Chapter 71: The Cell Games Begin

"Well then shall we begin?" Cell asked his smirk growing into a full-fledged smile.

Without hesitation 5 different fighters stepped forward in unison, each saying something along the lines of "I'm first."

Cell noted of the major players only Cooler didn't seem overly eager to jump into the fray. Between Cell's knowledge of Frost Demon behavior, and the fact Cooler had shown up not even bothering to transform into his 5th form, it was clear he had little to no interest in fighting unless he absolutely had too. Not that Cell cared too much, he was much more interested in the argument brewing in front of him.

As soon as they registered that they weren't the only one making the declaration, Vegeta, Goku, Nappa, Trunks, and Piccolo all turned to look at the others.

"What do you mean you're going first!" Vegeta snarled. "If anyone is going to end this insect it will be me!" After giving Nappa an especially menacing glare the Saiyan General dropped his claim of fighting first, but that still left three rivals. Trunks surprisingly wasn't backing down under his glare. The child in fact barely noticed it, instead his attention was focused purely on Cell.

"Come on Vegeta you already had a chance against him." Goku whined.

"We don't have time to play around with Cell, we need to finish him off quickly." Piccolo argued glaring at the three Saiyans and one demi-Saiyan challenging his rightful position.

"Cell's mine." Trunks added glaring daggers at his hated opponent.

"Well you can't all fight at once, as much as I would enjoy it, it would spoil the fun of the tournament." Cell smugly hollered.

"Hey I know, here let's do rock, paper, scissors to decide. I think it is only fair." Goku replied.

Trunks immediately agreed, while Piccolo was somewhat more reluctant.

"What the hell is that." Nappa replied.

After briefly explaining the rules, and a short argument they managed to convince Vegeta as well.

With that the four fighters gathered up and began their game.

Round one ended in a predictable split, with Goku and Vegeta both going rock, Trunks scissors and Piccolo paper.

Round after round went by before the final face off was decided. Piccolo vs Vegeta, one ill-advised rock from Piccolo though sealed his fate, allowing Vegeta to finally claim victory.

Vegeta smug smirk was broadcast all around the world as the Saiyan Prince stepped into the ring.

"Well then let's begin." Cell said as he struck his defensive pose.

Vegeta took his position across from Cell, and immediately began powering up, almost immediately the four cameras around the tournament stage began to spark by the immense amount of energy flowing freely through the air. A second later all four exploded simultaneously.

In a makeshift lab provided by King Furry, Bulma let loose a colorful string of expletives as all four of her high-speed cameras detonated simultaneously. A part of her couldn't help but think Vegeta had pulled that stunt on purpose.

Letting out a sigh, she at least had prepared for such an issue, as she ordered the next set of cameras to launch. In the meantime, they at least had the satellite cameras to watch.

Vegeta continued to power up to his maximum. He refused to play around and give Cell a chance to humiliate him again.

Cell watched on expectantly, as Vegeta's power finally plateaued.

"I'm impressed Vegeta, you've nearly managed to double your power since our last meeting." Cell gave a sincere compliment, before adding "Unfortunately that still won't be enough to defeat me."

"We'll see about that." Vegeta declared before launching forward to begin his assault.

Vegeta started off with a feint towards Cell's head. Cell lazily raised his hand to defend against the obvious opening attack, only for Vegeta's foot to lash out instead.

Cell's eyes opened wide in surprise for a moment as Vegeta's foot crashed home against his chest, knocking him slightly off-balance.

Vegeta didn't waste his opportunity as he grasped onto Cell's hand and pulled with all of his might, picking the larger fighter up onto his back, and then swinging him downwards with all of his might, causing Cell to crash head first into the stone stage floor, embedding his head into the rocky surface.

On the nearby rock cliff, the newer members of the EDF let out a collective cheer, as they got their first glimpse of the level of fighters that make up the Earth's first line of defense.

Vegeta jumped backwards, extending one hand out and beginning to charge one of his more powerful attacks. A blue ball of pure destruction swelling in his hand.

At that same moment Cell planted his hands on the ground, and pulled his head out of the dirt, just as Vegeta shouted "Big Bang Attack!"

Cell used his hands to push off of the ground, and launch himself into the air, as he began to rise into the air he realized the attack would still likely collide with him before he could get past it.

Bracing himself and surrounding his hand with a massive amount of Ki, Cell lashed out at the attack with a powerful chop, his hand pressed against the attack, as he fought for supremacy. In the end Cell won, his chop not only knocked the attack passed him, but actually high into the atmosphere.

The explosion spread out throughout space, forming a gaping hole in the planet's dense satellite net.

When Bulma looked up from getting the next set of cameras ready to launch, she felt her heart sink as two of her satellites were engulfed in a blue flash before losing signal completely.

"Seriously!" She shouted in frustration. Not even being beyond the Earth's atmosphere appeared to be a safe viewing distance for her creations.

Gritting her teeth, she set out to readjust the surviving cameras into hopefully safer orbits.

Vegeta saw the tide changing early on as Cell began to push against his attack and immediately dashed forward, covering half of the distance between them just in the time it took for Cell to throw the attack past himself.

The Saiyan Prince lashed out with a straight punch aimed at Cell's head, only for the bio-android to catch the first attack mere inches from his face.

Vegeta scowled, as a smirk crossed Cell's face. After a microsecond of pause Cell's knee launched upwards catching Vegeta under his chin and knocking the Saiyan Prince backwards.

Vegeta recovered quickly, but he was immediately forced onto the defensive, his backward flip converting to a backflip as Cell's leg cut through where his legs were just an instant before.

Before he had even touched the ground though, Cell's next attack had already struck. A sideways knife-hand finding home on the side of Vegeta's neck, sending him flying away.

Vegeta quickly got control of himself, ignoring the flaring pain from his neck and launched back towards Cell.

As he reached his target though Cell vanished leaving nothing but an after image.

Vegeta frantically looked around for a moment, before Cell appeared above him again striking downwards with a powerful kick. But to the Android's surprise, Vegeta too was revealed to be nothing more than an afterimage.

That same instant Vegeta's fist lashed out at the side of Cell's head, only being intercepted by Cell's forearm at the last moment.

Within fluid movement, Vegeta's arm was suddenly caught in Cell's other hand. Before he could even hope to react, Cell gave his arm a powerful yank, pulling the Saiyan Prince's face directly into Cell's elbow.

Vegeta's vision went blurry for a moment as he tried to collect himself. Cell pressed his advantage though. As Vegeta stumbled backwards, Cell's leg lashed out in a powerful sidekick, connecting with Vegeta's abdomen and sending him flying across the tournament stage.

Vegeta managed to halt his flight a few feet past the edge of the stage, and immediately ignited his aura again, as he rocketed back in after Cell.

Vegeta's first attack was blocked, as was his follow up kick.

A grimace of frustration began to show on Vegeta's face as he felt the battle gradually shifting further from his favor.

Finally, after one more lunged Vegeta landed a few feet away from Cell, his back to him briefly before turning back to face the smirking Bio-Android.

"Damn I can't even follow most of it." Krillin muttered.

"Yeah they are on a whole 'nother level." Tien echoed.

"The short version is Vegeta's losing, like I expected." Piccolo answered bluntly.

"Let the monkey have his fun. If anything, he is going to wear Cell down at least." Cooler added, not even bothering to keep his eyes open.

"I don't like being made a fool of." Vegeta growled. "I'm here to fight you at your best, not to be a plaything."

"Come now Vegeta, do you really think you deserve my best effort. You're the warm up act after all." Cell responded expecting the Saiyan Prince to explode in a fit of rage.

Instead Vegeta's grip tightened for a moment, before a somewhat calmer demeanor took back over. "Fine then, I suppose I'll have to force you to." Vegeta said before striking his stance once more.

"Well that was unexpected. You've seemingly changed quite a bit after your death. I'm assuming you were sent to hell. Did the prospects of eternal damnation really change you so much?" Cell asked tauntingly.

A confident smirk crossed Vegeta's lips. "I saw the true potential of the Saiyan race." He declared before launching forward again.

Vegeta launched a seemingly endless series of attacks, trying every combination he had ever seen, but Cell blocked them all effortlessly.

"I hope this isn't the Saiyan potential you were talking about." Cell goaded, as he lashed out with an attack of his own.

Vegeta didn't manage to raise his defense in time and Cell's fist crashed across his check sending him bouncing off the ground.

"I said quit holding back!" Vegeta shouted.

"I thought you were going to make me show you my full power." Cell continued to taunt. "But since you have been so persistent, I'll allow you a taste of my power."

For the first time during the fight an aura began to surround Cell. The entire arena was shaking as his power burst forth.

Beads of sweat began to build up on Vegeta's head as the gap in power between them began to grow. He was fully aware that this was what he asked for, but he knew his best chance of ascending was this fight, here and now.

"Damn it Vegeta...just had to goad him didn't you." Piccolo mumbled under his breath.

"Father…" Trunks added as Cell's strength went from slightly above Vegeta's maximum to completely eclipsing it.

'Wow, Cell is really strong. I hope I get a chance to fight him.' Goku thought to himself.

Finally, Cell's power leveled off. "Happy?" He asked smugly.

"Yes, that's more like it." Vegeta responded with as much bravado he could muster. As much as he would like to believe he would be able to handle any threat, his brief stint in hell though brought him to a harsh realization, his current strength was utterly inadequate. 'That's why I'll use you like I used Frieza, and finally achieve my destiny.' In that brief moment, Vegeta re-lived all of the pain, all of the hatred he now held for Cell and felt power beginning to well up inside of him, he was sure he would be able to break through. He would transform.

With a mighty roar he launched forward once more.

From Cell's perspective, Vegeta's movements had reduced to a slow crawl.

In the time it took the Saiyan Prince to cross the battlefield, Cell had already thought of over a dozen different scenarios to humiliate the Saiyan Prince.

Just as Vegeta's fist was about to reach him, Cell made his move.

Dodging to his left, he slammed his elbow directly into Vegeta's sternum, using not only his own strength, but Vegeta's own momentum against him.

A loud cracked echoed throughout the battlefield as Vegeta's sternum shattered from that single blow.

Blood and spittle rained from his mouth, as he let out a pained yell; his body coming to a complete halt.

The pain was terrible, dropping him to his knees. But Cell wasn't done with him yet, Vegeta had asked for this and Cell fully intended to make him suffer for his arrogance.

Launching himself into a flip, Cell flipped over, delivering a bone crushing blow to the top of the toppled Saiyan Prince's head. The force of the collision embedded Vegeta deeply into the planet's crust. Not only that but the sheer force of the attack obliterated nearly 2/3rds of the stage, leaving a massive crater in its wake.

A somewhat surprised look briefly crossed Cell's face. "Damn it...I worked hard on that arena." He muttered as he landed, trying to determine if Vegeta managed to survive the attack.

As soon as the attack was delivered a sense of panic rushed over Trunks. "FATHER!" He shouted, his aura surrounding him in an instant. Not even bothering to search for Vegeta's energy signature. He fully intended to rescue his father, he wouldn't let him die twice against Cell.

"VEGETA!" Nappa shouted, barely able to restrain himself, every ounce of his body wanted to follow after Trunks and help the newest Saiyan Prince protect his father. But he knew Vegeta would never allow such a thing.

Trunks only made it a few dozen feet before Piccolo's arm extended and grasped onto Trunks' collar. "Stop Trunks. This is a tournament, and it isn't over yet." Piccolo said, turning his eyes back to the battlefield

From the hole, a battered Vegeta emerged from the crater, one hand protectively hovering over his shattered sternum. One eye forced closed due to a large stream of red blood flowing from the wounds on his forehead, his hair back to its natural black for the first time in nearly a year, in Vegeta's frame of reference.

"Ah Vegeta, you survived, I was worried that me fighting you seriously had killed you...again." Cell noted with a sneer.

"Can... it Cell." Vegeta snarled every breath was agony in its purest form. His mind was focused though as he began to float upwards, coming to rest about 20 feet above the battlefield. "I told you I was going to show you the full power of the Saiyan Race. Well here you go!" He shouted as his aura ignited again, sustained purely by willpower at this point it was much smaller than before. Without any further discussion he spread his arms wide and let out a guttural yell. Energy channeling to both of his palms.

Cell simply crossed his arms and looked up at Vegeta. It was clear to all watching the fight, this attack was going to be Vegeta's last stand.

"Alright!" Nappa shouted when seeing Vegeta rise from the rubble, he got even more excited when he realized the attack Vegeta was charging up. "There's no way Cell is going to survive this." The Saiyan General declared confidentiality.

"You sure?' Trunks asked, still somewhat surprised to see his father back on the attack after sustaining such a powerful combination of attacks.

"His power has been reduced too greatly. There's no way any attack Vegeta can muster can hurt Cell now." Piccolo observed.

"I don't know Piccolo, I think Vegeta might have a trick or two up his sleeve still." Goku added, an unwavering confidence in his rival.

"I suppose we'll see. One way or another Vegeta's fight ends here." Piccolo replied as all attention returned to the remnants of the stage.

Above the stage, Vegeta was still yelling. More and more energy beginning to gather around him. Electricity beginning to arc off his body, carving large gashes in the ground. Above him dark clouds began to gather and swirl around as if a massive storm was gathering.

"Well, this looks interesting. Alright Vegeta, do your worst. We'll see if you can even get me to move from this spot." Cell hollered up to Vegeta who continued to focus on one thing and one thing only, charging his attack.

Below Cell simply braced himself, waiting patiently for Vegeta's best shot.

Even as more and more power was channeled into his attack, Vegeta couldn't help but be frustrated by his lack of progress. If he was at full power he would've had more than enough power to eliminate Cell once and for all. But right now, his attack would barely scratch him.

Throughout all of this Vegeta was still searching inside of himself. For the sort of dam, the sort of reservoir of power the likes of which he found the first time he ascended. The same sort he witnessed Cepa summon down in hell. He knew it was in him somewhere. But even though he knew what he was looking for, he couldn't find it.

He would defeat Cell, he was sure of it. Since he had goaded Cell into releasing his true power, at the very least he knew what level of power he needed to surpass in order to defeat him. So, he continued charging. He just hoped Cell's overconfidence allowed him to be patient enough to wait him out.

"What's he doing? He has to be stalling at this point, right?" Chi Chi added confused about the situation unfolding before her. Vegeta's power was certainly increasing, but did he really think he could get enough power to hurt Cell? It didn't make sense to her.

"Just settle down. This is Vegeta we're talking about. Cell is as good as dead." Nappa replied confidently.

Finally, after a significant charging time Vegeta felt he had done it, he had more than enough power to finish Cell off once and for all. "Alright Cell, let's see if you're really as perfect as you think you are. Don't move!" Vegeta yelled before firing his attack. "Final FLASH!"

Cell watched on confidentiality as the wall of energy closed in on him. Only realizing at the last moment that he might've underestimated Vegeta's attack.

Frantically he stretched out his hand, surrounding it with as much energy he could gather on such short notice and began to push against the attack. But even using all of his available power it wasn't enough. "GAAAHHH!" He let out a shout as he began to activate overdrive.

"No way!" Krillin shouted.

"Alright I think he's doing it!" A random member of the EDF added.

"Incredible!" Trunks shouted, his pride in his father growing as the blast continued to swallow Cell up.

On and on the praise was rained down on the Saiyan Prince. Three warriors though held back. Goku and Piccolo's faces betrayed their wariness of the scene unfolding before them. While Cooler briefly opened his eyes, before making a look of disinterest and returning to his mediation.

Down below the attack was reaching its crescendo, the shockwave was spreading out in all directions even as it blasted backwards cutting out into space.

Nappa, Trunks and Piccolo rushed to shield the weaker fighters watching along the higher cliff. While Goku quickly scooped up Chi Chi, and the other original Z Fighters who had been standing with them and teleported them to a safer location in the brief instant before the attack had hit.

As the energy dissipated and the rubble began to fall back to Earth, the stronger Z Fighters were able to drop their defensive shields.

Goku too was able to teleport back into the arena. In his arms Krillin let loose a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Goku that was too close for comfort.:

Goku simply nodded and returned his attention back to the battlefield below.

The first figure to come into view was the clearly drained Vegeta, having already dropped out of his Super Saiyan state, his heavy breathing leaving no doubt as to how difficult of a time he was having even staying in the air at the moment.

With only one eye opened he peered into the smoke, trying to determine if Cell survived.

Finally, the smoke began to clear. And what Vegeta saw caused his heart to sink.

Standing there in the smoke, one arm protectively hovering over the burnt stump of his other arm. "Impressive Vegeta...I didn't think you'd actually be able to make an attack that could hurt me." Cell gritted through his teeth. "Unfortunately for you, this wound isn't permanent." He said straightening out as he crushed one of the stored senzu beans in his leg, allowing the magical dust to cause his arm to regrow, without wasting any of his strength to activate the Namekian healing ability, and in fact increasing it with a sizable zenkai.

"Well then Vegeta, I think it is my turn to have some fun, since you've now completely destroyed my stage." Cell said before launching forward faster than the heavily wounded Saiyan could hope to follow.

In an instant he backhanded Vegeta into the ground and dove down after him.

Just as his knee was about to deliver a likely deathblow to Vegeta though it collided with something else.

Goku had appeared between the two fighters in an instant. His forearms crossed above his head to block the bone rattling blow.

"Enough Cell, he landed outside the arena, the match is over." Goku argued, barely able to push back against the force.

An intrigued smirk crossed Cell's face, "Well then since you are so eager to intercede, I take it you're going to fight me next?" Cell asked, a special thrill running through his body. His entire life was leading him to this moment, the second biggest of his life, besides achieving perfection.

Before Goku could answer though another voice cut in. "No playtime is over, it's my turn." Piccolo said as he threw his weighted clothing off.

"No fair Piccolo! I wanted to fight him next." Goku whined.

"Goku, now isn't the time to play around. In case you didn't notice but after healing from Vegeta's attacks he got even stronger. If we don't stop him now, he might become too powerful for us to stop." Piccolo explained to his arch-rival.

Goku wanted to object, but he knew there was a gap in strength he couldn't hope to overcome, besides, based on Vegeta's own fight, it appeared he was behind the Saiyan Prince again somehow. "Fine…" He managed to say before backing down.

"Really then? Fine Piccolo, if you're so confident, go ahead and show me what you can do." Cell said as he turned to face his Namekian adversary.

At that same time Bulma's secondary cameras finally landed, this time staying far at the ridges surrounding the battlefield. Immediately she noticed a certain Saiyan Prince missing.

'Vegeta...no…' Bulma thought as Goku pulled Vegeta's limp form from the rubble.

(Back on Planet Torappu)

After halting his beam attack Ginyu dropped to one knee as Turles and Broly restarted their struggle a short distance away. He shook his head from side to side, but his vision still seemed blurry.

Not only that but he could swear he could feel something rattling in his head. "Damn that monster hit me harder than I thought." He muttered to himself. It wasn't just the double vision though, he felt a strange sensation, one he hadn't felt since his battle on Namek.

A stray thought hit Ginyu. 'Could it be…' An electric thrill ran through him. If he was right about this, he could not only prove his true worth to his new master Turles once and for all, but he could even become the most powerful Saiyan in the universe.

Rising to his feet GInyu reached out towards Broly and locked him into his psychic grip, before letting out a loud shout "CHANGE NOW!"

I hope everyone enjoyed the start of the Cell Games! I'm going to have a bit of time to write this next week as I recover from a minor operation, so hopefully this chapter isn't too scattered. So I'm hoping to make some progress on this next chapter as well. Anyway I'm not going to do a long A/N this time, as I'm already a bit late in posting this chapter. It was intended as my birthday gift to all of you. So I hope you all enjoy it :)

Reviews:

jj4life015 - I'm glad you enjoyed it! I hope you enjoy this one as well. :)

Luke - Yeah two major fights for the price of one :) I'll hopefully still have a few surprises for everyone even in the Cell half of things. Thank you very much, that means a ton to me that you enjoy the story so much! I hope I can continue to meet that level or even exceed it :)

DarkFalconZ -

Yeah, sorry for the long wait to get back to them. There was a lot of material to cover on Earth, expect a heavier focus on them going forward. Yes Gohan is walking a fine line at the moment, we'll have to see how it all plays out ;)

RKF22 - In all of his legendary glory ;)

serus black antihumannature - Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

super mystic gohan - Sorry for the delay. I know I had left a bit of a cliff hanger last time. Hopefully this chapter remedied that :)

Yeah Gohan was overdue for a win of some sort. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well :)

Spirax 570 - Thank you! I hope this one lived up to your expectations as well. Yeah, Gohan is the major player in all of this so I hope I can keep his progression going well :)

Bro 123 - Roughly 1,100,000 taking in the partial parts of 16 and 19 that he was able to absorb. I'll hopefully get a complete list out to everyone soon.

JOEL -

Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Yeah they are dead, not enough ships for everyone to get off world. Turles is pretty powerful at the moment, in the range of 10,000,000 prior to the latest tree of might fruit. Recoome, he took the hit, but he isn't exactly in good shape at the moment. Kinda as if Krillin took a shot from a Full Powered Frieza or something like that. If Broly powered up all of the way, and Cell/the Z Fighters weren't distracted with their own struggle they would likely pick up on him. I unfortunately can't answer that yet :( Yeah Gohan was overdue for a win :)

Dragonmaster1296 -

Yes they are, going to be interesting to see how that part plays out. The only reason Turles is keeping up at the moment is because Paragus is desperate to keep Broly somewhat under control. I'm glad you picked up on that, it is a major plot point I'm looking forward to ;). Right now Broly by a long shot. Thanks again for the review

Anyway I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, I'll see you all again hopefully soon!