~Chapter 4: General Blue and the Red Ribbon army~
After the tournament, Muten Roshi paused breifly to teach Goku and I a lesson in humility(I don't know about Goku, but I for one had just learned that lesson) and then offered to treat all of us, that is, me and Goku and Goku's friends, to a big dinner. Frankly, I don't think he was really prepared for the magnitude of his offer. We all accepted gladly, especially Goku, who said he'd never been so hungry in his entire life. We went to the restaurant and ate a big feast of a meal - well, most of us ate. I believe that better words for what Goku did that evening might be "engulf" or "inhale". I swear, if the Tenka'ichi Budokai were an eating contest, Goku would have no competition whatsoever. Goku ate and ate until the restaruant, which was a pretty big restaurant, ran completely out of food. I bet poor Roshi must have spent all of the prize money from the tournament on that meal. Oh well, he probably would have spent it on porn otherwise anyway.
We all went our seperate ways pretty soon after that. When Muten Roshi said that he wouldn't be training us any more, Goku promptly decided that he'd go off on a search for his dragon ball. I was the only one who had no clue what a dragon ball was, and I was confused more than anything as Goku's friends started jabbering excitedly about the quest Goku was about to go on. Before I knew it, he had hopped on his Kinto'un and he was gone, leaving us standing there. I'd have to get used to that feeling.
Yamucha and his little entourage went back home to Capsule Corp. Although Muten Roshi had officially released Goku and I, I couldn't think of anywhere I wanted to go, so I went back with Roshi to the Kame House. I guess I could have returned to the temple as I'd planned - my strength certainly would have impressed them - but I didn't really want to anymore. Actually, it was at that time that the concept of never returning to the temple occurred to me. Oddly, the thought didn't scare me as much as I'd expected.
Lunch was waiting for us went we got back. Luckily, she was in her more agreeable form when we got there, and she made us a meal and was excited to hear my stories about the tournament, which were probably pretty sketchy and embellished. It was too fresh in my mind for me to recall it properly. Muten Roshi started to tell a few stories of his own, but he quickly changed the subject when I asked him how he could have known what was going on at the qualifiers, to which only the contestants were admitted. He didn't have to worry - I still wasn't making the connection between him and Chun. For one thing, while training us he'd kind of built up a myth to Goku and I about his power, and I was certain at the time that if that had really been the legendary Invincible Old Master in the ring, Goku wouldn't have stood a chance. What can I say, I really looked up to the old man.
We didn't really have much time to get settled in before something else happened, but I could tell right off that living with Muten Roshi was going to be very different than it had been when Goku and I were in training. He had put on a kind of serious persona for the purpose of the training that he basically shed when we were just bumming around the house. Muten Roshi had been a hermit for a very long time, and in order to live with people again he obviously had some adjusting to do. It was hard for him to get unstuck of some of his daily habits and rituals, some of which were frankly disturbing. I also had to get used to frequent shouting matches between him and Umigame(Roshi's turtle companion, who's essentially the opposite of him in that he's very polite). Of course, like I said, we didn't really have time to get settled in yet just then, but this seems as good a place as any to stick these little memories in.
I practiced some of the moves I'd seen at the tournament to see if I could do them. After only one day, I managed to get down the after-image trick pretty well. I could only do one image, not two or three like I'd seen at the tournament, and I didn't travel as far as Goku or Roshi before the image dissapated, but I was pleased nonetheless. That was good progress for me.
A couple of days later, we had to go get some groceries. That hadn't been so much of an issue before, as the island we were training on had had everything we'd needed, but after moving back to the tiny Kame Island, we had to go out to town every so often to get supplies. Muten Roshi had an underwater/flying vehicle and he asked me if I knew how to pilot it. Well, I had learned how to work a simple hovercar while helping out back at the town near the Orinji temple, and the controls were really similar, so I said that I did. So, Lunch and I set out for town to pick up supplies. It was a pleasant trip. Lunch was a nice girl, and bringing her seemed to make pretty good sense at the time; after all, she was our cook and she knew what we needed. Besides, she hadn't done her sneeze-transformation thing in a while and I'd nearly forgotten about it. That was a mistake. Everything seemed to go well, and before long we had everything we needed, but wouldn't you know that Lunch had to go and sneeze in public in the middle of the market. Well, she produced that gun again(Where does she GET that thing? I swear I searched her for it before we landed) and went ballistic. She gave me a pretty good whack to the head and ran off and took a hostage at gunpoint, which sent the crowd into a panic. Before long the place was swarming with police and she had them at a standoff. Apparently she had too many outstanding warrants for her arrest to count, which was a pleasant bit of news. I had to dodge a hail of gunfire(dodge MOST of it - good thing I was pretty bulletproof by this time), knock Lunch unconscious, and fight my way out through a bunch of cops, ensuring that it'd be a while before we could do our grocery shopping THERE again. Oi. At least I managed to grab the stuff we'd bought and get it back to our craft. Still, the next time Muten Roshi told me to get groceries, I planned to tell him in so many words that he could do it himself. I forced Lunch to sneeze with a feather, and I yelled at her some. She was really apologetic, though, and I couldn't stay mad at her. After all, I knew it wasn't really her fault. Plus, she thanked me for being so understanding and kissed me on the cheek, which kept me pacified for most of the trip back.
When we got back to Kame Island, I was surprised to find none other than Goku sitting there waiting for me. We exchanged a brief "Hey, how ya been?" and I was introduced for real to Bulma, who'd come with him. I didn't waste any time in getting off on the wrong foot with Bulma. "Hey, you must be Bloomers!" I said cheerfully. Hoo boy. Bulma impressed me with her intelligence and drive, but she also seemed very selfish and seemed to have no standards at all, so we didn't get along very well early on.
They were glad to see me, mostly because they needed the underwater vehicle I'd arrived in. Goku impatiently tried to launch into a very short explanation of why they needed the thing, but I refused to cooperate until someone had clued me in on what these "Dragon Balls" were and why they were so important. Bulma told me that they were a set of seven balls - she showed me one - that, when gathered together, would summon Shenlon, the eternal dragon, who would grant you one wish. I just nodded; after what I'd seen at the tournament, stuff like that didn't faze me much. The rest of the story was that Goku and Bulma were looking for the next Dragon Ball and the radar showed it to be underwater. I happily volunteered to go with them. It sounded like fun, and I'd also heard of a pirate treasure located in the area, and I suggested we look for that as well. Goku warned me that it might be dangerous, but I'd gained a good bit of confidence from my good preformance in the tournament, and I was pretty sure I could handle anything we might encounter.
I piloted the craft again and we went underwater. Goku marveled at the technology. I guess Goku still didn't have much experience with technology at that point. We located the dragon ball in a system of caves that was wide enough for our ship to enter at one end. Everything went pretty smoothly until we were suddenly fired upon by a submarine. We panicked, and Goku made some comment along the lines of "Darn, I bet it's those annoying Red Ribbon guys again." Bulma and I just stared at him in horror. Yes, I'd heard of the Red Ribbon Army, who hadn't? It was the world's largest and most evil crime organization, and they had quite a reputation. It was death to be targeted by the terrible Red Ribbon. Apparently they were searching for the dragon balls too, Goku had thwarted them several times, and they were now channeling the majority of their resources into finding and eliminating him. I could have fainted. I was not having a good day.
We quickly abandoned our craft once we got into the dry cave. We didn't even have the time to capsulize it. We ran down the tunnels as fast as we could to try and lose them, and we seemed to do it a bit too easily. I learned later that they had held back after hearing how the other squad was defeated by just an old man. It still brings a smile to my face to picture Roshi beating the daylights out of those Red Ribbon goons. I bet they were surprised.
We started noticing some odd things about the cave early on. It was easily navigable, and it was lined with lights that were activated by a switch in the wall. Finding an old skeleton with pirate clothing clinched it - that cave had to be the hideout containing the pirate treasure I'd heard about. Somehow the thought of a priceless treasure waiting for us cheered me up a bit, and I strode confidently forward. However, a few steps later I felt a spear whiz inches above my head. That sure gave me the chills. It was a pirate trap; stepping on any point in the floor would trigger spears to launch from the walls. It was a very long distance across, but Goku jumped it and I did too, although it was a close one for me. Bulma had to climb over on Goku's extendable staff or Nyoi-Bo, which I'd never really seen in action before but, like I said, those things didn't faze me much anymore. Soon after the trap, we came out into a big underwater port where we were engaged by a pirate guard robot. It was tough. Goku and I fought it for a bit, being careful to keep Bulma out of harm's way, and Goku told me that he'd handle it and I should go ahead and get the dragon ball. Well, he didn't have to tell me twice. I trusted him to take care of himself and took Bulma to go get the ball. As we ran down a hall, we heard an explosion(probably Goku destroying the robot) and the place started to crumble, which made us hurry even more. We had to swim to get to the last chamber, where we found an enormous treasure chest filled with priceless treasures. Man, I can't even imagine how much all of that must have been worth. We didn't have long to enjoy it, though, because right on our heels was General Blue of the Red Ribbon Army. There was no one left with him - I suppose either his squad was taken out by a trap or he just decided he could handle us on his own. Immediately upon seeing the guy, Bulma decided he was a hunk and started fawning over him, lowering my opinion of her even further. The guy was disgusted and pulled away, causing Bulma to conclude that he was gay. I don't know whether he was or not - I mean, I was disgusted by Bulma too, and I wasn't gay.
It was clear that General Blue wanted a fight. The guy talked big, and I did too. I assumed that I could handle him along with all normal humans, which I assumed he was. Unfortunately, he wasn't. He was much stronger and faster than me, and he started beating me up. This made Bulma scream, but it was probably only because she knew she was next if I was defeated. Well, once I knew that the guy was out of my league strength and speed-wise, I decided to try a shadow or after-image on him. It worked, and I kicked him in the back of the head, knocking him over. He got a pretty good nosebleed, and that made him go mad with rage. He started wailing about how he couldn't bear the humiliation of having been struck and having bled. It was weird. Suddenly he stared at me and I couldn't move. Apparently, he had telekinetic powers and he had used them to paralyze me. He beat me up a lot after that. It just wasn't fair. I couldn't move at all. He took a big rock and prepared to bring it down on my head, and I was sure that that was it. I was only 14, and my life was already over. He raised the rock over his head and sneered at me.
That was the first time I ever almost died. I guess the spears counted too, but this was much more frightening. In my mind I apologized for everyone I thought I'd ever wronged or failed to do good by, and I beat myself up over how short, pointless, and stupid my life had been. I'd have cried if I could move.
Fortunately, it was just then that Goku came bursting out of the water. Goku has always had an unfortunate condition I like to call "Nick of time syndrome" - no matter how he tries, he can't get to the scene of a battle until the precise moment just before it's all too late. It's very unnerving.
I was glad to see Goku, and I was even more glad to see that he was way stronger than General Blue. Somehow he had gotten even stronger since the tournament. He had the upper hand until Blue used his telekinesis again. He did exactly the same thing to Goku that he'd done to me. I really should've warned Goku about it, but it happened fast, and I was kind of out of it. Soon he had a rifle to Goku's head and I was pretty sure again that it was over. Not even Goku could've survived a shot at that range(at least, he couldn't have THEN). However, at that moment a mouse ran by and Blue started shrieking and flailing around, making him lose his concentration and setting Goku free. I swear, next to Buu, that guy was the weirdest enemy we ever had.
Goku beat up General Blue, and the whole cave suddenly started to cave in around us. I have no idea why the cave picked that moment to collapse, but we knew we had to get out of there fast. Goku went further in for the dragon ball and said he'd catch up to us. I told him he was crazy, but I wasn't about to stick around and argue. We ran out of there as quickly as we could. Most of the exits had been sealed off by the time we got to the port, so our only hope was an old pirate sub that was floating there. We hopped in, and fortunately, it still worked. Bulma astounded me again just then by trying to leave. She was just going to leave Goku in there to die, just to save her own skin. I didn't doubt for a second that she'd have left me too. Like I said, we didn't really get off on the right foot.
Despite my protestations Bulma almost left anyway, but Goku caught up at the last possible second. The tunnel came apart around us as we headed toward the open sea, but we were going to make it. Naturally, that's when we ran out of gas and got trapped in the tunnel. You know, that was the first day of my life that I'd ever almost been killed, but I was already starting to lose count of just how many times that'd happened. Bulma and I panicked, but Goku just handed me a mouse(apparently he saved the mouse in return for saving him. You've got to admire nobility like that.) and said he was going to do something. I had no idea what he was talking about, and I was alarmed when he cupped his hands and said "Kame... Hame..."
The blast propelled us all the way to the surface and into the sky. Goku called the Kinto'un, caught us, and brought us back to land. I thought that things had gone pretty well, all things considered. We may not have gotten any treasure, but Goku got his dragon ball, and I was just relieved that we'd managed to get out of there alive. I casually mentioned to the others that it would've been nice to have gotten some of that treasure, and Bulma gave me a ridiculously huge diamond she'd managed to grab. That thing must have been worth billions, and she said I could keep it - she was already rich. Man. Well, that seemed like a good reward for what we'd just gone through, and I thought that at least it was all over. I was wrong, of course. We hadn't been back on the island long when Lunch in her psycho form pointed a gun at us and demanded that we give her the diamond. Although most of us were bulletproof, we didn't want Bulma or Umigame getting hurt, so we had no choice but to hand it over. She took it, nabbed a red ribbon vehicle that we'd used to get back to the island, and took off. We had to explain to Bulma then about Lunch's personality changes. She didn't take it very well. That had been the last way we had of getting off the island, so Bulma had no way of getting home. Bulma and Roshi argued about that for a bit. I looked up and I could have sworn I saw a rope coming at me. Suddenly, we were all tied up in rope so that we couldn't move, and General Blue walked out and asked us if we appreciated how hard it was to do that with telekinesis. That guy was amazing. He must have just swam out of the collapsing cave, and I don't think even Goku could have done that. He gloated at us for a bit, stole the dragon balls, and left us a parting gift in the form of a time bomb set to five minutes. Before he left, Bulma asked him if she could join the Red Ribbon Army. Man, I really didn't like her right then.
It was a real torture sitting there with a bomb that was about to explode. We all struggled against our ropes, but Blue had done something to them that didn't let us draw on our strength to escape. There was only two minutes left on the bomb's timer when Lunch got back, changed back to normal and very confused about what was going on. We went into a panicked frenzy and shouted a bunch of instructions at her that got all jumbled together. Finally, with about a minute left, Goku managed to get out an "Untie me! Untie ME!!!" She cut him loose and he threw it into the sky, where it exploded harmlessly. Phew. An explosion that size would have easily killed us all.
Goku hopped on his Kinto'un again and took off after Blue. We yelled at him to stop, but I don't think he even heard us. There's that feeling again. Lunch untied the rest of us, and the others started to fret about Goku and about the general situation. Me, I just went to bed, even though it was really early. That day had been a nightmare, and I was afraid that if I didn't get rid of it soon, I'd almost die again. Incidentally, I never saw that diamond again. Lunch said she didn't know where she'd put it, which seemed plausible enough, I guess. Although Lunch does get along pretty well these days, from what I've heard...
When I woke up, everyone was still fretting about Goku, and Bulma was still there. She did have some good qualities: she really was a genius, and from the concern she was showing for Goku I had to conclude that I'd been wrong when I assumed that she didn't care about others - she just cared about herself more, that's all. I guess you can't really fault her for that. We had an uneasy but blessedly uneventful couple of days. Bulma amazed us by building a flying mini-recon robot just out of stuff she'd found around the house to go find Goku. A few days after the mess with Blue, Roshi sent me out to get groceries again, but I didn't really mind. It was a relief to do that after what I'd just been through. We didn't have any transportation left, so I had to swim it. Before I got there, however, I was picked up by a plane flown by Yamucha. Everyone was in it. They told me that Goku had launched a single-handed assault on the Red Ribbon Army, and we were going to go try to save him before he got himself killed. I balked. As resourceful as Goku was, he had to be insane to try something that dangerous. I thought at the time that we'd be lucky just to get him out of there alive. How little I knew...
When we got there, we were surprised to see Goku coming to meet us.
"Goku! You gave up taking on the Red Ribbon?" Yamucha said.
Goku just smiled and said "What do you mean, give up? I just did!"
We all sweatdropped. Pu'ar flew up to check, and it was true - the Red Ribbon's Headquarters had been totally demolished. Everyone who hadn't been killed was fleeing in panic.
We all turned to stare at Goku. Same cute little kid. Same cute little smile. Somehow, though, we couldn't quite look at him the same way. I had known Goku was strong, but up until that moment, I'd thought that he was human. After that, I wasn't so sure.
--END OF CHAPTER FOUR--