(I'm sorry about the delay guys. I got real sick for a while and wasn't able to write but I'm back on track! Hope you enjoy chapter eight!)
It was evening when Bulma finally pulled the cargo plane into the headquarters' landing station. All of the survivors were piled up in the back on the benches and sitting on the floor and supply boxes, their faces tense and streaked in dirt. No one had spoken in the few hours flight from North City, not even the children who were always chattering or fighting with one another. It had been a sullen kind of quiet which only left room to think about her past and future and while the former haunted the latter confused and frightened her.
Goku had left her in the office with only a kiss and a promise that he'd return very soon. Bulma still didn't have any idea what he could possibly accomplish by leaving her, but she hadn't argued it again. She'd learned a long time ago that bickering with Goku when he had his mind made up was a major waste of time. Instead she'd tried to occupy her mind with the pressing mystery of the androids, how to defeat them and why they were suddenly making a move now after so many years.
"Clear for landing." A monotone voice beside her broke the silence.
To Bulma's right her co-pilot was pushing buttons on the control panel. He was a flaxen haired youth named Corn and Bulma thought he had the personality of a dead stump, but he was loyal and his knowledge in machinery was invaluable.
"Right. Let's take her down." She agreed, drawing back from her stressing thoughts for the moment.
The landing station was graciously named as it was little more than a large patch of grass which they'd cut down and spray painted white circles into. Still, it had done the task and Bulma was a good enough pilot to maneuver the surrounding trees even in the closing dusk. After a few moments they were turning off the engines and the survivors were filing out the back doors of the craft, most of them seeing Headquarters for the very first time.
Bulma watched the dreary men and women as they looked around, some of them seemed relieved to be anywhere but the ruins of the city -but there were those who just seemed scared.
Peering over her shoulder to where they would all have their eyes she stared at the incongruent rows of bungalows a half mile's walk from the landing site. They were squat shadows in the failing sun, not at all very impressive for all the promise of safety they were suppose to bring.
The truth of that matter was that Bulma and Goku knew the false security of compounds. Walls and guards were useless against the androids and those who'd attempted to hide behind them had already been killed many years ago.
"This is it?" Someone asked sharply.
Bulma turned and looked into the whispering group behind her and Corn. A few of their faces had become disapproving.
"What do you mean 'is this it'?" She snapped back in response.
"Where's the walls? The guards?" Another voice demanded.
"You promised we'd be safe here!" Yet another.
By now their voices were converging into an angry murmur which was only growing
louder and more persistent.
Bulma growled in disgust. "You think walls will protect you from them?"
"I know it will better than this!" The voice who'd spoken first snapped and stepped out from the front of the group. It was Mint.
"Then you're an idiot and-"
Bulma was about to spit out a whole list of profanities to this annoying woman but stopped short because Corn had put his hand on her arm. She knit her brows and looked into his tired amber eyes and saw the warning in them.
"Look. I understand you are all scared. What happened today...that was a close call." She sighed, beginning again in an effort to keep her cool. "But the compounds are all gone for a reason, they weren't enough to keep people safe and something like that would only attract their attention anyways."
They fell quiet, listening. She continued.
"Trust me, the best thing to do is to keep low and hidden and the only way to do that is to stay inconspicuous. Walls would just attract too much attention."
"And why should we trust you?" Mint asked, a fire in her eyes that Bulma hadn't noticed until that moment. "When you managed to kill one of us and lose a child all in one day?"
The crowd began to grumble again like one angry creature and Bulma stood dumbstruck and uncertain of how to answer.
"Lettuce was old…" She finally managed to sputter out.
"She could have made it back here to get medical treatment!" Someone argued.
"We should leave! We'll all die here!" A woman chidded
"Good evening! What's this all about?" A kind voice asked from behind Bulma and Corn, probably having come up from the housing district.
"Rin." Corn greeted flatly, nodding his head in the direction of the welcomed newcomer.
Bulma peered over her shoulder in a daze but a smile was creeping in the corners of her lips.
"Bulma. Corn. I'm glad to see you've made it back in one piece!" Rin said amiably.
"Who are you?" One of the angry onlookers asked from somewhere in the throng.
Rin looked up at them and smiled, "Ah, yes. Apologies I've been rude. I am Rin Tsukimiya, lead scientist here beneath Miss Briefs, of course."
There was a moment of silence as though everyone was taking him in. He was a tall man with broad shoulders and small, kind eyes. Currently his curly hair was a brown mop upon his head and he wore an untrimmed beard and a dirty white lab coat that was tattered at the edges. He didn't look very reputable, more like a handsome mad scientist who hadn't slept or bathed in a week.
"Rin, gee whiz, you look like you fell through a woodchipper!" Bulma finally found her voice and was grinning at him. To the others he looked crazed, she was sure, but to her it was just Rin probably coming back from some experiment.
Corn nodded at him as though to agree with Bulma, and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"Do I? Yes, well." Rin laughed and ran a hand through his mussed hair, "I guess I lost track of time, if you're already back from your trip."
Bulma couldn't help but laugh with him, he had such an infectious way of doing that, even Corn smiled absentmindedly beside her. "We've been gone for weeks you kook."
"Excuse me!" Mint abruptly interrupted, glowering scornfully at them.
Bulma really couldn't remember the young girl being so pushy or crass, it was is if she'd suffered a total 180 switch in the last few hours. She looked at her now, returning her glare with more confidence.
"We found you all and took you in, if you don't like it then you can leave!"
They seemed to respond to that, padding back and forth on their heels uncomfortably. Honestly, what a bunch of morons, it wasn't as though they were doing better on their own.
"Now, now Bulma. No need to be so brash." Rin admonished, putting a hand on her shoulder and stepping towards the group. "Miss Briefs is correct, however. We have food and bedding here, if you want to continue to live in relative comfort I would advise you all keep calm and move over to the housing district where will be happy to assign you your new homes. If you would like to leave," He pointed north, still smiling calmly, "go that direction through the forest towards the next city, but I'd advise you stay here at least until the morning as there are wolves and lions prowling."
Bulma watched him in amazement, Rin had always been better at addressing things like this with a cool head and a smooth diction which radiated almost passive aggressively the point he was making. She was much too blunt sometimes, but other times that was something which made her a good leader and someone who could be trusted.
"Mr. Yamagata will help us?" Someone asked meekly from behind Mint. The girl whirled on him and glared but when the others didn't pay her any mind and simply continued to look at Rin, she crossed her arms and melted back into their 'ranks' without another word.
"Yep." The scientist pointed behind him at the bungalows. "That way, hurry along now."
Sure enough they began to make their way in that direction and Corn moved away from them into the back of the cargo plane to begin unloading the various boxes of supplies stacked inside.
"Thanks for that." Bulma told Rin when they were relatively alone. He looked at her, a glint in his eye.
"Sure. Bulma...what happened out there?"
Bulma closed her eyes and groaned, "Oh, damn I forgot, the radio. Rin, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened! It just broke and then...well I didn't have time to fix it."
Rin frowned and then nodded. "Radio's are easy enough to make, it shouldn't be an issue as long as I can get the parts." He said distractedly as though already pondering the work he must do -which was probably exactly what he was doing. "What did you bring this trip?" He asked.
Bulma was almost crawling out of her skin with impatience now, she needed to speak with him about the androids and the lab and was tired of all the distractions. "Not much, supplies are harder to come by, but we collected the parts from the old radio. It should be in a sack in the plane." She informed him hastily.
"Rin, there's more." She added when he turned his head towards the craft and then pulled him away from the plane with a hand on his arm.
"What is it?" He asked hesitantly when they were nearly to the treeline, several hundred paces away from the landing station and swallowed by shadows.
"Where to even begin." She muttered and then told him everything that happened starting with waking up to Arugula crying. When she finished he stared at her hard and thoughtful, his teeth biting absently at his lower lip.
"That's...not good Bulma. You must be scared out of your mind."
She felt her lip quiver and quickly pulled herself together. He was right of course, she was terrified and any number of other unpleasant emotions, but that wouldn't help her save Arugula; to do that she had to be strong.
"That's not important right now, something is going on here bigger than just this game. We need to get to the lab, tonight if we can."
He stared at her like she had grown a third eyeball and shook his head slowly, "Bulma you're exhausted, probably starving. Let's go back and plan this all out." When she started to protest he dropped his hands around her shoulders and squeezed them lightly, "You're no use like this you need to rest, take care of yourself and then we can leave first thing in the morning."
She didn't argue, much as it pained her to admit that he was right yet again.
Headquarters or 'the Hideout', was sectioned off into four distinct districts. Housing to the northwest and closest to the landing station where there was the safety of a large field before the homes. Community in the centermost section of the campsite that consisted of a community hall and the commissary where food and supplies were delivered and offered. Training, which was located on Kami's lookout high above them and belonged primarily to Goku, and the fourth district was Operational to the south and east where the science lab was and other buildings which provided services to the people such as the church and medical bay.
This was where Bulma and Rin went now, trudging in exhausted silence towards their lab which was one of the furthest buildings from the landing station.
There was no one there when they arrived upon the low roofed structure, curfew forbad the use of any building besides the medical bay after dark, even Rin was breaking the rules being there but Bulma wasn't going to press it tonight.
They moved inside and flipped on the crude circuit box for the lights. A bulb on the ceiling lit the cold room to reveal stone walls which suggested that they were partially underground. Most of the structures in the camp were like this, the idea being that the closer to the ground they were the easier it was to hide themselves among the trees.
"Come, have a seat, I'll get you some food." Rin suggested as he walked back into the deeper shadows along the furthest wall of the lab. Bulma sat down at a wooden desk and stared at the ancient computer screen and keyboard wearily, idly listening to the clattering of her friend moving around behind her.
"Do you think we'll find anything at the lab?" She asked him after a moment.
"I honestly hope that we do not." Came his answer and then he emerged from the back of the room carrying a plate with a sandwich on it and a bottle of water.
He set the food in front of her and sat back against the edge of the desk, looking at her thoughtfully while she grabbed it and started to eat.
"You mean that you hope we don't find an android." She pointed out.
He nodded. "Yes that's better put."
Bulma sighed and fought back the sudden urge to hit her head on the desk over and over again. "What do you think about the strange behavior of the androids?" She stuffed her face with another bite of the ham sandwich.
"That's something I can not explain. It's almost as though they can sense power levels, but it could be more complicated or insidious than that. There's really no telling."
Bulma had hoped to hear something she hadn't already thought of herself but she couldn't really be mad at him, she was the brightest mind on the planet so if she didn't know, how could he?
"I am more concerned about this fight." Rin admitted and watched her with that amiable expression never wavering. He honestly didn't look worried about much of anything, with that haphazard look and that mirthful glint in his eye.
"Goku said he had that taken care of." She responded faithfully, but she had her doubts.
"I don't mean to impeach upon Goku's abilities, he's an extraordinary man and fighter. However."
Bulma narrowed her eyes at him.
"However," He continued anyways, "I don't like the idea of you helping him without some form of protection."
"What sort of protection?" She furrowed her brows and stared at him with a puzzled expression as he stood and walked across the room again.
"Well, that's actually sort of what I've been working on."
"Rin, you're not making much sense."
"Ah. Well then, let me show you."
Rin opened a tall metal cabinet against the southwest wall and stood aside so she could take a look at what he was talking about. Inside was what looked like a large suit of armor with a glass dome over it's head. Capsule Corp. had made something similar in the past which she had used on planet Namek to dive after the dragon ball, years ago.
Confused and a bit annoyed, Bulma stood and went to it.
"I call it The Sentinel. A machine I built to better our chances against the androids!" Rin explained, running a hand along the metal exterior.
"That's great but unless it's made of some crazy space metal, it's not going to do much." She noted.
"I beg to differ Miss Briefs. The Sentinel isn't alien but it is made up entirely of an alloy which I created myself using the world's strongest metals and components, even the glass over the cockpit is-"
"Rin…" She cut him off, "you're fooling yourself if you think that will do anything to stop them. What happened to working on cures for the diseases that are spreading? Or building the spacecraft to get out of here? I thought we agreed we were going to try to get away, this looks like you want to stay and fight...what's going on?"
He stared at the floor for what seemed like minutes, looking strangely defeated. "I just don't think that people will feel the way that you do about leaving Earth...this is our home." He finally admitted.
Bulma tensed and glared at him indignantly, "That's crazy talk! Did someone put you up to this?"
"No! Not at all Miss Briefs. I simply decided that finding a way to fight back would be productive." He stared at her confidently now, his shoulders squared and not a trace of the shame he showed before.
Feeling strangely sorry for him, Bulma put a hand on his shoulder and smiled when he looked up into her eyes. "Hey, I'm sorry it's really not the end of the world. It's just a little set back, I know you're just trying to help."
Rin responded without looking away from her, "Even so, please Bulma. Will you just wear it when the fight comes? It will make me feel better about your safety."
She jerked her hand back as if he was suddenly burning hot and stared at him ashamed, "Oh, Rin. That's so sweet, alright. I'll wear it."
The two spent the better part of the next three hours planning their course of action before at last Bulma stretched and let out a yawn exclaiming that it was time for bed. They retired to their own homes in the housing district but soon after they left a mysterious shadow separated from the night and slipped into the lab after them...