The Semi-Perfect Holiday

[Cell]

The sun pelted down on Cell’s mottled skin as he swayed back and forth. A set of oars burst from the waters and flopped in a semicircle, crashing back into them and thrusting beneath them. A spray of ocean mist settled on the bio-android’s skin. Normally he would chastise the culprit but mixed with the gentle sea breeze, the splashes gave his sizzling body some reprieve from the heat.
 
“We could have stowed away on a ship,” Cell said, dipping his barbed tail into the ocean and letting it drag as Davin plunged the oars of their flimsy wooden lifeboat once more into the waves. “It would have been much more comfortable. At least out of the damn heat.”
 
“Not ... an option,” Davin said between pants. “I’m not ... paying for a ... ship to take me ... to an island that ... has to stay secret. Besides ... I have no ... money.”
 
Cell glared at the sun, a bright white stain in his vision, bleaching the blue sky around it. When they first entered this vast network of islands, being spat out into the bustling city of Costa del Sol, the bio-android figured the trip to perfection would be a leisurely and relaxing one. Davin had quickly informed him that the police presence on the island city was also enforced by the Empire so they had to make themselves scarce. Apparently that meant avoiding all practical routes to their destination, stealing a lifeboat from a distracted or drunk sea captain and rowing for all they were worth. How many hours had they been baking in the sun now? It seemed petty to count them.
 
Eight. It had been eight hours.
 
“That is the island at least?” Cell asked, sticking a thumb at a clump of green on the horizon. It was the only thing that separated the blue of the ocean from the blue of the sky.
 
Davin nodded, his face a shade darker of red than his hair.
 
Cell frowned. The human scientist was slowing down. His strokes were more laboured, and the time from the oars leaving the water to slapping back down again had increased.
 
“This is taking far too long!” Cell said, standing up in the boat as it rocked. “I might be too weak to fly with another person on my back, but there’s other ways of making this unbearable journey shorter!”
 
Davin’s eyes lit up. “Are you ... going to ... take over the ... rowing for a ... while?”
 
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Cell said, unsure whether to chalk up the human’s intransigence to exhaustion or stupidity. “Energy propulsion works better than two fat-ended sticks! Step aside! Oh, and you might want to hold onto something tightly. Very tightly.”
 
Davin clambered around the edge of the boat as Cell crawled to the back. Cell stared back to the empty horizon from where they had come from, turned to spot their island destination, and bent his knees. He drew cupped hands to his side and unstoppered the energy in his body, channelling it into a single point.
 
“Ka ... me ...”
 
Blue light trickled into the space between his palms. It pooled into a single orb, growing in intensity with each passing moment.
 
“... ha ... me ...”
 
The orb ballooned until it fit snugly within Cell’s hands. Shafts of light struck out between his fingers.
 
Davin shielded his eyes from the light. “What are you doing?”
 
“Ha!”
 
Cell thrust his hands towards the horizon and a beam of blue ki exploded from his palms. The boat lurched forward, its bow tipping up and pointing at an almost forty-five degree angle as it screamed through the water. Cell’s kamehameha acted as a huge jet engine, launching them across the seas as if it were made of ice and the boat an ice skate. Davin screeched at their newfound velocity, his arms and legs wrapped around a beam of wood. Cell chuckled to himself. He turned and saw the island racing to meet them. Cutting the flow of energy, he crouched into the boat, finding the exertion more taxing than he had anticipated.
 
Even without the constant supply of ki, the boat carried slicing through the waves with the inherited inertia. The boat bounced as it hit a crop of waves and skidded to a halt in the sands of the island.
 
Cell hopped out. The sensation of warm sand between his toes dulled as he took in the enormous palm trees that grouped together and weaved a dense forest only a hundred paces from the shore line. He looked at Davin. The human flung himself over the edge of the boat, landing on the sands on hands and knees, and retched into the gently lapping waters. Gathering himself, he stood and plodded over to the bio-android.
 
“In there somewhere?” Cell asked, pointing at the tropical vegetation.
 
Davin nodded, his face pale beneath the red and flushed skin.
 
Cell pushed the human forward. “Lead the way.”

[Cell]

Cell wiped his brow with his forearm. The humidity of the island jungle bore sweat all over his body as he forced Davin forward. The unblemished sky above, at least what could be gleaned through the spaces of the canopy, relayed to Cell that no relief in the form of rain was on its way. The human scientist pressed through the undergrowth, shoving aside stubborn branches and parting thick patches of grass to allow a path forward for the bio-android. He winced and occasionally sucked in a deep breath when a spiky plant scraped at his skin or a bent branch uncurled and slapped him in the back. Yet Davin’s attention to detail was so perfect that Cell’s greatest injury was a light brushing of leaves against his shoulders. This human really meant what he had said earlier; he treasured Cell in a way he deserved to be treasured.
 
That didn’t mean Cell couldn’t enjoy playing with the poor human’s instinctual fear.
 
“You know Davin, jungles can be very unsafe places. Creatures of all shapes and varieties of lethality love to live in them. Snakes, tigers, dinosaurs, giant birds, venomous insects ... and that’s not counting all of the different plants that can and will kill you as well. Some are instant, others make you feel like you’re burning for days until your organs finally give out, and you won’t even know you’ve touched one until it’s too late.”
 
Davin shrugged under a low lying branch and brushed the leaves off that snagged in his coat. “In most jungles you would be right. But this island was cleared of all dangerous life forms when the facility was built. The jungle was designed to hide the facility and we didn’t want an obvious trail that led to it through all the plant life. So this walk is really quite safe, as long as I don’t knock my teeth out on a swinging branch or twist my ankle.”
 
Cell frowned. “Bah. You’re no fun.”
 
“Well, there is a chance that the security systems are still active,” the human scientist said. “I’m hoping that they recognise me and let us pass, but this facility has been left alone for a span of years. It’s hard to say if the power is even still functioning. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
 
“Hold on!” Cell said. “Are you saying there’s a chance that you can’t return me to my perfect form? How are you supposed to help me if this facility is lacking the power it needs to run?!”
 
“I’m probably wrong,” Davin said, holding back two branches to let the bio-android through. “It’s just something to be aware of. Besides, the equipment is still in the facility. Even if the power is off, all we have to do is repair it and we’ll be back in business.”
 
Cell spat but said nothing. The human scientist was risking an awful lot to do what he was doing. The bio-android couldn’t imagine this was some sort of ploy to waste his time or capture him. He gave Davin the benefit of the doubt and continued trekking through the dense jungle.
 
Davin parted another bush and Cell stepped into a small clearing. A wall of rock was situated not far from him, enclosed on all sides by the ironclad grip of the jungle.
 
“You’ve led us to a dead end,” Cell said flatly, his tail whipping about.
 
“No, this is it,” Davin said. “The entrance is disguised in this rock wall here. Just in case anyone got shipwrecked on this island and somehow made it this deep into the jungle, just happening upon this spot, we camouflaged it.”
 
“I see this Empire shares the same paranoia of discovery as Dr. Gero did,” Cell said. “Or should I say, does. Seeing as he’s apparently alive here.” Cell ran his slitted pupils over the irregular rock face. “So where’s the door? How do we get in?”
 
Davin stepped forward to the wall and looked up. A glint of light reflected off a round object where the human scientist was staring. A camera.
 
“It’s verifying my identity now,” Davin said. “Give it a second.”
 
A negative beep went off.
 
“What was that?” Cell said.
 
“I don’t understand,” Davin said. “Gero wouldn’t have thought of this place. He couldn’t have locked it down. The only thing I can think of is ... oh no.”
 
The bio-android was livid. “What!?”
 
“The disguise!” Davin said, hands gesturing to his face. “I still have the disguise on! The security camera doesn’t recognise me!”
 
His hand fumbled behind his neck, fiddling with a button. He clicked it and the fiery red hair dimmed until it was a dull brown, the beard absorbing into his clean shaven face. The nose shrunk and ended with a bulb instead of the sharp point, and the wide jaw retreated to reveal Davin’s true face.
 
The rock wall shuddered and split in two noisily, parting open to allow two sentry robots to wheel out on miniature tank treads. Their arms, consisting of two bullet-fed mini-guns, swivelled with their single-eyed head on a stiff metal pole. The rock wall clapped shut quickly as the robots levelled their weapons at the intruders.
 
Cell stood proudly, hands on hips. “This is all we have to worry about?” His eyes widened as he swiftly remembered his newfound weakness to steel. “Oh, right.”
 
The robots aimed their weapons at the confident bio-android. Barrels turned end over end and bullets buzzed through the sky. Cell dropped to the ground and tossed a ball of ki at the dirt before them, forcing a sheet of sand and dust to blind the robots and their aim. They continued firing, perhaps capable of tracking heat signatures despite hindrances to their visuals.
 
Cell flew close to the ground and stuck his forefinger and index finger to his forehead. Yellow sparks leapt from his fingertips as he rounded on the robot sentries, placing both of them one behind the other from Cell’s perspective.
 
“Makankosappo!” Cell yelled, pointing his two fingers forward. Two yellow beams exploded forth, one as straight as an arrow and the other coiling around it. The head of the attack bore into the first robot and penetrated through its back, slamming into the other robot and drilling through its steel body as well. Both sentries sagged and exploded in a shower of flame and black smoke.
 
Davin peeked out around a tree, face awed. “Wow! That was amazing!”
 
Cell scowled at the shattered remains of the robots. With the expenditure of ki for his Kamehameha and now the Makankosappo, he felt far more fatigued than he should have. He clenched and relaxed a fist. What was going on here? Was this more power that this Omni had stripped from him? Did he need to be careful of his output? Surely reaching his ultimate form would fix this annoyance.
 
“Enough praising!” Cell snapped. “Get me to my perfect form already!”
 
Davin jogged over to the rock wall and stared at it. “With my real face unhidden, the security system should work now.”
 
As he predicted, the rock wall hissed open. Cell followed Davin inside and the wall closed behind them.
 
Davin led the bio-android down a long corridor. Doors to either side opened into small laboratories and testing areas. Most were filled with chairs festooned with cobwebs and desks draped with old sheets and dust. The air entered Cell’s nostrils musty and damp.
 
“So how are you going to do this?” Cell asked, his feet disrupting the fine film that covered the cold tiles. “How are you going to induce my perfect form?”
 
“I have a machine,” Davin said, still looking forward. “I was using this place to continue my own research, my own life goal. Most of the tools here can apply directly to you. But with the data I stole from Dr. Gero and the equipment in this facility, I know I can awaken the power lying dormant inside you.”
 
The human scientist turned into a doorway and Cell followed. The room billowed out before them. A glass pod sat in the centre of the room, its surface caked with grime. A computer terminal took up most of the wall, its control panel plagued with accumulated dust.
 
Cell ran his hand down the cold, curved surface of the pod, his palm coming away slick with dirt. “What now?”
 
Davin’s fingers jabbed a few keys on the terminal and inserted the data stick with Dr. Gero’s stolen information into it. The screen flickered to life, streaked with filth. A light above the pod stuttered, found its strength and shone. A door in the back of the pod creaked open. Buzzes and beeps filled the room.
 
“Climb in,” Davin said, fingers moving in a frenzy over the keys. “Once you’re in the pod, it will fill with a special fluid. Through this fluid, I will be able to send a special electrical charge to every one of your cells to awaken your perfect form. I read that your unique biology allows you to breathe in water, so you won’t drown.”
 
Cell clambered in, his tail slithering in as the door clicked behind him. It was risky to trust his safety to the human, but Davin knew things that only an understudy of Dr. Gero could. There was little reason to distrust his words so far. Perhaps Cell’s yearning to become perfect again after having tasted it for such a short time was driving this reckless behaviour, but as far as he knew, this was his only chance. There was no proof that the androids were in this dimension.
 
A thick, soupy liquid the colour of the sky bubbled from the base of the sealed pod, filling it at an alarming rate.
 
“Know that if this is a trick, I will destroy you and the entire complex in an instant,” Cell said in the last moment before the fluid engulfed his head.
 
“Trust me,” the scientist said, swiping his wrist over his sweaty forehead. “You are everything I’ve been looking for my whole life. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
 
Or an elaborate trap set by Dr. Gero to capture me, Cell suddenly thought.
 
Before the bio-android had an opportunity to voice the startling possibility, a surge of electricity coursed through the pod and into his body. Cell opened his beak to scream, but found where he expected pain, he found none. Instead, he felt the same giddy, adrenaline-filled rush that accompanied...
 
... the moment he absorbed Android 17 for the first time.
 
Cell's laughter caught in bubbles and floated lazily upwards. Light poured from his body as it started reconfiguring and birthing a familiar strength that bloomed in his core and streamed into every part of his body. Pure adulation flooded his mind. The stupid human had been true to his word! The memory of his perfect form held in his cells was being unlocked!
 
The lights stuttered and Cell felt the process flounder for a moment.
 
“Just a technical hiccup,” said Davin, furiously typing away at the console. “Just need to reroute some systems to the pod ... and ... there. That ought to -“
 
Cell didn’t hear the end of the sentence. A jolt of electricity blasted through his body and mind and he went limp.

[Cell]

Cell  groaned and opened his eyes, staring at the roof of the disused and grimy facility. A bell rang tinnily through the room. Fluorescent light bulbs flickered and sparked. The monitors on the far side of the room flashed with static. Shards of glass surrounded him in a thin pool of pale blue fluid.
 
The bio-android climbed to his feet as he regained his senses. Slowly the memories returned to him as his body’s numbness faded away. Glass tinkled on the wet concrete floor as Cell stumbled to the computer terminal, his legs wobbly. His sore eyes cast a glance around the dilapidated, malfunctioning room. There was no sign of that blasted human scientist.
 
“Dammit!” Cell yelled, slamming balled fists on the terminal’s keyboard. “That bastard stuffed up my evolution and then ran before I could enact swift-“
 
Cell stopped mid-sentence. Something about his voice caught him off-guard. The raspy quality had drained from his tone. Instead, it was much deeper. He patted his face and gasped. The bulbous orange beak that comprised his mouth was gone; in its place were two thick lips. A pang of excitement reverberated in his chest. Did the process actually work?
 
Mind racing with anticipation, Cell sprinted to the puddle of fluid he had woken up in and stared at his reflection, waiting for the ripples on its surface to abate. His visage grew solid and the bio-android grinned wide. His orange eyes and slitted pupils had given way for a human-like set of blue eyes. As he felt with his hands, his new lips curled upwards at the ends. The flat plate that made up his forehead had transformed into a V-shaped crown, the top of his black head visible at the base of the dip.
 
Cell stood, taking in the other changes. His black insectoid wings had disappeared. The three toes on each foot had morphed together into single boots. Not only had his appearance altered drastically, but he could feel the new power birthed by the transformation.
 
A yellow aura engulfed his body. “Yes! My old strength has returned to me!”
 
The aura dissipated suddenly. “Wait. This isn’t my perfect form! This is the state between my imperfect and perfect bodies!”
 
Then it dawned on Cell why Davin must have fled after the experiment. His eyes fell upon the shattered glass pod. The process must have only driven Cell to his semi-perfect state and then failed, breaking the equipment and making the next step to his perfect form impossible.
 
“No!” Cell roared, hurling a ball of energy at the broken glass pod. It exploded in flame and shards. “This isn’t enough! I was promised my perfect form! It’s not fair!”
 
“There! Did you hear that?”
 
Cell snapped his attention to the doorway. Someone else was in here.
 
“Yeah. Go go go!”
 
A stream of five white armoured soldiers poured into the room, their black rifles raised and pointing at Cell as they entered. They looked much like the stormtroopers that suffused the Coruscant dimension. Had they followed him and Davin this far?
 
“You!” one shouted. “Hands in the air! Now!”
 
Cell glowered at the intruders. “I don’t suppose any of you have seen a scientist scampering out of this facility now, have you? You can’t miss him. Brown hair, likes to scheme and betray those around him?”
 
“Comply now or we will shoot!” another ordered as they closed in around him.
 
“I guess not,” Cell said, his face flat. “At least you will provide adequate testing for my new power.”
 
The bio-android flexed his fists and a brilliant cloak of yellow light burst around his body like a golden fire. Wind flowed from him and whipped up dust and glass fragments. The stormtroopers clenched their trigger fingers and a volley of red lasers screamed towards Cell.
 
The semi-perfect synthetic dived behind the broken glass pod, narrowing avoiding the avalanche of death. He rolled into a sprint as more beams scored the room, breaking tiles and shattering glass. A ball of amber ki ballooned in Cell’s hand and he tossed it at the first soldier he saw, knocking him on his back. Circling around while strafing the incoming fire, Cell swept his tail around and struck out at each stormtrooper’s feet, bringing them crashing down except one who had the foresight to jump. Cell jumped and somersaulted over the stormtrooper as he blasted away, landing in a crouch and rising in an uppercut. The force of the blow popped the human’s helmet off like a champagne cork and he collapsed on his back.
 
“Hmmm. Not as strong as I would have expected, even for my intermediate form,” Cell said, looking at his five-fingered hands as he tensed them. “Definitely an improvement, but this Omni fellow seems determined to shackle my power.”
 
Cell cupped his hands at his sides as the lackeys of the Empire climbed back to their feet, gripping their weapons. “Ka... me... ha... me... ha!”
 
He thrust the collected energy forward as a blazing blue column issued forth, tearing across the facility floor. The stormtroopers had enough time to scream before they were consumed by the rushing torrent of ki. Moments later, nothing remained of them except blackened scorches on the broken tiles.
 
Cell sighed deeply. A Super Kamehameha was harder to perform. The level of fatigue that dogged him performing his stolen techniques dwarfed the energy requirements he had back on his Earth. Cell made a mental note to find out how to hunt down this Omni and wring the little bastard’s neck.
 
His task somewhat complete, the bio-android trudged out of the disused facility, sticking his head into each room he passed. He called out for the human scientist who left the job half done but to no avail. Davin had escaped and obviously had no intention of seeing Cell again after his monumental blunder.
 
The rock wall parted and Cell stepped out into the harsh island sunlight again. The salty breeze, despite his troubles within the secret facility, seemed fresher than it did before. The heat from the tropical climate gave him greater pleasure. Even if he hadn’t ascended into his perfect form, there was something to be said for launching out of his imperfect one.
 
Cell grinned as jagged spikes of yellow light enveloped him, blowing sand in all directions. He took to the spotless blue sky, pondering his next move.

[Cell]

Nah. All of that positivity is bullshit.
 
Cell crouched in the shade of a palm tree, his feet half buried in the sand. His tail lashed about behind him as he stared at the tides. The water rushed up the beach, retreated and gathered its strength, then threw itself forward again. The bio-android watched the undulating sea, stewing.
 
I tried to convince myself, I really did, he thought to himself, hands balled into fists. But anything short of my perfect form is worthless. That human might have raised me out of my imperfect form, but this is not good enough!
 
Cell hated this. What could he do? Davin, the little rat bastard, had fled when the attempted upgrade took place. At first, Cell thought the human scientist couldn’t have gotten far in the boat, but then he didn’t know how long he had been unconscious for, and a quick scan didn’t turn him up. With no assistance from Doctor Gero and no possible way to hunt down the last remaining android, let alone even knowing if one existed in this strange afterlife dimension, Cell had no clear path to follow.
 
The rage in his chest broiled at the thought. Left impotent, with no way forward? Impossible! Outrageous!
 
He couldn’t keep still any longer. Cell clenched his teeth and strode furiously to the shoreline. He stood shaking as the water swelled up and down his knees, his tail thrashing about like an enraged sea serpent.
 
The anger got the best of him. Throwing his head back, Cell yelled into the clear blue sky. A blazing yellow aura consumed his rigid body, thrusting the ocean water into a fine spray around him and forcing waves to rush away from him in an expanding circle.
 
“It’s not fair!” he shouted. “I was perfect! Why am I cursed to such a worthless existence?!”
 
The fury escaped him and he stumbled to the shoreline, collapsing on his hands and knees. A crab scuttled past his fingers. He couldn’t even muster the desire to snuff out its life.
 
“Excuse me, uh... sir?”
 
Cell craned his head upwards. A human woman in green and black lycra stared down at him, hands on her hourglass hips. She furrowed her brow in either concern or confusion.
 
“What is it?” Cell asked. All his anger had leaked out of him.
 
“Well... you seem upset,” the woman said. She pointed down the beach where a group of four other women in similar attire stood on mats, watching the scene unfold from a distance. “We’re about to do some early morning yoga. You know, some stretching, deep breathing... it’s all very calming. I thought I would invite you over in case you would like to join us? You might feel better.”
 
Cell’s tail twitched. A meal might make him feel better too. Ah, what the hell. If this ‘yoga’ didn’t help, he could always eat the class.
 
“Fine,” Cell said, noticing how calm the woman was around him. Perhaps the inhabitants of these islands were as accustomed to alien sights as the bustling crowds in Coruscant.
 
“Oh, that’s great!” she said, hopping once, her short brown hair bouncing. “Come this way! Have you ever done yoga before?”
 
“No. What is this ‘yoga’?”
 
They approached the other women. One of them rolled out a red mat for Cell. “It’s a series of stretches and exercises that releases tension and promotes a healthy body and mind. It’s wonderful, especially if you’re feeling a bit down.”
 
Cell raised his eyebrows, eyelids half lidded. “Exercise does usually make me happy.”
 
“There you go!” she said. “What sort of exercise do you enjoy doing?”
 
“Fighting, mostly,” Cell said, smirking. “I’m quite proficient, if I do say so myself.”
 
“Well that’s great! You might find that yoga helps stretch out some of those muscles you need for fighting.”
 
“A fair point,” Cell said, rolling his shoulders. His feet planted on the mat rolled out for him. “I think I pulled a muscle when I was remote controlling a Death Saucer in my fight with Goku. That forces a few sharp movements.”
 
“Death Saucer? I’ve never heard of that sort of plane before,” the yoga instructor said, shrugging. “Oh well. Are we all ready to start the class?”
 
“Yeah!” the women surrounding Cell shouted in unison. The bio-android jumped.
 
“All right then! Let’s all start with the downward facing dog. Put your hands flat on the ground and straighten out your arms. Then straighten out your legs and stick your bum in the air so your whole body makes an upside down ‘V’ shape.”
 
Cell shrugged his shoulders but decided to try it out anyway. He entered the position easily.
 
“Great job everyone!” the trainer said. “Now hold that position and breathe deeply through your nose. Then purse your lips and jet it out your mouth. Keep that hold for thirty seconds.”
 
What is this nonsense supposed to- oh. Cell followed the instructions, and as laughably simple as it was to stay comfortable and unchallenged by the downward facing dog, he understood why these human women were on the beach doing this. He breathed deep, feeling the tension uncoil in his body. Was this...relaxing?
 
Cell participated in the whole session. At the end, he felt rejuvenated. His body thanked him for the treatment it just received.
 
As the women bundled up their yoga mats and trundled off the beach, the brunette trainer came back to Cell. “So how did you find it? Did you enjoy yourself?”
 
“I’ll admit, it was more effective than I originally anticipated,” Cell said, sitting with forearms on his knees. “But...it still doesn’t fix my problem.”
 
“What’s that? I might be able to help,” the yoga trainer said, sitting next to the bio-android. “I’m a good listener.”
 
“It’s just...” Cell’s eyes darted back and forward between nothing. “I met this guy, and...he told me things. He told me things would be perfect again, like they used to be. And just when things were getting better, when we were so close to perfect...he ran off without a word. My perfect vision fell away so quickly.”
 
The trainer pressed her lips together in a firm line and nodded. “I see. I’ve definitely dealt with this problem before. Look, you can’t go around looking for your world to suddenly be perfect because of someone else. The perfection you’re searching for is deep inside you. You just have to look for it with an open heart and it will rise to the surface. Trust me, you don’t need anyone else but yourself.”
 
The human woman was right. Perfection was inside him – it was coded into his very genes, hidden away until the right catalyst activated it again, as it did after his self destruction. He didn’t need that cowardly scientist. Even if the androids weren’t in this dimension, there would be another way to ascend, just like he ascended to his semi-perfect state.
 
But how? Maybe he could train? He’d never trained a day in his life. The power he owned had been gifted to him at birth, or stolen from absorbing others. But the saiyans...Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and Trunks all surpassed their old limits within a day. No doubt there was some secret trick to the astonishing difference in the power levels after twenty four hours, but a large part was due to their genetic advantages as saiyans. Being comprised of both Goku and Vegeta, he had the same potential within him.
 
Or maybe a large enough source of power could trigger his transformation. The androids held almost limitless sources of artificial ki in their bodies that somehow mixed with Cell’s own physiology to produce the perfect warrior. Maybe to induce his final form he only needed another object that surged with energy. This dimension could hold such an item, couldn’t it?
 
Cell leapt to his feet. The human woman was taken aback by the sudden motion but got to her feet too, smiling. “Thank you. Your words have steered me back onto the right path. For that, I won’t absorb you.”
 
“Oh, uh...thanks,” she said uncertainly. “I’m just...glad I could help you.”
 
Cell grinned. “Farewell.”
 
The bio-android rocketed into the air, knocking the yoga instructor over amid a spray of sand. It was time to go on a fact-finding mission.