Crono's Story Chapter 12 I could feel him near me, but I couldn't tell quite where. If only the light had been better, I might've seen him coming, but I couldn't really use that as an excuse, my extra-ordinary hearing should've been enough. He came up behind me, and as I pivoted and swung my elbow towards his head, he zanzokened out of view and he was behind me again. I kicked behind me with as much force as I could muster in that awkward position (not much). He easily caught my foot and flipped me forward. I fell flat on my face, and a fairly familiar elbow greeted my back rather harshly. All the air was knocked out of my body, quite an unusual occurrence considering my training, but Gideon was an unusual human being. After he had embarrassed me, he bent down next to me and whispered, "That's game." I nodded, struggling for air, as he got up and extended a hand in front of me. I grabbed onto it with my left hand and he hoisted me up. "Nice match." I struggled out. "You too." He replied, looking me over for any serious injuries before nodding towards the door to what we'd affectionately dubbed "The Arena". We went out the huge iron doors, and the light from the outside stung my eyes immediately. None of my friends here could understand what it meant to be a Namek, where all the senses are incredibly sensitive and with the high altitude the sun was seemingly closer. I squinted and kept my head low as we headed out together into the courtyard. Yukia and Kennard were waiting patiently outside, meditating, as Gideon and I left The Arena. Once we'd come completely out, they both got up from the ground and nodded to us as they were heading in. I was trying to rub my sore back while still keeping my eyes out of view of the sun, when a voice startled us all "Wait a minute Yukia and Kennard, don't go in yet." We turned to the palace entrance, and there was Kami, the only one on the stinking planet that could begin to understand me. But his senses were dull with age, barely equivalent to that of a human's, his best years were behind him, and I found it hard to even talk to him for some reason, I don't know why. "Don't go into The Arena, there's someone I want you all to meet." Yukia, Kennard, Gideon and I all headed to the palace from the entrance to The Arena. Arsenia was off somewhere near the edge practicing his ki attacks before he went to Kami, while Nikita and Phoenix were already at the palace. Sky Palace had been re-fitted shortly after Goku's disappearance. It was now nearly three times as big as it used to be, and in addition to The Arena, there was a gym, a larger courtyard, and a bunch of small rooms used for meditation and sleep. Once we'd all assembled in front of Kami, Gideon asked, "So whom do you want us to meet?" Kami smiled, showing off his yellow, dull fangs, almost a disgrace to his Namekan heritage. "This little boy is going to be joining our team. His Name is Cris, and he's not from this dimension. He's been here for eight months, but trained under Master Roshi for that time." Great, another recruit, hopefully he could keep up with us. "Come on out Cris." Kami yelled slightly. Out of the darkness of the palace doors came a small figure, dark at first, but as soon as the sun hit him, I got a full look. He hung his head low to start with, so I didn't get a great look at his face. His hair was a bright red, spiked and held in place with hair gel. He looked strong enough, his muscles were well defined and he seemed tall and wide enough. I could sense his ki, fairly weak compared to the rest of us, but for a boy his age, it was amazingly strong really. I saw Kami had already fitted him with weighted clothes and a gi. The orange on it clashed slightly with his hair, but didn't affect his overall feel. He finally looked up, smiling and I examined his face. My first impression was that it was a face that had experienced things that most kids his age hadn't. We all looked him up and down, as he did the same to us. He carried a small bag of things in his hands in front of him; it made him look sort of like a child off to his first day of school. Finally after several seconds of examination, Gideon brushed past me and extended a hand towards Cris. "Hi, my name's Gideon." Cris detached a small paw from his bag and shook Gideon's huge hand. "Hi." Was all he said in a tiny voice. I could tell he was intimidated, which didn't fare well for his chances against the Caprians. Yukia then stepped forward and also shook the boy's hand. One after another, they all introduced themselves, and Cris just took it all in. Finally it was my turn, and Gideon gave me a slight shove forward in my already sore back. I stepped up the steps of the Palace, and stood right in front of Cris. He looked up to me, and I looked back. After several seconds, I stepped back down and extended my hand in the old earth custom. "My name is Karnai." His reply was different than with all the others, he said, "I know." Afterwards Kami guided him towards his room, which was coincidently right beside mine. He unpacked his few meagre possessions, and then came outside to the courtyard. Everyone stood there, looking at him. He just walked by us all, out into the courtyard and proceeded to warm up. He started by doing some sit-ups, and after about a hundred, everyone lost interest and went off to do their own thing. Yukia and Kennard went back to The Arena to begin their sparring problem, Nikita went off to meditate in her room, and Phoenix began zanzokening around the courtyard non-stop. Gideon, Arsenia and I went to practice our ki attacks. We practiced for nearly two hours, the whole time, Cris just worked out. He must've done 10000+ sit-ups, followed by 5000+ squats and push-ups. Afterwards, he seemed slightly winded but that was probably just due to the weighted clothes. Once he was done though, he seemed lost, like a little child who was separated from his parents. I left Gideon and Arsenia to practice and walked up to Cris. "What's wrong?" He looked at me, and grinned slightly before asking sheepishly "Well, what do I do now?" I looked at him sideways, trying to see if he was joking or not, I realized he wasn't. "Well, you can do whatever you want pretty much." He looked at me wide-eyed, like I'd sworn in front of virgin ears. I returned the stare back at him. He shook his head and murmured something I couldn't quite make out. "What?" I asked. He looked up at me then, and replied in a firm voice "Oh, nothing, never mind." I just nodded, as he went about his own business. I returned to Gideon and Arsenia, who were trying to nail insects, a kilometre away from the edge of the tower with ki blasts. I joined in, it seemed like good target practice. I hit a few, but it was hard, my eyes were much better than my human counterparts so I hit a lot more than they did. Soon though we'd cleaned out all the insects that happened to roam at that altitude, and we all went on to our own things. I followed Nikita's lead and began meditating in my room. I concentrated on perfecting one of my newest attacks, the Tsuihidan, running the motions through my mind several times, and watching myself perform the attack in my mind. I spent a good two hours doing this before packing up and going outside again to try and see if I could actually perform the move. Before I got anywhere though, a rather strange site greeted me. Cris was in the courtyard circled by everyone else, and they were all firing ki blasts at the new trainee simultaneously. He was managing to dodge all the attacks, but just barely. I walked up behind Kennard, who was the closest to me, and asked, "What is this?" He turned to me, and I was amazed by the fact that there was a huge smile on his face. "We're trying to nail the sucker, what does it look like?" Suddenly two ki blasts from Gideon and Nikita collided and there was a deafening (for a Namek) explosion. "But why?" I wondered aloud as I watched Cris sweat buckets trying to dodge some more blasts. He was doing it smartly though, staying low to the ground most of the time, forcing my partners to skim shots across the floor, as Kami would kill anyone who ruined the courtyard. "He originally just asked me to shoot some small blasts at him and force him to dodge them, but then Phoenix joined in. Cris didn't seem to mind, so Yukia and Nikita jumped in after that. Soon it became a group event." Cris was shooting around so fast I was amazed. When he seemed cornered he quickly zanzokened out of the way. I considered joining in, but that just seemed unfair. I was content on watching the display. I have to admit, it was pretty amazing, Cris was obviously winded, but continued to go all out, for fear of getting hit. It took about 5 minutes before someone struck him. I'm not sure who it was, but the ki blast was yellow, and when it struck Cris it sent him flying over the edge of the courtyard. Everyone was stunned, he'd been doing a great job, and they would've stopped if they thought he was going to get hurt. No one even tried to catch him, as he plummeted towards the ground so far down. I could tell he had almost no energy left after going so hard for so long, so I leaped over the edge too and shot after him, covering myself in ki energy and flying my absolute fastest. He was falling fast, but I was sure I could catch him before we touched to the ground. I felt everyone leap after Cris and I, but they were way too far behind, it was up to me. I easily caught up to him, and wrapped his limp body in my arms. I changed my direction, flying straight up back towards Sky Palace. As I was flying up, everyone floated in the air just below the palace, waiting for us, they all look really worried, but I knew the kid would pull through. Interestingly enough, Nikita seemed the most worried, either because she was the one who'd hit him… or possibly for some other reason. In any case, he either needed a senzu bean or a regeneration tank. I slowly floated over to the palace doors, as Kami came out of the darkness from the inside of the palace. He obviously knew something had happened, probably picked up on the worries of everyone. I gently placed Cris in front of me, his unconscious body felt like a feather, and Kami stepped down the palace steps and kneeled next to Cris, placing his cane beside himself. I walked back, giving Kami his room. He placed his right hand over Cris' chest and his left over his head. Kami closed his eyes, and suddenly a small yellow aura began almost pouring from Kami's hands. The yellowish ki covered Cris' body, and suddenly all the scrapes, bruises and burns that had formed were wiped away. I stared in disbelief, my mouth hung open, I couldn't believe Kami had the ability to heal like this, he'd never done it in the past. Cris began to stir, just slightly at first, but eventually his eyes opened, and his arms and legs began moving. Kami moved his hands away, picked up his cane, and then with its aid, stood up and waited for Cris to rise. Sure enough, the red-haired little Z Warrior ascended and turned to Kami. He bowed slightly and then almost whispered "Thank you sir." Kami just nodded, looked at me, looked at everyone else (who had congregated behind me) and then turned and walked back into the palace. Cris stood there, then proceeded to stretch out some kinks in his back and arms. He then turned to face me and everyone else. He then surprised everyone by jumping over all of us, sailing through the air and landing in the middle of the courtyard. "Wanna try that again?" He asked. I smiled, I was sure I was gonna like this kid. Crono's Story Chapter 13 It was the first birthday I'd ever spent alone. I didn't mind it really, I could live without any presents or material things, but there was one thing I truly missed, and I knew I might never see her again. True, she had been there for my last birthday, but that seemed like such a long time ago. I really didn't want to take any trips back down the old haunted memory lane, but I did anyways. We'd gone out for supper and then headed back to her house, I remembered. I didn't want to recall any more, but I couldn't help it, I missed her too much, I needed her there, and she couldn't comply. I'd had, well I guess you could call them... plans, for that evening (I'll leave the details to your imagination), but they were cut short when we found her parents home and awake upstairs. Instead we just talked. I loved her voice, the way she rolled her r's and the way her small body could project such an amazing voice. So I didn't mind all that much that we could just talk. We talked for several hours, well into the night. Her parents eventually went to bed, but I didn't notice, and by the time we were finished talking, we were both tired beyond belief. She began nodding off, so I walked her up to her room and tucked her into her bed. I considered helping her undress, but decided it wouldn't seem right. She rustled around in her bed for a while, but I knew I couldn't stay around all night, so I went back to the hotel room I'd rented. I couldn't fall to sleep though; her face was already burned into my mind, keeping any hope of restful sleep a distant wish. I worked out for three hours, but instead of tiring me out, it invigorated me. I decided to run, rushing to the out-skirts of the city and then running around its circumference. By the time I was finished, it was near noon. I went back to the hotel and took a shower, changed and then headed back to her house. When I arrived, I didn't want to talk to her parents, so I went over to her window and jumped up to the sill, then lifted the frame easily and stepped in, closing it behind me afterwards. She was still sound asleep, her body twisted at an irregular position, her face pressed down against the pillow, but her torso facing upwards, while her legs were off to the side. I just shrugged, went to her closet and pulled out a chair. I dragged across her carpet, settled the chair at the foot of her bed and plopped myself down. I heard her parents pacing around downstairs and outside her room. I just sat patiently (even tried meditating) waiting for her to awake. Soon she began moving around, rolling onto her back, her slim body perfectly aligned. I could feel her breathing becoming less and less constant, and I knew she was waking up. Suddenly though she surprised me by saying "Hi." I barely managed to stammer out a "H...hi." In reply. I saw her chest rise slowly and then fall, before she sat up and stared at me. I was more than content to stare right back at her, gazing into her eyes, and for the first time in a long while, I was truly at peace. She smiled at me and I smiled back weakly, but the whole time I couldn't think of anything other than how beautiful she was. Finally her mom of all people broke the silence yelling from the main floor "Honey, are you awake?" We both jumped slightly as Seana turned to the door and yelled back "Uh, yeah mom." Her mom shouted back "Ok, come down soon, breakfast is ready." We both turned our attention back to each other, before I nodded and she nodded back. I got up from my seat, grabbed the chair and pulled it back to its place in the closet. As soon as I turned around I was greeted with a long and deep kiss. I wasn't really ready for it, so I didn't kiss back, but I did manage to wrap my arms around her waist as she did the same to my neck. She finally pulled back, and then she bent her neck and rested her head against mine. I whispered into her ear something meant only for her ears. She just closed her eyes and squeezed my neck slightly, as I pulled her even closer. We hung in each others arms for a few seconds before she said "I better get downstairs before my mom comes up here." She brought her head back, but before she could leave, I kissed her again, and this time we both expected it. Once we were done, she slipped out of my grasp and went to her dresser, brushing her hair. I walked over to the window and slid it open. She didn't turn to me but asked in a patronizing voice "Did you come in here?" I didn't know what to say, so I answered like a small child caught eating the cookies before supper "Yeah." I hung my head. She smiled, and just nodded towards me. I slipped out the window onto the sill and pushed the window back down before I dropped down to the ground and walked off towards my hotel room. That was a year ago, and I'd changed so much since then, but one thing hadn't changed, my love for Seana. I'd had trouble putting my finger on the feeling, but eventually it hit me, the night I decided I needed to settle my dispute with Triono, and I saw Seana for the last time. I fell back into my bed, in my room, on Sky Tower. It'd only been two weeks training up there, where the air was so thin you had to be in amazing shape just to walk around, much less exercise all out the way we did. Kami's weighted clothes helped a lot too; the extra weight on the wrists, and especially the feet made it a lot harder to do anything, therefore increasing the gain. I was nowhere near anyone else though, and I had a feeling I wouldn't be for a while. I'd been working my butt off, but so was everyone else, and they were all really powerful. I'd taken a scouter from Master Roshi and used it one time when everyone was listening to Kami. Gideon was the most powerful human, near 22,000, and Karnai was at 28,000. I knew mine was at most about 1,700 and the closest to me was Nikita, at 8,000, I knew I had my work cut out for me. Phoenix (who I'd clocked at 10,000 only) had taken me under his wing, and often we would spend hours in The Arena, sparring the afternoon away. He was not ruthless like Triono had been, he taught me where my mistakes were and helped me fix them. Whenever I couldn't keep up with him, he would slow down to my level, often going at only a quarter of his full speed to allow me to attack him. Karnai had also apprenticed me, often teaching me moves that he himself had only begun to master. Still I couldn't help but think about Seana. No matter how hard I worked, her face flashed across my eyes throughout the day, and there was no way I could be with her. I groaned in rage in the darkness of my room. I was supposed to be meditating, but it was my birthday, and I allotted myself a few minutes of rest. I tried to purge the thought of her from my mind, but that was impossible, she was in too deep. I grew angry, at myself, at her, at Kami, at Krillin, at Triono, at the whole freakin universe. I always learnt though that it was better to vent your anger then just talk about it, so I got up, headed out into the sunlight of the afternoon, and went to find Phoenix.