Chapter Three
Cell vs Seru
Gero was excited. Today would be the day. He was sure of it. His fingers nimbly ran over the keyboard, the console glittered with flickering lights and the monitor danced with information. Finally the images appeared as his satellite shifted into position. It was the city of Peel. It zoomed up, clarifying the scene as it did. People were walking down the street. It zoomed in again, on one person in particular. A woman, young, undeniably beautiful chatting to a man whose arm she hung from.
"Got you." Gero hissed and his eyes narrowed as his fingers danced again. He watched as a blue van pulled up suddenly next to the couple. Two burly men jumped out of the van, one shot the man in the head and he went down, dead. The woman was grabbed, tranquilized with a needle and loaded into the van. It had all taken seconds. The van burst into the air, flying fast while the blood still pooled from the dead man's body.
Gero laughed his eyes gleaming at the success. The monitor went black as he executed the program and began to mill around his laboratory. Minutes passed and he heard the sounds of doors opening and closing as the two goons appeared in the lab's entrance with the unconscious woman. Gero gestured to a work table that had equipment stored next to it ready to go. They dumped her unceremoniously and left Gero alone in the sterilized lights of his lab with the unconscious woman. He began his work, humming to himself as he injected the woman with drugs and attached the sensory readings to her body.
It was two years later, the woman was running madly, tears streaming down her eyes as she slipped down the rocky mountainous path. She heard the alarms screaming behind her, but she ran as fast as she could, refusing to look back. She screamed as she lost her footing, falling down an incline, grazing her body on the loose rocks on the way. She was bloodied, when she landed, but she leaped back to her feet and ran through the trees. It felt like an eternity before she burst out onto a road. She screamed, leaping out of the way of a truck that was screaming down the road.
Minutes later, she had managed to hitch a ride with a different truck driver, taking her away from all the horrors of the lab.
Twelve years later and she had managed to forget the horrors of her two years of captivity. She had settled down again, gotten married and had a child, a daughter. She worked hard, loved her husband and her daughter and thought life was dandy. She went out with her friends often, and she was on the way to one of them when they struck. A new van, although still blue, pulled up besides her again, she screamed as the mechanical androids snickered, lifted his hand and with minimal effort, ended her life.
Two days had passed since Seru had left Rowan. Her life had fallen apart since then. She had quit her job and school, had packed her things tightly away, along with the empty shell of Seru, and re-capsuled her house. She had packed that away safely and then jumped on her capsule bike and began the process of running away all over again. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were watery and her resolution at an all time low. She had seen the news. She had heard the stories. She was so sure it was him, but she hoped and believed it wasn't. It had broken her heart to hear about the wanton destruction and the countless lives he was reaping, and she couldn't even fathom a reason as to why. He had always been the friend to her, caring, to an extent. She couldn't piece it together, and had instead, chosen to mourn as if he had died. To her, it felt as if he had, only worse, because he had become a monster. Cold chills that ran down her spine had become a common thing.
She settled down for the night at a hotel in the heart of a rather busy town. The place was fraught with scared people and didn't blame them. She showered and redressed herself before slipping into bed for the night. She didn't turn the TV on. She didn't want to hurt herself more with the news.
She woke in the middle of the night to the high pitched screams of people downstairs. She startled, but leaped out of bed, grabbed her back pack and charged out the door. She saw him then, stalking the corridor. He saw her, his eyes narrowed and he grinned.
"Hello." He rasped. She frowned.
"You jerk!" She yelled. His eyes widened in surprise. "Why did you have to do it?! You've become a monster!" She screamed. He seemed shocked for a second, turned his head in his quizzical way. Tears pricked her eyes again. "Do you have any idea how much pain you've caused me?" Seru seemed to regain control over himself and he crouched down slightly, his tail arching over his head.
"Allow me to end your pain." he rasped slowly. He charged her then. Time froze. Her mind raced ahead and all she could think of was how much she hated him right then for being a two faced bastard. Then the floor beneath him erupted and time rushed back to her and she was thrown to her back. She was expecting the needle sharp tip to dive into her at any second, but instead, she heard the sounds of fighting. She sat up quickly, saw the giant hole in the hallway and heard the sounds beneath her.
She crawled to the edge and peered in the hole. She nearly fainted from the shock of seeing Seru caught up in a fist fight with himself...
"Two..." She shook her head in disbelief and collected herself before running for the stairs. She burst into the downstairs hall to see Seru uppercut his dopplganger in the jaw. Lavender hued blood erupted from his maw and he fell unceremoniously, sprawled on the ground. The Seru that was standing turned to her and she smiled weakly.
"Run." He rasped. Without hesitation she turned and ran down the stairs again. As she emerged from the hotel she found empty clothes of dead people all over the streets and she felt her heart twinge. She screamed as the floors above her erupted in a shower of light broken glass and rubble. The two Seru's fell to the road in front of her, wrestling madly with each other. One got an advantage and punched the other repeatedly in the face. As if flicking a switch, they both stopped moving instantly and turned to stare at the sky.
"Senshi!" They rasped in unison. They both leaped to their three toed feet, both glaring at Rowan. She felt she was missing something, but they both charged her, felt the arms around her, and the sudden nausea of the ground disappearing beneath her as she was flew. She stared up at the Seru that had her and found his expression unreadable. She stared around and didn't see the other one and assumed he had run off. The speed that he flew with was unbelievable, but it was short lived as he dived into the dense forest below and ran instead, still faster then a car could drive.
What seemed like ages passed before he suddenly stopped, Rowan feeling sick. Seru hugged her to himself, one hand slipping over her mouth to quieten her and he turned to the sky. She followed his gaze, seeing men flying over the trees, bright flames of energy engulfing them. She thought simply that her day couldn't get any weirder.
Finally Seru let her go and she stumbled onto her own legs, turned to stare at him. His expression was unreadable again, but he made no attempt to kill her either.
"Seru?" She asked quietly. He broke into a grin to answer her. She sighed, feeling relief, but anger and hurt all at the same time. She turned on him suddenly.
"What the hell have you been doing?!" She snarled. He smirked.
"It's good to see you too." He hissed in his cold voice. She frowned and her face fell.
"Who was that other guy?" Seru's face fell cold too.
"That is Cell." She frowned deeper.
"I.. I thought you were Cell." He smirked.
"I'm Seru. But were the same thing." He replied. She felt small and confused. He noticed. "I should explain, Rowan." He began, "As I said before, I am a bio-mechanical android, created by Dr Gero. My primary objective, the reason I was created is to merge my being with two of Gero's other androids, Number 17, and 18. Unfortunately, I was born in a different time line, in the future, and the androids there were destroyed. So I... Borrowed a time machine from a man named Trunks and came here instead to find and absorb my androids here. Strangely enough the Cell here has emerged 24 years earlier then he should have, meaning there are two of us hunting the androids, instead of one."
Rowan stared blankly at Seru. She felt even more confused now then she had before. She blinked twice, and sorted through the information he had given her. She turned to him slowly.
"Your from the future." He nodded slowly once.
"Yes."
"Your here to... absorb or merge or whatever, with two other androids, because they weren't in your time line." Seru smirked and nodded again.
"But for whatever reason, the Cell here, that wasn't supposed to be born for another 24 years is already here too." Seru nodded again. She sighed, staring at him slowly.
"It's hard to believe." Cell grinned.
"I know." Her face turned cold.
"You've been absorbing the people here though?" He frowned and nodded slowly.
"Not as many as Cell, however, and his power is quite formidable as a result." She sighed and looked at the ground.
"So you become more powerful be eating human?" He nodded slowly. "And he's been doing that too, to become more powerful?" Seru nodded again. She looked back up at him, tears pricking her eyes.
"It's such a waste of human life." She whispered. He lifted his hand to her chin, making her look him in the eyes.
"You have to understand, Rowan, I need to do this. It's why I was created. And although I'm grateful for all your help, you aren't going to stop me now." He had said it calmly and softly but she still heard the menace in his voice. She frowned.
"I know, and thats what worries me." She managed a weak, forced smile before she stepped back from him and turned her back to him.
"Are you going to... kill me too?" She choked on her words. He snickered at this, as if it was amusing.
"Of course not. That would be no way to reward your generosity." He said it with a casualness about it. Then his voice fell sobered again. "But Cell will." She turned to him then paused for a moment, then reached into her backpack. She slipped out a permanent maker, walked to him, reached up and drew on his crest. His eyes followed her, but he couldn't see.
"There." She said simply. "Now I can tell you apart." Seru chuckled, amused.
"I have to leave you again now. Avoid concentrations of humans Rowan. That's what he's hunting at the moment. At least until he's powerful enough to absorb the androids." She frowned.
"Is that your plan too?" He smirked.
"No. My plan is to absorb him first."
He left shortly after that. She sat down, letting her mind walk itself through the information and the complications of what it all meant. Unfortunately it made her feel more vulnerable then it had before and she felt afraid, truly afraid. As if having one android was enough, there was at least two other androids, plus two Cell's. Her mind couldn't truly comprehend it, let along understand it.
She set up her capsule house near a river that night, as Seru had suggested, far away from any other human and resigned herself to a restless night's sleep, jumping at every sound.