22 Chapter 22: They're Making Progress.

"Haha, I think we're missing a few people. What happened?" Turles chuckled as he surveyed the pitiful number of potential recruits.

"They got scared they were going to get beaten up again." The purple-skinned soldier who could lower or mask her ki responded to him.

"What about you?" Turles grinned as he walked over to tiny Raditz. "Got tired of kissing up to her Royal Highness? Raditz the Runt?"

Raditz clenched his fists, meeting Turles' gaze. "You could say that."

Observing the anger in Raditz's expression and body language, Turles kneed Raditz in the gut while suppressing his power. Raditz groaned and collapsed onto the training room floor. "Remember when you and those two ganged up on me?" Turles asked, delivering a kick to Raditz's ribs.

"I remember…!" Raditz growled.

"Isn't there something you should say to me for that? What did I do to you? I just returned from a mission to be ambushed by you three low-lives. Shouldn't I get an apology, at the very least? How dare you show your face in front of me with your head held so high and eyes straight?" Turles ground his heel into Raditz's back, causing him to cry out in pain.

"I apologize! I was just following orders!" Raditz shouted.

"Do you think I'm a fool?" Turles kicked Raditz across the room.

Raditz crashed into the wall, landing roughly. "We both know you would've done that regardless if you were ordered to or not. I don't want a fake apology, Raditz. Do I have to spell it out for you?" Turles stood over Raditz, who was on all fours.

"I-I-I'm sorry!" Raditz looked up at him and yelled.

"Wrong!" Turles slapped him across the face with his tail, sending him flying.

Raditz was reaching his limits both physically and emotionally. In a fit of frustration and anger, he gathered energy in his hands and fired it toward Turles. Turles walked through the blast without a scratch on him as he lifted up Raditz by the scruff of his armor. Purple energy slowly began forming around Turles's hand.

Raditz felt the threat of death slowly approaching. Sweat dripped down his face, pupils dilating, as he began to panic. All he wanted to do was to spy on Turles and give Vegeta information! He never signed up to die! "Wait! Wait! Wait! I'm here because of Vegeta! He ordered me to find out how you increased your power so much!" Raditz revealed. "Spare me! I beg of you!"

"Spineless coward." Turles tossed him on the floor. "Just the threat of death was enough to make you spill about your secret mission that I had no idea about. All I wanted you to do was beg for forgiveness. You gave me more than I needed."

"Should I dispose of him?" Bonyu's hand glowed bright red as she aimed her palm at the pitiful excuse of a Saiyan.

"Leave him. We shouldn't pointlessly waste resources. Even trash like Raditz still has use somewhere." Turles told her.

After all, without Raditz, the entire story changes. It was too early for big changes like that. Turles still had many resources to gather from the main cast. If Raditz died, the Saiyan Saga, Namek Saga, and Freeza Saga would be gone. Piccolo would never become a good guy. Goku would never gain Super Saiyan. Gohan would be fodder due to growing up as a scholar under Chi-Chi's parenting. Goku would never gain Kaio-Ken or Spirit Bomb unless he died to Piccolo. To top it all off, Earth would be destroyed by the androids and then Cell. There were too many useful things to gain from keeping canon straight right now and too much to lose by killing vital characters. It wouldn't make sense to change the story just yet until he could gain everything he could from it.

Turles turned to see his pitiful number of recruits shaking when he faced them. Raditz crawled himself out of the training room, and Turles let him. "Well, now that I'm feeling warmed up, come at me. We still have six days left before the results of the test are out. I have a good feeling about you bunch, don't disappoint me." Turles smiled at them.

"Are we going to be fighting the entire time…?" The female that shared the same race as Zarbon asked.

"I'll let you find out the answer if you manage to survive," Turles replied before reading himself to charge forward.

"FIRST ATTACK!" Turles felt someone latch onto his back once again.

"What's your name?" Turles had to ask even though he told himself he wouldn't get attached before the last day of recruitment.

"Mepple!" She covered his eyes as he heard the sounds of the others rushing toward him.

This was the second time she managed to sneak up on him. Turles was genuinely impressed by her ability to lower or mask her ki. It seems he's been relying on his ability to sense ki too much. He took a deep breath as he cleared his mind and focused. Sight was gone, but he still had other useful senses to use. Hearing, smell, and touch should be enough for these guys.

Turles crossed his arms as he heard the sound of multiple energy beams coming his way. He leaped into the air, carefully listening to the sounds of multiple people flying toward him. "Elegant Kick!" Turles swayed his body to the side, just barely avoiding the kick by listening to how far the voice of the assailant was.

The elegant fighter managed to scrape his chin. He heard the sound of another fighter flying toward him. "Augh, how the hell can I seduce someone who's blind?!" He heard the female soldier who was part of Zarbon's race. Turles's tail began snaking around to grab Mepple as he fended off the attacks of the busty alien.

"Not this time!" Mepple grabbed his tailed and squeezed as hard as she could.

This freed up Turles's vision as he flicked his tail. Mepple held on for dear life as he shook his tail rapidly. Unfortunately for Mepple, Turles's tail began to glow with a dangerous build-up of energy. "Guys! You want to gang up on him any second now!?" Mepple shouted.

"Elegant Press!" An orange energy wave came flying toward him.

"Devil's Seduction!" A light blue orb sped toward him.

"Die!" The rest of the recruits joined together to take him out in one large giant blast.

Even Mepple was charging up a blast while holding onto his tail. It seemed she wasn't going to let go without giving some back as well. Turles could respect that. It only took a single distraction in a fight for things to turn around. God knows he's seen it enough in the show to acknowledge the usefulness of it. But that didn't mean he would just let her do some---

"OWWW!!!" Turles turned around in absolute rage as Mepple was hanging onto his tail by her teeth.

When she met his glare, she stopped biting. "I'm sorry…?" Just as she was apologizing, Turles was impacted by the combined energy attacks of all of the recruits. A cloud of dust and smoke swallowed Turles and Mepple. Moments passed of utter silence.

"Did we win?" Someone asked.

"AHHH!!!" Mepple came flying out of the dust cloud.

She crashed into the entrance of the training room, indenting it before it could automatically open. "Don't bite the Captain's tail… He gets really angry…" She fainted.

"Um… Can we surrender, Captain?" The busty soldier asked while shaking.

"Elegant---" Before the elegant soldier could finish, Turles whipped his leg across their face.

"Kill him before he kills us!" Someone screamed.

Moments later, the medics came into the room once everyone was thoroughly beaten. They carried the recruits out of the room as Turles frowned. He heard Sai snickering behind him as he sat on the training room floor. Turles held in his emotions. Sai was basically an overgrown alien child—a child in everything but body and strength.

"The recruits found your weakness, it seems," Bonyu remarked with a hint of amusement in her normally stoic voice.

"You try getting bit in a sensitive place." Turles pouted.

"I'd recommend not letting them sneak up on you in the first place," Bonyu advised.

"You're not wrong even if I don't wanna admit it. I got too complacent." Ki sensing wasn't everything.

"Shall we begin our training?" Bonyu inquired.

"I'm surprised you're brave enough to ask." Turles chuckled.

"Oh, were we not going to today?" Bonyu's regret started to creep in.

"Well, since you asked. How could I not do my due diligence as your captain to help you become a stronger you? You're a real go-getter, Bonyu. Something I admire in a person. A soldier even more." Turles smiled as he got up and faced her.

"I shall choose my words more carefully in the future…" Bonyu acknowledged. Training may not be enjoyable for her, but she understood its necessity.

"Where's the fun in that?!" Turles vanished.

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"Jeice, I'm proud of you! You've exceeded my expectations!" Captain Ginyu praised his right-hand man with a heavy pat on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Captain!" Jeice beamed with pride and joy.

"Yeah, how did you steal so many people from the monkey?" Recoome asked.

"I never thought you had it in you, Jeice! I guess I won our bet, Guldo! You owe me candy!" Burter laughed.

"Dang, it! How did you get one over that damned saiyan?!" Guldo clenched his fist.

"That monkey didn't know the first thing about training recruits." Jeice proudly boasted. "He did half of my work for me. All I had to do was tell them to come try out for the Ginyu Force. We wouldn't beat the life out of them." He explained.

"Damn it! I should've taken the reconnaissance job if I knew it would be so easy." Guldo grumbled.

"Haha, Guldo. You really drew the short end of the stick, huh?" Recoome laughed.

"I won't lose next time!" Guldo promised.

"I want those arms and legs straight while you're posing! Come on, recruits! Hop to it!" Captain Ginyu shouted.

"Yes, Captain Ginyu!" They responded in unison while in various poses. Sweat dripped down their faces while their limbs shook from pain. They've been posing for hours…