Author's Note: WOW! Finally, an update! It's about time! I hope you guys are still interested and gonna read this... I'm sorry for the long wait. I've been so busy with school and everything. A lot of things have been happening lately. And I had the worst case of writer's block. But I finally have more or less of an idea about where I want this story to go. So I hope you like it. Please review and enjoy!
Chapter 7:
The Search for the Dragonballs
Charisma soared in the sky and noticed a cloud of black smoke coming from the direction of the arena. "Oh my gosh," she said in shock. "What in the world happened?"
She stopped in mid air and looked below at the audience. Certain parts of the arena were completely destroyed. "I missed a lot…I should've never left…" Charisma pouted and continued to fly around until something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Looking up, she noticed a familiar yellow airplane in the distance.
Charisma's face brightened up and she cheered. "YAY! I FOUND THEM!" Instantly, she took off toward the flying machine.
The passengers on the plane were sitting silently and uncomfortably. So many things had happened. Vegeta had gone berserk and killed half the people at the arena and a new diabolical creature was threatening the Earth. To make matters worse, Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, and Krillin had gone to fight off that monster, with Trunks and Goten unknowingly following along. Yamcha's eyes stared out into the distance of water and sky.
Charisma landed softly on top of the plane. She crawled to the pilot's side window and slowly slithered down, and knocked on the glass. Yamcha turned to look momentarily and screamed in horror when he saw Charisma there, suspended upside down from the top of the plane.
"WHAT THE HECK?" he cried, so startled that he lost control of the plane. Every passenger screamed as they were tossed across the plane like little dolls. The plane nearly tilted upside down completely with Yamcha desperately trying to regain control over it. It hit the waters, splashing around violently.
Charisma had flown off the plane the moment Yamcha screamed and now was watching the chaos that she ensued. She giggled nervously and scratched the back of her head. "I think that was a bad idea…"
…
Moments later, Charisma was sitting on one of the seats inside the plane. It was safely flying once again and under control. "That wasn't funny, Charisma!" Bulma scolded her with hands on her hips. "Someone could've gotten hurt."
Charisma looked up at Bulma with sad puppy eyes. "But I didn't mean to scare him," Charisma said sadly with her hands folded in a pleading manner. "I just wanted to say 'hi' and let you guys know that I was here…"
"You could've found some other way to let us know," Bulma said and patted Charisma on her blond head. Bulma couldn't find any way to stay angry at the girl for too long.
"I'm sorry, everyone," Charisma said aloud. She stood up off her chair and looked around. "Hey, where are Trunks and Goten?"
Bulma frowned slightly, remembering what had happened at the arena. She was relieved that Charisma didn't have to see all that. "They went somewhere with Gohan…" she lied. "I'm not sure where. But don't worry. You'll see them soon…"
Charisma nodded and smiled. "Okay! I really want to talk to them." Charisma took her seat again and cheerful dangled her legs over the edge. Bulma sighed and took her seat at the co-pilot's chair.
The plane fell silent again for more than a half hour. Charisma had fallen asleep in her seat and was sprawled on it comfortably. Chi-Chi finally spoke up and turned toward Videl, who was sitting right beside her. "So you're sure of what you heard? They really said that they were going to fight that Majin Buu character?"
Videl sighed and looked at her. "Yeah, I'm sure."
"I hate to say this, but I resent the fact that you let Gohan and the others go," Chi-Chi said shaking her head. "You should've at least tried to stop Goten and Trunks from going."
"I'm so sorry, Chi-Chi," Videl said sadly, with a hand on her forehead. "I don't know what I was thinking…"
"Hey," Yamcha said to her. "You shouldn't feel too bad. There's nothing you could've done to make them change their minds. Trying to stop Super Saiyans from going to fight is virtually impossible, trust me."
Videl nodded her head. "Thanks…"
"Sure," he said. "And you're sure that they went this way, right?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," Videl said confidently. "Straight ahead!"
"All right," said Yamcha. "Hold on tight guys, I'm gonna hammer it…" Yamcha hit the gas and the plane picked up speed.
Bulma stared out into the distance with a glazed and sad look in her eyes. She still couldn't believe that Vegeta would actually kill so many people. It just didn't make sense to her. She had really thought that he had changed.
Yamcha noticed the distress on her face and smiled brightly at her. "Hey, lighten up, Bulma. The worst that could happen is that someone gets killed. If that happens, we'll just wish them back with the dragon balls. No big deal!"
Bulma threw daggers at him with her eyes and angrily lunged at him. "Well then, you wouldn't mind if I killed you then!"
Yamcha flew off the side of his seat, with his left hand still attached to the steering wheel. The wheel turned sharply, causing the plane to turn sharply as well. Once again, everyone was tossed around like dolls in the plane, with piercing screams and yelps. Charisma woke up with a start when she fell off her seat and landed on the seats near the left side window, luckily to be caught by Chi-Chi's father, Ox King.
Marron was also violently shaken from her nap. She was fortunately caught by her mother before she could fall somewhere and get hurt. 18 angrily shouted at Yamcha. "You better straighten this thing out or I'll kick your ass!"
Yamcha immediately took his seat and shook his head, chuckling uneasily. "No need! I've already got it under control! Don't worry!" The flying vehicle slowly turned back to normal.
"I know it bothers you, but he wasn't well when he killed those people," Master Roshi said to her, beginning to regain his composure. "The Vegeta we know may be arrogant and hot headed, but he'd never do anything like what we saw today."
"Yeah," agreed Chi-Chi. "They did something to him."
Bulma sighed and placed a hand to her heart. 'If they did do something to you, then you've got to snap out of it…' she thought.
Within a few seconds, Yamcha noticed something else was wrong with the plane now. From the distance, he could see a bright light and shock waves ripping through the sky. "What the-?" he said. "HOLD ON EVERYBODY!"
A massive turbulence caused the plane to shake violently, even more so than before. Everyone grappled onto their seats tightly, trying not to get tossed around again.
"You're making her cry!" 18 said angrily, holding onto her daughter. "Stop it!"
"I'm not doing anything!" Yamcha replied, trying to control the steering as best he could. "This whole thing could rip apart!"
After a few agonizing seconds, the plane finally returned to normal. "Well that got the heart rate up," Videl said, trying to sit up straight.
"Sorry about that, guys," Yamcha apologized. "I guess I should've had the seat belt sign on…"
"That was no regular turbulence…" Master Roshi nervously said, looking out the window. "That was the aftershock of a great explosion…"
"Uh oh! This isn't good!" Yamcha nervously cried. "The controls don't work anymore! They've been damaged!"
"What?" Chi-Chi exclaimed. "Do something!"
The plane left a trail of black smoke as it violently and jaggedly descended toward the ocean waters.
"We're all gonna die!" Chi-Chi cried.
"The engine is busted!" Yamcha kept trying to regain control, but it was no use. "We're going down!"
18 came up with an idea and handed Marron to Videl. She stood up from her seat and opened the door of the plane and flew out. She glided to the bottom of the machine and grabbed on to it, carefully guiding it down to an island nearby. With the plane safely on solid ground, Yamcha immediately fetched his tools and went on to try and repair the damage. Meanwhile, everyone sat outside in the grass or on big rocks while waiting for him.
Charisma and Marron were occupied playing tag with each other, the only ones not bored out of their minds right now. Master Roshi approached Yamcha who was under the plane. "You think you'll be done by this year, Mr. Fix-It?"
"I think you're underestimating the damage this thing took," Yamcha explained, not moving out from his position. "That was quite an explosion. We're lucky to be alive."
"Yeah," Chi-Chi agree, turning to look at 18 who was sitting next to her. "You saved our lives. Thank you!"
"That should take care of it!" Yamcha said, pulling himself out of the bottom of the plane and dusting off his clothes. "I think we're just about ready to go!"
"Hooray!" Charisma and Marron said, pausing their game to cheer.
"You'd better test drive that thing!" Bulma demanded with her arms crossed. "I'm not getting on it until you're sure we won't get tossed around anymore!"
"Yeah," Videl said, standing up from the rock and stretching. "I think I'll need to go visit a chiropractor after all this…"
"Fine!" Yamcha said proudly. "You'll see! I know what I'm doing!" Yamcha jumped in the plane and closed the doors. All seemed well and the plane drove across the land smoothly.
"Hey, it's actually working!" Charisma said cheerfully. She turned toward Marron. "We finally get to leave!" The two girls continued to cheer happily.
At that moment, the plane was gliding less than five feet above the ground when it suddenly began to sputter and abruptly went down, crashing into about ten bushes before stopping with a halt, sending Yamcha into the front window. He slid down it like a fly on a windshield.
The group simultaneously sweatdropped and Charisma and Marron's cheering slowly stopped. "Eh, why don't we go play a bit more, huh, Marron?"
Marron looked up at her. "…'Kay…"
…
After another half hour or so, the plane was finally functioning like it should. Within the next few hours, the gang decided to find the dragonballs. They figured it would be best to bring all those people who died back to life. The first five dragonballs were found with little incident and problem.
"Okay, the sixth ball should be around here somewhere," Bulma announced to the gang. "Just go straight ahead…we're almost there…"
"I'm on it, Bulma," Yamcha said as he steered the plane.
"Treasure hunting is fun!" Marron said to Charisma.
"It is fun!" Charisma agreed. She looked at the four other dragonballs which were in a bag on the seat next to Videl. "They look so beautiful!"
Videl smiled at the girl. "They are pretty, aren't they? Especially since I've never seen anything like this before…"
"Me either!" Charisma said.
"It's right here!" Bulma suddenly exclaimed.
"What?" asked Yamcha, caught off guard. "Here?"
"Yeah, according to the radar, the next dragonball is located somewhere beneath us…"
"Uh guys," Chi-Chi said slowly. "The ocean is right beneath us…"
"So it's under water then?" asked Videl.
"It has to be…" replied Bulma. "But the question now is…who's going to go look for it?"
"I wanna do it!" Charisma raised her arm and waved it wildly in the air. "Can I go?"
Everyone eyed her strangely. "I'm sorry, Charisma, but it's too dangerous…" Bulma gently refused.
"But I know how to swim," Charisma retorted and put her hands together. "Please, Auntie! I promise I'll be back soon! It won't take long!"
"Oh let her go," Yamcha said with a smile. "Charisma may be small, but she can take care of herself. It's not so bad…"
"But if something happens to her, Kaylei will kill us," Bulma growled at Yamcha. "You can't take this so lightly…"
"Just let her go," Chi-Chi agreed, crossing her arms and smiling confidently. "We'll watch her from here…"
Bulma sighed and looked down at Charisma's big blue eyes. She slowly nodded. "You win, Charisma. But be careful, okay?"
Charisma jumped up and down merrily. "Yay! Thanks! I will, Auntie!" Yamcha turned the plane around and headed back to where the dragon radar had detected the ball. The glass door slowly opened up.
"Go for it, Charisma," Bulma told her. "Good luck."
"Okay! I'll be back soon!" Charisma waved and took a leap from the plane and dove into the cool waters.
Charisma calmly swam through the ocean, going deeper in search of the ball. She giggled as she passed fishes and other gentle sea creatures. 'This is so cool,' Charisma thought as she watched them swim away. 'Hunting for treasure is fun!'
Charisma's eyes widened when she noticed a something shining from a few feet deeper into the ocean. After a few seconds, her eyes adjusted and she realized what she saw. 'The dragonball!' she thought happily. 'I found it!' She immediately headed over to it and sat on the rock beside it. The five star dragonball gleamed magnificently. 'Everyone's going to be so proud!'
From behind her, two sinister yellow eyes gradually came open. Charisma didn't notice and stared at the dragonball, seeing her reflection in its glossy surface. She saw something strange on it and slowly turned her head around. She nearly screamed before her hands instantly went up to cover her mouth, self consciously reminding her that she was still underwater.
The dragonball slipped out of her grasp and began heading deeper into the sea. 'Oh no!' she mentally cried, bubbles escaping her mouth. 'The dragonball!' Without thinking twice, she dove for it and just barely caught it. The creature's tentacles grabbed on to Charisma's small waist and pulled her in closer. Charisma turned her head and finally saw the monster in its entirety.
'AN OCTOPUS!' she screamed in her mind. 'GROSS!' She struggled to get out of its grasp but the monstrosity was too strong. 'Let me go! Let me go!' Her little hands held the dragonball close to her chest. The more she struggled, the tighter the octopus would hold her.
'No!' she cried inwardly. 'I can't…I can't let it get me!' With one shaky hand holding the dragonball to her chest, she struggled to get her other hand to grab onto the closest tentacle. Using all of her strength, Charisma squeezed it, causing the octopus to finally loosen its grip a bit. However, the stubborn thing still refused to let her go.
'I'm sorry,' she thought. 'But you've left me no choice!' A beam of energy began forming around Charisma's hand.
Back on the plane, the others were waiting silently for her to come back. Yamcha landed the vehicle on an island not too far away.
"She's taking long…" Bulma said fidgeting with the end of her red skirt. "Maybe someone should go help her…she probably can't find it by herself…what was I thinking letting her go down there all alone?"
"Have faith in the girl, will ya?" Yamcha said brightly. "She'll probably come any minute now…"
A ray of bright yellow light unexpectedly shot up from the waters, causing numerous waves and startling everyone. They all ran out of the plane and looked around.
"What the hell was that?" demanded Chi-Chi.
Bulma stared out into the distance with her blue eyes trembling. She gasped and pointed straight ahead. "There she is!"
Charisma was hovering a few hundred feet from the water. "I wonder where they went?" she said to herself.
"HEY! OVER HERE!"
Charisma turned around and saw the gang waving to her. "There they are!" she merrily announced and flew over to them. She landed in front of them, not noticing their weird glances.
"Hey guys, guess what? I-" Charisma began to explain.
"What happened to you?" Bulma cut her off.
"What do you mean?"
"You look like you were playing in tar…"
Charisma finally looked down at herself and saw her white tank top and blue pleaded skirt covered in black stuff. "Oh this? This is just ink!" she calmly explained as if it were no big deal. "There was this big scary octopus down there! He grabbed me and didn't want to let me go! I think he was mad because I stole his dragonball and he tried to eat me. So I had no choice but to blast his arms and when I did that, I think he got sad and so he squirted me with ink. But hey, I found the dragonball, see?" She held it out. Surprisingly, there wasn't speck of ink on it.
"Well that's quite a story," Yamcha chuckled, grabbing the dragonball. "You're quite a girl, you know that?"
Charisma smiled at him, blushing cutely. "Thank you!"
"I'll have to clean you up somehow," Bulma said grabbing Charisma by the hand and leading her back toward the water. "I can't just take you back to your mom like this. She'll have a heart attack!"
Charisma frowned. "You're taking me back home? I don't wanna go! I wanna keep searching for dragonballs with you guys!"
Bulma looked down at Charisma and patted her head with a soft smile. "Don't worry about it. I'll take you back later. Your mother did let you come back."
Charisma giggled nervously. "Sure, sure she did!"
…
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S NOT HERE?" Kaylei demanded. She stood inside of Misa's house, talking to her parents.
"Charisma never came here," Misa's mother calmly explained.
"She probably went back to the tournament," Misa interjected. She gasped and covered her gasped and nearly pulled her hair out.
"WHAT?"
"I think I shouldn't have said that…" Misa said uneasily.
"Stop overreacting, honey," Kaylei's husband Mino said. "She's with Bulma. She'll be fine."
Kaylei glared at him for a moment but sighed and lowered her head. "You're right…let's go home…" She dragged her feet out of the door.
After re-reading though this chapter, I actually kind of like how I wrote it. I really thought it would suck. Eh, but what do you guys think? I'll try to have the update by next week, at the most. Since I'm busy with school during the week. Please review!
