by Amazon and Masquerade
Chapter 9
The days went by, almost too quickly. The day Earth dreaded finally came, and the world held it's breath. The Cell Games were about to begin in one hour. Tansei had just finished her second day in the time chamber only hours before and had been trying to help Krillin calm his nerves.
"This is it...." he muttered
to himself. "The day's here.........man, I can't even remember when I was
this scared......."
"Hey, we'll be fine, Krillin.
We've all trained hard and come a long way. I'm confident we'll win,"
Tansei said.
"Cool." Krillin nodded.
"Well, as long as I don't have to fight the guy, I'm confident we'll win,
too."
Tansei laughed.
"Well, what are we waiting
for? An invitation?" Vegeta said before flying off.
"Yeah. Let's get going."
Piccolo agreed.
He turned and followed after Vegeta.
"Right," Tansei nodded and
followed as well.
"Goku and Gohan will probably
meet us there," Tien spoke before following.
"Yeah..." Krillin muttered
to himself, rotating his shoulders. "Well, here we go." He followed after
Tien.
Trunks brought up the rear.
~*/|\*~
Cell stood perfectly still in the arena, as usual, as he was taunted by Hercule and the chosen arena announcer.
Leave, damnit, leave.....
"Haahahaha!! Look
at him! He's scared! I can tell! Who wouldn't be if they
had to face me!" Hercule boomed idiotically.
"........" Cell decided
to say noting. I have to waste another half an hour with this......moron........sheesh!
"Oh, Hercule, you're
soooo strong," a busty redhead swooned as she latched onto his arm.
Hercule laughed loudly and proceeded to tell the camera man how he would defeat Cell and save the world. Cell was very tempted to shake his head, or just blast Hercule where he stood.......instead, he just rolled his eyes. Then, he felt a familiar ki off to the side, and turned his head in that direction with a pleased smile.
"Vegeta....."
Tansei landed shortly after she saw Vegeta land.
Her hair, once long, had been cut during her time in the chamber.
It now reached just below her chin, but strangely enough the last third
of it was still silver. Her muscle mass had noticeably increased
as well. She wore a black body suit that looked like it had been
part of saiyajin armor once, but the sleeves had been cut off and the legs
been cut to stop above her knees. She wore saiyajin gold tipped boots
and two green wrist bands. Her crystal blue eyes gazed over at Cell
with calculated indifference. She had worked hard to suppress her
emotions in the chamber. It was almost difficult to recognize her,
the transformation was staggering. The others landed shortly there
after.
Cell stared at Tansei. He wasn't sure it was her
until he felt her ki. He found himself not being able to look away again.
Tansei turned to Goku and spoke to him.
"Are you going first?
Or shall I?"
"I think I should go first."
Goku nodded. "Wouldn't want to disappoint the guy, would I?"
Cell chuckled upon hearing that.
"Your call, Goku," Tansei smiled.
~*/|\*~
"And we're here at the arena! The Cell Games are coming to a start in approximately 2 minutes!!" the reporter anxiously said to the camera.
Hercule did some stretches as his redheaded groupie stared at him in awe.
"All right, men! Are you ready to go?!" he asked his two gooneys.
One had blond hair and a rose on his shirt. The other was a burly looking fellow in a strange costume.
"Yes, Hercule," the blond one drawled, "We won't disappoint you, master."
Getting rather impatient, and hoping the humans will leave, Cell finally spoke up.
"Now, the Cell Games will begin. The first fighter must come up onto the stage!"
The blond fellow went first. After doing many silly poses and using ridiculous attacks he was easily thrown out of the ring. Next was the burly man who was also easily beat. Hercule chalked it up to their being lazy in their training. He stepped up onto the arena and dramatically threw off his cape and did some showy punching and kicking.
"All right, Cell! It's
time for you to meet your end!" he declared, charging at Cell and doing
multiple punches and kicks.
"....." Cell wondered how
many times he would roll his eyes today.
Finally Hercule stepped back and lunged forward using his "mightiest" attack.
"Super Mega Ton Punch!"
Cell raised his hand upward with a small amount of strength. It was enough to send Hercule flying out of the area and smack right into a nearby cliff ledge. He would live, but Cell didn't care. He wanted enough energy left to defeat Goku. The reporters eyes bugged out.
"Oh no!!! Hercule has lost! Humanity is doomed!!!"
With an annoyed sigh, Cell turned back to the others.
"Now, the Cell Games officially
begin. Who will go first? Son Goku?"
"Good luck, Goku," Tansei
said, giving him a thumbs up.
Goku stepped into the ring.
"Yep. Let's go!"
So, the battle with Cell and Goku raged on. Both
seemed to have an equal chance, but both also seemed to be enjoying their
life-or-death duel. Not before long, they stopped. Cell decided that limitations
were boring and blew up the arena. While everyone else watched from the
cliffs, it appeared Goku was losing.......
Tansei mentally prepared herself to step in should
the need occur. She knew her strength had increased tremendously,
but no one else knew. She had been keeping her power level suppressed
since she exited the chamber.
You can do it Goku, she thought encouragingly.
Soon, the battle paused again, and Goku admitted defeat. Cell continued to say that Goku shouldn't give up, but Goku just shook his head at the android.
"No! Goku you can't
give up!" Krillin gasped.
"Goku!" Piccolo protested.
"No, Dad! You can't
give up!"
"I give up, and that's that.
You've seen it yourself, Cell, my power is no match for yours. But I know
someone who can match your power, and can beat you." He looked up at the
cliff. "And that person is....."
"Me," Tansei supplied, flying
down to the arena before Goku had a chance to finish, "I will fight you
next, Cell."
"Tansei?!" Tien said shocked.
"What the....." Goku gasped.
"But.....Tansei, what are you doing?!"
"Fighting to save the planet,"
she winked, "Go on and wait with the others. Don't worry about me."
Goku teleported back up to the cliff while Cell hovered nearby. Cell pointed at Tansei, and beckoned with his finger sternly.
Get over here, Tansei!
Tansei calmly flew up to Cell's level.
"Hello, Cell."
Cell crossed his arms and glared the worst he could.
"Hello, Tansei. I see you are eager to get this over with."
Tansei nodded her head once in affirmation. The wind whipped her short hair a bit, the silver tips glistening in the sunlight.
"Let's not waste time," Tansei said coolly.
Cell shook his head.
"I'm not going to fight you,
Tansei."
"Then you'll lose, Cell."
Tansei kept on her mask, having trained herself well to hide her emotions.
"Step down, and let Goku
choose the next fighter." Cell insisted.
"Fight me and win and Goku
will choose the next fighter," she replied, then smirked, "Or don't fight
me and lose."
Cell gnashed his teeth.
"This is unacceptable!" he said out loud. "Step down right now, Tansei. You are not allowed to fight in the tournament now. Wait for your turn to fight!"
Tansei growled.
"Goku, tell Cell I'm the next fighter!!" she demanded.
Goku looked up at Tansei, then back to Gohan. He told Piccolo what he was going to do, and the Namek was giving him a death glare. Deciding to wait until a later on, Goku waved up at Tansei.
"He's all yours, Tansei! Knock him dead!"
Cell's frustration was now beginning to show.
"Goku, you get back up here and finish this match! I'm not through with you yet!"
Tansei smirked in victory.
"You heard him, Cell. Or are you afraid of losing to me?"
Cell balled his fists very tightly by his sides. He grunted a few times to keep from giving in.........but reasoning with himself caused him to relax and sigh.
"Fine." he accepted, sounding
very annoyed. "Make any preparations you need, Tansei. And make it quick."
"As you wish," she replied,
bracing herself in the air.
Her ki started to steadily rise, a halo flaring around
her. Suddenly an almost evil smirk appeared on her face and she began
to yell out as she increased her ki rapidly and dramatically. Her
halo widened and became hurricane like, the light of it a blinding silver.
Her eyes glowed a pupil less white and her muscles bulged. The energy
output was tremendous, making the earth below shake. She had learned
to harness the potential afforded her by her kaio genes. When the
wind died, a flaring halo remained around her and electrical currents continually
traversed across her body. Her eyes remained an eerie glowing white
and her smirk looked positively evil at this point.
Krillin's jaw dropped as he felt the sheer power
emanating from Tansei. He shrank back, blubbering incoherently.
"T-Tansei...h-how...when...ah!"
Goku whistled, impressed.
"Wow. That's an awesome power
if I ever felt it. She feels just as strong as Cell."
"This is incredible!" Tien
said enthusiastically, "She might beat Cell!"
"Ah...amazing!" Trunks whispered.
"She has been training very
hard." Piccolo nodded. "But this power.....is very impressive."
Vegeta had a vein bulging in his forehead.
"This is intolerable!
How can a pathetic human female surpass saiyajin power?!"
"Wow!" Gohan gasped. "That's
amazing! And she got that strong with two days in the chamber?! This is
great!"
"I'm ready," she said in
a deadly calm.
Cell quickly shaped his surprised look to a determined one, and quickly struck a defensive position, crossing his arms in front of him.
"Let's get this over with, then."
Tansei nodded and got into a stance. She stared him down, sizing him up. Cell kept in his stance, then uttered words he felt he was going to regret.
"Your move."
Tansei disappeared even before the last syllable
was out of his mouth. She planted her fist deeply into his gut.
Quickly recovering, Cell landed a hard punch on her jaw. Tansei reciprocated
with a hard kick to his midsection followed by an intense ki blast to his
face. Cell was knocked back, and he hit the ground hard. He quickly
got up and shook the dust off his shoulders. He fired a ki blast up at
Tansei before charging back up to her. Tansei blocked the blast and
did a drop kick toward him through the smoke as he flew up at her.
Cell caught her foot and threw her downward towards the ground.
Tansei flipped, stopping her descent and throwing
a powerful ki beam at him. Cell crossed his arms in an X in front
of him, and let the blast hit him. He hovered where he was, a little bruised
but unharmed. Tansei wiped the small bit of blood on her lip, the
only injury she had thus far attained. Cell looked down at her, and
glared again.
"Just give up, Tansei. It would save us both time."
Tansei laughed.
"No. In case you haven't noticed, I'm winning."
He growled at her.
"No, you're not. And even if you are, I'll make you lose!" He fanned out his wings and dived at her.
She refused to allow him a chance to land a hit,
disappearing and swiftly landing a kick to his jaw followed by multiple
punches to his abdomen and a double hammer to the back of his neck.
Cell couldn't block any of the hits, yelling in frustration. Right when
she hit him in the back of the neck, he powered his ki to his fullest and
making an energy shield.
Tansei flew back, giving him some space and gathering
her ki. She squeezed her fists tightly, her hands glowing and pulsing
with electric currents. She fanned out her fingers and immediately
9 inch long claws made of pure ki energy extended from her glowing nails.
She raced forward quickly.
"Prismic Tiger Claw!" she called out as she disappeared.
The only sign of her attack being multiple slashes of light energy flashing
around Cell's body. She reappeared nanoseconds later, all the cuts
she'd made opening simultaneously and bleeding. She turned to survey
her work with a smirk upon her lips.
He was in pain, and a lot of it! Cell dropped to
the ground in shock. No, this isn't happening! This can't be happening.....
He was oblivious to when he hit the ground, still in disbelief. This
shouldn't be happening....
"She's...winning!" Goku gasped in disbelief.
Vegeta was gasping in shock as well.
"Impossible..."
"Give up, Cell. Save
us both some time," she said, mirroring his earlier words.
Cell picked himself off the ground, finding himself
to be very angry with Tansei. How dare she! How DARE she! She will not
do this to me, no one will do this to me! He stood on his feet, and
glared at Tansei. Not bothering to wipe any of the blood off his face,
he charged up for her, screaming. Tansei prepared herself.
Cell flung everything he had at her without thinking.
Punching, kicking, jabbing, anything he could do to inflict physical pain
he flung at her. Tansei began to struggle to block the erratic attacks.
She grunted as a particularly powerful punch implanted itself in her abdomen.
She found herself not able to reciprocate, only defend herself.
Is this the rage you spoke of, Cell? This uncontrollable berzerker?
She flared her ki to lessen the impact of the hits that were making their way through her defenses. He paused a small moment to fire a ki blast right in her face.
"DIE!"
Tansei quickly crossed her arms in front of her face to block the blast. He gave himself a little more space, then started flinging ki blasts at her like crazy.
"Die, damnit, die, die, die!"
Tansei dodged most of them, but wasn't fast enough for the crazed frenzy of his blasts. A sudden pain tore through her right side as a blast burned and wounded her. Blood poured from the wound and her ki lowered dramatically as she fell to the ground. She left a crater and dust flew in the air. She found herself struggling to breath, the pain was too mind numbing for her to think of much else.
"I failed...," she whispered in pain, "I sh-shouldn't have...hesitated to kill him...with my attack."
The reporter and Hercule were equally stunned at the turn of events and all was deathly quiet. Cell grinned at himself, dropping down to stand at her side.
"You see? You couldn't beat me. You were just fooling yourself, Tansei." Tansei? Wait a minute......something's not right....
Tansei grinned at him lopsidedly.
"I have fought a good fight...I am prepared to die," she proclaimed bravely, wincing lightly.
A pool of blood was steadily gathering beneath her, and her ki was fading at the same rate. Cell stared down at her, his rage fading. Seeing her bleeding slowly began to bring him back to his senses. She's.....she's dying? Oh no......what have I done? This wasn't supposed to happen! She was supposed to give up and stand down! What have I done?!
"T-Tansei...." Cell's
voice wavered. "I.......This shouldn't have happened...."
"We both knew the risks,
Cell. There's no time for regrets," she said softly, coughing.
Cell fell to his knees, his eyes starting to water.
"Don't talk like that. I
don't want to hear it........"
"Hey, it's not so bad...the
pain is starting to fade..."
"Tansei......" Then, Cell
quickly got an idea. He looked back up at the cliff with the fighters.
"Senzu! Bring a senzu down here NOW!"
Krillin backed up nervously, he was holding the bag of senzu.
"Uh..."
"Give him one, Krillin."
Piccolo ordered.
Krillin gulped and flew down to the crater, taking a bean out of the pouch and tossing it to Cell from afar. Cell caught it in his hand, and leaned down to Tansei.
"Swallow this. Don't protest, just do it."
Unfortunately, Tansei's eyes were closed and her
breaths were coming in shallowly. He could see she was fading fast.
She wouldn't be able to swallow it on her own. He looked at the bean and
got another idea. He put the bean in his mouth and chewed. Live, Tansei!
You can't die! He put his mouth to hers.
Tansei felt his lips on her own and opened her lips
softly. She felt him transfer a substance into her mouth and was
too weak to protest it. She struggled to swallowed it. She
felt the gritty mush make it's way down her throat. Suddenly, she
felt her side begin to heal and her energy began to restore itself.
Within seconds she was completely healed. She looked up at Cell in
surprise.
"Cell...," she breathed. He saved me...
He hovered over her, cupping her face in one hand.
"Tansei! Are you all right?"
She looked into his eyes and replied.
"Yes...I feel...just fine."
He helped her back up to her feet.
"I......tried to warn you
before......and I'm sorry....."
"Apology accepted," she
replied with a smile, "Now I know what you were talking about. It's
like you suddenly go into a berzerker mode...."
Cell nodded.
"But....you were determined
to fight. I don't see how it could have been avoided....."
"It couldn't," she agreed.
"And it could easily happen
again. Tansei, I'm urging you to back down from this match..........and
leave."
Tansei sighed.
"I will back down...but I won't leave," she said, "Know this, if anything should happen where I need to step in to stop you, I will do so again."
Cell nodded.
"Very well."
"I believe Goku had a successor
to name," she said before flying back to the cliff.
Krillin had already gone back and was pretty much shocked by the events.
"Yes, he did." Cell grinned. "Goku, you still had to name the one who was going to beat me."
Goku put a hand nervously behind his head.
"Gosh, and I thought Tansei
would have beaten him....."
"Pheh! She would have
if she wasn't in love with the fool!" Vegeta declared, having made the
connection easily from their behavior to one another.
Tansei stopped with a gasp, hearing his words. They know... Piccolo looked at Tansei a moment, studying her reaction, then looked away.
"So, that's why...."
Goku blinked in surprise.
"What? In love? But......."
He grinned. "Wow, this is great! Cell has a girlfriend!"
"For all we know she's been
spying on us the whole time, Kakkarot! Probably telling Cell how
powerful we were becoming and what our weak points are!" Vegeta scowled,
"I say we destroy the little bitch!!"
"Stop it, Vegeta." Piccolo
growled. "You're jumping to conclusions."
"If she so much as comes
a foot closer, I won't hesitate to kill her," Vegeta vowed, glaring at
her.
"Father! She's not
the enemy! "
"And how would you know,
brat?"
"I...I can just sense it."
"Pheh!"
Cell got impatient, and hovered up to the top of the cliff.
"I'm waiting, Goku."
Tansei slipped away from them and settled onto another cliff, quietly. Goku looked over at Cell, then patted his shoulder.
"Hey, congrats, Cell. Nice
girlfriend you got. I guess this means you won't blow up the Earth after
all, eh?"
"I am ready to rip your
head off your neck." Cell threatened. "Have you forgotten about the tournament?"
"Oh, yeah! Sorry." Goku
cleared his throat and looked serious again. "Okay then. Yes, there is
someone as strong as you, maybe even stronger. And he will beat you." He
turned to Gohan. "And that person is you, son."
"What?! Gohan?!
Goku, are you crazy?!" Krillin blurted out.
Piccolo growled.
"Goku......stop this while you can."
Goku shook his head.
"Nope. Gohan's up next."
"Me?!" Gohan asked shocked,
"Dad are you sure?"
"Sure I'm sure." Goku nodded.
He knelt down to the boy's level. "You're a lot stronger than you think
you are, Gohan. You can do it."
"But, Dad, I know that if
you didn't hold back you could beat him!"
"Son, I don't know about
Cell, but I was giving it my all," Goku replied, "Is it because you were
comparing your power with mine that you thought I was holding back?"
"Is this true, Gohan?" Piccolo
asked.
"Yes," he replied, "All
right, Dad. I won't let you down."
Gohan faced Cell with determination. Cell smirked.
"You have no idea what you're doing, Goku. This should be interesting."
Gohan flew down to the fighting area and touched down on the ground. Cell flew after the boy, landing a few feet in front of him.
"Well, when you're ready, Gohan. Let's begin."
The fight began after a showy display by Gohan, much more powerful than the one displayed by Tansei earlier. However, Gohan truly did not want to fight and began to try to dissuade Cell from continuing. Tansei watched the battle and knew Cell was becoming impatient with Gohan. Gohan explained about his hidden power that came out when the boy was angered. Instead of discouraging Cell, it interested him. Cell tried inflicting serious pain on Gohan, and trying to kill him. Nothing seemed to be working on Cell's part. Tansei had to fight to restrain herself.
He's just a child!! she screamed in her mind.
16 saw what was going on and decided to step in and help Gohan out, by putting Cell in a surprise bear hug. He threatened Cell with his internal self-destruct bomb that was enough to kill him. Cell became nervous and tried to shake 16 off of him. Suddenly, Krillin called.
"16! You can't self-destruct! Bulma took your bomb out!"
16 was shocked and Cell smirked, breaking free of 16 and tearing him apart, save his head that rolled to the feet of Hercule. Cell soon turned his attentions back to Gohan and decided that threatening the boy's life wasn't working. He then came up with another idea and decided to endanger the lives of Gohan's loved ones. He snatched away the senzu beans from Krillin, and created seven Cell Jr.s for the seven warriors.
"Now, my darling children. See those men on the cliff. I want you to hurt them, crush them, kill them if it pleases you....."
Tansei saw this and her jaw dropped open. She hadn't been expecting
that at all. She closed her mouth and watched as the Cell Jr's flew
up toward the z fighters.
Six of the tiny gremlins jumped at the fighters,
but one of them flew off for Tansei. Cell was quick to notice.
"No! What are you doing? Not her!" He wanted to go after it, but had to stay with Gohan to make sure the boy did nothing.
Disclaimer: We don't own DBZ or any related characters or entities. DBZ is © Akira Toriyama. The characters of Tansei Kibito, Ikuko, Aria, and Masaru are however our intellectual property and we reserve the exclusive right to use said characters.
Tansei Kibito, Ikuko, Aria, Masaru © Amazon and Masquerade, 2003.
