"What's wrong, Captain Ginyu?" Watching their captain drift off mid-flight, Jeice couldn't help asking.
"It's nothing. I just have a bad feeling about this mission." Rarely dropping his clowning, Ginyu wore a solemn look.
"It's just a feeling—very faint."
"You're joking, right, Captain? With your 120,000 power level, who on this planet could surpass you? Unless you mean those other two teams, huh?" Jeice shot back without thinking.
The Frieza Force was notorious for cold-blooded ruthlessness. Corps versus corps, unit versus unit—infighting was common. It was only Frieza's presence that kept people from clashing openly most of the time. Tripping each other up now and then was fine, as long as it didn't hinder Frieza.
Otherwise, it meant death. Mercy wasn't in Frieza's vocabulary.
So Jeice's guess didn't fly with Ginyu—unless the other teams had a death wish. With how much Frieza valued the Dragon Balls, he wouldn't let his men distract him now.
"Jeice, that's not it." Ginyu immediately shot him down.
"Then you're overthinking it, Captain. I don't see what those little ants can do in your and Lord Frieza's presence," Jeice said, half-flattering. Among the Ginyu Force, he was closest to Ginyu.
"Careful with that thinking." Ginyu didn't deny his words. "I don't fear the ants, but their Ant King shouldn't be underestimated. Even Lord Frieza's brother, King Cooler, fell to him."
"So Cooler really did—this news is true!" Jeice exclaimed, stunned.
"Though Lord Frieza hasn't banned talk of it spreading, some things are better discussed in private. I can tell you responsibly: King Cooler was indeed taken down by the ants' king. I just don't know what underhanded method they used." Ginyu's tone carried six parts anger, three parts awe, and one part schadenfreude.
Cooler's strength might lag behind Frieza's, but to the Frieza Force elites he was still unbeatable. Ginyu, who had once vied for the Armored Squadron captainship, knew Cooler's might best. And since he'd lost that captaincy to Salza back then, Ginyu didn't think much of Cooler's army.
So they preferred to believe Cooler was ambushed by some dirty trick, caught off guard.
Yes—surely that's what happened. They believed it fervently.
"Huh? Captain Ginyu—energy reading ahead." Up front, Burter turned after his scouter chirped.
"So you're Frieza's lapdogs? We have no personal grudge, but today you'll be buried here to atone for the Namekians you've slain." A bald man in ethnic-style robes appeared before the Ginyu Force, a porcelain-doll-like boy floating at his side.
Z Fighters: Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu.
"A survivor of the Three-Eyed people? Why are there off-worlders on Namek?" The Ginyu Force halted, surprised to see Tien bar their path. As for the speech he'd just made? No one cared; they treated it as a joke.
"Hey, three-eyes, you looking to die?" Recoome, the hothead of the squad, pointed at Tien.
"Captain, we've got time to kill anyway—how about we play with this clueless fool first?" Jeice suggested.
Ginyu glanced at Tien, then at his men, saying nothing—but his silence was consent.
"I'm going first, then." With the captain's tacit okay, Burter spoke up at once.
"Hey, that's sneaky, Burter. I should go first!" Jeice protested.
"No way. I'm the one who'll tear this three-eyes to pieces!" Recoome wasn't having it.
"I think I should take the shot!" Even Guldo, the weakest, objected.
"In that case—same old rules!"
"Rock, paper, scissors!" "Rock, paper, scissors!" x2
"Hahaha, I win! Leave the three-eyes to me." Recoome laughed loudly.
"Hey, Recoome—treat us to chocolate," Jeice and Burter, having lost the throw, settled for a consolation prize.
"Tch, always sticking me with the trash." Guldo was unhappy. His opponent looked to be the relatively weaker Chiaotzu.
"Chiaotzu, can you handle that one?" The Ginyu Force didn't rate Tien, and Tien didn't rate them.
Even before the Grand Elder's potential unlock, Tien had over 600,000. Now? "Don't worry, Tien. His psychic powers aren't stronger than mine," Chiaotzu said—rarely—full of confidence.
Psychic vs. psychic!
"Come die, shorty." Guldo glared viciously at Chiaotzu.
"Short? You're shorter than me." Chiaotzu raised a hand and measured their heights in the air, reaching a firm conclusion.
"Ahahaha, he's right—Guldo, you're shorter," the others mocked mercilessly.
"Why you—looking for death!" Guldo unleashed his psychic power at once. "I'll show you how strong I am!" He tried to freeze Chiaotzu's movements.
"You can't move now, can you?" Guldo smirked at Chiaotzu like a lamb to the slaughter. He'd already sealed Chiaotzu's body with his psychic power.
But what came next left him gaping. Chiaotzu deliberately waved at him to show he could move.
"Heh-heh." While Guldo stared, Chiaotzu raised a hand, extended one finger, and traced a circle in the air.
"What's going on? Is Guldo clowning?" Recoome blinked at Guldo rolling around on the ground, confused, and asked Jeice.
"No idea—maybe a new move?" Jeice was at a loss too; this wasn't his field.
Only Guldo and Chiaotzu knew—Chiaotzu had just hit him with his own signature psychic technique.
Chiaotzu then forced Guldo through a series of ridiculous poses. Even the dullest of the team, Recoome, realized something was wrong.
"That waste Guldo's been taken over. Recoome, looks like it's your turn." Jeice said, sneering at Guldo, who was now doing ballet on the spot.
"Relax. Give me three minutes and I'll twist that three-eyes' head off." Recoome glanced at the scouter reading for Tien and spoke with confidence.
Twenty thousand? Against Recoome's 55,000, that was just free food.
Cracking his knuckles loudly, Recoome swaggered toward Tien.
But even in the original, Tien after training on King Kai's planet wasn't someone Recoome could easily handle—let alone now, with Tien's power in the hundreds of thousands.
Perhaps only the Ninth Universe Tien from a cross-dimensional melee—who could use the Kaio-ken—surpassed the Tien before them now.
"What—the hell—Recoome—" The man billed as second only to Captain Ginyu was felled by a single punch. The gap was so vast the rest of the team couldn't process it.
"As I thought." Captain Ginyu stared gravely at Tien. "Take off your scouters. You won't get his true reading with those."
"You're one of those races that can freely manipulate their own power level, aren't you? There are experts like that in the universe. Lucky me to meet one today."
"To drop Recoome in one blow—and so effortlessly—your power is at least 100,000." Burter and Jeice were stunned by the number.
A hundred thousand—something they might never reach in a lifetime.
"Show me your true strength," Captain Ginyu said, flashing a strange smile.
"As you wish. Hah!" Tien summoned his ki, and in moments his power surpassed Ginyu's 120,000 cap.
"Captain, he's over 200,000 already!" The Ginyu Force scouters capped at 200,000, and Tien had blown past it.
"What an enviable power. With that strength in my hands, I'll surpass Abo and Kado," Captain Ginyu said, eyeing Tien's body greedily, not the least bit cowed by the gulf between them.
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