Status: Ongoing

Cooler Rising

Chapter Twenty

Freeza looked at Neiz and Dore. Behind Freeza stood the Ginyu Force, King Cold, Zarbon and Dodoria. Freeza laughed as Neiz and Dore stood up--the first time they had done so since they'd come back to Hell.

"Welcome back boys," Freeza said. "I think it's time we had a little chat, don't you?"

"What do you want, Freeza?" Neiz said as he stood up.

"I want to know how my brother powered that portal," Freeza said. "I want to know what it took for him to be able to go through back to the realm of the living and I want to know where he was able to get the energy to do so."

"Ha!" Dore said. "I thought you knew we'd collected it at the tour--"

"Dore!" Neiz shouted. "Shut up! Don't tell him anything about where we got the energy, you hear me?"

Freeza smiled and walked up to Dore. "So Cooler got the energy at the tournament last year," he said, looking Dore directly in the eyes. "How? How did he do it, Dore?"

"You fool," King Cold said. "The energy lost at the tournament is automatically collected into a container. All he would have had to do is see to it that the container was stolen and then he would have found the energy to power the portal."

"But why wait this long to power the portal? The last tournament was almost a year ago now. Once he had the power he could have done it immediately."

King Cold smiled. "Don't you get it, Freeza? He would have waited this long because he knew that if any of his warriors died, he wouldn't have to wait as long for them to be able to make their way to the realm of the living again. All they'd have to do is go through the tournament again this year. It wouldn't even matter if they won or lost; as long as they found where that barrel of ki was they'd be able to get back."

"And then what? You saw how strong those Saiyans were! Hell, weren't you watching when Goku fought Buu? Goku has gone up so much in strength he's almost unbeatable!"

"Except Cooler's like me," King Cold says. "He has a fourth transformation. He doesn't have the control to hold it yet, but he's coming very close to getting there. And rumour has it he's even found a fifth transformation."

"A fifth transformation?" Freeza said. "That's impossible! Dore, is this true?"

"We're under orders not to say!" Neiz called before Dore could open his mouth.

"I wasn't asking you!" Freeza shot. "Dore! Does my brother have a fifth transformation?"

Dore stood there silently and said nothing.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Freeza said. "I'm going in that tournament and I'm going to win and I'm going to get back to the realm of the living. And then I'm going to kill my brother for leaving here without me!"