*(Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or Dragon Ball GT. All characters and places associated with the Dragon Ball series belong to their own respected creators and I have not used them to make any profit in any shape or form.)
Jason9000: Sorry for the long two month hiatus, but college was starting to wind down and I had to focus on finals. To make up for it, here's an extra long chapter for you all. Hope you enjoy it.
Edit: Just a reminder to avoid confusion. I refer Future Trunks as Mirai and Present Trunks as simply Trunks. Hope this clears up any confusion.*
Cold flew at a steady pace and Mirai kept his eyes on him. During his flight Mirai transformed into a Super Saiyan immediately. He remembered the last time he faced this monster all those years ago.
The father of Frieza was the head of the family for a reason. From his memory he was stronger than his son by a fair amount. But, back then both of them were nothing to him. He had already had some training as a Super Saiyan so the both of them weren't much of a threat. He had heard that Frieza had transformations. From what Gohan told him Frieza had four.
The nature of these transformations from what he remembered was that it was actually to suppress their power. From Gohan's stories, Frieza and most likely his brother Cooler used these transformations so they wouldn't accidentally destroy the ground they walked on. Frieza's race was born with strength that took most people a good portion of their lives, to attain. So his race most likely created the regressed forms as a precaution so they wouldn't kill each other by shaking hands or even waving.
Gohan had told him that King Cold looked like Frieza did in his second form. At the time he didn't care about it. King Cold never brought it up when he faced him. He reckoned that Cold realized that Mirai would never give him the opportunity to transform or as he previously thought, he was incapable of transforming. Whether it was on account of old age or that King Cold only had two forms didn't concern Mirai at the time.
Now though, everything was different. King Cold COULD have transformed. And judging from what Gohan told him of the massive power boost for each transformation and the boast that Cold made back on Earth. Mirai doubted that he could have won so easily against him. Now he wasn't sure if he could have beaten him alone. Perhaps with Goku they could have double teamed him, but now he was uncertain.
He shook his head and cleared his thoughts. He couldn't dwell on the past right now. Asking himself 'what if' would only cause him to slowly doubt himself and give Cold an edge over him. He needed to focus and be ready for anything.
Cold started to slow down and headed for some land below them. It was a rocky terrain filled with many canyons Trunks noted. There were some plateaus in the distance as well, but for the most part it was lifeless.
Cold disappeared in a flash and Mirai lost sight of him for a moment. He reached out with his senses and located him on one of the plateaus ahead of him. Mirai then used his speed to quickly get to another plateau directly opposite of him.
They both stared at each other. Cold's hard red eyes bore down on Mirai and he felt the hatred pouring out from his eyes. Cold was furious of his humiliating Death at his hands years ago. This was going to be one of the toughest fights of his life.
"So Super Saiyan, I hope you're ready. Because, by the end of this you will be in the dirt crying for mercy; as I stand over your broken body. Then once I get back to Otherworld I'm going to handpick the torture I have in my mind for Daimaō's Demons. I expect your pitiful cries for release will be glorious," King Cold told him.
Mirai didn't respond and only glared at him. It was bad enough; the tension in the air was thick. It felt like the drop of a tack would cause the entire area to blow up. He felt his father and his twin fighting their opponents on the other side of the planet. His father was caught off-guard and his twin started the fight off very well, judging by the energy signature of everyone around them.
"So gonna offer me any planets yet? Or should I wait a couple of minutes before you realize you're done?" Mirai asked with a grin.
Cold didn't respond to his jib. He only took a deep breath and smiled.
"I really hope your prepared boy, because this is going to be…" Cold started to say.
Suddenly he disappeared and Mirai couldn't track him again. He focused his senses on around him, but felt nothing.
He felt a fist smack straight into his stomach. The force of the blow felt like a mountain just decided to throw itself at his body. He staggered forward a bit in shock and held his stomach.
"A very bloody fight for you monkey," King Cold whispered as he punched Mirai in the stomach.
King Cold towered over him and smiled. "What's the matter simian? Is that the best you have? One punch and you're already down? How pathetic. To think you and your band had the power to challenge us. How the mighty have fallen," He mocked the young man.
Mirai was muttering nonsense for a moment. Suddenly the space tyrant heard him whisper something.
"I'm guessing you never heard of the term 'playing possum' have you?" Mirai asked him quietly.
Before the space overlord could react Mirai jumped up and slammed his head into King Cold's chin, forcing him back. The space tyrant staggered back for a moment and then he felt a crushing blow into his chest. Mirai had turned around and used a reverse elbow strike into his chest to wind him. The boy reached over his shoulder and roared. He grabbed the alien by his neck and Cold could swear the boy's muscles just bulged out and increased their size within seconds. His pressure on King Cold's neck increased and he threw the oversized lizard ahead of him.
Mirai then charged a golden Ki blast in his hands and fired. The golden yellow beam flew from his hands as a giant wave that engulfed King Cold and consumed him. Mirai kept it up for another moment and his muscle size increased as he poured more energy into the attack.
He ceased his attack and he took a deep breath to calm himself. He knew Cold wasn't dead. There was no way that finished him off, not by a long shot. That was merely a small warm up. He wasn't the leader of his family for nothing.
"That technique of yours where you increase your muscles looks very familiar," King Cold's voice whispered behind Mirai.
He spun around, but the giant lizard faded into a smirking after image. Mirai looked around again, but he couldn't find him. Slowly King Cold appeared, but there were soon two, ten, fifteen, no fifty of him fading in and out of existence.
"In fact, that looks a lot like the form my family and I used when we wanted to use 100% of our power. I dare say your form works in a similar way. However, you were able to figure out how to get in and out of the form within seconds. Only using it to power up your attacks or for defense I'm guessing. That's pretty smart for a dim-witted monkey," The various after-images of King Cold taunted him.
"Well let's just say I had some years to practice. Unlike you lizard breath, I don't stop training. Just, because I was the strongest where I'm from doesn't mean there were others out there that could rival or had surpassed my strength," Mirai called out.
"I concede to your point. Now I understand that there is someone out there stronger than you. Once I'm done with you, I will devote myself to gain even more strength so I can take down that disgusting Demon King," King Cold said.
"I doubt that'll happen. Even if you did somehow beat me and get out of here, all of your strength has been unlocked. It'll take a long time of training to even gain anything. I know that it took years for Gohan to surpass what he was when he fought Majin Buu," Mirai said taking to the air.
'If I keep him distracted long enough, I should be able to locate him. I can't allow him to have the air advantage,' Mirai thought to himself.
"True, but when I achieve immortality, it won't matter. I'll have all of eternity to topple the ruler of Hell and supplant my sons in their proper places," King Cold called out.
"So you know your sons have the desire to replace you?" Mirai called out.
"Oh please, I've known ever since they could crawl on all fours. I conspired to kill my father and he did with his father. It's an endless cycle that had been in my family for countless generations. I, however, will end it here and now. Even their combined strength is nothing compared to me. They may have had a chance if they banded together before we went to Earth. Now though? I'll keep them in their proper places for all of eternity and if I must dispose of them, then so be it," King Cold called out.
Mirai growled in annoyance as King Cold was toying with him. He couldn't find or sense him anywhere. Someone must have taught him to sense energy so now it made it harder to find him.
The ironic thing was that King Cold was directly below Mirai in the canyons. He was standing there in the darkness in thought. He wanted to end this quickly and didn't want to draw it out like his idiot sons had the tendency too.
The head of the Cold clan needed to finish this quickly. While he did want to pound him into submission, he needed to do it in a fashion that would satisfy his need for revenge. No doubt his pathetic sons would need his help after a while. It would be a terrible mark to Cold's majestic might if his offspring were once again defeated by a bunch of overpowered simians.
Judging by the impact of the attack, his opponent was hiding much of his strength. It was actually quite impressive and he would offer him quite the challenge. It was a plus since he hadn't had the chance to test out his newfound power yet. He had to be careful though, he didn't know where he stood on the hierarchy of power. Daimaō was obviously above him to his loathing and he didn't know how strong Cell or the poor soul Bojack was. Although Bojack was probably a dribbling vegetable after what Daimaō had done with him…
King Cold watched the boy as he turned his head around in various directions looking for him. He was glad that he finally learned how to sense energy of others. It was a very useful technique especially, when he needed to hide to make a swift attack.
King Cold lifted one finger and poured energy into his Full Power Death Beam. This would either kill the boy, or he'd just be more entertaining for him. Either way he was going to kill this boy and present his corpse to his idiot, loudmouth of a father.
King Cold fired his attack and aimed it right at Mirai's back. He hoped that it would tear though the Saiyan hybrid's back and cut through his spine. Mirai would either be paralyzed or he would be in too much pain to move since his nervous system would be working in overdrive trying to figure out what's going on.
The beam tour through the air and raced toward its target as if it had a mind of its own. Its intent was to cut through this Saiyan and bring him to a quick end.
Just when the beam was about to tear through his back, Mirai spun around. His sword was in his hand as he cut through the beam in a horizontal fashion. The beam was split into two parts and slowly sizzled and died out behind him.
Mirai had a cocky grin on his face and opened his mouth to win. "Cheap tricks and sneak attacks didn't work the last time, buddy. And they sure as Hell won't work this time," He told the sneering King Cold.
'Dear Kami, I've been hanging out with my twin way too much…' Mirai thought to himself.
The space tyrant growled at his impudence. This was exactly why his son blew up most of their race. They thought they could prolong their lives with ridiculous jokes during a battle. It was sickening, especially when they were dealing with an opponent far beyond their understanding.
Mirai powered up and charged after Cold once again. He swung his leg back, aiming a kick at Cold's head.
Cold grunted at the coming attack and ducked at the coming blow. He swiftly countered with a powerful uppercut to the half Saiyan's jaw sending him up in the air.
King Cold disappeared in a flash and appeared above Mirai. He brought his elbow down onto the young man's head and sent him back down to the ground below. He brought his hand up and started charging a purple energy ball in his hands. After charging for five seconds he rained down hundreds of purple bullets onto Mirai.
Each one hit their target with deadly precision. Mirai felt his body being pushed down into the planet and buried beneath the planet's surface. Soon he found himself being pushed down into a crater.
Cold stopped firing his attack and grinned at the crater below.
"How do you like my Punishing Bullet attack? It's my own variation of my son's Crazy Finger Beam technique. Mine are just more…explosive," He called out below.
He was met with silence for a short while. A golden light below him erupted and he felt a giant rise in power.
He looked for the young Saiyan below, but was met with only silence. Suddenly he felt something behind him. He turned and was met with the fierce gaze of the Super Saiyan.
"Oh don't tell me you're going all out now? I've barely begun to flex my muscles," Cold scoffed.
"I've only just begun lizard breath. I hope you're ready for round two. I'm not going to let you hide down in the canyons like a rat now. You want to face me, then do it out in the open. Or are you that much of pathetic coward that you need to hide in the dark like a worm?" Mirai challenged him.
King Cold snarled at him. "Watch your mouth you brat! I don't know where you get the idea that you can talk back to me in such a way. Didn't your parents teach you to respect your elders?" He seethed at him.
"My father wasn't much on manners, but my mother did teach me to respect my elders when they didn't threaten anyone," Mirai told him.
"Well it looks like I'll just have to beat some respect into you and then go pay a visit to the remains of your father. If Frieza hasn't beaten him or been defeated himself that is," Cold responded back.
Cold blinked and Mirai was gone. His eyes widened in surprised, not expecting this sudden burst of speed from the young man.
Suddenly a fist met his face and he went flying up into the air. Mirai followed up with a series of punches to his throat. Cold couldn't even bring up his arms to defend himself, because the attacks were coming faster than he anticipated. Each blow felt like being hit by sledge hammer.
Finally Mirai disappeared above his enemy. He aimed a kick at the back of his neck and sent him down into the ground.
Mirai followed Cold's descent and caught up to the falling body. He grabbed Cold's neck, increased his muscle size again and had a tight hold on his neck. He then smashed his face into the ground and started dragging him along the ground. Picking him up at certain points and slamming him back into the ground. Finally he flung the giant lizard back up into the sky and started charging one of his signature attacks.
After a moment he cried out "Finish Buster!" and set the attack up at his opponent's acceding body. The attack connected and there was an explosion in the sky.
Mirai focused his senses on the sky above. He could sense Cold above him. So he waited for any hint of movement. For a while there wasn't one and the smoke finally cleared and he saw Cold above him.
Cold's face look scratched up real good. No doubt having his face dragged on the ground hurt. His neck looked bruised from where Mirai had his vice like grip on him. Also there were a number of small cuts and bruises all over his chest. If Mirai thought he was angry before, he was dead wrong.
For a moment Cold was silent as he stared down at the young man, who thought he was above punishment. How dare this monkey mock the head of his family! For years, he was the most powerful being in the Universe. He only tolerated his son's claim, because he found it mildly amusing.
"I consider myself a very patient person boy. I've had to deal with my sons mucking up my business for decades…" Cold said while slowly descending.
Mirai's muscles expanded again as he waited for Cold to make a move. No doubt he was about to go ballistic on him for his crazy stunt.
"I let my son's pride get in the way when I arrived on your planet. Instead of blowing it from space, I decided to go along with his crazy revenge driven plan…" He told the young man slowly.
"I decided to go along with Daimaō's scheme to get us out of Hell. I waited six long months while he kept droning on and on about his plan. Not to mention that drunkard Bojack," Cold told Mirai.
King Cold was finally down at Mirai's level thirty feet ahead of him. His breathing was still heavy and Mirai knew he was only seconds from imploding on him.
"Usually I'm not one for losing my temper. But, it appears your sole existence is to stretch my patience to its end. You should feel honored. Not even my sons have pushed me this far, and that is saying something," King Cold said quietly.
Against his better judgment Mirai decided to open his mouth and ask. "What's your point?"
A fist went right through his stomach and Mirai thought it was only an ounce of pressure away from going through his whole body.
"I am going to break you monkey, no more playing around," Cold seethed in his ear.
Cold brought his left arm up and elbowed Mirai's spine into the ground. The force of the blow actually caused him to bounce back up for a moment. But, then Cold brought his foot down and started stomping Mirai into the ground. Each blow felt like a mountain chain stomping on his back repeatedly. He couldn't even try to move or put up any defense.
Cold then used his tail to pick Mirai's body and held him upside down. Mirai was groaning in pain as he tried to dull out the pain in his back and think of a way to attack him.
"You're so pathetic boy. You Super Saiyans are all talk and no bite. You may have a good history of surprising your opponents with how your transformations work. You're in a tight corner and you lash out with a rush of adrenaline," Cold told him.
Mirai growled to himself in anger as he focused his Ki into his body.
"It's not uncommon for animals to do as such. You monkeys are a prime example of why you should never corner one. But, don't worry I'm quite excellent in killing such dangerous and wild animals," The space tyrant told him.
Mirai mumbled something quietly that Cold didn't hear what he said.
"Speak up monkey! I can't hear your simian chatter," Cold taunted him smirking.
"Do you ever SHUT UP?!" Mirai yelled at him.
Suddenly Mirai's body began lighting up in a golden light. Suddenly they were engulfed in a yellow explosion that lit up the sky. When the attack was finished Mirai went up into the sky and powered up his next attack.
He charged his energy hands and aimed down at where Cold was recovering. His body was glued to a plateau and he was trying to peel himself off of the rock.
"Let's see you slither your way out of this one, you snake! Heat Dome Attack!" Mirai yelled pouring everything he had into the massive energy beam.
King Cold snarled at the Saiyan. "YOU WANT TO TEST MY POWER BOY?! THEN GET READY!" He shouted back at him.
King Cold brought his arms up with his palms open to his face. Two purple orbs shined in his face. One for each palm. Black wispy tails emitted from the orbs. The frost tyrant brought both hands together to combine the orbs into a single massive orb. It looked lifeless as space itself. Despite the hot energy it emitted, Mirai felt the harsh vacuum of the lifeless void of deep space. King Cold brought his arms up over his head and laughed at his opponent's oncoming attack.
"Sphere of Terror!" He shouted the giant orb at the oncoming energy wave.
Both attacks met each other at a collision that shook the planet. The amount of power the combined attacks had at the epicenter were enough to blow up a planet twice its size. In the distance Mirai could feel four people stopping their fights and gazing toward them.
Mirai felt his attack being pushed back at a fast pace. Despite his body's protest he increased his muscle's size and poured my power into the attack. It finally slowed down and Mirai could tell it was almost a stalemate. Neither he nor Cold gained little ground and they were pushing back and forth. It was a battle of wills. One had the will to destroy and enslave everything in his sight to create an empire amongst the stars. The other was a planet's last hope for peace in a timeline removed from this.
"You can't keep this up forever boy! Your attempts at stopping me are futile. In fact, why don't I show you an example of how outmatched you are!" Cold shouted above the roaring beams.
Cold then concentrated on his attack and slowly brought it down under the beam. He smirked at the lad's direction as he let the golden energy wave pass over his attack and rush toward him.
Then King Cold did something most unexpected. He brought his arms back toward his body. The orb obeyed his command and came hurtling toward him at blinding speeds. It kept up with the approaching golden beam as if mocking the lifeless attack.
Finally just before the Heat Dome Attack was going to slam into King Cold. He brought his hands up and the orb pushed the attack up into the sky. Both attacks kept going until out of sight. Hurtling up into space.
Mirai was panting heavily from his efforts. He had launched his most powerful attack at Cold and he shrugged it off as if it was nothing. His body was starting to feel the effects of quickly expanding his muscles to unnatural sizes too fast. They felt like they were on fire and with the amount of power in the last attack. He wasn't sure if he could keep this up for much longer.
His opponent suddenly pointed up into the sky and he grinned at him in mad delight.
"If I were you, I would turn your attention to the closest planet. It's about to get a nasty surprise within the next couple of minutes," Cold called out.
Mirai blinked as he was trying to make sense of his words. What did a planet they weren't on have anything to do with this?
Mirai looked up into the sky and noticed there was a giant planet above them. Judging by the look of it. It was behind one of the binary suns. This confused him as he did not notice the planet before. The planet's rotation must be faster than Earth as the two suns were lower in the sky.
Suddenly he felt a massive scream from the giant world. Billions of voices cried out for three seconds and then silence.
Mirai looked at the smirking tyrant's direction. He was currently looking at his fingernails. As if uninterested in what just happened.
"What…did you just do?!" Mirai hollered at him.
"I? I did nothing; I merely defended myself from your attack. I could have overpowered you, but why risk blowing up the planet when I don't have any means of leaving? I don't think Daimaō's door works properly in space and I have no means to contact a space traveling civilization with state of the art space flight technology. So I directed your attack up into space. It just happens that my own attack pushed it into the neighboring planet. Such a shame though, it did have the best oysters to dine on. Oh well, I'll just have to look for a new planet to find oysters to eat for dinner," King Cold said shrugging his shoulders.
Mirai looked worried as his brain worked overtime. A neighboring planet close to one of the suns blew up. He remembered that each planet in his own solar system was operating by the gravitational pull of the sun. He asked his mother once what would happen if Mars or Jupiter randomly blew up and she launched into a three hour lecture of why Mars exploding would be a more immediate danger than Jupiter.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?! Mirai shouted at him in shock.
"Of course I do, since that planet was just destroyed, the gravitational pull of the planets around this solar system will soon be thrown out of balance. It could only be a minor shift, or in the worst case scenario, the planets are thrown off course and start drifting off in random directions. Either way this planet is going to go through severe climate changes and gravity changes. Even the smallest shift in the gravitational pull around these binary suns can be very deadly for a planet this close to them. Do I even need to mention the possibility of the debris from the destroyed planet hitting here and causing massive damage to the surface of this planet?" Cold asked grinning like a madman.
"You're the exact reason why people where I'm from still live in constant fear of a repeat of the terror of the Androids! It'll take generations before my planet's populace can go about their lives without fear of reliving through the Hell of the Androids put through!" Mirai called out.
"Just like how it should be, you Saiyan brat! The strongest strive and the weaklings are cast out to make way for their superiors! They're lucky to be around and serve me. They should be on their knees blessing me for keeping them alive in the first place," King Cold responded shrugging his shoulders.
Mirai started twitching in rage. Rage at the injustice of it all. For his entire life he faced others that thought they were gods. That nothing in the Universe was their equal. From the Androids, to the Colds, to Cell...it didn't matter with them. They were usually the strongest beings in their area. So they sought to rule or destroy like angry, intolerant, powerful gods. They made the rules and if you didn't follow them to the letter, it meant Death. Mirai was tired of it. Tired of everyone in both timelines having to live in a constant fear of their lives, because of some threat they never imagined. He made a vow to protect those that could not protect themselves. One timeline was already damaged from people like King Cold, he'd be damned if it were to happen again.
Mirai charged down at King Cold with his sword high above him. He started to empower the sword with his own Ki to increase its strength.
He swung down at Cold with blinding speed. But, the opponent was fast. He dodged out of the way by jumping back and then kicked off the plateau taking to the air.
"You're not getting away!" Mirai shouted taking after him.
King Cold then raised his power and diverted his growing energy into his arms. Slowly they started to glow a sickly purple. Mirai swung his sword diagonally upward from his left side to try and cut through his arms.
When the steel met Cold's arms something unexpected happen. The contact between the rivaling powers caused them to explode. Both adversaries were flung into separate plateaus opposite from each other.
The plateaus fell apart from the sudden shock of having bodies crashing through them and the rocks fell on top of both combatants.
Mirai groaned for a minute as he got up. He looked at his sword in confusion.
"Okay…that's never happened before. What just happened?" Mirai asked himself out loud.
He got up and quickly flew out from the rocks. He looked around for Cold, but once again he was nowhere to be seen. He couldn't sense him anywhere.
"If that somehow killed him, he's more pathetic that I thought," Mirai muttered to himself.
Suddenly something wrapped itself around his throat and the half Saiyan found it difficult to breathe. He felt himself being thrown on the ground four times in the same spot. With his lack of oxygen and being smacked onto the ground, he was dazed.
He saw a white tail wrapped around his neck. The tail turned his body at an angle and he saw an annoyed Cold rubbing his arms.
"That stung I will admit. I don't know what it was you just did, but I'm not going to let it happen again," Cold said.
He slammed Mirai into the ground again and forced him to drop the sword from his hands. He flung Trunks away into another plateau and examined the sword.
"I don't see any difference from when I borrowed it from you. I doubt you changed the type of metal to Katchin. There aren't many Katchin ores in the Universe and I know for a fact there are none near Earth. My only hypothesis is that our powers were equally matched for that exact moment. Thus, since one couldn't move the other, the pressure caused it to explode. That's quite impressive for a flea bitten monkey," Cold said.
He then turned around so his back was facing Mirai. He looked out at the horizon and grinned.
"Looks like someone couldn't keep their fight into their own area. That is such a shame. I really don't like being interrupted. I will have to make an example off of someone," King Cold said.
Mirai powered up and forced the rocks off of him. He finally noticed that two people were getting awfully close to them. His heart stopped as he realized what Cold was going to do. He quickly flew at him to stop him.
Cold took off further into the sky and waited another minute as two people got closer and closer. From the energy signatures one of his sons was chasing around someone in a rage.
"For your sake, you better hope this hits my son," King Cold called out behind him grinning sadistically.
Mirai roared and charged an attack in his hands. He wasn't going to let him throw his sword like this. Potentially it could actually kill someone if they weren't paying attention and since the sword doesn't give off an energy signature…it could be lethal.
Cold could just make two outlines as they were clashing into each other with greater force. He honestly did not care if he killed his son. His strength was far above anything the Saiyans possessed. The only one that really posed a challenge was currently in the dirt...
With a great cry Cold heaved the sword. A second later he was met with the explosive force of an energy sphere that slammed into his face and knocked him into the air. Mirai charged at Cold with a yell.
Suddenly a pained yell filled the air. Mirai stopped his attack and turned dreadfully around. Ahead of him he saw a figure falling down toward the ground with his sword impaled right through the person's right shoulder.
"Well looks like he's been disarmed," Cold mocked Mirai from afar.
*Jason9000: Well that'll about do it. I apologize for the two month wait. But, I hope that this made up for it. It's starting to look grim for our heroes. Mirai's on the ropes and someone just had a sword thrown into their shoulder. Can anyone guess who? Till next time. Please leave a review.*