Lord of the Dragonballs

by Riccy

Two Fellowships make their way across middle earth: The Fellowship of the Ring and the Fellowship of the balls. Both have very different tasks, but must join forces to defeat a common enemy.

10. Chapter10: Other World

Chapter 10: Other World

Boromir awoke in a strange place he had never been before. The coloured skies, floating bridges and clouds beneath him all made him think he was in a dream, but somehow he knew this was reality. The last thing he could remember was being hit by a beam of energy, but that seemed only a second ago. As the beam engulfed him, everything had turned white and he had closed his eyes from the strength of the light. It didn't help though. The bright light forced its way into his eyes anyway. When it had finally faded, he found himself in this place. His first assumption was that he was dead. This of course was correct to an extent. Yes, he was now dead, but this was not the afterlife he had expected. The building he stood in was sheltered, though from what he could not tell. There was no trace of weather or even of temperature, and no savage beast could be seen anywhere. Even if there were any, they could easily enter through the doors since they were uncovered. This place was very illogical, yet had some kind of a structure to it that Boromir had a feeling he would discover with time. A long line of small white fluffy cloud-like creatures walked (for want of a better mode of transport) beside him in single file towards a giant desk, behind which sat a larger, red bearded man with an Attila the Hun type hat and many books. Boromir picked one of the cloud beings up. It shook and seemed to be panicking in his hands. He dropped it, startled, and it rejoined the queue. So many questions arose in his mind and he had trouble prioritising them. One stuck out as being of vital importance though. That was the obvious question: 'What is this place?' But who to ask? Were these people friendly? More questions were now forming from the ones he had already thought of, but there was no need to worry about that now for someone was approaching him. This person had blue skin and a small moustache. He wore glasses and two devil-like horns extruded from the top of his head, surrounded by thick black hair. He was skinny and looked nervous. He was clothed in a sleeveless shirt, tie and trousers. The top button of his shirt was undone and sweat seemed to be running down his face in small trickles as he breathed heavily, walking towards Boromir.
"Are you Boromir, son of Denethor, of the Realm of Gondor?" he asked.
"Yes," Boromir replied.
"Come with me," said the man. "King Yemma wants to see you."
Looking for answers, Boromir followed him. The fluffy cloud beings looked up at him. Some seemed angry, some looked confused. They stepped back as Boromir reached the front of the line and appeared to be talking silently amongst themselves. King Yemma looked down from his fifteen-foot tall desk and lowered his glasses. "Boromir," he said in a deep voice. "It's not everyday we get someone as noble as you up here."
"Where is here?" asked Boromir, confused, but happy that his number one question would now be answered.
"Oh yes," said Yemma. "I always forget that newcomers and first timers don't know what's going on when they arrive here. Comes from being king of the Other World too long," he smiled. For a demon he hadn't looked too threatening to start with and he was looking friendlier by the minute.
"I suppose to you, this would be like the afterlife," he continued. "Right now you're in what you would call Heaven."
Boromir looked in awe. He had so many questions but could not speak. Luckily for him, King Yemma anticipated the questions and answered them for him.
"I guess you've figured out by now that you're dead," he said, unsympathetically. Millennia of thousands of billions of souls passing through his office had shattered his compassion.
"Those white things behind you are souls of the dead," he continued. "The reason you aren't one of them is because we let you keep your body. We only do that for the brave and worthy, such as you are Boromir."
Although flattered, Boromir still had questions that needed answered.
"How did I die?" he asked. This didn't really need answering as it had no relevance and didn't affect anything now, but human curiosity forced him to ask it anyway.
"A creature called Buu um…how do I put this?" He thought of a way to sugar-coat the response. "He turned you into a bar of chocolate and ate you." You can't get more sugar-coated than chocolate I suppose.
"I never thought I'd die like that," Boromir said, looking puzzled. "What can I do now?"
"Relax," replied Yemma. "You're dead. The affairs of Minas Tirith are no longer your concern."
"But I want to help my people!" insisted Boromir.
"I know," replied Yemma, "But that will change with time. Soon you will worry no longer about the matters of the living. It just takes a bit of getting used to."
"And what about the affairs of the dead?" asked Boromir.
"I was hoping you'd ask that. I have a task for you." Boromir smiled at the mention of a task. He was not one to sit down and take retirement lightly.
"But you will not go on this task alone," continued the King. "Someone you already know will be going on it with you." He pointed far back into the line and Boromir could see a figure amongst the shapes of the small fluffy souls. He was too far back for anyone to tell who it was but from the silhouette Boromir had a good idea.

Gohan awoke with the effects of a mild hangover. He knew he hadn't been drinking though so it had to be something similar. He didn't know what it felt like to die until now but it was a feeling he would never forget. It wasn't till he saw his surroundings that he knew where he was and after taking a moment for the reality of the situation to sink in, he screamed "I'm dead!" and breathed convulsively. Although he had never actually visited Other World, he had heard a lot about it and had a very clear picture in his head of what it would look like should he ever end up there. Also, he had seen Supreme Kai's planet and that was supposedly similar. When his eyes had fully recovered from the shock of what they had seen, Gohan found himself in a line of souls waiting anxiously to be told whether they were staying in Heaven or going to the HFIL. 'I'm not going to the HFIL am I?' Gohan asked himself, but then he looked down and saw he still had his body. He threw up his arms and rejoiced; it was a great honour to be allowed to keep your body and he had hoped that should he ever die the honour would be bestowed upon him. He looked to the front of the line, which was at least half a mile away, and felt certain he could see someone pointing at him. "That must be King Yemma!" he said excitedly. "Outta my way!" he shouted as he pushed his way through the lost souls. Had they been allowed to keep their voices, they would all now be screaming obscenities at the young Saiyan, but lucky for him, they hadn't. He ran to the front of the queue and waved. "Hey King Yemma!" he said.
"Hiya Gohan," replied the King. "We've been waiting for you."
"You have? You mean you knew I was going to die?"
"Well, it's part of my job to know these things."
"Okay. Thanks for letting me keep my body by the way."
"No problem. You're Goku's son. You deserve it."
"So how did I die? I don't remember it happening."
"Well, you had been knocked out by one of the Nazgul in a battle on Dende's lookout point. While the others were fighting, another of the Nazgul stabbed you. They have poisoned swords Gohan and the poison was too much even for a saiyan to handle. Everyone else was knocked unconscious eventually and noone was left to help you I'm afraid."
"What about the others?"
"They'll be fine."
"And the dragonballs?"
"The Nazgul got them, but there's nothing you can do now. Just enjoy the afterlife."
Gohan looked disappointed. "Gee, I'd really like to help them. Isn't there some way I can talk to my dad?"
"Well," King Yemma said reluctantly, "You could do that, but you'd have to communicate through North Kai and…"
"…yeah, I know what he's like," interrupted Gohan, finishing King Yemma's sentence.
"He's been seeing a therapist about cutting down on his jokes Gohan."
"I'll think about it. Even without the jokes he's an annoying little $%*&$."
It was then that Yemma remembered Boromir had been standing beside them, listening to their mindless banter. "Gohan, you remember Boromir, don't you?"
Gohan looked round and suddenly recognised the man. "Oh yeah! We met in Moria, right?"
"Yes," replied Boromir, shaking his hand. "You fought the Balrog."
"Well, I'm glad you two are such good friends," interrupted Yemma. "I have a task for you both."
They listened carefully. Gohan and Boromir both enjoyed tasks and even if it was a small meaningless one, it beat standing around doing nothing for all eternity. "What is it?" they both asked at once.
"There's trouble in the HFIL again. Cell, Friesa, the Ginyu force and Dabura have taken over the place and are trying to find a way to get up here. Can you two stop them?"
"Sure," replied Gohan. He liked the idea about getting to kick his former enemies asses again.
"I'll go too," said Boromir. He didn't know what he was up against but he figured anything that didn't kill him would only make him stronger and nothing could possibly kill him now.
"Great," said Yemma, looking very pleased. "You can go whenever you want! Just tell me when you're ready and I'll arrange for you to be transported."
"I'm ready if you are," Gohan told Boromir.
"I'm ready," Boromir replied.
King Yemma got on his phone and pressed a button. "Two for tube transport to the HFIL," he said.

They arrived almost instantly and took a look around. The HFIL was nothing like Gohan had expected it to be. His father had never really spoken of it to him but where he had imagined a barren wasteland, there was a lush green, blue, yellow and red environment. The sky of course was yellow, just as it was everywhere else in Other World. He pressed his foot down on the blue grass and felt it bounce him back up with a greater force than he had exerted. Apparently the laws of physics meant nothing in this place. There were countless trees of many colours, though each individual tree contained only one colour, trunk included. The closer they moved to the trees, however, the further away they seemed to be. Neither of the pair took notice of this as they were busy trying to figure out what the chemical constituents of the air were at the same time as keeping an eye out for Cell's gang. The air was light and swirled playfully in their lungs creating a pleasant, though strange sensation. For better or worse though, they both preferred it to Earth's air.
Every now and then a lost soul would go bouncing or skipping past them, taking no notice of the human and Saiyan. A new arrival would have been jealous at the sight of two bodies walking around the HFIL and afterwards would have started to miss his/her own body, but most of the souls here had been in the HFIL too long to care anymore. They didn't hate the place or even dislike it, but boredom was a daily occurrence for them. Not many people in the HFIL had bodies. Only those who worked there, extra strong or important losers or those who had fallen off Snake Way by accident as Goku had once done. This pleased Gohan though as it made spotting his ex-nemesis easier. As he thought this, something unexpected came into view. It was small, yellow and wrinkled and looked both worried and angry at once as Gohan and Boromir approached it.
"Ahhh! What are you doing here?" it asked in a panicked voice.
Gohan couldn't believe his eyes. "Babidi?" he asked. King Yemma had not mentioned Babidi along with the other members of the gang.
"Wh-what are y-you doing here?" Babidi asked him.
"I've been sent here to stop Cell's gang from taking over the HFIL," he replied, noticing a smile on Babidi's face when he had finished.
"Really?" asked the peanut impersonator. "That's great! They've been hunting me down for months!"
Gohan looked confused as he heard this. "Isn't Dabura in their gang?" he asked.
"Yes. That's the reason they want me outta here," replied Babidi. "Dabura and I haven't been on good terms since I had Buu turn him into a cookie and eat him."
At the mention of Buu's name Boromir drew his sword and felt a furious anger rise suddenly inside of him. "So you are the one responsible for Buu then!" he exclaimed.
"No no, wait, I can explain!" pleaded Babidi. The sword was close to his face and looked very sharp. Boromir wasn't interested in any excuse he had to offer though. He sliced his sword through the small wizard, who fell in two pieces to the ground.
"Your Buu monster is the reason I'm here!" shouted Boromir. Babidi clawed his hands along the ground.
"I regret any damage Buu has done," he struggled to say. "I swear to you I'm a reformed wizard!"
Gohan stood over the two halves of the body showing no sympathy towards him. "I think we should leave him here, helpless, for Dabura to find, don't you?" he asked Boromir. Babidi looked extremely worried now.
"I think we should find Dabura and deliver this thing to him personally," Boromir replied.
"NO!" screamed Babidi. "I can help you!"
"Why should we believe you?" asked Gohan.
"Because I am at your mercy. I'm helpless and desperate."
Gohan wasn't buying it. He had a deep-rooted hatred for the peanut and had no desire to help him ever.
"How can you help us?" asked Boromir. Gohan's head turned in disbelief as his friend asked the question. He couldn't believe Boromir would even consider taking Babidi up on his offer.
"I can take you to Cell's lair and tell you how to defeat him and his gang," Babidi told them. "I've been there before and know how to escape. I've also seen them all and studied their weaknesses."
Gohan gave the man of Gondor a stern look. "Don't even think about it," he said quietly, in an angry voice.
"I don't have to," said Boromir. "I've already decided to take him. We have a mission to complete and cannot let personal feelings cloud out judgement. If this thing can help us, I say we let him."
"He will betray us just like he betrayed the world! shouted Gohan.
"Well let it be on my head then," replied Boromir.
"Fine," said Gohan, "but you're carrying him."
Boromir picked up the bottom half of Babidi's body and tied it to his trousers. He put the top half of Babidi on his shoulders and let him hang on. Although he was a powerful wizard, he couldn't use his magic while his body was separated and only Buu could heal him as far as he knew. Little did he know, however, was that once the Saiyan and the human had finished with Cell's gang, the human would leave him there to be found once the gang recovered, to do with him as they pleased. King Yemma had told Boromir that soon he would forget his past life and move on, but he wasn't ready to do so yet and revenge was his top priority at the moment.

After several hours of walking, Babidi told them to stop. "We're here!" he announced to a bewildered Gohan and Boromir who were not sure what 'here' was. The landscape looked the same as the rest of the HFIL and where they had been expecting a tower or a large building or a cave, or anything headquarters-like, they could see nothing but…nothing! Boromir bit down on his lower lip. "Is this some kind of trick?" he asked, counting to ten inside his head.
"No, no trick!" replied Babidi nervously. "The headquarters is here! I swear!"
Gohan jerked his neck muscles, causing the legless Babidi to lose his grip and fall. "Ow!" he said. "What did you do that for?" He shook his fist at Gohan and proceeded to bite his own lip.
"Boromir can carry you again," replied the saiyan. "It's his turn".
Babidi counted to ten and tried to conceal his anger, but to no avail. "He doesn't need to carry me you fool! We're here, can't you see that?"
"Fine by me," said Boromir. "We'll leave you here to be found by your enemies".
"No no wait!" Babidi cried, realising his mistake. "I didn't mean that, I mean…will you carry me?"
"First tell us where the headquarters is," Gohan insisted.
"It's right here. It's just…camouflaged".
"So how do we know where it is then?"
Fifty feet away a door opened out of nowhere and a small, fat, green thing with four eyes stepped out. "Man, I'm fed up being sent to do menial tasks!" the alien complained. "I'm just as strong as any of them!"
"That's…"
"Yes, I know. That's Guldo," cut in Gohan, interrupting his new 'friend'. Before they could say or do anything, though, Guldo spotted them and jumped. "Jeice! Jeice!" he screamed, running back into the still open door. "Babidi's back and he's got company!"
"Just kill the little runt!" came a muffled Australian voice from out of nowhere.
"Um…yeah…kill them," Guldo looked extremely scared. "Um…how do I do that exactly?"
A sigh was heard and a long, white haired man of average height with a red complexion joined Guldo. At first he gave a pathetic look, then he turned to see Babidi with two strong looking men, one of who looked very familiar. It wasn't so much the man's physical appearance as his power that scared Jeice. He had felt this power before, only it had been weaker at the time. "Do I know you?" he asked.
"I'm Gohan," replied Gohan. "And yes, you do know me."
'Gohan…Gohan' Jeice wracked his brain trying to figure out the name. Finally an association came with the memory of Goku. "You're Goku's son, right?" he asked.
"That's right," replied a narrow-eyes Gohan with very low eyebrows.
"Burter! Recoombe!" Jeice shouted, calling for backup. "We're gonna need you guys here!"
The two ran immediately to their leader's side. It had been decided shortly after Captain Ginyu's transformation into a frog that Jeice should take command. This was partly because Recoombe was too stupid, Guldo was too weak and Jeice beat Burter in a best-of-three game of Roshambo. Upon seeing Gohan they laughed whole-heartedly. Upon sensing his power, they shook and sweated whole-heartedly. "it's…it's…"
"It's me," said Gohan, paraphrasing to complete their sentence. "I'm the new sheriff in town and This here's my deputy. We've been sent to clean up this ghost-town."
"I take it you're gonna wanna fight us then?" asked Jeice. He was fairly sure of the answer but felt he had to ask anyway on the off chance that he was wrong. The answer was not to his liking.
"That's right," answered Gohan. "In your own time."
The Ginyu force huddled to discussed tactics. "What d'ya say guys? Roshambo to see who dies…I mean fights first?"
"Why don't we send Guldo out?" asked Recoombe, having his first ever good idea.
"Motion subject to board approval," said Jeice, trying to sound professional. All for say 'I'".
He looked up to three very blank faces. "Just say 'I'!" he demanded, rolling his eyes.
"I" they all shouted in unison; even Guldo.
"Motion passed!" Jeice announced. Guldo, get out there and kick their asses!
"M…me?" asked the frogman.
"Yes, you! You're always saying how you're just as strong as the rest of us!"
"Yeah, well…"
Jeice kicked him forward mid-sentence. He landed in front of Boromir.
"Don't worry!" shouted his leader. "He can't kill you! You're already dead."
This didn't help to calm Guldo's nerves any. He looked up at Boromir who was three times his height and let out a quiet, high-pitched squeal. Boromir drew his sword and kicked Guldo into the air. With a mighty swing, he proceeded to bat him miles over the brightly coloured mountains, watching as he grew smaller, disappearing from sight.
"Nicely done," said Gohan without turning.
"Yeah! Nicely done indeed!" cried Babidi. It would take more than an enthusiastic congratulations to win Boromir over though.
"Next!" shouted the son of the steward of Gondor.

Jeice had been expecting Guldo to fail but more importantly, he had been hoping for it. Guldo was too weak to be in the Ginyu Force and only by showing him this would he ever get the message and leave for good. They had tried killing him, but soon discovered you can't kill someone who's already dead. Also, they couldn't attack him themselves, as it wouldn't do any good. Guldo already knew deep down inside he was the weakest member of the Ginyu Force. If they attacked him it wouldn't change his opinion of his own strength. Therefore, he had to be defeated by a third party, and Boromir had finally done that. For this Jeice was eternally grateful, but since the two meddlers had brought Babidi back, their deed had already been cancelled out. The Ginyu Force owed them nothing now and it was time to dispose of the cretins. Burter and Recoombe were up and they wasted no time preparing for battle. This was their first proper fight in years and they couldn't wait to see their opponents go flying off into the distance. This is not what happened though. With a swing of Gohan's fist and a swipe of Boromir's sword, they were sent flying into the distance, realising the irony of the situation before they landed. Jeice was shocked but he did not show it. Realising Guldo's loss had not been a fluke, he decided it was best to avoid fighting them himself.
"um…what did you guys say you wanted again?" he managed to say after moments of not being able to think up something better to ask them.
"We want to defeat you and your gang," replied Gohan. He added "And so far we're doing a pretty good job!"
"Yeah, great job!" shouted Jeice back to them. He was in quite a dilemma now. He couldn't attack them or he'd end up like his friends. It was more the prospect of being back with Guldo than the fear of getting his ass kicked that motivated the rejection of this thought. But on the other hand, he couldn't leave them or they would attack the headquarters and Cell would kick his ass, which was probably much worse. There was a third option though, and that was to let Friesa attack them. Jeice was nowhere near as strong as Friesa but in a twist of fate, had been placed higher up in the chain of command than him. Of course Friesa did not like being below his former lackey, but it was preferable to arguing with Cell.
"FFFFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Jeice. Moments later, the small pink/white androgen from far off in the galaxy entered the scene.
"Stop shouting!" came a familiar voice from inside the invisible building, making Gohan's eyebrow rise.
Friesa hadn't aged a day since Gohan had last seen him…literally! Time has no meaning in Other World and this allowed Friesa to keep his body eternally youthful, which was the only thing stopping him from being depressed in the HFIL. He did not look happy though as he joined the person who used to call him Boss.
"Yes Jeice?" he asked, his head hunched into his shoulders.
"That's yes Sir!" corrected Jeice, enjoying the respect he had finally been allowed to enforce. "Or yes Sir Jeice, Master of all, if you prefer," he added with a grin.
"Yes Sir," hissed Friesa. "What do you wish of me?"
"I wish for you to kick these guys' asses!"
Then Friesa noticed the other men. His eyes widened to an abnormal extent as he realised who one of them was. Like the Ginyu Force, he did not recognise the young Saiyan from his physical appearance. This would not be likely as he hadn't seen Gohan for almost twelve years. But his power was unmistakable, stronger than before yet still recognisable.
"Hello Friesa," he said through gritted teeth. Gohan had never forgotten what Friesa had done to his friends back on Namek. Especially Krillan. He could never forget that nor forgive Friesa for his actions.
"Y…y…you want me to fight them?" Friesa asked Jeice.
"Yes. Get to it!" his new boss demanded.
"The…monkey?"
He took a few hesitant steps forward. Gohan did likewise, intimidating his former nemesis further. Looking back to the past on Namek, Friesa remembered Gohan. He was young at the time but somehow he had managed to put up a fight and survive. This was no small feat. A shred of his former arrogance remained, however, that allowed him to feel confident enough to take the 'monkey' down. With a slight smile, he threw his arm back and returned it with a purple disk. This was his most deadly attack. The disks were able to home in on their targets and would not stop until they had completed their task. They were once also Friesa's downfall. Gohan stood perfectly still and allowed the disk to hit him. It struggled to cut through his tough Saiyan skin before giving up and disintegrating. Gohan remained still. Friesa's eyes grew to three times their normal size.
"Something wrong?" asked Gohan, moving only his lips.
After recovering from the shock, Friesa was mad. He sent out a rapid burst of purple energy beams, all of which Gohan deflected with such speed and accuracy that Friesa had to jump to dodge them on the rebound. His anger was terrific now and he charged Gohan full force. The Saiyan watched as the looming figure of Friesa grew. It wasn't until the two were separated by an inch that he grabbed his tail and swung him in the air. He did this until he was bored of it before letting go. Friesa went flying into the distance.

Meanwhile Burter and Recoombe were sitting by a rock with Guldo, recovering from their short-lived battles.
"Man, I can't believe he defeated us all!" said Guldo in his Danny Devito type voice.
"I know what you mean," Recoombe concurred in his Arnold Schwarzennager type voice.
"What's that in the sky?" asked Burter, and they all looked up. A shadow covered the spot they were sitting in as Friesa, their former mentor, landed on them.
"Wow! He's really accurate!" exclaimed Guldo, sounding like he was in a great amount of pain. "I just wish I hadn't been made to go first though. I've had all three of you land on me now."
"Shut up," said Friesa, and climbed off them.

The two team-mates now stood facing Jeice, their eyes asking him what he was going to do.
"Um…if anyone asks, you guys kicked my asses!" he said, and flew off in the direction his friends had been thrown.
"Saves us the trouble," joked Gohan.
Boromir put Babidi down and sheathed his sword. "What now?" he asked.
"Now we go inside and have some real fun," Gohan answered. They made their way to the door that seemed to lead into nowhere.
"Hey, what about me?" asked Babidi.
Gohan and Boromir looked at each other. "Do we need him anymore?" asked Boromir.
"I don't think so," replied the Saiyan.
"Then I'll leave him here. When the others return they'll know what to do with him."
"NOOOO!! You can't do that! I helped you!"
Boromir looked at him with a serious expression on his face. "You also indirectly killed me," he said.
Babidi thought about this and accepted his fate, realising nothing he could say would change the man's mind. He began his long journey, clawing his way across the sand that covered the area to escape before he was discovered.

The first thing they heard after going through the door was a familiar voice. This was followed by another familiar voice and then again by a third familiar voice. The first was Cell's. The second voice was Dabura's and the third was Chris Tarrant's. Gohan floated down the long, narrow corridor and poked his head around the door of the sitting room where Dabura and Cell were watching 'Who wants to be a millionaire?'
"What are they doing?" whispered Boromir from the other side of the corridor.
"Shush!" replied Gohan. "The guy's on £64,000."
He watched in secret, trying to hear past the noise of the two dead villains munching popcorn.
"Here is your next question," said the TV. "Take your time, it's worth £128,000."
The eating stopped and Cell's eyes were glued to the screen.
"Who, in Greek mythology, was the ruler of the underworld?"
"Me!" declared Cell.
"They said in Greek mythology, stupid," said Dabura, through half-shut eyes.
"Silence! You work for me, remember?"
"Is it A: Cerebrus?" asked Chris Tarrant.
"Me!" declared Cell again.
"B: Hades?"
"Me!" insisted Cell.
"C: Apollo?"
"You!" anticipated Dabura, sarcastically.
"Or D: Athena?"
"What???" shouted Cell in despair. "I'm the ruler of the Underworld!"
"They don't mean this Underworld," explained Dabura.
"This is the only Underworld there is!" shouted Cell.
Suddenly a voice came from down the corridor. "Psst…What's the answer?" it asked.
"I think it's Hades," whispered Gohan back.
"Oh," whispered Boromir, despite Gohan's waves to indicate he should keep quiet. "I thought it was Mordred."
"No, don't do that…" Dabura tried desperately to make a final plea with Cell, but it was no good. He had blasted the television irreparably.
"I don't want any appliance in this hideout that claims I am not the ruler of the Underworld!" explained Cell, and walked out the room. Gohan zanzookened back to the front door and yanked Boromir out.
"It's your turn to do the dishes, remember?" they heard Dabura say.
"You do them," replied Cell. "I have a headache."
"Get the Ginyu Force to do them!" shouted Dabura.
"Good idea. Where are they anyway?"
What followed was a series of thuds, smashes, clumps and annoyed grunts as the two searched the place for the Ginyu Force.
"No sign of Friesa either," said Dabura after their search had proved fruitless.
"Let's go look for them," Cell suggested, and they left the invisible building.
Gohan and Boromir were hiding round the side of the Headquarters, pondering the strange sensation of being pressed up against something they could not see. They watched as Cell and Dabura exited through the door and closed it shut.
"Do you have the keys?" one of them asked.
"Yes," replied the other.
A button was pressed and suddenly the sensation Gohan and Boromir felt was interrupted as the building became visible. Now they could realise the real reason why it had been made invisible in the first place: The outer wall was covered in layers of graffiti, all containing messages of anti-villain propaganda. Slogans like "Shut down the androids!" and "No repeats of Namek!" had been sprayed on top of more slogans like "Androgyny sucks!" and the extremely original (yet seemingly popular) "Die villains!" which, apart from being politically incorrect, was impossible since they were already dead. Not one inch of the wall was without its share of graffiti, and when the protestors had run out of space, they had apparently sprayed their new slogans on top of the old ones. The villains had realised it would be too much work cleaning it all off, and pointless as the vandals would just come back and do it again anyway (and they always seemed to go unnoticed), so they somehow made a control switch that allowed the building to be made invisible. It worked because if anyone had sprayed anything on the building after it had been made invisible, the slogan would have appeared to be sitting stationary in mid-air. This wasn't the case so Cell assumed his enemies had assumed that the building had been moved. He enjoyed the thought of them searching through the HFIL for its new location. Gohan and Boromir merely stared at it in disbelief.
"What now?" asked Boromir.
Gohan was nervous, but if his dad had taught him anything, it was how much stronger he was than he realised, and to face his fears. He had a task to complete and he was going to see that it was completed. "Now," he said, and paused before saying "we have the most epic battle of our lives."

"Guldo!" shouted Cell.
"Burter!" shouted Dabura.
"Where have they got to?" asked Cell.
"I don't know," replied Dabura. Then he added, "Maybe they anticipated that we'd need a new TV."
Cell slowly picked up on the sarcasm in the statement and got angry.
"Maybe they ran off cause you're such an asshole!"
"Maybe something scared them off," said Gohan, stepping out from behind the building.
Cell looked more shocked than Guldo, Burter, Recoombe, Jeice and Friesa had all been combined. "It's you!" he said.
Dabura looked even more shocked as Boromir joined them. "And some other guy!" he exclaimed. Then he turned back to Gohan. "Oh…OH! I see it now! It's you!" He wasn't worried. After all, Gohan had put up a good fight against him, but he hadn't defeated him. "Don't worry Cell, I'll take care of this weakling."
"No!" said Gohan sternly. "I want to fight Cell."
Cell hesitated and for a moment his programming told his circuits to make him shake. "Um…Dabura very kindly offered to kill you," he said. "Are you really going to be that rude in turning him down?"
"Boromir will fight him," Gohan explained.
Now it was Boromir's turn to shake. "Um…he is sort of right you know," he told his friend. "You are being quite rude. Maybe you should fight him and I can watch."
"Don't worry Boromir," said Gohan, his eyes still locked onto Cell's. "You can take him. I wouldn't let you fight unless I knew you could win. Besides," he added, "Saiyans don't care about etiquette."
Dabura was disappointed at having to face a weaker opponent. If Gohan was a marginal challenge for him, Boromir would just be another fly to swat if his power level was anything to go by."
"Let me fight the Saiyan, Cell!" demanded Dabura.
"No," said Cell calmly. "I will fight him as he wishes." Due to an extraordinary malfunction in his programming, his courage, arrogance and blind stupidity subroutines were all loaded into his memory at once. Strangely though, they didn't overwrite his cowardice subroutines which remained in the memory and fed data to his CPU which was being told to be brave and cowardly at the same time. Eventually (in 0.00000329 milliseconds) it resolved the conflict and cleared the storage spaces being occupied by the cowardice subroutines, replacing them with a Bette Midler recording that played repeatedly through the side of Cell's head. The human part of him turned the volume off so that noone present (himself included) could hear it. After all, he wasn't a complete monster. 'Why did Gero ever upload that into my memory banks?' he asked himself as he stood poised, ready for battle.

Gohan did not waste any time. No sooner had Cell's foot touched the ground than he was charging into him, full speed. Inches from the android's head, he sensed a punch being thrown and sped up. This is what he had been expecting and Cell had fallen right into his trap. He zanzookened behind him and gave him a punch that scrambled Cell's signals for a whole second. 'Yes,' thought Gohan. 'Off to a good start'. Cell recovered and turned, hitting Gohan square in the face with a punch of his own, and immediately the Saiyan remembered just how fast the android could be. Out of anger they engaged each other in hand to hand combat until it seemed pointless. Gohan was the first to break away, and he put a fair amount of distance between him and Cell, charging up a Kamehameha as he did so. Cell took a page out of Gohan's book and charged headfirst into the blast. As soon as it had been released, he zanzookened behind Gohan and delivered a punch that bruised his spine. Gohan fell to the ground with a loud scream, but after remembering who he was fighting, landed on his feet, bounced back into the sky and swung his foot into Cell's stomach. The android gasped for breath and looked for the Saiyan who was no longer there. He soon discovered Gohan's whereabouts, however, as two clasped fists were driven hard into his head. The pointed parts of his metal skull broke and, aided by gravity, began their long journey to the ground below. Cell was not happy.
Meanwhile, the fight between Boromir and Dabura had started, and it was very one-sided. Boromir swung his sword in perfect form at the Former ruler of the Underworld, who had the great advantage of being able to fly. He toyed with Boromir, dodging every one of his extremely slow (by Dabura's reckoning) attacks. "Is that all you've got?" asked Dabura. "This is going to be easier than I thought!" he exclaimed. Boromir did not let the mocks and taunts get to him. Instead he continued his swings, hoping that finally Dabura would slip up and one of them would hit. This went on for several minutes and, although the situation was identical to how it was before, Boromir's tactics had changed dramatically. He was no longer trying to hit Dabura, but rather to keep him amused until Gohan had defeated Cell, so that he wouldn't be attacked. The flaw in his plan of course, was that by using the same attacks all the time; Dabura soon bored of toying with him and struck him hard. Boromir fell and skidded across the ground, grasping onto his sword. "You won't be needing that anymore," laughed Dabura as he saw the man was eager to keep hold of his weapon. He put his foot slowly to the blade and easily broke it in two. Boromir watched helplessly, stunned by the fact his beloved sword had been destroyed. A deep anger rose quickly in him and he let out a loud yell. Every muscle in his body tensed up to the point where they would soon snap his bones in half, and his heart pumped twice as fast as it had seconds earlier. He felt an instinctive need to destroy this being who had taken his weapon from him, the weapon he had had since he was a young boy. The weapon he had used to defend Minas Tirith. The weapon that now lay in two pieces, with small shards of metal surrounding it, making it look weak and pathetic, and in no way a sword of honour. Boromir lifted his leg with great force and kicked Dabura hard in the balls.
Cell spat a mixture of purple blood and capacitors, then wiped his mouth. His opponent was waiting for him to make the next move. He knew this for a fact. It was a tactic he himself employed from time to time to intimidate inferior beings. It was basically a way of saying 'I'm so good, I don't have to destroy you at the first possible chance. I'll give you a breather so you can recover and then I'll kick your ass again'. He had had his breather, and now he was ready to fight again. He threw his body towards Gohan who did likewise and they clasped hands, engaged in a test of strength. Sweat began to trickle down both their foreheads as they looked into each other eyes and gave each other a look that said 'I'm not giving up!' Cell smiled and drove his knee into Gohan's midsection. Their hands were still clasped and he used them to pull the Saiyan back and repeat the manouveur. This time he let go, but grabbed Gohan's arm as he did, and swung him till his circuits told him he was dizzy, then let go. Gohan flew through the air for fifty feet, then stopped the flight and recovered again. He was in pain though. Stuck in the HFIL with no stronger allies and no sensu beans, he could tell this was not going to be an easy battle.
Dabura took a few steps back. His groin ached and this in turn affected his entire body. He couldn't walk straight, he couldn't think straight, his legs stumbled as he tried to slowly back off. His only option was to ignore the pain and remember to wear a cup for his next battle. Boromir slowly got to his feet and kicked Dabura hard in the stomach. There was no honour in hitting a man when he was down, but Dabura was not a man and he was infinitely stronger than Boromir. The red devil took his hands off his balls and rubbed his stomach. The kick had not been hard, but he still felt the need to protect it. He soon discovered it had been a trick though as Boromir drove his foot once more into his balls. Looking round at Gohan, he saw the Saiyan was holding his own against Cell and heaved a sigh of relief. He could now fully concentrate on his opponent without having to feel guilty about his friend.
Coincidentally, Gohan looked to see how Boromir was doing at the exact moment the latter had averted his eyes and returned to his battle. Seeing that he was apparently coping, Gohan returned to his. They had reached the stage in the battle where usually things would start to explode. Right about…Cell put his hands by his side and created a small, yet dense, kamehameha. It was packed full of power and androidy goodness. He released it and it flew towards its target who deflected it with his hands. Redirected, it followed its new course into the clouds. The fluffy ceiling of the HFIL exploded and made a hole that tried to fill itself in by gathering other clouds around it. But not before an unfortunate farmer could fall off Snake Way and land, screaming in a small pool of water….now. Gohan didn't watch as he was too busy sending out a Masenka-ho beam. It spiralled towards Cell who dodged it easily. The two fighters put some distance between each other and, as if they were telepathically linked, sent out a series of rapid ki pulses at each other. Some hit, others missed. Amongst them, Gohan attempted his second kamehameha, carefully avoiding each of Cell's attacks till it was ready, then fired it at the android. The beam, shielded by Cell's smaller beams, pushed its way quickly towards the android, disintegrating all other forms of energy in its path, and exploded on him. Ironically, Cell's power had resulted in him receiving the first significant blow of the match. When the smoke around him cleared, he had lost an arm and a chunk of his side. He wasn't worried though. Angry, but not worried. These were only body parts, and body parts could be grown back.
The other battle, the boring battle if you like, was slow and steady. Dabura was licking his wounds (not literally though. That would be sick. Get that image out your head!) as Boromir slowly approached him. Arrogance was not in this noble man's nature, but oftentimes he would look before he leaped. This is what he was doing now in not using all his speed, force and cunning to take advantage of Dabura's position. He realised this and charged towards Dabura, but the demon was waiting for him, and held out his hand. A small, sharp burst of energy exploded from it and Boromir was blown back. He struggled to get up, but found he was in too much pain. Dabura was now walking towards him, a wide grin on his evil face. "I'm bored of you," he told Boromir. "Time to turn you to stone." The muscles in his mouth moved back and forth as he collected enough saliva to make the spell work. He pursed his lips and spat it at his opponent. Wondering whether to take Dabura's comment about turning him to stone literally, Boromir spotted one half of his sword lying beside him. Quickly picking it up, he used it to defend himself against the spit. The blade slowly turned to stone and was returned to the ground. Boromir watched Dabura's stunned expression, then kicked him in the balls again.
Gohan turned Super Saiyan in an instant and relieved himself of some of the pain. Cell was staggering about with one arm, looking helpless. Gohan knew it would grow back soon though unless he attacked Cell quickly. He flew towards the one armed bandit and kicked him hard. Cell blocked the kick with his one remaining arm and went to swing a punch with his other, before realising it wasn't there. He hadn't got used to only having one arm again, and this was a very dangerous situation to be in. Gohan threw a punch with his right arm, followed quickly by another with his left, mocking Cell mercilessly. The android zanzookened a short distance away, giving himself some much needed rest. Gohan sighed and let him be for a minute. Soon after, the fight resumed, Cell now complete again as his arm and side had grown back. He gave a short speech about Piccolo's regenerative cells, but Gohan shut him up, saying he'd heard it all before and that he wanted to get back to the fight. They exchanged some more blows before splitting up again. This time Gohan charged up a powerful Masenka-ho beam, while Cell prepared a special surprise for Gohan. It was one of Vegeta's attacks…the Big Bang! The powerful ball of energy grew in size until it was larger than Cell's headquarters. 'Uh oh!' thought Gohan, and released his attack, knowing he would need time to escape the Big Bang. Cell saw the Masenka-ho beam come spiralling towards him and released the energy ball before it was ready. It weakened Gohan's attack and finally stopped it in its tracks, but the Big Bang continued on its way.
Dabura stumbled back in pain again, wondering how he could have fallen for the same cheap trick three times. He recovered faster this time and ignored the fact that his swollen testicles were about to split the seams in his underwear. He roared ferociously and swung a powerful punch at Boromir, who had no choice but to take it and fall once more with a broken jaw. 'This is the end for you mortal!' declared Dabura, and gathered an enormous amount of energy. There was no escape for Boromir in his current condition. He wondered what would happen if you were destroyed in the afterlife, then realised he was about to find out. Taking one last look at the sky, he lay down and accepted his fate. But then he took another look at the sky. Something interesting was happening. A giant ball of energy was making its way towards them. Gohan was moving out of its way and for a moment, the two partners made eye contact. They both calculated where the ball would land, and found it was heading straight for…Dabura! The energy began to glow as every ounce of strength in the demon's body worked its way to his hands. The attack was growing all the time. The ball was getting closer. Cell looked round and realised what was about to happen. 'Look out!' he screamed, but Dabura was concentrating on his chi. When his attack was complete, he looked up and saw the largest collection of energy he had ever seen in his entire life. He only saw it for a second though before it enveloped him and disintegrated every last molecule in his body. Cell had destroyed a member of his team.
The android realised this could be a fatal turn of events. The plan had been that Dabura would dispose of the weakling while he kept Gohan occupied, then they would both team up on the Saiyan to take him out. Now they were both free to team up on him ironically. But there was still hope. The weak one was out cold and the Saiyan, although putting up a good fight, was weakening. Cell moved his eyes back to Gohan and put Dabura out of his mind. The fight resumed once more. Kamehamehas were shot by each of them and the beams met, representing their senders. They were not as big as the ones created in Gohan's epic battle with Cell on Earth, where the fate of the world depended on the outcome, but they had the same effect. More power was pumped into both beams and each fought to overpower the other. Gohan realised this was useless and would only drain his energy, but there was a solution. Little bolts of electricity circled his body as he began to glow more brightly. His hair grew slightly and stood on end, making him look as powerful as he now was. He had gone Super Saiyan 2. The moment the transformation was complete, he pumped a small amount of extra power into the beam and it grew in size as Cell's shrunk, retreating until it was back in his hands, then Boom! Gohan's kamehameha sent Cell flying to the clouds. He hit his head off them and went flying back to the ground. Gohan was waiting for him and sent a flying kick to the android's stomach. Cell screamed in agony and finally landed on the ground. He did his best to beg for mercy as Gohan stood over him, powering up a large ball of energy, but the only words he managed to utter were 'No…please!' before the blast exploded on him and blew each part of his body away. All that was left was a headless, armless, legless body, bruised and weary from battle. It would grow back soon, but before that happened, Cell would be arrested and dealt with by the Other World police force, as the other members of his gang would also be. Gohan took one last look at his nemesis then walked over to Boromir.
He knelt down and placed his hand on his friend's head. Boromir slowly opened his eyes and tried to focus on what he could see. The image of Gohan finally appeared and he smiled.
"How did we do?" he asked, sounding in a great deal of pain.
Gohan waited a moment before saying, "We won."
Boromir smiled and closed his eyes once more as he fell asleep.
Gohan stood up again and telepathically contacted King Yemma. "Mission accomplished!" he told the ruler of the afterlife. "You can come and arrest Cell's entire gang as soon as you want."
"Good work guys!" replied King Yemma. "We're sending our men down right now," then he added with great enthusiasm, "I have some good news too. You're both going home."
Gohan smiled and lay down to recover from his battle. Being dead wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. In fact, he had found it to be quite an enjoyable experience.

Some distance away, a small yellow half man struggled to crawl across the blue grass, not really sure where he was going. "Water," he tried to say. "Need…water." He looked up to see another familiar face. This one was far more terrifying to him than the whole of Cell's gang combined. He wanted to scream but found he couldn't.
"So," said the man as he stood with folded arms over the cowering, pathetic form of Babidi. "We meet again I see!" and he laughed an evil laugh that rang throughout the whole of the HFIL.

So Gohan and Boromir fared well in Other World. But what was happening on Earth while they were away? And who is the figure with the evil laugh Babidi has encountered? Find out in Chapter 11 where Middle Earth prepares to take on its new Dark Lord.