A/N: One last chapter before the year ends. Thank you all for your support so far! Happy 2010!
Chapter 5: Night of Terror
FLASHBACK
"Very good, Bunny! I think you've got it down!"
The fourteen-year old landed on the grass and grinned, flexing her muscles.
"Mom, this is awesome! Where'd you learn how to do that?"
"Let's just say I have friends in high places," Kameko smiled, then suddenly gave her daughter a stern look.
"Just promise you'll only use it in an emergency, alright? And by 'emergency', I don't mean during a spar or just to score a quick victory. Life or death situations only, no exceptions."
"But I could totally kick Tsuru's butt with this technique!" the girl protested. "Blindfolded!!!"
"No, Bunny!" her mother warned. "If Tao's son bothers you, raise your powerlevel and your father and I will deal with him."
"But…"
"Bunny, listen carefully," Kameko said, putting her hands on the teen's shoulders and looking her straight in the eyes. "This attack is powerful, but also extremely dangerous. If you lose control, even if only for a split second, it will backfire and blow up in your face. Only use it if you absolutely have to, and never go over times one, understand? Promise me, Bunny!"
"Oh… alright," she muttered. "I guess I'll just have to find another way to wipe that smirk off crane boy's face."
END FLASHBACK
Bunny jolted awake, an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach. She looked at the clock, which told her it was five in the morning, even though they had entered their room at ten.
Crap! I must have dozed off!
She wanted to get up and wake her rival, but for some reason she couldn't move. Raw fear glued her body to the chair, the hairs in her neck standing on end.
Blip. Blip. Blip. Like dozens of little lights on an internal radar, Bunny could feel sleeping energies spike briefly in distress before disappearing completely. One by one, but at an alarming rate, the number of hotel guests decreased; not by checking out, but by vanishing into thin air.
As if bitten by a poisonous snake, Bunny jumped out of her chair and rushed to her still sleeping rival.
"Tsuru!" she hissed, frantically shaking his shoulders. "Tsuru, wake up! Come on!!!"
"What the… 5AM?! Turtle girl, you idiot! Why didn't you…!"
Bunny quickly covered his mouth with her hand, using the other to signal that he had to keep his voice down.
"I don't want to freak out for no reason," she whispered, her voice squeaking with fear. "But I think Cell might be here in the building!"
Tsuru closed his eyes for a moment. They quickly flew open, now filled with horror.
"I sensed him. It was only for a split second, but I sensed him alright, and he's killing the other guests in their sleep."
"Do you think he knows we're here?"
"Yeah, no doubt about it," Tsuru nodded grimly. "Out of all places in the Spice District, he had to attack this town? In this hotel? We've been idiots, turtle girl. If that thing can manipulate ki, then chances are he can sense it as well, and we flew all the way here with our powerlevels still raised to the max!"
"But what does he want from us? What makes you and me so special that he crosses the entire Spice District without making any killing stops in between?" Bunny asked, her stomach tying itself into a knot as she felt the monster approaching. It was now on the fifth floor, almost directly below them.
"Isn't it obvious?" the boy growled, balling his fist. "This thing doesn't just kill people; he absorbs them for their energy. The stronger they are, the more energy Cell gains."
"And with the exception of the few Z-fighters who haven't been killed by the androids yet, if there are any, we're the probably the strongest humans alive," Bunny finished for him with growing dread.
They could feel the monster absorb the last of the guests on the floor below them. He then moved further away to the end of the hall, where the nearest staircase was located.
"I don't get it, why doesn't he just burst through the ceiling?" Bunny whispered.
"Cell sensed us fly here, but I don't think he can sense exactly where we are," Tsuru said. "That's why he's searching all the rooms and killing the occupants in their sleep, rather than rampaging through the building like a bulldozer. If one of the guests manages to scream, he or she will alert the entire hotel, including us."
Bunny shuddered at the though of lying in bed, vast asleep, the monster of Nicky Town looming over her with his tail poised to strike…
"Oh Kami, we have to warn everyone!" she panicked, but Tsuru quickly grabbed the back of her shirt before she could rush to the door.
"Turtle girl, no! Cell came here for us!"
"Yes, so if we let him know in which room we are, he'll leave the other guests alone!"
"There are no more other guests, Roshi!" he snapped, shaking her shoulders. "Don't you get it?! They're dead! They're all dead and if that thing finds us, we'll be next!"
Bunny closed her eyes and felt out the life energies in the building. To her horror, she only found two, and the weaker one was fading rapidly. The other energy grew slightly stronger, before it was suppressed again.
Mom and dad would have done something, a pang of guilt shot through her stomach. They would have tried to stop that monster, even if it killed them… But I'm so afraid!
They could now hear Cell's metallic footsteps bouncing off the walls in the empty corridor, each step louder then the one that had preceded it. A quiet, but piercing rhythm that rang through Bunny's ears like a hypnotizing drum.
"Turtle girl, if we fly out the window, that thing will sense us. We have to hide!" Tsuru snapped her out of her thoughts.
"Where? In the closet or under the bed? Those will be the first places he'll look!"
The crane disciple's eyes frantically darted left and right, a frustrated hiss escaping through clenched teeth. Suddenly his gaze jerked upwards.
"There, that grid in the ceiling! It looks like a ventilation shaft!"
Knowing that flying would raise their powerlevels and moving the furniture would look suspicious, Bunny climbed on Tsuru's shoulders and yanked open the hatch, climbing inside the shaft. She turned around and quickly pulled up her rival, putting the metal grid back into place.
Cell's footsteps stopped, and they could feel his powerlevel rising ever so slightly. Bunny and Tsuru carefully peeked through small openings in the grid, holding their breath. A laserbeam was cutting through the lock of the door, which silently swung open. Like a praying mantis, Cell leaped onto the bed, his tail crashing into the mattress. The monster stood motionless on the empty bed for about two seconds, then an angry hiss escaped from his beak when he realized his surprise attack had failed.
Please leave, Bunny prayed silently. Please think we're in another room, please think we jumped out the window, please think we were never even here in the first place…
The girl kept staring at the monster below them. She was terrified, more terrified than she had ever been in her entire life. Yet her eyes were glued to the creature's back, a small part of her mind screaming at her, though she couldn't make out the words.
I know him… I've know him all my life! His energy feels… he feels… trusted…? I don't have to run from him! He would never hurt me…
Bunny's hands slowly began to move to the hatch of the ventilation shaft, almost pushing it away. But at the last possible second, she was violently jerked from her trancelike state and snapped back to reality.
Cell whirled around, his tail crashing into a closet. It then lashed out at the curtains, ripping them in two.
"I can sense you're still here, children!" he cackled, his voice laced with malice. "Lower your powerlevels all you want, but you will never be able to make them fully disappear. Not when you're so close I can almost taste your fear."
Any odd feelings of recognition that may have still lingered in Bunny's mind, had now vanished completely. Fright took over her body, her pupils shrinking until they were the size of pinpricks.
("We have to attack,") Tsuru stated after opening a telepathic link; a psychic crane school ability that Bunny had always secretly envied.
("You can leave if you want, I'll stay right here, thank you,") Bunny nervously thought back.
("Turtle girl, we have to attack now while the element of surprise is still ours!")
("A brilliant plan, crane boy, but there's just one problem.")
("What's that?")
("I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!")
Cell continued to rummage through their room, leaving no closet unopened and no table standing on its legs.
"I don't know where you're hiding, humans, but make no mistake; I can sense you're both close and I will find you eventually," the monster announced, blasting the chair Bunny had been sleeping in. "Why not end this futile game of hide and seek and become part of perfection? It won't hurt… well, not for very long that is."
Bunny thought she was going to be ill right there and then. Next to her, she could see Tsuru's face turn a sickly shade of grey as Cell raised his tail, the tip swaying just mere inches below them. She went limp with relief when it lowered again and the monster left to search the bathroom.
"Hey, crane boy, this our chance!" Bunny whispered. "Let's bust out of here while his back is turned and make a run for the door!"
"Wow, great idea, turtle girl!" Tsuru whispered back, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Let's leave our hiding place and expose ourselves, because this totally doesn't have 'it's a trap!' written all over it!"
"Well, do you have a better idea?!" he snapped, her voice a little louder.
"Yes, we attack while he least expects it!" he argued, raising his voice as well.
"We can't fight that thing! He'll clobber us! Escape is our only option!"
"You're kidding, right? That monster is so fast he can fly circles around both of us! The best defense is a good offense!"
"We have to run!"
"We have to attack!"
"Run!"
"Attack!"
"RUN!!!"
"ATTACK!!!"
"RU… AAAAAAARRGH!!!"
Both rivals screamed when a green, black spotted tail came crashing through the ceiling and into the ventilation shaft, the deadly syringe missing Tsuru's face by less than a hair. The tail withdrew and shot at them again, this time nearly striking Bunny's left leg. Cell continued to stab through the metal lining of the ventilation shaft while the two teens scrambled to get away from the deadly appendage. Eventually there was more hole than ceiling left, and the battered shaft caved in under their weight. With a scream the two rivals fell from the ceiling, landing on top of their unsuspecting attacker.
"I changed my mind… RUN!!!" Tsuru yelled, bolting through the door with Bunny close behind.
"Oh Kami, Oh Kami… what do we do? What do we do?! We're so incredibly screwed!" she panicked as they raced through the hallway, not daring to look back.
"First we get the hell out of here," her archrival answered grimly. "Then we're going to find my father and uncle Tsuru. They'll know how to take that freakshow out!"
"As much as I hate to compliment you, crane boy, you're way stronger than both of them. If you can't even handle that thing…"
"There is more to a battle than brute strength, turtle twit!" he barked, his expression darkening. "Cell thinks he's so hot, but made one big mistake when he mocked me, a disciple of the crane school, even daring to imitate our techniques! My father is the world's greatest assassin and my uncle the greatest martial arts teacher to have ever set foot on this Earth. You turtle wimps can sit this one out, Roshi. The crane school will prove their supremacy by ridding this world of that disgusting insect."
The boy was lying to himself, and they both knew it. But Bunny granted him this little bit of false hope, knowing it was the only thing that gave her rival the strength to hold on. And she so desperately needed him to hold on… because even though the girl hated him with a passion, he was all she had left of home.
Without warning, Tsuru suddenly came to a screeching halt. Bunny plowed face first into the boy's back, her head reeling.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!!! Why'd you stop?!" she protested, rubbing her sore nose. "Sunday flyer!"
"Cell's not following us," he stated. "He must be up to something."
Bunny looked over her shoulder, where she found no trace of the monster. She thought seeing him was bad, but now she realized that not seeing him was unbearable. They could hear his cruel laughter echoing through the building, bouncing off the walls and making it impossible to determine where it was coming from.
"COME OUT!!!" Bunny yelled, her voice shaking with fear. "We know you're still stalking us! Show yourself you coward!!!"
Her demand was answered by an explosion that blew away the entire outer wall. The two rivals were caught in the blaze, their bodies hurtling through the air and crashing into the street outside.
"Kamidammit…" Bunny groaned, slowly sitting up and dusting the rubble from her clothes. She looked up to see that their harsh landing had created a small crater that was almost three meters deep.
"Come on, Tsuru, we have to get out of here and…"
Her face paled when she saw the crane disciple lying half buried under the debris, not moving.
"Tsuru… Tsuru! Wake up, crane boy! Come on, don't do this to me!" she panicked, shaking his shoulders. The boy did not react, his eyes closed and a trickle of blood running down his right temple. Her rival was still breathing, but the unfortunate landing on his head had rendered him out cold and unable to fight.
"It seems your friend is… unavailable," she heard Cell chuckle above her. She looked up to meet his gaze as he peered down at them over the edge of the crater. "Well then… should I put the two of you out of your misery now, or do you still insist on resisting?"
"You better believe it," she growled, flying out of the hole and touching down on what was left of the asphalt. She gritted her teeth, balling her fists and glaring at the monster as venomously as she could.
"Just give up," Cell shook his head, not impressed by her renewed fighting spirit. "You couldn't beat be when you attacked as a team, so what makes you think you stand a chance on your own?"
Bunny smirked, her entire body glowing bright red as the pavement cracked beneath her feet and her powerlevel soared to new heights.
"Allow me to demonstrate… KAIOKEN!!!"
