A/N: This WILL be the last update for an unknown amount of time as I will shortly be losing access to the net indefinitely. To help tide you over, and since I'll have plenty of free time to work on this some more between now and my triumphant return to the net, I give you... THREE CHAPTERS! Yay! Aren't you so happy now? :)
Chapter Fifty-two - Beyond Their Limits
Cell frowned as he glared at his two opponents. The arrival of the Grand Kai had been a wholly unforseen problem. The attackers in Otherworld were to have dealt with him already. His presence could mean only one thing, the Otheworld attack had failed as miserably as the attack on the Mortal Plane had gone.
Though he realized now that he should have expected this. Goku and Bardock had gained a lot more power than he had expected them to and they had mentioned the Demon attack. Obviously the assault there had failed before they'd even shown up to cause him trouble. That he was dealing with the Grand Kai now, and not Goku and Bardock again, could only mean that they had already departed Otherworld. Perhaps were already in Makai, for that matter.
That was fine. The Mazoku could deal with them easily enough. He just needed to concentrate on his mission here. As much he wanted to kill Hotaru first he knew it would be better to focus on the Kai for now. He was the real threat. Once he was gone he could single handedly finish the attack on Planet Vegeta. The Demons may have failed but he had no intention of doing likewise.
"Alright, if that's how you want to play then it's time for me to truly get serious." Cell said as he cracked his knuckles, grinning.
Hotaru narrowed her eyes as she slipped back into her fighting stance. She wasn't sure she much liked the implication of Cell's statement. She did know, however, that she didn't want to know if he'd been fighting seriously so far or not. In a burst of silver she surged off toward him again, cocking back her right fist as she flew. Reaching him she launched a punch for his head but it hit nothing but air, passing right through his head.
"Damn, after image!" she cried, spinning around quickly, expecting to find him right behind her. But he wasn't there. He was launching a punch at the Grand Kai instead. Hotaru shot back toward them as Zenryou blocked the punch and countered with a kick that Cell dodged. The biodroid then smashed his knee into the Kai's chest.
He then slipped quickly to the left and Hotaru's kick missed him and hit the Kai in the head instead. And then the biodroid's fist pounded into the back of her head with a loud crack. And then his foot shot out and slammed into her lower back. Flipping up above them he then kicked down into both of their heads and drove them down toward the ground.
He then moved so that he was floating facing the ground as pulled his arms back. Blue and green energy swirled around and gathered between his hands as he smirked. The gathering energy coalesced into two balls of ki and those watching could feel the energy of the attacks climbing at an extremely fast rate as Hotaru and the Grand Kai slammed into the ground. Cell then began thrusting his arms up and down, firing off blast after blast of energy, raining blue green destruction upon the street below.
"Mom!" Sakura cried, leaning over the edge of the building she was on and staring wide-eyed as the attacks impacted and exploded. Each blast sounded like thunder and shook the entire planet as the shockwaves cracked the foundations of all the buildings for six blocks. And then he raised his arms above his head, charged one more larger and stronger blast, and then fired it. It impacted, swelled, and exploded savagely bringing all the buildings in a six block radius crashing down.
Goten left out a startled cry as he started to fall and quickly reached out and grabbed hold of Cheri's foot. "Ow, Goten!" she cried, shaking her leg. "You almost pulled my leg off!"
"Sorry!" he said, letting go of her leg and floating back up to the others as the dust began to settle below them. "I just reacted."
"Sakura, is mom ok?" Akemi asked, looking up at her sister.
"Don't worry." Yamcha said, resting a hand on his youngest daughter's head. "She's fine."
Akemi looked back at her father and saw him gazing up into the sky. She was about to turn and find what he was looking at but heard a loud crack that drew her focus back toward Cell. And that's when she saw her mother, leg out stretched and planted in Cell's back as she drove him down into the crater formed by his recent attack.
They plunged down through the mountain of dust Cell's energy assualt had created and then impacted with a crash that blew the dust apart. Hotaru drove the Biodroid down five feet into the rock before launching back up into the air and pitching a pair orange energy blasts down ontop of him which exploded throwing more dust up into the air.
He came charging back up a second later and shot a punch for her head but she suddenly vanished. He went to turn to find her but the Grand Kai's leg slammed into his back driving him forward and then she appeared in front of him and smashed her foot into his face. He recovered from the blow quickly and and grabbed hold of Hotaru's leg before she could pull away and then turned and threw her into the Grand Kai before then charging in and kicking her in the stomach.
As he went to punch her in the face she disappeared again so he quickly pulled back and kicked the Grand Kai in the head before thrusting his arms out to his sides and letting off a burst of ki. He heard a cry from behind him and turned to see Hotaru being blown away by the ki burst and slammed his fist into her stomach doubling her over. He then flew up above her and slammed his heel into her back driving her toward the ground.
With her dealt with again he turned to locate his other opponent and his eyes widened. There were now five Grand Kais floating there. But as he focused his mind on them he realized the Kai's power had been split evenly between all five. Which meant none of them actually had the strength to hurt him now. "That's not going to help you any." Cell said, smirking. "You can't even scratch me like that."
"Perhaps not." Zenryou said as the four outer most duplicates began to drift around toward Cell's sides. "But then again, I don't plan on scratching you." It only took a few seconds for the five of them to surround him and then they held their arms out toward each other. "Star Seal!"
Each of Zenryou's ten hands began to glow blue and then blue energy shot from them. The ten streams of energy zipped around Cell before merging with each other in what looked like, from above and below, a star pattern, with Cell floating in the middle. The Biodroid scowled at the streams of energy which looked more like light that actual ki. He wasn't sure what the Kai was planning to do but he wasn't intending to wait and find out either.
"What is this!" Cell cried, trying to move away but finding it exceedingly difficult to do so.
"One of the few techinques I know that I developed myself." Zenryou replied. He then looked down to where Hotaru was standing and gazing up at them. "I can hold him for a while, I think, but not indefinitely. If you can hit him with something enough to nearly destroy him I should then be able to contain him for good."
XXX
Otherworld, H.F.I.L.
"We're almost out of time." Goku said as he gazed up at the Spirit Bomb floating way above him and Bardock and still taking shape. He could feel the twinge of Janemba's power returning again. The creature would be back in just a few moments.
"This is going to take a while." Bardock said, frowning. "At this rate we'll need to take him out at least two more times, maybe three, before the Spirit Bomb is ready. I'm really starting to doubt the plan for stopping Quietus..."
"We could charge this faster if we weren't in the middle of nowhere." said Goku. "It's only taking so long because of how far we are from the Oni."
Bardock snorted. "Great, we'll just ask Quietus to fight us in the middle of a city, then." He sighed as he saw red and black energy begin to swirl and gather a few dozen yards away, in the crater he'd formed with his last attack. "Let's close it up, he's back."
"Right." Goku agreed with a nod as he focused on sealing up the Spirit Bomb again. A moment later it was sealed up and they were floating down to join Mikomi again. As they reached her there was a flash of red as Janemba reformed. The two Sai-jins hunched over and let out cries as they focused. They flashed gold once, transforming to the first level, and then a moment later flashed gold again as they hit the second.
They'd just finished transforming when they sensed Janemba on the move. The creature was charging them at full speed and scowling deeply. He was almost on them when he suddenly opened his mouth and let loose a massive blast of red and black energy. "Shit!" Bardock cried, as all three brought their arms up to block knowing they couldn't get around it in time. It hit and surged over them a second later but only lasted a moment before fading.
Goku was just about to lower his arms when Janemba slammed his tail into the back of his head. He shook his head to clear it as he pulled himself to a stop and turned to find out where his opponent was at now. His eyes widened and he quickly teleported appearing a second later beside Janemba where he grabbed his tail, spun, and pitched him toward the ground back the way he'd come from.
"He was trying to get back into the distorted area." Bardock said as he watched Janemba slam into the ground from Goku's toss. "I guess I was right about that."
"Come on, we've got to take him out again, fast." Goku said as he shot down toward him.
"Right!" Bardock agreed, shooting after Goku quickly. Mikomi followed after them a second later. By the time the three of them reached the point of Janemba's impact the creature was back on his feet and scowling at them again. He dodged around Goku's punch and kicked him in the side at the same time knocking him into Bardock. He then slipped to the left around Mikomi's kick, grabbed her leg, and threw her into the two Sai-jins.
Janemba laughed as he pulled back his right arm and charged at the entangled trio. Bardock's eyes widened as he saw a blade of red and black energy form around Janemba's hand and grow out three feet from the tips of his fingers. The Sai-jin gave a push at the other two as he started to dodge to the side. But Janemba was already within range and thrusting his arm forward.
Goku left out a gasp of pain and pulled to the right holding his side which was already wet and warm with blood. But he could tell it wasn't too deep. He was just about to start healing it when he spotted the red and black energy blade that was currently protruding from Mikomi's chest. "Oh man..."
Janemba cackled as he pulled the blade back out and then kicked her in the head and down into the ground. Grinning he turned toward Bardock and charged him pulling back the arm with the energy blade as he went. The Sai-jin quickly thrust his arms forward and shot off a blast of golden energy but the creature easily deflected it with his left arm and then took a swing with the blade.
Bardock barely managed to dodge around it and then tried to move in closer to counter attack but ended up pulling back again as Janemba took another slice at him. "Damn it, I can't get in close enough to hit him now!" he cried, just managing to avoid a being stabbed in the head.
Goku lowered his hand from his side, the gash now sealed, and charged in to help his father. Janemba noticed him coming and quickly spun around, another blade flaring up over his left hand, and took a swipe at the charging Sai-jin. Goku's eyes widened and he quickly pulled to a stop just avoiding having his head removed.
Bardock charged in again while Janemba had his back turned. He pulled back his left arm as he neared and was just about to launch his punch when he froze, his eyes and mouth wide in shock and pain. He looked down slowly and found Janemba's tail about a foot from his stomach, a blade of black and red energy extending from just before the tip and through his abdomen. He drifted back off the blade, holding his stomach, and started focusing on healing the injury.
Janemba cackled again, grinning, as he charged toward Goku. The Sai-jin flew backward quickly dodging around the creature's swings and stabs as fast as he could but unable to get close enough to counter. And then an energy blast slammed into the back of the creature's head and exploded brining him to a stop. The attack obviously had done little actual damage but it had gotten the creature's attention and he turned to see who had attacked him.
Goku looked as well and saw Kibito floating in the sky just near the edge of the distorted area. He then turned his focus back to his father and saw that he was still healing himself. /We need to do something, fast. I can still sense the Supreme Kai but her energy is fading. She wont last much longer.../
Goku then turned his focus up toward the sky to where the unfinished Spirit Bomb currently floated. It was a bit stronger than Janemba but not by enough yet to be certain he'd be destroyed for good. A loud crack brought his focus back down to the battle again and he saw Janemba being knocked back from Kibito by a hard shoulder from Bardock. But he recovered quickly and nearly impaled the Sai-jin with a quick jab of his left arm.
/If we don't do something we're not going to pull this off!/ Goku thought, eyes going back up to the Spirit Bomb. /There's no way the Supreme Kai will last long enough for us to complete the Spirit Bomb plan and then get her help... And Janemba's keeping Bardock too busy to be of any help./ He left out a sigh as his aura faded and his hair fell back down. /Kami, I hope this works./
XXX
Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Saiya City
Cell growled as he glared at the three Zenryou's in his field of vision but turned his focus downward as he heard Hotaru calling up to him. "Sorry Cell, but this is where it ends. You should never have come here." she said, reaching eye level with him. "You'd have lived longer."
"This isn't over yet." Cell replied. He left out a cry then and his body rippled and began to split. As it did Zenryou had to strain more and more to hold him. And then there was a crack as the seal shattered and Cell split fully into four. The four biodroid's smirked for a moment and then remerged as they charged toward one of the five Zenryou's and kicked him in the stomach knocking him into a distant building.
He turned then and charged another of the Grand Kai duplicates, kicking him in the head and down into the ground. With him out of the way he moved onto a third slaming a knee into his stomach and then backhanding him down the road a dozen blocks. He was turning toward the fourth when he felt Hotaru nearing him again and he slipped around a kick from her before smashing his heel into the back of her neck.
Her eyes snapped wide and she cried out in pain as the blow slammed her into the ground below. With her once again out of the way Cell charged the next Grand Kai duplicate and smashed a fist into his face, grabbed his leg as the blow knocked him away, and then spun and pitched him into a distant sky scrapper dozens of blocks away. By this point the fifth Kai had disappeared.
Cell wasn't sure where he'd gone but he knew the Kai would be out of his hair for a little while while he relocated his other selves and recombined. That would give him time to deal with the Tanarian. But as he went to find where she'd hit another power grazed his senses and he scowled. Spinning around his arm snapped out and he fired a ki blast at Piccolo causing the Namek's concentration to break and the attack he had been preparing to fade.
Piccolo scowled as the energy he'd gathered in his hands vansihed and he watched the energy blast zip by him. He figured his Twin Gates of Judgment would have done enough damage to weaken Cell some more, perhaps enough for the Kai to do whatever it was he was trying to do, but it didn't look like he was going to have the time to use it.
The Biodroid frowned as he looked down toward where Hotaru was just getting to her feet again. "I grow tired of dealing with all of you. My objective was to kill all resistance on this side, I was never ordered to keep the planet in one piece along the way. I think it is time to put an end to this, once and for all." As he spoke he shifted in the air and cupped his hands at his side, red energy flaring up between them.
"I will destroy this planet and kill you all." Cell called out with a smirk. "Allow me to introduce you to a little something I developed over the last seven years. The Kaiohameha! Kaioooooo..."
Hotaru's eyes widened as she felt how rapidly the attack was growing in power. /Not good! I don't know if I can counter that!/ she thought as she quickly mimicked Cell's position, silver energy flaring up between her own hands. "You can try!" she called up. "But I wont let you! There are too many people on this planet I want to protect! Kaaaameeeee...!"
"Unreal!" Yamcha cried as he put his arms up to shield himself from the raging windstorm the two fighters were churning up with their power. It was all he could do to stay on his feet even after powering up the Kinryoku. Goten and Trunks transformed to stop from being blown away, but were still having to fight to stay put, and Cheri, Sakura, and Akemi were hanging onto them. 17 was holding on to Sango to keep her from being blown away, though he himself was still sliding backward, and even Raditz had transformed and was fighting to keep this footing and hang on to Nova.
"Hameeeeeee..." Cell shouted, pulling his arms back further.
"Ryooookuuu...!" sounded Hotaru.
"This is incredible!" Raditz yelled as the rushing winds began to make even him slide backwards. The power of Cell's attack was climbing at an inconcievable rate. Much faster than Hotaru's. He wasn't sure if her attack would even stall his, let alone stop it. But both of their attacks were already at levels beyond what anyone else present could muster.
And then twin cries sounded, from the sky and the ground, and the two fired their attacks. "HAAAAAAA!"
XXX
Otherworld, H.F.I.L.
Goku floated up to just below the Spirit Bomb, senses following Janemba and his father closely as they continued to fight. One on one like this Bardock was having considerably more trouble than they'd had up to this point. Janemba had the power advantage. It wasn't a huge power advantage but it was enough of one that, combined with the creature's ferocity and unrelenting string of attacks, it was proving difficult for the Sai-jin to even keep up.
Reaching the Spirit Bomb he raised his right arm up, hand open, palm up, and called the energy down to him. In its current state, the attack's natural form, it wasn't strong enough for Goku to be certain it would destroy Janemba. It was stronger than the creature, stronger even than the Supreme Kai, but he and Bardock had agreed that an attack of at least 50% greater power than Janemba would be the only sure way to destroy him, due to his nature.
However, that only applied to the Spirit Bomb in its current condition. As a Spirit Bomb. Condensed into a more narrow focus, a more compact and denser attack, it could be enough at its current levels to get the job done. The problem was in condensing the energy. Doing it while all the gathered energy was still floating above him, as a Spirit Bomb, would be impossible. There was only one way he could convert this energy into an attack possibly capable of stopping Janemba. He just wasn't sure if it would work, or if he could survive it.
Closing his eyes he left out a breath and then focused. The gathered energy above him flashed once, twice, three times, and then it began to flow down into his hand. He felt the pressure building up within a few seconds, the energy forcing its way into every space it could find and quickly overwhelming his system. But he only needed to go a little further, only needed to draw in a little more...
/Yes!/ he cried mentally, as he felt the energy above him begin to draw in and begin to condense. He'd drawn enough of the power into himself to be able to fully manipulate the entire collection now. The energy over his head began to shirnk quickly, growing brighter and brighter as it did, until at last he had a baseball sized ball of bright blue energy in his hand. He could also feel the strain on his body from holding so much of the attack, all of it made of foreign energy, inside him.
/I've got to make this count./ he thought. /I wont get a second shot, if this doesn't work.../ He sighed and shook his head. If it failed to even distract Janemba then they were done for. If, at least, it took him out temporarily then they might still have a chance. But completely destroying him, destroying him for good, was Goku's intention. The only thing he could do to save Mikomi for certain and allow them to continue on.
In a burst of blue he surged in toward the on going fight wishing, as he did, that he could transform. But he wasn't sure what might happen to the gathered energy if he did. He knew it was impossible to create a Spirit Bomb while in Super Sai-jin, he had no idea if the energy of one could be controlled while transformed and had no desire to find out in the current situation. "Bardock, out of the way!" Goku called as he neared.
Suddenly the two fighters became visible to Goku's eyes as they stopped moving. His father's gaze went from his black hair to the bright blue light around his right hand and then his eyes widened. The Sai-jin dodged quickly out of the way but Janemba just scowled and turned to face him. Suddenly the creature lunged toward him and Goku reacted on instinct, the fist carrying the energy snapping out and slamming into his chest with a deafening crack and a brilliant flash of blue.
XXX
Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Saiya City
The red and silver streams of energy slammed into each other about a hundred feet above the city streets. The impact sent out a thunderous crack and a massive shockwave that caused several more near-by buildings to collapse. Hotaru had no focus to spare for the collateral damage occuring around them, all her attention and concentration was on the warring attacks she and Cell had launched.
Though perhaps warring was the wrong term. His attack was pushing down through hers with very little resistance. Her Kameryokuha's power was still climbing, but so was the power of Cell's Kaiohameha. And its power was going up faster than that of her own attack. Beyond that she was sure that it had already surpassed her maximum limit of power with the Kameryokuha. A few seconds later she knew for a fact it had as the strength of her attack ceased increasing but Cell's kept on going up.
/Damn it! Damn him!/ her mind screamed. /No! I just came back. I just got Yamcha back! Sakura... Akemi... I can't let them die.../ The ground under her feet cracked as her eyes began to glow. -Yamcha, get everyone back at least a hundred yards. NOW!-
Yamcha didn't have to be told twice, he quickly reached out and grabbed Sango's arm and pulled her over so that he could yell into her ear to be heard over the roar of the attacks. Sango nodded and then vanished before appearing a moment later beside the kids. Grabbing them she vanished again. Meanwhile Yamcha motioned to the others with him and took off, all of them following after him quickly.
Once he was sure he was outside the range Hotaru had designated he turned back to the battle. Cell's attack was now only thirty or so feet away from Hotaru's. He wasn't sure what she had planned and he couldn't think of anything that would get them out of this situation. And then he saw, just barely, the muscles in her arms ripple. /She's... going to use that!/ he thought, both shocked and terrified. /But... she hasn't perfected it yet! If she uses it now, like this, she could.../
Cell's attack was almost on her now, she could almost feel it against her hands. There were only a few inches left between them. It was now or never. She closed her eyes and focused, concentrated with all of her might, and drew up every ounce of mental energy she had. She didn't have much time, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to properly contain and direct it with so little time to prepare, but there really wasn't any other choice. She pushed her mental energy out of her body and created, as best she could, a tunnel of energy between her and Cell.
"Now you die!" Cell called down, laughing. Hotaru knew why, his attack was now pressing directly against her hands. The only thing stopping her from being overwhelmed by it was all the energy in her hands, but that wouldn't stop it for long.
"You first!" she called back up. "GENKAI TOPPA!"
It happened in an instant. A blinding flash of silver, an ear splitting crack, a sudden roar of wind, and then the shockwave slammed into them and blew them all back. Back and back and into and through near-by buildings. Dozens of towering buildings around the battle site trembled and then crumbled. The ground cracked, shattered, broke apart into fine dust and blew away like a sudden sand storm.
Nobody could see anything, nobody could hear anything. The roaring was too loud, the blowing dust too thick. They couldn't even sense Hotaru or Cell now, something was pressing against them, against their minds, blocking out all signals. But they could feel waves and waves of pressure, of pure raw power, washing out over them. It was like some sort of bomb had gone off, like a sun had fallen to the planet and exploded.
Yamcha fought to see through the dust, to hear through the roar, to sense through the pressure, to find some sign that Hotaru was still out there. Still alive. The seconds seemed to tick by slowly, taking minutes to pass, but then the pressure began to fade. The roar began to die. The dust began to fall. But he couldn't find her, he still couldn't feel her power.
-Hotaru?- he tried, tentatively. -Hotaru! Come on, answer me!-
XXX
Otherworld, H.F.I.L.
Goku felt his hand hit Janemba and then he felt something weird. His hand passed THROUGH Janemba. It went right into him like he was made of mud. And then the energy in his fist exploded and he was blasted backwards at incredible speed. Before he'd even realized he was moving he'd slammed through five of the rock spires. In a flash of gold he transformed to the second level and used all of his power to bring himself to a stop.
In the distance he could see a bright, swirling, roaring ball of blue energy swelling larger and larger. And then red light seeped into the center of it and began washing out to the edges. The blue fading to purple and then to red until, at last, the whole thing had gone red. Goku had no idea what was happening now, none of this made any sense to him. He'd expected the energy hit and explode and that to be it.
And then the ball of energy flashed and pulsed and doubled in size. Then flashed, pulsed, and doubled in size again. And then white light been to seep out from the center. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, until the entire thing had turned white. That's when he felt the sudden pulling. A suction, coming from the energy ball before him, as it began to shrink down smaller and smaller. It took everything he had not to be pulled in and he saw that Bardock was holding Kibito and Mikomi back from being sucked in as well.
And then, when the ball of energy had reached the size of a marble it suddenly errupted. A thundering explosion that shook the ground for hundreds of miles and a blinding flash of gold that blured his vision for a few moments. When it cleared and he could see again the energy ball was gone. The rock spires were gone. The floating jellybeans were gone. Everything around him looked like the normal H.F.I.L. again.
He blinked in confusion then as he saw something, no, someone, fall from about where the center of the energy ball had been. It wasn't Janbema, he could tell that much even from this distance. He shot in and reached the area just as the form hit the ground. Bardock, Kibito, and Mikomi joining him a second later. "An... Oni?" Goku asked, confused.
Mikomi knelt down and placed a hand on the Oni's forehead. "He's dead." she said. "I think this was the Oni that was possessed by the evil that created Janemba. I think, in a way, he was Janemba."
"So... it's dead then? For good?" Bardock asked.
Mikomi nodded. "I believe so, yes." she said. "My injuries vanished on their own and all of the distortions around here seem to have gone as well. All trace of his presence has left."
"But what the hell was that with the Spirit Bomb?" Bardock wondered, looking up into the sky.
"My hand went right into him." said Goku. "When I tried to hit him with it it just went right in."
"The energy of the Spirit Bomb was too pure." said Mikomi. "He couldn't resist it at all. And I think, because it worked from the inside out, it purified him. Destroyed all of the evil and returned him back to this, to what existed before the evil took over." She stood back up again and sighed. "Well, at least that is one threat we wont have to worry about anymore. But another, larger one, still awaits us."
Bardock nodded. "Yeah, we should get moving. I'd like some time to rest and recover from that fight but we need to get to the others."
"I can help with your recovery." Kibtio said. He held his hands out toward the two Sai-jins and golden energy began to flow from him into the pair. A moment later he stopped and lowered his arms again. "There, I've restored your bodies to peak condition."
"Haha, this is great!" Goku cried, stretching a little. "I feel good as new!"
"Then let us continue on to the entrance to Hell." said Mikomi. "And try and put an end to this mess."