Chapter 22 – Dangerous depths
"The ocean is so pretty…" Michiru muttered, gazing down at the sparkling azure ocean. The plane had reached the spot where the Dragonball was supposed to be and now Haruka slowed the plane down.
"I bet it doesn't look half that pretty two miles under the surface and in front of some dinosaur," she remarked. "So who's going down there?"
"We all are," Bulma replied. "Pull that green lever, will you?"
"The one that says 'Do Not Pull'?" Haruka asked back.
"Naw, that one's a nuclear device… the one that says 'Sub'," the woman explained. Haruka blinked and pulled the lever. Something whizzed and clanked, they could all feel a sudden burst of fresh air and the engine changed its tune. Bulma walked up to the dashboard and looked at a small screen.
"We have two hours before we run out of oxygen," she said. "Haruka, hurry up."
Haruka nodded. "You do understand that I've never driven a submarine, right?"
"The controls are the same as with the plane," Bulma said as the submarine splashed into the water and was all of a sudden filled with soft blue light. "There are a few extra features but I'll take care of those when we'll need them… now follow that Dragonball!"
"At least it's not moving," Haruka remarked, leading the submarine down into the darkness. "Huge dinosaurs seem to be out of the question at the case, eh?"
"Don't jinx it," Goku muttered.
Michiru was still sitting by the window and gazing out.
"You were wrong, Haruka," she said. "It's still so beautiful… I wish I could be a fish and swim out there with them."
Her friend glanced at a pack of fish swim by. "Those things have fangs…!"
"We're in the Eastern seas, there aren't many dangerous fish over here," Bulma comforted them. "The dinosaurs prefer warmer waters as well. That Dragonball shouldn't cause us any trouble whatsoever."
"How exactly are you planning to get the Dragonball?" Taiki asked her. "It might prove a little hard to go out there and fetch it." He was looking at a screen on the dashboard. "The temperature is near freezing point and the water pressure keeps rising. How much pressure can that thing take?"
"Enough," the woman replied laconically. "First we'll need to find the ball, then we can worry about retrieving it. According to the map, it should be right below us."
"My head hurts," Goten complained.
"Pressure," Haruka grunted. She was feeling a bit dizzy too. The girl grabbed the lever and focused harder. She was driving the submarine; she couldn't pass out now…!
"Haruka," Vegeta snorted, "slow down. If you reach the bottom too fast, our bodies won't have the time to get used to the pressure and the results may be pretty bad."
The girl nodded and stopped the sub. They remained floating above soft darkness. Everyone felt a bit odd.
"This submarine should be able to protect us from the pressure," Bulma muttered, sitting down on the floor. "What's wrong with it?"
"A leak?" Michiru suggested. She seemed to be fine, even though paler than usually.
"Then the weak spot would've broken long time ago," Bulma replied, pressing her head between her palms. "Argh, Haruka, are we still sinking?"
"No," Haruka's eyes were getting blurry and she had to concentrate to see the screen clearly, "the elevation is still the same." She felt like she was going to faint any second.
"It's getting worse!" Seiya moaned. "How can it possibly get worse if we're not moving and our bodies should eventually…" he had to take a break to gasp for air, "get used to it?"
Michiru was getting paler. Her eyes widened. Suddenly she gasped:
"Haruka… get that sub…"
She didn't finish her sentence but she didn't even have to. Her friend had understood her and now pulled the steering lever with her whole remained might, ignoring the bells ringing in her brain. The submarine rocketed towards the surface.
"I don't think I can take it much longer," Goku said very quietly. It wasn't a complaint; it was more like stating a fact. The pressure was now decreasing but everyone was just getting worse.
A couple of hundred feet before the surface Haruka collapsed. Her hands let the lever go and the submarine stopped rising, remaining floating again. Now everyone was feeling bells in their brains.
"Girl," Vegeta gasped harshly, "don't even think about letting us die here right now!" He was already too weak to get up and grab the lever himself. "You hear me, Haruka? Wake up!"
Something in his voice got through the pain in Haruka's head. Her eyes opened slowly, her trembling hands grabbed the lever again, squeezing it with her remained strength. At that moment someone else's hand grabbed the lever as well.
"Pull!" a voice hissed into Haruka's ear and the girl pulled, still too shattered to see or understand anything but somehow realizing that the other hand helped her pull. The submarine started rising again… slowly, then faster… then it splashed out of the water. Haruka slammed her fist against the button that opened the door and they could all sense fresh salty air before completely blacking out.
In about half an hour they all regained consciousness. The Saiyans were the first ones to open their eyes and a while later the others were able to get up too. The sun was shining brightly and the seagulls were circling above the submarine but everyone felt like they had just come out of a torture chamber.
"Ow… my head!" Goku complained, getting up very slowly. "That pressure thing is tough!"
"I don't think it was pressure," Taiki said, rubbing his forehead. "Water pressure isn't supposed to grow when we went back towards the surface. It was something else."
"At least we got out in time," Goten said, looking at Haruka. The girl still had a terrible headache but her eyes weren't blurry any more and now she had a chance to see who had helped her. It was Yaten.
"Thanks," Haruka muttered quietly as her eyes widened. "How did you…?"
"See this?" Yaten asked back, showing her the phoenix feather. "It started making a sound when we went deeper. A melody or a jingle of some sort, I can't really tell. But somehow it managed to ease my headache, even though not for long."
"The song of the phoenix?" Seiya asked, getting up carefully. "How cliché."
"It wasn't a song; it was just some kind of melody," Yaten argued.
"Haruka," Michiru called at that moment, "come and have a look at Hotaru. She still hasn't woken up."
Everyone gathered around Hotaru who was as white as a bedsheet. Haruka measured her pulse and nodded with a slight smile.
"Slow, but strong," she said. "She has a weak health."
"She was the first one to pass out," Seiya remarked.
"She will recover eventually" Bulma assured them. "Look!" Hotaru's eyes were slowly opening. They weren't purple as usually, but had a rather light bluish shade.
"Music," she said in a very weak voice.
"You mean the feather?" Yaten asked. The girl turned her head for a bit, then turned it back and they realized that she was trying to shake her head.
"Down there," her lips muttered.
"It was some sort of a music that did this to us?" Haruka asked quickly. This time Hotaru raised her chin and let it down again. It was a nod and they all understood that.
"Ultrasound in that case?" Taiki guessed. "If it came from a powerful source, it could have very well caused that."
"Or infrasound," Bulma agreed. "But sound doesn't move fast in water. The source really had to be extremely powerful or then very-very close to us."
"So you're saying that my phoenix feather can block sound?" Yaten asked with a frown. "Somehow I doubt that."
"It didn't block the sound, it jammed it," Seiya said. "You passed out, didn't you? The feather just caught your attention for some time. Just like with loudspeakers and cell phones, you know. Turn a cell phone on near a loudspeaker and it goes nuts for a short while."
"Wow, I had no idea you knew that much about radio waves," Taiki remarked with slight admiration.
"I've had some practical experience," the guy replied with a frown. "Remember that concert we gave in front of 50,000 people and then some wiseguy pulled out a cell phone?"
Taiki smirked. "And you just had to stand in front of the speaker."
"I was surprised you didn't fall off the stage," Yaten added with a grin. Seiya glared at him.
"I'm a professional, thank you. Now, how are you planning to get that Dragonball?"
"Perhaps we could use the feather in some way…" Bulma said with hesitation. "If we amplified it with something, we may have enough time to get down there and grab the Dragonball."
"And where do we get the amplification?" Taiki asked. Bulma bit her lip and pondered for a while.
"I think I need some…" She grabbed a capsule and opened it with a loud POOF. Then she took another capsule and opened that too. After five minutes she was sitting on the floor, surrounded with all sorts of weird gadgets. The dizziness was gone and Bulma was as active as always.
"Does anyone have an electric shaver?" she asked, breaking a toaster apart.
"Here." Vegeta threw her a capsule. Bulma nodded and the plane was filled with complete silence for about ten minutes.
"What if it doesn't work?" Goten suddenly asked.
"It has to," Bulma muttered, completely concentrated on the work. "It simply has to."
"And if it doesn't?" Haruka asked persistently. "I really don't feel like listening to Russian churches in my head again."
"As soon as we start feeling odd again, you'll take the submarine up," Seiya replied. Haruka didn't even argue as always, she just bit her lip, nodded very vaguely and looked at Bulma. The woman took a deep breath, tightened the last screw and stood up, pride gleaming in her eyes.
"Done," she said. "Give me the feather, Yaten."
Five minutes later the submarine was underwater again. Hotaru was sitting next to the amplifier, holding the feather in front of a small gadget that looked like a headphone. Actually it was part of Trunks's CD-player's headphone. Trunks had complained a lot but Bulma had simply ignored him and there they were now, gazing at the deep dimness of the ocean as Hotaru held the feather. Michiru had said that since Hotaru was the weakest, she should be the closest to the feather.
"Listen," Vegeta suddenly said. The feather had started making a sound again and the amplifier really was working – the whole submarine was all of a sudden filled with soft sweet melody. Haruka's eyes narrowed and she leaned forward, speeding up the submarine.
"How are things back there, Hotaru?" she asked.
Hotaru smiled slightly. "Fine." She almost yelled, the sound was getting stronger and stronger. "I feel like a canary. You know, the ones miners used to make sure if there was any poisonous gas in the mines or not."
"Yeah, if the canary kicked the bucket then it was time to get lost," Taiki remarked. "So be nice and tell us when you feel like dropping dead, okay?"
"I don't think we ever had that much trouble with those darn Dragonballs," Vegeta stated grimly.
"You didn't," Goku agreed. "Bulma and I went trough pirate caves and the whole Red Ribbon Army."
Bulma nodded. "Actually we have luck. One angry phoenix and one amplifier are far from trouble. I'm just afraid we'll have even more problems with the rest of the balls."
"We haven't even gotten this one yet so stop blabbing and help me navigate," Haruka suggested. The phoenix feather was making a louder sound.
"This is starting to get on my nerves!" Vegeta yelled over the sound as Haruka turned the headlights stronger.
"Better this than the headache," Michiru yelled back. "How much longer, Haruka?"
Haruka couldn't hear her. "What?" Michiru pointed at the Dragonball radar. Haruka glanced at the dials and raised four fingers. That could've meant anything but Michiru didn't ask any more questions. The sound got louder and louder… they realized that their heads would've exploded by now without the phoenix feather. Bulma went to the device and turned the volume down just a little bit.
"Let's hope the batteries will last!" Trunks shouted to Goten.
"Were they full?" Goten yelled back Trunks nodded; his pal raised his thumb. The submarine went deeper. They didn't talk much. They all knew that their lives now depended on that small red feather. Without the feather they'd all simply pass out and then the pressure would either smash them or they'd run out of air. Haruka looked at the radar again and smiled, then leaned forward again and looked around in the bright light. Small fish fled from the light of the submarine; something huge and slimy moved in the distant darkness; they were somewhere no other human had ever been, just because of that odd music they were now protected from. But for how long?
Suddenly Goku put his hand on Haruka's shoulder and as the girl turned her head, pointed at something in the dimness. Something bright orange flashed right next to a huge rock. The submarine stopped and Haruka turned to look at Bulma. The woman nodded with a smile and gestured her to leave the seat. Bulma sat down, pushed a button, pulled a few levers and a mechanical hand emerged from the submarine, moving towards the crystal ball.
"Easy… easy…" Bulma mumbled though she couldn't even hear the words herself. The hand reached for the Dragonball that was gleaming in the darkness. It hadn't seen light for quite a while. Now the iron hand was going to take it out into the daylight again. The phoenix feather was still playing the melody. Everyone was holding their breath… just a few more inches… got it! The hand moved back in, holding the orange crystal ball like the most valuable treasure. As a matter of fact, it was a valuable treasure.
Nobody dared to move until the hand moved back into the submarine with the Dragonball; it seemed like an eternity until a small panel opened on the dashboard and a wet crystal ball popped out of it. Goku caught it and a wide grin appeared on his face. Everyone else suddenly burst into laughter with relief and Bulma, wiping off sweat from her forehead, turned the submarine around and started driving towards the surface.
It was a happy return. The phoenix feather was still playing but its melody was getting quieter. Goku was still holding the Dragonball like a fragile egg even though he knew very well that the crystal ball was unbreakable. The others had sat down with relief; only Hotaru was still holding the feather. Michiru noticed that the girl was once again paler than usually. She frowned with concern and informed Haruka about the matters. The girl only gave one glance at Hotaru, then her eyes widened and she rushed over to Bulma.
"Bulma, let me drive, fast!" she demanded – the sound was now quiet enough to speak. Bulma looked up at her wit surprise.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Let me here!" Haruka's voice was so sharp and cold that Bulma didn't argue any more, she got up, Haruka popped down on the seat and at the next moment the submarine rocketed towards the surface, accelerating every minute.
"Can't you at least tell us…" Bulma complained but one single look from Haruka's cold navy blue eyes made her shut up.
"Don't talk. None of you. Sit down and stay there, you hear me?"
At that moment the phoenix feather music faded. Hotaru had fainted and dropped the feather. Everyone gasped but following Haruka's order, didn't move. Michiru was still frowning with concern but now her frown was hopeful. Haruka's driving. She'll take us out of this. If she can't do it, nobody can and will. Come on girl, just do it…
The surface was right there above them but still far away. The submarine was racing with full speed and still Haruka managed to accelerate. She was always able to get more out of a machine that anyone else. She was a born winner. And still she started feeling like this time things would get sticky. She could feel her heart beat faster and faster and her eyes were getting blurry again. She didn't need to look over her shoulder to know that the others were feeling bad as well.
But here was the surface. The submarine whooshed out of the water and Haruka slammed the button that opened the door. Fresh salty air filled the submarine again. But instead of passing out they all suddenly felt better.
"Close one," Haruka gasped, getting up and leaning against the control panel. Her feet were weak but now, breathing the fresh air greedily she started feeling better. The others got up too. Michiru went over to Hotaru whom Goku had lifted up. The girl was still unconscious but color was coming back to her face.
"Explanation, please?" Seiya asked, deciding that it was more or less safe to speak again without having to fear that his head would blow up. "Some other type of evil music?"
Haruka slowly shook her head. "Oxygen. There were too many of us aboard and the oxygen ran out faster than it was supposed to." She managed to smile a little. "It's a good thing we have our canary…"
Michiru's eyes flashed. "That's not funny, Haruka!"
"She's right," Vegeta said. "If there hadn't been for Hotaru, we probably would've noticed the lack of air too late. She'll be fine. We have the Dragonball, we still need five more, so where to?"
"The mountains are the closest," Bulma replied.
"Gotta get there sooner or later," Yaten remarked, picking his phoenix feather up and hiding it in his pocket again.
"So let's get going, shall we?" Haruka had gotten her clear thinking back and was feeling strong enough to drive again. She sat down, closed the door and pushed the lever. The submarine turned back into a plane and took off.
"What could've caused that music down there?" Michiru wondered, holding Hotaru's head in her lap. The girl was slowly waking up.
Haruka shrugged. "Who knows? And I don't care either. It's over now."