Yo! Son Goku and friends! Cell Saga (Chapter 9)
Goku VS Piccolo
Objective: Not really one in particular, just a friendly spar. Is what I would say if that were the case but really there is one but I don't feel like spoiling that specifically. Beerus is being super petty today. He stole my boba, I couldn't believe it. I spend all this time cleaning the house and he doesn't care one bit. I should teach him a lesson one of these days and really clown on him when he fights another God. The problem is that I don't know when that'll be but if I go out of my way to set it up he'll expect something so really I'm at a loss. Anyway, here's Goku and Piccolo fighting each other.
"You ready?" Goku asked with a chipper tone as he bobbed up and down on the ground, feet shuffling through the rural grass of Mount Paozu.
"I should be asking you." Piccolo remarked, chuckling through his clenched maw, throwing his cape and turban to the side. "You didn't fare too well last time."
"But that was last time." Goku kept it bouncy as he sidled around like the hands on a clock, smiling and pointing back at The Demon.
Piccolo kept formation with The Saiyan, winding around with him as the sun started to descend from its apex of the day. Gohan and Chi-Chi watched on with drinks in hand, under the shade of the tree with a light breeze accompanying them. Raditz also viewed the contest as he chopped wood at the side.
THUNKK! WHUNKK! TONKK! HUNKK!
Through the rhythmic strikes, the two readied their plans of attack, striking on the next log split.
THUNN~Wsht!~KK! Whapwhap! FufufufFwooosh! Swu-FOOSHH!
They ran buckwild in front of the house, dashing in deep, both sending out furious blows which hit nothing only for Piccolo to blast him away with an epic Kiai cannon of winds. Goku backhandsprung off the grass, laughing all the while.
"This is fun!"
"Tcheh!" Piccolo scoffed loudly as a smile crept across his face.
"Honey?" Chi-Chi posited loudly.
"Yes dear!?" He shouted over the fist flurries and harsh cuts of wind.
"When are you going to get your driver's license!?"
"What do you mean!?"
Goku hit a mean high frontflip over Piccolo's committed left straight, landing on the ground and then backdashing with a lead elbow towards his target.
"A driver's license is-"
"I know what you mean, Chi-Chi, what I was asking was…"
Fufufu! Swoosh!
"Why would I ever need a driver's license!?"
"If you ever needed to take the kids-"
"But, I could just fly them there myself!"
Fa-FOOSH!
"That or…"
FuFuFu-Wast~WHOOSHH!
Goku retreated, parrying perfectly three overhands from his rival, guiding the tops of Piccolo's green fists over his shoulders. He returned fire only for Piccolo to dodge out of the way, grab his white tank top and judo throw him over. Goku landed in a cartwheel, grabbing onto Piccolo's own vest and sending him into the air instead.
"-Use The Nimbus!" He responded plainly, taking his eye contact away from the endeavor and instead placing it on his wife.
Chi-Chi just stared at him blankly, hands on her lap.
"Come on."
"..."
"Huh-Hah!"
Piccolo came back with a vengeance, bisecting the wind with his hefty claw acting as a scythe, sharp gusts blowing into the treeline near the older brother.
"Alright then, Son Goku…" Piccolo offered as he went to town, throwing a barrage of heated lefts. "Your wife might not make very much sense but-"
Chi-Chi's mouth was agape, taken aback utterly. Gohan laughed loudly as he held onto Goten.
"What if I challenged you?"
"A challenge, huh?"
Fsh! Fsh! Fsh!
Piccolo just smiled, meeting the always bright whites of The Saiyan's.
"Whoever gets their license first is the one who gets a spot in the next Budokai."
Goku's jaw dropped, but instead of disbelief, it was of total hype, as excited as could be.
"You're on!" Goku screamed throatily, pointing a declarative index finger at him, completely unable to stifle his childlike giggles.
Maloja
The sun hung low in the sky, casting reds and oranges at the same time it cast blues and purples. The moon poked through the sky the same as the sun and they stared at each other like enemies while Maloja eyed their standoff.
"Under the sun and the moon." He spoke to himself.
Soon enough as the sun continued its descent, a sharp noise shot through the dusk. Maloja peered throughout the sand and wouldn't you know it:
A large bug-like creature was tearing through the winds like nobody's business, blowing the dunes every which way just for fun. It seemed to laugh in pure joy as the sand parted beneath it.
"The Locust..!" He shouted in his mind, eyes wide at the revelation. He eyed it again through the staff orb, the bug-man floated a pocket in front of him with his own magics.
"He knows Telekinesis huh? … What is that?"
Maloja turned around slowly as The Locust passed under him and towards the temple.
"..! It's a device to locate the Dragon Balls!" He proclaimed as he saw a blip blink into existence on the scanlines from his perch. "The Locust will guide me!" He grinned with a snarky disposition, leaping down from the apex of the pyramid and skittering across the sandy desert, making his way towards the same temple the bug-man entered.
Cell
"Wow." Cell marvelled as he stepped inside the ruins, taking a torch of the wall and examining it thoroughly.
Fwuoofff~ Fwaff~
He swung it around a few times for good measure, a smile creeping across his face as he did it. Dust and sand drained from the ceilings as he entered. He brushed his hand along the walls of long since forgotten glyphs.
"Huh-hah-hah!" He giggled gleefully. "What strange little drawings…"
Fffffffff~
Cell took his time, much to the dismay of his unbeknownst follower.
"Who the heck is this dude? He's like a damn kid! Hurry up already!" He thought, gritting his teeth and baring it, not daring to alert the creature. He marked his path carefully, drawing on the walls with his staff. He made sure to stay out of sight, using the red orb to peek around corners as he hid in doorways and various cracks in the walls.
Cell explored the various rooms, passageways, tunnels, canals, you name it. There were an endless amount of places to pray, bury the dead, areas to paint or transcribe, make shortcuts, the list went on.
"What is this place..? It's absolutely fantastical." Cell marvelled as he scoffed, touching up against the tapestries that fell into dust at his touch. "Who..?"
He asked all sorts of questions to no one but himself as he checked the surroundings, dipping his toes in the waters of unknown origins. He picked up another torch off the wall, dual wielding them and laughing all the while.
Oooooooooooo~
Strange noises bounced off the walls in ghoulish echoes, chills running up Cell's spotted frame as he made his way towards them.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh~ Fffffffff~
He would light rooms and jump at shadows as he got closer to the sounds or more accurately, the sounds got closer to him.
"What's making all that racket?" Cell pondered aloud as he stepped with caution down the narrow corridor.
Tup. Tup. Tp. Dp. Tp. Tup. Tup. TpTupTpDmpTupDupDmpTup.
"AIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"
"Ahhh-ha-ha-ha!" The woman screamed again as she tried to pass through Cell.
"Ahhhhh!" Cell screamed back as he tried to pass her only for the two to meet face to face again.
They screamed at each other's faces one last time before they heard a ghastly moan bellow from behind her.
UUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~
"AHHHHHHHH!" The two of them screamed in tandem again before they calmed down.
"Who the hell are you!?"
"Duh-uptdaugh-Duh~" Cell goofed out, not only stumbling over his words but falling down several flights of coherency staircases in the process.
UHHHHHHHH~
The mummy groaned as it rounded the corner and stretched out its mangled, blotchy, and blackened arms only barely covered in wraps.
"EYAHHHHH!" The woman screamed as she jumped into Cell's arms.
"Huh?" Cell called out as he dropped the torches on the ground.
"Get me the hell away from that thing!"
"Uhh, … okay." Cell reluctantly agreed, kipping up one of the torches and then blasting it with a snap front kick at the foe.
FWOFFF~
UUOOOOOOOOOOOOGHHHHH~
The mummy groaned as it caught fire, the messy yellow wraps being a good source of fuel for the torch. The unearthly groan it let out rattled the pair to the bone, Cell booking it down the corridors, going a mile a minute and not really thinking where he went or how he got here.
"Where are we going!?"
"I don't know!" Cell cried out as he entered room after room, no end in sight.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I uhh~" He whimpered, checking feverishly in the darkness.
"Go back for the torches!"
"Which way is back?"
"Uh oh." She let out plainly as they entered the pitch blackness.
"Okay. Think."
"Think what!? I'm gonna die and it's all your fault!" She cried, bopping him on his shadowy body with smacks of her palms.
"Would you calm down?" Cell asked with authority. "I'm going to hit you back if you keep going."
She stopped immediately.
"Wowww~ You'd hit a woman?" She asked, clearly offended.
"What's the difference?"
UOOOOOOOHHHHHH~
The sound didn't just echo like last time, the sound reverberated off several different sources, more than one. It wasn't a lone attacker but several, their footsteps clapping lightly in every direction. She gripped around him tighter and shook like a newborn.
"Think." Cell said plainly as he stepped out into the hallway. "Hold on." Cell commanded as he took away his arm to feel out the walls.
Cell checked the surfaces, feeling out the dust and cracks.
"Welp. Brace yourself I guess." He stated matter-of-factly as he backed up.
"What are you-"
KA-KOOMM!
"Eyahhhh! Ow!"
KA-KOOM! Koh-KMM! KA-KOOMM! KA-KMM! KRMM! FMM! FA-KOOMM!
He crashed through wall after wall, sticking out his left arm and blindly smashing through the pyramid until he reached the outside. The sun had all but faded leaving only a sliver of orange at the very top of the horizon. Cell dropped her off, dazed and confused. He didn't do a very good job checking for quality control, she had definitely taken a few hits, bruises and blood marked her frame as she saw stars on the grass.
The bug-man rounded to the front and entered just the same as before, taking a torch off the rack on the left side of the entrance. The echoes of the damned got louder again as he made his way deeper.
KrrrrOKK! Krrrrrrrrrrrr~
The sound of flames rocked again as he left a large line in the wall with his right arm, dragging it along to mark his path.
FWOUFFF~
Cell raised a brow as another surge of fire pierced the darkness, this time wholly visible instead of audible. A man ran with reckless abandon through the halls, chased down by more figures in burning wraps. They fell over themselves with poor structural integrity, both from the flames and their own poor leverage from the thinness of their frames.
"Dah! Back demon! Back!" The man screamed in a strange voice, swinging the torch at Cell's face.
"I mean you no harm. I'm only looking for the Dragon Ball."
"..! Vat!? I knew this place vas no good! I'm out of here! The Dragon Balls are nothing but trouble!" The man blurted out as he attempted to juke the bug-man.
FWOFF~
It was to no avail.
"KYAH! It's got me!"
"Sir! Calm down! You know of the Dragon Balls?"
Maloja looked on from the darkness, hiding in the stream of a canal as his staff sniped the action.
"Gah!" The banana-suited man with the blue afro screamed as he saw another group of mummies walk over the embers of their fallen. "Just get me out of here damnit and I'll tell you vatever you vant!"
Cell looked up at the mummies, grabbed the man's shirt collar, turned around, sniped the line he made and absolutely blasted out of there, much faster than having to break through the pyramid walls in a conga-line.
FOOMM!
"Shit…" Maloja cursed, shaking his head above the water as he saw the display of power. "This guy's gonna be a tough one."
"Vahh..? How did you, I don't..? Vat?" The man ran through the motions as Cell tossed his ass on the sand.
"The Dragon Balls."
"..? Oh! Right!"
Nain walked around the corner, spooking the hell out of Dr. Flappe.
"Dah! Nain!"
"Flappe? Did anyone else get out of there?" She asked in a hurry, crouching down to meet his eye line.
"I don't think so…" He lamented.
"Sir. The Dragon Balls."
"Right! Uh… there is only one in there!"
"That makes sense. The radar only picked up one in there."
"Totenhotep is guarding it."
"Totenhotep?"
"Yes! They say Totenhotep is the 3rd trial Olibu of Olympus had to conquer in order to gain favour vith the gods!"
"Totenhotep?"
"He… He is… vas, a legendary pharoah in his day, but his time has long since passed."
Nain swallowed harshly as she stood up tall and glanced over to the entrance.
"Or would have passed. He has been resurrected somehow, I don't know how but-"
"So Totenhotep has it huh?" Is all Cell remarked as he stepped toward the pyramid.
"Vait! Totenhotep is going to destroy you! Unless you possess the divine power like Olibu in the legend, you'll never be enough!"
Cell neglected to answer as he entered the crypt. Nain and Flapped glanced at each other before booking it toward the car.
OWOUHHHHHHHHH!
They beckoned as he walked with swagger back into the tomb. Chilling groans and moans rocked the halls as the bug-man made his way back inside, still holding onto the torch. They oozed black tar, blood, dirt, dust, grime, and all manner of gross fluids as Cell beat them back with righteous blows. Every hit was a one-shot, absolutely mowing them through with punches, kicks, and swipes of his wooden weapon. The bug-man fought his way through the hoard, eventually making his way to an open room with an empty coffin.
"What's this?" Cell asked plainly as he walked the steps and peered into the expertly gilded sarcophagus.
The Dragon Ball was nowhere to be seen, just an empty box. Cell looked around, seeing nothing before taking out the radar and checking it.
Ga-Chuik! Bee! Bee!
As he stood up, a large shadow cast on the wall in front of him. He blinked a single time before turning around harshly. The Pharaoh stood before him, his bandages not a pee-stained yellow but a perfected gold that was undisturbed by the man's decay. Unlike the others, this mummy said nothing, and seemed to possess coherency, staring right back at Cell with arms locked at its side.
"Are you Totenhotep?"
The Mummy nodded.
"I'm here for the Dragon Ball. I won't fight you if I don't have to."
The Pharaoh eyed his physique.
Oh yeah. Totenhotep thought. Cell's body would be great to turn into a minion.
"..."
Cell and Totenhotep locked eyes for a long time, the small crackles of flame being the only thing punctuating the silence until more mummies started piling into the hall.
"But if you leave me no other options… Prepare to lose."
Cell answered as he stuck the torch and radar in the coffin, cracking his knuckles outward and rolling his burly onyx shoulders. The mummies didn't come after Cell so much as block off all the exits, two less mucky faces in their ranks. Lost in the sauce and focused on his own objective, Cell didn't notice the Dragon Radar start floating and soon enough it passed through the veritable wall of wraps and entered into Maloja's hands.
"Hmm." Maloja smirked as he palmed the item. "Perfect."
Ga-Chuik! Bee! Bee. bee b-
Maloja's frame was encompassed by darkness as he snuck away.
Cell VS The Pharaoh Totenhotep
Objective: Fight off The Pharaoh!
The room hushed, the groans of the damned ceased as The Pharaoh limbered up. The fires of the torchlights crackled, signalling combat.
Fsht! WHOKK!
Cell hiked his left leg up high and launched it into Totenhotep's jaw, forcing it up.
Tup. Tp.
Cell scanned his target for any oddities as it backed up with two steps. The Pharaoh was unperturbed, standing up to full height almost immediately after taking the blow.
"Okay then." The bug-man commented as he cracked his fingers again, stepping down from the middle platform and sidling around Totenhotep.
The pair waltzed in a clockwise direction, waiting for each other's first move. In a blitz, Cell's wings sprung to life, flapping an uncountable amount of times in a split second, gusts of winds bellowing in the crypt and blowing dust and wraps wildly.
WHUMM! Pa-POCKKLE!
The Mummy saw right through it as his indigo gems twinkled, booting Cell right in the sleek black chest region.
"Ohhh…" Cell groaned as picked himself off the ground, brushing away the loose rubble stuck to his backside. "You're not a pushover yourself, eh?" He remarked with a smirk.
Cell disappeared from view, faster than he thought, slamming right into the wall of mummies on the opposite side, his arms draped over one each.
"Sorry..?" He apologised briefly, blinking at the oddity. "Huh. I just keep getting too strong for my own good I guess." It was less of a taunt and more of a statement as he stood up and wiped himself off, standing the mummies up on their feet after having knocked them over. "Didn't mean to do that. Apologies."
The Pharaoh stared him down, unblinking. Not that his sparkling gems could perform the action anyway.
"I mean if you're just gonna let me." He commented, taking time away from the battle to loosen up. Cell stretched it out one last time, checking all his limbs.
The Pharaoh maintained his animalistic glare as Cell breathed out deeply.
"Heh~" He coughed, clearing his throat a bit. "Mm-Hmm! Sure is dusty in here. Okay! Let's do this!" Cell proclaimed, hitting a thumbs up before whirlwinding towards his foe.
FOOSHHH!
The wild winds rocked the room, knocking the nearby mummies on their asses as Cell hit a fly-by haymaker of a right hand.
THMM!
Totenhotep bounced off the wall, the structural integrity of the pyramid being called into question as dirt and dust rained down from the ceiling, chunks of bricks falling down here and there as well as the two went at it. Totenhotep shot out a length of wrap, tightening around Cell's left arm like glue.
"Huh?" He questioned plainly, looking at it with intrigue before getting pulled in with the tug of legends.
WHAMM!
Cell was flattened on the ground, but only for a moment. The bug-man kipped up like it was no big deal.
"This is..? All you've got?" Cell asked with a serious intonation. Again, it didn't really sound like he was making fun or prodding at his opponent, it sounded too genuine to be that.
Totenhotep tugged him in again, looking to grab and thrust him into the ground. Cell acted too quickly, going with the momentum of the pulling motion to deliver a thrusting superman punch.
WHOKK! KrrrrOCKKLE! Slash~Sloshh~Slouss~ Ftatutu~
The wall caved in, revealing a canal that drove under the room. Cell was forced through, dragged into the other room due to the iron-grip the gilded wrap still had on him. The room was almost pitch black, the only light in the room coming from the hole in the wall that was steadily being blocked out by the wall of mummies shifting into place and proceeding to fall into the water.
Slass! Sloush! Fsht! Whst! Slshh!
Cell was tossed around by the wild wippings of Totenhotep. He slashed every which way like a whip, thrusting the bug-man into the walls as he was incapable of seeing his enemy.
WHOMM! WHOOSH! FMM! Slashh~ Sloushh~
"Ahh…" Cell groaned as he splashed around in the trench. "Okay." Cell thought aloud as he was bombarded with strikes, sent every which way, throwing into the ceiling, the wall, and the water. It didn't faze him, he just used the time to think. "That one time~"
Cell recalls his fight with The Triceratops King.
"I felt that huge surge of energy right at the end. How did I do that?"
WHUMM!
The Pharaoh slammed him into the wall, getting right in front of his bug-like foe and raining down shots, punch after punch to pin him down. Cell barely defended, just keeping his arms up limply, it's not like he could even see The Mummy anyway.
"I calmed myself… and focused only on one thing."
Cell's frame lit up like an x-ray, purple energies lightly radiating off his frame as Totenhotep laid on the punishment. Cell's eyes were closed but he furrowed his brow all the same.
"What is this power?" He thought. "I'm…"
He stopped blocking altogether. There was no need.
"Even stronger than I think I am." Cell contemplated out loud as The Pharaoh reigned it in, backing up to try and deliver a monstrous haymaker.
Instinctually, he sent out a pulse of Ki Sensing, only this time, his was naturally level 2, or what Gods of Destruction refer to as Scanning.
The entirety of everyone's frame was revealed, Cell could see their brittle bones, the outline of the water, the walls, the cracks, and the flittering dust snowing down from the top. Time slowed to a crawl as Totenhotep inched forward. Totenhotep's wrap was still locked in on Cell's left arm, he didn't remove it however, he instead used it to his advantage. The Pharaoh edged closer, his own left arm raised to strike with an overhand. Cell pivoted sharply, turning his back to The Mummy and flapping his wings in a single dominant flap as he pulled him in with the golden line. The Mummy was forced in at the tug, during the spin, Cell caught his arm, and arm-dragged him into the wall, cracking and denting it in under the pressure.
Cell planted his left boot on Totenhotep's stomach, the barely human creature pinned to the cracked wall while upside down. He sighed with a bit of distress and melancholy.
"Survival of the fittest." He chanted like a mantra, nonetheless still perturbed, you could hear it in his voice.
Sssk! Vyoip~Vyoip~Vyoip~
The other mummies looked on, splashing around in the water to attack their foe. Cell barely registered their presence, one-shotting them with lazy right hands that completely shattered their existences, turning them into mucky goo and nothing but wraps as he took the only energies Totenhotep had left.
"I'm…" Cell contemplated as he drained the last of the black tar from Totenhotep's being. "I'm made for this huh?" He asked plainly, looking at his left hand as he bashed and battered the troupe with his right. "Others are born, right..? But I was Made for this." Cell reiterated, maintaining his focused stare at his left hand.
"Hu-hu-help!" A low bassy scream cut across.
Cell looked up, and sure enough, there were two men in wraps fighting off the rest of the mummies on the top level. He flew up immediately, clearing the room with a wild flourish of blows, almost seeming to teleport from action to action.
Fsht!
"Huh." Cell remarked as he screeched to halt across the bricks, leaving a black burnout in his wake. "I got faster. Again."
"By jove! Who or what..? In the devil are you?" The man with the bushy mustache asked spiritedly.
"Cell."
"..? Cell?"
"Yep. That's my name." Cell answered blankly as he stepped away from the two elderly gentlemen and towards the sarcophagus housing his torch and radar.
"We of the Royal Academy of Science are forever in your-"
"What!?" Cell shouted, his eyes bugged out to oblivion. "Where's the radar!?"
"Sir? What radar?" Challenger challenged as he fixed his glasses and stood side by side next to the bug-man.
"The Dragon Radar! It's for tracking down the Dragon Balls!"
"Hmm…" Challenger meditated on it for a moment, his index finger placed gently on his thumb. "Dragon Ball..?"
"Where could it have gone!?" Cell yelped with fervor, heaving up the heavy casket to check underneath and around. "I'm sure I put it over here somewhere!"
The bug-man scanned the area with a nervousness that seemed uncharacteristic from the previously somewhat stoic individual.
"Gah!" He bellowed, double and triple checking the usual suspects.
"Sir?"
"What!?"
"Thank you for helping us."
"... I don't have time for this. I have to find the Dragon Radar."
Dr. Challenger and Dr. Collie stood stunned as the green creature bolted out of the room in a huff, blowing the arcane dust of the establishment all around.
"Huh."
"What A Day." Collie commented as he fixed his slightly askew glasses.
In a flash and flicker of green, Cell reached the outside of the temple. Only the sparse lights from the admittedly mostly full moon and litany of stars added to the collective viewing of the dusty dunes of indigo. He furrowed his brow and sent out his unconscious use of Scanning throughout the region.
The field was huge, much larger than anything any of The Z Fighters had performed. Mind you, each act of Ki Sensing uses up energy from a limited ki pool, scanning the planet is incredibly inefficient due to the cost. Only beings who have run the numbers over and over again, sharpening the techniques to perfection and making sure to not waste any energy in the process can scan the planet. Kami was an exception due to the abilities granted to whoever was in the position of Guardian of Earth. It is why Kami wants Korin to step up as guardian because he believes that Korin is far more talented in the avenues that matter as Kami.
The only feedback he got were faraway plants, insects, and reptiles scurrying about the desert.
"No~" He groaned, falling to the floor with a whimper.
For as strong as he was physically, the loss of the radar hit hard. The unknown programming of his masters endeavored to make the location of the Dragon Balls such a priority that this blow had a palpable tug at his heartstrings. He collapsed, clutching at his black armour-like chest with tears in his eyes as his fingers dug deep and clawed into the grainy sands.
"No…"
Maloja
"This is like the best it could have happened. Don't even need to mess around with that guy." Got the Dragon Ball to boot, too."
Maloja gazed deeply into the five red stars hidden in the gleaming golden sphere.
"Unreal." He relayed under the nightlight of the moon as his staff glowed. "This thing is just oozing magic power out the wazoo. How does something this small even hold all this much? Fuck a wish, I might just make a staff out of the orb. The seal looks nigh-unbreakable though. It'd be hard to actually convert this thing to a catalyst."
Maloja scoffed, shaking his head as he sat high on a cliff face, looking out into the prairie nightlife. He tossed the ball up and down rhythmically, eyes glazing over in a trance as he let himself go into autopilot.
Tp. Tp. Tp. Tp. Tp.
After a while of just mindless staring, he brought himself together, shaking his head to rattle awake. The scraggly bearded man checked the Dragon Radar for the next conquest.
Ga-Chuik. Ja-Shuick.
"Hmm? Is this the farthest setting it goes? Oh brother, it's gonna be a pain to find all of them. I only see three on the whole thing."
Something didn't sit right with the priest.
"Wait a minute…"
He feverishly clicked and checked, searching for any details he could.
"This thing is pretty advanced. It doesn't have any labels or nothing… but… It looks like it actually checks for elevation. And if that's true. Then that means that's Monster Island, and that's Mt. Frappe. They're opposite ends of the planet aren't they?"
There was a moment of pause as he gripped his staff tightly, focusing hard on the Dragon Radar.
"I'm making too many assumptions. I'll check that southern location first, and if that's Monster Island then I might be onto something. And if I'm onto something."
He threw over his green cloak, it cutting against the wind sharply in a satisfying way.
Fwuoff~
"Then I don't like that. That's the whole globe and there are only three Dragon Balls. Did that old hag get it wrong? No… That can't be."
Maloja stared at the stars.
"Unless it's some cruel fake out joke by whatever divinity forced these into being."
Maloja sighed and took one last calculated look at the five stars in the epicentre of the orb.
Cell
With his tail between his legs, Cell arrived hastily at the unknowable hideout in the middle of the desert. With a heavy sigh he looked at the bright stars above before being accosted.
"Did you bring the rest of the, Dragonballs?"
"..."
"Hurry up!"
"No. I didn't."
"It would seem forgoing automation was a wholly incorrect path of action."
"Very well. Come on in, Cell."
"Yes, Father."
GZZZZZHHHHHHHTT!
The bug-man stomped down into the long hall and cursed himself as he walked the seemingly endless length. The harsh light bearing down on him stung, almost as if they were showing the world what a failure he was. It was hard to breathe as the gigantic door swung open. He had to look at his creators and basically tell them he wasn't good enough.
"I lost the Dragon Radar." Cell stated with melancholy, taking a kneel on the metal flooring.
"You what?"
"And the Dragon Ball."
"We've only, three, more left. You understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"We made an extra, Dragon Radar, just in case. If you mess this up again, Cell. There are going to be big consequences."
"Thank you very much for this second opportunity."
"..."
"We should have automated him, Gero. He's taken far too long searching anyway. We've already waited, nine, years."
"Maybe you are right."
Kochin handed off the last radar with a furrowed brow and a cold look about him. There was a soft tug as Cell had to remove it forcibly.
"I won't fail you again."
"I'm sure, You, won't."
The way Kochin said it just rung as a little strange. Cell took a moment to compose himself before the two Doctors yelled at him.
"Cell!"
"Are you gonna get a move on? We were expecting you to gather the, Dragonballs, all in, one, day. Get out!"
"Yes, Doctor."
Cell closed his eyes and walked out of the room with a heavy heart, slamming the large circular vault door shut.
"..."
Cell took a long time to himself, just stargazing as he reached the outside.
"Do they not understand? Why do they treat me like that..? I'm supposed to be their son..."
The wind blew softly and before he knew it, Cell had wasted the entire night pondering, the morning sun barely breaking through the horizon.
"I guess… I better get going."