Chapter Text
The stadium quickly filled up once the crowd came, packing tightly into the seating. There was barely enough room, many having to pack in against the stone barrier and stand to watch the fight.
Gohan wasn’t surprised to see so many familiar faces, with Raditz and the Ginyus waving at him from one set of seats. Apparently a few others he knew joined in with them, Nappa and Zarbon being the most obvious, but he was surprised to see Turles and his crew packed in by them. It almost made him want to go and chat with them, but knew it wasn’t the best time to do that.
Not with Cell’s motley ki feeling impatient already.
Looking over at Cell, Gohan set himself up into a combat pose, his arms forward and fingers slightly curled as he readied himself. His eyes narrowed in focus and he channeled a bit of power into his limbs, choosing not going into full power until he gauged Cell’s strength.
“Ready for the warm up?”
“Oh? This isn’t your peak?” Cell teased not so kindly, flexing his arms before dropping into a martial stance as well. “I was worried that I wasn’t going to get much out of you for this fight.”
“You know how much power hides in me,” Gohan’s gaze tightened. “But this time, you won’t have to force it out. I’ll be happy to show you when its time.”
“Hoohoho, is that a bit of courage I hear? Or just unwarranted arrogance?” Cell set his teeth in a vicious and bloodthirsty grin, the small twitches of his frame indicating his eagerness to start throwing everything he could at Gohan.
“You were the king of that.” Gohan cocked his head, baiting Cell to charge. “Let’s see if you’ve actually improved in the 15 years you’ve waited for me, or if you’re still mostly full of hot air.”
“See this!”
Cell finally snapped and snarled as he launched forward, dashing straight with one foot forward until it snapped down between Gohan’s standing legs and he swung a fist straight at Gohan’s face. The crack of knuckles against false bone, sinew and skin was dramatic as a thunderclap as Gohan raised his arms in a cross-block that stopped Cell’s fist and swept his leg low to catch Cell’s feet, only for Cell to back-flip out of range close back to his starting position.
Gohan didn’t let up as he flashed forward in chase, nearly cracking Cell’s jaw with a barely dodged uppercut, but managing to clip a piece off of his antennae. The damage didn’t seem to even phase Cell as he dipped down and tried to slash at Gohan’s middle, only catching a piece of his gi within his short claws. Gohan pushed Cell back roughly, making them both stumble backwards and re-gauge each other for a second.
The crowd buzzed around them, awed noises echoing against the polished stone. They had been moving relatively slow, so their brief sparring had been visible to the audience and not mere flashes of light to all but the best fighters.
Cell cocked his head at Gohan, the insectile jerking movement of the way he did so was both fascinating and disturbing. “You’ve kept up.”
“Yeah,” Gohan coolly replied, “I just got back into shape.”
“Have you now…?” Cell’s response had a bit of poison to it. A sort of ugly miasma of disgust and perhaps jealousy hung around the words.
“Things have been peaceful since you.” Gohan shrugged. “Pardon me for being a kid for the rest of my childhood.”
“Hmph, can’t relate.” Cell snorted, though Gohan raised an eyebrow at the statement.
But Cell didn’t give him the opportunity to process the bit of pity he felt curling in his chest, as he quickly jumped back into throwing punches at Gohan. Gohan parried back, their fist deflecting off of each other as they rapidly shot punch after punch. This went on as they rose into the air together, curling around each other in a frenetic waltz.
Cell broke the rhythm by sweeping his leg upward, cracking Gohan in the jaw before flashing above him and kicking him straight back down into the hard ground, leaving a huge crack in the stadium floor. Gohan was only dazed for a moment, quickly rolling out of the way of the huge punch in the spot where he had just been and jumping back into standing once more. While Cell’s fist was buried into the floor, Gohan took the opening and span a roundhouse kick right into Cell’s face and sent him skidding across the smoothed surface.
Gohan straightened himself upright as he watched Cell jump back to his feet, rubbing the pebbles and bit of atomized rock off his face. “So, you ready to actually start?”
Cell locked his eyes onto Gohan’s, staring at him hard. “Let’s.”
Power erupted from the two forms as they charged their power. The shouts ripping from their throats were nearly deafened by the crackling energy and wind blasting all around them. The energy swirled into an aura around each of them, an aurora of color and light shifting through the spectrum before settling on a golden sun-like shine.
Gohan knew his hair shimmered gold and eyes were an oceanic green-blue, the power of the very soul of the natural world flowing through him. Looking over his foe, though he lacked any hair and his eyes remained magenta, Gohan could tell that the same energy coursed through Cell. They had both gone super saiyan.
Blocking out the noise of the people around them wasn’t too hard, their energy snapping and fizzing loud enough to overcome much of the shouts and cheers. But it was still noticeable to Gohan’s ear, especially when he heard the crowd cheer his name specifically.
The way Cell’s eyes narrowed harshly, the tensing of his knuckles as he got back into proper stance, it pinched at something in Gohan’s mind.
‘Is he upset...that people are cheering for me?’
Gohan loosely pulled himself into a similar stance, his toes pointing in different directions to be able to dodge Cell depending on which way Cell was going to approach him. He wasn’t sure if he should go ahead and goad Cell into attacking, but decided to throw a bit of bait out to see if Cell would bite. “Not the way you planned this going, is it?”
Cell growled, but didn’t spring for it. “And what do you know of my plans?”
“I know you well enough by now, and you haven’t changed much since I beat you last.” Gohan evenly responded, the echoing in his voice from the power in him made him sound almost holy. “You want to be recognized and feared by all, to be so dreaded that no one feels like they have any hope of survival when you’re nearby.”
“And you think they don’t fear me?” Cell snapped, teeth clacking together hard with every word.
“Not with me around.” Gohan smirked. “And that’s the rub, isn’t it? That I inspire hope in those weaker than you, that they feel safe since I’m around. With me here, they aren’t afraid of you.”
Cell let out a roar and charged forward with an enraged punch straight at Gohan’s mouth, determined to silence him as he was inching too close to the truth for Cell’s comfort. But Gohan, instead of dodging as planned, locked himself in place and caught the fist in his arms, elbows snapped together and one hand holding the twitching hand.
Watching Cell brace for a throw, Gohan chose to pull him closer to his face, making the bio-android stumble in surprise at the movement. It would leave Gohan somewhat open to a counter attack, but it was a necessary risk for what Gohan wanted to do.
He leaned forward into Cell’s face, and quietly spoke. “You’re a bully, Cell. You want other people to fear you, because deep down, you’re still the weak little larvae you started out as. You’re afraid of being hurt again, especially by me.”
Cell’s face twisted, eyes sharp as he held himself together. “Your psychoanalyzing won’t work, you damned fool. You’re terrified of me, I can smell it!”
“Sure I am.” Gohan nodded. “You are terrifying to me, but you know what? I’m a pretty brave guy when it comes down to it. My fear gives me the resolve to fight back, while yours just makes you put up a front of perfection.”
“A front!?” Cell shrieked, cracking his head right into Gohan’s, shocking Gohan enough to lose the grip he had on his arm.
“This is no front, you stupid brat!!” Cell seized the momentary stun to kick Gohan hard in the gut and sweep his feet out from under him with his tail lengthening and lashing out. Soaring up into the air, his wings flared out and teeth bared and wet, he pulled his hands back, power charging and glowing harshly from between his fingers.
“I am PERFECT!” Cell screamed, Gohan raising back up to his feet from the blow, glaring up at Cell as he watched the power turn solid. The technique all too familiar to Gohan as he braced for it.
“Ka-me...ha-me…” Cell’s voice shouted over the roar of power surrounding them, breakages in the stadium starting to happen as the rock loosened and broke, particles of the stone and debris floating into the air as it was lifted by the static charge.
“HAAAAAA!!”
The blast of pure energy shot right at Gohan, like a heavy laser or ball of fire bursting from a cannon. The heat off the storm of power was enough to liquefy sand and burn flesh if one wasn’t strong enough to take it.
But this power was familiar, his dad’s energy screaming out inside of it like a distance voice for his ears only. Gohan’s eyes narrowed from the light burning into them. But he stood still and braced himself with ki swirling close to his body like a thin glowing aura, and simply let the attack hit him, a loud explosion blasting out dirt and stone all over as the crowd cried out in fright.
Cell floated above him, arrogance coloring his ki as he no doubt assumed that Gohan would be severely hurt, if not knocked out from the blow. But as the dust cloud cleared, revealing Gohan calmly standing where the massive blast had hit, no worse for wear, that feeling changed right back into rage.
“You know, hitting me with my father’s attack doesn’t do much good anymore.” Gohan snidely spat out, “Not such a weak version of it, anyways.”
“WEAK!?”
“Yeah, weak.” Gohan grinned with all teeth and no joy. “I know you’ve got more than that, Cell. I’m not eleven anymore. Come on, surely you’ve improved since then, right?”
Cell let out a bellow before shooting hundreds of small ki blasts, the yellow spheres coming down like a rain of bullets all around him as Gohan launched into the air, darting right at Cell. He dodged and swerved around the balls of yellow-ish electricity, and flashed right into Cell’s face as they began fighting in earnest in the sky.
Kicks and punches hard enough to sound like cracks of thunder rang out, blow after blow of angry hits as they laid into each other hard. Gohan felt an elbow jam into the side of his jaw and it briefly blacked out his vision, before he boxed Cell’s ears in retribution and making his eyes involuntarily roll.
They were both locked in an almost cinematic fight as their power only rose the more fierce they got. The stunning level of rage and desperation to prove themselves was pushing them both to heights of power that the audience had never witnessed. The excited cheering and hollering from the crowd below further exciting them into a frenzy.
From the way Cell looked at him, Gohan could see a mix of hate and joy flickering in his eyes, loving the fight but hating his rival more than anything. Gohan kept himself in place, keeping his emotions to himself as best as possible, but he had to admit to himself.
He was enjoying the fight as well, and that disturbed him.