Cosmic Crisis 3 - A New Enemy

Chapter 43 - Nat's Abilities Shine Through

As he lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, Sirius wanted to die. He knew he shouldn't have kissed her. He knew he shouldn't have tried to talk to her. What was he thinking? Now she probably hated him, and wouldn't talk to him for days. Here he was, the perfect hybrid, with all the potential in the world, and now he was suddenly vulnerable and weak. Knowing all this, he could not shake the uneasy feelings to save his life. He decided to do what any Saiya-jin would do in circumstances such as these. He was going to train in the gravity room.

However, it was already occupied.

Natalie had already worked enough to break a sweat, but she didn't even think about stopping. She punched invisible enemies and ki blasted the walls and ceilings, just getting the benefits of exertion on her own. Whenever she started to lag, she used her emotions for fuel. Hermes had tried to take away everything she loved. BAM. She was a teenage mother, not by her free will. BAM. She would never be the same again. BAM.

She kept this up for a few more minutes until she heard the gravity generator die and the metal clanking sound that was only heard when someone entered the gravity room. She expected to see Trunks' face come around the corner and look at her with his blue eyes. Well, the eyes were blue alright, but not to the same depth as she had anticipated.

"Carina?"

"Sirius."

"What are you doing awake, and even more, training in the gravity room?"

"I couldn't sleep. I'm training." She replied plainly, answering his questions and using limited vocabulary. She didn't want to be chewed out because she had dared to get a decent workout while she was pregnant.

"Are you sure you should-"

"Yes." She interrupted. Her heart rate began to slow as a result of her lull in training. "Did you actually need something or did you come here to lecture me?"

"I came to train. You know, let off some steam. Vent. Cool down." He explained. Natalie relaxed and lowered her defenses.

"What's bothering you?" she asked.

"N-nothing." He replied. "You wouldn't understand."

"I'm willing to bet." She replied. "Do I hear twenty dollars?"

"I'm not going to bet with you." He replied, sighing. "It's just not something I want to talk about."

Natalie decided to stop pressing the issue. If he was anything like her, which was likely, considering they were siblings, then he wouldn't want to be interrogated at a time like this.

"Well when you decide to, you can tell me, and I'll listen." She said, offering consolation freely.

"Sure." He replied distantly.

"I thought you wanted to train." Natalie said, piercing the silence.

"I do."

"Well let's go."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"Yeah, come on." Natalie said. "What are you afraid of?"

"Hurting you."

"Are you crazy? Just who do you think I am anyway?"

"Princess Carina." He replied.

"So...does that make me a weak fighter or something?"

"I didn't say that."

"What did you say then?"

"I said I didn't want to hurt you. One, you're pregnant, two, you lost a lot of strength after the transformation and three, I'm stronger than you."

"You are not!" Natalie cried.

"I'm willing to bet. Do I hear twenty dollars?" he replied mockingly. Natalie was not amused.

"You're an ass." Natalie retorted. "The perfect example of Saiya-jin royalty."

"Is that an insult, or a compliment?" he asked.

"Neither. It was an observation." She said. "If you aren't going to train with me, then get out. I was here first, and I'm not leaving."

Sirius stood still for a few minutes, trying to decide how he would remove his sister from the gravity room.

Natalie took his silence as an invitation, and lunged at him, preparing to bring her hands down on top of his head. His reflexes responded and within a split second, he blocked it. Natalie sprung away and prepared to attack again. Sirius remained still.

She didn't understand how he could be so fast and so calm. He hadn't trained since Vela, provided that he trained there at all. But judging by his build, he most likely had.

She jumped up and fired a few weak ki blasts toward him, just for distraction purposes. He blocked them, of course, but while he was busy, she appeared behind him and landed a blow to his back. Somewhat angered, he spun around and attacked her. She managed to dodge most of his attacks, but she made a critical error. When she landed on the floor, she was at such an angle that her foot slid and threw her off balance. During that half-second that she was vulnerable, Sirius struck. He slammed his elbow into the back of her neck, connecting at the base of her skull.

Natalie was stunned as the world around her flashed brilliantly and she fell hard. Her body slid for a few feet before coming to a stop. She was not unconscious, but she didn't feel connected to reality.

Sirius stood back and looked at her. He knew that the blow he just delivered to her head was just what she needed. If he hit her in the right place...she would be just fine. In fact, better than before.

"Itai..." Natalie moaned softly, forcing herself onto her hands and knees. She felt the place on the back of her head throbbing with the beat of her pulse. She couldn't believe that he had gotten the best of her so easily. How on Earth did he do it?

"Stand up, Carina." He said, looking down at her. She did, very slowly, but she did. Her peripheral vision was all but gone, replaced with black, blotchy patches.

"What did you do to me..." she hissed. She was furious. If her head was not pounding, she would have long since ripped him to shreds.

"Relax, neesan." He said, hoping that he hadn't seriously hurt her. He highly doubted it, however, since he was quite familiar with the anatomy of a Sidra-jin.

"I can't..." she replied. "You did something to me."

"I know. Stand up." He repeated. Natalie, using the wall as a support, stood on her feet, trembling.

"Sirius, tell me-"

"Carina, quiet!" he said sternly. Natalie silenced herself and obeyed. He concentrated on her frame and targeted her head specifically. She just stood in place, trying to maintain her balance while her brother was busy with whatever he was doing.

He concentrated on her and sensed a change in her ki. Smiling, he relaxed.

Suddenly, Natalie reeled back and slammed her fist into Sirius' chest, sending him flying back towards the cold, hard steel wall.

Caught off guard, Sirius used his feet to spring off the wall and land.

"That's for hitting me!" Natalie snarled. "Don't you ever try that again or I'll send you to your knees begging for mercy."

Sirius snickered at the irony. Here was his sister, about half his size, pregnant, and relatively weaker, threatening him, and believing that she could harm him.

"I see you have your endurance back." He said. "That's a good sign. You'll begin to notice some changes..."

"What kind of changes?" she asked.

"On Sidra-jins, the central area of psychic ability lies at the base of the skull." He explained. "It's a commodity that the Saiya-jins do not possess, but since you are hybrid, you retain that addition."

"You hit me there...why?"

"In hopes that it would start to work again." He replied. "When you were in the Shiroi no Tenshi state it was activated and perfected as conceptually possible. But, along with the ability to transform into a super Saiya-jin, it was lost when you returned to this planet."

"Well what if it doesn't work?" she asked.

"Then we'll have to approach it differently then." He answered. "It might take a few days just to start working again, and then you'll have to train your ability in order to perfect it."

"Oh! So I'll be able to read minds and stuff?" she asked.

"Not initially, but sooner or later, yes."

"Cool. Now I'll be able to know what Trunks is thinking." She said insightfully. Sirius wondered how he was going to break that news to the purple-haired Saiya-jin.

Ceres sat in the lab, drained of energy. Her stomach was knotted and demanded food, her eyes were tired and her eyelids drooped. She needed to get out of the room, but she was too afraid. She had no idea of what to say to Sirius or how to act around him. She wished that he hadn't told her how he felt; she would have been better off.

"Kami...what am I doing?" she said aloud, throwing her hands up in frustration. "I grew up with him. I can't run from him now that he has feelings for me."

"Er...Ceres..." came a voice. Ceres turned her head dreadfully and locked eyes with Bulma.

"Oh...good morning Bulma-san." She spoke, smiling nervously. "How long were you standing there?"

"Long enough to hear your frustrated mumbling." She said. "You're talking about Sirius, aren't you?"

"How...did you know?" Ceres asked.

"Well, I heard you say that you grew up with the guy, and I put two and two together. Besides, I've seen the way he looks at you."

"Bulma..."

"Ceres don't be so embarrassed." Bulma said, walking into the room and shutting the door softly to deter curious passerby's. "I think it's so great that he likes you."

"You...don't really know him though." Ceres said.

"Oh, I know enough for now. I don't know why you're afraid. He's a very nice young man. Oh listen to me...I sound like an old woman talking."

Ceres forced a nervous laugh. "You're not old Bulma." She said.

"I'm old enough to know what I'm talking about, and I say that you should give him a chance. Personally I don't see what's not to like."

"It's not that I don't like him, because I do. I guess I'm still shocked about it all." Ceres confided. "Nobody has ever told me that they care for me before. Not like that anyway."

"It is an extraordinary feeling, isn't it?" Bulma asked. "I remember when Vegeta and I first started to get into a relationship. Boy, was he hard to tame. Always training and mumbling thinks about defeating Goku. He never smiled unless it was a mocking smirk. He was ungrateful, and constantly degraded humans."

"Then why were you attracted to him?" Ceres inquired.

"I don't know...it's hard to explain. Possibly the challenge of opening up his personality was what first attracted me to him, but the more I got to know him, the more I realized I loved him." She said. "I know you probably don't understand where I'm coming from, but I think you will one day."

"Uh huh." Ceres replied absentmindedly. Her mind was preoccupied with other things.

Natalie threw herself at her brother, knocking him against the wall. While he was temporarily stunned, she sprang away and launched a ki blast. He recovered and deflected it. It whizzed past, narrowly missing her left arm as she twisted around to avoid it.

"Don't just continue to avoid me! Don't you know the art of offense?" Natalie asked, panting.

Sirius didn't reply, instead he attacked her head on. Natalie did a back-flip and sprung off of the side of the wall to avoid the onslaught. When Sirius brought his fists down, she raised her forearm and blocked it, just inches away from her face, Straining, she pushed his hands back and jumped into the air, slamming her feet into his chest. She could feel her ki increasing continuously as she trained. She hoped that she would be able to go super Saiya-jin soon, and that it wouldn't take as long as it did the first time. She also wondered if Sirius was striving to attain the super Saiya-jin stage as well. She definitely knew he had the ability. She even wondered if he was indeed stronger than her.

Suddenly, her instincts told her to move, even though Sirius wasn't making an advancement. Initially, Natalie declined, but the feeling grew so persistent that she finally gave in and jumped out of the way. A split second later, Sirius had faded and appeared where she had just been standing, attempting to grab her by the neck, but obviously failed. Natalie, overwhelmed with confusion on just how she predicted it, stopped in her tracks and lowered her ki slightly. Sirius stood up straight and looked at her.

"I see it's already started taking effect." He said, folding his arms like Vegeta would often do.

"You mean that happened because of my new...power?" she asked.

"It's not really a power, but more of an advantage. It's something you were born with. Get used to it." He replied. Natalie frowned at his "as-a-matter-of-fact" tone of voice.

"You don't have to take on such an arrogant tone when you speak to me or anyone else. The self-righteous approach makes you look like an ass." She said, folding her arms as well. Sirius grunted in reply and dropped his arms to his side. He then took on a defensive stance and they began to train once again.