Black Dawn: Part 7

Cell's Challenge

For the last few hours Kibitokai had been frantically searching for his fellow deities. He knew they would have kept together, and would be hiding somewhere, trying to create a strategy, or contact Goku on Earth. Unfortunately he was unable to use telepathy himself, and didn't think Sugakoo would be allowing the thoughts of any Kai to pass through to the physical plane at the moment. The same rules that applied to every ordinary lost sole now also applied to the former Kings of Otherworld. Among all those soles, they would be very hard to find, but they didn't yet know that he still lived, and he might be their best chance to reach Goku. Time was running short. They now had only four days before the death of this universe, and birth of a new one, ruled over by Sugakoo. It was the duty of every man, woman and child to do there very best to stop this, and his especially. "I must find them!" he growled in frustration as he teleported to the end of Snake Way. This was the most likely place to find the others in which he hadn't yet searched, and they weren't here either. "Where would they go? They aren't on any of the Kai's planets; they aren't at the House of the Undying, or the Otherworld airport! What has happened to them?" He looked sadly down over the edge of Snake Way, wondering what he could do alone to stop such a crisis. King Yama would be headed for the House of the Undying by now, so perhaps he could go to the check in station and help the planet guardians somehow. With a sigh, Kibito-kai disappeared, and Snake Way was once again empty.

Dende arrived back at the Check in Station two hours later, breathless, tired and frustrated. He had left the dead soles back down in HFIL, but on the way back he had encountered a vicious alien ghost who must have been on the way down when Sugakoo took over. Its strength was greater than 100, so it had been allowed to keep its body, and it was a very impressive body too. It was a broad creature, with hard skin that also served as tough armor. Its long arms ended in sharp, ripping claws which it used to try to tear the guardian of Earth to pieces. Luckily, he had been fast enough to avoid it, but it chased him half way up the stairs before finally giving up and tagging behind him for the rest of the way, despite his protests. It unnerved him, listening to it slowly, ominously clumping behind him, and he wished it would find something more interesting to do and leave him alone. Maybe he could occupy it at the Check in Station, and slip away when it wasn't looking. There was certainly plenty to do there. All the people who had died that day in the entire universe were floating about confusedly, and it was almost impossible to tell who was meant to go where. There were other planets which had guardians, usually planets that were plagued by evil like Earth and all the planet guardians would probably be up here trying to help clean up by now, but each planet guardian only had the authority to guide his own people, and they would be extremely hard to find among the confusion in any case. All in all, it was a disaster, and there was very little one young Nameck could do about it. With a sigh, Dende began to dart about among the trillions of clouds packed into King Yama's office, looking for any humans. When he realized in dismay that the skeletal alien was matching him move for move, he turned to it in defeat. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Takamitsu," it replied in a deep, rasping voice.

"Well, Takamitsu. If you've got nothing better to do than follow me all day then maybe you should make yourself useful. Uh, do you know what a human looks like?"

There was blood everywhere. He could taste it in his mouth, and feel its vile stickiness covering his face. He had never in his life seen so much of it before, not even when he fought against that dammed monkey who'd started this whole mess. At least he had been able to fight back then, and even when he was torn in half by his own cutting attack, the Saiyan had offered him mercy. Sugakoo offered none. He beat into the changeling with a savage bloody ferocity he new all to well from his own heart. He couldn't even try to stop it. He wasn't nearly half the strength of his tormenter, and now he wasn't even strong enough to fire one pitiful energy blast. If he had been alive, then he would have given up all hope of a continued existence by now, but he wasn't. He had nothing to hope for. It was all because of that dirty tribe of primitive apes! He hated the universe, he hated the Saiyans, he hated Sugakoo, and he hated himself. He couldn't see, or hear anything now. The pain was too grate, but just before he slipped into unconsciousness, he wondered vaguely why the beating had stopped.

Above the battered changeling, Sugakoo stood, his fist poised over Freeza's already unrecognizable head. "How dare you!" he snarled at the person who had attacked him from behind. In front of him stood Cell, Doctor Gero's most powerful android, powered up and ready for battle.

"How dare you invade our territory?" Cell retorted. "I never thought I'd be doing this, but I need someone to beat up in my free time, and Freeza just happens to be the strongest other than myself who lives around here. If you want to spoil my punching bag, you're going to have to fight me first!"

Sugakoo chuckled. "You're wasting your time, my android friend. Surely you can sense that I am far stronger than you are."

"Of course I can," Cell replied. "You're certainly much stronger than me, but it takes skill and speed as well as brute strength to win a fight, and besides, I'm already dead, so I don't have anything to lose."

Sugakoo smiled. "Very well then. I'll give you two minutes to defeat me, but when you're time's up and you've hardly managed to even scratch me, I'm going to take you out. I really don't have time for this. I only stopped off here because I was so annoyed with Freeza that I new I wouldn't be satisfied until I'd given him what he deserved. Now I've taken care of that, I should really be finalizing my takeover of otherworld, but I suppose a fight, even with a weakling like you, might help me to get back into shape."

His take over of Otherworld? Cell wondered. What does he mean? Perhaps that would explain why he doesn't have a halo, and he is stronger than any of the Kais, but surely Goku would be there, and knowing his Saiyan thirst for battle he must be around that strength by now. Could this strange new visitor possibly be holding back his power? No, he wasn't that kind of person. Maybe Sugakoo just didn't know about Goku yet. Maybe he thought he had everything under control, when in fact his death was waiting just around the corner, just like his had been back in his day. It made him so angry, that after so many years, and so many fights, that strange bunch of pests were still the strongest in the universe, even when their leader was gone. Not long ago the occupants of HFIL had been joined by a little wizard named Babidi, who had told them that he had been killed by his own creation, a very powerful demon who was terrorizing the Earth. Within an hour he had created a Crystal ball, and they watched Majin Buu turning people into chocolate for a while, only to end up living with that blundering oaf who'd tried to beat him at the Cell Games. At that point, he'd given up, and gone off to spar with Cold. Majin Buu must have failed, because he hadn't seen Babidi since. He saw in his mind's eye that giant Kamehameha Wave that had been the last thing he saw before his life ended and he was sent down here, and imagined how Freeza, and Napa, and Majin Buu, wherever he was had probably all died the same way, with a look of surprise on their faces as their dooms sped toward them. He wanted this intruder into his eternal torment to die the same way, only this death would be by his hand. Smiling with the thought of a possible victory ahead, Cell began to power up his attack. "Ka… Me… Ha… Me… Ha!"

Author's Note: Well, did you like this chapter? Did I characterize Cell properly? Should I keep Takamitsu in the story? Please tell me in a review or email! I know that this is actually the most famous DBZ fic on the net (just joking, that would either be Dragon Ball Super Z or Dominion: Reprise which are both excellent by the way), so please tell me all about what you like and don't like. Congratulations again to Dargon Sheinto, the only one of you hundreds of readers who took the time to review my last chapter! Hope you aren't too disappointed with this one.

Until next time…