Chapter 23: The Grumpy Grumps
After a string of none-too-subtle hints from Calliope that 'nudity made her uncomfortable' and that 'there was a time and place but this was not it', Cell relented and donned his armor again.
The decontamination had finished some time before he decided this, as he had found it to be rather liberating to be without it. It also made the exam and medical procedures Calliope put him through rather pleasant. Even if she had been wearing gloves throughout he could still remember the feeling of her hands on his chest, arms and neck where he had been gently prodding- and at times not-so-gently jabbing with needles.
But Cell certainly wasn't going to complain about getting out of the uncomfortable scrub pants he had been all-but forced into. As nice as nudity had proven to be, it was equaling comforting to be back in his armor. Admiring himself in the glass of the partition that separated the observation room from the main room, he found he cut a more fierce figure. The fact that Calliope could bear to look at him for longer than the breath of a second without looking away with a brief flush was a bonus.
Considering they were going to be in quarantine for at least a day together, and who knew how long after whoever the so-called Doctor Fall was sending to collect them, Cell decided it was best to avoid any potential conflicts. He was only mildly annoyed to be taking Goku's advice. Especially since it seemed to be working.
It seem as long as he avoided prodding at her insecurities and dysfunctions, Calliope was more than willing to be civil.
It was a nice change of pace, he had to admit.
After the call with the pathetic so-called 'Doctor Fall', Calliope had spent a solid ten minutes glaring daggers at the computer, unmoving. She had waved off any effort on his part to inquire that 'it was fine' and 'things were handled.' Even with Fall's assurances, she seemed unsettled. This wasn't exactly surprising, as surely she had picked up on the annoyingly suspicious nature Fall seemed to exude.
It wasn't long after that Calliope seemed to snap to action, her attention fully focused on the laptop. With her occupied, Cell had taken the calmer mood to quietly reflect and meditate. He chose to give her some space, taking a position half-way across the room they occupied to lean against a wall. The isolation unit they occupied might not have been as grand as his arena, with its cramped quarters, sterile white tiling, and the vague scent of disinfectant, but it was comfortable enough.
His enemies had long-since vacated the area by then, apparently heeding the warnings that the area was a bio-hazardous risk. The distant sounds of nature that intentionally steered clear of him or the wind were replaced with the dull hum of internal mechanisms for contained utilities and Calliope's occasional soft mutterings. She had called the computer some variety of a 'son of a bitch' three times before Android 16 showed up again, entering through the door that entered into the small observation room.
"Doctor Merriweather, I have told everyone gathered to keep a safe distance." At the sudden loud intrusion, Calliope, who had been thoroughly engrossed until that point, gave a startled curse before her eyes settled on the android. "The area is secure. There does not appear to be any further threats present." The android paused for a moment to give a pointed look at Cell as if wanting to include him as a potential threat. "Doctor Merriweather, are you alright in here?"
Calliope huffed a sigh, appearing as annoyed with this line of questioning as Cell was. She would surely be eager to get back to work on investigating what had happened at this lab. But she rose to cross the room, hit the intercom button at the side of the pane of glass that kept quarantined occupants separated from anyone who would be on the other side.
"Everything's fine 16. We were able to get in contact with someone who has information about the disease we were exposed to." She then added, with noted annoyance likely directed at the previous call with Fall, "Not that he would tell us anything about it, which is frustrating, but I got some documents out of the Solstice lab that might be able to tell us more. We should have some assistance coming within 24 hours. So... I guess there's that."
Cell recalled the chat they had had with Doctor Ian Fall. That boy was both frustrating, and suspect given his reaction to the situation. He didn't like how familiar he was with Calliope, or how eager he was to hear about the effects of whatever it was that Violet had been infected with. He had intentionally left out as much detail as possible. 'We're going to take care of it' Ian had said as if that was meant to be of some comfort.
"Hey, would you go and check on my friends at my lab in Nicky Town for me?" Calliope spoke up before 16 had a chance to further inquire. "I'm having a hard time getting in contact with them. No one is picking up my calls and I lost my HoloCat so I can't link up with a drone to talk to them."
At her request, the android's usual stony face sported a deep frown. 16 tone was still monotonous, but somehow held an edge now, "I do not think it would be wise for you to remain alone here with Cell."
From the side of the room he still occupied Cell snorted a laugh and rolled his eyes. It wasn't that he necessarily disliked the android. 16 was a fellow creation of Doctor Gero and could serve as admirable security for Calliope in his own absence. But he thought the idea that he was going to harm her absurd.
"Okay, and understand your reservations, but, I would like to make sure my friends are okay." Calliope pressed calmly, but the fact that she had to reiterate something she had already gone over that evening clearly wore on her nerves. "Besides, I'm fine, he's not going to hurt me." She turned at the waist to address him, losing only a sliver of cool, "Right Cell?"
"Honestly, would I have saved her if I wasn't interested in her well being 16?" Cell spoke the last word with emphasis, his gaze directed at the android.
"Considering everything you have done, I do not trust you." 16's voice carried loudly over the intercom system, his anger clear. His tone calmed as his eyes shifted back to address Calliope. "I can try to contact them on my internal communications."
"Oh, okay, yeah. Do that then." Calliope was quick to say as she perked up.
16 went quiet, his face a blank slate as he concentrated. A moment stretched into a minute. Calliope's head lolled to one side and then the other as if trying to stretch sore neck muscles. Cell mused internally that if he had a wristwatch, he'd be looking at it quite condescendingly at this point. He assumed the android must have gotten caught up in an asinine conversation with the HoloCat AI.
Finally, 16 blinked, the only movement he had made since he last spoke. He looked back to Calliope and spoke in his usual flat voice, "I am unable to reach them. The HoloCat unit connecting calls has told me that they are currently unavailable. They are dealing with a belligerent man named 'Lorenzo', who has escaped capture with a gun and moonshine. "
Cell couldn't stifle his laugh at the mental image. He briefly wondered if Lorenzo was equipped with a real gun or one filled with the goat tranquilizers Calliope had been touting when they first met. The latter brought up a more entertaining mental image.
Calliope leaned with her forehead against the glass and let out a sigh. Cell could just catch her muttering to herself, "Oh god damn it..." Her head snapped up, and her words came in quick, concise pace, "Okay, 16. My friends are, at best, exceptionally competent tech support, but they are not prepared for what I'm assuming is a drunk idiot who they maybe, possibly, definitely kidnapped at my request. Can you go make sure they're safe? Please?"
"Calliope, it is not safe to leave you here alone with Cell." 16 protested again, with a distinct frown to his otherwise usually stoic features.
"Well, unfortunately, Cell is a biological entity that has been exposed to an infectious agent." She shot back, her own frustration boiling over at the situation. "The most responsible thing I can do is advocate for his, and my own, isolation until further testing can be done. I have no other way of contacting my friends. 16, please, I promise I will be fine here. They're a bunch of nerds with anxiety issues in a power outage, with my ex-employer, who has barely addressed anger management issues. And now he has a gun. And moonshine, for some reason."
"Are you sure?" 16 asked quietly, after a long moment of silence and likely calculating various things.
"I wouldn't ask if I wasn't sure." Calliope said back without hesitation.
It was hard to tell whether or not the android accepted that answer, his face remaining stoic as ever. "Do not let her come to harm."
"16, she literally could not be in safer hands." Cell said this with no small amount of certainty on the matter. This brought a brief, harsh glare from 16 as if in doubt.
With that, 16 left through the same door he had entered out of the quarantine unit. Calliope returned to the laptop, apparently satisfied that her request was being taken care of, and she could return to her research.
"Seriously, do people think I'm just waiting for the opportunity to hurt you? If that were the case I wouldn't even be here." Cell mused with annoyance. Really, if anything he would have just absorbed Calliope at their first meeting in Nicky Town if that had been his intention. "Honestly, the questions are getting more annoying than anything."
"If I had to guess," Calliope said absently, her attention otherwise not wavering from the laptop, "I'd have to say it has something to do with all the murdering you've done."
Cell looked at her, before turning away and giving a grunt of acknowledgment. That was a topic he would rather avoid with her. At the very least it boded well that she didn't seem intent on a lecturing him about his deeds, justified as they were. They fell back into a comfortable quiet, the only sound that of Calliope softly tapping and clicking at the computer in an attempt to find what information she could. Of course, she wouldn't be satisfied with what Ian had presented them with earlier, though there wasn't much else for her to keep her attention in their minimal surroundings.
The intrusion to the otherwise calm they had settled into before did bring up a question that Cell slowly mulled over. He decided to bring it up in a casual manner. "So, how do you know 16?"
It would be reasonable enough to assume her familial connection with Gero would be enough to inspire loyalty with the android. She did inherit everything, after all.
"Hm?" Calliope perked up at the question and paused only after finishing typing whatever command before sparing him a glance. Then she answered absently, her attention back on the "Well, that was before you decided the best way to introduce yourself was to break the doors and ceiling of my lab. I was going through the files Gero left me and saw 16 had internal radios. I had HoloCat reach out to him, and he responded. He's a sweet guy, really likes the goats."
She had said it so nonchalantly Cell had almost missed the implication of her knowledge at the time. He frowned at the idea that she had been working against his goals- it really wasn't a great surprise, and it was a moot point to worry about now that he had obtained his ultimate form.
"Oh, so that must have been when he was still traveling with the other androids." Cell said this casually enough, though realized there was an undercurrent of annoyance. "That's funny, I was under the impression that you didn't know the androids' whereabouts."
Calliope sighed, pausing what she was doing on the computer, and suddenly she looked tired of the topic. She looked at him with a neutral gaze, and spoke hesitantly, "Yeah... That was kind of a lie."
Really, Cell thought to himself, that shouldn't have come at any surprise. What did catch him off guard was how very betrayed he felt at that moment.
"Really? Really Calliope? How could you lie about something like that?! Do you have any idea the danger you put yourself in if they had found you? More importantly, how could you lie to me like that?!" Even as he spoke, Cell hadn't expected himself to feel quite as angry as he did. He didn't even realize that he had crossed the room lean on the table Calliope occupied until she leaned back from his presence with a worried frown.
"And there it is!" Calliope recovered quickly, and her voice rose to match his own. "Can you please drop the pretense that you care about me? Because it's pretty obvious that the only thing you were interested in, when you were running around eating people, was gaining power!"
"Power which I was entitled to take for my own!" Cell shot back at her He truly didn't think he would need to support this argument. Why would he, when this was his birthright? But the room was still heated with tension, and Cell quickly followed up on another matter he wanted to address, "Do you think I would be here if I had no regard for your safety?!"
The carefully calmed arguments had gone right back to a boiling point in a matter of seconds. Any peace they had managed was immediately disregarded.
"I did not want you here! I am not eager to see if you're going to degrade into an even more dangerous psychopath! If such a thing is possible!" Calliope had stood up abruptly from her chair, pointing an accusing finger at him, her words spilling out.
"Oh, yes, please, do go on about how dangerous and unstable I am when I have done nothing but keep you from harm!" Cell yelled back just as quickly as he counted off on his fingers, "From the androids who would have killed you if given half a chance, thus avoiding a bleak from your aunt who turned into a literal monster, and from your own self-destructive tendencies that you refuse to acknowledge!"
This wasn't how Cell had planned or wanted to spend their time in isolation together. But at this point, neither of them was willing to back down. He would never admit defeat or cede a point of argument, and Calliope was too stubborn to ever move.
"How is what you're planning on doing any less?!" Her voice pitched higher as she gestured widely, "The only difference is now is its you in stead of the androids! You are the massive cataclysm that I have to deal with! You are what I would happily spend decades trying to figure out how to kill!"
That last part threw Cell through a loop, and for a moment he had a hard time finding words of retort. That Calliope would be so hatefully vocal, and hold him in such low regard was… Painful, he realized. He recovered, only more than willing to throw it back at her with confidence and a wry laugh.
"And how are you going to manage to kill someone you're so clearly enamored with? Because I remember a certain person who was being very open and honest and very eager to get her hands on me last night!"
It looked like that was Calliope's turn to stumble over her words while her face flushed an attractive shade of pink. She responded between grinding teeth, her glare hardening on Cell as she leaned against the table, "For the last time. I. Was. Drunk!"
This kind of argument Cell couldn't help but find entertaining. As poor an opponent Calliope would no doubt prove in combat, this back-and-forth was amusing as much as it was disappointing. Especially as he would never allow anyone else to talk to him like this, and even though he could hear her heart pounding like a war drum, she had no reservations about screaming in his face. Her audacity was respectable, if annoying.
"Drunk and more honest than you've been with yourself- or anyone else for the matter- than you've been in your entire life!" Cell answered back without hesitation, his voice still loud in a matching reply. The more they argued at this intensity, the closer in each of them leaned over the table
Calliope's shoulders drew in tight as she replied, "At least I'm not a mass-murdering psychopath with a fetish for harassing innocent scientists!"
"Well, I suppose that's better than being an 'innocent scientist' with a fetish for a 'mass-murdering psychopath'! Who if I recall correctly certainly wasn't overly upset at how she was 'harassed' this morning!"
"Fuck you!" She shouted back in a rare style of basic insult laced loudly with venom.
"Fuck me yourself, you coward!" Cell shouted this challenge but didn't realize what he had said until it had already left his mouth.
"What? No!" Calliope said, her voice suddenly more incredulous than irate. In an instant, her previous anger lessened as she must have realized, just as Cell did at that moment, how ridiculous a screaming match was at that point.
She held up her hands as if in defeat, before turning abruptly and walking several paces away to the glass wall of the observation room. Turning around on her heel, she paced to the opposite wall, occasionally closing her eyes and trying to control her breathing. Returning to the table she spoke, calmly this time, "Okay. I think we're both mature enough to recognize that screaming is not the best way to communicate. Right?"
The last sentence had the emphasis of a rhetorical question, meant to drive her point home. Cell initially grumbled quietly in response, annoyed at the chiding. But he did straighten himself from how he had been leaning against the table when he realized that looming over Calliope's smaller form might come off as more intimidating than he intended.
"Right." Cell agreed though he was still feeling miffed. He reminded himself that hurling insults were not productive in any capacity. But he still wasn't willing to let go of a particular bone he had to pick, not until he was satisfied.
Calliope had settled in her seat again, all the vitals he could sense from her returning to a calm baseline. Her eyes remained on him though, and as if she knew the conversation wasn't done she eased the laptop before her closed.
"Okay. Let's talk." She said and gestured across the table to where Cell had been sitting earlier. "With words, at a reasonable volume, like adults."
Cell looked at the seat, and then back to Calliope, silently declining to lower himself closer to her level. He could always return to trying to playing nice later, after this, he reasoned with himself.
"I want to know why you acted as you did." Cell asked, not without some hostility, though it was lessened now, "Why you acted against not only me but your own best interests."
Her eyes closed and her fingers rubbed at the bridge of her nose. More than twice she looked like she was about to start speaking but stopped herself as if she struggled to find the right words. After a few moments Calliope replied, "Cell, you were running around killing people. What did you expect me to do?"
"Well, the androids would have done far worse if I hadn't gotten to them." Cell quickly said, making sure not to mention any of his own plans. At least he was justified in his pursuits. As far as he could tell the androids would have been on their own spree in a form of juvenile shenanigans.
"Up until that point they hadn't." Calliope sighed as she spoke as if exhausted with the subject already. She opened her eyes to look at him, her brows bunched together on an otherwise neutral face. "Besides, what about your whole genocide shtick?"
"That's hardly the same thing." He scoffed at the question and gave a dismissive gesture. "17 and 18 would have run around killing and destroying like… Bored, idiot children who couldn't think of anything better to do with their time."
Calliope continued looking at him, appearing unsatisfied with the answer, though she didn't say anything. There seemed to be a restrained undercurrent of frustration that she managed at the moment. In her quiet, Cell found he almost preferred her berating him than this silent pressing.
"I won't waste my breath trying to justify my reasons to you again." He said to put an end to that thread of argument. Cell doubted she would understand until his actions had come to pass, and everything had a chance to calm down. Moving on, he decided it was his turn to press, "My concern is that you knew about the androids. You knew I was meant to deal with them, and you still chose to try and stand in my way."
After a moment Calliope's neutral mask faltered, and she sighed. She shifted to balance her chin on a propped up palm, looking to try and mold her answer to something that didn't include shouting or abrasive language. For an instant it looked like a civil manner might fail her again, but she refrained. The night must have left her more mentally drained than he had originally thought, Cell thought.
Finally, she spoke, holding tight to her determination to remain civil, "From what I understood, Goku and his friends would have had the androids handled. They would have likely had you handled, too. Keeping you from the androids was a preventative measure meant to keep more people from dying." As Cell opened his mouth to comment she cut in before he could get the words out, "What did I do in the future when the androids were killing and destroying on a mass scale?"
Cell's frown deepened at the question, as he could all but guess at the point she was going to try and make. Still, he thought he could present it as more palatable.
"Well, obviously after the gaggle of idiots got themselves killed, leaving the world essentially defenseless, you realized the most sensible course of action. Which was ensuring that I was nurtured to fruition to resolve that particular situation." As he said this he couldn't help showing a certain pride and certainty, his chest puffing with his statement. "Really, when you got down to the work, I dare say you were excited to work on such an ambitious project."
"I have no doubt that under the right circumstances, I would have been." She gave a small shrug with a mild agreement. "But was that the first conclusion I came to?"
Cell's eyes narrowed at the question. He found he was somewhat reluctant to answer, "I think we both know it wasn't."
At this Calliope nodded and made a gesture as if a significant part of her argument had been made for her.
"Look, I can understand that you're upset that I haven't been on your side in any way, shape, or form. But you need to understand that you've already lived through the only situation where I would be." The calm attitude she maintained had been slowly wearing away, and now left her sounding deeply frustrated, "I mean, seriously, how did I feel about all this in the future? Did you tell her- me?- whatever-the-correct-terminology-is, about your whole 'I'm going to eat a bunch of people and then kill everyone else after also consuming the androids? Thing? Cause I'm pretty sure I wouldn't approve of that in any place or time."
Nearly forgetting the tentative agreement to be civil, Cell moved to cross his arms before answering heatedly, "Well we never had the chance to have this conversation in the future, because you, careless in regards to your own safety, as always, ran off and got yourself killed before we had a chance to have an actual conversation!"
"... Oh." Was all Calliope could say after Cell's particularly sharp outburst. She looked shocked, her body leaning back a ways from the table. She didn't respond in kind as she might have earlier. Instead she looked uncomfortable at the information, and eventually forced herself to ask, "... Do you want to talk about it?"
If this conversation was happening with anyone else, Cell thought, he could comfortably kill them off and let the matter be permanently dropped. He didn't hear any trace of sarcasm in her voice though, and she continued to sit attentively as if ready to listen to his woes.
It was annoying how calm Calliope was managing to be given the situation. Another round of screaming insults and accusations would have been easier to handle.
Thankfully, Calliope didn't seem eager to press him with questions, and it was a topic he was not eager to relive. After the silence stretched on renewed for a short time he turned abruptly, letting his arms drop to his sides and his fists clench. He was not going to be trapped in this situation, with her eyes asking questions that she was no doubt too uncomfortable to voice.
Crossing the room he made a beeline to a side door on the opposite side as the observation area. Around the frame were clearly visible signs that this was an exit, as well as various warnings advising occupants to follow strict decontamination protocols upon exiting.
"Um," Cell paused when Calliope spoke up, "You aren't leaving, are you?"
"I am." He replied, without turning around.
"Okay. Well," Calliope started to say, softly and without argument, "I'll just be here. Doing research."
He was somewhat surprised that she didn't press the point of staying in quarantine, or make some kind of offensive remark about how he might be running off to kill more people- which, given his proclivities, wasn't an unwarranted concern. Instead she was sticking to this passive act she had adopted. When he looked back, she was busying herself with the stack of papers, one in each hand and looking between the two of them.
"And you're not going to try and stop me?" He asked, in a brief moment of skepticism, waiting for the usual complaints he was accustom to.
Calliope looked at the papers for a breath longer before turning her gaze on him. She gave a small shrug with her reply, "I think we've already established that I can't make you do anything."
Instead of staying to give a proper reply, Cell left through the indicated exit door, grumbling at the sterilizing steam in the inner chamber that lead to the outdoors proper, and then out into the night air. Immediately he felt freed of the concentrated anxious air that had taken over the quarantine unit. Closing his eyes he took a breath of the warm summer air, and mentally scanned the area. The location was remote and uninhabited enough that Calliope would safe to be left to her own devices for a short time, Cell reasoned with himself.
Unless she got into a fight with the local wildlife that persisted, which wasn't an impossibility.
Dismissing that thought, Cell set his sights on the night sky.
AN: Short chapter is short and also easier to get out quicker. I hope everyone is staying safe! Big love to all you Internet strangers!