Battle Against Cell! The True Namekian's Power!
Amy didn't know what was happening before the whole world went to hell. It had been a perfectly normal day at the Purple City Salon when, all of the sudden, she got a shiver that made her purple fur stand on end. That was the thing. Before she'd seen or even heard anything, Amy had felt it. It was the tingle at the back of her neck, the way she felt whenever an earthquake or a big storm was about to hit. She'd been brushing someone's hair and they'd been chatting up a storm when everything went wrong. The "nice" thing about being a fox was the strength of her hearing so she heard people screaming a few seconds before anyone else. Then there were gunshots and even more screaming. Then everyone in the shop stared at the window as people ran in panic down the streets, trampling each other to get away from… something. Amy hadn't seen it, whatever it was, but she dropped her scissors and her brush and she just ran as quickly as she could.
The worst part wasn't the noise. The screaming, the crashing cars, the honking horns, the gunfire and the explosions as people crashed into buildings and trampled each other. The worst part was how things got quieter. Little by little. As she pressed herself flat under a truck, Amy realized that whatever everyone was running from was killing them all, one by one. That was almost worse than what had happened in East City. At least for them it had been over quickly.
But then her fox hearing came back into play. Over all of the screaming and the running and the terror, she could hear the footsteps. She heard the footsteps growing louder, coming closer. It was coming for her. Part of her brain screamed to run but she was too terrified to move. She saw the green three-toed feet and watched a green hand grab the underside of the car. The car was suddenly flung away to smash into a building and explode. She stared up at the green monster looming over her with wide eyes and a scream caught in her throat as its tail raised high and was poised to strike.
Then Amy and the monster heard something off in the distance that was so ridiculous that made them both stop and turn their heads to try and listen to whatever it was. The voice was very familiar.
"Bah dahdah dah daaaaah, bah dah daaah, bah dahdah dah daaah," then someone swung a car into the monster like a baseball bat and sent it flying over the horizon. "EAT A DICK!" Amy stared up at the person who saved her life while someone else flew past them to go after the monster and it took a few seconds to actually process what she was staring at.
"Lapis?" she whispered in disbelief. It looked like him but… it was impossible. Lapis had been gone for years, everyone had said he was dead! But he was right in front of her. Holding a broken car over his head… and flying. He was smirking and looking off where he'd sent the monster flying but when he looked down and noticed Amy, he recognized her instantly and his smile faltered as his face turned red.
"A-Amy…" he stammered out. "Hey. H-how've you been?"
"Lapis!" Amy head Lazuli call off in the distance. "Get your ass over here!" What was going on?
"Uh, hey, sorry," Lapis said quickly, "Gotta go! We'll catch up after I save the world!" He flew off immediately, leaving Amy very confused.
OoOoOoO
'Well,' Cell thought as it picked itself up from where it had landed on the top floor of the office building 17 had whacked it through, 'This is different.' Cell reflected as it brushed glass off of its shoulders that it couldn't remember the last time something unexpected had happened. Then it saw 18 coming towards it and she fired a barrage of energy blasts from her hands, which Cell brought up a forearm to block. This, however, turned out to just be a distraction as 17 came up from the floor in front of Cell and whacked it with the remains of the car, which exploded on impact and sent Cell up through the ceiling. This sent Cell directly into a flying kick from 18, sending it off toward the horizon, before 17 grabbed its tail and swung it around before hurling it down and away as hard as he could. 'Very different.' What a nice little change of pace.
OoOoOoO
"So, hey," Lapis remarked as they flew off toward the crater they'd made with Cell's body, "What's the plan again? We do have one of those, right?"
` "Keep this guy out of the city so he can't eat anyone," Lazuli stated matter-of-factly. "Then we hit him until he stops moving." Lapis grinned and generated two large green energy balls in his hands.
"I can do that," he declared confidently. Lapis swung the balls down toward the crater and Lazuli raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, yours are green? How is that fair?" He shrugged and she rolled her eyes before thrusting her palms out. A ball of pink energy formed between her palms and she sent out a hail of energy bullets down toward Cell. Lapis nodded and the two stood side-by-side, letting down a barrage of ki blasts toward Cell, turning the field they launched it into to a burning field of ruined earth.
"Hey!" Lapis called down as they descended toward the ground. "Green jeans! You alive down there?" There was silence. "I kinda hope so, honestly. I wasn't done kicking your ass for all these people you've murdered!" They touched down and a patch of blackened earth began to crack and break apart before Cell exploded out of the ground with a gasp. It rolled its shoulders back and rolled its head from side to side, its tail swishing back and forth.
"Well," it remarked in its incredibly uncomfortable rasping voice, "That was fun." It chuckled, making Lapis and Lazuli shift uneasily in their fighting stances. "Ahhh," it sighed, "17 and 18. So nice to see you at last. I've got to admit, I did not expect you to come after me. It makes things easier, though, so I appreciate that."
"Don't call us that," Lazuli told Cell sternly. "Those are not our names."
"Yeah," Lapis added, "And save us any crap about being 'siblings' or about this being all part of Gero's great big 'plan' or whatever." This made Cell chuckle. "What?"
"Siblings?" Cell repeated as the chuckle transformed into a guffaw. "You're not siblings. And you're certainly not equals. You want to know what you are?" Cell's blue tongue slid out and it licked its beak-like lips. "You're cattle."
"Gro–" Lapis barely started to say before Cell was on them, charging forward and dropping them both with a double lariat. The impact sent Lapis and Lazuli flying back but they caught themselves in the air before they went too far and charged forward, flying defiantly towards Cell and exploding with a barrage of lightning-fast and expertly-thrown punches that would have each laid waste to an entire city. Cell blocked them all while running backwards, its hands a blur while it gave them a condescending glare. That glare, of course, was interrupted when Lazuli suddenly swung her legs and took Cell's feet out from under it. Lapis followed up with a two-handed ki blast while Cell was off its feet to the chest, sending Cell hurtling back. Lazuli was behind Cell in a flash, swinging both fists together in an axehandle blow at the back of Cell's head to send it back toward Lapis, who hit Cell square in the beak with a knee that sent it flying back toward Lazuli. The twins sandwiched Cell between them with a flying kick to the front and back of its head before kicking it up into the air and finishing it with a pair of energy beams.
When the smoke cleared, Cell was floating over them with its arms crossed to defend itself and the glare back on its face.
"Uh oh," Lazuli muttered. "Not goo–" Cell was between them in the blink of an eye, launching them away from each other with a jumping split kick. They skidded to a stop on a knee and fired energy beams at Cell but it was already gone and the beams exploded against one another. Lapis shielded his eyes from the glare and it was only the rush of air on the back of his neck that let him know Cell was behind him. He spun around and barely managed to avoid Cell's tail stabbing at him, grabbing it between his hands as the brownish tip thrashed, the needle less than an inch from his face.
Then the needle exploded open into something more like a suction cup and Lapis stared into the inside of Cell's tail. It looked like… well, Lapis didn't really want to say what it looked like. Cell started pushing forward and the tail nearly went over Lapis' head.
"Kienzan!" Lazuli cried and Lapis sighed with relief when a sawblade of pink energy sliced a chunk of Cell's tail off. It let out a bark of pain and Lapis discarded the tail in disgust before he and Lazuli drove their palms into the black gem in the center of its chest to send it skidding back.
"Okay," Lapis breathed out once they'd made some distance between themselves and Cell, "So. The tail's bad."
"Well, good thing Gero gave us all of their techniques," Lazuli pointed out. "So I don't think the tail's gonna be a huge issue. We just gotta stick to this together." Once again, infuriatingly, Cell chuckled.
"Are you sure about that?" It asked. Its tail swished and thrashed and the flesh under the skin seemed to boil and writhe. Then a fresh section of tail burst out of the stump Lazuli had made, stinger and all. "Gotta love those Namekian cells."
"Seriously," Lapis groaned with a slightly green tinge to his face, "Is there a single thing about you that is not disgustingly horrifying?!" Cell chuckled again. "Stop laughing!" Cell threw its head back and burst into outright uproarious laughter as it suddenly started powering up.
"That's not good," Lazuli muttered.
OoOoOoO
"All diagnostics complete," Gero's voice said in Adrian's head. If Adrian's personality map had been more complex, he would no doubt have rolled his eyes and made some sarcastic remark or even felt relief. He felt nothing, save for a vague sense of satisfaction. With his ki sensing software finally functioning, he could at last detect Son Goku. She was… several miles over his head. That was strange. Nevertheless, Adrian began to activate his rockets. Then, however, his sensors picked up another ki signature like Son Goku's. And Vegeta's. And Piccolo's. And the others. And something called "Freeza." That was very strange. The secondary software for finding the other androids also noticed that 17 and 18 were fighting this other ki signature. Adrian paused for an indecisive moment as he struggled to choose between the two targets.
Then he activated the rockets in his feet and flew off toward the west. "Overdrive," he declared. Panels opened in his back and a pair of large rocket thrusters came out before flaring up and adding to his speed.
OoOoOoO
Piccolo was flying around the Earth in search of Cell's ki signature when suddenly he found it. Well, not precisely. Cell, as he had discovered, had no ki signature of its own. But when he sensed himself standing next to Goku and Gohan, as well as Vegeta and Freeza, it was easy enough to put the two together.
"Alright," Piccolo muttered to himself as he changed course and rocketed down with full speed, "Time to see just how powerful I truly am!"
OoOoOoO
Lapis and Lazuli skidded in the dirt and groaned painfully when they came to a stop. They were covered in scrapes and bruises and Lapis' shirt was torn to tatters. Lazuli had lost her shoes.
"Hey sis," Lapis groaned painfully as he weakly pushed himself to his feet, "Is it me or is this guy really strong?"
Lazuli nodded with a wince, feeling something pop in her neck that probably shouldn't as Lapis helped her up. "Yeah," she admitted. "Is it too late to go back to the beach?"
Lapis gave a pained chuckle as they turned to see an utterly unscathed Cell stalking steadily towards them. "Think so."
"Well this has been fun," Cell remarked dryly, "But I've got a world to go out and destroy so if you two wouldn't mind just rolling over and dying, I can get on with my day." Lapis smirked and spat out a mouthful of black blood, shoving down the urge to throw a fit at discovering yet another way that Gero had made them inhuman.
"I can do this all day," Lapis boasted shakily. Lazuli nodded again and Cell rolled its eyes as the twins got shakily into their guards.
"Rocket Punch!" a voice called from off in the distance. Cell turned its head to the left toward the sound of the voice and a rocket–mounted fist collided with its face, exploding on impact. Lapis and Lazuli gawked as Cell was sent skittering away and a green-and-black blur zipped across the sky and put itself between them and Cell with a thunderous impact.
"Adrian!" Lapis cried in surprise as they looked up at the android's broad back. "The heck are you doing here? I thought you were only supposed to fight Goku."
"This monster is comprised of many alien forms of DNA and poses a considerable threat to this planet," Adrian explained. "This falls within my parameters of self-preservation, killing Son Goku, and the lesser directive of protecting this world. A directive that, over the last several days, I have begun to value over the primary directives." Lapis wondered what was so special about Adrian that the whole "protect the world from aliens" thing was less important than saving his own skin. Or bolts. Or whatever. "Also," Adrian added, "I should not have abandoned you. You are the closest things to family that I have left. I will protect you."
"Awww," Lapis and Lazuli cooed in unison.
"Stay back," Adrian told them firmly as Cell started coming toward them. "I will deal with this monster myself." He started advancing toward Cell who cracked its knuckles and locked eyes with Adrian.
"Ahhh. Android 16," it remarked, "The literal redheaded stepchild. Was wondering when you'd show up." Adrian glared wordlessly at it. "I'd tell you to get out of my way but I have the sneaking suspicion that's not going to work." Adrian nodded. "Alright then. Let's dance, replacement goldfish." Cell and Adrian roared as they charged at one another with their fists drawn back. They met in a lightning-fast exchange of punches, Adrian's speed surprising for one of his bulk. Their fists collided with a shockwave and, for just a moment, Adrian began to gave ground before panels opened in his bicep and clamps latched onto his forearm to provide further stability and little rockets came out of the clamps that actually pushed it forward. Cell's pink eyes widened in surprise before Adrian's other fist slammed into its gut, lifting it into the air so Adrian could grab its horns in both hands and yank it down into his upraised knee. Then Adrian swung Cell by the horns and thrust out one of his fists as Cell was sent reeling.
"Rocket punch!" His fist flew off and hit Cell with another explosive impact, a new fist already constructing itself from the stump as Adrian flew at Cell to press the attack. Cell landed on its feet and thrust both hands out with rage in its eyes.
"Kamehameha!" It snapped, the blast catching Adrian full in the chest. Surprisingly, he absorbed the blow and Cell narrowed its eyes with contempt. It should have known that Gero would design his Goku-killing son with anti-Goku measures. The black panel in the center of Adrian's chest opened up and a yellow light shone out of it before a blast came out at Cell, releasing the absorbed Kamehameha energy. Cell contemptuously swatted the blast away but Adrian was already on top of it, blades exploding out of his wrists and his tree trunk-like limbs moving in a whirlwind as it sliced off all of Cell's limbs, including the tail. The stump of torso and head glared at Adrian as it floated in the air but, to Adrian's surprise, it retaliated with eye beams. Adrian barely managed to pivot to one side to avoid the attack, the beams grazing his face and exposing the metal skeleton underneath.
"Adrian!" Lazuli cried out as she and Lapis started running toward him.
"Stay back!" Adrian ordered. "Get away from h–" but the distraction had allowed Cell to regenerate its limbs, including the fist that it used to punch Adrian in the jaw with a right hook to send him reeling. It followed with a left roundhouse to keep him off-balance before hitting an uppercut with its tail under his chin to send him into the air, before wrapping that same tail around Adrian's ankle and smashing him into the ground. Adrian got to his feet with mechanical efficiency and hopped into the air to create some distance. Cell laughed as Adrian opened panels in his chest and arms, revealing gun barrels that covered every part of his upper body from the neck down.
"Bullets?" Cell laughed. "Really?! You think bullets are going to hurt me?" It held its arms out and waited with its feet planted. "Go ahead."
"Yes," Adrian confirmed as the motors began to whir, "Bullets." His mouth quirked up into the tiniest hint of a smirk. "Hollowpoint. Filled with an adhesive that reaches super-solar temperatures on contact with air." Cell blinked and stared at him.
"I'm sorry, they do wha–" Adrian roared as bullets filled the air, shell casings raining down on the ground as chunks were torn out of Cell, whose flesh began to boil and burn. Cell howled with agony as it kicked and flailed desperately before immediately flying off to the nearest body of water and dunking itself. After a moment's regeneration, it returned, dripping wet and unharmed but very angry. "Alright," Cell hissed, "No more games!" It roared and powered up again before launching itself at Adrian. This time when they met, Cell evaded all of Adrian's punches while landing twice as many hits as Adrian threw, each one smashing a dent into the android and making him stagger back. Cell's tail went around Adrian's throat and it started smashing Adrian effortlessly into the ground, over and over again. Lapis and Lazuli charged at Cell but it cast them dismissively away with a kiai wave of its hand. "I'll get to you two in a moment," it told them before turning back to Adrian, who raised both fists right in Cell's face.
"Rocket Punch!" He gurgled out, the fists exploding again. Cell didn't even flinch. Its grip began to tighten as it drew a hand back in a spear strike aimed right for Adrian's head.
"You know," it said as Adrian struggled, "I'm sure if Gero were still alive, he'd be rather upset about his son dying twice." Then it shrugged. "But I stopped caring about how he felt a long time ago." Someone tapped Cell on the shoulder. "Hmm?" Cell asked as it turned around. Then a green fist filled Cell's entire field of vision and forced it to break its grip on Adrian's throat as it was sent flying. Adrian sprawled onto the ground with a thud and rubbed at his slightly-crushed throat while he looked up at Piccolo in as much disbelief as he could appropriately muster.
"I'll take it from here," Piccolo assured him with his blue cape blowing dramatically in the wind. Adrian nodded reluctantly and Piccolo smirked. "If you don't like an alien helping you," Piccolo said casually while pulling off his cape and tossing it aside, "Just keep thinking of me as a demon. Apparently those can be rather friendly in some human fiction." He started walking towards Cell and cracked his knuckles while Cell rubbed at its beak-jaw. "As I recall," Piccolo remarked, "I owe you a broken nose. You don't seem to have one, though, so I guess I'll have to settle for your whole face." Cell rolled its eyes and got into a fighting stance.
"It doesn't matter who you absorb," Cell told him, "The result is always going to be the same." Piccolo looked at it curiously for a moment before the two came at each other, their auras flaring as they exploded against one another in a blinding cascade of clashing lights. The combatants were moving so quickly that even Lapis and Lazuli's enhanced eyesight could only make out the vague green versus green-and-purple shapes that were the warriors violently throwing punches and kicks.
"Hey sis," Lapis muttered in an awestruck daze.
"Yeah?" Lazuli asked in a similar tone.
"If we live… we need to train more."
"Totally."
Piccolo and Cell's blows were coming so fast and furiously that the impact of their legs collided on simultaneous kicks created a shockwave that sent both of them hurtling back, launching Cell into the air and forcing Piccolo to dig his feet into the earth.
"Dodonpa!" Cell cried as it launched a beam of yellow ki from its fingertip. Just like at the 23rd Budoukai, Piccolo snatched the attack out of the air and hurled it like a javelin back at Cell, who angrily slapped it aside. This left an opening for Piccolo to retaliate and he launched a finger beam of his own at Cell's shoulder, the bioandroid rolling to avoid it. This attack, however, had been only a feint, leaving Cell's opposite shoulder open for Piccolo to stab through with another ki beam. Cell cried out in pain before Piccolo shot out his hand to wrap his arm around Cell's throat like a constrictor and yank Cell down as he flew up towards it, smashing his fist into Cell's stomach so hard that its body warped and the indent of his fist was actually visible on the other side. Cell snarled through the pain and grabbed onto Piccolo's bicep, its black nails digging into the pink-and-green flesh to keep Piccolo from pulling away before it rammed its other fist into his stomach hard enough for Piccolo's body to buckle from the indent. Both combatants staggered away and gasped in pain before charging again, colliding in a furious knuckle lock that shook the earth beneath them as each pushed against the other, their auras flaring and crackling like raging wildfires. Locked in a stalemate, the pair shoved off of each other and firmly planted their feet simultaneously before touching two fingers to their foreheads and thrusting their hands forward.
"Makankousappou!" The twin drills of purple and yellow death collided against each other in a dazzling cascade of deadly lights, each spinning in opposite directions and pushing against each other. Piccolo and Cell grabbed their wrists simultaneously to provide stability and try to coax more power out of the blasts. The two evenly-matched beams eventually erupted into a blinding explosion and Cell and Piccolo charged forward through the lights, the two shadows meeting at the epicenter in a collision of looping hooks to the cheek powerful enough to wipe away the blinding lights like a mighty wind blowing away the clouds. Piccolo and Cell glared at one another, each fist still pressed to the other's cheek, before dropping their hands and taking a few steps back.
"I'll be honest," Cell said as they began to circle one another. "The twins were a distraction and the tin man was an annoyance. You, on the other hand? You're an actual challenge. This is kind of fun." It smirked as they came to a stop. "Must be the Saiyan in me."
"Don't you worry," Piccolo boasted as he got back into his guard. "I haven't even begun to fight." There was a voice in Piccolo's head, which Piccolo suspected was the remnants of the old man, that reminded him that Cell was pushing him to his limit and that, so far, the two of them appeared to be completely evenly matched. Piccolo promptly told that voice to shut the hell up and pushed it down so far he couldn't hear it. The two warriors tensed for a moment before thundering towards one another again.
OoOoOoO
Several hundred miles away, Krillin was doing his best to ignore the two raging ki he was sensing and push them to the back of his mind as he flew into the open window of Bulma's lab in West City. Thankfully, it didn't look like Bulma was figuring out some new way to weaponize the moon or claim ownership of the ocean.
"Hey, Bulma," Krillin greeted with a wave as he walked toward the blue-haired woman who was hunched over her workbench. Over in his crib in a shockingly clutter-free corner of the room, the infant Trunks of this timeline gave his best attempt at a hello. "Hey, little buddy."
"Hi, Krillin," Bulma replied without ever looking up from her work. Krillin could see the faint trails of smoke curling up from the bench as he came closer and could hear the snapping of sparks. "What's up?"
"Well y'see," Krillin began awkwardly, "The twins kinda…"
"Beat your asses and ran away?" Bulma asked. Krillin balked for a moment and Bulma shrugged. "I figured they would. The power output Gero had these guys up to is crazy. I'm pretty sure only Goku or Vegeta would be able to take them down. So whaddaya need?"
"Well," Krillin said delicately, "Since you were looking at their schematics and stuff, I figured you might have built some way to track them. Y'know, since they don't have ki or anything."
"It's funny you say that," Bulma replied as she finally looked up from her workbench and turned around to face Krillin, "Because I might have the answer to our problem."
"Oh yeah?" Krillin asked. "Did you build something to track them?" Not that he necessarily needed it right now because he could probably guess where the twins were with Piccolo and Cell's power levels raging. But no reason to tell Bulma that. Come to think of it, when and how did Piccolo get so strong?
"No," Bulma told him as she handed him a small, grey, cylindrical remote with a button on the top. "I built the next best thing. This remote should completely shut down the nanites in Lapis and Lazuli's bloodstreams and take out most of the power that Cell would get from absorbing them. So even if Cell gets them, without that power, it won't be able to transform and Vegeta or Trunks will kill it."
"Oh," Krillin said as he reached out to take the remote. "Great!" It wasn't the best solution in the world, but hey, at least they'd be normal kids again.
"There's just one thing, though," Bulma added. Something about that made Krillin's outstretched hand stop before it reached the remote. "Lapis and Lazuli's cells have been absorbing those nanites for so long and at such high amounts that they're practically woven into their DNA. It's what regulates the infinite energy reactors in their chests. If those nanites shut down, their bodies will be so shocked by the change that they won't be able to recover. So if you push this button… they'll die."
"...What?" Krillin asked in a small voice.
"I wish I had a better plan," Bulma said sincerely, "But this is the best I've got right now. I'll keep working, though. I promise." Reluctantly, Krillin's hands reached out to grab the remote. His fingers curled slowly around it and pulled it out of Bulma's hand. He looked down at it for a few long moments before flying out of the open window again in silence.
Krillin was one of the most powerful beings in the world. Probably in the galaxy. He was pretty sure that, at this point in his life, he had more than enough power to destroy a planet. So why, Krillin thought as he flew, was this tiny little remote so heavy? Why did it feel like it was a weight on his chest that was crushing him? Why did Krillin feel like he was going to drown?