Hey everyone, and welcome to the new chapter of Changed Path, and the first one to actually have fighting in it after so many chapters in which there wasn't a single fight that was worth to write about. And hot damn, what a way to start with the Goku vs Cell fight? I hope that I can make you all very satisfied with my version of the fight and that you won't be disappointed. Also sorry for the fact that the last chapter was not uploaded for so long. There was something happening with the website to everyone and there was no response from the staff. I hope that now something like this won't happen anytime soon.

Anyway, let's go into the chapter, shall we?


Chapter 68: Clash of the Mighty Begins! Goku vs Cell Part 1.

Artificial Humans Saga Part 3: The Cell Games- Part 7

[Musical Cue #1: Opening- Time to Say Goodbye by Jeff Williams feat. Casey Lee Williams (RWBY Volume 2 OP)]

[Musical Cue #2: Ending- Creeping in My Soul by Cryoshell]


The wind was howling and raging across the wasteland as all eyes across the world were focused on either the screens of their televisions or the giant screens across cities that were broadcasting the entire event of the Cell Games. They had watched as their current champion was smacked aside like nothing and now the palm-haired fighter stood in the ring, not moving as he and the bio-mechanical creation of Dr. Gero and Dr. Wheelo stared at each other with wide smirks on their faces, smirks that were filled with anticipation and the thrill of battle.

Across the entire world many people from villages that Son Goku had interacted with in his many journeys across the planet were watching with worried expressions as they recognized the man whom they last saw as a child about to face someone who said would destroy the entire planet. However, many of those who saw him in battle, like his friends, family and master who were in Capsule. Corp, his friends from those many villages whom had the pleasure to meet him and even the canine king of the world were watching with hope that he could once again prevail against the odds.

Around the area the all of the present defenders of the planet watched with itching anticipation for the fight to start, feeling the tension while the camera was focused on just the Earth-raised Saiyan and his amalgamated opponent. Gohan clenched his hands tightly as his expression didn't change, but he bit his lower lip nervously. 'You can do this, dad. I know that there is no way that you would lose.' he thought to himself as he looked at his father on the arena nervously, trying to quiet down any doubts in his mind.

Everyone else's bodies were also tense as many thoughts ran in their mind. They all looked at the two fighters as dread and anticipation was now overwhelming their minds. They had high hopes and anticipation from their greatest fighter, fully believing in him. The one who showed the most belief in the black-haired man was the time traveler, who had a big, reassured smile on his face. 'Go and stop him, Goku. Show me the hero Master Gohan looked up to so much.' he said on his mind as a flash of his conversation with his master on the day that man died appeared in his mind.

However, the one who had the biggest smile plastered all over his face was none other than Raditz, with the burly, long-haired eldest son of Bardock sporting a gigantic grin that was filled with pride as he looked over at his younger brother with pride showing on his face. 'To think that not only you beat Freeza, but now you're about to defeat a monster that represents all of us? You truly are incredible, brother. Without a doubt the greatest Saiyan in the history of our race. And to think you were born with a power level of 2.' he thought to himself as he started to chuckle over how everything turned out to lead his brother all the way to being at the top.

"So when Kakarot gets his ass beaten to a pulp, not only will I get front row seats, but then I get to finish Cell as well? This really looks like I'm about to have a really good day." everyone's train of thought was suddenly cut when they all turned to glare daggers at the flame-haired prince, who was looking focused at his rival with a cold and stern expression while probably not trying to smirk smugly from the thought that he had just had spoken aloud.

Bryco quickly retorted by clicking his tongue with a bit of anger at the shorter Saiyan and simply returned his focus back to the arena. "Or most likely he will just kill Cell himself and outshine you, but that's not hard when you're as big as a shrimp." the tallest full-blooded Saiyan spat an insult towards his former boss with an incredible amount of antagonism, making everyone else in the group aside from the prince to groan with an irritated sigh, not wanting to hear another argument from the two of them.

On the tiled, square arena itself the two warriors stood, with Cell finally breaking the silence that long stood between the two. "So Goku, are you going to transform? Because fighting you like this won't be any fun for me. And let me tell you, the anticipation is driving me mad with exhilaration to witness your full power." he told the Earth-raised fighter as he had a crazed look in his eyes while he also drooled a little bit, showing that he was now out of patience.

The youngest son of Bardock then broke out of his serious expression as he started to laugh sheepishly while also rubbing the back of his head. "Oops, sorry, I forgot that I reverted back from my Super Saiyan form. I was too busy seizing you up to remember that little detail." he chuckled for a little bit, only to suddenly stop and give a serious glare to the creation of the man who vowed to kill him. "But after seizing you up, I know that I'm going to give you hell." he stated coldly before crossing his arms in front of his body in an "X" while crouching slightly.

His hair quickly rose up and turned golden, moving from left to right like candle fire as an echo came out of his mouth and a powerful gust of wind gathered around him as an of golden flames surrounded him. "Aaaaaahhhhhh..." he breathed out his echo heavily as there was only a tiny bit of anger in it, just enough to activate the transformation of Super Saiyan, already showing his mastery over it.

The powerful gusts of wind started to spread all over the entire wasteland, which made the android with the Mohawk to quickly stand behind the two powerless humans in the area, making sure that they wouldn't fly away, all the while Trunks and Gohan acted quickly by picking up Mr. Satan and teleporting right next to the TV crew so that the mechanical giant would watch over him as well. When they finished these maneuvers within a few seconds, they looked at one another and then gave each other a smile and nod of relief, appreciation and understanding of one another, all three doing so in unison.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh..." Goku continued to power up further as the entire planet began to shake violently, with the mountains around the area staring to shake to the point that small fragments of them were constantly crumbling and breaking apart, causing a gigantic rock slide across the entire area, which the human Z-Fighters, as well as Raditz and Bryco atomized quickly with ki blasts before returning to look at their friend continuing to power up while they covered their faces from the massively powerful gusts.

At the same time Jimmy Firecracker covered his eyes as he commented to the audience. "It seems that our new competitor is doing something outrageously amazing, causing natural disasters in his wake by merely shouting. And what a throat he had to be able to shout for so long." the TV announcer complimented Goku as he then put the microphone next to the mouth of the still lying and huffing human martial artist with the big Afro. "Mr. Satan, what do you think of all of these supernatural phenomenons?" he inquired as he desired to get imput from The Champ.

"Mirrors... Earthquake machines... and plenty of lights and mirrors." that was all the man said as he was still trying to take in breaths, all the while he was realizing that his lies couldn't cover for much. In all honesty he was terrified as he realized that he was wrong about Cell and about all the things that he said. He was terrified of those who were stronger than him and right now he was surrounded by those people. But he had a reputation that had earned him glory, and he had to lie to keep it and his own credibility.

All while that was going on, Cell stood in the area and felt the full force of his opponents ki, with the winds nor the shaking moving him an inch from the spot where he stood, laughing with maniacal glee. "HAHAHAHAHA! THIS IS GREAT! THIS IS THE POWER I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!" he screamed as he spread his arms wide and kept on laughing, only to then look at the two full-blooded Saiyans whom he had hated the most. "YOU FELL THAT, VEGETA!? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS, BRYCO?! THAT'S YOUR INCONSEQUENCIALITY!" he screamed his insult with sadistic and petty glee as he kept on with his maniacal laughter.

This immediately pissed off the two Mastered Super Saiyans, who growled and bared their fangs at him as they flipped him off while their auras flared up as well, but their restrained powers were underwhelmed by the charging of the Earth-raised Saiyan rising full power. "GO TO HELL, ASSHOLE! I'LL SEND YOU THERE MYSELF!" they screamed at him with fury as they both tried to jump onto the ring in blind anger, but were blasted back by another release of energy from the Earth-raised Saiyan, as if an indication that he didn't want the fight to be disturbed.

"AAAAHHHH!" with one last shout, the Mastered Super Saiyan spread his arms to the sides of his waist, raised his head and roared with all of his might, allowing the orb of golden fire to shrink down slowly as waves of golden fire made of ki pushed everyone back with its power, all except Gohan and Katanaji. The planet stopped shaking and the winds stopped and in the ring Goku stood silently as he straightened his head to look his foe dead in the eyes with excellent composure as he was surrounded by an aura of golden, calm fire that was constantly rising. The sounds that came from it sounded identical to the quick movement sounds of ki like in the aura of the regular Super Saiyan aura, but this aura's flames were rising and moving almost like water. Goku's spiky hair was also in a lighter shade than the regular strong gold color of the Super Saiyan hair.


[Musical Cue #1: Opening- Time to Say Goodbye]


Capsule Corp. Building, Brief Family's Apartment,

"HOLY SHIT!" the lavender-haired scientist freaked out almost immediately as she looked at her new energy measuring device that she had created, while everyone in the room were watching the TV that was broadcasting images from drones that the scientist had created and installed her radar and cameras into, just so that they could get a better viewing of the all affair.

"Mom!" Bra said as she gasped from hearing that her mother had just cursed.

"Bulma! There are children here!" Chi-Chi quickly reprimanded her friend and her husband's childhood friend for her usage of language despite that not only her own 10 years old daughter was in the room, but the 4 years old Maron was there as well alongside both of her parents.

"Yeah Bulma, that is not child-friendly behavior." Archako jokingly reprimanded as she gave of more of the impression that she was trying to jokingly act like an adult, as if she thought adult behavior was a joke, or that she was just incapable of acting her own age. That didn't matter much as Krilling simply sighed and slumped forwards, waiting for an argument to just start because he knew how much the lavender-haired human hated the black-haired Saiyan.

Bulma immediately gave an offended and annoyed glare at Archako. "That's rich coming from you. Every breath you take is child-unfriendly behavior while being almost a womanchild!" she shouted at her angrily as she looked like she wanted to pounce at the Saiyan, but was quickly held back by Krillin.

"Hey, relax. No need to start a fight on front of the children." he tried to calm her down and reason with her, addressing her parental instinct. "Now can you just calm down and tell us how big exactly Goku's power is registering? Because from what I can feel, it's outrageously powerful." he told her as he tried to describe the sense of his best friend's ki.

The heir to Capsule Corp. crossed her arms in front of her chest and puffed her cheeks, huffing angrily as she sat back down on the couch. She started to take deep breath to calm down as she remembered as to what caused her to lose her cool in the first place, before the annoying Saiyan's remark. "So about Goku's power? Yeah, it maxed out at an energy output of 7.5 Foe." she said as a bead of sweat ran on her brow and her voice shook from simply saying it.

Nobody really understood what that number meant, with the exception of one other person in the room. "Wait, 7.5 Foe? Are you serious, mom?!" the lavender-haired girl asked with an expression that was filled with a mixture of unpalatable shock, awe and dread while she was even shaking a bit with fear and disbelief.

Everyone in the room, including Master Roshi, Chiaotzu and Launch looked over at the 10 years old daughter of Bulma with confused and intrigued expressions on their faces because of the girl's reaction. "What does that even mean?" Chiaotzu asked as he looked at the girl while floating next to the dark-blue woman who sat on the large couch with everyone, utterly confused.

That was when Bra turned her head to the pale-skinned tiny man with the appearance of a doll and started to explain, with her expression showing the utmost significance of the information that was about to come out of her mouth. "While the word foe to any one of you means the dictionary definition of someone whom you deceive as an opponent or as an adversary in your eyes, Foe is a theoretical measuring unit to measure energy that is usually used to calculate the energy output of a very well know phenomenon: a supernova." she told everyone who wasn't her mother.

At this moment the old master raised a eyebrow as he looked at the two lavender-haired girls, both mother and daughter, with realization of his sunglasses-covered eyes. "Supernova? As in 'exploding sun' kind of supernova?" he asked as he understood the weight of the words that the daughter of Bulma said.

As the scientist nodded her head silently before explaining further. "A supernova is theoretically registered at either one Foe if you lowball it and two Foe if you highball it. So basically that means that Goku right now is as strong as several supernovas. This is huge." she said as everyone gulped nervously as the information trickled down into their mind, before a smile of pride appeared on the lips of Master Roshi, Krillin and almost everyone else as they now looked back at TV with anticipation to see how Goku was going to win.


Cell Games Area,

Everyone of the Z-Fighters were shocked as they felt the tremendous power of their friend and ally on the ring as his golden aura flared against him, with each one having a somewhat unique reaction to the power. Yamcha, who was by far the weakest of the group, shook in his boots as he felt the power emanating from one of his oldest friends.

"That's Goku's full power?" he asked as his jaw fell down and he allowed his ki sensing to work and for his mind to compare it to his own power and the power that he had used against Cell not that long ago. "I can't believe it... his actual full power is on par with my power when I had used the Genki from the planet's core to boost my power. To think that he reached that power on his own while I had to shorten the planet's lifespan. It makes me feel so pathetic." he thought to himself as he looked down in shame of himself and for what he did in his fight, while still feeling proud of seeing his friend's achievement.

All of Tien's eyes focused on his former rival and smiled. 'You keep climbing up and up, don't you? I want to keep up with you, to show you that I can compare to you, to Raditz, Vegeta and the rest of the Super Saiyans. I'm proud of you my friend. You've become so strong since you were that little 15 years old crazy brat in the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai.' he thought to himself as then his smile turned to a saddened and depressed frown. 'But why? Why do I have to keep looking at your back through that unending gap?' he kept thinking to himself as he once again saw a young, teenage Son Goku standing between him and Piccolo Daimao, right after killing the beast that had brutalized the three-eyed martial artist with like it was nothing.

His head lowered as he glared at his own clenched left fists before returning to the Super Saiyan on the area. 'What's the difference between us besides race? We both fight to improve ourselves as martial artists and grow stronger. We both fight to defend the planet and the friends we hold dear to us. We also both mastered the super form of our respective races. So why? Why is there such a huge gap between us all the time?' he asked both himself and the golden-haired man on the area in his mind as he now felt helplessness that despite all the training that he had done with Katanaji, he wasn't going to be helpful at all. It was Piccolo Daimao all over again.

While Tien was having his little moment of despair, Raditz raised an eyebrow as he looked over at his little brother, confused. 'Wait, that's his full power? But he's just as strong as I am, if not a tiny bit stronger.' he thought to himself as he saw the aura flaring around the frame of his younger brother. However, a cocky and proud smile then rose to his face. 'So we are now both equal, brother. It seems that this is the power that is granted to us by the mastered version of Super Saiyan. If this is the level of power required to defeat cell, then I'm proud of you for achieving it. Mother and father would be proud of you, Kakarot.' he thought to himself as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and his smirk grew wider.

On the opposite site of the spectrum, the flame-haired prince looked absolutely livid. 'WHAT?! He stayed ahead of me by that much?! How the is he still so strong?! I'm the prince of all Saiyans, so why the hell is this low-class clown's Mastered Super Saiyan state is still stronger than my own?! Damn you, Kakarot!' he thought to himself furiously as he ground his teeth.

Bryco simply raised an eyebrow as he sensed the power of Son Goku. 'Wow, so Kakarot stronger than me. I hope that it would be enough to kill Cell, because if it isn't then I'm pretty much dead. Though I wouldn't die without giving Cell a fight with real Saiyan honor. If I survive, then I'll strive to far surpass Kakarot like the rest of them.' he thought to himself as he accepted his inferiority to the power of the Earth-raised Saiyan.

Katanaji kept on a completely kept a calm expression on his face as he looked at the man that one half of him was once a rival of and the other half trained him into adulthood. 'I'm proud of you, Goku. You really grew stronger since you first came to the lookout.' he thought to himself only to then focus on the ki and immediately compare it to himself, causing him to look shocked. 'He was right, I am stronger than him. A lot stronger than him. By a wide margin.' he thought to himself as he now started to look a bit worried.

Gohan simply looked at his father completely confused at what he was feeling. 'Why is dad holding back? There is no way that this is his full power. It's too weak.' he thought to himself as he was utterly baffled at his father's power, not believing that it was the man's true power as a Mastered Super Saiyan.


Cell looked at his opponent after he himself had calmed down and was just grinning like a maniac. "Splendid, Goku. I must admit that I'm entranced by your power." he told the Earth-raised warrior as his eyes were locked on the muscular frame of his opponent, his body surrounded with powerful golden aura that had the brightness of the most blinding of stars. "However, I believe it's time to show you mine." he spoke again as he clenched his hands into fists and flexed his muscles.

Suddenly a golden aura burst around the amalgamated creature as powerful shockwaves started to shake the entire planet. "AH!" he gave one quick, loud shout as he released an enormous amount of power, one matching Son Goku's own power. There was no long screaming, no huge display, no grandeur. It was just a quick and powerful jump to the highest he could muster.

Everyone's eyes widen as they saw how quickly Cell powered up, while the bug man himself simply straightened himself and rolled back his shoulders. "There, all done." he said as he locked his eyes with those emerald-green ones of his foe. "Ever since my announcement I have been training to go from my most restrained state to full power within moments. I do not wish to delay our battle but going all bombastic and with a grand show of force. We're so strong anyway that we don't need that waste of time anyway." he explained to Son Goku as he entered a battle stance. "Now then, how about we begin our fight?" he asked as he had a smirk reaching from one ear to the other.

Son Goku just smirked as he entered a fighting stance of his own, his body filled with excitement. "Nah, I don't have any problem with just getting it started. For me the fight is what matters." he told the bio-android as a battle-hungry grin rose from his already wide smirk.

There was a moment of silence between them as everyone watched closely and the wind moved against their body, whistling loudly. Then the two dashed at each other at full speed, clashing at the middle of the ring with forearm meeting forearm, creating a devastating shockwave that knocked down the three powerless humans on their butts, but the camera kept on rolling.

After the clash each pushed the other away, forcing both of them to perform a somersault backwards, landing gracefully on the tiled floor of the arena as they dashed at each other once more. This time Cell threw a twisted, spinning left jab towards the chest of his Super Saiyan opponent, but said opponent slipped under the blow with ease and tried so send a punch towards the armpit of his bio-mechanical adversary. However, he quickly slid back when his path was blocked by an attempted punch from Cell into his left cheek, which was done by sliding the punch beneath the left arm that threw the first jab.

Despite that, the Earth-raised Super Saiyan wasn't going to stop his offense, so the moment he was out of the range of Cell's arm he dashed in full speed with his left elbow. The blow landed heavily against the armored gut of the creation of Dr. Gero and Dr. Wheelo, causing him to double over in pain. Continuing with the assault, the Earth-raised Saiyan sent a kick right into his adversary's jawline, sending him flipping in the air as purple blood came out of his mouth.

Despite Goku getting the advantage of landing the first two hits, Cell didn't allow it to get to him. In fact, it only motivated him further, as he regained himself and landed smoothly on the ring after doing a somersault in the air, landing close to the edge of the area. He then dashed forward at high speed at his opponent, who raised his guard. Cell just smirked and cocked back his arm in order to throw a punch. However, just as it seemed like he was about to throw the punch, he used the afterimage technique to move behind Goku with a right hand raised close to his neck, prepared to move diagonally in a chop motion towards the head of his foe. However, in a style that was very much in the form of Piccolo's Demon Style, he slammed his elbow into the back of the Saiyan's head instead, causing Goku to slump forward with a few steps, making him lose his footing.

Pushing his advantage an instant later, the bio-android slammed his body down and used a sweep kick to sweep his opponent off his feet, making the man fall down chin first against the floor of the area. A "Gah!" cry of pain came out of the Super Saiyan as he was then grabbed by the head and dragged across the arena by his opponent, creating a small trench in the arena itself as his body and head slide inside the stone that made it. When Cell stopped, he lifted the man's head, which was heavily scratched and was covered in blood and held him by the hair.

"Dad!" Gohan cried in panic as he saw his father injured. He tried to run to the arena, but was stopped by Katanaji and Raditz, who restrained the boy by force to prevent him from interfering with his father's fight.

Then, much to Cell's surprise, Goku opened up his eyes, with his irises glowing blue. That's when two eye lasers of condensed ki were launched right into Cell's eyes and utterly atomized them, causing two small explosions and leaving the blue-exoskeletal creature blinded.

Using this time that he had to counterattack, he socked a thunderous uppercut into his opponent, sending him upwards. Then, before the humanoid being could reach too high up, the Mastered Super Saiyan moved his arm quickly against the body of his opponent, spinning him in the air before landing a heavy clockwise kick with his left leg that sent the humanoid being flying to the right. With being quick on his feet and with insane agility, Goku dashed after his foe, only to disappear when he outpaced his flying foe appearing above him with the afterimage technique and slammed a right leg that was overflowing with golden ki against the back of the humanoid being, slamming him into the arena with a loud "BOOM!" and "THUD!" sounds, which caused the entire area to quake for a couple of seconds as dust spread everywhere along with powerful gusts of wind.

Immediately Goku jumped back, knowing not to stay too close to his opponent. He was smirking with excitement as a stream of blood was flowing from both sides of his lips. "Your martial arts skills are masterful, Cell. I would love to keep going on like this with just our skills, with no ki attacks or destructive techniques. Just the skills that two martial artists present themselves with." he said with a wide smirk on his face as there was still a giant dust cloud around where he kicked down his foe with a sense of thrill to his voice. He looked like he was having fun more than he seemed to care for the threat that his foe was to the entire planet. It was as if he had wanted to lock them both in a dance of battle for all eternity. But then his smirk turned into a scowl of disappointment. "But you would never go for that, would you? Not for this battle." he stated as he prepared himself to whatever his foe prepared.

Immediately after he finished speaking, the dust cloud was blown away by a kiai as the amalgamated humanoid was in the midst of getting up from the beating. His exterior exoskeleton was banged up and had cracks and dents all over, which were healing at an extremely fast rate. Blood was trickling from his lips and forehead, mirroring the damage that he had caused the Mastered Super Saiyan.

As he straighten himself up, he started to chuckle. "You are right, Son Goku. As much as I would love to have our perfect skills as fighters match against each other for all of eternity, it wouldn't be satisfying for me unless I get to fully beat all of your techniques." he spoke as he got into a combat stance as well, preparing to resume the fight once again.


Meanwhile from the sideline everyone watched the explosive and skillful exchanges between the two warriors on the arena. At the point now where the two fighters were catching their breath and just standing in wait for the other to strike, the TV broadcaster turned his attention and the attention of the camera towards the current world martial arts champion.

"Mr. Satan, mind giving us an analysis of your opinions of this blood-raising, thrilling and explosive battle?" Jimmy Firecracker brought his microphone to the martial artist's mouth with an inquisitive tone of voice and body language, trying to get a full-on commentary from an expert in fighting.

The Champ looked lost for a moment. "Um... Well... I..." he thought to himself as he tried to think on what to say. He had lost and now someone much strongest than him was fighting. He could barely read what was going on on the arena, his eyes couldn't fully follow their movements and their skills were amazing. He was out of his depth and he knew it. However, he did also want to save face and not to admit to his entire fanbase that he was scared and that many of the things he boasted about when it came to Cell proved to be false. He would lose their trust and his career and future would be in ruin. He didn't want his little girl to think that he was a liar and a bad man and he didn't want the entire world to enter a state of panic. If he could delay that, then he was going to do it in whatever means necessary.

However, he also didn't want to anger this Son Goku fellow by badmouthing him, in case the man would win. He knew that he needed to carry his words and be respectful as long as the camera was on and play his character: the unbeatable, strongest man in the world, Mr. Satan.

He cleared his throat as he then took the mic and looked directly at the camera. "You see Jimmy, right now the blonde hillbilly and Cell are slugging out in a way that constantly changes between the level of skill. They go from very high level martial arts to just brutishly slugging it out. Not to mention that they are both using their smokes and mirrors to create some amazing effects, though it's very obvious that the hillbilly is much more skilled in martial arts." he told to the TV announcer with a confident smirk while he did very well to hide all of his fears.

Then Jimmy Firecracker came up with a follow up question to get more of the commentary. "May you tell us how was it that you lost to such an unskilled opponent?" he inquired inquisitively, trying to make things more interesting to most likely gain interest for the viewers.

"I slipped." Mr. Satan said quickly as he didn't miss a beat. He was truly talented in interviews and was a natural at coming up with answers on the fly to save face. "And now I'm suffering from horrible pain at the feet so I can't currently get back into the arena. However, I do possess an uncanny endurance to endure such a pain. How else would I call myself a master martial artist, Jimmy." he said with a smirk on his face as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Excellent, thank you for your professional commentary, Mr. Satan." Jimmy Firecracker said as he took back the mic and looked straight at the camera, only to then look at the area. "And it seems the fight goes on. Let's return to this brutal clash of these two fighters." he said as the focus of the camera returned to the arena.


Just at that time Cell charged at Goku, who had instantly shifted to a more defensive stance of the Turtle School of Martial Arts. When his foe who was covered in dark-blue exoskeleton had covered the distance between them, he started unloading an insane amount of jabs with nails that were extended as small knives meant to pierce their target. Despite his best attempts, Goku either dodged the jabs or swatted them away, but each jab managed to get some small cut on the Saiyan's cheeks, filling them more and more with cuts that had blood flowing freely from them.

After another very quick jab, Goku dashed to his left and crouched, allowing his temple to get a small scratch. He then tried to sweep his opponent's feet, but said opponent jumped into the air. That just made Goku smile, as when he finished his sweeping motion he pushed himself up and at high speed crashed his head into the abdomen of his opponent, sending him flying backwards with great force, enough to maybe get him out of bounds, causing a smirk to rise on his face.

As the body of the humanoid was nearly already out of bounds, many of the Z-Fighters and the powerless Earthlings on the side had hoped that it was over. "Is this going to end like this? With the mighty Cell going out of bounds so quickly? Will all of his threats become void of any gravitas or credibility by simply going out of bounds? I don't know, but I'm hopeful enough to believe!" the TV reporter said with a giant grin on his face, not paying attention to the praying Mr. Satan, who was not as hopeful if not more so.

However, right before the body could fall out of the arena, its momentum stopped completely as Cell used his flight to slow stop himself instantly from falling. "Sorry, but sending me out of bounds won't be an easy affair, Goku." he said as he floated upwards and straightened himself, landing with his feet right back in the arena as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Many of the Z-Fighters wanted to scream that this was cheating, but they were stopped by the Earth-raised Saiyan, who was smirking with excitement. "I knew you were gonna do that. It would have been boring if you wouldn't have." he told his foe as he dashed forward and tried to send a powerful punch into the face of his foe, but the punch was evaded easily by the usage of the afterimage technique.

Reacting quickly, the Super Saiyan raised up his left forearm and put his right hand to support and an instant later it was struck by a powerful punch that sent a thunderous shockwave that shook the entire arena. The greatest creation of the two doctors then tried to send a low kick at his adversary's left foot, but said adversary quickly raised it into the air, evading the blow. Despite that, Cell was smirking as Goku was not incredibly balance in that instant and used those few moments that he had to launch a powerful low punch that struck the Super Saiyan's left shin like a wrecking ball hitting a steel wall.

The youngest son of Bardock screamed in agony as his leg had been dented, momentarily stopping him from properly using his left leg and leaving him off-balance, which his amalgamated opponent used to his best situation and started to absolutely hammer into the Earth's greatest fighter with a brawler-like style, slamming into him heavy and thunderous punches in a very rapid pace despite how heavy they were, crashing into the man's face, chest and stomach with such force that it both dented them and caused him spew out blood over and over again.

As he continued the assault, Cell constantly made sure that he and Goku would always be close to the center of the arena rather than to the bounds, not wanting to accidentally throwing his foe out of bounds just yet. He also started to add to his barrage elbow strikes that hid the sides of Goku's body, making him scream more and more in pain and agony from the relentless, ruthless beatdown.

"Unbelievable, it seems like Cell has flipped the tables on the former winner of the Tenkaichi Budokai and is now hammering him with such speed that we can only see blurs of the the hits. What a poor, poor man. Is this really the end for him in this tournament?" the reporter and announcer added commentary to the camera as the device was locked on the fight.

As the beatdown continued, Goku suddenly opened his eyes and jumped away from the next incoming punch of his opponent, managing to instantly create a distance for him to catch his breath for a few moments. When Cell tried to rush forward with another assault, Goku sidestepped him and caught his wrist, only the then flip him over his head and slam into the arena with tremendous force, enough to cause cracks in it. Following this he threw the bug man into the air and disappeared with an afterimage, only to appear instantly above the bio-android and slam a powerful double-ax hammer on top of the creature's head, sending him crashing down into the arena. As he started falling from the air as well, since he chose not to float in that instant, he used an afterimage to disappear and reappear on the arena. With a quick flying kick, he caused the body of Cell to start spinning in the air again.

However, unlike last time the man did this, Cell opened his eyes and stopped himself midair, floating in the sky as he caught his breath in the air while his foe caught his breath on the ground. They both glared silently at one another with great determination in their eyes as they couldn't let their guard down to even utter a single word. The bio-android's body closed all the cuts that he had gained and repaired all the dents in his armor in just a few seconds, making him look as if he didn't take a hit throughout the entire fight, but the healing took a tiny bit out of his energy. In the meantime the world's greatest protector wiped all the blood that he had gained during the short amount of time that the fight was going on from his face, all the while his friends and family looked concerned and worried about how he was doing. The only exception was Vegeta, who was just watching with just as intensity as the two men fighting.

Then the martial artist and the organic cyborg dashed at each other, their forearms clashing and creating a loud "BAM!" sound as a powerful gust of wind was emitted from the clash itself. The two were floating in the air as they started exchanging fists, both using the style of the Turtle School masterfully, to the point that they constantly either clashed fist to fist and kick to kick or one of them swatted the strike of the other away, causing an opening for the swatter to strike, only for the same thing to happen to him.

It was a dance of close combat martial arts between two masters of the same style and they were completely equal in both their skillfulness with the martial art style invented by Muten Roshi, as well as complete equals in strength to the point that each time they clashed no one could push the other or break the other's guard at all. A complete impasse. There was no attempt from either of them to use any ki techniques to try and catch the other off-guard and to gain an advantage. This was still just a fight between two martial arts masters that caused the entire area to quake from their might.

Eventually the two fighters flew backwards and took some distance from one another for a few seconds, and then they started to rush at each other at tremendous speed, clashing and creating a powerful shockwave that shook the entire area. Then they disappeared and started clashing over and over and over again in the air across an area of an entire kilometer, creating a powerful shockwave and shaking the ground with each tremendous clash in the air.

Then the two suddenly appeared on the ring, each one being on one side of the ring, panting heavily with large smiles of excitement plastered all over their faces as if this was the greatest and funnest fight they had ever had in their entire lives. While they hadn't really used a lot of their energy since no ki attacks were used, they were still heavily breathing from the exertion of how intensely they were fighting only using martial arts.

It was then that Goku left his fighting stance and gave out a sigh. "Few, this has been a great warmup, Cell. How about we take a few minutes to catch out breath before getting into it this. I really love this fight so far. It's so even and I didn't get to push my skills up to their limits in a long time." he said with a big and comfortable smile on his face as he started to do a few stretches and taking deep breaths in order to allow himself to regain his breath fully.

Cell started to do the same as he had a giant smirk on his face. "I agree that our fight is absolutely incredible, but so far it isn't the best fight I had yet." he told to his opponent as he span his shoulder slowly while speaking with a confident smirk on his face. "I fought your friends so many times that I have so many fights to recollect from my memory." he said as he then pointed at the giant, redhead android. "My father's favorite over there punched me through the moon and into Mars while I was incomplete." he said as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and said so with pride.

Then his eyes wondered over to Vegeta and then to Bryco, whom he eyed with anger and disdain as he scowled with anger. "I thought with those two first and even since I really, really, really want to kill them." he said truthfully as ground his teeth and clenched his hands into fists. After he glared daggers at the Saiyan pair, his eyes then move and become transfixed on the three-eyed martial artist who was glaring dagger at the bug man. "And you, Tien Shinhan, I will make you pay the most for what you did." he said as his words were filled with hatred as his aura blazed to life, spreading powerful gusts of wind and shaking the entire planet. After an entire minute of this, his aura disappeared and a smirk then returned to his face as he looked over at Goku. "Surprisingly, the best fight that I've had so far was with Yamcha, of all people." he told his foe with a jovial tone to his voice as he started to laugh, which made the former bandit pouted angrily.

This made Goku himself rub the back of his head sheepishly and laugh alongside his adversary. "Hehehe... I feel really bad for missing that fight. Must have been incredible." he said with the same sheepish tone to his voice as he had a giant and apologetic grin on his face as he then looked over to his friend. "Sorry for that, Yamcha." he apologized to his friend as he waved towards the former bandit.

The famous baseball player nervously waved his hand back as he was now blushing madly from embarrassment and folding back into his body. "D-Don't worry a-about it, Goku, you were doing f-far more important t-things." he stammered as he noticed that the camera was now focused on it. 'Darn it. Why even after how strong I got I still get humiliated?' he thought to himself as tears were streaming from his face.

After Goku made a few more stretching exercises, he relaxed his body and allowed a "Phew" sigh to come out of his lungs as he then looked at Cell. "You know something, Cell?" he asked his bio-mechanical opponent as he just stood there, not doing anything beside talking.

This made the greatest creation of Dr. Gero and Dr. Wheelo raised an eyebrow curiously as to what the Mastered Super Saiyan wanted to even talk about instead of resuming their fight and going at it more intensely. "Okay, I'll take the bait. What?" he asked as he crossed his arms in front of his chest again for who knows how many times now.

Bardock's youngest son still didn't move a muscle at the point other those of his mouth as he started to speak to the crown jewel of Dr. Gero, the man who had vowed to kill the Earth-raised Saiyan through his inventions. "Everyone just thinks of me as some sort of savior, as a trump card to call for to save the day when all hope is lost. A hero of sorts." he started as he looked over at his friends, eyeing every single one of them as, but he stopped when his eyes met those of both his son's and the time traveler from the future. "I think that despite knowing that I'm not that great of a parent and very simple-minded and battle-obsessed, I think Gohan is the most inclined to this belief because he is young and impresonable, and I think that Trunks got something heavily romanticized and incorrect facts as to who I was as a person because of the Gohan that trained him." he spoke up specifically to the two of them, despite the fact that the question and answer was also meant for Cell.

As his eyes returned to meet those of the bug man, he continued. "I always had fun having adventured with my friends and I always loved Earth. It's my home, of course I would want it to be saved from destruction." he kept on going as he then shook his head. "But I am simply a martial artist who is always trying to surpass myself, to break my limits." he said as he finally entered a stance. That was identical to the stance in which he launched a charged Kamehameha wave, which confused everyone.

Gohan's eyes widened as he realized what his father was doing. 'Is dad really using his new technique so early in the fight? Why doesn't he simply power up further than this? He should be way stronger than me and with the power that he is displaying I can beat him pretty handily. So why does he keep holding back?' he asked himself questions as he was more perplexed than surprised, unlike the rest of the Dragon Team who were around him.

Suddenly red, glowing mist started to form in Goku's extended hands as he smirked and kept on talking. "Right now, for me, this fight is more important than the fate of the Earth. I care more about pushing myself to the absolute limit against you. That's also all that matters to you right now, right?" he asked as inside the smoke a small, glowing spark appeared, which everyone noticed.

After hearing all of Goku's speech thus far, the ultimate life form started to laugh maniacally out loud with pure joy and evil glee in his voice while entering a defensive stance intending on tanking whatever his golden-haired foe was charging in his hands. "That's just magnificent, Goku! I knew we were fabric made from the same cloth! I knew my desire for the greatest battle and push my limits to the very end came from you! You get it like a true Saiyan! You don't prattle on and on about such useless things like pride or honor like those two immature bastards over there." he congratulated his Super Saiyan opponent while pointing at and insulting Vegeta and Bryco yet again.

"Rot in Hell!" the two screamed at the blue-colored exoskeleton being with fury and hatred filling their voices as they raised up their fists and started throwing threats at the perfect being.

Said perfect being simply just ignored the two and continued to address his opponent who charged an attack right in front of him, one which was growing inside of his extended palm. "And you don't start angsting like your long-haired weakling of a brother just because he couldn't screw my sister proper before I ate her up." he kept on bragging to the youngest son of Bardock as he now insulted Raditz and taunted the burly man with his failure to do anything to prevent the blonde, female cyborg's demise.

Raditz growled and ground his teeth with pure, vile, venomous disdain for the creature as he mentioned his own failures and jokingly accused him of being sexually attracted to the blonde cyborg. After hearing that coming from Cell's mouth, he wanted for either Kakarot to kill that bastard or lose so he could enter the ring himself and rip the monstrous humanoid limb for limb over and over and over again before killing him. The crowd section was radiating with killing intent from just the full-blooded Saiyans.

However, Goku didn't really seemed to be bothered by everything else, as his attack was now the same size as his extended palms, both of them. Around the red glowing orb of ki was the red smoke that didn't rise up fully, instead just spreading like mist around the arena, and he kept on a smirk. "Good, I'm glad that your head is focused solely on this fight. So I want to start it in earnest by showing you my newest technique, which I developed in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber alongside perfecting my Dragon Fist." he said as he then brought his hands closer to his chest for a moment. "Take this! Super Saiyan Flare!" he roared as he extended his hands once more, launching the rather large orb of energy at his opponent.

The ball itself was, in essence, an attack almost exactly the same as something like Yamcha's Spirit Ball, Vegeta's Big Bang Attack and Raditz's Monday bomb. It was a condensed ball of ki that was launched at the enemy. However, the defenders of Earth could immediately notice the differences between all the techniques. It was double the size of that of all of the other three techniques mentioned, but it was also moving just as fast, if not faster than all of them, including the Spirit Ball, which speed was its greatest asset. However, the biggest difference was the red smoke that followed the red orb and the fact that the orb itself was glowing much brighter than all of them, like an actual ammunition of a flare gun.

Cell merely scowled with a bit of disappointment in his eyes as he saw the attack moving quickly at him. He sighed with disappointed to his voice as he raised his hand and tried to slap the attack away with just a single movement of his hand. However, something happened that shocked him and made his eyes widen. Like with Raditz's Monday Bomb, the attack detonated the moment it touched something, this time being the hand of the ultimate life form, releasing a blinding flash of light that matched the Taiyoken, which was more known by the name of Solar Flare, which blinded Cell Completely.

The flash engulfed the entire arena and blinded all the spectators in the arena, leaving them reeling in pain from the fact that they didn't block their eyes in time from the blinding and explosive flash, with the exception of Goku's son, who had seen the technique inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. While they were recovering themselves, they didn't know how had Cell was hit by the attack of the Mastered Super Saiyan.

And like that, the true fight was about to begin.

{To Be Continued]


[Musical Cue #2: Ending- Creeping in My Soul by Cryoshell]


With Goku and Cell's fight beginning and now reaching the point where they have to pull out more power and ki techniques, can Goku keep on going and will his new and powerful Super Saiyan Flare do a substantial damage to the ultimate creation of the two Doctors? If he fails, will the rest of the Dragon Team will stand a chance against the monstrosity? Find out more in the next chapter of Changed Path...

Few, finally finished. I'm really starting to lose some of my passion for the project currently if I'm slowing down writing the part I've been waiting years to write in this story. I almost couldn't keep up with my promise from last chapter to finish this one faster. I really still do love this story but most of the days I don't really have the desire to write and it's frustrating to me. Anyway, I do hope that I can do better in the future, but we can't be too sure of that right now. Anyway, I know the fight didn't last too long and I hope to do a lot more fighting than talking in the next chapter.

Also, no reviews last chapter, no R&A this time. I would really love to see more reviews because I really love doing the R&A portion. Well, until we meet again in the next chapter. Stay healthy both in mind and body everyone.