It was her father who sprung forward first, but she wasn't far behind. As he approached the airborne monster, he formed a powerful punch aimed directly at Cell's head. It was easily dodged, but Vegeta cocked his other arm back just as powerfully, and that one hit its target.
A dribble of spit escaped Cell's lips. He swung his arms at Vegeta. Bulla had come back around on the other side. Using intense speed, she shored up behind Cell and kicked. Cell's eyes shifted over to her and he snarled.
"Double teamed, eh?" Cell hissed. "How original."
With an eerie calm, Cell fought off both Vegeta and Bulla. Every kick and every punch was met with a move of Cell's own. They needed to break the pattern to get a leg up on him, but Bulla knew that was easier said than done. After watching his fight with Gohan and Goku, she knew he preferred an aerial attack to one on the ground, so she had to draw him back closer to Earth.
She hopped up in the air, lifting her legs into a crouching position, and thrust them into Cell's shoulders. The force of the attack jolted him back down to the ground.
"Don't let him get into the air!" she shouted to her father. He nodded and followed her back into the ring.
Cell steadied himself the moment his feet touched Earth. Bulla was right — he did want to fight in the air — but he didn't have enough time to get back up before Bulla was sailing down to him, her fist clenched and aiming toward his jaw.
Bulla was in front of him and Vegeta was behind. Each threw their own set of attacks against him and Cell answered each with an almost graceful counterattack. Cell's grotesque body moved with a fluidity that both amazed and scared Bulla. Every shift of her body, every limb she twisted and turned, Cell met with a disturbing ease.
Bulla tried to focus: The spots. She tried to recall what the major areas were. There were the pressure points under his armpits, one on the back of the neck, one in the abdomen and another in the head — and those were just a few. If she could try hitting at least one of them, she thought, maybe she could measure his sensitivity to it. From there, she could keep trying — if only she could land a hit with enough force to actually do something.
As her father continued his assault on the other side of Cell, Bulla started planning her own attack. Cell's head swooped slightly toward Vegeta as he caught a punch and Bulla took the opportunity. Her hand went hard and flat, and she heard a thundering crack as she connected to the back of his neck. Cell let out a painful yelp and turned his head back to Bulla.
Anger flooded Cell's eyes and burned into Bulla's soul. While the hit definitely hurt him, she could tell it wasn't the pressure point she was looking for. He responded by swiping his hand back, placing a backhanded slap across Bulla's face.
The force was enough to jolt Bulla sideways, leaving her entire core open for Cell to pummel. He whipped around, avoiding a kick from Vegeta, and slammed his leg into Bulla with such force blood ran from her lips. Caught only by the dirt beneath her, she rolled clear across the ring and into the trench.
Cell let out a coarse howl and increased his power even more, the force of which blasted Vegeta off him. He was done playing games.
"I will destroy all of you!" he screamed. "I will rip you limb by limb!"
He dashed toward Vegeta, who was still getting his footing, and pummeled him in a serious of hard punches. Vegeta managed to block, but Cell kicked back and sent a ki blast wailing toward Vegeta, who let out a painful cry. He was splayed on the ground in a matter of seconds.
Bulla propped herself up, her legs aching and her lungs shallow. She dug her fingers into the dirt and propelled herself to push up, and as she crested the trench's lip, she saw her father incapacitated on the other side. So far, Gohan, Goku, Vegeta and herself had been bested by Cell, and it seemed he had an endless supply of energy pumping through his body.
Another wave of power beat against her and she pulled herself back onto the ring. She stood and braced herself against Cell's power, ready to fight again.
"You are a fool," Cell hissed. "You are a stupid, stupid girl."
Bulla gritted her teeth. She did not come all this way to fail. She had to win.
If she fell to him, she would never see her mother again. There would be no change, no future. Cell was a powerful foe, but he didn't have the grit that she did. Winning did not only mean besting a horrifying foe, it meant freeing herself and her loved ones — both in the present and the future — from dying at the hands of evil.
From the crown of her head to the soles of her feet, power trickled through her like a steady stream. It rushed into her fingertips and cascaded across her skin. It was a cool and cleansing rain that flowed through her and replenished her with a newfound purpose.
An unnatural scream broke free from her throat, burning like a wildfire as it ripped from her. Bathed in light, Bulla pushed down harder into the ground, centering herself against the forcefield she created with her power. Underneath the ground quaked and shifted as if it was bowing to its new queen, trembling and submissive.
Her hair glowed yellow and her eyes became green. She was beyond Super Saiyan now — she had ascended.
Chomping at the bit, Cell flew at her. Her display of power meant nothing to him.
When they clashed, it hit like a sonic boom. Neither was holding anything back, and Bulla was determined to fight until she had nothing left in her tank. Cell punched, she weaved. He kicked, she bobbed. Her knee lifted and collided with his cheek. She swung around, throwing her leg over and clipped his face the other way.
Balancing mid-air, she curled her legs toward her stomach and pushed out. Cell leered backward, but before he was out of reach, he grabbed her extended legs and gave her a violent swing. As she tumbled through the sky, she braced herself. Cell was coming back for another assault.
It carried on that way for what seemed like forever. Neither seemed to tire. When one could get a leg up, the other would slam them down. Finally, Bulla managed to wrangle free from the pattern. Jumping back, she pushed her arms forward and summoned a series of ki blasts. One after another cut through the cloud of dust created in her wake and created a wall of light that pushed Cell back.
One clipped Cell's head and he let out a hellish grunt. From beneath his lizard-like skin was a fleshy, pink gash. His knees buckled and his fingers reached for the wound and his eyes seemed to roll back before they flickered straight forward again. It took everything in Bulla not to cheer: She had done it. She actually hit him to break skin.
Tar-like sanguine fluid dribbled from his head, running over his face and onto his lips. Upon tasting his own blood, Cell sneered. The open wound throbbed.
"You bitch," he hissed.
A flash erupted from Cell and Bulla found herself enveloped in his light. Bulla jumped out of the way but soon realized Cell had anticipated this: Instead of going forward, the blast bounced off the ground and went up, capturing Bulla in it's impressive power. It sucked her in and rattled against her bones.
The pressure was intense — like nothing she had ever felt before — and she struggled to swim against it. She could feel the power blooming and pushing, as if it was waiting to be born. Never before had she seen a blast like this one; one that seemingly waited to release until the victim was trapped within its teeth. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to fight it, but its power was too strong.
When it finally ignited, Bulla was thrown back to the ground in a violent push. She collided and felt the wind suck straight out of her. As she gasped for air, she tried moving her body. Torturous pain shot through her and gripped at her limbs. Was this really the end? One hit and she was going to allow herself to die?
Whatever it took, she was going to do it. She didn't care if it meant crawling on broken bones to defend herself — to defend her life and her family and future. If Cell was going to kill her, he would have to do it with her fighting tooth and nail to destroy him, he would not get the satisfaction of taking her out while she stood defenseless and weak. Lying in the crater, she forced herself to turn her head, and saw Cell walking straight toward her.
"Look at what you did," his voice was seething with hatred. "How should I make you pay?"
Bulla pushed herself up onto her arms and Cell crept forward, a devious and deadly glimmer in his eye.
"Killing you would be too easy." He wiped away a trickle of blood from his open wound. "I want you to suffer."
"There's nothing you can do to me, Cell, that hasn't already been done," she said, her voice strong and sure. She pushed up to her knees, and with her breath finally returning, drank in air as if she had been drowning.
"Oh?" He smiled. "I don't think you're right about that."
He extended his hand to the other side of the ring and Bulla followed its direction. She had been so entranced in her fight with Cell that she had not noticed the Z Fighters on the sidelines. Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Piccolo all were tending to fighters, some who appeared to be dead. From what she could tell, there were two men-Hercule and another-who had been injured in the blasts Cell rained down earlier. The man she didn't know had a weak ki that flickered from life to death, while Hercule seemed to be stable.
And then there was Goku, who looked ragged but was pacing the trench. She could see the strain in his eyes as his feet shuffled. He was about to enter the melee again.
In an instant, Cell disappeared using his super speed. Above the fighters, Cell materialized, a ki blast already in his hand. The others didn't even have a second to react before explosions ripped through their side of the ring. Krillin suffered a direct hit. Tien and Yamcha managed to dodge just in time, but the fighter whose ki was low did not have the same fate.
Another series of blasts and the Z Fighters went flying. Cell's eyes followed Piccolo as he grabbed Hercule and went running. Goku was up in the air again but Cell pushed him back with his endless stream of ki energy. It was chaotic — like a machine gun loaded with unearthly bullets that popped off, spewing ricochet energy in every direction.
A few kicked over to where the fans had been seated before. Bulla was unsure if anyone remained in the camp, but if they did, there was no escaping now. One blast hit what looked like an abandoned TV truck and it set off a chain reaction. Fire erupted from it and jumped to the next, rocking the field with explosion after explosion until the whole field looked like it was set ablaze.
Screams emitted from stands, and it confirmed for Bulla what she feared was true: Innocent people had stayed behind. Now, they were burning, suffocating under billowing clouds of black smoke, entombed by a psychopathic rage.
The knife he had laid in her back twisted. He had found a way to make death seem like the easy way out.
Goku soared in the air at Cell and landed a fierce punch on Cell's face. As he connected, though, Cell flung his tail and smashed Goku in the stomach. Then it snaked back and pierced the side of Goku's body. He convulsed under it and groaned as he attempted to pry it from his body, but with every push, Cell drove it deeper. He captured Goku's arms and held them behind his back as he struggled. The longer his tail sucked energy from Goku, the weaker he would become.
Bulla watched in horror as this midair exchange occurred, studying Cell's face. Once he absorbed Goku's energy, there was no going back. She had found her most ultimate strength and was still unable to defeat him. Even with her father by her side, she could not find a way to overcome. Now that Goku was in his clutches, what chance did anyone else have?
With each gluttonous gulp, Cell's tail surged. Cell's eyes glowed and his sickening smile came back. The wound from his head had evidently cauterized, as it had stopped bleeding, but now it underwent a most peculiar transformation: In place of the oozing blood was an acute, unmistakable glow. The exposed pink skin seemed to be drinking in Goku's energy just as much and it left Bulla mesmerized.
Goku squirmed and Cell shoved the tail in deeper. He let out an evil laugh and looked directly at Bulla.
"I will suck him dry," his eyes glimmered. "I will use every last drop of him to kill everyone on this planet, and I'll make you watch."
His face relaxed as his strength was replenished by Goku and the spot seemed to pulse, and the more he drank, the more it surged. Nowhere else on his body had responded that way to it. Or maybe it did, Bulla thought, maybe that's what underneath his leathery skin looked like. But seeing it exposed gave her an idea.
She thought maybe her mind was playing tricks on her, but the closer she looked, the more she realized: It wasn't pink skin. It was a membrane, a piece of Cell's inside that was coming out. She had not just caused a flesh wound, she had opened him up, and unfortunately for Cell, he had just tipped his hand.