Cosmic Crisis 3 - A New Enemy

Chapter 8 - Infatuation

Bulma held the microchip in her hands, beaming with pride.

"I've done it Goku-san!" she said. "Now all I have to do is install it in a machine to put it into effect. This will be a piece of cake!"

"I knew you could do it, Bulma." Goku said happily.

"Come on." Bulma said, grabbing a bad full of technical equipment. "Let's get back before everyone starts to worry."

"Hai." Goku said. He stepped towards Bulma and placed his hand on her shoulder. "You got everything?" he asked.

"I do." She replied, hoisting the bad onto her hip. Goku placed his two forefingers on his forehead and they were teleported back to Hawaii. When they arrived, everything was the same as when they left, with the exception that Bra and Pan were playing near the shore instead of sitting with Chi-Chi and Videl. Vegeta, who had been sitting alone on the beach, acknowledged the presence of Goku and his mate, and sprang to his feet.

"Well?" he said, almost demandingly. Bulma dug in her bag and pulled out the microchip.

"This is the key to our problem." She said proudly. "I've brought a chip duplicator to make several of these, and then I need to hook them up to a generator." She explained. Vegeta stared at her, his left eye twitching. She then grabbed his hand and dragged him away from the beach. "Come on." She said, pulling him. "I need to do this somewhere else because I don't want to risk sand getting into the machines."

"Why do you want me!?" Vegeta protested.

"Because I said so." Bulma said sternly, but happily. Vegeta just sighed and relented to his mate.

Meanwhile, on the beach, Bra and Pan were splashing in the water, which was up to their waists. They had also gathered several fragments of shells, which they placed on the sand for safekeeping.

"Bra." Pan said in her tiny little voice. Bra stopped splashing and looked at her young friend.

"Nani Pan-chan?" she replied.

"Where is Nat-chan?" she asked. "I don't see her nowhere."

"I dunno." Bra replied, scanning the beach. "Maybe she's with Niichan." She trailed off.

"I can't feel her no more." Pan commented.

"Me neither." Bra said. They then dismissed the thought and continued to splash in the ocean.

Later that day, after everyone had gotten bored with the beach, the groups had headed inside, and were taking a break in their respective rooms. Bulma was finishing up the last of her inventions while Vegeta showered.

Trunks sat in his room, still huddled up in the corner. Her was staring at Natalie's bag, with her clothes strewn about. Goten had warned Pan and Bra to keep their distance from him, to avoid any serious problems. In his mind, Trunks kept hearing a far away echo of Natalie's voice, and the beach scene kept replaying in his mind. Goten was debating on whether to say something to Trunks, but his instincts told him to forget about it. There was no way he was going to risk Trunks losing control again. There were too many lives at stake. Suddenly, there was an excited knock on the door, causing Trunks to snap out of his reverie. Goten jumped up to answer it, and as he opened the door, a very eager Bulma charged into the room with an armload of equipment.

"I did it you guys!" she said. "I am such a genius!" Trunks glared at her.

"Too bad you couldn't have done it in time to save others." He said icily. Bulma withdrew and looked wounded.

"Trunks...you know I would have saved Natalie if I had gotten the chance." She said. Trunks just looked away from her in disgust.

"This is fucked up." He shouted, pummeling his fist into the bed. "Even if your little inventions do work they can't bring Natalie back." Bulma went from being hurt to angry.

"Listen here, Trunks!" she shouted. Trunks looked at her in shock. "I know there is no doubt in your mind that I am very attached to Natalie as well, and I didn't allow her to disappear purposely! If you would open your mind a little, maybe you would see that I'm trying here! It's more than you can say for yourself! All you do is sit alone and stare at the wall!" she said, inhaling deeply and becoming flushed with fury. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go formulate a time traveling plan!" she berated, and stormed out of the room, leaving behind a very stunned Trunks and Goten.

"I guess she wasn't in the mood to take any shit, was she?" Goten commented. Trunks looked down at the floor.

"I deserved that. She worked so hard and all I could do was place the blame on her." Trunks said. "I-I just...I can't explain it, Goten. I know it sounds corny, but I don't know how I would live without her."

"Don't worry about it Trunks. My only regret is that I don't know what it's like to feel deep love for someone." Goten trailed off. Trunks looked at his friend and then allowed a faint smile to form on his lips.

"Look at us, Goten. We're a couple of saps, aren't we?" he said. Goten smirked and walked across the room as he took his shirt off.

"Whatever you say, your highness. Anyway, I'm gonna get in the shower." Goten said. Trunks nodded as Goten walked into the bathroom and shut the door. Trunks turned back to Natalie's bag, and sighed. It stabbed at his heart, just knowing what Natalie must have felt as he held her neck in his iron grip. The agony of it all was punishment enough, and Trunks well knew that when and if they brought her back, she would be extremely distrustful of him. Hell he'd be surprised if she even spoke to him again. Just then, at the high point of his frustration, Bra and Pan just happened to walk into the room.

"Hi Niichan!" Bra said. Trunks looked at her with a contemptuous look on his face, which made Bra shy away.

"Nani? What do you want?" Trunks said.

"Well, I was wondering if you could teach me to learn to fly." Bra said, grammatically butchering her sentence. Trunks did a double take.

"F-fly? But why do you want to do that?" he asked.

"Cus I want to!" Bra whined. "Please?" Trunks sighed. Well, at least she would learn quickly since she was half Saiya-jin and she already had the ability hidden within her. Hopefully, anyway.

"Alright, but you owe me." Trunks said, dragging his body off of the bed and stretching. Bra clapped her hands excitedly and jumped up and down.

"Didja hear that Pan?" Bra said, slurring her words together. "I'm gonna fly!" Pan just stared at her friend with a grinning expression and nodded. Trunks grabbed Bra and held her up to eye level while she giggled with delight.

"First, you have to raise your power level to a significant amount." Trunks explained. "Apparently, you were born with it." He examined his little sister for a few seconds. He was amazed at how light she was in his arms. "I think we'll need to go outside. Come on." Trunks said, tucking the girl under his arm and flying out the window at a super sonic speed. In less than five seconds, they were at the beach. Trunks scanned the shore. <There are too many people here> Trunks thought to himself. <It's too risky>

"Are we there yet?" Bra shouted over the rushing wind. Trunks shook his head.

"Iie...we have to find a secluded spot." He explained.

"What's secluded?" Bra inquired. Trunks scowled.

"I brought you here to teach you to fly, not to be your personal dictionary." He said. He finally located an empty section of the beach and he lowered his altitude as he drew close to it. The finally landed and Trunks set his sister down on the sand. "Now...first you have to imagine yourself flying through the sky. It all starts out as mental manifestation." Bra shut her little blue eyes and imagined herself as a bird. "Imagine your ki surrounding you as you propel yourself through the air." Bra's power level started to increase slightly and her aura expanded just enough to be noticeable by Trunks.

"Am I doing it?" she said, continuing to clench her fists and stare intently into nothingness.

"Keep on." Trunks said. "Focus on directing your ki to flow through you and lift you off the ground." Bra started to rise above the sand a couple of inches, but she became so excited that she lost her train of thought and fell back to the sand. Her eyes welled up with tears and she began to cry.

"I-I can't g-get it." She said in between wails. Trunks robbed his forehead.

"Bra-chan it takes practice." He explained. "But, you've basically learned to hover. Now you just need to put more effort into it." Bra folded her arms and looked out towards the ocean.

"I wish it just came naturally to me. Just like it did for Kira." She said bitterly. Trunks stumbled back a few steps at the mention of her name.

"B-bra, Kira...she..." he trailed off, forcing back tears. "Kira had been training since she was three. She has a couple of years advantage."

"Niichan are you crying?" Bra asked, looking up at her brother. Trunks immediately turned away.

"Of course not." He said. "I'm just fine."

"Niichan what happened to Natalie?" Bra questioned. "Is she gone?" Trunks clenched his fists impulsively.

"Come on, we're going back." He said, and started to grab Bra, but she jumped away.

"No! Tell me the truth!" Bra demanded. Trunks glared at her.

"You brat! We're going back now!" he said, and grabbed her by the arm. She cried and propelled herself away from him in fear. She then realized that she was hanging three feet in the air and fell down again, and became vulnerable to Trunks. He seized the opportunity and grabbed his sister again, and flew back to the hotel at top speed.

They arrived soon after, and Trunks forced himself through the partially open window, sister in tow. She was crying and whining to get free, so Trunks released her and she fell to the ground with a thud. He then shut the window behind him and allowed himself to fall onto the bed. Goten, who had just finished his shower, emerged from the foggy, steam-filled bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. His wet hair clung to his neck and beads of water ran down his chin.

"Trunks is something the matter?" Goten said timidly. Trunks, who was resting his elbows in his knees and grasping chunks of his purple hair in frustration, shook his head. Goten looked at him skeptically. "Come on, when I left to shower you were doing better. What happened?" Trunks raised his head and made eye contact with Goten, but refused to speak. Goten grew exasperated very quickly and unloaded. "You know something Trunks? You are being such a child about this. Instead of trying to figure out how to save Nat, all you can do is feel sorry for yourself and lay around, while everybody else works. And if it's not good enough, you feel obligated to let loose on them!" Goten shouted. "Maybe if you would get off your ass and try a little, we could get closer to bringing her back!" Trunks dropped his jaw but quickly put it back into place.

"Come off it Goten!" he retaliated. "I can't explain the feeling!"

"Trunks, what are we going to do with you? You become so attached to someone and it blinds you...you aren't rational." Goten said, lowering the tone of his voice.

"Love isn't rational Goten. You'll find out one of these days." Trunks said, quieting down as well. "You feel like you just can't breathe knowing that the one you love is in pain."

"Trunks you sound like a romance novel." Goten interjected.

"Goten!" Trunks cried. "You are so insensitive! Can't you open your mind for a moment and try to understand?"

"According to you, I can't understand the concept of love until I've experienced it." Goten replied dryly. Trunks folded his arms and turned away angrily, but his senses picked up on something and his head snapped up. "What is it?" Goten asked. He then felt the power as well.

"Goten...do you think it could be..." Trunks started.

"It's not Natalie." Goten replied. "It's very similar to hers, which is strange since her ki is so much different than ours."

"There's three." Trunks said. They looked at each other and nodded. The two Saiya-jins flew out the window and raced across the sky. "They're heading straight for us!" Trunks said. "How could they possible find us out here?"

"They must be locked on to our ki." Goten said. "I can't tell whether it's evil or not. But we have to be on guard." Suddenly, three dim balls of light appeared low in the sky. They weren't in any formation, but it was apparent that they were all together. The balls grew brighter and slightly larger as they came closer.

"They're going to wreck this island when they land!" Trunks exclaimed. "There are too many people!" Finally, the balls grew to the size of baseballs from Trunks and Goten's perspective. No more than thirty seconds later, the balls, which were now recognizable as space travel pods, zoomed just feet over the heads of the teenage boys, causing wind to rip through the area, almost knocking them over. Trunks and Goten prepared for the Earth-shattering impact of the pods as they continued on, but, to their amazement, just as the ships were about to hit the ground head on, they slowed to a halt, hanging in the air for a few seconds before falling on the ground with a consecutive thud noise. As the dust settled and the wind died down, Trunks and Goten stood in place, sweat dripping down their foreheads. Trunks gulped, and Goten dared to take a step forward.

"I don't like the looks of this." Goten said. "We should get the others."

"Iie." Trunks said, outstretching his arm to block Goten. "We don't want to make a scene. Besides, we don't have enough time." Goten stood in place and they waited. There was a painful period of silence before the sound of the airlock hissed and broke the ice.

"Trunks...those look just like Orion's pod." Goten said, growing fearful. Trunks cursed under his breath as the doors slid open agonizingly slow. Before Trunks and Goten could react to their latest observation, three figures emerged from their respective ships. As they came out of the shadows, Trunks and Goten gasped and almost fell backward. The middle figure came forward and spoke in a commanding voice.

"This must be Earth."