Chapter 2: Survival and Taking Stock
You are Cell and You. Will. Not. DIe.
Whatever has happened and whatever you have lost that fact remains. This is not the first apparently insurmountable problem you have faced after all. You did not give up when Trunks destroyed 17 & 18 in the Future, you did not despair when Vegeta proved more powerful than your Semi-Perfect form so you will not indulge in such weakness now.
Human, or in your case Human-Saiyan, biology is inferior compared to what you are used to but you understand the basic requirements to maintain it. Since you no longer have Gero's internal machines to supply your body with energy you will need to drink and eat eventually. Dehydration is the first problem to content with and the most easily dealt.
Attempting to ignore the pain, you've had far worse but it didn't linger like this, you pull this new body up and go in search of a water source. The spine of black rock that you find yourself on was until very recently buried under quite a lot of ice that has been melted by your self destruct so it doesn't take long to find a pool formed from collected melt-water.
It relatively clear and this not quite hunger feeling must be thirst so you drink. Its odd, you've consumed liquid foods before your stinger tail allowed you to drain your prey of their biological material after all but this is different. Their's a slight metallic flavor to the fluid as it slides over your new tongue it reminds you of the taste of your own blood.
Your thirst sated for the moment you look for a place to rest. Another imperfect failing your new body forces you to indulge in. You had no need of sleep before this, the only equivalent being your hibernation in Laval form and that was born of necessity.
Bah you can tell this body is going to give you no end of grief.
Through some searching you find a small cave, really more of a overhang and indent, in the side of one of the peaks angled such that it shouldn't flood and settle in. If you cared for such things you suppose the view would be impressive. The sky dark and thick with dust, the landscape shattered the mantle of ice turned to new oceans that lap at the mountains base.
Curious you extend your senses searching for any KI signatures to be found on this world. Nothing in what you would deem this hemisphere though you think you can feel some echoes that might be animal life on the other-side of the planet. It makes sense Gohan would hardly bring you to a populated world.
Having spent a boring stretch of time waiting for your aches and pains to lessen you move to answer the burning question, what exactly can you do in this body?
There is KI and plenty of it within Gohan's small frame, so you call on it now. The familiar rush of energy surges out and you work through techniques and applications. Blasts and Flight come as naturally as they ever did. Once that 's confirmed you leave your little sanctuary behind and relocate to a neighboring mountain peak. Once their you move onto your library of techniques. Thankfully the transfer of your perfect mind to this body doesn't appear to have affected your memory.
The techniques Gero's supercomputer programmed into you, the paired inheritance to your genetic donors are still a part of you. You test them out, taking care to conserve power until you become more familiar with this bodies limits. A Kamehameha flows into to a Gallick Gun that atomizes a nearby mountain and then you use a Special Beam Canon to spear a choice piece of rubble thrown free.
The techniques aren't quite as smooth as you would have liked but apparently your arsenal of moves is still open for use. To be sure you work through the techniques methodically making certain you can, with KI at-least, do anything you could in your previous body. Apparently your covered on that front.
[Techniques: Arsenal of Cell confirmed usable]
Next is the unique Saiyan trait, Super Saiyan. While it's true your old bodies KI was flavored by the Saiyan genetic material in it's makeup resulting in the signature gold fire aesthetic you never transformed in that fashion. It was simply a matter of raising your KI as high or low as you wanted to go.
The core Super Saiyan state is easy enough to access, Gohan's body seems familiar with the state to the extent that with the right pull of KI you find yourself clad in the familiar golden glow. It is bizarre to feel hair move. You can feel the KI reinforcing your new body weaving itself into the fabric of your being.
[Transformation: Super Saiyan Unlocked]
You draw from deeper in Gohan's reserves of KI, the excess energy venting into your aura which intensifies into raging bonfire. Snarling you pull more of the power to the surface. The flaw is apparent if just raise the power higher past a threshold it simply leaks out before you can use it making it impossible to hold on to.
But you've seen this done before, hell you've done it yourself once to mock that novice Trunks and once in a rage against Gohan. You channel the energy into your body using the aspect that feeds into your new flesh and reinforces using it hold the power. Gohan's muscles bulge under your skin swelling as the energy pours in. The golden aura roars battering the mountain side with its force.
It's painful and at the same time exhilarating, your very being is vibrating with the power you are channeling. Your Perfect body could mimic this effect thought it was not exactly the same. You understand this form's limitations of course. You can raise your strength and power level through this method but the further you take the transformation the more the side effects build up.
The KI held in your body weights you down even as it enhances, your swollen muscle mass and warping form slow your reflexes and speed. If you went the route of Trunks and pushed enough power into this form you could gain raw power and brute strength surpassing your perfect form but your speed and mobility would take a nose dive. It's not an useless transformation by any means you can either keep in the invested KI low enough so you mobility doesn't suffer too much or use range and position to act the part of living artillery raining massively powerful KI blasts on the foe.
[Transformation: Ascended Super Saiyan Unlocked]
There is one step more, one level of power beyond any other that Gohan and now you posses. The transformation he pulled out against you during the Cell Games after you killed the boy's father in front of his eyes. Despite yourself you feel an eager thrill at the idea of claiming that power for yourself.
But how to summon that transformation? Simply powering up just leads to ever increasing bulk in the Ascended state. There's no mental switch or lever you know how to pull and unlike the base Super Saiyan the power isn't familiar enough for you to summon by instinct.
You consider Gohan's words, he called upon that hidden potential in moments of overwhelming rage didn't he? So you simply have to get angry enough. Well that shouldn't be hard you have plenty to be angry about.
You concentrate on the loss of your Perfect existence, the humiliation of Gohan surpassing you so utterly. You run through the image of that defeat the realization of that loss over and over again. You build your fury into a eruption calling on the power within and trying to find reach beyond the normal into the legendary.
Your power builds and builds tearing at the already ravaged world. You howl and scream as your aura boils outwards. Your muscles balloon involuntarily giving your teen form musculature a body builder would be proud off. No! You want something different something more than that. You try again and again calling up power and raging as the transformation you crave fails to awaken.
You can feel something under your skin a catch in the flow of your KI that must be what you seek but it slips away from you every time you try to grasp it. It's there and that maddening closeness drives you into a rage. You core mountains and boil seas with blasts as the fury spikes to a fever pitch.
Afterwards slick with sweat, another new experience, you float back to the mountain you began and for lack of a better term brood. The situation reminds how you felt in of your Semi-Perfect form. That interval state where you tasted the power absorbing one of your siblings could grant and craved more. Just like then you know your body has more potential within it and you desire it only for the universe to deny you. The level beyond Super Saiyan is within this body but for now you can't grasp it.
[Transformation: Super Saiyan 2 Not Unlocked]
Well all obstacles will be overcome, you caught and consumed 18 in the end and with time you will obtain the summit of Gohan's power. Your pride will allow nothing else.
Your thoughts on how to go about claiming the full measure of power this body can offer are interrupted by a ringing in your head followed by a nasally voice speaking directly into your mind.
"Hello, hello can you here me?"
Well this is new, you've never heard voices inside your head before. You know that humans can go insane from isolation but it hasn't been that long and anyway your mind is not human not matter its casing. Deciding to humor this intrusion you attempt to direct your thought towards the interloper and frame a response.
"I don't know who you are but yes I can hear you."
"Excellent I wasn't sure your could and judging by those thoughts about my grisly demise I can see I've got the right person. You are the so called Cell right?"
"I am Cell, yes."
"Perfect." Was that a pun? If so it was in terrible taste. "Not a lot of beings can throw around power like you've been doing the past few hours. A telepathic scan bounced off a mining convoy in system was enough for me to be pretty sure you weren't the kid but its good to get confirmation."
"And now that you know my identity?"
"I want to offer you a job."
That's a new one. You've never sought or been offered any kind of employment or done anything beyond pursue the perfection you desired. Well today certainly is shaping up to be a day for firsts.
"You want to offer me a job, I'll give you points for being novel if nothing else. "
"Fighters as strong as you don't exactly grow on tress. Well except in that one Hell and the dammed are off limits even to Kai's."
So the mystery voice has a classification Kai, not a term your familiar with but still useful data.
"So yeah I want to offer you a job, I'm a busy being and someone with your kind of power and skills could come in very handy and heh it would piss off Nothy something fierce down the road."
"While I am flattered that someone else in the universe appreciates my perfection I am unsure what exactly you can offer me that I can't simply take."
"Oh I don't know, how about stopping Northy and his student, you may know him fellow by the name of Goku, from sensing you?"
That has your undivided attention.
"Goku is dead. I killed him myself."
"Yeah he was and then those pesky mortals wished him back to life with the Dragon Balls. Not that him being dead would really stop him working with my counterpart mind you."
The Dragon Balls, damn it all. Goku's death was an achievement to be proud off. He was the strongest fighter you ever killed and one that pushed you further than anyone else, save Gohan, managed. To have that victory simply undone makes your blood boil.
"The Earth crowd wished back everyone you killed actually." The Kai goes on further enraging you on purpose no doubt."Northy's prize student was all set to be left out of the wish and leave protecting the world to his kid but then the Dragon didn't bring the prodigal son back, since in the Dragon's eyes Gohan hasn't died yet. Then they tried to wish Gohan back to Earth but apparently you don't count as enough of Gohan to qualify so the Dragon couldn't do that, their last wish was to bring back Goku so he find his son."
That's very important information. With Goku's Instant Transmission technique and sensing abilities ... well you never had the opportunity to really explore the greater universe beyond Earth so you can't be sure how long it will take him to find you or how this 'Northy' figure will factor into that equation. The Kai who is apparently reading your mind responds to the unasked question.
"The Universe is a big place but with Northy looking I give it at the latest an Earth day before they find you."
Your ..... not sure how you feel about that. You could kill Goku again with the your arsenal of techniques, Gohan's power mostly at your command, the element of surprise and your superior tactical mind you are reasonably certain you could manage it. It would be a fight worth savoring and perhaps combat against such a opponent would be the push necessary to unlock Gohan's full power.
The Kai's comment about a mining convoy in system lingers, while you lack the Frieza derived ability to survive in space you are confidant cthat with the right technique and lots of speed you could survive the vacuum long enough to reach and seize a ship. If you did kill Goku a second time it will cripple the Earthlings ability to pursue you, well until they use the Dragon Balls to bring him back again.
That thought makes your blood boil. The Dragon Balls have make your greatest accomplishment something reversible. As long as they exist the Earth's champions can simply bring Goku and anyone you do kill back to life.
Another possibility occurs, you haven't the desire or ability to fake being Gohan for long but perhaps you could manage it long enough for Goku to take you back to Earth and get you in range of the Dragon Balls. If you destroy the Balls your problems will be less in the long run but that path would place you in direction confrontation with all of the Earth's heroes. Before this situation you wouldn't have hesitated to go down that path but being stuck in a unfamiliar body has a way to cut at ones confidence.
With what you can access of Gohan's power and your arsenal of techniques you easily outstrip the majority of Z-Fighters with only Goku, Vegeta and Trunks as real threats. You would have the element of surprise on your side which is a great equalizer. But its a risky plan fighting multiple opponents when you won't have a overwhelming advantage of power.
The Kai almost forgotten in your musing cuts in and adds an extra dimension to the situation.
"Yeah your hurtling towards a collision but I can help you avoid it for a price."
It doesn't take the Perfect warrior to connect the dots.
'Your job."
"Got it one, you agree to work for me and I'll hide you from Northy, you can forestall confronting your not-dad until your ready for that and get familiar with that body. Pretty sweat deal right?"
It does have its draws but you keep that thought buried and request some more information.
"And what exactly would my employment involve?"
"Whatever I tell you to do." There was a hint of menace at those words. "But mostly removing people or problems that rock the boat in my section of the universe and other jobs that benefit me. I'm not going to have someone of your talent mopping floors obviously."
Section of the Universe? You raise a mental eyebrow at that and the voice takes on a impression of pride.
"Oh didn't I tell you? Your speaking to West Kai overseer of the Western Galaxy and all its domains. Yeah I've got the pull to hide you from Northy and arrange transport off that frozen rock your stranded on."
The West Kai's nasally voice dropped in temper becoming decidedly less friendly.
"To be clear Cell you don't like my offer no hard feelings on my part but if you do agree to work for me I won't take it well if you try to weasel out of your end. I've got at-least one guy who can take you hands down and you screw with me I've got no reason not to tell Northy and his student where you are. You understand me?"
"Perfectly."
So this West Kai's aid wouldn't come cheap, the idea of following another's orders was an unpleasant one true but the idea might have merit. Then again you could simply take your chances with either attacking Goku when he arrives or taking on the Earth heroes when he takes you back.
"So Cell do we have a deal?"
[] Agree to work for West Kai.
[] Wait until Goku arrives then attack.
-[] Write in Tactics
[] Pretend to be Gohan until you get back to Earth then attack.
-[] Write In Tactics
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