Lapis vanished in a snap, appearing before Lazuli and throwing a quick jab. Instinctively, Lazuli's hand moved to catch her brother's fist and stop it halfway to her face. Lapis' arm was twitching with tension and so was Lazuli's entire body as the two Artificial Humans entered a brief power struggle. Meanwhile, the bundle of Cell Jrs just snarled and giggled, watching the two siblings fight each other.
Suddenly, the incoming push of force vanished, leaving Lazuli a tad stunned and throwing her off-balance. Lapis shot forward with a flying knee strike, prompting his sister to spin around and deflect the incoming strike before it could wreck her guard and break her arms. Fending off Lapis felt like madness, he was always the focused fighter with a passion for martial arts and he was always the one who enjoyed testing their newfound Artificial Human abilities, whereas Lazuli just went along with them and enjoyed the thrill ride.
No. 17 plunged downward, performing a wide yet strikingly sudden sweep that forced Lazuli to hop over it and catch another jab mid-air. She knew this attack. It wasn't an attempt to hurt Lapis' opponent; it was a check meant to stabilize him and his opponent in just the right place–to level their positions to the necessary degree for the incoming devastating elbow thrust to the solar plexus to score the maximum damage. Lazuli fell to this exact shot so many times during sparing that she's learned to look out for its calling card.
This time, the lethal blonde caught her brother's elbow strike, softening the blow by pushing her open yet relaxed hand in between her body and her brother's elbow. It still hurt, but Lazuli found that not letting Lapis focus all his strength on a singular vital point in a body was the best strategy, as opposed to trying to match and surpass his pace and strength. She should have been using Overdrive, she's become stronger during training with Lapis. Her Overdrive now would have given her a tremendous advantage in power against him for a limited time.
However… It would also shut down her Infinite Ki Reactor for a time until it cooled down and restarted. It was a risky gamble. Even if Lazuli managed to fend off No. 17 now and broke him out of hypnosis, that would still leave five whole original Cell Jrs to deal with, as well as their innumerous clones and however many more would rush in reaction to this ruckus. Damn it! They really were in a pinch here against these brats!
After a roundhouse smacked Lazuli away, brushing her busted lip, the Artificial Human vaulted backward and dashed right back into combat, delivering a double arm ax handle slam to the back of Lapis' head from above and sending him into a forward stumble, dazed. No! She was strong! She didn't need to rely on Overdrive to compensate for her shortcomings anymore, she's trained just as hard as Lapis did these past few days, if not harder. What Lazuli felt she needed to do now was to trust that training and stay calm.
Seeing Lapis target her mid-section made Lazuli respond with low kicks to his shins, forcing him on the defensive to preserve his speed and save himself from some pain. Rushing in, Lazuli thrust a sideways palm, aiming to blast Lapis away and use the opening to send a Ki blast at the Cell Jrs to distract them and potentially break their hypnosis on Lapis. To do that, she needed to hit the right one, which felt more and more troublesome as time went on.
After ducking a punch to the face, Lazuli exploded with a flying headbutt, but Lapis' palms intercepted it by locking just in time. The two let their energies unfurl at full strength, engaging in another power struggle. A flash of light streaked from Lapis' hands, forcing Lazuli to dash away. This proved to be a feint, opening her up for a roundhouse to her gut that sent Lazuli flying off and crashing through constantly shifting iron bar configurations and ladder mountains while Lapis halted in place and tightened his glove over his hand.
With his gloves tightly wrapped around Lapis' hands, the Artificial Human crossed his arms in front of him with his fingers pointing outward, curled over his hand. A violent burst of white aura erupted from Lapis, converting into an electromagnetic energy field, translating itself into popping electrical jolts that turned into a vivid jade color. Lapis threw his arms off to the side, turning his entire body as his hands became covered with jade electricity shimmers. However, just as Lapis would have fired off his technique, he suddenly changed direction and slashed at the entertained Cell Jrs, catching them off-guard and making them freak out.
Two arcing jade electricity blasts hurled at incredible speed, homing in straight at the entire army of Cell Jrs, expanding in power and range the farther away they hurled from Lapis. The arcing energy mass slashed through the trio of Cell Jrs, splitting them in half while sending emerald thunderbolts in all directions and frying all the swarming clones that the Cell Jrs had made previously to overwhelm the Android siblings. Lapis' ace technique dissolved into a lightning vortex, shooting off wild jade thunderbolts into the atmosphere where they dissolved in web-shaped lightning. Admiring the destruction of his making, Lapis sifted his hand through his hair, moving it back into place while Lazuli joined his side.
"You did well to keep a cool head and not use Overdrive," Lapis said nonchalantly. "You really have become strong enough to hold your own against any opponent without needing to resort to that. Of course, you'll still always have that option, if the enemy is just that strong and you're ready to make an all-or-nothing desperation move."
"You were faking hypnosis!?" Lazuli lashed out at her brother. "Did you have any idea how awful I thought our situation was? Overdrive, Self-Destruction… I've considered all of those options!"
"There's no need to dramatize everything now," Lapis shrugged. "There were too many of them, they were too strong for us to gain any ground, and one of them was foolish enough to try the hypnosis trick again after we've already overpowered it before. This was a chance to get a clean shot that was too alluring to overlook, I bided my time, pretending to be hypnotized, sparring with you until my Ki reactor built up enough energy to destroy those spares. Well… I guess a few originals must have gotten caught too…"
"Don't you lie to me about holding back! You were hitting me for real!" Lazuli got up in Lapis' face about it.
"I had to make it look real, also, it had to be entertaining enough for those sadistic brats to not interfere themselves. If anything, I was impressed by how few hits I landed on you while coming at you seriously. Of course, I held some strength back…" Lapis brushed it off, leaning to examine the leftover after his strongest attack had settled down, leaving only walls of dust and debris floating in the air. Curious, Lazuli turned to check as well.
The result of Lapis' gamble was impressive enough to call it a success–the entirety of Cell Jr. clone brigade was wiped out, along with two originals, leaving just two Cell Jrs that were hovering too far away to take the brunt of the force and one incredibly crippled Cell Jr. who had only their upper half twitching and reeled back with a shocked expression of gnashed teeth and bulged bloodshot eyes.
"You've taken a beating, stay back for a bit," Lazuli said bitterly to her brother while drawing her tightly clenched fists off to the side and energizing them with blue energy flares. "Deadly Dance!" she exclaimed, taking off in a velocious dash toward one of the Cell Jrs. With a vicious mauling that sent blue, tunneling shockwaves after every punch, Lazuli let loose a combination of punches and kicks before finishing the rush with an uppercut that sent the Cell Jr. flying.
Another Cell Jr. rushed at Lazuli with transformed mallet hands, only for Lazuli to spread her arms and legs off to the side and erupt in an electromagnetic barrier that jolted the other Cell Jr. and forced them to hurl back. Clenching her fists by her sides and hunching over, Lazuli exploded with a lively white aura that attained a bright yellow outline after some raging.
"Infinity Bomb!" Lazuli yelled out, raising her arms over her head and charging up a yellow energy sphere between both her hands that then proceeded to pump bigger and bigger with each ton of energy being forced into it. After charging up the attack, Lazuli threw her arms down, directing the gigantic, electric energy bomb to hurl downward and dissolve in an electromagnetic halo shockwave that surged with such intensity, that it formed a boom-tunnel washing upward, and beaming off into the atmosphere, where it dissolved in a violent discharge that electrified the planet's atmosphere and caused clouds to gather. Peck, after a refreshing peck, an apocalyptic downpour started as thunder strikes illuminated the stormy gloom of Lazuli's making.
Two more original reptilian Cell Jrs were nowhere to be seen.
The other Cell Jr. dashed at Lapis, seeing Lazuli's over-extending attack as a chance to take out the much more weakened and injured Artificial Human. Transforming its forearms into gigantic sludge fists, the Cell Jr. slammed a flying right hand that knocked Lapis away before sending a scaly skin flap to wrap around him and bounce him back, at which point, the Cell Jr. cracked him again. This began a vicious beatdown cycle, entrapping Lapis in a tight, leathery bind while the sadistic imp put a beatdown on him.
"HAAAH!" Lapis exclaimed, exploding in a destructive energy field that reduced the strap of the scaled skin flap that bound him to nothing in a momentary flash. "Sorry, I love animals and nature, and I truly am sorry for the bad manners that Cell's instilled in you, but if I let you kill me, there's a whole lot of animals and monsters that I'll be letting down and leaving unattended. Besides, I still haven't given Cell a piece of my mind for ruining your lives like that. So, as you can imagine, I really can't let you just kill me like that."
"Eek!" the Cell Jr. let out a high-pitched shriek, breaking its usually grumbly and low-pitched voice. No. 17 took off in a straight dash toward the malevolent imp, channeling a yellow energy sphere in one hand that crackled with an outline of black electricity.
"Thunder Eraser!" Lapis called out, thrusting his palm forward point-blank to the Cell Jr's face and firing a yellow energy wave that blasted the Cell Jr. away and split it into pieces, obliterating the body and leaving only the head, the arms, and the legs, that petrified and crumbled into dust. Reflecting the flash of raging lightning strikes, inside the pile of ash laid a black-starred Ultimate Dragon Ball.
Lazuli swooped down and pulled it out of the ash, dusting it off and flinging it to Lapis to put inside one of his jeans' pockets. Before the two could even begin planning what they should do next, a crackling, neon-blue rift opened up before them, sending swirls of cube-shaped pixels washing in every direction from the depths of the rift. As the two Artificial Humans looked around, they could see more and more similar rifts opening up.
"That Cell… It's cocky enough to give us a chance to pull the others out of the line of fire if they've failed to retrieve the Ultimate Dragon Balls," Lazuli observed, taking note of the number of portals matching the number of remaining Ultimate Dragon Balls they still had to find.
"The smart idea would be to leave and bring this Ultimate Dragon Ball back to Earth," Lapis looked down at the Ultimate Dragon Ball blowing out the pocket of his jeans with its dimensions. "However… I still haven't punished Cell for what it did to those poor creatures. Of all things, I thought Cell would loathe creating another living thing for the sole sake of violence. I have an urge to hit Cell in the face until it understands how much too far this has gone."
"You're wounded, Lapis," Lazuli tried mildly suggesting an alternative. "You've taken on too many of those guys and you've fooled around pitying them too much. You're in no condition to fight Cell right now."
"I no longer have a choice," Lapis closed his eyes, solemnly admitting that he knew he was no match for Cell in the state he was in, even if he was any challenge for Cell at full power to begin with. "I've made a lot of bad choices early on in life, choices that led me on a dark path one cannot fully return from. Now, as I seek something better for myself and for the people around me, my life no longer belongs to me anymore. I can no longer cling to my life and try to preserve it at all costs because my life now serves the higher calling I aspire to. That's why, even if I know I might die, I just can't stand leaving Cell be for what it's done!"
"I guess both of us have changed a lot in those few days we've been training together," Lazuli cracked a smirk, realizing that she couldn't help but agree with her little brother now. As a wife, she too now had higher priorities than merely her own hide to watch over. She knew that Krillin might have been struggling against these Cell Jrs himself somewhere in that vast universe out there, or he might have already gone on to challenge Cell. There was no way Krillin could have been content just leaving his friends alone against that monster.
"Come on," Lapis glanced behind him before turning to the portal closest to them. "Let's not wait around until more of those rascals show up."
The Android siblings stepped through the rift, prompting it to close. Meanwhile, the other rifts still gleamed where they originally opened up.
"So that's where Cell's hid the Ultimate Dragon Ball?" Super One-Nine stared at a skin-colored planet, rippled with pulsating fleshy veins all over. The doll-like Super Artificial Human bent her head off to the side, looking curious about what she was looking at. "Icky… What is that?"
"It does not matter," Ultimate No. 16 replied with a cold and methodical tone.
"Do you think Cell could really be hiding out in a place like this?" Super One-Nine turned to her goliath of an adoptive big brother.
"It does not matter," Ultimate No. 16 repeated without skipping a beat. "It would be safer for you if you stayed here. I do not intend to take long."
"No way!" Super One-Nine pouted, pressing her tiny, pale knuckles together before shoving them down by her sides in blatant outrage. "Cell attacked our family and murdered our mother! I wanna see how it begs for its life when I turn it into a doll and pull its plastic limbs off one by one!"
"Understood," Ultimate Artificial Human No. 16 replied, moving only its stern and stiff lips. "Do not fall behind."
Ultimate Artificial Human No. 16 pressed a button that opened up the hatch and engaged the thrusters on his back, sending him dashing ahead and into cold space in the outer atmosphere of Cell's fleshy and round planet. Bolting off with her short legs as she clutched the ends of her long, frilly skirt, Super One-Nine kicked off the hatch and plunged into space after her big brother. Following him as best as she could as Ultimate Artificial Human hurled closer and closer toward the planet's surface, like an energized black and blue comet.
"From the first look, this planet appeared to be a gaseous planet. However, my current readings indicate that it is a solid planet without an atmosphere," Ultimate No. 16 reported, completing his mid-air flip and firmly landing on the planet with a soft and fleshy thud. The planet's surface undulated as if the outermost layer hid a gooey or liquid mantle underneath. Unlike her cool big brother, Super One-Nine spread her arms and legs to the sides, struggling to maintain her balance on the undulating surface of this oddball cosmic creation.
"What the heck!?" Super One-Nine exclaimed. "The ground's all soft and gooey!"
"Affirmative. It appears to be made of some sort of artificial human skin weave, coated in a mucus secretion meant to maintain it," Ultimate No. 16 reported while scanning the planet's horizon with his cybernetic mask vizor. "Step back, Super One-Nine."
"Huh, what's wrong, big guy?" Super One-Nine wondered, curious about what piqued her adoptive big brother's interest like that.
"It is illogical that Cell would have created a planet without a hospitable atmosphere for human life. Cell seeks entertainment in combat against the Earth's finest martial artists. As such, it would not hide one of the Ultimate Dragon Balls on a planet that would kill them by itself," Ultimate No. 16 wound back its left arm, firing off blue-flame energy thrusters from his armored elbow and slamming a firm rocket fist into the undulating and soft, fleshy surface of the planet, causing a bloody burst of showering viscera to erupt into the atmosphere as the Ultimate Artificial Human punched his way inside the planet, engaging boot and back thrusters to stabilize his fall.
"Whoa! So icky!" Super One-Nine stuck out her tongue in disgust after landing right after her big brother, who slammed his boots onto churning and writhing innards, inside something resembling a system of a digestive tract inside a digestive tract. This entire planet appeared to be some kind of semi-sentient organism with pulsating, womb-like pustules hanging off the walls and ceilings of the gory planet's interior. Despite the horrid scent, the planet's "innards" were very much designed with hosting sentient human life in mind.
"Indeed," Ultimate No. 16 concurred with his little adoptive sister's assessment, letting his advanced beyond-measure radar systems run diagnostics of everything around it in an attempt to measure and understand Cell's twisted intentions and thought process when designing this planet. "Stay alert."
Dr. Puri's adoptive children descended inside the heart of Cell's semi-sentient celestial body to retrieve another Ultimate Dragon Ball, then move on to destroying Cell for everything it's done to the family it claimed to be part of.