AN: Hello and welcome to another chapter of Puddin! Man, I've really been looking forward to posting this chapter. I've had if finished for a few weeks, but editing has taken a while. Had a big family emergency one week and then I was whisked off to Jamaica the next week, but now I am happy to bring you the next step in Puddin's journey.
As always, countless thanks to my lovely beta, Annbe11. She's been a true source of strength to me in these past few weeks. I urge you readers to check out her stuff, especially her newest story High Priestess Marci. You won't regret it :)
Chapter 16 – Mission to Namek! Why Can't Things Be Simple?!
No matter how well a mission is going, the speed at which everything can go right down the tubes could always surprise you.
The early stages of Puddin's assignment on Namek had gone alright. When Freeza had sent both Dodoria and Zarbon to chase after the surviving Z-Warriors, Puddin had stopped Zarbon from interfering too much. She even bit his face to establish dominance, convincing him that it was probably best to call it a day. Later, she had watched Dodoria and Vegeta have their own confrontation. Dodoria had a massive power increase from an unclear source, but Puddin wasn't too concerned. It was Dodoria, after all. No amount of extra power could make her any more intimidating.
From there, Puddin had to wait around for the next rift in time to occur. She had talked with Chronoa over comms and begged the Supreme Kai of Time to let her just time travel to the next moment of action. Chronoa had simply told her that the Time Patrol did not have the energy resources to allow that many jumps in such a short amount of time, especially not in the current economy.
Puddin was convinced that Chronoa was just fucking with her.
After hours upon hours of boredom, Puddin had been both relieved and delighted to hear the theme song of the Ginyu Force echoing across the planet. If there was anything in the galaxy guaranteed to put a smile on her face, it was the most stylish, flamboyant, and destructive squad of mercenary commandos in the galaxy. Puddin remembered listening to her father talk about them when she was just a kid. She had laughed herself hoarse just from the way Dumplin told the story and was excited to see them for herself.
She already knew what to expect from them. The jokes! The posing! The way they film their fights for television! Their fun obsession with using a giant wheel to decide who kills who! It was going to be amazing!
However, the sight she found was much different than what she had expected.
"ZA-WARUDO!" yelled Guldo. There was a blur of motion too fast for any creature to see before a third steamroller landed on top of one of the short Earthlings with a loud CRUNCH. However, it seemed only a mild inconvenience to the Earthling and he just pushed the giant piece of construction equipment off of him, scratching his head as he struggled to figure out where all of these steamrollers kept coming from. The kid with the stupid hair made an attack at Guldo, but the green soldier disappeared before the blow could connect.
On the other side of the tiny island, Recoome was in a pitched battle with Vegeta. "RAAAGH!" roared Recoome, attacking at the Saiyan with a Recoome Kick that smashed a giant crater in the ground, but his target dodged out of the way. "You get back here and stop dancing around Recoome!" the burly man yelled before he charged once again.
Off to the side from the two pitched battles, Burter stood watching with his arms crossed, a troubled expression on his face. His friend Jeice stood next to him. The red lieutenant seemed just as worried as Burter felt.
"Soooo…" Jeice said slowly, "do Guldo n' Recoome seem at all… weird to ya?"
"Definitely," hissed Burter. "Guldo, I could understand. He really hates Vegeta. But Recoome? Something's up. He didn't turn on his battle music. He's never fought without it before. And I don't think I've ever seen him this angry."
"Too roit," Jeice said with a nod. "Cap'n weren't happy neither. Just ordered us to kill 'em all, took the Dragon Balls, and flew right off. 'E wouldn't even let me take ou' tha' Wheel of Death. E' loves the Wheel! It's tradition!"
"I know, right?" said Burter. "And he wouldn't let me get the cameras set up. We promised the network we'd have a fight to fill in this time slot. We're gonna disappoint the executives."
"Not to mention our fans," Jeice said, squeezing his bicep. "Their devoted viewership helps us make a living doin' wha' we love. We can't just disappoint 'em like that!"
"Yeah. Who's gonna buy all the merchandise?" Burter said with a shrug.
"Let's record some o' this on our Scouters," suggested Jeice, pressing a few buttons on his device. "Maybe we can splice somethin' together after the mission is over. Better late than never, roit?"
"You said it, pal," said Burter, also hitting the record function on his Scouter. "You record Guldo's fight and I'll do Recoome's."
"Bastard," muttered Jeice. "O' course you'd grab the more in-eresting foit."
"Hey, you snooze you lose," Burter said with a smarmy grin before turning his focus on Recoome's fight. "Damn, Vegeta must be off his game today. That was a pretty slow Recoome Punch, but he only barely dodged it."
"I heard that, snake-face!" Vegeta roared from a long distance away. "I don't need commentary when I'm fighting!"
The Saiyan Prince's complaints were silenced by a boot to the head which sent him flying.
"Damn…" said a new voice coming from their left. "He got some serious airtime on that."
Buter and Jeice both jumped and spun to face the intruder. It was clearly a female, but not of any species Burter knew about. Gray skin and gooey texture was a new one to him. She seemed very fit and would probably be quite attractive if one were into that sort of thing. It was just a bit hard to actually look at her.
"Oh gawd!" cried Jeice, hurriedly looking away from her garishly colored ensemble. "The neons! Ah'm blinded! Ah'm fecking blinded!"
"Wooooowwww…" drawled the female, putting her hands on her hips and giving Jeice an annoyed look. "Do you see me waltzing up to you and insulting your space-armor-space-speedo combo? No, no you don't."
"Who are you?!" Burter demanded, shocked that their Scouters hadn't detected her. Something like that shouldn't even be possible.
"I'm the Eldritch Ghost of Christmas Future from the Past," the female said with a roll of her eyes. "It doesn't really matter to you who I am. What I want to know is what's going on with the Ginyu Force?"
"Wha…" said Jeice, looking like he was finally getting his eyesight back. He cautiously glanced in the female's direction, seeming ready to cover his eyes at a moment's notice. "Wha' d'you mean?"
"I mean where are the cameras? The posing? The Wheel of Death? I was so looking forward to this timeline cause I'd be able to see all of it in real life, but there's nothing I wanted to see." The female was looking quite agitated now. She must be a disgruntled fan. Burter decided he had better get used to it, based on how the day was turning out.
"The captain wouldn't let us," Burter said with a hiss. "He and the rest of the team seem really upset about something, but we don't know what."
"What do you mean?" she whined. "Why can't you guys do the show you normally do?"
"Captain said he didn't want any distractions for this mission, but it's just gonna cause even more problems." The fastest being in the universe sighed and dragged a hand down his face. "If we don't get GalacTV something they can show, they might get pissed at us. We could be in for some money troubles if we don't get them footage."
"Wait," she said, confused. "Aren't you guys mercenaries? Don't you get paid by Freeza to destroy planets and such?"
Burter and Jeice both blinked before they burst out laughing. "Freeza… pay us… Ha ha ha!" Jeice barely managed to say through his laughter. He was doubled over and holding his stomach as he howled. Burter wasn't much better off than him. They continued laughing at that absurd statement for a few moments, long enough for the female to start looking annoyed.
"Freeza… hah, oh god… Freeza doesn't pay anybody," Burter said, finally getting himself under control. "The only thing he does is allow us to live. The money we make on missions is when we broadcast the footage to GalacTV."
"So…" she said slowly, scratching her neck, "what happens if you can't do that?"
That sobering thought hit Burter like a space truck and he sighed, all humor gone from his voice. "Best case scenario, we don't get paid for this mission. If they get really mad at us, though, we might lose our contract and we'll be out of work. My streaming on Space Twitch might be enough to afford groceries, but it's not gonna come close to covering rent and utilities until we can work something out. This… this could be really bad."
"Oi, mate," Jeice said somberly, reaching up to pat Burter on the shoulder. "Don' you worry nothin' about it. Ah'm sure the network'll understan'." He tried to give Burter a confident smile. "And even if not, we'll figure somethin' out. Me mum n' dad own a restaurant back on Space Australia. They can help us get some jobs around town till we get back on our feet. Maybe you n' me could make a go at Galactic Space Baseball while we're at it. Whadaya say?"
Burter let out a long hissing breath and gave his friend a smile that he hoped came across as optimistic. "It sounds like a good plan, Jeice," he said.
As Burter tried to tamp down on all those worrying thoughts bouncing around his head, he suddenly heard sniffling. He and Jeice turned to see the female staring at them with big watery eyes, tears dripping down her cheeks.
"I loved you guys because you were always so funny and flamboyant," she said with another sniffle, "but it's just so sweet how much you care about each other. You're… you're all just so great." She wiped her eyes. "It makes me… really, really happy!"
In spite of everything, Burter felt a lightness in his chest. In the face of any trials or tribulations that life threw at them, it was always great to speak with a loving fan.
"Aw shucks," said Jeice, failing to disguise the fact that his cheeks were growing even redder. "We appreciate everything, sheila. We just hope we can keep on making you and every other one of our fans smile."
"Yeah," Burter said with a nod. "Meeting the people who love watching us makes everything worthwhile. I'm really glad we got to talk with you, miss."
"Y'know…" Jeice said slowly before reaching behind his back. When he withdrew his hands, he had a notepad and a pen. "It's been a right long time since we met a fan in the field. What do ya say to an autograph?"
"I'd love one!" the girl cried, her eyes now shining with happiness.
"You got it!" Jeice said, putting the pen to paper. "Who shall we make this out to?"
"Oh, sorry!" the girl said, rubbing the back of her head. "My name is-"
"Puddin!" Burter heard someone say in a loud voice over the girl's Scouter. She winced from the feedback before putting a hand on the device and giving them an apologetic look.
"Could you please excuse me for a second?" she asked before turning around. As she carried out a whispered conversation with whoever was on the other end, Burter looked back to check on Vegeta, who was currently struggling to get out of a grapple courtesy of Recoome. If Burter guessed right, that move was the Mad Monkey Meat Masher, and a real nasty one too. Nearby, Guldo currently had the bald one and the kid with the stupid hair seized in his telekinetic grip. That fight probably wouldn't last much longer.
"Alright! Alright!" the girl said into her Scouter, sounding more than a little irritated, before turning back to the two of them. "Could you please make it out to Puddin? I'd really appreciate that."
Jeice gave a nod and scratched out a message before signing his name with a flourish. After letting Burter give his own signature, Jeice tore off the sheet and handed it over to her.
"Here you are, sheila. So glad to have had time to talk."
"Me too," she said, beaming at the autographs before sliding the sheet safely into her belt. "I really hope we get to do this again soon." She gave them a wink and a smile before she suddenly blasted toward the two fights.
Burter had a smile on his face as he watched her go. What a nice girl. And running into a fan was just what he needed today. With his teammates by his side and all their fans behind them, he was beginning to think that they could overcome whatever the galaxy had left to throw at them.
Then their nice fan karate chopped Guldo's head clean off.
"'OLY FUCKIN' STREWTH!" Jeice yelled, recoiling from the sight of Guldo's head rolling across the grass, a look of surprise on his green frog-like face.
"She… but she said… she just…" stammered Burter, unable to take his eyes off the gray girl as she flicked Guldo's blood off her arm.
"One down," she said to herself before turning toward Recoome. The big man had Vegeta flat on the ground and was in the middle of grinding his boot down on the Prince's ribcage when he looked up at Puddin in shock. "Who's next?"
"And who is this who stands before Recoome?!" the man himself demanded. "Some… technicolor ink blot?! No amount of pretty colors will save you today! You have interfered in a fight! A harsh penalty must be given for such a thing!"
"Sorry, big guy," Puddin said casually, "but I'm gonna need you to stop. I love beating up Vegeta as much as the next girl, but there's a time and place for that sort of thing."
"Recoome will not! No matter who does the asking, Recoom will not be denied his violent delights! I will-!"
Puddin suddenly surged forward and punched Recoome across the face, sending him crashing into a boulder that collapsed on top of him.
"I wasn't asking, bitch," said Puddin.
Vegeta groaned and pushed himself up. "Pi… piss off," he said, sounding quite dizzy. "I… had him right where I wanted him."
"I'm so sure," Puddin said with a roll of her eyes.
"Oi! Oi! Tha's enough!" yelled Jeice. His words finally seemed to wake Burter from the shock of what he had just seen and he shook his head clear.
No matter how nice that Puddin girl had just been, she had betrayed them. She was interrupting their mission from Lord Freeza. They had a job to do and they needed to stop her.
Oh, and she had also killed Guldo. That was just mean.
"Yeah!" Burter hissed, getting ready to attack. "You can't barge in and interrupt the Ginyu Force in the middle of a fight!"
"RECOOME'S fight!" Just then, the pile of rocks exploded, sending rubble and debris everywhere. Recoome stepped out of the dust cloud, angrily brushing pebbles off his armor. "This fight belongs to Recoome, and he will not let anyone interrupt it! He's gonna break your legs in a dozen places! He's gonna turn your skull into a mixing bowl! He's gonna-!"
Suddenly, Burter saw a new ping on his Scouter, one that was mirrored on Jeice's. A very high power level had just arrived. Just as Burter tried adjusting the device to get a lock on the source's location, the power source suddenly came to them.
An orange blur streaked across the sky before landing directly in front of Recoome. Its arrival was immediately followed by a gut-churning CRUNCH as Burter saw this new arrival stand before them with his elbow buried painfully in Recoome's stomach. The huge man gasped and twitched before he collapsed to the ground and lay still.
For a long moment, silence reigned.
"Damn it, Goku I had it covered!" snapped the Puddin girl.
"He… what… crikey…" stammered Jeice, quaking in his boots. "E' killed Recoome… just like that…"
"Oh shit," Burter said in a quivering voice.
"This whole bloody mission is deadset going right straight down the donny!" said Jeice.
Burter had to agree with that assessment. "I… I think we need to get the Captain!"
The both of them had taken nothing more than a single step to turn around before something heavy landed behind them. A chill traveled all the way down Burter's spine and his hearts forgot how to beat. With an unpleasant squirming in his stomach, Burter slowly looked over his shoulder.
The figure behind them looked like a ninety-percent copy of the orange-clad man who had just taken out Recoome. This one, however, was wearing space armor and a Scouter. Clutched in his hand was a brown burlap sack. As Burter and Jeice stood there trying to figure out what was going on, the newcomer looked at them with cold eyes and smiled.
"Who are you?" Burter demanded in a voice that wanted to be calm and confident. "Are you with those people who just took down our teammates?"
The other man chuckled.
"To their pitiful patrol, I am very much maligned,
I am here to give aid. You seem in a bind."
"Aid?" asked Jeice. "Why would you help us?"
"All those that support conquest are allies, of course,"
he said, reaching into the bag and pulling out two pieces of fruit the size of space apples.
"These fruits will allow you to come back in force.
They will increase your strength and break all the rules,
Nothing would stop you from crushing these fools."
Burter and Jeice stared at the fruit. After a few moments, they both smiled and reached forward.
Things went a little crazier after Burter and Jeice ate the fruit from the Tree of Might, but still not anything that Puddin couldn't handle. There was the fact that Goku had to keep butting in, which meant she had to spend more time protecting him than she did fighting. It kind of put a damper on her day.
And as if that weren't enough, there was another complication. While she had been busy trying to keep Goku from getting killed, she heard a new message over the comms. For Shenron knows what reason, Trunks had arrived in this timeline to lend his assistance. Puddin audibly groaned as she heard that particular bit of info. She could handle this mission on her own, damn it. But regardless, she counted her blessings that at least he didn't get directly involved in her fight.
…For about three minutes.
Puddin let out a sigh of annoyance as Goku lay sprawled on the ground, panting like crazy. She rolled her eyes and kicked a piece of rubble that had been made by their struggle. It bounced over the blue Namekian grass and clattered down into one of the dozen new craters that their fight had created, before finally coming to a stop by Burter's broken body. Puddin looked down at the dead snake man and felt the barest hint of a twinge in her heart.
She averted her eyes to look at the green ocean, trying to quash down the feelings she didn't want to be having. Burter's fate was written in stone. He was always meant to die here on Namek. Just as Jeice was meant to let out a sobbing wail at seeing his friend dead and then run off to find their captain. No matter what sort of feelings she totally was not having, she had a duty to protect the sanctity of the timeline.
No matter how fast Burter was, he could never outrun death.
Puddin brushed a few flecks of dust off her shoulder, imagining she could brush away the feelings just as easily, and turned to look at the exhausted Goku. The two of them were alone since Krillin and Gohan had gone off to look for the Dragon Balls when the fight had started and then Vegeta had fucked off after executing the paralyzed Recoome.
Puddin had helped the hero emerge victorious, but Goku was badly beaten, which was a far cry from the original canon where he basically mopped the floor with the whole Ginyu Force. Now he was staring at the empty drawstring bag he had pulled off his belt, trying to will a new senzu bean into existence.
"Um… Rainbow Kitty Girl?" he asked. She rolled her eyes.
"Yes?" she answered with irritation.
"You wouldn't happen to have any beans on you, right?"
I do have one, but I'm saving it for me, she thought.
"No, I don't," she said, "but I can give you something almost as good."
"Really?" asked Goku, turning to look at her. One of his eyes was swelling shut and Puddin didn't like looking at it.
"Yup," she said simply before blasting him with the Rejuvenator. There was a blur as Goku's body was rewound to about the middle of the fight, leaving him standing there in a fighting stance and no idea what had happened. He had fewer bruises and now his eye wasn't swelled shut.
"Whoa!" he cried out, looking down at himself. "What happened?!"
"I gave you a pick-me-up," Puddin said, stowing the Rejuvenator on her belt. "Now you need to get ready. Jeice and his captain will be here any-"
"Tha's them, Cap'n! Them's the bahstuds what killed Burter!"
"Speak of the devil," muttered Puddin. Two thuds announced the new fighters landing and she turned to face the new arrivals.
That was the moment her jaw dropped. Jeice was exactly the same as before, but next to him stood a huge problem.
"Trunks?!" she yelled, staring the Lead Time Patroller up and down. He stood with much more confidence than she thought Trunks was ever capable of, and that evil grin was definitely not something she could imagine on Trunks' face. The Scouter on his head was also a new addition.
"Ah, I see," 'Trunks' said smoothly, his voice now slightly accented and filled to the brim with culture and hoity-toity-ness. "So, Trunks was his name? Well, not to worry. I'm sure he wasn't putting this body to any particularly good use. I'm sure that I, Captain Ginyu, can do so much more with such a masterpiece."
"Jesus Fucking Christ!" snarled Puddin, slapping her forehead. "You just can't stop fucking things up, can you Trunks?!"
"Oi, Cap'n," said Jeice, now looking much more confident than he had been before. "Wha did you say that bloke's pow'r level again? Is 'e much stronger than your old body?"
"Well, Jeice," said Ginyu-as-Trunks as he lifted a hand and dramatically curled it into a fist., "This young man channeled his power in an attempt to intimidate me, and the sheer level of power made my Scouter explode. But, like a good captain, I always have a spare."
Well, shit, thought Puddin.
"Jumpin' Space Jackalopes, Cap'n!" Jeice cried, his face utterly stunned. "Ah didn't know anyone but Lord Freeza could be that strong!"
"Hmmm," Ginyu hummed thoughtfully as he flexed his new bicep. "I suppose. That is certainly something interesting to consider. Maybe after this is over, I could-"
Ginyu was cut off when a bright pink fist collided with his cheek and sent him flying off into the distance before splashing into the water. Puddin had lost patience with this conversation and decided to move things along.
"Goku!" she yelled over her shoulder. "This guy is way too fucking strong for you! You need to get out right now!"
"What?!" whined Goku. "Why would I go?! I want to beat him up!"
"I'm not giving you a choice!" Puddin grabbed Goku by the front of his gi and spun around like a twister before hurling him with all of her strength. The idiot when soaring, cresting over the distant mountains, arcing through the sky, and disappearing over the horizon.
Alright, thought Puddin, I bought some time. Now I just need to take all these guys out before he gets back. Shouldn't be too-
She jerked her head to the side, feeling the whoosh of air as Jeice's sneak attack just missed her.
"And then there's this," she hissed. She met Jeice's gaze, her eyes burning like azure bonfires.
"Um…" he whimpered, his body beginning to tremble. "Well… maybe if you let me go, I get you some autographed merch? A shirt? A premium mug?"
Puddin clucked her tongue and shook her head. "Fraid not, pal." Quick as a snake on speed, her hand darted out to grab Jeice by the face. "If it's any consolation, I'm looking forward to when I get to see you again. Big Bang Attack!"
The blackened crater was still smoking when Ginyu arrived, dripping wet and most annoyed. "I'll have you know," he snarled, flicking lavender hair out of his eyes, "that this jacket is twice as heavy when wet! Who would even wear something like this on a planet with three suns?!" He looked this way and that before turning back to Puddin. "Where's Jeice? What have you done with him?"
Puddin clapped a few motes of dust off her gloves before finally giving him her attention. With the smallest curl of her mouth, she indicated the smoking hole in the ground. Ginyu stared at it before understanding finally blossomed in his eyes.
"Jeice… No…" Ginyu began to breathe faster. "You… You killed them… Every single one of my men…"
"To be fair," Puddin said, sliding her foot back and digging it into the dirt, "it was Vegeta who killed Recoome, but I guess that doesn't really change much, does it?"
Ginyu's fists curled and shook at his sides. "You'll pay for this… You'll pay for all of this. I'm going to rend you limb from limb. I'm going to deprive you of your senses one by one. I'm going to lash your torn body to the front of my space pod and parade you before the entire empire and everyone will know that this miserable lump of flesh is-"
"Puddin!"
Puddin and Ginyu both blinked and looked to the sky, wondering who had called out. Immediately, Puddin caught sight of a purple figure slowly drifting through the air toward them. Puddin couldn't help the slight shake of her head as the alien man landed before them, panting and holding a hand over a bleeding hole in the side of his chest.
"Just can't stop fucking things up, can you Trunks?"
"Puddin…" Trunks-as-Ginyu gasped. "Senzu… please!"
"What? Fuck off. Use your own."
"I can't… Don't have it…"
"Can't you just like… put pressure on it or something?"
"Puddin! Now!"
"Ugh! Fine!" Puddin snorted, pulling her necklace out from under her shirt and opening the side that had the senzu bean. "Try not to choke," she said, flicking the bean in Trunks' direction. He just barely snatched the bean out of the air and immediately threw it into his mouth, crunching down on it with a look of distaste. In an instant, his wounds were healed and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well," spat Ginyu, still standing there dripping water, "isn't that just incredible. Not only do you kill off my entire squad, but you go and ruin the closest thing I've had to fun since I landed on this godforsaken planet. You simply live to vex me, don't you?"
"Well, I am known to be quite vexing," Puddin said with a shrug before she dropped into a fighting stance. "Now, shall we?"
"Very much so," agreed Ginyu. "Though it hurts me right in the nostalgia, I think I'll be scrapping the old body."
"What?" asked Trunks.
Ginyu flung his head back and roared, sending an explosive wave of burning ki out in all directions. The grass he stood on turned to ash an instant before the ground itself melted. Light blazed and set the very air alight while the nearby water boiled away in the blink of an eye. The force was so great that shockwaves were felt throughout the planet.
For a moment, it was as if Namek gained a fourth sun.
Ginyu let the wave of energy dissipate and beheld his handiwork. Everything within twenty meters of him had been turned to devastation. Ginyu allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction, enjoying the new feeling of power flowing through his veins.
"Wow."
Ginyu spun around, seeing Puddin standing off to his side. Her arms were crossed in front of her face and he could see burn marks on her sleeves and gloves. Directly behind her stood Trunks. Most of Ginyu's old armor had been broken off, especially the shoulder pads, and he had burns on many of his extremities, but he was still alive.
Puddin lowered her arms and stared at Ginyu in shock. "That was pretty crazy," she said before shooting a reproachful look over her shoulder. "How come you never do stuff like that? That would probably be pretty useful in a fight."
"Patrollers need to make an effort at avoiding collateral damage," Trunks lectured. "I need your backup communicator."
"Why?" she asked, looking suspicious.
"Puddin, just give me the communicator!" Trunks said, stress leaking from his words.
"Alright, alright." Puddin unclipped the cellphone-sized communicator from her belt and offered it to him.
"Thank you," he said with a nod before raising the device to his mouth. "This is Trunks. I need an emergency portal at my location right now."
Not even a second later, a shining time gate appeared before him. Trunks nodded to Puddin before turning away.
"Take care of this, Puddin," he said before leaping through the gate. It slammed shut as soon as he was gone, leaving Puddin alone.
"Did… Did he just…?" Puddin stammered. She stared at the spot where the time gate had been, blinking in shock. Trunks, the Captain of the Time Patrol and partner to her own father, had just ditched her. As she stared, anger began to replace the confusion in her mind. Hot rage bubbled in her veins as her fingers curled into fists. He was the one who had come here uninvited. He was the one who fucked up this bad. Why did she have to be the one to clean up his-?!
WHAM!
Puddin was sent flying before she crashed to the ground, her head and shoulders carving long furrows in the charred Namekian dirt before she finally skidded to a halt. Her cheek stunk like a bitch and she had accidentally bitten her tongue when she got hit. She pulled her head from the small canyon she had carved and spat out a mouthful of dust and ash. As she tried to carefully brush some dirt off of her poor tongue, there came a mocking and flamboyant laugh from behind her.
"Consider that payback for that cheap shot earlier," Ginyu said with another sneer. "Now, then, how about I give this new body a test drive? We'll see how long it takes me to leave you in pieces."
Puddin shook her head clear, wincing as the motion caused a sting in her swelling cheek, before standing up. She let out a long hiss of air through her teeth.
"Okay den…" Puddin said around her swollen tongue, the vanilla-like taste of her own blood coating the inside of her mouth. She spat out a gob of blood and bared her teeth. "Tho you wanna pway wuff? Les pway wuff!"
Puddin had to admit that she probably shouldn't have enjoyed beating up Trunks' body as she did. But in her defense, she just couldn't help herself. The dumbass had intruded on her mission, fucked everything up when she had the situation under control, and then just abandoned her instead of cleaning up his mess. So yeah, she wasn't going to lie and say that sending Ginyu-as-Trunks flying between different islands like a pinball didn't feel more than a little satisfying. It even felt pretty good.
While Ginyu had bragged about Trunks' power level, he couldn't even comprehend controlling that amount of power. He definitely couldn't match Puddin's speed and strength when she got serious. Punching his lights out had been like fighting a brick wall: incredibly durable and solid, but not really in any position to hit you back.
So, after hammering him for a while, she had finally slammed him into a mountainside so hard that he made a Trunks-shaped crater. Ginyu was bleeding quite a lot. Maybe it was a little too much, but whatever.
"So," said Puddin, now speaking clearer after her tongue had healed. The fight had actually been kind of a workout and she was breathing hard. "How you doing, Ginyu? Still feeling uppity?"
"Gurghhh…" Ginyu groaned, opening one of his eyes just enough to glare balefully at her. "You… smug…"
"What?" asked Puddin, leaning closer and grabbing him by the collar. "I'm a smug what? Tell me what you were about to say, Ginyu." The captain of the now-destroyed Force just gave a little wheezing cough. "Come on, Ginyu. I'm wait-inggggg," she said, lifting a fist to her eye level, ready to beat some more respect into him.
"Puddin, stop!"
Puddin jerked away from Ginyu in surprise. That voice had come from her Scouter and it had sounded just like…
"Paata?!" Puddin said in surprise, slapping a hand to her Scouter and turning away from Ginyu. "Paata is that you? Are you here too?"
There was silence from the Scouter. She pressed a few buttons and searched for nearby power levels, but all she could see in this area was Ginyu.
"Paata?" she asked again, her eyes darting between the half dozen identical islands that surrounded her. "Paata, if you're here, you better tell me right now that I'm not crazy."
Again, there was no answer.
Puddin took another look around, worrying her lip between her teeth. "What in the hell is even going on?"
"Just thinking how together, once again, we are drawn."
Puddin's heart leapt up into her throat and her eyes widened like saucers. Before she could move, both of her wrists were seized in iron grips. A moment later, her stretchy arms had been tied together into a painfully tight knot.
"Ah! Fuck!" she cried out, kicking back with her legs and hoping to hit something important, but only hitting air. She snapped her head back, but that didn't accomplish much either.
"Now now, dear Puddin, no need to cuss."
The voice purred next to her ear, so close she could feel the breath.
"This will go so much smoother if you don't make a fuss."
"Turles!" snarled Puddin. "Get off me!"
"Afraid I can't do that, sorry to be rude;
But this victory of yours I must now preclude.
So come now, friend Ginyu, it's time for a trade;
I think this young maiden would surely make the grade."
Puddin swore she felt her heart stop as she heard those words. Turles spun the two of them around until she was facing Ginyu. Instead of looking defeated, the man had a smile that was downright vicious.
"Thanks… for… your help," Ginyu grunted as he slowly extricated himself from the crater.
Puddin began to kick and struggle more, desperate for escape. She tried to wiggle her arms free from their tangled mess, but the knot was so tight that she couldn't escape.
"Let me go!" she screamed. "Get off of me! Help! Somebody help!"
Ginyu began to laugh as he spread his arms and legs wide. Puddin bucked and kicked, but Turles would not let go. She could hear him chuckling in her ear. Ginyu surged with energy as his gaze zeroed in on Puddin.
There was no escape.
"CHANGE… NOW!"