Day Three: Afternoon

[Android 17]

?Ridiculous schemes,? Seventeen sighed as he turned his attention away from Buu. Letting out another wail, he dragged his battered body across the floor of the forest once again. Even though all his fingernails had snapped off down to their points of origin, the machine-hybrid failed to relent as his blind determination kept him numb to the agony. As Super Buu tried to tinker with the supposed ore deposits he had detected under the earth, the android continued toward a nearby tree and a more realistic goal.

If all else failed, the cybernetic warrior at least wanted to die on his own two feet, and not in a puddle of his own fluids on the floor of some random forest. Tears streamed down the dirtied countenance of the android as he zeroed in on the closest tree. A weary smile spread across the cyborg?s face as he wrapped his greedy arm around the trunk of relatively small plant.

Cursing beneath his shallow, labored breaths, Seventeen?clenching his teeth together so hard that it felt as if they might buckle and shatter under the pressure?pulled his body up to the tree and shifted onto his knees. Closing his tear-stained eyes, the cybernetic warrior continued to whimper softly as he placed his other hand on the other side of the plant.

Realizing that it was time to put up or shut up, the cyborg let out a final, pathetic scream and pushed off his knees. Fresh pain exploded through the android?s minute frame as he inched his way up toward standing fully upright. As he crept closer and closer toward his goal, a faint smile spread across the android?s visage.

?I can do this,? Seventeen whispered between hoarse gasps. Despite the android?s growing confidence, there was always some grossly horrible happenstance waiting in line to put him in place.

Crack.

It was a simple enough noise that was common for one to hear in their daily life. Most of the time, it really didn?t mean a thing at all, but for Seventeen, it and doom were equals. Just a moment after the loud sound resonated through the minute clearing, the relatively small tree upon which the android was leaning snapped off at the base. Seventeen let out a soft whimper as what had happened to him. It was the cartoon moment where gravity waits for the coyote to realize the error of his way right before the plunge.

Unfortunately for the android, his wait wasn?t that long at all, and with a liquid-sounding thud, the battered form of the raven-haired warrior struck the earth once more. Another scream erupted from the confines of the android?s body?liberating more blood and tissue from his throat in the process. Even still, it was only a matter of seconds before Seventeen managed to roll the piece of the broken landscape off his body.

?Quit your faggotry, fleshbag,? Super Buu grunted from a few feet away. Turning his bloodshot eyes in the direction of the voice, the android was surprised to see that his bubblegum-colored ally had somehow succeeded in liberating enough raw materials from the earth to craft a pair of crude canes. Leaning heavily on one of them to compensate for his lost leg, the puttalin golem tossed the other at the ground next to his former leader.

?You?re never going to let me live this down?are you?? Seventeen gasped as he struggled to get off the ground using the cane. Once he had made it too a somewhat stable standing position, the android brushed his tangled locks out of his eyes. A frown spread across his face as he finally realized he had lost his horn-rimmed glasses following the tussle with Raditzu.

?Of course not,? Super Buu said with a weary grin, motioning toward a nearby walkway with a bloodied arm. We have to keep the pace up if we intend to stay alive in the latter portion of this competition. With that said, the puttalin golem began limping off toward the destination he had pointed to.

?Can you at least wait a second?? Seventeen inquired weakly?the remark causing Super Buu to glance over his shoulder.

?For what?? The magical construct snorted, shifting and pivoting his torso as he tried to turn around to face his cybernetic friend.

?So I can tend to this,? the android muttered, pointing with his mangled right hand toward the wound in his abdomen.

?Oh,? Super Buu quipped, a frown spreading across his pink countenance. Whether he felt bad for overlooking the condition of his friend or if he was annoyed at Seventeen?s mortality was a mystery to the android. ?Of course,? he finally uttered after a short pause.