Disclaimer
All original content is owned by Akira Toriyama and his affiliates.
Prologue:
As night falls across a vast part of the world, many people finally rest easy after the weeks of living in terror from the monster known as Cell. They sleep peacefully with the knowledge that a man by the name of Hercule Satan was the bringer of Cell's downfall. The day had been filled with mixed emotions for them all. First there was tension over the upcoming battle, then cheers of joy came when their champion, Hercule, made his stand against Cell. This was quickly followed by fear that their champion had lost for good but hope was brought alive by the weird looking guy with a golden pineapple for hair and the sudden appearance of other warriors who seemed vaguely familiar to some. The speeds that he and Cell made were so fast that people were angry that the technology of a simple camera man could not keep up with the fight but when they could see the battle rage on, the people of the earth looked on in awe at the spectacle and some would swear they could feel each punch and kick that connected as if they were right there on the battlefield. Many had trouble believing their eyes and cried out at the impossibility of such feats as energy blasts and flying acrobatics much like their champion. Others who watched knew better and hoped for the best as a last ditch blast of enormous energy from the palms of this strange fellow blew point blank into Cell. But as many would later say, that was not enough and Cell regenerated his body to continue on and batter the now exhausted golden pineapple haired man. Sure, Cell had taken some loss in his power in order to recover from that blast, but it was clear who had more stamina to see the battle to the end.
It was at this point that a smaller golden haired person was called to battle Cell. At first, everyone thought that he would be a delivery boy for something of importance since this person was just a child at only ten years old. A ten year old fighting such a monster as Cell? Yeah, right! Even Cell was scoffing at the notion. As it turned out the boy jumped into the fray to fight Cell and began putting up his own fight. He even started going toe to toe with the monster. That was until Cell seemingly took the upper hand once again and put the boy in a painful body hold. Horrifying but unable to do anything, the crowd just watched in stunned silence as the boy cried out in pain with his body slowly being crushed. They thought his bones would break and another person would fall victim to the monster's unstoppable wrath. Without warning Cell, dropped the boy on the ground and began creating miniature blue copies of himself. Was it seven or was it eight? The people couldn't tell. Regardless, Cell ordered his "children" to attack the warriors on the sidelines. Brutal beatings were handed out and the young boy was forced to watch his friends struggle and then be killed by these mini atrocities.
For some reason unknown to the audience, a robot charged at Cell and attempted to destroy Cell with some bomb buried inside its body. This maneuver didn't work and the robot was blasted to pieces for the effort. All seemed lost to everyone when the head of that robot bounced over to their champion and spoke to him. Emboldened by this detached head (some people were confused to the craziness of this thought as they pondered the day's events later on), Hercule ran with the head in tow towards the little boy to bring him encouragement. Something strange happened in the next few minutes that the audience couldn't wrap their minds around as the camera shutoff and everyone was left in the dark. Only after several tense minutes (maybe five, maybe fifteen, maybe more) did they feel the earth shaking all around them and fear the worst was coming. Panic struck all around the world as everyone braced for the end in whatever manner they felt eased their pain. Some sat down and cried some committed mass murders, but many darted here and there in frantic and futile attempts to avoid the end of their lives. Then all was quiet and for several minutes the entire world seemed to be asleep as nobody made a sound. The world continued to exist and people began to wonder if it was all just a dream or if maybe Cell had been defeated after all. Several minutes passed before sound returned to the black screens of all the televisions. It was the announcer from the Cell Games. Cell had been defeated and Hercule was their champion.
The entire world erupted into celebration. The announcer said that Hercule would be traveling to Orange Star City to receive the honorary title of World Savior later that afternoon. He encouraged as many people to attend as possible and said that all camera functionality would be restored in time for the ceremony. During Hercule's speeches in the days leading up to the Cell Games, he had convinced many sponsors that he would take Cell down and they had prepared for the occasion even though doubt crept into their minds during the show down with Cell. Still, all worked out in the end and this was one event that they were sure to make the whole world remember for a long time to come.
And so the world partied on that day after so much tension. Weirdly enough, all of the soldiers who were killed by Cell during the military strike a few days earlier returned to life. Though initial reactions from their loved ones were that of surprise and fear, everyone eventually accepted it as a miracle that happened from the heavens. Hercule would later point out that this was just a trick of Cell's doing and that he had rigged the field to ensnare all the soldiers into an underground prison he had been working on for weeks. As crazy as that sounded, it just had to be true. Who would question the words of the man who defeated Cell? At any rate, this was the time to party and rejoice with being alive and having a world to live it in for tomorrow, there would be need to rebuild many cities and towns to their former status. Not to mention, roundup criminals who took advantage of people's fear during Cell's reign of terror.
As the world partied, those who know the truth of the battles that took place seek rest in seclusion, in particular, the young boy who ascended past all previously known limits and ended the terror from Cell. Gohan could not have accomplished the feat without the aid of his father, Goku, and companions: Krillin, Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, Trunks (from a future world), and surprisingly the Saiyan Prince Vegeta. Gohan's body was ravaged physically and emotionally during those battles. While his friend and world guardian, Dende, healed the physical pains, emotionally it would take more time to heal. When someone dies in battle the dragon balls can be called to help him or her return, even if they are not Earth's dragon balls. When someone dies in battle and doesn't want to return, it affects those connected to that person very deeply, especially if one of those connections is the ten year old son of the deceased.
As young Gohan attempts to have a normal life without his dad around, life also moves on from Cell for the world around him. How he handles his own life and that of the world around him post Cell, is where the story really begins.