King Cold was looking down at a blank page in his notepad. He held his pen up to his lip, thinking of what to write down. He often liked to write his thoughts when he had nothing better to do. Jeice blasted the cell's TV after watching the Space Broncos lose the World Series, and it likely wouldn't be repaired within the next two weeks. This left everyone to their imagination.
"Say, Cooler survived? He could... No, no, if Frieza failed he could never defeat that dastardly Super Saiyan. But Kuriza! That boy has potential. If he trained then maybe, just maybe he could've taken care of the Planet Trade! Meaning technically, my clan is still in power!" Cold pondered as Frieza listened, the tyrant had nothing better to do than listen to his father's what-if scenarios.
"Father, Kuriza is a gentle soul. Without the guidance of you or I, he wouldn't hurt a fly." said Frieza. Normally the thought of that disgusted him, but he didn't even care to feel angry anymore. Not far away, the Ginyu's got involved in another game. The normally life-filled group all had a plain look on face, evidently they were upset. They had lost life a while ago. While they had a TV in their cell, it was small, and their were often fights over what was played. Not only that, but they were devastated to be without Ginyu, who seemingly survived.
"So, how long has it been since we were killed?" Cold questioned, beginning to write down notes.
"Four years. On the bright side, Yemma's mentioned letting us have 1 hour outside the cell due to good behavior." Guldo said, hoping to bring some life into the cell. They had been banned from going outside three years ago after starting a brawlout. They've also been one of the only recent groups of people who were unable to go outside. The brawlout started over someone pushing Jeice, and things escalated from there. Normally, if Yemma found out about someone causing trouble, he would sentence them to serve time in a prison-like building. They had completely forgotten how long their sentence was, if they were even told. The prison was the only building for miles, and was only occupied by a few hundred people.
"Just one hour..." Jeice said. They had earned many privileges in the past three years due to good behavior. Some of which include extra channels on the TV, shower rights, and decent food. An hour would normally seem like a blessing, if Hell was consistent with time. Hell was a lot like the living world, having it's own day and night cycle. The day cycle could range from hours, to months, while the night cycle usually lasted for about an hour to a few days.
Suddenly, the door to their cell opened, startling the lot. "This is you're new bunk mate! Don't torture this one, please..." The guard said as he pushed the new member of the cell inside. There was an awkward silence, everyone's eyes glued on the newcomer. Jeice walked up to the man, staring him down.
"Who are you?" Jeice asked, his eyes nervously studying the green man from top to bottom. There was something about the newcomer that felt off. "I am Cell."
The mysterious humanoid insect-like man gave a rather vague response to Jeice after being asked who he was. Guldo shouted from the back of the room, being the first to have something else to say. "Cell? You look weak!" King Cold chuckled at the "Go to hell" look that Cell gave to Guldo. After sighing, Cell then spoke up to the whole group.
"Too much confidence in your own power has always been your biggest weaknesses. Look at the lot of you, you're all a mess! How could the two most fearsome galactic overlords in the universe succumb to an eternal fate in a dirty prison cell like this? Now that's pretty pathetic." Nobody in the room liked hearing that. Cell only smirked down upon the looks he got from the group.
"How can confidence be a bad thing when you're the fastest in the universe?" Burter was the first to speak up. Cell scoffed and grabbed two moldy pieces of bread that were laying the floor, and put each slice on either side of Burter's face. "What are you, an idiot sandwich!?" Cell chucked the bread back onto the floor, leaving Burter with a sad expression. He walked back near the cell door where he was originally standing.
"Look, none of you here are necessarily weak. Being stuck in a cell like this is just pathetic for beings of your status. What you lot need is a good leader, like myself. Now what would you say to that?" Everyone gave a strong look of disapproval. "You're saying we should let some random nobody like you lead us? As if, I've been in the lead of an entire universe for ages! If anything, I should be the leader!" Frieza expressed his opinion to Cell, who struggled to hold his smirk.
"And that's not a bad idea!" Cell immediately responded, already having an idea of the response he was going to get. "But you see I contain the DNA of you, your father, and many others. I posess the best wits out of everyone in this room, so naturally I'm the perfect choice as leader. And if you have any doubts, you can feel free to come at me and see for yourself." Jeice looked up at Cell, still standing directly in front of him. He gave a quick response. "Pffft, you're daring Lord Frieza to attack you? Please lad, you don't hold a candle to any of us."
Cell looked down at Jeice, and remarked with a smirk. "I knew one of you would say something like that. If you're so confident, then why don't all of you come at me! If I win, I get to be leader. How about that?" Jeice responded with a cocky attitude. "Alright tough guy, just keep talking! I'm gonna beat you up!" Everyone in the room whispered to eachother about how they thought this was going to go. They all shared the same opinion, that Jeice was going to put Cell in his place all by himself.
Cell studied at the group, a smirk on each of their faces. Jeice made his move. He sent a punch, aiming to knock Cell out. The bio-android effortlessly dodged, and countered with a kick to Jeice's spine. Jeice smacked into the wall with a thud, surprising everyone. Cell turned his eyes to Guldo, who attempted to attack him while freezing time. However, despite freezing time, the little mutant's attacks were ineffective. After running out of breath, he could no longer keep time still.
When Guldo caught Cell's attention, he was immediately back handed away and sent into straight Jeice, who was already struggling to stand back up. Burter and Recoome attempted to attack Cell, but were both knocked straight down to the ground. Frieza and King Cold watched and they both stepped up, then rushed in. Cell leeped over a kick sent from Frieza, and caught Frieza's tail as he did so. Cell proceeded to slam Frieza into the rusted bars of their cell door.
Cell then managed to catch a right hand that was sent from King Cold. Judging by the force of the punch, Cell's assumptions seemed to be correct. King Cold was the most powerful of the group. He was still far weaker than Cell, however, which was made obvious as Cell effortlessly slammed the large demon into the ground. He quickly followed up with a single punch, the force of which broke Cold's nose. However, due to being dead, Cold and everyone else's wounds would recover in little time.
"Fine, it seems you weren't bluffing about your power, but regardless," Cold began as he dusted himself off. "There are forces much stronger than us out there, namely the Dreaded Seven."
Cell laughed. "You give yourself such little credit, my friend. Just look at us! King Cold, an old galactic ruler, capable of decimating multiple civilizations without leaving his second form. Frieza, a prodigy who's done next to no training in his whole life, can still decimate entire solar systems. The Ginyu Force, minus Ginyu of course, who each have their own special abilities, using them to spread terror across the universe. And last but certainly not least, me, the PERFECT weapon." Cell said, "We can rule this wasteland, even behind bars. We have an entire hour outside each day, if you recall. If we utilize that, we can reign terror throughout Hell. We could almost certainly crush anyone who dares to oppose us! We could make the hour that we step outside TRUE HELL!" Cell paused for a moment after shouting, with a confident expression on his face. "With proper training, of course. We'd be invincible!"
The words that the newcomer spoke seemed to ignite a fire in everyone, as if they had never lost their energy in the first place. However, after a second of pondering, something about what Cold said caught Cell's attention.
"Wait, who is this Dreaded Seven?" He questioned. Gero had no records of such a group, which seemed strange, considering that these seven were stronger than King Cold himself. Cell could feel the sudden heat of the group's anger, could these seven warriors they speak of be that threatening? Cold sighed before speaking. "The Dreaded Seven, as their name implies, is a group of seven warriors. They lived a long time ago, and rose to power a few years following the death of my ancestor, Chilled. They would go around the universe, often times purging planets out of boredom. The Galactic Patrol eventually tracked them down, and managed to kill them, though the battle is said to have raged on for days."
Cell was unimpressed. How could a group get killed by the Galactic Patrol and still be so feared, let alone the question regarding why the Galactic Patrol would even take their lives. Then again, even the strongest of warriors have their weaknesses. "So, who are the other members of this group?" Cell questioned. "Their leader is known as Orochi. He is often considered the strongest being in this prison. The other six members are known as Ginju, Ryce, Taka, Tamago, Maki, and Okonomi. We had an altercation with one of them, Ginju. He is rumored to be the weakest of the group, yet he defeated us with complete ease, even after I transformed." Cell's face brightened up, as he suddenly sparked a newfound interest in the group. The weakest of them could defeat these group of warriors? "You're kidding. Are they in this prison?" Cell asked. "Yes," King Cold quickly jumped to a response. "This cell is located in sector A-14. They're located in sector A-12. They were formerly in here, but were moved after our fight with Ginju."
Cell nodded. He had seen the door to sector A-12 while being escorted to his own cell. "Where are your subordinates? Different sectors?" Cell questioned, Cold merely shrugged before flipping back to his notepad. Cell was about to ask the question once more, but before he could, Frieza spoke up. "We don't know where most of them are. The only four in this sector go by the names of Zarbon, Dodoria, Cui, and Appule. They're rotting in a few cells down from ours." Cell couldn't believe how low the once powerful empire had actually fallen.
Hours of silence passed. While Cell did manage to bring some life to the dead cell, it still wasn't what he'd call "alive." "You should grab a blanky, the nights are usually cold." Jeice recommended, "Lords Cold and Frieza don't normally use their own." Cell looked at the small closet, in it were two small red blankets. Cell declined, he really wasn't bothered by the cold. There was only one thing he couldn't get off his mind: How strong is the Dreaded Seven?
I would just like to thank King Dray for co-writing this as well as making the cover photo! He's a much better writer than I am, so I'd recommend checking his story Pinnacle of Rage. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!