I do not own Dragonball, just my own thoughts on it. All characters in Dragonball are being used differently in this story...there are no saiyans, no super powerful elite clique of fighters here to save the world. However, there is Shenron, and he is not happy by the fact he went from powerful dragon to a genie in the bottle, and this is his story. This is Dragonball of a Different Sort.
The Blank Wish
"Mai!" Reece Pilaf called. "Mai!"
"Yes, sir?" Mai asked as, walking towards the rather short man.
"Bring them here and bring the camera," said Pilaf.
"Yes, sir, Mr. Pilaf," said Mai kneeling down to lift up a silvery, metal, industrial briefcase. She sat the briefcase down on the boardroom, long, oak table and punched in a code on the keypad on the lock. Just as she entered the final digit, the briefcase opened up, revealing a chilled interior. Mist spewed out over the edges of the briefcase and out onto the table and then falling towards the floor. Inside the padded briefcase were seven golden, glowing balls, each one containing black stars that numbered from 1 to 7. The strange orbs were no bigger than softballs. Pilaf instructed that the balls be kept at a frozen temperature so not to alert the 'owner'. He knew that the monster, the one who when summoned through the balls to grant any wish desired, would want to prevent anyone from using them to get a wish granted. And this monster would go through every length to keep a wish from being made—even if that meant killing the human who found all seven Dragonballs.
"I don't like the idea of exposing them for such a long time, sir," said Mai. "You know what happened last time we did it. He destroyed Capsule Corp's branch office in Albany, New York."
"Then, the sooner you take those pictures for our client, the sooner we can close the lid!" Pilaf called.
Mai nodded and grabbed the camera, and held it up, taking several photos of the glowing, singing orbs in the briefcase. Pilaf moved towards the large window at the far end of the long boardroom, pulling back a curtain to look out at the inky night sky. A few lights of the city below shined through. Though he tried to keep a calm composure, he was sweating under his finely tailored suit.
The attack that Mai had stated before happened a few months ago when the last Dragonball was found. It was the 3-Star ball. Mai had brought the final ball to Pilaf in Albany, New York after tracking it down in London, England being sold as some sort of souvenir nick-knack. Hunting the Dragonballs was a good way to test out Capsule Corp's latest and most top-secret invention, the compact Dragon Radar.
In the 1980s, Capsule Corp had created the first Dragon Radar, a large computer system installed in a wall which spat out printer paper of coordinates where each of the Dragon Balls were. This information would be phoned in to those who Capsule Corp hired to search for them. This information sent to the Dragon Radar system from a network of satellites orbiting the equator and bouncing their signals off of the ion sphere of the Earth. But the compact system was as small as a blackberry and could be carried around in one hand by the various individuals who searched for them. Again, the satellite network fed the information into the handheld Dragon Radar. This made finding the Dragonballs much faster than the old fashioned way—which took perhaps a lifetime to find.
Then, the monster found out about the new system and he was enraged. He attacked the branch office building, but Mai was lucky to leave out of there with all seven Dragonballs. She discovered that the monster had a difficult time trying to sense the heat of the balls if they were held in a certain freezing temperature. And so, in order to move the Dragonballs around without detection, they had to chill them.
Mai had only seen the monster once in her life, but she could never forget the sight. He was big, he was red, and he had eyes that glowed like two burning coals. This monster was in fact a dragon, an Eastern Dragon. She was never one who believed in children's fairytales about dragons and other mythological creatures, so, she was skeptical when her boss Pilaf revealed to her the company's most treasured secret about the search for the Dragonballs. All of that changed when she saw her first dragon that night. And there was a reason why they were called the Dragonballs, because someone wanted a wish, they summoned Shenron, the Eternal Dragon, or as Mai called him: the 'Monster'. To her, Shenron was indeed a monster. Once he lost track of the Dragonballs, the enormous red-scaled, serpentine Eastern Dragon rose into the sky and flew away. The press and the government dismissed the incident as a terrorist attack. People who managed to see Shenron leave were so frightened they became emotionally and psychologically scarred for life. No one could make any sense out of any of the victims. Pilaf stated that Shenron, when attacking, would exude a magical aura that blanks out the minds of the witnesses. And he only flew at night. It was the perfect cover-up for the Eternal Dragon to continue to ride under the noses of the United State's government.
"There," she said. "I think that's enough. Our client will get the idea when he sees the Dragonballs."
"It may not be enough," said Pilaf. "He would think we're just showing off with some Hollywood special effects. He would need real proof that these balls are capable of granting any wish he wants."
"What are you saying?" asked Mai.
"I'm saying we should summon Shenron," he replied. "And you tape him rising out of the balls to grant some idiotic wish I want…like…a new toy for my daughter or something."
"I think having that 'Monster' grant such a wish would just enrage him even more and who knows what he'll do after the wish has been granted?"
"Don't tell me you're afraid of some scaly genie, Mai?" Pilaf said in a scoff.
"I'm scared of an 800-foot long dragon who could render me to ashes with a sneeze!" Mai said in a protest. "Besides, if you have a wish granted, we'll have to wait another year for the balls become active again before we can even hunt for them. I'll be digging in dirt, and I hate doing that!"
"Tough!" Pilaf called. "I don't pay you to bitch."
Mai crossed her arms and snorted back at her boss. Then, her worst fears came to life just as the building began to shake. The coffee pot along the far wall rattled itself over the table, and toppled onto the floor.
"Mai!" Pilaf called. "He's here! Quickly, get the balls out. We'll summon him and that'll stop him from trashing my building."
"Oh, no…" Mai said. "Have him tear a hole through the roof instead of ripping a hole through the side…that's smart!"
"We have to do something!" Pilaf shouted just as the building shook violently.
The two turned around just as a massive red claw slammed into the window. The walls came crumbling around and the hole grew bigger. Pilaf and Mai huddled together as the dust filled their vision. The sound of something massive taking hold of the ceiling and ripping it and the roof off made them crouch a bit lower. A bellowing roar sounded causing the floor to tremble as if it was afraid of the creature outside. Mai opened her eyes when a golden light filled the room. She looked up and the color drained from her face. There he was, the Eternal Dragon, peering down upon her and her boss. He was massive. His body was that of an Eastern Dragon, long and sinuous with four short but muscular arms and legs. Two large, ribbed, golden, branched horns grew out from the crown of his head. A mane of spun gold and fiery orange grew from his head down to the very tip of his tail. Two lengthy whiskers flapped in the wind. Shenron was covered in fiery red scales. Shenron's lengthy body was bathed in a golden light. His lip was curled up in a cruel snarl and his eyes narrowed at the two humans below him. Then, his eyes rolled over to the metallic brief case and the Dragonballs that had spilled out onto the debris on the carpet. Pilaf gathered up what little courage he had in his chest and stood up, fists balling.
"No!" he said to the Dragon. "You can't have them!"
"Mr. Pilaf…" Mai whispered. "Just give him the Dragonballs and he'll let us live!"
"I've worked too hard gathering them up for my client," said Pilaf. "I'm not loosing this business deal and no wish-granting gecko with a problem with his job status isn't going to get in my way!"
"Great…insult the Eternal Dragon…" Mai said.
Shenron shot a glance back at Pilaf and growled deeply in his throat, barring his fangs.
"It was very clear to me why you terminated me…" the Dragon said, his voice booming up over the sparking wires and crumbling ceiling tiles. "You found out what I was after. It would have been easier for me to just walk in during nightly cleaning and toss the Dragonballs in a trash bag and walk out with them. And it would be much safer if I were still working here. But you wanted to play hardball, Rice Pilaf…"
"That's Reece Pilaf!" Pilaf said.
"Not from where I'm standing," said Shenron. "You look like a tasty side dish to me. You could have just let me have them and we wouldn't be here right now."
"I won't let you have them now!"
"I don't think you're in the position to argue," Shenron said. A whisker rose up and its tip slowly hovered above the glowing orbs.
"No!" Pilaf said, running towards the balls. He was too late. As the tip touched one of the balls, all seven of them started glowing. They shot up into the sky and separated into seven streaks, dispersing into the night sky.
"No!" Pilaf shouted again. "No…"
Shenron slowly backed away from the ruined top floor of Pilaf's building: "Until next time…farewell…"
Pilaf fell to his knees just as the massive form of Shenron vanished.
"I didn't know he could do that," said Mai. "He—dismissed the Dragonballs as if we already made a wish."
"It's his trick in keeping someone from getting a wish granted," said Pilaf. "Well, that's it, we have to start over again within a year's time. And we'll loose this client too."
"Mr. Pilaf, it's not like we're loosing money because of it," said Mai. "Why can't you focus on something else? We're the leading company in electronics. We bought out Intel. We're getting close to buying out Microsoft."
"Because Shenron can grant the impossible," said Pilaf. "To anyone…"
"Then, why don't you just get your own wish granted instead of selling the balls?" said Mai.
"Because, I have—everything," he said, lowering his head.
"It doesn't seem like it," she said.
"It doesn't matter," said Pilaf. "This time, I'll make sure Shenron doesn't ruin my plans. We have a lot to do. We've got a year to upgrade the Dragon Radar. I want it better than the last one. Contact Dr. Bulma Winston. Have her get to work on a new one immediately!"
"Yes, sir."