Solar Flare! Then Run, Run As Fast As You Can

Cell's compound eyes fixed on him, the carapace around his abdomen contracting rhythmically once, like some creature holding its breath.

The detector was in Chen Mo's pocket.

There was no storage device of any kind.

"Take it out," Cell said.

Chen Mo slowly reached into his pocket.

His fingers touched the detector's hard casing.

Solar Flare.

Master Roshi had taught him that.

It wasn't a combat technique. It was an escape technique.

What had Master Roshi said back then?

"Tien Shinhan's move doesn't do much damage, but it can save your life. The timing of when you use it matters more than anything."

And the time was now.

"Wait." Chen Mo raised his head. "Before I give it to you, I want to confirm something."

Cell said nothing. He waited.

Chen Mo's right hand clenched into a fist. Energy gathered between his fingers.

"This thing is called Solar Flare," Chen Mo said. "The name is stupid, but it works."

Cell's compound eyes contracted.

Too late.

White light exploded from Chen Mo's fist—pure light, brighter than the noonday sun shining directly overhead—blasting a white circle through the ruins.

Cell's compound eyes were multi-faceted, making them far more sensitive to light than ordinary eyes.

He took it full in the face.

"Ah—" The sound came from deep within Cell's chest.

Chen Mo was already running.

He charged toward Android 18 at full speed and grabbed her wrist.

"Go."

Android 18 froze for half a second.

Chen Mo did not wait for her reply. He exerted force and dragged her into the air.

"What are you—"

"No time to explain. Fly."

The two of them shot above the ruins.

Chen Mo did not head for any place with cover. He went straight south, toward the sea, pushing his speed to the limit.

A muffled boom sounded from the ruins behind them, and the ground shook. Cell's vision had recovered.

Chen Mo did not look back.

The detector was in his backpack. Without even looking, he knew Cell's signal was climbing.

"Where are you going?" Android 18 tugged at him. "Android 17 is—"

"Cell knows where Android 17 is too." Chen Mo gritted his teeth. "If you fly that way now, you're delivering yourself right to him."

Android 18's wrist moved slightly, but she did not shake him off.

They flew south for about four minutes before the sea appeared on the horizon.

Gray and vast, with waves crashing against distant reefs.

Chen Mo angled downward.

"Down."

"Into the sea?"

"You're an android. You don't need to breathe, so sitting on the seabed is no problem." Chen Mo said. "I can hold my breath. If I can't keep it up, I'll use my energy to shield myself."

Android 18 looked at him.

Chen Mo said, "You don't have energy, so Cell can't track you by sensing it. If I completely suppress mine, I'll disappear too."

"You can suppress it?"

"I've practiced for a year," Chen Mo said. "Master Roshi taught me."

Android 18 said nothing more.

The two plunged into the sea.

As the surface closed over them, the light above was cut off, and everything around them turned dark green.

Pressure closed in from all sides. Chen Mo dispelled the Quadruple Kaio-ken and compressed the ki within his body deep down, layer by layer, forcing it into his marrow without letting even a trace leak out.

Silence.

The sound of the sea cut off everything else.

They continued deeper. Five meters, ten meters, twenty meters.

The sand on the seabed was white, but visibility was poor.

Chen Mo glanced back at Android 18.

She followed behind him at a slow pace, her hair fanning out in the water, golden strands drifting through the dark green sea.

Her eyes were blue. At this depth, their color blended into the surrounding water, making it impossible to tell where she ended and the sea began.

A short white tank top, denim shorts, bare feet stepping across the sand on the ocean floor.

Chen Mo thought, What the fuck kind of situation is this? What kind of mood am I in to actually think this scene...

What a fucking beast.

He crushed that thought.

[Detected emotional collection target status: Alert (high), Suppressed (rising), Anger (ongoing).]

Android 18 was looking toward the surface.

Chen Mo followed her gaze upward.

There was a dark silhouette on the water's surface.

Cell had landed on the water.

He stood atop the surface. His second-form body was a full size larger than it had been while shedding his shell, his feet planted on the crests of the waves as his gaze swept around.

Chen Mo's heartbeat quickened.

He reduced his breathing to the barest minimum. His ki was sealed away completely.

Don't move.

The two of them stood on the white sand twenty meters below the surface, looking up at the dark silhouette slowly moving above them.

Cell scanned the area, shifted several meters left, then right again.

He could no longer find the signal.

Chen Mo felt around beside him until he found a reef stone, gripped it, and slowly moved east.

Android 18 followed without a word.

There was a wound on her ankle, probably from her fight with Broly. In the seawater, a faint trace of red spread from its edges before quickly dissolving away.

Chen Mo lowered his eyes and glanced at it.

Android 18 noticed him looking and shifted her ankle aside.

Chen Mo said nothing and kept moving forward.

Above them, Cell's dark silhouette remained.

He began sweeping back and forth across the surface.

There was no pattern to it. He was actively probing with electromagnetic waves.

Chen Mo could feel it. A faint pressure, as though something had brushed over his skin before moving on.

Cell swept across their position, but detected nothing.

The seawater was interfering.

The two of them continued along the ocean floor.

About ten minutes passed.

Chen Mo's lungs began to protest.

He drew out a thread of ki within his body and wrapped it around his mouth and nose, forming a thin layer of energy that squeezed out bubbles and exchanged the air.

Slow, but enough.

[Emotional collection target emotion values: Anger (decreasing), Alert (ongoing), Suppressed (increasing).]

[New emotion: Unease (detected, intensity rising).]

Chen Mo turned his head and glanced at Android 18.

There was nothing on her face.

But her hand was gripping the edge of a reef stone with considerable force, and a crack had formed beneath her fingertips.

Android 18—Lazuli—was showing unease underwater, while being hunted.

Chen Mo thought for a second, then reached over and placed his hand atop the one gripping the reef stone.

Android 18 froze.

She turned her head to look at him.

Unable to speak underwater, Chen Mo pointed in Cell's direction, then shook his head. He pointed toward the direction the seafloor extended and made a gesture to keep moving.

It meant: It hadn't found them yet. Move.

Android 18 looked at him and stared for two seconds.

Then she loosened her grip on the reef.

The two of them continued onward.

[Emotion collection target's emotional fluctuation: unease (decreasing).]

[New emotion: dependence (initial detection).]

Above them, Cell's dark silhouette moved east.

It had changed directions to search.

The two of them walked along the seafloor for around forty minutes.

Chen Mo's legs had begun to feel heavy. It wasn't that he lacked strength—he had held his breath for too long, and the feeling of oxygen deprivation was starting to set in.

He released a little qi to sustain himself, but the consumption was rapid.

Then Android 18's hand reached over.

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward a cluster of reefs.

There was a hollow within the reef cluster, covered by rocks and coral, like the entrance to a basement.

Android 18 led him inside.

There was an air bubble inside.

It wasn't large. Surrounded and sealed by reefs, it held a layer of air.

Probably enough for one person to stand in.

She pushed him into the bubble.

Chen Mo's head entered the bubble, and he took a deep breath.

The salty scent of the ocean, but oxygen.

He turned back to look at Android 18.

She was outside the bubble, in the water, leaning against the reef wall.

Androids didn't need to breathe. She had no need for that bubble.

She had given it to him.

[Emotion collection target's emotional fluctuation: possessiveness (extremely strong), persistence (moderate), protective instinct (rising).]

[Emotion value being collected in large quantities.]

[Current emotion value: cumulative total has exceeded the threshold.]

[Unlock progress:...]

The system window flashed through his mind, its progress bar turning.

Chen Mo leaned against the reef wall and caught his breath a few times. Then he steadied his qi, formed another layer around his mouth and nose, and submerged his head back into the water.

He looked at Android 18.

She was right in front of him, less than half a meter away.

Water pressure and currents flowed through her hair, strands of golden bangs clinging to her cheeks.

At this depth, her eyes had turned deep blue, blending perfectly with the color of the sea. It was impossible to tell where the boundary lay.

She was looking at him.

Directly.

Without concealment or evasion, simply staring at him.

Chen Mo didn't look away.

The two of them were in a crack between the reefs, twenty meters beneath the sea. Above them, Cell was still searching. Beside them were reefs and dark currents. There was nothing else.

The system chimed in his mind.

[Infinite King Kai Fist emotion collection has reached the threshold.]

[Multiplier unlocked: Tenfold King Kai Fist.]

[Battle power upon activation: 50000.]

Chen Mo stared at that number for two seconds.

Fifty thousand.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Fifty thousand.

He opened his eyes.

Android 18 was still looking at him.

Chen Mo leaned a little closer, near her ear. Sound weakened underwater, so he compressed his qi into a line and sent his voice over through vibrations.

It was an unconventional trick he had figured out from the Kamehameha.

"Thank you."

He meant the bubbles.

Android 18's lips moved, but no sound came out underwater. Still, he was close enough to see what she was mouthing.

She said:

"You owe me."

The shadow overhead was slowly moving east.

Cell had not given up. He was still searching.

Chen Mo quietly took out the scanner against the reef wall, set it to its lowest power, and took a glance.

Cell's signal.

It was still above the surface.

It had moved northeast.

But it had slowed down, as if circling around.

He was uncertain about this direction, but he had not completely given up either.

Chen Mo put the scanner away and leaned back against the reef wall.

The current flowed through the crevice. The reef wall was cold, with seaweed clinging to it.

He and Android 18 were wedged into this crevice, their shoulders nearly touching. The rocks had forced them this close, yet neither moved away.

The system was silent.

So was the seafloor.

There was only the sound of the current, and the lingering shadow cast by that dark shape overhead.

The shadow above moved.

Leaning against the reef wall, Chen Mo felt the pressure of that electromagnetic wave sweep over them again.

This time, it was weaker than before. Cell was increasing the distance.

He pressed the scanner to the reef crevice and switched it on at minimum power.

Cell's signal.

Northeast. He was accelerating away from the surface.

Chen Mo watched for three seconds, confirming the direction. Cell was not heading southeast.

He had gone northeast.

Toward Android 17.

Cell had given up searching for them.

He had chosen the easier target to find.

Chen Mo turned off the scanner, leaned back against the reef wall, and let out a breath.

Android 18 was also watching the surface.

The shadow overhead finally vanished completely.

Sunlight filtered down through the surface again, scattering flecks of light through the dark green water.

They were safe. For now.

Chen Mo did not move immediately.

His body was still lodged in this reef crevice on the seafloor, his shoulder against a stone wall covered in seaweed, with Android 18 to his left.

Her injuries were serious.

Chen Mo turned his head and took a look.

Android 18 leaned against the reef opposite him. Beneath the tear in her gi at her left shoulder was a deep abrasion, its edges purple with bruising, as though something blunt had slammed into her hard.

It was no ordinary scrape. The impact of a punch from Broly in Super Saiyan form could smash a crater into a city.

How long had Android 18 endured it?

Her face was very pale.

Not the normal pale complexion of an android, but the pallor of poor circulation.

Androids had perpetual-motion engines and limitless energy, but half of her body's tissues were human.

That half could be injured. It could feel pain.

"How long have you been staring at me?"

Android 18's voice carried over from the water, weakened considerably but still clear enough.

"I was assessing your injuries."

"Finished assessing?"

"The wound on your left shoulder is deep. At least two ribs are injured. And that cut on your right ankle hasn't healed either."

Android 18 raised her ankle and glanced at it.

The wound had been soaked in seawater for nearly an hour, and its edges had turned white.

"I won't die."

"You won't die. But you can't beat Cell in your current condition."

Android 18 said nothing.

She lowered her ankle and leaned back against the reef wall again.

The current flowed through the cracks, carrying seaweed and fine sand.

Her hair drifted in the water, golden strands clinging to her neck and collarbones. The collar of her gi fluttered slightly open in the current.

Chen Mo shifted his gaze back to the scanner.

"Cell has gone to find Android 17," he said.

Android 18's eyes moved slightly.

"Android 17?"

"Cell has to absorb both of you to evolve. He lost you, so he switched targets. Android 17 is easier to find. He won't hide his energy, and Cell can track the electromagnetic signal of a perpetual-motion machine."

Android 18 straightened up. The water slid past her waist.

"I'm going to find Android 17."

"If you go looking for Android 17 in your current state, Cell can take both of you in one go."

Android 18 stopped.

Chen Mo said, "Android 17's combat power isn't lower than yours right now. He'll have no problem holding out alone for a while."

"How do you know?"

"Because after the two of you killed all the Z Fighters, there were no opponents for four whole years. Android 17 isn't like you. You fight with technique. He fights by instinct. With no opponents for four years, your technique wouldn't decline, but his combat instincts kept growing."

Chen Mo paused.

"In Cell's timeline, the Android 17 Cell absorbed was weaker than the one in this timeline. Because there were Z Fighters in that timeline, and Android 17 never fought that many tough battles."

Android 18 looked at him.

"You mean Android 17 in this timeline is stronger than Cell expected."

"That's right. Cell is going to suffer."

Northeast. Three hundred kilometers away.

In the middle of a mountain range split in two.

Cell landed atop a pile of rubble in the valley.

Its compound eyes still flickered occasionally from the lingering effects of Solar Flare.

It was in a bad mood.

A human. A human with a combat power of less than fifty thousand.

He had used Solar Flare to blind it, then taken Android 18 away.

Taken her away right under its nose.

Cell's tail lashed out behind it, smashing a three-meter-tall boulder to pieces.

No rush.

Android 18 couldn't escape.

This planet was only so large. As long as her electromagnetic signal appeared in any area free from interference, it could lock onto her.

It would deal with Android 17 first.

After absorbing Android 17 and becoming Semi-Perfect Form, its strength would multiply several times over. Finding Android 18 afterward would be much easier.

Cell looked up. Five kilometers ahead lay the ruins of a small town. Android 17's electromagnetic signal was there, completely motionless.

It flew forward.