Interlude-Death of Red Ribbon
Son Goku ran through the corridors of this underground base. It had taken him a bit to train under Korin but he had finally managed to beat down that General Blue guy and get the location of his boss from him. Now he was tearing through the underground Red Ribbon base with wild abandon. He plowed through a concrete pillbox, power pole spinning as he disabled soldier after soldier, none of whom could even get a bead on him to discharge their weapons at him. He tore through a steel-reinforced rock wall that opened up into an underground factory which was putting together battle jackets for the Red Ribbon Army. Standing in the center of the factory floor was a group of tankers wearing the battle jackets. Goku thought that the robot suits might be strong compared to some of the other fighters he'd seen at the Tournament, but now? After he'd completed his training under Korin? He doubted that they would be able to do much to him.
3 of the battle jackets rushed him, clawed hands swinging out wildly to try and grab onto him and crush him with their powerful servo claws, but Son Goku was stronger than the alloys and hydraulics that made up these battle jackets. He lashed out with his power pole in a vertical strike, batting away the first claw to reach him and tearing the entire arm off of the battle jacket in the process. The other 2 tried to catch him in a pincer movement, but Goku simply extended his power pole so that each end smashed into the cockpit of both battle jackets, knocking out the drivers. From this position, he could see that the 2 battle jackets that had hung back were charging some type of laser cannon at him while the first 3 tried to slow him down. Beams of red light shot out from crystals on the palms of the claws of these last 2 battle jackets. Goku dodged the incoming attacks, which sliced through assembly lines and robotic arms, destroying the production line for more battle jackets as Son Goku bounced from conveyor belt to robotic arm to arc welder, causing more damage to the production line as the lasers attempted to track his position. Eventually, Goku judged the destruction was enough to halt production entirely and sprang at the two remaining battle jackets just as their lasers shut off to recharge. A Swing of his power pole tore 1 of them in half and the follow-through smashed into and through the servos that made up the other's knee joints. Both remaining suits were now out of the fight.
Job there done, Son Goku raced through a series of barracks, knocking out the surprised troopers left and right as he tore through them, and entered a lab area. Here there was a brown metal robot with an elongated head. It looked barely finished as it was held clamped to a table by chains. Son Goku approached it warily and poked it with his power pole. Nothing happened for a few brief moments...before its eyes, previously lifeless, glowed red and it snapped the chains holding it to the table apart. A robotic voice echoed from it.
"Android 10 online. Scanning...Target found. Engaging." It said as it slid into a fighting stance.
Son Goku did the same and soon the android rushed forwards, attacking with a fast punch. Goku blocked the punch with his power pole only to have to dodge aside from a kick that the android threw in as a follow-up attack. The pair bounced around the lab exchanging blows, Goku striking with his power pole and Android 10 with its fists or legs. A roundhouse kick from the android was blocked with the haft of the power pole, only for Goku to swing the pole out and have the android duck aside. The pair knocked over equipment and trays of components as their battle took its toll on the laboratory chamber it was staged in. Goku kicked out with both feet, bracing himself on the power pole as he did for extra power, and the Android was forced to block the unexpected attack, leaving dents in it's blocking forearms but far from taking it out of the fight. It returned fire with a Rocket Punch that slammed into Goku's shoulder, spinning the monkey boy around and sending him crashing into the far wall of the laboratory. As the android retrieved its fist, Goku stood back up.
"You're Strong, looks like I'll have to go all out to beat you." Grinned Goku as he cupped his hands at his sides. "Ka!" He began to chant as blue ki compressed itself into his palms.
Android 10, scanning the building ki and realizing it had little chance to survive if it was hit by that attack, let its own hands separate from its arms as yellow light began to build in the hollow base of its now handless forearms.
"Me!" Continued Goku as his attack continued to build.
The yellow light inside Android 10's Forearms continued to build as it's internal reactors dumped more power into the focusing arrangements.
"Hame!" Continued Goku, the power of his attack spiking for a brief moment.
Now Android 10's energy indicator indicated that the last of its internal power had been dumped into its attack as bright beams of yellow energy flashed out, combined with each other, and raced towards Goku.
"Ha!" Shouted Goku, unleashing his own technique, the blue light of the Kamehameha Wave surging out and clashing with the yellow energy from the Android 10's attack. The two beams clashed and it was Android 10's attack that was being slowly ground backward. Goku grit his teeth as he pumped his ki into the technique, trying to further push back his opponent's energy wave. Android 10's Energy Indicator beeped red as the last of its energy was dumped into the attack, stalling the advancing Kamehameha for just a moment before Android 10's automatic shutdown process engaged and Goku's attack raced forwards, destroying not just Android 10 and the wall behind it, but coring the mountain that Red Ribbon HQ was built into.
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As Staff Officer Black desperately tried to evacuate Red Ribbon HQ in the face of the onslaught that one mere Child had unleashed, his thoughts turned to the reserves of Zeni in the vaults. Right around the time that the pint-sized terror was tearing through the outer defenses, Staff Officer Black was heading down to the vaults to try and grab as much cash as he could before leaving. Hopefully, it would be enough to set him up somewhere really good, maybe one of the Southern Isles, surely South City couldn't be too bad? He raced down to the vaults but noticed a dearth of personnel. Had they all been redirected to fighting the intruder? No, he saw blood spots here and there, but no bodies.
His confusion would turn to anger when he reached the vault and discovered it blown open! Inside, instead of billions of Zeni in both gold and notes, there was nothing except for a small purple card thanking Red Ribbon for the 'severance pay' and signed by Colonel Violet. Black couldn't believe the gall of that woman! After everything Red Ribbon had done for her! The very nerve! There was nothing to be done for it now except to escape and plan revenge later. Unfortunately for Staff Officer Black, the layout of the base was such that with the vault on the lowest level of the base he had to take the stairs up to the hanger area. If he'd stayed on the upper levels of the base where the nerve center and offices were, he'd have avoided the bright blue beam of Ki that bored it's way out of the side of the mountain, taking Black, and his hopes for revenge, with it. . .
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Commander Red mostly stewed in his office these days, as Black and Gero's Coup had left him little to do to oversee the operational day to day of the Army. Mostly he admired the Dragonballs, which, ever since the priority of Red Ribbon had shifted away from gathering the Dragonballs and towards building up for the eventual takeover of Earth, had become little more than mystical paperweights. Today was no different, save for the fact that an intruder was currently tearing their way through Red Ribbon's HQ. Commander Red laughed at the irony. Black and Gero had gone through all that trouble of subverting his army and launching a coup, only for them to fail due to outside forces now. It was hilarious!
As for himself, Red knew that he could no longer hope to control the Red Ribbon Army, even if the intruder was somehow miraculously defeated. Since he doubted that would be the case, he pondered his options. He could take the Dragonballs he had, steal a plane, and hope to remain unnoticed, but that likely wouldn't work. Somehow their foe had known where each ball was. There was no way he could escape with the Dragonballs and remain hidden. He could steal a plane without the Dragonballs, hideout, and plan revenge. He still had a few accounts and Zeni stashes he could tap that he didn't think Black or Gero knew about if he needed to lay low. It wouldn't be enough to rebuild Red Ribbon, but he could retire to an island somewhere for the rest of his life and let the world pass him by. Of course, there was also the pistol he kept in a drawer in his desk if he wanted to go out like a soldier. Red discarded that thought almost as soon as he thought of it. No, he would take a plane, head for one of the Southern Islands, and pull from one of his emergency accounts he had set up separate from Red Ribbon. The hanger was just one level lower and in all the chaos, nobody noticed him climb into the cockpit of a small, 1 person, plane, and fly off.
Just as he was taking off, a blue beam of energy erupted out of the mountain's side. . .
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Dr. Gero was furious. He had sacrificed so much for Red Ribbon, his work, years of his life, his very own Son! Now his remote bugs in the command center of Red Ribbon headquarters had picked up the total defeat of the organization. As he watched the remote feed from his lab near North City, he saw not only his latest android be destroyed by the same spiky-haired child that had been single-handedly demolishing the Red Ribbon Army over the past few months, but also the Organization's leadership devolving into opportunistic flight from the danger. A Colonel had stolen all the Zeni from the vault shortly before leaving with General Copper in a truck, likely to retire to some remote town in luxury. Staff Officer Black had the same idea but had been too late and was killed by the same attack that had destroyed his android. Even that pompous fool Red had stolen a plane and fled the mountain when he should have tried rallying the troops. Not 10 minutes after Red had fled, no other Red Ribbon troops were still fighting and the spiky-haired menace had taken the Dragonballs from Red's office before leaving! Gero's eyes narrowed at this mere child who had taken so much from him!
"Who are you? I don't know, but I will find out. When I do, I will build an android so powerful that you will never be able to defeat it! Then I will have my revenge!" Growled Gero.
First, however, he had to catalog the exploits of this unknown child. He tapped in a command sequence into a remote and his bug began to literally remove itself from Red's former office, flying on mechanical insect wings after the monkey boy. Gero would find out just how powerful this child was. He would gather data, refine his android process, and eventually, have his revenge. For Red Ribbon, for himself, and for his son, he would kill this boy.
He would do it if it was the last thing he did. . .
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Author's Note:
The battle jackets were meant to replace tanks in the Red Ribbon arsenal for the eventual takeover of Earth, not fight singular martial artists. In that role, they would have been superior to anything King Furry could throw at them. Just a shame that Gero didn't plan on Goku.
Power levels for this interlude only
25: Average Red Ribbon Soldier
220: Red Ribbon Battle Jackets
380: Son Goku
380: Android 10
390: Android 10's Rocket Punch
400: Goku's Kamehameha
395: Android 10's Energy Wave