jeff: Goku was also far stronger than Appla when he did the combo. She's the weakest of the current SSJs, not much stronger in base than Goku was against Frieza back on Namek.

Chapter Forty-five - Battle Plans

Pug, as well as those who could sense powers, knew that Cell had not moved since their group started toward him. No doubt he was content to simply wait for them as he figured none could match him in power. And with his current level, thanks to whatever means Quietus used to increase the powers of his warriors, none of them could. Hotaru knew that out of the seven of them she was the closest to Cell's power. And even then she wasn't close enough to really hurt him.

"I'm open to suggestions." Piccolo said as they flew, his voice grumpier than normal.

"My suggestion is you stop talking." Mijima replied. "No one asked you to come along."

The Namek glanced her way and scowled. "Someone has to babysit you people to make sure you don't do anything even more stupid than this." he said.

Raditz snorted. "I doubt there is anything that could qualify as even half as stupid." he said. "Though I do have an idea."

"At least someone is using their brain." the Namek said as he looked toward Raditz. "What's your idea?"

"Tri-beam." the Sai-jin replied. "I'm in the same position as Tien, though. I've about reached my limit with the move, though I can get a good deal more power out of it than he can. I'm not sure what my limit is but I'm hoping it's somewhere near Cell's power. Preferably above it. It'll take time to charge, though. I haven't been able to use the Super Tri-beam since I first transformed."

Piccolo frowned. A 'maybe' solution wasn't what he was hoping for. But Raditz's suggestion had given him an idea. "Hotaru, what about that move you used on Vegeta?"

"The Ikioi Reikon Kougeki?" she asked. "I should be able to charge one strong enough to take out Cell. But there's a problem with that."

The Namek scowled. There seemed to always be some sort of problem. "What is it?" he asked.

"I'm the only one strong enough to keep Cell busy." she replied. "Sure, I can make the attack self-charging like I did against Vegeta, but it takes a lot longer to charge that way. For something to take out Cell it'd be at least twenty five minutes. More than enough time for him to kill all of us."

"You can charge it manually though? And it's faster?" Piccolo asked.

Hotaru nodded. "It'd take maybe ten minutes then. But I'd be wide open to attack and no one here could even distract him while I do it." she replied.

"Can you manually charge one that you originally made self-charging?" asked Raditz.

"Sure, why?"

"Because I have an idea." the Sai-jin replied, smirking. "Make a self-charging one and then keep him busy while I prepare the Tri-beam. It'll take me at least six minutes, possibly more. I'll be able to fire off several of them, though at slowly weaker levels. While I keep him pinned down you finish charging the thing manually."

ZZZ

Otherworld, H.F.I.L.

"What's going on?" Videl asked as she looked toward the sound of the voice. Whatever had shouted was still too far off to see. "What do you mean an old evil has reformed?"

"Janemba." Mikomi said. "I suppose... you could consider him Shinkai's version of Quietus. I would say it was around a hundred and ten thousand years ago, give or take a few thousand. The Oni that guarded the Evil Containment Machine, where the evil extracted from those in the H.F.I.L. is sealed away, fell asleep on the job and did not notice that a blockage had formed.

"Because of this blockage the evil that was being sent to be sealed couldn't enter the machine and a back-up occurred that ruptured the system. The evil energies collected over thousands of years escaped and the Oni at the site was killed and transformed into Janemba, a powerful entity made from the purest evil.

"When it first happened our only sign something was amiss were odd distortions with in the H.F.I.L. that Shin could not correct. The North and West Kais of the time came down to investigate and were killed by Janemba. That was when and how we discovered his existence. My fellow Supreme Kais and I, as well as the Lord of Kais, Muzai, then came down to deal with him ourselves. Of the Supreme Kais, only Yousha and I were a match for him but Muzai was far stronger and we easily defeated him.

"However... he soon reformed himself. The evil that had escaped had bonded so strongly with itself while in containment that it refused to dissipate. Destroying Janemba did nothing, it simply came back within minutes. And so a new stratagey was devised. When next we destroyed him we scattered his essence to the far reaches of the H.F.I.L., thus weakening his power, and used our powers over the Plane to supress the evil that made up his being to prevent him from reforming again."

"I get it." Gohan said. "With the clouds gone you couldn't keep him from reforming anymore."

Mikomi nodded. "Yes. Unfortunately that seems to be our situation. You all must press on, find Dabura, and go with him to put an end to this. Then we can try to restore the clouds, with them back something can be done about Janemba."

"What are you going to do?" asked Bardock.

"I will remain here and keep him occupied." she answered. "I will fight him until you return."

"But... that could be days!" Goku cried.

The Kai shook her head. "We have little choice in the matter." she said. "As a Supreme Kai my energy reserves are greater than those of a Mortal, I can last in battle far longer than someone else of my level could. And, luckily, he seems to have not reformed in the same state he was before. He is not nearly as strong. I should have little issue keeping him at bay until your return."

Bardock crossed his arms and scowled in thought. "You say this thing is made out of evil, right?"

"Yes, why?"

The Sai-jin glanced over to Goku. "What do you think?"

Goku nodded. "Yeah, it's worth a shot."

"What are you two babbling about?" Vegeta demanded.

"The Spirit Bomb." replied Bardock. "Normal attacks may not have been able to kill this thing but a Spirit Bomb might."

Mikomi looked over to the two Sai-jins for a moment and then smiled and nodded. "You're right." she said. "A Spirit Bomb may be capable of destroying him for good."

"What about Dabura?" Kibito asked.

"The others can find him and have him wait for us." Goku said, turning to look toward Videl, Gohan, and Vegeta. "We'll catch up after we've taken care of things here."

ZZZ

Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Sai-jin Palace

Cheri sat with her back pressed against the wall and her left arm held slightly in front of her so that she could stare at where her hand used to be. It was definitely an odd experience, lacking her hand. And somehow different from the loss of her tail, though she couldn't really place how.

"I'm really sorry." Sakura said, making the other girl look up. "It's my fault...."

Cheri shook her head. "Don't worry about it. It's just a hand." She turned back to look at her missing hand again. "I'd do it again, you know." she said after a moment. "A hand is worth losing if it means saving a friend."

Sakura sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her as she smiled. "Thanks."

"GAH!" Trunks suddenly yelled from across the room, a burst of energy washing out from him and cracking the floor. "I can't stand just sitting around here doing nothing! The others are almost to Cell now...."

"Trunks, I know how you feel, believe me. We all do." Cheri said, closing her eyes. "But we don't have much choice. We're just kids."

"Just kids?" the Sai-jin royal scoffed. "We're Super Elites! Some of the most powerful people in the entire galaxy! When Gohan was 'just a kid' he fought right along with everyone else and he beat Cell but we're stuck on the side-lines."

"That was different." Sakura said. "Gohan started off stronger than the others and the enemies they fought, up until fighting Freeza on Namek, didn't outclass everyone else in the galaxy. Your grandfather could have beaten them all himself. And when the Androids and Cell came Gohan trained to fight them and kept right up with the others along the way. But for us...."

Cheri nodded. "Sakura's right. We've not had the years of battle experience that Gohan got. We've not had the need to push ourselves just to survive. And the enemies out there now are on a whole other level than the ones Gohan fought at our ages."

"I know, I know, I know." the Prince said, waving them off. "But that doesn't mean it can't piss me off."

"So, why don't we do something?" Akemi asked.

"We can't." said Sakura. "We can't help right now. Cell's way too strong for us to even scratch."

"I never said fight him." said Akemi.

"What do you have in mind?" Trunks asked, suddenly interested. If Akemi had some way of helping he was all for it.

"Why not go to Otherworld to get someone to help?" she asked. "The others are over there, right? So we can just go through the hole and get them!"

"Akemi, you're a genius!" Trunks cried, grinning. "We can go get dad to take out Cell and then he can go back to Otherworld to help out there again!"

"I don't know. I mean, we don't know if it's safe." Cheri said.

"But it's our only way of helping." Sakura said. "And it might be the only chance the rest of our families have."

Cheri sat in thought for a moment and then nodded. "Well, when you put it that way I guess there's no choice. Let's go."

ZZZ

Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Saiya City

Hotaru pulled to a stop in a burst of orange and raised an arm in front of her face, energy crackling around her palm. She was still several blocks away from Cell and the others had pressed on to meet him but she'd hung back to perform the Ikioi Reikon Ikioidzuku unnoticed. Then she would join the others and use her array of skills to their fullest to keep Cell busy.

"It shouldn't take Hotaru long." Piccolo said. "Just keep Cell talking until she gets here."

"Shouldn't be hard." Raditz said with a snort. "He likes talking about himself a lot."

"Almost as much as the King." Mijima interjected.

Even Vegeta smirked a little at that. "We'll need to use all of his weaknesses against him if we hope to win this." he said. "Fortunately there's no one in the area now, everyone's fled. We wont have to hold back. Chances are slim that we can win but if we don't there wont be anyone left here to save when the others return."

Gainin nodded. "I'd rather not die so soon after finding what I've been looking for but... if it's the only way to protect Hiroshi I'll do it without a second thought."

"Let's try and avoid coming to that." Piccolo said. "So long as we're still alive we can keep fighting and stalling, don't forget that."

They flew in silence for the last few blocks until at last reaching the crater were Cell still waited for them. His arms were crossed as he smirked up at them. "I see you've finally arrived." he said. "And I take it Angel wiped out everyone else, eh?"

"Hardly." Raditz said, crossing his own arms. "Angel's toast. Everyone else has gone to Otherworld to put an end to this mess for good."

"Which leaves us to deal with you." Mijima said.

"You intend to fight me?" Cell laughed. "None of you could even hope to compare to me."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that!" Hotaru called as she pulled up to join the others. "You've been out of the loop for seven years Cell. That's a long time for us to train and improve."

"No amount of training could match my power." Cell said.

Gainin laughed. "I don't know, Bardock laid you out pretty well. It's just too bad he didn't kill you. Looking at you makes me sick."

Cell frowned. "Well, now that we've gotten the pleasantries over, who dies first?" he asked.

Hotaru clenched her hands into fists and let out a yell as her aura flared up. She began to glow brightly and then pulsed, flashed, and vanished. And then a loud crack sounded as she reappeared in a burst of orange. Blue and orange lightning crackled around her aura and her body was covered in stripes.

"Let me show you something you haven't seen before, Cell." she said, slipping into a fighting stance. "The true power of the Tanarian race. This is the third transformation, the final false form, half of my true and full power. If I were just one stage higher you would be nothing, an ant."

Cell cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I must say, I hadn't anticipated you to be this strong. You're actually stronger than Vegeta was seven years ago. Though still not as powerful as that girl from the future and she wasn't able to take out me out when I was much weaker than I currently am."

"There's a reason I said I'd be showing you the true power of the Tanarian race." Hotaru said. "This form may be one step away from my true form but that doesn't mean I can't match that power. Nibai Kinryoku!" In a burst of silver she launched in at Cell and smashed a hard right punch into his face. Having been unprepared for the strength of the blow it sent him flying back and the Tanarian quickly shot after him. Meanwhile Raditz shot up into the sky as he placed his hands in front of him and began to charge the Tri-beam.

Hotaru reached Cell before he recovered from his shock and snapped a kick into has face knocking him down into the ground at the edge of the crater. As she charged again her hands moved quickly in front of her. "Shika-Shidou Yaiba!" she cried as she reached the prone Bio-droid and thrust an arm down toward his head. The energy blade flared up as her hand surged down but Cell managed to slip to the side and the blade embedded itself in the ground instead.

His leg then shot up, knee slamming into her stomach and driving her up but she brushed the pain aside and took a swipe at him as he climbed to his feet. His arm came up to block the blow but the blade sliced through as though it weren't there. Cell's eyes widened in shock and he let out a surprised yelp of pain as he jerked back and then shook his arm.

/Odd move, that./ he thought, looking at the energy blade around Hotaru's right hand. /It didn't sever the arm, even though it passed clean through. Didn't even scratch me. But it hurt me more than a power of her level should be cappable of against me. No matter, a little pain wont slow me down./ he thought, smirking.

ZZZ

Otherworld, H.F.I.L.

"Take care guys." Bardock said as he nodded to the others. Mikomi had agreed to his plan. Kibito would lead the others to the entrance into Hell so that they could find Dabura and inform him of the plan to fight Quietus so that he would wait for Goku and Bardock. Meanwhile the Sai-jins would help Mikomi fight Janemba and, with luck, wipe him out with a Spirit Bomb.

"You too." Videl said, nodding back.

Vegeta snorted as he turned to follow Kibito to their destination. "Don't get yourself killed again, Kakkarotto." he said. "Now that you're alive again we still have a fight." And with that the four of them took off leaving Goku, Bardock, and Mikomi behind to deal with Janemba.

"Wow, he's got a one track mind, doesn't he?" Goku asked as he watched them leave.

"So, how do we want to go about this?" Bardock asked as he crossed his arms and turned toward the distorted part of the H.F.I.L. again. "This Janemba thing is even stronger than Maku was after he powered-up."

Mikomi turned to the two Sai-jins. "Working together the two of you should be able to charge a single Spirit Bomb more quickly than you could on your own." she said. "Draw power from those in Otherworld, the Oni may not be overly strong but they exist in great numbers and should be sufficient for our needs."

Goku frowned a little. "It's not as much fun to just blast him though. Still, fighting him wouldn't be much better."

"Let's just get this over with so we can move on to the main battle." Bardock said.

"Right." Goku agreed with a nod. The three of them then shot off toward where they could sense Janemba. A few moments later they all pulled to a quick stop as Goku's eyes widened. "Whoa, look at that!" he cried. There, not more than fifty yards away, was a large yellow... thing. "Is that... him?"

"Janemba! Janemba, Janemba!" it cried.

"I'd take that as a yes." Bardock said. "Man, this thing's about the size of a fat Oozaru."

"Prepare the Spirit Bomb." Mikomi ordered. "I will keep him away from you until it is ready."

The two Sai-jins nodded and then flew up a little higher into the air to begin preparing the attack.

ZZZ

Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Palace

Sakura pressed her back against the wall and slowly peered around the corner of the building. She could see Cheri's parents, Pug, and the Changelings all standing in one of the gardens talking. /Hmm, I don't see that orange guy./ she thought, remembering the winged man who'd been with the others before. /Everyone else is here, though./

Reaching up she pushed one of the buttons on the communicator she had on. "Trunks, do you read?"

"I hear you." came the boy's voice. "How's it look?"

"They're all talking." she answered. "Pug's still wearing the scouter too."

"Damn, I - sorry Akemi - I was hoping he'd have it off." he replied. "Senses, especially distracted ones, are easier to fool than the new model scouters."

"We'll just have to keep our powers down." the Tanarian said as she ducked back around the corner and made her way back to the others. "We'll run toward the arena instead of flying. It'll take longer but it uses less energy. Oh, and that orange guy is missing. They could have sent him out on patrols or something, we'll have to watch for him too."

"Alright, get back here and we'll set out."

ZZZ

Earth, South City, EDF Transport Center

"There it is." Autoro said as he and the others came to a stop across the street from the Transport Center. All five major cities had one, they were launching and landing points for transport shuttles. Both air and space shuttles. The central hub of all EDF travel transporting soldiers, equipment, and prisoners. "The transports should be on level B4, about forty feet under ground. We'll have to open up the launch bays to get out."

"How do you know all of this?" Jairel asked.

Autoro shrugged. "A few years ago I'd considered hitting one of these centers to swipe a few... supplies I needed. Discarded the idea after I realized just how troublesome it would be to get out after I'd gotten in."

The three of them glanced at each other as Autoro started across the street. "Is this really such a good idea?" asked Ward.

"Hey, you were the first to agree to help!" Jairel cried.

"Well, it's not like we've got much choice." added Gard. "There's no way we can stop him and standing around here's just going to get us killed."

Jairel sighed. "Man, when this is all over we're probably going to be fired."

"Hey!" Autoro yelled from across the street. "Would you bozos hurry it up!"

ZZZ