A/N: Everyone who likes stereotypes, raise your hand! I know I do! If you don't… well, you have been warned. Happy holidays!

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Chapter 11: Enter… Ginyu Force?!

Even though she felt like she had been run over by a train, Amy knew trouble when she saw it. Especially when it was staring her in the face. The girl took a couple of deep breaths to clear her head and clenched her fists. Not like it was going to do her much good: her powerlevel was still capped, so fighting the android would be like trying to destroy a mountain with three feathers and a handful of cotton balls.

'Then again, it's not like I stand much of a chance anyway… I can see it now: "Hey Cell, I hope you're hungry, because I have a can of whoopass here with your name on it! Don't give me that look, I know Frieza wiped the floor with me six times in a row, but he just got lucky, that's all". Yeah, right…'

Amy glanced at the android, wondering why he hadn't killed her yet. Or… moved at all for that matter. She blinked when she noticed that their attacker was standing still like a living statue. She turned to Jake, who was slowly approaching the android and… started poking him?!

"Jake, you idiot! What are you doing?!" she exclaimed.

"It's okay Amy, look!" he waved his hand in front of Cell's face, and let out an almost disappointed sigh when the android still did not react. "Kind of an anti-climax, huh?"

Amy stood on her toes and leaned forward, looking in the monster's snakelike eyes, not aware that the distance between their faces was slowly growing smaller. Somewhere in the depths of those cold pink orbs, she suddenly saw anger flaring up. She almost jumped out of her skin when his eyelids suddenly twitched and he emitted a very low growl.

"Jake," Amy squeaked, backing away from the android, don't know what's going on, but I think this would be a good time to run"

She turned around, wondering why he didn't answer her.

"Jake? Hey, where'd you… EEEEEEEEEEK!"

Amy felt herself being grabbed around the waist and rise into the air after crashing through the ceiling. The saw the house under her growing smaller and smaller as her mysterious rescuer flew higher and higher.

"We'd better step on it Jeice," he said in a gruff voice. "I'm not sure how much longer Guldo can hold his breath"

Not sure she had heard correctly, Amy glanced sideways where, to her disbelieve, she saw a familiar red skinned alien carrying her friend.

She looked up and immediately wished she hadn't.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" she shrieked, going bug-eyed at the sight of her savior.

"Quiet down girl, my ears are bleeding!" Recoome said jokingly, flashing her toothy a grin. Amy, of course, did not hear a word he said, being in a complete state of panic and all.

"HEY! LET ME GO! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!"

The girl started thrashing, almost making him lose his balance.

"Stop squirming, I need you to hold still!"

"Yeah, I bet you do!" she yelled, trying to wriggle her way out of his grasp.

"Do you want to plummet to the ground and have that android absorb whatever parts of you he can scrape off the sidewalk?"

Amy stopped struggling, realising he had a point there. Recoome chuckled and shifted her onto his other arm, carrying her bridal style. She looked at Jake again, and saw he had fainted.

'Okay, let's recap for a minute: first I get stuck in a virtual reality game, then a killer android starts absorbing other game characters, players and employees, including my dad and then decides me and Jake look rather appetizing as well. I almost suffocate, faint and get kidnapped by a random member of the Ginyu Force. Boy, my life is just getting better and better, isn't it?'

"Hey, mate!" the other alien shouted while tapping his scouter. "Guldo's powerlevel just took a nosedive!"

"That's not good, isn't it?"

"He usually can hold his breath much longer than this if he has to," Jeice said, sounding rather nervous.

"That thing must've broken through his timefreeze!"

Jeice visibly paled.

"That's not possible… is it?" he gulped, and then turned to Amy. "What do you think, girl?"

Amy just gawked at him and blinked.

"… huh?"

"You know us, so you can tell, right?" Recoome asked.

"I bet ye fifty zennie he can't!"

"A hundred zennie says he can!"

"You're on, mate!" Jeice smirked and turned to Amy again.

"So? Tell us girl, can that Cell guy break through Guldo's timefreeze or not?"

Amy opened her mouth, closed it again and fainted.

"Hey," Jeice cocked an eyebrow, "You DID tell her we're the good guys now, right?"

Recoome sweatdropped.

"Oops…"

Groggily, Amy opened her eyes. What happened? She was lying on a sofa, while Jake was positioned in an armchair. They were in some kind of living room. Suddenly, realisation hit her like a ton of bricks, memories flashing through her head… and something else was flashing as well.

"AAAAARRGH!!! OH DEAR KAMI, MY VIRGIN EYES!" she shrieked, the horrible imaged still burning on her retinas.

"RECOOME! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, YOU DUMBASS!" Jeice yelled from the other side of the room, when he saw his fellow Ginyu Force member stepping out of the bathroom in his birthday suit.

"Oops, sorry about that!" he grinned sheepishly as he quickly grabbed a painting off the wall to cover himself up on his way back.

"Idiot…"Jeice muttered, putting his head in his hands.

"H-hey…"Amy started quietly. "What's going on? What are you going to do?"

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you," the alien said and then paused when he noticed Jake was coming to.

"W-whoa," he mumbled, "I just had the craziest…ARG!!!"

"Crikey, calm down lad!" Jeice quickly said before Jake would pass out again from hyperventilating.

"Where are we?" Amy asked.

"At our secret base," a voice answered behind her. Amy turned around and came face to face with a boy about her age, perhaps slightly older. He was tall, had spiked, black hair and spoke English with a thick, Russian accent. The build-in translator that allowed players from around the globe to communicate in their own language, apparently was off-line.

"It's good to see there are still other survivors left, we were beginning to lose hope," a girl standing behind him said softly. She had long, blond hair, bright blue eyes and a gentle voice, but seemed somewhat shy. The boy put an arm around her as if trying to reassure her.

"Don't worry, Yvette," he smiled. "I won't let that thing get you, or anyone else here"

The girl, who's name made Amy suspect she was French, blushed slightly.

"Hey, you're up!" another girl, who walked in the room from the hallway said cheerfully. Suddenly, her smile faltered.

"Uh oh… you're white as a sheet, shaking and look like you're about to show us your lunch. Recoome forgot his towel again, didn't he?"

"Don't remind me," Jeice shuddered.

The girl rolled her eyes and slapped her forehead. She had short (and somewhat messy), green-dyed hair and glasses that framed a pair of mischievously sparkling hazel eyes.

"Hey," Jake started. "Why are you wearing those? You could've adjusted the visual settings of your helmet to compensate for your eyesight"

"Nah, they don't bother me. I've had glasses since I was a kid, and I aint changing my looks for nobody. People are just gonna have to accept me for who I am. My name is Madison by the way, but everyone here just calls me 'gunslinger' Tex," she smirked playfully, while patting the gun holster that was fastened at her hip.

"I am Boris," the Russian boy introduced himself, "and this is Yvette"

"Pleased to meet you, "the French girl smiled friendly.

"And I am… RECOOME!" the giant suddenly boomed while jumping out of the bathroom (clothed this time, thank Kami) and doing a series of elaborate poses.

"JEICE!" the other Ginyu joined in, back flipping through the room and striking a pose himself, flashing them a dazzling smile.

"Sorry about that," Tex apologised sheepishly, "Boris has not been able to fully reprogram them yet"

"I think it's kind of cute," Yvette giggled and then turned to the two teenagers.

"Hey, you haven't introduced yourself yet"

"Oh… sorry! I'm Amy and this is Jake," she said quickly.

"Nice meeting ya," Jeice smirked deviously, causing Amy to back away slightly.

"Don't worry about tomato boy, he's harmless, thanks to our very own Russian Bulma over here," Tex grinned, while slapping Boris on his back.

"You're… you're a hacker?!"

"Yes," Boris nodded. "But I only do it for the challenge, I've never tried to do any harm"

"But… hackers and computer specialists from all over the world have failed to break in!" Jake exclaimed.

"From the outside, yes," Yvette said, "but Boris is already inside the game"

'And he's quite talented," Jeice added, making the boy shift uncomfortably. He obviously didn't like being put in the spotlights. "Cell has put up some pretty tight security around the character profiles and their personality parameters"

"I'm hoping to get Challenge Mode Zarbon and Dodoria on our side next," Boris smiled slightly, his eyes gleaming with anticipation of the challenge, "but the higher the powerlevel of the character, the harder it is to hack into their design." The Russian boy sighed and slumped back in his chair. "I'm already having a lot of difficulty altering Dodoria's personality parameters. Zarbon is going to be much harder to do and I'm not even remotely close to hacking First Form Frieza"

"Don't worry about it Boris, we know you can do it," Yvette kissed him on the cheek.

"What about the other members of the Ginyu Force?" Amy asked. "And why not just ask the good guys for help?"

"Most of the good guys have been absorbed by Cell, and the ones stronger than him have simply been erased from the server. I might be able to bring Krillin and Chi Chi back to life, but don't get your hopes up. It's going to take me at least six months to restore their character profiles… if I can ever access them at all. When it comes to security, Cell knows what he's doing"

"He does not have complete control over the game, but currently he has managed to take over about 80 percent, and Boris is fighting a losing battle to keep him from getting the other 20," Tex sighed.

"I can stall him, but it's only a matter of time until he breaks through my firewall," Boris stated grimly. "I can't outwit him forever"

"As for the Ginyu Force," Jeice started, "Burter and the Captain have already been absorbed. Boris managed to haul our asses out of Saga Mode just in time. We've been patrolling through the game ever since, searching for survivors of that bastard's killing spree"

"We aint gonna do much rescuing anymore though, now that we lost Guldo," Recoome sighed. "Guldo was the weakest of us in power, but ironically, he was the only one who could stand up to that creep"

"For a while, it was a very successful strategy: when we found someone being attacked, Guldo rushed onto the scene first and froze Cell in time, giving the others a chance to grab his would-be victims and get them to safety," Yvette nodded.

"But we couldn't save them all, and with every player that android absorbed, he grew stronger and it became more and more difficult for Guldo to keep him under control," Jeice continued.

"I guess this time, it was just too much for him to handle… poor guy," Yvette lowered her head.

"But… not counting Jeice and Recoome, I'm only seeing five people here," Amy said, starting to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"There use to be hundreds… but he found us…" Boris growled, the expression on his face turning extremely dark.

"Cell followed Radditz back to our old hideout and started absorbing everyone in sight," Tex told her. "He and Nappa tried to stop the android, but they were no match for him. We're the only ones who managed to get away"

"We're not going to give up," Boris growled, his fists clenched and his grey eyes blazing with rage. "We'll start over, save everyone we can, reprogram every game character I can get my hands on and build an army! I don't care even if I have to train myself… that monster is going down!"

Cell snarled when he laid his eyes on Guldo's broken neck. He had not expected the (normally very cowardly) alien to jump off the house… and not use his ki to break his fall. He had obviously been reprogrammed to make sure he would take the location of runaways' hideout to the grave. He wasn't too worried about the gentle natured Yvette or the trigger happy Texas girl. Boris on the other hand, had proven to be quite a nuisance. Cell made a mental note to make his death especially painful. Again, the Russian boy had made him miss out on another meal, while he had needed it so badly! He cursed himself for letting them rest instead attacking right away. Worn out prey was no fun to chase, but now he was getting tired himself, and for his plan to succeed… he needed all the energy he could get. The android smirked evilly at the thought as he incinerated poor Guldo's remains and quietly disappeared into the night.