Cosmic Crisis 2 - The Return of Orion
Written By Erin Miller - nekochan016@aol.com

Chapter 18 - Training

	"Well on to stage one.  Natalie, since you're far more advanced
than Goku was when he first showed up, I won't go through the whole
"catch bubbles" routine." King Kai explained to Natalie, with a cheesy
grin on his face throughout the whole thing.  "However, you will have to
endure strenuous training while you're here, and you will have to keep
up with Goku and Vegita.  Are you willing to do so?" he asked.  She
nodded in reply.  Vegita smirked.  
	"Heh.  I doubt that you'll be able to keep up with us." Vegita
said to her.  She just shot him a glare and turned back to King Kai.  
	"It's fine with me." She said.  
	"Alright.  Then we'll start off light with ordinary sparring. 
And no ki attacks." King Kai said.  "Natalie you can go with Vegita this
time."
	"My pleasure." Vegita said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.  
	"Oh, come off it, Vegita.  I'm not all THAT bad, you know." Natalie
snapped.  Vegita shut up and began to spar with her.
	"I see you got all made up to visit us, huh?" Vegita said, observing
Natalie's makeup.
	"Actually", she began, "I had an unfortunate encounter with the
snake princess and just barely managed to escape.  Why, you think it
brings out my eyes?" She said, winking at him while dodging one of his
attempted blows to the stomach.  Vegita just clenched his teeth and
fought more fiercely, determined to get her at a weak moment and
dissipate her cocky attitude.  
	On Earth, Kira and Trunks were training in the gravity room. 
They had been doing so for almost three hours, taking a break every 45
minutes.  
	"Had enough yet?" Trunks asked, wiping a bit of sweat off his brow. 

	"Yeah." The girl said, panting, and crouching with her hands on
her knees.  She hadn't trained this hard since her grandpa had been
killed.  She was very happy that her own dad was training her.  In the
future, he had taken over Capsule Corp. after her great-grandpa had
retired, so her dad never really had time to train with her.  Often, her
mother would help him run the company to keep herself busy during the
day.  Kira sighed to herself.  Maybe it would all change as a result of
Orion's defeat?  She could only hope.
	"Come on, then.  Let's go in and get you cleaned up." Trunks said. 
Kira stood up straight and followed her dad into the building with the
ends of her training pants dragging under her feet.  As she walked
inside, she felt so dizzy and far away from the reality that stood right
before her.  All of the colors and shapes began swimming and twisting in
front of her eyes, and she felt like she could reach out and mold them
into desirable shapes.
	"Kira?  Are you okay?" Trunks asked, noticing her far away look.
 She heard him, but his voice was distorted, and out of sync with his
lip movements.  She fell off balance, swaying from side to side.  She
almost fell, but Trunks caught her and knelt down, looking into her eyes
with worry expressed in his own.  Kira tried to say something, but her
mouth couldn't form words, and she couldn't produce sounds.  Trunks
immediately noticed this and remembered that these symptoms were a
result of an extremely low supply of energy.  If he didn't get help
soon, all of her systems would shut down and suffocate her.
	"Damnit." He hissed.  He had already lost one person today.  He
wasn't about to lose another.  He didn't waste one precious second
calling for his mother.  He brought Kira into his arms and lifted her
off of the ground, holding her close to his muscular chest.  She just
shuddered in his grasp.  Without wasting anymore time, he ran for
Natalie's room.  He heard Bulma walk up the stairs in her lab coat,
obviously aware that something was wrong.
	"Trunks?  Kira?  Can you hear me?  What's going on?" the blue-haired
woman called as she took slow steps up the stairs.  Trunks lay Kira on
the bed in her back with her legs stretched out and her hands folded
across her chest.  He then placed his one palm on top of her tiny hands
and another on her forehead and began to donate some of his energy to
her.  Based on past experiences with Natalie, this should fix the
problem.  After about ten seconds, Trunks staggered forward and lost his
concentration.
	"That should be enough." He said, his voice nothing more than a
whisper.  He then slumped onto the bed, sitting next to the still
unconscious Kira.  He ran his hand down her cheek and brushed strands of
purple hair out of her face.  Seeing her made his heart melt.  But it
wasn't the same feeling he got when he looked at Natalie.  No, he knew
this was something different.  After this, he would be more careful and
protective of his daughter.  Maybe training her wasn't the best idea. 
At least not for three hours.  He seemed to forget her tender age when
he had been sparring with her in the gravity chamber.  She had so much
power, so much potential.  She went Super Saiyan at age five!  Of
course, she was the offspring of two incredibly fierce warriors. 
Thinking about Natalie made him sad, angry.  He was angry with her for
overextending herself.  Her was angry with himself for letting her go
off alone, not knowing what dangers lie ahead.  
	Just then, Bulma popped her head into the room.  Her blue hair
was pulled into a messy bun and she had goggles hanging from her neck.  
	"Are you two okay?" she asked, studying the scene.  "You seemed
to hurry inside.  I thought that something might be wrong."
	"No, everything's fine, mom." Trunks lied.  "She's just tired."
	"Okay.  If you need anything I'll be in the lab."
	"Sure." Trunks replied.  He didn't want to tell her the truth. 
If he did, she would never let Kira get near the gravity room again.  He
knew that after a day of recuperating, she would be up and ready to go. 
That's how Saiyans tended to be.  She stirred in her sleep, catching
Trunks' eye.  As he looked down at her, she opened her large green eyes
and squinted her eyes as they focused on the figure of her father.  When
she saw him, she smiled and sat up in bed.
	"D-Daddy." She said, rubbing her eyes.  "What happened?"
	"You were just low on energy, that's all." Trunks replied.  He
looked into the green eyes of his daughter and felt his heart melt as he
fell in love.  
	"Shit!" Natalie cried as Vegita landed a blow to her face.  Vegita
smirked, a sign that he had succeeded.  Natalie growled in anger as a
tiny trail of blood ran down her chin.  She continued to battle fiercely
with the cocky Saiyan prince while Goku and King Kai watched in
amazement.
	"I must say this girl has amazing skill." King Kai commented.
	"Trunks and Vegita trained her." Goku said, still focused on the
fight.  "She worked really hard, from what I hear."
	"That's good.  We have a lot to work with then." King Kai
replied.
	"Are you going to teach her the Kaioken technique?" Goku asked,
not turning to King Kai.
	"I'm not sure.  Besides, you and Vegita are going to train her. 
I'm just the supervisor."
	"Really?  Wow." Goku said, and turned back to Natalie and Vegita's
sparring match.  They were both equally matched when it came to skill,
but it was shown from previous training sessions on Earth that Natalie
had an advantage when it came to ki attacks.  After a few more minutes,
King Kai had them stop so that he could examine their state.  Natalie
had a bloody lip and a few red spots on her arms that would develop into
bruises later on.  Vegita had suffered a few blows to the face as well
and his wrists were bruised from blocking Natalie's attacks. 
	"Well done you two." King Kai said.  "After you cool off, we can
begin using ki attacks."
	"Oh." Natalie said in between heavy breaths to satisfy her body's
oxygen demands.  "Do I still get to spar with his Royal Highness over
here?  I wouldn't want to deflate his ego or anything." She finished. 
Vegita shot a furious glare at Natalie and she replied with a sneer.  
	"You little brat!" he cried and threw a punch at her chest. 
Unfortunately for him, she just blocked it and sent her foot straight
between his legs in a not-so-great place almost on instinct.  Vegita's
eyes bugged and he doubled over.  Goku was using all of his will power
to keep a straight face, but King Kai had given up and exploded into a
fit of laughter.  While Vegita was lying on the ground, Natalie walked
away and sat down in front of a tree, three feet from where Piccolo was
meditating.  He cracked one of his eyes open and looked at her as she
brought her knees to her chest and rested her head on them.
	"So they tired you out already, did they?" Piccolo asked with
his usual tone.  Natalie turned her head to face him.
	"No." she replied.  
	"Well what are you doing over here?  Can't you see that I'm busy?"
he said coldly.
	"Sorry to bother." She said and walked away with her arms crossed. 
Piccolo just rolled his eyes and continued meditating.  Natalie joined
Goku and Vegita once again.
	"Oh, there you are." King Kai said, seeing Natalie walk up.  "We
were just about to start again.  Uh...I don't suggest sparring with
Vegita right now.  He's a bit...angry." King Kai finished.  Natalie
glanced over to where Vegita was standing against the side of the house
with a sadistic look on his face.
	"Oh I think I can take him on." Natalie said, deliberately trying to
catch Vegita's attention.  His head snapped around and he looked at
Natalie with a lethal glare in his eyes.  
	"Bring it on." He growled.  Natalie got into a fighting stance.
	"Now, now you two.  I don't think it would be wise to-"
	"Shut up old man.  She brought it on herself." Vegita snapped,
getting into a fighting stance as well.  The two just looked at each
other, waiting for the other to make the first move.  Suddenly, Vegita's
eye twitched and Natalie flew at him with amazing speed.  Vegita just
dodged and tried to bring her down with a blow to the back, but she
swung around before he got a chance.  
	"If you think I'm going to hold out on you this time you're making a
mistake." Vegita said in an angry tone.  Natalie suddenly stopped
fighting and stood before him with her arms crossed.
	"So you had been holding back, huh?" she said, obviously annoyed. 
"Did you think I couldn't take it or something?"
	"A puny female like yourself can hardly take getting up on time
in the morning!  What makes you think you're an adequate fighter?"
Vegita shot back.
	"Puny female?  Take that back you egotistical ass hole!" she
shouted.
	"Or maybe if you could take your mind off my son for a few minutes,
you could concentrate on more important things." Vegita shouted,
continuing to taunt Natalie.
	"Oh, that's it." Natalie said, producing an unusually enraged
look on her face.  "You are going to be sorry."
	"Try me." Vegita said.  Suddenly Natalie's aura exploded before
her and her hair flashed gold, spiking outwards.  She let out a scream
and then looked back at Vegita with an absolutely infuriated look on her
eyes.  
	"What the hell?" Vegita said.  He hadn't seen her go super Saiyan
for the first time on Earth, and didn't know that she had the ability. 
After a few seconds of surprise, he regained his composure and sneered. 
"I can do that too, you know." He said, and then transformed as well.  
	"Let's go." Natalie said with a smirk on her face.  The both
then raced towards each other, battling faster than the eye could see. 
Occasionally Goku and King Kai could see a flash of gold, but that was
all.  They heard them yelling insults at each other and throwing
punches. 
	"Goku we have to stop this.  They could seriously hurt each other if
this keeps up." King Kai said, his voice filled with concern and a bit
of annoyance.  Goku nodded and jumped into the battle, pushing Natalie
and Vegita away from each other with his hands.
	"You stay out of this, Kakarott!  If that girl wants to get her
tail kicked, that's her priority." Vegita shouted.
	"You, kick my tail?  I doubt that you royal pain in the ass."
Natalie shouted back.  
	"QUIET!" Goku roared, stunning Natalie and Vegita both.  "King
Kai orders that you two stop this senseless fighting.  We're here to
train, not beat the living hell out of each other." Goku said firmly. 
Natalie had never seen Goku angry like this and was almost afraid.  He
still stood with his hands on both of their chests, making sure that
they wouldn't lunge towards each other.  Natalie knew he was right.  She
had let her rage get the best of her.  Maybe it was the Saiyan side of
her surfacing, but, whatever it was, she didn't like it.  
	"I-I'm..." Natalie started.  Her ego was trying to prevent her
from doing this, but she shoved that aside.  "I'm sorry, Vegita.  I
could hardly control what I was doing.  I didn't mean to-"
	"Hmph." Vegita said, folding his arms.  "I didn't think you'd
give up that easily."
	"Why you-" Natalie started, but was stopped abruptly by Goku's
strong grip.
      	"Natalie, stop.  What's come over you?" Goku said, gripping
her shoulders and facing her.  
	"I-I don't know..." she said.  "But why aren't you yelling at
Vegita?  He's always mean and nobody ever does anything about THAT!"
Natalie shouted.  Tears streamed down her face and she fought to control
the hiccup-like convulsions that fought to overtake her.  Goku looked at
her and felt sorry for her.  He knew that she couldn't control it when
she became enraged.  It was a common Saiyan trait.  Vegita didn't want
to say so, but he felt sorry for her too.  He knew that these weren't
her normal tendencies.  King Kai had Natalie rest for a while, while
Goku and Vegita sparred.  She staggered over to the tree that she had
been sitting under earlier and slumped onto the ground.  She brought her
knees close to her chest and hugged them, burying her face in the fabric
of her training pants.  She felt like a disgrace.  Here she was, one of
the only female warriors on Earth, and she couldn't keep her temper
under control.  Piccolo was watching her out of the corner of his eye as
she sat sobbing underneath the shade of the tree.  
	"Hmph...pathetic.  Their emotions are their weak spots." Piccolo
muttered.
	"I heard that." Natalie said, not even turning her head.  Piccolo
just growled.
	"It's the truth, whether you like it or not." He replied.
	"Well I'm sorry for having feelings, but unlike you, I can't do
anything about it!  And while you're meditating why don't you
concentrate on ways to stop acting like such an ass to every person that
comes within ten feet of you!" Natalie cried, taking in a large amount
of air and sighing.  Her head was throbbing and she could hear her pulse
in her ears.  
	"Heh.  You're worse than Bulma." He said, allowing a smirk to
form on his face.
	"In that case you don't know me very well." Natalie said, smiling as
well.  The two then sat in silence, the only noises in the background
being Goku and Vegita's grunts and shouts as they sparred fiercely under
King Kai's watch.  "And anyways, I don't know if I 'm going to be able
to take this until we're wished back." She continued.  
	"Surely you won't give up that easily.  I thought you were supposed
to be a great fighter." Piccolo commented.  "Though, I wouldn't expect
much for a female."
	"Don't be sexist!" She cried.  "It's obvious that I'm as good a
fighter as anyone here.  After all, Orion killed you three.  I defeated
him."
	"Yes, but then how did you end up here?" Piccolo asked with his
harsh tone of voice.
	"Well..." Natalie started.  It was obvious that she was ashamed
of the cause of her death.  "I overextended myself in training."
	"And we all know that none of the fighters here would be foolish
enough to do such a thing." Piccolo said with a sneer on his face.
	"Hey give me some credit here.  I've only been training for four
months." Natalie huffed, folding her arms.  Piccolo facefaulted.
	"F-four...four months?" he stammered.  "T-then how did you become as
powerful as us?  We've trained all our lives to achieve this level of
power!"
	"It...comes naturally?  What can I say I had powerful parents."
Natalie said, with a hint of pride in her voice.  "Besides I had some
help." She continued, and nodded her head in Vegita's direction. 
Piccolo smirked.  
	"Well even if you are as powerful as you claim, that doesn't
make you any more of a fighter than us." He began.  "We have all learned
that with great power comes tremendous responsibility and maturity."
	"Yeah, yeah I know all that.  Don't blame me for oversleeping
once in a while." She said, smiling.  "So then why did you sacrifice
your life fighting Orion?" Natalie asked.  "I mean, you could have just
watched from a distance and you wouldn't have been killed."
	"I suppose it's my duty.  If you had presented me with the same
situation twenty years ago I would have blown you to bits." He replied. 
Natalie cringed at Piccolo's comment, knowing that he spoke the truth.
	"NATALIE!" King Kai called.  Natalie's head perked up and she looked
in his direction.
	"Yes?" she shouted back.
	"It's time to train once more.  Are you ready for it?" the god
asked.  Natalie remembered fighting with Vegita earlier and almost
backed out.  She then remembered Piccolo's words, "tremendous
responsibility and maturity".  She then swallowed her pride, stood on
her feet, and walked towards King Kai with a look of determination on
her face.