Despite the impossible and unnatural degree of coldness in the air of this planet, Raditz' blood was pumping through his veins like magma. Anger and adrenaline were doing a good enough job of keeping him warm. His golden aura flickered and rippled around him, the light flickering against the section of the shield dome above both of them.
Cooler was as unmoving as a statue, glaring at the surprisingly strong Super Saiyan. His claws continued to gleam with a pale light, and Raditz knew full well that one good strike from those talons would be enough to put an end to him.
Below them, a battle raged between the other Super Saiyans and the army of machines produced by the Big Gete Star. While Kakarot and the others dwarfed the cyclopes in power, the robot horde seemed near infinite in number, and even a Super Saiyan had limits.
The mechanical Arcosian suddenly vanished from view, and Raditz spun around as soon he felt the shift in the air behind him. Cooler jabbed his claw out as soon as Raditz was turning, gut the Super Saiyan jerked his body to one side as he went. His claws missed their mark, but the blade on Cooler's index finger managed to open up a fresh cut along the length of Raditz' left cheekbone.
Raditz had no time to gripe over the pain on his cheek or the hot blood oozing down his face, because Cooler was unwilling to cease his assault. He kept his clawed hands striking and slashing toward the Super Saiyan, and Raditz was just barely fast enough to dodge the series of slashes and stabs from his inhuman foe.
Cooler's artificial body was constantly changing and adapting. The computers of the Big Gete Star were now working to amplify the physical capabilities of Cooler's form so that he would be fast enough to tag Raditz. In addition his optics were analyzing the motions of his foe, recording the moves of his Saiyan martial arts so he would be able to form the perfect counters to any of his attacks.
The Super Saiyan jerked his head away, the blades of his fingers mere inches away from tearing open his other cheek. He gripped the metal wrist, and then he drove both of his feet into Cooler's ribs with enough power to dent and crack the alien metal, making Cooler grunt in discomfort.
The other metal hand shot forth like a spear, but then Raditz suddenly caught that wrist too, struggling to hold them both away from him. Raditz clenched his teeth, blood pumping off his wounds, his muscles straining to the very limit to hold his foe in place.
He suddenly yanked Cooler forward and crushed his brow against the metal Arcosian's nose. Cooler gagged from the impact, but before he could make a move to pull back, Raditz yanked him in again and headbutted him a second time. Then a third time. And finally a fourth one.
The repeated blows took all the physical force Raditz could muster, and they had managed to dent and crush Cooler's face in slightly. Not that Raditz was devoid of injury, his own forehead was a purple bruised mess from striking the super-dense metal. He was running low on power, he had to put an end to this now. He tightened his grip on Cooler's wrists, before swinging him and throwing him clean across the sky.
While Coolers airborne body flailed about through the air, Raditz raised an arm and took aim at his metal body. A crackling black and white energy ball formed in Raditz' hand, containing a good deal of his remaining ki. "This is it...Begone!"
The wave of shifting black and white energy exploded from Raditz palm, rapidly closing the distance between itself and Cooler. The blast was only a few metres away when Cooler managed to right himself, and with very little time to act he promptly raised his metallic hands up to catch the beam.
It struck his palms with a shocking degree of power, making Cooler grunt with the effort of halting the beams advance. His whole metallic body began to glow with the reflecting light, a star bursting to life directly above the ruined city. The power of the energy wave forced Coolers superhumanly strong arms back, overpowering even his incredible strength. The heat was growing so intense that it was even starting to melt at his metal shell.
Finally, the blast erupted into a radiant explosion that consumed Meta-Cooler with its violent light. The aftershocks of the attack were so strong that they could be felt on street level, not that it hindered the other Super Saiyans in their battle against the cyclopes.
Raditz lowered his hands, huffing for breath after the exertion of releasing so much power at once and the strain it caused on his already injured body. He still had the strength to maintain his Super Saiyan form, but with his injuries and his growing exhaustion, it didn't seem he'd be capable of keeping it up much longer. He kept his gaze focused on the cloud of dust where Cooler had been, just to see if that attack had done the trick.
It hadn't.
Without a doubt, the blast had managed to damage Cooler significantly. Both of his arms had been blown clean off above the elbows. Large portions of his torso and legs were molten and dripping, slowly drying. But Cooler could still regenerate, a luxury that Raditz lacked.
"Hehehe...Is that all, you worthless Saiyan ape? I thought the power of a Super Saiyan was supposed to be limitless. A bunch of nonsense I see." Cooler mocked. He stood up fully, his arms slowly being rebuilt with sturdier armour, while the molten metal on his body slowly retracted back to where it belonged. "Allow me to show you what true power is."
He vanished from sight, instantaneously reappearing right behind Raditz. The injured Saiyan had no time to react, as Cooler immediately drove his heel into the back of Raditz' head. He was sent screaming down through the air, and Cooler wasted no time taking after him in hot pursuit. He pummeled Raditz with rapid fire kicks from his still working legs, repeated blows bruising his exposed, bloodied chest.
Another firm blow, and Cooler sent his foe hurtling down into one towering ruin. His body collided with the rock, becoming embedded in the hard material. Cooler slowly descended until he was directly behind Raditz. By now, his arms had regenerated to the wrist. "Do you see now? No power can stop me, not even a golden monkey like you."
His tail slowly slithered up, coiling around Raditz' neck. The long-haired Saiyan gave a few weak gagging noises as the tail lifted him up, his whole tired body sagging against the restraint. "Time to put an end to this, I suppose."
On the streets below, Tanip kept slashing wildly at the crowds of cyclopic robots charging her and her family. Her ki charged blade was able to carve through their armoured plates like a hot knife through butter. It seemed that, at last, the enemy numbers were starting to subside.
She heard a pained cry above them, and Tanip quickly scanned the sky for the source of the noise. It took her a moment, but she soon identified the golden light of her uncles aura flickering away, the pale yellow light reflecting off of Cooler's pristine metal skin. "Uncle!" Tanip exclaimed in a shocked gasp. "Dad, Gohan, keep the robots busy! I'm gonna save Uncl Raditz!" she called out.
Before either of her relations, or Inyon, could protest the decision, Tanip tripled the size of her golden aura and took off into the sky as fast as she could. There was some ground to cover, but no doubt Coolers ego meant he's want to kill Raditz in some lengthy and overly extravagant fashion. Enough time to swoop in and save the day.
While still holding Raditz by the neck with his tail, Cooler gave a small chuckle. "Now then, how to do away with you...? I suppose I should cool you off first." He swung his tail and sent the injured Super Saiyan hurtling through the sky at hypersonic speed, until he passed through the energy dome around the city, Raditz' body being flung like a ragdoll through the raging white winds.
Raditz body came crashing down onto one white bank of snow, a white cloud being kicked up around him when he struck it. The Super Saiyan grunted and struggled, before finally managing to roll over onto his back in the thick bed of snow.
Cooler materialised in front of him through Instant Transmission, a cocky grin on his face. "Too beaten to even stand up? That's a good look for you." He slowly raised up a metal index finger, taking aim at his downed foe.
There was a sudden whistling in the wind, the noise of a sonic boom that made Cooler tense and look away from Raditz. He turned just as Tanip's golden form burst through one thick wave of white, her sword raised up high. Despite his shock, Cooler raised his arm just in time to block the downward slash, the ki-charged blade digging a few centimetres into his metal forearm and leaving a nasty cut.
Tanip delivered a flurry of high speed slashes, her blade almost invisible to the naked eye from the speed of the motions. Cooler was moving his arms just fast enough to intercept the strikes, but every blocked hit still managed to leave a deep cut in his newly-regenerated limbs. It didn't take long for them to look like two chopping boards. "Leave my uncle alone you ugly lizard bastard!"
Cooler shifted his body around to avoid one stab, and he quickly raised one leg up and kicked Tanip in the face with enough force to stagger her backward. He spun his whole body then, delivering two tail slaps that managed to bruise Tanip's face and stagger her even further.
From where he was stuck in the snow, Raditz grunted and tried in vain to get up again. Tanip was strong, and she was well trained, but that machine would soon adapt against anything she could throw at him. He had to help her, in any way possible. He managed to raised two arms up, golden light building in his cupped palms. All his remaining power.
The young half-Saiyan skidded back through the snow to avoid another kick from the metal Arcosian, before flinging her blade up and catching it again, aiming the hilt at her foe. She dove forward, narrowly avoiding being speared by Cooler's pointed tail, and then the hilt of her katana shot up and smashed into Cooler's nose, snapping his head up at an angle no head was ever supposed to go.
While Cooler's damaged body stumbled backward, Tanip adjusted her blade again. The gleaming metal suddenly glowed bright white once the half-Saiyan started charging even more ki into the material. Cooler's armour was damn tough, she'd need a major boost to slice all the way through it.
Her aura exploded around her again, the shockwave from the golden burst of light dispersing the snow around her and leaving the ground bare. Her foot propelled her forward and then she made a horizontal slice with her blade, the metal kissing just under Cooler's ribs.
A loud yell escaped Tanip's lips, and then veins started popping up along her toned arms as she tried to strain her physical strength even further. The blade dug deep into Coolers body, to the point where the Arcosian was howling in pain. Finally, Tanip's strength had boosted just far enough that she managed to cut Cooler clean in half and sent both of his halves tumbling up into the air.
It was at that moment Tanip heard her uncle quite clearly exclaim "Tanip! Get out f the way!" She wasted no time in looking for the source of her uncles voice, instead she just followed orders and leapt back. The large wave of golden light exploded from Raditz palms, and struck Coolers airborne halves before they could start regenerating.
Cooler's 'skin' was an alien metal that could warp and change its dimensions in almost any way, its durability constantly shifting to withstand any threat. However his internal components, all the diodes, wires and circuits, were not so fortunate. Exactly what Raditz was counting on.
The energy wave burnt away all of Cooler's internal components, light bursting out of all of Meta-Coolers orifices. Raditz gave a loud yell, pouring out everything he had left, his max-power energy wave tripling in size as he gave it his all, the blast managing to utterly vaporize the empty shells of armour that remained of Coolers artificial body.
The blast subsided finally, revealing the deep trench in the planets surface that Raditz' attack had caused. The Saiyans long mane of hair finally turned into its normal black hue, the spikes drooping back down. He fell back on the snow, huffing for breath. That really had taken all the strength he had left, his whole body aching.
"Uncle, that was amazing!" Tanip exclaimed, landing beside him. She sheathed her blade, and then hoisted Raditz up onto her shoulder "Now we just gotta take care of the giant starfish."
Raditz gave a weak, slightly pained, chuckle. "Oh sure...I totally have the strength to handle that." he joked. Even with Tanip supporting his weight, his legs were still swaying about as if they were made from jelly.
She floated up a few inches off of the ground, still supporting her uncles weight, and she slowly led the way toward the domed city. But then a voice caught Tanip's attention, the shock and fear from hearing that voice making her body grow rigid.
"Leaving so soon?"
It wasn't possible. She saw him get blown to bits, utterly vaporized. He was dead, she was so sure of it...so why was she hearing Cooler's voice now?
Against her better judgement Tanip slowly began to turn around. There, standing in the snow bank as clear as day, was Meta-Cooler. He had a smile on his face, calm and collected. "I thought we were just starting to have fun."
"B-but...You're supposed to be...I saw you...you were destroyed."
"Oh I was. Or, my mechanical body was, at least. So long as the Big Gete Star exists, it will be able to make new bodies for me." Cooler explained. By now a wave of shadowy figures were forming in the thick white waves of snow. "The interesting thing about the star is that it will always find a way to counter any of my weaknesses. Even if that weakness is that there is only one of me."
Tanip's eyes widened in sudden realisation and horror. "No...no no no..." Tanip whispered to herself. The white wall parted to reveal an army of Meta-Coolers, a sea of metallic creatures. Hundreds and hundreds of them, as far as the eye could see.
A/N: Next chapter...Well anyone who's seen the Meta-Cooler movie already knows where this is going, more or less. We'll be dealing with the Androids soon enough.
-Guest: Does Sabrina Brandt exist in this timeline?
Who the hell is Sabrina Brandt?
-Apope: And did Gohan(Grandpa)die?How?
He's still alive, just retired like Master Roshi and the Ox King.
-Pointer: Crazy how you pop your chapters out left and right for TWO stories, Guardian is at 33, 1 behind my story lol...
Well Guardian will be getting more chapters for the time being, since FoLF will be on hiatus until I can see Battle of Gods. Wanna get the dialogue and fighting style of Bills done right. I also have an idea for a short DC-DBZ crossover that I might work on now that I have the summer.