Cell si 2018

by Dextrode

Posted for tts. Old and not updating. Author on SV

1. 1

Chapter 1 - Rebirth

He died.

Logan did not remember the exact details, besides the fact that he was jogging on the sidewalk when that happened.

Jogging was not something he did often he had to admit; perhaps he should have stayed at home that morning, playing video-games or reading fan-fictions, but that was beside the point.

No, what he remembered was that it was painless and almost instantaneous: one moment he was running and thinking about some useless thing, the next moment he was dead.

He was almost glad that he did not actually know how that happened... because he always thought his death would have been somewhat special, meaningful, and he dreaded knowing it could have been something cliché as being killed by 'truck-san'... or something else equally as boring as that.

What he certainly wasn't expecting, was what happened after this death.

The realization that Logan, a person as unbelieving in any religion as anyone could ever be, was dead and still aware after the fact was somewhat ironic.

Did everyone else retain their self-awareness after death independently from their faith? Or was he a special case?

He always saw himself being different from the other people, at least the very few he cared something about, so it was not hard for him to see this outcome as something unique to himself.

Still, he surely hoped this arrangement not being permanent, since being eternally trapped in the darkness, unable to see anything or move a muscle, was not something he desired to have included in his own afterlife if at all possible.

Nonetheless, Logan could only wait, incapable of doing anything except hope that the pitch black and dark Hell that was surrounding him, or whatever that was, would come to an end soon, replaced by a more serene environment.

And it looked like his wish would be fulfilled, at least partly... because at that moment he heard a loud crack followed by a narrow white line, which engulfed his prison with brightness, temporarily blinding him.

Was this his birth after reincarnation? Was he about to meet his new family?

Knowing himself well enough, Logan knew that differently from the average person, he would have no problems with having a new family as long as they treated him well enough.

The affection he felt for his previous family would remain of course, but he was not the type of guy that despaired over those things.

His very selective emotional spectrum, something that hindered his social interaction in his previous life, would be useful in this case: Logan was dead, it was time to move on as someone else, with someone else too.

The fact that he seemed to retain memories of his previous life was more of a boon than a curse in his opinion, he couldn't wait to play the part of the young prodigy he often saw in stories about reincarnation.

Sadly, that was not what destiny had in store for him, because as he crawled out of his cage he soon realized that something was wrong with his body and lowering his sight he almost died a second time, this time of heart attack after what he saw.

Instead of normal five-fingered human hands, or even the pudgy baby hands he expected (and a little part of him dreaded to see nonetheless), there were instead some kind of brownish green chitinous limbs with three-fingered appendages at the end.

The view was so surprising and unsettling, that he stopped completely for a moment, his brain unable to think about what to do and what was going on.

His panicking mind was already in overdrive, not even registering his surrounding, too busy analyzing his new chitinous, alien body, trying to make any sense of his situation.

Was this some kind of Karma retribution bullshit? Was he reborn as an insect of some kind or something else similarly squishy and disgusting?

As Logan mind was still reeling, restlessly working in the useless attempt of making any sense of his new predicament, he was woefully unprepared to the river of memories pouring in his head in that very moment.

He remembered a lot all at once, a splitting headache hitting him full force, shaping his mind with a new purpose and accompanied by memories not his own.

His birth as an imperfect being and a voice in his head... no, not a voice, more like a planted knowledge, instructing him on what he needed to do to achieve the perfection he desired.

Growing up alone, day after day, enclosed in a water tank, a cistern full of resources necessary for his growth in what he was supposed to become, the first step toward his coveted objective.

Shedding his own skin away after years of nothing but the voice in his own mind, freeing himself from an imperfect shape... only to obtain another, incomplete all the same.

The call of his own body and mind leading him to seek his brother and sister, created with the only purpose of being sacrificial lambs to help him attain his complete form.

Then, the despair and the boundless rage that engulfed him for the first time when he realized it was to late and the screaming command in his head that compelled him to seek an impossible union with long-dead beings.

The death of a young man by his own hand, a necessary sacrifice for the greater good, for the final purpose of becoming as perfect as he should have been since the very beginning.

The loss of power when he was forced to temporarily weakening himself, reverting to his previous fragile state of being, a price that he was willing to pay because anything else was meaningless when compared to true perfection.

Landing in the past, a few years before 17 and 18 awakening, to give himself enough time to recover his strength and hunt them down.

To finally obtain the perfection he deserved.

After the head pain finally ceased, Logan remembered another name, a name that was his own as much as the first one was... and perhaps even more.

A name that defined himself and his aim to perfection more clearly than anything else.

A name that everyone will soon know and never forget.

That name was Cell.

Notes from the author:

That was it for the prologue, first chapter or whatever.

Not sure where I'm going with this yet, probably nowhere... I just wanted to write it, so I did.

No Beta and sub-par grammar, English is not my main language as you can clearly see.

I'm writing this for fun in my free time and that's it.

Last edited: Jun 28, 2018

203

loganSB

Jun 21, 2018

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Threadmarks Chapter 2 - Recovery

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loganSB

loganSB

Jun 22, 2018

#56

Summary: I die and my consciousness merged with that of Cell.

Chapter 2 - Recovery

The pouring of memories finally stopped: Logan... no... Cell was finally whole.

Or whole as he could ever be at this moment, that is.

While his form was far from perfection, still nothing more than a weird larva, his mind was now his greatest resource.

The memories of Logan, a being from an alternate dimension unknown to anyone, with knowledge of a future that will or will not ever be, was a weapon stronger than any other.

An instrument that would aid Cell in his quest to attain true perfection.

The fact that Logan came from a place where this world, or better this entire reality, was nothing more than fictional, was... interesting to say the least.

If either Logan or Cell ever believed in a divine entity, he would thank him or her profusely right about now.

Of course, divine presences in this reality were nothing more than beings too strong to be understood by the common population... and even if Cell was curious on what ultimately caused such a merging of their consciousness to happen, he also knew that asking questions without answers was a meaningless effort, a waste of time that could be more efficiently used for something else.

It was, nonetheless, a little irritating the discovery that even in perfection, Cell would not actually be the strongest being in existence, but only one among the strongest of this pitiful rock called Earth.

Still, while perfection in power was not (yet) attainable, perfection in form was something that could be pursued and obtained with relative ease, as long as he didn't waver in his determination.

Now though was time to leave the time machine.

Sadly, he didn't understand almost anything about the functioning of the time machine itself, including what was the button, or series of buttons, he needed to press in order to open the hatch.

He also didn't want to press anything randomly, lest he risked for the time machine to send him on another timeline by mistake... since he wouldn't know how to return to this one, if even possible.

For that very reason, Cell did the only sensible thing he could have done in his situation: he extended his little limb toward the glass, charged a little KI Blast and shot it.

The low potency Ki sphere perforated the vehicle from the inside, generating a gaping hole in the glass of the hatch.

Even doing such a basic thing, already stressed his weakened body considerably... and having to levitate out of the time machine was energy consuming as well, but with some effort, he was able to do so.

Finally, on the outside, he took a moment to rest, to recover some energy and ponder on his future moves.

In the pitiful condition, Cell was at the moment, he was unlikely to be able to do anything, nor he wanted to since he preferred to keep the timeline as it was in Canon, at least to the point of his brother and sister awakening.

Who knew what happened if he did interfere early anyway, could very well put in jeopardy the entire reason he came back in the first place, preventing the awakening of the Cyborgs 17 and 18.

No, it was better to play it as OTL and do not take unnecessary risk in that regard, there was time to mess with the timeline after his brother and sister were awake and ready for the harvest.

According to his calculations, compared to the pieces of information from his previous life as Logan, the first travel to the past made by Trunks, should be in about a year or so, with the next one and the awakening of 17 and 18 three years after that.

That means four years from this moment, which was just what he needed to recover most of his former strength.

Was it a coincidence or poor writing? ... Anyway, it was kind of Trunks to set his next time travel to this time period.

The idiot probably wanted to avoid the mistakes he made in his first travels and warn, or perhaps even help, another timeline earlier on.

His dedication to helping timelines different from his own was completely idiotic since he would have basically abandoned his own world instead of helping with the recovery.

After all, Trunks would have continued to age in different timelines, so every moment spent helping other worlds was less time available on his own and with his own mother.

Not that Cell cared, either way, he was actually grateful for the idiotic goodwill and poor judgment of Trunks character, since the stupidity of Vegeta son allowed Cell to continue in his mission to attain perfection, despite the ridiculous odds in his disfavor.

Anyway, thanks to his memories as Logan, Cell knew that this timeline had some difference compared to the information Cell originally had.

For example, there were three new androids, including Dr. Gero himself, added to the mix.

Nothing that he wouldn't be able to overcome given time, and in the end, two of those three Androids would already be dead by the time he was ready.

Still, 16 hindered his original self... several times, and that could not be accepted.

Nothing will stand in his way toward perfection.

Now though, it was time for him to start the process necessary to recover his imperfect form.

Ignoring the time machine, knowing that no one will discover it there in the woods for at least four years, he used what pitiful Ki he still had to excavate and burrow himself deep underground, where he would need about four years to recover his previous form.

As the process of nutrient absorption started, Cell entered a deep state of dormancy which would automatize and accelerate the process by several years.

He knew he will be ready just in time for the first sparks.

It was with a cracking sound that Cell regained consciousness.

After he realized the sound did came from his own body, and that there was no animal or living being in the close vicinity, that did mean it was time.

Not that any animal would be stupid enough to ever attack him, even if they found him so deep underground and asleep... his menacing form even at this evolutionary stage was enough to keep at bay most of the beings on this planet.

In his larva form, now several times bigger than before, he crawled out of the ground.

Finally, outside, he didn't waste any time, shedding his old skin with a disturbing and probably a little disgusting sound, as the chitinous carapace was penetrated from the inside out.

Once again in his imperfect form, he could feel his body drumming with energy ready to be released at his command, but it wasn't time yet.

Instead, it was time to begin the next phase of his quest.

After all, even if he was now already stronger than most beings on this planet, he was still far from being the strongest or even close to that title.

As he scanned the planet with his Ki sensing ability, he could feel where all the big players currently on Earth were... except for the Cyborgs, sadly.

"Well, nothing to do about that... as long as they didn't leave the planet, my perfection is already assured."

It was refreshing hearing his own voice again, being unable to talk grated him quite a lot... especially since he lived as a Human once.

His voice as Cell sounded inhuman, alien, but it was his own nonetheless... and it was temporary anyway since his voice will change with his upcoming evolution.

Still, despite what he tried to assure himself of, the memories he had obtained from his previous life as Logan highlighted some glaring issues with his original plan, the first of which could be easily solved.

The first thing he did upon returning to his imperfect form, was charging and shooting a low potency Ki Blast which incinerated his old carapace, couldn't possibly leave any trace of his presence here.

Of course, he had to keep his energy emission at a minimum, wouldn't want to attract any unwanted attention from the Z-Fighters or whoever.

He was unsure if Kami already knew of his presence or awakening, given to the fact that he had no idea how he did it in Canon, nor how he and everyone else were able to determine the amount of 'evilness' in the Ki.

Hell, he wasn't actually the same Cell either, so... did his Ki change accordingly? He couldn't perceive any difference, but he wasn't able to distinguish between 'evil' Ki from 'good' Ki before either.

Ugh, whatever... if he knew, he knew; something to worry at a later time, there were other things of greater importance to do right now.

Another sphere of energy was sent toward the Time Machine.

It was true that it was a priceless instrument, but even so, it was of no use to him and would have soon been discovered by someone else anyway, with the Z-Fighters soon obtaining knowledge he wasn't ready (nor willing) to share if at all possible.

The less they knew about him, the better.

Also, he had no idea how to turn the time machine into a capsule either so... who the fuck cares.

Making sure that nothing remained in the area that could have indicated his arrival or presence here, except for the scorched ground, he was finally ready to move on the next phase of his quest to perfection.

His first of many targets was the closest town to his current location: Gingertown.

Notes from the author:

What our "hero" will do after arriving in Gingertown? We will discover it in the next chapter!

Maybe.

No Beta and sub-par grammar, English is not my main language as you can clearly see.

I'm writing this for fun in my free time and that's it.

Last edited: Jun 22, 2018

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loganSB

Jun 22, 2018

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Threadmarks Chapter 3 - Calculations

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loganSB

loganSB

Jun 23, 2018

#76

Summary: I die and my consciousness merged with that of Cell.

Chapter 3 - Calculations

Reaching the suburb didn't take long, even if he mostly ran using only his physical strength, with slight boosts of Ki to jump high obstacles.

After all, even if flying at high speed would have been faster, it would also have been accompanied with the risk of tipping off someone else of his presence too early.

Now on the border of Gingertown, but still far from any possible curious eye, Cell levitated high in the air.

Compared to a flight at high speed, levitation didn't require a relevant amount of Ki, so it should have been safe from being found by anyone who wasn't specifically searching for him in that place...

Then he focused on the town, which had very little population according to his own Ki sense, little more than 15 thousands.

But that was not important, because he was looking for a specific type of target, something he thought about during his traveling toward the town.

Cell currently had not enough strength to rival with the strongest beings on the planet, so he was forced to absorb other living beings, as that was the best and quickest way to obtain the power he needed with the lowest time and effort cost from his part.

The normal method of absorption will have him utilize the sharp end of his tail to stab his victim, in the body of whom he will then inject a digestive enzyme which will liquefy them from the inside out, allowing him to absorb their biomass.

The assimilation will continue inside his own body, where the genetic mush he forcibly took from his victim will be processed on a cellular level refurbishing his body and generating Life Energy.

Or at least that is how Dr. Gero planted the instruction about it in his mind... and his memories as Logan didn't possess any detailed explanation either.

Now, the reason this mattered was that taking the life of innocent beings would be considered 'evil' by the standard of most of the 'good' guys on the planet.

If he didn't want to make unnecessary enemies so early in the timeline, killing innocent Earthlings was therefore not an option at this moment.

A little part of him seemed to disagree, planting ideas on his mind of carnage and wanton slaughter, but that part was most likely some remnants of his old idiotic self.

No, Logan would never do something this stupid, and the new Cell, the Cell destined to true perfection, would never act in such a brazen way either.

For that very reason he initially thought about animals, but he discarded that options straight away.

While there were animals that were acceptable from the point of view of time and effort cost and subsequent reward, those would have been mostly the big predators, or at least the biggest animals in general, and there was a limited number of those... and sparsely distributed on the world.

Even having the time to hunt them down, the total nourishment provided would have amounted to nothing on the great scheme of things, or at least not enough and not fast enough either.

No, it has to be people, easy to find and all concentrated in the same places: cities, towns, villages.

The only option he could think of at that moment, that will allow him to obtain the energy necessary in short time, without angering too many of the good guys was then targeting those who were not innocents, those who not only would not be missed but were not worthy enough of looking for either in the eyes of society.

After all, if discovered and then interrogated about the death of criminals, he would easily be able to explain himself.

He could hardly be blamed for his attempt on the vanquish of evil people, for trying to help the kind and good population of Earth, for trying to make everyone who deserves it live as peacefully as possible... right?

Well, if someone has anything to say about that, he would play the part of the person/alien with a good heart and purpose, but simply misguided.

Cell obviously didn't intend to do anything untoward and needed guidance for him to understand the difference between good and evil.

Or some other shit like that, anyway.

It was almost certain that Goku would fall for it, he was always the one to give his enemies too many chances in virtue of the possibility that they may seek redemption.

Cell remembered that the number of Earthlings needed to be absorbed by him for his strength to reach the level of Canon peak Imperfect form was in the tens of thousands, perhaps... maybe a couple hundred of thousands. He wasn't entirely sure about the exact number.

Since the average power level of Earthlings varied but was around 5, or maybe 10 at it's best, it was unlikely to be a direct addition to his own power level, anyway.

He still didn't understand how that exactly worked, since it was all an automated process done by his own body at a cellular level, and Dr. Gero never felt the need to plant any detailed instruction on that regard.

Even if this Earth did have an inferior number of people living in it compared to the Earth from Logan reality, it was nonetheless enough to have a more than sufficient amount of criminal elements.

Of course, Cell didn't have the time to hunt down all of the criminals in any town of Earth one by one, but if he focused only on the obvious one, in specific (out of the way of the public) locations and quickly moved from town to town on foot at maximum speed, he should be able to gain the same amount of energy his original self did.

Or perhaps even more, considering Cell original self was interrupted multiple times and hunted the Earthlings at a leisurely pace, wasting most of the time taunting his victims and chasing them for fun instead of actually absorbing them.

It was not like absorbing those weaklings would require more than five seconds each anyway, the only possible reason his idiotic counterpart could have had for being so fucking slow was that he put his own personal enjoyment before his final purpose.

No, Cell will not waste time with nonsensical chasing and taunting, this was not something he was doing for fun, this was for the paramount purpose of true perfection.

And nothing would stand before Cell and the perfection he deserved, not even Cell himself.

There was only a potential issue with this plan, which was his Ki... or more precisely two issues related to it.

The first one was easier to overcome, and it was related to how the Ki was normally identified as 'Evil'.

If the answer was actions made by the user, he supposed that the Ki would make no difference between the death of innocent people or criminals, so he would most likely be identified initially as evil and would need to explain his action as previously decided, if questioned or interrogated about it.

If that was the case he will manage the situation as previously decided... after all, everyone knows that the road of Hell is paved with good intentions.

Instead. if the answer to Ki 'evilness' was enjoyment in the evil act, he was unsure what the outcome would be.

A big part of him was still Cell, so it was probable that he would feel a moderate amount of enjoyment in hunting down and eating criminals around the planet, but he was determined on not losing himself in it so he wasn't sure if that 'intent' influenced the outcome too.

Finally, if the answer was indeed the 'intent' between the action... in that case, it could go either way.

Anyway, either his Ki would be identified as evil, in which case it would be necessary for him to provide an explanation and play the part of the misguided good guy, or it will not be identified as such and he could play the part of the 'good' guy who decided to help on his own initiative.

The second issue with his Ki was also the hardest to overcome, or fix, of the two: the fact that Cell Ki signature could be easily pinpointed as belonging to several different warriors known to the Z-Fighters, some of which on their side, while others were actually former enemies.

How was he going to explain something like that?

He could say that he was genetically enhanced using DNA from the greatest known warriors, with the only purpose of fighting the Cyborgs and save Earth from annihilation, but he doubted someone would believe him... and even if they did, they were going to ask who enhanced or created him and where he/she was right now... and that was another can of worms he didn't wish to see opened if at all possible.

Since that was not a viable option... Cell could play the part of the 'special technique'... 'Ki Mirroring' was an apt name for this imaginary ability, perhaps?

Yes, a technique unique to his obviously alien species, of which he was 'probably' and sadly one of the last surviving members, that allowed him to replicate other people Ki signatures as if those were his own.

Of course, such a technique would not be instantaneous either, in the remote case that someone would get suspicious of his inability to replicate some of the other Ki, specifically those of beings the DNA of which was not used in his creation.

He will be able to mirror techniques too of course.

It was amusing that more than half of his reasoning was built in the chance of him being discovered before time, was he being too paranoid, perhaps?

No, it was better to leave nothing to chance in any case.

"That should cover it up on that front... and I'm wasting time again. It's time to start with this thing or I'm going to be late on the schedule."

Even if he said that, while part of his mind was busy concocting plans and reasons, he was still focusing his Ki sensing ability on looking for targets, but more importantly he was using his stronger natural sense: smell.

After all, he was an insect first and foremost, or at least multiple insects DNA was heavily involved in his creation and development.

It was par of the course then, that the two jutting sections on his head were quite a lot more than ornamental, but were instead what would have passed for his antennae, or an equivalent organ, used by most species of insects to detect chemicals in the air at very huge distances compared to their normally pitiful body size.

Bigger the antennae, better the insect's detection range and capability, so one can only imagine how easily an insect bigger than a Human being could use this to his own advantage.

He doubted his original self used such an ability that much, or perhaps he used it only to smell blood... because, why not.

In fact, Cell wasn't even sure if such a capability was willingly inducted by Dr. Gero during his creation, or it was simply a coincidence that derivate from the heavy amount of bugs genome used for his own creation and development.

It was, after all, a completely unnecessary ability given his Ki Sense, or at least would have been considered so by the operational parameter delineated by Dr. Gero for him.

Instead, it was something that Cell deemed to be extremely useful given his current circumstances.

It was initially hard to separate, identify and recognize a certain type of odors, but after a while, he was able to distinguish where, in the town below him, were present the highest amount of drugs: cocaine, heroin and similar substances.

Pinpointing their exact location and focusing his Ki Sense allowed him to identify at least four hundred obvious criminal elements distributed among the population, most of which grouped in the same areas, conveniently away from the common 'innocent' people.

Cell was pleasantly surprised by the amount of prey, he expected perhaps half of that number to be found this easily and quickly at best, but apparently, this would be faster than he initially thought.

They were, of course, a minuscule amount of people compared to the high numbers necessary for his power growth, but for the first batch, they will do fine.

This was only the first town after all, and now that Cell managed to test this method, he would be able to replicate it more easily and effortlessly by traveling rapidly from town to town.

Given that this amount was found within a pool of only 15 thousands people, and given a world population of approximately 5 billion, this bode well for the future... according to his calculations, he should easily be able to obtain the necessary amount of Life Energy in a couple of days of uninterrupted work.

For now, though he will focus only on those grouped in the same locations and generally away from common people eyes, it wouldn't do to gather attention to himself as of now.

The biggest group in the city was located near several storage buildings on the border of the town.

"Yes, let's start from there."

Having decided on the first batch, he quickly plummeted toward the ground in their general direction.

It was time to eat.

Notes from the author:

Mostly Cellogan wanking his brain out with plans and counter-plans.

Will he succeed? We will know in the next chapter! ... Maybe.

Please note that this is merging of Cell and Logan memories and personalities, it's not one replacing the other as most SI did.

No Beta and sub-par grammar, English is not my main language as you can clearly see.

I'm writing this for fun in my free time and that's it.

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Jun 23, 2018

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Threadmarks Chapter 4 - Chance

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loganSB

loganSB

Jun 25, 2018

#153

Summary: I die and my consciousness merged with that of Cell.

Chapter 4 - Chance

POV - Piccolo

The Lookout.

Two beings were currently unmoving, clearly of the same alien species, both completely green and lacking body hairs, with two antennae protruding from the top of their heads.

Despite the similarities, the two couldn't be any different from each other.

The first one was currently standing on the border of the lookout, his eyes closed in concentration and his face scrunched up in what could only be described as an expression of deep worry.

He was clearly older and weaker compared to the other one and seemingly needed a wood cane to be able to walk or even only stand straight on his own two feet.

The second one sat close by, but not as close that people would think they were there together if they didn't know any better... not that it was possible for common people to be there in the first place.

He was clearly a strong and mighty warrior, as it could be seen from his imposing countenance and from his fashionable but still intimidating attire.

In complete contrast with the first alien, he sat with his leg and arm crossed, his visage the perfect indication of calm, of course, and his countenance-

# You already used that word... and do you really need to describe yourself with so many adjectives? #

# Shut up Nail, I'm meditating! #

# You are not meditating, you are there doing nothing productive as usual. I'm inside your head, you can not fool me. #

The mighty warrior sat, his countenance radiating calm and-

# Calm? You are about to snap and you know it, just confront him already and stop wasting both of our time. #

# Fine! #

Piccolo quickly rises from his sitting position, turned and walked toward the other being.

"Old fossil! What are you still waiting for? You know as well as I do that I'm the only one that could possibly stop the Androids! Goku isn't recovering as quickly as we need him... if he ever will, and Vegeta isn't getting any stronger. Our union is the only thing that could save this planet! So stop wasting both of our time!"

# You are the one to talk. #

The older of the two, also known by the name of Kami, sighed and opened his eyes.

"Perhaps you are right, but there something else that may require our attention, maybe more dangerous than even the Androids you spoke off. I can feel it."

Predictably, Piccolo didn't take that answer very well.

"Stop making excuses, we both know that you are stalling for time... time we currently don't have! So stop talking in riddles and just do what you should have done hours ago! I'm sick of waiting here meditating-" # Dozing off. # "-meditating for hours waiting for you to do the right thing!"

"I'm not making any excuses, Piccolo... It was four years ago that I felt something, a negative power awakening on Earth. I never did anything about it believing it too weak to worry about at that moment and I thought to be proven right since it did nothing until now.

But I was naive... I have forgotten it and allowed it to skip out of my control... and perhaps now it's too late. That same power is growing at an alarming rate as we speak and at this rate, there is the possibility that it will be too strong even for us if it's not stopped. Sadly, I can't seem to be able to track it as well as I would want to."

"Then why are you stalling?!? If what you say it's true, you should have merged with me as soon as you made the discovery! What is it that is stopping you now?"

"I'm waiting, because even if I can't follow his actions with great clarity, the little I was able to perceive made me believe that perhaps this power is not held by someone who is truly and completely evil as I initially thought. If I let things unfold, there is even the possibility that it will go after the Android by itself, in which case both problems would solve itself without our intervention or the need to give up my life, independence. If what I suspect is right, there is a chance the Androids will be weakened by the encounter and we will be able to finish them off and save the planet without a greater cost."

"A chance? Is that what are you betting against the destruction of this world you should have protected instead? What kind of 'guardian' are you, if you take decisions like those involving the future of Earth based on mere possibilities?"

"I can feel your anger, Piccolo... and your desire for power as well, you can not fool me with your fake altruistic rhetoric..."

At his words, Piccolo winced. It was true that he did want to stop the Androids, and that he wasn't really happy to have another one, after Nail, inserted in his own mind-

# There is room for a lot of people here, your mind is mostly empty, after all. #

- but still, it was true that the thought of obtaining a power rivaling... no, surpassing that of the Super Saiyans was something that enticed more than it should have if his intentions were truly pure and completely altruistic... of course they weren't, but it's not like he could have told him that.

Kami nodded thought, seemingly coming to a decision.

"... but, you are right. In the end, it doesn't matter what I want or believe. I don't know if our union will be enough to stop the Androids from destroying everything. I don't know if this mysterious power that is working in the shadow is truly an actual threat or a possible future ally. I don't know anything, but it doesn't matter. The safety of Earth is of paramount importance, and as his Guardian, I have a duty, even if following it means I will be gone... My time, after three hundred years, has finally passed. It's time for the younger to officially take the mantle of protectors of this planet, as they already did unofficially on my watch, multiple times."

Piccolo was silent. Even if he didn't really like the guy, because of who he was, a part of him respected him nonetheless.

Piccolo knew that despite the harsh words he himself directed toward the older Namekian, it was not easy to sacrifice yourself in this way, and he sympathized with him in that regard.

Kami turned toward the third guy who was there with them.

# Wow, was he there all this time? Just noticed him now... #

"Goodbye... Popo"

The black... something, Piccolo wasn't really sure what he was exactly, appeared to be deeply shaken by the direction things were going. "Kami..."

Wait.. was he crying? Ugh.

Kami nodded to his loyal attendant, then turned toward Piccolo.

"Remember, once I'm gone, so does the dragon balls. You will not be able to revive those who died if you fail."

Why was he making those declarations now? Didn't Kami know that he had a chance to live in his mind as a second- # Third # -personality of a sort? Perhaps if he didn't know about it, he wouldn't know how to do it either... that would be quite good, all the powers with none of the downsides.

Kami nodded once again, his visage the portrait of solemnity. "I'm ready, Piccolo."

The younger Namekian didn't wait for another second and extended his arm, placing his hand on Kami own chest...

POV - Cell

As the liquefied paste which was once a human being was quickly absorbed by Cell, the remaining three criminals were running toward the exit of the depot building, with their arms stretched behind them and shooting in his general direction.

Well, two of them at least, the other one still didn't notice the lack of ammunition in his own gun...

Uncaring of the bullets uselessly bouncing against his body, Cell finished to absorb his prey, then quickly sped up toward the exit, barring the entrance and causing panic on the little group.

"Wait! I have a fam-GLURG"

Then, his tail quickly targeted and stabbed the body of his next objective, starting the process of absorption right away.

Differently, compared to the original (was that even the correct word... ah, who cares) Cell, the one from the series, he didn't waste time doing it slowly and more painfully than necessary - not that it wasn't already agonizing as it was - but instead completed the process in a few moments and quickly moved to the next target, which in the meantime had barely the time to recover from the shock and turn in the opposite direction.

No taunting of his victims, no prolonged cat and mouse games... nothing of the sort.

Target, stab, absorb, repeat.

This was already the eleventh town since he started executing his plan, and he did absorb already over five thousand people in less than an hour of work.

As he continued with this task, it was becoming quicker and easier every time, to the point that most of the time as of now was actually spent running from town to town trying to remain as undetected as possible, instead of actually locating and absorbing his prey, which required a few minutes at most.

When he started the harvest, he was actually memorizing which town had the biggest prisons, or where the highest amount of homeless people were located, just in case his current plan would have revealed to be not fast enough and/or in the case he was then forced to 'up the stakes' moving to a more public setting, or perhaps hunting homeless and other people which no one missed or worried too much about.

Instead, this planet seemed to have a lot more drug-associated criminals that he should actually have, or perhaps not... as Logan, he never actually cared about strangers enough to calculate the average amount of criminals or anything like that.

Anyway, if everything proceeded according to plan, he should be able to get enough strength in the following three days, just in time for the next confrontation between the Cyborgs and the Z-Fighters... if that still went according to his Canon knowledge, at least.

As he managed to absorb the last one, ignoring his gurgling pleads for mercy, Cell meditated on the fact that everything he did know would have happened since the moment of his arrival onwards could be obsolete already.

Perhaps, in this reality, the Cyborgs decided to stop dozing off earlier and moved quicker than how they originally should.

In that case, the confrontation with an eventual Piccolo would happen earlier than it did in OTL.

At the moment, there was a high chance that Kami would still decide to fuse with Piccolo, but even that was not certain.

It was unsure either if Piccolo would be able to find him as easily, without any massacres of thousands of people in the same place happening in this reality... Cell actually counted on that, since it was better for him to put off the encounter for a while still.

As he disintegrated the clothes of his latest victim, just as he did with those before in an attempt of leaving the fewer traces possible of his actions, he hoped that the low amount of Ki used in the process would not tip his location off to potential followers.

The sudden death of five thousand people was still unknown to the public since the deaths happened in different locations, in very short time and the victims were people hidden away doing sketchy things, but soon a relative of one of the victims will probably attempt to contact one of them and notice they are missing.

From then on it will not be hard to realize the scope of the disappearances and for the entire thing to be made public knowledge.

As Cell quickly ran toward the next and last location of interest on the town, he mused about it.

Once the disappearances were made public all over the world, in perhaps a day or so, people will soon realize that only criminals were being targeted, so... by then hitting the prisons will be a good option.

Maybe, it will make him a little easier to be found by Piccolo or anyone else, but by that point, his power should be already higher enough to at least easily ran away from eventual pursuers.

Doing so will also speed things up considerably, perhaps allowing him to gain the necessary strength a day earlier on the schedule.

It will also reinforce the claim that he is hunting only 'evil' people, or criminals anyway, painting him as a vigilante of a sort in the eyes of the population.

Well, that was something to think about for later, because in front of him now there were a dozen criminals to feast upon.

Wait... was that... Tao?

Notes from the author:

I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter... there is something that is nagging at me, like as if I forget something but can't quite place it... oh well, who cares.

Please note that this is not a story based on DBZ Abridged, because I am not good enough to even attempt to write something as AMAZING as that...

Still, I liked the fact that Nail and Kami personalities were added as living-persona inside Piccolo mind after they fused inside him.

If there are other things that I like from Abridged that are not hard to replicate AND are not completely against the original series Canon, I will include those.

You are free to make suggestions if you wish, whether those will be in the actual story later will be decided by me based on my poor capability as a writer and other factors.

If I think I may be able to pull those things off, I will include them.

This is also the first chapter where a different POV (still in 3rd person) was introduced.

I don't know if I did a good job with it, I think it's somehow decent, but I may be wrong.

Anyway, hope you liked it and thanks for reading!

No Beta and sub-par grammar, English is not my main language as you can clearly see.

I'm writing this for fun in my free time and that's it.

211

loganSB

Jun 25, 2018

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Threadmarks Chapter 5 - Knowledge

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loganSB

loganSB

Jun 27, 2018

#180

Summary: I die and my consciousness merged with that of Cell.

Chapter 5 - Knowledge

As Cell reached the location of interest, he should have done what he did the previous times and just commence absorbing them right away, starting from Tao himself, perhaps.

Instead, the discovery of a character he remembered being dead, made him pause more than it should have.

From the memories he had from his life as Logan, he couldn't remember Tao being alive during the Dragon Ball Z series, but vaguely remembered him being killed off in the original series.

Was this entire reality an 'AU' of a sort, or a different Timeline altogether compared to the one he knew of, or was he simply forgetting something?

After all, his memory was not perfect, so he could have simply forgotten Tao's return in favor of some of the more interesting parts of the series, which instead stuck with him until later.

Or maybe the Z series never actually shown what happened to Tao after the original series ended and Logan simply gave him for dead by mistake, later on, forgetting about that fact.

There could have been multiple possibilities involved in the situation he found himself a part of.

Nonetheless, the thought of a different reality altogether, scared him quite a bit... since if that was the case he wouldn't be able to predict any event with a sufficient degree of certainty.

Sadly, the short distraction provided by this new discovery allowed Tao to notice the enormous and menacing insectoid staring at him and quickly reacted doing the only thing that could have possibly 'hurt' Cell... which was: running in the opposite direction.

Even if Tao was a lot stronger and faster than an average Human, he would not have certainly been able to escape Cell, who was already infinitely stronger and faster compared to the assassin.

The main issue was that Tao speed was probably enough to allow him to reach a populated area in a few seconds if Cell didn't stop him... and he was also quite distant from Cell himself, so he could have possibly evaded most attacks from there if he was quick enough.

Perhaps still slightly panicking about his previous thoughts and unknowing about the number of enhancements and abilities this 'Cyborg-looking Tao' possessed, he reacted instinctively sending a dozen Ki Blast in the direction of all of the criminals around their location, which completely disintegrated their body leaving no trace besides burned marks, then he quickly blasted in the assassin direction at full speed.

Predictably, Tao didn't stand a chance in a contest of speed and was quickly caught and held by the neck by Cell using his left hand.

Calming himself down, Cell allowed himself to chuckle. "Ah! I can't believe I almost panicked for this... truly disappointing."

In hindsight, he could have probably managed the situation in a better way, but in the heat of the moment, he acted on instinct, using a noticeable amount of KI too, which with a Ki Signature like his own would undoubtedly be noticed by Piccolo, or anyone else currently searching for him.

Tao, gasping and chocking under Cell tender care, was seemingly undeterred by the (not so much) veiled insult, or simply too busy trying to breathe to notice, but apparently still had some energy in him.

He quickly disconnected his metallic hand, pointing his arm toward Cell, then shooting a superheated beam toward him... which accomplished nothing at all.

The power of the mercenary was nothing compared to his own, Tao pitiful attacks barely noticeable by Cell.

"As I said, truly disappointing." Cell punched the assassin in the stomach, quickly sapping what remaining strength he had, before opening his hand, releasing his neck and allowing him to fall to the ground.

Normally, he would have absorbed him straight away and be done with it, especially with the possibility that Piccolo or someone else noticed him a few moments earlier, but still... there was something Cell wished to test and this was perhaps a good chance, or at least the first chance, with something a little more worthy than an average Earthling nobody.

It was also a human enhanced with technology, a Cyborg... of a sort and that means it was the perfect guinea pig for the test he had in mind.

For that very reason, he allowed a couple of seconds of respite to the Cyborg, before pointing his tail toward his head, the stinger barely a few centimeters from the mercenary, oozing his deadly digestive enzyme, before asking an additional question, just to be sure about the quality of his prey and his viability as a test subject.

"Answer my question if you want to live. What is the name of the man who enhanced you, turning your pathetic human body in that of a Cyborg?"

At this point, the guy was already close to pissing in his pants, so it was unlikely he would have offered some kind of resistance... especially if he was offered to keep his own pitiful life in the case he answered honestly.

"It-it w-was Gero. Dr. Ge-Gero."

Just as Cell suspected because, despite the work made on Tao not being truly awe-inspiring, it was advanced enough for it to be possibly done only by an expert in the field.

Most likely, the doctor needed money to finance his numerous projects and Tao was one of his many clients, that meant that Gero didn't really care about enhancing the mercenary or what the result would be, as long as he received the promised funds.

It was a half-assed job at best, given the sub-par result, but it was made by Gero nonetheless, and that means that it could perhaps provide some interesting results with this test on the basis of possible retro-compatibility.

"Thank you... for your honesty." was the answer given by Cell, which then willed the pointed end of the stinger on his tail to enlarge itself, turning into an huge sucker, which Cell brought down on Tao, sucking him entirely inside with little effort, the assassin not even quick enough to understand what was going on, certainly not enough to put up some useless resistance.

Then he waited.

And waited.

And waited a little more.

...

And nothing happened at all.

As predictable, no transformation, not that Cell expected that to happen, of course, but he wouldn't have lost anything only by trying... so he did try.

Nonetheless, Cell did feel a very slight increase in his own strength, perhaps the same amount of Life Energy that fifty average people, or maybe a little more, would have provided when absorbed in the usual way.

That was probably due to the fact that Tao was not an average human earthling, so it was unlikely that absorbing him in the default way would have provided Cell with a different result.

Sadly, his thoughts were interrupted when he sensed an immense amount of Ki moving at high speed toward his current location.

He quickly suppressed his own Ki and ran toward the closest and safest dark spot he could find nearby, hiding behind a pile of trash, with two large dumpsters on either side and a wall covering him from behind.

It was an unseemly place for one such as himself, but provided enough cover for him to not be found and being prideful and stupid and risking being discovered for it, was something that the old Cell would have done, but not his much-improved self.

This hideout also allowed him to check the surrounding area without being seen, so he couldn't complain about the stench.

Not that it had any effect on him, it was mostly a psychological trait that seemed to came from his life as Logan, since as Cell he could decide to ignore it perfectly.

A few moments later, Piccolo came into view, stopping in mid-air and levitating above the area, seemingly scanning the location using both his own eyes and his Ki sensing, probably trying to find whoever had a Ki signature so similar to his own and that of his.. friends? Companions? ... Whatever he called them in his mind.

His currently immense power was a clear confirmation that the fusion with Kami did happen as Cell canonical knowledge indicated it would, so that same knowledge was not as obsolete as he feared, fortunately.

After a minute or so, he seemed to give up in his search and blasted in the opposite direction, but Cell didn't move from his current location yet, deciding to wait for a while, until he was sure that Piccolo would be far enough and wouldn't come back, opting instead to think about his earlier predicament.

This time, he was lucky and despite his stupid mistake, he was able to remain unnoticed only by sheer luck... a second later could have been too late.

The only reason he noticed Piccolo Ki signature in time, was probably that it was already so familiar to him, being so similar to a part of his own.

In hindsight, disintegrating the criminals before running to catch Tao was probably not necessary, but what was done was done and crying about it now was not helping anybody.

Anyway, after berating himself for his own impulsiveness, Cell resumed the analysis he commenced before being interrupted.

Absorbing Tao was extremely unlikely to provide him with a transformation, but being a Cyborg at least in part there was a not 0% chance that something could have happened, so it was good that he tested.

Despite the rather unimpressive result, it was not a waste, since he managed to uncover some important clues about his own absorption abilities, which Dr. Gero in a great moment of insight felt it was unnecessary for him to have.

No, it was unfair. Gero was human after all, and humans were not perfect so, while a part of Cell resented him a little for not focusing on his grown and simply make him perfect since the beginning, another part of him understood that even a genius like Gero, or himself, could make some mistakes from time to time.

That was totally not self-justification for his own actions earlier on.

Returning on the previous topic, first and foremost, it seemed that Human beings (both when enhanced as Cyborg and/or not) wouldn't provide him with anything but Life Energy, no matters what method of absorption he used.

The only exceptions were probably his brother and sister, Cyborgs 17 and 18... which could fit in the 'human' category rather loosely, anyway.

This was something Cell already suspected, but it was nice having a solid confirmation on something.

He was still unsure about the other types of Humanoid among the Earthlings, like the dog-people or whatever the King actually was, or those who knew magic, for example, but didn't hold much hope in that regard either.

Another thing he noticed, was that he didn't obtain any new ability from the assassin; whether this was because Tao techniques were learned or acquired, instead of genetic or magical was uncertain as of yet, but it was one of the most logical reasons.

More testing will be necessary to cover that front, but there was time for those things after his more pressing concerns were resolved.

As he came to those conclusions, Cell finally came out of hiding once he was sure that Piccolo Ki signature was far enough, and managed to quickly get away from the town and into the woods nearby.

Once again, the stinger at the end of his tail expanded greatly, and Cell used it, but this time on the reverse, attempting to eject the remains of Tao and see what happened.

As Cell remembered from his memories as Logan, Son Gohan was able to make him spit out Cyborg 18 in the series, so he wanted to see if the process could be forced, just out of curiosity.

When nothing but the digestive enzyme he normally injects in those he wished to absorb in the usual way came out, he tried to eject whatever remained of Tao from his mouth, but beside spits nothing come out.

Tao body was most likely already processed anyway, that means that 17 and 18 were probably special cases which would require a larger amount of time for his body to process, but the fact that he couldn't spit out the metallic components that made Tao's Cyborg-like body either was quite interesting.

His tail giant sucker still in his enlarged form, he started to absorb anything in his way, trees, plants, insects of course, but also rocks, earth and literally anything else in the radius of twenty meters from his starting position.

The first thing he noticed was a slight increase in power... so little that he doubted he would have normally noticed if he was not waiting specifically for it.

That Life Energy, generated from the plants and insects surrounding him, was so low to be basically inexistent.

Cell wouldn't be surprised if his power level augmented by a value of 0,000000001 or something like that.

After a couple more seconds of waiting, he tried again to spit out and eject what he absorbed, and the only thing to come out was one of the rocks, the biggest one, half processed and half melted already.

This fact provided him with two different clues.

The first one was that he was probably able to absorb almost anything given time and occasion, his digestive enzyme strong enough to process even rocks and metals, despite the fact that he didn't gain apparently anything from the materials themselves, or at least nothing noticeable...

He wasn't sure were the result of the processing of those inanimate and nonliving objects ended up, or if it was simply all lost in nothingness.

Of course, that fact counted only for man-made stuff, or at least those objects which lacked any magical or mystical property... about those he couldn't be sure yet.

The second clue Cell obtained from this test was that 17 and 18 were special not only in regard of the fact that they were the ingredients for his perfection but their body was resistant enough to remain in one piece for a long time inside of him without being fully processed.

Was the 'unending' energy supply that nourished their body the reason for their resistance, was it continuous regeneration of their body even at that moment... or was simply a matter of time?

Well, 18 clothes survived too, but Cell faulted it to the animated series being intended mostly for children or young-adults... most likely if something like that happened in this reality, 18 would have been forced out of his body while completely naked.

Not that he ever intended for that miserable scene to ever replicate in this reality, of course...

Oh well, he had time to consider those things on another moment, he was still on a schedule, after all.

Perhaps, it was time to speed up things... just a little.

Notes from the author:

This chapter feels a little filler-y, but it does show Cell doing some tests and discovering stuff, so he wouldn't be surprised later on.

He also made some mistakes in the heat of the moment and almost got discovered because of it.

Remember that he is allowed to make mistakes, he isn't perfect... yet.

The next one will have a POV with the Z-Fighters, still unsure about who.

Hope you liked the chapter!

No Beta and sub-par grammar, English is not my main language as you can clearly see.

I'm writing this for fun in my free time and that's it.

Last edited: Jun 27, 2018

209

loganSB

Jun 27, 2018

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Threadmarks Chapter 6 - Equal

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loganSB

loganSB

Jun 29, 2018

#205

Summary: I die and my consciousness merged with that of Cell.

Chapter 6 - Equal

POV - Krillin

They were reunited at Kame House, busy watching the news on TV.

It was not the first time they did so in the last day, hoping to get some new clues on what was going on.

[ "... -it is still unknown the exact number of people missing, but reports are coming indicating alarming numbers of disappearances all over the planet.

Following the mass exodus of inmates criminals and according to the Department of Police of East City, have been already counted at least a hundred thousand criminals disappearing in the last two days, and those are only the ones we have knowledge of.

At this moment, the questions everyone is trying to answer are several. The main ones however are: where did they go? Who is the perpetrator and what is the crime we are talking about? Were they kidnapped or worse? People are already taking sides in the matter, some going as far as supporting whoever or whatever the reason is, but most people are skeptical and justifiably concerned about this situation.

We are now going to interview some of the security guards of the Nicky Town Prison and listen to what they have to say on the matter. As you most likely already know the city prison of Nicky Town was among the first ones to be- ..." ]

The room was silent for a good while as the news reporter proceeded with his interview, which revealed nothing new, just as the dozen previous interview they transmitted on television.

The several people present in the room, both warriors and not, were still trying to come up with their theories on the matter.

Krillin didn't know what to think, really... on one side the people disappearing, or at least those they had knowledge of, were only criminals.

On the other side, they were still people so, in his opinion, it was wrong to hurt them if there was a more peaceful alternative available, especially those already captured and serving their sentences in prison.

It was all so confusing, he didn't know what to think.

Fortunately (for once), no one asked for his opinion... it was Yamcha who spoke first instead.

"Personally, I hope they got what they deserved, they were criminals anyway, good riddance."

"""YAMCHA!"""

Yup. Krillin was better to remain silent on this.

Yamcha, of course, didn't notice the writings on the wall and proceeded to bury himself even deeper.

"What? I just say, nothing happened to those really innocents, right? Actually, the prison guards were all found unconscious, so that means that whoever did... this, follows a moral code at least. Whoever it is, maybe they aren't evil as they seem to be."

Perhaps that was true, but it was ironic how Yamcha seemed to have forgotten his being a former bandit so easily.

It was Master Roshi who answered to him.

"Yamcha, independently from who they were or what they did, they were still people. Killing is not the answer if it's avoidable, especially if most of those criminals were probably just petty thieves and such."

You can say whatever you want about Master Roshi, but when lives were truly at stake, it was one of the few moments he became truly serious...

Well... most of the time, at least.

It was Bulma who spoke then.

"Are we really sure that something happened to them, couldn't they simply have escaped with the aid of someone from the outside?"

Krillin could answer that, at least to make it look as if he was actually participating in this discussion, and Bulma question wouldn't force him to take sides and being reprimanded for it.

"Maybe, but those imprisoned were not the only criminals who disappeared. You were not here yet when they announced it earlier, but among those reported as missing, thousands were still free at the time. I've quickly checked with Yamcha a couple of the locations that were presumably targeted to see if we could unearth some clues about the situation and there were a few traces of gunfight... not much, but enough to make us guess that whatever happened, it wasn't done willingly."

Silence once again risked permeating the room but was luckily broken by the youngest warrior in their ranks.

"Could it be the work of the Androids?" Gohan question was made openly but was most likely intended to the only one there who really knew something concrete about them and their methods: Trunks.

Since earlier in the morning Bulma, along with Little Trunks and Big Trunks (he really needed to find better names to use for referring to them in his own head), decided to wait at Kame House together with them for Goku to recover, since with Gero's lab being destroyed by the Androids and no clues about their weaknesses yet, there was nothing else they could do at the moment, besides praying for the better.

Goku himself did already look better than the day before and was currently on the gentle care of his wife, Chichi.

It was probably the first time he saw Chichi's gentler side, sometimes that woman scared him more than Frieza ever did.

"I... I don't know. As far as I remember this never happened in my timeline, but I doubt the Androids are involved. The 17 and 18 I know of wouldn't pick the criminals as a favorite target, nor they will try to hide their traces. They will just kill everyone indiscriminately:"

With the main topic of discussion returning on the Androids, Krillin thoughts befell on 18 once again... he could barely think straight recently, with the dangerous beauty always in his thoughts since she gave him that kiss on the cheek.

Why did she do that? Was she really as evil as Trunks seemed to believe?

Of course, he avoided asking those questions out loud.

Already the others were outraged by Yamcha statement about the disappearances, surely they wouldn't take Krillin opinion on the matter of 18 any different, perhaps worse.

At best, they would berate him for his stupidity and tell him how all of this was probably some evil plot or scheme conceived to seduce him only to make him suffer later on, for their own evil amusement.

But... Was it true?

... What was his problem anyway? Was he actually falling for a possible mass-murdering robot with blond hairs and blue eyes?

"Well, it doesn't matter if- WHAT?!?"

Just then, the reply of Master Roshi was interrupted, because everyone in the room which was able to feel Ki tensed immediately.

An immense Ki could be felt in the distance, so great it could be easily sensed from half the planet away, even when not actively searching for it, and still appear enormous to their Ki sense.

Wait... was it...?

"W-what is it?" Bulma, incapable of sensing Ki was obviously thrown out of the loop by the tension that suddenly permeated the room.

Also, Little Trunks did wake up and started crying, that certainly didn't color the situation any better for the young mother.

"It's Mister Piccolo!" The happy declaration from Gohan only confirmed Krillin initial suspicions.

The Ki signature was certainly that of Piccolo, perhaps with some little differences, but this power was unlike anything he ever felt... Was it equal to that of the Super Saiyans? No, not even them could dwarf his own power this much.

But how did Piccolo became so strong to eclipse even those two battle maniacs?

It was Master Roshi that answered once again.

"Mhm... this is certainly troubling. The only way for Piccolo to obtain this power would be fusing with Kami."

... What?

"... What?"

Thanks, Yamcha.

Roshi nodded once, while at the same time touching his white beard as he thought about it, explaining to everyone else his previous statement.

"Yes, I recognize this Ki signature, it's Piccolo, but there are traces of Kami's Ki signature too. Kami did probably merge with Piccolo to increase his power by an incalculable amount."

Well, that was new.

Trunks seemed ecstatic by how things turned out.

"This is great! This power, I think that with the help of Mister Piccolo we can finally do it! If we gather my dad and Mister Goku once he recovered, the Androids will stand no chance!"

It was no mystery, that despite the fact that they were all there waiting for Goku's recovery, none of them truly believed he could do it, especially after Vegeta got beaten despite being a Super Saiyan himself.

They had hope, certainly, but it was just that. Or perhaps it became a habit waiting for Goku to solve things, and they just were doing it as they always did.

The fact that now Trunks believed they could defeat not two, but all three of the Androids with the help of Piccolo, was actually a relief.

Though Yamcha was in a bad mood apparently, because once again he had to ruin it for everyone else.

"If you believe Vegeta and Goku will ever do something together that is different from fighting each other to death, you don't know them at all."

It was probably true, while he could see Goku accepting such an arrangement, he doubted Vegeta would ever agree on something like that.

It was Bulma, of course, that came in defense of her... husband, boyfriend? ... Whatever they were, at this point he didn't really care about it anymore.

"Hey! Vegeta can maybe be a little stubborn when Goku is involved, but-"

"Yeah, or anyone else."

"-but he will protect Earth from the Androids just as any of you. Despite how he appears on the outside, deep inside he has a gentle soul."

Yeah, in your dreams Bulma.

Fortunately, Krillin could stop the situation from escalating further. "Master Roshi, why did you say the situation is troubling? Wouldn't a stronger Piccolo be useful to us? Despite what he said yesterday, we know he is not really evil anymore and always helped us in time of need."

"Oh, is not that the reason I said it's troubling. The reason is that without Kami, we don't have the dragon balls anymore."

And there came the collective gasp.

"Oh." "Fuck" "Oh no!"

"Krillin, Trunks, go check the situation and see if Piccolo needs any help. I can't feel other large Ki signatures at his location, so he is most likely fighting the Androids. In that case, even if he is this powerful, it's unlikely he will win against three opponents all by himself. Also, remember that we are not machines, unlike them, we can tire ourselves, as the fight between 18 and Vegeta proved."

Oh joy, another suicide mission.

Well, there was a change 18 was there too...

"Master Roshi! I want to go too! I want to help Mister Piccolo!" Was the predictable protest coming from Gohan.

At that very moment, the entire Kame House trembled as a screaming voice came from upstairs.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT."

"..."

"Y-yes m-mom."

...

Scary.

"Your mother is right Gohan, we don't know what is going on yet, we cannot risk leaving anyone, especially Goku, unprotected. You and Yamcha will remain here with us, plus I'm sure Tien will join Piccolo too... along with Vegeta, perhaps."

"Yes, Master Roshi..." was the sad voice of Gohan, it hurt Krillin seeing the young boy sad like that, but between dying against the Androids later, and dying against Chichi now, the situation was clear for everyone.

"Trunks, say hello to your father from me if you see him. And tell him to come home instead of training all of the time."

Better if Krillin didn't comment on that.

"Yes... mom." was the sheepish answer from the half Saiyan.

At this point, it was certain that mothers were the greatest weakness of half Saiyan warriors...

Anyway, it was time to go, so Krillin and Trunks left Kame House and quickly blasted to the sky at high speed, in the direction of Piccolo.

Though Krillin couldn't stop his thoughts from wandering in a dangerous direction.

If it came to the point that it will be needed for him to kill 18... would he be able to do it?

...

Only time will tell.

Cell didn't expect the fight with the Cyborgs to happen this soon.

It was quite fortunate that once the disappearances were made public, he decided to up the stakes and target prisoners too since by that point doing it covertly didn't matter much anymore.

Of course, he still only targeted criminals, rendering the security guards unconscious beforehand.

Also, while the disappearances and the type of targets were not a secret anymore, his methods of killing should very much remain so.

For that very reason, he disabled or destroyed all the security cameras installed in every prison he 'visited' as well as leaving the least amount of traces possible on short notice.

It was a good thing that this reality was packed with criminals; he didn't expect it initially, but now he was quite happy about his decision to go for the prisoners.

While the number of people in every prison never surpassed the thousand, not even in the big cities, with some town prison barely touching the 100 total inmates, the sheer number of towns and consequently prisons (because there was one in all of the towns of decent size), allowed him to do in one day the work he was supposed to do in two and a half.

He did need to dedicate additional time for the guards and cameras, of course, but the sheer amount of prisoners available covered that up perfectly.

His strength was now already equal to the one he could feel from Piccolo in the distance, perhaps slightly lower than that.

Nonetheless, his collection of abilities will make him quite a dangerous opponent, Piccolo wouldn't stand a chance in a direct confrontation.

A confrontation he had absolutely no intention to see happen.

Anyway, just as he was about to search for the last few tens of thousands of inmates needed for this form to finally reach his peak power in Imperfect Form, he was interrupted by a fight in the distance.

The fact that he could only feel Piccolo's Ki signature and absolutely nothing from his possible opponents, made it fairly clear that he was fighting the Androids.

Cell was not yet ready though, so, while traveling in the direction of the battle, which was half planet of distance away, he continued to target all of the prisons on his way.

For this reason, he was also forced to speed up, using some of his Ki to quickly fly from town to town, trying to get as many criminals as possible, but with Piccolo broadcasting his position for the entire fucking planet to see, it should have also covered Cell Ki signature enough to pass unnoticed by anyone who wasn't actively looking for him... in theory.

There was a chance someone would be able to sense him anyway, but the only potential threats to him at his current power level were all fighting in that same place at that moment, so it was unlikely that he will be in much trouble either way.

Of course, it was unlikely for 17 and 18 to be defeated too, especially with 16 present there, which, if his memories didn't fail him, was stronger than the Namekian by a considerable margin.

Still, it was best to make it fast, just in case.

If he was quick enough, he should be able to reach his peak strength in Imperfect Form in an hour or so... perhaps even less.

Then, after that, no one will be able to stop Cell from achieving perfection.

No one will be his equal anymore.

No one.

Notes from the author:

Here it is guys, chapter 6!

The pieces are moving and the board is going to get messy.

We have our second POV from one of the Z Fighters, Krillin, as well as some insight on what they are thinking right now and the extent of their knowledge on the situation.

Next one will include a POV from Piccolo as well as one of the Androids... and a fight!

Hope you liked this chapter :)

No Beta and sub-par grammar, English is not my main language as you can clearly see.

I'm writing this for fun in my free time and that's it.

Last edited: Jul 2, 2018

230

loganSB

Jun 29, 2018

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Threadmarks Chapter 7 - Power

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loganSB

loganSB

Jul 1, 2018

#292

Summary: I die and my consciousness merged with that of Cell.

Chapter 7 - Power

POV - Piccolo

The Namekian warrior was flying at high speed over the plains in the north of Central City, towards the capital itself, searching for his targets.

The city was not only the most populated city on Earth but also the planet capital and was where the King of Earth lived.

After a discussion with Nail and Kami in his own head, it was decided that it was the most likely place for the Androids to hit next... since if they were unable to find Goku, assaulting the planet capital would have been a good way to force the Saiyan to come to them, instead of the other way around.

He was still quite far from the city, but at his current speed, he should be able to reach it in a couple minutes.

Well, he could have done it way faster, but he hoped that not releasing a greater amount of Ki would make noticing him harder, so as to not risk the Androids leaving the city before his arrival... if they were there already.

Sadly, the sheer number of people living in the capital will make it extremely difficult to locate the Androids too, but he just hoped that the tallest of the trio would attract enough attention so as to allow Piccolo to find them in a timely fashion.

Also, Central City was home to one of the few major prisons still untouched by the mysterious streak of disappearances, so it was likely to be a soon-to-be-target for whoever was involved in that other mess, which could have also been done by the Androids.

"Hey, old man! Are you completely sure that you can't feel anymore this 'evil' you were talking about?"

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long for an answer, it's not like the two pests in his mind had anything else to do, anyway.

"That's a bit rude."

"Sadly, as sure as I can ever be. We share the same mind and body now, but I am merely an observer, so I only feel what you feel in the first place. I already told you, Piccolo, that four years ago I felt something evil awakening on Earth and only recently it stirred again from its slumber. Whatever it was, now that I'm fused within you, it's impossible for me to sense it anymore. My ability to sense this evil when no one else could was something different, something deeper, which probably related to the fact that I expelled all the evil inside of me. Now that we are together again and share the same senses, I assume my ability to sense that evil is also gone."

Of course, the old pest was going to blame Piccolo for his own ineptitude, only to then be completely useless... just as he always did.

And did he really have to talk this much? At least he seemed to be untouched by Piccolo thoughts... or was ignoring him, as usual.

"The only thing I know for certain, is that people died already because of this threat, thousands at least... I know that something bad is coming, I just don't know what, where or when that is going to happen."

As Piccolo already thought, completely useless.

"And you Nail, any pearl of wisdom to add?"

"No, not real-Incoming!"

Logically, as the three of them shared the same mind and body, the senses they used were the same too... so Piccolo did notice the sphere of energy directed toward him at the same exact moment.

Evading the attack was not that hard; evidently, the one who sent it did so more to 'greet' him more than actually cause any real damage... not what he would have considered that a friendly greeting, however.

Since he couldn't feel any Ki signature close by, he knew that it must have been from the Androids.

Finally a chance to get some action.

Turning toward the direction from which the attack originated from, he did in fact see three silhouettes hovering on the sky, their soulless and emotionless eyes staring at him as if he was a mere bug not worthy of their time.

Wait...

... who Kami-damned were those three?!?

"I let it slide this time since it is indeed a valid question."

"Also, you can't see their 'soulless and emotionless' eyes either. Since one has sunglasses and another a cap covering his eyesight."

"Now it's not the time!"

Well... in the end, it didn't matter who they were since they were clearly not friendly, so it was finally time to test his new power.

POV - Eighteen

"Mh?" Eighteen was distracted by Sixteen quickly turning his head toward a specific direction and by the change in his facial expression.

In the two and a half days they traveled together it was rare for him to do anything without a good reason.

Except if it had to do with animals, that is... the android liked critters maybe a little too much.

Slightly concerned about this new reaction from the otherwise methodical android, Eighteen decided to investigate "What is it, Sixteen?"

"My sensors picked four Power Levels in the distance." Was the android answer.

"Sixteen, why didn't you tell us you were equipped with sensors?!"

Her brother was not amused.

"You didn't ask."

But she was.

"Whatever... so who is fighting who?" Seventeen was not prone to anger, especially when something happened that caught his interest.

"I don't know, neither is in my data-banks, but one of them rivals the two of you in power. The other three Power Levels with him are lower, but one of them not by much... and my scanner classified them as fellow androids.".

"Wow, maybe other creations from the doctor? And here I thought today was going to be boring! Also, there is no way their Power Levels can rival mine, it's probably an error in your scanner. Still, it could be fun..." Then, Seventeen turned towards her. "Want to check?"

Did she want to?

... The answer was easier than she thought it would have been. "Not now, I still haven't found any clothes that I truly like after you blow up the last set by 'accident'... What about you?"

Her brother shrugged it off, a gesture typically human, which betrayed their origin as non-mechanical beings.

"It doesn't really matter to me. We can always check with them later... if they can't even win in a fight three versus one, they are not worth our time anyway..."

Even if he said that she knew that a part of him wanted to go anyway, maybe just to have fun, but answered in negative only because she herself didn't want to go.

It was comforting how Seventeen still cared about her as much as she cared about him, despite what happened to them...

"And what kind of brother would I be, leaving my little sister in her time of need, instead of catering to her every crazy whim?"

... Then, he says stupid things like these and she couldn't stop herself from launching pointed objects in the direction of his head.

Another remnant of human instincts, surely.

The blond cyborg turned toward the tallest of the three once again, asking him the same question. "And you Sixteen, do you want to go?"

Sixteen was silent most of the time, and sometimes a little boring, but Eighteen honestly came to appreciate his company as of recent.

He was a gentle soul, who cared not for most of the things, except for his little animals and a few other things.

"Son Goku is not there."

Well, he cared about that too...

It was a short, but predictable answer.

"Ugh... you guys are no fun." Was the reply from Seventeen, that manage to perfectly emulate an annoyed tone of voice, despite the fact that she could perfectly see that he was faking it.

Eighteen answered his question with a smirk. "Oh? And you are fun?"

Her brother mirrored her own expression back at her, with a smirk of his own, but wasn't the only one.

She was happy to notice that Sixteen smirked slightly as well, it seemed the big guy was opening more and more with them... little by little every day.

Still, her thoughts when interrupted again, as Sixteen's head jerked in another direction.

"What is it, Sixteen? Something else?"

"Another Power Level, this one it's higher compared to the one from earlier... and it's increasing as we speak. It is moving slowly but steadily toward the location of the other four.".

This was slightly worrying, for Sixteen to sense a Power Level similar to, or higher than their own was unlikely... but two of them? Impossible... right?

Seventeen must have been of the same exact opinion since his answer to Sixteen was clearly skeptical.

"A Power Level higher than mine? It's not possible, Sixteen. As I have already said, it's a malfunction with your sensors."

Her brother dismissed Sixteen statement boldly, but nonetheless, turned in her direction and asked her the same question a second time. "Want to check?"

"I said no." Was her answer, it was not Goku anyway, or Sixteen would have said so.

Not that she really cared about killing Goku either, but it was nice to have something to do, a purpose.

Once Goku was dead, they will pick something else to do, a new objective... and she will decide this time!

Perhaps, something related to shopping...

The only female of the trio resumed her scavenging among the latest selection of clothes, completely ignoring the groan and whines of her brother.

It didn't matter how high those people powers were, they were all going to run out of energy and exhaust themselves sooner or later... instead, their power was never-ending.

She noticed something tough, for a split second, Sixteen facial expressions appeared to be almost... worried.

As soon as she saw it though, he returned to his default stoic countenance, without saying anything about it.

...

She most likely imagined it.

POV - Cell

Cell proceeded with the latest absorptions as fast as he could, not wasting a millisecond if he didn't have to.

While his actions were still executed as covertly as possible, rendering the prison guards unconscious with 'gentle' taps on the back of their head and disabling/destroying all of the surveillance and security systems in place, he was also not holding back and suppressing his own power anymore.

Not that he needed to really use a great amount of energy for something so simple as absorbing weaklings, so he doubted that someone was going to notice or at least bug him for it, especially with Piccolo broadcasting his power for the world to see, which probably made for a much more pressing objective, but it was liberating not having to keep his own power in check at all times anymore.

A couple of minutes ago, he did reach what he believed to be the peak power of his Imperfect Form, or at least he believed so since he didn't gain any Life Energy from the latest two hundred criminals he absorbed.

Or better he gained their Life Energy, but it was temporary and as soon as he did, it dispersed away and it was gone as it had never been there in the first place.

To put it simply, he could have compared himself to a glass completely filled with water: no matter how much water you continued to fill the glass with, you could have never exceeded the set amount which was its maximum capacity.

Since absorbing new people was not doing anything to him, Cell has apparently reached his own maximum capacity, the peak of his strength in his Imperfect Form.

For Cell, it was a little irritating to feel his own limits, but he guessed that it was the most logical reason for which obtaining perfection was of paramount importance to him.

It was the reason he was still 'imperfect', incomplete... and once perfection was achieved, those limits would most likely fade away and he will be free to increase his power in any way he deemed necessary.

The absorption of earthlings was already giving him diminishing returns anyway, well before the peak of his current form was reached, so he doubted that in his Perfect form he would need to actually absorb those weaklings, or that he would gain anything of importance from doing it, so once perfection was achieved, with no limits to his power and the time to train, he wouldn't need to use such methods anymore.

Nonetheless, he noticed that he felt something else within him, it was some sort of... void.

Initially, he thought it to be related to his desire of acquiring more power and ignored it, believing it would have disappeared once he 'ate', once he absorbed enough people; then, he thought it to be the catalyst that lead him in the pursue of perfection, but after a while he could feel it was not that either.

While there was such a feeling inside of him, something that almost forced him to continue in his quest toward perfection (not that he wouldn't do it either way), this was... something else, something deeper within himself that seemed to be missing.

While his main objective, achieving perfection, was something that he understood, having specific requirements and ingredients (17 and 18), this... this was entirely different.

It was a little worrying the fact that he couldn't understand what that 'void' he felt really was or how to fix it either.

There was no instruction planted in his mind to guide him this time, no requirements he knew were needed either.

Nothing but this nagging feeling that something was missing.

He had an idea though, something that maybe would be able to 'fix' whatever that was.

Given the fact that he was not that far from North City now, Cell decided to make a detour to Dr. Gero's Laboratory.

The reason of the detour, was that he wanted to try absorbing his younger self, to see if this sensation of 'emptiness', this void he felt within himself, could be quelled in this way.

In the end, once he obtained perfection, absorbing a weak larva version of himself would most likely do nothing at all, so he could as well do it now that he was still imperfect and see what happened.

Since Cell didn't have to hide his power anymore, so he could simply do that and then fly at high speed toward the battle between Piccolo and the Cyborgs after that.

It wouldn't take long, anyway.

Notes from the author:

Here it is, chapter 7! It's not really as good as it could have been but if I keep re-reading and changing things it will never come to be released.

I know I promised a fight this chapter, but it was getting long and I had an headache so I decided for it to be postponed.

As already said in the comments, 16 didn't recognize Piccolo Ki signature because he fused with Kami, so it was different from the one he was registered as in his data-banks.

Also, checking things about Kami, it didn't make sense for him to be able to sense Cell when no one else could until he informed them.

After fusing with Kami and gaining all of his knowledge, Piccolo still didn't know anything about Cell (not his Ki, which should have been fucking recognizable, not how he killed... nothing at all since he was surprised by everything he discovered later on).

The only thing Kami seemed to know was that there was this non-better-specified evil and that people were dying on mass (which is something that Piccolo felt too and used to locate Cell on Gingertown).

Then I remembered that Kami was 'special' since he apparently removed all evil from himself, so I have decided to link his apparent ability to sense 'evil' in such a general and undescriptive way to that particular fact.

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter :)

See ya.

No Beta and sub-par grammar, English is not my main language as you can clearly see.

I'm writing this for fun in my free time and that's it.

Last edited: Jul 2, 2018

215

loganSB

Jul 1, 2018

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Threadmarks Chapter 8 - Absorption

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loganSB

loganSB

Jul 5, 2018

#348

Summary: I die and my consciousness merged with that of Cell.

Chapter 8 - Absorption

POV - Cell

It was not hard to locate the access to the underground laboratory, and luckily it seemed no one else discovered the Cell larva.

Even without any clues left for Bulma and the Z Warriors, or even given by himself as in Canon, it was unlikely they would have returned to a lab they clearly saw as being basically disintegrated. Or at least, Trunks and Bulma wouldn't, since they didn't do it in the future timeline either, or they would have discovered Cell before it was too late.

The fact that he was in the past timeline right now, proved that without being informed of the existence of an underground laboratory, said laboratory remained secret to anyone for years.

Anyway, as Cell quickly moved toward the cistern where his past self, or even better his present self, was still in the starting stage of his embryo form, he hesitated for a second.

The baby Cell inside, nothing more than a little embryo, looked somehow cute... and Cell was surprised to notice that a part of him actually hesitated to continue with his own plan... but in the end, he ignored whatever human instinct was interfering right then, in favor of proceeding with the purpose of his presence there.

Cell enlarged his tail in the form of a sucker once again, then swiftly crashed the water tank from the outside, completely enveloping his baby self and absorbing him inside his own body, all in a clean and swift motion.

...

Nothing happened, of course, but that was not the fact that surprised him... because such an outcome was somewhat expected, or at least in the realm of possibilities.

What surprised him most, was that he didn't get any energy either, none at all, not even temporarily.

He did feel something changing inside of him, or perhaps changing was not really the correct word, but he knew that something did happen.

What that was, he had no idea... he will investigate it later on, once he had time to waste.

As he was about to leave though, he noticed a door on the other side of the underground cavern... a door that wasn't supposed to be there, since Cell didn't remember the presence of any door in that same location in the previous timeline, and from his own memories as Logan, he didn't seem to recall any door either in this part of the lab, so... what was that door for, exactly?

Unable to contain his excitement and curiosity, and convincing himself that the Cyborgs could probably resist against those other weaklings for a couple of additional minutes, especially with 16 being there with them, he decided to spare a moment of his time to investigate the mysterious door.

As he came close to it, Cell noticed that there was something on the side of the door, a little panel with a big red button on it... Of course, he pressed the button, because why the fuck not.

After he did so, the button revealed its purpose, controlling a part of the wall to slide and cover the door itself, hiding it almost perfectly from vision. It was an interesting mechanism, that explained the reason why he couldn't remember that door from the future: because in his timeline of origin, that door remained hidden.

Pressing the button once again, and in doing so disabling the door camouflage, he opened the door and entered, excited to discover something that Dr. Gero went a great way to keep hidden, even from Cell himself.

The next room was another cavern, this times shaped like a corridor of about five meters in length.

Continuing his exploration, he noticed that along with a lot of different machinery (and other stuff Cell had no idea what the purpose of was), there were three android stasis pods on each side of the corridor, numbered from 10 to 15, the latter three of which opened, while the former still closed but sadly empty.

He didn't pay much consideration to either of those things, because what attracted all of his attention, was another door at the end of the corridor, this one heavily reinforced, similar to that of a nuclear bunker. On the right side of the massive door, there was a control panel requiring a digit code to open it.

Cell, of course, completely ignored it and disintegrated the door instead.

Finally, on the other side of that door, he was surprised to discover that what appeared to be the last room was very little in size compared to the previous ones, with only an android pod present and a computer not dissimilar from the one present in his own underground lab room.

As he approached the pod, with a black '21' on the front of it, he noticed that it was occupied by a humanoid android, or perhaps cyborg, beauty with long bushy auburn hair and black-rimmed glasses. Cell didn't know who she was exactly, but from his memories as Logan, he vaguely remembered her being present later on in the story... perhaps in a movie?

Didn't matter.

Absorbing the defenseless beauty was not hard of course, he just enlarged the end of his tail once again, pressed the red button on the side of the stasis pod and, once said pod opened itself, proceeded to gobble her body up in its entirety.

Once again, he didn't seem to gain any energy from her. This time though, he knew for certain that something happened since he could feel that something was different inside of him. What that was, still not the slightest idea.

Nonetheless, the emptiness he felt earlier was still there and absorbing his past self and this new android didn't seem to have changed that mysterious feeling in him... at all.

It was a little irritating the fact that he didn't know what exactly was going on... and couldn't waste any more time doodling in this laboratory either, he had shit to do.

Perhaps, after he finished 'helping' the Z Fighters and finally got his perfection, he would return and check the lab in its entirety, looking for some clue or hopefully a complete explanation, along with perhaps some other interesting trinket.

Now though, there was a battle waiting for him.

The reason for which he was created, the main purpose of his existence, was finally about to be accomplished.

Perfection had never been closer.

POV - Piccolo

A kick to the head sent the Android, who presented himself as 13 earlier on, crashing to the ground, the force of the kick enough to create a crater around his battered body.

Compared to the other two Androids, which were named 14 and 15 (such imagination, really)... this one was clearly a bit stronger than them.

Android 13 was actually pretty strong, almost as strong as Piccolo himself, but it still wasn't enough for the Namekian to be overly worried, because after his fusion with Kami he was clearly the stronger being on the planet... but he was wary enough to know that Android 13 would not be an easy fight compared to his two weaker comrades.

As Android 13 was occupied rising from his laying position, still looking in a pretty decent shape, Piccolo took advantage of the moment of respite and glanced in the direction of his other two opponents... and what a sorry image that was.

While Android 13 was still all in all in a decent enough state, despite having his clothes in tatters and the absence of the trucker cap, which was obliterated in the first seconds of the fight, the other two Androids were already missing pieces here and there.

They were still standing though, at least in the broad use of the term, but mostly because once he realized they were this weak, Piccolo held himself back against them and focused his energy against the last one... but perhaps it was time to finish them off.

Still, he couldn't resist and decided to taunt them a little... he deserved it for all the time they were making him waste when he could have instead already found and eliminated his former and more dangerous targets.

"You know, when you said 'He will do for now, to have some fun until we find Goku.'... I seriously expected a better performance from you guys."

Piccolo was not boasting, he was, in fact, a little disappointed.

When he saw the three new Androids, who presented themselves as 13, 14 and 15, he expected to have at least a fight between equals, so he went all out since the very beginning.

While Android 13 was almost strong enough to make some serious damage (if Piccolo was distracted or allowed him to do so), in the end, he was the only one Piccolo truly had to watch for, with the other two Androids being even weaker than a Super Saiyan.

"It's funny how he says 'even weaker than a Super Saiyan' like that is some kind of lower standard. He was weaker than a Super Saiyan until a couple of days ago and he is already talking like he is the second coming of Kami."

"All this power is going to his head."

"If you have nothing smart to say, just shut up already and enjoy the fight."

"If you call bullying weaker beings a fight, then I have seriously overrated your sense of honor."

Tsk. As if he need something like 'honor' to fight those weaklings.

In front of him, 14 and 15, which bodies were severely beaten, were barely still standing. 13 was still in a decent enough shape, but seemed to be weary of coming close to Piccolo himself, for good reasons.

Android 13 was flabbergasted by this apparently unexpected development.

"How can you be this strong?!? Our last data update is only a week old and you were clearly beneath us! How did you get this much power in a few days?"

What was this... were they so desperate to already talk like this was their loss? Was this really all they had to offer? Was Piccolo's power so great right now, that even the feared Androids could no nothing about it?

"Yeah, totally to his head."

"In Piccolo defense, he is not exactly wrong..."

"Wow Kami! I didn't expect that from you!"

"I'm only realistic, that's all. Still, it's better to finish them off now, as history teach us, it's never a good thing to procrastinate."

First, the appearance of three new Androids, and now... was Kami of all people taking his side on something? Piccolo thought that day couldn't get any weirder.

Which of course meant that he was about to be proven wrong, because n quick succession, Trunks, Krillin, Vegeta and finally Tien appeared close by, all in a time frame of a few seconds.

Initially watching him with disbelief clear in their expression, probably because they were in awe of his majestic and incommensurable power, they soon enough tensed and focused their attention on the three Androids present there, probably because they couldn't feel their Ki at all... and realized the reason why.

"I don't need you here, you can go. I can easily take care of these three weaklings by myself." He said, with a smirk pointed mostly in the direction of a particular Saiyan warrior.

Vegeta glare did nothing to deter Piccolo, his power was greater now and by a wide margin. "How did you obtain such power, Namekian?"

"Jealousy doesn't fit a warrior of your caliber, Saiyan... or maybe it does." He added with a smirk a second later, observing with delight how Vegeta barely contained his anger, perhaps knowing that he would indeed stand no chance against him now, but too proud to admit it and at least not stupid enough to provoke him further when he already showed the extent of his power. That last fact surprised him a little, he actually expected the Saiyan Prince to be this stupid... today was really a day full of surprises.

Vegeta anger was so evident in his eyes, that Piccolo disappointed mood since the discovering of the Androids pitiful strength, completely dissipated, replaced by joyful amusement.

"Master Roshi said he fused with Kami... father." You can count on Trunks to defuse the situation when Vegeta is involved.

"While this is all highly entertaining, can someone explain to me who are those three?" was the three-eyed earthling question, Piccolo almost forgot he was there too.

Resigned to the fact that he was not convincing them to go and knowing that against those three he wasn't having any real fun, he decided to explain the situation to them.

"They are Androids created by Dr. Gero. The one there below is Android 13, the gray one missing an arm is Android 14 and the little one missing his legs is Android 15."

Wow... now that he said it out loud, they sounded really pathetic.

Vegeta was a little irritated, not that Piccolo could say it from his tone of voice, which to him always seemed to have the same exact tone independently from the situation.

"Really Trunks, you missed another three androids? Don't they teach math in the future?"

"Father, I-I... I'm sorry." Poor Trunks, with a father like Vegeta... even if in this instance it was not entirely wrong.

Piccolo defused the situation because he didn't have any intention on hearing the retort which was undoubtedly about to come from the pureblood Saiyan's mouth.

"They attacked me when I was searching for the other Androids, but they are clearly not strong enough to be considered a threat. Actually, they are all yours... I was getting bored anyway."

He decided to sat and watch the outcome, he would interfere only if or when he deemed it necessary.

"I suggest to power up to at least to Super Saiyan level of strength from the start though. While still weaker than their comrades, they seems to be at least decent enough to require actual effort."

This was mostly a message for Krillin and Tien to stay on the side. Well, two of the Androids were already in a ty bad shape anyway, it was unlikely that they would cause any real problem, but better safe than sorry.

"I refuse to take your scraps." was Vegeta only answer, as he proceeded to walk away and sit as well, but as far as possible from Piccolo, while still being close enough to the action.

"I'll do it." Trunks quickly powered up to Super Saiyan form, blasted at high speed in the direction of Android 14 and bisected it with his sword, then released a Ki Blast on its remains.

Those Androids were truly pathetic.

As the first one exploded in pieces, Trunks quickly destroyed what remained of Android 15 in the same exact way, then turned toward his last target.

Confident in his strenght, after the easy defeat of the other two, he swung his sword toward the last Android, but just as the blade was about to slice his target, the Android stopped it with his bare hands, only slightly forced back from his initial defensive position.

"Wha-?" Was the only thing Trunks could say, before a punch sent him crashing in the opposite direction.

"Oh yes, I forgot. That one is a little stronger than the other two." He didn't forget, of course... he just wanted to see a Super Saiyan getting punched in the face. He would have preferred it to be Vegeta though, but it was better than nothing.

"What a jerk."

As if Nail didn't like it as much...

Sadly, his thoughts were interrupted by a full-blown maniacal laugh from Android 13.

"Ah... ahah... ahahahAhAhAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH"

As everyone was temporarily distracted, they failed to notice the four mechanical objects rising from the destroyed remains of the bodies of Androids 14 and 15. Those four mechanical pieces quickly took flight and moved towards Android 13, only to then merge with his body, two pieces in the head and two in the chest.

After absorbing the components coming from his comrades, his crazy laugh turned into a scream, as his entire body changed appearance: gone was the human-looking Android, replaced by an enormous and hideous blue-skinned beast, with shining yellow eyes. The entire battle field was silent, as every warrior present there, even Vegeta, knew at that moment, that the tables had turned.

"A little stronger, you say? Weakling, you say? Ahahah. Perhaps it's time for me to show you pathetic mortals, what true power really is!"

...

"This is what you get for being a jerk."

"Not. Fucking. Now!"

Notes from the author:

Here it is, chapter 8!

Cell made some new discoveries and gained... something... maybe... who knows. (I vaguely do, but I'm not going to tell)...

About Android 21... Yesterday, during a shower, I have also decided to include her in my story canon... we will know more about the outcome of her absorption at a later date. Also, Cell is not Buu, so he will not gain transformations every time he absorbs some strong person.

Anyway, Super Android 13 is on the loose and all of this is happening earlier compared to the movie, so that means there is no Goku yet to save the day! Will the Z Fighters survive this new threat without the brave Son Goku there to help them?

...

Of course, they will, or what the fuck I'm going to write after this? :rofl:

Also, I've not watched the movie, so I've no idea what personalities the three Androids (13, 14 and 15) had prior the fusion in Super 13, so I decided to scrap that part...

Because of that, the chapter may seem a little filler-y.

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter :)

See ya.

No Beta and sub-par grammar, English is not my main language as you can clearly see.

I'm writing this for fun in my free time and that's it.

228

loganSB

Jul 5, 2018

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Threadmarks Chapter 9 - Cooperation

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loganSB

loganSB

Jul 9, 2018

#398

Summary: I die and my consciousness merged with that of Cell.

Chapter 9 - Cooperation

POV - Piccolo

"Next time, you may want to listen to me when I make a suggestion."

As if getting repeatedly punched in the face wasn't enough, Piccolo also had to listen to the old slug getting all high and mighty because of his totally fortunate, or unfortunate in this particular case, predictions.

He was already quite tired and it was becoming harder and harder for him to evade the onslaught of hits coming from Android 13... or whatever this thing was now.

Another punch in the face sent Piccolo crashing on the ground, ironically enlarging that same crater in which he himself sent Android 13 a few minutes earlier. He quickly rose to a defensive position, noticing only then how the Android was now focusing his attention on Vegeta. This was good, at least he could recover some of the energy he lost in this short while, considering that while he and the others were tiring themselves in this fight, Android 13 didn't appear to be fazed in the slightest.

Saying that the fight wasn't going well, was an understatement. Krillin was already out cold; just a punch was enough for the earthling warrior to lose consciousness... Lucky him.

The three-eyed warrior was the second to go, a while later, after receiving a knee where his reproductive organs were located; it wasn't a nice spectacle seeing him go down like that. Piccolo was actually quite glad in that moment that he lacked such an obvious weak spot compared to the other warriors with him.

Still, as he watched Super Android 13 evade a Ki Blast from Vegeta, only to respond a second later with one of his own, point blank, Piccolo thought that at least he was doing better than the Saiyans.

"Piccolo, is this really the time?"

Well, the old pest was not wrong, for once.

While in the first moments of the fight they were disorganized and attacked whenever they wanted, it was made soon clear that the enemy was not only stronger than them, but tireless too, so they were obligated to put aside their differences and work together.

Or at least, Trunks and Piccolo did... Vegeta just continued to do whatever the hell he wanted, but the result was still the same, with Android 13 laughing off both his and their assaults as mere jokes. Sadly, even with two of them working together, they were doing absolutely nothing to the Android, who actually looked mildly entertained, even amused by their attempts to bring him down.

"Ahahah. Your pitiful attacks are completely useless against me, I am now the strongest being on this planet, nothing can stop me!" If there was something that he lacked though, it was modesty.

"You are the one to talk... ten minutes ago you were in his exact same po-"

"Rehashing the past wouldn't help anyone."

A scream from Trunks, noticing his father being defeated probably for the last time, distracted Piccolo from his thoughts as the young Saiyan rushed at full speed toward the blue Android's back and swung his sword targeting his unprotected neck.

For a split second, despite deep down knowing that in the end it wouldn't amount to anything, the actions of Trunks gave Piccolo some hope that perhaps they could have still won... and that Hope was immediately squished as the Saiyan blade broke up in pieces on contact, without leaving even a mark on that monster neck.

Trunks froze then for a second, eyes wide open in what was probably fear as a moment later a blow from the elbow sent him crashing on the ground as well, close to his father, who was barely able to remain conscious. Just as Vegeta, Trunks was still conscious, but would be probably unable to continue the fight in his conditions.

Piccolo was the last one standing, but even then he didn't have any illusion in how this fight... if it could be called a fight, to begin with, was going to end.

"It has been fun, Piccolo. But now, I have a bigger fish to catch."

As the Android rushed towards him, Piccolo was ready to receive the blow that would probably put an end to the fight. Nonetheless, he would gain as much time as possible for Goku to recover, despite the odds... or at least, those were his intentions, but just as he saw the Ki Charged punch directed toward his face, he knew that he was too tired and slow to even attempt to dodge it.

The fight was lost... or so he thought.

"Wha-?"

Because then, something none of them expected in any way happened.

The Android punch was stopped on its tracks, just short a few centimeters from its target, held in position by... something.

A green hand was holding the Android on the wrist, stopping him from proceeding further... said hand belonged to something that Piccolo never saw before; a hideous humanoid beast, half man and half insect in appearance, sporting a long tail with a stinger at the end.

There was something about the newcomer that made Piccolo slightly uncomfortable, even if he couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.

"Are we being saved by a man-sized bug?"

"Oh, thank Kami! For a second I thought we were hallucinating."

"I can see him too if that makes you feel any better."

"Strangely, it does... a little."

The still flabbergasted Android 13 was pushed away by the newcomer when the latter exerted some force with his arm. The Android then he distanced himself from the insectoid being, probably unsure about how to proceed with this new predicament.

Their new unexpected ally turned then towards Piccolo. "Hey green guy, are you okay? Need any help with this blue gorilla?"

"Did this green guy just call us 'green guy'?"

"Ah... Yes, I'm fine. Also, who the hell are you?!?" Piccolo realized later that perhaps he was being a little too confrontational, but he was too tired to even care.

The newcomer didn't seem to hold it to him too, apparently, he understood and didn't mind. "Presentations later, we have a bigger fish to catch... am I right?"

The alien smirk he directed towards Piccolo did nothing to put the Namekian at ease, but the fact that he mirrored the words of the Android back to him was somewhat satisfying... in a way.

"Of course, but don't expect me to sit this one out. I'm going to help..." A nod from the insectoid was enough to put him at ease. "Do you think we can do it?"

The insect-man seemed to think about that for a second. "I'm not sure, but I think our chances are good. I have a special attack that should be able to destroy him... it's just a little tricky to use, so I will probably need your help with it... Deal? Oh, I'm Cell, by the way."

The Namekian decided to give the new guy the benefit of the doubt since he was clearly stronger than Piccolo, but was not condescending and accepted his help regardless. It was a refreshing situation, compared to all of the times he was left behind in the past. He smirked in response, perhaps this newcomer was not as bad as a first impression lead him to believe.

"I'm Piccolo... and yes, we have a deal."

POV - Cell

Wow, based on Piccolo naivety, fooling these idiots would be even easier than he thought... or perhaps it was just how they were in general? The perks of being the 'good' side of the story...

Cell decided to intervene at the last moment, in part for the sake of drama, but mostly because this way, he will look even better in the eyes of the Z Warriors. After all, what is better than a new hero saving the situation when everything seems already lost?

After leaving Dr. Gero's laboratory and rushing at full speed toward the location where the battle was taking place, he expected to find the Z Warriors and the Cyborgs fighting between each other... certainly he wasn't expecting a Bojack-like Android which appeared to be even stronger than Piccolo himself.

While initially disappointed by the absence of his two primary targets and a little thrown off by the presence of this other Android he knew absolutely nothing about, he realized this could become the perfect stage for his surprise entrance, so he decided to observe the ongoing fight and try to gauge the strength of the unknown Android.

He was pleased to see, that while the new Android was stronger than everyone else there, he was also only slightly stronger than Piccolo, and managed to get the upper end in the fight only once the Namekian began to tire himself. That placed him between Piccolo and Android 16 in total power, so that means he was still quite weaker compared to Cell, but it was nonetheless strong enough to at least require some actual effort on his part.

Still, Cell had to wait until Vegeta was unable to continue fighting actively since he couldn't stand his plans being interrupted by the Saiyan prince... and he remembered that at this point in the timeline it was unlikely Vegeta would have accepted to cooperate with anyone, especially a complete stranger and obviously alien like he was.

Once Vegeta was spent and out of the equation, Cell readied himself and managed to intervene just as everything seemed to be lost, gaining karma points with Piccolo and also with Trunks, who was barely conscious right now... poor guy, probably wouldn't survive another hit. He doubted Vegeta wouldn't care if he saved Piccolo, there was even the chance he would resent Cell not only because of his strength but because his action ended up saving Vegeta's life... not that Cell cared in the slightest about the opinion of the Saiyan prince.

Anyway, after the short talk with Piccolo, he also noticed that the unknown Android was charging a Finger Beam... and as he shoots it towards Cell, the latter managed to evade it at the last moment, fueling the Android anger in his regards, leading him to send another beam... and then the third one in his direction, without any success.

"Aaaargh! Why don't you die, pathetic insect."

"Wow, can't you see we are talking here? Rude." Was Cell answer, that seemed to rile up the Android even more. "Piccolo, I'm going to need you to lock him in a position for at least a few seconds, think that you can do it? My special attack requires me to be close to the target."

"I can try." The Namekian answer wasn't brimming with confidence, but Piccolo has always been resourceful, he could do it.

"Good."

As Cell powered up, his immense power for the first time on the spotlight, not only the Android stopped in his tracks, but also Piccolo himself and the still awake Saiyans were completely flabbergasted by it. Not only was his power greater than everything they ever sensed before, but his Ki Signature was... familiar, with traces of what were the Ki Signatures both of their enemies, of their allies... or even of themselves.

"What are you?" Piccolo question was not unexpected, and even Android 13, who seemed ready to attack them a moments earlier, was now silent, expecting to hear an answer.

Of course, Cell wasn't having it. It was too early for the big reveal, after all. "As I said, presentations later... Now big guy!" He said turning toward the Android once again. "Weren't you coming here to kick my ass?"

The Android didn't wait to hear it a second time and, still enraged by the humiliation suffered earlier on, instantly rushed toward Cell at full speed, who was actually momentarily thrown off by that, actually expecting a verbal rebuttal first, and was caught unprepared by the Ki Charged punch which hit him in the stomach, sending him back a couple of meters.

Luckily, the fact that the attack managed to hit him, had the unforeseen effect of stopping the Android's rush for a moment... a moment that Piccolo was able to make use of, taking the initiative and extending both arms to encircle the Android body, keeping him stuck in place.

In normal circumstances, this attack would have been largely ineffective, only stopping the stronger enemy for a few seconds at the cost of leaving both arms completely unprotected, wasting energy for regenerating them later on without having actually gained anything from the sacrifice of his arms... In this instance though, a few seconds was everything they needed.

Following the Namekian attack, Cell quickly enlarged the end of his tail to giant sucker mode, this time stretching it further to the greatest size possible without tearing it apart, then quickly dropped it on their enemy.

Piccolo, completely entranced by what was happening in front of him, did notice a little too late when his own arms were truncated in the middle and absorbed together with the Android which seemed to uselessly try to liberate himself from his predicament.

Sadly, or perhaps not, Cell was actually stronger than the Android, so it was possible for him to subjugate the big guy with some effort, managing to absorb him in a matter of seconds. Still, he prepared himself in case something would happen, but relaxed once he noticed that the big buy was starting being processed. He did seem to obtain a little amount of life force, most likely coming from the arms of Piccolo, which were absorbed as well and helped him recover the slight amount of energy he spent faster than he would normally have... but from the Android itself, nothing of the sort.

He could feel now that the Android was being processed, having absorbed something that big probably helped Cell understand himself and his own body insides a little better than before, but no energy seemed to be gained out of it. There were also some parts that were not being processed, or so it seemed to him, but he couldn't be completely sure.

Anyway, Cell finally noticed the absolute silence that did befell on the battle-field, noticing how the three still conscious warriors were staring at him wide-eyed and with different degrees of apprehension. Did they believe he was going to revolt against them now? Or was the reason for this reaction the absorption itself? He realized only later that the process saw from another person perspective could be at least a little fear-inducing.

It was better trying to defuse the situation anyway, so decided on a course of action, he turned toward the two Saiyan warriors still on the ground.

"Wow, that was really hard! So... who are you guys?"

Notes from the author:

Here it is, chapter 9!

I know the fight is a bit short, but I'm really tired of rewriting this chapter again and again and couldn't do it another time without going crazy so... Super Android 13 wasn't as super as he believed himself to be.

Also, Cell and the Z-Warriors make first contact! We will see how things proceed from there.

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter :)

See ya.

No Beta and sub-par grammar, English is not my main language as you can clearly see.

I'm writing this for fun in my free time and that's it.

Last edited: Jul 9, 2018

242

loganSB

Jul 9, 2018

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Threadmarks Chapter 10 - Presentation

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loganSB

loganSB

Jul 11, 2018

#462

Summary: I die and my consciousness merged with that of Cell.

Chapter 10 - Presentation

POV - Cell

"Who are we?!? ... Who the hell are you!"

The question came from Vegeta, which was fully conscious but still seemingly injured and unable to move, he was being tended to by his son, Trunks... against his will, of course.

Before Cell could come up with an answer for the Saiyan, he was distracted by a groan coming from the side. Turning towards Piccolo, he observed as the Namekian was able to successfully regrow his missing limbs... Ups. That was his fault.

"Oh, right. Sorry about your arms... but when I've asked you to stop him, I didn't expect you to do something like that. Are you... alright?"

"Peachy. Who the hell are you anyway?"

Cell blinked at that, assuming the expression of someone who was apparently confused by the fact he wasn't heard when he said that the first time.

"I'm Cell, I thought you know that already."

... The silence that followed was all too eloquent, but was soon interrupted by the Namekian.

"I'm not talking about your name! I meant, what are you!"

Of course, Cell did know that, but he decided to defuse the situation, distracting the Z Warriors from the danger that his own presence clearly indicated, purposefully exasperating them with meaningless discussions. Or at least, that was the plan... He wasn't sure it would have worked, but considering what he already knew about them, it was worth to make an attempt.

Of course, his answer still needed to have at least some meaning or purpose, or they would soon notice he was stalling the discussion and most likely correctly guess that it was for his own nefarious means.

"We have time for the story later, now though there are more pressing concerns... the well-being of your friends for one."

"They are not my friends." Was the blank-faced answer from the Namekian. His facial expression at that moment was hilarious, appearing to be half-way between angry and disgusted, but also a little... uncertain? Cell wasn't sure, but it was still comical to see, he barely managed to stop himself from laughing out loud.

"Oh... well, they are nonetheless in need of assistance, so..."

"I don't need any assistance you stupid overgrown bug-"

Completely ignoring the Saiyan prince's tirade about how he could have gone on all day or some other meaningless boast, Cell moved towards Tien noticing that the three-eyed man already woke up as well, on his own, and was observing Cell warily...

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!?" ... and Krilin was awake too, apparently.

Cell turned toward the bald dwarf, seeing as he was still injured, with a bloody bruise on the head. He was still in shock having just regained consciousness and found himself in front of a giant humanoid insect. Cell hoped that the blow the human received on the head would have made it smarter, but it was probably a lost cause.

"I'm not a thing, I'm Cell." He answered to the little baldy with a serious tone that left no compromises. Turning then toward Piccolo once again. "Are all your friends so rude?"

"I just said they are not my friends!" Riling up Piccolo was fun too, but perhaps he should focus on the others, in case they decided to intervene by themselves asking some questions Cell was not comfortable answering yet... or at all.

For that reason, Cell turned then toward Tien. "I'm sorry, mister... I don't think I know your name?" Uh. He almost called him by his name right then and there; that would have been a massive slip up.

The three-eyed warrior, while still studying him somewhat warily, seemed to slightly lower his guard after Cell show of courtesy... seriously, it was all too easy to fool these idiots.

"My name is Tien, Tien Shinhan."

"Oh, what a lovely name!" Cell said, managing to hear a muttered response from the cyclops. He then rose his right arm, indicating towards Krillin direction with his index finger.

"Mister Tien-Tien Shinhan, I believe your son right there is in need of medical assistance."

"Wha-I'M NOT HIS SON!"

"He... he is not-That isn't my name-"

Oh man, this was fun.

"Ahahah. Oh, this is hilarious! I changed my mind overgrown insect, you can stay!" Wow, even Vegeta was giving him the metaphorical thumbs up now! This was some serious progress.

Finally, turning toward the Saiyans, Cell asked. "Oh, I'm glad that you approve of my presence here. May I ask who you are?"

The answer didn't wait long to come. "I'm Vegeta, prince of all Saiyans, the stronger warrior in the galaxy!"

Sure you are Veggy.

Still, it was time for the second phase of his plan. "Oh, you are Vegeta, then! My mother spoke highly of you! Then you must be Trunks!"

The unexpected revelation that Cell not only did already know about the Saiyans, but their names too, left everyone there completely speechless.

"Uh... do you know us?" Was the predictable question coming from Trunks... just as planned.

Now it was time for Cell to play his part. He thought about it extensively in the previous days, concocting and then discarding several different plans related to his own situation. In the end, he realized that he had to at least provide some truths about himself, if for no other reason than masking the few truths he wished to keep hidden for eternity... or he risked whatever imaginary back-story he recounted, to be revealed as false later on.

Cell had several different plans and stories he could have played with, for example, there was that of playing the part of the alien that lost his planet of origin. Yeah, that was quickly discarded, the only real advantage of it being the impossibility to prove it wrong without proofs that were extremely difficult to come by, but also with the flaw of being impossible to be proven right.

Anyway, that story wouldn't have saved him from the suspicion and the possibility of being branded as an enemy, no matter how low it was.

No... to have the highest chance on succeeding an infiltration among the ranks of the Z Warriors in the shorter time possible, Cell needed a manufactured story that painted him as an ally since the very beginning, and that was also possible to prove in some way.

For this reason, any story that painted him as something different from a product of science was discarded, because it was going to be painfully obvious later on, along with anything that would have directly connected him to Dr. Gero, since revealing that part could have somehow shed light over the fact that there was a secret underground laboratory full of interesting data about him and the Cyborgs... data that Cell didn't want them to know about.

Still, he was quick to concoct a story, and even if not all details were ironed out yet, he hoped to be able to sell it as the truth nonetheless.

"Of course I know you! My mother, the one who created me, is also your biological mother, the wife of the prince of all Saiyans!" Cell managed to make it sound like he was proud of the fact.

... And as expected, the revelation took all of them completely off guard.

"Wait... your mother is Bulma?" Krillin looked quite shocked by the news.

Cell decided to continue playing the fool with him, it was too much fun watching his reactions. He turned toward the little warrior then, raising an inexistent eyebrow in his direction and asked him with a tone as of to insinuate that he was an idiot. "Why so surprised? Can't you see the resemblance?"

"Oh, now that you say it-NO! YOU ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!" Does he really need to scream all the time?

It was Piccolo who stopped an eventual retort from Cell. "While this is all extremely entertaining, I think we need some context here."

Cell nodded at that. "Very well, I'm going to tell you everything, but first I need a confirmation from my mother about your identities. Only after she confirmed that you are who you said to be, then I will tell you everything I know."

He thought about that and realized that this was not only the easiest way for him to obtain the easy support of Bulma, for obvious reasons, and the Briefs, one of the richest families of this Earth, if not the richest... but in doing so also managed to divert the suspicions on his identity, showing that it was actually Cell himself who suspected them to lie about their identities.

Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy. "Hey, hold on!" Krillin just had to ruin it, didn't he? "How do we know you are telling the truth?"

Well played, baldy. Well played. "What reasons do I have to lie?"

Sadly, his logical answer was not something that would have deterred the scatterbrained midget.

"I... I don't know! But Bulma would never create something so... creepy like you!" Well, she wouldn't of course, but that isn't something you will ever know.

He was about to reply, ready to provide a perfect retort, when Piccolo came, unexpectedly, in Cell defense. "I don't think he is lying..." He said to the bald warrior, then turned towards Cell and asked a question not even he expected to hear at this point. "You came from the future, am I right?"

... For the umpteenth time in a few minutes, everyone was left speechless. Piccolo seemed to have got the gist of his story... or his made-up story at least, but still, the fact that he realized it before everyone else there, and before he said it himself, only based on the few scraps of clues Cell himself provided, and that would have only confirmed his story later on, spoke highly of his intelligence... or alternatively, about the stupidity of the rest of them.

Everyone turned his head toward Trunks, which of course couldn't reveal anything he didn't have the slightest knowledge about. "Hey! Don't watch me, I have no idea who this guy is!"

Cell smirked to the Namekian, a gesture that caused Krillin to twitch a little in what was probably fear... what a pathetic human being, unable to distinguish an evil smile from one of begrudging respect... or something like that.

"What betrayed me?" Cell was curious about how much the Namekian did manage to get already, and how much he still didn't know.

Piccolo smirked too in response, it was a dangerous smirk similar to his own, but he could recognize, even so little, an undercurrent of respect there. Whether it was because he saved his life or because of his overwhelming strength, he didn't know. He didn't care either, it was there and that was all that mattered to him.

"You did say before that you knew Vegeta and Trunks, but the reason you provided was only that Bulma spoke of them to you. Paired with the fact that you didn't recognize them since the beginning, that means that in your time they are not with her, and there are only two reasons for Trunks to not be with her mother. Those two reasons would be because he traveled using the time machine and never came back, or because he died. I presume it's the latter since you are here in the first place."

"Interesting... and why is that?" It was plainly visible on the Namekian expression that he did know more.

"Because if you really came from the future, you should know that the Trunks living at this time is a baby, but since you recognized his grown-up version, that means you didn't come from the same timeline as Trunks, but from another timeline, where the existence of Trunks being here was known, along with the knowledge that he died too. After all, Bulma would have needed a valid reason that would have lead to your existence, since as you yourself said that you were not given birth, but 'created' instead, that means that your existence is not dissimilar from that of the Androids, but your purpose is, supposedly, to our own advantage... or at least to the advantage of Bulma."

While everyone was understandably flabbergasted by Piccolo's discovery, Cell was quite surprised as well.

Piccolo did actually manage to uncover basically his entire manufactured back-story from a simple sentence provided by Cell. Of course, the fact that he already knew time travel was possible, because of Future Trunks existence, helped him to iron out the details, but... was he actually smarter than Cell remembered from his memories as Logan? Was this a Dragon Ball Crossover where Sherlock reincarnated as Piccolo or something like that? He couldn't exclude it completely...

Oh well.

"Everything you said is correct... I'm impressed Piccolo. There is very little to add to the story, you already got most of it on your own. Still, as I said, I will not say anything more without a confirmation from my mother. And that is final."

It was Trunks who spoke then, leading Cell to notice that both he and Vegeta seemed to have somewhat recovered from their injury, at least to the point where they could walk and stand normally, despite looking still quite beaten. It seemed that their injuries healed somewhat faster compared to those of normal humans in their same situation. Or perhaps it was magic fuckery... you never know with Dragon Ball.

"I understand. I think it's better if we go back home then. I'm sure mother and the others are worried by now, they must have sensed that the fight ended, but the fact we are not coming back yet..."

Cell, of course, agreed with the Saiyan, if for the only reason that he wanted to meet her and the rest of them and integrate with the group as quickly and as soon as possible.

"Of course, lead the way."

"I'm out!" Vegeta seemed not to care overly much, blasting away and speeding off in the distance.

Instead, Piccolo and Tien decided to follow them, probably curious about the rest of the story... The group quickly speed up towards Kame House.

...

The travel back was silent.

If Cell had to guess, Trunks was most likely thinking about the fact that his apparent adoptive brother of a sort, was a monstrous insect-man thingy.

Piccolo was probably busy imagining Cell entire back-story before he even had to say it... hopefully, the Namekian would come up with some of the details that Cell may have forgotten, to help him sell his story more easily to the rest of them. There was also the risk that he may have forgotten something, that could have caused some plot hole in his story...

Krillin was almost certainly shitting his pants.

Tien... who the fuck know what that guy was thinking about, probably about hundreds of Chiaotzus exploding on the back of muscular men... or something like that.

Fortunately, the flight was quick; soon enough Kame House was in sight.

One step closer to perfection.