AN: Dude? Where's all the updates?!
I was house hunting and moving, and right now my commute is ridiculous. Let's try to get chapters out anyway!
Honestly, though, I find this section to be a little slow without the hot pursuit involved. Things will pick up.
Trivia! According to the fourth databook Sakura has Earth and Water mastery, as well as Yin/Yang by this point. While we don't see her use earth jutsu because she has no need to (she clearly uses it for her healing), mastery of the element indicates the ability to use that element.
Apparently this also needs to be said, but if you hate the characters this fic is clearly stated to be about in the summary, don't expect the story to be tailored to your preferences. It will never be.
The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Thirty-Two
The three boys seemed intent on searching the nearby buildings for some form of pirate treasure. Yamcha claimed to simply be watching over them to make sure they didn't trip any other traps, but his expression looked a bit excited when she saw him sprint after them.
The dragonball wouldn't be a part of the treasure. It had to have a method to land in it, after all, so an intact building was an unlikely location. Unless more of that army happened to be nearby and...quiet. Bulma stood next to her, staring up at the ship in front of them.
"Does the radar say it's in that ship?"
"Huh?" The woman glanced over at her in surprise, startled out of mid-thought. "Oh! Um. I haven't checked yet..but this isn't the right elevation yet anyway."
So...there was another exit somewhere in the room that led deeper into the cavern after all.
"I wonder if this ship still runs." Bulma pursed her lips, staring up at it. "There must be a bigger exit somewhere down this river, since the pirates wouldn't have had capsules to get these supplies in through that other entrance."
"...You mean the tunnel probably wasn't supposed to be crossed."
She laughed. "...No. Probably not. But it'll save us a lot of walking if we can get this running instead of making our way back that direction."
Before Sakura could say anything in response, Krillin's scream echoed across the cave, followed by the sound of shattered glass. She turned in time to see her fellow student crashing to the ground in front of one of the buildings in the underwater cove. From the darkness of the window he'd likely jumped from, red lights glowed.
"T-Trap!" Krillin sprinted away from the building as the other two men appeared from another.
"You set off a trap? Where? What is it?" Yamcha looked up as he spoke, scanning the side of the structure Krillin had fled from.
The answer didn't take long to arrive. With an echoing roar, a metallic figure burst from the window and flew through the air, propelled by jets of fire.
"An enemy!" Goku's shout seemed more excited than anything else. Considering how pathetic the trap was, some sort of guard would be the most excitement the cove had provided since they arrived. If excitement was defined by danger.
"It's some kind of defense robot!" Bulma shouted, as it collided with the ground in a crash of metal on stone. "You guys must have triggered it going through the stuff!"
"Ah man..." Yamcha sighed, and settled into a defensive pose as the figure turned a slow circle back toward their somewhat scattered group. "I was just thinking I hadn't picked the right clothes to go and fight in, too."
The hunched over figure landed with a crash not far from where they gathered. The shape of its strange head reminded her somewhat of a few puppets she'd witnessed, but there were no indications of chakra strings on it. Something that advanced would have been rather out of place inside a dilapidated old pirate's cove.
As the creature lifted its arm, Bulma shouted again. "Oh no, it's got a gun arm!"
Rapidfire shots rang out across the cavern, and the tiles on the ground shattered as its arm swept up in their direction. On instinct, Sakura dove out of the way and moved to shield Krillin. If they were anything like the last one, the attack wasn't that much of a threat to her...but she'd already shown enough of her abilities for one day. She glanced over in the direction where Bulma and Yamcha had been. The two stood a little ways from where they were before, on the hull of the ship.
Goku, who had been outside of the initial attack like Krillin, charged ahead with a shout. "Don't attack my friends!"
Next to her, Krillin shook himself slightly, and charged afterward. "R-Right, let's take it down!"
Goku leaped into the air and spun, striking it squarely in the shoulder with a kick, and causing it to stumble backward. Its other hand struck at Goku with its short sword, but Krillin slid underneath the swing and punched the flat of the blade, shattering it into four pieces. Red eyes glowed brighter in its strange looking skull in response, and it kicked the small boy square in the gut, sending him flying into the metal ship.
"Krillin!" Goku shouted and jumped over one of the robot's attacks, sprinting after his friend instead.
There was some question as to whether the creature actually packed enough strength to harm Goku even when he was off guard, but she didn't see any real reason to figure that out. She sprinted ahead toward the figure as Goku moved to investigate Krillin's state. Belatedly, she glanced over in the direction of the other two in the group.
Bulma stood behind a small stack of crates at a safe distance, Yamcha was just a step behind her.
His gaze flickered over to Krillin, and then to her. "Hey, you're sure you can fight, right?"
"Can you?"
He laughed just as she reached the figure that had predictably begun to turn toward Goku. "No you don't!" The impact of her fist caved the hollow gun arm inward, and sent the robot spiraling backward through the air.
"Wolf Fang Fist!" Yamcha shouted as he had in the tournament, and his speed increased once more, air howling around him as he moved. His form blurred slightly as he jumped into the air, propelled himself off of the side of the ship, and then shot at the tumbling form of their opponent. The strikes did an impressive amount of damage to the robot, denting and piercing through it with each hit.
She sprinted up to the creature just as Goku and Krillin joined the battle again.
The participation wasn't necessary, however, as the robot itself simply twitched and popped sparks from where it moved, clicking and whirring uselessly. Clearly Yamcha's attack had damaged it too badly for it to get back up, crushing its arm and tearing holes through its abdomen and skull.
The hand that had the gun lifted, and Yamcha gave a shout of alarm. "Get back!"
Bits of metal exploded outward everywhere just a moment before a larger figure collided with her and sent her backward onto the ground. Though she couldn't see them through Yamcha, she heard the other two near them give surprised shouts...but at least the sounds weren't pained.
Which suggested they felt slightly less worse for wear than she did, stuck between a heavy person and the hard ground. She winced slightly at the sound her head had made impacting the ground. She was more than tough enough to handle a minor impact like that...but it still didn't make the collision sound any better.
Yamcha, at least, looked somewhat apologetic before his expression turned to something horrified and he vanished from her sight. "Uh! Sorry!"
...Really, was there something about her that looked that intimidating? He'd acted skittish most of the time she'd spoken to him when she was in disguise at the tournament, too. It wasn't like she couldn't be intimidating...but most of the time that wasn't the response she got out of people when she wasn't explicitly going for that.
She shook her head slightly, dismissing that distraction and the slight lingering disorientation from the sudden fall, and pushed herself back up to her feet. "Is it dead?"
Goku and Krillin stood a short distance away, having backed up when the arm exploded as well, and Yamcha stood over it again, looking wary. Of it, or of her she...wasn't really certain.
"I don't think it's dead...but I don't think it can do anything more now that it's damaged itself so much with that last attempt to attack us."
She made her way closer to the twisted metal creature just as the other two boys began to draw close again. Krillin was the next to speak, voice a little uncertain. "Should we make sure it's dead?"
"Well we could..." Yamcha shrugged slightly. "But we probably don't need to. Even Bulma probably couldn't make this thing work again."
Goku frowned down at it. "If it's harmless, we don't need to kill it."
"It's a robot, you don't 'kill it'." Bulma, who must have determined the battle was over, walked up behind them. "But...that thing has a fuel tank on it, and maybe even a more powerful source of power on it. If you're not careful about how you try to 'kill' it, you might make it blow up in your face."
"Can you do it?" Bulma did seem to be the one most well versed in it, if anyone could do it she assumed it would be her.
The woman frowned and crossed her arms. "Probably. Maybe. But it'd take time, and I think if we leave it alone we'll be fine. It's not making any weird noises or giving off any signs of being compromised. And we're only here for the dragonball."
"And the treasure!"
Bulma frowned, but didn't look at Krillin. "Either way, we're not staying here. It can explode on its own later if it wants."
"Okay then..." Yamcha turned his back on the pile of metal and sparks to face Bulma. "Where's the dragonball?"
The woman pulled out her radar. "...Not even close to this room."
"What?" Krillin groaned. "Oh come on, but this is where the treasure will be!"
"Not likely." Well, she hadn't dealt with pirates much, that was more of a Land of Water thing, but when it came to bandit camps...a place like this wouldn't be nearly secure enough for their loot. Too many people would have access to it, and there would be too much opportunity for theft. They were, after all, a group of thieves. "The treasure would be hidden much deeper in this cave, somewhere hard to find."
"Well...the dragonball is deeper in the cave, so I guess we'll find out." Bulma pointed past them toward a tunnel in the cave wall. "It's this way."
(*)
The hunt for the treasure was...eventful, but it wasn't actually succeeding all that much in the 'finding treasure' part. There had to be treasure. He'd heard the rumors on the island about a lost pirate cove where nearby pirates had stolen all sorts of giant gems and gold and then gotten caught and executed after hiding it, and there was a booby trap hall way and a guard robot! Treasure had to be somewhere!
Yet, the house he'd checked hadn't even had normal amounts of cash in it. Other than that damn robot, it had been full of boxes of ammunition and useless things like that, nothing else. The submarine might have treasure hidden in it that the pirates just never had the chance to hide...but of course no one wanted to stick around and search that, because their magic wish granting orbs couldn't possibly have fallen inside it.
Even though they somehow still managed to fall into an underground underwater cave. So take that, convenient excuses! If that Bulma woman didn't have some kind of super accurate radar for the balls, his suggestion would have been as completely reasonable as searching anywhere else in the cave.
Instead, they were searching 'anywhere else'. And 'anywhere else' was a pretty empty stone hallway. Lights lined the roof as they walked, but nothing even looked remotely like a trap or secret door that might hide that stash of booty Sakura had suggested they might have.
But then, that was probably his fault for going and trusting her suggestion. She was, after all, someone who could just make earth and fire out of nothing. She actually breathed fire.
It was really cool, admittedly, but still! Monster strength, control of the elements, breathing fire...she had to be some kind of a demon. She was some bizarre demon creature that had duped his great master...pretty much just because she happened to be a woman willing to live with the old man. It was a glaring weakness of his venerable old master. (That and a few other things he'd learned in his almost year living with the old guy)
Ahead, the path split into two opposite ways. Bulma lifted her radar and pointed to the right. "The ball is off in this direction."
But...if there were two paths, there was no reason to think that the two might interconnect again, unless it was around a really big treasure room of some sort. Which might have only one door to it.
Or...more likely, one went off to whatever random room the dragonball had fallen into, and the other led in the other direction. With whatever the dragonball didn't fall in. Like a perfectly enclosed treasure room, safe from water and invasion. He frowned and crossed his arms as the others started off in Bulma's direction.
"I'm going left."
Sakura looked over her shoulder in surprise. "You're what?"
"We're gonna come back this way when we meet up anyway, right?" He huffed. "You guys want to look for the dragonballs. I'm gonna go and look for the treasure." And when he found it, none of the wish seekers could have any. They could go and use their wish on that, instead.