Chapter 11:
Gohan was just about heartbroken, but it made sense. The amount of time that he had spent with Videl wasn't much.
He wasn't rich, he wasn't confident in school, he was still a nerd. Some parts fit the ideal "mysterious man" that he knew made women swoon. His other qualities were different, the glasses he wore were necessary for everyday life, he still stuttered at times, he knew that there were reasons why, he just couldn't accept them.
Life once again turned to saving the city, as Saiyaman. His newfound power made it so that traveling across the world to save someone was simple. Effortlessly countless lives were saved, still the public feared that Cell would be able to defeat him.
Nightly news constantly featured Saiyaman, now more than ever the public was trying to find out exactly who he was.
Eventually Gohan folded, and agreed to take an interview on a famous late night show in West City.
The host was surprised that Saiyaman was going to agree to answer some questions regarding himself. Saiyaman's only stipulation was if he was allowed to bring on a guest.
The host agreed of course.
"Hey, are the camera's rolling?" The show had just started a few minutes ago, but neither Saiyaman, nor his guest had appeared.
"And Start." The camera's turned on, and the host greeted his audience. "Hello everyone, tonight I would like to introduce you to the GREAT SAIYAMAN!"
To the staff's surprise Saiyaman walked onto the stage, in full gear. "Greetings people of West City!" His heroic voice was greeted by cheers.
"Hey," one of the more skeptical in the audience said "prove you actually are Saiyaman!"
Saiyaman simply floated into the air, then seemingly laid down, still floating.
"So, does that answer your questions?"
The audience was stunned, turns out the real Saiyaman was here.
The host calmed his crowd before there was a riot, explaining that Saiyaman was here to answer some questions.
The host pulled out a piece of paper from his pants, and unfurled it. "This," he went on "are the top 5 questions that our media site received."
How are you so strong? Are you stronger than Tien or Mr. Satan?
Why do you keep your identity a secret?
Are you stronger than Cell? Could you protect us from him?
Are you dating/married? (this one got a round of laughter)
What is your favorite sports team?
As the host rattled off the questions Saiyaman's facial expression started to change to one of amusement.
"Ok, I think I can answer most of those." Saiyaman exclaimed.
Alright, let's start from the top.
"I am stronger than Tien, but I wouldn't stand a chance against the one who destroyed Cell."
The crowd laughed. "I can say I'm stronger than Tien because I know him personally, and bribed him to not beat me up later." Saiyaman's smirk grew as he talked.
"The way I got so strong is similar to the way Tien got so strong, intense KI training. If you want to learn how to do what I do, join the New Crane martial arts school. It's taught by Tien personally."
The crowd went wild as Saiyaman pulled a New Crane school poster from seemingly nowhere.
"Alright, next question," Gohan went on "I keep my identity secret because of #4, I don't want fangirls storming my house. I also don't want to be shot in my sleep."
"For question three I would like to bring on a special guest." Saiyaman gestured to offstage,
"Cell, if you could step forward?"
The crowd gasped as the blue figure of Cell seemingly appeared from nowhere. Shock turned to panic before Saiyaman was able to control everyone.
"Hey, hey, hey! Let Cell speak for himself before everyone goes crazy!"
Cell took center stage before smiling. "I understand your reaction, but I really hate to be mistaken for my father. If I didn't know better I would say all of you just really hate bugs." Cell continued as the crowd relaxed. "I have no intention to destroy anything, even though Saiyaman wouldn't be able to stop me right now. Who knows, if he is lucky I might make him my sidekick!"
The crowd laughed nervously.
"I am Cell Jr. thankfully, I am nothing like my father. I have helped save the Earth once or twice since I slapped Saiyaman through a building. Turns out my dad wasn't the best person," Cell shrugged "who would have thought?"
The crowd applauded.
"As of today," Saiyaman said "Cell Jr. and I are partners in… well stopping crime!" Both took a bow before Cell vanished, leaving Saiyaman alone.
"Wow, I certainly didn't expect you to bring Cell here, but that definitely answers that question" the host said.
"Alright," Saiyaman continued "question 4, am I married." There was a pause for drama, "I am currently not married, or dating anyone. My normal identity isn't what you would expect. If you ever pass someone who looks like a geek on the street it may just be your friendly neighborhood superhero!"
The crowd expected a small lecture, Saiyaman was a public figure after all, promoting bullying or other crimes would be frowned upon.
"My favorite team is the North City Dragons, their velcro ball team has a chance to win it all this year!" With that Saiyaman sat down, and let the show continue. At the end there were quite a few people who came up to him with individual questions, and items to sign. Saiyaman also signed a few… bouncy body parts on some women. After the waving goodbye to everyone Saiyaman disappeared, reappearing in capsule corp less than a second later.
The show was definitely needed, Gohan again felt needed. He was almost over Videl, he knew she had a new boyfriend so getting back with her was incredibly unlikely. Gohan's life now turned to maintaining the image of Saiyaman. He received a cut of the royalties from his books and action figures, the money was sent to Tien. Tien's school was booming after the recommendation from Saiyaman. With no big villains around working at capsule corp, took priority over training. Gohan maintained his power, but improving it just wasn't something important anymore. Piccolo, Cell, Vegeta, and even Master Roshi were all much stronger than he was. Besides, Gohan knew that all but Cell had hit a plateau of power. Piccolo's mysterious boost was interesting, now his power couldn't be sensed, but there was no reason to think that Piccolo's gains were as high as they were. Cell was slowly getting stronger, his desire to be the #1 protector of the earth had driven ever since the fight with Buu. This drive had driven him to heights that would have rivaled Buu when he first appeared (before becoming the killer of Gods).
Cell's drive for power recently made him leave the planet in order to research the races he was made up of. To his knowledge he was composed of the following - Saiyan, Ice-demon (Frieza and King Cold), Namekian, Human, and beetle. Saiyans, Humans, and insects could all be studied on Earth. Cell knew that he had the aura of a SSJ2, complete with the electrical sparks and, either humans or bugs had special transformations. In order to further increase his power, Cell decided to stop by two remote planets, New Namek, and Frieza planet 01. Frieza planet 01 was the home-planet of Ice-demons, though none were anywhere as strong as the Cold family there would be powerful beings there. Both planets could help him gain more knowledge, perhaps they had extra forms that there was no previous knowledge of. Frieza planets may also give him more knowledge on Saiyans, hopefully giving cell new forms.
The golden aura wrapped around Cell, as he took off for space. 50 of his drones would stay on earth, being his eyes in case any problems arose. The drones also fought crime in order to, give Cell a good name on Earth.
As Cell accelerated his Ice-demon auto-respiratory tract kicked in. Alien photosynthesis started up, drawing hydrogen from space, allowing him to breath. This also worked underwater, in oxygen deprived environments, real vacuums would simply kick on the mitochondria in his body, giving him a 2-3 hour gas tank, of course this allowed him to breath in oxygen environments as well. Earth hovered below, slowly fading. As Cell accelerated beyond the speed of light, entering slip stream he aimed himself towards his first destination, New Namek.
*Kachink*
As Cell landed on the planet, a few hours later a nostalgic sight greeted him. The blue fields and water was oddly familiar. The first to spot him were two younger Namekians who were playing. Though they were worried at first they calmed down as Cell greeted them in their native language. By learning from Piccolo, and reading other's mind's he was able to get a picture of everything about the alien language. The sentence structure, the vocabulary, the correct way to address elders.
All of it was learned, and relearned in a second.
The children went off to get their village Elder, Cell was instructed to stay put.
As the elder returned Cell lowered himself into a meditation pose before greeting the elder politely.
The Elder didn't first trust Cell, but after he mentioned Goku, and Piccolo the Elder was more than happy to answer any questions. Cell's questions about Namekian fusion was talked about, and cell attempted to fuse with one of his drones, under direction from the Elder. The failure was seemingly due to the fact that Cell, and the drone had the same Ki. They were the same person. No other methods were known, but the Elder promised that they would ask everyone, even the grand elder.
Cell promised he would return after his other pit stops.
As Cell took off for Frieza planet 01 a warm feeling accompanied him. Being good was much nicer than being evil. There was no fighting for information, no pointless bloodshed in order to gain power. It was all so peaceful.
Three hours later Cell landed on the Frozen rock, Frieza planet 01. The cold tundra suprised Cell, evidently most frost-demons weren't like the Cold family. Galactic domination wasn't on their agenda. Far in the distance Cell sensed a few powers that were fairly powerful, nothing close to Frieza, but stronger than most of the Namekians. Cell switched his Ki signature from his usual blend of powers into simply that of Frieza and King Cold. The consequence was instant, around 400 ice-demons flew to him, and bowed before realizing that Cell was neither Frieza nor King Cold.
Cell touched one of them, learning their language instantly. Cell explained everything he felt comfortable explaining, including the death of Frieza at the hands of a super saiyan. An old demon stepped forwards, the strongest of the group.
"What do you wish to do here? Before you kill us all I simply have one question. Was the man that killed frieza a saiyan god?"
-Berus awakened from his sleep- Words were spoken that he hadn't heard in a long time…. A super saiyan god hmm…
Cell slowly took a step back "I am not Frieza, surely I will not kill you. Please, what is a saiyan god? I also have information that Cooler, Frieza's older brother was able to obtain a form that was above your original forms…"
"The Saiyan god... The red haired monster, the form is obtained through unknown means, transforms a Saiyan into a god. My brother was killed by one over 1000 years ago during their war for independence. After the form was lost the Saiyan died from his injuries, that lone Saiyan killed over 200 of our race." The old Demon was now sitting comfortably next to Cell, no longer afraid that he would kill the rest of them. Frieza, ever jealous told them that eventually he would come back and make sure that only his heirs would continue the race. The only thing stronger than frieza that he had seen was the Saiyan god, the red haired monster.
Cell, pleased that conflict was avoided asked the other demons if they knew forms beyond their original one, none did other than another ancient being. He was missing an arm, and his tail was cut up beyond recognition, war wounds. The demon described a form that was shockingly similar to that of Cooler's 5th form, the Warmachine form. The natural armor increased, spikes formed on the arms and legs, and the being grew in size. This form was what finally was able to destroy the Saiyan god after his energy dispersed. It was this form that won them the war against the Saiyans.
Sadly, this form was also lost in the annuls of history, only a few commanders were able to pull it off and none knew how.
This Saiyan god and Warmachine, two tasks Cell needed to master. Exploration of other Frieza planets was the next step.
After thanking his kin he took off into space once again. Once he entered slip stream he was alone with his thoughts.
Saiyan God…. Warmachine… Relics of the past, could they really be stronger back then?
Cell landed on Frieza planet 39, the old main base of the Ginyu force. This was where most of Frieza's forces were now living. As Cell walked into the main base it was instantly obvious that something was wrong. Nothing stopped his entry, a pair of dead bodies confirmed his initial fears. Cell, now concerned (not for his life, but for those in the base) scanned for energy, only a few beings were still alive. Suddenly, one of the energy signals killed the other, then another signal killed the murderer. Still, something was off… All of them had the same energy signature. It was very disconcerting. Quickly going to the source Cell only met with one being, still alive but barely breathing. "It was awful, it killed everyone, it was everywhere. I failed..." His conscious was fading "I was it for a while, I killed my friends. It…. It…... " he was fading now. "it controlled me." Cell released a few drones to search if there was anything else that was strange. none found anything. Cell then sent the drones back to Frieza planet 01 in order to observe any changes there. Nothing in the surrounding galaxy was anywhere near his level of power…. Sill… Something seemed off.
Cell decided to return to New Namek, hopefully he would learn about the Saiyan God and Warmachine, as well as get more information on Namekian powers.
Then, he would return to earth. His drones hadn't provided him any reason to worry, but this latest base simply dying off, and the odd Ki signatures. It worried Cell.
Nothing was going to happen on his watch. After he acquired those forms he would be the strongest in the universe. No evil would go un-noticed.
The drones landed on Frieza planet 01. Cell checked their powers before going into slip-stream for New Namek.
Sensing energy in slip-stream was impossible. All he could hope was that nothing would change for 2 more hours.
As Cell landed on New Namek the first thing he noticed was that none of his drones were alive. The last image that was seen was that of one of his black drones killing the Demon Elder before killing the fellow drone.
Something was definitely wrong, very wrong.
A chill went down Cell's spine, all he needed to do was get stronger… If he was stronger he would be able to beat anything.
Author's note:
The suspense! Hopefully I did this chapter well, the new Villain is slowly making an appearance, as is Berus. I wonder which what will happen first?
I also wonder how a villain can be stronger than the killer of God's, Buu.
What is the "warmachine?"
What is "saiyan god mode?"
all this and more will be answered shortly.
NEXT TIME ONE - DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO DBZ!