The newly ascended Super Saiyan 2 stared at the rejuvenated Cell Minus with an icy stare. Meanwhile, despite having played all its cards just right and lured the Strongest Artificial Human into lowering its guard and caring little in retrospect about the loss of the Big Gete Star, Cell Minus appeared taken aback by Gohan's ascension. At least at first. After the initial shock of the flashy light show, Cell Minus swallowed the shock and smirked.
"So, the little brat's finally got his groove… So what? Let me remind you that your daddy couldn't defeat a weaker version of me despite absorbing the wishing power of the Dragon Balls and ascending to Super Saiyan 2. Newsflash, kid–you've got no chance of…" Cell Minus was postulating until a snap vanish from its opponent's side forced a quick reaction out of the Bio-Android.
Dashing backward, while desperately putting its arm up, Cell blocked a flying kick to the side of the head from Super Saiyan 2 Gohan with eyes that accurately translated the surprise of the fight being brought to the universal apex predator so suddenly and with so much ruthless aggression. Gohan's face, meanwhile, was tranquil at first sight, however, hidden behind those eyes simmered a quiet, deep-seated rage that provided the fuel for the fires of aggression.
"Shut up and fight," Gohan said plain and simply, forcing his kick to break through Cell's guard and force the monster into a backward stagger. Using the boxing form he's learned training with Sharpner, Gohan pursued Cell and got in close, driving an uppercut to Cell's gut, only for Cell to catch the punch. Turning his whole body around, Gohan threw a back-elbow shot, which Cell answered with a defensive elbow block of his own. Jumping into the air, Gohan threw a spinning kick that Cell Minus weaved out of the way of, but it was a feint. After whirling around and transferring the momentum from the last kick while buffing it several times over, Gohan delivered a high kick that blew Cell Minus into the air where the Super Saiyan 2 could pursue him.
"I'll make you pay for everything you did!" Super Saiyan 2 Gohan cried out, rushing after Cell Minus, who just breathed in and stopped time. Charging back at the indomitable bringer of justice, Cell Minus unleashed a vicious combo of punches and kicks in stopped time before punting the teen aside with a kick and a smirk on its face.
Super Saiyan 2 Gohan glided back, knocked away by the resumed flow of time and the debt in accumulated damage his body had to pay from all those skipped blows, but, instead of collapsing, Gohan bounced right back with a measly bunch of scrapes and a trail of blood over his cracked lip that only made him seem more furious.
"Is that the best you can do?" Gohan grumbled with a look that made Cell Minus contemplate using Instant Transmission and get itself away from the boy's sight.
"It's just your adrenaline pumping, brat!" Cell Minus hissed in disdain of his blows being brushed off like that. "Your battle power skyrocketed because of an emotional reaction to the obliteration of that heap of scrap at my hands. It'll pass like it always does. I might have made a slight miscalculation, stopping time against you and attacking you while you're still unstable, but in a second, that emotional high you're riding on will go away, and you'll go back to being the sniveling pup you are."
"He can do it…" Krillin clenched his fist and looked at his bruised, shaking hand while he and his wife helped each other up. "Goku never stopped believing in Gohan, he knew the incredible power that laid dormant inside him. Even if Goku's gone, when I look at Gohan, standing up against incredible odds with nothing but his fists and his wits, it's like… It's like Goku has gone nowhere. Gohan… I believe you can do it!"
"Krillin," Lazuli patted down her injured husband, who appeared to be in no condition to fight. "I believe in you, so if you place your faith in Gohan, I'll put the fate of our family in his hands as well."
Krillin and Lazuli began shimmering with white light that splintered into starlit dust, like snowflakes and breezed across toward Gohan, gently touching the edges of the aura of the teen Saiyan and becoming part of his fighting spirit, bolstering his strength beyond any known limits. It didn't appear like either of the two were aware this was happening, that their support was amping up Gohan's power to an unbelievable degree.
"Gohan…" Piccolo hissed, briefly opening his eyes while Lapis helped him up. "That's right, live up to your true potential, let your feelings explode. You've always had a sense of justice in you and, unlike your simple-minded, selfish father, you had enough wits about you to know right from wrong. Let your cry for justice guide your fists to victory, win, Gohan."
"Hmm… You really believe in that boy, huh?" Lapis looked up and glared at the flash of righteous light shimmering above them and providing enough gravitational fluctuations in the cosmic region to capture the hovering continental debris and have them satellite around the rivaling superpowers. "Hmph, I guess right now he's our best bet at protecting the planet and all its inhabitants, of protecting Pirita-san and all the denizens of the Monster Island. Piccolo-san believes in you, so you better win, Gohan."
Piccolo and Lapis also sent their genki surging toward Gohan, giving a vivid, undulating white outline to the core of the teen's aura, in between his body and the sparkling and electrified golden shimmer of the Super Saiyan 2 aura. Their belief in Gohan's strength and his sense of justice guiding him to victory bolstered Gohan once more. Through their bond as friends as well as a mentor and pupil, Piccolo knew Gohan more than most, and therefore his bond was one of the strongest. Meanwhile, while Lapis didn't have a firm connection with Gohan, he had a close and respectful bond with Piccolo. Because of Piccolo's unconditional belief in Gohan and Lapis' respect for Piccolo, both warriors sent a stream of genki that poured into the pool, being accumulated and pooled in Gohan's unchained power and righteous fury.
"Brother…" Super One-Nine glared down and caressed her brother's head, while the rest of the salvaged parts hovered behind her in a psychic energy field. "Thank you, Gohan-kun. Thank you for not letting that monster devour my brother and use him as just a stepping stone. Even if it's useless now, thank you for reuniting us. I hope you show that monster and win. You better not die, Gohan-kun."
A powerful wave of genki surged from Super One-Nine toward Super Saiyan 2 Gohan. The tearful Super Android looked up with her pale face smeared with bruises and the black dye used as a substitute for make-up for her doll-like face. She saw a bright white shimmer around her, gently coursing toward Gohan and amassing a booming and expansive, undulating secondary aura, complementing the golden Super Saiyan 2 shine.
"That's… Genki? I… I wasn't aware I even had it, to begin with," Super One-Nine wept out, sifting the ethereal white fluff pouring out of her and coursing toward the gargantuan pool of genki accumulating and bolstering Gohan's aura. Unable to say anything more, the Super Android collapsed on her knees and burst into inky tears. This was by far the most emotion she's ever shown and she's never experienced any feelings like these before.
As far as she could remember, she's always been cold, distant and goal-oriented. This was the first time that she shed genuine tears of joy. It somehow felt apt, given that Gohan's power-up taught her she could be more than just a tool, more than just a doll in someone's hands to wind up and make her do tasks she was told to do. She could have been a human, she could have experienced joy and familial bliss, just like that little girl back on Earth and her mother, Super One-Nine could go on vacations, and she could form relationships and bonds of her own.
A whole new world opened up for her. If only her brother could have been alive to see it… Though… Maybe… There was still a way? Enveloping all the remaining parts of Ultimate No. 16 with a psychic energy field, Super One-Nine guided it toward her chest, letting it phase inside her and become a part of her through a unique form of Android fusion. She's never had that ability before. The original One-Nine was built as just an assistant watchdog for Artificial Human No. 19, just another murder doll. Yet Mother had enough faith in the fact that Super One-Nine was worthy of becoming something greater than that, so she upgraded One-Nine to become able to transcend her Artificial Human class through fusion.
Maybe some part of No. 16's programming could still live on through her if Super One-Nine merged with what remained of him and ascended to Ultimate Class?
A family of aliens with bloated, oval-shaped heads and protruded off the sides, bulbous eyes glared at television screens from the comfort of their own homes. The breaking news report of the unbelievable events transpiring at the 28 Kepler Sigma Point 5 sector beggared belief. An entire team of journalists stranded in an underground arena that was potentially used for recruitment into the presumed dead Frieza Army now became a battleground for creatures that could have been mistaken for gods.
"Go, go, golden-haired fighter!" a smaller version of the adult aliens observing the broadcast from their homes pumped his fists while his sister kicked and cheered in support of the shiny and pretty warrior crying out for justice for the harm done for all living beings in the universe. They became shining torchlights of genki and, without their knowledge, they too sent streaming spiritual waves across the physical and spiritual planes at speeds that left the speed of light in the dust.
The countless energy trails from across the entire planet all traced toward Gohan together, joining a super-cluster of genki bonds that streamed from all across the universe, ravaged by Cell and Cell Jrs. Whether the planets were touched by Cell's cruel hand directly, whether Cell left its Cell Jrs to dominate the planet and become the apex predator, the dominant life form, or whether the denizens of the planet merely heard about this plague rampant across the universe, even those that were just now seeing the monster named Cell for the first time and wanted it to pay for all that it's done, they all sent their resonating masses of genki in support and pumped Gohan up to become the avatar for the entire universe's cry for justice.
"Well, well…" Baby in Hatchiyack's body crossed its arms, observing the events being broadcasted across the universe by the dutiful team of journalist survivors, stranded on a drifting rock in the collapsed Galactic Arena where the climax of the Cell Games was to take place. "You've become quite the dependable young warrior since the last time we faced each other, Son Gohan."
Even from the revived world of New Planet Plant, unwavering support for Gohan's battle flowed in streams of powerful genki as New Tsufurians all sent their support in waves, converging in the rightful young warrior fighting the universe's battle against the tyrannical predator.
"Hmm?" Cell Minus' eye twitched. Having seen the Spirit Bomb performed before, the monster could identify the flow of genki converging and empowering Gohan's aura, changing it to something else entirely with a shimmering, starlit, white pillar, surrounded on the outer ends from each side by a flaming golden flare and sparking with electrical jolts all across. Even if Cell's battle power readings couldn't register any apparent changes, the apex predator knew better than to rely on those readings blindly. "Genki? Are you gathering the genki squandered by your father in some foolish attempt to use the Spirit Bomb on me?"
"Heh…" Gohan smirked, feeling the surging support and faith in him rushing from all across the universe. Gohan merely counted on the support of his friends to carry him through this trial originally. He could have never imagined genki pouring into him from the entire universe. This must have been how his father felt like when collecting genki from the entire universe to use against Frieza on Planet Vegeta. To embody the entire universe's call for retribution, their righteous wrath, and cry for justice. "This is just a glimpse of the new, secret technique of King Kai–the Spirit Succession!"
"Hmph… It hardly seems like anything special. You're just gathering genki and adding it to your own power, as opposed to using it for a Spirit Bomb. What a waste of perfectly good energy…" Cell Minus mocked Gohan's power-up before adopting a fighting stance. "It doesn't matter how many insects send their support for a measly ant, it'll get squashed all the same."
"Why don't you come at me then? Scared?" Gohan sent a malicious smirk Cell's way, which psyched the menacing apex predator out.
"Why you… How about I drain all that energy right out of you!?" Cell Minus barked out, opening its jaw and beginning to pull the limitless energy surging inside Gohan out. All traces of light, including starlight, artificial light, and even aura, began swooping toward Cell's open maw and vanishing inside its bottomless gullet.
With a deadpan stare, Gohan blinked right up to Cell Minus and socked it into the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of the monster's sails and forcing all the light that the transcendental apex predator had drained to leak back out into the atmosphere. "Nice try, but you left yourself open," Gohan mocked Cell while jumping up and driving a vertical kick straight into Cell's jaw, shooting the monster off into space while Gohan dashed right after in pursuit, shimmering with white and golden light and sparkling with electrical jolts all around and leaving a comet-like trail in his wake.
After dashing up to Cell Minus, Gohan cried out, spilling his soul and frustrations out while delivering a devastating flying kick to the gut and punting Cell Minus away. Blinking back up to the airborne and completely debilitated foe, Gohan delivered a horizontal left kick to the neck, then jabbed at Cell's face, before hammering the monster down through the drifting islands of wreckage in a golden pillar stream of energy, crashing Cell Minus down like a comet.
"You're going to face justice for everyone you've ever hurt, across both timelines, Cell," Gohan clenched his wrathful fist. "I warned you back on Earth that if you didn't abandon your evil ways, I'd destroy you."
"Y-You… Self-righteous!" Cell Minus hissed, recovering and shaking off the hurtful beating it just took and noting the countless bruises, chinks, and dents in its armor, the likes of which the apex predator had never suffered before. Until now, Cell Minus hunted its opponent like a true predator, chasing after the most optimal prey to challenge at the time, running a gauntlet that increased in difficulty while avoiding challenges too difficult to overcome. This was the first time that Cell ran into someone who felt almost completely unfair to fight and its body was shivering with the instinct to flee.
Pressing its middle and index fingers to its forehead, Cell Minus attempted a quick Instant Transmission to put some space between the righteous hero of violent justice and itself, entering the hyperspace to transmit its particles at instantaneous speed to a different point of space-time, only for Super Saiyan 2 Gohan to dash in ahead of the befuddled apex predator, turn around and drive a fist crashing right into Cell Minus' face, outpacing instantaneous travel and knocking Cell Minus back into dimensional space.
Holding its breath in, Super Saiyan 2 Gohan dashed in with a slide, tripping Cell Minus up, before performing a soaring, energized uppercut and pressing his hands together. "I'm not letting you escape justice, Cell, KAMEHAMEHA!" Gohan exclaimed, firing a motionless Kamehameha and enveloping Cell Minus whole, blasting the monster across empty space toward the lingering artificial atmosphere where Gohan quickly raced after Cell Minus and could once again breathe.
As long as there was even the tiniest, the rarest particle of oxygen in the thinned-out atmosphere, Gohan could breathe in it. While fighting in open space would've been risky, Gohan spent plenty of time diving with his father and felt confident in his ability to hold his breath for around twenty minutes to half an hour, if necessary. More than enough to finish Cell off. While space would try ripping the oxygen out from Gohan's lungs, the lungs of a battle-hardened Saiyan were a far cry from those of an ordinary astronaut. Not even a black hole could crush Gohan's lungs as they were now. There was not even a lingering doubt that Gohan could seal the deal in twenty minutes.
At this point, it felt more like deciding at which point Cell got punished enough. As the cradled and weeping apex predator unraveled into its damaged and smoldering form, becoming a liquified ball and quickly regenerating, Gohan decided to let Cell Minus fight on until its fighting spirit was completely crushed.
"It was very gracious of you to allow me the time to regenerate without interrupting it," Cell Minus chuckled, adopting a cocky and elegant fighting stance, similar to Frieza's style.
"It doesn't matter if you heal yourself and how many Zenkai boosts you go through. You philosophize about the rules of nature all the time, so it's about time you learn one of my favorite ones–the law of karma. If you offend the public order, the entire nature clenches together as a solid fist and smacks you back to your place. I'll beat you to where you won't even want to regenerate anymore. Maybe then you will see the error of your ways and accept defeat," Gohan adopted a fighting stance, hovering in the air before his opponent, never losing his cool or the terrifying, ice-cold look in his eyes.
Cell's cosmic punishment was at hand and the universe chose Gohan as its hammer of justice.