Cornered

Cell was busy absorbing a busload of kids when he sensed seven (Piccolo, Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Android 18, Pikkon and Krillin) energy levels headed towards him. 'I knew this would happen. Now to go underground.' He made a huge tunnel, covered up the hole and dug as fast as he could away from the city. Pikon was the first to land, and then the others.

"Great, we're too late. Just like we always are," muttered Piccolo. He remembered the last time they were searching for Cell, he and Tien felt as if they were on a wild goose chase. 'This is ridiculous,' he thought, 'this is going to keep going until who knows when.'

Everyone except Pikkon was annoyed. He was looking around and observing the ground. He turned towards Goku and said, "I don't think that Cell has gone very far. He seems to have dug a tunnel, so he can't be all that far away."

"You're right. Man, you're smart, Pikkon," said Goku admirably, and Pikkon smiled. He looked at Piccolo and said, "I'm not that smart, I'm just your average green alien. Goku just happens to be not that... bright."

Pikkon, Piccolo and Goku started to dig their way towards Cell, while the rest stayed above ground just in case Cell decided to fly off. Goku and the others crawled along the tunnel and listened for noises.

"Hey, you guys, I think I hear dirt crumbling far away from the right. It must be Cell," said Piccolo.

"That's great, but we can't fight him down here, we'll have to get him out of there." Goku looked around in the darkness but he couldn't see anything. His stomach started growling and Pikkon and Piccolo groaned.

"Not again."

"If you keep doing that, Cell will hear us."

"Sorry guys, but I'm really hungry. Can I go and get something to eat?"

"Sure. Why not? We can handle Cell, just get back before you have to go back to the other world, OK?"

"Got it." Goku crawled back out of the tunnel and went back home to eat.

Cell was still digging his way through the dirt. 'How long do I have to keep this up for?' He thought, 'It's good that I'm making a lot of tunnels, though. That will really confuse the others!' He felt much better after his little speech, and continued digging.

Pikkon and Piccolo were still looking for Cell, when all of a sudden Pikkon stopped. He put his hand in front of him and found that there were three paths ahead of him.

"It seems that Cell is trying to lose us by creating many passages," he said.

"Well, we can't search them all. Move aside, I'm going to blast this whole area." Piccolo started gathering energy for his special beam cannon. Pikkon put a hand in front of Piccolo.

"No, don't. if you do he'll know we're on to him. Let me do this." He fired blasts into all three entrances and concentrated hard. He sensed two of them disappear.

"That way," he said, and so the two continued. They ran into more and more splits, and each time Pikkon fired energy blasts to work out where to go. Soon the sound of falling dirt became louder. They finally ran into Cell, and Piccolo said, "Bingo." Cell turned around in horror and realised that he was trapped. He would have to fight or get sent back to the HFIL.