Project Cloud


Chapter 2 — Captured

The Korin Tower - located in a sacred land that is often referred to as a holy land — a sanctuary to be precise. For those with some sense of morality, it'd be considered a great honor to not only live, but to protect and serve the environment. Very few instances took place in where atrocities have transpired here, yet there was one on the way.

Goku, looking at the giant pole, isn't capable of holding in his awe at the very height of it. When first told about it, the boy didn't give it very much thought until he was told of the tale that whomever climbs to the very top into the heavens become a lot stronger. Only when it revolved around strength did anything kept his interest — that or food.

The marvel at the tower unfortunately needed to be stopped short.

Upa, the son of the protector of Korin's land, points at the sky, shouting, "What's that? Something's flying this way!"

Correction: someone, not something.

They didn't realize this until the figure drew closer.

The winds slapped Tao in the face like he owed it money as he zoomed in on the three people below him. He didn't mind though, with his eyes set heavy on the three figures, and eventually onto Goku, who was his main target.

Tao hops off the pillar and lets the giant piece of material lunge right for the trio. Bora warns them to all look out prior to holding onto his son tightly and getting the hell out of dodge.

Had any of them been a split second late, a fatality was sure to come about.

The pillar was stuck yards deep into the ground as if a giant was planting it down to build a fence. Goku didn't know what to think, standing there mouth agape, utterly stricken by surprise.

Tao casually lands on top of the pillar stuck in ground, introducing himself by saying, "Aloha."

There had already been many coming to attack Korin's lands just mere moments ago so any extra visitors immediately had Bora up on alert. Tense and serious, he asks the stranger, "Who are you?"

Of course, he was only assuming the worst at this point. Any reinforcements meant they were more serious than the last.

"I'm the world's greatest assassin — Tao Pai-Pai."

And that's when it all clicked. Bora initially asked himself what the hell does a killer have business doing in a place like this, but it wouldn't take anyone long to figure that out by assessing the current situation at hand. Either one of them were meant to die or all three.

And he sure as hell wasn't going to let anyone harm his son.

Not as long as he lived, anyway.

"You two may carry along," Tao tells Bora, dismissing him like a child. "I merely have business with that monkey child right there."

Goku stands there, looking over Tao's facial features, taking in his scent, and running through his own limited memory bank. Not once had he seen this person before, nor was his smell familiar, so he was left bewildered.

"Business with me? I don't even know you, mister."

"Perhaps you will understand if I tell you that I was hired by the Red Ribbon Army. My assignment was to initially kill you, but there's been a slight altercation — to beat you into a near inch of your life before taking you in for them to do whatever they please." Tao's lips move upward. "And quite frankly, it's been a while since I've played with my food."

Goku knew one thing: Red Ribbon automatically meant bad. Therefore, anyone or anything associated with them was bad, and given the trouble that he had already been through with these guys, it was really starting to piss him off.

"Again!?" Goku grits his teeth. "Ya'll don't know when to quit, do you!?"

Tao chuckles. "I'd say that it's you who doesn't know when to quit, child…"

Upa grabbed at his father's pant leg, begging him to not let this stranger hurt Goku. Though only knowing each other for not even 30 minutes, he already took a strong liking to him as a friend and didn't want to see him hurt. He was practically tearing up as he called out for mercy on Son Goku's soul.

"This young one saved my son's life," Bora refers to Goku. "If you do not leave quietly, then I will stand against you."

"No, no, no," Goku says in objection. "He's my enemy s-"

"To protect the sacred land of Korin is my life sworn duty," Bora cuts Goku off firmly. He pushes his son off and tells him to stand back so he can take care of business without the worry of his child being collateral damage because of this bout.

Many looks Goku has seen before — many sinister, yet nothing like this person - nothing at all. Truth be told that really worried him. Tao looked on at Bora, cackling internally at the fact that he was deliberately choosing death over living.

To many it would be a shame, but for Tao, he didn't mind.

Bora lifts his spear in proper form, ordering Tao to come at him.

Goku understood his place and kept watch with his arms folded, though he didn't very much like the idea. Not only was he going to see Bora's skill, but most importantly, the skill of someone who came to kill him!

Over the years in his line of work, Tao has come across many cowards and courageous individuals alike. There would be those begging and pleading for life, with hot tears streaming down their crunched, reddened faces, and there would be others going up against their inner voice of telling them to run just to try and fight him.

And given that Tao's still standing, it's proof in the pudding to show all of those he had been hired to kill never got to see another face after his.

"You think you're fairly good, don't you?" Tao mocks Bora, "holding your big and bad spear like you can just poke me and call it a day. No matter, I'll gladly make the first move."

In a motion that not even Bora could register, Tao swiftly glided toward him, with his hands clutched around the bulky man's spear. Goku himself was immediately taken aback at the speed, barely able to keep up with that single movement.

Tao notes the struggle coming from Bora as he attempts to pull back his spear with both hands clutching tightly. The vascularity in his muscles are put on display as he's seen shaking like a mountain about to erupt, all just to regain full control of his own weapon. He grits his teeth so hard that it was a miracle that none of his dentures just shattered on sight.

The assassin was the complete opposite, though. He stood cool, calm, and speaking in a cool voice.

"Something the matter? You don't seem to be moving at all!" Just to show off, Tao removes all fingers from the spear but two. "Well, then, allow me to move you."

Without any effort, Tao lifted up the spear, which also had Bora high off the ground. He looked into the man's shocked eyes with that same old devious look his beady eyes gave off, in addition to his smile of mischief.

With a simple shake of the spear, Bora's grip had been gone prior to him flying high up in the sky.

Bora was in utter disbelief at the fact that there was actually someone with such caliber of strength. It wasn't hard for him or Goku to tell that this assassin was holding back a great bit of his power as well, which only drew more concern. Bora knew that it was only a matter of time before his life was cut short and the only person on his mind was his son, Upa, who could only helplessly watch.

"Would you like your spear back!?"

If Tao throwing the pillar with perfect accuracy and force to land at an exact location 2300 miles away wasn't enough to show that he was a very precise individual, then here was another example.

The spear he tossed right back to Bora as he was coming back down pierced him right through the chest and into the heart prior to breaking in half once he landed down on his back with a bone cracking thud. Goku made an attempt to try and calling the kinto-un as Bora was in the sky, but the damage had already been done while in mid-air. If Bora wasn't dead up above, then the impact of landing surely did enough damage to end him for good.

Upa ran over to his father, screaming and calling out for him, tears flapping in the wind like they were being forced from his body.

No second later after Bora's horrific fall, Goku cursed at Tao prior to attacking him head on.

Perfect, Tao thought.

Not only was his target coming right toward him, but he was doing so in a fit of rage. His movements would definitely be a bit misguided and he wasn't going to hold off on exploiting that.

With a simple hop, Tao dodged a directed punch targeted for his midsection and countered with a solid punt to the chin that sent Goku crashing face first against Korin's tower. Goku fell over on his back, lied out like he was having a seizure.

"Is that all? How pitiful."

Goku staggers, trembling as he gets back up on his feet. "Y-you'll pay for that!"

There wasn't a means to hold back at this point. Cupping his hands, Goku got into the needed position as he chants his attack out. "KAME...HAME…"

Tao didn't think anything of it until a blue beam of light began to form before his very eyes. It then made sense as to how this child proved to be very troublesome. He was a Martial Artist in tuned with the utilization of chi — a very dangerous combination.

The attack came by so fast that Tao had no other choice but to stand there and protect himself by blocking his face. The heat surged on and ripped his clothes to pieces one by one, scratching at his skin, which elicited a few silent grunts of discomfort.

Once the smoke cleared, Tao lifts his head up, pouting. "You...ruined...my clothes!"

Had the attack carried on for a little bit longer, Tao would be completely naked in the holy land of Korin. While lucky that Goku's attack didn't do any significant damage to his own body, the fact that his specially tailored clothes were torn to shreds had his face beginning to glow red.

Tao's instincts told him to kill this brat right now with a ki attack of his own, but no, he had to beat him within an inch of his life. He was going to make sure to enjoy this.

Goku was blitzed with an elbow to the face that sent his back crashing against the tower. He wasn't allowed to be let down as Tao then followed up by ramming the tip of his knee into the boy's stomach, eliciting blood from the child's mouth. He grabbed Goku by the collar, slammed him against the tower yet again, and proceeded to render him a barrage of punches to the stomach and chest that moved faster than bullets being shot out of an automatic machine gun.

Upa looked on in utter horror, taken aback at the result of Goku by the time Tao was done beating on him. The 12-year old came sliding down on his behind, shirt ripped up as he sweated profusely. Goku wheezed on, barely able to breathe. Hell, he'd be better off having no oxygen at this point due to the shape he was in.

Tao, towering over Goku like a disappointed parent, chuckles. "You take all of that and you still live, huh?" He clutches the boy's full set of hair to pick him up. Looking at Goku eye to eye, he asked him, "Can you still speak?"

Goku moaned on in in words muffled by the pain he felt all over his body.

"Heh! Good enough!"

He let go of Goku's head and kicked him directly in the cheek using the tip of his foot.

That was all it took and the boy was knocked out cold.

Tao walks over to the child and crouches down to feel for a pulse. After momentary concentration, he smiles as he gets confirmation that the kid's still alive, albeit barely so. Subsequent to standing back up, Goku's unconscious body gets kicked up and grabbed. "I can't be getting back home like this, but the boy needs to be brought in." He also makes sure to grab the bag with the Dragon Balls inside.

Just as Tao is getting ready to make his leave, Upa, in a fit of rage, curses the assassin as he picks up a rock to toss it at him. All Tao did was blow on the rock and it came back to the sender, knocking Upa over on his back in a hysterical manner.

Tao laughs and asks if the kid is aware of how lucky he is to be alive. "You should thank me!"

These were his final words to the boy prior to getting his pillar and tossing it away with Goku and the bag in hand.

Upa was back up on his feet by the time Tao was long gone, staring on hard into the sky. Looking back to his fallen father, he knew that there was no other choice but to bury him.

By his father's side, Upa says a prayer that only he and Bora could understand. As his tears flowed down from his chubby cheeks onto his father's dead body, he finished with, "I promise. I'll become strong..for you, dad."


Back at Red Ribbon Headquarters, the look of pride and joy on the faces of Gero, Black, and Red was like no other. Tao handed them the bag of Dragon Balls and the one that the kid also had hidden inside his shirt the entire time. Tao really came through and his success genuinely solidified his reputation in the eyes of the three members of the Red Ribbon Army.

With the boy laid out on the floor, Tao turns his attention to Gero and Red. "I like my payments up front."

Gero and Red both had two entire briefcases which held all of Tao's money. The assassin gladly took it all, trusting that he got the mandated amount.

"Nice doing business with you gentleman," was all he said before he took off on the very same pillar, leaving everyone else to their own thing.

Red, Gero, and Black all stare on blankly at the unconscious child.

"Hard to believe that we had to go this far just to defeat and capture a kid," Gero comments.

"Right...I didn't want to speak on it, but surely all of you have seen the damage done to Tao. He must have put up a good fight."

"This will all just make for the perfect weapon," Red giggles callously. He then looks at Gero. "I say it's about time we head to your lab, eh?"


Gero's lab was as cliche as any evil genius - big giant machines that did god knows what with equipment hanging and lying all over, surrounded by so many wires that a legless person would fear tripping over any, and not to mention, the big tanks of colored, bubbly liquid.

With the flick of a switch, a dim neon purple light illuminated the room.

Gero introduces them to his personal laboratory in Red Ribbon HQ. "This is where the magic happens."

Black and Red came in a few minutes after Gero as he had to set some security patterns to where the two could enter without getting killed on the spot. During that short time period, he made sure to set Goku down as well.

Gero walks over to the strap on table to where Goku happens to be attached to and held down like a prisoner that's being wound up for punishment. The bright light above the table shines mercilessly onto Goku. The kid makes noises and shakes a bit as his eyes flutter.

Once he comes back to reality, Goku immediately remembers what had taken place prior to being knocked out. Knowing the danger that Tao and all others pose, he does his best to get free, albeit to no avail.

Gero chuckles, looks at Red and Black, then pulls out a remote. "With a simple click of this…"

Goku howls out like a wolf in agony calling for its pack. Hundreds of volts of electiricity go through his body at that moment, making him go stiff so he could stop all that fussing by trying to break out.

Red is getting a joy out of this as he puffs on his pipe. "Lovely, just lovely." He proceeds to walk over to Goku, getting all in his face. "Doesn't feel so good, does it?"

"Let me go!" Goku hisses through pained moans. "or else…"

"There isn't any 'else' for you to do anymore," Gero informs the child. "From this point forward, you will be working for me — for the Red Ribbon."

"The hell I will!" Goku grits his teeth and fought through the aftereffects of the shock treatment in attempt to free himself. As a reaction, Gero clicks the button yet again again, letting all the volts of electricity go through the padded material that the boy is strapped to.

Yet again, Goku screams at the top of his lungs, his shrieks of pain literally voicing out mercy, though he tries to fight it — all for two seconds, before passing out.

"Seems like he's going to be a hot one to handle," Black remarks as he rubs his chin.

Picking up a surgical mask and some very advanced tools, Gero shakes his head. "Once step one is done, the rest is already set for me. Now, unless you like the insides of the human body, I would suggest you to leave."

"I'll go," Red announces. "Black, you stay and keep watch over Dr. Gero in case anything happens. Be sure to give me occassional updates."

"Yes, sir."

"In the meantime, I'm going to try to find ways to find that last Dragon Ball."

Once Black and Gero were left alone, the commanding officer gulped hard after receiving a rather sadistic look from the scientist. Whatever he thought he'd be able to stomach in this laboratory...he surely wouldn't.


"This is bad, this is bad...oh, man, this is bad! We can kiss our hopes of ruling the world away!"

The complaining ninja dog gets smacked upside the head by a tall, black-haired woman with seductive mascara and lipstick. "Don't be so pessimistic, Shuu. We just have to be smarter about gathering the Dragon Balls."

"Smarter!?" Shuu shrieks. "How smart can one be to take on the entire Red Ribbon Army and get the Dragon Balls back!? We can go in right now with the most cunning, elaborate plan to go down in history and ONE of us would still be lucky to come back out with just our arms and legs missing!"

For a while, they had been tracking Goku, watching him gather the Dragon Balls. It was as soon as Pilaf realized that he'd more than likely be on the hunt again that he started to track him down, using satellites and camers in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

After contemplating on it hard for the past few minutes, Pilaf finally opens his eyes and says, "We have no choice."

This comment, of course, received a few looks of confusion from both Mai and Shuu. Their facial expressions in itself virtually begged the short, blue imp to elaborate.

"The enemy of our enemy is our friend…" Pilaf says, leaving a subtle, yet very clear message to both of his subordinates.


Three days having passed by with absolutely no word from Goku left his friends worried. Bulma, Krillin, Roshi, Turtle, and Launch all remained at the livingroom in Kame House, looking over a recording set using a giant satellite outside made by Bulma herself to survey all potential areas Goku could be in, yet to no avail.

"Guys, the more and more we go without hearing at least a word from Goku...the more and more worried I get."

Turtle did not shy in stating just how concerned he was about Goku. Sure, the kid was eccentric, but a pure soul and he loved having him around because the boy was always nice to him - ever since the first day that they met. Just imagining Goku taken down by some goons broke his turtle heart.

"Even Goku should have known he couldn't have taken on them all by himself!" Krillin yells angrily.

While it appeared that Krillin was rather irate because of the fact that Goku did something incredibly stupid in fighting back against the Red Ribbon Army, he genuinely hated the notion that his rival could have wound up dead due to these bad guys. It got his body all hot with his fists shaking, but the words that came out of Roshi's mouth mere seconds later stopped all that.

"Even Goku has his limits," Roshi tells Krillin. "Our fault is not helping him further whenever we had the chance. It's not all on him."

Looking down somberly, Krillin says, "You're right," with a twitching frown on his face.

The sounds of knuckles knocking at the door of Kame House had everyone nearly jump through the ceiling. In the back of their minds, the very first thought was that it had to be Goku!

But knowing Goku, he would be shouting all of their names just one hundred yards before even touching down on the little island, so this caused everyone to be a bit skeptical.

"I'll get it."

Bulma was the one to rise up and go for the door. The moment she opened it and saw a blue midget with an anthropormorphic dog, and a trenchcoat lady, all Bulma could yell was…

"YOU!?"