Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Black and White ❯ 06 ( Chapter 6 )

"What was that?" Goku blurted as he tumbled into Vegeta's midst, tripping over something small in front of him. Vegeta shrugged in the direction of what Goku had tripped over, and the Saiyajin turned to find that it was a Saiyajin girl—probably only a year or two younger than Goten.

 

"Stupid," she blew him a raspberry. "You're clumsy!"

 

"What was that spike in power?" Goku blinked, brushing her insults aside.

 

"That," Vegeta smirked, nodding toward Cole, "was her." He crossed his arms. "Didn't you notice the first time?"

 

"N-no," Goku admitted. "I wasn't really paying attention 'til—" he stopped. "Hey, wait, that power was this little girl?"

 

"I'm not little!"

 

"It was she," Vegeta nodded.

"That's what you were talking about before!" Goku realized. "Her! How did you know her?"

 

"Met her while I was stranded. Her name is Cole." He leaned closer. "She's Nappa's granddaughter."

 

"Whoa!" Goku grinned and turned to Cole. "I fought Nappa once, y'know?"

 

"Did he beat you up?" she cracked her knuckles as if she was preparing to do the same.

 

"W-well...no," Goku admitted. "I sorta beat him up."

 

Cole's face fell, and so Vegeta added, "Kakarrot is the strongest Saiyajin ever to live. You'd best listen to his lessons, too." She nodded solemnly, but frowned as she looked back to Goku, crossing her arms. "I was just about to teach her how to sense ki," Vegeta explained.

 

"Oh, yeah!" Goku nodded. "That's real important. Hey Vegeta, maybe if you an' me both power up, maybe she can sense us arready? When I was teaching Vejata—" he stopped and slowed down, excitement falling slightly, "when I was teaching Vejata how to go Super Saiyajin I started out with how t' sense ki, an' I powered up real high an' it didn't take her much practice to learn how t' find me."

 

"Sounds like a good place to start," Vegeta agreed. "Hell, it was the first thing I learned from you, too—in a way."

 

"Guess so." Goku grinned. "So—er—Cole?—so Vegeta and I, we're gonna power up, and you use your senses t' see if you can feel our power. Okay?"

 

She nodded resolutely. "Arright. But Kakarrot?"

 

"Yeah?"

 

"You better watch out, 'cause I'll beat you up real quick here, once I get strong!"

 

Goku beamed. "I look forward to it."

 

 

...

 

 

"Damn," Shallot breathed, watching tongues of golden flame dance over the queen's skin. "Vegeta."

 

"You like it?" she gave a toothy grin.

 

"How'd you—how'd you do it?"

 

"Funny story, that," Vejata whispered. "And one I haven't told anyone."

 

"Tell me," Shallot demanded.

 

"It's triggered by an emotional response—desperation, I guess—" Shallot nodded and leaned back to watch Vejata as she spoke. "New Vegeta being destroyed didn't do it, not quite—took some awful painful memories." She paused, expecting that Shallot might fill in the blanks, but when the woman merely continued watching Vejata, she added, "You."

 

"Well," Shallot grinned, "you're welcome."

 

"You—you don't—mind—"

 

"Of course I fucking mind," Shallot snarled, posture changing quickly as her demeanor as she dug her hands into the dirt on either side of Vejata. "Don't you forget it," she narrowed her eyes. "But, shit, Vegeta, a Super Saiyajin—" She froze, and immediately her eyes were wide, caught in an expression of fear that Vejata had only witnessed on Shallot's face once before. She jumped up, clenching her fists. "N-no...no, dammit, Vegeta, make it go away!"

 

"Make what—"

 

"Your hair, your—the—the gold—the—"

 

"Wh..." she blinked, "Why?"

 

"Just fucking do it!"

 

Vejata complied, concern etched over her features at the persistence of Shallot's fear even as the last wisp of gold faded. The woman who stood above her glanced around wildly, and held a hand out to help Vejata up. "What—"

 

"Shit, I hope it didn't see," she muttered. "We gotta...we gotta...I dunno..." her panic was quiet now.

 

"It?"

 

"The—the bug thing—it—well, damn, you ain't been here to see—it—real gradual like, it sucks people up in its tail, an'—"

 

"Calm down," Vejata urged, "you're not making any sense."

 

"Every now an' then," Shallot muttered, "some strong guy disappears. I saw it once, one a' them younger Vegetas—it'd been—been fighting an'—an' the green thing said something about—well it appeared all sudden an'—an' sucked him right up!"

 

"Sucked up," Vejata repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Shallot, I—"

 

"Shoot, it's 'cause it said it felt the guy was strong, somehow, an'—an' that sucking him up made it stronger!"

 

Vejata followed Shallot in glancing around the area, suppressing her power in case what Shallot said was true—if some being that could seek out and somehow absorb the powerful really did haunt Hell. "I don't sense anyone strong around here," she muttered. "Not stronger than one of those copies, at least—"

 

"Sense?" Shallot whipped around to face Vejata. "You can do it, too? Like the green thing did, feel whether someone is or ain't so strong?"

 

Vejata nodded. "Yes—well—sort of—"

 

"We should get outta here," Shallot cut her off, "lest the thing come lookin'...let's go back t'—"

 

"Back to where?" a new voice interrupted.

 

"Shit," Shallot shivered. "That's it."

 

"I won't waste your time," he continued as if he had not heard the comment. "Now, let's see, which of you is stronger—ah." Vejata braced herself, ready to put up whatever fight she could against it—but before she could so much as speak, he had vanished from his position before them. By the time Vejata had swiveled her head to locate him, she recalled that she must have seemed weaker to the being—her power suppressed as it was—and—

 

And her gut quaked as Shallot's struggling feet disappeared last into the being's tail. "You," she hissed.

 

"I have a name," he closed his eyes, perhaps focusing on the lump that was being slowly swallowed into his body. "You can call me Cell."

 

"I don't intend to call you anything," Vejata snapped, yellow wisps dancing around her as she prepared to power up.

 

"Oh, you were the stronger one," he sighed. "I wondered—but—" a smirk spread over his face. "No matter. That friend of yours was just enough, I'd say." The grinding of Vejata's teeth as she clenched them was audible. "Of course, you might ask just enough for what, and I can't blame you," he continued. "You seem new here."

 

"Awful cocky," Vejata mustered, "for something that looks like it belongs beneath my boot—"

 

"Cocky with reason, I assure you," he chuckled. "But don't worry—I won't take you, too. I don't need to draw any attention, and besides—the power I've got is more than enough. Ah, but I was going to tell you what I had in mind, wasn't I?"

 

"No," she growled. "Now spit that woman back out—"

 

Cell chortled. "Don't fool yourself into thinking you can stop me. Now—where would be the best place for this glorious moment? Perhaps this spot is as good as any..."

 

Vejata's booted toes curled into the dirt as she waited. Power seemed to be unfurling from the figure at a rate she had only before seen from Goku—and then, suddenly, was past his, or what she had seen of it, was past—

 

"I've only seen this done once before," Cell spoke again, more quietly, apparently focusing inward. "So I hope you'll forgive me if I have to try it twice. I only saw the fellow from a distance—"

 

The queen opened her mouth to dole out some insult, but it was too dry; none came. His power seemed to have swept her voice from her throat.

 

"Of course they grabbed control over him before he could do anything about it, but that's only because he was stupid. What was his name—Buu? But," he turned to her. "I'm sure you would try to escape Hell, too, even though you're surely just as stupid as the next Saiyajin."

 

"E-escape?" she stuttered, and that was all that would come.

 

"Well, that's what I assume it was," Cell seemed further focused as he turned back away from her, and Vejata noticed that his power seemed to draw back into him—he was still clearly strong, but it was all focused at one point now. "A bid to escape—he made some kind of rip through Hell. They stopped him right away, before he could go through it. But look around you," he nearly boomed, "I've been here far too long, and been far too boring for anyone to keep a watch on me—taking my time, and only absorbing the uninteresting ones that wouldn't be missed. No one will know until it's too late."

 

"I—"

 

"You're lucky to be right here. Have a little taste of freedom, if you wish. You seem, at least, to be smarter than those other copies of Vegeta."

 

"You—"

 

"Stand back," Cell nearly laughed. He sucked in all the stifling, humid air his body could hold, and then some; his chest swelled to proportions Vejata would have expected to be impossible. As he paused, Cell's power seemed to burst upward through any ceiling Vejata could imagine, and then, abruptly, it switched direction, and spewed from Cell's mouth as he screamed. The air directly in front of him quivered like water, crashed like waves, bubbled like lava, and then ruptured into a violent tear through Hell itself, a wide hole that showed a winding path through clouds, patterned with reptilian sColes—

 

Cell jumped through the hole, and vanished from Hell. Glancing one way, and then the other, Vejata bit her lip and made a dash toward the anomaly, wincing as she leapt into it.