We arrived to silence.
The city below looked like it had been chewed apart and spat back out. Buildings were half-melted, streets split open like wounds, smoke crawling upward in lazy black spirals. Fires burned without urgency.
And scattered across the ruins.
The Z Fighters.
Krillin lay on his side, unmoving, blood drying on his cheek. Tien was face-down in a crater, chest barely rising. Yamcha's gi was torn, his body thrown against a collapsed wall like discarded trash, vegeta's broken body lie on the side of a pool.
Then I saw Piccolo.
He was still alive.
Barely.
Imperfect Cell hovered above him, his grotesque tail coiled tightly around Piccolo's neck like a living noose. The stinger at the end had already pierced flesh, green skin sagging, withering, being consumed.
Piccolo's arms twitched weakly, fingers scraping uselessly against the tail as his strength drained away.
Cell laughed.
A wet, echoing sound that it'd belong to a Black man with a Deep Throat.
"Such resilience," Cell said, tightening his grip. "Namekians are truly fascinating creatures."
That was enough.
You Bastard.
...
I didn't shout.
Didn't charge.
Didn't flare my power.
My arm flicked outward, and a Destructo Disc screamed through the air, thin, golden, impossibly sharp. It cut through smoke and debris.
Cell's eyes widened, as he saw it, last second.
He released Piccolo instantly and leapt backward, the disc slicing cleanly through the space where his head had been a moment earlier. It continued on, carving straight through three buildings before finally dissipating.
Piccolo collapsed to the ground, gasping.
I was there instantly, dropping to one knee beside him.
"Easy, there buddy," I said, already placing my hands over his chest.
Healing ki flowed, gentle, precise. Torn flesh regenerated. Drained energy returned. Piccolo coughed once, then sucked in a deep, painful breath.
"…You're late," he rasped.
I smirked faintly. "Traffic."
Behind us, Cell landed lightly atop a broken tower, tail swaying, eyes glowing with interest.
"Oh?" he hummed. "And who might you be?."
"I'm busy," I replied without looking at him.
I turned my head slightly toward Trunks.
As I said. "He's all yours."
Trunks stepped forward.
....
The air changed the moment Trunks landed in front of Cell.
Cell felt it instantly.
Nothing.
His smile faltered.
"Well now," Cell said, folding his arms. "This is unexpected."
Trunks said nothing.
His stance was relaxed. Controlled. His aura was invisible, but the pressure it exerted made the ground beneath his boots crack.
Cell tilted his head. "You look… familiar."
Trunks frowned. "What do you mean?"
Cell's grin widened.
"Oh, this is delightful," he chuckled. "You don't remember, do you?"
Trunks clenched his fists. "We've never met."
Cell laughed even harder.
"No," he corrected. "You haven't met me."
Cell took a slow step forward.
"But I've met you," he said softly. "In far Future"
Trunks' eyes narrowed. "What are you even ta-."
"I killed you," Cell said pleasantly.
The words hit like a hammer.
Trunks froze.
"I ambushed you," Cell continued. "After you destroyed the androids. I took your time machine. But before that, Your life."
The battlefield went dead silent.
Trunks' breath hitched.
"…You're lying."
Cell leaned closer. "What the blue haired lady called again.. oh yes, Bulma."
Something snapped inside him.
....
Trunks vanished.
Cell barely had time to react before Trunks' fist slammed into his face, warping it sideways with a thunderous crack. Cell was launched backward, crashing through a skyscraper and tearing straight through its core.
He emerged from the other side, coughing, armor cracked.
"What...what is this power...?!"
Trunks didn't answer.
He was already there.
A knee to Cell's ribs. An elbow to the spine. A palm strike that sent Cell spinning into the ground hard enough to shake the city.
Cell rose quickly, tail lashing.
"You think, YOUR STRONGER THAN ME!"
Trunks appeared behind him and ripped the tail clean off.
Cell screamed.
Black fluid sprayed across the street as the severed tail writhed violently before Trunks dissolved it to nothing.
Trunks hovered, eyes cold.
"The woman you called, Bulma," Trunks said quietly, "What did you to her."
Cell staggered back, clutching the stump. "How...How did you get this Strong!"
Trunks raised one hand.
"I trained all day, Yesterday"
As he Back-handed him.
Cell was fell into the earth, as he slammed there by sheer pressure, his body cracking under the force.
Cell struggled, snarling. "You think you can Erase ME !!, I am Perfection in Evolution!"
Trunks descended slowly, landing in front of the crater.
"No," he said. "You're a Dead Man."
Cell roared and charged, throwing everything he had left into a desperate assault, fists, blasts, anything.
Trunks blocked it all.
Every strike.
Every blast.
Then he countered.
One punch.
Straight through Cell's chest.
Cell froze.
"…Impossible…"
Trunks pulled his arm free.
Cell's body began to destabilize, cracks of energy spiderwebbing across his form.
"No....wait....!"
Trunks raised both hands.
As his Hair turn Red.
A god-ki blast formed, compressed, building.
"Masenko," Trunks said.
He fired.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOHGHSFCSGBNGCBGNFNGHFBFHFBFHHCVBBNNMllkjareaesacxv..." As Cell was erased.
As the blast flew off to space.
....
The battlefield was quiet again.
This time, hopefully for good.
Trunks stood motionless, chest rising slowly, processing, as the red hair went away.
I landed beside him.
"You okay?" I asked.
He nodded shakily. "…Is he going to kill me in the future, will he take mom hostage..?."
I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Not if you find him, and kill him first, now come and help me take your father out of the pool, you know he hates water."
"He does...?" Trunks asked while tilting his head
I roll my eyes,"No, i was making a joke"
"Oh"
Behind us, Piccolo pushed himself upright, staring at the empty space where Cell had been.
"…That power," Piccolo said. "What did you teach him?"
I smiled faintly.
"SUPER DUPER SAIYAN," I said.
Trunks looked up at the sky.
For the first time...
The future didn't look that bad.
Ben's power level: 6,045,000 x [god ki x175,010,000]