"King Vegeta, as I live and breathe." Cooler said with an apathetic expression, staring the short man in front of him down as if he was figuring out the best angle to stab at his heart from. "The reports from Planet Vegeta told of your demise, as well as that of the Saiyans. Done in by my ambitious little brother, something for which a Super Saiyan from Planet Earth punished him."
"Death is just a different field of training to the Saiyan elite." Vegeta wiped his nose, proud to baffle Frieza's brother and prove his sources incorrect. "And training only makes us Saiyans wildly stronger."
"We'll see…" Cooler stated with a cold facade.
The cocky warrior let out a proud battle cry as he charged forward with his fist drawn back. Cooler closed his eyes as if in total disappointment, just as Vegeta was about to crash into him. However, instead of the two colliding, Vegeta vanished with only his afterimage splitting in half as it charged past Cooler. Floating over the fighting area, Vegeta bombarded Cooler with Ki blasts from up above with a rapid-fire Ki blast barrage. Cooler's tail carelessly swiped about, deflecting each Ki blast with little care as to where they would fly off to.
The stray Ki blasts devastated the remnants of the local city, reducing it to rubble as each Ki blast burst forth with a golden dome of energy. The rampant destruction shook the ground, making withdrawal impossible. Entire buildings crumbled from the shock to the planetoid-sized asteroid alone while when a stray blast collided with a building it left the structure in ashes, evaporating any semblance of organization away in a flash.
Splitting the clouds of dust of his own making, Vegeta dive-bombed his opponent with a kick, but it only penetrated dust and thin air as Cooler was no longer where the king of all Saiyans had left him. Vegeta threw his head around in search of his opponent out of sheer instinct before relying on his Ki sensory. Vegeta vaulted and glided through the vast distance between him and Cooler in a speedy blitz, but his gliding knees only collided with Cooler's tail.
Thunderous thuds erupted when Vegeta threw a volley of punches over the blocking tail to go for Cooler's face but the crafty tyrant danced around his opponent with his arms crossed over his chest, Cooler's red eyes raced across the whites, quick to identify the immediate threat and relay the signal to avoid damage to his brain accordingly. Vegeta's attacks grew faster and stronger yet more powerful and less pre-planned, yet Cooler ducked, dashed, and weaved to the back, to the front, and aside without too much trouble.
Without warning, the king of Saiyans transitioned his relentless offensive into a barrage of Ki blasts that were meant to decimate Cooler from within a hand's reach, making it problematic to dodge this attack. Cooler's eyes widened in surprise as he covered overhead, stonewalling the crushing barrage of energy balls as he winced in pain and growled in frustration. Vegeta raised his hands over his head, completing a single, larger and blazing Ki blast before vaulting it down at Cooler. The tyrant flicked it away with a displeased scowl on his face. Vegeta dashed off to avoid his own blast returning to him as the Ki ball took off into space and decimated an uninhabited nearby planet, leaving it a speck of irradiated space dust in a fiery nova.
"It was arrogant of you to come here, Vegeta. I know you to be an arrogant fool but this is on a scale of foolishness far beyond you." Cooler mocked his opponent, dusting off his shoulder pads before glinting back up at the king of Saiyans, who could only scowl at his lack of success in finding a flaw in Cooler's defenses. "Have my subordinates tired you? If that is the case, you never stood a chance, to begin with."
"Don't get cocky with me, Cooler!" Vegeta bellowed, throwing out his fist and shaking it as a warning. "Your crew barely served as a warm-up!"
"Careful now, Saiyan king," Cooler closed his eyes and breathed out a gulp of air. "I am not like my brother, you know…"
With that remark, Cooler shot his eyes wide open and thrust his open palm out, creating a vast, gleaming with energy shock wave that forced Vegeta to cover up in terror. The proud Saiyan king yelled out in pain as the shock wave blasted him aside, busting right through his block with sheer force while Cooler vanished and appeared directly above his opponent, throwing a rapid handful of strikes to Vegeta's gut before vanishing again. Vegeta gasped for air and sprayed slobber from his mouth as his stare grew dim for a few seconds.
"My brother used his army as his agents. He was too lazy to act himself, so he commanded others to do things for him." Cooler pointed out as he wrapped his tail around Vegeta and spun him like a spinning top with it to open up his opponent for a combination of stout power blows and knee shots. The tyrant continuously vanished and adjusted his position to hit the enemy right into the desired pressure points, inserting Ki blast thrusts into his combination before grabbing hold of Vegeta's face and diving and slamming the dazed Saiyan king into the ground.
A clear shock wave expanded in a dome shape around the two, crackling with lightning at its edges as the entire asteroid let out deafening, deep-seating growls and its surface split with fractures and fissures. With Vegeta's head cracking the cosmic body open, the two brawlers transitioned into its dark depths, moving around each other and throwing careful blows as they still sized each other up in a way. Dirty bruises covered Vegeta's armor and face, whereas Cooler remained unmarked by the battle yet.
"Rubbish!" Vegeta spat blood to the side as the two prepared to clash again. "You can talk high and mighty about what outstanding leader you are, but you're no different from your family! The only reason that your daddy isn't cradling you like your sniveling little brother is that you were born a weakling and he lost all interest in you altogether!"
"Oh? And what is your style of ruling then, king Vegeta?" Cooler mocked his opponent with a smirk, knowing full-well that Vegeta hadn't been a king for all that long yet and likely would have provided an answer barely suitable for entertaining him, let alone a productive discussion. "Where are your people right now, if I may ask? What kind of king runs off and gets himself killed in a fight he has no hope of winning as opposed to ruling his people? Who knows, if all of you rushed me at once, maybe you could draw a drop of my blood?"
"You have some nerve telling me I am a horrible leader when it's because of your brother's oppression that I was raised as a loud dog under his foot rather than the king I was meant to be!" Vegeta hissed, stiffening his body as his hair sharpened and stood up like that of a wrathful wild cat. "Every single disaster plaguing the Saiyans is because of your clan, and the Saiyans can't hope to stand back on their feet until they get their retribution! It is my responsibility as their king to give them that, to bring them all of your heads on a platter and foster them into greatness!"
"You have care for your people, I can respect that." Cooler stretched his neck while the two warriors flew around one another, sizing each other up and looking for an opportunity to strike. "However, your arrogance and rashness will bring your people to extinction, as I thought it already has. The reports from Planet Vegeta were that the Saiyans went extinct after all. As a way to honor your inexperienced sacrifice, I will take your people under my fold and make them part of my empire instead. That way they'll see some of the glory you delude yourself to be able to give them."
"Never again!" Vegeta roared out, dashing in a diagonal upward arc before he descended with a diving right cross. Cooler placed his tail in the way to block the attack, but Vegeta's left palm slammed against its surface as the Saiyan king vaulted over his opponent's block and found his way straight into Cooler's jaw, stunning the tyrant for a second.
A kick to the calf made Cooler grunt in pain and raise his knee up to caress it out of instinct while Vegeta whipped his leg into the side of the Frieza's brother, stunning him in place before booting him right in the face and diving under Cooler's whipping tail to deliver a powerful blow into Cooler's abdomen. With the coughing up alien staggering back, Vegeta erupted in a hail of Ki blasts that scored far greater success now that his opponent was reeling and wide open.
Seeing Cooler's body twitching in response to each Ki blast drove Vegeta into a berserker fury, the Saiyan's eyes whited out while the spiky features of his hair became more apparent and veins riddled his large forehead around his widow's peak. A golden aura enveloped the Saiyan king as he threw open palms and launch a fusillade of Ki blasts at his opponent that seemed to have no end and Cooler sunk in a mustard-colored dust cloud with flashes of bright light breaking through the murky smokescreen with each successful Ki blast.
"Your clan has leeched off of my people long enough!" Vegeta howled as he glided across the dark opening and swept Cooler's leg before driving both his feet into the back of his enemy, bursting him out through the crust of the asteroid and dashing after him in pursuit. A wild, dashing kick left Cooler rolling around in mid-air while focused his momentum into a downward shot to stun Cooler and dig so deep into his abdomen that it deformed the shape of Frieza's brother entirely for a second. A roundhouse kick sent Cooler smashing through a queue of buildings and into a faraway rocky ridge while Vegeta grabbed hold of his head and tried to settle down.
What had just happened? Did he ascend? Did all of his training and soul searching finally make him embrace his birthright and correct the cosmic injustice of that lowly Earth-raised trash becoming a Super Saiyan before him? As the Saiyan king examined his hands and tried feeling up his own Ki and examining his irradiating aura as he was powering up. He didn't feel any different. In addition, the massive power surge he just went through seemed to have gone away as quickly as it came up.
A thunderous crack ripped the ruined ridge apart as Cooler liberated from its ruins and dashed up to face Vegeta once more, dusting himself off. Despite Vegeta going through that insane power-up just now, he barely left a dent on Frieza's brother. This was unbelievable! Then again, this insane power that Cooler had to him vastly surpassed that of Frieza's when Vegeta fought him. Almost a hundred times so, in fact.
"Interesting. Your power level can increase for a time as you go through a hectic series of emotions. I didn't know that about you Saiyans…" Cooler said in a dull tone before taking his fighting stance again as if Vegeta hadn't just overcome his defenses and shook him up thoroughly. The bastard must have been counting that Vegeta wouldn't go through a similar power surge again.
"You're… Really not like Frieza, are you?" Vegeta panted, wiping his mouth with his heavy arms before returning to his own fighting pose. "You don't hide your true power behind transformations. This here is your true power, isn't it?"
"Yes, and no." Cooler replied without even a twitch of his facial muscles or a moment to consider his answer. "There isn't a point in disguising my original form under mountains of transformations that diminish my fatigue and the value of work. I've trained my body to handle my own power, and I relish the challenge. I believe that is what you meant by that. I can, however, become a few more times stronger."
"A few more times still?" Vegeta soured and grit his teeth as a trail of sweat ran down his forehead. If Cooler wasn't bluffing, he truly may have needed that Super Saiyan ascension sooner rather than later. As much as it pained him to admit it, Vegeta found Cooler as he was now more than he could handle. If the fop could become even stronger still, he'll be in heaps of trouble soon enough.
"Don't jump the gun yet, Vegeta," Cooler uttered while the two warriors vanished and appeared mid-way to one another, each one crying out loud as they charged at their opponent with their arms drawn back, ready to crash. The two auras sparkled with violence and vigor, crashing waves of crystal and pink, washing against one another and exploding into pure white upon collision as the two warriors became entangled in a power struggle.
Neither side gave way. Turning around one another as they twisted their faces and grit their teeth, the physical effort each one exuded shifted their facial expressions to almost comical proportions as each warrior gave their very best push. Then… Vegeta's push disappeared at once. Cooler's eyes widened as he glided onward, out of inertia, while the Saiyan king dived under him and thrust his boots into Cooler's face, malforming the shape of the alien tyrant's face.
Vegeta yelled out and couldn't stop roaring as he charged onward, throwing chain punches without end at his stunned opponent as the battle moved to the skies and approached the lower sections of the artificial atmosphere present on the asteroid. With one might blow, Vegeta sent Cooler soaring up into the air as he drove his hands back and prepared a sparking, purple Ki shine around his hands.
"Galick Gun!" Vegeta yelled proudly as he fired a devastating Ki wave of purple energy which was supposed to throw Cooler off into space and devastate him alongside the vast asteroid belt network around this one. Natural protection for the home chosen by the Crosstilians that would blink out in a second against Vegeta's signature attack. And yet… It felt as if Cooler wasn't actually moving at all. Vegeta's eyes quivered and his mouth opened.
As the blast cleared out, Cooler stood in place with his hand lowered and just a few specks of dirt and grazing on his palm, as he had stopped the blast with his hand. The space tyrant waved his hand, relaxing it for a second as stopping Vegeta's crowning attack had taxed him a moderate amount. But Frieza's brother hadn't yet begun to fight for real, whereas Vegeta had been fighting him seriously from the beginning. Or so it seemed that this fight has turned…
"Has it dawned on you yet? The fear? You're a skilled warrior, it would take a primitive Saiyan thousands of years to get to where you are now and yet you still cannot measure up to one like me, even someone who hasn't been born with freakish power like my father and my brother." Cooler stretched his neck, his shoulder, and hand to ease up the tension he put on his entire body to stop Vegeta's attack. "That's right, this power, greater than that of Frieza's, I've attained it all by training. I was born normal by the standards of my race, unlike my father and brother. And yet, the amount of power it would take a Saiyan their entire lifetime to gain, I can attain in sixty minutes."
"Cocky bastard!" Vegeta seethed, shaking with fury. He hated the idea that one of his strongest signature attacks was just rendered into a joke by this self-righteous peacock.
"Perhaps you think that I foster ill-will toward my father and brother for excluding me from their family business and leaving me to my own matters? I do not. For unlike you, I understand that some are just born different. My pretentious little brother was born to rule after my father, for he was born just as powerful as my father was. Even if I have become stronger than Frieza, if Frieza were to train a day in his life, he'd leave me in the dust again. That is the difference of natural advantage. You may hate me for it, but the truth is often hurtful." Cooler said.
"Where are you going with this rubbish?" Vegeta called his opponent out.
"Can't you see? I am more suited to rule your people. In fact, with my brother now just a sniveling imbecile, I am now the most suited to rule the galaxy, since my father won't step back up. It's just natural. We are both hard-workers, warriors, Vegeta, but I am born superior to you so there is nothing you can do to beat me. Even if you somehow trained to become stronger than me, if we were to train the same amount of time, I'd still become smarter, faster, and stronger than you would. The Saiyans would be better off ruled by me than you." Cooler pointed a mocking finger to Vegeta as the king grabbed hold of his hair and tugged on it, growling like a wild animal.
"Cooler…!" Vegeta yelled out with white eyes, his hair thickening and glistening with an ethereal shine that passed up and down his body over his radiant, crackling aura. "You're a dead man!"
"Oh… I've done it again, haven't I? That emotional thing… Oh well, at least now I'll prove it to you that even that is useless against me." Cooler took a defensive stance in mid-air.
Vegeta vanished, appearing before Cooler with a fist already prepared to send his opponent flying off into space and into the massive asteroid belt where Vegeta could unleash a Super Explosive Ki Wave and decimate it in its entirety, alongside this irritating pest and then return on to the asteroid to rest and plan his journey back to his people. Black returned to Vegeta's eyes when Cooler's hand locked around his wrist, stopping the hand in mid-punch inches from his face.
Cooler forced Vegeta's fist aside while staring deadpan into Vegeta's shocked expression with light yet assured twitches. With his free hand, Cooler backhanded Vegeta, sending the king of Saiyans on the trajectory to crash down. Before he could do so, the tyrant teleported right up to his opponent and kneed him into the stomach, knocking the consciousness out of the king of Saiyans for a blink, but just long enough for Cooler to knock Vegeta down with a double ax handle slam uncontested.
With Vegeta laying down on the ground, Cooler appeared before him with vanishing, near-instantaneous movement and kicked the fallen foe flying. Dashing in pursuit, Cooler grabbed hold of Vegeta's throat and drove him through multiple buildings that got in their way before turning around and smacking the dazed and bruised Saiyan king out of his sight with his tail.
"Your rage is as misplaced as it is dull." Cooler stated as he stood and calmly watched how willing to keep going his opponent would still be after this beat down. Maybe this proved to be a good chance to finish Vegeta off for good, though Cooler was a warrior who saw value in a good fight and the lessons that it had to teach and Vegeta wasn't an entirely hopeless opponent. For that reason, for as long as the Saiyan king still showed his fangs, Cooler would play with him and knock him down again, eager to learn and grateful for the lessons that this fight taught him.
Frieza's brother appeared to be an entirely distinct class of beast than his sibling was.