Chapter Sixty: Send In The Turncoats…And The Clowns!

"Ready to give up, Shalila?" Chestra asked calmly.

"I never give up!" Shalila hissed. "Why must you continue this child's game? It is a waste of time."

Chestra smiled serenely, too serenely for someone who dealt regularly in the bloodshed that she did. "I am holding the Superior Gran of Astoria as my captive, a strong warrior who had destroyed Lord Frieza's mother, Queen Frost, who had not been able to destroy you. I don't consider this a waste of time, for telekinesis is not a child's game, Shalila." Then Chestra stopped, realizing that she was not supposed to answer Shalila, if the older woman spoke.

"Who taught you telekinesis?" Shalila asked her, but Chestra turned her back on her and ignored the question. Shalila was not going to trick her.

Shalila asked several more questions, but Chestra did not speak again until she noticed one of her "comrades" land near her. Her eyes widened in shock, but her panther-like facial features hardened into anger quickly.

"Balair, you release that child at once!" Chestra ordered, indicating Petalia, who was struggling in Balair's arms. "You don't have time to play with her! Let her go!"
Balair laughed. "I have all the time in the world, sweetness."

"Great-Nama, help me, please!" Petalia cried in terror.

Shalila hissed, "Balair, you son of a whore, you release her at once! If you want to take your anger out on someone, you can take it up with me."

Balair chuckled. "No thanks, Shalila; you're a bit too old for my taste! I have to give Chestra credit for putting in your place. Only I wonder why she hasn't killed you yet."

"Jaden told me not to," Chestra told him coolly. "Now release the girl, for she has nothing to do with this."

"I'll release her when I'm good and ready, woman. Right now I intend to have some fun with her. I just came by to see what you all were up to before I have my little private party with this Astorian wench."

"You see what we have been up to," Chestra said edgily. "You've had your fun with her already, I am sure. Now release her."

Balair defiantly ignored Chestra's demand, and he pulled Petalia close to him, giving her a hard, sloppy kiss on her rosy lips. Shalila clenched her teeth in anger, as she was still pinned to the ground. She struggled in vain against Chestra's mind power.

"Great-Nama, help me, please!" Petalia cried, not realizing that her great-grandmother could not move at all.

Balair laughed at her, as his hand rubbed her thigh. "She can't move, foolish girl! Chestra is holding her down, so that she can't get up. If I were her, I would have already killed the old wench off!"

"Balair, let her go; I mean it!" Shalila ordered sternly. "Why don't you face off with someone who can actually fight you back?"

Balair spat out contemptuously, "You're not worth wasting my time anymore, Shalila, not if a little woman like Chestra here can restrain you. Your age must be catching up with you at last."

"I may be old, but I am as strong, if not stronger!" Shalila roared. She was getting angrier by the minute, especially since Balair started running his free hand all over Petalia's body. His thick, meaty hand lightly caressed Petalia's bosom, sliding down from her breasts to her stomach.

"Let me go, you bastard!" Petalia screamed. "You heard my Great-Nama!"

"Balair, that is more than enough," Chestra said in a steely tone. "Let her go."

"Who's going to make me?" Balair sneered. "You? Or the old woman?"

"I am warning you…" Chestra began.

"Chestra, please help me!" Petalia cried. "Please release Great-Nama! Please let her go!"

"Petalia, I can't…" Chestra said slowly.

"PLEASE!" Petalia cried desperately. "It is Tayla you want, not Great-Nama! Let her go!"

"Shut up, girl!" Balair snarled. "I'll give you something to really scream about-" he never finished his sentence, for Petalia sank her perfect teeth into his thick hand.

"Slut!" Balair hissed, using his molesting hand to slap her hard across the face. Petalia screamed out, and her nose started to bleed, for Balair's hand had felt like a gauntlet across her delicate face.

"Help me, Chestra, please…" Petalia moaned.

Chestra's concentration finally broke, and her telekinetic hold on Shalila's body shattered. She lunged towards Balair with her hands cuffed in a clamshell position. "Balair, you let her go now!"

Shalila took that moment to rise to her feet, and she seized her sword to challenge Balair. Sword fighting would be safer now because she saw that Balair's tail was bent at an unnatural angle. That meant that someone had broken it.

Two women from opposite sides charging at him startled Balair, but he recovered quickly. He put his hand in a ninety-degree position and aimed it at Petalia's rapidly beating heart. "Step any closer, either one of you, and she dies!" Balair growled.

Shalila stopped dead in her tracks, and so did Chestra, but Chestra took that chance to shoot a small black laser into Balair's head. Balair was angrier than ever, and now he would definitely kill the girl.

But he would not get the chance, for Petalia herself stomped on Balair's foot hard. Normally, it would have not harmed Balair in the least, but this time, for some odd reason, it hurt him ten times worse than it ever would have before. Petalia's small foot crashing down on his foot felt like a giant iron pillar mashing into his appendage, and Balair cried out in agony. He was forced to release the girl at last, and Petalia wasted no time escaping his clutches. Balair fell to the ground; he was moaning and writhing in pain and terror, for it hurt him severely.
Petalia fled to the safety of Shalila's arms, and Shalila held her close. Petalia glanced back briefly at Balair, her tormentor, who was still crying and wriggling on the ground. "Great-Nama, he is acting like a big baby!" she choked out in a small, silvery laugh.

Shalila couldn't help but laugh herself, as she held Petalia tight. "Sistrai warriors must have delicate feet, child!"

"Sistrai warriors are not that delicate," Chestra told Shalila firmly. "It was my attack that helped. It is called simply Tenfold Pain Blast, and it upsets the entire nervous system, so that any opponent hit with it feels any pain or injury ten times greater than what it should be. I shouldn't have intervened, but I don't like to see children harmed. I would suggest that you take your great-granddaughter with you and leave now before Jaden returns. She and Balair will both have my head for this one, and it is rare that those two ever agree on anything."

"We must thank you, Chestra," Shalila told her graciously, holding Petalia to her still. Then she looked at Chestra anxiously. "Do you still intend to come after Tayla?"

Chestra was silent for a few moments, as Balair continued to writhe and moan in pain. Finally, she said, "No promises, Shalila. If I can avoid abducting her, then I will, but if I can't, then you must be prepared to face me again. And next time, I will not be able to show you any mercy. I will kill you."

Shalila nodded, and then she said evenly, but with a trace of sadness in her voice, "If that happens, I will do the same. I won't allow anyone to take her away."

"You don't have to take Tayla away," Petalia pleaded. "You don't have to harm anyone else."

Chestra looked at Petalia, and Petalia and Shalila noticed a glimmer of a tear in her jade-green eye. "It is better, if you both go now. I will delay Balair long enough for you two to escape," she said stiffly.

"Let's go, Petalia," Shalila said finally, as she scooped her up further into her arms. With Petalia in her arms, they both blasted off into the sky. Balair tried to jump up to come after them, but Chestra restrained him using her mind power, which she wouldn't be able to do for long.

As Petalia and Shalila fled, Shalila asked her if she was okay. When Petalia said that she was, Shalila told her softly, "I am very proud of you, child. You were very brave."

"What did I do?" Petalia asked, puzzled. "All I did was step on that monster's foot."

"And you distracted Chestra long enough to break her concentration, so that I could get up. I believe that you saved us both, Petalia. I am very pleased with you," Shalila told her, as Petalia rested her head on her Great-Nama's bosom.


"Long time, no see, eh, Namek?"

"I was hoping never to see you again, Rybanese."

"I was hoping the same, but since you're here, you can tell me where Princess Tayla is."

"Not in this millennium, Jaden. Give it up and go home!"

"Not without the girl, I'm not! What is she to you anyway, Dirkan?"

"I am her guardian, and I love her."

"A little young for you, isn't she? I didn't know that Nameks preferred young brats to women their own age."

"Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself!"

"Tell me where the girl is, now!"

Dirkan smirked at Jaden. "Sorry, Jaden, but I have better things to do. See you later; I promise that we will finish this some other time."

"If you are looking for your precious Shalila, be prepared to face Chestra, who is now holding her captive. Chestra may not be as old or as experienced as I am, but she can more than handle you."

Dirkan smiled serenely, "hearing" a telepathic message from Shalila herself. He smirked again at Jaden. "Maybe we can finish this fight after all." He could relax for a few moments before facing off against Jaden, for both Shalila and Petalia were free.

"Jaden, I am warning you now; leave this planet immediately or perish!"

"Without Princess Tayla? Over my dead Rybanese body!"

"That can easily be arranged. I doubt anyone would miss you."

"Don't be so overconfident, Namek," Jaden said wickedly with a toothy grin, as she and Dirkan landed on a nearby cliff and assumed battle positions. She was going to finish what she had started with Shalila's Namek mate in the Battle of Chloe.

Dirkan opened his mouth and his hands for his Tri-Force blast.

Jaden grinned. Finally someone who was a challenge. It would be a pleasure to finish him off.



Two hours later.

"GUIDO!"

"JEICE!"

"BAATA!"

"RECCOOM!"

"CAPTAIN GINYU!"

"WE ARE THE GINYU FORCE!"

"More like the Ginyu Clowns," Gorna jeered. "I see that Ginyu hasn't improved much since the last time that we fought against him. I didn't know that Frieza was sending in a circus troupe this time." She was standing in front of the Ginyu Force with Gracina, Bendros, Cletos, and Alora, who was starting to wonder what had happened to Bajal. The entire group thought that the Ginyu Force was wasting everyone's time.

"I can't sense my husband anywhere," she said a bit worriedly, for although she knew that Bajal could take care of himself, Alora also knew that when Bajal didn't look for trouble, trouble looked for him. The two just couldn't keep away from each other.

"He may be concealing his ki," Cletos told her calmly, although he himself was starting to worry.

"I hope he is okay," Gracina added. "And Raakon and Lektron, for I cannot sense them either."
Gracina also thought of Caline, whom she had taken back to the shaky safety of the Calmagian royal castle. Caline was now safe for now with the other non-fighting Astorians and Calmagians. Hazel and the three Priestesses, Toria, Marya, and Arlina had promised to look after her.

"I don't think that's good," Alora said. "We should spilt up and find out where those three are."

"Not yet, Alora," Gorna told her sister-in-law sternly. "They will be all right; I know those three. Right now we have this clown show act to get rid of."

"They don't look to be much of a challenge," Alora asserted, as the Ginyu Force started playing rock, paper, and scissors to decide who would fight whom. "All I've seen them do so far is play child games and dance like little girls. My daughter could dance circles around that bunch and not make herself look like an idiot doing so either!"

Ginyu, who had the best hearing out of the Ginyu Force, spoke sharply, "How dare you make fun of our poses! Our poses are spectacular!"

"Yeah!" Jeice added in agreement. "Our poses and dances are great, no matter how many times we do them!" To demonstrate this, he twirled around on one toe in an arabesque position. He danced gracefully about on the ground, using plies and tendus. He landed with flair in front of Gracina, whom he found attractive; Jeice had a weakness for beautiful women of all species.

"We don't have to fight," Jeice told Gracina smoothly, closing his eyes at her sexily. "It doesn't matter to me, if you are an Astorian; you and I could get to know each other better. There must be a thief in heaven, sweetheart, for someone stole the stars from the sky and placed them in your eyes! You must be tired, lady, for you've been running through my mind all day!" He winked at her.

The entire Ginyu Force groaned, and they all fell down backwards, for they had wearied a long time ago of Jeice's corny pick-up lines. Jeice was a powerful warrior, but he had a reputation for flirting with and making passes at women of enemy species, even those of races that he had been sent to destroy. Both Ginyu and Frieza had disciplined him for it several times apiece.

The Astorians also groaned, and Gracina was unimpressed with Jeice's moves. "I am a married woman, a happily married woman, I might add, with four children. So go away, if you know what is good for you," she told Jeice icily.

Jeice wasn't about to be turned down yet. "Relax, I've been with married women before, and I like kids! Give me a chance, will you, babe?" And Jeice tried to put his arms around Gracina, but Gracina seized Jeice by his flowing white hair and swung him away from her into a mud puddle.

Gorna snorted. "Imagine that, a foolish, posing buffoon thinking that he has a chance with a Princess of Chloe! He must consider my sister to have poor taste!"

The entire Ginyu Force was laughing at Jeice's misfortune, as they always did whenever one of Jeice's crushes would turn him down. "Forget about scoring with humanoid women, Jeicey!" Ginyu laughed. "You just can't cut it with them! Better stick to your own kind!"

Reccoom added, chuckling, "Lately, Jeice can't 'stick' it with or in any woman, if you all know what I mean!" The Force laughed then, knowing what the giant meant.

"Hey, don't criticize my manhood!" Jeice shouted indignantly. "I haven't heard any complaints about my performance lately!"

"That's because your only 'performances' lately have been out with us instead of in the bedroom!" Guido teased, for they all knew that Jeice's normally active love life had slowed down considerably. The others laughed again.

Baata guffawed, for although he was Jeice's closest friend, he liked to poke fun at him now and then. "I think Astorian women are too rich for even your blood, Jeicey! Rabbits are just not for you! "

"Okay, men, let's get down to business!" Ginyu ordered. "Everyone remember who they were supposed to fight?"

The other Force members looked at him and each other blankly.

"No, not really," Reccoom admitted.

Ginyu groaned, slapping his hands on his cranium-like head. "We just did rock, paper, scissors to divide the Astorians among us! I myself was supposed to fight…um…let me think for a moment…it was…no, that wasn't the one…actually, it was…no, wait, it's coming to me…"

"Captain," Jeice began, after he had dragged himself out of the mud and rejoined the others.
"Why don't we just reassign everyone and divide the Astorians among us again?"

"We'll have to do rock, paper, and scissors again, but we could do that," Ginyu agreed. "Okay, everyone, ready! We'll start with who gets to fight Gorna Chloe first!"

"Ready!" his teammates chorused.

Gorna slapped her forehead. "This is getting ridiculous!"

Cletos sighed, "And these fools made it into Frieza's Elite?"

Gracina added, "Intelligence is apparently not a requirement to get into the Ginyu Force."

Alora agreed, "No, all you need to know how to do is play rock, paper, and scissors and twirl on one toe!"

Bendros laughed, "And to be able to pose without falling on your face! Maybe I should have these guys entertain at my youngest brother's next birthday ball."
Alora laughed with him. "As long as they keep the one called 'Jeicey' away from the women!"

"I've got a rock!" Jeice cried out.

In his head, maybe, Alora thought silently to herself.

"Well, I've got paper! Paper covers rock!" Baata boasted.

"I've got scissors!" Guido shouted. "Scissors cuts paper!"

"I've got rock," Reccoom boomed. "Rock breaks scissors!"

"Yeah, well I got paper!" Ginyu cried aloud. "Paper covers all rocks!"

"Yeah, Captain, but scissors cuts all papers!" Guido hooted.

"Rocks break all scissors!" Jeice yelled.

"Let's do it this way," Ginyu told his men. "There are two rocks, two papers, and one scissors. It's a tie between papers and rocks, so Guido, you're out-"

"Captain, that's not fair!" Guido wailed.

"Quiet, frogman!" Ginyu barked. "I am Captain here, not you! Why do you think I was made Captain? I got in on my good looks, not my good brains!" He was puzzled, as to why the Astorians and the other Ginyu Force members started laughing.

Ginyu flushed, his face turning blue instead of red. "Reverse that last sentence!"

Baata whispered to Jeice, "It was probably just good luck; if it had been on his brains or his looks alone, he wouldn't have even been able to create the Force." Jeice and Baata both snickered.

"Okay," said Ginyu, "now where were we? Who was paper, who was rocks, and who was scissors?"
His teammates stared at him blankly. Ginyu groaned after a few moments of silence. "Never mind. Let's just send the frogman after them first. Froggy, take on Gorna Chloe first!"

Guido was puzzled. "Captain, which one was Gorna Chloe again?"

"The fat woman with ugly muddy hair!" Ginyu told him, and Gorna shot Ginyu an icy look.

"Yeah, just make sure you don't go after the blond one," Jeice said. "I want her for myself."

"And I'll take the Astorian with a tail!" Baata declared. "She may look like one of the monkeys, but she's cute."

Alora and Gracina instinctively reached for their swords.

"Well, then, Reccoom, you take the other monkey Astorian," Ginyu said with authority. "And I will take the other male with no tail. Poses again, men, before we began!"

"Yay!" the Ginyu Force cried together.

"GUIDO!"

"JEICE!"

"BAATA!"

"RECCOOM!"

"CAPTAIN GINYU!"

"WE ARE THE GINYU FORCE!"

The Ginyu Force began to dance the elaborate Dance of Victory, Captain Ginyu's personal favorite dance. The Astorians just sighed and wondered if they should just leave.

"Here we go again," Alora groaned. She closed her eyes briefly. "Someone wake me up when this is over!"