Cooler looked down at the unusual scene before him, his eyes widened in disbelief. Just a moment ago, he was seconds away from wiping both the insolent monkey and his loathsome father off the face of the planet, along with the planet. And yet, now, a new figure with some strange mask over his face and an intense golden aura of ki was holding back his final attack. The figure hadn't been anywhere in sight a moment ago, but now they were suddenly there, with a level of ki that seemed to at the very least match Cooler's own. And most concerning of all, although it definitely didn't look easy for them, they also didn't appear to be struggling too intensely to hold the Supernova in place. Which, of course, suggested that they may be holding back a good deal of their power. Cooler was beginning to suspect that leaving his father with one foot in the grave might've been a mistake.
He mulled over precisely how to respond to this new threat for a moment when he noticed something else: a steady increase in the new figure's ki, directed towards his position. From what he had observed, they hadn't appeared to be having trouble holding the Supernova back before, which meant…
"They're planning to push it back," Cooler thought, a thought which sent a chill down his spine. He had poured a great deal of his power into that attack, in order to ensure that his rivals were defeated. If Goku and King Cold couldn't have survived the attack, then in his condition, his odds of survival weren't much better. With a sudden flick of the wrist and a quick burst of ki, Cooler sent a small ki blast flying towards his own Supernova, one intended solely to destabilize the sphere of ki and cause it to spontaneously explode. He instinctively smirked as the small ball of purple ki flew towards the giant orange ball...only to suddenly be flying through empty air before crashing into the snow, as both the mysterious warrior and the Supernova vanished from sight right before Cooler's eyes.
"What?!" Cooler exclaimed aloud, eyes widened in surprise as he frantically tried to determine where the figure and the sphere of ki had gone. With growing apprehension, Cooler realized that neither of them were to be found anywhere within the vicinity of the planet, or anywhere else he could sense for that matter. He couldn't believe it. Someone like the mysterious warrior hiding their own energy from his senses, that he understood, but there was no way that a manifestation of ki like the Supernova could be hidden from detection. And yet, at the same time, he couldn't dispute the fact that the Supernova was gone...at least for a few seconds.
Cooler sensed the reappearance of the Supernova and the figure before he heard their arrival, accompanied by a high-pitched whine of some sort as they both suddenly came back into existence. Not far from where he was currently floating above Goku and King Cold's bodies, hovering at around the same height, Cooler could feel the figure directing a powerful ki blast in his direction, one which immediately impacted the Supernova and sent it flying towards him. He was only barely able to turn towards the sphere, attempting to halt it in its tracks with his one good hand. Unfortunately, the added kick of the ki blast accelerating the Supernova forward proved to be too much for Cooler, and he was sent flying away from the planet with a scream of absolute fury and pain.
As Cooler flew into space, the figure simply grunted, their hair and aura remaining a piercing golden yellow. The mask they wore altered their voice such that the grunt came out sounding much deeper and distorted than it actually was. Without missing a beat, they vanished once more, reappearing with that same high-pitched whine right next to Goku's unconscious body. They hovered over him for a moment, sensing his ki and knowing that he didn't have much time left. At the same time, something else caught their attention: King Cold wasn't dead yet, either. In fact, his ki seemed to be steadily growing in intensity, at a rate so imperceptible that the masked warrior doubted Cooler had noticed it in the heat of the moment. They certainly hadn't until now.
They grunted again. They would deal with the king later. For now, they had a Saiyan to save, which they set about accomplishing with the expediency of a person on a mission. Without hesitation, they reached for Goku's mouth and forced it open, while the other hand was busy retrieving what looked like an ordinary bottle for liquid medicine. Goku moaned softly as he continued to weaken, his mysterious affliction taking its toll on his body. The rough method of treatment certainly didn't help. In any event, the figure used a small kiai to pop open the bottle and shoved the contents into Goku's mouth, forcing him to swallow them all in spite of the Saiyan warrior's unconscious protests. The figure then let go of Goku and examined him again, letting out a small grunt of satisfaction as the Saiyan's vitals appeared to stabilize. He was still weak, and the figure knew that even with the medicine, he'd be in a coma for days to come as he tried to recover. The figure idly wondered if Goku would get a Zenkai boost from such an ordeal, and chuckled to themselves. If he did, no doubt it would be enough to render the Saiyan warrior stronger than them once more. Such was their luck, they supposed.
The masked warrior looked down at Goku, unconscious and vulnerable as the optimistic fighter was. He had been beaten half to death, as per usual, and in his state he could be killed instantly by a standard Cooler Force laser pistol. But...he was alive. For them, that was all that mattered. All the work to get here had been worth it. Although, all the same, they couldn't help but chuckle at the bizarre situation.
"Who would have thought I'd be saving your life, eh, Kakarot?" Vegeta asked, smirking a little underneath the mask which distorted his voice beyond recognition.
With the matter of Goku's demise settled for the moment, Vegeta took a deep breath before placing two fingers to his forehead. It had been difficult to get the technique to work before, especially with the Supernova in tow, but he'd practiced transmitting without the usual gesture enough to manage a momentary hop to Planet Chilled and back, even with such unusual cargo alongside him. Still, it always helped to have a clear focus established before transmitting. He still remembered the time he got part of his shoulder stuck in that rock face. The experience had given him a slight Zenkai boost, but that was hardly worth the agony of un-dislocating his shoulder.
After a moment of focus, he eventually found what he was looking for: the ki signature of a certain half-Saiyan child. A child who, thankfully, was both familiar to the former prince and absurdly powerful enough to allow him to lock on to the boy even from this extreme range. Without a word, Vegeta placed a hand on Goku's leg with just enough pressure to establish a connection. With one more high-pitched whine, the two Super Saiyans vanished from the frozen planet, on course for Earth.
"Gohan! Dinner!"
Chi Chi's voice rang clearly from the front door of the Son family residence, all the way to the oak tree Gohan was currently sitting under as he read one of the books his mother had assigned for his homework. Upon hearing her call out to him, he mulled over the reading he had left for a second before replying.
"I'll be there in a minute!" he called out, before proceeding to rapidly read through the last few pages he had to complete. As soon as he had done so, he picked up his bookmark with his tail and set it carefully into the book so he could pick up where he left off tomorrow. With that, he was just about ready to fly rapidly towards the front door when he suddenly heard a high pitched whine, and recoiled in shock as someone familiar suddenly appeared in midair. As the figure hit the ground, Gohan could have sworn he sensed a second person slightly above the first, with a ki signature that felt oddly familiar in and of itself. However, it had only appeared for an instant, and at the moment, there was something far more important that needed to be addressed.
"Dad?!" he exclaimed in panic and disbelief, but there his father was, lying on the ground and incredibly weak. Without hesitation, Gohan moved towards his father and picked him up as gently as he could before taking off towards the house, calling for his mother. Chi Chi herself remained standing in the doorway until Gohan arrived, flying into the house faster than she could see and setting someone down onto the couch. She quickly moved to investigate.
"Gohan? What are you doi-oh my God!" Chi Chi cried out, immediately dropping everything and rushing to her husband's side, checking to see whether he was suffering from anything serious. "Gohan, what happened?! How-?!"
"I don't know! I was just reading and he suddenly teleported right in front of me!"
Chi Chi glanced towards her son, and she could tell that he was panicking. She had to get a handle on the situation fast.
"Okay, Gohan, the first thing I need you to do is-"
Before she could finish her thought, Piccolo flew in with slight traces of panic on his face, followed by Tien, Chiaotzu, and Blonde Launch, who ran in carrying her trusty minigun.
"I felt Gohan's energy spike, what's...oh, my," Piccolo said, his panic subsiding somewhat as both he and Tien looked down at Goku, while Chiaotzu and Blonde Launch stood nearby. "What's going on?"
Chi Chi took a breath, still trying to stay on top of things. "Well-"
Before she could finish her thought, everyone in the room heard something outside, as if someone had just stumbled into a bush. A string of unintelligible words followed, words which had clearly been uttered by Dende in a moment of extreme frustration. Piccolo couldn't help but smirk slightly, while Kami gasped inside his mind.
"My, where would a child like Dende have heard that?" he asked, to which Piccolo could only bark out a laugh as Dende suddenly appeared in front of him, looking rather displeased. A few stray twigs had gotten caught in his robes, which he blew away with a small kiai as he looked around. His eyes widened as he saw Goku's unconscious body, and he rushed towards the Saiyan before placing a hand on him, the telltale orange glow washing over Goku as his injuries were repaired. After about twenty seconds, Dende lifted his hand with a relieved sigh, satisfied that Goku's condition had improved.
"Well, he didn't appear to be in particularly serious danger, but all the same, it's a good thing I managed to get here so quickly," he said, to which the group nodded, likewise relieved that Goku seemed better off than he was before. Chi Chi, in particular, leaned in further, positioning herself close to Goku's face.
"Goku? Are you feeling better?" she asked, waiting for her husband to stir. As the seconds passed with no reaction on his part, she and the others began to grow worried once more.
"Something's wrong," Tien said, to which Piccolo and Chiaotzu nodded in agreement. Gohan, meanwhile, moved next to his mother.
"Dad? Dad, are you there?" he asked, starting to panic again. This time, Chi Chi wasn't able to stop herself from succumbing to the same feelings of apprehension.
"Honey? The fight's over. Y-you're safe now," she said, her voice becoming strained as all she heard in response was Goku's light, yet steady breathing.
"Uh, green bean? I thought you healed him already?" Launch asked, causing Dende to grumble slightly in annoyance at Launch's nickname.
"I did. I...I'm sensing something unusual, though. I better take a closer look." His face assumed a look of intense concentration as he laid his hand on Goku again, this time examining his general health and prompting those around him to move a little closer to him.
"Hm...this is rather odd," Dende remarked aloud after a moment, which only confused the others more. "Just so I know, how exactly did Goku get here?"
Gohan spoke up, somewhat nervously. "W-well, I was reading outside, and all of a sudden he appeared right in front of me. I...I think someone may have brought him here themselves, but they vanished before I could figure out who they were or what their power level was. I was mostly focused on dad anyhow; his ki was really weak."
Dende nodded. "Strange. It sounds very similar to my own Instantaneous Movement technique. Did you all sense a second person in the area as well?
Chiaotzu, Tien, and Piccolo all mulled over the question for a moment before slowly nodding.
"Now that you mention it, I think so," Chiaotzu said. "They were only there for a fraction of a second. It was like a flicker, almost, only, like, super intense."
Tien nodded. "Me and Piccolo were training as per usual, so I think it only clicked for us on the way here." Piccolo simply grunted, seemingly confirming Tien's assertion. "And, now that I think about it...their ki felt like something I've sensed before, but I can't quite figure out anything beyond that."
"It felt like that for me too!" Gohan chimed in. "It was...kinda freaky, to be honest."
Dende simply nodded. "Well, in any event, we can dwell on that mystery later. For now, I've noticed something rather...peculiar, regarding Goku's health at the moment. I'm afraid it brings up more questions than it answers."
"What's going on?" Tien asked, prompting Dende to explain.
"From what I can tell, Goku appears to have been suffering from some kind of virus, one which was primarily affecting his cardiovascular system and causing him to experience immense fatigue."
The group collectively drew a tense breath, with the exception of Piccolo and Gohan, who both looked around at them confused.
"C-can you tell what virus it was, specifically?" Chi Chi asked, every part of her expression betraying her immense worry. Dende murmured to himself.
"I'm afraid my senses are not that specific. Why, is there something specific which you're worried he contracted recently?"
Both Chi Chi and Launch nodded, with Launch taking the initiative. "There's this new virus that's been cropping up recently, which causes symptoms just like that. Can't quite remember the name, but Bulma was telling me about it; how Capsule Corp is working on a cure. For now, though, you get this thing, and you're a goner." Chi Chi and Gohan both became noticeably more apprehensive, while Dende and the others nodded slowly, taking it in.
"I-it's rather picky, from what I've read," Chi Chi said, somewhat frantically. "Experts think it only seriously affects people with a certain blood type. I-I didn't even think it would affect an alien like Goku, but..." Chi Chi chose not to finish her sentence, placing a hand over her mouth as she mulled over the circumstances, while Gohan moved to comfort her. Dende murmured to himself until Tien spoke up.
"Is Goku going to be alright?" he asked, to which Dende nodded.
"Yes. Somehow, it would seem that a cure is exactly what Goku's been given." The group let out murmurs of confusion and surprise before Dende continued. "From what I can sense through my abilities, although the virus is still very much present in his system, it's being fought off by some kind of antiviral drug, suspended in a liquid solution that he recently ingested. By all appearances, although he'll likely be unconscious for a while...he's going to make a full recovery." The murmurs of confusion only intensified once Dende said that.
"I-I don't understand. How is that possible? Gohan asked, to which Chiaotzu raised a finger in response.
"Maybe he got some kind of alien treatment somehow?" he suggested. Tien murmured to himself, contemplating the issue.
"Perhaps, but it seems rather unlikely that there would be an alien cure for a virus that originated on Earth."
"Especially if that virus is one that has only recently emerged," Piccolo added. "From what I understand, if it is an antiviral drug as Dende said, it was likely designed to eradicate one virus and one virus alone."
"And Bulma said they're years away from having anything workable," Launch finished. "It doesn't make any damn sense."
"Nothing about this situation makes sense!" Chi Chi said, still suffering from residual panic. "I-I don't even know where Goku could have gotten something like this!"
The others mulled over this for a while before Tien spoke up.
"Well, he was in the hospital for quite some time. It's possible he contracted it there."
Launch nodded slowly. "Yeah, that makes sense. Plus, Bulma was saying this thing takes a while to really kick in."
"Well, in any event, the symptoms appear to be in remission now," Dende said. "His breathing is still slightly irregular, and everything else I can piece together would seem to suggest that he's recently experienced a severe case of cardiac arrest. He also appears to have narrowly avoided hypothermia, but I believe that's unrelated." Dende took a deep breath as he lifted up his hand once more. "I said this once before, but: it's a miracle he's not dead."
The group fell silent for a moment, thinking over the situation themselves before turning to look at each other.
"So," Gohan began, "we're dealing with a mysterious person who somehow teleported dad to exactly where I was sitting."
"A person whose ki felt familiar, although we can't figure out who they might have been or why they might have brought Goku here," Chiaotzu continued.
"And apparently, Goku almost died from a heart virus, one that came from Earth," Piccolo said.
"One that both has a cure, sitting in his body...and one that likely won't have a cure until years from now," Tien finished. All of them considered the situation at hand, before Dende eventually sighed, likewise immensely puzzled by what he had observed.
"Like I said...more questions than answers."
Everything hurt.
While Vegeta departed, Cooler could still feel the Supernova burning and melting away every part of his body it could reach. His armored exterior was slowly but surely cracking apart under the heat and pressure, and he could easily tell that his exposed skin was faring even worse. He struggled with all of his strength to push against the sphere, but it was becoming scarily apparent that this effort wasn't meeting with much success. With a silent scream of desperation, he continued pushing against the sphere while making use of one of the many techniques he had developed during his decades of training. A small point of purple ki formed at the very tip of his outstretched tail, growing in intensity before it finally burst into a beam of ki that propelled Cooler away from the Supernova. After a few tense seconds of continued exposure to the attack, Cooler's improvised escape plan succeeded, and the emperor managed to fly clear of the sphere as it continued flying off into space.
Cooler floated there silently, doing his best to compose himself after coming so close to death, with both his natural armor and his energy reserves a shadow of what they had been even just a moment ago. His broken arm, which had merely bothered him before, had grown even worse under the strain of the attack, and seemed to have suffered the most damage. Even with Frost Demons' extraordinary recuperative powers, Cooler knew it would take weeks for his arm to heal, and that scars would remain no matter what he tried to do. His other fist shook with his anger, and on instinct, Cooler screamed into the empty void, not caring that he nor anyone else would be able to hear it.
"Curse that Saiyan! Where the hell did they come from?! How are they so powerful?! And how could they redirect my own attack like that?! Nothing about them makes any damn sense!" Cooler looked around frantically, not sensing the Saiyan anywhere, but nevertheless unsure about counting out their presence in the area. He growled angrily. "Do they not know who I am? I am Emperor Cooler, the rightful heir and ruler of the empire! I didn't waste decades of my life with nothing but that three-eyed fool for company, didn't defeat both my own father and the man who killed my brother in combat, just so I could be killed by some random Saiyan that no one's ever even-!"
Before Cooler could finish his rant, the very subject of his ravings suddenly appeared right in front of him, the mask completely hiding the warrior's face from Cooler's view. After a split second of hesitation, Cooler leveled a punch at the golden-haired Saiyan warrior with all the strength he could muster, only for the Saiyan to catch it easily. Before Cooler could do anything else, the Saiyan's other hand flew towards Cooler's chest faster than the tyrant could track...and pierced directly through his heart.
As the Saiyan flew backwards in order to gain some distance, Cooler's eyes widened, his strength rapidly ebbing away. Had he been uninjured before this, he could have handled even the loss of his heart for some time. However, as it stood, on top of all of the other injuries he had sustained, although he wasn't close to the grave at present, Cooler knew at this moment that he had lost the battle. His attacker had struck with a dispassionate mercilessness that he hadn't observed in Goku. As his vision began to blur, Cooler looked into the masked Saiyan's eyes as best he could, eyes which, from what little he could see, held no fury within them. This person was here to kill him. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Who are you?" he asked telepathically. The masked figure looked at him for a few seconds before responding.
"Vegeta, prince of all Saiyans." The older prince heard a chuckle in his mind.
"Is that so? How ironic. We both had our thrones taken by Frieza, and now...you will kill me, and my throne will be taken a second time."
"I'm not going to take your throne," Vegeta replied firmly, so much so that he surprised the Frost Demon. However, he wasn't quite convinced.
"Why not? After all, it's not like you have the throne you were promised anymore. Your subjects are all but extinct. Your planet is nothing but a field of debris floating in space. And, from what I know of you, no one, Saiyan or otherwise, would willingly choose to be your consort," Cooler said, another bemused chuckle floating through Vegeta's head. "I am about to die, and yet I still have far more to lose than you do."
"If you're hoping to distract me enough to pull off some surprise maneuver, it's not going to work," Vegeta countered, seemingly unaffected by Cooler's words. Cooler chuckled once again.
"Ah, I expected as much. Besides, there's nothing that I could do to ensure your death. Not so long as you keep appearing and disappearing like that."
Vegeta curtly nodded. "Very well." He gathered ki around the immediate vicinity of Cooler as he prepared to finish the tyrant off with a flick of his wrist. "Any final words?"
Cooler pondered the question for a moment before he sensed something unusual coming from the planet his father had chosen for their ambush. It was his father's ki signature, no doubt about that, but it appeared to be rising, above the maximum that he had observed when training with the elder Frost Demon. Either he had held back for some reason, or, more specifically…
Cooler smiled. His father may well have accomplished the same feat that he had. And if his guess was right...that accomplishment would be just as, if not more powerful than Vegeta could ever hope to match. A quick glance at the Saiyan prince showed that he had sensed it, too, with his eyes giving away the merest glance away from Cooler and towards the planet. It would only delay his reaction time by a second or so, but, Cooler reasoned, it would be enough.
"Better the demon I know than the Saiyan I don't," Cooler said, before rapidly charging up ki all throughout his body. Of all the techniques he had learned from Jamba or developed during training, this was the one that had always made the least sense to him. He could understand how Jamba would find it useful, even if his copies rarely managed to successfully pull it off. For someone like Cooler, however, such a technique couldn't possibly be of worth, unless he found himself in a situation like this. One where he was inevitably going to be killed anyway.
In such a scenario...one may as well go out with a bang.
The purple ki exploded from Cooler's body in all directions just before Vegeta moved to finish Cooler off. He tried to put his fingers to his forehead in order to escape, but was unable to get away before the blast hit him. Fortunately, he was able to maneuver himself just so that his mask remained mostly intact following the impact. His skin and portions of his armor were less fortunate, enduring some minor damage and cuts as he was sent flying backwards. He managed to take stock of his situation; the emperor hadn't been able to kill Vegeta, but he had definitely left him weakened. He glanced at what little remained of Cooler's body; small scraps of natural armor and traces of purple blood. Vegeta thought about vaporizing them, but decided against it as he felt the distant ki signature reaching a crescendo, instead bringing his fingers to his forehead once more.
There were more pressing matters to deal with.
At that moment, a hulking, dark purple figure stood amidst a barren field, any unique features of the landscape vaporized under an explosive wave of ki that had spread out in every direction for miles. A spiked dome fitted over the figue's elongated skull, while the figure's shoulders and chest were covered by pieces of natural armor with pitch black gems at their center. The figure seemed to lack a true nose, instead possessing a kind of beak, and the figure's hands and feet appeared sharp and animalistic. Most interestingly, the figure had a tail, one lifted up a foot off the ground and which ended in a sharp, black spike. The figure hunched over slightly, looking around the area as a hunter would stalk their prey.
"Well," King Cold said, speaking in a harsh, raspy voice, "Where has that masked stranger I glimpsed earlier disappeared to, hm?"
As if on cue, Vegeta teleported behind King Cold, having powered up to the absolute maximum he could manage with his injuries. Without a word, the Saiyan prince attempted to karate chop the back of King Cold's head, hoping to pierce directly through his skull and end the fight quickly. Unfortunately, King Cold was able to just barely react in time, turning around and blocking the blow as best he could. A sickening cracking sound could be heard as Vegeta's hand instead bit into King Cold's cranial dome, chipping pieces of it away and causing a slight trickle of blood to pour down King Cold's face from the top of his covered head. The tyrant smirked as he held Vegeta's hand in a vice grip between both of his own, slowly but surely crushing it.
"Ah. So close...and yet so far," King Cold taunted before tightening his grip and using it to toss the Saiyan overhead, sending him flying into the ground. When Vegeta got up, he did his best to shake off the pain in his hand, staring down the monstrous tyrant with a defiant expression hidden beneath his mask.
"I killed Cooler. I can kill you as well," he said simply, without much trace of emotion. King Cold sneered.
"I would like to see you try," he replied, before flying towards his opponent and attempting to land a powerful blow. Vegeta managed to use Instant Transmission to dodge the attack and attempted to counter, but found his own attack blocked. This pattern continued for several minutes, with both combatants soon taking off into the sky in an effort to outmaneuver each other. Eventually, after one final exchange, Vegeta managed to get the jump on King Cold and send him crashing into the ground with a mighty kick. The king casually floated out of the resulting crater, blowing off the dust with a kiai just as Vegeta came soaring down after him. King Cold moved to meet this challenge, only to see the prince vanish before his eyes, then reappear right next to his face.
"Solar Flare!" Vegeta cried out, catching King Cold off guard as the blinding light seemed to emanate from Vegeta's outstretched fingertips. The king screwed his eyes shut and tried to keep up his guard as Vegeta went on the offensive. For every blow that King Cold blocked in his present state, Vegeta managed to get in another, leaving the king's armor cracked and damaged in several places under the force of his blows. However, just as he was about to fire off a ki blast at point blank range, King Cold was able to grab Vegeta and ram the prince's face into his knee, breaking the warrior's mask into pieces. Vegeta quickly used Instant Transmission to evade any attempt at continuing the assault, reappearing slightly further away from King Cold. The king's eyes widened in surprise before settling down.
"Ah. Prince Vegeta. I suppose even after four months of blissful silence, it was too much to hope that you had died on Namek." Internally, a small part of him wondered if he should've asked Zuno about Vegeta while he had the chance, but he brushed that thought aside. "And you've achieved this 'Super Saiyan' form, no less! Rather impressive...although, it would seem you're somewhat worse for wear." Vegeta made no comment, simply staring the king down. "Of course, I'm hardly in peak condition myself, but...it would appear that our respective injuries have made us evenly matched under the present circumstances."
Vegeta smirked. "Is that what you believe?"
"Oh, yes, if the last few minutes were any indication. And, what's more...I am certain that, no matter how long this battle takes, I will triumph in this contest. My resilience and endurance far exceed yours; even if you manage to overpower me or evade my attacks with your teleportation technique, you cannot hope to outlast me in the long term, or to be able to deal enough damage to kill me before I kill you. If you had remained uninjured, perhaps you could have pulled off some stunning upset. But as it stands, you will either be forced to flee, and pray that I never find you...or you will die," King Cold finished. "And once this battle is over, I will be able to take back my throne."
"Hm," Vegeta muttered in response. "Not an entirely incorrect analysis. However...you are unaware of one thing."
At this, King Cold laughed. "And what would that be, monkey prince?"
"Teleportation isn't the only technique I've learned," he said, before his body became enveloped by a field of white ki, a field which proceeded to split into several fields of equal size to Vegeta's right and left. As Vegeta stood where he had been, the fields spread out away from his position, while still staying relatively close to him. The fields then began to dissipate, revealing four identical copies of Vegeta staring back at King Cold's disbelieving eyes. Before the king could react, Vegeta and the four copies all used Instant Transmission, vanishing from sight and leaving King Cold wary.
"Agh! What the-?" The king growled as he glanced around the area. "Some kind of duplication technique, eh? Fool. Every duplication technique I've encountered has some kind of drawback to it. I just need to find out what it is, and then I'll-!"
Suddenly, one of the Vegetas appeared behind King Cold, looking to land an attack from behind. King Cold moved to intercept with a punch, one which Vegeta managed to block before a second Vegeta appeared to kick King Cold in the leg. Caught by surprise at the strength behind the attack, the king lurched slightly, and attempted to beat back his assailant with his tail. No sooner had the second Vegeta managed to teleport away than a third Vegeta appeared to kick the king upside the head, leaving him dazed. He tried to fire off a ki blast at the third Vegeta, only to catch a two-pronged assault from the remaining two Vegetas, teleporting in from behind. Capping off this combination, the first Vegeta rushed forward as King Cold tried to pick a target and sent the tyrant flying into the air with a powerful upward swing.
Once in the air, King Cold attempted to stop himself, but found himself menaced by the Vegetas once more. One by one, each of them teleported where he didn't expect them to be, and kicked or punched him towards a new direction. Just as four out of five of them had gotten their turn in, King Cold looked up and saw an unusual sight: Vegeta, floating above him and appearing to somehow grow larger as he became enveloped in white light once again. As King Cold flew towards him due to the Vegeta copies' attacks, Vegeta finished his apparent transformation and rushed to meet the king, managing to tackle him and dive towards the ground with him along for the ride. Despite King Cold's best efforts, he couldn't pry himself from the enlarged Vegeta's grip in time, and as he became enveloped in Vegeta's purple ki, he knew that this was about to hurt a lot.
The purple missile crashed into the ground, creating a massive explosion, and King Cold was left dazed at the bottom of a crater as Vegeta reverted to normal size, letting out a sharp breath from exhaustion. The prince knew that he couldn't keep this up, and that he had to win the fight fast. He decided to have all of his clones reappear next to him, and charged up a ki blast along with each of them. No sooner had they all readied themselves to fire when King Cold lifted his finger, sending a beam of ki from it which pierced through the forehead of the clone on the far right. With a shocked expression on his face, the clone remained solid for only a second before reverting to pure ki and dispersing throughout the area. The others grimaced as King Cold laughed, evidently having deduced the clones' weakness.
"Ah...there it is," he said in a mocking voice. The Vegetas attempted to shake off their brief hesitation and fire, but King Cold managed to capitalize on their shock and flew upwards, avoiding the ki blast. The clones teleported away, while Vegeta remained, having come up with a new plan while King Cold continued talking. "And a good thing, too; I was starting to actually worry for a moment there. But alas, this changes little. I'm certain that creating such powerful duplicates must have taken quite a toll on you, which means that I will win this battle of attrition, as I had originally predicted. It is only a matter of time before I slaughter every one of your duplicates and leave you weak and beaten in the snow. A feeble monkey prince meddling in the affairs of beings far above his station, trying to avenge his place in the animalistic hierarchy of a primitive world and hope to gain some semblance of satisfaction from-"
"Oh my lord, do any of you ever stop talking?!" Vegeta interrupted angrily before teleporting away and reappearing behind King Cold. As King Cold attempted to punch the Saiyan prince, Vegeta once again grew to gigantic size and tackled King Cold to the ground. In the struggle that ensued, although the king's horns managed to nick the side of Vegeta's head, he was able to restrain King Cold quite successfully, leaving the king struggling to free himself as Vegeta's enlarged form began to crush him. With effort, the king attempted to hit Vegeta with the back of his own head several times, but the Saiyan prince tilted his head enough to avoid the worst of the king's attacks. Marred with several cuts and bruises, including an especially nasty cut just above his right eye, Vegeta nonetheless held firm as King Cold continued to struggle, looking straight ahead in anticipation of the next stage of his plan.
"Galick Gun..."
As King Cold rammed into Vegeta with his horns yet again, he heard the sound of Vegeta's voice coming from three different directions, and looked around to see that each of the clones had arrived on the scene once more. Their hands were all cupped in the same gesture, forming three identical purple spheres of ki between them and orienting themselves towards King Cold's position. King Cold's eyes widened as he considered what Vegeta was planning to do.
"You fool! Do you intend to take yourself down with me?!"
Vegeta grunted as King Cold strained harder against his grip. "If push comes to shove," he replied through gritted teeth, borrowing an Earth expression he had learned once. The three Galick Guns continued charging as King Cold kept trying to do everything in his power to escape. Vegeta managed to keep him in place, but as he felt his hold on his own gigantification fading, he knew he couldn't hold the tyrant forever. Fortunately, however, he didn't have to.
"FIRE!"
Three massive beams of purple ki shot forth from the clones, coming at King Cold from both the front and the sides. King Cold finally managed to damage Vegeta enough to knock him out of his enlarged state and back to his normal form, but his escape came too late, and the three beams intersected just as Vegeta managed to teleport away.
King Cold yelled in pain and fury as he attempted to hold back all three of the beams, but he had learned by now that the Vegeta clones were somehow just as strong as the original, a benefit counteracted by their extreme frailty. As such, he could feel his energy reserves falling apart in the face of the combined attacks. Making matters worse, as he tried to slowly back away from where he had stood, a fourth purple beam slammed into his back as Vegeta made sure that the king was trapped. After almost a minute of agonizing pain, King Cold's strength gave out, and he could feel the beams chipping away at his armor and skin. With one last scream, King Cold fought until the bitter end before being vaporized by the combined power of Vegeta's attacks.
When the dust and snow kicked up by the resulting explosion of ki finally cleared, there was nothing left of King Cold, or any of Vegeta's clones. The Saiyan prince immediately fell out of the Super Saiyan state as he collapsed to one knee, gasping for breath. Keeping those clones at peak performance for as long as he had had taken a great deal out of him, and if that last attack hadn't been successful...Vegeta tried not to dwell on that. What was important was that this part of the mission was done. Things would only get harder from here.
He thought about finding some way of healing himself before his next objective. He wasn't quite sure what to expect from them, after all. If a fight broke out, he doubted he could win. Of course, that could also work in his favor, considering that he wouldn't present as much of a threat. But, then again, they might just decide to beat him into the ground instead of hearing him out. Vegeta sighed. There just wasn't enough time, he reasoned. They need to learn of the situation as soon as possible and mount a response immediately. Otherwise, they may lose their chance to act. If that meant risking his own safety, then so be it. One way or another, he would complete his task. He had promised as much to the person who sent him on it.
And he'd never break a promise he made to her.
Dende stood just outside of the Son family home, nodding along as he carried on a telepathic conversation. Just as he was finishing up, he heard Blonde Launch, Gohan, Tien, Chiaotzu, and Piccolo walk through the door one by one, talking in a somewhat hushed tone about recent events. With one final nod, Dende turned to the group in order to relay what he had been told.
"I've been speaking with Grand Elder Tsuno and the other elders," he explained to them. "The Namekian Dragon Balls are on standby to revive Krillin and Roshi, but the elders are unsure what to do with the third wish. Bulma had an idea she shared with them some time ago, but given the current situation, all of them are wondering if perhaps another wish would be more prudent." He paused for a couple seconds, allowing everyone to process what he had just said. "Thoughts?" he asked, looking at the group expectantly. After a couple seconds, Gohan spoke up.
"What wish would Miss Bulma have made originally?" he asked. Dende nodded thoughtfully.
"From what Grand Elder Tsuno tells me, she had been planning to ask Porunga to erase all knowledge of both Earth and Namek's Dragon Balls from anyone who isn't from those two planets." This brought on a number of appreciative murmurs, but Piccolo, however, remained skeptical.
"Altering the memories of so many people all throughout the universe...I would consider it far too tall an order for my Dragon Balls, nevermind the Namekian set," Kami mused within Piccolo's mind, while the stoic Namekian simply nodded.
"Agreed," he thought before speaking up. "Even assuming that such a wish would be possible, which I have reason to doubt, it may be more helpful to use the last wish to restore Goku's health. He knows more about what happened to him than any of us do. At the moment, he's our best source of information regarding any of this."
Tien and Dende both nodded in agreement, but before anything more could be said, fate intervened, and Vegeta spontaneously appeared mere meters away from where Gohan was standing.
The group collectively paused as what appeared to be the Saiyan prince, dressed in a battered suit of Saiyan armor similar to the one he had worn the last time he had set foot on Earth, suddenly came into existence. In the brief second or two that it took to process his presence, those capable of sensing ki could tell that Vegeta's ki signature was identical to the one they had only briefly sensed earlier. Between his sudden appearance and that ki signature, there could be no doubt that Vegeta was the one who had brought Goku to Earth, from wherever he had come from. And now, he was here, looking heavily injured but still capable enough of putting up a fight. In that moment of initial shock, all the group could do was recoil backwards and stare wide-eyed at Vegeta, who regarded them with an expression of...politeness.
"Greetings," he said cordially.
The next moment, the group prepared for battle immediately.
Gohan powered up fully in an instant, managing not to send anyone sprawling backwards in the process, and adjusted his position such that he stood in between Vegeta and the front door of the house. Tien and Piccolo both shifted into a combat stance as they powered up to their full base strength. Chiaotzu, although not nearly as powerful as the others, floated nearby, ready to lend his assistance as he spread out his palms and activated his telekinetic powers. Launch, having nothing better to do, took out her gun and aimed it right in between Vegeta's eyes. Dende stood nearby, ready to provide any healing required by the others and already telepathically warning anyone he could reach. Piccolo ended up making the first move.
"You have one chance to explain your presence here before I kill you," he said, his resolve evident. "I suggest you make it quick."
Vegeta, for his part, simply held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture, while glancing at Launch with amusement. He let out a light chuckle.
"I must say, Launch, I admire your bravery. Surely you should know that that weapon won't do anything to me," he said, almost as if he was chiding an old friend for a careless mistake. Launch's eyes widened ever so slightly, and she did her best not to show her growing concern.
"How the hell do you know my name, pint-size?" she asked, jutting the gun out slightly further towards Vegeta's face. The others around her paused, likewise confused by this development.
"Has he ever heard her name?" Dende asked the other warriors telepathically.
"Not from either of us," Chiaotzu answered on Tien's behalf, gesturing towards the stunned triclops standing to his left.
"...There would have been no reason to mention her name aloud," Piccolo replied.
"We've met," Vegeta explained simply. "For me, it was several years ago. For you, it would've been almost two decades from now...if not for this, at any rate."
Launch took a quick breath, trying to steady herself. "Buddy, you better start making sense before I go ahead and plug your eyeballs full of lead," she threatened, although Vegeta could easily detect the apprehension in her voice.
"I would admittedly like to see you try," he said. "It would be rather nostalgic, at least for me."
"You haven't explained anything, you monster," Tien cut in angrily, his veins beginning to bulge slightly as he prepared to enter Max Power.
"Not particularly, no, but because of that I'd say I've managed to successfully keep you all from beating me half to death," Vegeta responded.
"That can still be arranged," Piccolo retorted. "Or have you forgotten the 'lower creature' who killed your servant?" He nodded towards Tien, who returned the nod with a small grunt of recognition. Vegeta, meanwhile, looked at the two of them with surprise for a second.
"Huh. I did call you that, didn't I?" he asked Tien, who looked back at him with confusion. "I suppose now I finally have the chance to apologize for that comment, along with everything else I did to you all." Tien's look of confusion only grew deeper, until it was eventually cancelled out with a look of stark disbelief.
"Okay, you better tell us who the hell you are right now, because you are definitely not Vegeta," he said, taking a step closer to the Saiyan prince along with everyone else. Vegeta seemed legitimately confused for the first time since he had shown up.
"I'm sorry?"
"Perhaps he is an alien shapeshifter of some kind," Piccolo mused.
"But his ki feels like it did back when I sensed Vegeta last. Wouldn't his ki feel different if he were somebody else?" Gohan asked.
"Maybe he can mimic ki signatures as well as physical appearance, I'm not sure," Piccolo replied.
"He might be possessed by something," Chiaotzu suggested.
"Huh. Like some kinda alien parasite?" Launch asked.
"Or with some alien technology," Tien pondered.
"Or by someone else using some strange ki technique," Dende added.
"But why-?"
"Enough, you fools!" Vegeta cut in, growing somewhat cross himself. As everyone had remained in their combat-ready stances, their guards were quickly brought back up, and they prepared for the Saiyan prince to attack. Instead, however, he simply sighed, preferring to stay focused on the mission. "I am Prince Vegeta the IV, rightful ruler of the Saiyan race, formerly 'Lord Vegeta' of the Frieza Force and everything else you know me as. I am merely...a different Vegeta than the one you've encountered before." When the group remained silent for a couple seconds, Vegeta decided to press on his advantage. "The reason I came here was to prevent Kakarot's death, which I have just done. In the timeline I come from, he died twenty one years ago of natural causes during his battle with Frieza's family, preventing him from being revived."
"'The timeline you come from...'" Gohan thought over for a moment, thinking back to everything else that Vegeta had said. "Wait a second, are you saying-?"
"Yes," Vegeta replied simply. "I'm from the future."
Hey, everyone. Quick author's note for now: I'm writing this at about 2:30 am the day of upload and I need sleep. But anyway, yeah! With this chapter, the Frost Demon Saga is finally complete! I hope that you've enjoyed it.
I gotta admit, I haven't felt too great about this arc as a whole. I've already talked about the stress involved in producing it, but more than that, as an arc it just feels...off. Kinda haphazard. I flew by the seat of my pants on some of what made up this arc, given the stuff I alluded to in the last update and just generally struggling to keep up with deadlines, and I worry that that shows. Still, at least on the bright side, I can say that I've learned a lot of what to do and what not to do when writing an arc without any canon arcs to go off of for story beats, and I think that that knowledge will ultimately improve this story in the long run. In any case, we're going back to doing my own take on canon storylines for the next few arcs. Starting us off will be the History of Vegeta, a short mini-arc designed to get across Future Vegeta's backstory and fully establish the situation he's trying to fix in the present. I'll work on it, to be sure, but I hope you guys understand that it probably won't come out for a while; I really need to take a break from writing this fic.
Power levels and review responses to come in an update sometime later today. Stay tuned, thank you all for reading, have a fantastic day, and take care! See you next time!
And we're back! Wow, we got a lot of reviews to cover between chapter 34, the brief update, and now part of chapter 35, but thank you all for being patient.
mastercheif1229 says: "Great chapter! I can't wait for the next one! 12:33 AM this time!" That's...better. And thank you!
Warga says: "Don't kill mister Cooler, he's so much cooler than his family!"
Well, he was definitely Cooler than Frieza, that's for sure. (I had to, I had to make that pun xD) Also...I'm gonna be honest, I thought about some way for him to survive again, but having him come back in later felt like it would be kinda forced. It's definitely a tragic end for him, though-all that work, finally having control of the empire for a couple months, and then bam. Killed by the guy your brother was too careless to properly finish off. That's gotta sting.
Thomas-The-TMC says: "Enter, Vegeta...wait till you get a load of this cartoon character." Indeed. And props for the TFS reference, lol.
GojiRanger says: "Vegeta... Well, can't say I was expecting that, but I'm interested in seeing where that particular plot threads going to go. Anyway, great chapter with good tension and action."
Thanks! And yeah, this was a change I'd had in the back of my head for a while. Initially, I was thinking of having Future Trunks show up like in canon, but the more I thought about it and the direction that the Frieza Saga had taken, I just...couldn't make a lot of that arc make sense here. I figured most of the cast wouldn't hesitate to kill Vegeta if he showed up, and like, maybe Goku could be motivated to spare his life so he'd always have someone to fight, but that felt kinda hokey, to be honest. It also seemed to not make much sense for Vegeta to stick around long enough to sleep with Bulma, or even to sleep with Bulma in the first place; he didn't die on Namek, so he missed out on some of that development he got. And without Trunks, Future Trunks can't exist, which means the whole arc changes.
I wasn't sure what to do with that, and I had some ideas. I thought about Future Gohan, I thought about a future kid of one of the couples, like Launch and Tien's kid, and...then came Vegeta. Vegeta's an interesting case in that so much of his development in the Cell Saga is tied to Future Trunks, so without Future Trunks being in the story, I wasn't really sure what to do with Vegeta. That's when the idea occurred to me to have Future Vegeta show up, and be so much different than present Vegeta. Future Vegeta, in essence, would be a lot of what present Vegeta could be; a Vegeta who's already changed, who's fully committed to being the best person he can be, and towards safeguarding life instead of taking it whenever possible. And the idea of present Vegeta being confronted with that was really compelling to me in a lot of ways, not to mention how the others might react to Future Vegeta; whether they can truly take him at his word that he is genuinely remorseful for what he has done. So, ultimately, although I like Future Trunks and I know a lot of people like Future Trunks, he's probably not going to be showing up for this fic's Cell Saga.
GojiRanger also says: "Don't worry about the update schedule, take your time. Also, dang this is an interesting chapter and I have a suspicion as to what's going on." Thanks! And I'm glad you think so, and hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well.
RKF22 says: "Excellent work can't wait for more." Thank you!
Amanny says: "Great chapter. So Vegeta is here, this will be interesting." Thanks! And I hope you enjoyed seeing some of what Future Vegeta has to offer.
Icwintersoldier says: "Well making a guess vegeta mustve survived the androids then came back in time to save goku and seems to have learnt a form of instant transmission." Good guesses, lol. It was admittedly sort of obvious, considering how Future Trunks showed up in canon, but still, tried to keep at least some mystery in there. That's one thing that having anyone other than Trunks come from the future kind of makes you lose, lol.
GuardianTree7 says:
"Great set of new chapters, but there's one thing I disagree with somewhat, and that's how you describe the frost demon transformations. Frieza doesn't have a fourth transformation until Super. What you call his 4th transformation is really his race's true form. So while Frieza has four forms he doesn't have four transformations until super.
Likewise King Cold also probably has a true form, but given the years of experience he has over his sons, he can likely use most of his power in his suppressed forms unlike them. So while they receive a major boost by going into their true forms, his boost could just be modest. The forms Frieza and Cooler use above their true form are the real transformations, everything before that just suppressed their power.
With all that said I do love this cold family story arc, I hope cold gets a transformation beyond his true form as well."
Yeah, that's admittedly an aspect of the Frost Demons that I was never quite sure on, and that might be something where, in retrospect, I could have done things differently. Too late to do anything about it now, but I'll keep this in mind for any other DBZ fics I write that involve the Frost Demons in some way. I'm glad you enjoyed the arc, in any event.
Anonymously96 says: "Finally a full update. Really liked how Vegeta has his moment. Wondering how and why he was received and what threat forced him to flee from the future(probably androids/cell or something even more sinister like Buu or so). Also he could not have been alive for much time in the future considering he's maybe slightly stronger than Goku is atm or even weaker when Goku heals. Looking forward to the next update."
Yeah, I wanted to make things harder for Future Vegeta here than it was for Future Trunks in the Future Trunks Saga, seeing as both of his opponents have trained up a lot in order to fight Goku. Plus, it provided a good opportunity to play around with what Future Vegeta can do. As for your questions, I can assure you that all of them will be addressed and answered to some degree in the History of Vegeta mini-arc. Stay tuned!
Alright, with all that done, on to power levels!
Future Vegeta: 350 million as a Super Saiyan at full strength. He's had some training with the form which will be elaborated on later. Later on, he drops to about 320 million due to the injuries he sustained via Cooler's powerful self-destruction technique.
Piccolo: About 1.25 million at base, after spending months sparring with Tien and Gohan, and training under the higher levels of gravity offered by the new gravity chamber. He's gotten better at Max Power and the Kaio-ken, making his potential power a lot greater.
Tien: 300,000 at base, for similar reasons. He's also learned the Kaio-ken and can go much higher with it than Piccolo can, allowing him to partially make up the difference between their power levels.
Chiaotzu: 1,500; he isn't really focusing on training as much as Tien is, but he spars occasionally.
Gohan: 12 million. He hasn't been training too strenuously, at his mother's insistence, but he's got a lot of potential, so it's easier for him to get stronger.
Dende: 75, due to further refining his new powers.
Blonde Launch: Her power level may be only 25, but her determination level is over 9,000. ;)
Cooler(self-destruction): Effectively 380 million. Would have been a lot stronger if he were at full power, but you don't really pull stunts like that when you're not about to die.
King Cold(new 3rd form): 320 million. Like Frieza's third form, King Cold's third form is double the power of his previous one. Of course, the battle has also taken its toll on the king, even if the process of transforming did serve to repair most of his injuries. As such, the form clocks in at 340 million when at peak performance.
Vegeta Clones: 320 million each; they hit just as hard as the genuine article, with the drawback that they're about as durable as paper mache.
Future Vegeta(giant): Not really much stronger than normal, but the size difference helps tilt the balance in his favor against an equally strong opponent.
Future Vegeta(post-battle): 5 million in base. Making those clones stay as strong as him for that long, not to mention growing bigger and firing off those attacks, all took a lot of energy.
Alright, with all that said, once again, thank you all for reading, have yourselves a fantastic night, and take care. Until we meet again!