"What do you mean by unresponsive?" Cooler seethed as he and the red lizard-like PTO soldier turned a corner and continued walking through the corridor to his area of control on the compound.

He briefly glanced over at the cowardly alien, silently enjoying how the creature fiddled with the various papers in his hands to calm himself. "Speak, soldier."

"Y-yes!" the alien squeaked. "Y-you see, sir. He w-was very resilient to our interrogation methods. No matter w-what we did, he would not cooperate in the slightest." He paused for the briefest of moments to glance at Cooler, only to look away immediately when he locked eyes with the red irises. "We even threatened to kill him and he just laughed at us."

"Is that so?" Cooler hummed distantly and looked away from the soldier. Then, he stopped walking, drawing a curious glance from the reptilian when he stopped to look back at Cooler. "Tell me, what exactly is a soldier that can't do his job?"

The alien squeaked like a frightened rabbit and fell to his knees instantly to plead. "Please, Lord Cooler, you must understand. This man is not like the rest! His powers are far too abnormal, sir!" Cooler still looked unmoved and so then the soldier quickly yanked out a paper and showed it for the Arcosian to see. "Look, sir, this man's power was recorded at near 100,000 levels!"

"Really now?" Cooler mused, actually arching an eyebrow as he stepped closer to look at the mess of scrawled notes on the piece of paper. "I suppose that changes things, then. How exactly were you able to detain a creature of such power?"

Lowering the paper, the alien seemed to breathe a sigh of relief before replying with, "It was the power-detaining bracelets that the scientists created. Once we locked them around the man's wrists and ankles, he was hardly able to rise above a 5,000 power level without being shocked into unconsciousness. Still, as I'm sure you can imagine, a lot of soldiers were lost in the fight to detain the prisoner."

"It's all for the greater good, commander," Cooler spoke and knelt down to swipe the stack of papers from the creature. He proceeded to look through them, stepping around the kneeling soldier as he did so, and then looked back at the reptilian with an odd smile. "They've been able to find a lot of new abilities for me to try out. I'm quite pleased, actually."

"Yes, of course, sir! You're Seeker Brigade is the best task force in the entire organization! They excel at their job!" the alien squawked eagerly.

"Yes, but be that as it may, I'm still very dissatisfied with your performance, soldier." The alien's face dropped like an anvil and he quickly tried to defend himself once more, but Cooler was already turning his back. "You should learn to be more persuasive…in the afterlife." Before a peep could even come from the soldier's mouth, he was already disintegrated and Cooler was back to walking through the corridor.

"A 100,000 power level, huh…" Cooler mused, absently looking through the papers as he walked. "I can't wait to meet this…Yadratian."

It didn't take Cooler long to get to the underground prison. It was a place that his family rarely found use for – being that they typically dispatched of criminals themselves – but it had it uses. The people of Arcos had to be entertained somehow, so the PTO didn't always bother with murder. Sometimes, they'd apprehend their accosters and toss them into the prisons below to be held until the occasional free-for-all in Arcos's coliseum. There, they'd send the prisoners out to fight to the death and the last one standing would be granted a position in the PTO and their life would be spared…for the moment anyway.

"It's a real joy to see you again, Lord Cooler. We don't usually see royalty down here in the slums," Glacier announced, a stocky, yet shorter, Arcosian that managed the prisoners. Despite his rather intimidating build, though, he had a power level topping around 88,000. "It's been too long since I've seen his majesty and the prince. I hope they are doing well."

Cooler glanced over at the man, noting the spiked mallet at his side with dried blood on it and the overall grizzly demeanor of his fellow Arcosian. He was rather grotesque in Cooler's eye, but he kept that thought to himself. "They are fine, Glacier," he announced as they both came to a large metal door. "Shall we?" he said, standing aside as the guard unlocked the door and pulled it open. And the second that he did, all kinds of noise, obscenities, and overall racket stormed Cooler's ears with enough might to make the prince scowl deeply.

"Yeah, you kind of get used to it," Glacier spoke, leading Cooler into the noisy corridor, lined with prison cells and all kinds of prisoners. "This is Block D, your majesty! A place we reserve for the most…unsavory of prisoners!" he yelled out over the noise.

"I see…" Cooler hissed, choosing to not bother degrading himself by locking eyes with the filth of the cell block.

He ignored all sorts of cat calls from the prisoners. Some of the kinder ones like, "The little princess has finally come to visit us!" And not so kind ones: "Come here, Cooler, so I can ********* until you can think straight, you slimy ************!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU SORRY PIECES OF SHIT!" Glacier announced into the corridor as he and Cooler continued walking, his demands doing nothing more than enticing more comments.

A brief walk to the end of the cell block, and they found themselves at a seedy cell with around eight prisoners held up inside and one strapped to the wall. Apparently, they'd all just finished pouncing on the one man who couldn't fight back, but silently backed away as Cooler and Glacier stood just behind the green, laser bars.

Cooler took one look at the man, his beaten and bloodied exterior, and seethed. "Let me guess…my prisoner is the one shackled to the wall…" he hissed and turned a very serious leer down at Glacier, who was looking like a scolded child in face of an angry parent.

"Umm…well, sir, he was being rather…unruly when we'd first placed him in here. We thought that shackling him would be the best method until someone came to claim him," Glacier answered honestly before tapping a few buttons by cell's controls.

"…Just bring him to me already…"

"Y-yes sir." Glacier hit a final button on the control panel before the laser bars of the cell vanished and he stepped inside, yanking the mallet from his side as he yelled out, "Now back the hell up sorry maggots! I ain't gonna tell ya twice!"

Rather lazily, the seven or so prisoners backed to the side of the cell, leaving an open walkway to the beaten inmate that Cooler was to claim. Yet again, the monarch sneered at the beaten appearance of the man, if for no other reason than the fact that he'd been stolen the opportunity to inflict the pain. Absently, he glance around at the other stationery – yet snickering – prisoners, watching how they marveled in the man's beaten state. Some of them looked stained with his blood and one, a tall and skinny creature of possibly Dodoria's race, looked positively covered in dried blood. Something told Cooler that he'd had the most fun with his prisoner.

"Come on, dammit! I ain't gonna carry you out of here!" Glacier announced, half dragging the beaten man out of the cell.

"Have fun with 'em, Cooler! I know we sure did!" that other creature announced, the one covered in blood.

Cooler leveled a dangerous eye on the man, just about ready to incinerate him with his eye beams, but before he could, the beaten prisoner suddenly jolted to life. Positively slipping out of Glacier's grip, he zipped across the cell with astonishing speed and smashed his left shoe into the inmate's face with such force that he nearly broke through to the next cell. All of the prisoners backed away in shock. Glacier's mouth unhinged out of surprise. And Cooler himself couldn't help smiling at the unexpected act. In fact, nearly the entire cell block fell deafly silent from the loud impact the strike caused.

Easily, the man yanked his foot out of the other creature's – now concave – skull and allowed it to fall to the floor, obviously dead.

"Maybe you should do your job and detain him now, Glacier," Cooler mused openly in amusement and watched as the guard jolted back to life and smacked the prisoner onto the floor as punishment.

Glacier kicked the man a few times before yanking him back up by his shackles and dragging him out of the cell and stamping one of the buttons on the controls to allow the laser bars to come back on.

"Hey! You're just gonna leave this dead jerk in here!"

"Shut the hell up before you join that jerk!" Glacier howled with a snarl that made the inmates leap back out of pure fear. Obviously upset with being made to look bad in front Cooler, he yanked the prisoner back onto his feet and pushed him into stumbling forward. "Fall back down again and I'll beat ya until you wish you were dead!" he snarled and as expected, the man indeed stayed on his feet, even if he waivered a bit. "I'm so sorry about that, Lord Cooler. I promise that it'll never happen again!" he pleaded, dropping the serious guard bit for a more repenting tone in Cooler's direction.

Surprising enough, Cooler waved off the apology and walked on ahead, following the ragged steps of his prisoner in favor of killing a man of his own race. "Just be sure that it doesn't happen again, Glacier," he called out and looked back to see the guard following him. "Before I leave with him, what is this creature's name? I forgot to attain that from my…former commander." He watched the inmate slowly straighten up his stride and actually marveled at how well he was moving after whatever beating he'd suffered at the hands of the others prisoners and Glacier.

The guard paused a moment, earning yet another scathing glance from Cooler, until he'd finally relented. "To be honest, my Lord, I have no idea what his name is. He wouldn't offer it up to your brigade and try though I might, I wasn't even able to beat it out of him when he first arrived. He's something extraordinary, Lord Cooler. I've never met a man I couldn't beat information out of."

Cooler contained his surprise at this fact and focused in on the man striding ahead of them. "…and yet you get more and more interesting…" he mused to himself with a conniving smile.

Onen breathed a deep sigh as he stood at the balcony of Cooler's room, leaning against the railing as he lazily looked at the raging ice storms whirling around just outside of the dome protecting the city. "This really is a nice view," he said absently.

"Onen?"

The Saiyan nearly leapt out of his armor before whirling around with frightened eyes to find Frost standing in the entryway with a confused look on her face. "L-lady Frost!" he exclaimed. "Hi…I mean, um…c-can I, err…" He flailed around with nothing to say, watching as Frost's expression grew more and more confused, until he just sighed. "Please don't tell Lord Cooler I was in his room without permission," he bowed out shamefully.

Frost giggled at the sight. "As if I'd go telling on you to Cooler," she said, allowing Onen to recover with a smile. "Believe me, I'm the last person you have worry about snitching on you to my annoying older brother. But that is actually why I'm here. Where is Cooler?"

Onen perked up and jerk a thumb out in the direction of the dome. "He's gone beyond the barrier to torture a prisoner," he responded, briefly glancing out at the translucent barrier, but unable to seeing much for the raging, icy wind. "He's sure to be back within the hour, though."

"Ah!" Frost said, nodding sagely as she stepped over to the railing and gently took a seat. "He does enjoy his torture." A brief moment of silence passed between the two, Onen looking cautiously back and forth between Frost and the view of the area. Just as he was ready to take his leave, Frost spoke again. "Can I ask you something, Onen?"

"Um…yes of course, milady," he said cautiously.

"Where did Cooler go after Frieza left out to find those dragon's balls…or whatever they were?" she asked, looking the Saiyan directly in his eyes as she asked this. "And don't bother trying to tell me that you don't know. If no one else on this planet knows Cooler's whereabouts at all time, you do."

Onen became alarmed the second the question was asked and it took a whole lot of willpower not to freak out at the random inquiry. "I…well, milady, I must ask why you'd ask such a random question?"

Frost sighed, turning away from Onen then and looking briefly saddened. "This family, this empire, this…Everything! It just…it can be a lot sometimes. All I really want is a family that gets along and I try so hard to keep the peace between everyone sometimes. Though, I learned a long time ago not to dare step between whatever feud Frieza and Cooler had going on. Still, I just want things to be as smooth as possible, but ever since Cooler ran off this planet like a man on fire, things have felt weird. And now, Cooler's back and Father's gone, and we haven't heard a peep from Frieza since he left. I try to go to the command center to get answers, but they say that everything is classified by order of Cooler and my Father. I feel like everyone's trying to pretend like nothing's happening, but there's something there. I just know it!"

"Frost…" Onen crooned, looking ready to try and console the saddened girl, only to bite back his words when he looked at her again, this time with tears brimming in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Onen. I don't mean to pull you into my family affairs. You're an innocent bystander in all of this." She smiled away the tears and stood. "This is a conversation I should have with Cooler, not you. Please, let's forget this happened okay." She gave the Saiyan a wink and turned away, ready to make her leave.

"Milady!" Onen called out, only to scold himself inwardly when Frost stopped and turned back to him. She watched him expectantly with her amber eyes until Onen sighed away the frustration and said, "What I'm about to tell you, Lord Cooler can never know came out of my mouth. Please, you must promise me that you won't tell a soul!"

"Yes, Onen, of course," Frost said. "Not a soul will know."

Onen took another long pause, trying his hardest come up with a soft way to say this, but inevitably decided to just yank the bandage off.

"Frost, Frieza is dead."

The prisoner slammed into the icy surface of Arcos with a crushing force, the whole ground around him ripping to pieces from the impact, and he hardly had enough time to grunt in pain before Cooler appeared with a whipping kick that sent him flying back into the air. With a brilliant chuckle, the tyrant flew off after the target and caught up almost instantly. Their eyes briefly locked as the sped through the air and Cooler laughed out right before grasping his hands behind his head and smashing them into the man's body with enough to send him spearing into the ground once more.

The Yadratian found more solid surface this time, only forming spider web-like cracks in the ice once he impacted, but he still wheezed for dear life when he tried to sit up. He shivered despite himself and paused just briefly to see the cloud of steam constantly spew out of his mouth as he tried to breathe.

"And the dead shall rise again!"

He looked back for a split second before Cooler spun on his heel with a tail slap powerful enough to send the inmate smacking into a large glacier. "Oh, how I love this!" Cooler announced joyfully, practically skipping over to the prisoner in glee as he found the man positively wedged in the block of ice. "Isn't this fun?" he mused and aimed a rather weak jab at the alien's abdomen, though it was still enough to make a grunt of pain come from the creature. "Well, I suppose it's only fun for me."

Cooler offered a bright laugh in spite of the man's pain and was just about ready to continue the onslaught before he heard a grunt of some kind come from the prisoner, almost on the verge of actual words – something Cooler had yet to even hear from the man.

"W-what was that?" he asked briefly, actually leaning in so that he could make out the sound.

"F-fffruck! Y-yyoouuuu!" the man shivered out desperately, yet still managed to glare at Cooler with such ferocity.

"Hmph." Cooler straightened up, hands on his hips as he looked the guy from top to bottom. "You finally speak and that's all that you can say to me? How rude you are, sir." The ghost of a smile on Cooler's face proved he was anything but offended and when the prisoner looked ready to throw out more insults, Cooler cut him off with a stiff knee to the abdomen. "But don't get me wrong, now. I'm happy that you're finally speaking. We're making progress! Don't you think so?"

The man feebly tried to straighten himself back out onto ice, but looked ready to blackout at any second.

Impressive, this creature is. With all of the pain he's been put through, he still clings to life so adamantly. I can't believe I find his fighting spirit so…admirable. "Creature, you've intrigued me today," he said and then quickly slapped the Yadrat across the face to keep him from passing out. "I'll tell you what. All that you have to do is tell me your name and I'll be happy to end your torture for today. Besides, you haven't exactly explained the secret to that technique of yours yet." The man swayed against the ice block, hardly able to do more than nod his head. Cooler sighed. "Come now, I'm giving you a way out. I never give anyone a way out! Don't spit in the face of my mercy, Yadratian! Tell. Me. Your. NAME!"

But it looked too late. The man's eyes fluttered close and he slowly peeled himself out of the ice before falling into the snow of the ground, completely unmoving under Cooler's eye.

"I'll be damned. You disappointed me." Cooler pointed a glowing finger down at the creature. "Ah well, no point in leaving a job unfinished."

"naaa."

Cooler stopped just before firing. "What?"

"nooha. nooha."

With a sigh, the tyrant none-too-gently kicked the alien onto his back, allowing whatever he was saying to come through more clearly. "Speak dammit!"

It took a few deep breathes and a bit of wheezing but the man finally said, "My…name is…Nosa…" And just like that he stopped moving again; even stopped breathing from the looks of it. But Cooler was unbothered. He smiled even.

"Well then, Nosa, seems I don't have to kill you, right now." He stooped down, picking up the man's ankle and began dragging him back to the city for treatment. "That's good for you and me. You'll get medical treatment and in two days, you will show me how to perform the Instant Transmission."