Cell grinned as he flew down to where Gohan and Applejack were standing and landed behind them, though as they turned to face him, so they could keep track of what he was doing, he charged forward and started to throw attacks at whoever he was targeting. His first action was to advance on Gohan and throw a kick at him, which ended up being blocked, before he released a series of punches at his chosen target, though when Gohan tried to throw a punch back Cell moved out of the way and repeated the same process with Applejack. It quickly became clear that the Bio-Android was simply testing their skills, as he wanted to be sure that they could keep up with him, but for the moment it didn't seem like he was actually trying to slip passed their defenses at the moment.
After a few moments of testing their reflexes, and seeing what they were capable of, Cell forced them into the air and made them separate from each other, though when he tried to kick Gohan, however, the young Saiyan rolled through the air and returned to the ground. Cell decided that it was the better move to ignore Applejack for the moment, as he flew down to the ground and shattered it, though as Gohan flew into the air the Bio-Android smiled as he flew after his chosen opponent. When they reached the same level Rainbow had been on when using her Wrath, however, Cell overtook the young Saiyan and started throwing more punches at him, where he found that his foe was almost as fast as Rainbow was.
Cell decided, after a few seconds of not touching his opponent, to increase his speed a tiny bit more and slammed his face into Gohan's stunning his foe and allowing him to grab him by the collar of his gi... though before he could unleash a barrage of blows, however, Cell found a fist in the side of his face and went flying into a nearby rock wall.
"Thanks for the save." Gohan commented, rubbing the area that Cell had hit for a few seconds, though once the motion was done he glanced over at Applejack, as he was pleased to have her helping him.
"No problem." Applejack replied, though at the same time she kept her eyes on where Cell was resting, because there was no telling whether or not he was going to come out immediately or if he was going to wait inside the hole until he had a plan of attack, "Now he knows not to ignore one opponent when he has two people to fight... which means that we won't be able to do something like that again."
"Still, we can use our numbers to our advantage," Gohan sated, to which he also turned his attention back to where Cell was resting, because he knew that it was only a matter of time until their opponent showed himself.
Before Applejack could say anything, or even nod at what Gohan had said, Cell burst out of the rock wall and threw a ki blast at them, forcing them to separate once more, though instead of targeting only one of them, however, he used both of his hands and sent more ki blasts at them. It was painfully clear that he was trying to keep them separated, so he could determine who posed the greater threat to him winning the Cell Games and obliterating the planet, but both Applejack and Gohan continued to dodge the ki blasts so they could avoid taking damage. It was also clear that Goku was correct about his assumption that Cell had more power than he had been letting on when he told Goku to eat a Senzu Bean, which made it a good thing that the Bio-Android hadn't been given one.
Neither Applejack or Gohan wanted to consider what would be happening to them if Cell had a Senzu Bean on him, be it given to him or stolen before the start of the Cell Games, but at the same time they continued to dodge the attacks that were coming their way.
After some time Cell managed to slip through Gohan's defenses and slammed his fist into the young Saiyan's face, to which the force behind his blow sent Gohan flying into the rock wall behind him and forced him deep into the stone. A few seconds later he raised his hand, allowed his ki to flare for a brief moment, and sent a beam of ki energy at the rock wall that he had hit Gohan into. The following instant was followed by the entire rock wall exploding and kicking up a large amount of dust in the process, though at the same time Cell smiled as he realized that he had beaten one of his opponents with very little effort on his part... despite the fact that Gohan was being aided by Applejack.
"I guess I overdid it," Cell commented, to which he lowered his hand and looked around the area, though when he tried to locate his other foe he noticed that Applejack was no longer in sight, making him wonder where she had gone off to all of a sudden, "Okay, where did Applejack wander off to this time?"
"Right here." a voice said, to which Cell turned back towards the rock wall he had destroyed, though after a few seconds the wind kicked up and removed the dust, revealing a shimmering barrier between him and where he had thrown Gohan, where he spotted Applejack standing on the other side of the small dome.
"Okay, how did you get between me and Gohan so quickly?" Cell asked, because while he knew that the pony girl had to have been close to the two of them, he doubted that she could have been quick enough to cross the distance and create the ki barrier she was using.
"Did you forget that I trained with my sister and have had to increase my own speed to keep up with her?" Applejack stated, though at the same time she dropped the ki barrier and helped Gohan out of the rock wall, who started to dust himself off before they got back into the fight, "Rainbow is one of the fastest people in the entire universe, so in order to keep up with her I had to train myself to match her own speed, but even then I'm still not as fast as she is. However, I am still fast enough to slip between where you are standing and where Gohan had landed, allowing me to summon a Spirit Barrier to stop your attack in it's tracks."
"I should have known that you would have pulled something like this," Cell said, to which he sighed as he turned his full attention to his opponents, noticing that one of them was prepared for him while the other, which happened to be Gohan, was simply staring at him, "What's the matter Gohan? Are you too scared to fight me?"
"No, I'm not scared of fighting you," Gohan replied, though at the same time he simply continued to stare at Cell, because he was beginning to understand what his father had told him inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, "I'm actually frightened of you doing something that will make me release the incredible power that is locked deep inside me, which only rises when I am extremely angry. You have seen what Rainbow is capable of when she's angry, so let me just say that I'm on her level, if not more so, when I'm angry at someone... minus all of the elemental attacks of course."
"So the only way for me to have the same fun I was having with your father is to make you angry." Cell commented, to which he smiled as an annoyed look passed over Applejack's and Gohan's faces, though at the same time he prepared himself for what he was going to do next, "Very well then, I accept this challenge."
Cell charged forward and reached for Gohan, intending to kill Goku's son first so he could get the other Saiyan pissed off enough to get back into the fight that he had left, but before he could reach his target he found Applejack's hand was grabbing his right wrist and had stopped him. For a moment he started to wonder how she could have caught him, but then reminded himself of what she had told him a few seconds ago, about her speed being almost the same as her sister's speed. Once he came to the understanding that Applejack needed to be taken out first, no matter what hidden powers she had up her sleeves, he started to pull himself back... only to find that he was unable to move at all.
Applejack seemed to notice the change as well, because once she noticed that he tried, and failed, to move she simply pulled her hand away from Cell and backed up, though at the same time Cell found that he was locked in the stance she had caught him in.
"What... have you... done to... me?" Cell asked, finding that despite the fact that he couldn't move at the moment, which really annoyed him, he could still talk, though he had to pause between every few words due to how difficult it was to speak.
"I've paralyzed your body." Applejack stated, though at the same time she walked around Cell and formed a circle in the ground all around him, though out of the corner of his eyes Cell noticed that there were some symbols etched into the dirt, "I developed this special hold, the Basilisk Hold, to stall certain opponents in their tracks so I could determine which attack I should use after putting the defensive attack into action; using my right palm to unleash a large surge of ki energy that could destroy your spirit in an instant, or unleash the primordial elements of the world to destroy you instead."
"Primordial elements?" Gohan asked, because while he had an idea of what Applejack was talking about, especially since her elemental affinity was the ground beneath their feet, he wanted to understand what his companion was talking about... and potentially scare Cell in the process.
"Earth, Air, Fire, and Water," Applejack replied, though the way she spoke Gohan could tell that she said the elements' like they were actually names, which indicated how important they were to whatever she was planning, "With the four elements that give every planet life, and some times take that same life away, I could ask the Earth, the planet Cell seeks to destroy, to lend us it's power so we can destroy our opponent. I'm sure that the planet would like to see Cell meet his end... and I know which attack to use at this moment."
Gohan opened his mouth to ask what Applejack meant, just so he could understand what the pony girl was talking about, but then he noticed that the four symbols she had etched into the ground around Cell were beginning to glow, each one possessing a different coloration. As he watched what was happening he noticed that the symbol to the north of Cell, the green colored one, lifted the ground around it into the air and moved away from the Bio-Android, though that was quickly followed by the ground around the symbol shifting. Gohan's eyes widened as the broken pieces of the plateaus gathered around the symbol until they had formed an earthen version of Shenron, reminding everyone of Rainbow's attack... but that was only the beginning of Applejack's attack.
Everyone watched as the remaining three symbols moved away from Cell and took on a life of their own, as the one that moved to the east of where he was frozen turned into a raging wind, that reminded the group of what Gale was capable of, until it resembled a windy version of Shenron. At that point everyone knew that the other two elements were going to do the same thing, as the symbol that moved to the south morphed into a fiery version of the Eternal Dragon, which also burnt the ground around it. The final symbol, the water one, called upon what remained from the storm Rainbow had called earlier and transformed into a watery Shenron, though it was also positioned to the west of where the Bio-Android was standing.
The energy in the air was enough to rival the power that Rainbow had called into existence when she used her Wrath, which would have made Cell quake in fear for a few seconds... if he wasn't locked into his stance thanks to the hold that Applejack had used on him.
"These are the four Primordial Dragons," Applejack explained, allowing her voice to carry so that everyone, be they Cell or her friends, could understand what they were seeing at the moment, "powerful manifestations of the very elements that give this planet life... and lent to us so that we can bring an end to you, Cell. This is the will of the planet you desperately wish to destroy, so allow the planet to repay you in kind."
Applejack raised a hand and the four dragons raised their own heads in kind, as they were patiently waiting for her to use the power that the Earth was lending to her and end the life of the Bio-Android. A few seconds passed before she waved her hand and the four dragons surged towards their target, tearing into the very ground beneath them as their power left everyone in awe. They quickly reached the area where Cell was standing and collided with the Bio-Android, exploding with enough force to match the explosion that was created by Rainbow's Wrath... and kicking up enough force to nearly blow everyone back.
A few moments passed before the dust finally settled, though when it did everyone could see the large hole, equal to the size of the hole the Wrath had made, and started to wonder where Cell was. When the smoke finally cleared it was revealed that he was still alive, which made sense considering how durable his body seemed to be, but they were more interested in the damage that had been caused to him. The right side of the Bio-Android's body, part of the chest and his right arm, had been destroyed by the blast, while part of his left arm had been blown off and there were cuts etched into both of his legs.
Applejack had to admit that, even with keeping Cell in one place and preventing him from moving, the Bio-Android was tough to kill, so much so that she was beginning to think that the Kamehameha might actually be the only ki technique that could defeat their opponent and reduce him to nothing.
"So you are like your sister," Cell commented, though at the same time he found that he was able to move once more, which told him that the holding technique was supposed to keep him in one spot until the other attack hit him, to which he grinned as he reformed his left hand, "but, in the end, it seems that not even you and best me in com..."
Before Cell could finish his statement, and fully reform the missing parts of his body, Android 16 appeared behind him and wrapped his arms around him, preventing him from moving once more.
"Everyone! Get back!" Android 16 shouted, addressing the Z Warriors, the people with Mr. Satan, and the two that were currently standing near the Bio-Android, "I have an extremely powerful self-destruction unit inside my body. I intend to use it to destroy both myself and Cell in a single instant... so run while you have the chance."
The moment the final word left the Android's mouth, and warned everyone of his plans, everyone started moving out of the way as 16's body started to glow, indicating that he was starting the self destruct sequence. A few seconds passed before everyone turned back to look at the Android, to which they watched as the glow faded away without an explosion happening. Eventually 16 discovered that the unit wasn't working, because he would have destroyed both himself and Cell in the same moment, which meant that they had nothing left to show Cell at the moment.
"No way... Bulma and her father defused the bomb inside his chest?" Krillin said, causing everyone to turn towards him for a moment, to which he let out a sigh, "I heard that they found a bomb inside his body, and even recommended that they leave it alone if we needed it for this fight, but it appears that neither of them took me seriously. I guess all of our trump cards have been played... and Cell's still walking."
"You know, to be fair, I don't think that such a bomb would have been able to kill me anyway." Cell commented, to which he broke free from 16's grasp, summoned his ki into his left hand, and leveled his hand with the Android's chest.
The Z Warriors watched as Cell released the power he had been gathering and literally blew Android 16 into a large number of pieces, his entire body breaking into individual pieces and falling to the ground, where the head rolled around before landing near Cell's feet. A few seconds later Cell looked at all the opponents that were arrayed against him, both near him and on the plateau, and counted them up, to which he counted nine people that weren't Gohan and grinned. He braced himself and allowed the end of his tail, which had shrunk since he reached his perfect form, to open wide, to which he concentrated on the task at hand.
That was swiftly followed by nine miniature versions of himself, colored blue for some odd reason, appearing behind him and grinning wildly as his tail returned to normal... though at the same time he was pleased with the results.
"Now, Cell Juniors, your playmates are on that plateau over there," Cell said, to which he pointed over at the fighters that were staring at him, though he also patted the closest one to him and beckoned over at Applejack, where the miniature version of him nodded his understanding, "Go ahead and fight them... and it is okay if you kill them."
Eight of the nine Cell Juniors rushed at the plateau and forced everyone to separate from each other, effectively making them face their own battles, while the ninth Cell Junior forced Applejack away from Gohan, which meant that he would be alone with Cell until someone managed to beat their opponent. The eight enemies kept the Z Warriors on the defensive, as they mostly kept blocking the attacks that were coming their way, though the only one that really got bruised up was Goku, indicating that his fight with Cell had taken more out of him than he had let on. Piccolo crashed his foe into Yamcha's foe and then flew down to kick Tien's in the face, to which the two warriors he helped moved to where Goku was and knocked his foe to the ground... where the three of them grouped together as the Cell Juniors got back up.
As Gohan watched the fights he could tell that Yamcha, Tien, Krillin, and Piccolo were already outmatched and were failing to gain any ground on their enemies, while Vegeta and Trunks were holding their own in an even match, though they were receiving some damage on their side. His father, on the other hand, was exhausted from his fight with Cell, so his own opponent was able to do more damage to him while he dealt none in return. Gohan even noticed that the one that was fighting Krillin had knocked him into the ground and was beating him while he was laying on the ground, preventing him from getting up and fighting back.
The only ones that were actually beating their opponents were Applejack and Rainbow, where Gohan discovered that Applejack was reading her enemy's movements and planning her attacks accordingly, some times to great effect, while her sister merely used her speed and Lightning Blade to damage her opponent.
Large ki blasts proved to be ineffective, as Vegeta tried the Galick Gun to strike his opponent down, but the Cell Junior simply caught the attack and sent it flying into a plateau that wasn't close to where they were standing. Everyone else was forced to fight with their hands and feet, though even as they fought Yamcha's right arm was broken when one of the miniature Cell's struck the middle of his elbow and Krillin was made into a punching bag while the others continued their various fights. Gohan also noticed that the only ki based attack that could work was the ones that Rainbow or Applejack had developed, as they seemed to be the only ones dealing damage to their opponents... even as his father coughed up some bits of blood as his opponent hit him in the chest.
As he watched all of this happen, and felt his heart ache with every blow that was dealt to his friends and his father, he noticed that Cell had been ignoring the head of Android 16... who was currently staring at him, as if he was going to use the rest of his energy to do something important.
"Son... Gohan..." the Android said, though it was painfully clear that he was running on the last of his energy, but at the same time his voice caused Cell to look back at them with an annoyed look on his face, "Fighting for what is right is not a crime. Talking things out won't work with some opponents, such as Cell. Let your angry spirit be free... I understand your feelings, but there is no reason for you to be holding it back any longer."
"That is some good advice," Cell commented, though at the same time he walked over to where Android 16's head was resting and placed his foot on the side of his head, indicating that he was about to bring about the end of another one of his father's earlier creations, "but we are doing things my way at the moment."
The instant Cell finished his statement, and the miniature versions of him stopped what they were doing to watch what was going on, he raised his foot into the air for a few seconds before bringing it down as hard as he could... to which he smashed Android 16's head and permanently killed the Android.
Gohan could not help but feel the rage and the anger that surged through his body at the death of Android 16, something that he was sure had surged through the bodies of his father and Vegeta back on Namek, when Krillin and Rainbow had been killed by Frieza. Though at the same time he could tell that this anger was even greater than any he had felt before, because it felt like he was pushing himself past his limits as he finally let out a scream that cracked the ground under his feet and shook the air around him. His friends were being beaten before his eyes and one of them, the most peaceful of them all, had been mercilessly blasted into pieces before having his head smashed in... to which he silently swore that he would destroy Cell for everything he had done so far.
Rainbow and Applejack, upon feeling the sudden increase in Gohan's ki, took the opportunity to get away from their foes and land on the plateau so they could see what was going on. It was then that they discovered that not much had actually changed, as the young Saiyan looked the same as he had been before Android 16 had been slain, but then they noticed that Gohan's hair was even more spiked up than it had been a few minutes ago. Gohan's hair was more rigid than they remembered, though at the same time one of the strands had fallen out of alignment with the rest of his hair and was now resting in front of his eyes... though that wasn't taking into consideration the fact that the aura that surrounded him had bits of lightning dancing around his body.
The girls glanced at each other and nodded, because they could both agree that this seemingly new form that Gohan had shifted into was like nothing they had seen before, which meant that this might actually be the form of an ascended Super Saiyan... or rather a Super Saiyan 2.
"Cell," Gohan said, his voice sounding much colder than it had been a few minutes ago, though at the same time the young Saiyan started walking towards the Bio-Android, "I won't let you go unpunished for what you have done... but first, I have some business I need to take care of."
Before Cell could say anything, or even stop Gohan from moving, the young Saiyan zeroed in on one of the Cell Juniors, who was moving towards one of his friends, and appeared next to his chosen foe, where he swung his hand and took off the miniature Cell's head. As everyone stared at what was happening he spotted two more standing near Krillin, to which he flashed into the crater they were in and started to silently approach the pair of enemies he was after, though at the same time he raised a hand. His stance, with the cold uncaring eyes, frightened one of them into leaving a few seconds later, though the other one, that determined that threatening Gohan was worthless, jumped into the air and launched a few ki blasts at him.
Gohan flashed into the air, carrying Krillin in one of his arms, before disappearing again, to which he moved to where Piccolo was standing and dropped off his father's friend, though he followed that up by flashing back to the Cell Junior that was floating in the air and kicked it hard in the chest, destroying it like the first one.
Cell glanced at the other Junior versions of himself and nodded, to which the remainder of them grinned and moved in for the kill, though at the same time he already knew that he was using them as fodder to test the young Saiyan's new power and see where he rested on the power scale now. Gohan, on the other hand, let them gather in a circle around him and let them come at him, to which he basically hit most of them with enough force to send them flying into the ground while also taking one of them out in the process. It was painfully clear that, while he could easily destroy all of his foes in an instant, Gohan seemed to be taking his time in dismantling his enemies, while at the same time allowing two of them to fire multiple attacks at him... only for them to discover that they hadn't hurt Gohan at all.
That was followed by Gohan loosing a set of ki blasts that forced his enemies to scatter, where he followed after them all and mercilessly smashed all of them to pieces... though once all of the Cell Juniors were taken care of he turned his attention back to Cell and approached his target. He was going to destroy the Bio-Android and make sure that he didn't come back... even if he had to erase everything that made Cell who he was.