Another Path

A new chapter people! Reviews always work in improving my mood, so unless you are very busy you can comment my chapters.

Chapter 17: Fight or Flight

A few days passed from the defeat at the hands of the Androids. The unconscious Goku seemed to be getting better. Or at least he wasn't getting worse. That medicine from Trunks came just in time to save his life.

As the androids couldn't be tracked at all by ki detection, the Z-fighters used the TV to find out any suspectful events of mass murder. So far, the only important news was the bulky blue-skinned Android 13 causing massive carnage on South City, blasting cities with little trouble. It was a direct comment against the fighters, who all knew that they were very outclassed against the machine monster. It was a direct bait into certain oblivion. However, The other two androids were still undetected. The Dragon Balls were scattered around the globe, so tracking them now and revive everyone was very pointless with the threat lingering right behind their backs.

Krillin and the other fighters spent time between finding the Androids 17 and 18 and guarding Goku in Roshi's house. If anything happened though, Gohan knew he had to buy his mother enough time for her to teleport Goku into another safe place. With his powers, he knew he could do that. Vegeta remained aside from the others, apparently waiting for something. Piccolo had been at the Lookout since the fight, waiting for Kami to make his ultimate decision. While the Guardian pondered the thought of remerging in his head, the other green fighter decided to at least use his time for more training. At this point of the struggle, any improvement counted.

The Demi Saiyan Gohan was currently outside the beach house, floating in mid-air in meditation with his eyes closed carrying weighted clothes of many thousands of tons. It was better to do some training while waiting for his dad to recover. He had already improved a bit thanks to his special alien body, but certainly not enough to dent the Androids.

Gohan heard the sound of a ship landing right in front of him. The half Saiyan saw Bulma arriving, dressed in an orange outfit.

"Hey Bulma, what's going on?" the black-haired half alien asked the woman. Her face, however, didn't look so enthusiast.

"Something that's not good" The scientist said a bit gloomy, taking Gohan by surprise. "Is Trunks here? he might want to see this". Just in que, the boy from the future flew in scene, landing on the soft sand. He had recovered from the fight, and now had a new Capsule Corp jacket after having his last one blasted thanks to 13. He no longer carried his sword, as he didn't want it to be used against him like the last time.

"Hey Trunks, just in time" Gohan said to the arriver.

"For what?" The blue-haired half Saiyan asked in confusion, lifting an eyebrow.

"Do you recognise this?" Bulma asked him, handling him a picture. Trunks opened his eyes wide.

"It's... my time machine. But I don't understand, there's only one of it" The half Saiyan from the future said in disbelief. He pouted his pockets, taking out a box of Capsules "I have mine right here"

"Where was it found?" He asked towards the younger version of his mother.

"Outside Ginger Town. The man who called me said that's been there for at least four years" The Capsule Corp CEO replied. Trunks and Gohan looked at each other with dark serious eyes.

Something was very wrong.

After a few minutes of flight, the two Saiyans and Bulma arrived in the outskirts of Ginger Town in the middle of a green mountain-covered valley.

"Is that it Trunks?" Gohan asked towards the towering piece of machinery, hidden between the cliffs.

"Yes, it's my time machine" The boy looked at it. It was completely rust and decayed, barely functioning for sure "But I don't get it. My mum could barely create one, two would be impossible"

Gohan floated up to see a hole on the dome head of the ship. Whatever it made it, it had to be with something acid, as an energy blast would have blasted clean the entire dome. Inside the seat compartment, the black-haired Saiyan looked at something peculiar on the floor.

"Hey Trunks. Look at this" The black-haired half Saiyan said, raising what looked like two purple bowls with little spikes on their surfaces.

"It's some kind of egg shell" Trunks reasoned, putting the two objects together. Bulma suddenly yelled outside, taking the half aliens by surprise. Both rushed towards her. The scientist ran behind the two fighters in fear, scared of what was in front of them. No reason why she was suddenly afraid.

"What's that?" The blue-haired scientist said from behind Gohan "Is it an insect?" Non of them had a logical answer. It was like a silhouette of a creäture, like an empty chrysalis of a worm that metamorphosed in butterfly.

"More like an empty husk of one" The black-haired half Saiyan commented, looking at the weird chrysalis.

"Whatever it made it, it's still fresh" Trunks said, his hand covered in purple liquid, touching the interior.

Both Saiyan hybrids looked around, trying to feel any strange power nearby. There was nothing around, yet they knew to always be alert. Such a weird creäture wasn't normal on planet Earth.

Indeed, something was going very wrong.

"No, this is even worse than I first thought" Kami said from above the clouds, clutching his wooden crane with strength. The Namek warrior Piccolo nearby was fighting against an imaginary opponent, landing fist and kicks to the thin air. Yet, his keen alien hearing caught what Kami said loud and clear.

"What do you mean?" Piccolo asked, floating back to the ground of the Lookout. Popo appeared too from the main building.

"The Androids are not our enemies. They are pawns for an even bigger threat" The Guardian kept saying, realising the evil on Earth that had lingered for so long.

"What are you talking about? What evil?" The warrior Namek asked again, trying to get some answers. He was now a bit more powerful after days of continuous training, but not enough to defeat the Androids. And now something more that was even worse?

"You will find out after we have become one" The older Namekian said, turning around and getting closer to the son of his evil-self.

"So you have decided?" The former-evil Namekian asked.

"Kami no!" The genie said sad, eyes tearing.

"Don't worry Mr Popo. This is what must be done" The Guardian said with a wrinkled smile, looking at Piccolo "It's obvious I will be of more use if I can provide some power to you" The old Guardian said, letting go of his crane, walking into his son. He placed a hand on Piccolo' shoulder, who didn't flinch by the contact "I just have a request Piccolo. Never let the world fall in chaos. This has been not only mine but also your home. So I tell you, protect it please" The Old Guardian pleaded to his former evil self.

"I will" The younger Namekian said with a nod and seriousness in his face that he had never shown before. The Nameks shone in a white aura of power, as one was assimilated. The entire Guardian home above the clouds lighted up with a white color for a few seconds.

After the light dimmed, only one warrior stood proud at the edge of the Lookout. But he wasn't Piccolo or Kami. Because he had long-lost his true name.

"Goodbye Popo" Piccolo turned his head and smiled towards his former helper. The Namekian shot downwards through the sky, accelerating beyond anything possible. His telepathic mind was already reaching for someone far away.

"Gohan go to Ginger Town immediately, someone else is attacking us and it's not the Androids" Piccolo mentally said to his student, his flight beyond hypersonic speed towards the town.

"We must go to Ginger Town!" Gohan said now to Trunks, who nodded serious.

"Hey what about me?" Bulma asked. The black-haired half Saiyan grabbed her hand and teleported away to her house and a second later, the Saiyan reappeared alone "Let's go". Both flew away into the unknown.

Piccolo fastly arrived in the town before the others after just minutes of fast flight. The merging had really increased his powers, even now that he was holding back most of it. The city was amazingly empty, as the sudden arrival of a green man would have caused utter panic. But that never happened. Simply because there was no one around. Just the clothes of people lying on the concrete streets. Like if the humans had suddenly banished out of thin air.

Step noises came in the wind, and Piccolo spun around. The figure of two people were being carried by their necks, their bodies hanging limply. A creäture was carrying them. Whatever he was, he was just as tall as The Namekian. His body looked reptile, with green skin spotted with black dots. His face was covered with an orange mouth, his head splitted in two horns in V-shape and ember eyes. From his back, two long emerald wings flowed down, along a segmented tail that ended in a sharp stinger, and each of his hands had one little red-shinning gem.

Yet that wasn't the most unsettling thing about him. It was his powers. Like a combination of all the fighters Piccolo knew. Goku, Tien, Krillin, Gohan. Even Piccolo could feel his own energy inside the weird creäture along with Vegeta and Cooler.

The unconscious people in the creature's hands started to disappear, as their insides were being absorbed. Not even the skin remained from them after a few seconds.

"Hello Piccolo" The green man said, letting go of the human clothes in his hands.

"What? Who are you?" The new Namek asked in confusion "How do you know my name and why do you have the energy of many of my friends?"

"You think I will simply tell you my secrets?" The green lizard man said with what looked like a smirk in his orange mouth. The green creäture suddenly shot forward at dazzling speeds. But Piccolo saw him coming, even with his powers holding back. The Namek calculated both were close in power. Of course, the Namek couldn't use his full power yet. He had to keep that trump card for later. Because now, he only needed enough strength to beat the answers out of the odd insect.

The insect tried to land a front fist but Piccolo had already disappeared, with the creäture moving through the place where The green warrior used to be. The same Namek reappeared faster and right in the same spot, though now the creäture had his back turned against him. Wrong thing to do. Piccolo shot his leg backwards, his powerful kick sending the green monster careening away, caving a small trench with his body. The reptile flipped back to his feet, but Piccolo was already in front of him with an amazing dash of speed, his powerful roundhouse hitting right in the face. The creäture's senses went rogue, as the power used created a crater beneath the fighters a few feet wide. The green enemy was shot for miles end, the New Namekian chasing after him. The creäture shot his tail forward, amazingly elongating towards the Namek. But Piccolo dodged with an after image, the real one appearing above the reptile, landing a mighty axe strike to the midsection that sent the lizard rocketing down hard towards the ground, shaking buildings around them that crumbled to ground zero. Many innocent bystanders would have died, if the creäture hadn't absorbed them beforehand.

"Trunks, can you feel that?" Gohan asked the blue-haired teenager.

"Yes, Piccolo is fighting... Piccolo" Trunks replied confused "But I can also sense my father and Goku in that direction"

"Let's hurry" Goku's son said and both sped off even faster.

A few miles away, the Saiyan Prince looked to the horizon in amazement. He could feel Kakarot's power there, but also himself and even Frieza. Or at least someone with energy similar to Frieza.

The Saiyan transformed into Super Saiyan and sped off at hypersonic speeds, leaving a golden trace of ki behind him.

The green insect was lying on the ground, Piccolo's foot on top of his green and black-spotted chest. The fight was not going as the creäture first wanted. If anything, it looked more massacre on him.

"Now, what do you want here?" The stronger Namekian asked blatantly. The insect though, only replied by shooting his tail towards his arm. The Namek side-stepped the attack, at the cost of letting the creäture free. Fastly the green monster shot towards the Namek, his gem palm of hand clutching the Namekian's neck. Piccolo could feel it. His energy getting lower and lower. Whatever the thing /creäture was, he was siphoning away the ki, taking it for his own. The creäture smirked, as his powers increased by the amazing power source. Piccolo buckled his knee up his chest and fired a front kick to the lizard' Solar Plexus. Though loosing energy, the new fused Namekian was still far too powerful for the insect. The blow sent the green man skidding back for a few feet, slightly bruised but now more powerful.

"Fool, your own confidence has been your undoing. With my new strength I will take you and then the Androids on my own!" The new enemy said, a smirk on his face. Piccolo panted, a bit drained of energy but otherwise unharmed. He suddenly smirked to himself. His powers had been restrained since the beginning, hoping to not have to use them yet. Apparently the lizard had many abilities from the others and could sense energy too. However, the monster lacked the fighting experience. Any seasoned fighter would realise when his enemy is supressed.

Something the reptile had not realised yet.

"You are right. You defeated me" The Namekian said, hunching his head forward, faking. The insect rose an eyebrow, but still wasn't going to look the gifted horse in the mouth. The green creäture could feel Piccolo's ki much lower than him. After absorbing him, then his mission would truly come to be.

"Good you can see it Piccolo. It will save me a lot of troubles once I have taken your energy" The enemy said, already drooling with the prospect of more power into his body.

"Wait, if you are going to finish me then at least tell me what you want and who you are" Piccolo pleaded as last wish.

"Guess I can give you that last wish" The android said with a grin of confidence in his orange mouth "My name is Cell. I'm a bio-android specially designed and created by Dr Gero with the DNA of the strongest fighters of the planet. That's why you can feel many of your friends inside me. I was made out of their cells so it's obvious I would have ki that resembles them"

"You were the power that arrived four years ago" Piccolo said, thanks to Kami's memories. Another android. Great, just what they needed at this time.

"You are correct. I arrived in a time machine that I took from Trunks. As for what I want, quite simple: I'm designed to be the perfect warrior in the cosmos. But simply having the DNA of others isn't enough. To reach my true unlimited power I must absorb the Androids 17, 18, 13, 14 and 15. My design requiered almost twenty years to fully develop but when I finnaly awoke, Trunks had somehow managed to defeat them back in my time. But in the end I was the one who defeated him and arrive here to fulfill my true destiny"

"Sorry to tell you this, but 13 already beated you there" The Namekian said, faking his panting breath to look more convincing "That android absorbed 14 and 15 for his own benefit"

"That doesn't make a difference to me, brother" Cell replied in confidence "In fact, the computer told me that was what Gero planned for 13 all along, and to simply take his power too if he ever merged with the others. In the end, it only makes my problem of finding them all too much easy"

"But wait, how did the old man obtained our DNA? There's no one around here to take samples" Piccolo asked one last question.

"Good old doctor used spy robots, no bigger than a fly" Cell answered, with sudden mirth "In fact, there's one standing over your right shoulder, taking samples already" The namekian turned his head and saw the little machine. With a fast movement, he crashed it.

"Good, thanks for explaining" The Namekian almost whispered, his face hunched again in defeat.

"Now time to die" The android rose his hands and pointed his gems towards Piccolo. However, the Namekian suddenly smirked, a white aura of power exploding around him with new strength. The ground trembled with earthquakes, as the bio-android recoiled in sudden fear "What, how did you do that?! You were powerless!"

"You may have all of our techniques and abilities but you don't know how to even use them" Piccolo said smiling "You never realised I was holding back my true power. Now you are history"

Gohan and Trunks arrived in scene, flying down next to the new fuseed Piccolo.

"And who's this guy?" Trunks asked towards the insect monster. Things were getting much different that he first thought they would.

"Someone evil. We have to finish him" Piccolo said without missing a beat and the two Saiyans agreed. Both hybrids increased their powers, the golden power of Super Saiyan arising around them. Their hairs spiked up and shifted gold, the ground trembling slightly along with Piccolo's power up.

A second later, Vegeta descended on the ground, also transformed and in need of a lot of answers.

"What the Hell is going on here?" The Saiyan Prince asked, trying to understand the picture he found. Two Super Saiyan half-breeds, a Namekian that was stronger than him and a green guy that had his energy along with Kakarot and the other Earthlings, this needed an explanation. And quick.

"Questions later, fight now" Gohan replied, keeping his eyes on the lizard. The Prince looked angry at the brat but said nothing, feeling that the kid was still much stronger than him.

"Blast! Each of them has enough power to kill me. I have to escape and absorb the Androids as fast as I can" Cell pondered inside his mind. The four fighters shot forward, but the bio-android jumped upwards to the sky. The fighters followed his trace, his figure suddenly covered by the sunlight.

"Solar Flare!" The android enchanted, the flash of light blinding the fighters beneath him. As the light returned to normal though, Cell was out of their eye and ki sight.

"Oh crap! He escaped" Gohan said angry, returning back to normal black-haired form.

"What do we do now?" Trunks asked, hoping to get any good answer. His hair also went back to normal.

"First thing, why are you suddenly so powerful Piccolo?" Vegeta asked, not liking the idea of being outclassed by the Namek. The fact Kakarot and his brat already did it was embarrassing enough.

"Let's wait for the others and I will explain to everyone" The new Namekian said, sighing. Vegeta folded his arms and waited. The four other human fighters had felt the powers and arrived in a few minutes. Piccolo explained their new bad situation with the arrived Cell from another future.

"Man, if the Androids weren't bad enough" Tien commented in anger.

"Yeah, now we have another android that wants to eat the others" Krillin said, half-joking half serious "I don't know if called it ironic for them or bad luck for us"

"What do we do now?" Yamcha asked, hoping to get any answer from anyone.

"Trunks, do you have any idea where Gero's lab is?" Piccolo asked the boy from the future.

"Not a clue. In my time, I was never concerned of a new android appearing" The half Saiyan replied.

"Well, the Androids appeared on the island of South City so maybe we can start there" Gohan suggested.

"Guess that's all we can get at the time" Piccolo said, agreeing with the Saiyan "Trunks, you think you can search for that lab?"

"Easy enough. If I do find it, then goodbye Cell from this time" Trunks smiled. Finding the lab might also provide with a key to defeat the other Androids. Gero wasn't a fool to create deadly machines without a contingency plan.

"I'll go with you. I don't want so stay here and do nothing" Krillin said and both fighters shot in the air.

"Yamcha, Tien, Chaotzu, we'll go after Cell" The Namek addressed the human fighters "At his condition each of us can handle him, but we must not let him escape our sight or we might not find him. Remember he has all our techniques and can suppress his power"

"Hunting the old way, uh?" the desert bandit said with a smile "Guess we can do that"

"I will go back to Kame house and check on my dad" Gohan said now "I prefer to not let him and my mum unguarded with four crazy androids after his head" They turned their heads to see that Vegeta had already taken off into his own path without saying another word.

While the black-haired Chichi wet a small towel around Goku's forehead, the palm tree-haired warrior of Earth soundly sleep. However, his mind wandered in the depths of itself. Memories flashed through Goku's closed eyes, remembering some important things in his life. Events that had a meaning.

The recovered Goku flew right into scene, as Piccolo had just shoot his Special Beam Cannon, which had been swiftly swept aside like nothing by Frieza. The Namekian was already falling to the ground defeated but Vegeta screamed in pain by his wounded body.

The spiky-haired Earthling could only watch and see how Vegeta was pummeled down to a bleeding pulp, as Frieza's powers just seemed endless.

Just as the tyrant shot his slicing energy cut downwards, it was then when Goku realised something. As soon as the brown tail limb was separated from the body, not only Vegeta lost his transformation but also something else. Now as a viewer of those actions, the Earthling warrior could now also remember that the Prince had suffered something else. It wasn't something easy detectable by the eye. Even Goku's trained eyes couldn't catch it at first. But now after re-experiencing it, Goku could tell that something happened with Vegeta's energy. The limb had suddenly caused the prince's powers to recede, like if they were suddenly raw and unfocused inside his body. There was no difference in Vegeta's power for sure, but it wasn't about the quantity of destruction it could cause but rather the quality of that destruction if the energies weren't holded back. Which the lack of tail apparently provided into a Saiyan: a restrain. A power suppressor of a kind.

He remembered his own tail. Goku had always liked it, and even Chichi said she liked it too. But cutting it off seemed like a wise decision at the time, as Goku didn't know anything about the Ozaru form. But now reflexioning, the tail had not just been a natural limb. It was also something more meaningful. Like if the energies to a higher power were hidden there.

And so Goku pondered what to do next.

Notes from Chapter 17:

Trunks did tell the others his identity from the future. Remember that he was laready born and he coems from a different timeline, so saying his identity didn't change anything in his future.

When Vegeta felt Cell, he only thought in Frieza because he never saw Cooler or Cold before.

To clarify, Goku doesn't know about Super Saiyan 4 or anything else yet. He only thinks that the tail can give a power increase (Again, read my Saiyan blog on my profile).

Power Levels:

Gohan:

Base form with weights: 90 millions

Super Saiyan with weights: 4.5 billions

Trunks:

Base form: 45 millions

Super Saiyan: 2.25 billions

Vegeta:

Base form: 85 millions

Super Saiyan: 4.25 billions

Piccolo:

After some training in the Lookout (Weighted clothes on): 400 millions

Fused with Kami (Weighted clothes on): 10 billions

Supressed with weighted clothes: 200 millions

Some energy taken away (Still supressed and with clothes on): 50 millions

Not supressed (Weights on): 8 billions

Cell:

Imperfect form at birth: 1 million

After absorbing an entire town: 100 millions

After absorbing some of Piccolo's energies: 400 millions

Chichi: 5,000

A new threat has come and the fighters must be ready to stand against it.