43 Quid Pro Quo

"You... want me to fight you?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I want you to try." He replied.

Great. Not only is he wanting me to fight him, but he's hitting me with a cliché.

"Gimme a sec." I told him, holding up one finger before turning around and crouching down to the floor.

"Oh no, take your time." Cooler says as he looks on with a small bit of confusion, thinking that I was probably trying to think of a strategy.

I secretly summon the bag of infinite Senzu Beans and discreetly toss three in my mouth. To hell with only using one, I'm getting at least three Zenkais out of this.

I place the bag back inside the ring before standing back up and turning to face him.

I get in my stance, looking him dead in the eyes, "You better not hold back."

"Wouldn't dream of it." He replied with a smirk.

Yeah right.

If you actually went all out, I would be nothing but a stain on your wall.

We stare at each other for a fair bit of time, not moving a single muscle. He smirks at me and I narrow my gaze at him.

I see his hand twitch and I immediately start firing off Ki blasts. Cooler dodges them all, jumping into the air and flying around the blasts with ease. He seems to catch onto something when he suddenly stops and sees that I'm not hitting him even while he was standing still.

"Are you even trying to hit me?" He asked.

I stop firing and smirk at him, "No."

His eyebrows furrow in confusion before his eyes widen in realization, looking around him and seeing multiple energy spheres floating alongside him.

"Huh... clever..." He muttered as he saw all the spheres turn from a pale yellow to a dangerous dark purple.

I swipe my arms in his direction and all of the spheres instantly close in on him, exploding at point blank range. Knowing that it wasn't going to do much, I start charging a Kamehameha Wave before I realize my mistake and quickly dissolve the beam.

I can't charge it in here. The beam will instantly destroy the ship. Even if Cooler holds it back, the beam would just split into even smaller beams and go around him.

"Seems as though you aren't as dumb as the other members of your race." Cooler said from within the cloud of smoke above.

The smokescreen dissipates and Cooler floats down to the floor, not a visible scratch on him.

"If you had fired that beam, you would have killed yourself and everyone else on board." He said.

"But not you?" I asked.

Of course not. His race can survive in a vacuum. Course, I can't just say that without him telling me that information first.

"No. Arcosians like myself can survive in the vacuum of space." He said.

"Arcosians?" I asked.

"My race." He replied. "Why? What's so confusing about that to you?"

"I always thought that your race was called Frost Demons." I told him.

"We're called by many names. One planet even called us, "Frieza Race." He said, his face morphing to that of disdain. "But "Arcosian" is the official name."

"Huh...." I said with an interested tone.

"But this isn't what we should be focusing on at the moment." He said, hunching over and looking at me with a hardened stare. "I suppose it's my turn now?"

I didn't even get to reply before I was suddenly blown back into the wall. I fall to the floor on my hands and knees, clutching my chest as I struggle to breathe. I push through and breathe on a sudden inhale, taking multiple deep breaths.

He knocked the fucking wind out of me...

"Still conscious?" He asked as he walked towards me.

I grit my teeth and slowly stand up, clutching my side when I suddenly feel a very sharp sensation of pain.

"Hmm, seems that I broke one of your ribs." He commented with a demented smirk. "Are you sure that you wish to continue?"

"No." I said as I returned his smirk, a red aura surround me.

This fight is impossible.

I know far too well how powerful Cooler is. He is stronger than Full Power Frieza in both his fourth and fifth forms. This is a battle I'm not meant to win.

But why is it that I don't I feel afraid?

If anything I feel... excited...

The room goes red as well and Cooler's eyes raise curiously as he observes the strange phenomenon for the first time in person.

"Kaioken..." I muttered.

He turns back towards me with a strange look before asking, "Kaio-what?"

I charge at him immediately and strike him right in the jaw with a massive uppercut. He looks down at me, completely unfazed by my fist currently connecting with his face.

"Are you quite done?" He asked.

My eyes widen a bit before smirking at him with a strange sort of glee.

"You fucking monster..." I muttered before he backhands me right back into the wall.

____________________

"You are a very peculiar child, you know that?" Cooler asked as he stood over my beaten and bloodied form, looking down at me with intrigue.

"Is that... supposed to be a compliment...?" I asked, struggling to even think, let alone talk.

He's strong. Stronger than anything I've faced.

I knew that. I knew that for a damn certainty. But to actually be beaten down so easily was something entirely different than to what I had thought.

It was humbling...

But at the same time, infuriating...

And to think that he wasn't even going all out...

No, forget about that, he wasn't even showing a quarter of his true strength.

"Seems that I was right about you." He said.

"Right... about what?" I asked.

He crouched down and made me look at him right in his eyes, "You have the ability to grow stronger after being beaten."

I would've been surprised at his statement if I didn't have the sneaking suspicion that he already knew. It was unlikely, but Cooler is smarter than Frieza.

He's smarter than people give him credit for. And possibly a lot more of a monster than Frieza ever was.

In Heroes, the bastard managed to achieve his Golden Form just by Fuu mentioning that Frieza had it. He didn't even need a damn demonstration either. He just said, "If my brother can do it, so can I" and did it.

Sure, Heroes may not be canon, but neither is Cooler and yet he's still here.

"Yeah, so...?" I replied, not bothering to deny it.

"No denial? Well I suppose that's good. After all, there wouldn't be a point to it" He smirks and lays my head back down on the floor. "So how does it work? Do you have to just be beaten?"

"Don't know..." I lied. "I've only ever lost once... and it was to you..."

Is it weird that I take pride in that fact? Sure, a lot more dangerous threats were coming later on that are much more powerful than Cooler, but the fact that it took him of all people to take me down whilst I was only five years old was somewhat amazing.

"I see." He mutters, stroking his chin in thought. "Then I suppose we'll just have to explore that particular trait of yours more thoroughly."

"You... You want me to grow stronger?" I asked.

He turns to me with a raised eyebrow, "Is that so surprising? Seems that you still don't trust me. No matter. That'll change."

He crouches down and picks my head up again. "You see, I've hit a... block in my training. And your ability to grow so much in such a short span is currently very useful.

"So what? A little quid pro quo?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, a what?" He asked back.

Ah, so French is a space language but apparently Latin isn't? This universe is so fucking confusing...

"Old Saiyan proverb... It means something for something..." I explained to him.

"A Saiyan proverb? It's actually quite profound." He muttered. "But yes, something for something. You get stronger, I get stronger. Seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it?"

"Seems that way..." I replied, seeing no reason to decline.

"Just wait and see, Zyleth." He said with a vaguely deranged tone, smiling ear to ear like a madman. "You and I are going to push each other to heights greater than either of us thought possible."

His eyes glowed a devilish crimson red and I can't help but wonder what he was planning inside that head of his.

____________________

Current Power Levels:

Cooler (Fourth Form) - [140,000,000]

Cooler (Fifth Form) - [470,000,000]

Zyleth (Pre-Zenkai) - [2,320,000]

Zyleth (Post-Zenkai) - [31,552,000]