"That weirdo has returned to peddle his fables, Don."
Don Kee groaned as he leaned away from his desk and the stack of paperwork before him. He regarded Shela, one of his most faithful servants and nodded his head, begrudgingly.
"How much does he bring in exchange?" he asked.
"Four bags, sir."
Don Kee sighed. That was twice as much as last time, and so he'd expect twice as many people as well. It was a difficult choice, but their economy could use the boost. "Let him take his worshippers, but I don't want to see him here again for at least a half-year."
Shela nodded in kind and was quick to turn and leave the chambers.
Not watching the servant leave, Kee leaned back into his work. However, it didn't take him long to notice that the door to his office had yet to close. Curiously, he looked up from his desk, and his heart nearly skipped a beat as he watched Cooler stand in the doorway.
Leaping to his feet, Kee announced, "My lord! What can I do for you?"
As Kee stood there, though, he couldn't help noting Cooler's appearance. The frost demon, usually standing proud with his chest poked out, was hunched over. His head was shiny with sweat, his eyes unfocused, and his breathing was quick and shallow.
"Lord Cool -,"
"I want off this planet!" Cooler erupted.
The outburst was unexpected, and nearly startled Kee, but as he watched on, he was beginning to understand. Composing himself, Kee stepped around his desk and then leaned against it – watching Cooler like a hawk.
"We just went over this," he spoke, his tone dropping the over-stuffed pleasantries. "Your pod will not be ready for some time."
"I don't care!" Cooler sneered once more, and suddenly turned his focus to the right, as if he didn't see Kee standing right in front of him.
The don smiled. "I'm right here," Kee spoke, drawing Cooler's attention back. "You seem irritated." Casually, Kee pulled himself from his desk and stepped closer to the tyrant, who seemed to be breathing heavier with each passing second.
"Of course, I am!" Cooler belted and paused to catch his breath. "I've been stuck he-,"
Kee watched curiously as the words caught in Cooler's throat and then the monarch began to cough violently.
"Finally," Don Kee hissed. He watched on as Cooler regarded him. The look of confusion on the tyrant's face pulled a malicious smile to Kee's lips. "I was beginning to wonder how much more of our precious food I was going to have to stuff down your gullet. I guess you people are pretty hard to kill after all."
"What are you talking about?" Cooler sneered between ragged breaths.
Kee answered with a slap across the frost demon's face. "How does that feel, my lord? Not too good, I'd imagine."
Cooler took the slightest moment to hold his cheek, as if considering if this was really happening, but as realization dawn on him, he lunged. Don Kee evaded him as if he were an inept child, leaving Cooler to desperately stumble across the room.
"Always the one in control. How does it feel to have that taken away from you, my lord?" Kee spoke as he sauntered up to Cooler's back.
The tyrant turned to regard the don, but was abruptly kicked onto the floor, rolling helpless as he did so. Kee laughed heartily. Cooler made a move to launch from the luxurious carpet, but was ushered unceremoniously back down with Kee's boot pressed against his neck.
"Look at you," he spoke while Cooler desperately squirmed and wheezed beneath him. "How pathetic you look."
"This…this is impossible!" Cooler growled angrily. "What have you done to me? What have you done to my power?"
"Isn't it obvious? Poison, my lord, courtesy of the seeds of Lemures. It's said to only grow in graveyards because it uses the remains as nourishment, and if taken in by the living, it will eat them from the inside out. Usually only takes a day to kill a man, but I guess you are something special." Another laugh was delivered from Kee before he removed his boot from Cooler's neck.
To Cooler's surprise, the ruler stepped away from him. Kee moved back behind his desk and casually returned to his seat. As Cooler casually stood, he watched Kee with hesitant eyes, much to the don's amusement.
"At any day, I had hoped to find you dead from poison. I never could've dreamt of this possibility. So many options afford me now," he mused as he eyed Cooler over.
Despite his fatigue, Cooler managed to straighten his posture. "If you think I will be made a toy for your amusement, Kee, you have another thing coming." The don quirked an intrigued brow as Cooler stepped towards the desk, trying to stride with the regal air that he'd exuded the first time he appeared in the chamber.
Cooler pressed his palms against the mahogany wood as he loomed above Kee and leered down at him with as much malice as he could radiate in that moment. "I will forgive this insubordination of yours, if you provide me with my ship at once, and all will be forgotten. But if you continue with whatever plans you dare to have against me, I will destroy everything that you have ever cared about."
Kee paused to stare into the pool of fire that was Cooler's eyes in that moment. He remembered the first day he'd first seen a similar pair when he was kid. It was the day that he was forced to grow up all too soon.
"Your father already has. Take him away."
Before Cooler could even be shocked by the response, Ledgic struck the back of his skull, leaving him to collapse first across the desk before slumping onto the floor.
"My name is Dr. Raichi, and as of this moment, you belong to me!"
A long stretch of silence reached out after the mad man's declaration, as Nosa, Onen, Riva, and Leek found themselves in the audience of a planet worth of zombified denizens.
The silence was brought to an abrupt halt as it was suddenly filled with the guffaw of Onen. The dry laugh caught all's attention as the Saiyan was drawn from the quartet and moved forward.
"You'll have to forgive me, Dr. Raichi. I haven't heard something so ludicrous in quite a long time. I found it rather hilarious," he finally spoke. "Now then, if you are done with your comedic act, how about you come down here and surrender yourself? You're directly interfering with PTO business and I'm sure my higher ups would love to hear more of your funny words."
It was Raichi's turn to chuckle as he looked down upon them all. "You Saiyans were always foolhardy."
Onen scowled before lifting one hand and aiming it at the mad scientist. "That didn't sound like a surrender to me."
Without another word, the commander fired off a column of searing energy. The area became aglow with Onen's power, but just as the energy seemed ready to wash over Raichi. A dozen or so of the denizens below launched into the sky and formed a meat shield, leaving the energy to crash explosively against the blockade. The minor explosion left a hefty cloud of smoke over the group, but as it wafted away, Raichi was left completely unscathed.
A triumphant smile dotted the scientist's lips as he said, "It wasn't."
"Onen, look out!"
The Saiyan turned to the call of Riva in just enough time to launch into the air and avoid the three zombie soldiers that had charged him. As he loomed above them, Onen aimed a hand down to the trio, ready to obliterate them, but before he could a translucent, purple goo seemed to emanate from their skin and launch up to meet the Saiyan.
Both freaked out and grossed out, Onen abandoned his blast and tried evading the goo a few times before his aura roared around him, forming a raging energy barrier. As he watched the goo contact his energy for the faintest of moments, he swore he saw a face appear before his aura blasted the goo away.
"What the hell?" he awed.
Watching the scene above, Nosa offered a glance over his shoulder to the soldiers guarding them, and could already see the goo reaching out for him, Riva, and Leek. In a blinding movement, Nosa knocked Riva out of the way and pressed a wave of energy against the goo and soldiers, blasting them aside. The motion, though, didn't spare Leek.
Before the lieutenant could react, the goo swam over him, bathing his skin before seamlessly rushing into his pores. All the crew could do was watch in horror as Leek convulsed and writhed. With a pained yell, his energy surged around him.
"Leek! Fight it!" Riva pleaded.
But the words were to no avail. As Leek's energy began to taper off, his pained grunts turned to ominous laughter. His pained expression was morphed to a skin-crawling smile.
"What's there to fight, Riva?" he finally spoke, his voice eerily different. "I'm right where I want to be."
"I told you!" Raichi's voice called out to beckon their attention. "You all belong to me. My fellow Tuffles, go induct your new family members."
Without another moment, the swarm was released.
Frost's amber eyes were motionless as they looked across the table to her father. At the moment, he was too busy staring into the goblet of wine to look up at her. The soft ticking of a clock in the background was all that filled the scene as the two sat in silence.
The silence did not sit well with the heiress.
"Father," Frost finally pressed, earning the attention of the elder as he looked up to her as if surprised that she'd been there. When Cold made no attempt to speak, she continued. "…I'm worried."
"I am too." King Cold offered a deep sigh before returning his attention to the wine and then knocking it back.
"About you," Frost added. She leaned forward, making an attempt to extend her arm across the table and offer a comforting hand, but Cold withdrew from her. "I'm worried about you. You've grown reclusive."
Cold sneered and stood away from the table, being sure to look down on his daughter as he spoke. "Should I not be?" His words were sharp and his face set with anger.
Frost knew to tread carefully. "You should not," she pleaded. "This is Frieza we're talking about. He will return!"
With a flare of his cape, King Cold turned away from Frost and crossed the room to a nearby window. Solemnly, he looked out his palace and his city in the distance. For a moment, silence crept upon the two once again.
Frost watched her father mournfully, but chose to give him the space that he appeared to want.
"I should've gone with him," Cold finally said. "By a miracle, Frieza was returned to me, and then I allowed him to leave this place. And with Cooler, no less." Spite crept into Cold's voice, the faint reflection of him in the window scowling back at him. "Frieza is everything that Cooler would never be, and he knows that. He's always been jealous of him."
Frost sat a moment longer with her father, but once it was clear that he wanted nothing else to do with her, she politely bowed out of the room.
It has been months since Cooler and Frieza's departure, and over a month of radio silence between command and the crew. With each passing day, Cold grew more frustrated. He'd shut himself off from most duties. Without Cooler and Frieza around, the PTO was in a sort of limbo. The vacation of sorts was surely a celebrated time amongst the soldiers. As for the monarchy, the Arcosians had learned a long time ago about how to get on without the input of their king.
That's why so many wondered why they still had one.
Frost released an audible sigh as she walked into her bedroom. She walked up to her bed and crouched down to pull a device out from under her mattress. Mindlessly, she wandered out onto her balcony before a happy smile pulled at her lips.
The digital map she'd pulled up placed the Crusher Corps stationed at their latest planet. In no time, she'd be getting word that they devoured the last of their fruit. And from then, the next phase would begin.
"Everything is falling into place," she mused as took in the view of the city below.
A mass of zombies were sent flying down one street while another was launched down the opposite side. As they casually pulled themselves up from the ground, they glared back over to Riva. The lieutenant was in the midst of the hoard, surrounded on either side of the road.
Once Raichi had release his army, Nosa, Onen, and herself had separated, taking a clump of the hoard in either direction.
"Eeeehhh!"
Riva looked overhead as four zombies leapt from the surrounding buildings to dive bomb her. Long before they could rain over the lieutenant, her pointed fingers speared upward and blew the monsters out of the sky with her kiais. As they dropped out of sight elsewhere, the hoard charged her once more.
"These bastards just don't stay down," she groaned.
Turning with a flare, she released another kiai. This one was massive and blew down the roadway like a gust of wind, carrying the hoard further and further away. But as soon as the zombies hit the ground, they were already getting back to their feet.
It's endless, she thought.
Suddenly, her attention was drawn the sky above as an array of explosions rung out.
"Maybe Onen has the right idea for once," she spoke before turning with another kiai to the other hoard.
XXXXXXX
Zooming through the air at a breakneck pace, Onen looked over his shoulder to the smoke left behind from his display and scowled when he saw another pack of zombies rushing out from his attack.
It seemed the more he eradicated, the more that would spawn.
Still, he scoffed. "I can do this all day," he growled.
Coming to an abrupt halt, Onen aimed both hands forward with two beachball-sized orbs ready to blast away. But his attack was cut short as two zombies snuck up behind him. They reached out, ready to grab a hold of him with their goo already poised to swim onto the Saiyan. Onen, though, surged his aura outward blowing his accosters back.
The creatures hissed at his rush of energy and positively screeched in horror as the Saiyan turned the energy orbs on him. In a flash, they were reduced to dust.
Onen smirked before promptly turning back to the pack on his heels, but they'd already caught up. In an instant, Onen was surrounded on all sides. He tried firing off his energy blasts, but as he shot off in one direction, he was blindsided in another. Desperately, the Saiyan fought back the monsters, being especially careful of the zombifying goo lurching from their skin.
Just as he was nearly piled on by the accosters, Onen's energy splayed out with a massive roar. With waves firing in every direction, the hoard surrounding him was quickly eradicated, leaving a winded Saiyan in their wake.
Armed with another scowl, Onen watched the next wave of zombies rush up from the ground. He then cast his eyes out to the massive spaceship, where Raichi still stood and watched over the scene with his smugness.
"I'm tired of this game," he seethed.
Long before this hoard could reach him, Onen fired off a volley of energy blasts, raining havoc down on all who dared to be below him. Then with the zombies momentarily down, Onen rushed over to the spaceship and Raichi.
With his aura surging around him, the Saiyan speared through the air and was ready to knock the doctor clear through his own spacecraft. Meanwhile, Raichi was casually toying with his tablet, as if his doom was imminent. Long before Onen could reach, a column of energy rushed at him from below. Easily enough, he evaded the blast, but was promptly met with another crew of zombies.
The denizens floated up to meet the Saiyan and effectively put a barrier between Onen and the doctor.
"Tsk tsk tsk," Raichi sounded, wagging his finger back and forth. "It won't be that easy, Saiyan."
XXXXXXX
Nosa looked over his shoulder at the mass of zombified denizens following him. A few fired off energy beams for the Yadratian, but easily he dodged them. He then cast his eyes down to the wilderness below them. As he flew, he could faintly see what looked like a plume of smog lifting into the air.
Curiously, he sped off for it. In no time, Nosa reached what looked like a crash site and a machine of some sort perfectly settled in the crater and bellowing out a thick haze that reached out into the sky and filled the air, meshing seamless with the ever-present, dark clouds that loom overhead.
"One of Raichi's I'd assume," he hissed before firing down an energy blast to blow the contraption away.
As he turned away from the crater, he suddenly found himself surrounded by the hoard. Looming in the trees, bushes, and even floating overhead, the denizens crept closer to the Yadratian. Some even had their goo already dripping out from their pores, ready to take the man.
They neared closer and closer, inching toward Nosa, almost as if they were trying not to frightene him off. But once they'd gotten to within arm's reach, they found the courage to lunge and as they did so, Nosa disappeared.
The Yadratian appeared atop one of the ruins of the city and looked to where Riva was decimating a group of zombies – now firing off energy beams as she blew them to away. Casually, he looked out into the distance where he'd led the zombies.
"That should buy a little time."
An array of explosions dotted the sky above as Onen sped through the sky. In the blink of an eye, Nosa was at his side.
Matching the Saiyan's speed, the two rocketed through the air with the zombies at their heels.
"We should leave!" Nosa yelled out over the rush of wind around them. "This mission is over!"
Onen scoffed before turning to release a wave of energy. "This is nothing! We'll erase these pests and take down Raichi!"
The Saiyan's stubbornness was trying at best and infuriating at worst. Nosa snatched at his arm, yanking him to a stop. Before Onen could voice his anger, they teleported, much to the dismay of the zombies that had been following them.
"What are you doing?" Onen snapped just as the two appeared right behind Riva.
The lieutenant nearly leapt out of her skin at their appearance. She turned to them, opening her mouth to speak, but Nosa had already grabbed her arm as well. Once again, they were gone.
"Enough of this!" Onen shouted as he snatched his arm from Nosa's grasp just as they appeared back at their makeshift post on the other side of the world.
"We're leaving!" Nosa demanded, turning away from them as he began walking over to the cruiser. "I'll go prepare the ship. You two go retrieve the other soldiers that remain in that castle."
Onen was snarling. "Did you forget who is in charge here? Because I am! Not you!"
"And you're doing a horrible fucking job!" Nosa snapped, whirling around with a rage that made Riva recoil while Onen remained firm. "What is there left to salvage of this mission, Onen? Even if we fight through all of those zombies and get to Raichi, what then? What do we gain from this fight? Nothing! We should cut our losses and get the hell out of here!"
"I am NOT leaving!" Onen barked and stomped forward. "And neither are my men or my ship! I will complete this mission! You can either join me or go cower in a corner!" Onen was directly in front of Nosa then, as he jammed a finger in his chest. "But don't you ever interfere with my fight again!"
The hateful glare that Nosa leveled Onen with then was matched in full by the Saiyan's.
As a fight between the two threatened to come about, Riva spoke up. "I'm with Onen on this one." Nosa's eyes finally broke the stare with Onen as he regarded Riva, mournfully. "That bastard took my men. He took Leek! I won't leave here until he pays for that. If you don't want to join us, then don't, but please stay out of our way."
Despite his best efforts to form an argument, Nosa couldn't in the face of Riva's sternness. With a sigh, he looked back to the obsidian eyes still staring him down. "Fine," he hissed. "But if we're going to fight, then we should have a plan."
XXXXXXX
Raichi hummed contently as he toyed with the tablet in his hand. Casually, he glanced down to the field below where he'd gathered all of his minions once again. And then, his eyes were drawn back to the sky as the elusive trio soared in from above.
"And here I thought that you had tried to leave me," he called out, humorously. When he didn't get a response, his smile faltered ever so slightly. "Go, my Tuffle Army!" he ordered.
On cue, his zombie hoard rushed into the sky. The several dozen or so monsters howled and cried out like animals as they sped through the air. And still, faced with the tidal wave of zombies, Riva, Nosa, and Onen were completely unfazed. In fact, they didn't move an inch. Raichi found their bravery very touching as he watched on in glee, but that turned to terror when he watched his zombie hoard charge through the mirage that Riva had conjured.
"What!" he yelled and suddenly began toying with his tablet once more.
Before he could finish fulfilling whatever commands he was entering, Riva was suddenly at his left. Raichi stumbled back in shock, but Riva was quick to snatch the tablet out of his grasp.
"We couldn't help noticing that nearly every time these zombies of yours moved, you had to toy with this little device of yours to move them. I guess they're not too independent, huh?" she crooned as she lazy flipped the device around in her hand.
"Give that back, you witch!" Raichi sneered as he lunged for the tablet.
Effortlessly, Riva knocked him back across the platform, nearly knocking him over the railing. As Raichi stumbled, Riva looked over to the hoard as they watched the mad scientist curiously.
Raichi seethed. "Get her, you imbeciles!"
"They can't see me," she spoke, noting the devastated look appeared on Raichi's face. "The same way you couldn't see me floating down to this spot when you sent them after my mirages. Pulling this trick off on a lot of people is usually pretty taxing, but thanks to you, they're all pretty simple minded right now."
"There are still way too many for you! You can't keep this up forever," Raichi spoke, trying to reclaim an air of confidence. "The commands have been set. They'll pursue you and the others relentlessly on sight. Even if you destroy my device!"
Riva smiled. "I have no intention of doing that. I just wanted to give my friends time. And thanks to you, all of the zombies have been gathered in one spot."
Raichi's eyes grew wide as he looked skyward to his hoard, conveniently settled in one lump in the sky. "Move! Move, you fools!"
Nosa and Onen then rushed out from the surrounding wilderness, both with their energies roiling around them. Raichi made note of them before the zombies did, but the time they turned to the soldiers, both Onen and Nosa released massive waves of energy – Nosa's a flashing green and Onen's a brilliant blue. The two beams darted through the sky like tidal waves and before the zombies could even begin to react, they were swallowed up whole on either side.
"No!" Raichi yelled as the area suddenly flared with a blinding light and was then engulfed in a massive explosion.
With the smoke and light finally lifted from the area, the hoard was gone. In their place floated Onen and Nosa, each with a contemptuous glare leveled on Raichi.
"It's over! You're coming with us!" Onen declared.
"Do yourself a favor and give up!" Nosa bellowed.
"Listen to them, Raichi," Riva spoke. She then looked to the tablet in her hands before dropping it to the floor and stomping her heel clean through the center. "You're done."
Faced with his defeat, Raichi grabbed the railing of his platform. For the faintest of moments, he looked positively devastated, but that was before arming himself with a deadly smile. "Well, Muu won't be happy that I lost all of his test subjects, but now I'm free to conduct my own test."
The mad scientist's words left Riva confused.
When he turned on the woman, the maniacal look on his face made her shrink back. "Good thing I don't need a device to control this one."
On cue, the spacecraft suddenly began shaking violently. The tremor startled Riva so much that she was blindsided when Raichi lunge for her and knocked her over the railing. The lieutenant began her freefall, offering the slightest shriek before her translucent aura took over and she darted back up, ready to take Raichi's head off.
"Where did he go?" she cried once she flew back up to find the doctor gone. Turning to her comrades, she could see that their attention was focused at the bottom of the ship.
A sickly green glow bathed the area as the shaking of the ship came to a halt. At the bottom of the craft, a compartment had opened, lowering down a single individual. It was a hulking monstrosity with red, armored skin and emerald gems darting its chest, hand, and long, oval-shaped head. Once the platform brought the monster to the ground, it stepped out onto the grass. For the briefest of moments, it looked to have been ignoring the trio looking down on it dumbfounded. But then, it turned its amber, pupiless eyes looked up to them.
Slowly, the gem in its chest illuminated, followed by its hands, and finally its skull. The green light was so blinding that the trio were forced to look away, but what they couldn't turn away from was the massive rush of searing heat that raked out over the area.
The scouters on Riva's and Onen's faces suddenly tried to put a number to the reading, but shorted out abruptly. Only Nosa had the slightest inkling as to the power that was bathing the area and as he chanced a glance into the brilliant light below, his mouth all of a sudden went dry.
"Go forth, Hatchiyack! Show them what it means to trifle with the Tuffles!" Raichi's disembodied voice bellowed before the monster's energy suddenly erupted. His growling roar was all that was heard over the searing wind that threatened to rip the area asunder.
Cooler opened his eyes abruptly, and was in shock to find himself in the freezing tundra of Arcos. The shock of the familiarity of his home was only compounded as the sharp chill in the air nipped at his skin. He had trained in these blistering winds hundreds of times, and this was the only time he'd ever felt so frigid.
"Damn this cold," he hissed as an especially sharp gust blew past.
He attempted to conjure his aura, and for a fleeting moment it worked. He levitated into the air to fly off, but was stunned as it pattered out, leaving the tyrant to drop back onto the snow rather ungracefully.
As Cooler stumbled, a gentle chuckle caught his attention. Whipping around toward the voice, his teeth were barred as he readied to level whoever had the gall to laugh at him with his rage. But, Cooler's anger was dashed as quickly as it sparked as he met a pair of scarlet eyes that soothed him with a calm he hadn't felt in years.
"Hello, my little iceling," Chilla spoke with a kindness that could've melted the entire planet.
For a moment, Cooler stood there, rooted in place as he looked upon his mother. He didn't dare move while in her sight, as if he feared this vision of her would disappear like a dream cut short. But once Chilla open her arms to embrace her son, Cooler dashed the distance between them in a heartbeat.
The queen stumbled upon her son's weight, but held firm as he nestled into her arms. "It will all be okay," she whispered as Cooler hugged on to her for dear life. "I've missed you too, my son."
Nearly thirty years since the passing of his mother, and Cooler could still remember it like it was yesterday. An impromptu trip to one of their planets had brought the queen into contact with the venom of a deadly insect, and she didn't make it back to Arcos in time for proper treatment. The last time Cooler, Frieza, and Cold had behaved anything close to a family had been when they collectively destroyed the planet.
"Why?" Cooler spoke, trying his best not to whimper. "Why did you have to go there? Why did you have to leave us?" Despite his best efforts, a tear began to roll down his eye as he buried his face into his mother's shoulder, too embarrassed to look at her.
"Grow up."
Cooler brought his cascade of emotions to halt all of a sudden because that was not the tone of his mother. He tried to pull away from the figure and found stark resistance as the arms that once consoled him grew tight.
"She's dead. Get over it."
Cooler pulled away just enough to meet the all too familiar face of his father. Cold's bear hug grew more and more tight, making Cooler feel like all the blood in his body was being shoved into his skull. Desperately, he tried to fight away from his father, but Cold could only leer at his son with that same disdainful glare he'd given him shortly after Queen Chilla's death. There was no time to mourn the fallen, not in his eyes.
"Get over it or die just like she did!"
The splash of water to Cooler's face jostled him out of his nightmare as he pushed himself from the ground, gasping for air. He briefly caught the gleeful smile of Gale before the demon-like creature walked off. As Cooler tried to reclaim his senses, a raucous cheer filled his ears and he suddenly realized that he was in some sort of rag-tag coliseum.
Gingerly, Cooler forced himself up from the dirt and looked around at the hundreds of people that filled the stands. All roared some form of boo or jest for the tyrant. Some even had the gall to sling rotten foods into the pit where Cooler stood. And once he'd taken in his audience, Cooler turned to look upon Don Kee, poised in a regal, covered stand as he watched on in amusement. Raking his eyes down from Kee, Cooler looked upon Ledgic, whose feigned blankness from the previous day had been replaced with a very overjoyed smirk.
"Finally! He has risen!" Ledgic's voice boomed as the audience managed to grow louder.
Cooler felt a nervousness crawl under his skin that he had never quite felt before as his eyes locked onto Don Kee once again. The don had risen from his royal-esque seat. Casually, Kee strode out from under his covered area and the audience grew silent.
"Do you like what you see, my lord?" Kee announced, waving his hand out as if to bask in the glory of their makeshift coliseum. "This place was built by order of your father. It was meant to parse out the weaklings of this world. How ironic that your father would have built the very pit that you would die in."
"Enough is enough, Kee! Your problem is with my father, not me! I have done nothing to spite your people! Let me leave at once and forget this petty vendetta!" Cooler demanded.
"Petty, is it?" Kee replied. His tone was laced with venom and his glare sharp as a blade. "I watch my father get cut down in that very pit by your PTO thugs, and you call my vendetta petty. I watch hundreds, if not thousands of my people's blood stain that dirt, and YOU CALL MY VENDETTA PETTY!" Kee's rage nearly took a hold of him, but he pulled it back as he took a second to smoothen his hair while trying to calm himself.
"You are right about one thing, my lord. Your father holds most of the blame here, but he commands the same army that you do, and I'm certain that you've down many atrocious things in your lifetime as well. I'm doing a service to the entire universe by ridding it of you."
"KEE!" Cooler barked, but stopped talking all at once as he watched Don Kee lift a hand. On cue, Ledgic claimed a battle stance and an anticipatory rumble began to move within the audience as they all waited. A pit formed in Cooler's stomach as he tried his best to summon his power. The haunting words of his father were all that came to him.
"BEGIN!" Kee announced as the crowd erupted with ground shaking cheer.
Apologies for the break in updates. I fear my writing ambitions superseded my abilities, so I had to think of a way to consolidate some things without making a mess of the storyline. I actually plan to post chapter 29 by end of day Monday to make up for it.
Until next time!