EPISODE FOURTEEN - THE BATTLE FOR EARTH

Previously on DRAGON BALL XTREME:

Cell spins around. He grips his arm in pain, and is limp. He looks wide eyed below at the carnage. The people run. He spies the audience. He is looking for something...no...someone… the Android!

"I will have a life force too! Then I will end this miserable planet, and all who are on it, even you Mason!" His tail lifts into the air, hungrily.

"Ochocinco....Ochocinco. Come out come out where ever you are."

“Wait... oh, Ochocinco.... RUN OCHOCINCO, YOU WALKING GPS! YOU'RE MOTHER IS STILL A VACUUM CLEANER!”

It doesn't matter his physical condition, he knows Cell only needs to fuse with his power core. "Can't...Move..."

“NO! END THE MATCH! DISQUALIFY US!”

Evil Kai grabs the announcer. "Do as I say. Get away from here if you must. Empty the arena. But the fight goes on. Understand?"

"Y...yes." The announcer, released, runs off.

Cell picks up Ochocinco and his tail envelops him.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

Today's episode:

Mason, seeing very little choice here, does the one thing he had hoped not to have to do in this tournament: Take another being's life. To this point he had merely pummelled them into submission or had sent them back to Hell from whence they came, but it seemed to Mason that fate had now tied his hands. Charging his energy he began to focus as much ki as he could channel into his attack. The sole purpose: Incinerating his target, Ochocinco.

Leaving nothing left behind on the field, “BIG...... BANG...... ATTACK!”

The massive beam rips through the air and tears into the Android. The Android’s lower body rips from its upper body which is now deep inside Cell's tail-like appendage. The resultant heat of the attack sears some flesh from Cell's tail-like appendage, exposing the Android beneath.

"It's too late." With that, the rest of Ochocinco is swallowed, sucked into the stub and flesh strands that remain, head first, battery core and all. Cell rises higher into the air.

"With my last breath... I Curse... Zoidberg!"

“Ochocinco, if you are still on some level in there, DO SOMETHING. Think about what Piccolo taught, and or beat into you!”

Meanwhile the cameras and the announcer are set up in a separate part of the complex, the hotel, observing the carnage below in the distance. "Oh my word. You're getting all this, right? We're still live? I mean, look at all those dead people."

Cell, reenergized, turns to Mason. “Fool!” He raises his single finger and fires a blast of purple energy. The blast cuts through Mason's chest like butter. Blood gushes out.

Mason, recovering from the impact causing his gushing bloody wound, mumbles something unintelligible. Mason begins to try and recover from the carnage of the fight in order to continue fighting, but he thinks he may be able to gain a bit of an edge, however miniscule that edge may be.

“Ochocinco... I know that your core survived and is inside that beast right now, so somewhere in him you must still exist. And if you're inside him, connected to him, you may be able to influence him. Remember what Piccolo tried to show you about Androids. Show me your not just another member of the Red Ribbon Army."

Cell makes mocking sounds, "Mamamamamamama, bababababababa, dadadadadadada. You Saiyan's are hilarious! I didn't go to Hell because I had a soft heart that could easily be manipulated by the will of others. You are pathetic. You and this whole planet deserve to die. I will not make the same mistakes I made with the other Saiyans. Prepare to be obliterated along with your precious planet. Kamehameha times 100, 1.5 billion ki!"

“ Crap... “

The ground begins to shake and plumes of lava erupt from below. Over in the hotel area, the building shakes violently. The whole continent is filled with rumbling and shaking. On the coast, parts of the land sink into the sea. Energy builds up in Cell's hands.

Mason, knowing that he can't outrun the attack, prepares for the inevitable and blocks, hoping beyond hope to at least save the planet in his sacrifice. “Least I have chicken…”

Suddenly, a huge burst of energy is unleashed. And one of the fighters is utterly vaporized without a sound. The burst is white hot, and burns a hole deep into the Earth.

But the blast never came from Cell.

Mason blinks as he feels the heat whiz past him. “HOLY.…” He looks up, and three beings fly high above the arena, and close in fast. “Who in the…”

Figure one speaks. "You'd think he'd have learned his lesson the first time."

Figure two responds. "So that was the infamous Cell?"

Figure three replies. "I can't believe we didn't know he was even here until we saw that report on every single channel."

Figure one speaks. "We're growing soft. We need to train more."

Figure two responds. "Is he dead?"

Figure one speaks. "As a door nail."

Figure two responds. "Hooray! Way to go, daddy!"

Mason Titanstalker thinks to himself. Could it be...

Figure three stops suddenly. "Should we say hello?"

Figure one speaks to Mason. "Well, well, well, another Super Saiyan. Maybe we should challenge him to a fight. It's been a while since I had a challenge."

Figure two responds. "Is he a good guy or a bad guy?"

Fugure three replies. "Let's find out."

Upon hearing that, Mason stances for a battle, ready in case they attack. “I don't want to hurt you... or be hurt by you…”

With that all three figures fly in and stop short of Mason.

Blood continues to trickle down Mason renewing the wound of his missing hand.

"Hi my name is...." says figure two.

Figure one interrupts. "Bra, quiet. This is man talk..." Vegeta, in Super Saiyan Four form, turns to Mason. "What the hell... how the hell are there any other Saiyans?"

Mason freezes up in reverent awe. “NO WAY…”

"Well don't stand there like a fool. Answer me, boy."

A few seconds lapse.

"Another Saiyan fool. Silent as they are extinct."

“My Saiyan name is Spinako. I was sent to Earth as an infant.”

Figure three speaks out of turn. "Dad be nice. He's one of the tournament fighters."

“According to my ships logs I was sent before Kakarot was chosen for this planet but an error occurred in the ships computers, it never reported my arrival. And kept me in stasis until years later.”

Vegeta steps forward. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, cut the crap. Why didn't you ever reveal yourself to us?"

Bra, Vegeta‘s daughter, turns to Vegeta. "Daddy, he's kinda cute."

“The Red Ribbon army doesn’t teach trust. They found my ship and captured me.”

"Red Ribbon Army, you say? You're a pawn of Gero?" Vegeta steps into a fighting stance...

“THAT MAN IS A FOOL! If he were not already dead, I would kill him myself! Him and all his kind for what they did to me! At least those that willingly participate in the Red Ribbon army and threaten others.”

Suddenly, Mason is returned to a normal Saiyan. His Super Saiyan transformation wears off. Mason grabs at his chest, severely weakened and now breathing heavily.

"Hm....sounds uninteresting. You should meet my friend Goku some day... if he were still around. He might care."

"Daddy don't be rude."

"Yeah, dad." Trunks steps forward. “I’m Trunks.”

“Hi.“ says Mason shaking his hand. “Goku is the reason I'm here today, he inadvertently saved me from them when he destroyed the Red Ribbon Army headquarters all those years ago.”

"I don’t really know much about them. Just that Gero wanted to kill us at one point. Anyways, it was nice to meet you. We gotta go and do some stuff. Boy, sucks about all these people..." Trunks says as he looks around at the carnage and death.

"Well I want to stay, hear his story."

"No"

“I tried my best to save them. If you had been here sooner…” Mason stares at them all with his piercing frozen blue eyes.

Vegeta mumbles. "Makes me wish we still had the Dragon Balls."

“Aren't there still some?”

"Hasn't been in almost two decades. The Dragon left Earth with Goku a long time ago. Vowed not to return until there was a great need. I guess it's not that time yet. My Dragon Ball radar hasn‘t picked anything up in years. Not even now." Trunks fiddles with a device he pulls from his tunic.

“And what of Namek's?” Mason mutters still gasping for air.

Vegeta speaks bluntly. "You’re very well informed for a secret Saiyan. They put theirs away too. After what happened on Earth, it's too dangerous to use the Dragon Balls. That’s what they figure. I don’t disagree. Anyhow we could ask them, but they'd probably say no."

Trunks interrupts. "What my father means to say is they are a deeply spiritual people. They didn't make the decision lightly, but they vowed on all things holy not to use the balls for 100 years. …You should go see the guardian of Earth some day, Dende. He's a friend of mine. Maybe he can help. He's a Namek… Don‘t get us wrong, this is a shame. In the past we‘d be able to help these people. I don‘t see what we could do though. At least Cell is dead, again. How‘d he come back?"

“Evil Kai. The tournament sponsor. He brought him back.”

“Hmmm, an evil Kai? where is this Evil Kai?”

“He… I don’t know where he went to.” Mason looks around puzzled, but is still mostly concentrating on the great pain in his gut, chest, and throat. Mason suddenly feels something catch in his throat. “GAH!”

“You don’t look so good. You should probably see a doctor.”

"Time's wasting. I'm hungry. It was nice meeting you and all that."

Trunks sighs. “Listen we’ll try and find out what’s going on with this Evil Kai character. But we have to be off. Good luck.”

“G-g-g-aaahh!”

Bra steps forward. "You're weird. Call me!" She hands him a phone number. With that, the three fly off.

Mason drops to his knees. Mason lifts the stub of a hand to his throat. The sun slowly fades in the distance over the horizon.

'GONG!'

The announcer, breathing heavily, speaks between breaths "I... ran... all... the... way... over... You... win... This... is... terrible!" He observes the carnage.

Mason looks at the official in agony.

“You look terrible.”

Mason drops to the ground, loosing consciousness, after being unable to breathe for more than a minute. The sun sets. Mason closes his eyes as people gather around him. Sounds become muffled. Light fades. Everything is quiet…

Cell is defeated, presumably back in Hell where he belongs. Evil Kai has disappeared. The stadium is a mess, and many people are dead. This ends this exciting Saga in DRAGON BALL XTREME. Stay tuned for the next saga in the continuing story of DRAGON BALL XTREME!