Ch

Ch. 2

Here I come,

Rougher than the rest of them,

The best of them,

Tougher than leather.

-Knuckles, Unknown from M.E.

A/N: I'm sorry, but I loved this particular Seinfeld convo. I had to use it, the space theme was too much temptation!! And to Zarbonslover, believe me, you're now the reason I'm writing this. I'll do a Zarbon/Jeice lemon after this, promise, to repay your enthusiasm. Oh, and major Spoiler Alert for those of you who haven't read The Prisoner of Azkaban. Read it in it's whole BEFORE you read this chapter. And don't flame me if you don't, I warned you.

"…. 'Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Padfoot and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git. Mr. Wormtail bids good day to Professor Snape and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.'".

Kuao and Mere howled with laughter.

"Well Snape had it coming with that 'Master of this school' remark," Kuao said. Krista giggled.

"I thought it was pretty funny myself."

She had managed to grab a break with her friends and now the four of them were sitting off to the side, talking. Krista felt as if she were in an episode of Seinfeld.

"So there's really a Kryptonian on your planet?"

Krista nodded. "Yep. His name is Kal-El."

Musquo blinked. "Son of Jor-El? I've heard of him, he's quite famous about the galaxy."

Krista smiled. "Yeah, he's cool. We call him Superman, though."

"Why Superman?" Mere asked. "What can he do that other men can't?"

"Um, lessee…he can fly…he's faster than a speeding bullet, they say…he's known as the Man of Steel…"

"Wait," Musquo said. "The Kryptonians never could do that on Krypton."

Krista shrugged. "My brother explained it to me a while ago, when we were preparing for you guys. Apparently Krypton had a red sun. Since our sun is yellow, it interacts with his DNA somehow and makes almost all aspects of him…well, super."

"How's his humour?" Mere asked. Krista shrugged.

"I don't know. A normal sense of humour, I suppose."

"You mean to tell me," Mere said. "That all these other aspects of Kal-El's personality would become super because of the yellow sun of your world, and he wouldn't get super humour?"

Krista shrugged again. "I've never heard him say anything particularly funny."

Mere chuckled at this, then stretched and sighed. he opened his mouth to ask if there actually were any visible portions of "super-ised" personality on the part of Superman, but cut himself off as Frieza strode into the room. Salutes were given around the room and Frieza nodded.

"At ease…" he smiled. "Troops, the time has come four our tournament."

At once excited whispers broke out around the hall. Frieza waited for everything to die down before speaking again. "The rules are as last year. We will be holding simultaneous fights for the first three rounds. After we've eliminated the unworthy, we will begin pitting you against the Ginyu."

Musquo smirked. "Maybe they'll actually lose this year."

"You're serious?" Krista said softly. "The Ginyu have always won?"

"There's never been anyone here strong enough to stand up to them," Kuao said. Mere grinned.

"That may have just changed, though."

Krista blinked. "You mean…I can enter?"

"All soldiers can enter," Musquo said. "Traditionally, the prize is a spot on the Ginyu. But ever since Jeice won several years ago, no one's beaten the Ginyu."

"But you can do it," Kuao said. "I'm almost sure you can."

Krista looked thoughtful. A tournament…

He was almost sure that she would enter. He'd heard from various crewmen how she'd fought while on Earth. If she was as good as people said, and it was a real possibility, then she'd almost certainly make it to the final round.

And he'd be waiting.

You're not entering?

No, Krista thought as she continued her sketch of the Samurai Troopers. There's no point. I wouldn't win.

Who's to say? Zarbon asked her as he sat next to her. You're an excellent fighter. You could be up to the Ginyu's level…with a little coaching.

Krista groaned. That's how I got into this in the first place.

Do you know how I became Second in Command? Zarbon asked her suddenly. Krista shook her head. Zarbon smiled a bit.

It was a tournament. Like the one coming up, except it was specifically for the purpose of getting a new Second in Command.

What happened to the old one?

Zarbon smirked. He had a little…accident. Let something slip out to Lord Frieza he shouldn't have. In any case, I myself was only a Sergeant at the time. It's quite possible for, say, a Lieutenant to make it into the Ginyu force.

Krista sighed and stole a sideways glance at Zarbon. You're willing to train me? Why?

Zarbon smirked again. It's a mater of pride, Krista. You nearly beat me. I've been beaten by the Ginyu since.

And you don't want me to lose to them after I've beaten you. It'll make you look weaker, is what you're saying.

So do you accept?

Krista grinned. It would be nice to experience another style of fighting. She grinned. I accept.

She later wished she hadn't.

She had thought Vegeta was a tough taskmaster. She hadn't seen anything.

When she wasn't on duty, she was out and about the planet, being trained by the now rather strict Zarbon for hours at a time.

Zarbon launched himself into the air and began launching several volleys at Krista, who agilely avoided them, weaving in and out of the blasts until she came level with him. She aimed a last at him, which he barely had time to dodge. They began going at it, each blocking the other's strikes before attacking themselves. The rebounded off of each other, a light sheen of sweat on both brows. Zarbon grinned a little deviously.

"I almost wish I'd gotten a chance to fight you all the way through, that would have been interesting."

"I'd still have beaten you, you know."

Zarbon's grin widened. "And now I remember what made you such a good opponent."

Krista formed her energy. "Come on, you said you were going to train me for the tournament, not talk!"

You'd prefer something else? Zarbon asked with amusement. Krista sent five blasts at him in answer. Zarbon laughed and came at her.

Krista watched, a little anxious as Mere battled with another of the officers. The being aimed a corkscrew blast at Mere, which was easily dodged before Mere counter-attacked. Zarbon was judging the competition, along with Captain Ginyu. Mere aimed an attack at his opponent, unaware of the blast that had already been sent…until it was too late. Zarbon nodded.

"Mere loses. Mitberv wins."

Krista gulped. She was next. Musquo clapped her on the shoulder. "Good Luck," he said softly. Krista frowned.

Gambatte. Right.

She stepped into the ring, and the whoops and hollers intensified. Captain Ginyu smirked.

"Battlers. Begin."

Krista found herself full rushed. Mitberv had caught her off guard. That was okay, she could do that too. She dug her heels into the ground and used a combination of her own physical strength and her powers to force him off of her and to the ground. She quickly launched herself into the air, aiming a blast at Mitberv whish was easily avoided. She aimed another. He avoided that one too. She tried not to smile as he avoided attack after attack until he was at the right distance. One more blast and he leapt aside…and straight into the path of the blast she'd launched a second after the first one. Captain Ginyu rose a brow.

"Mitberv loses. Krista wins."

The ring of soldiers around her erupted in cheers and she flushed excitedly. She had actually won. She gulped as another soldier-bigger and meaner looking than the fallen Mitberv had stepped up.

"Battlers. Begin."

He watched with an increased interest. She was better than he'd first speculated. She'd certainly be fun to take through the wringer, now wouldn't she? He looked at the person standing with him, Burter. Burter grinned at him.

"I suppose you want first crack at her?"

"Damn right," Jeice affirmed. "That fool Dodoria went after her too quickly, and alerted Zarbon besides. I don't intend to repeat his mistake."

"Don't you?"

"No," Jeice smirked. "And I think that she'll be a bit more eager to be with me than she ever was with Dodoria."

"Remember, Jeice," Burter's tone became cautionary. "Frieza's got to be fond of her if he gave her a protector and killed Dodoria for going after her. And it's not good to make Frieza angry."

"I know, I know," Jeice said irritably. He was more interested in watching as the girl put down yet another opponent. This was her fourth one in a row, and the men were beginning to thin out. He also watched his Captain and the Second in Command carefully. His Captain, like himself, was intrigued by this girl's fighting ability. If she beat all of the Ginyu, then she'd may be enough to give him a run for his money.

As for Zarbon…..Jeice had a distinct feeling that Frieza wasn't the only one fond of her.

He also had a distinct feeling that she wasn't nearly as shy as she seemed in the mess. He grinned. He knew how he could find out.

"SCABBERS???"

Their entire section of the mess went absolutely silent and Mere smiled, a little embarrassed. As the babble of talk broke out again, he whispered fiercely "Scabbers was the traitor??"

"Yep," Krista said softly. "An unregistered Animagi. He turned out to be Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew hadn't cornered Black, it was the other way around. Black was ready to kill him when Pettigrew faked his own death, cut of his finger and turned into Scabbers. He found the Weasleys to take him in and there he stayed."

"Then Harry was right," Kuao breathed. "Scabbers-I mean Pettigrew-had been losing weight because of Black and not because of Crookshanks."

"And that's why Harry wasn't attacked when Black came into the tower," Mere said excitedly. "Because it was Scabbers he was after! He hadn't gotten the wrong bed!"

Krista grinned. These two were having too much fun for her to try to introduce the Time Turner into their world just yet. She stretched and stood, determined to get some more food. She walked across the mess, partially ignoring the comments thrown at her at her getting into the semi-finals of the tournament. A soldier passed behind her and she stiffened as she felt a hand linger on her butt.

She whirled around to see one of the Ginyu-Burter, she thought, smirking at her in a way that told her immediately that he was the culprit. She didn't contact Zarbon just yet. Perhaps she could handle this herself.

"Watch it," she said, her voice soft but with a hint of steel in it. "Or next time you may lose that hand."

Burter smirked wider. He raised his voice so the entire Mess could hear. "So she does have spirit. And all this time I thought all you could do was talk and giggle. Are you so shy when you're being fucked too?"

Krista flushed scarlet, and before Burter could react he found himself pressed up to the wall by an invisible force.

Or not so invisible, Krista's blue hair was floating away from her shoulders, and it was apparent that she was using some type of power to keep him there. She walked up to him calmly and, with the force of her powers, punched him in the gut. It was as if he'd been rammed with a steel girder and once she let him go, he crumpled to the ground. He managed to stand and look at her, a smirk playing over his face once again.

"You like it rough? I'll remember that for later."

As Krista's eyes glinted and she pulled her arm back to aim one of her most powerful attacks at him, Zarbon came pushing through the crowd. He assessed the situation quickly. He, along with the entire hall had heard Burter's comments and he knew that Burter had gotten what he'd deserved. Krista, however, was so angry right now she'd likely kill him before she got a chance to fight him.

Back off, Lieutenant. You've taught him his lesson for right now, and you have a chance to do so again tomorrow. The semi-finals, remember?

You heard him, didn't you? Even Krista's thoughts were filled with indignation. I didn't even let you get away with that shit.

Be that as it may, Zarbon let a warning tone enter into his thoughts. You've done all you can right now. Leave him Krista.

Krista let the power fizzle out. She spit on him before stalking out through the crowd, which parted to make way for her. Zarbon followed her closely after a disgusted look at Burter. As the crowd dispersed, Jeice walked up to Burter who grinned in a very self-satisfied way.

"She'll definitely be fun."