Dragonball Z: Alter Age

by TheWriteFiction

After unwittingly getting shot up into space in his uncle's pod- Gohan is discovered and recruited by Cooler's elite, and becomes an integral member of the Armoured Squadron. Together with his new teammates, the demi-Saiyan sets out to conquer worlds, fight armies, topple demons, defeat Saiyans, and wage war against Frieza and his family. [GohanHarem] [Arc: Lord Slug Saga]

23. Lord Slug Saga - Clash of the Titans

DRAGONBALL Z

Alter Age

Clash of the Titans

(Otherworld)

(King Kai's Planet)

After bidding his most remarkable student in recent years, Goku, a fond farewell, the guardian of the Northern quadrant of the local galaxy cluster was more than ready to settle in for another long watch. Given that part of his job was to keep a careful eye on the region of space he'd been assigned by the Supreme Kais and the Great Destroyer, the martial arts master was more or less in the near perfect position to observe Goku's journey back down to Earth, as well as his upcoming battle against the Saiyans.

Since the man had practically blitzed it down Snake Way to return to his friends as quickly as possible, the Kai had every confidence that his boy would be able to pull through just fine. It was all a matter of him making it there before any of his companions were put out of commission by Vegeta or his partner.

However, while King Kai was waiting for Goku to make it down to the battlefield on Nimbus after successfully being teleported back to Earth by Kami, the man had then picked up several more immense power levels flickering at the edge of his scope. Tuning his senses in the direction of the large presences and stretching them out towards the very outer rims of his sector, the blue guardian quickly discovered the source of the disturbance.

King Kai's jaw dropped when he saw, to his astonishment, a large bulk of Cooler's Army going head to head with the demonic forces of Lord Slug- the invader from the unknown regions.

For the next hour or so the man watched from afar, observing as the alien prince's forces advanced on the Super Namekian's troops and slowly began marching upon his citadel. There was so much going on across so many parts of the world that even with all his omnipotence, King Kai struggled to keep track of the number of people fighting in this conflict. However, while the battle between the hundreds of thousands of soldiers was epic enough, the true meat of the show came in the form of Cooler's elite battling against Lord Slug's generals.

Their power levels were so damn high that it boggled the Kai's mind how the two groups were able to acquire such strength. Heck, from what the deity could tell, every one of Cooler's personal guard and Lord Slug's commanders were even more powerful than Frieza- a feat that went beyond what he thought was possible. The fact that he could sense them from all the way up here spoke volumes as to their achievement.

But while the fight between the generals and the Armoured Squadron was proving to be one hell of a sight in its own right, it was the battle between his student's son and the dragon girl that had all the Kai's full and undivided attention. The boy's power level was reaching such heights and intensities that it was almost impossible for King Kai to ignore what was going on down on that planet. It was like he was watching a sun going nova repeatedly in the same spot- his radiance was just that incredible.

As the battle between Gohan and Lucoa escalated- moving from one part of the planet to the other- King Kai had held his breath through its entirety- watching the boy get hit, come back swinging, and hit back even more. Hell, the child was fighting so damn hard he'd even come close to death a couple of times. It was only when the half-Saiyan hero cranked out his Great Ape transformation and stacked his Super Saiyan form on top of it that the battle finally reached a tipping point.

The instant King Kai sensed Lucoa power up her Giant Dragon Form followed shortly by Gohan, the feedback he received sent an electrical bolt running up his antennae, which then comically exploded in the man's face. The Kai wailed in shock when the flash of fire engulfed his mug and knocked him on his ass, causing an observing Bubbles and Gregory to freak out and rush over.

"King Kai! What happened?" the little cricket squeaked as he floated around to see if his master was okay.

Groaning as the smoke slowly lifted off his now frayed antenna, the blue guardian slowly sat up and shook his head. "W-Wow. I… I can't believe it!" King Kai coughed, his cheeks smudged and blackened from the resulting surge of power. "Th-That was Gohan?! There's no way!"

While Bubbles hopped about in a frantic display of worry, Gregory blinked as he floated a little closer to his boss. "What's going on down there? Is the little tike alright?"

"Yes. He's… better than alright. Far better," King Kai said, pushing himself to his feet and looking ahead of him in shock. "Goodness. The boy has managed to tap into such a large well of strength that I don't even know how to describe it." A sweat broke out on his face as he readjusted his antenna and quickly honed back in on the location of the battle. "He's crossed into an entirely different realm of power that is beyond anything I've ever encountered before in the mortal universe."

Gregory, blinking in alarm, floated back a bit as the Kai slipped his hands behind his back. "Is… Is that a bad thing?"

A murmur left King Kai's lips, "Hmm… I'm not sure." The man's glasses flashed as he quickly relocated the boy and began analysing the battlefield more carefully. "What's even more incredible is that his opponent has been able to match him blow for blow… and has even been able to achieve a transformation comparable to his. That Ryujin girl… just how much more strength is she hiding beneath those scales?"

For two warriors of such calibre to both reach the same height in strength at virtually the same time, though it wasn't unheard of, was still a rarity. King Kai only hoped that the system they were fighting in wouldn't suffer too much damage.

After all, there was so much ki radiating off them right now that the guardian wouldn't be surprised if the moon split in half from just a single footstep.

OOO

(Meanwhile)

(Back on Lord Slug's planet)

The face off in the icy valley between the two transformed, gargantuan fighters- Gohan and Lucoa- seemed like it would go on for quite some time. Given the circumstances, it seemed like a very likely scenario:

A massive, hulking, glowing ape in purple spandex glaring daggers at a slightly larger and more imposing reptilian beast with wings and fire gushing out of the enormous spines running down its back.

When you also take into consideration their respective sizes, postures, and positions on the field, anyone observing from afar would easily assume that these two, lumbering warriors would continue to sneer at one another for the next few minutes, sizing one another up, gauging the other's strength, before proceeding to stomp clumsily towards one another to start their big, monster brawl. What else could one expect from a pair of warriors the size of skyscrapers?

However, in the case of cosmic beings from other planets, appearances were no doubt deceiving. Because as soon as Gohan whipped out his Super Saiyan transformation and stacked it on top of his Great Ape Form, coating himself fully in gold and sending raging winds ripping across the icy valley in all directions, Lucoa responded in kind. With a shriek-slash-roar, the dragon slammed her two forward palms into the ground and unleashed a blast of heat from her body- the resulting expulsion of energy causing the flames on her back to intensify and send jets of fire gushing into the sky, scorching the atmosphere.

The instant the giant dragon hit her gorilla of an opponent with a wave of killing intent, Gohan- his own rage and excitement burning as strongly as his aura- leaned forward and unleashed a primal scream of his own. The bellow of his beastly roar ripped across the entire field in the form of a destructive gale of wind, which ripped apart the plate of ground in front of him and sent chunks of ice barrelling towards Lucoa.

Although, it wasn't like the debris was able to do anything to the giant dragon, since most of the ice was melted before it could make contact and Lucoa's aura managed to shrug off the shockwave.

Myra, Dore, Wings and Commander Zeeun meanwhile, all of whom were watching in astonishment from the sidelines, were forced to shield their faces from the blasts of wind that exploded between the two warring warriors- with Wings clamping his hands over his ears from how loud their roars were.

Huffing at Gohan's cry, Lucoa decided to act. Once the boy's ear-botching scream faded, using speed and dexterity bellying her size, the giant dragon darted forward in a haze of movement. Her take-off created a sonic boom that shattered the ground and glaciers lining the horizon behind her.

Growling when he saw the dragon charge at him at full speed, the Golden Ape Gohan lunged in with a haymaker. However, due to their increased size the boy underestimated just how much distance was between them, which ended in him getting rammed by the dragon's flaming cranium and horns.

Grabbing the Oozaru as soon as she tackled him- with one arm going under his and the other hooking his right leg, Lucoa effortlessly picked the glowing monkey up, pushed him through the air, and slammed him back first into a mountain. The edifice literally sunk beneath the weight of Gohan's massive form dropping on top of it, which resulted in the boy getting pinned by the giant dragon's foot. The moment he collided with the mountain the flaming dragon then let the transformed boy have it- slashing him across the muzzle with clawed hooks that drove into his face from a high angle.

Each impact was marked by an ear-splitting bang that shook the country around them, gradually obliterating the mountain they were on as the titanic Lucoa let loose her fury. After hitting him across the top of the head, the slightly dazed Gohan hurriedly scrambled to his feet and tackled his opponent, wrapping his thick, fury arms around her and picking her up. What resulted immediately after that was the dragon taking flight with a powerful flap of her wings and sending the pair spinning across the valley- directly over the heads of an astonished Myra and co.

When the pair dropped from the sky and collided with the mountains on the other side of the field immediately afterwards, collapsing them in an explosion of frost and debris, Lucoa quickly gained the upper hand once again and dropped on top of Gohan. With the boy down on all fours, the dragon took a swipe at his back with her forward hand, her claws tearing several gashes through his spandex and slicing into his flesh. The Golden Ape yelped in pain at the sharp hit to the shoulder blade, before he was then swiftly hit upside the face by Lucoa's tail when she whipped her body around for a strike.

Being thrown across the field and onto his back, the stunned Gohan saw the dragon fan her wings once again and take off, before he was kicked in the head and knocked onto his back. Lucoa then proceeded to gain altitude fast to put some distance between her and her opponent. However, just as she was climbing towards the clouds at an alarming rate, in a surprising turn, her Giant Ape of an opponent managed to jump back to his feet, spring after her with equally astonishing speed, and snag her by the ankles.

The moment his massive hands wrapped around her legs, the Golden Ape child yanked the shocked dragon out of the sky and towards the ground. The pair plummeted together, with Gohan managing to land on top of the flaming reptile and smash her into the ground for added damage, which not only punched a whopping crater into the floor but shook the continent for miles. The moment Gohan landed on top of Lucoa amidst a cloud of frost and rock, the Super Saiyan Oozaru then proceeded to lay the smackdown on the beast by repeatedly driving his knuckles into her body and face primate style while she was pinned beneath his knees, with each hit sending out a deafening shockwave.

As the rumblings of the boy's blows rained down on the dragon, Myra and Dore- who'd spent the last couple minutes gaping across at the giants fighting just a mile away from them, then looked at one another and grinned.

"Looks like the runt is having the time of his life," Dore chuckled.

"Yeah. Perhaps a little too much," Myra also remarked, before snapping her eyes across at Zeeun and Wings. Seeing the pair were just as distracted by the big battle, the Super Hera then stood up, rolled her shoulders and swung her arms about. "Come on. I'm not gonna let my cute little kohai stand me up in this battle. Let's get these guys," she said while powering up, her green aura exploding around her.

Grin widening despite his bruises, Dore also stood up and pumped his fists, causing his own aura to spring up around him in a blaze. "Hell yeah!"

The pair's charge up alerted Wings and Zeeun to the danger, causing both generals to turn their attention to their opponents. When they did, they not only saw Dore take his familiar boxing stance, but Myra also fling her right hand forward and load up her left hand behind her. The instant she did this, an arc of bright red light gleamed around her, starting from her lower right flank to over her left shoulder. After the light dimmed a split second later, it revealed she'd created an enormous, crescent shaped bow out of ki, which shimmered and crackled as it gained mass and solidity.

As soon as the weapon the size of a car bent and formed around her, Myra immediately hovered into the air behind it and took aim with its centre. The firing end of the bow gleamed brightly as the Hera poured ki into its focal point, which inevitably led to her launching her shot.

"Ithil Dramm!" (Moon Barrage) Myra shouted, a brilliant flash of light filling the air as she launched a cluster of red bolts from the arc she'd manifested towards the enemy.

The attack left her bow in an instant and struck the ground where the two demon warriors were standing, the impact resulting in a flash and a massive fireball that took a big chunk out of the icy valley. Wings and Zeeun, being smart enough to not be in the path of the attack, quickly sprang out of the way before charging towards both Myra and Dore.

"No cheap shots!" Zeeun roared, barrelling towards the Hera as she mounted the bottom of her giant bow and took off into the sky, with the armoured commander quickly giving pursuit. "Let's finish this, you damn pixie!"

"Ha! You'll have to catch me first, meathead!" Myra laughed, launching another couple of shots from her bow as she ascended, forcing the orange demon to dodge as he flew after her. This soon led into an interesting cat and mouse chase, in which the Hera, standing atop the arc of red energy, fired shots from the bow while keeping her distance from the angry demon.

Wings meanwhile, breaking off from Zeeun's side, roared as he charged towards Dore- who responded in kind. With two simultaneous yells, the beefy, muscle-headed members of the two factions met in the centre of the valley and ran headlong into one another. The collision ended in a catastrophic thunderclap that split the ice beneath their feet and locked the pair in a standstill. From there, the duo proceeded to push their chests against one another as they attempted to use their massive bulks to overpower the other.

Of course, being the smarter fighter that he was, Dore managed to hook his hands under Wings' cuirass, hoist him off his feet, rotate him over, and then slam him into the ground. Driving the winged warrior into the floor, the wrestler quickly dropped on top of him with his knee and began to punch him repeatedly in the face- only to have his blows softened when the warrior swung his arms up to block them. Not willing to get hammered into the ground for the tenth time in a row, Wings caught one of Dore's punches by the wrist, and retaliated with an energy blast to the man's face, which detonated with a flash and knocked the green warrior off him.

From there, the district of Lord Slug's ice planet became the staging ground for an epic clash of might between the two titans Gohan and Lucoa- who were busy smashing each other through every mountain and glacier lying in their path- Myra and Zeeun trading shots and chasing one another across the sky, and Dore and Wings grappling with one another on the ice, and body slamming the hell out of their opponents with every technique in their arsenal.

In simple terms, the scene had become a flaming hotpot of chaos, one that could be felt over every corner of the mobile war planet.

OOO

As explosions and earthquakes rattled the battle-ravaged planet, about a hundred miles away from where the clash between Gohan and Lucoa was taking place, Captain Salza and his opponent Angila were still going at it. Their fists and legs crossing in a series of blurs as the two dropped out of the clouds, the two resident pretty boys- now assumed in their muscular, hot guy forms brought on by their respective Gigantification transformations- eventually separated after attempting to hit one another with a knee strike.

Their knees colliding with a loud crack, both warriors were then blasted away from each other and forced to land on opposite ends of an icy plain. Stopping amidst a cloud of frost, the pair of fighters revealed themselves from the haze of their battle and slowly rose to full height. Covered in multiple bruises and sporting various cuts in places, the demon and the captain stared one another down as they returned to their natural standing positions.

Huffing in frustration, Angila raised his hand and prepared to launch a blast towards Salza- eager to finish this fight as quickly as possible- only to stop short and snap his gaze to his left.

Luckily for him Salza did the same, the leader of the Armoured Squadron looking to his right as both fighters suddenly became distracted by the feeling of two enormous power levels resting on the planet.

The feedback of these presences was so intense and sudden that it was next to impossible for the two battling officers to ignore it. Even Salza's initially sleeping scouter beeped multiple proximity warnings at him, telling the man that they were in range of what could only be described as a sun barrelling towards the planet- when it was really just Gohan and Lucoa slugging it out in their newly assumed giant forms.

From the way Salza and Angila's jaws dropped at the glow in the horizon, both were absolutely blown away by what they could feel.

"G-Gohan?" Salza stuttered, unable to believe what he was sensing.

After gawking at the horizon for the next couple of minutes and watching as explosions ripped across the other side of the distant mountain glaciers, both Salza and Angila then turned back to one another. As the buffed-up Captain of the Armoured Squadron set a harsh glare on the enlarged form of his foe, Salza watched as the horned demon of a warrior tightened his own glare, before speaking up in his signature, haughty tone of voice.

"We're done here," Angila informed, without an ounce of hesitation or fear.

Salza balked at this sudden statement. "What?"

"Now that Lucoa-chan has been pushed to her ultimate form, in her current state of rage and fury, she'll likely turn this entire planet and everyone on it into space dust- regardless of whether there are friends or foes nearby," the blonde warrior informed, moving out of his stance and turning away from the surprised looking Captain. "If you have any sense, you'll leave this place as well… while you still have the chance."

Blinking a couple of times, the slightly grungy yet fighting fit officer raised his gloved hand. "Hold on… what are you-"

Angila smirked. "Fret not. We'll settle this score… one day. That is… if you and your friends manage to make it through this." Raising a hand and giving a mock salute, the horned demonic general then set his body alight with his aura. In a flash of white, the man's form then bolted into the distance, arcing across the sky before vanishing beyond the clouds.

He was gone before Salza could stutter out another word, with the Captain of the Armoured Squadron retracting his arm and clenching his fist in frustration. "Damn it."

Sensing that Angila was heading away from the battlefield where his friends and allies were, Salza quickly reasoned that giving chase to his foe wouldn't be the most economic choice. So, figuring that his teammates could use some help, the blonde, hunk of an officer turned his attention toward the horizon in the opposite direction, powered up, and shot off towards the mountains at a blitzing pace.

Aside from Gohan and Lucoa, who were currently blowing up the sensor screens with their massive power levels, the man could also sense Myra and Dore still battling their opponents. If there was a good chance he could help, the captain was going to take it.

OOO

(Meanwhile)

(Back on Earth)

After Vegeta had become fed up of being buried into the ground by Tien's square-shaped blasts for five minutes straight, the battered and slightly charred prince decided to come up and lay the smackdown on the Z-fighters with a vengeance. Unfortunately for him, as he discovered earlier in the fight, pacifying all the planet's defenders at the same time while they were all working together to stop him, wasn't going to be an easy chore.

In fact, the task was proving to be about as troublesome as a man trying to plough an entire field using a child's spade and nothing else.

Clearly not keen on being torn apart by the invader while waiting for Goku to return, Piccolo, Tien, Chi-Chi, Krillin, Chiaotzu, Yamcha and Launch all rallied together to keep the Saiyan Prince as occupied as they possibly could. Pooling all their strengths and abilities together, they'd been able to keep the man pressed up against the ropes and wade through his assaults. However, considering how powerful the leader of the alien race was in comparison to them, taking him out or inflicting any sort of permanent, debilitating damage to slow him down was working out to be an extremely difficult task.

So far, for the last hour, they'd hit him with everything they could possibly think of in the time they were allowed. Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon. Krillin's Scatter Bullet. Yamcha's Spirit Ball. Chi-Chi's Ultra Beam. Chiaotzu's Psychic Attack. Tien's Dodon Ray. Hell, they'd even tried many of them at the same time. But despite pouring all their energy into these blasts, forcing the prince into multiple corners, and herding him into kill zones, the man just wouldn't give up.

Vegeta's superior strength and speed helped the guy to muscle through every tactic in the book, and right now they were all starting to run out of gas.

On the plus side however, the Saiyan Prince was also starting to get tired. And it was starting to show.

Smoke wafting off his cracked and heavily damaged armour and spandex, with blood running down from the corners of his mouth and nose, a seething Vegeta inhaled a deep breath of air, before letting out a furious battle cry. Upon allowing his energy to spill forth from his body in a furious blue aura, he then dove towards a stationary Tien with the intent of putting his foe seven feet into the earth.

Covered in several burns caused by a fire ball the Saiyan had hocked at him several minutes earlier, a slightly shaken but still fighting-fit martial artist clenched his teeth tightly and swung his arms about into his signature Crane School battle stance. Telegraphing the prince's approach, Tien watched the man come within range and throw a haymaker down at him. With a quick sidestep and a fancy flourish of his hands, the man caught the prince's punch, locked up his arm, pivoted around, and tossed his attacker. The result was Vegeta overshooting his mark and spinning into the ground.

With a deafening crack and a blast of dust, the prince slammed into the earth back first and bounced painfully off it. Giving out a yelp of pain as he flipped into the air, Vegeta hurriedly spun around and landed on all fours, skidding to a stop and glaring daggers across at the human who deflected his attack and was now standing away from him- locked in a defensive posture.

"Fuck you, triclops!" Vegeta barked, digging his fingers into the dirt and powering up with a blast of blue ki gushing off him. "You're dead!" He then bolted at the man again, drawing back his fist for a punch.

Tien, backpedalling quickly, was prepared to parry the Saiyan's strike as he came flying at him much faster than before. However, he was saved at the last second when, from the side, Krillin and Chi-Chi came diving in with a pair of kicks, which they slammed into the prince's side and sent him tumbling across the rocky valley. The impact they had with the man caused a sonic boom that knocked the villain out of his charge.

Rolling side over side multiple times as he covered over a hundred meters, the winded Vegeta flipped himself back to his feet and skidded to a stop. His boots digging trenches into the dirt, the warrior with the missing shoulder accents growled when he saw the bald fighter and the woman come charging at him- crisscrossing on their dashes to throw him off.

"Cut the fancy shit!" Vegeta shouted, swinging his arms up and parrying the punch and the pole strike the two humans threw at him when they rushed him from the sides. Immediately after blocking them, the prince thrust his arms out and smashed both away from him, sending the duo flying back. "Come on! Fight me properly, you trash!" the prince bellowed, staggering slightly before being forced to jump back when Piccolo dove down from above with a kick.

His foot slamming into the floor and cracking it after missing, the bruised and bleeding Namekian with the partially missing top rushed the prince with a flurry of vicious strikes, forcing the grounded warrior to dodge and deflect his attacks. Upon hitting his guard several times, Piccolo then received a vicious hook from the angry prince, which knocked him flying to the side. Stopping himself short however and ignoring the blood that came splattering from his mouth, the green warrior set two fingers to his forehead, pulled them away, and fired an instantaneously charged Makankosappo (Special Beam Cannon) point-blank at Vegeta.

The drill beam left the warrior's fingertips in a flash and struck a surprised Vegeta square in the forehead, the act of which generated a violent bang that knocked the prince's head back as the beam itself bounced up into the sky. The instant it did, the attack detonated above the valley in a flash of orange light, while the Saiyan Prince flew several yards across the grass and slammed feet first into the floor.

When Vegeta managed to stop, his body slumped forward, and a gasp of pain left his throat. While an exhausted and slightly stunned Piccolo slowly lowered his fingers, the man watched as a splatter of blood hit the floor, as his beam- though tanked- had effectively left a rather nasty cut over the prince's left eye.

Eye shut, the prince looked up at the green warrior and snarled. "That… hurt…"

"Damn it. My attack didn't have enough power behind it. I'm running out of juice." Clicking his tongue, Piccolo then drew his arm back in preparation for an attack- with Yamcha, Chiaotzu and Tien also converging on his location for support. They then prepared to resume their battle with the prince, who they saw shakily raise his arms into defensive positions at his sides.

However, just before any of them could make another move or resume their attacks, all of Earth's defenders suddenly stopped dead in their tracks when something very strong and very terrifying pinged on their radars. At virtually the same time, Piccolo, Krillin and everybody else felt a cold chill run up their backs as their gazes shot upwards, their attention tearing away from the threat of the Saiyan Prince.

Vegeta, recoiling slightly when he saw the group's collective reactions, then heard a loud beeping sound coming from the scouter stored behind his back. Glancing behind him at where his unit was hanging off his belt, the flame-haired warrior blinked in confusion when he recognized the blaring of the scouter as a power level proximity warning.

Only this one was identifying itself as a threat.

"What the… what's going on now?" Vegeta uttered, not expecting his scouter to active while it was in standby mode.

As the Z-fighters glared up towards the sky, sweat broke out on every one of their faces when they felt the immense waves of energy gleaming in the distance. Though they had no idea what the heck it was or what planet all that power was coming from, they all had a general idea of its direction and origin.

And after gauging the distance and how far it was, all of them were stunned beyond belief.

"That power… is that-?" Piccolo gawked.

He'd sensed this energy signature before.

He remembered all too well.

The presence he'd felt over a year ago, when he witnessed a child no taller than his knees, tackle a beast that was many times his size and brought it down in a display that was as savage as it was brutal.

The energy signature of the son of the man who he viewed as his greatest rival.

The power of a child whose strength was yet untapped.

Chi-Chi, not needing to gauge the energy she was sensing twice, felt her eyes shimmer in disbelief. "G-Gohan-kun. It's… It's him! It's my boy!"

"Your son?" Yamcha asked as he floated down from the air, his arms dropping in shock. "Th-There's just no way…"

Vegeta- noticing he was missing out on something important- promptly reached around and grabbed his scouter. Ripping the unit from his belt, he then shoved it against the side of his face and switched off the proximity warning alarm. Once it was resting over his ear, he then quickly got a lock on the energy level it'd picked up and balked when the numbers jumped up onto the screen. "Hang on… wait… that can't be right-" he began, drawing the attention of the Z-fighters back over to him as he craned his head skywards. "This energy signature… the scanner says the source is coming from NGC-5866- a system on the outer edge of Lord Cooler's territory." The man narrowed his one good eye on the screen when he saw the number reach its maximum count of 99,999 before flashing an 'error' warning next to it. "But that's impossible. There isn't a creature alive that can give off a reading like this… especially from such a distance."

By his calculations, this reading was coming from the other side of the universe. The gap from here to there was gargantuan. To be able to pick up a life form from this far away and with such a phenomenal reading was inconceivable.

Upon hearing the prince's remark and watching his gaze return to ground level as he double-checked the numbers, Chi-Chi then clenched her fists and jabbed her husband's staff towards the Saiyan. "Well, you better believe it, mister! Because that battle power your scouter picked up is coming from my son! The child your ex-teammate sent shooting up into space!"

Vegeta's gaze snapped to the woman- an act that caused all the Z-fighters to take a cautious step back. However, instead of rebutting the woman's statement with an attack or an energy blast, the prince instead felt his jaw tighten and knees shiver. "Your boy… Kakarot's half-breed offspring…?" The one Raditz said he'd encountered when he came here to retrieve his brother… and the one he'd supposedly had a hard time against? This power level belonged to him. The thought had the prince's face scrunch up tightly. "Bullshit."

The human mother spun her staff around and set herself into a new stance, at the same time Krillin brought his hands back and began powering up his next attack. "I don't expect you to believe me, your highness. But unlike you, I can recognize my son's presence even if he's one or even a hundred galaxies away from me." She also swung forward her Bansho fan and positioned it low across the floor. "It's a mother's instincts."

"Hmph… well. Let's see how those instincts hold up after I've torn you and your companions to bloody shreds," the Saiyan Prince growled, steam rushing off his body before his purple aura burst up around him. As his hair spiked upwards to a whole new extreme, Vegeta's teeth clenched as he attempted to draw on more power. "I don't care how valuable this world is! I'll turn this entire planet into a barren wasteland if it means killing you wretches!"

Tien, swinging his right arm around and gripping his wrist with his left, bit his teeth and concentrated. "Come and try it!" he barked, before firing off a highly concentrated Dodonpa towards his target- the beam leaving his finger with such force it pushed the martial artist back about a yard.

His attack was joined by a combination of blasts from Krillin, Yamcha and Piccolo- all four males launching golden and orange beams towards the enraged prince at virtually the same time. The result was their attacks converging on the Saiyan from the front and hitting his aura square on. However, instead of detonating like normal, the beams slammed into the purple field of flames gushing off their target and forced him back- the blasts splitting into multiple streams similar to a jet of water striking a solid surface.

Gritting his teeth as the onslaught of attacks drilled into his aura, Vegeta attempted to hold his ground against the combined assault. Feeling himself get pushed several feet back along the floor as the blinding array of blasts bore into his barrier, the flame-haired warrior slammed a fist into the ground and roared- expelling a shockwave of energy that ripped down the four beams and knocked the group of Z-fighters stumbling backwards.

Gasping tiredly at the spurt of energy he gave off, Vegeta then prepared to bolt forward- only to feel his feet get stuck as a familiar, paralysing force suddenly shot through his body.

"Argh! N-No!" the prince shouted, the feeling of his body locking in place causing his eyes to dart to his right when he tracked the sensation to its source. When he spotted a bruised and bleeding Chiaotzu hovering a safe distance away, Vegeta snapped at him. "Damn you, you little pest!"

His shout was shortly followed by a distant whipcrack of a rifle and a sharp pain striking the prince in the leg. Unlike with the previous blasts, a spurt of blood shot out the other side of Vegeta's right calf when a ki-enhanced bullet drilled right through his flesh, causing the warrior to drop to his knees and yelp in agony. When his gaze darted to his left, he immediately spotted Launch positioned behind a rock with a Springfield rifle in her grip.

Sporting several cuts and burns herself, the blonde woman growled in frustration at the kick back that threw off her shot and cocked the bolt, getting rid of the empty round and taking aim again. "Don't move, you prick!"

Snapping his jaws when she fired another shot and hit him across the flank, Vegeta sent his aura blasting around him and forced himself out of the psychic lock. Swinging his hands around upon feeling the invisible binds loosen, he then fired off two bang blasts from his fingertips at Chiaotzu and Launch respectively. The blue flashes were quickly followed by two sudden explosions- one hitting the tiny human fighter in the side while the other struck Launch's gun and destroyed it in a flash of flames.

The two blasts striking the Z-fighters simultaneously knocked the woman and the mime off their feet, sending them crashing to the floor. When Launch slammed into the grass back first, she gripped her forearm tightly and cursed. "AAH! Fuck!"

After launching his attacks, an exhausted Vegeta collapsed forward onto all fours. This was pretty much the cue for the rest of the Z-fighters up ahead to rush forward and jump the stricken prince. The fiery haired warrior barely had any time to look up and shout in alarm when Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, Krillin and Chi-Chi- deciding that all this running around and strategy wasn't getting them anywhere- decided to just dogpile the Saiyan.

Being body-slammed by all five of them in the rush, Vegeta was then forced into multiple joint and body locks as the Z-fighters grabbed whatever part of him they could to stop him from moving. While Tien jumped on Vegeta's back and wrapped an arm around his neck, Piccolo- with both arms- trapped the prince's right arm, Yamcha grabbed his left, Krillin his right leg, and Chi-Chi his left foot. The five of them then, using all their strength and bodyweight, attempted to pin the short man to the floor and keep him trapped underneath them.

"GRAAAAAGH! GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" Vegeta hollered, writhing about as he felt himself topple forward with all five earthlings clutching at his limbs and attempting to rip his arms and legs out of their sockets. "AARAAAAAGH! YOU DARE… TRY TO OVERPOWER… NRAAAH… THE PRINCE OF ALL SAIYANS?! YOU EARTH TRASH!"

"Oh, shut the hell up!" Tien barked in the man's ear, veins appearing all over his arms as he tightened his hold around the man's neck and pulled back on his head. Vegeta let out a choked sound as the man began to practically throttle him, all the while the three-eyed human snarled and pulled back on his head harder. "Nobody cares what the fuck you are!"

"AAAH! DAMN IT!" Vegeta cried out in a strangled tone, thrashing against the group madly before hurriedly directing all his ki beneath him. "I'LL SHOW YOU!" Then, after thrashing against the humans holding him down, the Saiyan then blasted off the ground and took flight.

It wasn't the most graceful take off, mind you. For almost as soon as the man blasted into the sky, thanks to having five people on top of him, the warrior ended up colliding with a nearby tor, in which he and the group ended up smashing into it and forming a dent in its side. He then attempted it again but ended up spiralling through the air and violently crashing into yet another plateau across from them with a loud thud.

The instant the Saiyan smashed into it this time, with Tien absorbing the landing and giving a pained shout, Piccolo and Yamcha- determined not to let Vegeta have his way in his position- began kneeing him repeatedly in the stomach with a barrage of organ splitting blows. Each hit they drove into his abdominals generated a deafening thud or crack, which was accompanied by several pained grunts and shouts from Vegeta.

Heck, Tien, wanting to get in on the action too, unlocked the arm he was using to hold his right arm in and began dropping elbows on top of Vegeta's skull. Each blow rained down with murderous precision, hitting him in a sore spot over and over until he split the skin under his hair.

Launch, managing to get up despite her now bloodied hand, glared up towards the plateau where her friends had the Saiyan Prince pinned. Gritting her teeth, the blonde woman loaded up her legs, reached behind her belt, and drew a Rando knife from the pouch behind her. "That was my favourite rifle, you prick!" she barked, powering up with a blast of white, hot wind and launching herself from the ground.

With a scream of rage, the blonde woman flew straight towards the mountain a hundred meters ahead of her and drew back on her blade. Piccolo and Yamcha noticed her approach and quickly moved to the sides, holding Vegeta in place and allowing Launch to slam into him with a full-body thrust- her blade burying straight into the man's gut and managing to puncture his armour.

"HRAAAAAAAGH!" Vegeta screamed, thrashing about again when he felt the woman's blade sink in, before eventually blasting off from the tor and kneeing the gunslinger in the gut with Krillin- who was still attached to his leg and attempting to hold him down.

Launch, getting hit clean in the solar plexus by the prince, released her knife as it was knocked out of place and sent flying out of her hand. However, despite getting winded quite badly by the prince using Krillin as a bludgeoning weapon, the woman capitalized on her position and swiftly wrapped her arms around Vegeta's waist, locking herself against his armour-covered stomach. "HA! GOT YOU, BASTARD!"

With a scream, all the Z-fighters holding the prince then used all their strength to yank the man out of the sky, sending all of them spinning towards the floor. Vegeta let out a cry of terror as he and the warrior plummeted from the air, before crashing into a rocky hill.

As the mound of rock and dirty exploded in a shower of rubble, concealing the wrestling group beneath, Chiaotzu- who was lying on the grass out in the open- clutched his stomach as he watched his friends go after the prince with a renewed spurt of energy.

With the Z-fighters still tussling with the prince and Raditz and Nappa boxing each other on the other side of the mountain range, things were going well as far as they were concerned…

OOO

(Meanwhile)

(Back on Eclipse-I)

Thunderous explosions deafened the surrounding countryside across a stretch of fifty miles in every direction- a display that was almost reminiscent to a bombardment of low-yield nuclear warheads being dropped from low orbit. The blasts shook the icy plate to its core and rattled the mountains so violently that bits of land began collapsing and disappearing into the satellite itself, evaporating behind walls of smoke and frost in the form of disintegrating rubble. And amidst the dome-shaped blasts and plumes of ice belching into the sky like geysers, the titanic forms of Gohan and Lucoa could be seen slugging it out across the open space.

The amount of damage both warriors were bringing down upon the planet was absolutely biblical, with neither one of them showing a wink or care as to how much land was being crushed or flattened in their respective wakes. They were picking each other up, ploughing each other through tors and glaciers, and slamming their enemy down into the floor with such force you could swear a shower of meteorites was making landfall.

Many a crater was formed from the pair tossing each other around, and neither one of them seemed keen on backing down. In fact, despite all the blood and cuts already drawn across their bodies, they wanted to go at it even harder.

After nailing Lucoa with a punishing hook that sent spit and flames blasting from her mouth, the Giant, Golden Ape that was Gohan leaned forward and charged right into the dragon's exposed chest- slamming his shoulder into her belly and lifting her clean off the floor. His footsteps pounded against the floor as he carried the burning dragon across the field before smashing her into another mountain. The entire edifice wound up obliterated- sending chunks of rock cascading to the floor as the Super Oozaru dropped on top of the lizard.

The impact with the floor sent shockwaves in all directions, breaking everything except for the two giants grappling heatedly with one another. It also didn't seem to offset the battle between Myra and Commander Zeeun, both of whom could be found fighting each other on top of Gohan's enlarged shoulder.

As the two giants fought, Myra- her green aura blazing around her- lay flat on her back attempting to keep Zeeun from driving one of his armoured fists down on top of her. Her hands gripping his enormous knuckles while her foot remained firmly pressed against the joint between his arm and chest, the red-haired woman growled as she held back the hulking tank that was the red-haired demon general attempting to flatten her with his punch.

"Grrr… die, you green bitch!" Zeeun snarled, leaning forward an inch closer as he tried to force his attack through her guard.

Wincing from having to hold back so much muscle and weight at the same time from such a precarious position, Myra- her own arms swelling and aching from the strain- quickly released the man's fist with her right hand and pointed a finger at him. "You first!" she shouted, her nail glinting brightly before firing off a red beam at her opponent's mug.

Fortunately for Zeeun, thanks to all the bucking Gohan and Lucoa were doing in their tumble, the Hera's aim was thrown off by a couple of centimetres, and she ended up missing the demon's head when he moved at the last moment. Her second shot however ended up hitting the commander square in the forearm when he swung his other hand up to block, which resulted in him getting launched off Myra and- by extension- the transformed Gohan who was serving as their platform.

Around the same time Zeeun was shot off Gohan's left shoulder and forced to land on his dragon teammate's neck, Lucoa -writhing like a worm beneath her overweight quarry- managed to wiggle out of the demi-Saiyan's grip, spin around, and smash the transformed boy in the side with her tail. The hit knocked the Golden Ape off his feet and sent him soaring across the valley, forcing Myra to hold on for dear life while her squad mate slammed side-on into another mountain and careened right through it.

Rubble and ice crashed all around them as the enormous Gohan tumbled head over heel across the plate before finally righting himself and skidding to a stop on all fours. Growling through a swollen face and blood dripping from a rather nasty cut over his right eye, the golden-haired boy looked up in time to see Lucoa launch herself from where she was standing, and glide across the field towards him. Her right-hand loading back, the dragon gave a mighty bellow as she took a swing at her foe the instant she came within range.

While Gohan managed to stand up, he still ended up getting rammed into by the massive flying lizard, who knocked him to the ground and pinned him beneath her talons. Trapped beneath her weight, the child writhed and bucked as Lucoa shoved her clawed hand into his face and pushed him into the ground. It was a pretty bleak position to find oneself in and with Myra still hanging off the hairs of Gohan's shoulder, things were about to get even worse.

Once Lucoa made sure she had her opponent trapped beneath her, the massive lizard reared back her head, opened her mouth, and began gathering energy at a rapid pace. The act of doing so caused the inside of her mouth to begin glowing as orange embers converged on her maw and started building into a swiftly rotating ball of energy with the texture of molten lava.

Myra, spotting this, quickly swung her right hand around and telekinetically took hold of the bow she had flying nearby. "Shit! MANAA!" she shouted, a split second before a red flash from her far right was followed by several red bolts shooting down from the sky to strike the dragon in the side of the face. The explosion of the energy beams hitting her in the cheek knocked Lucoa's head sharply to the side and caused her to stop short on charging her attack. When the dragon wheeled her head around and gave a roar at the large, crescent shaped bow Myra had created floating at a distance, the Hera-seijin hanging off the trapped Oozaru's shoulder shouted at him. "NOW, GOHAN-KUN! HIT HER!"

Red eyes widening, the golden ape- giving a loud growl of rage- ripped his head out from under the dragon's claw, opened his mouth, and belched out a gargantuan golden blast from his throat right into her face. His Dengeki Taiho (Blitz Cannon) poured from his mouth like water from an erupting dam, swallowing up the dragon's entire head and neck, and proceeding to cook her in a torrent of yellow fire. The sound was deafening, and the winds generated by the blast leaving his gaping mouth was enough to cause Myra to nearly lose her grip on her partner's shoulder. And amidst all this chaos, the target of the golden ape's incredible attack was dealt a devilishly hard blow.

Lucoa screeched loudly in agony as the heat from the blast tore at her cheeks, scales, and horns, charring her badly and forcing her to finally stumble off Gohan- freeing him from her clutches.

However, his liberation did not stop the Saiyan's attack. Sitting up, the transformed boy continued to unload his mouth energy wave on the dragon in an unending stream of golden fury- his angle adjusting and allowing him to hit the titan of a lizard in the body as well. The blast broke apart and split in multiple directions as it attempted to engulf the whole beast. As Lucoa stumbled away amidst the storm, Gohan poured more ki into his attack and sent a tidal wave of power tearing up the column of his geyser. When the brunt of it struck the dragon, it finally knocked her off her feet and sent her barrelling across the countryside.

When Gohan's golden blast ended moments later- the beam of light he was producing fading into nothing- the stunned dragon girl finally tumbled to a stop. Rolling onto all fours and grinding across the ice, the simmering, half-baked lizard growled under her breath as she fixed her golden eyes upon the giant ape standing in the distance.

Zeeun- who had miraculously survived the blast from Gohan by hiding behind one of Lucoa's tree-sized horns on her head- stepped out from behind it and tapped her on the head. "Don't let that punk get the best of you, Lu-chan!" He then jabbed a finger forward when he saw the dragon glance up at him and barked his next order. "VAPORIZE HIM!"

"Yeeesss…." Lucoa hissed, her fangs bearing in a toothy grin as steamed gushed out of her mouth and the flames whipping along the spines of her back flared up. "Buuuuuurrrn!" With a guttural roar, the dragon slammed her front claws into the ground, buried her nails into the ice, and rapidly began gathering energy once again. Pooling it all into her throat, the lizard reared back her head back in preparation- the gaps in her scales across her body lighting up like burning hot coals. Then, as the gleam from her teeth reached critical mass, the female titan leaned forward and opened her mouth.

What came next could only be described as an apocalyptic calamity, as a blast several times larger than its owner ripped from Lucoa's mouth and tore across the countryside like a missile. The beam of brightly glowing lava expanded so quickly it dwarfed the dragon and carved a path across the valley- melting not only the ice but also the ground, transforming it into an ocean of slurry as it cut towards Gohan with the intent of incinerating him completely.

Wings and Dore, who were busy slugging each other about a few hundred meters away on top of a narrow cliff, were knocked off their feet by the shockwave generated from the blast leaving Lucoa's mouth and sent tumbling across the field.

Gohan meanwhile, after gaping momentarily at the size of the attack barrelling towards him, quickly formed a slicing hand with his right, wound it up, and thrust it forward- coating his arm in a golden sheet of dense energy at the same time. "HRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" The blade he produced sliced right into the head of the dragon's lava blast, not only cutting it in half, but splitting it and sending multiple streams of energy shooting off in various directions as it broke against his defensive jab.

Though the Golden Oozaru was able to deflect the brunt of the attack, it still didn't stop the giant boy from getting pushed back along the ground or stop Myra from getting blown about like a streamer or a piece of string attached to his shoulder.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAH! SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" the Hera-seijin wailed as she gripped hold of her friend's thick coat of fur for dear life, all the while watching through the storm of hot wind as the planet melting beam of lava broke apart and roared past on either side like a tsunami of fire.

What resulted from Gohan splitting the massive attack and sending its fragments shooting across the planet, was mindboggling…

OOO

(Meanwhile)

(Above Eclipse-I)

Lucoa's attack was so large and so bright that it could practically be seen from orbit. Taking the form of a hot, pulsing orange beam of light, the attack sliced the valley in half, before eventually breaking apart and shooting off in multiple directions after getting cut by Gohan's arm blade. The result was the beam not only separating to different corners of the world, but several of those beams also flying off into space.

While one beam cut right through the asteroid belt floating just a few parsecs off the Eclipse-I's orbital path and incinerated many of the tumbling balls of rock, another beam barrelled straight through the right flank of Cooler's 7th Fleet. The grouping of saucers and capital ships that were currently floating in that area several kilometres above the planet were sent bucking violently to the side as the shockwave generated by the segmented beam blitzed right through their formation.

Many of the naval officers and engineers on board the ships were tossed off their feet and sent flying into walls due to the suddenness of the blast.

Cooler's Capital Ship was also affected by the beam. The main ship listed sharply to port when the beam's shockwave hit them, knocking everyone on the bridge stumbling over, with even Cooler and Zangya being knocked into the central table. Proximity and shield alarms blared all around as red lights began flashing from multiple consoles, with the deck officers and crew hurriedly rushing about to assess the damages.

"Karabast! That was close!" one of the lieutenants standing by the starboard computers shouted. "Status report! Were we hit?!"

"It was a glancing shot, sir!" one of the women on the far side of the room called out, her fingers drumming the keypad as she quickly brought the fleet's specs on screen. "The beam cut right through our right flank! But it missed us!"

"And the ship? Did we receive any damage?!"

"None, sir!" another male from beside the female officer called back. "The shock discharge bounced off the shield, but it still managed to knock us ten degrees off our axis! Recorrecting it now!"

Almost as soon as the crew went about correcting the command ship's position and orbit, a brilliant flash of light outside the main window alerted all their attention to another anomaly. When all eyes turned from the screens to the space beyond the dome, the entire deck- and by extension all personnel across the fleet- saw one of the planets in the distance fracture before exploding.

Apparently one of the stray beams being deflected by Gohan had managed to strike one of the nearby satellites and vaporize it in its entirety. The sight of the combusting planetoid had almost every person's jaw drop in disbelief, with a deathly silence falling over the ship's control room.

Zangya, managing to straighten herself into a more upright position, stared wide-eyed at the hologram screen before her and the massive numbers blinking over the two giant figures down on the planet below. "Unreal. Where in the world… was a mere child… able to summon such enormous amounts of strength?"

Based on what she could sense, the Hera guessed that the boy was now even more powerful than Bojack. Perhaps even King Cold himself.

Having also braced himself against the storm, Cooler, quickly resetting his stance and returning to a more dignified posture, promptly turned his attention to the ship's operating crew and pointed at them. "This is no time to gape! Order all vessels to crank up shields to maximum output! And order General Hara to hurry up with the next wave!" the prince ordered, watching as his subordinates jumped out of their stupors and immediately went about fulfilling their boss's orders. Upon doing so, the purple alien prince returned his gaze to the central table and narrowed his attention on the field, where he saw Gohan was still deflecting Lucoa's dragon breath. Noticing another beam carve across the planet's surface, the alien leader clenched his fist. "Come on, Gohan. Don't let me down…"

OOO

Annihilating another swath of Medamatcha's annoying clones, Neiz's lightning bolt of a form zipped across the sky for several more seconds before eventually stopping a hundred meters out from his opponent's position. Looking across the open space as his body crackled with a field of continuously pulsing electricity, the amphibious warrior in armour narrowed his eyes when he saw the clones he'd hit crumble away into ash, while those he'd missed giggled manically at him before converging on their progenitor's location.

When the cluster of a dozen or so mini-matchas returned to their creator, Neiz watched with both frustration and disgust as they melted back into their host's body, which had undergone yet another step forward in his unusual evolution.

As to be expected of the freaky, clone spawning imp, the tiny general of Lord Slug's forces had expanded, stretched, and inflated his body so much that not only was he more imposing and terrifying than before, but he looked like a bloody modern art masterpiece.

Or a failed example of one.

Seriously, the toad had twisted and overgrown himself in so many random areas that it was impossible to keep track of all the changes. His right arm and left leg had grown so much that the limbs were twenty times larger than the torso they were attached to. His left leg had popped out a couple of extra-long spines for defence. And his right arm had stretched so far that it was practically coiling through the air like a whip- with the hand at the end formed into a blade for striking and slashing. Hell, the guy had even popped out a giant wing for lord knows what, though it had admittedly blocked Neiz's charge attack a few times.

The only thing that hadn't changed was the boss's head- though Medamatcha's horns had noticeably grown several extra feet and his head had relocated itself to what looked like his right hip. At least, Neiz thinks it's his hip.

In other words, he looked like something out of an alien's worse nightmare. A sci-fi, gothic horror that shouldn't have ever seen the light of day.

And to make matters worse, the longer the fight dragged on, the uglier the guy seemed to get… and honestly it was starting to piss Neiz off.

For the past hour, the fastest member of the Cooler Force had been dashing around the mutated surrealist horror show, attacking different parts of his body as fast as he could. After about an hour of hitting his target and watching the toad regrow and replace himself for every section he had burned away, Neiz had soon reached the mental stage where he felt like he was rotating around a table, picking off random pieces of his enemy like a rotisserie chicken.

As boring and irritating as this process had become, Medamatcha's strategy was pretty sound in practice: expand and regrow his body as fast as possible and flood the sky with as much cannon fodder as he could. This tactic of constantly replacing himself transformed their battle from a one-sided beatdown into a war of attrition, where Neiz found himself gradually burning away energy fighting off an endlessly respawning swarm of enemies coming from the same hunk of meat.

Watching the head of his enemy slither around to smirk at him after managing to get behind him, Neiz cursed, raised a hand, and fired a bolt of lightning at the bloated toad. Watching his attack strike his target and tunnel right through him in the form of a purple beam, the lanky warrior then watched the hole heal itself and become replaced by a third arm, which spat out the demon's side and clenched a fist.

"For fuck's sake! Will you just die already!" the lanky warrior barked.

Medamatcha cackled when he heard the warrior's exclamation. "What's the matter, lurch? Getting tired?" the demon asked mockingly.

Lightning aura flaring around him, Neiz leaned forward in a stance and cocked a hand back. "Ha! You wish, freak!" he shot back, a ball of white energy forming in his palm as he took aim towards the wriggling mass of green muscle as it also took a fighting stance. "Since you keep on repairing every hole I blast into you, I'm just gonna have to vaporize your entire body with one, wide attack."

In response, the googly eyed demon narrowed his glare upon the crackling speedster. "Go ahead. Hit me with your strongest move. I'm sure you'll be able to get rid of a decent chunk of me. That is… if you can tag me before my clones stop you," Medamatcha hissed, at the same time the skin along his enormous arm producing several sets of eyes- indicating he'd already prepared countermeasures for Neiz's next attack. "I think I like my chances."

Clicking his tongue, Neiz then cocked back his arm and prepared to lob a wide-angle shot towards the cackling demon- determined to get rid of him once and for all. Or at least try to. However, just as he was building up his ki into the base of his arm, the man's eyes then blinked when he noticed a very bright gleam of orange light shining over the toad's shoulder.

At first the squadron member had no idea what the heck the oncoming light was. Milliseconds later, when he saw the orange light grow closer and brighter, Neiz's senses blared at him a danger warning, which caused his eyes to widen before the man redirected all his energy to his aura and bolted off to his right.

Medamatcha, recoiling when he saw Neiz dart to the side in the form of a purple flash, then spun around when he felt something warm hit his back. By the time he looked over his shoulder, the orange gleam that'd appeared over the horizon finally reached him and, before the demon could so much as utter a surprised grunt, one of the many fragments of Lucoa's blast that Gohan was deflecting hit the duplicating fiend square on and engulfed him completely.

The green demon's scream of pain and horror was effectively drowned out by the roar of the lava blast, which ripped over the landscape and incinerated every molecule and cell of Medamatcha in an instant. Despite the beam only being a fragment of the dragon's original attack, the stream of energy was still large enough to not only fully envelop Medamatcha, but also vaporize the top of several towering glaciers and plateaus in the area as the beam of lava and fire streaked across the sky to land in a distant valley.

Needless to say, Neiz was lucky to have escaped it- with the squadron member gaping in awe as he watched the blast roar past him and saw Medamatcha's form fade away in a cloud of dust amidst the flames.

"What… in the name of Kai…?" the armoured squadron member choked out, his lightning aura fading as he watched the blast fade- leaving nothing but a fifty meter wide trench, molten edges in the ground, and several peak-less mountains in its wake.

OOO

(At the same time)

(Lord Slug's Citadel)

As it turned out, not even the great Immortal Emperor of the Dark Empire was immune to the chaos and carnage being wrought from the battle between his devoted servant and her opponent.

Up until this point, Lord Slug had been quietly enjoying and marvelling at the spectacle of his armies fighting against the seasoned, veteran regiments of Cooler's task force. A glimmer of amazement had flicked through his eyes as he watched soldiers on both sides get decimated, his army's bunkers get blasted to smithereens by the three kitsune girls darting about the frontlines, and his generals butt heads with the prince's elite on equal footing. When Gohan and Lucoa transformed into their titan forms and began wailing on each other, the Namekian thought that he was gonna bust a gut at how much fun he was having.

It almost broke the steely composure he'd kept up to that point. However, since he had Frieza's boy Kuriza sitting in the chair right beside him, and the Ginyu Force telekinetically frozen in a row on both sides of his throne, the Namekian tyrant knew it would've been improper of him to break character.

So, he resigned himself to simply sitting on his golden chair with his cheek resting on his knuckles- observing the hologram before him and the skies behind it as multiple feeds of the frontlines were played out live for both him and his guests to observe.

When the moment finally came where Lucoa unleashed her most devastating Planet Buster lava blast upon her foe, Lord Slug's gaze shot toward the horizon, where he was able to witness the distant flashes of multiple lights streaking up into the sky above the district where the dragon and the Saiyan were fighting.

Kuriza and the Ginyu Force saw it too- all of whom stared in awe at the orange beams of light ripping into the sky like fireworks. That is, until they saw a brilliant gleam occur from the location of the scattering and saw one of the massive beams barrelling towards them at highspeed.

"OH MY GOD! KAI ALMIGHTY!" Jeice cried out- an exclamation that was immediately accompanied by a hilarious bout of horrified screams and yells from the rest of his teammates. "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIIIE!"

While Ginyu, Recoome, Guldo, Burter and Jeice all squirmed and kicked away at their invisible restraints as the wall of burning light drew closer to the citadel, Lord Slug- calm as ever- raised the finger of his left hand he had lying on his arm rest and shot a tiny golden ball of energy toward the air in front of him. The instant it stopped at the edge of his ship, it then expanded in the blink of an eye to form a wall.

With it, the Namekian was able to catch the fragment of Lucoa's blast barrelling towards them- a loud bang ringing out followed by a roar of thunder as the warlord sent the attack segment shooting straight up into the sky. His actions effectively stopped the dragon's blast from outright incinerating the citadel and everyone on top of it, as the trail of hot, orange lava vanished into the clouds and disappeared into oblivion.

When the stream of energy final died down, Lord Slug dropped the shield and beckoned the ball of energy he'd launched back to him. The sphere landed against his outstretched finger and was absorbed back into him.

Seconds later, the previously panicking members of the Ginyu Force all breathed a sigh of relief. Burter, looking across at the rest of them, then squawked out in a hoarse voice.

"Alright… who else shit their pants? Say, aye," he said, listening as the other four members of his squad- Captain Ginyu included- uttered the word 'aye' at virtually the same time. "Yeah. Me too."

OOO

(Meanwhile)

(Back on the battlefield)

When Lucoa eventually cut off energy to her mouth beam and clamped her mouth shut, the enormous lizard snarled as she watched the smoke clear. Following the enormous trench, which she'd melted across the valley to where she'd hit her target, she saw the wall of dust get blasted away as Gohan's Golden Ape form came stomping through.

The blade coating his right-hand dissipating as he deactivated it, the Oozaru in the purple spandex and glowing fur glared through the mist with his angry red eyes and fixed them upon the flaming dragon that had shot at him. When he saw the beast fan her wings and hiss in a menacing manner, the demi-Saiyan widened his feet and leaned forward, planting the knuckles of his massive hand against the scorched rock in front of him.

Myra, who'd ducked behind her friend's shoulder for cover against the dragon's fiery breath, smiled when she saw her partner reset his stance and ready himself for battle. "Let's get them, Gohan!"

"Right!" Letting out a loud roar, the Golden Ape powered up, his aura gushing off him before he loaded his legs and launched himself across the countryside at blinding speed. With a howl of wind, the child reached the giant dragon in the blink of an eye and greeted Lucoa with a big hook to her face.

The lizard, reacting accordingly, ducked under the haymaker and- with deftness defying all logic- darted under the boy as he shot overhead, causing him to land behind her and effectively switch places. When both giants spun around, tearing trenches across the battlefield and demolishing everything lying in their path in the process, the flaming dragon with Commander Zeeun riding atop her head sneered before flicking her wings forward. The act of doing so dislodged and sent a wave of hardened scales flying towards the Golden Ape like a hail of knives, all set to impale him.

Acting quickly, Gohan swiped out at them with his enormous hand and smashed the blades out of the air. The moment he sent most of them flying to the side while getting clipped by a couple of them, the boy roared and sprinted forward- thundering across the battlefield before drawing back his fist and slamming into the dragon with a haymaker. His knuckles collided with the dragon girl's clawed hand when she reached up to catch it, before she used her other hand to attempt to slash his face. But Gohan, proving himself to still be the competent fighter, managed to parry it with his arm and retaliated with an elbow to the dragon's face.

Being struck by the blow, the reptile snarled and lunged in with a chomp- one that Gohan quickly caught by ramming his forearm into her neck to stop her from biting him. From there, the two giants began to grapple with one another, their feet slamming into the ground and sending earthquakes rippling out for miles around.

As Gohan and Lucoa grabbed, clawed, bit and pushed at each other- Zeeun- who was riding atop his comrade's head, decided to act. Picking himself up, the armoured demon leapt down from the dragon's head, landed on the girl's extended right arm, and proceeded to sprint across it towards the Golden Oozaru.

"COME ON!" the man bellowed, shouting up at Myra who he could see crouching atop Gohan's shoulder.

The Super Hera- spotting her approaching opponent- extended her right hand, cranked back her left hand, and instantly produced a red arrow from thin air. The instant the bolt manifested in her grip, she let it rip, watching the large shaft break apart the instant it left her hand and fill the air with multiple arrows. She practically sprayed the shot towards the approaching Zeeun, who leaned forward, shielded himself with his armoured, spined shoulder, and barrelled through the barrage without slowing down.

Though one of the arrows lodged in his arm, the man ignored it, hopped over onto Gohan's outstretched limb, and sprinted up his triceps towards Myra. The moment he closed in on the adolescent alien, he took a swing at her, forcing the gutsy redhead to duck, before the two of them began trading punches and kicks at high speed- circling one another atop the Oozaru's shoulder and matching their opponent's every attack with a parry.

As the two of them moved across Gohan's upper body- leaping across the gap to his opposite shoulder and landing on the female dragon's extended arm instead- the Golden Oozaru blocked another attempted bite from Lucoa and responded with a swift uppercut that forced her to back off. The moment she stepped back, he then rushed forward and rammed into her with his shoulder, colliding with her side and knocking her back across the valley a bit. This then prompted the dragon to lunge forward with both arms out and wrap them around the massive ape- her claws sinking into his back while his large hands seized her waist and proceeded to crush her.

When Gohan forced the dragon into another mountain and smashed her into it, from atop the crumbling tors nearby, Dore and Wings- who'd been battling each other furiously around the two clashing titans- ended up toppling over with one of the cliffs. Falling with the rocks that cascaded onto Lucoa's tail, the pair crashed on top of her hide and tumbled into one of her flaming spines.

As the ice and rocks shattered against the dragon's hard scales, Dore- managing to scramble to his feet- rushed over to his massive, burly foe, picked him up by his armour, spun him around, and threw him into the fire gushing out of the reptile's spine. When the winged demon rammed into it and bounced off of the fiery pillar with a shout of pain, the Beppa-seijin rushed up to his falling body and tackled him out of the air, ending with both of them tumbling up the dragon's hide as it continued to writhe and wrestle with its opponent.

"Grah! Eat my fist, you prick!" Wings shouted when he and his opponent stopped rolling and wound up on top of Dore- drawing back his fist and beginning to lay into the man with vicious punches. After hitting him square in the face a few times, the green fighter promptly retaliated with a backhand across his face, followed by an elbow.

Now, not only were Myra and Zeeun fighting each other along Gohan and Lucoa's shoulders and arms, but the two hard-headed members of the warring factions had also joined in the fray- and were now gradually making their way up the giant dragon's back in an MMA style scuffle.

After much more of the landscape was trampled and transformed into shower of earthen confetti by the Golden Ape and Fire Dragon tossing one another around, it soon reached the point where one of them had had enough.

A loud boom rang out when Lucoa ended up getting backhanded in the jaw and sent staggering back into a wall of ice. Smashing into the barrier and collapsing the line of glaciers in a shower of icy rubble, the winged beast with the flaming spines snarled through bloody teeth before letting out a frustrated roar. Fanning her wings, the dragon sprung up and- as Gohan was sprinting at her for a punch- nailed the boy in his chest with a kick. Her blow struck the boy in the chin, generating a loud thunderclap that sent him off his feet and crashing to the ground.

Punching a massive crater into the ground, the boy's impact caused Myra and Zeeun to tumble off his shoulder and onto his chest, whereupon the two separated and ended up rolling and sliding along his spandex until they both stopped.

With her massive opponent downed and stunned, Lucoa seized that moment and dove down at him. Giving a piercing screech, the female titan of a reptile landed atop the Golden Ape and buried the talons of her feet into his sides- her claws digging into his fur and puncturing his flesh. The instant the blades of her toes impaled his flank, the prone Gohan let out a howl of pain, his body coming alive once again as he reflexively grabbed the dragon's ankles with his gloved hands.

Before he could so much as try to remove the foot lodged in his belly, Lucoa, grinning broadly, fanned out her wings, crouched low, and- with a single, powerful flap, took off into the sky with her monkey foe in tow. The dragon's launch from the ground was so sudden and so forceful that she generated a sonic boom on take-off, shooting up into the sky faster than any winged creature could possibly clock.

As a result of the lizard's unexpected skyward jump, Dore and Wings- who'd been wrestling each other behind her shoulder blade- wound up tumbling down the beast's back when their previously rocky platform transformed into a rocket going straight upward at over four hundred kilometres an hour. Separating after bouncing under the dragon's enormous wing and down her spine, both warriors suddenly reached out and grabbed onto whatever they could catch- and ended up grabbing the lizard's scales. They both then hung on for dear life as the sky began whipping past them at an ungodly rate.

"HOOOOOLLYYYYY CRAAAAAAAAAAAP!" Dore screamed out- his cries drowned by the roar of the winds now distorting his face. Wings did the same thing- the fat of his cheeks catching on the air like a parachute.

Myra and Zeeun had pretty much the same reaction when Lucoa took them and their platform for a ride- tumbling down Gohan's abdominals before eventually grabbing hold of his spandex to stop from falling off and potentially breaking their necks. With the Hera-seijin hanging over Gohan's side, the redhead was able to look down and watch the icy ground disappear under them, growing smaller and smaller before it and the mountains started to get shrouded in clouds.

Moments later, she couldn't see the ground at all and only the veil of clouds that covered the planet.

"D-Damn… this is crazy…" Myra gasped above the howl of wind, looking up to where she saw Lucoa holding onto Gohan and seeing her friend gripping the beast's ankle in agony. "Come on, Goldie. We can do this…" she groaned, looking across to see Zeeun holding onto a bit of the spandex nearby.

Lucoa, using powerful flaps of her massive wings while the flames gushing off her spine fired up like thrusters, effortlessly carried the Golden Oozaru off the mobile planet and up into the heavens. Higher and higher she and her prey climbed, reaching speeds that would've made any super advanced rocket or spaceship jealous. In a matter of seconds, the enormous beast had blown past the main cloud cover of the stratosphere and up into the mesosphere, reaching an altitude where there was absolutely no air and no warmth.

However, since all those traveling with the dragon had grown accustomed to the conditions of space, the slowly creeping effects of the vacuum didn't bother them at all. In fact, it only alerted Gohan to the fact that his fight with the winged female had gone from a basic ground battle between giants to an aerial battle, which quickly prompted him to take more immediate action.

After several seconds of trying to dislodge the dragon's claws the normal way, the Golden Oozaru soon gave up with a frustrated growl and, with a pained lunge, reached up and grabbed the dragon girl's upper leg. Using all the strength he could muster, Gohan- gripping hold of one of Lucoa's spines with his left hand- drew back his right fist and began pummelling her exposed belly and gut with big, crushing blows.

Each hit he landed on the reptile generated a loud boom and drew a shriek of pain from the dragon, who only seemed to tighten her hold on his gut as she focused on dragging him higher and higher into the sky. When her talons dug into his side further, Gohan growled angrily through a tight jaw and forcefully climbed up the dragon girl even more. By the time Lucoa had reached satellite orbit of the Eclipse-I's space, Gohan was alright all the way up her leg and practically hugging her hip. As soon as he was there, the boy opened his jaw and bit as hard as he could into her ass.

As a result, the dragon gave an even louder holler of pain and eventually released the boy. The moment she relinquished her talons, Lucoa spun around and took a swipe at the ape biting her butt. Managing to hit him over his mane, the Golden Oozaru then clambered up her body and hit her with another hook. This hit sent both titans tumbling through the air…

An act that quickly drew both them and their passengers to the realization that they were now fighting in zero gravity. It was a face that became even more apparent when Gohan and Lucoa, still grabbing hold of each other and locked in a heated tussle, tumbled through the vacuum of space, and right into the path of a field of meteors floating just in orbit of the ice planet.

After pummelling, slashing and biting each other through the empty blackness of the vacuum, Gohan, Lucoa, and the warriors that'd been taken for a ride on their respective backs, eventually collided with the largest meteor on the edge of the field, and knocked the hunk of stone into the cluster- smashing through and obliterating several smaller space rocks in the process.

The moment the two impacted the meteor, Gohan and Lucoa separated. When the boy bounced over the surface of the giant rock and landed on the other side, he then took aim at the girl and opened fire on her with a golden mouth blast, which missed when the dragon dodged to the side. His attack struck an asteroid rolling in the vacuum behind her and detonated it in a spherical explosion and a shower of hot coals.

As of that moment, the pair's battle resumed in the exosphere high above the ice planet…

OOO

(Meanwhile)

(Lord Slug's Citadel)

Watching as the flashes of multiple, distant explosions began going off overhead and listening to the resounding rumbles rolls in as a result, a calmly observing Lord Slug rapped the finger of his left hand against his armrest as his focused on the cosmos. Clearly able to see and sense the battle that was going on beyond the atmosphere of his world between his loyal slave and her opponent, the Namekian let out a low chuckle when he saw a streak of fireballs flash across the dark of the sky- effectively signalling the annihilation of a line of asteroids.

"My girl seems to be having the time of her life up there," the warlord remarked, drawing Kuriza's attention over to him while the Ginyu Force continued to watch the holograms in awe. "I'm honestly quite envious of that boundless, youthful energy of hers. Despite having been entombed inside a block of ice for so many eons, the natural durability and adaptability offered to her by her race's bloodline is truly a sight to behold." He then glanced across at Frieza's son and smirked at him. "By removing all hindrances from her personality- thoughts, feelings, dreams, and other distractions- I've potentially transformed Lucoa-chan from a timid little pup into the most tenacious and versatile killing machine in the entire universe. There is no disputing it- she will emerge victorious."

Kuriza, after staring back at the foul, evil look the Namekian warrior was giving him, felt his body stiffen. After inhaling sharply and letting it out, the boy frowned. "She's nothing but a slave. A zugal on a leash. A pawn with no free will or rights of her own." He then leaned forward in his seat and barked at the man. "Do you think you'll be able to conquer the universe with a mindless drone pottering around at your every beck and call?"

He received a quick answer in return. "I do."

This understandably, fuelled the boy's outrage even more. "The way you command your followers and demand fealty from them is utterly disgraceful. You send your men into battle… knowing full well that they are going to die. And you murder and destroy everything in your wake… just to show off your ill-gotten power. Not even my father is as vile and reprehensible as you." He then shook his head at him. "A leader who is so arrogant, reckless and commands an army of obedient yes men can never conquer anything- not even with a monster."

Lord Slug cocked an eyebrow at the youngster. "Oh? And do you believe your uncle's subordinate can defeat my pet? A boy whose skill and potential has been squandered by a man who lacks true bloodlust and ambition to conquer?"

Looking across at the hologram and watching the live feed of the Golden Ape fighting the giant dragon amidst the tumbling field of asteroids, the young princeling considered it for a moment before looking back at the Namekian. "That boy… that Saiyan… is someone who my uncle sent to this desolate world to defeat your armies, fight your subordinates, and rescue me from your clutches. He's a person who my uncle put his utmost faith and trust in… and whose strength has been enough to tackle your so-called "ultimate killing machine" blow for blow." Upon considering all of this, the child clenched his fists and spoke back to the warlord with both bravery and determination in his voice. "If my uncle sent him here… then I know he will win."

After staring at the boy for a few moments, Lord Slug smirked and turned away. "We'll see."

For the next minute, a tense silence fell over the roof of the citadel between the ruler of the Dark Empire and his collection of hostages. In the background, the sounds of explosions and laser fire had gotten noticeably louder, indicating that the warring armies had drawn much closer to the base. To accompany this, tremors and other quakes started reverberating up the metallic structure of Lord Slug's saucer, causing the hologram that was playing videos of the ongoing battles to flicker momentarily.

With the Ginyu Force still out of commission, Kuriza- figuring he needed to do something to change the situation- spared a few glances across at the Namekian warlord. Seeing how calm and amused he was under the hood of his cloak caused the young alien princeling to narrow his eyes on him.

So far, absolutely nothing had managed to shake this guy. Nothing had gotten under his skin. Nothing had forced him to take any action himself. Here he was, sitting and chilling out, while watching all his subordinates sacrifice themselves and do all the work for him. And because of that, he had Kuriza trapped here like a rat in a cage- unable to move.

If he wanted to even have a shot of trying to escape and leave this place, the young prince knew he had to get this guy to do something. To distract his attention for but a moment. Though he ran the risk of enraging and getting killed by the bloodthirsty warlord right there and then, Kuriza knew that if he could somehow piss him off enough and occupy him, it would be a hell of a lot better than sitting here, completely powerless.

Clenching his fists as his tail whipped beside him, the young Frieza Race member held his breath for a moment before speaking. "Cowards never win."

Saying that caused Lord Slug's left hand to twitch, which in turn drew the Namekian's eyes to him. When Kuriza saw his attention on him, the boy swore he felt his heart stop at the look the tyrant shot his way.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Kuriza hissed, his statement drawing the Ginyu Force's gazes to them when they heard the boy's calling out of the Namekian. Drawing on his inner father and mischievousness, the boy clenched his fingers and carried on. "Here you are, talking all big, resting on your fat ass on your cosy little throne watching all the action, while all of your men are fighting and dying out there for you… protecting you. Defending you." He then put on a brave, cocky grin. "If you're truly as powerful and invincible as you say you are, then someone like you wouldn't be hiding here and letting all those weaklings do all the heavy lifting for him. He'd be out there getting his hands dirty and showing the enemy who the top dog is. Or am I wrong?"

It was a bold statement- one that had the Ginyu Force's jaws drop, as they had no idea what the hell the young prince was doing trying to upset their captor. After their brief clash with him, the five members of Frieza's elite knew that if they were going to survive this, then they needed to stay as quiet and as still as possible.

Hopefully then the warlord would forget that they were even there and just let them go afterwards. Or perhaps Salza and his group would swoop in and save them- even at the cost of having their prides shattered.

However, here Kuriza was- a boy whose talent and strength had barely reached any sort of noticeable milestones- trying to piss off the strongest person on this planet. A person who has proven both through words and actions that he wasn't the most stable individual around. Quite the opposite, actually.

Needless to say, the kid was signing his own death warrant. Ginyu wanted to say something and tried to, "Kid… what are you…?" But then he shut his mouth moments later, as the glare he noticed on Lord Slug's face was enough to send a cold chill through even the most hardened of mercenaries and killers.

After staring bravely back into the face of his impending doom, Kuriza steeled his gut and frowned. "Well?"

For a few seconds more Lord Slug stared- the gold on his throne creaking when his nails literally dug into the metal of his arm rest and started to rip it like it was made of tissue paper. It almost looked as though he was going to reach over and throttle the youngster.

At that moment, the pair's face off was interrupted by the arrival of a squadron of the Namekian's troops- the men clad in white armour and helmets leaping up to the top of the building, rushing over, and dropping to their knees before their leader. The arrival of the men drew the Ginyu Force's attention but wasn't enough to break the staring contest between Slug and Kuriza.

"My lord! Our forces are being overrun! Cooler's troops will be upon the citadel in-" the sergeant proceeded to report yet was unable to finish.

Because the instant he got to his third sentence, Lord Slug blinding removed his right hand from his cheek, held it out towards the group, and telekinetically grabbed the sergeant by the throat. With a strangled cry, the man was picked up off the floor and pulled towards the Namekian at breakneck speed. When Lord Slug caught him by the throat a wink later, blue ki then started pouring out of every inch of his body, which then got sucked into the Namekian's outstretched arm.

"N-No! Please! M-My Lor-aaaaaggghhhh…" the sergeant choked out, before his plea transformed into a gargle and then into a hiss. In a matter of milliseconds, his body thinned and shrivelled, and his uniform disintegrated. A moment later, his skeleton dropped to the floor and fell apart like breadcrumbs, as Lord Slug had literally sucked the life essence right out of every cell in his body.

The exact same effect happened to the rest of the squadron too, all of whom could only gape in horror before blue energy began gushing out of their bodies too. As their essence flooded towards Lord Slug's outstretched hand in waves of blue flames, the men all cried out in terror before their screams vanished, and their bodies disintegrated too- crumbling to the ground like statues made of sand.

Once the entire squad was killed, leaving the Ginyu Force staring in disbelief at the display they'd just witnessed, Lord Slug felt a smirk tug at his lips as he saw Kuriza's unflinching gaze remained locked on him. Upon which, the man broke out into a laugh.

"Hahaha… not bad, brat. Not bad. You really know how to spike an enemy's ire. Ha. I love it," the Namekian said, lowering his outstretched right arm and straightening up in his seat. A gleam then hit the warlord's eye as he saw sweat break out on Kuriza's face. "However… there is some truth behind your insults. A true warrior… a true leader… shouldn't be sitting on the sidelines, sipping tea, and letting their troops have all the fun. They should be on the frontlines, commanding them and overseeing the battles personally." A devilish grin then tugged at the man's fangs, one that had the boy next to him shift nervously. "So… let's do something about that."

Before Kuriza could so much as question what Lord Slug was planning, he saw the Namekian turn his gaze towards the sky once more. There, the tyrant and his hostage saw the ships of Cooler Force's seventh fleet orbiting the mobile war planet drift into view of the citadel- their blinking hulls hovering in the black of space through the gaps in the clouds and floating safely out of reach of the battle zone. Considering how far they were from the action the commanders of the assaulting force not only had a perfect view of the fight's progress, but they could send in reinforcements at their leisure and adjust their formation however they wanted.

The moment he spied Cooler's saucers gleaming in the sky, Lord Slug's grin widened. "Tell me, young prince… have you ever heard of an anomaly called a cosmic storm?" Sensing the boy's eyes on him, the Namekian chuckled. "Unlike normal storms, which affect only a certain area on a single planet, a cosmic storm can wreak havoc and even obliterate an entire system of planets in a wide sector. They say the destruction wrought by one of these squalls can be as devastating as the God of Destruction during one of his afternoon fits." He then glanced down at Kuriza. "Allow me to demonstrate."

When he said that, the man then lifted both his hands off his arm rests, aimed his fingers towards the sky and, with barely a grunt or a sound, unleashed hell.

In a flash of blinding light and a howl of bass so deep it shook the planet right to its crumbling core, Lord Slug unleashed a torrent of orange lightning from his fingertips straight up into the sky. The stream of electricity shot past the stratosphere, entered the thermosphere, and branched outwards- shooting off in every direction so quickly that the bolts began tearing across the entire solar system. In a matter of seconds, like the inside of a plasma ball, the entire sector of space the Eclipse-I was floating in became filled with blinding, deadly bolts of dancing orange lightning, which struck every moon, planet, asteroid and satellite in reach of it.

The largest bolts tore through entire planets- either cutting trenches across their surfaces or outright obliterating them in showers of rubble. As for the smaller bolts, which zapped off the larger streams, all they did was engulf the objects they struck. This included the asteroid field Gohan and Lucoa were fighting in- both of whom ignored the lightning storm in favour of attacking one another- and Cooler's Fleet.

The orange bolts hit the ship's floating in the formation in a heartbeat, striking every saucer orbiting in that region. When they got hit, every vessel and craft began wigging out immediately, the electricity coursing over them in sheets of crackling veils and sending them all barrelling and rolling through the vacuum in every direction imaginable. Though the shields coating their hulls protected them from the onslaught of lightning bolts now tearing through their ranks, the computer systems and engines running the vessels still wound up getting hit, as the surges of power began wreaking havoc across every deck.

Cooler's flagship faired no better. The moment they got hit, the giant saucer was sent tumbling out of formation, with all the troops and officers inside being tossed about like sacks of potatoes. The command deck was sent spiralling into chaos, with every deckhand grabbing hold of whatever platform or table they were on to stop themselves from getting thrown into walls. However, this didn't stop a certain few from being sent screaming across the room.

Kikono was one of those people- the poor man being sent rolling across the floor when the ship listed sharply sideways. While Berryblue managed to hover safely in place as everything around her was sent spinning into disarray, both Cooler and Zangya were thrown into the hologram table in front of them. Both warriors winced when sparks and electricity began zapping all around the ship, with the hologram itself shutting down as half of their critical systems were knocked out in a single stroke.

"Holy shit! Wh-What the hell is going on?!" one of the soldiers screamed above the alarms now blaring throughout the vessel as it tumbled from side to side amidst the cyclone of energy shooting around outside the window. Though the electronic sirens were loud enough, the howl of wind and thunder taking place outside was more than enough to deafen everyone there. "Is it a solar flare?!"

"No! A cosmic storm! It just came out of nowhere!" one of men to the side of the room cried out, his hands gripping his seat as hard as he could to keep from flying up into the roof as the ship dove sharply. "Gravity controls are going haywire!"

"Multiple power surges tearing through our fleet, lieutenant! All vessels are spiralling out of orbit and into each other!" a woman at the control station shouted as her screen flickered and zapped from the electricity coursing through it. She then began typing into her keypad. "Shield levels are fluctuating like crazy! Rerouting excess power to the stoppers!"

"If this keeps up, all our systems are going to overload and explode!" another man barked as his touch screen cracked and exploded in his face. "Agh! Shit! The panels and monitors are getting fried!"

"Internal explosions all over! All navigational and manoeuvring systems are shutting down! We have no control!" another alien shouted. "The ship will be pulled down into the planet!"

Cooler, gritting his teeth as he clutched hold of the table, then glared up through the electricity zapping off the platform he was lying against. "This is no storm! Something or someone is causing this!" He then craned his head towards the screens on the wall above the bridge, where he could see the footage from the battle on the planet below flicking in and out of focus as the feeds continuously switched between the battles his subordinates were waging to the various positions of his armed forces. Upon seeing the screens bounce between various cameras, the prince then blinked when he saw- for a few brief seconds through the discharging of electricity- a shot of a stream of lightning coming off the citadel of the mobile planet. After a few more flickers, the automated cameras of the vessel homed in on the source of the anomaly and zoomed in on the citadel.

There, Cooler spotted not only Kuriza and the Ginyu Force lining the roof of the building and looking on helplessly, but he saw the cloaked form of Lord Slug himself- his hands raised towards the sky and unleashing torrents and torrents of lightning upon the sector.

Immediately after seeing the man's grinning face in the television screen before the monitor exploded from all the electricity shooting through it, the prince clenched his teeth and snarled. "It's him…" Without needing any further prompts beyond what he saw, the alien prince forced himself off his table and stumbled towards his bucking vessel's bridge window.

When she saw Cooler abandon his station, Zangya stared after him in alarm. "Wait a second, Prince Cooler! Where the hell are you going?! Agh!" She shrieked when a part of the floor shorted and exploded next to her.

The purple alien with the white cranium looked back at the Blizzard Corp soldier leaning against the hologram table and shouted, "Lord Slug… that bastard… he's the cause of this! I'm going down there to stop him!"

Zangya, forcing herself up, shouted back at the man. "Hold on! You're the commander of the task force! You can't go!"

"Just watch me," Cooler hissed, before glaring across at the window as his ship took another dip to the side. "If I don't do something soon, the entire fleet will be ripped to shreds. I can't let that happen. And besides… the prick is calling me out." Piece said, the man's right eye glinted, a split second before the glass to the bridge window cracked and shattered. As the wind inside the shield from outside began rushing in, the young prince called out. "You have the conn, lieutenant! The ship is yours until I get back!"

"Y-Yes, sir!" the officer screamed out as he remained lodged in the corner and using the walls to hold himself down.

The moment he heard the man's stuttered answer, Cooler kicked himself into gear. His pink aura blasting around him, the alien then took off from the floor, shot out the window, and then dove towards the ice planet below.

Leaving the formation of saucers and warships tumbling about through the exosphere behind him, the purple alien swung his arms down to either side of him to streamline his body, before blasting straight down into the stratosphere. Dodging streams of lightning shooting up at him from the planet below and rolling between the bolts that cut across his path, the young prince felt his body light up as he broke into the planet's airspace, quickly building up speed as he made his way down towards the citadel and the source of all this carnage.

Through the lightning dancing across the skies and the flames now engulfing his body as he powered through the layers of air lying in his path, the man narrowed his eyes on his target location, which he could see resting in the valley below. Seeing the orange streams of lightning still gushing up in space from the roof of the circular building, the alien prince gritted his teeth and powered up, pushing himself further into his dive and plummeting towards the planet like a missile.

Lord Slug, who continued to feed power into the lightning storm gushing out of his hands, inevitably spotted the bright glint of the approaching alien in the sky. Seeing the object drawing closer and closer at high speed, the Namekian warlord then narrowed his eyes when he sensed the enormous power level radiating off it.

Seconds later, when the fireball drew close enough for him to make out the person inside of it, a hoot of a laugh ripped from his throat.

Cooler, drawing close enough to see the Namekian, bared his teeth before screaming at the top of his lungs. "SLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUG!"

"At last," the Namekian exclaimed, cutting off energy to his lightning storm in an instant.

Still tearing towards the fiend at several times the speed of sound, Cooler swung his right hand forward, extended his finger, and fired a blinding pink Death Beam towards the green warrior. In response, the green warrior extended his own finger and fired a golden beam in return, a grin remaining plastered on his face as the head of his attack collided with the prince's, which immediately resulted in an energy tug of war match between the approaching Cooler and the stationary Lord Slug.

As the two beams drilled into one another, causing a blinding glimmer to rip out from where the attacks met, the cosmic storm raging above the planet ceased, and the battle between the two leaders began.

TO BE CONTINUED…

---

Author's Note: It's always good to get clarification for certain events, especially since this story has gone so far off the tracks it's in its own realm of retelling the DBZ story.

Cooler's Armored Squadron – Abilities:

Salza – Multi-Specialist type, close to long range, duelling, hand-to-hand combat and energy manipulation/energy sharpening

Energy Barrages

Finger Beams

Energy Discs

Energy Blades (Salza Blade) – His signature attack, where he produces a field of energy around his arm and sharpens it to that of a monofilament blade capable of cutting through almost anything

Dual Salza Blades – Salza produces two blades around both arms for both attack and defence

Hyperextended Blade – Salza extends and stretches the length of his blade to a significant distance

Salza Blade Rifle – Where in he produces his signature arm blade and rapid fires at at long range

Concentrated Gigantification (Glamorous Salza) –An advanced form of Gigantism where Salza increases the output of ki to his muscles that alters his body structure, increasing his power and strength without sacrificing speed

XXX

Myra – Specialist/Counter type, mid to long range, counter-attacking and strategy-based fighting

Counter-punching

Pressure point/Nerve point attacks

Energy Barrages

Energy Constructs

Energy Tools – Myra creates a variety of weapons by hardening her ki, including swords, staffs, small blades, whips and chains

Psycho Threads – Myra creates a net/barrier of wires capable of ensnaring victims and rapidly draining them of energy

Stasis Cloud – Myra creates a thin cloud of ki around the victim to stop their movements

Manaa – Crescent Moon in her language, this ability involves Myra creating a gigantic bow-shaped energy construct and solidifying it, which she can use to fight, fly, surf, and launch concentrated energy bolts from the head

Super Hera – A transformation like a Super Saiyan that multiplies her ki output to increase her battle power fifty-fold

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Neiz – Unorthodox type, mid to long range, hit and run, out-fighting, flexibility, elemental and chemical manipulation

Energy Barrages

Limb retraction/dislocation

Stun Lock – By altering the chemical structure of his ki, Neiz can launch a concentrated blast of electricity to electrocute, stun and potentially kill opponents

Lightning Storm –An upscale version of his Stun Lock, Neiz can unleash a storm of electrical bolts on the enemy, either from his own body or drawing them from the clouds

Raiken (Lightning Fist) –By super-charging his body with his own lightning, Neiz increases his power and speed several times, to the point enemies lose sight of him completely. The upscaled version of this move is his Super Raiken.

XXX

Dore – Brawler type, close to super-close range, wrestling, grappling, joint locking techniques

Energy Barrages

Body tackles

Body locks

Arm/leg locks

Throwing and tossing

Quarter Nelson/Half Nelson/Full Nelson/Bobby Nelson – A series of body holds in which Dore locks down his opponent to either crush them or knock them unconscious, with the last Nelson- affectionately dubbed the Bobby Nelsonafter Dore used it on a man named Bobby- involving him beating an opponent into submission by holding another enemy by the leg and repeatedly hitting the other guy over the head with them like a sledge hammer

Dore Suplex – A move where Dore grabs the opponent from behind and slams them into the floor head first

Dore Breaker – A move where Dore drops on an opponent from up high and lands on top of them with a dropping elbow

Dore Slam – A move where Dore drops on top of an opponent from a high altitude, lands on them with his full body, and ruptures the ground on impact

Dore Bomber – A wrestling move where Dore pile-drives an opponent into the ground with devastating force

Dore Can Opener Attack – In which Dore grabs an opponent by the skull and proceeds to crush them until they either lose consciousness or their head explodes

Gigantification – A technique where Dore increases his power by altering the structure of his body and increasing his muscle mass. While there is a small sacrifice in speed, Dore isn't hampered by this weakness at all. In fact, his speed actually increases.

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Gohan – Hybrid type, close to mid range, hit and run flurry attacks, hyper adaptability, mimicry

Energy Barrages

Energy Gauntlets – Gohan creates energy shields around his arms, which allow him to produce short swords and barriers around his limbs to either strike or block attacks

Demonic Whips – Gohan produces two, dense energy whips from his hands, which he then uses to strike opponents at long range with long, flexible blade-like strikes

Dengeki Taiho (Blitz Cannon) – Gohan's special attack, where he fires a highly concentrated mouth energy wave at the opponent with destructive force

Kōsen (Light Ray) – Another of Gohan's signature movies- a piercing energy blast fired from Gohan's finger. More deadly and destructive than the standard Kamehameha wave- just like the Dodon Ray- Gohan can fire the Kōsen at a moment's notice with very little charging time. He can also fire from both fingers simultaneously with rapid succession. He can also fire more powerful, amped up versions of the technique where the golden bolts are launched in clusters and widespread shots

Oozaru/Great Ape Form – By looking at a full moon, Gohan is able to undergo the Saiyan's basic transformation to unlock his Saiyan side's true consciousness and primal power. Due to his training with Myra to master both his energy control and battle concentration, Gohan is able to initiate the transformation without looking at a full moon or having one present, but by merely drawing on the residual blutz radiation stored in his body from previous, even occasional exposure to moon light.

False-Super Saiyan – A halfway point of the legendary transformation, where Gohan taps into his dormant abilities for an explosive burst of power and speed

Super Saiyan – The legendary Saiyan transformation that multiplies Gohan's speed, strength and power fifty fold

Super Oozaru/Golden Ape Form – A form where Gohan combines his Super Saiyan transformation with that of the Great Ape, where his speed and power are multiplied even more considerably than with the transformations on their own. Though this form is the natural precursor to the Super Saiyan 4 form (Alpha Saiyan Form) - and the rival to the Super Saiyan God Form- Gohan has yet to reach the level of consciousness and skill to unlock the evolution

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Saiyan Forms Characters can potentially unlock:

Oozaru (Great Ape)

Wrath Form (Wrath Saiyan)

Pseudo-Super Saiyan (False Super Saiyan)

Super Saiyan

Super Saiyan Grades 2 & 3 (Ultra Saiyan)

Super Saiyan 2 (Ascended Saiyan)

Super Saiyan 3 (Majestic Saiyan)

Super Oozaru/Golden Oozaru (Golden Great Ape)

Legendary Super Saiyan (Berserker Saiyan)

Super Saiyan 4 (Alpha Saiyan) – On par with Super Saiyan Blue (and before anyone else start blithering on about how SSJ4 isn't on par with Super Saiyan God, watch Dragonball Heroes. Cumber made sport of SSJG Goku when he was in base form, but was pressed when SSJ4 Goku and SSJ4 Vegeta stepped onto the scene).

Super Saiyan God

Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan (Super Saiyan Blue or Rose, depending on spirit purity)

Ultra Instinct

Nova Saiyan (A separate branch of Saiyan transformation akin to a celestial anomaly, which is on par with Ultra Instinct, and a form that Gohan will later learn to rival his father)

Super Nova Saiyan