“You wear the same symbol as that Saiyan,” the Meta-Cooler ground its teeth, eyes lit by a savage glow. “Where is he…”
Jor-EL ignored the creature's words, driven forward by a rush of power to plant his knuckles against the beast’s jaw. The combined might of his solar reserves and the light of the Earth’s sun, focused into a single fist. An explosion of yellow-blue rocked Meta-Cooler back, on course for the metal world of his birth.
“Your body is durable, beast,” Jor-EL surged forward, twin lances of energy directed from his eyes. Meta-Cooler howled, his upper layer of skin roasted away by the concentrated heat. “Unfortunately… it will only increase your suffering.”
Meta-Cooler slammed into the surface of the Big Gete Star, buried beneath layers of its armoured shell. The barrage of heat continued, channelled from Jor-EL’s eyes and into the silver-toned world. This monstrosity and the mechanical womb that birthed it both deserved destruction.
A feral roar echoed from within, a wave of raw force that pushed aside his heat vision and crashed against him with the weight of mountains. Ravaged flesh almost healed, Meta-Cooler launched from the molten crater.
“I’ll rip you limb from limb… wear your skin as a trophy for that bastard Saiyan to see!” Meta-Cooler breathed out a superheated breath, eyes locked on Jor-EL as his wounds sealed over. “Then I’ll move on to that world you came from, turn its surface to slag and ash…”
“No chance, demon,” Jor-EL reached toward the bright hot core in the centre of his being, a miniature sun contained where his heart should have been. Pure-white lightning slithered over his skin, eyes filled with the glow of a distant star. “This world is protected, the might of Krypton stands against you!”
Faster than Meta-Cooler could react, Jor-EL blitzed forward. Hand extended, he clotheslined the beast, forearm driven into its neck. Locked together, they blasted through the hole in the mechanical planet’s surface and into its depths.
Metal shattered, blasted away as Jor-EL hunted for the planet’s core. He reached a vast passageway, filled with lesser machines, when Meta-Cooler lashed out with his clubbed tail. Silver-white bone spikes crashed against his side, driven deep before the abomination ripped them free.
Launched to the side, Jor-EL lost his grip on Meta-Cooler’s neck. The dimly lit corridor tumbled passed, illuminated by the explosions of the robots he left in his wake. Warning notices flared within his mind, while his biomechanical body hurried to seal over his wounded ribs.
“The might of Krypton?” Meta-Cooler’s voice echoed from all around him, overlaid with a chorus of laughter. Jor-EL halted his wayward flight and the demon’s grinning face filled his vision. “If you are the might you speak of, I’m afraid I’m quite disappointed…”
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“He was doing pretty well, for a minute there…” Hal winced as Jor-EL flew from within the Big Gete Star as if he’d been launched from a cannon. The deformed Meta-Cooler followed on his heels, face twisted in a gleeful smile. “I’d say the old A.I. is as powerful as Frieza’s final form, maybe even stronger.”
“Perhaps, but that creature is far stronger,” the Supreme Kai frowned, his gaze focused on the interior of the Big Gete Star. “With so many of them hidden within, and more created every minute, things may be beyond saving…”
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The Jor-EL on the screen rallied under the light of the sun, a warrior of fire that slammed his fists against Meta-Cooler’s oversized face. Hal narrowed his eyes as he studied the changes to this Cooler’s body.
“He looks like Doomsday…” Hal glanced from the bone spikes that sprouted from Meta-Cooler’s joints, to the half-mad look in the Frost Demon’s eyes. “How is that possible?”
“They collected your blood from space after our fight,” Note leaned over Hal’s shoulder, her sudden appearance enough to drive the breath from his lungs. “It looks like this Meta-Cooler gets stronger the more he fights, but its pure physical power… very weird.”
“How long have you been here?” Hal pressed a hand to his chest and stilled his racing heart. The Saiyan woman had appeared without any warning at all, eyes focused on the God-tube tv. “This seems like the kind of event that you Time Patrollers would get involved in…”
“The multiverse is stable,” Note shrugged as she gave a cheeky wave to the wide eyed Kais. “The Time Patrol is forbidden from taking action, unless time itself becomes unstable. Everything outside our mission is left up to fate.”
“You pretty much ordered me to kill Cooler,” Hal snorted, eyes focused on the screen as Jor-EL was hurled backward, toward the edges of the sun. “What’s so different about acting yourself?”
“That was a part of our investigations,” Note shrugged as she took a front seat by the old school tv. The Supreme Kai opened his mouth, but the Old Kai held up his hand in warning. “The Supreme Kai of Time has ordered us to leave things alone for now. We’re supposed to let things take their natural course, yourself included, while we investigate your temperament.”
“Fantastic,” Hal’s fists creaked, squeezed so tightly that bone ground against bone. Jor-EL took a knee spur to the chest, driven deep enough to pierce out his back. “If you’re not here to help, then why show your face at all?”
“I’m interested in what you plan to do,” Note smiled, unconcerned as the mutated Meta-Cooler hurled Jor-EL into the sun and turned its gaze to the Earth. “You could leave now and save everyone, but then this ritual would fail. It can’t be done a second time, once or nothing, so you’ll have to choose!”
“The Earth isn’t out of options just yet,” Hal forced himself to relax. Jor-EL’s body was extremely durable, but if he was truly dead there were always the dragonballs. “The people of Earth are almost all evacuated, and those that do fall will be revived.”
“I suppose,” Note’s lips turned in an exaggerated frown, a smile hidden behind her eyes as Meta-Cooler descended into the atmosphere, on course for the Lookout and his adoptive brother. “But you’ll still be forced to let them die, suffer the pain of death and defeat…”
“Goku only gains motivation from death,” Hal gave Note a dirty look, before he glanced at the Kais. Old Kai shook his head and Hal returned his gaze to the tv. “I’ll have to ask the rest for forgiveness later, but I’m staying here until the ritual is complete.”
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“He’s here,” Goku rose from his meditative position on the Lookout’s edge, eyes fixed on the horizon. A choking cloud of ki rolled over the heavens, oppressive and tainted with hate. “I can still sense Jor-EL, but he’s very weak.”
Launch stepped up to join him, the rest of the planet's defenders already gone from the Lookout’s peak. Their power was far too low, even after the fruits. Once Kami sensed the battle in the heavens, he’d ordered the others to assist in the evacuations across the globe.
“I’m not sure if we can take him, even if we go beyond our limits with the kaio-ken,” Launch shook her blond hair from her eyes, hands balled into fists. “Jor-EL was so powerful in the beginning, but that thing out there overtook him so quickly…”
“We still have to try,” Goku sent her a reckless grin as he rose into the air. “My brother can always revive us, and we just might be able to win!”
Launch snorted, but followed Goku into the sky. The Saiyan was right, and their battle would buy the time needed to get the population clear. The dragonballs were capable of returning everyone to life, but she agreed with Bulma’s choice. Revival was a traumatic experience, and erasing the people’s memories wouldn’t be good for the development of the Earth.
“Fine, but we have to work together,” Launch cracked her knuckles as the shadow of their enemy appeared between them and the sun. Oversized and covered in bony plates, it gave them both a vicious grin. “This guy won’t go down easy!”
***Power Levels and other notes***
Hal: 13,500,000 (135 million with symbiote armour enhancement, 270 million with symbiote transformation, 13.5 billion/27 billion at Max kaio-ken: 100x)
Jor-EL: 200 million
Meta-Cooler: 150 million at the start of battle, 475 million by the time of Jor-EL’s defeat due to his Doomsday evolution ability.
Goku: 27,000,000 after potential unlock (270 million at Max kaio-ken: 10x)
Launch: 7,000,000 after potential (21 million after blond transformation, 105 million after Max kaio-ken: 5x)