Gohan was on the brink of victory. Cell was finally getting pushed back, the kamehameha struggle was leaning in his favor.

NOW SON!

The energy wave engulfed Cell, destroying every part of the biological monster. Now the nightmare was over.

With a sigh Gohan fell to the ground, completely exhausted.

It was a very tough fight. Goku had perished, as had Trunks and Android 16. There were many things that needed to be done now that the Bio-android was dead.

For all the inhabitants of Earth it was a joyous occasion, many people came back to life and, their savior, Hercule was greeted with thunderous applause upon returning to Orange Star City.

There were two people who were solem on that day however. Both young men had lost the man they called father. Gohan was shocked to find he couldn't wish back Goku but was understanding when he talked with his father. He knew that at the very least, someone up there was always going to be watching out for him (or training, it is Goku). The other young man had no such comfort, the other person who had lost a parent was Cell Jr. Only a few hours old Cell Jr. hadn't thought of much but, when he saw his father get blown away in a struggle of energy he knew he needed to escape, quickly. Once he was sure that none of the fighters would find him, he thought about the events of the one day he was alive.

There was no good reason that he fled the scene, the super intelligent being reasoned. All the fighters were either weaker than himself or, severely damaged. He could have killed all of them without trying, avenging his father.

With that thought, Cell Jr. much like Piccolo Jr. before him began training. Unlike Piccolo Jr however Cell Jr. wasn't pure evil. He had the cells of some of the plant's most caring people inside of him, Goku, Gohan and even Piccolo himself were known to be fierce protectors of the Earth. With some thought Cell Jr. realized that his goal in life didn't need to be the goal of his creator. There was no good reason to destroy mindlessly. The only thing holding those feelings back was the scene that was burned into his brain, the scene of his father being destroyed by Gohan.

Gohan must pay, Cell Jr. thought before he started the training and growth that would last him 3 years. At that time Cell Jr. became just as powerful as his father. Cell Jr. content with this power decided to meditate until an opportunity to fight Gohan arose. This time wouldn't come for 4 years. During these 4 years Cell Jr. experienced many things and gained a deeper understanding through the meditation. Though he weakened over those 4 years Cell Jr. was still sure he could defeat Gohan. He needed to, for his father.

Gohan slacked on his training. After witnessing his father die he decided his best course of action was to look after the family he still had. Chi Chi announced she was pregnant with Goku's child and had Gotten. Goten kept them busy and, was in a way a reminder of Goku himself. Goten was eerily similar to his father, a fact that everyone that met him seemed to understand.

After 7 years Gohan decided to finish up his schooling (just to get more credibility) before starting a job at Capsule Corporation. To do this he enrolled in Satan City's Orange Star High School for the year.

The story of father and son takes place there.

Gohan was excited to finally start a real school, his social life had so far only consisted of other hyper-powerful beings such as Piccolo. This opportunity to blend in with society was a great one, on his way to the first day of 12th grade he met no resistance. The city, Satan City, was named after the supposed savior of the Earth, Hercule Satan. Gohan didn't mind much, he was happy that he wasn't swamped by media personnel 24/7 and, felt no ill will to the man. Gohan landed in the school lot and checked in at the front desk.

Gohan Son, he told the lady in charge of his registration finalization. With that, the superhuman headed off to class.

Of course the talk of the day in modern history class was the Cell games, this incident was widely regarded as one of the most interesting phenomena in the world. Cell was widely regarded as an alien with strange powers, the most common explanation for why Hercule was able to beat him was something to do with the powers not working on carbon based life forms. Gohan shrugged, it was indeed an interesting theory and, it made sense. Hercule was an accomplished martial artist in his own right, if cell had no powers then it could be assumed that Hercule would kick his ass.

But, why wouldn't cell's powers work on carbon based life said someone in the back.

That is a good question, nobody knows for sure, Mrs. Videl the instructor replied.

Videl wasn't done, her questioning about the cell games came hard and fast.

She brought up the androids, the mysterious fighters and one that Gohan himself didn't know the answer to, a creature that greatly resembled cell that was caught on camera levitating in the mountains to the far North.

The teacher was stumped, she saw the "cell videos" herself and had no logical explanation for them. With a shrug she simply dismissed the questions.

That is something you will have to find out on your own were her closing words on the subject.

The rest of the class was normal history, the building of Satan City and the renaming as well as talk about other, more mundane topics.

Gohan was very interested in this Videl person… Perhaps they could learn a little from each other.

Sadly, Gohan's thoughts were interrupted by the man sitting next to him, Sharpener. Sharpener was Gohan's most recent friend. After accidentally running down the boy he was surprised to find that Sharpener was more interested in how strong Gohan was rather than be upset that he was run over. The two hit it off and, Gohan felt like he made his first real friend.

On second thought, Gohan murmured to himself…

Sharpener was more than happy to show his new friend some footage of the cell like creature. His only stipulation was that Gohan tell him about himself. For Gohan this was a large task, playing it safe he told Sharpener about martial arts (omitting the names Piccolo, Krillin and Roshi from his talk) and, told him about his academic career, including his opportunity with Capsule Corp.

Sharpener, it turned out was also a martial artist. He was a professional boxer with a record of 5-2 with one tie. Excited to find that his friend knew a lot about fighting he made a mental note to ask for a spar later.

With questions out of the way Sharpener turned on the video. The quality was surprisingly high, the person recording seemed to have a head-mounted camera and, was on a hike in the far north. After reaching the top of a hill he lets out a gasp and slowly zooms in on the creature he is recording. Sure enough, it looks almost exactly like cell. Gohan slowly pales at the realization that this video footage may be real. The most disturbing part to him is the fact that the cell look alike is blue.
The footage wraps up with the recorder gazing at the monster before slowly backing away and leaving. Interestingly the monster never moved, and the person recording made it back alive.

Sharpener grinned, seeing his friend's face. Scary right? Sharpener goaded, surprised Gohan had never seen this video before.

Gohan responded with a nod, still trying to stop shaking.

Hey, Sharpener pointed out, if that thing tries anything Hercule will stop him, just like last time.

Gohan felt awful. It was time to start training again, for the sake of humanity itself he needed to become stronger.

Power levels:

Super perfect cell: 300,000,000

Cell Jr (before 7 year gap) : 70,000,000

Cell Jr (after 7 year gap) : 200,000,000

Gohan (before 7 year gap): 325,000,000

Gohan (after 7 year gap): 250,000,000

Videl: 30 (three times stronger than the average human)

Sharpener: 25 (weaker than Videl but not by much)

Author's note:

I think I will be able to do quite a bit with this one. I have ideas for the Buu arc and a ton of ideas for the Berus arc so I hope I can make it go on for that long. I don't want to create any Mary Sue characters, balance will be attempted.

Thanks for reading, drop a review if you enjoyed (or didn't enjoy) feedback is always appreciated.

I couldn't do this without you

Solaris