Demon and Machine Fight Together! The Folly of Young Pride!
When Launch and Tenshinhan got to the top of the Lookout, they found Gohan standing on the edge with a giant stack of apple cores beside him. He was flinging them off toward the horizon with a look on his face that made it seem like he was aiming at something in particular.
"Hey kiddo," Launch called. Gohan waved and went back to throwing. "Still waiting on Trunks and Vegeta, huh?"
"Yeah," Gohan replied anxiously as he looked out toward the horizon. "You guys can sense the fighting, right?" Launch nodded and Gohan sighed again. "I wish I could help Mr. Piccolo. But until I can become a Super Saiyan, I know I'll just get in the way."
"Hey," Launch pointed out while rubbing her chin, "That's a good point. How did Piccolo get so strong?" Gohan shrugged and before they could continue the conversation, Launch noticed Popo walking by… with Kami's staff. "Hey, Popo," Launch called to the djinn, making him look up. "Where's Kami? Why're you carryin' his stick?"
"Kami has merged with Piccolo," Popo explained in the saddest tone Launch had ever heard him speak with. He looked like a puppy whose owner left the house and wasn't coming back anytime soon.
"Oh…" Launch replied quietly. She felt bad for Popo but it was also good if it meant Piccolo was strong enough to fight Cell, right? "So what does that mean?" she asked.
"Among other things," Popo continued, "It means that the Dragon Balls no longer work." Tenshinhan's eyes widened and the apple slipped from Gohan's hands and dropped straight down to the ground, thousands of feet below.
"Oh," Launch muttered. It was a fairly understated reaction for some fairly major news. It was like a lead weight that pushed her heart down into her feet. She could barely even wrap her head around it. No more Dragon Balls? "And it's not like they can… unfuse later and the Dragon Balls will work again?" she asked. Popo shook his head. So no Dragon Balls ever again. "Fuckin' shit," Launch murmured under her breath. "Guess I better tell the others." Tenshinhan nodded.
Suno was going through a stack of essay papers, a red pen in one hand and her other hand running through her hair in frustration as she made corrections and comments.
"Swear to God," Suno grumbled to herself, "My hair is gonna go grey before Jimmy figures out how to use a semicolon." She had considered taking a break a few times but every time she put down the pen she felt her attention getting dragged toward the battle between Piccolo and Cell. How the heck had Piccolo gotten so strong? She kept working and did her best to ignore it since she doubted she'd be able to do anything. Besides, she thought, even if Piccolo couldn't kill Cell, he'd at least be able to stall Cell for a few more hours and then hopefully Vegeta and Trunks would come out and kill it. "Just as long as Piccolo doesn't die," Suno muttered as she scratched out a wrong use of "their", "We can fix any mess with the Dragon Balls."
Krillin was flying toward the battle where he figured that Lapis and Lazuli were. If they were smart, of course, they'd have run to the other side of the planet but they'd made it very clear that they were going to fight Cell so he doubted that they were going to run off just because someone was going to fight for them. So that's where he was headed.
Slowly. Very slowly.
Krillin was still struggling with the idea of actually pushing the button. It might be their only alternative, yeah, but… he just didn't know if he had the heart to do it. He'd be killing Lapis and Lazuli. Not that the idea of killing people necessarily gave Krillin a panic attack. He'd killed people before. Well, two people. One of Freeza's goons and Recoome. And some Red Ribbon Army soldiers, now that he remembered it. But those were the bad guys! Lapis and Lazuli were good people. If he pushed that button, it wouldn't be Cell or Freeza or some other bad guy killing them. It'd be him. Could he really do that? He didn't know.
"Hey," Krillin told himself, "There's no guarantee it'll come to that. If it does…" he shrugged halfheartedly, as if trying to convince himself. "That's what the Dragon Balls are for, right?"
'Hey guys,' Launch's voice said in their heads. 'We kinda got a problem. Piccolo merged with Kami so the Dragon Balls are gone.'
Suno dropped her pen and went slack against her chair, completely stunned by the news. If the Dragon Balls were gone then… all of the people Cell had absorbed were gone, too.
'What are we going to do?' she thought.
The words nearly knocked Krillin out of the air. He could barely even breathe. He'd be killing Lapis and Lazuli permanently. How could he do that? But if he didn't, Cell would become even more powerful and millions more could die just as permanently.
'What am I going to do?' he thought despondently.
OoOoOoO
Piccolo narrowly avoided an uppercut from Cell and threw a crescent kick in response that Cell deflected off of its elbow before grabbing Piccolo by the ankle and sending him hurtling across the blackened landscape. Piccolo brought himself to a halt and rocketed back toward Cell, swinging an elbow toward the side of Cell's head. It went through an afterimage and Cell came at Piccolo from behind with a stab from its tail but this turned out to be an afterimage as well and Piccolo appeared behind Cell, sending a knee into the small of Cell's back. However this turned out to be yet another afterimage and Cell swung both fists down onto the sides of Piccolo's head with a cry of triumph. Its fists went through open air and smashed into each other as Piccolo… attacked head on, striking with a flip kick, driving his heel down onto the top of Cell's head to smash it into the ground. Piccolo raised a hand overhead to follow with a chop down on the back of Cell's neck but Cell countered when it rolled onto its back and shot its legs up to drive its feet under Piccolo's jaw. He staggered back as blood sprayed from between his teeth and Cell jumped up to its feet and charged, driving a shoulder into Piccolo's stomach to send him flying back. Piccolo flipped backwards through the air and landed on his feet. The second his feet touched down, Piccolo caught a flicker of light in Cell's eyes, giving him less than a heartbeat to react. Beams shot from both of their eyes, colliding in a starburst of light and struggling against one another in a stalemate. The beams exploded and Piccolo staggered back with his eyes screwed shut, temporarily blinded by the explosion of light. Thanks to his heightened Namekian hearing, however, Piccolo heard Cell's movements and was able to block and dodge all of its strikes. He dropped down to avoid a wide right hook from Cell and grabbed its tail, yanking it out from beneath to take Cell off its feet and tossed it overhead, throwing Cell behind him. Cell landed on its feet with its back to Piccolo and he charged forward with a flying kick.
Cell spun around, striking with its tail, trying to embed the point in Piccolo. Piccolo pivoted to avoid the attack, leaving him open to a body hook. Piccolo fell down to his feet and was forced backwards as Cell's tail moved like a viper, snapping forward and striking, each time trying to strike Piccolo's neck and chest. Piccolo was forced to backpedal to avoid the strikes, completely focused on dodging, since trying to block it would still involve getting stabbed with the stinger, which Piccolo rather explicitly did not want. The problem with this defensive strategy, of course, was that evading Cell's stinger left Piccolo open to other attacks. Cell battered Piccolo's sides with hooking body blows. It took only three hits for Piccolo to realize that Cell was leading him into the hits every time it struck with its tail.
'Got to think of something,' he thought with a grimace, 'But what? Cell's tail moves too quickly for me to retaliate with any strikes but if I try a blast from my eyes or mouth, I'll be vulnerable to a tail strike!' He had to do something, though. The more hits he took from Cell, the harder it got to breathe. The harder it was for him to breathe, the slower he'd move and eventually, Cell would hit him with its tail. That would be bad.
A sudden moment of inspiration struck Piccolo and, on Cell's next attack, rather than moving to the left or right, he leaned back, stretching out his entire torso. This thinned his torso out as well, like an overstretched rubber band, and Cell's stinger zipped harmlessly past him. Cell gawked at him with an expression of confused revulsion before Piccolo retracted his torso, the momentum snapping him forward to headbutt Cell in the face. Cell was sent staggering back, leaving it defenseless for Piccolo to open his mouth almost absurdly wide and fire a mouth blast to send Cell sprawling. Piccolo was too winded to follow through and instead tried to collect himself while letting Cell get to its feet. The two green warriors locked eyes, panting and sweating before they locked eyes. They slowly began to circle one another, recovering and collecting their energy while searching for an opening.
'This is bad,' Piccolo thought. 'I don't know if I can keep this up for however many hours it's going to take for whoever's in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to finish. Cell and I are too evenly-matched for me to take an advantage. Damn it, I can't even regenerate to heal this damage! It would cost some of my ki and slow me down. Giving Cell even the slightest advantage widens the window for me to be absorbed. This thing is not killing me in this timeline.'
For its own part, Cell's frustration was also starting to build. 'Not that this isn't fun,' it told itself, 'But I'm starting to grow bored. I've got things to do today, chief among them becoming Perfect. The longer that Piccolo and I are locked in this stalemate, the more time that 17 and 18 have to not be stupid for a change and get away. Then I'll have to hunt them down again!' Then it took a deep breath as it and Piccolo came to a stop. 'Don't get worked up,' It reminded itself. 'It's going to work out. It always works out.'
"Hey sis," Lapis asked as they continued watching, "Whaddaya think would be cooler, eye laser or mouth laser?" Lazuli sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Eye lasers, duh. What, I wanna leave my mouth hanging open like an idiot?" Lapis let out a derisive "Pfft!"
"No way!" he retorted with arrogant young eloquence. "Mouth laser! I'd be like that giant monster from the old movies. Goji-something."
"I'm pretty sure it was Game-something."
"Nah, that's the one who spins." On the one hand, they absolutely should have already left by this point. But they had come looking for a fight and they weren't going to leave just because someone was fighting for them. They weren't completely stupid, however, and were waiting for a moment they could strike rather than randomly dashing in.
Piccolo and Cell got into their guards and waited for a few tense moments before they sprang into a charge. Cell pulled a fist back for a strike…
"Rocket Punch!" The rocket-propelled fist collided into the side of Cell's head, stunning it and interrupting its momentum, leaving an opening for Piccolo to smash his elbow into the side of its head and send it flying. Adrian dashed forward to meet Piccolo, who looked at the android curiously.
"So you're… helping me now?" Piccolo asked. Adrian shook his head.
"Negative," he replied firmly. Then his lips quirked up in an approximation of a dry smile. "I am helping a friendly demon." Piccolo chuckled and they both turned as Cell flew towards them. "I do not have the strength to defeat Cell," Adrian admitted, "And my sensors indicate that your powers are evenly matched. I believe that my assistance will tip the scales in our favor." Piccolo nodded and they charged to meet Cell. Cell let out a hiss of rage and struck with its tail, aiming straight for Piccolo's chest. Adrian moved to intercept, the stinger harmlessly puncturing his armor. Before Cell could pull back, Adrian swung it by its tail into a flying kick from Piccolo, who smashed his foot into its chest. Cell landed roughly in a three-point stance, dragging its feet and hand through the barren earth. Adrian and Piccolo charged forward, Piccolo shooting a ki beam from his hand while Adrian fired an energy blast from the black panel in the center of his chest. Cell sidestepped the blast from Piccolo but that meant moving directly into the path of Adrian's laser. Cell swatted it away but that distraction allowed Piccolo to leap forward, driving his knee into Cell's beak. He smirked as he felt it crunch against his knee, the debt repaid. He spun off to the side as Adrian slammed his shoulder into Cell like a man-sized freight train, sending Cell careening away. Cell flew up into the air to get away from them and slammed its hands down at its side.
"I've had as much of the pair of you as I can stomach!" it roared. "So I'm going to settle this, right here and now. Choooou Kaaa… meee…"
"I will not be able to absorb this attack," Adrian observed. "Its energy output will far exceed my capabilities." Piccolo nodded while glaring up at Cell and brought his hands down to his sides. They started to glow with yellow ki while Piccolo put all his focus into Cell. If the scar-faced idiot could do something like this…
"Don't worry," he assured the redheaded robot. "I've got an idea." He'd been workshopping this one during his training with the Sons and Trunks for the last three years. He just hadn't had an opening to use it yet. Plus, he'd been looking for the perfect name. "Just be ready to move when I give you an opening.
"Haaa... meeee..."
"How will I know when that is?" Adrian asked. Piccolo smirked.
"I think you'll be able to tell."
"H–" an apple core bonked Cell in the head, causing it to drop its hands and lose the ki it had been charging. Piccolo wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth and let out a roar as he fired a barrage of ki blasts as Cell. Cell's eyes went wide with surprise when it saw the ki blasts coming toward it out of the corner of its eye, having been distracted by looking for whatever the hell had hit it. Cell barely managed to dodge the blasts, the trails they left grazing its skin. After several seconds, however, Cell began to notice that Piccolo wasn't even aiming at it anymore. It laughed in mockery and pointed down at Piccolo. "What's wrong?" it taunted. "Did I give you brain damage? You're not even close anymore!"
"Are you sure about that?!" Piccolo bellowed up while he continued his barrage. Cell wondered what the hell that meant before it was hit with the realization that the lighting surrounding it was awfully… yellow. Cell looked around in shock and realized that it was surrounded on all sides by hundreds of ki orbs. The light from some of the blasts was blinding as they were practically on top of Cell.
'Huh. Well this is different,' Cell thought calmly in juxtaposition to the frantic way in which it looked for some kind of an escape. There had to be an opening wide enough for it to slip through. It couldn't just tank the hits and regenerate. It would be too weak to continue the fight! There had to be some way out of–
"Makuuhouidan!" Piccolo roared as he brought his hands together. Cell was trapped inside the blasts as they swarmed at it from all sides, the sky exploding with the most brilliant fireworks display anyone had ever seen.
"Huh," Lapis muttered as they watched. "Wish I'd brought popcorn."
"I wish I'd brought sunglasses," Lazuli remarked sarcastically while shielding her eyes from the light.
OoOoOoO
Krillin saw the explosion off in the distance as a flash of yellow light and sighed. "Guess that's where I'm headed," he muttered as he altered his course and began flying faster. A little bit faster. He did increase his speed. You'll have to trust him.
OoOoOoO
When the smoke began to clear, Cell was still caught in the same spot where it had been trapped when Piccolo had blasted it. Its arms and legs were splayed out wide and it was surrounded in a purple energy field, which had been just able to absorb all of the blasts.
'Huh,' Cell thought to itself, 'Almost forgot I could do this.' It dropped the field and let out a sigh of relief. That was a little too close for– There was a click and Cell looked up to see Adrian looming directly over it, all of the panels in its torso opened and its elbows flipped down to expose the guns inside. They were all glowing and humming with energy.
"HELL FLASH!" Adrian roared. The massive blast of light caught the winded Cell head-first, shoving it down toward the ground. It kept its arms and legs splayed and gritted its teeth, trying to ride out the energy. It didn't hurt that badly. It was just pressure. Cell just had to slip off once it petered out and hit them with a Taiyoken. Then it could grab the twins, become Perfect, and end this gag that had gone on for far too–
"Chou Masenko!" Piccolo bellowed as he came directly into the path of Cell's descent. Cell was blasted away, burning a wide trench into the ground as it was sent hurtling. Piccolo bent forward, gasping and sweating as the light faded and the dust settled. He wasn't sure what it would take to kill Cell but he figured that would be enough to do some serious damage. Hopefully he could grab Lapis and Lazuli and get them the hell out of here before Cell woke up.
"Hey," Lapis nudged Lazuli, "Looks like Cell might be down." Lazuli nodded with a wince and kicked the dirt in disappointment.
"Damn," she muttered, "I was hoping we'd get to help out more." Lapis nodded. It was kind of a letdown, coming all this way and using all their power without accomplishing much. "Man," she added, "It's gonna be pretty awkward the next time we go hanging out with Yamcha and Chi-Chi."
"...We should probably put that off for a while."
"Yeah, just little bit."
Piccolo turned away from the trench he'd created and started walking towards the twins, nodding at Adrian approvingly as the android descended to meet him. Adrian nodded back and there was an unspoken mutual appreciation and respect in that gesture. These two would not ever be friends. Not when one of them had been specifically built to kill the other. There was, however, understanding. Behind Piccolo, however, there was the smallest rumbling that even his ears could not detect.
It was not too small for Lapis, however, who caught the tremor with his telescopic and microscopic visions. "I think Cell's still alive!" he exclaimed. Lazuli followed his line of sight and squinted for a moment before her eyes widened in surprise.
"Holy shit, you're right!" Despite how that was not in any way a good thing, Lapis' face split into a huge grin.
"This is perfect!" he declared. "Cell will be weak 'cause he's all fucked up from Piccolo and Adrian's blasts! We can get in there before he attacks Piccolo! We can still fuck this dude up and get in the last hit! This is still our fight!"
"Wait," Lazuli objected, "I'm not so sure about–" Lapis rocketed forward, leaving his sister in the dust. "Lapis, wait!" Lapis let out a war cry as he flew toward the fight, his young muscles bulging with power. He raised a hand high overhead and gathered a ball of green energy, preparing to strike. He could do it! He'd beat the monster! Lapis was going to save the day!
Piccolo barely had time to wonder why the hell Lapis was attacking him when Cell burst up out of the ground in front of him, having apparently burrowed its way through, and its stinger blossomed open as it struck. The tail closed down over Lapis and in the blink of an eye, his defiant young flame was snuffed out. Lazuli howled in despair and cried out her brother's name as Cell roared with laughter. It kept laughing as its whole body glowed with green light and the light shone all across the landscape. The laughter became distorted as, through the light, Cell's body began to change. It grew broader, taller, and worst of all, more powerful. Adrian lunged forward before the light had even faded in defiance of all logic, in what could only be described as a blind rage. Cell smashed a fist into his chest and he sputtered helplessly.
"Not this time," Cell hissed in its distorted voice. The hole in Adrian's chest began to glow and he didn't even have a chance to scream or even realize what was happening before he suddenly burst into ash. Piccolo was frozen in horror, left completely open for Cell to backhand him and send him crashing into a mountain.
OoOoOoO
"Mr. Piccolo!" Gohan screamed from atop the Lookout, having been sensing the whole battle. Mr. Piccolo was in danger! He had to help! It was like Freeza all over again! Gohan's feet had barely left the ground before Goku was beside him, putting a strong hand on Gohan's shoulder and grounding him.
"No, Gohan," Goku told him firmly. "There's nothing we can do for Piccolo right now."
"But how can we ju–"
"We're not strong enough to fight Cell," Goku stated in a tone that left no room for argument. "Especially while you still can't become a Super Saiyan. You'd just get in Piccolo's way and he'd spend energy worrying about you, leaving himself open to get hurt. Plus, you would get seriously injured. I can't have that happen." Gohan let out a defeated sigh and his shoulders slumped. "Come on," Goku said softly as she put her arm around his shoulders, "Let's go back outside the Time Chamber. We're gonna wanna be ready to move as soon as Vegeta and Trunks come out." Even as Goku led Gohan away, he looked over his shoulder back toward the horizon. He could sense Cell's power and a cold dread washed over him.
'What are we going to do?'