Planet Namek.
"What a terrifying aura… stronger than mine." Son Gokū's face tightened, yet the fighting spirit in his eyes flared anew.
Now that Gohan was alive, Gokū's grief eased replaced by that familiar itch to battle.
"Dad, leave him to me. My hands are getting itchy too," Son Gohan said suddenly.
"Gohan? Are you sure your body's okay?" Gokū blinked.
Gohan froze, at a loss for a second.
"He's uninjured," Merus cut in at the perfect moment. "That blast just knocked him out cold for a bit."
"Right, that's all it was, Dad. I got careless. I won't make that mistake again," Gohan said, picking up Merus's thread without missing a beat.
"Fine. But don't hold back this time. Transform go Super Saiyan. If you'd done it earlier, you wouldn't have scared me half to death," Gokū scolded.
"Yes, Dad. Got it," Gohan answered obediently though in his head he muttered, All this so you could break through, old man…
A soft hum, and golden light blossomed around him. Gohan became a Super Saiyan yet unlike Gokū's storm from before, his energy was calm, a lake of molten gold rather than a wildfire.
"Gohan… you've already mastered the form," Gokū murmured, astonished.
"Super Saiyan is only step one, Dad. Watch closely my power doesn't stop there." Gohan flashed forward, arrowing straight for Cooler.
"You little brat you're alive?" Cooler stared as the boy closed in.
"Heh. I was playing dead. If I hadn't needed my dad to push past his limit, I wouldn't have bothered," Gohan teased.
"You dare make a fool of me?!" Cooler's aura erupted, murderous ki boiling out.
"No one fooled you but you," Gohan said lightly. "You didn't really think your 'Supernova' would finish me, did you?"
"Heh-heh-heh… So what if you survived? Frieza's dead, so I've no reason to hide. This is my final form one more transformation than Frieza. My battle power is 470 million. Even as a Super Saiyan, you're outmatched," Cooler said, chin tilted high.
"Is that so? Then come prove it." Gohan crooked a finger at him, mockery plain.
"Die!" Cooler struck first a scything axe kick screaming down from the sky.
CLANG!
Gohan crossed his forearms and caught the blow head-on. The force shoved his shins into the ground like posts.
"Hm. Not bad. Not good, either."
Even while blocking, he found room to talk trash.
"You're far too arrogant, kid!" Cooler abandoned close combat, vaulted into the air, and fired a storm of Death Beams.
Shh-shh-shh!
Gohan weaved along the ground, blinked with Instant Movement, and reappeared at Cooler's midsection. He drove a piston of a fist straight into the tyrant's abdomen being short has its advantages.
THUD!
His fist sank into the armored muscle. Cooler gagged, bile rising.
"Urgh !"
Cooler clamped a hand around Gohan's ankle and lifted. Upside down, head toward the ground, arms out of reach size, for once, favored the taller fighter.
"Heh. What now, kid? Can't hit me from there, can you?" Cooler sneered.
"What are you so happy about?" Gohan looked genuinely bored. "You think your kind are the only ones who can shoot beams?"
ZING!
Light flared in his eyes and twin lances of gold shot from his pupils. Cooler yelped and let go, jerking himself upward just in time. The beams skimmed clean through the space between his legs.
Close. Too close. Cooler wiped cold sweat from his brow.
"What're you so afraid of? I haven't seen anything… there," Gohan mused aloud. "Actually how do you even use the bathroom? Do you poop?"
"Shut your mouth! How crude can you be?!" Cooler sputtered, half livid, half mortified.
"Touchy, touchy. Just curious," Gohan shrugged, still hovering upside down in front of him.
"I said shut up!" Cooler roared.
"Boring. Fine no more games. Since you seemed to like the pose…" Gohan shot forward without flipping upright, afterimages streaking behind him. His feet drummed the air like a rabbit's, rapid-fire kicks thundering into Cooler's chest.
Cooler raised his arms to guard only for Gohan's hands to start hammering lower, relentless jabs to the groin. Taller meant longer reach but also longer legs, slower to shield that vulnerable centerline.
Bam-bam-bam!
In seconds, Gohan landed hundreds of short, savage shots.
"Damn you! Pick a different target!" Cooler backpedaled frantically to escape the barrage.
Gohan stayed glued to him. Cooler ran; Gohan chased. Their speeds were matched there was no opening to shake him.
"Pressure Blast!" Cooler finally threw both palms forward, detonating a compressed wave of air. The shock bucked Gohan's rhythm, forcing him to check his advance.
"Huh. Guess there really isn't anything there," Gohan said, righting himself and nodding sagely.
Far off, Gokū felt an involuntary chill below the waist.
Merus could only cover his face with one hand.
Elsewhere, watching from the shadows
"What a shameless little rascal. Intriguing," purred a certain God of Destruction.
"Ho-ho-ho… if someone hadn't insisted on a snack, we'd have arrived sooner. I wanted to see how the boy faked his death," his angelic attendant replied.
"Hey! I've been asleep ages. Being hungry is natural. You woke me with no food ready how is that my fault?"
"So it's my fault then?!"
…
"You you…!" Cooler was beyond words. He was used to lording over others, not losing a war of mouths to a child.
"What? Cat got your tongue? Take off the 'mask' and say that again," Gohan needled, nodding at the metal-like mouthplate.
"To hell with your mask!" Cooler finally snapped, reason cracking.
"Whoa hit a nerve? If it's not a mask, why so touchy?" Gohan's mouth was merciless, but his hands were crueler. He slid inside Cooler's reach, pressing chest-to-chest. Those long arms that gave Cooler his reach now tangled uselessly at close quarters.
Gohan slipped; Cooler swung; flesh thudded into flesh. But while Cooler traded wound for wound, Gohan's footwork and angles turned every exchange to his advantage.
Thud! Thud! Crack!
Blow by blow, the boy dominated the clinch.
"Gohan's brilliant turning a size disadvantage into a weapon," Gokū breathed, impressed.
"Underhanded, cheeky, a bit of a little devil… but very, very effective," Merus admitted.
The ache in his body finally snapped Cooler back to his senses.
"You provoked me on purpose," he said coldly.
"Took you long enough," Gohan answered with a smirk.
"I'll grant you this much, boy you're strong, and cunning. That baby face of yours… it's misleading," Cooler said, voice icing over.
"Can't help how I was born," Gohan said, palms up in mock helplessness.
"Enough. I won't fall for your tricks again."
"Oh? Getting serious at last?" Gohan's smile thinned as he, too, shed the last of his playfulness.
The final exchange was about to begin.
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