Having a tail in combat that was prehensile and strong was a distinct advantage. Kooler found though that this Saiyan was easily keeping up with him, something which surprised him greatly, even though he was only testing his limits.
He slammed his fist into the Saiyan's forearm hard enough to force the monkey backwards a few feet. The Saiyan had a grin on his face. Kooler was used to seeing this species enjoy the thrill of combat, but usually there was some trace of sadistic pleasure in seeing their strikes inflict pain on their target.
This Saiyan just had a plain goofy, happy-go-lucky smile plastered on his face. There was no trace of malice in his expression.
Somehow it was more unsettling than seeing a sadistic smile.
He turned and delivered a powerful strike with his tail, but the Saiyan caught it and yanked hard, pulling Kooler off his feet. Kooler's eyes flashed, and eye beams struck the ground at the Saiyan's feet. Yelping in surprise, he jumped backwards, accidentally pulling Kooler with him. The elder son of Kold barely managed to recover before he slammed into the dirt, flipping himself upright and lashing out with a leg. The Saiyan danced over it with elegance befitting a ballet dancer and retaliated with a small ki blast aimed at Kooler's midsection. Kooler let a little more of his power release and just ignored the blast as it impacted on his stomach.
"Man, you're really strong!" grinned Goku as he dodged another tail swipe.
"We of the frost demons generally are," Kooler deadpanned.
The Saiyan laughed. "Now c'mon, though, do you think I'm stupid? I can kinda tell you're holding back a lot..."
If Kooler had eyebrows, they would have risen. As it was, his eye ridges went up. "Interesting that you can tell. It's not often I meet someone who is strong enough for me to not outright kill with a blow. I'm curious though why you're not more apprehensive about this." The fighting ceased, a mutual truce being wordlessly declared.
Goku grinned sheepishly. "I've kinda been holding back too. I'm in the same boat as you now, since I'm a Super Saiyan and all that. Man, even your brother wasn't a challenge...but I was transformed when I fought him..." Goku trailed off, his emotions caught between guilt that he had been so cruel to Frieza and righteous fury at the revenge he had taken for Chi-Chi.
Kooler, being more trained in the nuances of facial expressions, recognized that his opponent was being introspective. The fact that his brother was "not even a challenge," when he was in his third transformed state, was something rather impressive, but Kooler found the fact that the Saiyan seemed to be...regretful? about killing his brother was something new entirely. There was also the... somewhat worrying statement that he had been transformed, something which he did not appear to have already done yet.
"Saiyan, I wish to ask you a question. Why did you fight my brother?" Kooler asked.
The emotions on the Saiyan's face finally settled on sadness. "...He killed my wife, Chi-Chi. After that, I just started hittin' him until he didn't move anymore... Vegeta kept me from dealin' the final blow, but he was already past helping at that point."
Kooler rolled his eyes, then closed them. "Figures that the one Saiyan my wayward brother failed to keep close to him would be the one who became the very thing he feared most, aside from our father. Oh, the irony..."
"So, uh...you wanna keep fightin' and go at it for real this time, or can I go and stop Vegeta before he beats up your guys too much? He kinda doesn't know when to stop punching..."
Vegeta indeed did not know when to stop punching. Doore was down for the count, Neiz's arm was fractured in at least 15 different places along a 7 inch span, and Salza was barely holding his own against the elite Saiyan prince. Vegeta had a grin on his face, similarly to Goku, though his was much less innocent.
"Let me tell you something, Salza...my kind becomes stronger each time we are beaten to the brink of death. And the worse the beating, the stronger we come back. That one who your soon-to-be ex-employer is fighting is the Super Saiyan...and you can guess how much stronger he is than I. I am proud to say it took the Super Saiyan himself to beat me down. However, something that should inspire fear in you is not that he is the Super Saiyan -" here, the prince seized Salza's arm in a painful iron grip and pulled him close, smiling evilly "- but that I am still alive after battling him."
The leader of the Armored Squadron cursed colorfully in an alien language and yanked his hand away. "Curse you, Vegeta! How DARE you make a mockery of the elite Armored Squadron!"
Vegeta laughed heartily. "Elite? This is elite? I've had showers that have taken more effort than this battle has!"
The Brench glowered viciously at Vegeta and charged a ki blast in his hand, then threw it at the Saiyan. Vegeta merely slapped it aside without any effort. A shout of pain from behind him surprised both fighters (but not Neiz, who, luckily for him, had finally passed out from the pain).
A tall Namekian warrior in a dark blue vest and white pants had been hit by the wayward blast, blowing his arm clean off. Purple blood flowed freely from the gaping wound, and it was clear that he was in a great deal of pain.
"Damnit, Salza. See what you've done?" Vegeta grunted. Before either of the two combatants could say anything more, a pained shout rang from a raw throat as the Namekian regenerated his arm, much to the surprise of both Salza and Vegeta. He rotated the arm in its socket a few times, then glared at Salza.
"It was your blast that hit me. That one might have deflected it, but he was defending himself." The Namekian did not look pleased.
"You're the higher power level I sensed when I landed... You must be your race's elite fighter or something akin to that," Vegeta said.
The Namekian nodded. "I am the guardian of our kind's leader, Elder Guru, and the finest warrior of the Namekian race, aside from the Super Namekians. My name is Nail."
"Good to know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to resume pummeling this moron into the ground, then if possible I'd like to speak to this Elder of yours. One moment."
Salza had tried to take the opportunity to land a sneak attack on Vegeta, but the Saiyan just sidestepped and landed a straight punch to the Brench's nose. Salza reeled back, cursing a blue streak, blood streaming from his broken nose. Vegeta followed up with another straight punch to his gut, doubling him over, then a sharp elbow to his back, sending him straight down to the ground in a large crater. He lay there, groaning. He tried to rise, but failed, and passed out from the exertion.
"There, that should keep him down for now. I'm sure Kakarot will be upset if I send them to the next dimension, though, so I'll leave them alive for the time being." The prince snorted. "Too soft by far for the Super Saiyan...but all the same, he is the one." Turning to the prodigal son of Namek, he said, "Now that that's out of the way, let's go ahead and speak with this Elder of yours. I'm intrigued to find a Namekian of your caliber here."
A small device in Goku's pocket beeped and squawked just before Kooler's foot shot out to try and catch the Saiyan in the gut. Goku squeaked and backflipped away, shouting, "Hey, one second, ok?" Another stupid grin. Kooler looked annoyed, but if this Saiyan wanted to waste his last minutes playing around, then so much the better. He had time.
Goku pulled a device out of his pocket and tapped it a couple times, becoming somewhat confused when it began playing music from an old boxing movie, then a kid's show, before it finally settled on the voice channel. "Goku? Are you there?" came Bulma's voice. She sounded somewhat shaken.
"Yeah, I'm here, Bulma. Whatcha need?" Goku asked.
"Um...so you remember the Red Ribbon Army, Goku?" Bulma asked. "So, uh...the guy who made Eighter, Dr. Gero... apparently you killed his son or caused him to die, and...well, long story short, the dad of that Frieza guy came to Earth and another Android that Dr. Gero made stepped in and killed him. It hurt the Android and he asked Nappa and Krillin to bring him to me for repairs. That's about when I found out he was with Dr. Gero. He said that Dr. Gero wasn't in a good frame of mind and is obsessed with killing you..." Bulma stopped for a second to take a shaky breath. "Kami, Goku. I'm scared. Anyway, Android 19, the one that killed the alien, asked me to contact you guys and get you to revive Gero's son to try to fix his mental issues..."
Before Goku could answer, he heard an odd sound from Kooler. He turned to see the purple alien almost ashen in tone, all the blood having drained from his face.
"D-did she say...Father is dead?" he stammered.
"Goku?" Bulma asked. "Who's that?"
"Um...the brother of Frieza," Goku replied nervously.
"...oh."
An odd thing about magic is that even when performed by deities, mortals can still throw wrenches in the works if they're strong enough. So when a spell went awry one day on the wrong side of the galaxy, as Babidi tried to locate Buu's cocoon, there was an unfortunate side effect. This side effect took the form of negating a sealing spell that the four Kais had used to seal away a deadly space pirate.
His name was once feared throughout all of space, for he was undoubtedly one of the strongest of beings. He was also incredibly sadistic, reveling in the destruction he caused.
His name...was Bojack. Lord of pirates, the King of Carnage.
His servants, Zangya, she of the cruel smile.
Kogu, swordsman of terror.
Bido, he of the torturous grip.
And Bujin, magician of agony.
Together, they terrorized the whole of the North Galaxy, slaying all in their path. This included a valiant warrior named Pikkon. Immediately after his death, the Kais themselves descended from the heavens to seal away the violent pirates. Despite their great strength, the brutes were no match for the gods themselves. And so, the universe was rid of their terrifying power.
Until the spell was broken.
They now stood before the broken prison that had once held them, finally freed. Before them, on the deserted planet that orbited the stellar prison, stood a strange little creature ensconced in a shimmering magic bubble, a tall, dangerous-looking red-skinned man in a blue outfit, and an alien creature sporting bony armor with a deadly gaze.
"Master Babidi, what do you wish for me to do?" the tall man asked.
"Ugh, I could have sworn that this planet held the cocoon. What else could have created such a powerful magical signature?" the short magician groused.
"Free at last, so long after those meddlesome gods sealed us away..." Bojack murmured. He cracked his neck and flexed his burgeoning muscles.
"Oh, you speak of the Kais? How interesting..." said the red-skinned man.
"Yeah, so what's it to you?" spat Bujin.
"Nothing much, particularly. Simply that I am the Demon King Dabura, and I am no friend of theirs, either," said the demonic being.
"Interesting. Well, as pleasant as this little chat has been, I think it's time for us to take our leave. Zangya! Remove these annoyances," ordered Bojack.
"Yes, Master Bojack," she said, grinning. She flickered out of view for a moment, then rematerialized with her fist firmly planted in the stomach of the white-armored fighter. He made a very squeaky cry of pain, akin to a dog toy, and folded in on himself, clutching his stomach in agony. Before he could recover, Zangya kicked him into the air and incinerated him effortlessly with a ki blast.
"One down," she grinned maliciously.
