Dragon Ball © Akira Toriyama, Shuheisha, Inc.

Chapter 27: The Giant Insect

Tenten never had fond memories of insects.

She often became a laughing stock because someone as strong as her was afraid of something as tiny as insects. It wasn't a matter of the size. Whether it was the smallest or the biggest just like the one she just encountered, she still hated insects to the core.

The one and only person that was responsible for her phobia was none other than him.

However, she couldn't not scout the area when a bad premonition hit her. Something cold pricked her chest and usually, it happened when a town near her was getting attacked. Wondering if it was the android, Tenten quickly go to the place just so she could evacuate the people.

When flying over a town, Tenten narrowed her eyes and spotted several odd things laid haphazardly on the road. She picked a white shirt and spotted even more clothes all around the town. There wasn't even a soul sighted yet so many clothing articles scattered on the open road.

"They aren't crazy enough to run anywhere naked, right?" she muttered to herself.

The sound of gunshots was echoing throughout the area so she quickly dashed to the source of the sound. Once she got there, there was nothing but clothing articles and guns clattered on the ground.

"What was going on here?"

Something chilled running from the back of her neck to her spine.

Tenten could feel something was watching her from the back.

She was very afraid but forced all the little courage she had to work her muscles so she could turn around…

Just to see the most horrible thing she ever saw in her life…

Staying on Earth had never been his plan before. He hated humans throughout his life and ended up training a human child named Gohan, who changed all that. He didn't even follow the rest of Namekian when they were moved to a new planet, not only because their love to live in peace didn't suit his warrior spirit but also because his priority had changed.

He never wished to merge with God, but doing so was the only way to get out of their current concern and for the sake of his priority, he'd do everything. However, before they merged, God gave him the hint about something more terrible than the androids had come to this world five years ago, without even telling him what that was. After merging with him, Piccolo decided to use the superior ability he attained from God later and went to Gingertown to see for himself…

What was more terrible than the androids?

The terrible echo of the explosion shattered the silence of the town. With his newly attained super hearing, he wouldn't miss a familiar woman's shriek. Turning around, he sensed two Kis presence were heading towards him. Coming out from the smoke was none other than the girl he recognised as Goku's daughter.

"Tenten!"

"P-Piccolo-san! Thank goodness you're here!" She was running like her life depended on it. What shocked him the most was the fact that the female Super Saiyan hid behind him, clutching his cape so tightly. Before he got to ask anything, a strange creature that was neither human nor android came out from the billowing smoke. It was walking with two legs and had two sections of his head shot off in a V-shape. The thing was mostly green-coloured with darker green spots all over its body. It had orange colour parts near its abdominal area and two wings. It had a tail and stinger at the end of it. A pair of icy devil eyes, with reptilian slits, was wickedly gazing at them. It was carrying a fat man that looked like an important man in the town.

"Tenten… What is that thing?"

"A giant insect! We found its skin nearby the town! I'll tell you more about this but we have to save that man he's taken!"

"Then why are you running from it? That's not how a warrior fights!" It was only then he noticed how pale her face was.

"I…" she gulped, "…hate insects." Her voice came out like a whisper at the last part, as if saying the word alone was killing her. What would Vegeta say about this? If she was his daughter, she'd definitely have an earful for that.

"P-please! I'm the richest in this town! I'll give you whatever you want but please save me!"

Piccolo found it hard to swallow his saliva the moment he noticed something odd about the creature.

"That creature is…"

"Y-you notice it too, right? His Ki is…"

Piccolo nodded. "I doubt you can understand my language but let him go."

The creature released the man, but suddenly it pointed its tail at the man and stabbed him on his back. Piccolo and Tenten widened their eyes in horror as they saw how the man's beings slowly melted like he had no bones at all, disappearing into nothing but his clothing articles.

The inside of Tenten's stomach churned into the most sickening motion that she had to clamp her mouth to hold her sickness in. "W-what have you done?! Why are you doing this?!"

"You're next, Demon King Piccolo and Tenten."

"W-what? How did you know—" They didn't even have the chance to process what was going on when the creature suddenly released his Ki. Frieza, King Frost, Goku, Piccolo, and Vegeta—all of their Kis were coming from this creature.

"You don't need to know anything. I'm going to be feasting on you soon."

"If that's the way it's going to be, I'll just have to kill you without asking more questions." Tenten glanced upon Piccolo, seeing that there was indeed something very different about Piccolo that somewhat made her feel like he wasn't Piccolo. His Ki was stronger than before, and she couldn't think of a way for Piccolo to get so strong only in a few hours.

"Demon King Piccolo, do you really think that you can kill me?"

"I don't know how you know Piccolo, but…" Suddenly, Piccolo released an immense amount of Ki that Tenten needed to cover her face from the flying dust. "Too bad, however… you've mistaken me for someone else."

"Y-you aren't Piccolo? But…"

"We'll talk about this later, Tenten. If you can't face him then go somewhere safe." Tenten nodded as she jumped a few metres back to watch if Piccolo needed a backup, which she hoped wasn't necessary. "It was convenient that you got rid of all the inhabitants of the city. It means that I can go all-out against you!"

Piccolo fired an energy blast toward the creature, who remained unfazed despite seeing Piccolo's overwhelming attack. Piccolo swiftly kicked the creature then moved in a flash to send another upper kick. Seeing the stance and how it retaliated, it didn't look like something they needed to be careful of. However…

"Even considering that I'm not in my perfect form yet… you're not bad."

"Perfect form? Is that why you're attacking people!?" Tenten inquired.

"Correct, little girl. I take the essence of their life force and covert it to my energy."

Tenten blinked as she looked into her mind for the pieces of the puzzle they had been gathering. "Who sent you here with the time machine?"

"I sent myself, little girl. This body was too large for the time machine itself, so it was necessary for me to turn myself back into an egg." Suddenly, it moved its hands. "Well, I bet you don't know this…" There was no way she didn't know it. In fact, she was pretty much adjusted to that stance so much.

"Piccolo-san, jump!"

Both Tenten and Piccolo avoided the attack but the creature jumped behind Piccolo and wrapped both his arms and legs around him, pointing his tail at Piccolo who managed to avoid the tail to hit his vital part on time. It ended up sucking on Piccolo's arm until its dried. Tenten fired Masenko to the creature's face, narrowing the size down to avoid harming Piccolo.

"Piccolo-san! Are you okay?!" Tenten caught Piccolo by his shoulder. He didn't answer her as he let out a painful gasp to retake his breath. He craned his head towards her and stared at her in a way Tenten caught as a signal. Seeing how defeated he looked, the creature seemed to think that he had an upper hand, so much so that it no longer hesitated to spill the information about its origin.

The creature then told them that his name was Cell and Dr. Gero's computer created him. Dr. Gero was gathering samples of cells from great fighters, Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, Freeza and King Frost. They intended to add Trunks's cell to the line but they had enough Saiyan samples. Dr. Gero appeared to make the spy robot that followed their every move and scrapped the cells as it studied them. Piccolo noticed the robot with his super sight and destroyed it. Cell was laughing at this, saying it was too late. He continued his story and told them that Dr. Gero's lab has a basement and there was a computer that generated the cells. He was coming five years prior to this timeline because it took him that long to mature from an egg.

"Why did you come here all the way from the future? What's your intention?" Tenten asked him.

"Human lives aren't enough for me to complete my growth. I need to merge with two especially powerful life forms. The computer told me whom I needed to merge with—Dr. Gero's creations, Androids #17 & #18!" Cell continued, "When I was activated in the future, #17 & #18 were gone. I don't know how; defeated by Trunks, perhaps. But luckily, Trunks had the time machine…"

The moment she heard "time machine", her mind was shrouded with a bad premonition of what she was about to hear. He shifted his glance at Tenten with a malicious expression plastered on his face.

"…and I killed him."

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