AN: That sure was a short chapter, huh? The last three chapters have been downtime, transition, and exposition!
Surely next must be action.
Also, I will reiterate my previous comments more simply- chakra and ki are the same in this fic because I say so. Sakura is pure of heart enough to ride Nimbus because I decided so. Now, to the story!
The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Twenty-one
As it turned out, the tower wasn't all that far from the village, following the actual roads. She tugged the warm scarf over her head a bit tighter as they ran, as the chill wind threatened to blow it away. With proper attire, the snow was much easier to handle, and she saw no reason why they couldn't go by foot to the tower. It reduced the chances of being attacked on sight, and gave them more time to see where exactly the dragonball happened to be.
Although...the device in his hand didn't seem to have any sort of height indicator.
"Sakura?" Goku glanced up at her as they ran.
"Goku."
"What's all this cold, white stuff?"
...Just what did the civilian schools teach the children of this other dimension? Clearly the southern part of the world rarely saw snow, but he should have been aware of what it was by his age. "It's snow."
He blinked. "Oh."
Ahead, a small group of soldiers stood in the snow. The taller one spotted them first, and held out a hand. "Hold!"
She glanced down at her companion a moment. He flashed an excited grin, and then charged on ahead. There were certain advantages to cooperating with enemies, or potential enemies, for a short time. None would be all that necessary under the circumstances.
She jumped through the air (rather impressively high, she had to say) as explosions rang out through the crisp morning, and threw a hail of kunai down at the group below. When she'd arrived in the world she only had one left, but the resources available to her while she stayed with Bulma allowed her to create many more for herself again. It felt good, even if she hadn't been in a real battle where she needed one since she'd arrived.
Below, Goku's shout rang out over the din. "Power pole extend!" Red flashed across white, and the remaining soldiers standing in the snow were swept away.
She spun in the air, and landed in the snow next to Goku with a soft thud. White snow slowly stained red where her men had fallen. A cursory glance didn't indicate any fatal injuries on the ones Goku defeated, but without proper care in the frozen north, they wouldn't be getting back up to trouble the village further.
Ahead of them loomed the massive wooden doors of Muscle Tower. She glanced over at Goku with a small smile. "Think we should knock and see if anyone's home?"
He glanced up at her and gave a short nod. "Okay!"
She clenched her hand into a fist and sprinted toward the tower, keeping pace with Goku as they ran. Fists slammed into twin doors with matching shouts. Wood splintered, and then exploded inward. His door cracked in half, and the halves flipped wildly into the darkness. Hers shattered into spinning pieces in the air.
"Yeah!" He cheered.
His voice echoed back out of the darkness, but no other sounds followed it, save for the crashing of wood and metal caused by the doors. Her smile faded to a frown, and she walked into the dark, cautious. No movement came from the inside, and...as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, there didn't seem to be anyone in there at all.
Goku walked in after her, eyes sweeping the room. "There's nobody here."
She pursed her lips, and propped her hands on her hips. "Cold welcome."
On closer look, it seemed like the room was nothing more than a storage floor for...vehicles? Or other large devices that looked similar to those. Either they were entirely unprepared for the sudden assault on their tower (which was possible), or they'd already retreated to better fortified upper levels.
She rolled her shoulders and walked up the stairs at the back of the room. "Is the dragonball near here?"
Goku frowned down at it. "It's close..."
Could it be that it was just outside the building? Or was a portion of the building sticking out further? If it were just about getting the dragonball, she'd investigate that immediately. At the moment, though, she also wanted to get rid of the army itself. It would be trouble for them if a military force also happened to be collecting dragonballs...and she had never been a fan of oppressive forces.
She'd been hired quite a few times to eliminate armies like this one.
As she walked into the second floor, well lit and warm, the group of men lounging at chairs and tables around the room looked up in surprise.
"What...?" A large bearded man looked between the others on the floor. "Were we gonna get company?"
"Oh, there's people here!" Goku chirped, as he appeared behind her. "They must have been up here because it's too cold down there."
"Eh?" A blond man blinked, and then laughed. "A little twerp and a girl? Did you two get lost?"
A voice crackled through the air. "Don't fool around! These two just forced their way inside the building!"
The first man stood, a look of surprise on his face. "What...these two got past the guards outside?"
Laughter rippled through the room, and the second spoke. "Damn, I knew they were startin' to slack off, but this is hilarious."
"Eliminate them immediately."
"Ahh, what a disappointment. Finally get a girl in here, and we've gotta kill her already?" The blond sighed, and drew out a knife from his pocket. "I don't get paid enough to go and do that without getting to play around a little bit first."
...She really wouldn't mind destroying these people.
She sprinted forward, and Goku launched into the room right after her. She flicked her hand and knocked the knife across the room, burying it into the wall, as Goku kicked the other talker into the brick stairs. "You're right..."
The man stumbled back a step in surprise, then recovered, swinging wildly at her face. One finger halted his strike. Her lips twitched up into a faint smirk. "You should have asked for S rank pay."
Her punch connected with his gut for only a moment, and he slammed through the far wall, vanishing into the snow in the distance.
The two men stood in shock, looking between the hole in the wall and the crumpled soldier on the ground. Whether they were about to run, or whether they were about to make a fool's rush, neither of them got the chance. An elbow to the throat of one, and a flip kick to the chin of the other put the two of them on the ground before they could do anything at all.
She sighed as she looked over the room. With the open wall, cold was already starting to blow in and chill her through her clothes. "...Perhaps we should try not to break any of the walls one the other floors."
"...I guess not."
She nodded. "Come on, before we go looking for the Dragonball, let's see what the rest of this tower has for us."
"Yeah!" He cheered, no doubt excited just by the prospect of fighting more people than he would otherwise, and sprinted up the stairs. She followed after him only a step behind, glancing around the room and the structure of the floor as they moved up the layered staircase.
The floor above them was dimly lit, devoid of windows, and echoed with a soft whirring sound.
"Welcome." A deep voice echoed from the darkness of the room as they stepped off of the stairs, and a heavy thudding sound echoed off of the floor and walls. "This will be the last room you ever see."
From the room, a huge, hulking figure slowly appeared. She'd never seen anyone so...musclebound. She'd seen almost no one so large, without an Akimichi growing jutsu. Goku stared up at him wide eyed for a few moments, before turning his attention to her, expression bright and expectant. "Sakura! Can I fight this one? I wanna try my new tail!"
She sighed. That was an awful way to plan out a strategy. Honestly. She waved her hand and shook her head. "Then I'll be annoyed if you change your mind and make me finish him after all."
"Not a chance!" He grinned and marched toward the giant. "You wanna fight?!"
"Incorrect." The giant lifted its fist. "You shall simply die."
For his size and weight, his movements were impressively fast. In a blink, the gigantic gloved fist slammed into the ground, sending shards of tile flying through the air. Goku, who stood on those tiles only a moment before, fell through the air from where he'd leaped to escape the strike.
While the two fought, she turned her attention away from the battle. For being a military base, the floors had been...simple. The ring of the tournament had a less open and easily maneuverable area than this. Supplies didn't seem to be in any obvious place, and the walls of the room seemed to lead only to outside, not to winding corridors and hallways as she'd usually expect from a tower.
As she walked a circle around the room, a piercing scream from Goku immediately arrested her attention. Somehow (she really didn't know how), the soldier had clamped his hands around Goku's small form and begun to squeeze, attempting to crush the life out of him. Despite her claim, as soon as she saw the danger, she tensed, and readied herself to leap in.
The concern was, ultimately, unnecessary. With a shout of supreme effort, the small boy prized the oversized hands apart, and shoved himself free of their grip. His expression was more than a little peeved when he glared up at the giant. "That hurt! Now I'm really gonna beat you up!"
He dashed forward, and than lunged into the air, springing himself forward on his tail. His foot caught the large man square in his chest, and the brute slid, then flew backward through the air. As his body collided with the far wall, the crash that rang out through the room was almost deafening.
"Yeah!" Goku shouted, fist clenched. "Take that!"
"Not...necessary." The figure stumbled to its feet, and slowly, determinedly, straightened itself again. "You will 'take...that'."
She frowned, crossing her arms. It didn't take a genius to be able to tell just how much force Goku had connected with, let alone how much the man had collided into the wall with. Standing again so quickly, so easily, and without any apparent sign of strain or actual damage...
The guy was more impressive than everyone they'd seen at the tower so far put together. Goku leaped into the air, flying at the man with a kick. "Goku don't-!"
Lightning fast, the huge fist lanced out again, and sent Goku slamming into the far wall. The small boy hung there for a moment, and then fell to the ground with a soft thump. "Goku!" She sprinted toward the small form of the boy. Perhaps it had been a mistake to allow him to fight a stranger before she'd had a chance to evaluate its strength, no matter how excited he was to fight.
She rolled under a wide swing as she ran, and then kicked up into the air, heel colliding with the man's forearm with a resounding crack. The huge being stumbled backward, struggling to remain on its feet, and its arm hung limp from the point of contact, split fully in half, hanging by skin alone.
Despite her concern for Goku, she froze, staring at the broken arm. Blood and bone and severed muscle were commonplace, she'd seen them almost constantly in the medical tent during the war. The sparking metal and hanging cords that spilled out of his arm...were anything but normal. At all.
"W...what..."
The creature (surely not a human) stared down at its arm, and then snapped it free before flinging it at her. She jumped backward and slid along the ground, as the heavy arm buried itself into the floor.
"Goku..." She turned her gaze to the small child lying on the floor, bruised and dazed.
As she reached out toward him, summoning up chakra to heal him of whatever concussion or broken bones he'd suffered, he blinked and shook his head, before hopping back up to his feet. "...Hey!" He frowned, looking between she and the approaching beast. "You attacked him didn't you? No fair, I'm fighting him!"
"Incorrect." The man leaned forward, "You are both about to die." His jaw fell open, much wider than should be possible, and a brilliant, fiery flash exploded outward toward them.
AN: Sgt Metal sure is insistent.