Ch. 201: Cooler Vs. Gohan (2)
"You're right, Cooler. You've worked hard, you have more control than me... But I still can't lose to you." Gohan answered Cooler's rage with something colder. It felt rather like he was passing judgement on the Frost Demon in a way. Something about Cooler's tirade had clearly struck a nerve in my brother. He wasn't directing his anger at the Frost Demon anymore. He was fighting for something beyond that now. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, it was yet to be seen.
Angered but not dumb enough to lose control yet, Cooler drove a fist into Gohan's stomach, then grabbed him by the head and brought that to his knee, causing blood to spurt from my brother's nose before he tossed him up like a rag doll in something that resembled what Frieza had done when he'd killed me.
"You think your talent makes you better than me?! Stronger!? I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!" Cooler shouted, "OBLITERATION WAVE!" Cooler fired an energy wave at Gohan of epic magnitude. Had he fired it down at the Earth, I wasn't sure if I'd even have been able to stop it, even in my Super Saiyan form, there was so much power behind it. All of his rage probably went into that single blast, with the intention of killing my brother.
"GOHAN!" Piccolo moved first, instinctively, to protect Gohan, but my dad and I each grabbed one of his arms, holding him back. Gohan needed to do this on his own. He needed to survive this fight in order to grow. If he died, we could wish him back, but if we ended up saving him, then his wounded pride would be far less fixable.
"KAMEHAMEHA!!!!!" Gohan's scream pierced the heavens, followed by a concentrated wave of Ki from above that rained down, barely managing to stop Cooler's Obliteration Wave for a moment before vanishing as it was destroyed by Cooler's energy, but it did its job. We could all sense the obliteration wave completely missing its mark, having been slowed just enough for Gohan to get out of the way.
After a few moments of silence, Gohan dropped from the sky, still in one piece, still capable of fighting. "I know that my talent doesn't make me better than anyone else. I see it every day! EVERY DAY, I watch my dad and Hanna fight, knowing that even if I do somehow manage to become a Super Saiyan, it won't be enough! I have more latent talent than either of them combined, I can feel it, but I'm still HELPLESS WHEN IT COUNTS!" Gohan's energy began climbing as he vented. I already knew he felt this way, better than anyone, I knew how angry Gohan was. He was the strongest of us, potentially speaking. There was something inside of him, something scary, that almost reminded me of Broly, just infinite potential for growth, but it'd never been enough.
He'd watched, helpless, as Raditz and Goku died when we were four, after which I'd gone through some sort of metamorphosis that had made me almost unrecognizable.
Then, again, during the fight with Vegeta and Nappa, all he'd managed to do was lose control of his ape form, resulting in Pigero's death, while I'd been the one to stop him.
Then Namek, over and over again, he'd been upstaged time and time again, finally ending with my temporary death while he stayed behind in the Namekian village. Then finally, it'd all come back to a head during the whole Garlic Jr thing, when he'd been taken over by the Black Water Mist, tried to kill me, and I'd still defeated him and saved the whole planet with minimal help from Pigero and Piccolo.
"I'M SICK OF FAILING TO PROTECT MY FAMILY, OVER AND OVER AGAIN! I'M DONE LETTING THEM SUFFER AND DIE WHILE I JUST SIT THERE DOING NOTHING, BECAUSE I'M TOO WEAK. I know that my talent is worthless! My sister, my dad, they're better than me, but I CAN STILL TRY!!!!!" Finally, Gohan's rage at himself boiled over, and his hair began shimmering, between gold and black as his energy climbed higher and higher. He was on the verge of going Super Saiyan, just as he had been on Namek, the only difference being that he was stronger, and he was trying to go Super Saiyan this time.
And with my brother's strength, it was only a matter of time before...
He broke through the barrier with a flash of light and a flaring of energy that almost managed to rival Goku's current maximum.
With Cooler being tired from consecutive fighting, and Gohan being stronger than he'd ever been, the tables were completely flipped. While Cooler was down to about half strength at best, around Gohan's previous maximum, Gohan was stronger than ever. Not only had his power been pushed higher by the Super Saiyan transformation, but his rage had also managed to unlock another bit of his potential, boosting him even further.
As his golden aura spread, encompassing the entire airspace around both him and Cooler, everything seemed to stop. The light breeze fluttering across the area seemed to stop as Gohan's energy encompassed everything in sight.
Then...
"Golden Flashes of Judgement." With that quiet declaration, Gohan's attack began.
It started with a flash of light, then suddenly there was a cut along Cooler's back, a long, bleeding cut. Then more flashes, from every direction, assaulting Cooler in an unpredictable pattern. Gohan was compressing his gigantic aura into concentrated blasts, which would then hit Cooler from every direction almost at random. It kept going and going. Cooler tried to block it with a cocoon of energy around his body, but it was shattered in an instant. He tried to protect his vitals by channeling his energy, but the next barrage of flashes simply cut his leg off instead. They simply kept going and going, until finally, Gohan's all-encompassing aura had lost most of its density, leaving a battered, bloody, and broken Cooler on the ground, barely alive.