~GROWL~

"Ugh I'm so hungry," Dani groaned as she floated up in the air with her tail wrapped comfortably around her waist. "There must be a city around here somewhere," she murmured as she looked around and successfully spotted a town nearby. "Hang in there, mommy needs you!" she addressed her stomach as she took off towards the town.

She landed near the 'Welcome to Nicky Town' sign and sought out a place to eat. Her sights landed upon a buffet down the road and off she went to begin her feast.

Once she had eaten her fill, she watched the TV overhead when gunshots could be heard echoing from the outside accompanied by the faint screams of people out in the distance. Everyone in the building went dead silent as she wandered outside, curiosity getting the better of her. It was completely silent which was most unusual considering the town had been so lively when she arrived not that long ago.

More gunshots sounded in the distance. She couldn't help but get a really bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and she knew it wasn't the food. The faint sound of cries for help and people shouting getting closer and louder didn't help.

Suddenly, many screaming people came into view as they appeared to be running away from a certain part of town. Her curiosity beat out her better judgement as she flew up and over to where the people were coming from. By then she could hear no more gunshots. Hovering above the town, her eyes widened at what she saw.

Scattered throughout the ground were the clothing of people, yet not a single person was in sight. She touched down on the streets to get a better look at the clothing. There were no traces of the people yet each set of clothing had a similar tear-like puncture.

This was getting weird.

She snapped out of her thoughts when gunshots sounded from the direction of the buffet, only this time the gunshots and screaming didn't last long as everything quickly went eerily quiet. She immediately flew back and was disturbed to find more clothing on the floor yet again no signs of the people. Okay this was getting really weird.

She flew above the town in search of any life but found none. Then out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she spotted something below. Touching down she was unfortunately only met with more sets of clothes.

"Well would you look at that, it seems as though I missed one," a raspy voice chuckled.

That… did not sound good. She slowly turned and was face to face with what she assumed to be the creature responsible for the events transpiring. Suddenly on edge, she jumped back to get some distance between that thing. When she noticed its tail, she assumed that's what had made those holes. Now she was most certain this thing was the one responsible… whatever the hell it was.

"Can I help you?" she slowly asked, not liking how this thing just kept staring at her.

It just stared at her with those slit-like eyes. Almost like a predator eying its prey…

"What a coincidence that I find you here, my dear. With your life energy, I can attain full power," he said.

It was weird. She didn't exactly favor suffering the same outcome as the rest of the townspeople but if anything, she was more confused than terrified at the moment.

"My what? Life energy? Full power? I don't have the slightest idea as to what you're talking about. But you're the one responsible for this, aren't you?"

The creature eyed her, amused at her air of indifference and lack of fear towards him. Everyone else would have ran already, yet here she stood.

"Indeed I am. My name is Cell, and I absorbed all of these people's life energy as a means to increase my own power. And as I was saying earlier, you appear to have more than enough for me to achieve my full power."

What the hell? So, he just killed all these people for the sake of his own being? And now he wanted to absorb her too? Like hell he would.

"Now my dear, do stay put and this will be over before you know it," he said as he began to walk towards her with that creepy tail and stinger right behind him. "Prepare to be a part of something far greater than you could ever imagine!" he called out as his stinger shot out directly at her.

She managed to jump back as it created a hole in the concrete.

"Whoa what the fu-"

"Hmm, you are fast my dear, but are you fast enough?" he exclaimed as he charged at her with an array of kicks and punches.

Man this guy was fast! She was just barely able to physically block, or dodge each of his attacks. He was powerful, but every time they came into contact, she could feel much more power than he was letting on against her. She needed an opening, the slightest break to give herself the chance to slip through and get the hell out of there. But first she needed to regain herself a bit. She continued to defend until she got an opening and landed a direct kick to the side of his head causing his head to snap to the side. She jumped back a few feet to make some distance between them and catch her breath.

She couldn't exactly make out his expression due to the shape of his face, but she could clearly see his eyes. His head was still to the side and his eyes, she could see them gleaming… almost as if in amusement.

Throughout the array of punches and kicks, her tail had slipped from around her waist and was now behind her. He turned his head back towards her and that's when his eyes fixed upon her tail. Oho how things were now getting interesting.

"A Saiyan, huh? My, now you are even worth more in absorbing into my being!" he chuckled.

"A what? A Saiyan? I don't have the slightest idea as to what you're talking about," she eyed him cautiously. "Is that- is that some type of slur? Did you just insult me or something? I don't…"

"You… You mean you don't know what a Saiyan is?" Now this was a surprise. Things were getting even more interesting for him. Oh how he could just imagine the power he would gain if he absorbed a Saiyan!

His stinger shot out towards her once again in an array of strikes as he continued to push her back. She continued to dodge until her back met with the hard surface of the building. Crap! Here came the stinger! She JUST managed to duck as his tail shot through the building and made it collapse. With his tail still through the building, she delivered a swift kick to his jaw and took off to the skies.

That was way too close, she thought as she looked back without stopping. She had to get as far away from there as possible! She turned back forward and immediately stopped. Her eyes widened as her face was inches away from his. Those eyes of his, they were smirking at her.

"You know my dear, in all of this fun, I never seemed to have gotten your name," he said with his arms crossed across his chest.

"Dani," was all she was able to spit out in her state of shock and disbelief that he could move so fast.

"Dani," he repeated in that raspy voice. "Nice to meet you Dani!" he exclaimed as he slammed his tail to her side and sent her flying to the Earth below.

She groaned out in pain as she crashed into a playground set in the park they had been hovering over.

"Mother fu-owww," she groaned out in pain, forcing herself to sit partly up as she saw him touch down on the grass.

He let out an evil chuckle as he approached her. "As much fun this has been, it is quite unfortunate that it must end."

Expecting his stinger to shoot out at her again, Dani was surprised when three shots of energy hit Cell from out of nowhere causing him to stagger back and away from her.

"Gah!" Cell grunted.

Someone had landed, no, it sounded like more than one person. Cell now had his back to her but that stinger was still hovering above her.

"Why hello there boys," Cell greeted. "Quite rude of you to drop in while I'm dealing with someone," he glanced back at Dani.

"Cell! Let her go!" Piccolo demanded as he and his three companions took a stance.

"Why would I do that Piccolo? She looks so delicious, I could just absorb her!" he let out an evil laugh as his stinger shot straight at her.

"NO!" they all called out as Dani's sharp cry of pain sounded. Dani was crying out in pain, yet Cell was growling in frustration.

"Hey wait!" Krillin exclaimed.

"Look!" Trunks called out as the dust settled.

Upon further inspection, Cell's stinger was caught in the ground and Dani was laying a little ways away holding what appeared to be her bloody right side. She had moved out of the way once again, but not fast enough for her side was cut in the process. Damn that thing cut her like a knife through butter. Well, she supposed it could have been worse.

"QUICK! GET HIM!" Piccolo ordered. "Krillin, Trunks, get the girl to safety. Tien and I will deal with Cell, now go!"

"Alright!"

Tien and Piccolo attacked Cell and lured him away from Dani so that Trunks and Krillin could get to her.

Trunks bent down and carefully grabbed Dani while Krillin kept a lookout on the battle.

"Uh, Krillin," Trunks began quite uncertainly as he held Dani.

"Yeah?" Krillin turned around only to widen his eyes. "I-is that. A tail?"

"I think so," Trunks replied.

"But I thought that only Saiyans had brown bushy tails like that!"

"I thought so too."

"TRUNKS. KRILLIN. GET OUT OF HERE!" Piccolo hollered.

"No time to ponder about it, we gotta go!" Krillin said as they took off.

Dani had one hand holding her side while the other wrapped around Trunk's neck so she could steady herself. As they were flying away, Dani looked over Trunk's shoulder and her eyes locked with Cell's. She faintly smirked and gave him her lucky middle finger salute. She could see the emotion in his eyes. That sure got to him. He was about to charge after the trio but Piccolo and Tien blocked his way which seemed to anger him even more.

Looks like I will be living after all. Suck on that, Cell.