Hero Cell

"Heh heh heh heh heh!! I can't let you kill her."

Suddenly, Bulma heard an oddly sinister voice right beside her.

Then she felt the hand gripping her throat loosen.

She fell to the ground and greedily gulped in the fresh air.

"I've finally found you, Android 17 and Android 18." The sinister voice rang out again.

Bulma looked up.

A tall, green figure appeared before her.

Her first thought was Piccolo!

But when she looked more closely, she realized that apart from their similar coloring, he looked nothing like Piccolo.

His green skin was covered in dense black spots, the wings on his back resembled an insect's, and his face looked insect-like too.

All in all, he struck her as ugly.

And disgusting.

The insect-like man had grabbed the hand Android 17 had been using to choke her.

Seeing this, Bulma understood that he had rescued her.

The strange man suddenly seemed much easier on the eyes.

"May I ask who you are?"

Cell rolled his eyes at Bulma's question and said, "My name is Cell. I'm Trunks's friend, and he sent me here to deal with these two Androids."

"Trunks?" Bulma looked bewildered.

Bulma continued, "Then where is Trunks?"

"Trunks is still in another timeline. You know how big the Time Machine is, right? It was already difficult enough to fit me in, so he's waiting in the other timeline for me to bring back good news." Cell continued to spin his tale.

Bulma looked at Cell's enormous body, which stood over two meters tall, and found herself believing him.

"All right, we can talk more once I've absorbed... dealt with these two Androids."

Bulma wanted to ask a few more questions, but Cell cut her off before she could speak.

But Bulma wasn't unreasonable. This really wasn't the time to catch up.

So she nodded. "All right."

Then she backed away and ran to rejoin the others.

"Ugly freak, who are you?"

Android 17's hand was trapped in Cell's grip, and he couldn't pull it free. He was horrified.

"Heh heh heh heh heh~ You're far too weak, but that's all right..."

Feeling Android 17's strength, Cell found it more or less what Dr. Gero's data had led him to expect. He grew excited.

His eyes gleamed as he looked at Android 17 and Android 18, as though they were a delicious feast.

To Cell, though, Android 17 and Android 18 really were no different from a delicious feast.

He was going to eat them either way.

"Bastard! You ugly freak, you're dead!"

Cell hadn't answered his question and had even mocked his strength.

Android 17 was furious.

He was used to looking down on others. When had anyone ever looked down on him?

And now it was an ugly freak doing it.

Android 17 leaped into the air and kicked Cell with all his strength.

Cell was still lost in his daydream, and for a moment he wasn't paying attention. Android 17's kick sent him flying.

Cell shot backward like a cannonball and slammed into a mountain a hundred miles away.

The impact shattered the entire mountain.

"You've got to be kidding! That kind of strength..."

The humans nearby were once again stunned by the Androids' power.

Bulma stood there, dumbfounded.

The man who had just saved her had been defeated just like that?

"Wait, look over there!"

Suddenly, someone shouted. Everyone followed his pointing finger.

A green figure was racing toward them.

In no time, Cell was standing before them again.

He didn't have a single wound.

It was as though he hadn't been sent flying just moments ago.

Cell felt the spot Android 17 had kicked, then grinned.

"Heh heh heh~ Not bad. You even managed to make me feel a little pain."

At the sight of this, Android 17 realized that he wasn't a match for Cell.

He exchanged a glance with Android 18.

As twins, they shared a special kind of telepathic connection. A simple look was enough for them to understand what the other was thinking.

Android 17 and Android 18 both used High-Speed Movement and appeared beside Cell in an instant.

They attacked him from either side.

"Look out!"

The nearby humans cried out in alarm.

But Cell didn't move at all, as though he hadn't even seen them.

"Thump!"

"Thump!"

Android 17 and Android 18 each slammed a powerful roundhouse kick into one side of Cell's neck.

"Impossible!!"

Android 17 and Android 18 were horrified, as if they'd seen a ghost.

They hadn't held back at all, yet their full-force kicks had felt like they'd struck an indestructible rock.

Not only had the rock been unharmed, their feet had gone numb from the impact.

Cell had seemed completely undefended, but in reality, his ki had already spread through every inch of his muscles.

After arriving in this timeline, Cell had searched for Android 17 and Android 18, absorbing every human he came across along the way instead of letting them go to waste.

His battle power had increased by a whole new benchmark.

Cell's battle power had now reached a staggering 800 million.

The Androids in this timeline, meanwhile, had a battle power of only 400 million.

They were only half as strong as Cell.

The twofold difference in strength was like an uncrossable gulf.

When Cell hadn't been defending himself, Android 17's full-force attack had only managed to knock him back. It hadn't been enough to injure him.

Now that Cell was actively defending himself, they couldn't even make him budge, let alone knock him back.

"Heh heh—"

Cell's mocking laugh wounded the Androids' fragile pride.

They'd lorded it over Earth for twenty years, and this was the first time anyone had looked down on them.

They lost control in an instant.

Their hands and feet blurred as they launched one fierce attack after another at Cell.

Energy blasts were mixed in with their punches and kicks.

But Cell was like a towering mountain. No matter how the wind and rain battered him, he stood firm and unmoving.

"So strong!"

"The Androids' attacks are completely useless. They're not having any effect at all."

"I hereby declare that from this moment on, Lord Cell is my idol."

"Weren't Dr. Bulma and Lord Trunks your idols?"

"I have a girlfriend. Does that mean I can't have a little sister too?"

For a while, Cell's image grew larger and larger in their eyes.

Even his ugly, insect-like appearance seemed incredibly cool to them.

Five minutes passed.

Cell had had enough of playing around.

His hands shot out like hunting snakes, swift, accurate, and ruthless. In an instant, he grabbed one leg each from Android 17 and Android 18.

Then, like he was swinging a pair of sledgehammers, Cell hoisted them high and slammed them into the ground.

"Boom!!"

A crater more than ten meters deep opened up in an instant.

Android 17 and Android 18 lay at the bottom of the crater like a pair of dead dogs.

Their clothes were in tatters, and their bodies were covered in countless wounds. They looked like two shattered porcelain dolls.

"Bastard!!"

Android 17 and Android 18 fought through the pain and forced themselves to their feet.

Now, they looked at Cell differently. Their eyes were filled with deep fear.

They were afraid.

Cell's overwhelming strength made them sense the threat of death.

They'd lost the will to fight. All they wanted now was to run, to get as far away from here as possible.

Energy gathered in Android 17 and Android 18's hands.

"Boom!"

Two energy blasts shot from their hands.

But their target wasn't Cell. They aimed at the ground near him.

The blasts struck the ground and exploded.

In an instant, dust filled the air and thick smoke billowed everywhere.

As if they'd planned it together, Android 17 and Android 18 used the smoke as cover and fled at once.

They ran in opposite directions.

By the time the smoke cleared, they were nowhere to be seen.