Rifts and Changes

Chapter Four: "There's a reason why Bats was a part of the Justice League, and it's not because of his utility belt."

A/N: Okay, sorry for all the confusion last chapter. The battle that Gohan and co fought without Natalie, that's a story that hasn't been written. I will write it eventually, but I thought the story would play out better if you guys were in the dark too. ^_^()

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In Space…

"Damn! Damn! Damn!" The prisoner who had escaped from the Tocopherans was travelling at high speed towards Earth. To the casual observer, who supposedly would be any astronauts in space, he was using a very strange type of transportation. Actually, it was the fact that he had no mode of transportation that made it very strange. He had a huge, clearish blue force field around his body and he was flying through space. "Why did I have to be the brave one? Why couldn't that lazy bum of a brother of mine do this? Oh yeah, that's right. I'm more expendable. For goodness sakes', I'm just a kid! There's no way they're going to let me help them. Okay, here comes the hard part." He was closing in on Earth's atmosphere and then he pushed some buttons on his wrist watch, as if he were programming something. He then braced himself  as he entered Earth.

Back at CC…

"You were awful quiet." David said to Natalie, as everyone went to sit down in the living room. She remained quiet. "So, you're not talking to me either huh?" Natalie still remained silent. "Fine."

"Natty, I know that you're mad at us. But being bitchy and such isn't really going to help. We need to work together to stop this guy so stop acting like a child and help us!" Videl said.

"Better her than me." David said. Natalie turned to them both and rolled her eyes.

"If you would give me the benefit of the doubt, which apparently you never do, you would see that I'm actually trying to figure out something." Natalie said. "That guy is obviously talking in code. He's implying that there's more to this 'random' attack than meets the eye."

"What have you got so far?" Goku asked.

"Well I…gah!" Natalie grabbed her head in pain.

"What happened?" Trunks asked.

"I think I just got an inkling…" Natalie said.

"Did you have a vision?" Gohan asked.

"Yes." Natalie replied, rather monotonously. There was a brief silence.

"Are you gonna tell us what it was about?"

"No."

"Can I ask, why the hell not?" Vegeta asked.

"I can tell you, can't tell anyone. You cannot be trusted. None of you can be trusted with this information." Natalie said, her eyes darting to everyone as if she was terrified of them. Nicholas looked at her strangely.

"What?"

"Gaaah!" She yelled, and then suddenly she had a vacant look on her face. "The walls have ears and eyes...the enemy have planted a seed and now it has outgrown it's boundaries..."

"What are you babbling about?" Vegeta asked. Natalie turned around to look at Gohan.

"I cannot tell you, you are too close to believe me. You cannot save her this time Son. She will go by choice, not by force. All her humanity will be gone...to tell you what will happen would doom us all." Natalie said. Gohan looked at her in confusion.

"If you don't tell us what's gonna happen we'll be damned either way!" Gohan said.

"Gohan, wait. That's not her talking." Nicholas said.

"What do you mean?" Gohan asked.

"Someone is trying to warn us, and they're talking through her." Nicholas said, as he went up to Natalie and shook her lightly. "Come on girl, snap out of it." He seemed to get through to her and she looked at everyone very confused.

"Oookay, what the hell just happened?" Natalie asked. "And why are you touching me?" Nicholas moved back and laughed nervously.

"Do you remember anything from your vision?" Gohan asked.

"I had a vision?" Natalie replied. Everyone looked at her confused. "Hey, I'm just as confused as you guys!"

"Perhaps I can clear a few things up." A male voice said. They all turned around to see a young man in his teens standing in the house. He was wearing similar clothing to the Tocopherans who had attacked. He tried to say something but he grabbed his chest in pain and collapsed.

"Well that was time well spent." Vegeta snorted. Natalie went over to him and checked his pulse.

"He's okay. He's just exhausted." Natalie said.

"Good. Then we can toss him out by his ear." Vegeta said.

"We can't do that." Natalie replied.

"You know, I'm getting a little sick and tired of these children telling me what to do." Vegeta snarled.

"Not everything is done with brute force Mr Vegeta. If we wake him up, then maybe we can interrogate him for answers. Kill him now and you may as well be fighting blindfolded." Natalie said. "Andie, if you would?"

"No problem." Andrea said, as she used her telekinesis to put the young man on the couch.

Elsewhere…

"Sir, we've gotten word that there is another among the Decolains, one of whom your father did not face. She is a telepath, and seems to have some precognitive abilities as well." The kid said. Medilan looked shocked.

"Has she…?"

"Had a vision? Not quite sure. It is the one aspect of her powers that she doesn't have a handle on."

"Good. She cannot find out at this stage. I have worked to hard for my revenge to go to waste." He paused. "Any news on our escaped prisoner?"

"He has reached their base of operations."

"Crud."

Back to CC…

"You know, he doesn't look like an alien." Adrian said.

"Well, what were you expecting him to look like?" Cory asked.

"Kind of like a little green man." Daniel replied.

"We're all part alien you know, and we're not green." Maria said.

"Besides, he looks normal. He's kind of a cutie." Pan said.

"You know, I was just thinking the same thing." Claudia said. The younger kids rolled their eyes.

In the kitchen…

"Nat, you know it's not good for us to be fighting at a time like this. it raises tension between us." Nicholas said, looking at his wife with pleading eyes. Natalie sighed.

"I know anger tension isn't what we need right now but I can't help but feel angry." Natalie sighed. Nicholas moved in closer to her and held her hand.

"That's not the kind of tension I meant." Nicholas said. Natalie raised her eyebrows in surprise and started to blush.

"You are just incorrigible."

"You love me really."

"Hey guys, the kids are fighting again." David said. "I guess I'll go take care of it." He walked to the living room.

"Nick, you need to focus okay?" Natalie said, moving away from him.

"Then you gotta talk to me." Nicholas replied, with a devilish smile on his face.

"Nice try."

Back in the living room…

"For all you guys know, he could be evil and all you can think about is his looks." Drake said. "And they say boys only…"

"Hey, we never said he couldn't be evil!" Claudia said.

"Yeah! He'd just be an evil hottie." Pan said. Drake face-faulted.

"Name one evil bad guy that all the girls liked!" Drake said.

"This is such a boring conversation!" Adrian and Daniel both said.

"That twin thing is so creepy." Felicity said.

"Is not!" The twins replied.

"How about Angelus?" Pan said. "All the girls liked him!"

"Is too!" Felicity said.

"C'mon, that was before you were born! It doesn't count!"

"Is not!"

"It does so count! Ever hear of reruns? Or don't they have those in England?"

"Is too!"

"GUYS SHUT UP!! THERE IS A POSSIBLE SUSPECT TRYING TO REGAIN CONSCIOUSNESS IN HERE!" David yelled.

"Nnggg…I was snapped back into consciousness by your yelling. But thanks anyway."

"He's awake!" David exclaimed.

"I'm not surprised. Poor guy." Pan said. "Drake, why did you have to yell so loudly?"

"Me?!" Drake was about to protest more when all the adults came back into the living room. The young man stood away from them defensively.

"Okay, I can explain what I'm doing here." He said.

"Alrighty." Videl said, freezing every part of his body except his head. "Who the hell are you?"

"Ooh, nice Vid. I give it a 7." Nicholas said. Gohan shook his head dismissingly at him and he looked down at the floor sad.

"My name is Zophen. I am a prisoner of the ones who attacked you, they imprisoned me to stop me from helping you." Zophen strained to say.

"Okay, then what the heck happened to me earlier?" Natalie asked.

"I…I don't know." Zophen answered.

"You can't really walk into a room, and have your entrance insinuate that you're going to clear things up when you don't know anything!" Drake said.

"Mmm hmm." Goten nodded in agreement. "Very misleading."

"Come on, let's give the guy a break here for a minute." Pan said, trying to keep the peace.

"Anyways…Why would you want to help us? Aren't you one of them?" Nicholas asked.

"Not entirely. I am from their planet, but this guy Medilan is using the planet's King and manipulating him to carry out his own vicious vendetta." Zophen said. "I don't know what they want with you, but I want to help as much as I can. But I can only talk to the telepath."

"Why?" Gohan asked.

"Like she said, you're all too close to believe me. She's the only one who can prove that I am telling the truth, and I can only trust her and the one who uses telekinesis." Zophen said.

"Hey! Look at me being all important and vital and whatnot!" Natalie gloated. "C'mon, who's the lady?"

"I…" Zophen tried to say but Natalie held her hand up to stop him.

"Don't tire yourself, I've already scanned you." Natalie said. "He's telling the truth." Everyone looked between the two. "We need to get the kids out of here."

"What?" Gohan asked.

"They're not safe." Natalie said. "If those guys can't get to us you can bet your butt they're gonna go after them."

"No fair Mom!" Drake exclaimed. "I wanna kick some butt!"

"Just stick to kicking butt in your video games Drake, this is serious." Natalie said.

"You think I don't know that! C'mon, you're mad at Dad because he left you out! Don't leave me out too!" Drake said.

"No, that's not the reason why Drake!" Natalie said, turning to face her son.

"Then what is the reason why?!" Drake exclaimed. Natalie raised an eyebrow and looked behind Drake, to see that Nicholas was using Drake as a dummy to voice himself. Natalie rolled her eyes.

"Nicholas!" She yelled. Nicholas slinked away slowly.

"Sorry Mom." Drake said, sweat-dropping.

"We need a safe place to put them." Videl said.

"Okay, we'll teleport them to our house." Nicholas said. "It's the furthest away from harm and they won't expect us to be there."

"Does that mean I have to go too Daddy?" Pan asked.

"I'm afraid so darling." Gohan answered. "We need to figure out our enemy before we attack them."

"Does that mean I'll be able to help later?" Pan asked.

"We'll have to see how the situation plays out." Gohan answered.

"Is that the polite way of saying we'll see?" Pan asked. Gohan laughed nervously.

"Marron, I want you to go too." Trunks said. Marron looked at her husband confused. "Don't look at me like that please. I need to know that you are safe."

"What about you? You're not even at full strength! And how do we know that this guy is telling the truth?" Marron asked.

"Because Natalie said so, and I trust her." Trunks said. "She's gotten me out of a bind before."

"If you say so." Marron said. "I want you to call me. I have my cell."

"Okay." Trunks said, kissing his wife. Everyone else said their goodbyes.

"All aboard." Natalie said, as all the kids and Marron went to her. "Miss Bulma, aren't you coming?"

"No, I think I'll stay here for as long as I'm needed." Bulma said.

"Could you swing by and pick up my mother?" Goten asked.

"No problem. Please keep your hands held together and enjoy the flight." Natalie said, as she disappeared with the passengers.

"Okay, now that the kids have left the building I think it's time we talked for real." Nicholas said. "So, cut all the cryptic kid and tell us what is going on."

"I can't." Zophen said. "All I can tell you is that your lives are in danger and that you have to trust me."

"Why exactly?" Vegeta asked. "We do not know you. For all we know you could be a spy."

"If I were a spy, I wouldn't be wearing a prisoner uniform."

"Who says it's a prisoner uniform?" David asked.

"Look, it's not my fault you are more vulnerable than the telepath. Maybe if you hadn't lied to her, she would be more cooperative." Zophen said. Nicholas narrowed his eyes at Zophen.

"I don't know what you're implying about us being vulnerable but we're not. And for the record, the telepath's name is Natalie." Nicholas said. "We didn't lie to her."

"Besides, I don't think she would be so childish when the fate of the world is at stake." Goku said.

"You don't know Natalie Mr Son." David sighed.

Half an hour later…

"I wonder what's taking her so long?" Nicholas said. As if on cue, Natalie came back.

"My ears are burning." Natalie said.

"Nat, you're driving me insane." Gohan said. "Enough is enough. We need to formulate a plan to tackle this."

"Hey, I agree. You're the leader Gohan so formulate away." Natalie said. Everyone looked at her surprised and then turned their attention to Gohan.

"Um, okay." Gohan said. "First thing we need to do is suit up. We need to be ready in case of battle. Dad, since you and Vegeta have been put on the bench I think it's best that we tell you what happened in detail and what powers these guys have. You two are the best strategists here, so we need you to help us formulate a battle plan."

"Not my preference but it will do." Vegeta said.

"After that, I think all we can do is train." Gohan said. "That plan could change, it depends on our situation."

"What about us Gohan?" Trunks asked.

"I need you three to sit tight for now. Sorry." Gohan said, as everyone except Trunks, Goten, Natalie and Zophen left.

"And then there were four." Goten stated as he sat down in a more relaxing position.

"So…how'd you know he's not a spy?" Trunks asked.

"Aside from reading his mind, which granted could be fabricated information, our enemy is much smarter than we think." Natalie said. "These people have shape-shifters, mind controllers, body snatchers…why would they send him?"

"Good reasoning." Zophen said. "But how did you know that?"

"We've faced something like this before." Natalie said, rather sadly. "It's very confusing. Okay, not this battle that I didn't know anything about but one before it. I think we were about 17 at the time…" (A/N: You'll probably need to read 'The Young Ones' to get what Natalie is trying to explain)

"Woah, that was ages ago!" Goten said.

"I'm not that old Goten!" Natalie said. "Anyways, we are a major threat to whoever wants to kill us. So much so that these guys sent people from the future to kill us. But then Nick, David and you kids from the future all came to warn us and we defeated those future guys. Is everyone following me so far?" Zophen nodded, the other two looked unsure. Goten's face then lit up.

"I know what you mean. Kind of like what happened with Cell and Mirai Trunks yes?" Goten asked. Natalie nodded.

"We managed to stop the event which caused the Tocopherans to attack in the future in this timeline, but it seems that all the time travelling put everything out of whack and they're attacking anyway." Natalie said. "In that future, the Tocopherans were being ruled over by dictators and didn't want to attack us. In this timeline, they seem to want our heads on a platter even before Gohan iced that guy." Natalie said. "Do you know why they want us dead Zophen?"

"The monarchy has always had something against the Tocopherans who were sent here but nothing enough to kill them." Zophen said. "There's more to Medilan Stearylin than meets the eye."

"Hehe." Natalie chuckled. The others looked at her strangely. "Sorry, just remembered a cartoon from when I was little. Wait, did you say Stearylin?!" Natalie exclaimed. "Sizzlin' shish kebabs!" She ran off to find Gohan and the others. "Guys!"

"Nat, do you mind?" Videl asked. "We're trying to discuss something important here." Everyone else in the room looked annoyed that she had interrupted them.

"But Zophen said…"

"No offence sweetie, but we can't really trust anything that guy said." Nicholas said.

"I'm trying to tell you…"

"That we were wrong and you were right. Yes, we heard it all before. Leave the sarcastic remarks to Nick okay?" David said. Natalie narrowed her eyes at David.

"Acha…So this is what it feels like to be Cassandra…" Natalie said, as she left them throwing her hands up in the air.

"Okay, so we've discussed the basics." Goku continued. "From what it sounds like, it's the girls who can do the most damage without being noticed. We really can't do anything. We don't know where their base is, we don't even know how many of them are attacking us. We can't send Gohan up there in case they cancel out his Saiyan strength. We're basically at their mercy."

"Not necessarily." Vegeta said. "You said that when the future people came here, the Tocopherans wanted to prevent Gohan's son from being born correct?"

"Yes." Andrea answered. "They said he was the most threat to them."

"Well he's already been born. And they sounded like they didn't even know Gohan had a son. Unfortunately, all we can do now is question the alien kid in the living room." Vegeta said. "He knows why they're after us."

"We're going to have to take what he says with a grain of salt." Gohan said. "We don't know if he's lying."

"Yes we do, Natalie 'scanned' him or whatever." Andrea said. "She wouldn't lie."

"But he could be." David said. "The information in his brain could easily be made up to fool her. I mean, these guys are full Tocopherans. They probably have a better hold on their powers than she does."

Meanwhile…

"Memo to me, kick David in the shin. Really hard." Natalie said, as she sat back down.

"They wouldn't listen?" Goten asked. Natalie shook her head. "Why did the name ring a bell?"

"The lady that was sent from the future to kill us was called Glycer Stearylin. They're probably related." Natalie said. "It's not as important as I first made out but…I am so mad at those guys. They always treat me like I'm a loose cannon, ever since…"

"Ever since when?" Zophen asked.

"Never mind, it's not important." Natalie sighed. "If only we had some way of going to the future timeline where this happened before."

"Would that help?" Goten asked.

"Majorly." Natalie replied.

"Well Trunks and his mom built one." Goten said. Natalie looked at him and blinked.

"One? As in a time dimensional transporter?" Natalie asked.

"Um, sure?" Goten said. "I don't think it actually has a name."

"Pardon me as I do my happy dance." Natalie said as she started dancing a little jig. Trunks looked at Natalie strangely as he sat down.

"What's up?" Trunks asked.

"Trunks, do you know how to operate your mother's time dimensional transporter?" Trunks nodded. "Yataa! We're going on a little trip."

"Where are we going? And what does my mother's machine have to do with anything?!" Trunks asked, a little nervous.

"It has everything to do with it Trunks. I know I really shouldn't be burdening you with this but you're the only one I can count on to help." Natalie said. "No offence Goten."

"None taken." Goten replied.

"Fair enough, but where are we going?" Trunks asked.

"To see the only people that have lived through something like this before."

"Hold on!" Zophen said. "Don't you think that leaving in the middle of a crisis is a little irresponsible?"

"They've made it perfectly clear they don't want me helping. So, for once I'm gonna use my brain instead of yelling about it." Natalie said. "There's a reason why Bats was a part of the Justice League, and it's not because of his utility belt."

"It's not a problem Zophen. I can program the machine so that it brings us back instantaneously." Trunks said.

"Puts your stance on a downer, doesn't it?" Goten asked. Natalie nodded sadly.

To Be Continued…

Okay, so this cliffhanger isn't as bad as the other ones. And I know you guys don't like them, but if they weren't there where would the suspense be?