Disclaimer, in case it wasn't obvious. I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or really any other property. Thank you.

The Cataylst

Act VI

Chapter 98: Gingertown

Piccolo:

This had to be a trap. That was what he suspected from the outset. The question was, why was Garlic involved with any of this at all? The biggest question, was how long had he been involved? The green person Raditz met all those years ago, before they started their fight, had a very big implication, at least as they were now discovering.

"In my time," Gohan said as they burst through the air. "And in Trunks, Raditz was killed on my world, by you Piccolo. My father died in the battle. I was there. I remember only bits of it. But that is what happened. There is no Raditz in my world, at least not one that's alive."

The information already weighed heavily on the Saiyan as he looked at the two of them. Raditz wasn't the most talkative, or the quietest, but right now he seemed dead silent, his mind clearly racing through conclusions to try and piece together everything. Right now, Piccolo would guess there was no green stranger in the other time.

"I remember it, he had hands like yours," Raditz said, referring to Piccolo. "And he informed me that I needed to kill my brother, otherwise we would both die. He told me my fate would be sealed if I hesitated."

"And you never told us?" Piccolo asked, his voice rising, a near shock coming over him.

That was a NAMEK that helped him. That explained why Kami was gone. Kami might not have even been killed for all he knew. His other half might have been glued onto some other being. A being that was trying to change the flow of events in their own time. Worse, Garlic might be in partnership with this creature. In fact, he would bet that was the case. The events of the world were being tampered with.

How much had changed? In Gohan's world, there was no Turles, he'd not even been killed on Namek, they just never met him. Raditz was dead. Frieza's brother never came to Earth either. There were fewer Androids. Lord Slug never attacked the Earth and they'd never met him. This was all coming together now, and it would have been something Kami would have tried to intervene on. Now there was no one. The universe was seemingly oblivious to these changes. That didn't even take into account the changes their personalities would have gone through.

Where would they be without Raditz and Turles right now, in otherwise the same circumstances? And apparently this new Android, this nightmare, as Garlic called it, was somehow something Kami was going to be involved with before? There were too many questions that he couldn't answer right now, but Piccolo knew that they had been played.

And they had been played for years now.

"I didn't think to. So much happened since that moment. I travelled across the Earth trying to find the Dragon Balls, which he told me about. He explained I couldn't kill you, or they'd disappear," Raditz admitted. "I never thought to mention it before, it seemed so distant, and disconnected from everything else. This planet was weird anyway. Magic, strange rituals, Dragon Balls, there was a lot to take in before. Oh, and I was still trying to kill all of you until Nappa… and Vegeta…"

His voice trailed off at the last comment, which Piccolo understood. He didn't know what went down between Raditz and the other Saiyans, but he knew it was enough that it not only severed his ties with them, but made Raditz into Vegeta's most bitter enemy, even if Vegeta had surpassed him so greatly. It was almost impossible to imagine a world where Vegeta was the only Saiyan other than Goku, and Raditz wasn't trying to get his revenge on him. That world existed though, and as far as they could tell, it existed more than this world.

Something deeply wrong happened here.

It wasn't that Piccolo held Raditz in contempt himself, though he was disappointed in his decisions on how far he'd push things to get back at Vegeta.

"Depending on what happened, it might even tie into why both Trunks and I arrived in this timeline, when we're both clearly not related to it," Gohan explained. "I don't have any evidence for it, but it might start to explain why this world's time is so messed up. It's just not reflective of the world I should be coming to."

Anything was possible. Piccolo would almost want to use the Dragon Balls to find out, but Kami was dead or gone. It only further complicated things. Damn it, they weren't even going to be able to get answers. Not without interrogating Garlic more than they did, but they might not even see him again.

This was bad. It was bad before they even realized it was bad.

Only now, it was getting worse. The city of Gingertown came into view as the three of them bolted along.

"… I can't believe… that I just died like that. No one even remembers me," Raditz remarked.

"I'd be lying if I told you, you were missed, but Vegeta never even mentioned you after you were gone, and neither did Dad," Gohan confirmed, though there was a degree of real empathy in his tone. "… I am sorry."

Sweeping over the city once, Piccolo's mind came to the attention at hand. At first glance everything seemed normal, but the situation was immediately betrayed by the sound. It was the sound of silence below them. A few radios and televisions left on. Fans and air conditioners. But there were no voices, no cars in motion, none of the noises of daily life. The city below was completely silent.

"What happened?" Raditz's voice broke the silence as they all came to a halt in the sky.

"Is everyone dead? Why aren't the buildings destroyed? Normally the Androids destroy a substantial amount of the buildings and infrastructure when they have fun."

Landing first, Piccolo's eyes scanned all that he saw before him. The streets and parks in his view were totally silent, only the bristling of the branches in the wind gave back any noise at all, seemingly. There were no people, no pets, no anything. It was unnerving to even notice. Even the background energy lower powered organisms left behind were just gone. A second later, the sound of his backup landing behind him touched his ears.

"Where… where is everyone?" Gohan asked. "Do you hear that? I don't hear anything."

"Quiet," Piccolo ordered, slowly letting himself walk forward as he gestured for them to follow.

Whatever did this very likely could still be here.

He didn't even know what happened to everyone. A shirt drifted in the wind in front of him a second later before catching on a sign post. Eyes shifted in the area before Piccolo took a look at the sidewalk. Discarded clothing, everywhere. Dresses, pants, shirts, glasses, briefcases, everything a person would be walking with. It was like they were just lifted out of their clothes and disappeared.

They could all feel it. They were walking into something and they had no idea what was coming. Gohan and Raditz were tense, and his own senses were on high alert. Any motion at all was something Piccolo was looking for. If this was like the other Androids, it didn't have a power level to read at all. It could strike from any direction…

An umbrella rolled out of an alleyway, hitting Raditz in the left. The big Saiyan immediately turned, firing an energy bolt down the alley. The red tinted blast exploded into the side of a small housing unit. Fire rippled up the building before grey ash and debris blasted out of every level of the five-story structure before it came crashing down into its own ruin.

The Saiyan was left standing there, his eyes peeled ahead before Gohan grabbed his arm, shoving it down.

"Are you crazy?! What the Hell are you doing?"

"I saw movement."

"That could have been a person!'

"As if there are any people left in this city!"

"QUIET!" Piccolo ordered again. "If there is something still here, that'll have tipped it off. Stop moving."

The pair's bickering immediately ceased before Raditz looked in all directions, before looking at him.

"It's watching us," he remarked. "I can tell."

Piccolo was in agreement. If anything was here, it had its eyes on them, probably even before the attack had been let off. It was like he could feel whatever it was, crawling over him with its optics. He imagined something akin to Android 17 or 18 just hiding in the shadows, but in truth he didn't know what this thing looked like. All he knew was that it was an Android. It could look like a chicken for all he knew.

The moments passed with the three of them standing there, each one scanning every direction trying to keep tabs on what could have been here.

This is insane. It might not even be here anymore at all.

That was the worst part about these Androids, there was no way to know even where they were.

"Plan?" Gohan asked finally.

"Stay together, the reason it's not attacked yet is because it's uncertain that it wants to fight all three of us," Raditz theorized.

That was the plan if they wanted that. They needed to drive this thing out of its hiding place. But they didn't even know its capabilities, this was a problem.

"Turles, where are you?"

Piccolo's psychic energies pulsed as he reached out with his mind, taking hold of the line of communication he knew was possible. An irritated emotion shoved back at him, clearly prickled in its response. It seemed Goku's twin didn't like taking collect calls, but the answer came.

"What? I'm busy looking for Androids, remember?"

"Are the others with you? Trunks, Tien, and Krillin?"

"Of course, they are! I've not used them as fodder yet."

Yea, this guy was just the best partner they could ask for. He couldn't wait for Goku to be back.

"Get over to Gingertown, we've got a situation here. There is an Android. Keep your powers lower unless you sense ours spike, do you understand?"

"Of course, oh captain my captain."

"Just do it."

Cutting the line himself, Piccolo looked at the others sideways.

"Reinforcements are on their way," he said quietly. "I don't know their ETA, but whatever the time, we're going to need to drive this thing out first. Which means splitting up."

The two Saiyans stared back at him, both of them reluctant, but he could see neither were willing to challenge him on that. In truth, he was going to need to be the most vigilant, because just like Turles had lured 19 and 20 into his range of attack back on the Island, Piccolo was going to need to do the same here. If he was late at all, their lives could be in serious jeopardy.

Damn it.

They also needed to drive this thing out before the others got here, because if they didn't, it might just take off.

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Cell:

Fascinating.

It wasn't just fascinating because these creatures had seemingly made their way into his hunting grounds, it was fascinating because his eyes only recognized two of the three there, and one was most certainly out of place, now wasn't it? This was all too interesting. His curiosity almost made him want to reveal himself, just in order to find out more about them, but there was a whole host of issues with doing so. Just as they didn't know what they were dealing with, he didn't know who he was dealing with.

The only known factor he could see was the Demon King, Piccolo. Yes, he knew this specimen well. Piccolo was one of the foundational genetic codes wrapped into his DNA. His brother was more than a delectable meal at the moment. Absorbing Piccolo would yield a significant boost in his energy, devouring the entirety of his being would provide him with perhaps even enough energy to subdue one of the Androids.

But the other two could complicate things. One he recognized right away, one of his cousins. A minimal amount of genetic material had been gathered from Son Gohan throughout his life. Dr. Gero felt that most of what made Son Gohan important, was already comprised of Son Goku. He therefore only had 1.5% of his genetic structure composed of this fighter, but that lead to other questions.

Why is Son Gohan here, in his adult form? Gohan was killed by Android's 17 and 18. This would mean that Trunks is no longer here? The timeline appears to be off, for more reasons than originally anticipated. This is a cause for concern.

To himself, he felt himself almost whisper…

And who is this?

Slit eyes expanded as the lens' in his eyes focused in on a very large Yamcha. Though he immediately reneged on that assessment. This wasn't Yamcha at all, as he was clearly taller, thicker, and his voice patterns did not match the human who comprised 3% of his biological makeup. Memories that had been inserted into his very being, recordings by Dr. Gero, looked for any sign of who this could be. What he was aware of, was that there should not be a significant fighter he wasn't aware of in this era.

Blinking, he felt he had the reference he was looking for.

Could it be… Raditz?

Son Goku's alien brother from the stars, a being who lived on the Earth for less than a day before being killed by Piccolo and Goku. Despite Frieza's biological essence being taken in a similar time period, Raditz's had not been. Dr. Gero's folly had been not programming the observation unit to be aggressive enough in that moment. If this was indeed Raditz, that was a fascinating development, now wasn't it?

His capabilities are unknown, and that of Gohan. If both are Super Saiyans at this time, backed by the might of Piccolo, they may overwhelm me in this inferior form.

Stepping away from the window he gazed through very slowly, Cell was careful to mask his movements in shadows. The husk and clothing of his final victim in this city gently drifting to the floor from the end of his tail. His nature, his greed and his inquisitive portions, all demanded he intervene more readily, but the survivalist component within him knew all too well that this could jeopardize him very quickly. Only if he had a chance to isolate and devour one of the fighters without the other two's realization, could he justify his ambition.

More fascinating yet, is that they came here, together, to Gingertown. It is as if they were looking for me.

The alien mind of Cell put together possibilities. Just how would they know he would be here, now, of all times? It was very illogical, wasn't it? They had no way of knowing that he had in fact arrived, or even that he existed, let alone that he was in Gingertown.

The more likely explanation was simply, they had been flying overhead and noticed his aftereffects of his work in this human settlement. Heavy footsteps were kept light as he entered the hallway of the office building, before scaling out a window on the opposite side of the building, moving on all fours as he was careful to keep his power level hidden. A body flew past the building to his left as Cell went totally still, wishing his green complexation could turn grey. In a second, if what appeared to be Son Gohan turned around, he would be had. Without increasing his power, Cell scaled down the building as quickly as he could before slipping into the trees of the grounds around the apartment building, blending into the ground level just as he saw the eyes of the Saiyan turn their attention to where he'd been.

He expected to see Piccolo and the other Saiyan, Raditz, any moment, but instead he noted they had not followed the young Super Saiyan, had they?

His senses pushed out as he felt the dim embers of two other powers, both of which were divided throughout the settlement.

Well now… this is more than perfect, isn't it?

Without wanting to expose himself without taking a full inspection of his prey, Cell slithered along all fours as he kept his profile low, his frame as camouflaged as possible, keeping his wings over his back to conceal the orange armour plating along his body. The ploy worked as he managed to pull himself into the darkness of an alleyway.

Pulling himself rapidly up a fire escape, he peaked his head above, seeing Son Gohan traveling through the skies. When he slipped back down, he turned to another passageway, eyeing the one he suspected was Raditz, patrolling the ground level near the highway, and finally he honed in on Piccolo's energy, slipping from the alleyway and into the shelter provided by another apartment block, this time seeing the Namek investigating the city centre.

Gohan was the hardest to approach, which ruled him out. Being in the air, his attack might be noticed before it could be completed. This left him to decide between the Namek and Raditz. It was a matter of a known, versus an unknown. Piccolo was rated as being one of the weaker fighters, but the top of the weakened card. Raditz was a Saiyan, and may very well have been a Super Saiyan, if he followed the trajectory of every other target. This meant that if he was to be… absorbed, into his quest for perfection, he would gain the most substantial power boost of the three. That would allow him to easily overcome the other the other two.

A slow grin pulled up his beak-like mouth as Cell held back a chuckle, instead, merely a long, drawn out, low growl of excitement came to him. Yes, this would be more than perfect. His advanced mind already set out the means of his ambush as he rapidly moved from position to position, stalking the long haired Saiyan as he prepared to strike.

The target moved with caution, but Cell could see him from every angel as he made his way to what he knew would be their destiny together. His grin vanished as he became focused on the predation of the target. Finally, he came into the shadows ahead of where he knew his victim would be. His tail gently poised itself from above. Every fibre of his being prepared himself for the moment, the strike, the kill of the target, and the rapid consumption of his very being. This would be his moment… his time to claim all he needed to find and achieve his ultimate form.

As Raditz came into view, the two thoughts, one of his hunt, and one of his ultimate goal, came together into one word.

Perfect…

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Raditz:

This thing must have moved on by now.

Having stepped off the freeway to a small part of town with several bars and shops in it, Raditz felt like he'd investigated 90% of the town, even if it was really closer to 10%.

They'd been looking for what felt like an eternity. Keeping their powers low and being methodical about every dark passageway they spied. Gohan had been the lucky one, pulling the card to watch from above. Admittedly, that was probably for the best. The perch in the sky was the safest position to be in, as the Android was going to need to attack from below and would need to expose its position by firing an energy wave, or by attacking through the sky itself, leaving the benefit of cover. Piccolo and himself were the ones on the ground, this was where the real danger was, and Raditz knew it.

He'd been a predator himself on many worlds, hunting strong opponents carefully, looking for the right moment to strike. Surprise was the main vector of success, and he knew that he had to keep his nerves under control, unlike with the umbrella incident. No sudden movements, he needed to be ready to act the moment something seemed off, and act decisively. For a brief second, he could have sworn he felt something above him, there was an instinct that went past power detection, it was like being trapped on the forests of planet Siren as a horn-tail tried to kill him as a child. Looking up, he noticed nothing, but he also knew. Every fibre told him if this thing was still here, it was following him. The darkness of the alleyways was being used to conceal its movements.

Stepping over another set of clothes, he couldn't help but wonder what the Hell happened here? Just what did this thing do? Did it use some kind of neutral attack that destroyed people, but left behind their possessions? He was certain these people were dead, but how was the question. There weren't even any residual energies.

If this thing was preying on them, and had preyed upon the people of this city, that meant it was using a traditional hunting style. It would aim to finish any fight before it started. Its purpose would be to cause significant injury, or kill its target the second it came into a killing zone. His eyes shifted towards the a now abandoned shop as he moved past it, thinking for a moment that he saw movement he stopped moving, rapidly using his eyes and ears to scan it. Instead of a person, he realized quickly it was a rat.

The small mammal scurried away, leaving him to breath a sigh of relief.

Well, it looks like not all the animals were killed, the rats survived.

As soon as he walked past the storefront to the next one, he felt something before he could even turn to look inside the window. Reflexively he tried to move back, but found an iron grip on his hand. His eyes peered through the now shattering window, the sound only catching up with him as he stared into a pair of serpent-like, alien eyes. In the darkness he could only see the faint outline of a monster, and as the sound of glass hit him, he heard a low growl, as well as the swooping motion of almost a thick rope, mixed with strange, flexible muscles. The greyish, brownish appendage's end came into view just as Raid's legs slipped out from under him in his attempt to pull back. The sharp needle at the end of the appendage had been aimed directly for his chest, but as he'd slipped, now plunged into the concrete of the sideway, shattering the earth beneath him.

With all his strength, his red aura bursting around him, Raditz went to the ground as the monster's eyes widened and Raditz pulled back, getting leverage from below, pulling the green hand back along with his own as he took hold of its wrist with his other hand. Sweeping outwards, he heard the surprised noise escape it as he pulled it from the darkness. His own sight of it as he arm-dragged it over him, flipping it over where he was, were the strange, spotted green and black greaves of the monsters. As its body collapsed into the road behind him, he already heard it scurry across the street into the darkness just as he turned about to face it.

Instinct told him if he had any chance of getting his follow-up, now was the time. Focusing all of his energy into his right hand, Raditz swept it around, pointing it straight ahead as he unleashed a Saturday Crush.

The blast plunged into the buildings the monster had escaped into, as soon as it did, a full half of the city turned red as a dome of red energy blasted out in the shape of a discharged blast, shoving away from where he stood. Brick, stone, concrete, wood, all seemed to catch fire in the intensity of the shot before being lifted away and shattered into billions of tons of debris, scattering into the wind itself as much of it was deconstructed into little more than powder in the wind.

The explosive force then swept out, fires caught across the rest of the city as windows shattered all around him and the force of the blast rolled over him, sweeping past him like a hurricane. As the light faded and the wind died, Raditz was left breathing heavily, adrenaline still pumping through his veins as he held himself firm, his muscles twitching from the massive exertion.

Still no energy? It made sense. it was an Android… but Raditz felt himself almost charge into the blast zone. A wiser part of his psyche responded however. If that thing was in there, it was definitely stronger than him, he got only as far as he did by luck. If he'd not pulled away as quickly as he had, whatever that thing was would have pierced his chest, and that'd be it. He didn't have time to think why it'd have such a thing, or a tail, but it sure as hell didn't look like any Android he could have imagined.

"Such a level of suffering… Dr. Gero is truly a malicious entity. I couldn't have thought such a nightmare up myself."

Garlic's words rang through his mind as he breathed in and out before Piccolo landed next to him, and then Gohan.

"What happened? Are you okay? Did you see it?"

Raditz almost couldn't speak for a second before he nodded.

"It nearly killed me," he breathed. "It grabbed my hand…"

When he pulled up his right arm, he could see the bloody claw marks where it'd dug into his flesh, he didn't even feel the pain right now from the shock, but he knew these marks were deep, even with Saiyan physiology on his side, this was going to hurt later.

"And then tried to strike me with something, I think it was a tail? It had a stinger on the end of it. I barely dodged it and threw him. It wasn't looking to fight me. It was going for the kill, right away."

"What the Hell kind of Android has claws like that?" Gohan asked sincerely.

Thinking back on what he could make out, Raditz swallowed.

"It was big, as big as Piccolo," he remarked. "Maybe a bit bigger. Claws, green and black skin. Part of it looked armoured, almost a bug-like chiton. I think it only had three tows. I threw it over there and attacked."

In the skies above, two golden figures appeared as Raditz breathed a sight of relief.

Turles and Trunks just arrived.

"What else? Anything?"

The only thing he could see now was what was staring back at him. He could see those hungry, predatory lenses staring back at him. Slits instead of circles. He was meal to this thing, wasn't he? It was the same look a predator gave its prey.

"It's eyes," Raditz said. "I saw it's eyes. It has eyes like a snake."

The still burning, billowing half of Gingertown lay before them, even as the two Super Saiyans landed nearby.

"I thought we were done blowing up cities, Raditz," Turles said, his voice filled with amusement.

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Cell:

As soon as its tail pierced the concrete instead of Raditz, he snarled internally. It wasn't even that he was furious with his prey, but with himself. This had been his opportunity to do this quickly and cleanly. This would now mean he either had to win in the next quick flurry of blows, or that he would opt for the hasty withdrawal. It had to come before his target put up a fight either.

Which was unfortunate, as in the same motion his tail had lunged forward, his opponent had grabbed his wrist. Red power licked off his flesh as Cell realized was what happening. Seeing the target brace his feet against the ground from his lower centre of gravity, Cell realized he'd lost control of this encounter already, the prey had responded too quickly, and realized the dire situation he was in too abruptly. Pulling back, but unwilling to generate his ki, Cell felt himself lose the struggle almost instantly as his bulk was heaved forward, swooshing over the Saiyan as he was brought into the light. Landing on the asphalt of the street hard, he felt it crack beneath him as the Saiyan released him to finished his throw. He didn't spend even a second licking his wounds, instead scurrying as frantically as he could to the alleyway across the street, his form bounding as he tried to keep himself concealed. Despite his lightning quick movements, Cell found himself contemplating where to go next. His senses took a moment to calculate where Piccolo and Gohan were in relation to himself.

Wretched Saiyan, when I…

The same senses that picked up Piccolo and Gohan, picked up something else, as well as his eyes a moment later. When he turned to look back, he felt, and saw, the gigantic wave of ki coming towards him. The rippling waves of energy around the slow-moving power told him enough without delving deeply into it, exactly what the ramifications for such an attack would be. Which immediately put him into the heart of a problem which there was no good answer to. Increasing his power to stop the blast would reveal his location. Keeping his power where it was, would risk severe injury.

His eyes widened with surprise however, as the orb grew in size as it approached the wall which he was against, before it expanded to a resonating orb of tremendous size… of slow energy.

This is a problem. I… oh no.

When the blast hit, his body was immediately sent tumbling through the concrete he'd failed to puncture by choice. Ripping through the building as the light expanded through and around him, Cell roared in pain as his flesh scorched and body waved in the core of the blast, carrying him further and further from where he'd been. He was in a tide of destruction, and even as he tried to hold on it felt impossibly. The noise of the blast itself going off, and the billions of objectives impacted by it, clattering, fragmenting, chipping, and snapping, left him in a world of light and noise. It was as disorienting as it was damaging.

If he raised his power now, he would have taken substantial damage, but still given himself away. He needed to stay the course…

Buildings shattered around him as the blast grew. In desperation, his burning hand reached out, grabbing for the ground as it too withered beneath him. His body needed to hold on, he needed to avoid raising his power at all costs. Fragments of his crest broke away in the blast as he restrained himself from screaming in the agony he now felt as another building came crashing down, this time rolling as it splintered and fragmented.

No no no!

Fear ran through him as he realized how dire his situation had been, having not raised his power.

When hundreds of tons of rolling concrete smashed into him, he felt every bone in the arm desperately clinging to what was left of hardened ground, snap, now he screamed, his body sent tumbling with the disintegrating mass of concrete as he rolled back dozens of kilometres, broken pieces of reinforced concrete, steel, and glass spearing him, almost puncturing his body before at last he came to a rolling stop, his frame crashing through a small wall of the least impacted buildings on the periphery.

He ended up in a heap, laying amongst the now burning hovel, a building he'd already entered earlier and devoured the occupants within. Now it was him, laying on the ground quivering in pain. He could see the burns on his skin and chiton and knew they would heal in time, but everything hurt to even move. It hurt to even lay motionless, in fact.

"uuHHhhuuuu…" the noise escaped his beak as he slowly started to pull himself up, his body protesting with every second of movement.

I… I'm alive.

As his slit eyes peered into the distance, he could see the giant smoking piles of ruins where he'd been thrown through. Already he could tell he hated that one. Raditz, if that was correct, had just ruined his plans, and had cost him valuable time and caused severe physical duress.

Two more significant powers arrived. His enhanced gaze spied... Trunks… and Son Goku.

Preprogrammed instincts informed him this was his ultimate goal, the murdering of Son Goku, and perhaps even devouring him for his energy. It was the ultimate rush, the ultimate achievement of his design, and that of all other Androids. It was to slay the creature that had been the catalyst for their design, the very reason for their birth.

The very reason he was designed to become… perfect.

Out of breath all the same, Cell stumbled away from the hole his body had made in the wall, staggering several steps as he tried to regain his composure.

That kind of failure could not happen again. He would need more energy before confronting the others. More so, he would perhaps even need to consume the Androids themselves. How he craved to even lay his eyes upon them, Androids 17 and 18. The pair of them were out there, and he would find them, soon.

Still, there was a need to consume more, and more now. His mind had an imprint of maps, knowing a nearby settlement of significant population could be reached soon, even at low speeds.

Nicky Town.

Turning his gaze backwards one last time in the direction of the now declining powers, Cell felt himself almost purr.

"Soon," he grumbled. "We'll become more acquainted again… hmmmmm… I promise."

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Raditz:

If they ask me one more time, I'm going to lose my god damn mind.

Everyone was here now, save for Vegeta.

"So that's all you know? Weird and green with snake eyes and a tail?" Turles demanded, his arms crossed. "You wouldn't be holding out any information to me, would you?"

"I told everyone what I know. Do you think I'm stupid?" Raditz snapped back, tired of Turles's prodding.

"I seem to recall you trying to kill Vegeta's spouse a few months ago, and dragging me into it," Turles fired back. "I'm not in the mood for problems today, brother, so let's make sure you've got the full story."

Part of him wanted to strangle his younger sibling. Without Kakarot around, Turles could be a real pain. He was suspicious of any situation like this, and suspected even he'd be treacherous. Why would he? This thing was a danger to everyone?

"Enough," Piccolo ordered. "We've got as clear a picture as we're going to get. It looks strange, green and black, and has a tail. It's also pretty big. This will make it extremely identifiably if any of us see it. Remember, it's an Android, so we can't detect its energy."

"Great," Krillin gulped. "What happened to all the people in Gingertown?"

"We know they were killed," Piccolo said in response before Raditz could. "But we don't know how. The going theory is it may have an attack that just hurts living tissue."

Gohan nodded before looking back at everyone else.

"We also know that this thing is a time traveler," Gohan said. "We got the information from another source though."

"Another source?" Tien asked. "You mean not from the Android? Just how did you guys stumble across this?"

"An imp," Raditz confirmed. "With pale turquoise skin and a white cloak. He was able to appear out of darkness even in the middle of the sky to try and manipulate us, but he did point out what was here. Piccolo knew who he was, some creature named…"

"Garlic Junior."

Krillin's head perked up, before his eyes widened in horror.

These people really knew that thing? Really? What was odd was the look on Turles's face however. He looked like he must have, when he had a realization. The Saiyan remained quiet, looking at the others and clearly not intending to participate any further. He knew something, didn't he? The body language said it all, even as he turned to the side, crossing his arms.

"Turles," Raditz started, speaking over the others as they had already begun to squabble.

"What?" his brother answered shortly.

"Did you know anything about that imp? When I described him, you seemed to respond?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Turles answered bluntly. "I didn't know anyone by that name. It's just an odd description. I've not dealt with anyone named Garlic Junior."

Narrowing his eyes for a second, Raditz thought to himself.

"Well how about The Catalyst?"

His brother turned his head towards him immediately, a real realization crossing his features as he looked at the others.

"Where did you hear that name?" he demanded.

"It doesn't matter where I heard it, where did you hear it?" Raditz countered.

"It was a creature I dealt with before coming to the Planet Namek. It was a short, turquoise coloured creature, like you described, but Vegeta and I killed it when it became inconvenient to me while we were hunting for the Dragon Balls," Turles commented. "And we definitely killed it. I atomized the wretched thing."

Looking at Piccolo in disbelief, the Namek stared back at him, realizing the depths of what they were uncovering here.

It all came together. That creature, whether it be Garlic or someone else, dealt with him before he was supposed to… die… at the hands of Piccolo. Turles was redirected to Namek by this thing as well. Which meant… it meant that he'd met the Imp, and The Catalyst was a pseudo-name. The one Raditz met was definitely not the Imp, which meant he had a partner. And it meant that they had influenced Cooler and Lord Slug as well.

When they looked back at Turles, the Saiyan looked defensive in the extreme.

"Turles, and for anyone else who didn't know, Garlic Junior wished for immortality using the Dragon Balls, he can't be killed."

The other Saiyan's eyes widened as the words were spoken, his own response growing in harshness and severity as he scowled.

"What the Hell is going on then? That little shit told you this thing was here? Why?"

"You're going to tell us everything first," Gohan said bluntly, pointing to Turles. "About your interactions with that thing. We need to understand why it'd tell us about this, and what it's plan is and…"

There was a pause on the other Saiyan's face as Raditz noticed something very distinct, it was like a realization had come through.

"What is it, Gohan?" Trunks asked.

"Cooler," Gohan answered a moment later. "Cooler mentioned these things too."

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Author's Notes:

I really, really enjoyed writing this chapter, especially the part where Cell was preying on them, and it got botched. When he got hit with Raditz's Saturday Crush, when I started writing, I played "Destruction" from the old Falconer track while writing it, lol.

At nearly 100 chapters in, the main cast now understands the manipulations that have been happening around them, or at least they're getting close to it, lol. I've got lots of plans, as I've mentioned. I'm just hoping I don't burn out writing them, as there is a lot coming in a very compact series of chapters.

Also, thank you everyone! 1800 reviews, and lots of regular readers. I never thought The Catalyst would have this much resurgent interest after firing it back up again. :)

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Reviewers:

Perfect Carnage: My author's notes go anywhere they please! Answered by PM, lol

Guessstt: Dragon Ball has tons of moment of really fun moments in it. In The Catalyst, I really wanted to make sure that was still reflected in the story as much as it reasonably should be. I knew 17 would have to force 20 to sing-along… because he's the captain now. Lol

Red Power: And Android 15 will still have a bit of time left to shine… some of that is even coming up, even. Toriyama has that "opinion" in public because he likes money. He didn't even remember who Broly was until he redesigned him for the new movie, that tells you how much attention he pays to it.

Blades of Fury: Answered by PM.

Guest1: 24 is a composite being. One major component of him "survived", or rather, died more in tact that Gold did. Gero is aware this guy was one of his son's squad mates. One of Goku's many victims! Lol

AlphaShenron: Answered by PM :)

Thomas-The-TMC: Answered by PM

Luke: 17 picked on 23 because he spoke up after 18. Keeping your head down keeps you out of trouble, lol.

Super Mystic Gohan: Answered by PM

Michael Stone: Thanks a bunch! There is a war looming on the horizon.

Silas: I mean. If you think I'm gonna have the story end up with Dr. Gero coming out on top… You're probably right! ;)

TheItchyCocoon: Answered by PM

RedHunter87: Answered by PM

Instinct: I like 15, he's a cool cat. We'll have to agree to disagree, I absolutely loathe the way Super Saiyan 4 looks. Sorry dude, if you thought for a moment, I'd let anything like that touch this story, well, it won't, apologies again XD

AngryShadow04: Answered by PM

FightingChampion: Answered by PM

Mouse from Hell: My original concept for the Androids was trying to do a better, more detailed series of conflicts than my old "Ginyu-Saiyan War" conflict. Because of how I'd advanced as a writer, and how I'd let the story centre around the characters, I wanted that to be embodied in not just the fighting, but the storylines around these groups coming into conflict.

DarkFalconZ: Mr. 1800 himself, thanks for the reviews, answered by PM, lol.