"It's all gone!"
Bulma walked half asleep into the lab before the sun was up the next morning, rubbing her eyes and trying to brush down her hair with her hands. She looked dreamily up at the person that had spoken when she arrived and furrowed her brow, clearly not completely coherent yet. "What?" She asked.
A scientist named Yin ran up to her, wide eyed with a look of complete desperation. "Miss Briefs! The ship, it's gone -and all the parts too!" The girl gasped.
Bulma felt herself rejuvenated instantly, "WHAT!?" She cried out and ran to the far back of the room. Pushing her hand against a hidden clasp in the wall, it opened up to reveal an alcove large enough to harbor an entire ship. Which is exactly what it had been doing, except now there was no ship or parts or anything. It looked as if it had been empty for years, dust collected in the corners and congealed oil pooled on the empty metal tables.
"How is this possible?" Bulma demanded of no one in particular.
The ship had been the main project she and the others in the lab had been working on for years, it was suppose to be their way out of this hellhole. She'd hoped that it would take them to Namek, where they could wish Piccolo back and save the world with the Earth's dragon balls. Much of the usable supplies had been destroyed in the wreckage left behind by the androids so it had been a slow process that had been almost complete...they'd have been able to leave within the month...but now it was gone -all of it.
Bulma whirled around in an outrage to find that there were two more of her people behind her now besides Yin -Corn and a short old man with a beak nose and a crotchety attitude named Death pronounced to rhyme with 'teeth' (though people said it wrong all the time as it annoyed him).
"This is terrible, what are we going to do! What could have happened?" Bulma wailed to them, holding her head in her hands.
"Do you think it was magic?!" Yin blurted, a palm over her mouth looking all too convinced.
"Next she'll suggest it was leprechauns." Death muttered spitingly.
Yin looked at him with saucers for eyes, "Do you think?!" She asked, amazed.
Death glared at her and shook his head in his own form of sardonic amazement.
"Honestly…."
"Guys! Focus, what could have done this?" Bulma snapped at them again with hands on her hips. These three were her engineer Corn, doctor Death, and biochemist Yin, some of the most intelligent minds in the rest of the known world and yet she wanted to smack them all.
"What's going on here?" Rin's voice called from the door. "Where's the ship?!" He remarked, startled as he approached them.
"That's what we're trying to figure out!" Death growled at him.
"Death thinks leprechauns took it, what do you think Rinny?" Yin stated, blushing up at Rin who laughed in response despite Death's death glare.
"Leprechauns, huh? Well I guess they could have done it-"
"Over here." Corn suddenly interrupted. No one had noticed the quiet boy make his way into the room and over to one of the tables. All three of them looked at each other puzzled and then walked slowly in after him.
"What did you find Corny?" Yin asked, blinking.
Corn looked up at her, deadpan, a haunting expression in his eyes. "I told you not to call me that."
Rin and Bulma both pressed their lips into a hard line, trying to hold back their laughter at the ridiculous nickname.
"Right, sorry." Yin bit her lip uncertainly and shrank away a bit from his creepy expression.
"Come on then! What have you got there boy, I haven't got all day." Death chided angrily.
"It's a note." Corn handed it over to Bulma who looked at it for several moments and then lowered her arm seeming more perplexed than she had before, if not a bit wan.
"Bulma? What did it say? What's wrong?" Rin put a hand on her shoulder, staring at her with concern.
She shook her head and then handed it over for him to read the two simple words.
"No cheating."
The others looked at him expectantly for more but he looked up from the paper, frowning. "That's all it says." He told them.
"What? That's it? That makes no sense!" Death growled and snatched the note from Rin's hands with startling quickness for his age. "Is there something we should know about Miss Briefs?" He asked after reading it for himself.
The others all looked up at her except Rin who was occupied examining the table they found the page upon -he already knew more than anyone in the room. Bulma shifted uncomfortably on her feet and then started to tell them about the androids and the game. By the time she finished Yin was in a full blow panic and Death looked like he could tear the heads off kittens, even Corn had a dark expression in his eye. The gangly yellow haired youth had been with them when 17 and 18 had come to the warehouse, but he had been inside and did not know all of the details.
"Why are you still here?" The boy asked, alarming everyone.
"We were heading out this morning to check out the lab for clues, or maybe a way to defeat the androids, but then this happened." Bulma indicated the large empty space in the room and frowned.
Rin stood behind her seeming equally flummoxed and they all fell silent for what felt like ages.
"You should go. We can handle this." Corn insisted and even Death rose his brows at the boy.
"Woah now, I never agreed to any of that." He rebuked.
"Corny is right! You should go!"
Corn glared at Yin but didn't say anything more as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"Guys, that's all very nice but there is clearly either an android here or a traitor. We can't just leave." Bulma protested.
"Oh for petesake. Go on, both of you, go save the world. We'll be fine." Death snapped, "I for one have had enough of androids."
"And leprechauns!" Yin chimed in helpfully.
Death inhaled deeply and blew out slow.
"Well...I guess, if you guys promise to stay safe. If you find out who the traitor is, don't get too close. Wait and until Goku and I get back, ok?"
Corn, Yin and even Death all nodded and so Rin and Bulma left the lab and turned for the landing station with no shortage of indignation. Neither of them felt good about leaving their friends behind but time was of the essence…