Another Path
The end of Cell only draws near with the new chapter of this story! Thanks for the reviews and enjoy the start of a glorious Deathmatch. As I'm bound to eventual questions, I think I should already say this so many understand: Don't follow the Cannon power levels, nether V-Jump or Daishenzuu. It will save a lot of trouble in understanding this story along the future ones. I don't know how many times I've written this but some fans really find it hard to understand.
Anyway, enjoy it!
Chapter 23: Tournament Starts
The mustached afro-haired human called Hercule Satan arrived in his jet-copter near the white-tiling square arena for the Cell Games. He was dressed in his brown fighting attire, with a white cape flowing in the wind. He would look majestic, if he actually had any sort of power to back up his presence. Something that against Cell the man lacked a lot. Next to him was Jimmy Firecraker, the short stature reporter ready to announce every moment in the glorious fight against the blue-skinned monster Cell.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Jimmy Firecracker reporting live from the Cell Games, where our fighter Mr Satan has just arrived" The camera pointed towards the human, who gave the victory sign with two fingers.
"What do you think of this fight Satan?" The reporter asked to the 'champion of humanity'.
"That Cell is just an amateur. He will fall under my stronger abilities!" The human fighter said overconfident that would be his very undoing.
"You heard him, ladies and gentlemen. Words directly said from the champ's mouth" The reporter announced through the microphone. He didn't believe the guy to actually win the fight, but he was paid to always keep the camera on Satan, so that's what he had to do, even if the situation was going dire.
Just when he finished, The Saiyan prince Vegeta flew down from the sky landing with his typical gruff expression on his face near the arena. He was again dressed in his Saiyan armor with blue clothes underneath.
"Um, did that man just arrive flying?" The reporter asked dumbfounded. Satan sweated, trying to not look so nervous. Those flying powers looked familiar to him.
"Just tricks. Cell does that all the time" The human said, hiding a new fear inside him. The Super perfect blue android felt the arriving power of his prey.
"Oh, Vegeta. It's amazing you survived the beating I gave you" Cell moved closer towards the Prince, who remained just as grumpy as always, clutching his teeth.
"Keep babbling as much as you want Cell. You are still going down" The Prince retorted. Cell chuckled by Vegeta's antics. Just as the blue-skinned android returned to the center of the ring, Firecracker got near the Saiyan prince with the microphone ready.
"Excuse me sir, what is your opinion about Cell and this Tournament?" The man asked Vegeta.
"Leave, or you will die" The Saiyan prince said in his deadliest tone that sent the reporter and the camera man away behind Satan. Like if he could protect them any better from the wrath of an angry Saiyan.
Goku, Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin were flying through the air after departing from the lookout when they met with Chaotzu, Tien and Yamcha.
"Hey guys. Glad you could make it" Goku greeted his friends, who joined their flight towards the fight for Earth's fate. All of them were much stronger thanks to the one day spent on the Time Chamber.
"We might not stand a chance against Cell, but we won't let him escape like the last time" The tryclops said determined.
"Don't worry about that guys. Cell is not invincible as he thinks himself" Gohan chimed in, his white/blonde hair flowing with the wind. That lighted up their moods in their dire moments.
The Z-fighters landed next to Vegeta a few minutes later, all of them flying down from the sky like if it was something normal.
"More people are arriving from the sky. This can't be a trick as Hercule is saying" The reporter said to the camera, many viewers expecting.
"Well, well, the entire gang has appeared for my games" Cell commented, unfolding his arms from his chest "Then who shall be my first contestant?" Goku gladly stepped forward into the white-colored square arena.
"I will" The supressed Super Saiyan said smiling and turned his head "What do you say guys?"
"Fine by me" Trunks replied. If Goku needed help then he would interfere but fighting Cell was something he wasn't very enthusiastic, even with his new powers.
"Do what you want Kakarot. In the end it will be me who finishes him" Vegeta simply replied. The supressed Saiyan looked at his also-suppresed son and both silently nodded in agreement.
"Excuse me sir?" Jimmy asked now next to the green-eyed Goku, the camera showing the full picture of the strong orange-dressed fighter "Are you planning to fight against Cell?"
"That's right. I'm going first" The Saiyan answered, not paying a lot of attention to the camera.
"Insolent!" The man yelled "Mister Satan is the one that must go first, because it's only he the one with the power to kill this monster!"
"Satan? Oh not that guy again" Krillin face-palmed. Gohan next to him clutched his teeth in anger. The bastard dared to show his face again and now bragging he could defeat someone who was actually trillions of times stronger than him. Pathetic. The half Saiyan didn't care if the man died. In fact, Cell would be doing a great community service for Earth.
"Goku, let him fight first. It will save us a lot of trouble" Piccolo suggested. Not that he cared about the man more than the others. If he went down, then good for everybody.
"Wait a minute" The reporter got closer to Goku and the other fighter, recognising many of them from previous Martial Arts Tournaments "You are the champion Goku!"
"Yeah, that's me" The Saiyan replied, a bit confused.
"And this young man must be Gohan" The reporter got close to the kid, the camera right in front of the kid's face. The Saiyan boy back-stepped a bit, trying not to eat the camera that didn't want to get away from his face "Tell us something young man, how could just a six-year old child defeat a full-grown fighter like Satan?"
"Because he's weak. He even blackmailed me to lose on purpose against him" The half Saiyan replied, not paying attention to the camera man.
"Unbelievable! Here the champion' son is saying that Hercule tried to blackmailed him into loosing!" The reporter said to the camera, who now got near Satan. The mustached man was shaking a bit in fear, knowing that the others were fighting. Especially the kid that broke his jaw. He still missed a few of his teeth. And now his little secret was out "What is your opinion about the young man's sudden comment?"
"I have no idea what he's talking about" The fake champ said, not breaking down into a chump.
"Goku, let him have a shot. If not, we'll bring him back with the Dragon Balls" Krillin suggested. The Saiyan sighed. What a waste of wish.
"Hey Satan!" Goku yelled from his side of the ring "You can go first!"
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the champion Goku has given Satan the first shot against the monster Cell. Can Satan prove his worth or will our champion have to interfere and save us all like he did years ago against the evil King Piccolo?" The reporter said towards the tv viewers.
"Time to die Cell!" Satan enchanted with 'might', as he went forward, dropping the cape on his shoulders. He would normally try to look imposing by doing some display, like breaking tiles with no effort. Yet with those weirdos nearby it was obvious something so simple wouldn't pull the trigger for his fame to increase. Of course, as soon as Cell was lying dead in front of him everyone will be on their knees praying for him to train them.
His punches rained down over the tall blue android, who simply remained there, unmoving. The simple strikes were barely registered by the Super perfect RR robot. The bio-machine closed his eyes, counting to a hundred to not kill the pestering annoyance.
He only reached to six before slapping the human in the face, sending the weakling annoyance careening into a rock formation miles away, landing face first with a hard-echoing thumb.
"Satan has been thrown out of the ring with apparently no effort from Cell! Is the blue monster so powerful that we don't have any chance in defeating him?" The reporter again reported towards the camera, a bit more dramatic.
"He is still alive? Guess he's a bit tough" The bald monk joked.
"It's a Tournament Krillin. I don't think Cell is allowed to kill him" Gohan explained, a bit sad. Sad for missing a very-needed death for the sake of humanity. And he wasn't talking about Cell.
"Alright Cell. I think now it's my turn" Goku said with a smile, walking into the arena while stretching his arms. Cell also smiled a bit, getting ready for a true fight. The fighters stared each other, the green versus red in the staring contest to death. Just a second later both went into their respective fighting stances.
"Come on Kakarot. Show me your true power" Vegeta thought, looking at the fight with interest and a bit of a scowl.
"Be careful Dad. We still must be sure how far his powers go" Gohan mentally said to his father. Goku gave a brief nod that Gohan saw.
The face-bleeding Satan arrived next to Jimmy rubbing his head.
"Satan is still alive!" The reporter said, the camera pointing at the man "What just happened there?"
"I have too much power that I tripped myself down" The man said imposing with his hands on his hips, though failing by the pain showed in his face.
"You've heard him, ladies and gentlemen. Satan 'tripped himself down' on purpose" The reporter said, although a bit quizzically at the end. The end of the world was near and he had to be paid to put the camera into the loser team of the Armageddon day. How embarrassing for his reporting career!
Both fighters in the white arena unleashed some of their hidden powers and shot forwards into each other. Their clash broke some tilling and rocks of the area but they paid no mind to that. Goku aimed a punch to the nose just at the same time Cell fired his knee up. Both attacks hit, sending the fighters backwards. They were a second later again firing punches and kicks, trying to get behind their enemy's guard at amazing speeds many times the speed of a fired bullet.
Goku raised his forearm and swat a strike to his left, firing his other punch into the opened guard of Cell. But the latter wasn't ready to be easily beaten when the fight had just started. The Android side-stepped and attacked again with a sharp roundhouse that the Saiyan easily dodged by arching his back down the floor with his hands touching the tiling. With his hands on the floor while using them for leverage and extra impulse and his legs bent up to his chest, the Earth alien fired his feet into Cell's exposed body, the resulting blow echoing with a shock wave.
"Wow, look how they go!" Krillin complemented, his eyes drifting everywhere to see the struggle.
"Yeah, it's amazing!" Yamcha also said smiling. The others, however, weren't so cheerful.
"No Krillin. This isn't the true fight" The half Saiyan Gohan said seriously next to the short fighter, his emerald-green eyes kept on looking the quarrel "Dad and Cell are still warming up"
"What?" The human warriors asked in surprised.
"Kakarot is just fooling around" Vegeta also said with annoyance, arms folded on his armored chest "He even used more power when we first fought the Androids" The others had to reluctantly agree. This wasn't but the calm before a big storm.
"I knew these two were powerful, but that much?" Piccolo thought. His eyes drove into Gohan. If Goku was strong then Gohan...
A shockwave brought the Namekian Piccolo out of his thoughts, after Goku and Cell had landed a falcon punch to each other at the very same instant. Both went backwards a few inches but they wouldn't stop. Cell recovered a bit faster, going into his enemy with a dash of speed. His right arm was upwards with his fist and knuckles aimed down. The Saiyan opened his eyes in reaction, doing one backflip to dodge the blow. The Android's attack landed on the arena' surface, cracking tiles but not stopping the blue RR machine. The ultimate bio-weapon released his embed hand, again trying to front-squabble with Goku, who had now regained his stance.
Cell fastly aimed his other punch to the earth-raised alien's face. But the white-haired Super Saiyan jumped over the limb and aimed his own blue-booted kick to the face. The blue and black-skinned android, however, ducked down with an arch of his back into the ground and put his hand on the floor, his leg swipping into where Goku was with a break-dance movement. Yet the still-supressed Saiyan saw what would happen and flew away from the trap into the sky. Cell fastly went after his enemy, reappearing with great speed behind the orange-dressed fighter in seconds. The Super Saiyan created an after-image to dodge the kick from behind. But the bio-Android saw through the simple evading technique, suddenly spinning around and firing a mighty punch to the empty air. Empty air from where Goku was shot downwards, after almost sneaking with swift notch speed from behind his ultimate machine opponent.
The Super Saiyan landed with a crouching position on the tilling of the arena, some cracks running through it. The alien went back to his feet, with Cell floating back in front of him. They were not tired at all, with their breaths not harden or laboured yet.
"Wow Cell, I see that your Perfect form packs the punch" The first Super Saiyan of Earth complimented with a small smirk.
"You know only half of it Goku" The Super Perfect android replied, briefly stretching his neck "But what do you say if we stop warming up?"
"Fine by me" The Saiyan replied with glee in his voice, folding his arms to his sides. It was fight time.
The camera man, Jimmy and Satan were opened-mouth, trying to understand what had just happened in what looked like seconds or minutes for them.
"Amazing people! Our champion Goku has started with an amazing fight and he's apparently still holding back! How powerful can these two contestants go?" The reporter asked in utter surprise to the microphone.
"Alright. They are going to bring out the big guns now" Krillin said seriously. The others nodded with him. The fight was just getting started. And who knew how it could turn out to be.
The fighter's powers started increasing, going off the charts. Cell unleashed a mighty scream that sent his Super Saiyan-like golden aura to the outside, the ground rumbling. The green and blue planet started shaking in fear by the chilling energies the bio-monster was emanating. The sky darken a bit with a few storm clouds.
"He's stronger than we first thought. Gohan was right, this guy is hiding something" The Super Saiyan Goku said to himself. He also knew whatever power Cell was using at this point was just a hint of something worse. Not that the Saiyan complained, he was thrilled by fighting someone so powerful. The Supressed warrior unleashed his own hidden powers, his golden aura causing the air around him to heat up like an inferno. His white hair returned to a shiny gold coloration, typical of a Super Saiyan. A few red lightnings escaped his aura, the nearby area for miles suddenly changing in colors to a darker shade of red, almost equaling Cell's energies.
Goku stood proud, the full scope of his Super Saiyan form controlled perfectly, emanating into the sky like a golden aurora.
"Shall we?" Cell asked, grinning like a child on Christmas. Goku shifted his body into a fighting stance. There was no shade of doubt in his emerald-eyed face.
"Bring it on" That was Goku's reply that would trigger the shakedown of Earth.
Notes from Chapter 23:
Yes, I skipped Pirozhki, Caroni, Pizza and so many other useless characters. You are going to sue me?
If you think the warm-up was good, wait for the main course and the very-sweet dessert against Cell.
I say again, don't believe the cannon power levels.
Power Levels:
Goku:
Supressed Super Saiyan: 300
Warming up: 1 billion
Full power of Super Saiyan: 64 billions
Gohan:
Supressed Super Saiyan with weights: 300
Vegeta: 800 millions
Trunks: 1.25 billions
Piccolo:
Weights on: 35 billions
Cell:
Super Perfect form (Holding back): 300
Warming up: 1 billion
Full power: 65 billions
Satan: 25
The fight for Earth heats up and Goku is ready to do what he knows best. See next chapters for more.