The faithful day finally arrived. C-19 was positioning the sleeping Gero on the cybernetisation machine, and Mai was nervously watching the process from behind an armoured window. The surgeon was Night Dog and not C-19 though, a major difference from the original work. With perfect precision, it kept administrating chemical injection after injection to its unconscious maker, having literally it's life and death in it's mechanical hands. Hours passed by and Mai forced herself to stay awake, abusing cofee and energy drinks, so she could witness her husband's success, praying with all she had that it would not be a failure.
Whole eight years before the start of the dragon ball story, Gero was transported into a metallic pod made of ceramite, fully enclosed not letting the anxious woman see his body becoming a mush of atoms, being knitted and woven into a circular shape, then into a doughnut, and finnaly becoming thinner and thinner, reaching the stunning circumference of three millimetres. Yes, Gero was a ring now, one ring to rule them all, one ring to find all the xenos, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness throw them. Once stabilised in this state, he was encompassed and coated in a flat ring, a halo, made of necrodermis, a greenish laser merged him with the living metal. Then it was encased in a layer of adamantium, letting out just the desired connectors and nothing else.
Finally it was time to summon Shenron once again.
"Shenron I summon you!" Yelled Mai in the garden. C-19 was not next to her this time, as he had to take care of Gero's youngest, Laurelie. He was a busy nanny. The other kids were fine now, and were casually watching cartoons, not aware that their father might be in fact dead.
"Raaaaah! It is you alone this time. State your wish, and I will grant it, but I will accept only one." Roared Shenron. The dragon was not angry, as indeed, after the two big wishes Gero didn't summon it at all.
"I want you to grant me three wishes, for your best interest and mine." Mai demanded, as her husband explained in detail the mechanism behind the dragon balls before the surgery began. Indeed, the balls will accumulate evil energy after granting selfish wishes, and that evil energy needed time to dissipate.
"Very well, I accept your request, what are your three wishes?" Said the dragon, but honestly, after seeing this show once, it's like seeing it one hundred times. Mai wasn't bowered.
"I want to know if the soul of Leonid Gero is inside this halo, or is it in the afterlife's world?" She asked, holding the halo encased in a protective clear silicon box.
"Easy, Gero is alive, and all his being is contained in this halo." Answered the dragon.
Mai's eyes sparkled as she gazed at the halo, and asked the second wish, as her husband asked her to in case everything was fine.
"I want, stored on a Hyper SSD memory card, the map of the whole universe."
"Child's play!" Said Shenron while materialising the memory card from thin air.
" The last wish, I want a device that can track the seed of might wherever it may be!"
At this request the dragon frowned, it knew the evil energy generated by this request would be consequent.
"Granted. Bye now!" And a round computer-like device materialised in front of Mai. The dragon balls were once again snatched back by C-19, but this time he had to go and return them to their original places so the time line won't be more shattered than it already was. Gero didn't want Zeno to destroy everything now.
Mai returned to the laboratory and tasked Night Dog to examine the universe's map, then set up the halo on a specifically made structure. As soon as she returned back behind the armoured window, antibacterial gazes filled the super-computer room, and antibacterial agents rained down, before getting removed by the ventilation and specifically generated heat.
Once the halo was brought to another set of machinery, Night Dog started to build around it the crazy fucking robot body.
Layers after layers of different alloys derived from adamantium were arranged on a molecular level, constructing artificial nervous systems and artificial hight capacity and efficiency neurones. At a point Mai went to sleep as the super computer finally displayed the remaining time, amounting to five days.
The precise work generated gigantic energy consumption and heat generation, multiple times the displays showed the super computer to go under sixty percent of energy supply and alerts announced it's inner heat would reach an all time high, for the systems return to normal moments later. The infinite reactor's capacity to get boosted by external factors kicked in and external heat was immediately absorbed. Night Dog was consuming enough energy to power up half of a forge-word right now, and it's use and expenditure was keeping growing.
After finishing the construction of the nervous and cognitive systems, it was time to build adamantium bones filled with a necrodermis alloy mix, optimising to the maximum the connection to the previously built systems and the incorporation of the Ki and energy capturing links. Then it was time to build an adamantium and necreodermis alloy mix for the flesh, and what looked liked artificial organs. But in fact these organs were just shells containing thousands of miniaturised infinite energy reactors, channels for the Ki and energy theft absorption, additional cogitators for faster and independent data processing, sensors, and most importantly countless numbers of additional cybernetics proper to the Luminen, the electro-priests from the Mechanicus and phosphex and nuclear miniaturised stash of missiles. Who didn't dream about nuking Beerus and phosphexing him into oblivion?
After the skin, hair, and external organs were completed, something clicked inside this newly made android. After an electric tremor, Gero opened his eyes, seeing Mai waiting behind the armoured window.
"CREATOR STATUS: OMNISSIAH OF PERFECTION.
EMERGENCY REBOOT: INITIATED."
Under his expecting wife's eyes, he tried to stand up, and move anything in fact, but without success. The halo was connected but it just started it's process of engraving his DNA signature, and because all the components contained an important amount of adamantium, when they were not entirely composed of it... Gero knew he fucked up big this time. As every crazy scientist he forgot to take in account one of the critical factors, and here he was, immortal, indestructible, but completely immobile.
"NIDHOGG-01 UNIT: OPERATIONAL.
DIAGNOSIS STATUS: 2% COMPLETE..."
Mai was finally able to open the heavy metallic door and anxiously run to Gero.
"Night Dog what is happening? Why is he not moving?"
"ANALYSIS: EXECUTION.
ANALYSIS COMPLETE.
RESULT: MUSCLE REEDUCATION NEEDED.
NEW BODY COMPLETE: DNA ENGRAVING ONGOING
STATUS:0.003% COMPLETE."
Mai facepalmed and reproachfully said : "I told you to check everything over again..."
Gero couldn't react or say anything, otherwise he could have retorted that everything was going as planned. He had to accept the long nagging instead.
The following days, exercise and rehabilitation equipment was fabricated by the super computer. Using it's countless metallic arms, it helped his awkward master to complete exercises without falling. After a whole year of reeducation, Gero finally managed to walk without issues, but kept tripping and falling quite often like a toddler.
As if it was not enough, his power level plummeted to fifty, and he had to learn how to use and sense Ki anew, as he was no longer human and it changed everything and more than what he expected. Also his DNA engraving only progressed to seven percent, and it kept progressing at a very slightly faster pace since he started more advanced exercises again.
Even though he was no longer as powerful as two Yamchas from the super saiyen arc, he was still a Yamcha and half from dragon ball. At least the kids where happy, their dad was not running away from them to hide in the laboratory now.
Years passed and Gero's plan to venture to the outer space and hunt the seed of the tree of might fell into water. It was seven hundred forty-nine now and his eldest kids were finishing the mid-school. His master Tao visited frequently to help his student regain his straight, and informed him that his brother, master Shen, took two kids, Tien and Shoazu as disciples. Even as the temptation was strong, Gero managed to hold on the information that the two will betray their school, and arrived to seventy percent of DNA engraving that year. Things progressed steadily but the power level displayed was an only disappointing ninety-six. His body was designed to have no limits, but it definitely will require a lot of efforts from him.
Gero planned to participate to the twenty-first world martial arts tournament, but he could not. With his master's tutoring help he reached ninty-percent of the engraving, but his movements were still sluggish, and he messed up one DonDon Pa on two, just like a beginner.
The cashflow kept coming incessantly, and now his wealth rivalled the whole country's. He also made his brokers sell all his Red Ribbon army share, and instructed then to no longer touch them for many reasons, and during the year that followed, it was disbanded. There were no market crashes though, as the Capsule Corp. and Furbolg held by themselves the whole economy. The first significant butterfly effect was Tao Pai Pai, he never got maimed because he didn't fight Son Goku as in the original story. The ruthless assassin was drowning in money because of his filial disciple and didn't need to sell death anymore.
However, as the main plot remained more or less the same, after finally completing the whole DNA engraving process at January of seven hundred fifty-three, he received his summon to the twenty second world martial arts tournament. Master Shen was not pleased by the last tournament's result, as the Turtle School got the second and third places. The Crane School showed no mercy and was above every competitor, this was how Gero officially started his fighter's career.
Did Goku meet Son Gohan during the Baba trials as in the original? It didn't matter here. With or without these events, at a point in time he will still end up under the tutelage of the Kami and still fight his faithful fight against Piccolo Jr.
For the occasion the Geros went to the event as whole family. Logan was now twenty-one years old, and Laura was twenty. Both moved out of the familial manor, and were living in West City's city centre. They were both attending the college. Leonel was nineteen now but he decided to stay home and took a sabbatic year and planned to start business school the next year. At first Mai was worried he would become a roach just like uncle Cooky, but her worries remained unfounded until now. He was resting, partying and studying in a study club online. Leah was about to finish high-school, and Laurelie was in the same high-school as her1
. The older kids would meet them at the competition's venue while the two youngest and Leonel would fly with them.
Mai was specially happy to be reunited with her little babies, while Gero listened patiently their stories and what they were up to now. Whatever they decided to do he would support them, and was still sending them generous amounts of pocket money. All his kids were billionaires.
As Tao Pai Pai was counselling his student before the start of the competition, just outside of the venue, near the registration stand, two rivals met.
"Look who it is, the Turtle Sage, hello hi!" Greeted master Shen, accompanied by Tien and Shaotzu.
"Hun? Pfft! Crane Sage! You are still alive are you? I am not seeing a ghost, am I?" Answered sarcastically the old pervert.
"Look, I heard a bad joke about two of your disciples having some success in the last competition, the level of this tournament visibly kinda fell off. I decided that the public should learn what real martial arts are like. So I've brought two of my disciples to participate. My nephew disciple is there too. And I'm very sorry to give you the news, my brother's disciple will win this tournament. You should go home and spare yourself any embarrassment."
Bulma, Yamcha and the gang hmphed and Roshi visibly upset countered:
"Ha ha ha, was this an attempt of humour? I'm afraid it was a flop."
"What? Repeat that you perverted baldy!"
"Shut up, half of a baldy!"
And after that little squabble they parted ways, none of the sides taking the other seriously.
Soon enough the preliminaries were starting. All the spectators and non fighters were called back to the pit, in front of the arena. Gero's family and the crane school had the best spots, while Goku's friends were all the way on the left side. When Lunch tried to move them to the best spots using her machine gun, she quickly calmed down when C-19 casually grabbed it and turned it into a metallic ribbon.
Gero was wearing the iconic pink changpao with the characters "Kill" on it, in honour of his master. He kept his hair long as he used to before ascending. His youthfulness had an indescribable coldness to it, his eyes were still beautifully light blue, but something felt wrong. Shaotzu and Tien came to pay their respects to their older martial brother, but Gero didn't take any initiative to initiate a dialogue. One was a three eyed mutant freak while the other was nature's mistake. As an awkward silence set up, Gero's name was finally called. His first fight was against a bald sumo, and Gero slapped him out of the ring. The second was a cheetah-man hybrid, who was slapped away too.
He didn't say anything about Chaozu's tricks to fake the match results, and he ended up facing Son Goku from the start... an anticlimactic outcome.
The first match was Yamcha against Ten Shin Han. While Tien was more powerful of the two right now, both adversaries were fated to fade into the back ground, forever limited by their human constitution. The Roga Fufu Ken was kicked away by the baldy but Yamcha did his best, unleashing a final Kameamea. But it was not enough, Ten Shin Han used the Crane school's aura outburst to send it back. While Yamcha jumped to evade this counter attack, he got kick back down by the three eyed freak and his leg broke under a merciless descending attack. And it was it.
"You are an awful person! Yamcha was already unconscious! You knew it and you kicked him deliberatly!" Indignatly yelled Son Goku.
"You should be thankfull I spared him, I'm a good guy after all hehehe..." Answered the nasty bald man.
"I'll make you pay during our round!" Declared Goku.
"Do you even believe you can reach the finals? You should pray my senior won't utterly destroy you."
In the public, Tao remained stoic, looking mysterious and composed, while Shen was smirking and laughing. This was the Crane school way! No mercy!
The next match was Jackie Chun against the werewolf man, it ended after Roshi cured the poor man's lycanthropy.
The following match was Gero's future son in law, Krilin, and the nature's mistake... Chaozu... what even the fuck is Chaotzu? I swear, is it a chinese vampire? The son of a cousin-brother-mother-father-grandphather-grand-aunt union? No for real! Some one help clarify it! Wthat the fuck is that thing!?