Instinct

Cooler's claim of a fifth form had indeed been unexpected, not only to Vegeta but to everyone watching. Most of the regents across the galaxy had already written the frost demon off, accepting the Super Saiyan as their new leader. Vegeta, though, wasn't terribly surprised by the announcement.

"Your brother had a power-weighted state as well, and you know what good it did him? None at all! He begged me to let him transform, and I still ripped him to pieces at his maximum strength. So go ahead – buff yourself up. It won't do you any good," Vegeta taunted.

"Believe what you will, Saiyan. But rest assured: my fifth form is nothing like anything you have ever witnessed. You will see who is the strongest!"

Though he doubted the frost demon's words, Vegeta found himself suddenly excited. What if Cooler really was stronger than Frieza? The thought of testing his strength – of facing a real challenge – thrilled him.

Cooler widened his stance, his feet gripping the stony ground beneath him. He clenched both fists tightly as energy erupted around him. The dust at his feet was blasted outwards in every direction, and Vegeta's golden hair began to ripple in the wind. Gritting his teeth, Cooler bent forward and took a deep breath. Then he suddenly stood straight and tall as his torso expanded upward by nearly a foot. His chest plating bulged outwards with energy, and the armored plates above his shoulders stood in arches away from his body, similar to Frieza's third form. The frost demon then tightened the muscles in his legs. They rippled with new power, expanding and causing him to gain another foot in height. Four horns grew from a crest on his head, two on top and two on either side. His eyes, formerly white with red pupils like Frieza's, turned a solid glowing red. Finally, curved blades emerged from his forearms and arched back past his elbows.

His transformation completed, Cooler smiled wickedly at the prince. He was glad that he'd had enough energy left to complete the transformation. This new form was far more impressive than any of Frieza's, and the frost demon now towered high above Vegeta. Additionally, the injuries inflicted on his fourth form by the Super Saiyan had healed. When he spoke, the tyrant revealed that his voice had deepened and become harsher, just as Frieza's voice had changed with each transformation.

"The members of my species are born in what you know as Frieza's fourth form." Amazingly, Cooler's scouter had remained in place through the entire transformation. He crossed his arms. "We use suppressed forms as we learn to control our power, but this final transformation is intended for battle and nothing else. Frieza foolishly tried to make himself stronger by simply powering up, but he never learned the secret of this perfect transformation. My strength is now unparalleled."

Vegeta was filled with excitement. His instincts and senses told him that Cooler's new form would pose a true challenge.

"I'd love to keep discussing the biology of my species, but I'm afraid the specifics would be wasted on a primate like you. Time to die, Vegeta!" Cooler screamed. A bony mask slid into place around his nose and mouth, and he dashed toward Vegeta as quickly as he had spoken, his armored fist pulling back for a right hook. The prince was fully prepared for the blow's speed, but not for its strength. Vegeta crossed his forearms in front of his face just before the impact launched him across the sky. He was stunned at the strength of Cooler's new form, feeling bruises already forming in his forearms. Before he knew it, the frost demon was upon him again, this time rushing him from above with an incredibly powerful right kick. Vegeta barely dodged, flipping backwards instead of trying to block; his foe's new strength was more than he had bargained for. Cooler's kick crunched into the rocky ground, and he used the traction to launch himself towards the prince once again. Vegeta bent his knees and launched back toward the titan, matching his approach vector.

'THUUM,' sounded both of their fists colliding. Their inertia mutually negated, their fists opened and fingers interlocked as they began a contest of physical might. Both fighters pushed forward with all their will, each frustrated by the other's strength. Vegeta ignited his Super Saiyan aura even higher, pushing himself to his maximum. With each increase in power, Cooler raised to match him, until Vegeta found that he could go no further. The two seemed in an even deadlock.

"So, this is the full power of a Super Saiyan?" Cooler laughed, pushing his own strength just slightly higher. The demon's deep voice was muffled by the protective mask. He broke the struggle, kneeing Vegeta directly in the chest and then launching a spin kick that threw the Saiyan flat on his back in the dirt. The prince was stunned.

'How can this be possible? Has his power actually surpassed my own?' the prince wondered. 'No, I am a Super Saiyan! I'm supposed to be the strongest warrior the universe has ever seen!' Vegeta picked himself up, filled with rage but eager for more.

In the Bringer of Death, Vegeta's crew watched in mingled awe and terror. They had never seen strength of this magnitude. For a few minutes, they had dared to hope that the Saiyan prince would prevail, but simply watching Cooler transform had reawakened the terror that they all felt about the Frost Demons.

As they watched Vegeta stand up, his golden aura erupting around him like flames, Oniya turned to C47 again. "What do your scanners say about the Viceroy?" she asked. "I don't want to use the ship's scanners; I'm afraid they can't take the energy." C47 turned to face the battle. "Result: the meatbag's new form has doubled his power level. He now exceeds the master by an estimated margin of five million units."

"Come, Vegeta! What happened to all your boasting? You don't seem to be so arrogant anymore!" Cooler laughed, now convinced that he did indeed have the edge over the Super Saiyan.

"Why don't you try these on for size then?" Vegeta yelled. Small orbs of yellow energy formed in both his outstretched hands, and he quickly fired them toward Cooler, continuing the pattern with wave after wave of blasts. The volley continued to pour down, hundreds of small but concentrated explosions crashing down around Cooler. Normally, the frost demon would have laughed off blasts of these size, but these were anything but harmless. After feeling the impact of only a few of Vegeta's scatter shots, he realized the seriousness of his peril. Quickly, he leapt into the air, the trail of energy explosions following him as he zipped across the moon. Vegeta followed, continuing to shoot his rapid fire energy blasts.

'Cooler is on the run. Perfect!' Vegeta thought. 'He can only dodge for so long.'

The frost demon found that he was able to outmaneuver fewer and fewer of the incoming attacks and, knowing that he couldn't continue dodging indefinitely, chose another strategy. "Psycho Barrier!" he roared. Immediately, a veil of purple psychic energy surrounded his body in a perfect sphere. He hoped he could maintain the shield through this storm of attacks, which was well beyond what he had ever faced before. Although the explosions built up violently for a moment, they soon subsided as Vegeta clenched his fists, cursing the frost demon's techniques. All the frost demons were masters of the mental disciplines, telekinesis and psychokinetic barriers being primary among them.

Gathering his strength, Vegeta dashed forward, knowing that he could pass through the barrier unimpeded. He penetrated the sphere from below with a flying kick, but Cooler blocked with the armored plating on his left shin, responding with his own rapid kick that Vegeta just barely avoided. Furious, the Super Saiyan backed up and fired a full strength energy wave. Cooler crossed his arms in front of his face, the horns on his forearms interlocking and forming a shield. Though Vegeta's attack forced him back several meters, his armor protected him from its full force. As the attack faded, he extended his right arm. "Take this!" he screamed through his mask, firing a thick purple energy beam at the Super Saiyan.

Instinctively, Vegeta backhanded the beam to one side, but its highly concentrated energy opened an angry welt on his forearm. Screaming more in rage than in pain, he launched a flurry of punches at Cooler's face and torso. The first few blows were blocked, but several made it past Cooler's defenses and landed with resounding cracks. Yet Cooler's enhanced exoskeletal armor protected him; Vegeta felt like he was punching a solid wall.

Cooler took advantage of the opening to fire an uppercut hard at Vegeta's stomach. The Saiyan twisted and ducked away, but the blow still landed full-force on his shoulder. The pain of the impact sent him reeling; he was finally realizing just how much force his own blows must have. He knew now that Cooler's strength and speed exceeded his own.

Cooler retreated several meters and began firing a series of smaller death beams from both hands nearly as fast as Vegeta's own rapid-fire technique. The Super Saiyan danced back and forth, evading each beam as it came. The barrage continued, but Vegeta found it no more difficult to dodge. Though he was still at close range, he realized that Cooler's pattern was predictable – simple, in fact. Even when Cooler increased the rapidity of the attacks, the pattern remained, allowing Vegeta to continue dodging.

The prince smiled even as the attacks continued flying around him. 'His biology gives him incredible strength, formidable defenses, and devastating techniques, but he uses them brutishly, like an untrained ape,' Vegeta thought. 'He is depending on his power alone, without any tactics or skill.' He realized that Cooler had never fought anyone stronger than himself, besides his own family. The frost demon had always depended on raw power to overcome his opponents, never truly learning to fight efficiently or effectively. Though he had learned techniques like ki sensing and suppression, he was an amateur in terms of actual martial arts. Even this final form, with all its incredible power, represented a lack of true fighting skill.

Vegeta, on the other hand, had spent his entire life warring against superior strength. He knew what it was like to stand tall and strong in the face of pain and near-certain defeat. Even as a child, he had been forced into deadly combat with foes that were larger, faster, and stronger, and yet he had always emerged the victor. His thousands of battle scars had taught him to fight viciously and mercilessly, exploiting every weakness in his opponents and seizing every possible advantage. On top of that, his form and his battle instincts were flawless. He was a true Saiyan warrior, the pride and glory of his race. In a single instant, he resolved that the legend of the Super Saiyan would not die on this barren moon, especially not at the hand of a frost demon.

"RAAAAARGH!" Vegeta roared, pulling his aura close to him and filling himself with its energy. Rushing forward, he charged an energy blast in each hand even as he flew through the continued flurry of death beams, dodging them effortlessly. He released the blasts one after the other, then lifted his fists together over his right shoulder as his momentum carried him forward.

Cooler deflected both of the blasts, then lifted his forearm to block Vegeta's double hammer fist. But the Saiyan gripped his block in mid-flight, spinning under his larger opponent's defenses with a devastating kick. The blow caught Cooler squarely in the ribs, just under his armored exoskeleton. The shock of the precise attack doubled him over in pain.

The frost demon's shoulder arches and bony horns protected his vulnerable throat, but they were an easy target for grappling. As Cooler straightened, still recovering from the kick, Vegeta grabbed the horns and shoulders, pulling the head back even as he spun around behind the demon. He drove his knee into the demon's lower spine, just above the armored back plate, then followed up the vicious blow with a Big Bang Cannon at point-blank range. The concentrated energy seared Cooler's bruised skin, sending him spiraling toward the ground.

As he fell, Cooler was completely shocked. His power exceeded the Super Saiyan's – how was he being tossed around like a piece of trash? He had thought this form would give him complete control over Vegeta, and yet he was hurtling downward, bruised and burned.

His reflections were rudely interrupted as Vegeta dashed down toward him again, this time landing a series of powerful punches to the unprotected areas of his arms and lower torso. Each blow struck a major joint, causing every muscle fiber to scream in pain. As they neared the ground, Vegeta tackled him, twisting one of his arms harshly and wrenching his head back. The duo smashed into the landscape in an explosion of rocks and debris, Cooler's face buried against the dirt. Maintaining his grip on the demon's limbs, Vegeta continued punishing the demon in every way he knew, striking him again and again with fists and knees to his lower body and exposed skin. He paid particular attention to targets close to the armored exoskeleton, causing the demon to instinctively curl into a ball.

Cooler was in agony. Never in his life had he felt pain this consuming and devastating. Each of Vegeta's blows was delivered expertly for maximum damage to his most sensitive areas. His armored form protected his vital areas, but it was worse than useless against such a merciless onslaught. How could a mere Saiyan cause him this much torture? Not even his father had been capable of punishing him so severely.

In an explosion of rage and pain, Cooler's energy blasted out around him, vaporizing the dirt covering his face and loosening Vegeta's grip. He spun, backhanding the Super Saiyan and sending him flying. But he was in too much pain to follow up his momentary advantage. Though he appeared mostly unscathed, he felt as though every muscle group in his body was on fire; it was all he could do to stand, panting. "What are you?" he screamed, his breath ragged and heavy.

"Me? I'm your worst nightmare," Vegeta retorted. Cooler's powerful backhand had drawn blood from Vegeta's jaw, but he welcomed the pain, reveling in the joy of combat. "I'm everything you've ever feared. Your power is useless against me. I am your end."

The frost demon roared, charging Vegeta again. But the ache that filled his body slowed him down, and Vegeta was completely in his element now. The Saiyan anticipated every heavy blow, deflecting Cooler's superior strength with perfectly-timed blocks and using his greater momentum against him. Every desperate attack was met with a swift and devastating response that redoubled the demon's constantly-building pain.

Spinning around smoothly, Vegeta slid his right arm between Cooler's armored shoulder arches and trapped him in a chokehold. He smashed his knee into the demon's torso again and again just above his tail. His left hand gripped the horns on Cooler's backplate, giving him leverage to strike with incredible force. Overwhelmed with pain, Cooler was unable to defend himself and coughed, dark purple blood spraying out between the bars in his mask. The mask opened as he gasped for breath against Vegeta's chokehold, but the Saiyan laughed, vaulting forward over Cooler's head. Stopping directly in front of the demon, Vegeta threw an elbow back into his exposed face, crushing his nose and momentarily blinding him. Still chuckling, the Saiyan launched a spinning kick that caught Cooler completely off-guard in the center of his lower chest, sending him flying backwards.

Both warriors were now hovering a few hundred feet above the surface of the moon. Vegeta's armor was torn and he looked disheveled, but Cooler looked positively terrible. His exposed purple skin was a mass of dark blue bruises, and blood ran down his face and over his chest. His left arm hung limply, having been painfully dislocated by Vegeta's joint lock.

"You…can't…defeat…me," Cooler gasped, his voice ragged and hoarse. "Stinking...primate! I am…the most powerful being…in the universe."

"You're wrong, Cooler!" Vegeta shouted. "I have already defeated you. My superior skills overcame your feeble attacks even in my base form, and now your incompetence has proven that I am without equal!" Cupping his hands at his side, he began charging a brilliant ball of golden energy. "Try and dodge this if you can! Feel the power of my Super Galic Flash!" Thrusting his arms forward, he fired, the energy flowing from all around him into a white-hot beam.

Cooler stared in horror at the blast coming toward him. He was too exhausted to try and evade it. Was this the end? Yet, in that moment of despair, he had a burst of inspiration.

Extending his good arm toward the oncoming wave, he summoned every last reserve of psychic energy, concentrating it in front of him in a psychokinetic barrier. He knew he couldn't stop the attack, but perhaps he could deflect it. And where better to deflect it than the moon below? The so-called Super Saiyan would die a cruel, painful death as he gasped for breath in the vacuum of space; the frost demon would emerge the victor.

As the front of the wave crashed against his barrier, threatening to engulf him, he pulled his hand back and spun, slamming both feet and his tail against the blast face. Sure enough, it glanced off and shot downward to the moon below. A split second later, it penetrated the moon's crust and pierced to the core.

Every individual watching suddenly saw an explosion completely fill their viewscreens. The moon was instantly annihilated, its precious atmosphere dissipating into nothingness. When the smoke cleared, only a massive asteroid field remained in orbit around the planet where the moon had been.

Bringer of death.

In a distant galaxy, traveling with haste aboard his ship, the mighty King Cold smiled to himself. "Well done, my son," he muttered. "It appears I will not have to avenge you after all." He gazed through the newly formed asteroid field in the broadcast with great satisfaction. "Change course. After watching that, my bones are aching for a fight. Join the nearest strike force, and we shall assist them in conquering their next world." He flipped off his viewscreen, finally feeling pride in his eldest son.

The battle-worn frost demon, feeling utterly exhausted and weakened even further by the moon's explosion, relaxed his muscles and drifted calmly through space. 'At last, I'm rid of that Super Saiyan,' he thought. The silent darkness of space took him in as he floated, asteroids and debris twisting in the weightless void around him. In a few moments, his ship's sensors would locate him. He would relax until then, too drained to bother flying towards his ship. Cooler managed a small grin, imagining the reaction of all those who had been watching. If this didn't prove his superiority above all, nothing would. 'I only wish I could see my sad little brother's face right now.'

Suddenly, he did. The Bringer of Death, Frieza's severed head mounted prominently on its prow, was floating just beyond the debris field. The twisted and burned features of his brother's face were barely visible, but even from a distance it was unsettling. Cooler's smile evaporated.

The silence of space was broken as a voice crackled through his scouter. "Care to join him, Cooler?" asked Vegeta in a whisper. "There's plenty room for your head there as well!"

-----------------------------

We hope you all enjoyed reading Chapter 17 as much as we enjoyed writing it! We wanted Cooler's form to pose a real challenge to Vegeta - something that would serve as a challenge for him to continue training.

Through his intense training, Vegeta was able to greatly increase his base strength, rising to ten million in only a few day's time. Just like Goku trained and healed all the way from Earth to Namek, so Vegeta trained and healed all the way from Frieza 79 to the blue supergiant system where he met Cooler.

Although Cooler is older than his brother Frieza, he doesn't have the same potential as Frieza and so he isn't quite as strong - only 80 million in his fourth form. Of course, this was nothing against Super Saiyan Vegeta. His fifth form, on the other hand, represents the ultimate battle power of the Frost Demons - it doubles the user's highest power level. Overcoming a heavily armored opponent with slightly greater power is the first big challenge that Super Saiyan Vegeta has faced.

Base Vegeta: 10 million

Salza, Doore, & Neiz: between 110,000-130,000

Cooler at 50%: 40 million

SSj Vegeta: 155 million

Cooler at full strength: 80 million

Cooler's fifth form: 160 million

Cooler's fifth form after being beaten up by Vegeta: 130 million

Questions and comments:

There is probably a little confusion from the last chapter over the way that Cooler spoke about transformations. Cooler has four transformations from his first form, for a total of five forms. So the fourth transformation is the same as the fifth form.

Q: Got to love Vegeta toying with his opponent at first before transforming.

A: Vegeta is pretty impressed with himself for being able to humiliate Cooler without even transforming. He's demonstrating that Saiyans are competitive at any level.

Q: Why was Cooler so much weaker compared to Frieza in their original forms? I thought with the Arcosian race their strength grew naturally over time, they never trained.

A: It's fair to assume that Frost Demon power depends primarily on age. But it also depends on potential; two Frost Demons born at the exact same time probably wouldn't have the exact same power levels their entire life. Cooler was definitely the strongest to begin with, but Frieza must have surpassed him at some point due to greater potential.

Q: I must say you guys are excellent at battle scenes. I can really imagine some of this stuff in the anime. I have a small favor to ask - I was wandering if you could do me a solid and look at my stories?

A: Thanks! I wrote most of the fighting in Chapter 16; Davidstarlingm wrote most of the fighting in Chapter 17. It's something we really enjoy. And one of us will try to get to your stories some time soon!

Q: When the death ball exploded so close to the surface the moon should have cracked to pieces, no?

A: Great question, especially considering that the moon is blown up in this chapter! In DBZ, there is a difference between blowing up a planet/moon with a beam attack and blowing it up with a ball attack. The Supernova death balls used by Cooler and Frieza are designed to sink slowly to the core of a planet and detonate inside; if they explode on the surface, most of the energy is dissipated into space. The scene with Cooler's Supernova and Vegeta is very similar to the scene with Frieza's Supernova and SSj Trunks in canon.

On the other hand, beam-style attacks pierce directly to the core and detonate it instantly. We see this with Piccolo blowing up the moon on earth and now with Vegeta's attack blowing up this moon.

Q: I can't wait for the next chapter, this transformation will put Coola power level at 160 millions

A: Good guess, Rafael! Also, good guesses by PvP. Spot-on!

Stay tuned for the climactic conclusion of the battle with Cooler in Chapter 18 on Thursday!