Lazuli and Krillin dashed toward Cell like a well-oiled, synchronized machine. Cell thrust its tail to try to catch one of the infuriated pair off-guard and leech some of their precious energy, but both Krillin and Lazuli weaved around the tail carefully, without obstructing the other's way. The Bio-Android leaned to the side to avoid Krillin's flying kick, but when Cell turned back to catch up with what Lazuli was doing, she was already up in Cell's face.
A vertical backfist flinched Cell and made it stagger backward. Krillin slid underneath from behind, perfectly using the advantages of fighting in a pair by positioning himself behind their opponent and making it next to impossible to track both of their moves at once. Meanwhile, Lazuli leaned in with an open hand thrust of her arm and slammed it right into Cell's face, sending Cell flying and crashing through the tree line, shooting shattered wood chips, dirt, and dust into the air as the entire forest split up into two halves by the massive ridge Cell's dragging body left in the dirt.
Cell kicked back up on its feet, immediately sensing a Ki signature coming in from behind. Grunting in frustration, Cell lashed with its tail to sting Krillin, but the stinger only phased through an afterimage. Krillin rolled in like a human cannonball from the front, effortlessly transitioning into a kick to Cell's face before sweeping his leg on the front side and, when Cell tripped up, delivering a flying uppercut that sent both of them flying into the air.
In mid-air, the two combatants turned around one another with Krillin throwing a barrage of kicks all around Cell and pressed the Bio-Android to take a defensive position and block Krillin's attacks as opposed to attacking. Just when Cell thought he'd gotten Krillin to drop his guard and stretched its tail to strike Krillin from behind, sharp pain made Cell twinge and drop its guard instead. It was only then that Cell noted Lazuli's purple Ki disc having sliced its elongated tail up before it could sting Krillin in the back. Exploiting this precious opening and rolling over Cell's head, Krillin delivered an upside-down, flipping soccer kick that crashed Cell into the ground.
Needless to say, Cell did not anticipate this cold shower against opponents he originally thought little about. After affirming its dominance against Tenshinhan, Cell thought Krillin to be a non-factor, and it felt relatively confident in the odds of winning over Lazuli, who trained significantly less than her brother and was more content living the easy life of Krillin's wife than an active martial artist. What Cell hadn't considered was their incredible skill at working together and being ready for the Bio-Android. It was like they knew exactly how Cell would fight and counter every strategy Cell would use. Not to mention, the two never got into each other's way and only covered for each other's openings and planned complicated tag team moves with no need to communicate with one another vocally.
Then again, Cell hadn't yet begun to fight. The Bio-Android still had King Kai's Fist and Super Saiyan, not to mention that ace it would rather keep hidden and let mature until Cell needed to fight someone of much higher caliber like one of the Super Saiyans or No. 21.
"Have you gone asleep?" Lazuli mocked Cell, snapping up right in Cell's face and delivering a vicious roundhouse that sent Cell flying, bouncing off the ground and crashing through trees as thick as mountains and as dense as stone. The Artificial Human vanished once again, appearing behind Cell and putting an elegant backflip kick to work to send Cell tearing through the leafage and soaring into the sky again.
Krillin yelled out from the bottom of his lungs, extending his hands out and sending a rapid barrage of Ki blasts meant to pelt and snipe Cell out of the sky. With a defiant shout, Cell spread its arms and legs out, expelling an explosive Ki bubble around it that easily blocked all the incoming Ki blasts. A faint red sparkle lit up in the corner of Cell's eye.
"Whaa!" Krillin exclaimed as his body stiffened up in place, locked down by a vicious psychic onslaught. Cell dashed head-first like a homing missile, easily anticipating the fact that Lazuli would attempt to intercept. With its hand, Cell pinched the slicing energy disc she sent its way and turned around before launching it toward Krillin. With no better options, Lazuli hurled herself at Krillin and managed to kick him away at the last second before the Ki disc that would have sliced Krillin into two left a nasty gash on her leg.
"Thanks…" Krillin panted out, finally feeling like his lungs were his own again and finding himself able to breathe.
"Whatever, it was my attack that he used against you. I'd have felt bad if it ended up leaving me a widow. Don't you dare die on me, Krillin. I won't stand being called that. It's a word meant for old ladies and I won't have it," Lazuli warned Krillin with her trademark style of a dismissive remark that disguised just how much she truly cared about Krillin and the real reason she risked her life for him.
With a mean, fleshy burst, Cell's tail grew back, throwing out blood and regenerative stem fluid covering the newly grown stump as the Bio-Android descended before the pair with a confident smirk on its face. This last exchange put Cell right back in control of the battle, where Cell belonged, and it hadn't even needed to use all its power yet. Still, it was better if Cell didn't indulge its stolen Saiyan instincts too much and absorbed Krillin's and No. 18's energy as quickly as it could and moved on to grander things, leaving the small fry behind.
"Haaaaah!" Cell exclaimed after clenching its fists and exploding with an exuberant golden aura around it. Krillin and Lazuli both stared at the light show in disbelief.
"This can't be right, can it?" Krillin turned to Lazuli, as he was unable to sense Cell's energy and confirm his worst suspicions.
"I'm afraid so, it's like Cell's body can replicate the Super Saiyan transformation too, the drastic power-up included," Lazuli confirmed with a sullen expression of a cornered animal on her face.
"That's a good look in your eyes, older sister," Cell chuckled, easing up on the violent outburst of its aura and balancing the power output. "Now you know what a prey feels when it's cornered by a true predator. That terror of knowing that you can neither fight back nor run away because your predator is both stronger and faster than you. I'm afraid this precious family life you've created ends here, at my hands. Don't lament it too much sorrow though, it's only the law of nature."
"Krillin, you need to flee!" Lazuli took up a fighting stance and threw herself at Cell at once, without giving Cell the chance to analyze her stance and determine how she was most likely to attack her opponent. "I'll hold him off! You've already died once before, I hadn't. I can still be brought back with the Dragon Balls, you can't!"
Cell's eyes turned bright blue. A trailing pair of beams tracked from both sides of No. 18, creating chilling icicle paths from both her sides and trapping her in. With nowhere to flee, Lazuli took it to the skies, but Cell's eye beam versions of Jelly-Beam found her in the air and scorched the Artificial Human into a giant fireball that plunged like a comet. Cell had dispatched of No. 18 without the need of even uncrossing its hands or moving from where the Bio-Android stood.
With the crazed eyes of a cheetah seeing the pulsating artery in the neck of an antelope within the reach of its teeth, Cell lunged at Lazuli with its stinger primed and ready to drain her out of all the delectable energy that her Infinite Ki Reactor could produce. Before Cell's stinger could plunge into Lazuli's chest, however, a tight grip caught it and, despite Cell's forceful attempts to wrestle control back into it, kept an ironclad grip on it.
"Krillin?" Lazuli muttered after opening her eyes and seeing Krillin holding her in his arms while an identical duplicate copy of her husband stood behind them and held a tight clutch of Cell's stinger. "B-But… I told you to run."
"H-How… How are you doing this?" Cell hissed, unable to either slip the stinger into the exposed body of Krillin's doppelgänger or wrestle control back of it and away from Krillin's grasp.
"King Kai's Fist x100!" Krillin's clone exclaimed, bursting with a vivid aura of blood-red as his skin swelled up with a bright pinkish hue and the sweat that poured down Krillin's skin made it glisten with reflective texture. Krillin gently let Lazuli regain her hovering in mid-air and let go of her before turning around and lighting up with a golden outline. The bald martial artist split into an entire platoon of doppelgangers before Cell's very eyes, each of them clenched their fists and gnashed their teeth at Cell.
"King Kai's Fist x 100!" they all chanted out in unison, skyrocketing their collective power through the skies.
"Brilliant…" Cell's expression shifted to respectful awe. Not only because the Bio-Android recognized Krillin's display of martial arts skill and Ki control necessary to execute such a risky battlefield power-up, but also because, from this point on, Cell became capable of this same combination of techniques. "And here to think that I thought you two were an obsolete challenge and considered skipping you for Bardock…"
"Lazuli," the version of Krillin that held her in his arms before glanced back at his wife with a serious look on his face that didn't quite suit the goofball that Lazuli remembered marrying. "Don't you ever dare say anything like that to me again!" he warned her before turning back to Cell. "Do the vows we made to each other mean nothing to you? Has it all just been a big game for you? Well, whatever it is, know that it was never a game to me. Ever since the beginning, no matter if you just saw me as a walking money bag or just a funny little pet to keep around, I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU FOR REAL!"
The platoon of hot-blooded and booming with a violent red aura Krillins launched themselves at Cell in a combined onslaught. Their speed proved to be a genuine shock to Cell, as the first Krillin slammed its bald head straight into Cell's face like a speeding bullet, smashing the Bio-Android's face open into a bloody pulp. Another Krillin dashed right in with a stiff body kick that bent Cell over before stepping aside so that the third one could knee Cell into the jewel core shimmering on its forehead and crack it open with white light shining through the cracks.
A handful of amped-up Krillins came in from the sides, each of them delivering explosive Ki-enhanced uppercuts with their fists brimming with a Ki blast around them, blasting Cell into the upper atmosphere of Planet Caterpillia with so much power that Krillin's blow upset the planet's atmosphere and shrouded its sky with storm clouds, turning the middle of the day into a gloomy night. A triplet of Krillins whizzed in, obliterating and bending Cell out of shape with devastating kicks hitting the Bio-Android from all sides with overwhelming force, like a mauling with baseball bats that left Cell a bloody and sprained mess, pouring with cherry-colored thick goop all over and soiling its shiny golden armor shell.
Cell clenched its fists before extending its hand facing down at the little army of Krillin's in front of it. "Jelly-Beam!" it shouted out and fired a quintuplet of invisible, sharp blades of condensed air from the tips of its pointy black nails. The Krillins grunted in pain, blocking the attack but still taking significant damage to their forearms as the beams penetrated their arms and nearly etched into their chests too.
"Outta here!" Cell's eyes blanked out as the Bio-Android heard Krillin's voice over its head. Cell rushed to intercept Krillin's incoming attack, but he took a devastating kick to the cheek that stretched Cell's neck so hard it nearly tore the head clean off of Cell's body and sent the Bio-Android flat back down on the ground. The resulting burst of exploding air fired dirt and rock into the atmosphere and left a grievous crater on the planet's surface where once stood a vibrant sanctuary of natural insectoid life.
"Krillin…" Lazuli approached her husband and hugged the version of him that delivered the coup de grâce kick on Cell. "You big dummy!"
"Don't forget that ever since we made those vows, I'm not fighting to protect the Earth anymore. Protecting the Earth no longer means saving the world for me. From now on, I'm only fighting to protect you and our family because you're my entire world now," Krillin reminded Lazuli of his devotion before gently directing her to his side as the ground that buried Cell underneath Planet Caterpillia's mantle began to shift and rumble.
"DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!" Cell screamed out, erupting with a strident golden pillar that blasted into the sky and beamed out to the edges of the alien star system. The beaten-up and bleeding Bio-Android emerged from the rubble with its arms up before bending over to pant from overexertion. "Krillin… You're just a joke, you were always just a joke… I never took you as a serious threat, you're just a light snack to me. Just something to keep my appetite up before I take on the actual threats, the real martial artists on my journey to becoming the apex predator!"
The army of Krillins lined up in front of Krillin and Lazuli, all still keeping up their demanding energy upkeep of King Kai's Fist X100 and flaunting Cell with its failure to absorb Krillin's energy while it was still fresh and full, before the battle wore Krillin out. No matter whom Cell approached, everyone fought their hardest, resisting the Bio-Android and always exhausted themselves in defiance. However, Krillin fought differently from the rest. He spat in the face of wary, he didn't withhold techniques, and he didn't much care about protecting his planet or keeping Cell as weak for when he would eventually be defeated by Goku or Chayote or Vegeta…
No, Krillin fought with all his power, and all of his techniques, because he fully intended to kill Cell himself. Cell's eyes bulged out with jail-breaking madness when he realized this. Cell began to cackle, laugh it up until its gut began hurting and all the hilarity wrapped Cell up into a cackling bundle of lunacy. To Cell, it was simply unbelievable how utterly devoid of humility this irritating little man was. He!? He would defeat Cell!? The Apex Predator of the Universe!? Ridiculous!
"You!? You seriously intend to defeat me!?" Cell howled out, exploding with a wrathful golden aura and igniting vicious rips of lightning to lash out and make the gloomy skies of Planet Caterpillia bleed red where the rampant electricity tore through the storm clouds.
"That's right," Krillin replied with his tone implying he was dead-serious. "You attacked me and hurt my wife! You insulted her and tried killing both of us and destroy what we've created and what we love the most! For that, you better believe that I'm going to destroy you!"
"YOU IRRELEVANT, BALD-HEADED PIMPLE!" Cell barked out, unleashing all of his latent power and making the skies light up and for thunderbolts to become entire devastating orbital energy blasts that enveloped and disintegrated entire villages with immeasurable thunderous destruction. "Just how do you intend on accomplishing that!? There is nothing you can do that I cannot do a hundred times better!"
Just to put its money where its mouth was, Cell's indomitable golden aura, which was already tearing the planet up by crumbling it in its grip like a hand crushing wet sand with its cruel clutch, lit up with a scarlet outer layer. "Super King Kai's Fist X100!" Cell barked out, combining Super Saiyan and King Kai's Fist just to show Krillin how utterly outmatched he was. "This! This is the wall of utter genetic perfection that mere filth-writhing Earthlings can never aspire to!"
"Hey, hey… This is… Getting a bit ridiculous now," Lazuli braced herself, barely able to withstand just the unbelievable pressure that Cell's very aura was putting out. It felt like a mere punch of a creature this inconceivably powerful would result in a burst that would snuff out the entire universe.
"You're wrong!" Krillin yelled out in defiance, right back at Cell's face. "There's one thing that I can do that you can neither do nor copy!"
"Ludicrous! I'll humor you, you useless trash, what's that?" Cell smirked, marveling at its own unfathomable power that would have shocked everyone in the universe to submit to Cell's authority as the apex predator if they were only able to sense it.
"You're unable to love. To adore someone so much that you put their life and well-being above your own," Krillin moved out beyond the line of Krillins, all of whom looked stumped by Krillin's decision at first, before nodding to one another and lining up with the Krillin that was protecting Lazuli standing firmly in the middle. All the Krillins, still burning brightly with King Kai's Fist X100, lit up with a white, ethereal glow outline that shimmered ever so softly, but, before long, began overpowering the unfurling violence of King Kai's Fist stacks.
One by one, the Krillins began merging back together, one with another, and then the remnants merged with other remnants until only one Krillin remained. Initially, Cell felt baffled by this, but then… Only after a good handful of seconds that it took for Cell's consciousness to comprehend the otherworldly mass of raw, uncontested power that stood before him and realized that the Bio-Android's might was just a trembling cinder flickering before a Sun that fear crept back into Cell's expression.
"You did it! You actually pulled that move off!" Lazuli cheered for her husband with a pump of her forearm while Krillin stood and stared at Cell with a death-inducing stare. His skin retained the swollen pinkish hue, however, instead of an overwhelming pyre of scarlet burning around him, there was only a faint outline of a crimson space sparkling with a galactic motif of sprinkling white sparks.
"No… No, no, no, no, no!" Cell shook its head in disbelief.
"You're a smart guy, aren't you? I don't think you need a math lesson or a prolonged explanation of how this works, do you? This is a power that no single creature can achieve because it would rip their bodies apart before they could even attempt it. A combination of techniques that I only persevered through because of my immense love for my wife and my wish to protect her, and destroy the asshole that hurt her! King Kai's Fist X1 000 000!"