OOC: Don't worry about Gohan, Baba is a seer. She would have known that Goku wouldn't compete. Of course, the trouble with wishing to go back to the point she left, is that going back to that point presumes her presence alone would change things for the better.
Which she's feeling rather down about, justified or not.
That FF7 hype.
The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Sixty-three
The path from that split turned out not to be particularly different from the one before the two-door trap. Apparently whoever designed the fortress didn't expect enemies (or the unwelcome) to ever outsmart their one trap. Or...well, there was the off chance that maybe they'd circumvented most of the security by entering where they did...but that seemed a bit too convenient. And a bit odd for the doors to be the last of the security measures protecting dragonballs anyway.
The lack of soldiers and personnel to deal with in the halls also seemed too convenient, but that didn't make any other terrible traps spring on them. Everything remained as quiet and still as it had been from the start, and that...didn't make any sense. Even if they were headed away from the dragonballs, given the size of the place they should eventually get near some other sensitive area worth patrolling.
She struggled to keep the memory of another empty base like this pressed deep in the corner of her mind where it wouldn't distract her.
Goku continued to direct frequent glances up at her as they walked, but didn't say anything. She chose to ignore it, because...answering the questions he didn't ask...wasn't something she could do. It was just a distraction from the mission at hand, and she'd caused enough distractions already. Getting that village back was...all she could focus on. Maybe it would actually work if she told herself to do it again.
It was partly a guess to decide the door at the very end of the hallway they stood in might lead to the area that stuck out from the rest of the fortress. Given their relative position, though, it was a well educated one. They'd also yet to find any dead ends. Presumably there were, but...the path they took hadn't walked them into any. It was worth opening that door, at least.
The door led to another hallway, with double doors on the other side. While it was different, it still didn't look like somewhere someone would hide dragonballs. Then again, putting them in what was arguably the least fortified part of a flying fortress didn't make much sense to begin with. Nothing they'd encountered so far made any sense.
She clenched her fists as she made her way to the door.
"Are you ready?"
Goku glanced up at her and nodded, reaching back to grab that red staff of his. "Yeah!"
As they approached the doors, the metallic barrier slid open, and she stepped into the room. Cluttered as it was with machinery and various devices she didn't even remotely recognize, it didn't have any dragonballs in plain sight.
It did have two other people, though.
Goku stepped up next to her, and looked at the others with wide eyes and a surprised expression. "Oh. You guys!"
The tall woman standing off to the right near a console glared down at Goku with some irritation, but it was the small blue skinned man that sat on a slightly upraised chair that spoke first, clapping his hands.
"Ah! I thought you'd arrive. Good!" He gave a little cackle. "Now that you're here, I can take all of the remaining dragonballs from you right now!"
Goku huffed. He didn't seem very concerned about the threat. But...the two in the room didn't look all that intimidating, either. "You need to give me the rest of the dragonballs."
"Are you joking?" The blue man laughed. "This time I'm prepared for all your tricks, you little twerp! I'm getting those dragonballs from you and then you'll grovel at my feet!"
"No way!" He frowned and took a step forward.
"Mai, now!" The blue man jumped to his feet and threw down a capsule, just as the woman withdrew one of her own.
As nonchalant as Goku seemed to be about their threat...they seemed confident and experienced. And somehow they had the ability to disguise the dragonballs. She couldn't say what danger they posed, and she didn't have the time to ask.
After all, last time she'd let him fight someone on his own, he nearly died. The last time that she...
She...didn't have time to think. Barely had time to react. While the smoke of the capsule release cleared, the two were already running at the structures that appeared from those. Fighting two people in such a tight space could be dangerous. Neutralizing one of them as quickly as possible was the only option.
She barely thought anything beyond that. Helping. Doing something.
Her fist slammed into the metal ground in front of her. Metal split and gave way, shredding from the force of the impact. The floor rent in two, jagged slice of chakra slicing through the room until it engulfed the freshly created armored suit. It plummeted to the floor below with a loud crash just as Mai got her hand on it. The woman nearly tumbled down after it, in fact. A moment later and she might have.
"Wh-what?" Mai stared down at the fissure, leg hanging partway off of the uneven cut in the metal, before she scrambled away from the considerable drop, back to the corner of the room she started.
"Wow!" Goku grinned, looking up at her for a moment. "I wanna try!"
She turned her attention away from the woman to Goku...and the blue figure now climbing into his own version of the device. "...Do you think you can?"
He frowned, and nodded.
Well...it wasn't possible for him to mimic the jutsu. Even if he could recognize what she did, she wasn't certain if ki could be manipulated in that way. Even if it could, was Goku familiar and capable enough with even ki to do it?
Or...would his natural strength be able to emulate her ability, as it sometimes did?
He stared at the ground a moment, and then gave an enthusiastic shout. His fist slammed down into the ground, much as hers did, and dented the metal inward quite impressively. The metal didn't split apart. It did, however, still send an impressive shock wave through the particular plate of metal he hit. A wave of impact rolled through the metal, until the point where the blue-skinned man buckled into his huge suit.
While the impact probably would have been enough on its own to knock it over...it seemed the weight of the device created enough of a stress point that the metal finally did tear. Just enough to launch that section of the metal upward...and propel the small man and his metal frame into the ceiling.
...Absurd.
She blinked up at the suit, wedged halfway through the ceiling. It was...surprisingly effective for an attempt to emulate her strength without chakra.
She sprinted forward to Mai, who had just stumbled to her feet again, and gripped the high collar of the woman's jacket. "Tell me where the dragonballs are."
The woman kicked at her legs...but...she wasn't nearly Goku's strength. Clearly the metal armor was compensation for her lack of physical strength. That said, announcing a ninja tool before using it was a very good way to allow an enemy to be prepared for it.
"I...wouldn't tell you!"
Goku walked up next to her, and the woman gave a squeak.
"Th...they're...at the center of the ship!"
Ah, so Bulma was right after all. Then...the reason there weren't any soldiers in their path might have been because they were diverted to deal with the Yamcha and Krillin. They...were...hopefully alright. The communicator in her ear never activated while she was awake, so...if they'd gotten into trouble, they would have said something.
Something also might have exploded as a result of the trouble, too.
"They've...probably almost gotten them by now." She glanced down at Goku, holding the other woman in the air for the moment. "We should try to get out of here so we can meet up with them outside."
He made a face. "Are we gonna have to walk that whole way back for nothing?"
Well...they could probably just break a hole in the wall and see if the cloud could just fly them back to the balcony. It would let the others know they were done. Or in trouble. Either way they'd establish communication again so they knew where to reunite.
"That won't happen!" Mai gave a triumphant laugh. Or as much of one as she could with her airway constricted by her collar. "By now, Shu will have dealt with them!"
(*)
"So. Uh...do you remember the way back out?"
Yamcha blinked and looked down at him. As if that was just some concept so far from his mind that he didn't even recognize it when it was said.
This worried him a little.
He squinted up at the taller man.
"...You just knocked out our guide. So...you do remember how to get back from here, right?"
"Uh..." Yamcha stared down at the unconscious dog, and rubbed at the back of his neck.
Never had a nervous laugh made him feel like smacking someone so much.
He didn't smack the taller man. The guy was pretty strong. And also recently saved his life. But he did have the urge.
"Well, I guess we could just break through the walls?"
Bulma spoke up before he could. "And then fall to our deaths?!"
He sighed. "...What about asking them where they are and back tracking to them?"
She shook her head from her boyfriend's pocket. Which was still...just really unsettling. "The communicators don't have a long enough battery life."
"Well..." Yamcha squinted, and crossed his arms. I guess we could try retracing our steps and just bring this guy along. When he comes to we can get him to lead us back to that balcony we started at."
He sighed and stared down at the...dog. Yamcha hit the guy pretty hard. "Whenever that happens."
"Assuming Goku doesn't just break in and find us first out of impatience."
Well...
It was still a better choice than 'wander aimlessly forever' or 'break through walls and try not to die on something'. Maybe if it took a while they'd listen to him when he demanded they find a ship before trying to go spelunking into a massive airship with labyrinthine hallways.
Yamcha hefted the unconscious guy on his shoulder. "I've got this guy, you get the dragonballs."
"Yeah...sure." It was probably better not to give one person all seven dragonballs if these things...actually worked...right?
"Hey..." Pu'ar spoke as they started back toward the open doors behind them. "What would happen if we summoned the dragon right here, instead?"
(*)
Punching through walls was...pretty tedious.
It was no doubt much quicker than trying to retrace their steps through the ship, but it didn't make it less tedious to actually do. In that respect, Goku's gung-ho attitude toward it worked just fine for her. After only a few rooms, he happily ran forward and started doing it himself.
Each time he did, he changed it slightly. Each time, the wall twisted and caved inward differently before it broke.
She planted a hand on her hip as he made another attempt.
He was...definitely trying to do it the way she did. Punching through a metal wall wasn't much different from a stone one. The primary difference was that with enough force, it could cause the metal to shatter inward, rather than crumble. He was almost certainly trying to achieve the same effect.
Mostly, he was succeeding in tiring himself out. Though he did quite effectively punch a hole through the wall and bend in a good portion of the wall surrounding the point of impact. The effort had...diminishing returns, though. Her technique didn't tire her out at all, given the use of chakra. Raw muscle power, on the other hand...
Well, it was very impressive, at least. There weren't many ninja with that level of raw strength, even if he'd managed to augment it with ki a little. Most ninja could augment their strength with chakra as well. Not as effectively as her master and herself could, but...
"You'll hurt yourself if you keep that up."
"I've almost got it!"
He didn't. But he also didn't hurt himself.
She touched his shoulder before he could run up to the next wall. "Look."
Showing off...wasn't...really normal. There were times when a ninja should, but as a rule, keeping ones skills a mystery was always high priority, even sometimes with teammates. However...she...had thought about teaching Goku anyway, hadn't she?
Before...
She blinked, and clenched her fist, yanking herself back to reality.
"Watch closely, Goku." She summoned extra chakra to her hand. With most actions, she didn't really need to. The action was such a force of habit that it simply happened without thought now. For this, however...it was...unusual. Augmenting her strength so much in such a slight movement would be dangerous for normal life, and so...it required at least some conscious though.
She straightened a finger, pointed it at the wall...and poked it.
Chakra surged through her body and exploded at the point of contact. The smaller point made the damage even more...explosive.
It was really quite impressive, honestly. Regardless of how well she knew how it worked, it still looked cool.
Even more so to Goku, it seemed, who stared at the remains of the wall with open mouthed shock. "A...ah...! How did you do that?!"
"It's not just strength." She smiled down at him, and...it felt warmer than anything she'd felt all day. "It's chakra."
He was quiet for a few moments, and then he grinned up at her again, hands clenched in fists, expression radiating excitement. "I wanna show Krillin!"
AN: Pilaf and gang were going to be bigger threats originally, to make up for the lack of a tournament...but...honestly it would be less faithful to Dragonball if they were. So, some more of Dragonball's whimsy ended up involved. Maybe another day.