Peering deeper into the flames, Super Artificial Human No. 8 saw the fire-lit shadow of a slender, horned creature with a long, waving tail that ended with a sharp stinger. Seeing Cell staring into the starry evening sky and lost in the blazing trail of smoke made the kind-hearted Artificial Human tense up and shake. Destructive red beams shot out from underneath Super No. 8 as a green aura enveloped him.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO DR. FLAPPE!?" Super Artificial Human No. 8 bellowed, shooting off wild bursts of emerald flame from behind him as they burnt down his sheepskin coat to cinders in a green blaze.
With his head pointed forward, like a human missile, Super No. 8 dashed straight up to Cell and sent it flying. Super Android 8's vicious headbutt sounded like it cracked the entire planet in half. Cell shot off further toward the continental edge and the northern ocean. The Super Android pursued it with a thunderous downward smack that flattened Cell against the centuries-old layer of ice and cracked it, forcing Cell to skid across the glacier's surface while breaking through the ice and exposing water that broke through with a showering triangular expulsion for the first time in many decades.
Super No. 8 dashed up to Cell and smashed it with a hammering crack from below, plunging it to the bottom of the northern ocean before delivering a ferocious straight and sending it crashing into the endless wall of glaciers that extended for uncharted and unmapped miles beyond. With Cell embedded into a gigantic glacial structure, Super Artificial Human No. 8 dashed right up to it and slammed his fist into Cell's gut, driving the Bio-Android ever deeper in. Another devastating straight nearly smashed Cell's head into a bloody stain like a melon before Super Android No. 8 drove his foot in with a push kick and split the continental glacier apart, making all the tremendous tonnage of ice collapse in on Cell and drag it to the bottom.
Super No. 8 hovered above the collapsing glacier and panted while looking down. His beady black eyes returned some sense to the gleaming reds of a savage combat machine from before. The Super Android looked almost regretful about the punishment he inflicted upon the poor and tormented soul. Having satisfied his immediate instinct for violence, Super Artificial Human No. 8 engaged his emerald blaze thrusters to carry him back to the ruins of the Dr. Flappe laboratory to pick up the scraps and try to find out what happened with the scientist he cared so much about.
When he made his way back, Super Artificial Human No. 8 gasped. He saw the continental edge completely cracked off and loosely hanging like an almost separated head that was attached to the shoulder by a narrow strip of muscle and skin. Deep in the schism, there was a manmade structure. Super No. 8's systems analyzed the composition of the walls and the technology used in crafting that structure, it seemed like a panic room of sorts.
Because of Super No. 8's loss of control, the panic room had nearly drifted into the abyss that swirled and spouted with magma. The good doctor had hovered his way out of the busted panic room with a jetpack and dusted himself off some small traces of blazing cinders on his lab coat and some smears of dirt that ruined its neat and sanitary impression. Crying out in sheer joy, Super No. 8 dived in to scoop Dr. Flappe up, wrap his arms around the brilliant scientist, and spin him up in the air like a teddy bear.
"Dr. Flappe!" Super No. 8 bellowed. "I saw that explosion and I thought Cell killed you!"
"Not quite yet, dear boy," Dr. Flappe sighed after dusting himself off and making sure that no part of him was on fire. "Immediately after realizing he's come after me, I fled to the panic room and set up the laboratory to self-destruct. Unlike Dr. Gero, I wasn't arrogant enough to believe it would as much as scratch Cell, however, I thought I'd craft the illusion of having killed myself alongside my life's work."
"Why didn't you let me in on that plan? It nearly broke my heart!" Super No. 8 cried like an overgrown toddler.
"While I regret causing you so much emotional hurt, your reaction was essential to the illusion that I sought to create," Dr. Flappe replied. "Now, we should flee. I don't believe that this place is safe anymore. We're in a bit of a bind right now. Cell likely knows every single one of Dr. Puri's or Dr. Gero's hidden facilities. We'll need to request sanctuary in Capsule Corps. I don't believe that Cell is bold enough yet to attack Bulma directly and bring that amount of attention and trouble onto itself."
Super No. 8's look suddenly turned deadly serious, he shoved Dr. Flappe aside and turned around, spreading his arms out and forming a bubble of Android Barrier around him and his maker. A full-powered energy wave pierced the air and slammed against the barrier's walls, testing the bubble's mettle for a few seconds before ripping through the tundra with a deafening blast. Fully recovered, Cell hovered in the air with an extended arm, revealing itself as having been the one to attack with that energy wave just now.
"You should hide, Dr. Flappe," Super No. 8 said calmly with a passing glance. "I'm not always able to keep track of Cell because of his part-Android body and Cell has proven to be especially sneaky and persistent."
"Quite the contrary, in my opinion," Dr. Flappe politely declined the suggestion. "I believe you are my best hope of survival, therefore I should remain within your immediate reach at all times. Furthermore, my presence shall cause Cell to turn sloppy, desperate, and greedy, and make it make silly follies and take unnecessary risks. Be advised, however, that there might not be a definitive way of destroying Cell right now, depending on the array of cell samples Cell has assimilated and the stage of his forced evolution."
"Don't worry, if it's looking for trouble, I'll hand it more than it can handle!" Super No. 8 pounded his open fist and turned toward Cell. While to Cell this collision could not have been further from being personal, to Super No. 8, it just turned very personal. No one who brought trouble and despair to his beloved home and treasured people could avoid the punishment they deserved.
Super Android No. 8 roared, throwing himself forward with blaring emerald jets of energy propelling him at the Bio-Android. Arms wound up behind his back, like the upper half of a frame of a picture, his entire body put up as a bulky wall, Super No. 8 looked like a relentless juggernaut of sheer physical force. His arms vanished in a blur, delivering a vicious smack down upon the airborne Bio-Android until one definitive slap from above sent him flying away toward the western section of the ocean and through endless continental sections of the tundra.
"My, my… How am I supposed to keep up with that?" Dr. Flappe lit up a pipe, lamenting the calamitous beatdown that took the Bio-Android across entire biomes and regions in a mere blink. The brilliant scientist resigned to the fact that the first one to return to him would be the one to decide his fate.
Letting his rage unfurl, Super No. 8 released a lustrous destructive energy bubble around him, zooming through the air and homing in on Cell, intending to ram into him. A red glint passed through Cell's eyes like a scanner. The Bio-Android extended his arms to the sides and erected an Android Barrier around him that blocked the Super Android's explosive crash and forced Super No. 8 into a power struggle to avoid the barrier's energy overtaking him and dealing damage. After putting his body to enough of a test to rip his shirt and trousers in a few places because of the intense test of his muscles, Super No. 8 pushed the Android Barrier back into place.
"It appears that this fight wasn't entirely pointless. You showed me an interesting technique, after all," Cell scoffed. Unlike before, his body still showed the grazes that he took from Super No. 8's smackdown.
"I don't understand your obsession with killing Dr. Flappe," Super No. 8 replied, refusing to humor Cell's violent tendencies. The Super Android still wanted to reach this misunderstood creature halfway and show it that its survival didn't depend on assassinations and devious behind-the-scenes plots. "No one is hunting you, you aren't in any danger, nor are you a threat to Earth. Chayote, Son Goku, and their friends don't mean you any harm. However, by killing one of their friends, you'll put yourself in harm's way."
"Only if you live long enough to spill the beans!" Cell hissed and charged at the Super Android enveloped in a green aura. Since the Super Android responded to Cell's straightforward attack with a powerful right cross, Cell stopped his frontal approach and slid on to the side, positioning behind the strongman only to rake his back and drive his shoulder to send him flying.
Pursuing Super No. 8 in mid-flight, Cell crashed his horned head into Super No. 8's lower back and drove his uppercut into that same area, as if intending to sever the Super Android's spine. Thrusting his palm into the upper back area, Cell knocked the Super Android away, then vanished with a snap and appeared in front of where Super No. 8 would have ended up to deliver a beat down with swift jabs and knee strikes only to roll around and slash with his black nails before slapping Super No. 8 aside with his tail.
Hurting, Super No. 8 reeled and skidded away while wiping the traces of bio-fluid off the corner of his lip. With hungry eyes and a stinger ready to plunge into the Super Android's body and compromise it further, Cell charged forward again only to receive a hook to his gut for the troubles. Grabbing the bent-over Bio-Android and power-bombing him into the chilly rocky plains, Super No. 8 finished that engagement and put Cell's plans to rest while sneering at the writhing creature by his feet.
"The more we interact, the less pity I feel for you. I am beginning to believe that you are the architect of most of your ills. You may have been dealt a sorry hand to start with, but it isn't like you gave it your honest try to move forward and leave those nightmares behind. You say that you only wish to survive and move past the violence and pain of your past, but violence and death are all you offer. I am done feeling sorry for you. If you come after Dr. Flappe again, I will break you and I will put an end to your suffering," Super No. 8 warned Cell while carefully observing what the pummeled into the ground and broken Bio-Android would do since the ball was now in his court.
"You…" Cell's broken bones turned and bent out of shape, limbs fixed back into place with spine-tingling snaps while the squished bug rose back on his feet and wiped the leakage off its mouth. "Spare me your pity! I never needed it or asked for it! Ever since I was created, I was the only one looking out for me and I've come to learn that that's the only way it can ever be. You tell me to deal with Bulma, Son Goku, Chayote, and the rest of their gang as if they have anything to offer me but the same thing you put on the table–a quick end to my suffering. Underground lab projects like me don't get to marry Krillin, they don't get to start families, get jobs, and settle down. I have a need to consume and assimilate genetic material. A drive to kill. If I don't kill, my body is the next one to run out of energy, degrade, and wither away into ash. What exactly do you think they have to offer someone who looks like a monster and needs to kill every few weeks to sustain their monstrous existence? Are you truly so deluded so to think that Piccolo has been hunting me for the past year and a half to ask me to join in on their next tea party?"
"I know Son Goku and he is not a murderer," Super No. 8 replied firmly. "His family hunt wild animals for food, just like you have to. The only one making excuses for acting like a monster and loathing what you are is you."
"Come to think of it, when was the last time you saw Son Goku? You're a fellow freak, a monster, a lot like me in some ways. And what treatment did you get? They were happy they didn't have to go through the trouble of destroying you. They shook hands and left you on your own. No one checks in on you, no one asks you to join one of their get-togethers or invites you to their weddings, because no one wants to be friends with freaks and monsters like us. You're the same as I am to them, a monster to slay, to feel better about themselves and their deluded, self-proposed heroics. A useful monster, but a monster nonetheless!" Cell said with conviction.
"Is this your own observation, or Dr. Puri's programming speaking, I wonder…" Super No. 8's stare squinted with focus. "I think you've spent so long running and hiding that you can't even wrap your head around the idea that you don't need to run and hide at all."
"The only reason I get to hide and live is because I ran away from Dr. Puri's laboratory. I've already sacrificed my past self on this timeline and my very future for the sake of survival. No price is too grand, no disgrace is too low for the sake of going on living free and safe!" Cell hissed, extending his hand and channeling a Ki blast in his free hand. Super No. 8 stood there and watched in disdain as his opponent powered up despite his best still being of little to no use. Cell fired the Ki blast, but, at the very last second, shifted it to the ground beneath Super No. 8's feet, causing a robust blast and a massive wall of dust to rise.
Super No. 8 exclaimed with unbound fury, expelling a Kiai burst bubble around him that dispelled the dust in one go, but all he could see was tumbleweeds and rocky plains dust being scattered by the chilly wasteland wind. Cell had created another opportunity to slip away, unfortunately for him, Super No. 8 knew exactly where the Bio-Android was going so he'd catch up eventually, even if speed wasn't exactly his strong suit.
Cacti, rocks, and tunneling dust washed out in a blur around Cell as the Bio-Android predator charged at his target from miles upon miles away. He had a single-minded approach, and it was this tunnel vision that led him to the success he was experiencing. It took no time at all before snowy plains replaced the rocks and dust before spruces and pine trees began bending to Cell's streaming momentum, and the rings of dust enveloping his tunneling hyper-speed dash turned to sparkling snowy dust circles. Natural vistas and wonders shifted in microseconds before Cell's own eyes, as he could finally see his target right before him. He'll have him, he'll have him in less than a nanosecond, all he would need is to reach out, and…
An ironclad grip locked around Cell's wrist just inches away from Dr. Flappe's face. Shocked and shaking in shock at his entire plan and decades' worth of careful plotting crumbling away before him, Cell turned to the stone-cold green face of the Ultimate Namekian staring back at him and his white cape fluttering behind him. Nearby, the young man once known as Artificial Human No. 17 stood with his arms crossed, scanning Cell with a chill look.
"Hello, Cell, my name is Piccolo. Glad to finally meet you, is this a bad time?" Piccolo hissed before delivering a devastating blow that bent Cell over and nearly shoving his arm through Cell's gut. With Cell crumbling down, Piccolo flung Cell away and launched a mouth beam that burnt it to a crisp in the air. The charred and broken Bio-Android collapsed like a swatted fly on its back, letting out a pathetic screech from its mouth in pain that his mixture of Namekian and Frieza Clan cells wouldn't let him die from.
"What the heck?" Lapis objected. "You could have killed him!"
"Technically, dear boy, Cell doesn't have a determined sex. There was simply no use for a sex in Dr. Puri's lab rat, therefore, surely you meant "you could have killed it"," Dr. Flappe corrected the Monster Island ranger.
"You saw it," Piccolo crossed his arms, shaking off the blame. "It tried killing Dr. Flappe. That's a bad first impression. Cell is a menace, and we're better off getting it gone."
Super No. 8 sped up and slammed at the scene with heavy and flat feet, looking dumbfounded by the sudden appearance of the pair of Piccolo and Lapis. However, after seeing the smoldering and battered remains of Cell off on the side and the good doctor safe and sound, the kind-hearted Super Android sighed in relief and clapped his hand with cheer.
"Thank you, thank you so much for helping Dr. Flappe! This monster showed up out of nowhere tonight and has been obsessed with killing Dr. Flappe! I did my best to protect Dr. Flappe, but… I must admit, Cell has been dancing around me and giving the slip each time," Super No. 8 scratched the back of his head.
"There's no shame in admitting it, dear boy," Dr. Flappe shook his head while puffing his pipe. "It's just that this creature is much more deceitful and malicious in its nature than you. You're someone who doesn't have an evil bone in your artificial body, so it's no surprise that you can't keep up with Cell's nasty plots."
"Still want to take this thing into your sanctuary?" Piccolo turned to Lapis with a sassy glare. "Where it might threaten the other monsters, you or your precious boss lady?"
"Shut it!" Lapis lashed out at the manipulative attempt. "We're professional Monster Island rangers! Do you know how many mythical creatures, one-of-a-kind animals and monsters constantly want to kill us or each other? Most of them. We don't do it to feel good about ourselves or to feel safe. We do it because we love nature and want to protect it!"
While the pair bickered and discussed what to do with Cell, they were distracted by snapping and cracking noises, as well as some fatty sizzling as the mixture of Namekian and Frieza cells began reversing the damage inflicted upon Cell by regenerating its entire body. The Frieza Clan anatomy made it so that Cell possessed no vital organs that were necessary for its survival whereas Namekian cells converted water into energy and then put that energy to work into a plant-like regrowth process that revitalized Cell's whole body like it was brand new. On top of that, the Saiyan cells inside Cell made sure that the Bio-Android revived far stronger each time it came back to life.
"Well, it seems like there's no use in killing Dr. Flappe anymore, since the cat's out of the bag," Cell lamented after its bones reset back into shape and re-stood him back on his feet while his tail lashed in excitement by his armored shell coated calves. "There's little use in killing either of you either since the Artificial Human cells were the ones I brought back from the future timeline and I've already obtained the Namekian sample from one of the Namekian refugees you brought back from Planet Namek after Turles' attack. There's always the option of draining you for some raw energy, though…"
This new and empowered Cell seemed much more confident in his odds of taking on multiple opponents at once and far less focused on killing a mere human in Dr. Flappe. This made, in term, him much more dangerous.
"Are you fighting with me or against me here?" Piccolo glanced at Lapis' side while preparing for a fight that should serve as an adequate warm-up for his bit out-of-practice body that's been busy playing detective this past year.
"I'll help you knock some sense into it, nothing more. I've decided I'm bringing it back to the island. You'd be surprised how many monsters we drag back to see us that way," Lapis replied while taking up his fighting stance by Piccolo's side.