Going max and beyond
The Cell Juniors were laying the beat down to the Z-fighters, Gohan could only watch in shock as Cell watched amused at the beaten warriors who were all but unconscious. Even when they no longer could fight back the Cell Juniors continued to harm them.
'Nooooo! I don't want them to die, how can I save them? I am just a kid, dad was supposed to beat Cell… Why is this happening?' Gohan thought as he clenched his fists, trying to hold back the tears he felt coming.
'I thought dad was holding back against Cell, because I compared his energy to my own, but if I am the strongest then we've lost.' Gohan thought angrily at himself as he was not strong enough.
Gohan's eyes snapped wide open as he remembered his time with his father in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, where Goku showed him a stronger Super Saiyan version which sacrificed speed. Cupping his hands together at his side he began to chant: "Ka…"
Cell turned around, hearing something coming from the boy. 'A Kamehameha? Is he trying to copy Goku by putting everything into it in an attempt to kill me? It didn't work then and it won't work now.'
'Still it did hurt and I am getting bored anyway.' Cell thought, facing the eleven year old Super Saiyan, bringing his own hands to his side and copied Gohan: "Ka..."
'Good.' Gohan thought as a slight smirk made its way on his face as he continued: "Me…"
"Me…"
"Ha…"
"Ha…"
"Me…"
"Me…"
"HAAAAAA!"
"HAAAAAA!"
The two beams tried to push the other back the second they collided midway:
'NOW!' Gohan thought to himself as he pumped his muscles up, his her grew slightly spikier and his golden/yellow aura flared, as the extra strength went into his wave he started to push Cell's Kamehameha back.
'I know it limits my movements' speed, but as long as we're both keeping up our Kamehameha's I don't have to move.' Gohan thought.
'It seems he's stronger than I thought.' "Well then, let's see how you fair against me when I fight at full strength." Cell shouted as he powered up and started to push Gohan's wave back at him.
'No!' Gohan shouted in his mind as he repeated the process he just did and bulked up even more on top of his already bulked up form, sacrificing even more speed for power (just like Goku did in the HTC).
His hair grew even more spikier and his aura flared shone brighter and managed to push Cell's wave slowly back at him. Shockwaves emanated from Gohan's powerful form, causing the ground to shake, rock formations in the area to crumble, breaking any and all cameras present and ragdolled a bunch of pathetic humans (not any of the Z-fighters).
'What! Impossible!' Cell was pissed, he, the ultimate creation, was being matched by a mere boy. Looking over at his 'children' who were still torturing the other Z-fighters, he shouted in a harsh tone: "Hey, my children, get down here and help your dear daddy get rid of this pest."
Obeying, the Cell Juniors landed in half a circle around Gohan evilly grinning. One of the Cell Juniors fired a Death Beam at Gohan, Gohan used some of his energy to form an energy shield at the place he sensed the beam would hit. Upon seeing that Gohan's Kamehameha began losing strength due Gohan also forming a shield to protect himself, the Cell Juniors grinned again. All seven Cell Juniors began firing their own Death Beam after Death Beam at Gohan, while slowly closing in on him. Gohan's shield was keeping up, but when he noticed Cell's Kamehameha closing in on him he tried pushing it back. This forced Gohan to divide his concentration and a slip-up happened, he accidentally dropped his shield on his left side for a split-second, resulting in four Death Beams passing through. Because of his shield the Cell Juniors weren't aiming precisely, as they didn't get through it, but kept firing to distract him. This caused the first Death Beam to miss Gohan by three centimeters, passing him under his left arm. The other ones didn't miss unfortunately, the second one and pierced through his left shoulder, the third through his left upper arm and the fourth through the back of his left shin. Feeling the pain in his arm and leg, hissing, Gohan stumbled a bit, almost letting go of his Kamehameha, but after regaining his bearings he managed to stabilize himself. In a one-knee-on-the-ground-kneeling position, continued firing his Kamehameha with his right hand as his left arm hung limply to his side, it would hurt to use it. He sensed that the Cell Juniors were only about four meters away behind him, standing around him in half a circle, laughing maniacally at him.
*Flashbacks:*
He continued to laugh maniacally as he put even more pressure at ribcage of the already beaten man beneath his foot. Gohan could only watch as rage was building up inside of him at not being able to do anything, but hear his father's cries of agony. But even when his rage exploded and he came into action it was in vain, his dad still died to rescue him from his evil uncle.
In front of him lies the body of his mentor, the man who trained him, the man who jumped in front of him to protect him when he was frozen to the ground with fear as the attack was closing in. Piccolo gave his life to save his, Gohan wanted to just curl up in a ball, wake up and see that nobody had died. Gohan got snapped out of his thoughts at the maniacally laughing of the big bald Saiyan responsible for Piccolo's death. Overcoming his fear with anger, Gohan launched an attack only for it to be slapped away as it was nothing.
Rain, that's what it looked like, only the raindrops were red and instead of seeing a cloud in the sky there was nothing, but two seconds ago there was his father's best friend Krillin. He was screaming in fear as he was being lifted up in the air higher and higher, until an explosion ceased his screaming and he was no more. Krillin was dead and Gohan had done nothing but stare as this happened, on only being broken out of his staring by the maniacal laugh of the person responsible.
When you're the strongest of your group people depend on you, they expect you to save them. But even when Gohan was the strongest somebody still jumped in to kill Cell, for Gohan didn't manage yet to do it. Android 16 got blown into pieces, Gohan could have saved him, but watched it happen and was now watching the Z-fighters get pummeled into the ground by Cell Juniors while Cell just stood there laughing.
*End flashbacks*
'Stop laughing!'
'I WON'T BE WEAK ANYMORE!'
'I WON'T BE AFRAID ANYMORE!'
'I WON'T LET ANYONE DIE ANYMORE!'
'I WON'T WATCH THIS ANYMORE!'
'I won't let Cell kill anyone else! I will make sure of that, even if it's the last thing I do!'
All the raging emotions were building up inside of him and when it reached a certain point, that's when he felt it, his strained muscles eased up a bit, but were still dealing the same amount of power. Looking down at his own body he noticed the lightning-like energy crackling around his body (his hair and muscles were already 'transformed' to level 2) he allowed himself to smirk.
Faster than any could see he swung his injured arm behind him and fired a continuously yellow ki beam where all the Cell Juniors were swept in, causing them to either explode or vaporize. While at the same time managing to push Cell's Kamehameha back to the middle between them.
Feeling the hot burning pain searing through him his left arm slumped back to hanging limply next to him. The wounds bleeding more profoundly after being forced to handle so much energy in their damaged condition. That combined with the bleeding leg and the strain on his muscles of keeping up the bulked up forms caused Gohan to revert back to his state before the extreme-emotional-state (they hadn't given it the name Super Saiyan 2 yet).
Though, being tired due spending so much energy after already being in a tiring beam duel for a while Cell's beam was closing in on Gohan.
'No! No, no, no…' Gohan thought as he looked down at the ground, he was losing hope upon seeing the beam closing in, knowing he was strong enough, but his energy reserves were getting empty.
'It is still not enough, how can I…' Gohan's head snapped back up as he found an answer.
'This is so gonna hurt.' Gohan thought with a small sad smile.
The Z-fighters were still in no condition to do anything, but Goku and Piccolo managed to get on their hands and knees and watched at the spectacle before them. Goku started grinning as he saw Gohan's beam closing in on Cell, he wanted to laugh in victory if he weren't so beat up, as he noticed Cell not being able to add any more energy to push back.
'So much power, where is he getting it from?' Piccolo asked himself as he used his enhanced vision to take a closer look at Gohan, his eyes widened in shock.
"What's wrong Piccolo? Gohan is winning is he not?" Goku asked confused upon seeing the look on Piccolo's face.
"Goku, you know I can create clothes with my energy by turning it into a solid form?" Piccolo asked.
Goku nodded.
Piccolo continued: "He found a reverse process."
"So he will be standing there naked?" Goku asked naïvely.
"No, he isn't using his clothes, they wouldn't produce that much anyway." Piccolo answered
"What then?" Goku asked.
"His own body." Piccolo replied.
"What!" Goku yelled out.
"He is turning his own biological tissue into energy." Piccolo finished as he tried to stand up again, only to fall back on his hands and knees.