Power, Deception, Lies

Part II

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When the boy awoke for the second time, about three-quarters of an hour later, he painfully forced himself to get up, although not without falling over a few times, and half-limped around the room, savoring the new fragrances, the unrecognized sights. As he walked over to the study table which was with no doubt Gohan's (the study freak) he noticed that a slip of paper had been left there, a message written on its white clean surface with a slightly messy handwriting in black. The note, as he read it, said:

Dear Marty, if that's your name (we have noticed the chain around your neck)

Please do not try to push yourself in your condition. If you do not have the energy to walk, then stay in your bed and Gohan will bring you food as soon as he finishes his own, and he will tend to your wounds further. However, if you feel refreshed, and you are able to walk without being blown over by a breeze, please join us for morning tea at my house, which is the very center building in this village's line of buildings. The entire village has breakfast, morning tea and afternoon tea in my house every morning- well, an exception for Vegita who has this liking of eating on his own- and we would be glad to serve you also. If you will come, there will be food waiting for you. –Goku

"Goku…" Marty mumbled, looking down at his necklace. After a long thought, a silent pause, his stomach growled and he smiled to himself in embarrassment, feeling lucky that nobody was there to have seen (or heard) a thing from a fair young teenager with such standards as himself, although he probably did not realize those standards at that point. "…Well, I guess I am a little hungry," he finally said out loud to himself, revealing a sweet rich voice, almost poetic, that was hidden when he was very badly hurt at first and had to struggle to use all his strength in order to speak with his slightly cracking voice. He folded the note, for a reason beyond his understanding not coming to rest until the paper was folded very perfectly, pocketed it in the foreign sweater that he found himself wearing (which, in truth, was Gohan's) and left his light footsteps behind him, a desire to meet these friendly-sounding villagers.

After politely knocking on Goku's door, he heard many voices yelling, "I'll open it!", four thunderous pairs of footsteps running toward the door and a big crash as the door shook, making him raise his eyebrow in slight curiosity. The door finally opened, unveiling the sight of Goku and Gohan on one side of the door, and Videl and Eighteen on the other, all rubbing a painful lump on their foreheads.

"Hey, Marty! You're looking better," Goku laughed cheerfully. "It's about time you had some morning tea. Would you like some food? Sandwiches? Cookies? Cakes… everything is served."

"Thank you," Marty said slowly, everyone's heart skipping a beat as they heard his soft, poetic voice. Marty felt eyes upon him as he walked in, the entire room silent, as his light footsteps walked past the four at the door, seeming to bring a glistening light to the entire room as he entered the door. Everyone held their breath at the sight of the slender youth, even Vegita (joining them for breakfast for the first time just to see who the boy was), who had to admit in his mind that this boy was more of a prince than he was. And he mightn't even be a prince, and if he was certainly nobody in that room knew him, whilst in truth Vegita was.

Innocent yet curious hands belonging to Goten handed him a cookie, and Marty looked down at him and smiled, a smile that brightened his face. Goten could only sit there open-mouthed at this angelic being who was looking back down at him with the most beautiful smile of perfect teeth. Marty gently took the offering, without even rubbing the hard surface of the cookie against Goten's fingers as he took it away, and bit into its hard surface without much noise at all. Videl could hardly exhale as her eyes laid themselves on this magnificent creature, in the end exhaling a rather shaky breath as if she was afraid of something or had not breathed for a century.

As soon as he had swallowed his first bite, slightly amused as he noticed everyone watching him eat, he finally asked, "How did I get to be here? And… who are you, and how do you know me?"

Chi chi, almost unable to breathe herself, finally let out a breath and began to speak. She told him the entire story as he ate; how before breakfast they found him unconscious against the tree in their village yard, how Eighteen, Krillin, Gohan and Videl skipped breakfast just to take him in and tend to his wounds and change the torn clothing of his, how elegant and delicate he seemed to all those in the village, but with many places on his cheek slashed with continuous accidents during the flood. Marty smiled as she told him this, hiding his secret amusement that they regarded him as a prince when there he'd been, looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, against a tree.

"Did you know…" Chi chi began, after she had introduced everyone in the room.

"Yes?" Marty asked, after he had finished the cookie, and smiling innocently, trying to hold back his laughter as Goten handed him a sandwich.

"…Oh… nothing. It's alright," she smiled, knowing that what she was about to say was not wise. "Isn't there anything you remember at all?"

"Oh, yes, now that I think of it…" he muttered. "I remember… Cell…"

"Cell?" Puuaru and Oolong asked curiously, with eyes wide open, in reaction to the dark one's name.

"It's… difficult," he closed his eyes for a moment, wrinkling his nose as if with pain. "I can remember only that name, and nothing else… and my head hurts when I try to remember," he stated sorrowfully, shaking his head.

"Well, this is the story," Chi chi began slowly once more. She told him the many victories of Goku from the very beginning, from Emperor Pilaf to Garlic Junior, and from Frieza to his son's efforts of the defeat of Cell. Marty eyed Goku curiously the entire story through, and sometimes to Gohan as well, making Goku feel slightly uncomfortable of Chi chi's praises.

"Oh, Chi chi," he said quickly, laughing rather fakely, "I don't think I'm the most powerful in the Universe. It was all due to teamwork that all of us are now alive and safe."

"But you still defeated them yourself, didn't you?" Krillin pointed out. "We didn't intrude while you were fighting, and you defeated everyone who tried to take you on solo."

"Wow. Fantastic," Marty gushed, a beautiful slightly lopsided smile forming on his face. "You really must be the most powerful one in the Universe."

Goku laughed fakely again and thanked him, and there was a brief silence whilst Marty continued to eat noiselessly.

"C'mon, everyone, let's start training," Chaozu broke the silence as soon as Marty stopped eating. Everyone got up, and intending to head for the gym, began cleaning up the table. Yam Cha, without thinking, suddenly said, "Do you want a little exercise, Marty? Would you like to train with us?"

Everyone turned glaring eyes to him, making him realize what he'd just said, as he covered his mouth, feeling stupid. Marty laughed richly and joyfully, saying "No, thank you, Yam Cha. I'm not fully recovered yet, I am slightly weary, and your friends will murder you if you let me do so."

Everyone smiled in relief, growing very, very fond of Marty in only their first half hour of actually speaking with him. And as everybody left, he made his way back to Gohan's room, sitting on the bed. Suddenly, he did something very unexpected. His beautiful smile disappeared and his face became completely expressionless, truly blank. He took his golden raindrop and, fondling it with elegant fingers, lightly pressed the lifted surface of his name and began talking to it for a reason, although from somewhere else it might have seemed very strange, and mentally very not healthy.

"Cell? Yes, it's me, Marty. Goku is, I know now without a doubt, the most powerful in the Universe."

* * * * *

"So I know," Cell replied into a small black communicative device, looking back at his three evil companions on the ship; Frieza, Garlic Junior and Emperor Pilaf. "What do you think?"

"Well, drugging Prince Marty of Waterville and his sister the Princess to make them believe they are servants of the dark side, and chucking Marty back on solid earth during the recent monsoon to see if he would drown was fun," Frieza turned his nose to the air. "See how well he does before we start using the girl. But really, Cell, must I again fight that OVERGROWN MONKEY??"

"To think that an overgrown monkey had beaten you, Frieza," Emperor Pilaf laughed an evil laugh, trying to rub it in. "You must be really bad at this."

"Well, I still think I'm the greatest. I'm dead, and I'm alive again, see?"

"So what? So are the rest of us," Cell proved his point. "One of your servants gathering the dragonballs and bringing us all back to life with a stupid wish isn't exactly some daring feat that deserves a medal."

Frieza rose from his chair angrily, smashing the goblet of brandy he was drinking on the floor of the spaceship. "You insolent pest! How dare you talk to me like that, you-"

"Hey, shut up, shut up!!" Garlic yelled. "I really hate working with all of you. You three are a disgrace. I admit, of course, that I'm not all that good myself since I could not defeat Goku and his extremely powerful son, but how can any of us get through if we're all trying to boast about how good we ourselves are and telling the rest of us how hopeless they are!"

"Are you not doing it too?" Frieza stood in front of him, overshadowing the little shrimp to scare him a bit, although Garlic had more guts than a whale. Garlic just turned away, flicking his cape coolly behind him, away from his arms.

"That's not the point," he mumbled.

Cell rolled his eyes, and said, "What else have you found out, Marty?"

"Well…" Marty's expressionless voice came on, "His son and the android could be as powerful as him… I'm not sure. The three have a history of winning battles as long as they could remember, according to Goku's wife."

"The android and the son?" Cell questioned. "Would that be the blond girl and the teenage brat who defeated me?"

"Don't think he's young anymore… he's as old as me, at least. He's the one who's going out with Mr. Satan's daughter."

"Good," Cell laughed a low laugh. "We'll eliminate the four of them mainly. I've heard that young Videl may have a history of fighting also, and it may prove useful if we destroy her too."

"Oh Cell, get a life," Frieza laughed nastily. "As if you can defeat any of them. Before they blasted you to nothing, and you're lucky MY SERVANT CAME ALONG WITH THE DRAGONBALLS WHEN HE DID."

Cell ignored him. "Now, we all have a score to settle with Goku, so…"

"Not me," Garlic interrupted. "I have a score to settle with his son."

"We still must defeat Gohan, Videl and the android," Emperor Pilaf said. "I've heard that, besides maybe Vegita, those three could be #2 on the list of powerful fighters, second to Goku. Gohan might even be stronger."

"Then it's settled. I'll take on Goku, and Garlic will take on Gohan. Frieza can fight my precious Eighteen, and Pilaf can defeat Videl. But remember," Cell said, "There are much more fighters than that. We must destroy Goku first, and then the rest of them so they do not end up developing to be more powerful than him."

"Agreed," the other three said in unison, before they laughed a loud laugh that darkly filled the silence of the Universe.

To be continued…