Chapter 15

Bulma stared at his ugly face, the way his upper lip curled when he sneered at her, and the way his eyes glistened with something carnal that made her shiver. She made no move to escape, for she knew any would be futile. He was much faster than her, and his companions would not be far off. Running would be pointless, and a waste of her precious breath.

Bulma glared at him, tired of playing the frightened creature she had previously performed. She straightened her back and lifted her chin, angrily presenting herself with the fierceness of a woman who was sick and tired of being treated rotten.

"Don't make it too easy for me, I do like the thrill of a chase you know," he chuckled.

"I would never award the likes of you with that privilege," Bulma spat at him.

He laughed again and placed his large hands on his hips.

"You sure seem to have a lot more spunk then when I first saw you, look a little different too." His black eyes narrowed as he studied her, and she felt both sickened and insulted by his lecherous gaze.

"But I can sure see what Vegeta saw in you," he laughed heartily again.

"Oh you go to hell!" Bulma screamed. Her eyes sparked and became a lit with rage. As she was about to run, she heard more laughter coming from behind her antagonist.

"Ah Captain, I do think you got 'er mad!"

Bulma's skin blanched when she heard the familiar out of place Australian accent. Soon his red body was visible to her as he entered in the mouth of the cave, shortly followed by the remaining members. The big goofy one smiled dopey at her and waved.

"Well looky here," Came the voice of the reptilian one. She believed this was the first time she had heard him speak and thought it sounded treacherous and sly like a snake, a fitting sound she decided.

"I didn't think we would find her so quickly. She made it easy."

She glared angrily at him causing the others to laugh.

"I don't think she likes you very much Burter," The big one with the red hair said, if she remembered correctly, Recoome was his name.

Burter glowered at Recoome.

"She looks awfully different though, what happened to the little bun in the oven?" Jeice's brows were nit as he swept his eyes over her.

"Yes, did you pop it out already? Are you hiding it somewhere?" Burter hissed.

"Maybe it's hiding in that strange house behind her."

"Or maybe Vegeta is playing babysitter."

They all laughed heartily.

Bulma only stared at them all, their ignorance passing over her in an unaffected manner. She had nothing to fear like they wished to instill in her, for she had no baby to worry over. Their trite and in her opinion, juvenile bantering of her only succeeded in proving to her the intelligence level of the group. So far she was not impressed.

"Who knows, for all we know it could be some strange earth people reproductive stage." Ginyu frowned, annoyed with his men for wasting time arguing over the female. "Enough of this, we found her so now we take her to Freeza."

At the mention of his name, Bulma's demeanor shifted. The last thing she wanted was to be handed to the likes of him. Why was Freeza after her in the first place? Bulma wondered. What was he going to do with her? It made absolutely no sense to her, and she would rather not find out why this mad man was after her in the first place. She needed to escape, find a way into tricking these circus performers enough to get away and judging by who they were-- she scanned the bunch noticing the red one was combing through his hair, the green one was digging at a wedgy and the dopey one was picking his nose--- it wouldn't be that hard.

Bulma shifted the weight onto her other foot and looked at all five members of the Ginyu Force. Slowly she was judging all of them, recognizing their strengths as well as their weaknesses. It did not require any fighting skills whatsoever to determine that the purple one was the strongest for he was the ringleader of the circus, Jeice was probably the second strongest, judging by his haughtiness and the way he acted superior to his crew mates. Though she wasn't certain, he didn't look much like a fighter. Recoome she would bet money on was used for nothing more than a tank. She had witnessed him fighting Vegeta and saw firsthand that he could take many blows and keep coming back, fortunately he lacked common sense. Burter must have some purpose for he rivaled Jeice in arrogance, in fact the two of them seemed to get along the best from the bunch, signaling to her that they did not always play fair and double teamed their opponents. The last one, the one she knew the least about was the little frog boy, Guldo. Bulma's eyes narrowed on the green four eyed creature. He must have served some purpose, other than the butt of his companions' jokes. He must have some hidden talent, something that made him formidable as an opponent. She was unsure how to determine how strong he was as it was, but kept it in her mind not to underestimate him.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Bulma said vehemently. Her eyes sparkled with blue fire, behind her back; Bulma grabbed one of her capsules and fisted it tightly.

As Jeice made a step in her direction, Bulma threw out her arm and cast the capsule from her hand. Smoke billowed from the small device, completing her ninja act and allowing her to make a dive inside the Capsule house. Trying to calm down the raging beat of her heart, Bulma rushed through the rooms in a blind frenzy. Anxiously she made it into the bedroom and dived for the TV tray set up by the bed. Her heart drummed loudly with each passing second, secretly loving the thrill with the prospect of getting caught. Her hands grabbed at the capsules and sorted through them, trying to figure out if any were useful to her situation. Her hand grabbed one and she quickly read the label. Bulma bit her lip and fisted it, it would have to do.

The smoke cleared and the Ginyu Force was left covering their eyes to shield them from the smoke. They did not know if the gases were poisonous, but it burned their eyes. As the last of the smoke died away, Ginyu was left staring at the large hot tub that rested where the woman creature once stood. Anger contorted over his features as he noted her absence. With angry shouts at his men, he commanded them to search the small abode before them and bring the girl out to him.

Just as one made it to the door, it burst open and out flew Bulma in a flash of blue. The engine roared on her motorcycle giving Burter just enough time to get out of the way before she blasted past them and down the dirt path.

"After her!" Ginyu shouted. The sheer mockery this weak creature scorned her men with made him livid and knotted with fury. His amused appearance quickly morphed and blind rage.

The circus continued on in a humorous display, large oafish men chasing after a woman in a circle around the cave. Until one small occurrence and the motorcycle slipped in-between Recoome's large legs and escaped out the mouth of the cave, freely taking off into the sky thanks to the jets attached to the rear.

Bulma watched all this comically, being at a safe distance behind the capsule home, holding a small controller in her hands. She had sneaked out the back door when the brutes became distracted by the dummy she had flying about. It was a discontinued project of hers she had left in the capsule home upon the last time she had used it, prior to Namek, a hologram system. Bulma took one more quick look at her apprehenders and sneaked deeper into the mouth of the cave, hoping that she could make it to the southern exit before Ginyu realized he was being tricked.

Ginyu growled low in his throat as he watched the display carry on. Behind him, Burter was staring awestruck, mesmerized by watching Guldo, Recoome and Jeice chase after a human girl.

"What are you standing there for? Go fetch her!"

The mighty holler from their captain shook Burter back into reality and he quickly bowed his head and in less than a second's time, flew in front of the flying contraption.

"Nowhere for you to run, girl." He grinned when the girl stopped. He did not notice the motorized look in her eyes, or the fact that her clothing was different from before. The girl in front of him had longer hair with a small tie by the side of her head and wore jeans, one pant leg ripped off completely; all put together with a typical t-shirt three sizes too small.

Jeice came up from behind and streamed at full speed towards the girl. It was with this momentum that caused him to skirt straight through the image of the human girl and crash head into Burter. Jeice rubbed his head comically, and Burter cried out in shock.

"What was that for?" Burter screeched, growling at his partner who did not understand what happened.

"I don't understand what---" he paused when all eyes turned to the girl. The image of her was fluctuating and hazing and the sound of white noise that assaulted them alarmed them until finally she disappeared completely.

"What…What the hell?!" Jeice cried out.

"A hologram!" Ginyu shouted furiously. His fists clenched together and slowly he turned back to the house. Listened quietly he waited to hear a noise, and was granted the sound of crumbling rocks and light footfalls.

"Guldo!" Ginyu called out. Instantly the small green man came forward and nodded his head, knowing immediately what was needed of him.

Bulma could see the light of daylight streaming through the opening of the cave. She smiled as she raced towards it, symbolizing it as her ticket to freedom. As she reached the exit, she could just barely smell the fresh air before she heard footsteps behind her. Bulma held her breath and turned around. In that instant she felt a wave of nausea overtake her, then dizziness. Her legs wobbled and collapsed under her and she fell to the ground, surrounded by the sound of the vilest laugh she had ever heard.

"You think you are so clever, don't you girl?" The unmistakable grating of Captain Ginyu's voice boomed in her aching head.

Panic and disorder raged war inside her mind. Looking up she saw the face of Ginyu and her stomach lurched. One minute she was close to freedom and now she was sitting before him. What had happened?

"Nice work Guldo," Guldo smirked haughtily at the praise. "Maybe next time you will have enough brains to try that right away!"

The bellow erased the grin off of Guldo's face and he huffed and looked away.

"Quickly let's take her and leave this place, I am already sick of her games and don't want to wait around for her to pull anymore." Ginyu turned briskly and took off into the air, slowly followed by each of his men, one by one.

Bulma inched back when the towering outline of Recoome appeared before her, shadowing the sun in his lurching form.

"Aww, don't be afraid of me girly, I won't hurt ya," he gave a toothy grin (she knew his front tooth was missing thanks to Vegeta) as he reached down and hefted her into his big arms. She struggled against him and cursed him for all she was worth but in the end knew that her struggles bothered him as much as a flee would.

"Recoome will take good care of you, just you wait," the smile on his face was sickeningly sweet, and Bulma found herself being terrified of it just for that reason.