[A/N: Sorry this probably sucks (and that it's a day late—oops!) Fight scenes are still not my shtick. I am trying. Would definitely LOVE some feedback on how to improve the quality of my writing where that's concerned (perhaps I'm in the market for a beta-reader?) Anyway, don't forget to review. Stay classy.]

Chapter Twenty: Rock you Like a Hurricane

The Valley of Screams was a largely desolate—or it would've been if it weren't the overwhelming amount of hybrids everywhere.

"Oh, I'm excited about this," Kenpachi said.

"It's a little creepy how excited you are," Goten said. "If we're being honest."

"This is what we do best," Ikkaku said.

"Just clear a path to the ship and stop being so damn smug," Renji said.

"Just give us a few minutes," Kenpachi said.

"Or we can just move them," Trunks said.

"Yeah. That shouldn't take too much effort," Goten said. "But you guys will have to move fast—I'm looking at you, Kairi."

"Shut up, buttface. I'm still your older sister," I said.

"And you're still slow," Goten said. I could feel him and Trunks charging up their energy. "We're gonna clear a path straight to the door. With any luck you should be able to make it all the way before the soul reapers need to get at them."

"You ready?" Trunks asked.

We all nodded.

"Good luck," Goten said.

He and Trunks fired off a large blast of energy, doing considerable damage to the hybrids, and also clearing our way to the ship. We didn't hesitate to make our way to the ship while the creatures were still down.

As we advanced upon the ship, its door opened. We all entered quickly and once inside, the door closed and we were plunged into darkness.

"I guess they were expecting us," Uryu said. "This is starting to feel oddly like a trap."

"It is a trap," I said. "We just didn't have a choice but to walk into it."

Suddenly the lights came up.

"Welcome to our lair."

Dad and Vegeta groaned.

"Always with the theatrics," Vegeta said.

"In order to advance you must first make it past my two most powerful fighters," the voice said. The elevator that lea to the lower levels opened. "I doubt you'll make it that far."

"Only two?" Dad asked.

"What of it?" Bardock asked.

"There were three last time," Dad said, contemplating something.

"Maybe someone didn't think their plan out all the way through," Vegeta said.

"Yeah, sounds like less work for us," Yusuke said. "Let's go kick their asses."

"So we're just supposed to get on this elevator and trust what this guy says?" Uryu asked.

"We have to go down either way," Renji said.

"Who do you think is down there?" Orihime asked.

"I'm betting on Cell—and Frieza," Dad said.

"Me too," Vegeta said. "And we should be able to make short work of them."

We walked over and stepped onto the elevator. The door closed and I felt us descend downward. I was starting to get knots in my stomach again. I didn't know what were supposed to expect from the floors beneath us. Betting on Frieza and Cell was safe because we'd encountered them already.

"You said you'd been the ship once before, right?" Orihime asked. "Who was here the last time?"

"Random aliens—Yakon. He could absorb all your energy, but he sucked up too much and popped like a balloon. And then there was Pui Pui, who thought he was a beast because he could fight in really dense gravity. And then there was Dabura," I said.

"What did he do?" Chad asked.

"He could spit on stuff and turn it into stone," I said.

"Gross," Yusuke said.

The elevator door opened into a dimly lit room. My dad and Vegeta stepped out first, cautiously. We could all already feel the energy coming from whoever was there. They obviously weren't concerned with being inconspicuous.

"Please, please, come in. I've been waiting for you."

My skin crawled at the sound of the familiar voice. Stepping off the elevator we could see Frieza standing at the other side of the room.

"My, look at all the familiar faces," he said, his tail swaying gently on the ground behind him. "Four monkeys, the school boy, and three eyes. Of course, I'm very much looking forward to killing you strangers as well. I don't discriminate."

"Frieza. . . You haven't changed at all," Bardock said through clenched teeth.

"Hmm. . . What was your name again? Bardock right? The last I remember seeing of you, you were disappearing behind a great big ball of light," Frieza said. "Of course so many of you went like that it's a wonders I'm even able to keep your names straight."

"You murdered all those people on Vegeta and now you're just making jokes about it," Bardock said.

"Oh, it's not just you monkeys—I make jokes about all the civilizations I've destroyed," Frieza said.

"I'm gonna enjoy putting you back in the ground," Bardock said.

"Hold up, old man," Yusuke chimed in suddenly. "If I've been told correctly, this guy's already gotten his ass kicked for blowing up your planet, so I think you've already missed your chance."

Yusuke cracked his knuckles in front of him and then got in a stance, ready for a fight.

"Listen, boy," Bardock started.

"No, you listen old man," Yusuke said. "He already got put in the ground for killing your people and I'm sorry you missed out on that, but now he needs a good old fashioned ass kicking for thinking he can come here and mess with Earth."

"My, my, my, do you sound angry. Did I Kill one of your family members? I have a nasty habit of doing that," Frieza said. "You humans are all so weak and vulnerable and easy to kill. You Can't blame me for getting a little kill happy."

"Listen, asshole. I just finished getting rid of another guy who thought he could come here and wipe out all of humanity. I don't have time or patience to deal with people like you on a regular day—but I definitely don't have patience for assholes who think they can kill my girlfriend and get away with it," Yusuke said. Then he paused for a moment, seeming less serious. "And also Kurama, because I'm angry about that too."

Frieza rolled his eyes. "And I'm guessing you want to get your revenge then? Honestly, it's the same on every planet. I kill your people. You come looking for revenge and just end up dead yourself."

Yusuke rolled his eyes. There were a few things I knew about Yusuke that were 100% true all of the time: he hated when people talked too much, he hated when people when people messed with his friends, and the number one way to end up on his shit list was to mess with Keiko. Suzaku had learned this the hard way. Random assholes at school had learned the hard way.

Now Frieza was going to learn: Don't mess with Keiko Yukimura unless you have a death wish.

Just as Frieza was getting ready to start spouting off again, Yusuke's patience finally ran out. Frieza barely got out a breath before Yusuke's fist connected with his face and sent him flying across the room into the ground.

"I'm getting really tired of listening to you talk," Yusuke said.

"You're going to pay for that you, little brat," Frieza growled.

Yusuke scoffed. " No. You're the one who's gonna pay. I'm going to make you regret you ever woke up from your dirt nap—and I'm not even gonna break a sweat doing it."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Frieza asked. He charged Yusuke. Frieza was fast, but Yusuke didn't let them stop him. He was angry. Frieza, also angry, was coming at Yusuke wildly, but my partner didn't miss a beat. Frieza kept coming at him, but Yusuke guarded against every kick, every punch. Frieza was getting more and more frustrated. I could tell he'd reached the point where he had tunnel vision.

Yusuke took full advantage of this and was able to find his opening. He fired off a Spirit Gun. It wasn't enough to take Frieza down, but it got Frieza off his back and it definitely made a point. But Frieza was up again, this time his own energy in hand. But Yusuke was done playing games Frieza.

Frieza launched the beam of energy at him—the same one that had killed Keiko—and Yusuke went at Frieza head on. His Spirit Energy charged up and ready. He evaded Frieza attack easily and fired a much, much more powerful Spirit Gun at him.

A startled and disgruntled Frieza didn't stand a chance. He was obliterated—for now.

"Where'd the asshole go?" Yusuke asked.

"It takes a moment for them rematerialize when you knock part of them out," I said. "He'll be back as a hollow next."

Yusuke scoffed. "Damn, I should've kept him around longer."

"We only have a limited amount of time here, Urameshi," Hiei said.

Renji extracted his sword. "I'll handle him."

Renji's sword was the most intense looking thing I had probably ever seen in my life. It was quite long, smaller at the hilt and wider at the top. The sword was segmented into 6 parts, each with a long, sharp protrusions coming from each segment.

None of us had time to comment on the sword, because Frieza was back, and had made a beeline for Yusuke. Carefully, he dodged, and then Renji's impressive sword got even more impressive. He swung it forward in front of him and the sword extended impressively across the room, each segment connected by what appeared to be strong, elastic threads. He carefully missed Yusuke, and narrowly missed Frieza.

Yusuke moved and Renji swung Zabimaru again, surprisingly without retracting it, and it went after Frieza again, this time making a perfect contact.

Frieza dissolved away, as all the hollows did. Renji's sword retracted back to him, returned to looking like a regular sword and he sheathed it.

"All right—one down, two to go," Yusuke said. He turned around to Renji. "What do you call that thing?"

"My zanpakto? Zabimaru," Renji said.

"And I thought that Strawberry Fields and his meat cleaver over there were cool," Yusuke said.

I rolled my eyes. That was a nickname that Ichigo would not soon escape.

The elevator opened for us again. Time for us to venture forward.

"So that was Frieza, who do you think is next?" Dad asked.

"I'm still betting on Cell," Vegeta said.

As we walked forward I felt something under my foot. I paused and pulled my foot back to see what I had stepped on.

Grass and flowers.

"Hey guys," I said. They all stopped and turned around to me. "Look at this."

They all examined the path of foliage that had just appeared. We gazed around the room and saw that several more had appeared here as well.

"How bizarre," Rukia said. "Did you experience and phenomena like on your previous visit here?"

"Not that I can recall," I said.

"Yeah, flowers growing out of a metal floor would probably stick out in my brain," Dad said.

"What would cause something like that?" Kuwabara asked.

"No idea," Rukia said. "But there'll be time to investigate it later."

"Every moment we spend here things are getting worse out there," Renji said.

I nodded in agreement and we all stepped onto the elevator and descended again.

"So is Cell way more powerful than Frieza?" Yusuke asked.

"I'd say yes, but the new and improved Frieza wasn't much more powerful than the old one," Vegeta said.

"What about Cell? You ran into him already didn't you?" I asked.

"He wasn't so much concerned about us as he was killing innocent people," Ichigo said.

"Made it difficult to gauge how powerful is he," Dad said as the elevator came to a halt. The doors slide open. Unlike Frieza, Cell hardly seemed concerned with making an entrance. He was standing there waiting for us, front and center.

"I knew Frieza wouldn't last long. He's very excitable and too easily annoyed. Let's his anger get the better of him," Cell drawled as we stepped out of the elevator. "Even a bunch of ninnies like you would be able to get one over on him."

Cell's eyes drifted over to us. "The Spirit Detectives. I've heard so much about you from the people you've sent our way."

"We try," Kairi said.

"And we try too," Cell said. "Tell me, what do your comrade, Kurama, and an expert level jigsaw puzzle have in common?"

"Uh—they're both really smart?" Kuwabara chimed in.

Cell stared at Kuwabara for a long moment. "They're both in a million pieces."

I covered my mouth as a horrified gasp escaped. Even Hiei, who generally went unbothered by the poor humor of our opponents, looked downright outraged that he would talk about Kurama that way.

"How dare you?" I scolded him.

"I'll tell you how I dare," Cell said. "Death, as it turns out has made me a new person. I thought before I had achieved my perfect form, but now—I truly am perfect. With the extra boost I get from the hollow that I share this vessel with, not to mention the few genetics updates I've gotten, I am truly something to behold. For example." He held his hands up—my stomach turned as a rose materialized in it. "Beautiful isn't it?" With a flick of his wrist it extended out to that familiar Rose Whip.

"How the hell can he do that?" Hiei asked.

"Cell was created by taking the DNA from the most powerful people around—my dad, Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin, Tien. And he had background on all them, at least he did 14 years ago," I said. "But if this plan has been in the works a while, and he's been 'updated' then he's got have genetic material from-."

"Your whole team—and that spunky little brother of yours," Cell said. "And I've had a lot of time to get to see what you all can do."

"We've at a pretty bad disadvantage," Dad said.

"We were last time too," Vegeta said. "We still won."

"Yeah—after I got blown up," Dad said.

"Hey, let's not dwell on the negative there, Dad," I said. "Keep moving forward. We're just going to have to take a different approach this time."

"And anticipated that you would think so, so I planned accordingly," Cell said.

The door to the elevator behind us opened again. We turned and watched as a few dozen or so tiny Cell Juniors crawled out.

"Damn it all," Yusuke said. "Does everyone have tiny little minions?"

"Looks like it," Hiei said drawing his sword.

All at once the Cell Juniors came at us. I was a damn good fighter and I knew it, but Sensui had been right way back when he talking to Yusuke about being spoiled—neither of us was used to fighting more than one opponent at a time. As soon as I got one of them off me, two more popped up. I was handling them, but quickly starting to feel slightly overwhelmed by the little ankle biters.

Just as I got the last one off of me, I saw something dart past my head as an unmoving Cell Junior fell to the ground. I'd seen it once before, the first time I'd gotten attacked by a hollow—Orihime had saved my ass again.

I turned around to her and gave her a thumbs up. She flashed it right back.

"My, my, my, what an exceptional group you are," Cell said. "I guess it's time I got serious." In a blink the rose whip had shot out. I made a move toward his target, Orihime, but I heard the sound on the whip connecting with someone. I another blink, I saw that Chad had grasped onto it, holding it clutched in his hand—but Chad had gone through quite the transformation.

His entire right arm, from the shoulder down, was black except for intricate stripes of magenta that ran the length of it. This strange new arm extended his shoulder somehow so that it actually came up just past his head.

Whatever it was, it made the usually intimidating looking Chad about 10 times more intimidating, though seemed to make to never mind to Cell who seemed to take Chad stepping in to save Orihime as a personal challenge.

"That's a fancy trick, I've never seen before," Cell said. He snatched the whip away from Chad. Cell did away with the whip all together, seeming to find it more appropriate to use his hands now. I quickly motioned Orihime over to my side; Cell now had that look in his eye that many opponents got that said he was going to take down everyone in his path. Certainly standing near Chad was not a safe place to be.

"Let's see what else it can do," Cell said. He held up his right arm and extended his index finger and began charging up Spirit Energy.

"Oh, hell no. First he goes around making fun of Kurama, then he sets his little clones on us and now he has the audacity to use our signature move," Yusuke said. "Kick his ass, Chad!"

But Chad needed no prompting. He was slow, but brazen. He went right up to Cell and gave him a powerful right hook straight to the face. Cell didn't even have a chance to get the Spirit Gun fired off because he was now toppling to the ground.

"They've got a bit of a power gap," Vegeta said.

"Well he can't take him down by himself," Kuwabara said.

"And you're going to help him?" Hiei scoffed as he always did.

"No—this is actually a really good idea! Go for it, Kuwabara!" Dad encouraged him.

And with encouragement from my father, which was the only word anyone really needed to do anything.

"Dad, I don't usually question you, given that you tend to know what you're doing, but Kuwabara, Cell, Chad," I started.

"They seem to be handling themselves quite well actually," Uryu pointed out.

It was true. Cell came back at Chad every chance he got, but with Kuwabara there to defend him, and with Chad on the offensive, it was somehow working.

"Cell is strong, but he's really nothing more than a big brute," Dad said.

"And if there's one thing I can say about your friend Kuwabara, he does not stay down," Vegeta said. "And that's how you beat Cell—stick-to-ittiveness."

Cell was a brute, but Kuwabara and Chad were both relentless and determined. Kuwabara's Spirit Sword onslaught didn't stop, and Chad was hammering away at Cell with is powerful arm. Cell did get a few hits in every once in a while, but the way Chad and Kuwabara were laying into him, he was not going to be able to get off a very powerful attack.

I knew the end was nigh when Chad came in with a powerful attacked, ripe with Spirit Energy behind it. He landed it on Cell who fell to the ground, and much in the same way Ichigo and Hiei had teamed up to stop Guldo, Kuwabara came in, putting as much force behind Spirit Sword as he could muster and crashing it into Cell. I hadn't felt this proud of Kuwabara since he'd "beaten" the Elder Toguro at the Dark Tournament.

And like that, Cell was wholly defeated.

[A/N II: I'm sorry if it sucked! I really am trying. Again, fight scenes aren't my forte, but my insatiable need to write fanfiction and also watch fighting anime means I have to get over that. Curse me.]