Chapter Forty-Two

Bulma Brief was just a regular teen not long before her father dished out the punishment of all punishments just days after her 16th birthday. She didn't know what a Dragon Ball was. If you asked her what a Raditz was, she would have thought you were drunk asking for a vegetable of all things. Aliens weren't real. She had never seen somebody die in front of her. Hell, she had never even died herself!

Of course Kami had made her father scream at her to clean out one of his storage units after she'd made a disaster out of his laboratory with a chemical reaction she'd thought would help her hair grow eight times faster. It had taken almost six hours and she'd run from at least three giant spiders the size of some grapefruit… but the warehouse had been cleaned and she had even found a cute orange souvenir.

Since then, her life had taken a turn from a chick flick to more of a science fiction movie. After doing some research and finding out what these dragon balls did, Bulma had gotten herself into the adventure of a lifetime whose path led her to meet Raditz and the other friends she'd made in the last couple of years of her life. Sure they had been some of the craziest and most difficult times she'd ever dealt with but she had met her soulmate and had been by his side for most of it. She didn't regret a thing.

Fast forward nearly four years and here she was.

The heiress of Capsule Corporation stood firmly in front of the door of the small shack that she had taken refuge in with the others as Roshi and Yamcha dealt with the scaly creature that had suddenly appeared. She had wanted to help but she knew that she was more of a burden out there. She had already died before and she knew the pain that came with it. She just wanted Mai to understand that Yamcha wouldn't want her getting herself killed.

"Mai," The bluenette began, moving quickly as she saw the raven haired woman shoot to her feet not even seconds after the sound of Yamcha's body echoed through the room. Knowing she was putting herself in a volatile situation, Bulma locked her jaw in the small chance that Mai decided to try to hit her. "Don't be stupid."

Bulma felt her heart pull at her chest as the room slowed around her. The sound of energy bolts hissing pass the wooden home and the sonic booms that echoed when fist met fist rung through her ears. She saw her friend's lips move but couldn't make out what she was saying as she dealt with trying to keep her own balance.

Looking around Bulma saw as the room changed to look like her own bedroom. She felt the sweat build on her skin and the goosebumps form on his arms as flames burned wildly around her and the floor gave in underneath her. Moving forward, the bluenette looked at the wall as a giant shadow appeared in front of her. Turning around, Bulma was caught by surprise as she came eye-to-eye with a grinning Doctor Gero. How had he found her again?

"Well, what do we have here?" The doctor taunted as Bulma tried to run but felt her legs not moving at all. She tried to close her eyes but couldn't as the man ran a hand down her arm with the same sinister smirk on his face. "To think that the Saiyan wasted time in reviving you without any sort of upgrade." Gero grunted, slowly moving his gloved hand up her arm and across her chest. "I could turn you into something much more… beautiful." He whispered into her ears.

Suddenly, the madmen snatched at her and she felt the blue gi rip apart and reveal her pink panties and bra. Bulma once again tried to move her body but felt herself unable to. She looked up at the doctor and screamed as he shot his hand at her mouth.

Looking around and opening her eyes, Bulma felt her blood pressure building until she realized that she had just been having an anxiety attack. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, the bluenette had no time to remember how Mai had ended up in her arms as she heard the sound of a small earthquake rupture the shack she was in.

"Master," Tien Shinhan finally said, after a nearly two hour drive from the Crane temple. Without a word, Shen had beckoned him and Ranfan to come with him and even then, he wasn't revealing much of where they were going and this infuriated the young triclops. "Where are we going? We're not running from Piccolo are we?"

Master Shen felt a chuckle escape his scowl as he remained focused on the road. Of course he had lost respect from his top student if he thought that they were running. Taking a pull from the cigarette and letting the black smoke pour into his lungs and out of his nose, the crane hermit spoke again.

"Even if we were hoping to hightail it under that demon's nose," The crane hermit began before taking another pull of his cig. Spitting out of the window of his jetcopter, Shen continued. "We've killed one of his followers, he's not going to rest until he finds us."

"So, what's the plan then?" Tien shot back, stepping forward and putting a hand on the hermit's shoulder. He wondered why they weren't heading to Kame House or the tournament grounds.

"We move around so as to not make ourselves sitting ducks? Be cowards and let them bastards wipe out more of our fellow martial artists? I signed up to be a fighter first and an assassin second, not the other way around." The triclops assured his teacher tensefully.

Shen set the jetcopter into autopilot mode before turning to face the triclops. Looking straight into the witty fighter's three eyes through his sunglasses, Tsuru chuckled before scowling at his student.

"Don't forget, you came to me… even after conjugating with the enemy! If I am a coward, then mark yourself a traitor." The crane hermit spat out through his scowl, pointing at the taller man. Turning to the window afterwards with a sigh, the man continued. "According to the information you've told me, it seems he's targeting tournament fighters. Roshi and his crew are as good as dead meat," Even the murderer, he wanted to add.

"So we just leave Chiaotzu to fight for himself?" Tien shot back immediately, his energy flaring wildly and shaking the aircraft. Nearly punching a hole through the hull of the vehicle, Tien took a breath to regain his composure. "Still just as wicked and cowardly as always, Shen." He grumbled as he opened a hatch and prepared to jump out.

"Call me wicked but never say I'm a coward," The crane hermit retorted just before his student could jump up. "We're at the capital. If Piccolo wants to take over anything, he'd have to come to us." Shen said, reaching into his satchel and revealing a Dragon Ball of his own. "We aren't leaving anyone to fight for themselves… we're the ones calling shots in this little party of his."

Tien grimaced, closing the hatch as he began to piece together what the plan was. Still, he only hoped that Chiaotzu and the others were holding up fine but he knew that he had to cast those thoughts aside. Seeing the capital building come into view along with a giant ship he assumed belonged to the demon king, the triclops steadied his breathing as he prepared for the onslaught he knew was coming.

"Who are you?" Tambourine spat, barely able to hold his bodyweight up. After being knocked through entire tectonic plates, the Namekian was not able to hide the fact that his back was in pain.

The Namekian's hands were still coated in the fresh blood of Yamcha. He had been dealing with the turtle hermit when he had suddenly felt what he thought was a small meteor shoot into his chest and send him through the entirety of the island they were fighting on. One of his eyes was swollen shut so he could barely see who this was that had appeared randomly.

"A friend of the two fighters you've killed," Raditz said in response, looking over the remaining spectators. Clenching his fist as the demon licked his lips at him, the Saiyan added. "To think you almost killed more of my friends too. Your friend Cymbal sends his regards."

Tambourine grimaced, nearly biting his tongue as he realized that he hadn't felt the faint trace of his brethren's energy in quite some time. 'So, he dealt with one of the master's minions?' The monster thought to himself.

"You'll die choking on your blood just like the others," Tambourine snickered, flaring his energy as he prepared to propel himself at the Saiyan. Showing off his sharp claws, the Namekian shot himself forward at the next second.

"Too slow," Raditz countered, shooting himself forward just as his opponent did. Reappearing in another blur, the Saiyan shot his fist into the air in front of him just as Tambourine's body came to sight. Not expecting this, the demonic fighter screeched in a pain he had never before felt.

Not letting up at all, Raditz drove his leg into Tamboruine's side and lunged forward with a ki-enhanced knee to the back. Launching the Namekian into the air, his Saiyan foe suddenly reappeared meters above him with an outstretched hand. Before Tambourine could begin to fathom what was going on, a large flash of golden colored energy collided into him facefist.

Raditz focused himself as he lowered himself to the ground, looking the area over for a sign of his opponent. Hitting his scouter, the Saiyan sighed and fell to his knees as he realized that the fight had been won.

Still, he had only just scratched the surface and knew that Piccolo was still out there somewhere. Promising himself that as soon as he caught wind of the overlord's presence, he would send him to the afterlife just as he had done to two of his sons already, Raditz's thoughts moved towards finding these Dragon Balls quickly before someone else did. The Saiyan was forced to think about this at another time as the arms of his bluenette lover wrapped around his chest and he was pulled into an embracing hug.

King Piccolo sat on his golden throne, waiting until his ship landed just half a mile out of Capital City to arise from it. As he pulled himself to his feet, the giant overlord felt a sharp pain in his heart and grimaced painfully as a clawed hand shot to his chest. Spitting out a mouthful of blood, the demon king sighed as he realized that Tambourine had failed him.

"Tambourine's killer is coming this way," The behemoth grumbled through pants for air, his advance out of his ship taking forever as he felt more of his energy leave his body. Using his telepathy, Piccolo made sure that all six of the Dragon Balls that he had floated behind him as he walked out of the ship and stared at the populated city in front of him. "Where is the final ball?" Piccolo demanded Pilaf to answer.

"Uhhh, it seems one of your children is heading back with it as we speak," The blue imp sheepishly answered. This had to be Ukulele… he hoped. Showing the demon the Dragon Radar, Pilaf was caught by surprise as the giant demon's hand snatched the contraption and squeezed it until it exploded in his hands. "Hey, why'd you do that?" Pilaf asked in confusion, flinching as the giant green hand barely missed him.

"There will be no use for such an invention after I begin my rule over this planet," Piccolo remarked, using a blue tongue to lick his yellow fangs as he took a single step towards the capital. Using a pair of eye beams to create an entrance into the city through the giant wall surrounding the exterior, the demon king took in a nose full of smoke as he prepared his assault and walked through the large tunnel he'd created.

Tien hopped from one building's roof to the other and in a flash, his other two comrades, Ranfan and Master Shen, appeared at his side. The three martial artists concentrated their energy into their shoes and walked up an entire stone pillar and hunkered down into crouches. The triclops felt his heart drop into his stomach at the terror that was Piccolo and what remained of the capital building. It appeared that they had been too late.

"King Furry," He heard Ranfan mumble in disbelief and he looked somewhat closer to see the body of the blue canine king amongst the pile of corpses that the demon king was bent on adding to. "He doesn't even have a scratch on him… to think he took out the entirety of the king's men." The woman realized, knowing the struggle that one would have to endure if they ever attempted to assassinate a world leader.

"There are the other Dragon Balls." Tien said to his teacher, recognizing the six floating orbs behind Piccolo as the objects he'd heard about from Raditz and his friends. Looking at the new glow that the one star ball that Shen had given him was giving off on the flight over, the triclops frowned. "You think he knows we're close?"

"It's unlike Piccolo to leave himself without several minions," Shen noticed, seeing only Piano and the great demon king himself. He rubbed his chin as he thought of a strategy. "Perhaps he's on the ropes… he could do something very desperate if we're not careful."

"What's the plan master?" Tien asked, his eyes still calculated on Piccolo as he half expected the creature to viciously attack.

"I'll go ahead, you two stay and watch for a weakness," The crane hermit said the next minute, suddenly shooting forward before Tien reappeared in front of the building he hopped over to. Looking up, he could see the frown on his student's face. "It isn't like you to object." Shen said with a sigh.

"You're not getting yourself killed out there," Tien sharply retorted, a vein popping in his head as he held his arms stretched in the crane hermit's path. He looked over to Ranfan, who was standing in the same place the hermit had told her to stay. "Right?" He added, his eyebrows flurrying in confusion.

"Even if you, Ranfan and I were to attack him together… head on we would be decimated," Shen insisted to his student calmly. He popped the rice cooker from its capsule and grumbled to himself in self-loathing before reaching for another cigarette from his pack. "You would just get in the way of the Mafuba Wave. That's the only chance we have at stopping that demon. Don't let Roshi's twisted sense of teamwork cloud your mind."

"Master, you can't do this to me." Tien began to say as he tensed at the thought of throwing Shen to the wolves that was Piccolo. Death and chaos seemed to follow the demon like a skunk's stench. After all of the anxiety that had built up and the stories he'd been told about the demon king, he was ready to face the demonic monster but it seemed that his teacher had come with a different scheme in mind. Tien began to counter until Shen looked over to his granddaughter and interjected.

"Do it Ranfan," The crane hermit said sternly and with a flash, Tien felt his body go numb as he was paralyzed. The triclops saw Ranfan look over at him and sigh as he tried his hardest to fight off the technique but Shen's granddaughter had come along quite far with her paralysis attacks. Tien couldn't even make himself scream as he watched Shen shoot towards the massacre at King's Castle and instead watched in despair.

"I'm just saving your life," Ranfan pleaded with her friend for her treachery. She had been aware of Shen's plan and he had promised that she'd keep herself and Tien safe in the event that he failed. "Don't be mad… we're even now." The purple haired woman finished, keeping herself and her three eyed acquaintance hidden from view.

Power Levels

Raditz: 670

King Piccolo: 700 (aged with weighted clothing)

Tambourine: 570

Ukulele: 450

Tien Shinhan: 500

Master Shen: 340

Ranfan: 290

Piano: 200