A southern island, Earth
The once-idyllic island was wrecked yet again craters, scorched earth, the works.
(Island: please stop coming here!)
Goku's Solar Flare blindsided almost everyone. Only Krillin and Gohan managed to shut their eyes in time.
Vegeta, Raditz, Nappa, and Piccolo all clutched at their faces, vision blown out to white.
"Damn you, Kakarot! Where do you even learn all these ridiculous tricks?!" Vegeta snarled, rubbing his eyes.
"Son Goku… so you know Solar Flare too?"
Schlrrp
Cell's answer was pure brutality: he dug his own eyes out with two fingers then instantly regenerated fresh ones. Against Goku's unorthodox style, he refused to be caught off guard again.
"Whoa! You're really hard on yourself," Goku said, genuinely impressed.
"Enough kiddie games, Son Goku. I'm done holding back," Cell replied, tone gone cool.
"That so? Great! It's been a while since I've had a fight this good. Come at me don't hold back. My whole body's shaking." Goku's grin was all adrenaline.
A cold wind whipped by.
They faced off two pressure fronts colliding then vanished.
Bam-bam-bam!
Fists, legs, elbows dozens of exchanges in a heartbeat.
Golden afterimages chased and crashed, the ground bucking underfoot. Every collision peeled the air apart; every shockwave scorched the island darker.
(Island: are you done yet?!)
Thanks to Shenron's reinforcement, the damage mostly skinned the surface. Otherwise half the ring of fire would be going off by now.
On the sidelines, everyone's blood ran hot they wanted in.
"Four Witches Technique!" Cell roared. Two extra arms burst from his shoulders.
Drrr-dr-dr-dr!
Four-armed punches hammered at Goku like a living machine gun.
The sudden shift clipped Goku off rhythm hundreds of strikes blasted him across the sky and into the sea.
Tien had used this technique on Goku back at the World Martial Arts Tournament. Then, Goku's sheer speed let him outpace the extra arms. Now, Cell was faster. Goku couldn't simply overwhelm him.
He sank below the waves, thinking hard.
"…Got it!" A spark lit Goku's eyes.
"Son Goku get up here!"
This time Cell didn't dive. He peppered the splash zone with ki blasts, wary of another cave-trap.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Goku burst from the water and met him head-on.
"My databanks say you've beaten the Four Witches before," Cell warned. "But not this time. You're not fast enough to smother me."
"Heh fight me and find out."
Goku surged. Cell's four fists crashed down Goku blocked with arms and shins, then caught two wrists: the right from a new shoulder, the left from the original.
"I've got legs too," Cell sneered, snapping a high kick straight for Goku's groin.
Goku clamped both thighs together and trapped the kick midair.
"Ha! Can't run now!"
With Goku's legs committed, Cell's two free arms whipped forward
"Been waiting," Goku's eyes flashed.
He wrenched the new right arm pop out of its socket. With the left, he snaked Cell's original wrist up and across, jamming it against the freshly dislocated limb. Pain froze Cell for an instant enough for Goku to repeat the trap on the other side, knotting all four arms together across Cell's chest.
"Four arms come with four problems," Goku said, almost cheerful.
"Bastard!" Cell tried to tear free but every wiggle made three joints scream.
" Tch!" Pain forced a hiss through his teeth.
Goku didn't waste the opening. A flurry of punches crashed down aimed right at the tangled bundle. Flesh tore. The once-bulky forearms thinned to paper, skin flapping over pulp.
"Enough! GET OFF ME!"
Cell detonated his aura. A green barrier ballooned to a ten-meter dome, blasting Goku away. The technique he'd gleaned from Android 17, pushed to its limit.
"Hah… hah…" Cell panted, trembling.
His four ruined arms simply snapped off and fell.
"Whoa Piccolo, your genes can do the 'lizard tail drop' thing, too?" Gohan blinked.
"Who'd sit around snapping their own arms off for fun?" Piccolo deadpanned, lips twitching.
Slick!
Two pristine arms regrew in a breath.
"Damn you… damn you… Son Goku!" Humiliation boiled over. He was stronger so why did Goku keep leading him by the nose?
Rage blew the lid clean off.
A tyrannical surge ripped out of Cell. His aura jetted like a blast furnace; blue-white lightning stitched across his skin. The sky curdled black. Thunderheads rolled in. The earth shuddered.
In a blink the world went dark and loud, as if the heavens were celebrating his metamorphosis.
"Good grief the whetstone turned into the blade," Gohan said, half-admiring, half-exasperated. "Didn't expect him to hit Super Saiyan Two first."
"What's going on, Gohan? That ?" Vegeta glanced over.
"Exactly what it looks like. He's pushed into the Super Saiyan 2 tier," Gohan answered flatly. "No idea whether my dad has more in reserve."
Goku's own buildup from the last exchanges wasn't small his power had climbed from about 10 billion to 18. But watching Cell's transformation, his brows drew tight.
"Yikes… I don't think I can win now. But I still wanna keep fighting," he muttered, stubborn as ever.
One look at Goku told Gohan all he needed no SSJ2 breakthrough yet.
Alright. Then it's my turn… he thought though he held his tongue. He'd step in after Goku called it himself.
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