Chapter 14: The Creature's Reveal
Piccolo stepped towards the monster, "Who are you? How do you know my name?" He demanded.
The monster took a few steps towards the Namekian, away from the drained remains of the human that had been in front of him. He crouched slightly and flexed his arms. As soon as he did this he revved up his ki, bursting out in every direction. "I am your brother, Picollo."
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Yamcha and Tien both looked back as they felt the ki spike in the middle of the city almost a continent away from them.
"I-is that-" Yamcha stuttered.
"Vegeta?" Tien finished.
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"Dad?" Gohan questioned as he peaked his head back into his father's chamber to check on him. He could have sworn that the ki he just felt was his father's along with a handful of his other friends, but Goku was sitting upright in his bed just a few feet in front of him. From the look on the Son patriarch's face, he was sensing the ki as well. "What's going on?"
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"That feels like King Cold! And Freeza!" Mirai Gohan exclaimed as he jolted upright. He received a smack to the back of the head as he did so from Bulma.
"Lay back down! If you're not still then this could work out wrong and we'd have to start all over again!" She hollered at him.
"Alright, but those ki signatures were close, the second we finish here I'm going to take you to the lookout and go after them."
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Vegeta dropped off his perch on the edge of the lookout and began the long free-fall towards the Earth. He didn't know how Nappa was back, but this time he would finish the job.
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"Tell me who you really are!?" Piccolo shouted at the monster standing in front of him, projecting the ki of everyone he knew.
"Why should I tell you if you're just going to die in a few moments anyways?" the insectoid replied slyly.
"I can see you don't feel like being reasonable, if that's the way it's going to be, then I'll just have to kill you without asking anymore questions." Piccolo grunted back his reply.
"Hahaha, you really think that you can defeat me, oh great Demon King Piccolo?" The beast retorted.
"I don't know how you know Piccolo, but..." Piccolo flexed his muscles and let a burst of ki shoot out of his body, revving up his power to demonstrate his ability. "That is no longer who I am."
"What?!" The green creature spat, "Are you trying to tell me that you aren't Piccolo?"
"Sorry," Piccolo smirked, "but that's correct." His cape billowed in the breeze. The monstrosity standing across from him gave him a quizzical look and upon noticing it Piccolo smiled even more. Rather than respond to the look, he decided to keep his rant going, "You know, I'm actually glad that you cleared this town out."
"What? Why?" the insectoid replied to the outlandish remark his foe had made.
"Because now I don't need to hold back as I test out my new abilities!" The Namekian retorted with a confident smile. Before the green monster could say anything, Piccolo thrust his arm out and launched a massive ki blast at him. Immediately the blast engulfed the monster and more. A quarter of the city erupted in a massive explosion as the ki contacted solid structures.
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Nearly a mile away Vegeta saw the explosion coming from the city, he previously felt more than just Nappa in the middle of the crappy back water town he was heading towards. In fact, he felt Kakarot, Gohan and all the other worthless defenders this planet had. How dare they go to a party and not invite him. He would have their heads for this. He kicked his speed up a notch, intent on getting there before all the fun was over.
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Piccolo stood at the edge of the wreckage, his arm still outstretched. He gazed at the devastation he had caused and grinned, he hadn't blown up part of a city since he was just hatched. Finally, he spotted his prey and launched himself at the downed being. The insect-looking thing jumped up at the Namekian, but he was too slow. Dodging the strike, Piccolo delivered a kick just above the monster's tail. An ax-handle smash was what the beast responded to the kick with, though it met the same success rate as the last attack. Piccolo retreated out of the way, flying back into range and bicycle kicking his opponent in the monster's chin, sending it hurtling backwards to the ground.
The abnormal creature got back to it's feet slowly, brushing some dirt from it's face with the back of it's hand. Piccolo's grin had faded away halfway through their bout.
"If that's the extent of your power, I can see that I was wrong worrying that you were a threat." The Namekian stated bluntly, beginning to turn away from his opponent.
"You are strong, but you would be no match for my perfect form!" the creature replied indignantly.
"So, that's what you were trying to accomplish by absorbing Gingertown. Trying to achieve a perfect form?"
"Yes, I take the essence from people's bodies and convert it into energy. It's a complicated procedure, but it's highly effective." Piccolo's face contorted into one of aggression as he turned back to face the tailed monster.
"Who are you?!" He yelled. The creature came as close to smiling as he could.
"You'll know soon enough, now," It shifted it's stance so both arms were to it's left side and cupped near it's hip, "Kame."
"What?" Piccolo couldn't understand what was going on, this beast seemed to be mimicking his old rival. The energy signature even matched Goku's. This was impossible!
"Hame." The creature twisted it's hands and the energy between it's palms increased even more. This attack was quickly becoming a threat, he had to act quickly. He turned his body to fully face the creature, kicking off with his back foot, rushing in towards his foe. "Ha!"
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Gohan sat up, flexing the new appendage that he hadn't felt in years. He gazed on the beauty of it, Bulma truly was a genius. The Bulma of his time had always talked about making him a new arm, but they just lacked the correct resources. This new arm was amazing though. It was a sleek design that entirely resembled a human arm, being perfectly proportional to the rest of Mirai's body. The forearm, bicep-tricep area and hand were a blue color that matched the undershirt of his father's gi. The shoulder, elbow and joints were all bright orange, like the turtle school uniforms. On the back side of the hand was a white Capsule Corporation symbol.
"So, do you like it?" Bulma asked, wanting to know how her handiwork was received.
"I-it's amazing Bulma. I can't thank you enough!" Mirai exclaimed.
"Don't mention it! There are just a few things I need to let you know about before you go off fighting with it," Bulma waited a half second before continuing. "There are a few ki absorbers scattered throughout the arm, one in the hand, one in the shoulder and one on the back of the forearm. Because your energy is natural and the arm is robotic, it would be dangerous to try integrating the power to your own. But it is safe to add the energy to that which the arm already contains. Another thing is that it will need to be recharged every once in awhile, all you have to do to accomplish that is to place your hand on one of the ki receptors and give it a bit of energy. It may be inconvenient, but it only needs to be done every twelve hours or so." Bulma paused to take a breath.
"So I can absorb ki now? Fantastic!" Mirai's face lit up with a smile reminiscent of his father's.
"Yes, just don't let it drain too low, or else it will be useless until you charge it back up. Try not to over fill it as well, if you do that there is a chance that it could explode, or just stop working entirely."
"Alright, I'll try to make sure that I don't abuse it." Mirai stated.
"I'm confident that you'll be fine, you always were a smart kid. There is one last thing I have to show you, it's something that someone in the party searching for me came across about two weeks ago." Bulma reached into her pocket and pulled out a worn looking capsule, clicking the top and throwing it to the side of Mirai's bed by a few yards.
When he saw what came out of it his jaw dropped. No way!
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The creature shoved it's hands out forward towards Piccolo. The signature bright blue beam shot out and closed in on Piccolo. Thinking quickly, the Namekian dodged to the left. Sadly, he was not quick enough. With an agonized scream, Piccolo's right arm evaporated into nothingness, along with the right side of his cape. Piccolo landed on his feet, panting heavily as he gazed at the creature in front of him.
"Looks like I have the upper hand now, Namek! Once I've absorbed you my powers will be unrivaled," the monster replied, taking a step towards his prey.
"Wait, before you do that, tell me who you are, Why can I sense my ki and Goku's in you? You even pulled off a kamehameha," Piccolo questioned. The beast seemed to think for a second before responding.
"Fine, you'll be dead soon anyways," He began, taking another step towards Piccolo. "My name is Cell, I am a bio-cyborg created by Dr. Gero's computer."
"Another one of Dr. Gero?!"
"A long time ago, Gero started to collect DNA samples from you fighters and your opponents. His intent was to create an all-powerful machine, but it took too long, so he left it up to his computer," Cell continued, "the last samples he planned on getting were the Sayians when they came to take the Dragon Balls. Luckily one of Gero's collecting drones found samples from Cold and Frieza, further adding to my prowess. Sadly, the drone didn't get a sample from Trunks."
"Trunks? Who the hell is that?!" Piccolo responded, "And nice try, but we destroyed Gero's lab earlier."
"You don't know Trunks? I suppose he wouldn't be too old right now. You may have blown up Gero's lab, but the computer was a level below it, hidden away." Piccolo thought for a moment before coming to a realization.
"How are you here right now? You are the creature who appeared 3 years ago, Kami sensed you come! There's no way all of that DNA and the data from those fights could have been processed that quickly to create you!" The Namekian yelled.
"I came back in time to absorb Android 17 and 18!" Cell exclaimed.
"Back in time?"
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What Mirai was looking at was a time machine, much like his own.
"Do you have your time machine on you? I think this one is very similar to yours, isn't it?"
Without saying a word Mirai reached into the belt of his gi, pulling out a capsule, clicking the top and throwing it next to the other time machine. Luckily the shop was big enough to contain them both.
There were few differences between the egg-shaped machines with four rockets on the sides. The one that Mirai had was predominantly orange, similar to Mirai's gi. The one that Bulma had just thrown out was yellow in these areas. The orange machine also had much less stylization about it, looking functional, but much more rigid than Bulma's. The most concerning difference though, was that while Mirai's glass dome to the cockpit was fully intact, the one that Bulma had obtained was damaged, looking like it had been blasted from the inside.
"There's no way! Where did you find this?!" He approached the machine that didn't belong to him, running his hand across it.
"It was found just South of Gingertown, it looks close to yours, but really beaten up. Do you think it could have been replicated by someone else in your time? Maybe the androids?" Bulma questioned. Mirai was now on the other side of the time machine, though Bulma didn't hear any footsteps anymore. In fact, she didn't hear anything, it wasn't like the Son boy to not answer a question, from what she knew his mother had beaten politeness into his very being from a young age. She was quite irritated and began to walk towards the future fighter. When she rounded the corner she saw him staring at something written on the machine, his hand resting near it. She quickly rushed to his side and joined his gaze. There, on the side of the machine, was one word handwritten; Hope.
"What's that mean?" Bulma asked breathlessly. It took a moment for Mirai to compose himself enough to speak.
"I'm not positive, my machine is clean of writing, but that is your handwriting." he said solemnly.
"What? Are you sure?" She studied it for a second or two.
"I'm positive, I got very familiar with it over the last few years." Mirai stated, stopping there as he did not want to state why it was that he and Bulma's future self mainly communicated through notes to one another.
"So I made another time machine in the future, maybe I came back as well?"
"No, there was only enough material for one time machine, the androids destroyed everything else. Where is Gingertown located in relation to Capsule Corp?" Mirai asked the scientist.
"It's to the NorthEast, why?" Bulma was confused by the question.
A serious expression came over Mirai's face as he began to head to the exit of the shop. "Because that's where I can sense Piccolo fighting some strange ki, and I would bet my life that he's fighting whatever came back in that machine."
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"Yes, I came from the future. For some reason the androids weren't around when I woke up, I assume that Trunks got the jump on them," Cell continued. "Since I need the androids in order to achieve perfection, I came back to get them from this time."
Piccolo allowed the information to set in for a few seconds before speaking again. He let out a grin, "Well then, I'll just have to finish you off here and now, before you can reach the androids."
"How do you expect to do that? You're not quite 'armed' for battle now are you?" Cell replied with a chuckle. To answer to creature in front of him, Piccolo hunched over a bit, gathering energy into the side of his body lacking an arm.
"Hruh!" With that grunt another arm shot out in the place of the one that had been obliterated.
"What?!" Cell yelled in shock.
"You mean to tell me that you have my genes and you didn't realize that I can regenerate? How dull are you?" Cell was stunned for a second before he replied.
"I see, you held off on regenerating to get me to tell you of my plans. I see you're using that devilish wisdom of yours."
Piccolo scoffed at the last remark, "I'd call it Godly wisdom actually."
Suddenly something clicked in Cell's head, "I get it now! You are the result of Kami and Piccolo fusing!"
"Well, that took you long enough to figure out. Now, it's time for you to perish. Even with regenerating my arm, my power still surpasses yours."
Cell's mind began to race, With Kami gone, that means the Dragon Balls are gone as well. Whoever dies will stay dead, this may be able to be an advantage for me, I just have to work it in the right way. I need to buy some time and find the androids first though! He glanced around looking for a way out, seeing a speck quickly approaching him and old arch-demon.
"Hmph, it looks like Vegeta has arrived." Piccolo stated bluntly. He seemed almost annoyed as the Saiyan landed next to him.
"What the hell is this thing? I know I sensed Nappa here." Vegeta began, slightly irritated that he wouldn't get to kill Nappa a second time, the first just wasn't as appealing as it should have been.
"Vegeta, this is Cell, I'm going to kill him now though."
Cell suddenly knew his plan, though he had to act fast. He raised his arms to the sides of his head and pointed his outstretched hands towards his face. Vegeta and Piccolo didn't have enough time to react to the action before it was too late. "Solar Flare!"
Seeing that his plan had worked, Cell quickly rushed away, concealing his energy as he did so. As a few seconds passed he was already miles away from the area. I can't compete with them yet, I need to stall... I could jump from town to town absorbing energy until I come across the androids, then I'll be perfect, all-powerful. I just need those androids.
Glancing up into the air Cell noticed something flying past him, a few miles overhead. The ki seemed familiar, but very foreign at the same time. Using his excellent vision he looked up to see a man in an orange gi shooting by. "That ki matches Gohan, but that is a fully grown Saiyan!"
This shocked Cell, but he quickly reminded himself of the situation at hand and continued running. Soon, soon he would be able to destroy all of the Z fighters with his perfect form.
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"Damnit all!" Piccolo spat, "I should have finished it off sooner! Now there's no telling where he is."
"That's right you should have, idiot." Vegeta replied, rubbing his eyes still.
"Shut up, you couldn't have beaten him. I was trying to get information out of it, figure out why it was here." Piccolo replied with disgust to Vegeta's remark.
"Who cares why it was here or what it wanted, I don't care if it wanted to buy girl scout cookies, you should have ended it's existence. That's what I would have done."
"Yeah, right, would that have been before he killed you in one shot?" Piccolo shot back, proud of his reply. Vegeta was clearly angry at the remark, clenching his fists and gathering energy around his body. Before the conflict could become anymore heated a being crashed in between the two with his arms outstretched.
"That's enough, guys." Mirai stated bluntly. He turned his head towards Piccolo, "What the hell was that other ki that I sensed here?"
Piccolo was visibly shocked to see Mirai there with an arm made of metal. "Gohan, is this what Bulma wanted you for?"
"Yes, could you answer my question?"
"Here, I'll just show you," Piccolo said as he composed himself. Piccolo outstretched his hand and placed his three fingers on Mirai's head. As soon as they made contact with Mirai's head, images rushed through the future Saiyan's mind. Piccolo watched Mirai's expressions as the images flooded his thoughts. Mirai had a look of shock for a split second as he received the memory of Cell speaking of the person named 'Trunks', but he quickly concealed it. This was something Piccolo would have to dig into deeper. Finally all the memories had been viewed and Mirai took a step back.
"This just got more complicated." He stated bluntly, "If we haven't finished off Gero's entire laboratory, we better go take care of it now. We don't want two Cell's running around after all."
"Yes, that would be the smart thing to do," Piccolo replied. "You and Vegeta should go destroy the computer, I am going to track down Cell, he can't be too far away yet."
"I am not some pawn that you can order around, Namek!" Vegeta spat. Mirai stepped between them once again.
"No one is ordering you, Vegeta, you can do as you please," Mirai's stern voice switched to the happy expression reminiscent of his father, "I could use your help though, it would be nice to catch up on everything I missed the last few years."
Vegeta considered what the other Saiyan was proposing for a second before responding. "Fine, but I'm only going to make sure that you don't screw it up."
"Alright, fair enough." Mirai looked into the sky towards the East, "It's only a few miles there, shouldn't take us too long. Piccolo, I'd suggest trying to look to the South for Cell, it's where the next large city would be, seems like the type of target he would go after."
"Gohan, did you fight him in your time?" Piccolo questioned.
"No, Bulma just showed me a time machine that was found in the forest, I believe he came out of that one. Also, Cell said that he couldn't find the androids in his time, maybe he comes from further in the future." Mirai replied.
"He also made mention of a being named Trunks, do you know of this person?" the Namekian questioned further. At that Mirai turned around, noticing the lack of acknowledgment on Vegeta's face, something that worried him.
"We can discuss that later, time is of the essence." Mirai shot his oldest mentor a quick salute to his forehead before dashing into the air, Vegeta scoffing and following after.
Piccolo let a look of concern flash over his face, "So, he wants to avoid the subject."
In another instant the green warrior blasted into the peaceful sky and sped off to the North, scanning the ground as he went.
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Tien and Yamcha finally reached the island of Master Roshi after their long, conflicted flight. Yamcha had been persistent on going to see what the mysterious ki was that was fighting with Piccolo, but Tien was adamant that Piccolo could take care of himself. As they touched down they realized that something was not right, it seemed too calm. The old hermit had yet to rush outside and berate them for not bringing women with them or for interrupting one of his shows. Then they noticed it, the door was open by a few centimeters, not by much, but enough for them to know that it was not Roshi that left it that way. Then they watched in horror as a hand reached out of the door, pulling the rest of a body behind it.
"So, the rest of the cavalry has arrived, eh?"
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Mirai glanced over to see Vegeta racing along right next to him. There was much that he needed to know, and now was as good a time as any.
"So, how did you achieve Super Saiyan?" He tried to break the ice with something he knew Vegeta would be proud to speak of. It took Vegeta a couple of seconds to reply, but he finally did.
"I transformed in order to whip the rest of the Cold family from the face of the Earth."
"You defeated Cooler?!" Mirai exclaimed, shocked by the information.
"Did I not in your time?" Vegeta questioned with a smirk. Mirai thought for a second on how to break the information he knew to Vegeta.
"No, in my time my father was the one to finish him, you were off in space, training somewhere not too far off."
"What?! Then where did Kakarot face Cooler?"
"The Earth, why?"
"Because when I killed the last Acrosian, he was deep in space, cowardly huddling in the center of his own galaxy." Vegeta said with a grin, thinking on the moment of pride when he had finished his foe off.
"How long were you out in space, Vegeta?" Mirai was worried, if he was deep in space he could have been gone for a long period, it may have altered too much of the timeline.
"I left after you so thoroughly humiliated me in front of everyone and I returned just in time to rescue that woman from the scientist. It was around three years and I finished off all that blasted Acrosian's empire."
Mirai almost stopped in his tracks. That explained why he could not sense the one he missed the most. Because of his actions in his first visit, because he had made a point of showing Vegeta his full strength and fighting his father, he had prevented the birth of his best friend. Trunks no longer existed because he was not cautious enough. He inwardly cursed everything that he was, he had to make sure that the Saiyan Prince and Bulma came together to create a child, for it was because of him that they hadn't already.
"Hey, kid," Vegeta spoke up, breaking the silence caused by Mirai's inner conflict, "How do I die in your timeline? Was it an honorable death?"
The question shocked Mirai, dragging him once again into his own past, remembering the ones that he had lost to the androids. Finally after a few seconds he found his voice, "Yes, you die fighting the androids, you gave them hell and they only beat you by taking a cheap shot while you were unable to guard."
"Hmph," Vegeta grunted, arms still crossed, "That's disappointing." Gohan remained silent, still thinking back to the death of the Saiyan next to him. "What is more disappointing though is that you feel the need to lie to me. You will tell me the truth someday, but right now we have a job to do."
Gohan was shocked by how easily Vegeta saw through his lie. It was mostly truth, but he didn't have the heart to tell him... He was correct though, they were now at the spot of Gero's laboratory, they had to do what they had come for. Both warriors outstretched their arms, gathering ki in the palms of their hands and readying their most powerful attacks. Yellow ki burst from both as they ascended into their Super Saiyan states, Vegeta noticing once again that Mirai gained quite a bit more muscle mass as he did so. Blue energy formed in a sphere in the palm of the pure-blooded Saiyan's hand, growing as the seconds passed. Mirai raised both of his hands above his head, gathering energy for a super-powered Masenko. As they were about to release the attacks at the zenith of their power, they heard something from below them.
"I really hope you don't think you're going to destroy this magnificent laboratory."
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Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
It's kind of embarrassing, but until half-way through the chapter, I had all but forgotten about the time machine that Cell comes back in. That would have been quite the mistake as it is a pretty big plot point!
Anyways, a few chapters ago I hinted at a special being released along with Chapter 15. I regret to tell you that the special is not quite where I would like it to be, and therefore will be delayed a bit. The bright side to this is that it will fit so much better as a companion to chapter 17 or 18, so look for it right around then! It will be released just before one of those chapters.
How does everyone feel about calling Future Gohan 'Mirai'? I thought about it for awhile, I really didn't want to call him 'Future Gohan' throughout the story, because that is kind of awkward to refer to someone as. At first I considered just using 'Han' as that is what is on the back of his gi, but not only does that sound German, but I had the fear that everyone would just picture him as Han Solo for the remainder of his stay in the past. Though it would be awesome to see Han Solo in a DBZ fic, its not what I want. I settled on 'Mirai' because its the Japanese word for future (as I understand) and it just sounds pretty cool in general.
So, review-response time!
Egxo - Yes, Tien does in fact have that technique that he used against Goku... and then never used again in canon, sadly. I have always been a fan of Tien and his insane techniques! This chapter should have answered your question though, Gohan does not learn that technique, and Bulma is a genius.
Ness - Heh. Didn't even notice that I was measuring in units of Yamcha! Sadly, Trunks does not exist in this timeline :(
Lucif - (Chapter 2) - Quite a bit of the fight was 'off-screen' so to speak, it was poor writing, sorry! (Chapter 3) Vegeta is just a badass in general :)
RedHunter87 - Thanks! It's touching to know that I helped inspire you! :) Is that the fic that's on your profile right now? Don't worry about this being the same exact story, though a lot of it is going to follow the same progression, the shit is about to hit the fan!
Thanks for reading everyone! I hope that you enjoyed it, and even if you didn't, please leave a review and let me know what you disliked (respectfully) and what you liked!
Until next time!