Cell Games Finale Chapter Five:
"Thunderous Power! Cell on the Defensive!"



In West City, Bulma watched the video screen in disbelief as Mr. Satan outlined his plan to destroy Piccolo for betraying Goku. She shook her head as the world champion buffoon went on about some sort of "Green Dude World Order" as he approached the plateau overlooking the Cell Games Arena. Dr. Briefs knew that for now his daughter was to distracted by the visual stimuli of the screen to worry about the raw data. That was all right, because he had successfully adjusted the sensors of Android 16 to read changing power levels on command and not just spit out readings at random.

"Oh no! I don't see Vegeta anymore, and Mr. Butthole won't take the camera off of Piccolo!" Bulma banged her fist on the table that 16's corpse was laid out on. She leaned in towards the screen that was half the length and height of the laboratory wall as if she could somehow see better closer.
"No worries, my dear-errp!" Dr. Briefs rubbed the back of his head, "At least not more worries than already. I have re-re-readjusted the sensor readouts. Watch! Computer!" he raised a dramatic finger into the air, "give me a readout for Vegeta!"
"Vegeta: Power level... Undetectable."

Bulma staggered, feeling like all the blood drained from her body. If Vegeta was dead, who'd stand against Cell? Her heart twinged, as well. She didn't exactly love Vegeta, but she cared for him. Her stomach felt like it was a collapsing neutron star. She straightened out, a determined, but fragile look on her face.
"Computer!" her voice reflected her face, "Readout on Goku!"
"Goku: Power level remains undetectable."
"Damn it to Hell!" Bulma covered her face with her hands and trudged over to slump into the command seat.

"Hrmm..." Dr. Briefs smoothed his immense purple moustache, thinking hard.
"Blasted idiot! Satan put the camera down and now I can't see anything!" Bulma sniffled a little. Her eyes were bloodshot and angry now. She picked up the remote when the Papaya anchor started copiously touting the bravery of Hercule and jammed the mute button so hard the remote creaked in protest. "Now what?"
"Computer," Dr. Briefs leaned against the steel table, "Tell me if you detect combat, and if so, who is fighting?"
The computer whirred for for a couple seconds.
"Combat detected," the female voice droned, "Combatant Cell is facing Combatants Trunks and Piccolo."
Bulma bit back a sob that climbed up her throat. She remembered the power level numbers. Cell was over a million power units stronger than Trunks and Piccolo combined.
"But those two couldn't possibly stand against Cell, even together! A third-grader could do those numbers!"
"Easy, my girl, remember that all three of them were likely holding back." Briefs clasped his hands and rubbed them together. "Well cross your fingers... Computer, what's the readouts on the fight?"
"Power level readouts: Cell versus Piccolo and Trunks..." The master console went from whirring to thrumming loudly. "One moment, Extreme levels of life energy power detected, asessing difficult,"
Bulma looked to the TV, where the anchor still narrated on and on while Mr. Satan's camera angle remained a brown blur. She sighed long and shut it off.
"...Assessment complete.
Piccolo: 3,055,800
Cell: 4,105,855..." The computer still thrummed ominously, continuous dot-dot-dots going after Cell's readout.
"Oh, please...No...Not Trunks," Bulma whispered.
Finally the computer stopped thrumming and settled back into a whir. A wonder appeared in green courier font on the big screen.
"Trunks: 4,700,000."
"Unbelievable!" Dr. Briefs jaw dropped almost as low as Bulma's.
"We can do it! Trunks can do it!" She cried, leaping out of the command seat to embrace her father. She cried still, but her father blushed, finally feeling hopeful too.
----

Piccolo almost lost his focus. Trunks' power continued to skyrocket in sharp spikes. Thick white lightning bolts cracked down from the clear sky, and heat shimmers wove their way through the dust flying away from Trunks, who was surrounded by beams of golden energy, whirling around his body like turbine blades. The Ascended Saiyan's scream continued endlessly, louder than every thuderclap.

"Yes, Yes! This is what it takes!" Cell raised his hands up over and over, laughing and enjoying the show. "And you promised me Goku would be the one?"
"Now PAY!" Trunks blasted at Cell like a ballistic missile, destroying a section of the plateau just by flying off of it.
Piccolo's eyes widened, such power! but it could still be too slow. Yet with his intellect, he knew immediately what to do.
"Beam Cannon FIRE!" Piccolo thrust out two fingers, sending his trademark energy attack. The Special Beam Cannon was the fastest energy technique among all the Z-Fighters. Cell shifted to the left to dodge, but underestimated the attack, for all his focus on Trunks. The attack hit him in the shoulder instead of the chest. The spiral drill crunched into the Android's shoulder plate and spun him around.
And then Trunks reached him. One hateful right fist snapped Cell's jaw so far to the right tht it stuck out from in a 90 degree angle from his face. Trunks' hit spun him around again. In mid twist, Trunks grabbed Cell's wrist, wrenching him to a stop. the Android's arm made an ugly cracking noise. The Ascended Saiyan then wrenched Cell's wrist around and up, and more snapping noises emenated from his elbow joint. The biological terror cried out in agony and grasped at his shoulder, trying to pull loose.
"Arrgh! Let go, damn you!" The words came out gargled by his broken jaw.
Now Piccolo darted in from below and bashed Cell's head with a high knee. Then, with the Android's disfigured face cocked skyward, Piccolo unhinged his own jaw to open his mouth like a devilish shark. The Namekian roared and a yellow stream of energy shot into Cell's face.
Trunks released Cell's arm and uppercutted him in the stomach. Cell's armor carapace crunched inward, and purple blood sprayed from his mouth in a breathless gasp.
Trunks floated back.
"I never should have let you take it this far." the angles of the distended muscles on the saiyan's face contorted with raw disgust.
Cell reeled slowly backwards in the air, blood trailing from his broken arm and blackened, bloodied face. With his good right arm, he snapped his own jaw back into place
"You will die for that, Trunks." he said quietly.
The Ascended Saiyan answered by whirling his hands in front of himself in the complex formation of a ki matrix.
"You first."
Trunks hands shot out, palms and fingers extended. Flaming hot jets of energy lashed out from them into Cell. When the energy impacted, the ground beneath and behind Cell immediately compacted downward. The air around Cll superheated, expanded, then collapsed back into him in a thunderclap that compounded the force of the explosive impact. After the blast, a charred, smoking, lifeless body plummeted to the ground, landing on the scorched earth. But Piccolo wanted to add to the carnage. He roared and whipped his hands forward like a rolling windmill and hurled hundred of fast moving explosive balls of ki into Cell's body, blasting it across the valley floor. The Android's body was unrecognizable as it flopped to a stop on the west edge of the arena valley.

Gokhan, Tien, Yamcha, and Gohan looked on in awe of the sheer display of force, their gaze moving incredulously from Cell's blackened, unmoving form to Trunks and Piccolo, gold and silver beacons of light in the sky. Tien and Yamcha signaled a thumbs up to Trunks, but Gohan stared cautiously at Cell, his expression glossy-eyed and shocked. Then his gaze flicked to the still smoking crevice in the ground in the far north-west, where Goku was last seen plummeting into a no longer present mountain. Then his eyes moved back over the destruction. The impact crater where Vegeta's body lay, in the south, the broad, westward swath of granite turned to glass by Trunks' Burning Attack, then over the whole valley floor, which was spider webbed with cracks and faults, many of which leaking steam from the islands volcanic core.
Gokhan smoothed his light blue uniform and bit his lip. He felt like an insect in the crossfire of a fight between battle tanks. He, too, surveyed the damage to the island. If the fight continued any longer, if Cell wasn't dead, the island would not hold up much longer.
Tien and Yamcha high fived, both exclaiming that Cell was totally dead. They turned to ask Gohan if he thought so too, but the Super Saiyan boy was gone, already at the crater where Goku fell.

Trunks panted heavily, clenching and unclenching his fists. But then he started in after Cell again. Piccolo immediately moved in front of him.
"No, Trunks! Its a trap. Rest here for a moment."
-----

It wasn't hard to hide his power level. After all, he didn't even have the power to stand. Part of him hoped Gohan would come for him, and yet, that would be a disappointment. Gohan should know better than that by now. And yet, it was taking too much time to crawl out of the crater.
Goku inched along, propelling himself by inching along with his chin and shoulder. Both of his blood-streaked arms were shattered. His legs bent at the wrong angles at the knees, feet twisted. Blood from his cracked skull blinded his left eye. Still, the Earth's greatest champion was beyond pain. Through fighting to the death for over two decades, pain was only a pulse, a familiar feeling, easily ignored. It bothered him only as much as the itch of a mosquito bite. However, his body had limits his mind and spirit did not. The crater was steep and deep. after crawling for twenty-five minutes, he wasn't even halfway out.
Vegeta's hurt bad, Goku thought. At this rate, Trunks and Piccolo will be next! He gritted his blood-rimmed teeth and struggled further. They don't even know Cell is just toying with them!
He willed his jaw not to lock up, his neck and shoulders not to seize. There was no time to rest. As the pain mounted, Goku distracted himself by remembering the year he spent with his son in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber on Kami's Lookout. Gohan was so smart, always adapting qickly to everything Goku taught him. He was so brave. To be a Super Saiyan at only thirteen years old! Incredible! But when Goku truly pushed Gohan, when he fought his own son without Mercy, swearing that Cell would do the same, when he pushed Gohan to the limit and beat him down, the power Gohan responded with was indescribable.

After all the power Goku, Trunks, and Vegeta gained, even with the power of the second level of Super Saiyan, none of them could beat Cell. Goku was sure of it. And if Piccolo was killed, none of them would ever be wished back by the DragonBalls. But there was still a chance. Goku truly believed that. And with that thought, he crawled higher. There might still be time...