"So this is the legendary Super Saiyan," King Cold mused, his voice dripping with detached interest. Cooler being hurled through space by a single blow didn't seem to concern him. "You have power. Power I could use. Join me. With a Super Saiyan under my command, ruling this galaxy would be effortless."
"Did you all drink something weird growing up? Just like your son—obsessed with recruiting pawns." Goku's aura flared with renewed contempt. "If you're going to be cannon fodder, at least act like it!"
His movement was a blur. A devastating kick connected with King Cold's midsection, launching the emperor out through the shredded hull after his son.
Cooler stabilized himself in the void, catching his father's tumbling form. He wiped a trickle of purple blood from his lip. "His power is legitimate, Father. It seems we cannot afford to hold back."
King Cold righted himself with a dismissive wave. "There is no need for a protracted battle. Unlike us, Saiyans cannot survive in the vacuum of space. We merely need to remove his life support." He gestured toward the crippled vessel.
Cooler's expression tightened; he yearned to test his might against the legend directly. But his father's order was clear. He raised a hand, a sphere of violet energy coalescing above his palm. With a contemptuous flick, he sent it streaking toward the ship's primary reactor.
BOOM!
The colossal battleship vanished in a silent, brilliant flower of fire and shrapnel, its remnants quickly dispersing into cosmic dust.
"There," King Cold declared, a cruel satisfaction in his voice. "Even if we do nothing more, that wretch is finished."
"Who exactly," a calm, familiar voice said from directly behind them, "is finished?"
"Y-You're alive?!" Cooler spun, his composure cracking.
"Impossible! Since when can a Saiyan breathe in space?!" King Cold's eyes widened in genuine shock. Goku didn't bother explaining the nuances of immortality and eternal youth granted by the Dragon Balls—surviving a vacuum was a trivial side effect.
"I hate drawn-out fights. To avoid any more… surprises, I'll finish this now."
Goku's golden aura detonated, solidifying at the absolute peak of Super Saiyan. He became a storm of light. In a series of motions too fast to perceive, he hammered King Cold and Cooler back and forth between them, a punishing volley of blows that left them reeling. He finished by cupping his hands to his side.
"KAMEHAME—HA!"
A torrent of blue energy consumed them, its light fading into the infinite dark. Goku watched it dissipate, a hint of pity in his sigh. "A shame, Cooler. You never even got to show me your fifth transformation. Tough luck, meeting me."
His senses swept the area, landing on a single, struggling life-form—the wizened advisor, Mūgu, paddling frantically through the void like a stranded insect.
"A survivor. Perfect. I'll need a guide." Goku flashed beside the terrified alien and seized him by the scruff of his neck. "Huh. Survived the blast and the vacuum. No wonder you served Cold. Tiny, but a battle power pushing 100,000. Not bad."
"P-please! Spare me! I-I'll do anything!" Mūgu whimpered.
"Tch. All that strength, wasted on a coward." Goku gave him two sharp, stinging slaps. "Take me to King Cold's homeworld. Do that, and you live."
"Y-yes! This way! It's that way!" the alien stammered, pointing a trembling limb.
Goku nodded, preparing to use Shunkan Idō, when a spike of violent, familiar ki lashed against his senses from behind. His head snapped around. "They're still alive?!"
He vanished, reappearing high above a small, barren asteroid. Below, Cooler and King Cold stood amidst the rock, their bodies shimmering and distorting as they powered up into new forms.
"Damn it. Got careless. Won't make that mistake again." Goku gritted his teeth. "Fine. Transform all you want. I don't believe the two of you together can overcome my peak."
Cooler's transformation completed first, his body streamlining into a sleek, powerful fourth form. Goku wasn't impressed; the power, while great, still lagged behind his own. But then King Cold's metamorphosis finished.
Goku's eyes widened. "What the—? He's supposed to be a footnote! A single stroke for Trunks! Why is his aura… stronger than Cooler's?!" A wave of disbelief hit him. "This… breaks the script." He shook his head, recalibrating. "Then again, his second form in the original story dwarfed Freeza's full power. As their progenitor, he should be monstrous. Still… a perfected fourth form? I didn't see that coming."
"You sensed us and did not interrupt," King Cold sneered, his voice now deeper, more resonant. Their previous wounds had sealed during the transformation. "Arrogant to the end."
"Rare opponents deserve a proper send-off," Goku shot back, his fighting spirit igniting.
He didn't wait. With a roar, he dropped like a golden meteor, his right leg scything down in an axe kick that shattered the asteroid beneath their feet into a cloud of debris.
Father and son shot apart, then converged on him in a perfectly coordinated pincer attack. Fists and energy blasts came from all angles, a whirlwind of violence too fast for the untrained eye to follow. For the first time in the battle, Goku was forced onto the defensive. Against one opponent of near-equal strength and another not far behind, he found himself momentarily pressed.
"Shouldn't have gotten cocky," he grunted. Seizing an opening, he deliberately dropped his guard, taking King Cold's crushing punch squarely to his ribs. Using the momentum and the split-second of his opponent's surprise, he pivoted, whipping a devastating roundhouse kick into the side of Cooler's head.
The impact echoed dully in the vacuum. Cooler was launched like a projectile, careening through a chain of small planetoids, shattering each one in a succession of silent explosions.