In the stunned silence that followed the sudden end to the fight, Raditz glared at Piccolo as he gingerly got back on his feet. "Piccolo," Raditz said, annoyance swelling in him. "Why? I had that under control!"
"In case you forgot, Cell is out there!" Piccolo scolded him angrily. "You two would've killed each other if I didn't step in. Are you really willing to let him run amuck just to settle this petty feud with Vegeta?"
What Piccolo said instantly sunk in, and Raditz became ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry," he said, hanging his head down.
Piccolo sighed, and said, "I know that Vegeta easily gets under your skin, but you have to put that aside for now." Raditz just nodded. "Do you want a Senzu bean?"
"No, I'll be fine."
"So, getting back to Cell," Krillin spoke up, uncertainly as he tried not to look at Vegeta's unconscious form. "There should be one in this timeline that's still growing, right?"
"Yeah, but it should have been blown to hell when Trunks leveled the lab," said Ranch, relieved the fight was over.
"Not necessarily," Piccolo explained. "There's supposedly a basement beneath that."
"A basement?" she repeated thoughtfully. "Hmm, we might not just find Cell there. There could be a bunch of valuable info. I'll go check it out."
"I'll go with you," Krillin volunteered.
"In that case, the rest of us should go track down Cell," Raditz said.
"I'll stay here for a while," Trunks said in resignation, going over to kneel next to his father to check on him. "He may not be the most popular guy here, but he's still my dad and I don't want anything happening to him while he's out cold like this."
"Alright, I'll see you later, then," Ranch said to Trunks.
He stood up, looking at her apologetically. "Sorry, I know you must think it's stupid of me—"
Ranch kissed him so he'd stop talking. "Hey, he's your dad." Glancing over at Raditz, she said, "I get it, trust me. Plus, it's not like I'm much better what with the way I ran my mouth off earlier."
Trunks replied, "Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but seeing as you brought it up…" Ranch just chuckled and lightly jabbed his shoulder.
"Enough, let's go," Raditz said testily, powering up and taking off so suddenly that Tien and Piccolo had to hurry to catch up.
Ranch and Krillin nodded at each other and flew in the direction of North City, while Trunks sat by his father.
"What?" Raditz demanded, when Tien caught up with him, looking amused for once.
"So when's the wedding?" asked Tien. Raditz didn't respond.
When Krillin and Ranch got back to the mountains a chill wind blew. They stood at the remains of Gero's lab, but Ranch and Krillin couldn't find any sign of the basement. When Krillin asked how they were supposed to find the entrance beneath all the rubble, Ranch began to blast away the debris bit by bit, and Krillin followed suit. Eventually a broken ladder leading down a hole was exposed, and they both hopped downward. When they reached the bottom it was pitch black, so Ranch held her hand out to produce a small ball of energy that lit up the hall in front of them.
They walked forward towards a large metal door, which Krillin simply pushed open. Spotting a switch, Ranch flipped it on to turn on the light, so she closed her hand.
"Whoa, that's a huge computer," Ranch commented. Then she noticed a tank filled with liquid. Walking up to it, she saw a tiny creature suspended in it. "This has got to be Cell."
"Man, so that little thing grows into that monster we saw earlier," Krillin said anxiously. Putting his hands out, he said, "Let's destroy this place and everything in it!"
"Hold up," Ranch said, going over to a work bench. "There might be helpful stuff here." She looked over the papers, and a grin crossed her face as she studied them. "Nice! Plans on what makes the pretty boy and bimbo tick! I bet if we give these to Bulma she'll come up with some sort of weakness!"
"Anything there on Cell?" Krillin asked, coming up next to her.
"Nah," she said, shifting the papers. "Huh…apparently the names of the cyborgs were Lapis and Lazuli. And more stuff on the big guy 16. Oh well," Ranch said indifferently, rolling all the papers up, "they're just a bunch of monstrosities now, as far as I'm concerned."
"Alright, let's blow this place up."
"Not yet, I want to see if there's anything else here," Ranch told him. But even after they scoured every bit of the lab nothing was found. Finally, she agreed with him and they began to throw blasts around the lab.
Explosions rocked the basement and destabilized it. Ranch glowered at the massive computer, pointed her free palm at it, and let loose a powerful beam to blow it up. Then she and Krillin aimed at the tank containing the larval Cell, and vaporized it without mercy.
"We should go before this whole place falls on top of us!" Ranch yelled.
"Right!"
The sprinted out of the lab and through the hall as everything around them exploded. They shot back up the ladder, and once they were back above ground, Krillin threw down another energy blast down the hole, making the basement underneath erupt.
Elated in the success of their mission, they began flying in the direction of Capsule Corp.
"Alright, let's get these plans to Bulma," Ranch said, clutching the rolled up papers tightly.
"Sure but I could take it back if you want. Don't you want to go back to Trunks?" Krillin asked.
"I do, sure, but something tells me him and Vegeta would benefit from some father-son time."
"Uh...I thought you had a good enough read on Vegeta to know that might not work out," he said uncertainly.
"Yeah, but Trunks is persistent. Vegeta may not want to let him in, but Trunks will kick the door down if he has to."
"If you say so."
Back in the remains of Ginger Town, Vegeta regained consciousness and stood up quickly looking around. Seeing Trunks sitting nearby he advanced on him demanding to know what happened. When Trunks told him that Piccolo had decided to end it for them, Vegeta just screamed in rage and rocketed into the sky. Not surprised, and hoping that he wasn't actively searching for payback, Trunks powered up and sped off after Vegeta.
Outside of Nicky Town, Tien, Raditz, and Piccolo had found an empty bus with punctured sports uniforms scattered around. Based on what Piccolo had told them it was without a doubt the work of Cell. They went back into the air to see if they could see anything, when they all began sensing something terrible happening not too far away. The three immediately flew towards the remains of Nicky Town, where a cat and mouse game between them and Cell started.
When Krillin and Ranch got to Capsule Corp, they were met by Bulma's mother at the front door. She led Ranch and Krillin to the laboratory where Bulma and her father were.
"Hi there!" Bulma greeted excitedly, holding baby Trunks and going up to Ranch. "It's nice seeing you again, especially now that I know who you are!"
"Hey, Bulma. You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were my time's Bulma. You age really well," Ranch commented, knowing that flattery would get her everywhere.
"Oh stop," she said, feigning embarrassment. "But wait…where's Trunks."
"Off with Vegeta."
"That's…great." Bulma finally noticed the papers she was carrying. "Is that for me?"
"Yup, plans for the cyborgs. We figured you could make use of them."
"Let me see." Bulma handed baby Trunks to Ranch as she took the blueprints from her.
As Bulma and her father started to pour over the blueprints, Ranch couldn't help but start gushing over the baby in her hands. "Oh my goodness, tiny Trunks!" Ranch exclaimed, holding the baby out in front of her. "It's so good to see you again!" Baby Trunks giggled and shook his arms at her as Ranch began to bounce and swing him around. "You're such a cutie pie, aren't you? Yes you are!" Ranch had held herself back when she first saw the baby at the canyon, but now that she had a breather she decided to indulge in how adorable the baby was. Krillin only managed to laugh a bit awkwardly at the sight.
Bulma and her dad talked shop between them in a way that was way over Ranch and Krillin's heads, until Bulma mentioned, "I bet if they have a weakness we can exploit it'll be in the control mechanisms."
"Yes, but we'll have to run some tests," Dr. Briefs agreed.
Ranch brought herself back down to reality, and said, "Alright, do whatever you have to."
"In the meantime we should go and help look for Cell," Krillin suggested.
Reluctantly, Ranch agreed. "Right. That thing needs to be stopped." So much for her brief respite, she thought as she put the baby into the nearby crib.
Going back out and taking to the sky again, Krillin and Ranch went in the general direction of where they felt the energy of Raditz, Piccolo, and Tien.