"I can't believe we found the pirates' secret hideout!" Krillin gushed, practically bouncing as they continued down the cave. "I'm gonna find tons and tons of treasure, and I'm gonna be so rich!"

Bulma, apparently having calmed down a bit, snorted. "You sure are in a good mood. Don't tell me you already forgot that those army guys are still after us.

Goku sighed. "I'd rather find a room full of food than one full of gold..."

Kagome chuckled and reached into her bag. "I thought you might say something like that at some point."

He immediately brightened as she pulled out an apple and handed it to him.

"Oh, I wish I had bigger pockets!" the bald boy laughed excitedly. "Or a wagon! Or even better, a wheelbarrow!"

"Or a storage dino-cap," Bulma threw in. "That could be nice."

The older boy laughed. "Treasure, treasure!"

The blue-haired girl frowned after a while of wandering. "How much further do we have to walk to get to the end of this tunnel?"

"I'm still hungry," Goku mumbled, his apple not having even lasted two minutes.

Kagome shook her head wryly. "I'll make you something when we get back to Master Pervert's place."

He beamed at her.

"We're getting close!" Krillin announced.

They came up to a strange section of the cave full of dots.

"Hey," the bald boy gaped. "The path gets much smoother here!"

"Yeah... Or not," the black-haired girl murmured to herself, looking tired.

Goku looked up at her curiously.

"Why would a bunch of pirates wanna decorate their walls and floor with polkadots?" Bulma wondered.

"Who knows?" Krillin waved it off. "They could cover the walls with funny papers for all I care! Come on!"

He stepped forward, his foot landing on one of the dots, and there was a click.

"Oh, crap!" Kagome blurted out, grabbing him by his collar and hauling him back right as a spear shot just above where his head would have been.

The bald boy let out a choked scream and latched around her leg.

"Whoa!" Goku gaped.

"I knew those dots seemed kind of weird!" Bulma cried.

Krillin slowly stopped shaking so much and let the black-haired girl go. "W-what was that all about?"

Kagome heaved a sigh. "Boobytrap. My brother used to love these things."

"It's a good thing you're so short," the tailed boy shook his head. "That could've gone right through you if Kagome hadn't grabbed you!"

"Hey, you're no giant yourself, buddy!" the bald boy scowled.

"How are we supposed to get through here without coming out like swiss cheese?" the blue-haired girl bemoaned. "And those army creeps are still after us! What are we supposed to do?"

"We'll be okay if we don't touch those round things on the floor, won't we?" Goku asked, looking up at the black-haired girl.

"Either don't touch them or go faster than the mechanisms can launch," she confirmed.

"What are you talking about?!" Bulma wailed. "They're all over the place! How are we supposed to get through here without stepping on them, huh?! Look at them!"

"We'll just jump," the boy grinned, taking a few steps back.

"Huh?" the blue-haired girl gawked.

"Here I go!" he announced, taking off at a run and leaping right across.

Bulma and Krillin both gaped, and Kagome clapped.

"Amazing," Bulma murmured. "That's more than fifty feet!"

"Okay, Krillin!" he shouted. "It's your turn!"

"I-I see," the other boy nodded. "No problem. I can do that!"

"No, don't try it Krillin!" Bulma squeaked. "You'll be skewered! Goku's not a normal kid!"

The bald boy grinned. "Don't worry - it's no sweat for us! I trained under Master Roshi too you know! It'll be a piece of cake."

He also took off at a run and jumped, but ended up hitting his head on the ceiling.

He went down right at the end, managing to bump a couple of the dots in the process. Luckily, he didn't get hit thanks to having landed on his back.

Goku dragged him away from them by the ankle. "Are you okay?"

"That sure was close..." the bald boy shuddered.

"You jumped too high!" he chuckled at his fellow student, before turning back to the girls. "Okay, guys! You try it now!"

"Are you nuts?!" Bulma shrieked. "There's no way I can jump that far!"

Kagome sighed. "Alright, come here."

"Wait, what?" the blue-haired girl squawked.

"Come here," the other repeated, squatting down and staring up at her expectantly. "We can just piggyback it."

"Are you crazy?!" Bulma screamed, looking horrified.

"Yes," Kagome admitted simply. "But I should also have enough strength back to do at least this much. Now hurry up, before those army jerks catch up."

The blue-haired girl paled, but slowly did as she was told and wrapped her arms around the other girl's neck. Kagome stood up straight, hooking her hands under Bulma's knees, and took a couple of steps back.

"Alright, hang on," she instructed. "And, you know, maybe... keep your eyes closed."

"Why would I keep my eyes-GYAAAHHHH!" Bulma screamed as Kagome sped into a run - and didn't jump. Instead, she darted across the expanse on light feet, somehow managing to only step on the parts of the floor that were safe.

Goku and Krillin gaped at her as she let Bulma down, the blue-haired girl slumping down to the floor in a boneless, terrified puddle.

Kagome just frowned and stared at her hand, clenching a fist. "Still not enough..."

"That's not enough?" Krillin squeaked.

"How'd you do that?" Goku asked excitedly. "You missed all of them!"

She shrugged and shifted up onto her tiptoes. "You don't always have to use the whole foot to run."

He nodded, standing up on his own toes experimentally and staring down at them.

"Come on," she suggested, grabbing his attention as she started to walk again. "Let's keep going."

Bulma stood on shaky legs, and the four continued their way down the tunnel.

Goku tapped one of the walls as they wandered. "Seems solid enough."

"Just be careful," the blue-haired girl whimpered, still not recovered from her traumatic experience of earlier. "We don't know if there are going to be more traps as we go."

The kept going a ways, finally reaching another section.

"Uh-oh," the tailed boy announced. "It's dark in there."

"That figures," Bulma whined, grabbing hold of Kagome's shoulders and hiding behind her as they kept going. "Why does this keep happening to me?"

The black-haired girl just sighed and rolled her eyes, not saying anything.

Suddenly, there was a strange glow further in, surprising the group. As they got closer to them, it became clear that the glow was coming out of the eyes of a bunch of skulls that littered the floor.

"It's the skeletons again," Goku gasped.

"Creepy!" Krillin shuddered. "These skulls have lights coming from their eye sockets!"

"I hope this isn't another trap..." the other boy murmured.

"I wouldn't rule it out," Bulma squeaked. "You never know what these pirates could have rigged up!"

"So long as they don't come to life and start attacking us, I'm good," Kagome gulped.

The blue-haired girl gawked at her, letting out a shriek that soon turned into a scream as the floor gave out from under them.

Goku quickly grabbed the ledge, Kagome grabbed him, Bulma grabbed Kagome, and Krillin grabbed Bulma. They all glanced down, feeling the rise of intense heat from below, and the blue-haired girl gave a sob.

"Oh, that's lava!" she wailed.

"It's what?" Goku questioned, eyes wide and knowing that whatever it was, he was pretty sure that he wouldn't like it.

"It's molten rock," the black-haired girl explained, her voice strained.

"If we fall, we'll melt!" Bulma shrieked, squirming around and squeezing the other girl's waist tighter.

Krillin squawked and clung to the blue-haired girl desperately. "Please, shorts, don't fail me now!" he sobbed, hanging onto her pocket for dear life.

"Stop wiggling, pervert!" Bulma shouted. "What do you think this is, a peep show?!"

The bald boy went red. "W-what are you talking about?! Of course I don't!" Though, he did stare a bit when the girl's shorts fell some more...

She kicked him. "LIAR! Shut your eyes!"

"O-okay!" he yelped, squeezing his eyes shut - right before peeking out of one.

"You better have both eyes shut, Krillin," Bulma growled.

"But I do!" he insisted.

She kicked him again repeatedly. "I can still feel you looking! Cover your eyes with-!"

"OKAY!" Kagome screamed. "Enough! Are you trying to get us all killed?! Goku, can you pull us up?"

"I'll try!" he agreed, hurrying to do so.

The ledge gave out.

They all screamed as they fell.

"Goku!" Bulma wailed.

He winced and pulled out his Power Pole, pointing it down at the lava below. "O-okay! Power Pole, extend!"

It bent under their weight for a moment, Bulma letting out a shriek and Kagome hugging his waist even tighter with a little squeak of her own, but then it straightened back out and sent them flying through the hole and onto the path once more.

"Phew," he exhaled. "We made it!"

"Why didn't you listen to me?!" the blue-haired girl exploded. "I told you that pirates could set up anything! You almost got us killed!"

Kagome smacked the other girl in the back of the head. "Uh, he saved us."

Bulma winced and rubbed at the abused spot. "Ow..."

Goku shared her pain. Kagome hit hard.

Out of nowhere, he thought he heard a scream "Hey did anyone else hear that?"

The blue-haired girl and Krillin both shuddered and moved closer to him.

"M-must have been your imagination," Bulma squeaked.

"O-okay!" Krillin cheered. "Let's get going and find the treasure, but carefully this time!"

They all sidled along the side of the ledge, wary of falling back in, and continued on their way once more.

"Wow," Goku gasped as they entered another room. "It's like a city in here!"

"Yeah," the other three agreed almost dazedly.

"Look at this place!" the boy exclaimed, wandering further inside. There was a giant sub, a canal - everything!

"This must be the pirates' port," Bulma murmured.

"What a strange location for it," Krillin added.

"I know," the tailed boy agreed. "It's really weird that this is all hidden inside a cave!"

"Yeah," the blue-haired girl nodded along. "It's no wonder no one was ever able to find the pirates' base."

Kagome just sighed. "Sure is a lot of technology for an old, abandoned pirate lair," she grumbled to herself.

Goku glanced up at her. "What was that?"

She shook her head tiredly. "Nothing."

"Oh, yeah!" the bald boy bounced. "This has gotta be where they stashed their treasure! It's around here somewhere, I just know it!"

"Hey, wait a minute," Bulma announced. "That huge submarine! If it's in here, there must be another way in and out of the cave!"

Krillin turned to look at her. "Huh? Why is that?"

She shot him a glance. "They didn't have capsules in the old days - they couldn't just make the submarine small and carry it," she explained. "So I bet to travel out to sea, they had to go under the port!"

"Oh, I get it now," the bald boy nodded.

Goku jolted, suddenly hearing something, and slid into a fighting stance. "I think we've got company," he declared.

Krillin gulped. "The army?"

"Nuh-uh," the other boy denied. "Whatever it is, I don't think it's human."

Bulma shrieked. "What do you mean it's not human?!"

Kagome got a weird look on her face and glanced around, falling back a step. Goku kept trying to track where the sounds were coming from, finally finding the source. "It's there!" he shouted, pointing to a pile of crates.

"It's a pirate ghost, I just know it!" the blue-haired girl sobbed.

"Don't be silly, of course it can't be a ghost," Kagome teased distractedly.

"Because they don't exist?" Krillin guessed, sounding relieved.

"No," the black-haired girl shook her head. "They exist, alright. But don't make that much noise, that's for sure."

The two yelped.

Something sped out of the shadows. "Arr, matey!" it shouted in a mechanical voice.

"Watch out!" Goku yelled, grabbing Kagome while Krillin grabbed Bulma and they leapt out of the way.

"Shiver me timbers," the skull-face spoke again.

"It's... it's a phantom!" Bulma wailed.

"No," Krillin argued, "it's a robot!"

"A robot?" Goku repeated uncertainly.

The thing rose its arm and swung a giant sword at them, sending them all scrambling out of the way quickly. They continued to dodge as it attacked, though the boy did realize in the back of his head that Kagome had ducked away at some point.

He hoped that she wasn't in any trouble.

xxxx

She flinched, hearing her friend (and two new sort-of-friends) fighting off the robot, but she didn't run out to help. Instead, she kept behind the crates and worked her way through the shadows. For the moment, she was going to ignore the fact that such an 'antiquated' robot was running around, and that apparently these capsule things had been around for long enough that a thirteen-year-old kid didn't know anything about a world without them, and instead focus on what she could handle.

Someone else was skulking around here. Goku could overcome just about anything, and she was pretty sure that Krillin wouldn't be completely useless, but if someone came at them from behind with a sneak attack...

Well, her teacher had been a big fan of the preemptive strike.

That Bulma blew a hole in the wall - and very nearly Goku, too - had her cringing, but she stayed hidden and just prayed that they wouldn't bring the whole place down on top of them. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief when Bulma drove a truck into it and knocked it over the side and into the water and there was an explosion.

"Superb technology," the blue-haired girl sighed as the three stared down into the ocean. "And to think, he was built centuries ago! By pirates."

"Are you sure the pirates are dead?" Goku spoke up, causing the other two to jump.

"Huh?" they asked.

"It's strange," he explained. "But even with the robot gone, I still feel like we're being watched!"

"What?" Krillin squawked. "Really?"

"Why'd you have to say that?" Bulma wailed. "Let's get out of here! Now that you said that, I've got the willies big time!"

"Ugh," the bald boy shuddered. "Wait up! Come on, Goku."

"I'm coming!" he assured, looking around. "Where did Kagome-wah!" he cut himself off with a yelp, something dragging him below the water.

The priestess flinched. Okay, so this was not the time to be hiding after all.

She darted out from behind the boxes and stared down at the depths worriedly. "Goku!"

He shot back out a moment later, landing on the same walkway that he had been running across earlier - the same one that Bulma had shot. She breathed a sigh of relief and ran over to check on him.

"Are you alright?!" Krillin yelled up at him.

"Me?" the boy murmured dazedly. "Alright? Alright who?"

The walkway crumbled and he fell.

She let out a worried squeak and sped up.

"Goku!" Bulma shouted.

A rock dropped right on his tail, making him scream.

"That must have hurt!" the bald boy shuddered.

"Nah, it tickled," Goku groaned tiredly as she came up next to him. "Silly rock..."

"Silly boy," she corrected with a long-suffering sigh, kneeling down and pushing the hunk of stone off of him.

"Oh, hey," Krillin called. "Kagome! Where did you run off to?"

"Nowhere!" she assured, giving her little friend a hand up.

"Guys, above you!" the blue-haired girl shrieked suddenly. "Look out!"

She jolted and glanced up, her eyes widening when she saw the rest of the walkway cracking apart and tumbling right at them. Without thinking, she gave Goku's wrist a sharp yank and they both fell heavily into the water behind them.

By the time they swam back up to the surface, the other two were gone - but they could still hear their screams.

"Come on!" the boy rushed, pulling out his staff and planting it firmly.

Knowing what he was suggesting, she hurried over and gripped it as well, her hands a bit further up than his own.

He shot her a quick grin. "Power Pole, extend!"

She gave a quiet yelp as they immediately shot up into the air, her hold tightening. She could have been wrong, of course, but she was pretty sure that Goku laughed at her. They rose up to a window with smoke coming out of it in plumes, and caught sight of their wayward companions.

"Oh hey guys!" the boy greeted, causing them both to fall over.

"And where the heck have you been?!" Bulma shrieked as they jolted back upright.

"Really!" Krillin agreed.

The robot let out a roar and Goku extended the staff even further, landing the pair of them up at the top of another walkway while the other two leapt out and slid down it.

"Heh, heh, heh!" he chuckled. "Silly pirate."

"Goku, Kagome, let's get out of here!" Krillin shouted up at them.

"You guys go ahead!" the tailed boy called back, rejecting the idea. "Hurry, he's about to be down there!"

They both screamed and ran.

"Power Pole, retract!" he instructed.

"Now what?" the priestess questioned wryly.

"Aerial attack!" he grinned cheekily, watching as the robot rolled out into the open below them. "Come on, stay still for a second... Okay. One, two, three!"

She palmed her face as he dove, finally beginning to get used to this.

The boy was rubber. She was going to have to just accept that sooner or later.

He shouted as he fell, colliding with the machine heavily and blowing it up.

Kagome, still on top of the building, let out a scream as the structure began to collapse. "Dammit, Goku!" she yelped, leaping off the side and aiming for the water below. The boy was quick to help her back up, and they were off running once more.

This time with the whole cave threatening to come down on top of them.

"Now where?" Goku yelped as they came to an intersection.

"Look," she pointed down at a chalk arrow. "Krillin probably drew that. Shall we?"

He grinned up at her and nodded, both of them taking off down the corridor.

"Hey," the boy spoke up after they had run for a couple of minutes. "Where are they? Bulma's not that fast, we should have caught up with them by now!"

She frowned down at him, catching his shoulder and slowing. "You're right..."

They came to a stop.

"Goku," she drew out slowly, "I think we might have been tricked."

"But Krillin would never play a mean trick like that," he argued. "Not at a time like this, at least!"

"But," she pointed out, "there's someone else down here, too."

He blinked up at her. "You felt it, too?"

She nodded. "That's why I ran off earlier. I was thinking that I would track whoever it was down, but then you went and got into trouble before I could find the guy."

"Oh!" he gasped in understanding. "So... what now?"

She bit her lip and glanced around, taking note of the slowly crumbling ceiling. "Well, we definitely shouldn't let Bulma fire cannons while we're in underwater caves anymore," she sighed. "Come on, I think we should try turning around."

"But what if we just haven't caught up to them yet?" he worried.

She frowned. "Okay, you keep going, then - I'll go back the other way. Deal?"

His eyes went wide. "But will you be okay on your own? You're still sick, right?"

"I'm fine," she assured, flicking him in the forehead and turning around. "We'll catch up on the surface, alright!"

He thought it over for a second, but finally nodded. "Be careful, okay!"

"You, too!" she shouted over her shoulder, running back the way that they had come.

xxxx

Goku kept running for a long time, beginning to think that maybe Kagome'd had the right idea. He was going at top speed, and still hadn't caught up to them yet!

Especially when he reached a dead-end. He let out a groan.

"Looks like Kagome was right," the boy sighed, turning around. "Okay, I guess I'd better head back, too - whoa!" he yelped as the floor fell out from under him, sending him tumbling down into a dark pit.

Whatever he fell on was bouncy and made weird noises, and he looked around curiously in an attempt to figure out where he was. Wait, were those legs?

One of the legs swooshed up, and he jolted.

Something started laughing beneath him.

xxxx

Kagome glared down at the structure before her.

So. Her old nemesis had returned to haunt her, had it?

"Why does it always have to be a well?" she snarled, setting her backpack (courtesy of Bulma) on the ground long enough to strip down to her chest-wraps and underwear. "Always! The only thing worse would have been a giant spider, I swear!" She quickly stuffed her clothes, together with Bulma and Krillin's, into the bag and pulled it back onto her shoulders after making sure that it was zipped up securely.

Tightening the strap that went over her stomach, she jumped up onto the lip, took a deep breath, and dove in.

xxxx

"Hey," Goku gaped, "I know what you are! All those legs... Heh... You're a... spider!" he declared. "Gosh, it's a good thing Kagome went the other way. She hates spiders."

"I'M AN OCTOPUS!" the spider screamed at him angrily.

He blinked. "Oh." If the spider wanted to say that it wasn't a spider, he supposed that was up to it. He needed to backtrack and catch up with the others. "Nice meeting you," he said as he waved. "Bye."

The spider laughed again, lifting one of its weird legs and slamming it down next to him. "You're not taking the scene, sweetmeat," it declared. "You're my little octo-treat!"

He frowned. "I am not!"

"Don't be mad, baby," the spider cackled. "It's just a little destiny. Come to octo-daddy!"

He dodged out of the way as the thing kept trying to hit him, chuckling just a bit.

"Look into my eyes," the spider demanded after a moment.

The boy blinked. What was so special about its eyes?

It smacked him on the head when he wasn't paying attention, and he yelped.

It laughed again.

"You're mean!" he growled, rubbing at the sore spot. He could feel a bump growing and everything!

The boy launched into a kick... only to get stuck in the thing's head.

It shot him through the air, then reached out and grabbed him with one of its legs - which really tickled.

"Yummy," the spider snickered. "I'll bet you're packed with flavor, aren't you!"

"Let me down!" he barked irritably. "You can't eat people!"

It cackled even louder and slammed him against the one of the walls. "For a small guy, you talk pretty big!"

xxxx

She surfaced slowly, eyes narrowing at the back of a blond head.

'Oh, Krillin,' she thought to herself with a silent groan as he opened one of the chests - and a little jack-in-the-box with a machine gun popped out to start shooting him.

Bulma slowly crept out once it had run out of bullets and tapped the thing, knocking it over. "He wasn't so tough," she snorted.

"Oh, yeah?" the boy defended. "Then why were you hiding behind that rock?"

The girl ignored the question, instead drawing attention to the small crater that had been left by the gunfire. "Wow. If you weren't so short, he would've blown your head off!"

Krillin glanced nervously back at it before shooting her a glare. "I'm not short!"

She scoffed. "Not only are you short, you're short-sighted," she declared. "That's why you almost got killed."

He blinked at her. "Huh?"

"You should know better than to open the gold chest, duh!" the teen announced. "Right in the middle? It was a setup."

"Oh?" he deadpanned, watching her wander over to the left. "And which chest would a tall, brilliant person like you have opened?"

"Well," Bulma continued, oblivious to his sarcasm, "that dull one there. No one would think to open it first!"

"Except a genius like you, right?" he snarked.

"Exactly," she boasted. "Very perceptive."

Kagome had to fight down a laugh when Krillin started making gunshot noises right as she opened the lid.

She shrieked and ducked.

"Uh, Bulma?" the boy called, walking over to her with a cheeky grin. "That was me."

The teen snarled at him. "I know!" she argued. "UGH!"

xxxx

Goku stared down at the giant mouth waiting to eat him, and wondered for a moment if this was how some of his food felt. Not that he ever mocked it like the spider was doing, but it was something to think about.

... Now, what would he really hate for his food to do to him?

"Well," the thing laughed, "it's time to die, small fry!"

"Wait!" he shouted. "I want to give you something first."

He just almost laughed when he told the spider straight-out that it was the Kamehameha wave, and it actually asked to see it.

As a bonus, he even got a snack!

xxxx

A/N: Chapter ten! Geez, I should probably stop posting these so fast or I'm going to hit the end of how much I've written ahead... I blame all of my lovely reviewers. You ask for more, and I just can't resist! Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

Edit: 7/02/16