Hehe progress.
It'd be nice to get to the thing(TM) by the year anniversary, but at this rate, I doubt I'll get that far in time, especially since I have a couple POV chapters planned in between. Only one of which I've started
Though, maybe if I get the second POV chapter on the anniversary that'd be neat
thewittywhy: Thanks ^.^
Qinlongfei: Hey as long as you keep reading and are entertained, those are the goals at the end of the day
TheWaterKid: Thanks ^.^ and I will not confirm or deny any theories of possible power ups
I finally walked in to see everyone staring intently at the TV.
Instead of questioning it, I turned to watch as well.
Whatever it was, it was the end of the broadcast, the news reporter was staring just off screen in fear, someone off screen started screaming, and then the feed cut out, leaving only static.
After a moment of stunned silence, Krillin leaned forward to change the channel using the buttons on the wall by the physical TV instead of a remote.
He backed away and the screen showed a crooked view of the street, empty clothes now littering the street. The only sound being static and the sickening echoes of gunshots.
Then it fell silent.
"I, think it's over…" Krillin said solemnly.
A few moments passed, but as nothing moved Krillin stepped forward and turned the channel again. This time it showed a newscaster talking about the incident.
Gingertown. That's where he is.
I can get there, I have the GPS on my phone. It's not great at such fast speeds, but I can estimate.
So as Trunks explained what we found at the decrepit time machine I backed away and turned to the door.
"GOHAN! Where do you think you're going?!"
I flinched at Chichi's loud voice. Everyone else seemed to grimace too before turning to me.
"I uh, outside," I pointed out the door.
"Really?! After what we just watched, you're just going outside?"
"Uh, yeah, I just- wanted some fresh air, away from the TV…"
"Oh is that all, well in that case why don't you come upstairs? I have the window open and you can help me take care of your father."
"I- uh-" my eyes flickered around the room. Darn it, before I could have slipped away and by the time someone noticed and caught up there's be no point in sending me back. Now what? I doubt any of them would actively go against Chichi and tell her to let her ten-year-old child go find the town-slaughtering monster.
My hand fell from the doorknob.
I walked back into the room and sat at the back, holding my knees up to my chest.
"Right well, I'm going to Gingertown," Trunks announced, taking my place by the door.
He waved off any concern, "I'll be fine, it's the Androids we have to worry about anyway."
I glared into the stairs.
"I'll go too," -she- said.
That, was better than nothing at least. -She- knew the real threat of Cell after all.
Clover followed suit and gave a slight wave to Nappa as they left.
Nappa immediately followed after her. Then he doubled back and grabbed Raditz by the collar.
"WHA- HEY! LET GO OF ME!"
"Come on! Field trip, it'll be fun! I'm sure the kid would feel much better knowing his favorite uncle is gonna be going!"
Nappa dragged the still protesting Raditz along very much against his will.
In other circumstances, I would be amused by their antics.
Almost as soon as they left, I felt a spike of Ki back from where Trunks and I came from. It was weird, and layered. I could sense Piccolo there twice, and Goku, and Vegeta, and Frieza. It was the same general sense of their powers at least, but slightly off, twisted.
Instead of Goku's sense of Sunshine, it was more like a sunburn. Instead of the cool collectiveness of Piccolo, it was cold and indifferent. As prickly as Vegeta's, and as malicious as Frieza but more controlled and calculative than either.
It was familiar. And it was wrong.
Everyone else who could sense energy obviously sensed it too, as they rushed outside to, sense it better I guess? I didn't think a single wall and a few feet made much of a difference but whatever.
Tentatively, I followed and stood at the door frame as the other commented on the oddity. Yamcha even flew up to double check that Goku was still here and unconscious.
"I'm gonna go check it out, you guys stay here and protect Goku if anything happens, alright?" Krillin decided. He leveled his face with mine, "alright?"
I glared at the door as I nodded.
I went back inside and cut off my senses as Krillin flew away. There was no point in focusing on it while I could do nothing. If anything important happened one of the others here will shout.
…
I took the lead as the three of us, plus Nappa and Raditz apparently, flew to Ginger Town. I kept silent as Trunks and Clover speculated on what it could have been.
Nappa showing up wasn't all that surprising. He and Clover seemed to have smoothed over whatever was nothing her before and they been, not close but, not distant either, since then.
Raditz though? That was more of a surprise. For one it was difficult to just be around people I know and have them not recognize me, and for two, why? I had to assume he was here by force because actively going into an unknown threat and Raditz did not go together.
Clover would ask for Nappa's input once or twice, and Nappa would either answer, or glance back at Raditz who would roll his eyes and mutter complaints, and then Nappa would answer.
So yeah, probably forced.
I glanced back as I sensed Krillin catching up. And now there were three speculating.
"What about you Shaylan?" Hearing Krillin say that name was, jarring.
"Huh?"
"What do you think it might be?"
"Don't know. No way to know until we get there."
"Kinda weird that whatever it is has the energy of all the heavy hitters?"
"Yeah. Weird."
I ignored them as Krillin muttered something about me being talkative.
By the time we got there, the fight was dying down.
Cell was utterly hideous. At least the genocidal monsters I've had to deal with for the past whatever years have been technically aesthetically pleasing. When they didn't have blood splatters at least. Cell was just revolting to look at.
A bright green that belonged nowhere in nature, gaudy orange accents, and bug-like features and joints that looked completely out of place on a semi-humanoid creature, and that's speaking nothing on the tail that was too long to be proportional for his body and was still dripping with some kind of liquid.
Said liquid dissolved a portion of the rock under him.
Gross.
Cell noticed our approach, and evaluated his new odds.
Piccolo was confident in our numbers at least.
Piccolo…
Anyway.
Cell made an announcement about achieving perfection or whatever and splayed his hands out in a vaguely familiar way.
What was-
"Solar Flair!"
I immediately doubled back as light pierced through my eyes painfully. Closing them did absolutely nothing, and the light even burned through my hands covering my eyes.
Why did I never learn that? That would have been so useful against the Androids. Definitely learning that before I get back.
On the more immediate matters, by the time our vision cleared, Cell was already well and gone, his power suppressed and all.
Welp, that was a bust. At least Cell was a known threat now, but my being here didn't really affect that.
Piccolo shouted in outrage as he realized that Cell had escaped. Even Raditz poking at his scouter wielded no results.
After the dust settled and the realization that Cell would be untraceable by now, the group turned to question Piccolo on what was going on instead.
Piccolo glanced twice at me, and then again when Trunks mentioned me by name.
Vegeta showed up just in time, demanding an explanation as well.
Piccolo declined, saying to wait for Tien who was already on his way.
Vegeta instead demanded how Piccolo could have gotten so much stronger. At Piccolo's refusal to say anything, Krillin explained instead that he had fused with Kami.
Tien approached and Krillin tried to tell Piccolo as such, "Piccolo- Uh, Kami- or- whoever you are, Tien's here."
"Enough. Just call me Piccolo."
Piccolo explained much of what I knew already. Cell came from the future, stole a time machine, is made from the Cells of the group and the rouges gallery, and wants to absorb 17 and 18 to achieve perfection.
None of this was new or surprising. At least the standard plot seems set, even if some of the pieces have moved.
Of course, eliminating the risk of Perfect Cell at all is still the best option. And since there's no way to track the Androids, and Piccolo was the only one possibly strong enough to beat them, that meant going after Cell.
Who was also untraceable as long as he suppressed his Ki.
This was all such a headache.
I wandered off as Vegeta spouted his usual nonsense and kicked at the rubble.
As far as I could tell, no one was surprised when he stormed off.
"Hey so Trunks," Krillin started, "just to be clear, if we were to go back in time and change anything, that wouldn't effect this timeline, right?"
"That's right, why?"
"Well, then it wouldn't do us much good to go and destroy the unfinished Cell back at Gero's lab, would there?"
"Well, no, but at least if we did that we wouldn't have to deal with another Cell popping up later."
"Alright, then you two go and destroy whatever's left of Gero's lab, the rest of us will try to track down Cell," Piccolo decided.
"You know, if you guys can't find Cell, you should come back to Master Roshi's. At the very least we'd be able to find him through the news that way," Krillin noted and Tien nodded in agreement.
"I'm going too. To the lab that is," Raditz declared.
"Uh, really? Not that I mind I mean, just, surprising you're volunteering for something," Krillin said.
"Don't have to deal with Androids. Don't have to deal with this Cell monster. And Bulma wanted whatever could be found from that lab. She asked."
"…when, did she ask that?"
"Are we going or not?" Raditz snapped.
"Fine fine. Just say you want stuff, don't need to get all defensive about it," Krillin muttered that last part.
I was paired up with Clover, and by extension Nappa. Which left Piccolo and Tien to search together.
I don't even know what they expected to find other than abandoned piles of clothes. We couldn't sense anything and we had no idea where he was going. By the time we did sense anything he was already gone to the next place. I understand that it felt wrong to just leave, but it'd be more efficient to watch the news and take off from there.
And of course, none of them had a cell phone so we have no idea where to go unless we were actually physically watching.
Whatever. I wasn't going to be the first one to throw in the towel.
…
It didn't take long for Chichi to start shoving books in my face.
Apparently, since I wasn't helping with Goku that was the least I could do.
It's not that I didn't want to help Goku, per se, it's just, there wasn't much I could do. Chichi was already being so attentive with him and it's not like standing around in that room would help anything so, I just stayed downstairs.
I pulled out a sketchbook and just placed it behind the textbook whenever Chichi would come downstairs.
I didn't draw much.
Instead I just twiddled my pencil around because Cell was out there and I could do nothing because I was stuck here-
I could just go anyway. Leave. It's not like anyone here could stop me. The strongest one here was Yamcha and, not to be mean, but he wasn't exactly a threat to my well-being.
But Krillin wasn't exactly wrong in that someone should be here in case the Androids show up. At the very least I want to be able to warn them about Cell. And, again Yamcha, but he wasn't the explaining type.
From what I can tell.
Not to be mean.
Would not say that out loud though.
After some time, Yamcha perked up and announced that the others were coming back. I sensed out, and sure enough, there were eight ki signatures heading back here.
Despite my otherwise abysmal mood, I was glad to sense that Piccolo was one of them. There was another layer on his Ki, but it was still Piccolo.
I ran outside to greet them.
Trunks wasn't there, but everyone else who had left, plus Piccolo, Tien, and Chiaotzu, had returned.
I fought a grin as I turned to greet Piccolo, "hey Kamicollo!"
"No. None of that. Do not start."
I snickered to myself as Piccolo tried to ignore it.
As everyone got inside, Piccolo began to explain what had happened.
Piccolo explained pretty much what I already knew. Cell came from the future, stole a time machine, is made from the Cells of the group and enemies, wants to absorb Seventeen and Eighteen to achieve perfection.
None of this was new or surprising. At least the plot seems set, even if some things have changed.
And we were watching the news again.
Piccolo seemed about as out of place in the Kami House as he did back at our house, though the current situation was pressing enough that he wasn't as awkward about it.
We got the location of the city currently under attack and we were about to take off when Tien stopped us.
"Flying isn't gonna work guys, Cell can sense our energy, by the time we get there he'll have hidden away again."
"Don't worry, I got that covered," Yamcha grinned and lead us outside where he tossed out a capsule, where a large Jetcopter now stood on the beach.
As everyone else got on, I made my way to get on as well.
"GOHAN!"
Despite expecting it, I still flinched at Chichi's yell.
"I'm going too."
"No you are not! You have to stay here and help take care of your father! What if something happens? You can't just-"
"I'm not asking. I'm going. I can't just sit here and do nothing as Cell is getting stronger! I have to do something!"
"No you do not! You are a child! And you will listen to your mother! You have no business fighting, that's the adults' job!"
"Hey, hey," Krillin interrupted between us, "look Chichi, Gohan isn't coming to fight. We just need all the eyes we can get out there. The second we find him, I'll send Gohan right back, ok?"
Chichi glared, then huffed, "fine. But if Gohan has even the tiniest bruise-"
"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen."
The second I was allowed, I escaped onto the plane.
"Hey."
I turned up to see Krillin with a stern look on his face, "I wasn't kidding you know. The second anything goes south, you head back here, got it?"
Frustrated, I nodded anyway.
I know it's because I'm physically ten. I know that if it was any other ten-year-old I'd agree. I know that if it was any other ten-year-old I'd question them even being allowed to go at all.
Didn't make it any less frustrating.
Regardless, we all suppressed our Ki as Yamcha flew the plane towards our destination.
I sat against the wall close to Piccolo as the others discussed strategy.
It was almost magic how the timing worked out.
Krillin mentioned wishing Goku was here.
Then Goku materialized in the middle of the cabin.
Noticing the shocked silence Krillin glanced back, then did a double take.
"G-Goku?" Krillin could barely speak for a moment, then he rushed him, quite literally tackling Goku, sending them both crashing out the back of the jetcopter as he shouted in joy.
That.
Was adorable.
I, don't have much more to say to that.
But regardless, Goku waking up means the plot will finally progress. Hopefully towards getting rid of Cell.
After a moment, Goku and Krillin flew back to the plane, which now had a giant hole in the back.
"Man, Bulma's gonna be pissed," Yamcha lamented.
"This is Bulma's jetcopter?" Tien questioned.
"Well yeah. You think I have a use for one big enough to fit our entire group times two?"
Krillin sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, still struggling to hide the tears in his eyes.
Goku glanced over at Piccolo, "hey, Kamicollo!"
Piccolo flinched, before glaring at Goku, "unfortunately, your spawn already made that joke. And do not call me that. It's Piccolo. Only."
Piccolo was once again trying to ignore my snickering, that at this point was closer to cackling.
"Alright alright," Goku laughed, before turning serious, "I don't think any of us will be able to take on the current threat as we are now. But, I know the perfect place where we can train for it, and quickly at that."
Piccolo frowned, then faced forward so that he was more or less just staring at a wall, "oh, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. I don't think you lasted more than ten days last time you tried."
"Yeah, but that was a long time ago, I'll be fine now. Oh, and I was gonna take Gohan with me."
"Uh, I kinda promised Chichi that I'd send Gohan back to Kame House if anything happened-"
"Yeah, but Gohan coming with me would be even better then wouldn't it? Besides, I already told her about it."
"Hey," Raditz interrupted, "care to fill the rest of us in on what you're talking about."
"Right, the Room of Spirit and Time, or the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. It's like, how did Kami explain it? It's like, another dimension where time moves differently so that a year in there is only a day out here."
"That is- fine, whatever, why is this the first time you're mentioning it?"
"Well, it's not exactly a pleasant place to be. Like Piccolo said, I didn't last very long in there the first time I tried as a kid. The gravity's a lot higher than earth's and the temperature and air pressure shift a lot from the day to day. Honestly, it's kinda a last resort type of training method to me."
"Oh, I was also gonna offer Vegeta and Trunks to go too, if that's ok with everyone," Goku asked, mostly looking at Nappa and Clover. Nappa shrugged and Goku took that as an ok.
"Right! Come on Gohan, let's go get those two then," he held out his hand.
And, I almost instinctually took it. But then I hesitated.
If I went up to the lookout right now, I'd be trapped. I wouldn't be able to leave no matter what happened.
"If…you're going to get Vegeta, then he'll probably want to go in first right? It's Vegeta. So, why not let them go and then come get me when they're out? That way I can still help look."
Goku frowned, thinking it over. Then nodded, "alright then. But I don't want you trying to fight. You're not strong enough right now. You're just staying to help look, right?"
I nodded. Still definitely knowing I was lying. I honestly didn't care, if I just happened to be in the area, it's not my fault if I get dragged into a fight.
Goku teleported away and I couldn't help but feel a little better about the situation. This was an actual tangible change. Gohan isn't supposed to be here. That means that surely I can change how this turns out.
Somehow.