Make It Work: A Dragon Ball Z Story

Chapter 11: Lord Frieza!

A week had passed since Shalay moved in with the Sons and Goten decided it was time to show her around. All they had done the whole time was try and teach her Earthling culture. They started with watching reality television. That only served to make Shalay think everyone was either a drug addict or in the middle of "Finding their selves". Goten shrugged it off. Close enough. She was taken shopping with Chi-Chi on what she called "a girls night out". The clothes she was given was frilly and sparkly. Chi-Chi felt that she finally had a daughter to spoil. Goku also trained her a little bit but it was hard for her to keep up with their incredible speed and endurance. But there were times when they just chilled and played all day long. One of those days just happened to be today.

"Come on, Shalay. We got to hurry!" Goten said after closing the door to their home. He grabbed hold of her hand and started running towards the flower fields. Shalay grunted as her body was pulled first leaving her head to catch up.

"For what? Where are we going, Goten?" Shalay inquired while trying to keep a steady pace with the speeding demi-saiyan.

"You'll see when we get there, Shalay," Goten chirped, speeding up a tad bit. "It's super cool!" The two alien children were running so fast that everything they past seemed a blur. If there were any people out in the mountain range, they'd say the same about them. Seeing as how they reached their destination, Goten stopped without warning. Shalay, who was still holding his hand, didn't seem to notice in time. Her feet didn't stop either. Well, that is until she ran too far and fell back onto the ground, given Goten's iron hold on her hand.

"Ouch," Shalay whined, standing up and rubbing her sore bottom. "That hurt my butt!" Goten snickered at the use of the word 'butt'. It's such a funny word! Then his laughter came to a halt as he looked wide-eyed at Shalay.

"What," She asked, suddenly feeling a bit insecure about him having his eyes on her. "What's wrong, Goten?"

"Your clothes," He answered numbly.

"What about them?" Looking over herself, she answered her own question. There was a huge grass stain on her gray jogging pants that found its way to the back of her red and gray striped tank top. She had red ribbons on her pig tails to match. "Uh-oh," Shalay voiced her opinion. "Your mom's going to kill me! She just bought me these. I didn't mean to mess them up already! I don't want to get in trouble, Goten, HELP ME!" The feline girl was in full panic now. She started twisting and moving around frantically.

First she tried to scrub the strain out of her pants using her palms. Then she decided that wasn't working, so she started leaning in odd positions, trying to see the stain on her back. Her tail seemed as lost as she was flailing about in the air, going limp and then starting the process over again.

She clapped both hands on the sides of her face, letting out a tragic scream and ran full speed, until she ended up at a familiar place. It was a place that only the first generation Z warriors and Gohan would recognize. It was a barren land filled with sand and surrounded by tall tan mountains. Shalay didn't realize she was in this dessert-like environment until she landed face first in the sand, caused by tripping over a protruding rock. The poor girl didn't even know Goten was right beside her, that is, until he spoke up.

"Shalay, are you okay?" The only answer Goten got was mumbles of incoherent words, due to the thick layer of sand between Shalay's face and the words she spoke. "Could you repeat that?" Goten inquired, falling into a familiar scratching gesture. "But this time, could your face not be in the ground?"

The cat-like girl rose from her unwanted sand pillow with a mouth full of it. She instantly began spitting the grains from her mouth, but no matter how much she tried, the little buggers were still caught in her teeth.

"I said," She spoke, wiping her tongue with her hand, she continued, "This hurt a heck of a lot more than any other sand I know of."

"Sand doesn't hurt," Goten replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "Maybe you have a soft face."

"Maybe you're right," She sarcastically spat. "Or... or maybe there's something under it." She had that tone of voice that no matter what Goten said, she made him feel like it was the stupidest thing in the world to disagree with her.

Shalay gestured for Goten to sit on the ground with her and he followed her instruction. She began digging through the sand at such a rate, professional minors would be jealous. Following in her action, Goten joined in on the digging - also at an insane speed. After a series of digging, giggling, crying - because sand was in their eyes - wrestling and imagining what was at the bottom, they finally found what they were digging for. It looked to be a piece of a control center. All the buttons were still lighting up, even though the metal looked like it had been deteriorating for years.

"Whoa, what is that thing?" Goten took the strip of metal with beeping buttons from Shalay to examine it further. Now that he thought about it, it looked a lot like ships from the inside.

"Do you know what it is?" Shalay asked, taking the controls back from him in the process. Goten thought for a bit, stroking his imaginary beard before speaking up. "I think it's a part of a ship. I always see those bleeping buttons in Trunks' Grandpa's ships when we play space pirates."

Completely distracted and off subject, Shalay shouted, "How come I've never played 'space pirates' with you guys?" With a huff, she crossed her arms and pouted.

"We can play when we go visit Trunks," Goten suggested.

"Really?!"

"Yup, honest."

The metal control panel 'beeped' again, redirecting the eight year olds' attention back on subject. Looking down at the controls in her hand, Shalay pressed the loud button that was causing all the noise. The red button clicked from the pressure of Shalay's left index finger, turning on the screen that the duo failed to notice beforehand. It was dusty and dirty - something they knew Chi-Chi wouldn't like them playing with, much less looking at it.

Much to their surprise, an image of an alien man showed up on the screen. When the yellow fish-lipped alien spoke, it was clear to them this was a video of some sort - not a picture. The man- if it was a man - looked shocked. He was barely able to let the words depart from his already hanging mouth.

"L-Lord Frieza?"