The hunger hadn't gone away. If anything, it had gotten worse, gnawing at me from the inside. It wasn't just in my stomach anymore, like my soul itself was screaming to devour. or something, doesn't matter really. I just needed it to go away.
"Food..." I muttered, clutching my stomach as I stumbled forward. Every step was shaky, but I forced my legs to move, driven more by instinct than reason.
Eventually, I found a hallway. At the end of it stood a door. It loomed at least twice my height, its surface thick and looking solid enough to stop a tank without leaving a scratch. The sight stirred something familiar in my mind.
The vault looked similar to the one from the android saga, the one that could stop most of the human fighters. My fingers brushed its cold, metallic surface. No keypad. No handle. No hinges in sight.
"How the hell am I supposed to get out of here?"
I swayed, barely staying upright. The hunger surged again, violent and overwhelming. My vision blurred.
Then everything went… fuzzy...?
It felt like I'd been shoved into the passenger seat of my own body, happened so fast I almost didn't notice.
My hand moved on its own, pulling back into a fist. Energy sparked around it - dark pink, shot through with flashes of light.
Wha-?
No time to think. My arm shot forward and drove straight into the centre of the vault door.
The explosion that followed was immediate. Light flared across the hallway, a burst of heat and smoke slamming into my face. Metal screeched like it was being torn in half. The blast forced me back a step, snapping me out of whatever autopilot I'd just been hijacked by. I coughed through the settling dust, blinking hard.
It wasn't enough. The damage was big, sure - a crater dented deep into the middle of the vault, with a chunk partially torn out - but it hadn't gone all the way through. That door was stupidly thick. And strong, considering I had to be atleast Buu saga levels of strong. But it might be me just being extremely new to ki or something.
I looked down at my hand. My wrist buzzed faintly, almost like it had been overcharged. I flexed it once, twice, and shook it a bit. It felt weird. Not painful, just... off.
"What the hell was that?"
The glow was gone. So was the heat. My hand was just a hand again.
My head felt clearer. Like I'd just woken up from a bad dream.
Still, something inside me growled. Hunger grew to claw at me again, but I resisted, more interested in what I had done.
"Well," I muttered, squinting at the half-destroyed vault. My stomach twisted, sharp and unforgiving. "At least I know I can use Ki. I should be able to replicate that again, right?"
I didn't know where the move had come from. Maybe muscle memory? The Cell's doing something on autopilot? Logical enough. But logic didn't fill the hole in my gut. I needed food. Now.
And to get it, I needed, out of this place.
I inhaled slowly and raised my hand toward the dented section. This time I did it with intention, thinking back to that sensation. That build-up. I pulled at it like I would a muscle, and almost instantly, I felt it again. something warm and dense collecting in my palm.
When I opened my eyes, it was there. A ball of energy.
Ki.
Black and pink swirled together, glowing like something lifted straight from the game. It gave off a soft heat, pulsing gently with power.
"Holy shit," I whispered, hunger completely forgotten.
I was holding a Ki blast.
I couldn't resist. I let it drift from hand to hand, watching how it shimmered and pulsed. Controlling it wasn't as impossible as I'd feared. A gentle push sent it hovering a little higher. A subtle twist changed its shape. It was like learning how to play a game on easy mode.
For a moment, I was caught up in the wonder of it. This power, this sensation, it was incredible. The frustration and hunger that had clawed at me moments ago seemed miles away.
But that joy didn't last.
A white-hot pang ripped through my stomach, more urgent than anything I'd ever felt. Every fibre of me screamed to be fed. I clenched my teeth and dropped the Ki orb. It winked out, leaving my hand cold and empty. I swallowed.
I had to get out, to find something to fill me up.
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to stand up straighter despite the twisting ache. I needed to get out of here. Find something, anything, to eat before this hunger tears me apart.
My gaze flicked back to the vault door.
I lifted my hand, steadying my breath, and let instinct guide me. Energy welled in my palm, coalescing into that same swirling mass of pink and black light. It roared out like a lance of fire, hitting the metal with an ear-splitting blast.
In an instant, the door was obliterated. Nothing left but mere molten scraps and shimmering dust.
I stood there in the quiet, shoulders rising and falling as the remnants of power faded from my fingertips. For a split second, I considered being impressed with myself.
Then my stomach twisted again, snapping me back to the present.
I took a step forward, noting the narrow staircase just beyond the destroyed vault. It spiralled upward tightly, hugging a wall of smooth concrete. But something was off; it ended in what looked like a solid wall.
A hidden wall?
I didn't waste time. With another blast, I fired upward, expecting an easy breakthrough.
Nothing.
The wall held.
Same material as the vault door, I realised, lips curling into an annoyed grimace.
Fine.
I poured more energy into the next strike, focusing harder, letting my irritation sharpen the flow. The beam this time was tighter, a solid stream of destruction. It carved clean through the wall, and then kept going, slicing through layers of reinforced stone, even the rocky cave walls, until, at last, light spilt through the edges.
A perfect circle of sunlight burned at the end of the tunnel.
I ran.
The stone beneath my feet vibrated from the aftershocks of my blast, loose debris crumbling in my wake. As I approached the opening, fresh air hit me for the first time, a sudden rush of wind, crisp and pure compared to the stale laboratory air I'd been breathing for… who even knows how long?
But as I reached the exit, I realised something too late.
It was high.
Really high.
The lab (Dr. Gero's) had been built into the mountain. A hidden base buried deep into stone and reinforced beyond reason, and I had just punched a tunnel straight out of the side of a cliff. Then jumped off... said self-made cliff.
"Ah, cra-"
Gravity grabbed me by the throat, ready to ground slam me.
I dropped like a rock, flailing awkwardly through the air before slamming into a steep incline of dirt and grass. The hill wasn't kind. I bounced. I tumbled. A bush smacked me in the face.
I hit the bottom in a heap of limbs, momentum finally dying out.
"...Ow," I muttered, blinking up at the sky.
Weirdly, I didn't hurt. At all. No bruises or broken bones, just some tangled hair and a slight wobble in my balance.
I slowly sat up, brushing grass and dirt from my clothes, then glanced back at the slope I'd just barrel-rolled down like a ball.
The mountain loomed above, jagged and dark against the soft blue of the sky. My escape tunnel was a perfect, smouldering hole 2/3 up its face.
"Right," I muttered dryly, flicking a leaf from my bangs. "Gero's lab is inside a goddamn mountain. I'm an idiot."
I exhaled, leaning back on my hands. "Whatever. I'm pretty sure I literally can't die. Not from fall damage, anyway. And even if I somehow did, I could probably heal. Still… maybe I should avoid flinging myself off cliffs unless absolutely necessary."
I stood, stretching out the stiffness in my back, and turned my gaze to the world around me. It was quiet. A thick stretch of mountain range surrounded me, with trees sparsely dotting the landscape like scattered pawns on a chessboard. Wind whispered through pine needles. No cities. No sounds of life. Just wilderness.
I turned back to the mountain, eyes narrowing.
Should I… destroy it?
It's not like it really matters. The whole Android thing is basically over, Cell Max isn't even relevant until, what, at minimum 5 years? And that's only because Gero's grandson got involved. Even then, it wasn't really a threat cause he's a good guy and Gohan being Gohan. Still, just in case there's some hidden final backup… a last, last... last resort? If Cell was Gero's last card, then maybe I'm the last last resort to kill Goku. Anyway, if that's true, then maybe I should just-
I gasped, doubling over. My legs trembled, and I fell to one knee. It was worse than before. Like my organs were folding in on themselves. My vision blurred. I clutched my stomach with one hand, the other digging into the dirt for support.
Then, my body moved on its own. Mind foggy, like a player 2 had intruded,
I staggered toward a nearby rock (more like a small boulder, really) about the size of a watermelon. I didn't think. I just grabbed it.
Pink lightning crackled across my fingertips.
Zap.
The rock shimmered, then pulsed, and in a blink, it changed. It wasn't a rock anymore.
It was a perfectly round, glossy ball of candy. Strawberry pink with little sparkles, wrapped in a bow made of crystallised sugar. It even smelled sweet.
I blinked, still crouched over, and without even questioning it, I shoved it into my mouth and bit down hard.
Instantly, like magic, the pain was gone. Eased. Erased. The raw ache that had been tearing through my gut just... vanished. Warmth surged through my chest like someone had poured molten light straight into my veins.
"MMmmm!" I let out an involuntary noise as the taste hit me, sickeningly sweet, but in the best possible way. I dropped onto my back without thinking, dazed, staring up at the clouds as the sugar settled into my system like a warm bath.
The candy was still in my hand, a deep bite missing from its side.
"...What the hell was that? Again…?"
I waited for confusion, for panic, for… something. But the sugar rush must've short-circuited my brain, because I just lay there and chewed slowly, blinking. Oddly, considering the whole possession a good thing. "You know what, I don't care, it's a good thing if it keeps doing stuff like this"
"You know what?" I mumbled around another bite, "I don't care. If my body wants to do freaky crap like this… go right ahead. it makes things all the easier for me."
With that, I shoved the rest of the candy into my mouth and devoured it, not bothering with any kind of grace.
.
.
.
The hunger came back. Not as sharp as before, but still there. The ache was quieter but still wanted to consume more.
Good thing everything around me was edible.
A/N, hope you enjoyed. I believe that the build might be a bit boring, but I do plan for the next one to be more interesting. Also
again, i am dumb, and really just want to have fun. so there might be an ass pull of a plot point, but. eh. Conflict is fun.