Cosmic Crisis

Chapter 8 - Changes

Natalie and Trunks were suited up in their training clothes and were preparing to undergo gravity training. Vegita opened the door to the main gravity room, where he began to set the controls for Trunks' training. Then, he opened a second door from inside the first room, which led to a second gravity room. There was a thick glass window in the door, so they could see each other. Vegita stepped into the second room with Natalie, and explained the controls to her as he set them for two times Earth's gravity. When he was finished, he walked out of the two rooms and pressed the "Begin" button on the outside. There, he could monitor their progress through a series of cameras located all over the inside of the structure. As soon as the gravity doubled, Natalie could feel the change instantly.

"This isn't so bad." She thought, as she did a series of sit-ups. However, when she was on her third set of push-ups, she began to feel the effects of the gravity increase. Suddenly, Vegita's voice came through on an intercom, and his face appeared on a screen on the wall.

"It's time to train." He said, and pressed another button. Then, two small robots came out of a sliding door in Natalie's chamber and powered on. "You must destroy these in order to proceed to the next level." He said, and then shut off the talk-screen. Natalie began to prepare herself for the battle. She powered up just enough to shoot ki blasts. The robots began to shoot electric beams out of their eyes, which Natalie either dodged or reflected.

"Hyaaa!" she shouted as she shot a blast at one robot, destroying it, leaving only a pile of scorched scrap metal in it's place. The second robot retaliated and doubled its energy output. Natalie easily dodged the attacks, but was beginning to tire. As the robot continued to pour out more and more energy, Natalie was having difficulty keeping up under the increase of gravity. When she thought that she could no longer take the pain, her ki flared and formed a shield around her body. Her hair and clothes began to rise from the enormous increase in power. She closed her eyes and brought her left hand above her head.

"Akiyah..." she said, as blue energy surged through her arm to her hand. Suddenly, she clenched her fist and screamed, "...Meh!" and brought her hand down, aiming her attack at the robot. The energy slammed into it and vaporized it instantly, leaving no evidence that anything was even there, aside from the burn marks. All of the sudden, Natalie's ki powered down and she returned to a normal state.

"Where did that come from!?" she said, looking down at her hands. She turned and looked through the window that connected the two gravity rooms together and observed Trunks looking at her with a surprised expression on his face. Vegita was standing outside the rooms looking at a control panel, observing Natalie's energy levels. He came in on the talk-screen in her chamber.

"Well done. Now it's time for the next level. I'm increasing your gravity to three times." He said, and increased the gravity, which Natalie could feel.

"Please..." she said. "Let me take a break. I'm too worn out to continue."

"That's why you train like this, no that next time you won't be worn out. Now go!" he said, and switched off the screen.

"Jerk." She muttered under her breath, and sat down, stretching her muscles.

Trunks was training under one-hundred times normal gravity, and he was fighting five of the same robots that Natalie had previously destroyed, with the exception that these were much more powerful.

"Kamehameha!" he shouted, and blasted one of the robots. It shielded itself for the most part, and came back for more. "Guess I'll have to use brute force." He said, and shot at the bots with amazing speed, fists first. "Hyaaa!" he said as he punched the robots. He destroyed one and badly damaged another, which he took out with a ki blast. "Two down, three to go." He said, rubbing his hands together. He battled the droids as Natalie prepared for her second round of robot destroying. She was doing a series of sit-ups, when the door opened in the side and three robots appeared. She gathered her strength and stood to face them. One began to power up and fired a blast, but she shielded herself with her hands and reflected the attack right back at it.

"Hah!" she shouted, and blasted the already damaged robot. It blew up and charred bits of metal flew everywhere. She began to attack the second one physically, taking it down with one swoop of her leg, and then beating it over the head with her fists. She grabbed the neck of the machine and pulled up, ripping the head off, and then destroying the remains. Trunks watched in awe of her amazing agility and speed.

"She could pass as a saiyan." He thought.

Natalie blasted the third droid, but it reflected the attack and sent it flying back in her direction, which she blocked with another blast. She flew at it and kicked it in the back of the head, sending it hurling to the other side of the gravity chamber. As it began to get up, she stomped on it's head, causing it to mal-function and then sent a ki blast at it.

"Take that you piece of scrap metal." She said, wiping the sweat off her forehead. She was hot, so she removed her tank top, and was left in her sports bra and gym shorts. She pressed a button on the control panel, and Vegita's face appeared on the talk-screen.

"Can I please take a break?" she begged, mopping her forehead with her shirt.

"Fine, but make it quick." He said, and informed Trunks so that she could pass through his chamber without getting hurt. She walked through the sliding door and reached Trunks, who was sweating profusely. She tossed him her shirt, and then left the room, grabbing a bottle of water out of Vegita's hands.

"Thanks." She said, taking in a gulp. Vegita just grumbled. Trunks wiped the sweat off of his body with Natalie's shirt. He noticed that it smelled like her, fragrant but fresh.

"Dad, can I take a break as well?" he asked, poking his head outside where Vegita and Natalie stood.

"Fine." He said, and allowed him to pass. Trunks and Natalie sat on the ground with their backs against the building, sharing a bottle of water between them. When the bottle was passed back to Natalie, she finished it off, just to annoy Trunks.

"Hey! Thanks for leaving me some!" he laughed and grabbed the bottle from her hands, running inside to refill it. When he returned, he had packages of rice crackers for them to eat.

"Thanks." She said, taking a package and ripping open, devouring the contents. Vegita looked at his watch.

"It's 6:45. I guess we can call it a day." He said, and switched off the gravity chambers. The three headed back into Capsule Corp. to shower and get ready for dinner. Natalie called the shower first again, and hopped in before Trunks or Vegita could even protest. But while she was in, they hatched an evil scheme. They turned on the other showers in the house to "hot", causing Natalie's water to run cold. They soon heard an ear splitting shriek from upstairs, signaling that their plan had worked. They both laughed at her fate, while Bulma walked into the sitting room with an apron on.

"Oh, so you think that's funny, huh?" she said to Vegita.

"Uh...well..." he sputtered.

"Fine. Since you don't seem to be busy, why don't you help me with dinner." She said, grabbing him by the ears and dragging him into the kitchen. Trunks watched while Bulma dragged his helpless father into the cooking room and forced him to stir the rice.

"What are you staring at!?" she shouted at Trunks. "You're helping too!" she said, and grabbed him by the arm. Soon, dinner was prepared, and the three fighters had been showered. Natalie kept glaring at Trunks across the table, while he tried his best not to make eye contact with her. When they had finished, Trunks and Vegita began to get up from the table, but were stopped by Bulma.

"Where do you think you're going? You still have to do the dishes!" she said, and got up from the table. Natalie got up as well, shooting Trunks and Vegita a look that told them she didn't pity them. Natalie walked up the stairs while Trunks and Vegita argued about which dish detergent to use. Tem minutes later, when they had finished, Trunks walked upstairs towards his room, passing Natalie's on the way. She had her door open, and Trunks peeked in. She was lying on the bed on top of the covers, obviously exhausted from the day's events. Intending to get back at her, he ran in and jumped on the bed, startling the girl. She inhaled sharply, and was about to let out a scream, when Trunks covered her mouth and eyes with his hands.

"Guess who?" he asked. A muffled sound came from her mouth. "What was that? I can't hear you!" he teased, and the sound was heard again. Suddenly, Natalie bit his hand as hard as she could, causing Trunks to jump back.

"Ow!" he said, holding his hand.

"That's what you get for scaring the life out of me!" she said angrily.

"Oh I don't know, you look alive to me." He joked. Natalie sighed with disgust, and narrowed her eyes, looking at Trunks with an evil glare on her face. Without warning, she pounced on him, forcing him onto his back. When she had him pinned, she chuckled to herself.

"Heh. Weakling." She said, her face inches away from his.

"Weakling, huh?" he said. "I'll show you!" He jumped up with amazing speed, and before she could react, he had her on her back, with her arms pinned to the bed. "Who's the weakling, now?" he said with a playful smirk on his face. Natalie leaned up and planted a playful peck on his cheek. Trunks' eyes went big and Natalie got a serious look in her eyes.

"Trunks! Natalie!" Bulma called from downstairs. They both jumped away from each other immediately.

"Oh...heh heh. I g-guess I'll go see what mom wants." Trunks said, turning bright red.

"Trunks!" Bulma said, walking into the room, almost smacking straight into Trunks. "What's going on here?" she asked, observing the two teenagers.

"Nothing!" Natalie said, sitting up. "We're fine!" she reassured.

"Okay...well I just wanted to tell you that I made apple pie. Feel free to have some." She said, and walked out of the room. Natalie stood up and made her way out of the room, bumping into Trunks on the way.

"Sorry!" she said quickly, and left nervously to go downstairs. The two teens ate slices of apple pie while Bulma and Vegita were upstairs in bed.

"Good pie." Natalie said quietly.

"Yeah." Trunks said. Neither of the two looked at each other.

"Oh Trunks this is so stupid!" Natalie said, frustrated. Trunks looked up with crumbs on his face. Natalie began to giggle at the sight. She flicked a piece of pie at his face.

"Hey!" Trunks said, and did the same, smacking it right onto her chin. The both laughed and threw pie at each other until there was no more on their plates. They both cleaned up and ran upstairs to wash the sticky pie off their faces. When they had finished, Trunks wandered into Natalie's room, where she was lying on the bed with no lights on, looking out the window at the stars.

"Hey." He said, lying on the bed next to her.

"Hi." She replied softly. Her eyes were halfway closed.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know...I'm just afraid."

"Of what?" he asked, scooting closer to her.

"Of him." She said. Trunks knew that she was talking about Orion.

"Don't worry. I won't let him take you." He said, running his hand through her soft brown hair. Natalie rested her head next to his chest, and they both lay on their backs, gazing out the window at the stars above.

"They're pretty, aren't they?" she whispered.

"Yeah..." Trunks replied. Natalie looked up at the heavens, letting the light of the stars embrace her soul. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep in Trunks' arms. Trunks watched her as she slept, stroking her cheek. He gave her a soft kiss on the forehead, and then drifted off to sleep under the stars.