Chapter Forty-three - A Desperate Situation
"You know, I think I'm a bit lost." Trunks said as he watched the two latest arrivals fly off toward the city. "Who are those two big Gotens and what's a 'Supreme Kai'?"
"You heard Mijima." Cheri said. "The one is Goku. Which means the other one is Bardock. Goten's father and grandfather."
"Really?" Goten asked, eyes widening a little.
"That'd be my guess." she replied.
Further conversation ended there as a surprised cry from Piccolo drew their attention. "Piccolo? What is it?" Gohan asked.
Vegeta growled and answered in the Namek's place. "Cell. He's in the city. He must have supressed his power and snuck in."
As Hotaru closed her eyes and focused, stretching out her mind to link with Yamcha's, Sakura looked up at her worried. She knew her dad was no match for Cell, even as strong as he was. /He has to be ok. He has to be. The only one Akemi saw die was me so he..../
Her thoughts trailed off as her mother dropped to her knees and punched the ground shattering the rock beneath her fist. "Damnit!"
"Mom? Mom, what's wrong?" Sakura asked, walking over to her mother. "Mom?"
"It's the others, isn't it?" Mijima asked softly. "Your link with Yamcha...."
"I can't link." she said. "He's... not there."
Akemi walked up on Hotaru's other side. "What do you mean 'not there'? Where'd he go?" she asked.
Sakura swallowed and shook her head. "Akemi." she said, walking over to her sister. "Come on, let's go over here." she managed, as she lead her sister away.
Akemi looked up at Sakura confused as they moved away from the adults. "But why? What's going on Sakura?"
Sakura blinked away the tears and shook her head again to clear it but didn't answer. She wasn't sure how to answer. She couldn't seem to formulate words anymore. At least, not any that made any kind of sense in her head.
"Sakua?" Akemi asked softly, her voice worried and pleading. "What is it? What's happened?" she pulled on her sister's arm as she asked. "Tell me!"
The older girl left out a sigh as she laid a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Mom couldn't contact dad because... he's gone."
"But gone where?"
Sakura fought to find the words to answer the question but she couldn't. She couldn't find them and she didn't want to say them, to admit them. "Otherworld." she managed at last.
"Otherwor...." her voice trailed off as her eyes widened. "He's... he's...."
Sakura just nodded. And then a sudden rush of wind and flash of light drew her and Akemi's attention back toward the others. She could recognize the four who'd recently come through the tear as well as Raditz, Nova, Trunks' grandfather, and Pug, but there were also a lot of others too. Big and rather scary looking. But since they weren't fighting with the others she figured they were on the same side.
Akemi was barely paying attention to the large group that had suddenly appeared. She was instead trying to figure out why her visions hadn't warned he about her father. "Why didn't I see it?" she asked softly. "Why didn't I see it so I could stop it?"
"Huh?" her sister asked, turning back to her. "See what?"
"What happend to dad." Akemi replied. "If I'd seen it we could have stopped it just ilke we stopped you dying!"
Sakura squeezed her shoulder and shook her head. "We don't know that. And... maybe it hadn't originally happened. I mean, you didn't see Cheri lose her hand either."
"I guess...." she said, turning her gaze toward the others again at last. Some of them where heading for the tear now, among them the ones Trunks had called 'big Gotens'. As she watched them a memory tickled at the back of her mind. "That's them!" she suddenly cried as they vanished through the tear again.
"What?"
"The big Gotens! That's them! The ones from the other vision! Remember? I saw two that reminded me of Goten. It was them, I'm sure of it!"
ZZZ
"You sure we shouldn't go over there?" Trunks asked for the second time since Sakura and Akemi walked off.
"I'm sure." Cheri said. "They need some time alone for now."
The two of them and Goten turned back to the others again at the sound of Vegeta's voice. "Who all did we lose?"
"That I could recognize... too many." Trunks' grandfather replied.
"Who?" the younger Vegeta pressed.
It was Pug that answered. "Toma, Tangerie, Kavar, Akira, Sango, Krllin, Chaotzu, Yamcha, and... Queen Bulma."
"M-mom?" Trunks stammered. /But... why would she have been in the city?/ he thought. /Pug has to be mistaken, she wouldn't have left the palace, Toma and Tangerie wouldn't have let her. But... he did say they were gone too..../ He looked up, startled, as he felt a hand on his back. He saw Cheri on his left and Goten was standing in front of him peering up at him with sad and worried look.
"You ok?" Goten asked.
"I... I'll be ok." Trunks said.
"Maybe we should all just head back to the palace." Cheri said quitely. "Let the adults handle things from here."
Trunks shook his head. "No. I want to do something. I can't just sit around doing nothing."
"I'm going to leave you in charge until we get back." Vegeta said to his father. "Coordinate with whatever troops we still have left to wipe out the forces that are left."
The Senator nodded. "I'll take care of it." he said.
"What about us, dad?" Trunks asked, looking up at him. He wanted something, anything, to do to help.
Vegeta looked down at his son then over toward Goten, Cheri, Sakura, and Akemi, and thought. "Go to the palace." he said. "Your grandfather can head up protecting everything else but I'm going to leave you guys in charge of the defending the palace."
"We'll move survivors from Saiya City to the palace for safety." the Senator said thoughtfully. "Round up as many as we can. The fewer who die the better."
"Alright then, let's do this." Vegeta said, turning toward the tear.
As that group walked off Trunks turned toward where Sakura and Akemi were and made his way over to them, Cheri and Goten right behind. "Dad wants us to guard the palace while everyone else takes care of the rest of the attackers." he said as he reached them. "If you guys don't want to help that's ok. I'm sure Chao...." he caught himself as he remembered Chaotzu was one of the ones his grandpa and Pug and seen.
"I want to help." Akemi said, scowling slightly. Sakura nodded in agreement.
"Alright, we'll go back to the palace then." Trunks said as he lifted into the air. "Come on."
The other four floated up after him and then they took off. As they flew Goten came up along side Cheri. "You ok to fight?" he asked. "What about your hand?"
"I'm ok." the girl replied. "I can still fight with just one hand, don't worry. Besides, all the tough guys are gone now."
ZZZ
Earth, South City, 5th Avenue
"Little buggers are everywhere." Autoro growled as he peered around the corner.
"More of them?" asked Ward.
"Yeah, about six dozen of them. This is getting tiresome. There has to be a way to put an end to them all at once."
Gard snorted. "And how exactly would you go about doing something like that?" he asked. "There's just way too many of them."
Autoro grinned inside his helmet. "You cut off the source." he said. "Simple as that."
"Yeah, real simple." Jairel said sarcastically. "Except for one little detail. We don't know what or where that source is."
"Acutally, I have a theory." Autoro replied as he moved away from the corner of the building and turned to face the other three. "That explosion up in North City happened just before these things started to show up. And the majority of them were there at first until it spread world wide. But that is definitely the epicenter."
"North City isn't exactly close, you know." Ward said with a frown. "How exactly do you propose we get there in one piece? The more time passes the stronger these Zombies seem to be getting."
"The ones that are still functional, anyway." added Jairel. Those few they'd encountered before that had been unmoving hadn't been the last. They'd run across several such groups with no apparent cause to their state.
"Simple." Autoro replied. "Fly."
Gard shook his head. "Fly? That far? Uh-uh. No way. Maybe you can be we'd tire out way too fast."
"Not with ki, you imbicle." Autoro corrected. "We're going to borrow one of the EDF transport ships. Why do you think we've been heading in this direction all this time?"
Jairel blinked. "You want us to help you steal an EDF shuttle?"
"Not steal, borrow. We'll give it back when we're done."
"I don't know...."
"Hey, one way or another I'm going to North City. You bozos can either help out and come with me or stay here and keep fighting this endless sea of undead on your own."
"I'm in." Ward said.
Jairel glaned over to him. "Coward."
"You say coward, I say smart." said Gard. "I'm in."
Jairel sighed. "Alright, fine, I'll help too."
Autoro gave a nod. "Good. Now, the EDF Transport Center is just another six blocks. Hopefully we don't have to deal with any actual Humans when we get there."
"At this point, I'd rather deal with Humans than Zombies." Gard said.
ZZZ
Planet Vegeta, Sai-jin Palace
"The military is in general disaray at this point." Senator Vegeta said as he gazed at the screen of the small computer in his hand. "Reports of functional units are sporadic and really thinly spread out. Even with the chaos the kids induced the attackers still managed to pull together a fairly cohesive strategy."
"I can only imagine how bad it'd be if they hadn't been there to head them off." said Piccolo.
"So, how should we handle this?" asked Raditz. "These Demons aren't just in Saiya City, they're spreading out everywhere."
"We'll need to split up into six groups." said the Senator. "Gainin, Mijima, Piccolo, Raditz, and myself will will each head up one attack group and take 3 of Nova's elites along with us. That should give each group enough power to clear out everyone without any real trouble. My group will clear out Saiya City. Piccolo will head east, Gainin west, Raditz north, and Mijima to the south. Hotaru, you're in charge of the Saiya City evacuation group. Take Nova, Pug, Tien, and Vadora with you."
"Sounds good, but what about me?" Doro asked.
"Stay here." Vegeta said. "Guard the perimiter of the palace. Anyone you can stop before they meet the kids is one less they'll have to fight."
"Fine, but I'm not sticking my neck out there. I just got it back."
Vegeta shook his head and turned from the orange alien. He was just about to give the order to move out when he heard a shrill beeping come from Pug's scouter. "What is it?" he asked, turning to face him.
"I set the satelites to monitor Saiya City." Pug said. "They've picked up a building power there. It just broke the three million mark and it's still going up...."
Hotaru reached out her senses and soon found the familiar and quickly building power. "Damn him!" she cried.
ZZZ
Planet Vegeta, Saiya City, intersection of Berry Avenue and Corn Street
A breeze blew across the city block sized crater kicking up dust and hiding the bottom of it from view. And then a new gust blew through, coming from the crater's center, and blew all the dust away. There, at the bottom, was a small, mutli-colored, pulsing blob that was quickly growing in size and changing shape.
The blue, red, and white mass began to turn green in places as it began to lengthen. And then a black plate formed over part of it as legs and arms emerged. A few moments later Cell was laying on his back in the crater, staring up at the sky, and scowling. He raised his hands up and gazed at them as he gauged his power. "Hmm, it hasn't increased any." he said softly. "I guess I can't draw any more power from the cells in me. No matter. I will find a way to kill them all."
ZZZ
Planet Vegeta, Sai-jin Palace
"How the hell did he survive?" Raditz wondered aloud. "Father took out a good chunk of the city when he blasted him."
Piccolo shook his head. "I don't know, but it's not good. Everyone who could stand against him has left. And my power's barely recovered from fighting Slug."
"We have to try and stop him." Hotaru said. "We have no choice. We can't just let him have free run of the city."
"What's going on?" Nova asked. Her elites were all glancing at each other in confusion, not sure what was going on either. The woman understood that they'd sensed something, an ability she hadn't even known possible previously, but didn't know what.
"Cell is still alive." Pug said. "Apparently he wasn't killed after all."
"But... how? There was nothing left at the bottom of that crater."
Raditz sighed. "He can regenerate even better than a Namek can." he explained. "One cell is all he needs. So long as it remains intact he can fully reform his entire body."
"We need a strategy." said the Senator. "We can't just go blindly charging in to fight him. We'd stand no chance."
"We stand no chance either way." Mijima replied. "The best we can do is try and, at the very least, keep him occupied until the others get back."
"I hate to admit it." Tien said. "But she's right. And I'm in the same condition as Piccolo. I used up a lot of power stalling Slug earlier."
"Well, I'd love to get a little payback for seven years ago, and for Sango." Gainin said. "No idea how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to give it my best shot."
Hotaru nodded slowly and slghtly. "Sango, Krillin, Yamcha, Akira, Kavar, and everyone else." she said. "For their sakes we have to do something. Stall him, stop him, something."
"Agreed." replied Mijima.
"Now hold on just a second." Piccolo interupted. "We have to think this through. Like Vegeta said if we just charge in blindly...."
"Who said anything about blindly?" Raditz cut in. "We know exactly what we're up against and exactly what we're doing."
Gainin smirked. "Damn straight." he said. "Win or lose, live or die, all that matters is keeping him busy."
"And if we get lucky along the way and manage to kill him," began Hotaru. "Well, that's even better."
"But we're not kidding ourselves here." said Mijima. "We don't expect to win this fight." And with that she flew off with Gainin, Raditz, and Hotaru right beside her.
"Gah, damn stupid impulsive people!" Piccolo yelled as he quickly shot after them.
Vegeta turned to the others. "Pug, Tien, Vadora, stay here with Nova's elites." he said. "It's not much extra protection but it's better than nothing."
"Yes sir." Vadora and Pug said together.
Vegeta nodded and turned to Nova. "You're free to stay as well. Like they said, this is certainly going to be a one-way trip."
"Thank-you for the concern but I'm going to help any way I can." she said.
The Senator gave her a small smirk and nod and then the two shot off as well.
ZZZ
Planet Vegeta, Sai-jin Palace, Entry Hall
Trunks was pacing back and forth inside the large entry hall, from one end to the other, while the other kids sat along one of the walls staring either at the floor, the ceiling, or him. "Trunks, you're going to wear a hole into the floor." Sakura called to him as he walked by for the twenty-sixth time.
"I can't sit down." Trunks said. "My mind wont stop racing...."
"I know how you feel." Sakura said softly. "But pacing around isn't going to do anything. Besides, everything's going to work out, I just know it will. Your dad and the others will stop whoever is behind this and then everyone can be wished back. You know, like the future you and I were after the Cell Games."
"Yeah, Gohan's with them!" Goten cheered. "He beat Cell so there's no way they can beat him!"
Trunks frowned and continued to pace. "But that Angel lady was stronger than all of them!" he said. "And she's just an underling. Man... what if... if they can't win?"
"They will." Cheri said, her eyes still locked on her feet. "They've always won before. Freeza, Recoome, Slug, Cooler, Cell. No one's been able to beat them." she looked up then. "And they've got Goku and Bardock with them. Mom said they're the most powerful Sai-jins she's ever known. Probably the most powerful Sai-jins ever."
"Dad's stronger. Didn't you hear him? Him and Videl and Gohan are all stronger than the two of them now."
Their conversation was then interupted by a loud and persistent rumbling. After which Goten grinned and scratched the back of his head. "All this fighting is making me hungry. How about we go find mom and get some food?"
"Goten... your stomach is out of control, even for a Sai-jin." Cheri said, smiling and laughing a little, her spirits somewhat lifted by the moment. But then they came crashing down again as she felt something washing over her. "What... is that?" she wondered, looking off in the direction of Saiya City.
Sakura looked too as she felt it. The two boys soon doing the same. Akemi tried to find what they felt but her ki sensing skills weren't fully developed yet and she couldn't sense it. "What is it?" she asked the others.
"A... high power." Sakura replied. "It's... stronger than mom...."
"It has to be Cell." Cheri said slowly. "He survived somehow afterall...."
Goten gulped. "What do we do?" he asked. "Gohan and the others aren't here anymore!"
No one answered as they felt those still outside, the only ones left other than them to defend the planet, fly off toward the power they'd sensed. Finally Sakura sighed as she pulled her legs up against her chest and wrapped her arms around them resting her chin on her knees. "There's nothing we can do." she sad. "I hate this. I hate being helpless, being unable to do anything to help our families or protect them...."