//------------------------------// // Cell vs. Grogar // Story: Cell Vs The Rainbooms #CellGames // by Dawn Flower //------------------------------// Perfect Cell stood in the centre of his arena, mentally tracing a path between the lines of each tile, starting at the edge, going down one, then across one, and repeating until it reached the other side. A result of his arena being a perfect twenty-four by twenty-four meant that it worked out perfectly. “Well, that makes 273 stair games now,” Cell said aloud to himself. “It’s not like there’s much else to do around here, aside from the occasional early challenger.” He then let out a sigh. “I never thought that I’d say this after everything that they’ve put me through in these last few days, but I’m actually starting to miss all of the constant interruptions. I mean, sure it’s annoying as Hell and almost resulted in me being killed a few times, but at least it’s something to do while I wait for the Cell Games to begin.” Suddenly, he felt a strange feeling, beginning in his feet. Looking down, he had just enough time to notice a black flame quickly make its way up his body, causing him to disappear as it did so. “Wait, hold on! What’s going on?!” He exclaimed in shock. After just two seconds, he was whooshed away. --- A moment later, Cell was whole once again, physically unharmed, but now standing in a completely different area. Looking around, he seemed to be in some sort of stone cavern, with stalactites growing down from the ceiling and stalagmites growing up from the floor. There were several smaller platforms around the main chamber, each with a set of stairs that lead down towards the centre of the room, where there was some sort of orb on a raised pedestal. “Alright, where the fuck am I?” Cell wondered aloud. “I was just wondering the same thing,” Cell suddenly heard a new voice respond to him. It sounded feminine, with a slight filter. Looking over at the platform to his right, he saw a strange quadrupedal creature, with the body proportions of a horse, and a horn like that of a unicorn, but also possessed a black chitin and had the membranous wings of an insect, not unlike his own. “Whoa, what the fuck are you supposed to be?” “Listen, Bug-man,” the creature snarled at him. “I am Chrysalis, queen of the changelings! Or at least I will be, when I’m restored to my rightful place!” “Listen, Bug-horse,” Cell barked back at her immediately, in the same tone of voice. “It’s Mister Perfect Cell, cybernetic android of the Red Ribbon Army, with the combined DNA of humans, Saiyans, Namekians, and whatever the Hell Frieza is!” “I don’t even know what most of those words mean!” Chrysalis exclaimed in frustration as the two of them continued to hold their glare on one another. “Changelings?” The two of them suddenly heard a third voice speak up from across the room. Turning in the direction from which they heard it, both bug-creatures saw an old-looking centaur, with a small pink Pegasus filly beside him on an adjacent platform on the other side of the stone chamber. “Lord Tirek?” Chrysalis seemed to recognise the centaur. She then returned to her snarl as she began walking down the stairs towards the centre of the chamber. “Why did you summon us?” “Oh, golly! We didn’t bring you,” the pegasus filly began, as she Tirek met Chrysalis and Cell in the centre. “I thought you freed us from Tartarus.” “Tartarus?” Chrysalis inquired. “Whoever pulled you from there must have been somepony very powerful indeed.” “Yeah, I’m still lost over here,” Cell admitted. “Would someone mind explaining to me exactly what the fuck is going on?” The pegasus filly quirked her eyebrow in confusion at what he said. “What’s a fuck?” “I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Tirek responded, patting her on the head. Suddenly, laughter filled the room, which didn’t come from any of the four gathered, and a shadow formed at the top of the room, from which an armoured unicorn stallion, who was the source of said laughter appeared, with a smug grin on his face. “King Sombra?” Chrysalis spoke up again, identifying the new individual. “You have returned? Why did you bring us here?” “He didn’t.” A new, deep voice spoke up from the opposite side of the room. The five gathered all turned towards the sixth, shadowy figure standing in the doorway. They slowly and silently, but menacingly walked into the room, which made the pegasus filly hid behind Tirek’s leg in fear, and Sombra leapt down from the top of the room to stand beside Cell and Chrysalis. As they stepped into the light as they made their way forward, revealing himself to be a large blue ram. He stopped in front of the orb at the centre of the chamber and slammed his hooves against the pedestal in an intimidating manner. “It was I,” he continued as he addressed the gathered individuals. “You may call me... Grogar.” “Yeah, still lost!” Cell exclaimed. Tirek and Chrysalis, however gasped in shocked recognition. “The Grogar?” Chrysalis wondered. “I thought you were a legend,” Tirek followed up. “I’ve heard of you,” Sombra stated flatly. “I’m with Cell on this one,” the pegasus filly chimed in. “I’ve never heard of him either.” “I assure you, I am very real,” Grogar continued. “And you have all been brought here as part of my plan to rid Equestria of Twilight Sparkle and her friends once and for all.” “Twilight Sparkle?” Cell repeated quietly to himself. He then tilted his head to the side in thought. “Why does that name sound familiar?” While Grogar continued to speak with the rest of them, Cell focused harder to try and remember where he had heard that name before, and then he suddenly remembered another word that Grogar had said. “Equestria?” Another moment later, Cell’s eyes widened in recognition when it finally came to him. “Oh, that Twilight Sparkle: purple and pink hair, nerdy personality that reminded me of Gohan, instantly defeated me despite all logic to the contrary,” he rattled off. “Yeah, I killed her,” he deadpanned. “Perhaps a demonstration of power is in orde...” Grogar suddenly stopped what he was saying; his eyes bulged in surprise, and turned towards Cell. “Wait, what?” “Wait, what?” “Wait, what?” “Wait, what?” “Wait, what?” Everybody was equally surprised by Cell’s revelation. “Yup, I killed her,” Cell confirmed for them. “Twice in fact. I’m not exactly sure how I did that, but I did it.” The other creatures in the room were rendered speechless by his assertion. It sounded like such a simple thing to just state; however, they could still tell from Cell’s expression that he wasn’t bluffing; he really had killed her. “B-but... how? When?” Grogar stuttered, quickly losing the menacing and intimidating air that he had building. “Well, golly, that sounds like great work, Mr. Perfect Cell.” The pegasus filly was the first to move beyond shocked surprise and weak stutters and spoke up properly, flying over to him and landing on his shoulder. “Finally, thank you!” Cell exclaimed in joy at somebody actually using his full preferred name. “See, she gets it.” He didn’t even bother to swat her away since she had actually used his full name. “Look at you, so excited at hearing about somebody being murdered; you’re a little psychopath aren’t you?” He smiled at that. “I like it.” That in turn made her smile. “B-but that can’t be...” Grogar tried to rationalise. The other villains, meanwhile, changed their expressions to smirks of villainous respect. “I am a bit disappointed that I wasn’t the one who got to do the deed, but frankly as long as she’s dead, I’m happy,” Tirek said. “Indeed,” Chrysalis agreed. “With Twilight Sparkle gone, and her friends’ annoying little magic rainbow lasers nullified, Equestria will be ours for the taking.” “Indubitably,” Sombra agreed as he rubbed his forehooves together in anticipation. “Now that I’m back and that lavender bookworm is gone, I can focus my efforts on reclaiming the Crystal Empire and my crystal slaves.” “You could always use some help getting that done,” the pegasus filly spoke up again. “Cell here does have a proven track record of taking out heroes. Plus, while everypony here is evil, you are going to need some cuteness to balance it out.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him, indicating herself. “And while my primary goal is still revenge on Starlight Glimmer, I would still like to even the score with that pink, pony princess of love and her annoying husband,” Chrysalis joined the conversation. “Those ponies do have a lot of magic with which fight back against you,” Tirek added. “I could always lend you support in depriving them of it, making your revenge all the easier. I’m already salivating at the thought of it.” All of the other villains nodded their heads along in agreement and then turned back towards Grogar once again. They had all initially been sceptical of actually working together, since that was a dangerous step towards friendship, but if this Mister Perfect Cell had already managed to kill the Princess of Friendship, then they were suddenly more open to working together. Cell couldn’t help but smile at the situation unfolding. “You know, it’s funny; I told that Adagio girl I wasn’t interested in a team-up, but after seeing first-hand just how much other people are screwed over by heroes and just how much they can all bond over their death, maybe this won’t be so bad after all.” “Mmmmhmm,” The pegasus happily nodded her head alongside him. There was now a much chipper mood in the air in the stone chamber. Grogar, however, just stood there in disbelief, with his mouth awkwardly hanging open. This was not going the way he had planned at all. The next moment, his face suddenly became stoic and just done with everything. “You know what? Screw it.” He then lifted up his hoof, which quickly morphed into an eagle talon, and with a snap of his new fingers, Perfect Cell and the other villains were once again swept away in a black flame. --- The next moment, Perfect Cell was once again standing in the centre of his Cell Games Arena, with the stone cavern and everyone in it now gone once again. “Well, that was... weird,” Cell finally spoke up. “You know, after all of the other strange things that have happened to me in the past few days, I’m still only about 80% certain that what just happened actually happened.” There was then another short moment of silence in the Cell Games Arena as Cell looked down at the ground, introspectively. “You know, it’s strange. I’ve spent my entire life alone, always only looking out for myself; and now just as I was thinking about finally opening myself up to other people, it was all just stripped away; gone in a single instant, and I actually find myself... missing it. “I wonder, was any of that... even real?” He looked down at the arena floor, solemnly. “I’m pretty sure it was,” the pink pegasus filly on his shoulder answered.