibly long and grew in either spirals or loops. There were animals similar to those on Earth, though with noticeable differences. Such as an all-grey horse with eight legs or a bird the size of a minivan with fourteen heads and feathers made of metal. There were even these jellyfish looking creatures that she was instructed to avoid. Of course, by day three, everything that had made the planet interesting had become stale for 18, who at this point just want to get off the damn thing and go home.

18 continued to tap her foot impatiently against the ground, each tap making a squelching sound as she lifted her foot up. It seemed like her boredom would never end, that was until an explosion caught her attention. 18 wiped her head around toward where she had heard the sound; in the distance, she could see a cloud of dust. The Android blew the bangs out of her face, "It's something, at least." 18 commented at the sight of a potential poaching incident, the first one she had encountered since she had arrived. The android then leapt into the air and rushed forward, flying toward the incident like a missile homing in on its target. As 18 flew toward her target, she began to wonder when a poacher had arrived. She hadn't seen any ships fly into the planet's atmosphere, nor had her enhanced hearing picked up anything until now.

When the android arrived at the scene, she noticed several trees that had been knocked over, burned through, or blown up by the explosion. 18 began to search the areas for clues; she was far from a detective, but she knew finding things like footprints could help her find out which direction the attacker had gone. Even as 18 floated just above the ground, she could make a pair of footprints, humanoid in appearance, meaning they didn't belong to any animal. 18 quickly launched herself back above the tree line and began to fly in the direction of the footprints, scouring the ground below for a person. She eventually noticed a shadow of something dash by right beneath her. 18 increased her speed, passing by her target before heading downward. She'd end up right in front of her target, though when she landed, it wasn't a person she encountered first but rather one of the jellyfish on the planet. It floated to move around and had a green, transparent body, which allowed its organs to be visible from the inside. It had a mouth at the bottom with four large, sharp teeth, which it used to bite into other animals and absorb the life out of them; apparently, they're a form of space parasite, though despite being dangerous, they're also an endangered species. 18 watched as the jellyfish-like creature floated toward her and then saw a large ball of energy race toward it. Not wanting to fail her job out of fear of a reduction in pay that would make all this time spent here wasted, 18 dashed in front of the creature and slapped the blue ball of energy upward.

18 gritted her teeth as she watched the glowing ball soar through the air before eventually dissipating once it reached its peak. Once the ball of energy was completely gone, Android 18 looked toward where the attack had come from and spotted the culprit behind it. The attacker was a human that was covered head-to-toe in orange, red, and yellow armour. While at first the suit came off as bulky due to its large shoulder pads, the rest of the suit was proportioned more normally. There were a series of glowing green dots and slits throughout the armour's chest and shoulders, which matched the colour of the visor on its red helmet. The most notable thing about the armour was its blue arm cannon, which had steam coming off of it from its latest attack. "So, you're my troublemaker." Android 18 commented as she cracked her knuckles. The amoured individual did not respond, instead peering over 18's shoulder to see the creature. 18 glanced behind her to see what they had been looking at, it was the creature, which had continued to flee from the area. "Sorry, but your new target is going to have to be me since I'm letting you kill that thing. Not unless you want a problem." The android threatened the person in the suit, who still remained silent and kept their cannon held up, pointing at 18.

Wordlessly, the "poacher" fired a rocket out of their arm cannon, which raced toward 18. The rocket was impressively fast, but it was nothing that she couldn't handle. 18 raised her hand up and prepared to slap the rocket away. When the rocket got close enough, the android swatted her hand at it but missed when it swerved off to the side. 18's eyes widened as she watched the rocket race by her and go toward its intended target, the jellyfish-creature. 18 let out a distressed grunt as she turned around and fired a ki blast toward the missel. The yellow sphere of energy collided with the missile, causing it to detonate before it could hit its target. "You're really asking for—" the android began as she clenched her fist and turned around to face her adversary. But she was interrupted when she came face-to-face with the arm cannon, which had a fully charged energy shot awaiting her.