12-20-2017, 01:01 AM
Every moment Cell spent in this strange dimension, the more he was convinced that his reduction in strength wasn’t just due to the absence of the androids in his core. He flew slower than before, slow even for his imperfect form, as if a weight was tied to his limbs. Cell tried to put it out of his mind but every second soaring over the white plains only reinforced it. He wondered if this is what other inferior creatures felt like, as if he had been lowered to a human.
Cell arrived at a bluish-white portal, swirling within an archway of smoothed, crafted stone. His three-toed feet touched down before it, the light spilling over his green body. He ran his fingers over the archway. No ki seemed to radiate from the structure, but there were no devices or people funnelling power into the twisting colours to keep it stable.
Admittedly, Cell had only heard about rips through space-time. He, nor any of his genetic donors, had ever passed through one. Trunks’ time machine had brought him into a whole new timeline, though it was not by creating an entry way that one could walk through like a door. As far as he had been taught, Dr. Gero hadn’t been capable of such feats either.
Cell opened a palm and fed his energy outwards, passing it invisibly through his skin. A spark of yellow ki shuddered and expanded into a ball, the warmth pressing against his hand. He pointed it at the portal. Cell thought he understood what would happen, but just in case this was some sort of trap, he decided to launch some of his energy through first to see the result.
The orb of energy blasted from his palm like a bullet and vanished through the portal without incident. Now that he stopped and thought about it, the bio-android wasn’t certain he knew what he was expecting. If it was some torture device, he thought something would react with matter passing through it but he hadn’t a formed concept of what that would be.
Seems safe enough. Cell strode up to the kaleidoscope of colour and thrust his hand in. Nothing tore his limb off. In fact, his hand felt the warmth of sunlight dancing on his skin. Whatever was on the other side of the portal was less bland, in any case.
Cell walked through the dimensional gateway. A corkscrew tunnel of light deposited him into an entirely new world where the only white was the wispy brushstrokes of cloud in the blue sky. A pristine grassy plain rolled out before him. Forest dotted the empty verdant space in the distance. A cobblestone path from the portal wound its way around a rise in the ground and out of sight.
“So … where the hell am I?” Cell said to himself.
He tried reaching out with his ki sense, trying to psychically identify the presence of any living creature nearby, but this once intuitive instinct no longer functioned. Concentrating, Cell cast his mental net out again but found nothing. Either these untouched grasslands were devoid of all life, not just sapient life, or his ki sense had been tampered with in a similar way to his strength. Cell was willing to bet it was the latter.
Cell tightened his jaw. Who was punishing him like this? It was bad enough that he tasted true perfection and had it ripped away, but even his imperfect body had been hindered by some malcontent’s tinkering.
He moved to the springy grass and fell onto his backside. The flight through the white void had been surprisingly tiring; where once he could stay buoyant in the air indefinitely without even thinking about it, soaring through that dimension for a few hours had taxed him greatly. He needed to feast. His tail twitched at the thought. Standing up, Cell moved back to the trail and headed down, hoping he would run into something worth devouring.
He despised the walking but it was his only choice for now. Eventually he ran into a man wearing an armoured suit, a sword swinging at his hip and a shield slung on his back. The visor on his helmet was down, but the twitch of his head let Cell know that he had been spotted.
“Impressive outfit,” Cell said as the two met on the path. “You must really enjoy your medieval fairs to go to such lengths.”
“I don’t know what you speak of,” the human said, his voice tinny from the echoes of his helmet. “I am equipped to go into battle, not to a festival.”
“Commendable commitment to the part,” Cell said. “I wonder if that affects your flavour at all?”
“You intend to eat me?”
“Of course!” Cell said, affronted. The sharp tip of his tail peeked over the top of his shoulder. “What else would I mean by ‘flavour’? I’m not some kind of sick freak.”
The knight drew his sword with a grating sound and grasped his shield from his back. “I do my best not to judge the inhabitants of Camelot on their appearances. After all, many non-humans are not evil. I gave you the benefit of the doubt but it seems I was wrong to do so.”
“Oh, very wrong,” Cell rasped, stepping forward. “But you made two mistakes.”
The knight bit at the pause. “And the other?”
“You didn’t run.”
Cell’s tail struck out like a coiled snake. The knight moved slowly, raising his shield, but the clumsy movement was enough. The needle-tip of Cell’s tail clipped the shield and ricocheted away, rending a splintered gash in the wood.
“What?” Cell said. “How did you block that? It’s only a piece of shaped wood! It should have been obliterated!”
“You think you possess enough power to strike through my defenses in one hit? Heh! You are vastly underestimating your opponent, monster!”
Or vastly overestimating the strength left behind to me, Cell thought.
“Enough of your prattling!” Cell yelled, spittle flying from his beak. “You will become one with perfection!”
The bio-android leapt forward. The knight hefted his sword and swung, but Cell still had the speed advantage over the metal and weaponry that weighed his opponent down. Cell ducked under the blade and his tail sprang for the human’s neck. The tip clanged against the helmet, twisting it askew but otherwise bouncing off. Cell rolled away as the human stumbled backwards, repositioning the helmet.
“You will not penetrate my armour, fiend!” the knight said.
Cell opened a hand and leveled it at the human. A yellow light burst to life in his palm. “I’m going to consume you, one way or another.”
The ki blast screamed towards the knight. He lifted his shield as the energy ball crashed into him. An explosion of light and smoke shook the ground.
The bio-android approached the curtain of smoke, ready to drink the knight who must certainly be prone on the ground. The human, instead, burst out of the camouflage, roaring with his weapon wielded above his head. Cell’s cat eyes widened as the blade slashed down his chest, spraying his purple blood over the cobblestone.
The bio-android staggered back, his hands clutching the oozing wound down his front. Pain flooded his mind but it swiftly drowned beneath his disbelief. How could a human sporting a sword even manage to make him hurt, let alone open his flesh? How could a weapon be sharp enough in the guidance of someone who didn’t utilise ki? What the hell was happening to him?!
“I-impossible…” Cell stammered as blood trickled down his chest in rivulets, staining his green skin purple. “How could you do this to me!?”
“Evil always underestimates good,” the knight said pompously, his sword streaked with violet blood. “You never think you could lose, and then you do.”
“All I wanted was a meal!” Cell growled. “Is that so much to ask?”
“If you surrender now, I will make your death quick and painless,” the knight said, pointing the tip of his sword at Cell.
“Hey! That’s my line!” Cell said.
He couldn’t fight on like this. For whatever reason, Piccolo’s cells weren’t activating; the wound should have completely closed off by now, but nothing had happened at all. Blood still leaked out of the purple stripe over his chest. He had to regroup. He had to understand what was going on or he would die.
“So, what do you choose, beast?”
Cell shook his head. “No one picks to surrender to their own death, you fool! You use that line to gloat, not to offer mercy! You do-gooders can’t even do victory right!”
“Painful death it is, then,” the knight said, advancing on Cell.
“Enough! We will settle this another time, human,” the bio-android spat, firing a blast of ki into the ground. The explosion kicked up a cloud of dust and smoke, and Cell took the diversion. His golden aura burned around his body and he darted into the sky. He gave the knight one last glance and headed towards the closest cover he could see - a small patch of forest.
Cell dropped into the canopy, dislodging leaves that fluttered all around him, and collapsed in the rough cradle of branches high above the ground, hoping he wouldn’t bleed to death.
Cell arrived at a bluish-white portal, swirling within an archway of smoothed, crafted stone. His three-toed feet touched down before it, the light spilling over his green body. He ran his fingers over the archway. No ki seemed to radiate from the structure, but there were no devices or people funnelling power into the twisting colours to keep it stable.
Admittedly, Cell had only heard about rips through space-time. He, nor any of his genetic donors, had ever passed through one. Trunks’ time machine had brought him into a whole new timeline, though it was not by creating an entry way that one could walk through like a door. As far as he had been taught, Dr. Gero hadn’t been capable of such feats either.
Cell opened a palm and fed his energy outwards, passing it invisibly through his skin. A spark of yellow ki shuddered and expanded into a ball, the warmth pressing against his hand. He pointed it at the portal. Cell thought he understood what would happen, but just in case this was some sort of trap, he decided to launch some of his energy through first to see the result.
The orb of energy blasted from his palm like a bullet and vanished through the portal without incident. Now that he stopped and thought about it, the bio-android wasn’t certain he knew what he was expecting. If it was some torture device, he thought something would react with matter passing through it but he hadn’t a formed concept of what that would be.
Seems safe enough. Cell strode up to the kaleidoscope of colour and thrust his hand in. Nothing tore his limb off. In fact, his hand felt the warmth of sunlight dancing on his skin. Whatever was on the other side of the portal was less bland, in any case.
Cell walked through the dimensional gateway. A corkscrew tunnel of light deposited him into an entirely new world where the only white was the wispy brushstrokes of cloud in the blue sky. A pristine grassy plain rolled out before him. Forest dotted the empty verdant space in the distance. A cobblestone path from the portal wound its way around a rise in the ground and out of sight.
“So … where the hell am I?” Cell said to himself.
He tried reaching out with his ki sense, trying to psychically identify the presence of any living creature nearby, but this once intuitive instinct no longer functioned. Concentrating, Cell cast his mental net out again but found nothing. Either these untouched grasslands were devoid of all life, not just sapient life, or his ki sense had been tampered with in a similar way to his strength. Cell was willing to bet it was the latter.
Cell tightened his jaw. Who was punishing him like this? It was bad enough that he tasted true perfection and had it ripped away, but even his imperfect body had been hindered by some malcontent’s tinkering.
He moved to the springy grass and fell onto his backside. The flight through the white void had been surprisingly tiring; where once he could stay buoyant in the air indefinitely without even thinking about it, soaring through that dimension for a few hours had taxed him greatly. He needed to feast. His tail twitched at the thought. Standing up, Cell moved back to the trail and headed down, hoping he would run into something worth devouring.
He despised the walking but it was his only choice for now. Eventually he ran into a man wearing an armoured suit, a sword swinging at his hip and a shield slung on his back. The visor on his helmet was down, but the twitch of his head let Cell know that he had been spotted.
“Impressive outfit,” Cell said as the two met on the path. “You must really enjoy your medieval fairs to go to such lengths.”
“I don’t know what you speak of,” the human said, his voice tinny from the echoes of his helmet. “I am equipped to go into battle, not to a festival.”
“Commendable commitment to the part,” Cell said. “I wonder if that affects your flavour at all?”
“You intend to eat me?”
“Of course!” Cell said, affronted. The sharp tip of his tail peeked over the top of his shoulder. “What else would I mean by ‘flavour’? I’m not some kind of sick freak.”
The knight drew his sword with a grating sound and grasped his shield from his back. “I do my best not to judge the inhabitants of Camelot on their appearances. After all, many non-humans are not evil. I gave you the benefit of the doubt but it seems I was wrong to do so.”
“Oh, very wrong,” Cell rasped, stepping forward. “But you made two mistakes.”
The knight bit at the pause. “And the other?”
“You didn’t run.”
Cell’s tail struck out like a coiled snake. The knight moved slowly, raising his shield, but the clumsy movement was enough. The needle-tip of Cell’s tail clipped the shield and ricocheted away, rending a splintered gash in the wood.
“What?” Cell said. “How did you block that? It’s only a piece of shaped wood! It should have been obliterated!”
“You think you possess enough power to strike through my defenses in one hit? Heh! You are vastly underestimating your opponent, monster!”
Or vastly overestimating the strength left behind to me, Cell thought.
“Enough of your prattling!” Cell yelled, spittle flying from his beak. “You will become one with perfection!”
The bio-android leapt forward. The knight hefted his sword and swung, but Cell still had the speed advantage over the metal and weaponry that weighed his opponent down. Cell ducked under the blade and his tail sprang for the human’s neck. The tip clanged against the helmet, twisting it askew but otherwise bouncing off. Cell rolled away as the human stumbled backwards, repositioning the helmet.
“You will not penetrate my armour, fiend!” the knight said.
Cell opened a hand and leveled it at the human. A yellow light burst to life in his palm. “I’m going to consume you, one way or another.”
The ki blast screamed towards the knight. He lifted his shield as the energy ball crashed into him. An explosion of light and smoke shook the ground.
The bio-android approached the curtain of smoke, ready to drink the knight who must certainly be prone on the ground. The human, instead, burst out of the camouflage, roaring with his weapon wielded above his head. Cell’s cat eyes widened as the blade slashed down his chest, spraying his purple blood over the cobblestone.
The bio-android staggered back, his hands clutching the oozing wound down his front. Pain flooded his mind but it swiftly drowned beneath his disbelief. How could a human sporting a sword even manage to make him hurt, let alone open his flesh? How could a weapon be sharp enough in the guidance of someone who didn’t utilise ki? What the hell was happening to him?!
“I-impossible…” Cell stammered as blood trickled down his chest in rivulets, staining his green skin purple. “How could you do this to me!?”
“Evil always underestimates good,” the knight said pompously, his sword streaked with violet blood. “You never think you could lose, and then you do.”
“All I wanted was a meal!” Cell growled. “Is that so much to ask?”
“If you surrender now, I will make your death quick and painless,” the knight said, pointing the tip of his sword at Cell.
“Hey! That’s my line!” Cell said.
He couldn’t fight on like this. For whatever reason, Piccolo’s cells weren’t activating; the wound should have completely closed off by now, but nothing had happened at all. Blood still leaked out of the purple stripe over his chest. He had to regroup. He had to understand what was going on or he would die.
“So, what do you choose, beast?”
Cell shook his head. “No one picks to surrender to their own death, you fool! You use that line to gloat, not to offer mercy! You do-gooders can’t even do victory right!”
“Painful death it is, then,” the knight said, advancing on Cell.
“Enough! We will settle this another time, human,” the bio-android spat, firing a blast of ki into the ground. The explosion kicked up a cloud of dust and smoke, and Cell took the diversion. His golden aura burned around his body and he darted into the sky. He gave the knight one last glance and headed towards the closest cover he could see - a small patch of forest.
Cell dropped into the canopy, dislodging leaves that fluttered all around him, and collapsed in the rough cradle of branches high above the ground, hoping he wouldn’t bleed to death.