Chapter Eighty-three

The Path to Power! A Place Beyond Space and Time!

Kami, the Guardian of Earth and de facto God, looked down from his Lookout on high at the world far down below with growing concern. He could feel a terrible presence of evil in the world below and felt troubled in his heart at the suffering of his people. He only wished that he knew what he could do for them in their time of need. If only he were not so powerless, so old and frail.

Then, without warning, a ring of roughly a dozen people appeared behind Kami.

"Hiya, Kami," Goku greeted cheerfully and startled Kami so badly that he nearly fell off of the Lookout.

"Oh, hello, Goku," Kami sighed as he turned around with one hand firmly gripping his walking staff and the other hand clutching tightly at his chest before letting go. "And what can I do for you today?"

"This Cell thing's tougher than we thought. So I'm gonna show everyone that special room you showed me when I was living up here before the tournament." Everyone looked at Goku curiously. Clearly she had not explained this to them and just brought them along.

Kami nodded while looking at Piccolo. "I see," he murmured while stroking his chin. "Very well. Popo will show you to the Chamber. Piccolo, may I speak with you for a moment?" Piccolo eyed Kami warily and followed after him, separating reluctantly from the rest of the party.

"So what's this room, anyway," Suno asked. "Why didn't you mention it before?"

"I almost died," Goku explained.

"Ah," Suno replied. "Makes sense."

"And what in the nine Hells is a Popo?" Vegeta added irritably.

"This one is Popo," Popo announced, appearing from Vegeta's side as if from nowhere.

"Sweet unmerciful Galick," Vegeta cried out as he recoiled in shock, "What is that?!" It was quite surprising that even Vegeta, who had been to dozens of planets and encountered (and murdered) numerous alien species, was startled by Popo's appearance.

"Hey, Popo," Goku greeted cheerfully. "We need to use the Hyperb…" Goku paused and tapped at her lips as if she were struggling with a particularly difficult word. "The Hyper… the Hypo…"

"The Hyperbolic Time Chamber?" Popo suggested.

"Yeah," Goku agreed, "That thing!" Popo rolled his giant, wide-open eyes and motioned for the assembled group to follow him. Popo led the group into the temple in the center of the Lookout.

"Huh," Krillin muttered as the group shuffled inside, "I've never actually been inside this building."

"Yeah," Yamcha added, "We just slept outside in sleeping bags." Popo led them to a large pair of polished wooden doors and gestured toward it expansively.

"Through these doors," Popo announced, "Is the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

"You keep saying those words," Launch remarked, "And they're still not making any sense." Popo rolled his eyes and Goku started to explain.

"On the other side of these doors," she began, "Is nothing. It's a huge white void that goes on in every direction forever. It's hot and stifling and the gravity's kind of intense. Probably some other stuff happens in there, too, but I was only in it for a few minutes."

"And that sort of environment is going to make us strong enough to defeat Cell?" Tenshinhan asked curiously.

"Nah," Goku replied, "The best part of this pla–"

"Don't take money, don't take fame! Don't need no credit card to ride this train!" Everyone stopped and stared at Suno, whose phone had started ringing. She turned red with embarrassment and quickly fumbled for it in her pocket.

"Sorry, sorry!" she muttered hurriedly as she stepped to the side. "Hello? Oh, hey, Bulma. What's up?" Then she looked at Trunks and handed him the phone. "It's for you." Trunks nodded and took Suno's phone and stepped away from the group while Suno stepped back in.

"Hello," Trunks greeted awkwardly. He still wasn't entirely comfortable calling this Bulma "mom" because they weren't quite the same person.

"Hi, sweety!" Bulma replied cheerily. "Hey, so, this is kind of weird, but I think I found your time machine in a forest outside New East City."

"What?" Trunks asked in confusion. "But that makes no sense. My time machine is in my capsule and that's in my pocket." How could there be another time machine?

"Hey, I'm just saying. There's a time machine here that looks exactly like your time machine. But older. I'll be here if you wanna check it out." While Trunks was having this conversation, Goku was still talking to the others.

"Anyway," Goku continued, "The best part about the chamber is that it stretches out time so that one day out here is a whole year in there!"

"But," Popo reminded her helpfully, "No being can spend more than forty-eight hours in the chamber in their lifetime. And if one spends more than twenty-four hours inside at once, they shall be trapped inside forever." Vegeta immediately stepped forward.

"I'll be taking the first crack, then," he declared. "And as your King, you will show me subservience and let me pass."

"Eh heh heh no," Goku told him bluntly. Vegeta glared at Goku and tried to step around her to get to the door. He went left, Goku went right. He went right, Goku went left. "Okay," Goku decided, "I know how to settle this." Vegeta nodded and they each took a few steps back.

"You guys aren't going to fight," Suno asked in a weary tone as she watched them raise their firsts, "Are y–"

"Ro! Sham! Bo!" Goku and Vegeta brought down their firsts and both played scissors.

"Curses," Vegeta muttered.

"Darn it," Goku swore.

"Ro! Sham! Bo!" Paper. "Ro! Sham! Bo!" Rock. Suno breathed a sigh of relief as Vegeta and Goku continued their fierce battle. Trunks came up to her with one hand covering her phone and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Bulm… mom says she found another time machine just like mine outside New East City. Do you think I can check it out?" Suno looked back at Goku and Vegeta, who were still battling.

"I think you've got some time," she assured him. Trunks nodded before turning to Gohan and Krillin.

"You guys wanna come along?" he asked. They nodded and he put the phone back up to his ear. "I'll be by in a little bit with Gohan and Krillin." Then his face reddened slightly. "L-love you, too, mom," he muttered. Suno giggled while Trunks hung up the phone and handed it back to Suno. He, Gohan, and Krillin walked out of the temple and back outside before flying off. Meanwhile, Goku and Vegeta had turned Super Saiyan.

"Roshambo!" Scissors. "Roshambo!" Paper. "Roshambo!" Paper. "Roshambo!" Rock. The others grew bored and started leaving the temple as well, although Suno stuck around more out of support than anything.

"So," Launch said as the remaining humans started walking across the platform, "We need to move Lapis and Lazuli."

"Agreed," Tenshinhan replied. "As long as Cell's still walking around, they're not safe near any large population centers."

"They've been staying with me and Chi-Chi these last couple days," Yamcha put in, "But North City definitely isn't safe for them." Come to think of it, Yamcha thought to himself, he might have to move the whole family soon. "Maybe they could stay with you guys?"

"Gonna put a big 'no' on that one," Chaozu said quickly. Tenshinhan nodded firmly. He wasn't sure he'd still have his hearing if those two were in his house for more than a day.

"Hey, what about the Kame House?" Launch suggested. "It's small, it's out in the middle of nowhere, it'd be the last place Cell would think to look."

Yamcha nodded as they reached the edge of the Lookout. "That makes sense," he admitted. "The hard part's gonna be convincing them to stay without telling them about Cell."

"Well," Ten remarked, "They're at your house… so that's your problem." Then they immediately flew off before Yamcha could reply.

"Oh, real mature, guys!" Yamcha called after them. He groaned and rolled his eyes before taking his cell phone out of his pocket and calling Chi-Chi. "Hey, Chich," he said, "How was the beach? Everybody have fun? That's good. Yeah, don't worry. I'll swing by a Pilaf's on the way back for some food. No, uh… Ginger Town didn't quite happen how we thought it would. I'll tell you when I get home. Okay. I love you, too." Then Yamcha hung up his phone and took a step off the edge of the Lookout and let himself drop for a minute before rocketing off into the clear blue sky. This was not a conversation he was looking forward to.

OoOoOoO

Trunks flew toward New East City with Gohan and Krillin in tow. He spotted Bulma waving up at them from a clearing outside the forest she must have found the time machine and dove down toward her with questions on his mind. How was there another time machine, for one. Had someone else invented time travel? Was there another time traveller? The possibility that Trunks didn't even want to consider was that this other time traveller was a future version of himself who had come back in time from even further in the future to tell him that he'd failed.

"Hey, guys!" Bulma greeted cheerfully as the trio landed in front of her.

"Hi, mom," Trunks said awkwardly.

"Hi, Bulma!" Gohan replied with a wave.

"Yo," Krillin said with a small two-fingered salute. "So what's this about another time machine?" Bulma gestured for the three of them to follow her and the four walked into the forest.

"I wasn't sure what I was looking at at first," Bulma admitted as she led them into the woods. "I thought we had yet another spaceship on our hands but then I remembered what your time machine looked like and, well…" Bulma gestured to… Trunks' time machine. It was the same size and shape, with the same egg-like chassis and hood, the same four legs and the same four thrusters. It definitely looked older, though. Several decades older. The paint was faded and the glass was scratched.

"This doesn't make any sense," Trunks muttered as he moved closer to the ship. His mother only ever made one time machine. What was he looking at? "By the way," he added while fishing in his pockets for the capsule, "Not that I'm complaining that you're not taking him into a potentially-dangerous situation but where's… me?"

"He's back at Capsule Corp," Bulma explained. "Tights is here for the weekend so they're hanging out."

"Who's Tights?" Krillin, Gohan, and Trunks asked in unison.

"My sister," Bulma replied.

"You have a sister?!" they asked in unison again.

"She mostly keeps to herself," Bulma told them. "She's got an island to herself off of the western half of the continent but she made the trip out when she heard I'd had a baby." Trunks found his capsule and opened it, the pristine time machine standing directly next to the old, beaten one. Gohan flew up to the top of the time machines and opened each of them, climbing inside the older one.

"I'm gonna look around," Gohan told them, "See if there's anything weird in here that might be a clue." Trunks walked around the old time machine in a circle while Krillin watched with his hands in his pockets.

"What're you looking for?" Krillin asked Trunks while passing off the capsule with the blueprints and nanobots to Bulma.

"If this is my time machine," Trunks explained, "Then the word 'Hope' should be on here somewhere. It was my mom's idea. She said that hope is the one thing we'll always have, no matter how bad things get, and it's what we fight with when there's nothing left."

"Jeez," Bulma muttered under her breath. "I didn't know that I become so cheesy in the apocalypse."

"Found… it," Trunks muttered in an excited tone that quickly turned deflated. Bulma and Krillin walked around to where Trunks was and saw him pointing at the word "Hope". Only it had been scratched out, if not clawed out, and under it was the word "Death".

"Oh," Krillin murmured while rubbing his bald head. "That's… ominous."

"Hey, Trunks," Gohan called from inside the time machine. "You might want to look at this!" Trunks flew up into the ship with a cold dread slowly building up inside him. The seat and the buttons were worn, with slivers cut out of the machine as if they, too, had been clawed at. There were also, Trunks noted, scuff marks along the inside of the dome, as if something had been rubbing against them. He also noticed that Gohan wasn't actually touching the floor but was instead floating a few inches above it. Trunks soon realized why when he looked at the floor of the time machine and discovered that it was covered in at least an inch-thick layer of a strange and translucent-green goo.

"Blech!" Trunks groaned as he floated a few inches up and started scraping the bottom of his boots against the sides of the machine. This still made no sense but he was starting to get an idea of what this might be and he didn't like it. He decided to take a chance and keyed in the sequence to show what date the ship had been programmed to arrive on. "May 18th…" Trunks muttered as he looked at the date. So the ship had only arrived the day before. This just raised further questions! If it hadn't been here very long, how did it look so beaten down and old?

"So what now?" Bulma asked after Trunks and Gohan came out of the old time machine.

"Put this thing back in its capsule," Trunks told her while he did the same with his time machine. "I'm going to go back to Gero's lab."

"You want us to come?" Krillin asked. Trunks shook his head.

"I have to do this alone," he told them before flying off. They waited for a few minutes before following after him. Trunks tore off at top speed back toward the northern mountain range and crashed through stone and steel into Gero's lab before burrowing down into the basement level where Cell's pod was. He used his aura as a torch since the glow from the goo Cell had been floating in had dimmed and walked around the chamber in search of some kind of clues. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, if he was honest with himself. Footprints, claw marks, something. Anything that would put a connection between Cell and the time machine. After several minutes of fruitless searching he walked back out of the basement and stopped when he heard a laugh coming from the main computer. At first he thought it was a recording but when he got closer… it spoke to him.

"Hello, half-breed," spat the electronic voice of Dr. Archimedes Gero.

"I don't understand," Trunks muttered as he took a step back. "You're… you're dead."

"Not exactly," the computer explained. "When the brainwave patterns of my remaining organic component ceased, a protocol was activated and my next body began its construction. I designed a personality map small enough to be simulated efficiently. Add memory banks and plug in calculation systems and I am an immortal system. I am something new. And more than human."

"Why are you doing this?" Trunks demanded. "Why did you do all of this?"

"To protect mankind from the alien disease," Gero told him sardonically. "The universe is old and full of species that have had far longer to evolve and grow than we have. Humanity's technology was far outpacing its natural evolution. We are running out of time. I desire... progress."

Trunks' face twisted up with rage at Gero's callousness. "All this destruction, all this death! You caused all of it! Why did you create Cell?! It's a monster that destroyed my future! It will spread nothing but destruction and wipe out the human race you claim to care so much about! Help me stop it before it kills everyone in this time as well!"

"Mankind is obsolete," Gero replied coolly. "My bioandroids are its successors. Tell me, are there any aliens in the future beside yourself?" Trunks gave no reply. "Then my plan was a success." Trunks' hair flickered gold as his fists balled up.

"Tell me something," he said with icy calm. "Where's all of your information stored?"

"In a computer system about three miles underground," Gero answered. "Why?"

From outside, Krillin and Gohan were closing in on the mountain lab when Gohan suddenly sensed something and yanked Krillin abruptly back by the back of his shirt collar. Less than a heartbeat later, the entire mountain range was engulfed in an almighty golden fireball of destruction. Gohan and Krillin brought their hands up to shield their eyes from the blinding light and, when it faded and they could see again, they looked down far, far below at a tiny flicker of golden light at the bottom of a massive pit where the range had been only minutes before. That light grew larger and larger until they realized it was Trunks flying up to meet them as a Super Saiyan.

"So…" Krillin asked Trunks when he was eye level with them once again. "Feel better?" Trunks took a few seconds to catch his breath and the red anger in his face slowly faded away.

"Yeah," he admitted as he powered down, "I do." Then he turned skyward again and powered up. "Come on," he told them. "Let's head back to the Lookout." Then he flew straight up with the other two following close behind.

OoOoOoO

Goku and Vegeta had been playing Roshambo for nearly half an hour and at one point had been playing so furiously that their arms had vanished from sight. Now they had dropped out of their Super Saiyan states and were starting to get winded. It seemed at any moment one of them was going to slip up and make the fatal flaw. It all came down to this. "Ro! Sham! Bo!"

Goku threw paper.

Vegeta threw scissors.

Vegeta threw back his head and let out a boisterous and booming laugh. "Yes!" he crowed while Suno put a supportive hand on Goku's shoulder. "I've done it! I have bested Kakarot!"

"Wait," Krillin interjected as he, Gohan, and Trunks came back into the area, "What just happened?"

"Okay," Goku told Vegeta, "But you have to take Trunks."

"What?!" Vegeta snapped irritably. Goku shrugged.

"Wait," Trunks asked, "What's happening?"

"The chamber only takes two people at a time at most," Goku explained. "There's only two beds and only enough food for two. I mean, I guess you could go in by yourself but we're trying to maximize our time, y'know? So you can either go with Gohan…"

"I'll pass," Vegeta muttered dryly.

"Same," Gohan echoed.

"Me…"

"I would sooner eat my own arms."

"Or Trunks," Goku finished while gesturing to Vegeta's son who was blinking with confusion.

"I'm still confused," Trunks put in. "What's happening?"

"Fine," Vegeta sighed, "I'll take the brat."

"Cool," Goku declared with a cheerful grin as she opened the door to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber which let out a blinding white light. Vegeta walked into it unflinchingly while Trunks stared at it. "See you guys in a year! Alsodon'tbreakthedoororyou'llbetrappedforever!"

"Wait, what?!" Trunks blurted in shock before Goku put a hand on his back, shoved him into the light, and slammed the door shut.

"You think they'll be okay in there?" Suno asked.

"Yeah," Goku assured her, "It'll be fun!"

OoOoOoO

Trunks stared out at the endless white void with his mouth agape and an ever-growing, almost crushing feeling of insignificance. It just went on… in every direction! Forever! The air was so stifling that he could barely breathe! He turned to Vegeta and was about to ask him how he felt before his father socked him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"If that's all it takes to knock you down," Vegeta told him while looking down with disgust, "Then the woman did an even worse job training you than I had feared. Listen closely, boy, because I'm only going to say this once. We are not here to bond. We are not here to build memories. In fact, I would prefer if we spoke and interacted as little as is physically possible. Now on your feet," Vegeta demanded as he walked out into the void, "And show me what I have to work with." Trunks followed after him and they each got into their guards. Trunks was promptly kicked in the dick. "Well, there's a weakness in your guard."

OoOoOoO

In the Wolf and Ox household, Chi-Chi was playing a song for the twins on the horn she'd made from the hollowed-out giant snake fang in their room while the other twins sat in the living room and played a game of cards.

"Y'know what I don't get," Lapis, who was a painfully bright shade of red, asked.

"What's that," Lazuli asked idly while looking at her hand.

"Why they made a big deal out of this monster," Lapis remarked while tapping the red-eyed black dragon on his side of the field."I mean, it's not as strong as the white one and it doesn't have any effects or anything. It even costs the same to summon, it's just an objectively weaker card."

"That's a good point," Lazuli agreed, "But here's another good point." She flipped one of her face-down cards with a smirk. "I activate Dark Hole!"

"What?!" Lapis exclaimed as he was forced to remove all his monsters from the field. "But now you don't have any monsters, either!" Lazuli grinned wickedly and pulled a card out of her hand. "Oh no…"

"Remember those two cards I discarded for Graceful Charity?" she reminded him. "Well, now, I activate Monster Reborn," she flipped the card out of her hand and laid it on the field before searching through her graveyard deck. "To bring one of the monsters I discarded to the field!" Lapis' eyes went wide with terror as Lazuli laid the card down on the field with flourish and a malevolent glee. Then, in a scarily-accurate impression she declared, "Now, my Blue Eyes! Attack his life points directly!"

"Nooooo!" Lapis cried melodramatically before falling back in his chair and onto the floor. "Ah, sunnuva bitch!" He cried after landing directly on his sunburn. Lazuli laughed at him. "Yeah, yeah. Just help me up!" She kept laughing. "Ah, screw you!" The door opened as Lapis pulled himself back into his chair and they turned to see Yamcha walking in with his arms full of bags of food.

"Hey guys," Yamcha said pleasantly as he brought the bags into the kitchen and laid them out on the dinner table.

"Daddy!" Ocha and Shouronpo cried in unison before anyone else could say anything, rushing out of their room to tackle his legs and bring him laughing to the ground.

"Did you guys have fun at the beach?" Yamcha asked his children, who enthusiastically nodded in unison. "That's great!" he told them before looking up at Lapis and Lazuli. "Ouch," he remarked at Lapis, "You got some sun, didn't you?"

"I told him to put on sunscreen," Lazuli remarked. "I mean, we haven't been outside in four or five years."

"Hey, Bulma said we were immortal," Lapis reminded her defensively. "I figured being immune to sunburn would be covered under immortality. But I guess not, which is a load of–" Chi-Chi promptly bonked him on the head with the horn. "Ow! I was gonna say crap!" She bonked him again. "Ow! What, crap isn't okay, either?!" Bonked again. "Ow!" Yamcha laughed again as Chi-Chi helped him to his feet and they started passing food out from the bag.

"I call dibs on any milkshakes," Lazuli declared. "I haven't had a shake in, like, eight years."

"Neither have I," Lapis grumbled.

"No milkshakes allowed in the Shadow Realm," Lazuli told him smugly.

"You just made that up!" As they all sat around the table and ate, Yamcha decided this was too nice a moment to tell Lapis and Lazuli about having to move to Kame Island for the foreseeable future. Plus, he hadn't come up with a decent lie yet. He'd tell them tomorrow. Later that night, Yamcha was brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed while Chi-Chi was tucking in the twins and checking on the other twins in the family room.

"Lights out in twenty minutes," Chi-Chi told them firmly. "I don't care how far along you are in your little game."

"Awww," Lapis whined, "But I was gonna win this one!"

"Not when I have two more Blue Eyes in my hand," Lazuli retorted.

"You WHAT?!" Yamcha chuckled and finished brushing his teeth as Chi-Chi walked into the bedroom.

"So," Chi-Chi asked as they walked past each other, Yamcha leaving the bathroom and Chi-Chi going in, "How'd that business go in Ginger Town?" Yamcha winced while slipping under the covers in his briefs.

"It… didn't," he admitted reluctantly. "Cell never showed up in Ginger Town. It was in Parsley City and I only knew that because I got a bunch of emergency texts from the mayor." He sighed and shook his head sadly when he thought about that for the first time all day. "I was too late. Cell… ate the whole city, I guess."

"God," Chi-Chi muttered in a hushed voice, "That's awful." Yamcha nodded and sat in silence while Chi-Chi brushed her teeth. "Did you guys get it?" she asked when she was finished. Yamcha shook his head again.

"No," he told her, "It got away. Heck, Cell almost got me." Chi-Chi was across the room in a heartbeat, holding Yamcha in her arms and cradling him to her chest. "Hey, hey," he muttered reassuringly while hugging her back, "I'm okay!"

"I know," Chi-Chi said in a worried tone, "But that… thing is still out there! What are we going to do?"

"Goku's got a plan," Yamcha assured his wife. "It's just gonna take a couple days. It might be safest if you take the kids out to see Pops for a few days."

Chi-Chi nodded and let go of Yamcha long enough to get into the bed beside him. "But what about Lapis and Lazuli?" she asked. "What're you going to tell them?"

Yamcha shrugged weakly and looked up at the ceiling while he and Chi-Chi embraced. "I'll think of somethin'..."

Yamcha awoke the next morning to the sound of Lazuli's bloodcurdling scream and immediately burst out of the bedroom without putting on pants, assuming the worst.

The sight that greeted him was simultaneously better and worse. There was no Cell, thankfully, but what he actually saw was Lapis chasing Lazuli around the house with a complete piece of post-sunburn peeled skin. Apparently, while they weren't immune from sunburn they could recover from it extremely quickly.

"Get that away from me!" Lazuli shrieked as her brother chased her around the living room. "Oh my god, you are so gross!" Lapis laughed wickedly until Yamcha stuck out his foot and tripped him, causing him to fall over and his dead skin to fall on top of him.

"Ah!" Lapis cried while desperately flailing to get his skin off. "Get it off, get it off, get it off!" Lazuli laughed so hard that she had to hold onto the wall to stay upright. Lapis' frantic thrashing tore the dead skin up into bits which just made him freak out more before Yamcha finally helped him to his feet and dusted him off. "Tha–" Lapis started to say before he actually got a look at him. "Whoa!" he shuddered while covering his eyes with his hands. "That's more old dude than I ever need to see.

"I'm not complaining," Lazuli murmured appreciatively. Lapis rolled his eyes and Yamcha blushed slightly before rushing back into his room to put on pants and a shirt.

"Hey," Yamcha asked, "You guys liked hanging at the beach, right?"

"Yeah," Lapis replied. "Why?"

"I was wondering if you guys might wanna go hang out at Kame House for a few days," he offered.

"That's where the old guy lives, right?" Lazuli inquired. Yamcha nodded and she stuck out her tongue. "Not a chance. He gives me the creeps. I can actually hear his heart rate elevate when he gets near me."

"Yeah," Lapis added, "What's wrong with here? You guys kicking us out or something?"

"It's not that," Yamcha promised them, "It's just that Chi-Chi was gonna take the kids to visit her dad for a couple days and I was gonna… start painting the house. Yeah. It's been the same color for a few years, I thought I could use a change."

"Hey, we could help," Lazuli offered, "Paint fumes don't really get to us and it's the least we can do for you guys putting us up for the time being."

"I could paint Ocha and Sho's room," Lapis put in. "I've missed painting."

"That's really thoughtful," Yamcha thanked, "But I don't–"

"Hey," Lazuli observed, "Your heart rate's going up, too." She narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms. "There's something you're not telling us." Yamcha took a step back and held his hands up defensively.

"Look," he stumbled, "I don't know what you're–"

"Trunks is from the future," Chi-Chi told them bluntly from the bedroom doorway. "He's come back because some monster made by that Gero fellow is going to eat you and then… become perfect or something? It doesn't sound good." Yamcha whipped his head around and glared daggers at his wife. "What?" she asked. "You were beating around the bush."

"Wait," Lapis said indignantly, "You're trying to hide us from something? I mean, we're basically immortal and the only things that can kill us are our friends!"

"Yeah," Lazuli added boldly, "Whatever this Cell thing is, we can take it. Gero kept us locked up for years. If this thing was made by him, we're damn sure going to fight it."

"No you can't and no you aren't," Yamcha told them firmly. "Trunks already told us that it eats you in his timeline. When it absorbs you, it becomes stronger and kills all of us. So the safest thing, for everyone, is for you guys to hide out and wait this thing out. Please," he added pleadingly, "I'm trying to help you."

Lapis sighed and walked up to Yamcha before putting a hand on his shoulder. Yamcha let out a sigh of relief and for a second he thought things were actually going to work out. Then Lapis turned to Chi-Chi and said "Sorry, Mrs. Chi-Chi." Before headbutting Yamcha through his front door.

A/N: For those of you wondering at home, here's a couple other things that were almost Suno's ringtone:

"Apple Bottom Jeans" by T-Pain

"You Reposted in the Wrong Neighborhood" by ＳＨＯＫＫ青

Aaaand the theme to "Ducktales".