Status: Ongoing

Cooler Rising

Chapter Thirty-nine

Pikkon stood with the West Kai. They looked down at Hell, which was far below them--far enough away that it'd take someone a thousand lifetimes to travel there, and yet still visible--and burned with the same intensity as a hundred million stars all pressed into one.

"Do you feel that?" Pikkon said. "It feels like they're about to fight a civil war down there."

"There's always a civil war raging down there," the West Kai said. "They have plots upon plots against each other down there, you understand. There's always a conspiracy to avenge some small wrong that any reasonable person would have forgotten about centuries ago. But you're right, it feels like there's something different going on down there."

"In the last week, it feels almost as if someone has escaped from down there," Pikkon said. "It felt like four powers escaped from there, and one of them would have been able to put up a fight against me or Goku."

"Then this is a very grave thing indeed," West Kai said. "If this is the case, then we're looking at the chance of universal Armageddon. And if this is a real threat, then it could very well be that Goku is the only hope we have. In all my centuries as a Kai, there haven't been many warriors I've seen that could put up an honest fight against you or Goku alone."

"West Kai, I want to ask permission to go down there," Pikkon said. "I can feel the power that I felt escape now. The large one, and one of the smaller ones. They both feel a lot stronger now. When they find Goku, I don't think he's going to survive for very long."

"Where?" the West Kai said as he looked down. The scene changed from an image of Hell to one of the universe. "Where do you feel their strength?"

Pikkon pointed to somewhere on the map. "There," he said. "Do you feel it?"

The West Kai nodded. "That's the North Kai's territory," he said. "But I feel it. It's much larger than anything Goku could handle. Alright, I want you to go down there, but you're going to need the North Kai's permission as well."

The North Kai stepped down from behind them. "He already has it," King Kai said. "The source of that power is Cooler, the brother of Freiza. Goku killed him years ago, but he escaped from Hell, and he's a lot stronger now than he was back then."

"Someone's going to have to go down to Hell," Pikkon said. "The people down there are going to be furious once they find out that Cooler managed to get himself and a few of his men out of there. They're going to want to escape for themselves."

"I've already seen the Grand Kai," King Kai said. "He's agreed to send some special forces down there to put down the rebellion. He's suspended permission for the Hell Games for the next five centuries on the grounds of unruly behaviour.

"For now, Pikkon, we need you down there in the North Quadrant, and we need you to prepare Goku for the fight ahead of him. If he's going to survive this, he's going to need all the help he can get."

"And what help is he going to need?" Pikkon said.

"He's going to need to know a new fusion technique," King Kai said. "A limited one, because the only other person down there strong enough for him to fuse with will never agree to a permanent fusion with him."

"Vegeta?" Pikkon said. "But didn't he die?"

"He died," King Kai said. "But he escaped Hell a little after Buu disrupted the Heavens. We chose to overlook it because of his involvement in the battle against him. But he's strong enough to fuse with Goku, and because they're the same species, there's not much chance of unwanted repercussions."

"What fusion technique do I teach them?"

"Teach them the Kamikaze Fusion technique," the West Kai said. "That's the only one that isn't permanent that will give them the required strength to fight Cooler in his present form."

"The Kamikaze Fusion?" Pikkon said with a sweat. "But surely there's some other way; that will only result in their deaths."

"It's a necessary evil," the West Kai said. "If we want the universe to survive this, we need them to be able to perform that particular fusion technique. Go down there, teach it to them."

"You have three weeks, Pikkon," King Kai said. "That's all the time I was able to get you from the Grand Kai."

Pikkon nodded, and then jumped into the map in front of him.