Chapter Fifty Four: Ascended
Cell Saga: Part Two
"How are you so damned fast!" Cell shouted before firing an energy blast.
Who would have guessed this tumultuous tale was behind those very words
Hyperbolic Time Chamber( Beginning of the 24 hours)
Trunks stepped into the center of the large living quarters. It was down right palatial in size several beds lined the far wall each able to be hidden by a red curtain. To his right a kitchen with a large refrigerator and an oven or three that is how large it was. Stoves sat lit atop their blue flames licking the iron grates above them.
He stepped across the room to another chamber a door blocked it but he more than likely knew what was inside. Shower heads hung off of the back wall aimed into a small chamber where one would stand. His blue eyes turned back to see his father grab a capsule out of his left boot.
It poofed like every other capsule but it appeared to be a fresh suit of armor. He placed it on one of the beds and walked out his spare armor for sure.
'I guess I should catch up to him,' he darted out of the room heading straight for the huge entrance out into a void of white.
When he stepped out he stumbled falling face first into the white floor the reflection of white temporarily blinding him." Ah what is pushing me down?" he asked grimacing in pain as he made it to all fours.
"I would say that the gravity in this chamber is just about ten times Earth's which I've trained in for most of my life. I don't know where that leaves you boy. You are free to wear armor if you could make it back to the living chamber. I guess you should try and grow stronger at least enough to resist this gravity but that is not my problem," in a flash of blue-white he was gone flying off in a jet of energy.
'Why does he always have to be right? Mom said that the armor would hold up well in gravity training,' he grit remembering his real mother telling him that the armor was extremely resistant to high gravity and G-Force when he first uncovered it as a kid. That was a memory for another day though training was what he looked for.
He crawled almost embarrassingly back towards the palace the relief of the lower gravity allowing him to stand. He mumbled as he grabbed the armor and looking at it the same armor his father wore was laying there. He changed quickly trying to see if he could catch his ever arrogant father but once he stepped out and dropped to one knee, he knew it was futile.
'Guess I'm on my own here,' Trunks sighed internally focusing his mind on the Super Saiyan form. A hum filled the thick air as a golden light transcended over the warrior from the future. Trunks clenched his now gloved fists and shot off in a trail of golden light landing about one hundred yards away he could tell the gravity had gotten higher as his hair had been pushed slightly downward upon landing.
With Vegeta...
Fire surged hundreds of thousands of feet around him in vibrant mutli-story pillars and dozen yard stretches of heat. His first real test within the chamber was this portion a super heated spot with fifty times the gravity of the Earth. His cool onyx eyes danced about realizing that his aura was the only thing keeping the fire from licking against his flesh and burning away the armor which he was wearing.
"This is the challenge Kakarot told me about..pathetic," Vegeta snorted aloud. The word 'pathetic' echoed longer than the rest of the sentence, the chamber was a very strange place. Facing the fire he took a step forward aura vanishing allowing them to consume his frame the crimson-orange flickers dancing around his skin and features violently.
"As I said pathetic," Vegeta remarked the sweat on his brow vaporizing. Both white gloves around his hands clenched and the flames were sent reeling back as golden light ignited across the vast expanse of white. Vegeta's hair sharpened and the golden hue of his ki filled it to the brim sending ripples of force out silently as he formed fully as the Super Saiyan.
'Fwissk!' his hands were shooting out in rapid succession. Massive cyclones fired out horizontally across the fire shooting them into the distance as Vegeta continued to unload. A kick scored through the and a blade made of air raced out extinguishing the flames in that entire swath. A pivoting back hand spun out and threw more the fire away into oblivion.
When Vegeta turned away to begin his next start the fire came back more violent and angry. This section of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber it would appear was something of a hot zone.
"Fine then," the Super Saiyan grinned his aura flailing about around him. His hands turned to white blurs that dashed about in super fast succession sometime the impacts were so close together they made one big gale instead of two. Vegeta would turn and throw finger gestures out unleashing force with no energy, these pierced through even the largest billows of flame.
Turning the Prince awaited the next large billow that was sure to come and when it did he smiled. It crashed down over the Super Saiyan and sent massive tongues of heat out across the white flooring it seemed to not stop, the chamber was capable of forming it instantly.
In the cycling fire two white gloves appeared, they were marked out black against the torrent of fire, ki swirling about them. A large wave of purple light rocketed across for hundreds of thousands of feet sending fire with them. The Galick Gun was extremely powerful and with nothing to hold him back he unloaded with it them in full. The next blast was up destroying the incoming fire rain before it could fall.
Vegeta's suit smoked as he stepped away allowing the flames to return around him. His face contorted into a smile as he merely trekked through it each white boot kicking up flames as he did so, the challenge even if it had been short-lived was over.
Trunks( one chamber month later)
While his father's first real trial within the chamber was a test against the heat, Trunks was against a cold that was almost indescribable. The gravity was massive, something Trunks instantly noticed by the bracing of his legs and feet, and the air hung in a partially frozen state. Large ice crystals defied the gravity around him in a display his mother would have said was impossible.
'I haven't seen my father in nearly a month. Even when I did he said nothing. Is he disappointed in me or is this the true Vegeta my mother was talking about?' he thought feeling the crystals begin to close in around the blue suit wrapped around his arms and legs. Both gloves clicked and a vibrant white aura surged out around him ripping up the swirling ice.
"HA! HA! HA!" three large energy blast surged forth from the warrior's hands spinning around him tearing through the ice. They all buzzed in unison as if they were being controlled. Trunks phased around them dodging each as it got closer only to watch them increase in speed as they raced around, a neat training technique he had learned from Rote when they trained in the future.
All three converged in on him at the same time all crackling with their enhanced speed and overwhelming power. Trunks slammed his left hand down and bounded up the blast following thanks to the lift of his jump. He kicked the first away while the other two brought themselves closer to him. Twin impacts raced out as the time traveler threw a right hand and left foot out.
The two he struck fired off hundreds of feet to either side where they exploded into massive explosions of yellow light. For last one he grabbed in his left hand its power pressing up against his hand rather impressively. Trunks focused and with a shout threw it to the ground in front of him." Rah!" it exploded shooting a massive dome of heat up.
Trunks body was quickly taken in the attack until his blue eyes closed. Golden heat surged around him and a rip shot through the dome as the Super Saiyan shouted." BUSTER CANNON!" a massive blue beam rocketed out from his hands when the youth shouted sending it rebounding back up and consuming him in the process.
He tore through the ki with his aura and landed several marks forming along the armor and his face. Teeth grit he looked over to the distance where a pillar of golden light had established itself. His father.
"One whole month and nothing to show for it! Damn it!" the Saiyan Prince shouted getting up from his push-up stance. The gravity was intense and the heat surged well above one hundred degrees but he made absolutely zero progress.
Furiously he clutched hands to either side and began to power up black eyes staring out to the white in the distance." HAAAAA!" he roared ripples of ki shooting out in a star-like pattern around him. He hovered into the air with a pillar of light that stretched far into the air and an equal amount our around his body. Both black eyes turned blue as he ascended into a Super Saiyan.
Thunder rumbled as he tore through the flaming air body covered in the most viscous fire he could form. Sonic booms were unable to keep up instead trailing off in a very noisy wake as the Saiyan rippled through the Hyperbolic Time Chamber's air.
His destination was an unknown that he needed to find. One where taxing gravity and environmental factors were at their most extreme, a place that was ideal for him to trail in no matter what.
Weeks later...
Trunks was resting in the hub a bowl of warm soup positioned before him on the table. In a weird way reminding him of the bleak future and what it took to survive there even now. His hair had grown out some and his build had bulked slightly from the training but nothing too significant had happened as of yet. Even now eating his meal nothing was going on aside from worry.
'I hope he is okay. He stormed off almost a month ago,' Trunks sighed taking another spoonful into his mouth. His worry was for the health of the elder Saiyan and the fact he was too prideful to admit injury. Food was vital for warriors of their caliber as well and Vegeta had not eaten since the first week they entered in, at least to his knowledge.
'Damn it. He is too far away to sense his ki and if he's hurt I have no clue where he is,' Trunks growled internally placing the spoon back in the bowl. He leaned back in the wooden chair eyes glued to the outside. It was frightening a prospect to think Vegeta may have actually been lost with nothing to anchor to as a location and that the Saiyan could very well been dead.
That worry was until...
'Tac,' the sound of boots touching down echoed through the entire chamber and the hub especially. A figure spawning there as if out of nothing at all, a ghost if one would call it that. His head was covered in flaming black hair that spiked upwards towards the sky even under gravity. His body was covered in damaged body armor and his face was contorted into a smile.
"Father, Vegeta?" Trunks stuttered seeing the warrior enter with swagger into the hub as if he had not just vanished for several weeks on end. The Prince of Saiyans said nothing while he approached the teenager instead choosing to pass entirely and go into the refrigerator.
Vegeta emerged with a piece of meat on a spoke as if it needed to be placed over a fire. Ki raced through it as he sat down the flesh being cooked almost instantly with the help of the natural energy.
"So boy. How is your training coming along," Vegeta said somewhat disgruntled while crossing his legs under the table. He had not seen the youth in a very long time it was strange to see anyone at all at this point.
"Wh-what?" Trunks asked looking forward in shock. His father, the jerky asshole as his mother often referred to Vegeta, was asking how something went? Impossible at least it seemed so.
"You are my son. Answer me how has your training been coming along," he repeated this time far less a question and more of an order. The Saiyan Prince was intimidating even if he was not the most imposing presence when it came to height.
'I see it is more a measuring stick rather than chit-chat,' Trunks realized quickly. His mother's opinion of the Saiyan Elite was very well still grounded in place, even if it did seem a little harsh at the moment." Well, I have hit a wall of sorts. Whenever I push myself everything just stops for me no matter where I go or how hard I try," he responded looking down at the patched flooring of the hub.
"I see. You struggle with it as well. Figures," Vegeta remarked somewhat snidely before pressing up from the table the spoke trimmed of all of its meat. He placed it upon the table before heading towards the door with casual footsteps.
"With what?" Trunks asked too late as Vegeta shot off into the distance with a furious push of Super Saiyan light.
Months ticked by...
Vegeta stood alone in a stifling area of the Time Chamber. Flaming tongues reached out from miles around him and the ground below was boiling a red hue even though it was merely the same ground. Winds laced in flames raced by in a typhoon as the Saiyan looked towards the horizon that he had set: the hub. It was the final destination and after nearly eight months within the confines it seemed still unlikely they would make progress at all.
'Super Saiyan nor this chamber will not conquer me. I have knelt before their restrictions long enough,' the Saiyan Prince roared as a tornado of fire spun around his base form. His onyx eyes glared out as they had months ago when he first encountered the similar situation more shallowly in the mystical room.' I will not longer allow this heat and that transformation leave me beaten!' he growled hands clenching tightly.
"I AM VEGETA!" the Saiyan exploded with anger. Yellow light ripped through the air and surged around him contrasting the raging flames of red light and orange flames that danced around him. Teeth grit his hair spiked up in a blonde flame of its own as the aura raged against the restricting wall of fire that was wrapped around his body. The air danced with winds that were unnatural even by the chamber's standards, caused by the warrior's rage.
"I AM THE PRINCE OF ALL SAIYANS!" he shouted solidifying his Super Saiyan form as his eyes glowed out a blue-green. The fire was starting to keep even if the gravity kept it cycle around him in a vicious oxygen taking tornado. His eyes locked onto a single point in the flames as his clenched hands raised out to either side sparks of bio-discharge running along them.
"I WILL SURPASS RADITZ AND HIS IDIOT BROTHER KAKAROT! I WILL SURPASS SUPER SAIYAN!" he howled to the heavens in a raging echo that seemed to rattle in some extent through the entire chamber. Lightning surged across his aura ripping through the flames that dashed around him leaving the air charged while he continued to rage up the heat reflecting off of his sweating face.
His muscles began to bulge out and more discharge began to run about. His flesh tone began to change as well it became a slightly reddish tint as blood vessels along his face and the rest of his body expanded allowing more power to surge through. His hands were clawed as he continued to howl with the angry aura that had come from the transformation. Vegeta was doing something absolutely incredible, he was surpassing the limits of the basic Super Saiyan form.
Instants later when his screaming stopped the warrior was there standing alone in an area that was now chilled by one hundred degrees. Every flame and every flickering ash had been wiped out by the impending power that was released by the Elite Saiyan warrior. His now more rigid hair whipped within his aura as his hand held out and a massive sphere of energy rocketed out exploding miles away with a gale of blustering wind.
'I have done it! Truthfully I have done it!' Vegeta laughed aloud his body glowing with this Second Grade Super Saiyan Form. In some ways he had done what he said become something even further beyond a Saiyan and even a Super Saiyan.
Trunks had felt his father's ascension but failed to grasp the power as swiftly. His raging power raced through the confines of the Time Chamber as did his screams of trial and error. These noises from the hybrid rang out for weeks on end as he tried to match the ever incredible power that his father had come up with.
Today though was different as he landed upon a spot of incredible gravity. His lavender hair dropped down at a harsh almost straight angle while his body stayed completely vertical. His muscles tensed with ki as he dropped into his typical training regimen and stance throwing out offense that had been used by both his mentor Gohan and the Future Rote he had grown up and trained with.
Quickly he pivoted on his heels aura exploding out into a massive billow of flames. His long hair spiked up wildly in every direction as if statically charged, blonde light filtered through it as he ascended to a Super Saiyan. The gravity was still immense but now it was just a joke as he dashed around with ease hands firing out in rapid succession while trying to fight an invisible target.
'Oh look at him. Its ol' one arm's friend,' Seventeen chided him in a distant memory. His fist fired out and sent a ripple through the entire space in front of him, the ghost's voice though still remained.
'Hey, Seventeen what happened to the other one. The black haired one,' Eighteen's tone rang out mocking Rote's death. Trunks spun firing several energy javelins out in the direction she would have been in if this was that abandoned city.
'We killed him remember!' Seventeen laughed. The half-breed son of Vegeta looked at this ghost, this illusion and snarled feeling disheartened about the entire ordeal at hand.
His blue eyes closed as he prepared to allow the gravity to overwhelm him. An extra month of working was no where near enough to get him close to his father, and two was ridiculous making it seem even further away.
Then though a voice cut into his head.' Hey, kid don't give up,' Raditz's tone, not the current one though the older one from his time line. Trunks looked over to see the burly warrior coated in the aura of a Super Saiyan teaching him and Rote basics.
'He's right you know Trunks. We can't beat the Androids if you don't become a Super Saiyan,' Rote added in from beside him. He was imagining the day that Rote and Gohan were due to their death at the hands of the cyborgs.
'Giving up on becoming a Super Saiyan is never the answer Trunks,' Gohan, the future one, appeared placing his sole remaining arm on his shoulder. It was an illusion and yet it felt so real.
'Giving up is unbecoming of a Saiyan. Your father and Kakarot never did,' Raditz informed once again the apparition was still there so realistically before him.
"You guys were right," Trunks smiled a tear dribbling down his Super Saiyan face. The ghost of his psyche, of his future, faded into nothingness leaving him there alone in the gravity with nothing else.
"RAAH!" grasping onto the emotions that were stirred within him Trunks shouted to the heavens. Lightning coiled around his frame as the Super Saiyan aura spinning around him sparked larger and larger. He felt an empowering burst of power dancing through every vessel in his body, the ceiling that he was facing slowly crumbled as the power poked through it.
"HAAAH!" he kept going surged of bio-discharge flailing around like tendrils. The air burst to life as his aura exploded out in a wild flame his muscles all bulging out largely around him. He too was gaining mass and power, the Second Grade form his father had discovered was quickly surging around him.
He stood there in shock eyes looking out across the white expanse of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. There was nothing there but the pale white that seemed to always be there, he was alone and empowered.
'Thank you, all of you. I'll save this timeline and then come home and save ours,' he smiled turning towards where he came from. The hub was calling there was only one true Earth hour left before they would exit.
Nothing too exciting happened in the remaining time except maybe something that will come up later. Excluding that here we are at the exit at the middle of chapter 53
"So boy are you ready to see my triumph over the Androids," Vegeta asked as they both prepared to exit the mystical room.
"Hey, don't worry I sure am. And if you still need help I will be there too," Trunks gave a thumbs up knowing how upset it would make his father.
Vegeta growled." Hah, as if I would need your help," Vegeta mocked as they pressed through the door.
There it is the experience that occurred within the Hyperbolic Time Chamber between father and son. I think it leads as a good tie-in to the previous chapter don't you?
Anyway thanks for reading,
~Herodan3 and Luke
