Prompted by the order of Commander Blue, as relayed by General Dark, the soldiers kicked the door of the Kame House open and began flooding the house one by one. Anthropomorphic animals and humans alike scoured the house in search of any filthy dwarves that could have threatened the genius plan of the Blue Ribbon Army to hold the daughter and the inheritor of the vast Capsule Corp legacy hostage and squeeze the world out of anything the Blue Ribbon Army pleased just to keep the girl alive.
For a short while, loud instructions and calling signs came from the house. A loud yell signaled the end of the uninterrupted and perfect search, however, as more and more shrieks and screams of soldiers frozen in fear for their lives, taken out by an enemy they could not see filled the house and disturbed the remains of the army outside as well as Commander Blue himself.
"You incompetent buffoons! Must I do everything myself!? Even with my awesome psychic powers I cannot both crush this house and hold these three tied down!" Commander Blue raged when looking at the resulting failure of his soldiers. One of them burst through the window and stayed hanging with his lower body still indoors but the upper part dangling on the outside. "What are you waiting for!? Storm the house!"
"Commander Blue, may I suggest an alternate plan of attack. You will lose too many soldiers this way. Instead of fighting the enemy on their turf, we should strive to have them approach us on ours." Silver tried to reason with the Commander who looked from his reaction to be equally tempted to shoot Silver in the head for daring to suggest his judgment was wrong as he was to listen to the newfound asset and, perhaps, even grant him an official rank in his army.
"Hmph. Very well…" Commander Blue nodded and approached the subdued prisoners. He then rose his gun up and pointed it at the unconscious, blue-haired girl lying on the sand. "You, in the house, come out and face us in the open or we will shoot Bulma. I don't know if your martial artists can take a bullet or not, but I am certain that this girl cannot!"
"You bastard! Holding Bulma hostage like that!" Krillin grunted and sneered at the Commander. Yamcha was just about to warn the little warrior that doing so might not have been too wise, considering how their use to the Commander was almost non-existent at this point and it would have been wiser to not alert the man in charge, fully willing to execute even his own soldiers, to that fact.
Commander Blue kicked Krillin the face without any ceremony to it. He must not have been just a mere psychic, judging from the mark of a red boot gleaming from Krillin's bald head, Yamcha surmised the Commander of the Blue Ribbon army to be quite the martial artist himself. Taking his soldiers on all at once may have been a fair yet doable task but together with this man… Even if there was a way to escape his psychic binds, there must have been a cleverer way to confront him than this.
A laser-like beam of blue light blasted through the door, prompting all of the present soldiers to aim at the door and open fire at the same time. It was not until the vexed Commander ordered his troops to stop firing that the firing ceased and the soldiers were free to witness the smoking barrels of their weaponry and the holed devastation they've caused upon the Kame House.
There was a faint squeak coming from down below. Krillin shrugged and wriggled himself back on his feet and turned at the door, peeking at not the holes that the bullets left of the door but instead the one that the azure laser beam blasted out.
"Yamcha, didn't that beam seem familiar?" Krillin grunted, still feeling the effects of that kick on his numb tongue and loosened teeth.
"Yeah… Like a… Kamehameha but… On a microscopic scale." Yamcha realized.
"The Micro Band!" both martial artists realized just in time to hear a grunt of pain from one of the soldiers as he collapsed due to an unseen peril. The rest started panicking, turning around frantically and pointing their guns at their own comrades, just inches of madness away from opening fire without caring for the risk of gunning down their own colleagues just for a brief chance of hitting the invisible threat taking everyone out.
"You useless nincompoops!" Commander Blue appeared to be losing all traces of sanity and was about to do something rash before a gentle pop snapped the combined forces of the Blue Ribbon Army back to sanity. Silver lifted up a glass that used to hold lemonade on a nearby table and showed something bashing at the glass from the inside. It was only when the area was narrowed down this way that the men found out what they were looking at.
"That is Muten Roshi. A world-famous martial arts master." Silver showed the glass and a feeble-looking yet deceitfully mighty old man attempting to use his greatly diminished micro-strength to escape from captivity. "Had this man been at full size, your men would have fared far worse than they have. Hell, this entire platoon might have gotten taken out."
"If this old geezer is this dangerous, we should kill him." Commander Blue pointed his gun at the glass that Silver held far too close to his own chest for the ex-commander's comfort.
"W-Wait, we don't have a way to kill him. He is one of the most powerful martial artists in the world and we aren't sure why he is in this minimized state. If it is a martial arts technique that is causing this, some attempt at being sneaky, damaging him might undo the technique, which will force us to deal with a fully-grown Muten Roshi. As you've said before, Commander, we are not sure that a bullet would even kill these people." Silver stepped forward in an improvised attempt to avoid the unstable and sadistic Commander Blue firing shots at a glass he held right by his own chest.
"Hmph… I see… Some troublesome troupe those alien scum have gathered around themselves. The West City, hell, even the Central City should all be thankful that we are quenching this coup of theirs to take the spot as the world's top military power!" Commander Blue sneered at the captured old man with contempt, his eyes had something more hidden deep down – respectful fear for the martial artist that made reason overcome his sadism and passion for field executions.
"Indeed. What will we do with all these martial artists? We only need the girl, don't we?" Silver wondered. He did not feel any more comfortable surrounded by people capable of delivering that same sense of dread he felt when that infernal boy and, more so, that teenage girl caused him. With mere flicks of their fingers, just a waggle of their tails the pair could have decimated his entire Silver Ribbon Army… That was true power, the kind that no military could have garnered. Perhaps the other officials were wrong to laugh at Commander White's interest in the Artificial Humans initiative after all?
"I have not the faintest idea." Commander Blue admitted. "I will go public with our accomplishments here now. I am sure that I will figure something out by the time I am done with that. We will have some time to wait for the Dragon Balls to be delivered to us, enough so to figure out what to do with them and how to better dispose of them."
Commander Blue walked away and began conversing with his soldiers and setting the equipment in order for his public debut as the new rogue master of the world to whose whims the entire world bowed to. Just like Commander Red once was…
"Oh… I suppose we've forgotten about you, didn't we?" Silver realized after looking at Launch. This woman was no martial artist and she could have most likely been eliminated through the old and tested method of a bullet through the head. Silver approached the downed woman and searched his person for a gun, finding none. That was right, Commander Blue did not yet entrust him with a gun, just like he had not yet entrusted him with a rank.
The Commanders of the splintered groups of the former Red Ribbon Army were meant to be comrades, though each one blamed the others for not gathering under a single flag after the demise of the Red Ribbon, instead choosing to each form their own squads and look for the Dragon Balls by themselves. All of those cells knew that eventually they'd come into conflict with the other armies for the Dragon Balls but every Commander left that problem for when it would surface. For those few reasons, every one of them was a bit distrustful of the others though this was busting it…
To be honest, Silver would have never approached anyone else for help, let alone Commander Blue, except by the time he gathered that which was shattered by the alien pair back together, Blue was the only option for him. The sadistic bastard dog of the former Red Ribbon with an excellent order fulfillment record and a horrible record of behavior. For all their fancy claims, the Red Ribbon was a military organization of well-armed thugs and most generals, colonels, and sergeants acted like it.
Blue was the only one. The only one forcing his platoons to abide his arbitrary set of rules like "looking nice and orderly" and "not picking one's nose". All of which were executable offenses… Blue bled soldiers left and right even back at the Red Ribbon Army, now when left to his own judgment, Silver could just shiver trying to think of the type of ship that Blue was running. At the very least, it was one that looked neat and orderly, everybody wore their fancy uniforms and held their pinkies up when drinking tea.
Silver spat to the side, his spit landed about a meter away from the subdued woman by his feet. Blue would have riddled him with bullets for such a rude and brutish gesture but this was the truth of what Silver thought of the man's methods.
"This isn't good… I can't move at all. I gave it my all during training." Krillin chuckled to himself, subjecting to the powerlessness and the absurd of the situation. Usually devoting all of oneself to training would have been a good thing.
"I know…" Yamcha grumbled too, still refusing to give up his struggle for escape. "Now would be the best time to free ourselves. If I had to guess, I'd wager that this Blue guy has a range he can use his abilities on. Surely him talking in front of cameras distracts his focus from us, meaning now is when his focus is the weakest."
"No talking, you two!" a pair of bypassing soldiers kicked Yamcha in the kidneys and Krillin in the back of his head. Even if the concentration of patrolling Blue Ribbon soldiers was the smallest at the moment, they were still patrolling the place as Commander Blue would soon make this island a major point of interest in the eyes of the world.
"Krillin, Yamcha!" a voice rung in the minds of both combatants. The two looked around frantically before realizing that the voice sounded much like that of Muten Roshi, at which point they turned at the dwarfed mentor of theirs who was still detained under a glass of reinforced glass. Possession of a man that had a nasty tendency for smashing their drinking containers.
"Muten Roshi!" Yamcha called back at the old man in his mind, wondering if the old man could hear him if he replied the same manner in which he was addressed.
"What happened, why are you small? Is it because of the Micro-Band?" Krillin asked Muten Roshi.
"The reason why I am small is that band. I tried sneaking into the bathroom to get a peek at Launch-san but she spotted me and freaked out. Things got out of hand and… I think the damned thing's busted. Can't go back to full-size at the moment so I will need you two to do the work for me. Commander Blue is a formidable fighter but the two of you should be able to defeat him, even with the reinforcement of his men behind him." Muten Roshi explained. The way he spoke suggested Yamcha that Krillin addressed the man mentally but Yamcha could not hear Krillin's thoughts, only Roshi's reply, which meant that Roshi had to reply to questions in full-sentences to provide context to the other as to what was asked of him.
"I know, Muten Roshi-san, but we can't move!" Yamcha complained. "We're too worn out and those psychic binds are too strong."
"These binds seem unbreakable because you two are trying to force your way out. Psychic powers are a lot like martial arts techniques, in fact, they're a different branch of martial arts altogether. By focusing your Ki, you can augment your mind, instead of your body to break out. Given how powerful Blue is, it will be difficult but now is your only chance." Muten Roshi explained.
"It's just like what you taught us about Ki techniques…" Krillin muttered out loud to himself. A soldier standing around by the corner of the Kame House was about to kick the boy but his partner stopped him.
"Come on, the little guy's just praying. Look at his bald head and the markings on his forehead, must be some kind of a monk or something…" the man and an anthropomorphic tiger laughed in unison, the tiger seemed so enthralled by the hilarity of the situation that he dropped the smoke he held in his mouth.
"That's right. The concept is similar except you should not concern yourself with the body, instead, focus on your mind!" Muten Roshi tried to ease the augmentation process for his pupils.
Krillin hopped back on his feet, still bound by the ropes that continued to shimmer blue. The renewed vitality of the young man made the scraps of patrolling troops quite interested in what the heck the pint-sized baldy was up to. They all approached the tiny martial artist, pointing their guns and threatening him to stop whatever activities he was up to.
"If you are planning on filling your pants, I'll drop you, I'm warning you!" an anthropomorphic dog pointed out while taking careful aim at Krillin.
"That won't help his bowel at all… In fact, you're just terrifying him further…" his human brother in arms pointed out, getting distracted for a brief moment to point out the flaw in his colleague's thinking.
"You fools!" Silver appeared from behind the Kame House, pointing at Krillin who was beginning to emit a faint, bright blue aura of his own. "He's trying to break out of Commander Blue's bindings. Shoot him at once!"
Had they tried, they'd have likely done so, Krillin appeared to struggle with the task far more than he had initially planned to. "B-But… Commander Blue hasn't given us the order yet. If he doesn't want these two dead by the time he's done… We'll be the ones getting shot," a soldier amongst the flock objected.
"What are you doing, Krillin? Should have stayed down!" Yamcha yelled out at his friend. He himself was doing his best to try and augment his mind to the point where he could overpower the psychic paralysis that his body was overcome by while his body busted the ropes, however, he was doing it prone, doing his best to remain inconspicuous.
"I… Might need the… Added tension… For motivation!" Krillin ground his teeth while his entire body turned red to the point where it almost seemed he would flip his insides outward like his blood was about to burst through his pores.
"You fools! These two are too dangerous to be allowed to break out!" Silver objected, dashing to one of the soldiers and delivering a wicked cross to their jaw, knocking the anthropomorphic fox out with a single hit while grabbing his handgun and pointing it at Krillin. A pair of thunderous bangs later, two bullets to the head sent the pint-sized warrior to the ground.
Yamcha's eyes shook in terror, his resolve in overcoming the psychic paralysis has become shaken by the apparent end of his friend but Krillin just twitched on the ground, surprising the lot of the soldiers and even Silver himself. The tiny baldy began writhing on the floor, still bound tightly by the psychic ropes.
"T-These guys are… Monsters…" one of the soldiers took a step back, shaken by Krillin's survival of a pair of lead knocks to the head much more than Yamcha was shocked by the ruthless would-be execution of his training partner.
"N-No… Somebody with a bigger gun… Everybody direct your fire at them, now!" Silver roared out but Krillin's headbutt to the jaw knocked the ex-Commander of the Silver Ribbon Army flat on his back while Krillin flipped back and landed firmly on his feet with a nasty smirk on his head and a nasty pair of bruises where the bullets hit him in the head.
"K-Krillin…" Yamcha exclaimed before realizing something that had just dawned to the boy as well – they did not need their arms for movement. Krillin sprung around like a worm on crack, headbutting everyone he found to be in his way.
Launch writhed on the ground as well. The blonde rubbed her nose at the sand and her hair as if trying to remove it from her face altogether. Yamcha hunched his body over and stood up on his feet, still tied but willing to assist Krillin in his springing barrage of headbutt takedowns. Standing up might not have been the brightest idea was bullets were buzzing all over the place.
"What are you doing, Launch-san?" Yamcha wondered. "You'll hurt yourself."
"Damn it, the other me has a bust of 82 cm. whereas I have a bust of 83 cm. I only I could change…" she yelled out to try and overpower the gunfire noises. Yamcha took off and tackled a pair of soldiers to the ground with his shoulders and his back, not willing to test the mettle of the thickness of his head like Krillin was doing.
"What are you waiting then?" he prompted. "You could slip out from those binds if you transformed!"
"Do you think I don't know that, genius!?" Bad Launch growled back at Yamcha hard enough to make the man flinch. He did not have the best toughness when standing up to women, to begin with, and this one had a particularly nasty temper. "I can't do it on prompt, dammit!"
"What is the meaning of this racket!?" Commander Blue appeared from his portable broadcasting studio, surrounded by his personal troops in black uniforms and red ties. It was one of the cases where the uniforms of the lackeys looked far cooler than that of their commander.
"Shit!" Yamcha widened his eyes out, caught with his figurative pants down by an enemy he'd have trouble keeping up with even while free. It was at that point that the man heard a cracking noise and turned for the glass underneath of which Muten Roshi was stored. Tiny as he was… Muten Roshi was free.
Author's Notes: Okay, so I've taken a few artistic liberties here. The whole bit with Launch's bust size changing is completely made up, although, I thought of the idea of being hilarious enough to warrant a mention. I think that given how it did not amount to all that much and did not bail out the Dragon Team this time, it wouldn't be all that bad of a retcon given how it does not directly contradict any sources I am aware of. I also found the gag of her not being able to transform on her whim a bit funny, given how the sudden and unexpected transformation was the only thing her character was used for in the series. I also tried expanding a little bit on the lore about how Psychic Powers that characters like General Blue, Frieza and Chiaotzu could use worked compared to the usual martial arts techniques. Though it somehow seemed like using the method of overcoming them that, while being foreshadowed in the earlier chapter, was only explained to the pair at the moment seemed a bit cheap so I had to resort to the gag-fest that earlier DB was known for leading up to the cliffhanger.
I find the powerful fighters being involved in a myriad of bad luck coincidences that result in them struggling with opponents they'd undoubtedly overcome a very fitting story-telling mechanic for any DB story so that's what I tried to go for.
P.S. Yeah, that's right, chapters of both Tales of a Ninja Magician and Paradise Lost on the same day as an apology for my unexpected vacation ;)