"What in Other World's name am I even looking at?"
Vegeta had barely been in the den for a single minute until he was at a loss for words at the program streamed from the screen. It was a cartoon about a young Latino girl and her little troop of creatures and things that definitely should not be able to speak, on a pathetic excuse for an adventure, in which the girl would constantly ask the audience what do next, followed by an awkward silenced that was ended by blue mouse cursor clicking on the thing to do next, regardless of how painfully obvious it was to do next, capped off by a passing band of insects.
Evidently, this was what his lover had been subjecting his infant son to every morning while the rich earth woman was off doing whatever is was that rich earth women do. The prince wasn't sure of what to be more disgusted by: the show, the woman's mother forcing the baby to watch to the show, or the fact that the baby was actually enjoying the goddamn show.
"Oh, hi, Vegeta, I didn't see ya there!" Mrs. Briefs turned her head to the Saiyan, her ageless face beaming with the typical unnatural joy he was barely accustomed to,"How was yer trainin' today?"
"Somehow far less painful than the sight before me..." Vegeta replied, glaring at the lady "Is this mindless tripe what passes for education on this planet!? What's even the point? Every obstacle the little girl encounters is simply done away with for her with no effort on her part at all! How is a my son supposed to learn how to survive alone in the cruel merciless wilderness with only a map and a backpack as his only means of survival if he isn't taught how to think for himself!?"
"Hun', yer over thinkin' it a little," Mrs. Breifs stated," This cartoon is made for ages four and younger."
"Four!?" Vegeta's brow furrowed," I was coordinating air strikes at that age! Gimme that module!" he barked as he snatched the remote from the surprised lady's delicate hand; he then abruptly plopped to the couch next her, turning the program off "That is the future of the royal Saiyan lineage sitting on your lap, and I if he must watch something, it will NOT be that!" He ranted as he scrolled the media app for something else. Naturally, Trunks started crying.
Mrs. Briefs tapped her cheek,"Well I guess we could watch Indiana Jones. Ooh! I've never seen the fourth one!" she chirped.
"Watch it on your own time, crone..." replied Vegeta as he kept scrolling, until he found something quite interesting to him."Here we go..." he smirked as he played the movie.
Mrs. Briefs eyes actually bulged wide open as Leonardo DiCaprio was mauled by a grizzly bear.
"You see, boy?" Vegeta smiled proudly at his offspring," this is what really happened to Dora..."
Trunks giggled and clapped his tiny hands at the hi-resolution carnage.
A huge, round, metallic mass rose from the lake surface, groaning and creaking as it rolled closer ashore.
Once Vegeta's head breached the water, he took a deep breath of air and paused for a moment to regain some stamina. He then grunted loudly as he rolled the giant space ship out of the lake and onto the dirt. The Saiyan breathed in and out in relief for a moment, before the ship slowly rolled backwards, forcing him to push it even further from the water. With the ship rested, he too rested his hand against the ship, still breathing loudly.
Well, that was it. This was the thing he would have and should have been able to have done upon crashing onto this rock. Vegeta had to admit, a few very bad days it had been for this prince of Saiyans, but now it seemed this perfect storm of misery was steadily clearing away. No, he still didn't have his full power back, but having enough raw strength to push his spaceship onto dry land was enough to put a smile on his face. Now came what was by sheer comparison to the recent past the easy part: getting the ship operational.
He spared no time to rip the door off its hinges and enter the sopping wet craft. What a crazy thing it'd be, Vegeta mused, if this thing were to be totally fine and take off into orbit with no problem; at this point he didn't know whether that thought would jinx the ship into actually doing just that or jinx it not to. Of course, when he reached the deck, and pushed the ignition...
...not a sound.
"That's what I figured," figured Vegeta. He then cracked his knuckles."Time to get to work..."
The arid landscape echoed with a scream, though not the same elongated scream as before.
Aang and Katara stood there, agape at the two floating, glowing girls. Mai was totally speechless. Toph was still visibly miffed, since her question. had still yet to be answered.
Azula simply up floated there with a smirk on her face, taking in the vocal terror emanating from the Water Tribe teen, while Ty Lee's attention was caught by a cute little humming bird floating near her.
Tarble could only stare at the still bitch-screaming Sokka. He leaned closer to Katara,"Is your brother trying to power up?"
The fed up Toph clutched her fingered around Sokka's ice cubes, reducing his scream into a shrill squeak."Now then, what are we looking at?"
"What you're looking at," Azula began," Is the crowned princess of the Fire Nation, whom has now attained a power beyond your wildest imagination!" she declared maniacally.
"And also me!" Ty Lee added."Only not a princess." she lamented. Though something else caught her attention."Oh my gosh! It's MAI!" she cried happily as she dashed downward, forcing the group to jump out of the way as she snatched the goth off the ground.
The group look up as Ty Lee gave her shocked friend a gravity defying bear-hug."We finally found you! I was so worried! What happened to your clothes? Did that mean ol' Avatar take them from you?" she beamed as she spun round and round and cuddled with her increasingly nauseated friend.
"Put me down! PUT ME DOWN!" Mai begged.
"OK!" Ty Lee peeped, letting her go.
The once emotionless but now terrified teen plummeted to the dirt rather painfully.
"How are you doing that!?" Aang demanded.
"What's the matter, Avatar? Are you upset that your title as the most powerful being on earth has officially been revoked?" taunted Azula. She shook her head, feigning sadness."Oh how awful you must feel, with the revelation that there's nothing special about you anymore..."
"As if there were anything special about you!" Tarble interjected.
Azula eyed the Saiyan."I'm sorry, is it me or are you significantly shorter than when we first met?"
"You must be talking about my brother. And just so you two understand the gravity of the fact..." Tarble began, before dashing up to their level,"I'm Vegeta's brother..."
"hm hm hm, Is that supposed to scare me?" the empowered Azula giggled,"Ty Lee over here immobilized that loudmouthed imbecile before we even attained our new power."
The Saiyan bared a smirk all the more reminiscent of his brother."Interesting tale. Well, before you prattle further about your amazing new gift, I ought to make you natives aware of two things: You had caught Vegeta at a very inconvenient time, in which he inexplicably found himself drained of nearly all of his ki, or chi as your people call it; had he even a grain of his true power, you and the general area would have been obliterated in an instant..."
"Wow, that does sound very inconvenient," Azula patronized,"and the second important thing? Which I can only assume is far more important?"
"You catch on quick," Tarble continued, clenching his fist and steadily raising his power level,"Concerning your newly attained power, the ability to harness one's ki for all kinds of feats that you would see as superhuman is in fact quite common among a startling amount of worlds throughout the universe..."
"I KNEW aliens were real!" Ty Lee cheered.
"Preach!" Katara added.
Then suddenly, their attention was snatched by the explosion of Tarble blue aura. Even Azula's facial muscles tense at the sudden influx of energy.
"In fact..." Tarble sneered,"my own people served among other races as an unstoppable force of intergalactic warriors, each of whom - and this is just my personal estimate - could wipe out all life on this planet in a single blast."
The glowing princess's confidence waned from his words.
The prince shrugged,"I mean, I myself am what you'd consider to be one of slightly less than average powerlevel, roughly 300 battle power, but I'm pretty damn certain I could annihilate your world's moon if I wanted to..."
"Leave my ex out of this!" Sokka barked.
"But you two? Making such a display of yourselves for simply being able to fly? I mean how embarrassing..." Tarble shook his head as the two girls hastily readied for combat. Instead of attacking, the Saiyan stretched his left hand downwards; his scouter flew right up into his hand, putting it on, and scanning the the pair."But what more could an interstellar traveler like myself expect from a pair of primitive teenagers with a meager respective powerlevel of nine-" Tarble's aura totally flickered away, his eyes bugged out.
Both the Gaang and the girls were taken back by his silence.
"n-nini-nine...ninenen...damn my Saiyan pride..." Tarble immediately descended to the ground faster than he ascended.
Azula blinked twice at the man's sudden shift in attitude...as if he just he'd found out something he wish he hadn't."Excuse me, Mr. Space-traveler, that little device over your eye...was that what you were using to detect my 'powerlevel' as you said?" the princess seemingly stole Tarble's smirk and wore it for herself,"I couldn't help but notice that you were going to say some number that began with 'nine' before you cut yourself off. Well, what was your reading? Was it nineteen? Ninety? Nine hundred?"
Everyone watched Tarble's twitchy face frown deeper as Azula deduced further, And Azula's smiled proportionally grew wider.
The equally worrisome Sokka glared at the Saiyan that was even shorter than Vegeta."...Tarble...please don't tell me that both of them have a higher powerlevel than you-"
Tarble spun around in terror."IT'S OVER NINE-!"
"-thousand other planets I could have crashed onto, but it just HAD to be one with no means of long-distance communication what so goddamn ever!" Vegeta growled, slapping his forehead.
Vegeta had finally managed to get the emergency comlink receiver to activate; unfortunately, there were so far no signals at all to be received, which in turn meant there was nothing to boost his own communicator's weak signal to contact intergalactic aid. No radio towers, no telephone lines, no satellite broadcasts, not even telegrams! Seriously!? The Fire Nation has tanks, jet skis, and a gigantic friggin drill (he over heard the governor mentioning progress on it during his bath), but the simple concept of electromagnetic waves eludes them!?
Well, this was just great: a decent amount of his energy back but nobody to fight with it, a spaceship with no power to fly, and an antenna with no signal to pickup - having all this seemed more pointless than trying to set a record for how long an outdoor statue can remain free of bird droppings! Vegeta did contemplate using his ki to jump-start the engine, but the last time he tried that...let's just say he was the only survivor...even at his current level, he didn't want to risk frying the circuit board.
So in other words, he was even more screwed than he thought: still trapped on this planet, still no means of escape, and now no means of contacting any entity off-world.
"...off-world..."
This caused the Saiyan to have an epiphany: perhaps he was looking in the wrong direction. All things considered, this planet may still be going through its own relative steam age - and that's just one out of the other primitive civilizations on this rock - but what if, somewhere in the world, the above mentioned technologies primitive in and of themselves were bypassed in the wake of more advanced methods of signal transmission? As in, Frieza Force kind of advanced? It wouldn't be so improbable, nor would it be the first planet to make such an ingenious leap.
Vegeta reconfigured the settings on the communicator, having it look for the kind of signals directly generated by scouters; if he could just find one reading even remotely similar to that of a scouter, then he could-
"ONE SCOUTER SIGNAL DETECTED" bleeped the comlink screen.
Vegeta blinked...
Sheer coincidence or ethereal punchline, it mattered not, the prince mashed the 'enter' key without a second thought."Hello!? Can anyone hear me!? This is Prince Veget-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!-"
Vegeta jerked away from the speaker and muted it."...ooookay then..."
That random noise was either one of two things: high frequency magnetic static caused by a solar flare, or an elongated spine-chilling scream emitted by a person who'd just scanned the powerlevel of his enemy and realized it's significantly higher than his own. On a side note, it also sounded very familiar...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNND!" Tarble finally finished.
Sokka, his hair sticking the opposite direction of Tarble's face, a thin layer of skin peeled from his own face, and blood trickling from his ears, stared at the Saiyan blankly."...yeah, you're definitely related to Vegeta..."
"...sorry..."
"Wow, nine thousand?" Ty Lee repeated far more calmly," that's like, ten times higher than yours!"
"Correction..." Azula sneered," it's thirty times higher."
Katara gulped."b-b-But wait...Tarble said he could destroy the moon..."
"And that means they could destroy a total of sixty moons!" Aang frightfully estimated.
"STOP PUTTING IT IN THEIR HEADS!" Sokka reminded.
"Too late, the possibilities are simply piling up," the princess remarked, descending to the ground with Ty Lee following.
Everyone cringed in fear as the two landed, and approached on foot.
"So, now that we've surmised that I and Ty Lee are essentially your gods now, how about you do the smart thing and hand yourself over to us, so that we may present you to my father and thus win us the war? I'd also dis-encourage any of you from killing your airbending friend so that the Avatar can reincarnate, otherwise we'd have to annihilate all Water Tribes - that includes the Foggy Swamp Tribe, yes, we know about it - as your new friend explicitly clarified we can now do..."
The Gaang was frozen solid.
Tarble blinked."...permission to wet myself, soil myself, and vomit at the same time?"
Azula and Tylee both pointed flaming energy balls at the Saiyan."Denied..."
"ROCKALANCHE!" Toph roared stomping both feet, causing both cliffsides on either end to crumble onto the ground, creating a huge cloud of dust. This allowed the Gaang and Mai to fly away on Appa, Tarble anxiously tailing them.
Azula and Ty Lee Zoomed out of the dust cloud.
"Hurry, Azula! We gotta save Mai!" the gymnast cried.
"No promises..." glared the princess.
They blasted off after them.
Zuko slammed back-first on the dirt, lying motionless before his cruel unmerciful earthbending opponent. The crowd stood helplessly as the only man ever to stand up to Gow had been swiftly punished for his courage.
"No! Get up!" Lee cried in vain.
Gow merely laughed."You should've minded your own business, boy, instead of bringing swords to an earthbending fight."
But said boy was too daze too hear the soldier. His rattled brain drifted back into the one of the last few good memories of his life...
"Mom?" the young Zuko mumbled as he saw his mother looked down at him with a forlorn gaze, as if she had done something wrong.
"Zuko, please, my love, listen to me" Ursa breathed" Everything I've done,"she held him tight," I've done to protect you. Remember this, Zuko. No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are..."
"That's right, Zuko..."
The child's eyes widened at the terrifying but familiar voice. His mother faded away like vapor."Mom? Mom! Where are you!?"
"Your mother is gone, as are you..."
The walls window, floor, and room faded as well, leaving the child alone, floating on his bed in the dark and vast cosmos.
"You've forgotten who you are, what you are, allowing these primitive brutes to defeat you. You are beyond this man, as I am beyond you..."
"What is this voice in my head!?" Zuko cried,"What are you!?"
Before Zuko opened an enormous pair of red eyes.
"Why don't I show you?"
Gow loomed over his his downed victim, his war hammers raised to finish him off. Suddenly, Zuko's eyes shot open, and let out a thunderous roar that shook the town, blowing Gow away with a shockwave of invisible energy. Now was Gow's turn to hit the dirt on his back.
Lee and all of the townsfolk looked in shock and awe; Gow grunted off his back and cracked an eye open, both eyes then widening the source of the sudden wind gust.
There stood Zuko, or rather, levitated Zuko, just a couple inches from the ground; his fists tightened, his hair and clothes waving upwards from his purple aura, and his eyes gone, replaced with the luminescent red eyes from his dream.
Gow lept to his feet and stomped two rocks out of the ground, bashing them as Zuko with his hammers, but the larges stones couldn't even penetrate the aura, bursting into dust.
Zuko raised his finger at the stunned Gow, and smirked."Tonight I dine on earthbender-soup." His announced, with a new voice next to his own. A pink beam shot from the tip of his finger, blasting one hammer clean out of Gow's right hand; Gow was so surprised by this that he could anticipate Zuko dashing forth and kneeing him in the gut with tremendous force. Gow wheezed in such pain that his left hammer fell from his fingers, and fell to his knees, clutching his stomach.
Zuko turned to a certain old man in the sidelines."What was it you said, human?"
Gow slowly raised his head, looking up at Zuko.
"Oh I remember: give'em a left!" With a simple whip of his left back hand, Gow was sent flying into a support beam so hard that it cracked, followed by a lighting-fast slug to the stomach that snapped the wooden beam in half. Zuko took Gow by his middle and flung him into the air, the man landing painfully on the dirt ground. Zuko zipped back in his face as soon as Gow pushed his face off the ground."And now for a right!" Zuko followed up with a right uppercut to Gow's chin, again launching the earthbender off the ground; this time Zuko intercepted Gow in mid-flight with a kick into the abs, driving Gow across the ground with his foot.
Gow was driven all the way too the other side of the small town, right into the post next to the one Lee was tight up to. The child watched in horror as the young man he saw as a hero just minute before brutally nail his heel back into Gow's stomach even harder, caving in the man's rib cage."Look at you, you disgusting earthworm..." Zuko hissed, as the soldier screamed so loud his voice was barely recognizable,"Your will is unshakable as long as you have your 'pigs' to play with; I'd never thought I'd meet a maggot so revoltingly similar to my own rotten little brother." The one whom was obviously no longer Zuko aimed him finger centimeters from Gow's forehead.
Lee couldn't take anymore."STOP IT!"
The entity turned his red eyes to the boy, watching the tears pour from his eyes. The scowling face twitched, his sight faded back and forth between the boy and the face of the child Zuko. He screamed and clutched his head, staggering back from Gow and the post. He lurched and spun around, crouching to his knees with his face covered.
The purple aura changed to a feint white then flickered away, leaving only the teen straining to breath. He uncovered his face, and his eyes reopened, the eyes of Zuko returned. Zuko's wide eyes whipped back and forth across the town, seeing the terrified faces of the people, the traumatized Lee, and the soldier, bleeding from the mouth."..wa...What just happened?"
"He's a freak!"
"He's possessed!"
"Get out of our town, you monster!"
The people shifted from fear to anger, all barking equally hateful things as they began to throw rocks at what they saw as their new enemy. Zuko shielded himself from the rocks and fearfully stumbled to his feet, sprinting away under the entrance arch to the town and into the horizon.
Sokka whipped Appa's reigns like a maniac, forcing the bison to fly as fast as it could through the canyon. Tarble soared just behind, volleying energy balls to fend of their pursuers. Aang swiped his staff at them, sending wave after wave of wind. Toph launched as many boulders in their general direction faster than her mind could sense them. Katara would still have been throwing water at them, but her water punch went dry in under two seconds, so she simply cowered under the blanket with Mai.
"Are they gone yet?" Katara asked, peeping through the blanket.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK!?" Sokka screamed.
Azula either dodged every projectile thrown at her, or blew it away with a fiery ki blast. Ty Lee was clearly having some fun, ignoring her ability to fly to bound off of the boulders like some kind of super-powered ninja."Weee! This is fun, dattebayo!?"
Tarble maneuvered parallel to where Sokka sat."Alright, I think we have an advantage, their powerlevels may be high, but they don't seem to be accustomed to them; otherwise, they would have wiped out out with one huge blast. We just have to keep flying and wait for them to tire out."
"They both have thirty times more chi than you!" Sokka reminded."And Appa doesn't have any chi! Which one of the two do ya think'll run outtta steam first!?"
"Okay first of all, if your animal has no ki, it would be dead; and second, if they're not used to the level they're currently at, it means that their bodies aren't either - they're expending more ki than they realize just to maintain those powerlevels! This is exactly why King Cold never transforms beyond his second form! I mean, well, it's also because his second form is his tallest form and he always stays in it." Tarble giggled."I wish could you could see him in his base form, he's as short as FriezAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He suddenly cried as his tail was grazed by a thin laser beam.
Azula stared at her finger."...Huh...I wonder why I managed to hit him that time..." she attempted the same attack at Aang, but narrowly missed.
"We don't have time for that!" Aang yelled."We need another plan!"
A conflicted look came on Tarble's face as he rubbed his chin."Well, there is this one technique I learned for situations like this, but it'd be very risky for all of you!"
"We're risking our lives right now! Let's here it!" Toph demanded.
Tarble stared into the sky apprehensively."Well...There was once this brilliant scientist named Bard-"
"INCOMING!"Sokka shreiked.
In the next instant, Tarble was slammed out of Sokka's site by a green blur.
Aang gasped."What in the world was...!?"
A large ki beam grazed Appa's side, the bison lurching in pain and dangerously losing speed and altitude. Appa's belly grinded against the dirt for a hundred feet until all the occupant were flung out of the saddle. Azula and Ty Lee landed right behind the scene of the crash.
Aang painfully tumbled along the ground, finally stopping on his face.
"...So..." a new, deep male voice began.
Aang was startled by the voice.
"You must be the Avatar."
Aang pushed his chest from the dirt, breathing loudly, his heart pounding nervously tilted his eyes up to the source of the voice.
"Nice to meet you, Aang..."
Aang...blinked...there was no one standing in front of him. He then flipped on his back to see the actual source of the voice of the person, whom was far behind him, not even looking at him, instead staring at the scared but confused Sokka.
Azula slapped her forehead."Cell, you dumbass, that peasant isn't Avatar Aang, it's the kid behind you!" She spat, pointing a frustrated finger.
Perfect Cell looked up at Azula quizzically; he then turned around to see said kid."...oh...er-" Cell quickly teleported infront of Aang."ahem-So, YOU must be Avatar Aang! Nice to...meet...you...Aang-goddammit, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE!? Now I just look like a moron!" he barked at Azula.
Ty Lee groaned."We DID tell you! Like, a million times!" she yelled, flinging her hands toward Aang as Azula rubbed her sinus.
"I know, but...!" Cell sighed, looking away and massaging his forehead."Every time I hear the word 'avatar', I just keep picturing a blue Native American with a pony tail..."
"What even is an American?" Azula questioned.
"It's this civilization in an entirely different galaxy millions of light years away from here but somehow speaks the exact same language as all of you despite the fact that your people seem to lack any trace of Anglican/European cultur-WHATEVER!" Cell shook his head,"We're getting off track; we all know who Avatar Aang is, let's just start over..."
"Do we all also know that we've been arguing for so long as to allow the Avatar to escape?" Azula point again.
Cell whipped around to see the teens far in the distance, desperately running away. His head spun back to Azula."Oh, screw BOTH of you!" Cell dashed at sonic speeds, knocking down each member of the gang with single strikes. Cell landed in the center of the painfully moaning children."Are we missing someone?"
Tarble burst back onto the scene with a cocked fist, bright aura, and a loud battle cry; only to be struck in the opposite direction by Azula's back hand, rendering him unconscious.
"We good." Ty Lee noted.
"Why...did you let him...hit me...?" Mai grunted.
"Hm?" Azula raised a brow."...oh, is that you, Mai? I didn't noticed you..."
"I...hate...you..." the goth seethed.
"What the hell are you!?" Toph growled, before getting kicked in the stomach.
"Watch your language, little one..." Cell teased,"otherwise you'll end up like The Boulder..."
Toph's blind eyes widened."You killed the Boulder!? You bastard!" she roared, leaping up to her feet and launching a boulder at him to unconsciously pay homage to the fallen fighter.
Cell punched the incoming rock into dust."...What..." he zipped in front of Toph and slapped her back to the ground "...did I just say?"
"Leave Toph alone!" Aang shouted, throwing a wind funnel that push Cell off his feet; not that it mattered, Cell was merely floating.
Cell stared at the boy awkwardly."...did...Did you just fart out of your hand?"
Aang blinked."wha-No, that was airbending."
"That's called farting," Cell replied.
"No it's not!" Aang yelled."I'm an airbender; I control air my mind."
"So, it's like a brain-fart?"
"NO! It's called AIRBENDING!" Aang shouted angrily.
"Look, if you're discharging air from your body, then it's a fart; there's no way around this." Cell crossing his arms, not budging on the matter.
"Well, what do you call it when you levitate from the ground!?" Aang demanded.
"The 'air dancing technique' ," Cell answered.
"Okay, well I guess you're farting out of your legs then!" Aang cried immaturely.
"I'm using ki to levitate! That's totally different!" Cell responded in the same tone.
"Is not!" Aang argued.
"Is too!" Cell bickered.
"Is NOT!" Aang persisted.
"IS DAMN TOO! Why are you being so petty!?" Cell screamed.
Aang smirked."Just to distract you."
Cell blinked."...What-"
Cell was crushed between two huge boulders, courtesy of Toph."Slap me, will ya!?" with a swing of her clasped fists, she sent the fused boulders into the cliff-side, kicking up a huge plum of dust and debris.
"Nice one!" Cheered Sokka.
In another blast of dust, Cell shot out and above them, arms crossed and seemingly unharmed."Right, a cheap shot, how impressive; unlike you, I'm respectful enough to shoot my enemies not in the back, but in the face!" he announced as he charged a ki ball in his hand.
Aang yelped, jumping out of the way of the ki ball, which blew the rest of the gang off their feet once again. The airbender leaped across the land, narrowly evading Cell's one-handed volley of energy blasts. He bounded from rock to rock as each was shattered to pieces.
"We need to help Aang!" Katara said.
"I don't see you helping, 'Sifu Katara' ", Sokka replied.
"I don't have any water left; what do you expect me to do!?" Katara queried.
"Well, then don't say 'we'!" Sokka defended.
Mai stared."Can't you just, like, bend the water in that bug guy's body?" she suggested.
Katara spun to Mai with a disturbed look."What!? That the sickest thing I've heard! What's wrong with you!?"
"You're little airbender friend's gonna die; look, people are like half water, just yank the blood out of that dude and suck'em dry like a bat-mosquito."
"As horrifying as that sounds, I won't say it's a bad plan..." Sokka half-agreed.
"I am NOT doing that!" Katara affirmed, her face losing color.
Toph snorted."Well if you're not gonna fight, Sugarqueen, then I-!"
Just then, Azula and Ty Lee appeared over them with ki balls aimed at Toph's face."Will not be fighting either," Azula corrected."This is the Avatar's problem; let him sort it out for himself." She smirked.
The group scowled at her helplessly; Mai shrugged."Just saiyan..."
Aang air-scootered up the cliffside with the ki blast trailing his every move; Aang kicked off the edge of the cliff, somersaulted in Cell's direction, and sent a powerful air blast at him. Cell crossed his arms over his face and withstood the blast, and retaliated with a Kienzan; the sight of the incoming disc frightened Aang into frantically dodging it; the energy blade so thinly passing over his skull that it would have shaved his yet to exist hair. The discombobulated airbender soared right into Cell's hand, which gripped him by his collar.
Cell chuckled, glaring daggers into the boy's pupils."I'm getting the impression that, unlike me, your tiny body cannot endure as much power as it can deliver..."
"At least I'm not about to be rammed by a flying bison," Aang grinned.
"Excuse me?" Cell questioned, before he was startled by a thundering roar, and look to his left to see the incoming Appa.
Aang took advantage of the distraction by jumping off of Cell's stomach right before the giant furry head slammed into Cell. Aang land smoothly as Appa tackled Cell to the ground with a loud thud, repeatedly stomping him under his massive four legs.
"GO, APPA!" Sokka pumped his fists skyward."Man! We seriously need to stop forgetting about him in these situations..." He lamented. Just then, Momo (whom the writer had honestly forgot even existed for some time) landed on the teen's shoulder.
Appa reeled back for another stomp; but before his feet could land, the livid Cell caught them with his bare hands. The Gaang's jaws dropped as Cell growled his way under the animal's belly, and lift the giant beast clear off the ground.
"Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ox!" Cell roared as he sent Appa flying over everyone's heads.
Tarble lazily woke up just in time to see a the furry white mass land on him with a resonating boom. His muffled moan could be heard from beneath.
"That's impossible!" Aang gaped."Appa weighs ten tons!"
"Only ten?" Cell heard. He looked at his hands."Damn, I'm even weaker then I thought..." "At least tell me those were metric tons?"
"How much is a metric-" Aang was cut off by a punishing fist to the stomach.
"This much..." Cell smirked.
"How unfortunate, it seems you've all just ran out of options," Azula noted with false pity,"Oh well, at least you never gave up without a fight; I'm sure the Earth Kingdom will remember you as heroes for genera-oh wait, I forgot, there won't be any Earth Kingdom to celebrate you, only the supreme Fire Nation that'll celebrate your defeat." She joked as she loomed over the forlorn team.
"Told'ja you should;ve bended his blood..." Mai reminded."Oh, and thanks for 'rescuing' me by the way, Azula, incase you forgot I was there prisoner this whole time..."
"I did," Azula admitted,"and I do not apologize."
"So, now to address the shrew-elephant in the room: how did you guys those crazy superpowers?"
"Why, they were a lovely gift from our new friend," The princess gestured to none other than the pale figure that kept his feet firmly pressed on the airbender's chest."Meet Perfect Cell - the ultimate lifeform."
"I finally found you, Faker!" Sonic The Hedgehog threw his gloved finger up at his target.
"Faker?" Shadow The Hedgehog repeated quizzicly,"I think your the fake hedeghog around-Arg!" suddenly yelled Shadow as he clutched his heart in agony.
"What's wrong with you?" Sonic raised his brow.
Shadow panted."I...I feel as though something precious has been robbed from me..."
Sonic glared."You mean besides Maria?"
Shadow instantly pinned Sonic to the ground with his foot; savagely gripping a Kryptonite headed spear."WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME!?"
"Thanks to this magnificent bug-man, Ty Lee and myself have been given a tremendous portion of his chi, thus Avatar and his mastery of the four elements has been removed from the equation; frankly, I'm only taking you alive for the sport of it. Not even your Avatar State could compare with a powerlevel of over nine thousand."
"Wait, nine thousand?" Cell queried,"How do you know what your powerlevel is, let alone what power are at all?"
"That guy Appa fell on told her," Toph told him.
"help...me..." moaned Tarble, still beneath Appa.
"Ah," Cell understood."Welp', I'd listen to her if I were you, child; after all, my powerlevel is immeasurable by scouters, though I'd estimate it's well within ten figures..." he smirked.
Aang look at the sky with a pensive expression."So...how many moons could you destroy?"
Sokka slapped his forehead, making a mental note to hook back up with Suki if he were to survive beyond this day.
Cell pressed his foot slightly harder on Aang's chest, silencing him."That's a very good question, maggot; unfortunately, I have more important matters to attend to - you are seriously overdue for a present, my little flatulent friend..." he sneered. From behind him emerged his long yellow tail."Hope you're not scared of needles..."
As the team reeled back in horror, Azula attained a highly confused look."Wait a second. What are you doing? You're not actually going to give him some of your chi!?"
"Trust me, your highness..." Cell gleemed, lowering the tip of his stinger inches over the terrified airbender's throat,"The blessing that I'm about to bestow upon him shall be his greatest curse..."
Aang's breathing intensified, sweating bullets from his head.
Cell narrowed his eyes, and whispered only the boy,"Get ready to meet Granddad, Avatar..."
"NO!" Sokka shrieked, leaping to save his friend as the raised stinger thrusted downward.
*stab*
The canyon echoed with an agonizing scream...though not the one intended...
Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, Katara, Toph, Aang, and Cell's mouths opened wide as the stinger rested into Sokka's back, pumping some mysterious fluid into his body, causing Sokka to whale and convulse at Aang's expense.
"...huh..." Cell observed,"Well this is a pickle..."
"What're you doing to him!?" Katara demanded."STOP IT!"
"I, erm, cannot actually," Cell answered sheepishly,"It's like an ejaculation - it can't be stopped once it starts..."
"...dude...ew..." Mai hissed,"He's fifteen..."
"I'm seven!" Cell barked as he casually flung Sokka off his tail; his motionless body plopping before Katara.
"Sokka!" his sister naturally cried, and held him in her arms.
"Great, that's another valuable soul wasted - can't say I'm going to miss him though..." Cell lamented.
"What the heck did you just to Sokka!?" Toph yelled, negatively reinforced by Cell to not use the other word.
"Oh, well, it shouldn't too hard for you to figure out, as friends of the mighty Avatar and all," Cell mocked,"he has a whole plethora of past lives residing in his body; now, brave little Sokka has one of his own." He laughed,"What do you have to say about that, boy?" he taunted as he looked back down at said boy...only to be very, very surprised at his response.
Aang's eyes and tattoos glow bright white. Cell was suddenly engulfed in a small typhoon."I WILL DESTROY YOU!"
"HELL NO!" Cell shouted, zapping Aang's head with Piccolo's eye beam attack, isntantly rendering the child asleep."I will NOT be receiving any surprise beatdowns from any more pacifistic adolescent heroes, thank you very much!" He resolved, charging a Death Beam toward Aang's head.
"AANG!" Katara cried.
"Feel free to take the bullet, kid; it turned out so well for you brother..." Cell sneered.
Azula ahem'd rather loudly."Um, excuse me - what part about taking the Avatar alive was lost in translation?"
"You can go look for'em yourself in his next life, princess!" Cell sternly replied,"Who knows? Maybe it'll be a girl next time, and she'll grow up to fight terrorists, demons, occultists, and giant robots!"
"I dunno why, but I'm not lookin' forward to that second one..." Sokka hazily noted.
As Cell intensified the pink energy ball from his finger, his face consumed with a murderous grin, a sudden feint noise caught his attention, as well as everyone else's.
"The hell is that?" Cell wondered.
The louder the noise got, the clearer it became - it was not just any noise, it was a very particular elongated scream.
Cell's eyes grew like dinner plates."No...it can't be..."
Sokka chuckled."I never thought I'd be happy to hear that sound..."
In the next instant the canyon echoed with a supersonic boom, followed by Cell screaming in pain, he body bending over due to the gloved fist of an extremely nettled Super Saiyan.
"You..." Vegeta hissed "...are..." Vegeta followed up with a powerful uppercut to Cell's chin, send him flying into the sky. Vegeta blast up after him, pounding Cell's face and body with a lighting-fast string of punches and kicks "...SUPPOSED TO BE...!" Vegeta clasped his hands together and bashed Cell's skull, launching him like a rocket into a nearby mountain. Vegeta flung his right palm toward the crater containing Cell."DEEEAAAD!" He thundered as he fired his Big Bang Attack.
The disoriented Cell opened his eyes just in time to see the incoming attack."OH SHI-!"
Both Cell and the mountain were consumed by a massive, blinding explosion, kicking up storm-like winds and causing the Gaang to shield their eyes and struggle to stay on their feet.
When the winds settled, everyone opened their eyes to see an enormous mushroom cloud of smoke where the mountain used to be.
Vegeta abruptly landed before Azula and Ty Lee, glaring pure death at them.
Azula smirked."Well well, look who finally found his precious outfit-"
"DO I LOOK LIKE I'M IN THE MOOD FOR YOUR BULLSHIT, WOMAN!?" The Super Saiyan thundered, now pointing an energy ball of death at the two.
Azula blinked."...point made..." she noted before both she and Ty Lee blasted off to find Cell.
With that, Vegeta powered down, heaving even harder than while he was pushing his ship out of the lake.
"Vegeta, you're back!" Katara cried happily.
"Yeah, I'm back," Vegeta snapped,"and I finally have my goddamn clothes on; sad for you." He threw his finger behind him."Now, could SOMEBODY tell me how those stupid girls can suddenly fly, how in the hell you found a scouter, and HOW THE F&($ CELL IS STILL ALIVE!?"
"Well, apparently, that Cell guy gave them a crap-ton of of chi," Toph answered."Also, we didn't find a scouter, a scouter found us," She point to Appa," and by 'scouter', I mean your brother."
Vegeta turned to the direction of Toph's finger seeing only the bison; he then noticed a whimpering moan emanating from underneath said bison."Oh, I see, so because you meet someone else from space with technology similar to my own, you assume he and I must be related!"
"Save me, Onīsan..." Tarble sobbed.
Vegeta blinked."...Yeah, that's definitely Tarble..."
The battle over, the team had taken to the sky again on Appa.
"What the hell were you thinking!?" Vegeta asked."You should've known this planet was a dead zone after I crashed into it! New we're both marooned here with no outside help!"
"Well, excuse me for wanting to see my brother that hasn't been heard of since Planet Namek exploded," Tarble looked away in frustration,"I thought for the longest time Frieza killed you!"
The older Saiyan prince snorted."I didn't exactly didn't see you on Namek looking for the Dragon Balls!"
As Katara healed the last of Aang's injuries, Mai huffed."Great, now I got two pairs of bickering siblings to listen to..."
Toph chuckled."Yeah, two fussy sugargueens and two handsome meatheads..."
Sokka, piloting Appa, blinked."Wait, so you think I'm handsome?"
Toph's sightless eyes widened."Wha-I meant-dShut up!" she barked with blushed cheeks.
"And indecently, Frieza also died, but permanently." Vegeta went on.
Tarble looked surprised."Frieza's dead!?"
"Yup," nodded Vegeta,"also Cooler - killed that sonofabitch myself."
Questions were poping throughout Tarble's mind faster than he could process them,"Cooler!? But how did Frie-"
"My son killed him," Vegeta answered.
"You have a son!?"
"Yes, yes I do," Vegeta affirmed casually,"ought to be two years old by now..."
Tarble was utterly speechless, until he asked the only question that could be asked at that point."Are you saying Frieza was killed by a baby?"
Vegeta smirked with more pride than ever, folding his arms behind his head."My baby boy."
"Vegeta, how did you get here so fast?" Aang asked." I thought you were heading for Omashu to get your suit back?"
"I already made it there last night, incase you hadn't figured," the Saiyan replied, gesturing to his armor."The next morning, I was back at the lake where my spaceship landed; once I rolled it out of the water - thanks for helping, by the way - I barely managed to get the com-system working, which is how I miraculously picked up Tarble's scouter over here," he nodded his head toward his younger brother,"and, by extension, over-heard that bastard Cell's voice..." he hissed the last part."The very next thing I did was fly directly to Tarble's coordinate's, and reunite my fist with Cell's abdomen," He smirked."I guess he wasn't ready for the warm-up..."
Tarble stared quizzically at his brother's last remark."...Okay, I feel like you're referencing something, and I don't get it..."
"Hang on a sec," Toph interjected,"Are you telling us that, starting from the moment you heard the green guy talking, you basically flew halfway from Omashu to here in time it took for him to beat us all up!?
Vegeta rolled his eyes."Oh, calm down, I was only a hundred miles away, at best."
All non-Saiyans in the saddle were speechless.
Aang coughed."Well, it's just good to have you back Vegeta..."
"Then don't worry about me leaving any time soon: between my totaled ship, Tarble's totaled ship, and still-living Cell hunting you down for some reason, I have sufficient reason to stay affixed to your precious little ass."
"Dude...you're an adult..." Mai cringed.
"And he's over a century old, so get your knife throwing head out of the gutter!" Vegeta barked.
"She can throw blades with her mind?" Tarble asked.
Vegeta and Mai fell down anime style.
"I am this close to missing the other Earth right now..." Vegeta groaned.
Just then, a thought popped in the airbender's head that caused him to giggle.
"Yes, we fell over, how funny..." Vegeta rolled his eyes.
"Oh, it wasn't that..." Aang replied,"It's, well...you kept your promise."
"My what?" Vegeta raised a brow.
"When you were fighting that guy...you blew up a whole mountain right in front of our sorry faces, just like you said before you left." the airbender explained with that sweet little lambpuppy smile of his.
Vegeta's scowl vanished at the realization. A smile grew across his cheeks."I take it there're no more doubts about who and what I am anymore?"
"Not from here on, oh Prince of Saiyans," Aang knelt before the alien.
"You people are aware I also am the Prince of Saiyans?" Tarble interjected irritably.
"Our apologies," Katara said; then she herself knelt to Vegeta,"All hail the crowned Prince of Saiyans."
"Ouch." snorted Toph.
Aang, Katara, Toph, and Vegeta burst into laughter, the older Saiyan sticking out his finger at his deadpanning brother.
Sokka would have joined in on the roast, but as he held Appa's reins, his right hand let go, slowly descending to his person, and carefully pressed his palm upon the spot where Cell stabbed him: the wound was gone before Katara even healed it.