Bulma finished tying the strings at the ankles of her cargo pants and tucked the ends of each leg into her boots. She felt better now that she'd had a chance to brush most of the gunk out of her hair and change into clothes that didn't belong to dead people.
She fingered the capsule bracelet on her wrist. It had become an unconscious habit; it was reassuring to feel everything she could ever possibly need literally at her fingertips. She patted herself down; checking to ensure nothing was left behind. The scouter was safely buried in a cargo pocket.
She turned around to join the others and wasn't surprised to see Yamcha hovering in the doorway. By the time he had found her, she had already made it most of the way to the bunker herself. He had been frantic, but she suspected it was out of a sense of guilt. He had left her. Oh, sure. He had thought her safe. But who was safe? No one.
She didn't even bother to tell anyone what had happened. She was alive; therefore she must not have been discovered. Right? But everyone knew something had happened. The hard, flat look in her eyes and her cold demeanor spoke volumes. Most assumed it was because she had been left behind. Everyone gave her a wide berth, even if they did hover in the background.
She'd like to think it was because they were concerned. She hoped it wasn't because they all thought she'd revert back into the half-crazed creature she had been the months following Radditz's death.
She walked past Yamcha without saying anything. He silently followed her with his gaze, and then quietly followed her out of the room.
When she saw spiky black tufts that stood on end like a lion's mane poking above the heads of all the people crowding around a lone figure, she knew it was Goku. Pushing people out of the way, he turned to her just as she reached him. Wordlessly, they crashed into each other in a tight embrace. For what must have been several minutes, they stayed this way. No one intruded.
When she finally felt like she could speak without wailing like a little girl lost, she shifted and he relaxed his arms so she could break away. He looked down on her, eyes darting here and there searching for injury. She waited patiently until he seemed satisfied. He never could focus well on more than one thing at a time. She smiled softly.
When he looked up, she grinned, "What. You thought I'd miss the party at my own rebel hide-out? Don't tell me you started without me!"
She ignored the flash of doubt and fear that touched his features before he was able to return her grin. "Aw, Bulma. I knew you'd make it. And we wouldn't have started without you," his grin faltered a moment before he laughed sheepishly. "Um. None of us know the code to get to the weapons you made. We sorta had to wait for you."
Bulma stared at him blankly, blinking every so often. When this did little to alter the Saiyan's expression, she sighed and flatly stated, "Goku. What day is your birthday?"
His eyebrows pinched in confusion. "Bulma, you know what day my birth– " His jaw dropped and his mouth fell into an 'O'. Quickly, he smiled at her. "Oh, yeah."
He brushed by her and she followed, ignoring the confused faces of everyone as she passed them. They in turn followed her. They all navigated the underground hallways of the bunker until they reached a dead end. Goku raised his hands and began to brush his fingertips along the concrete. When something beeped under his right ring finger, he focused his attention to that spot, pressing his thumb to the wall. A panel dropped with a numerical pad.
He typed in the date of his birthday, and the wall swung open to reveal a vast room.
Looking over his shoulder at her, he tittered and shrugged, then bent his head down so he wouldn't smack it on the doorframe, and stepped into the room.
She stood aside as everyone fanned out to choose armor and weapons. As they worked to outfit themselves, she spoke in a clipped, business-like voice that sounded well practiced. "These weapons were designed using alien technology. You all know about the Saiyan who came here almost a year ago; he left us a favor in the form of a small space vessel. The energy source for that vessel was the basis for the design of these weapons."
One by one, as people finished arming themselves, they came to stand before her to listen. Nodding to each one as they approached, she continued.
"These weapons fire something that, for a better lack of a word, is like ki. It is not ki, though. It does not get tired, and it does not weaken over time. It does get hot, though. The materials on Earth cannot conduct this heat well enough to mitigate build up over time. So, fire in short bursts," she grinned, eyes gleaming, and continued with her trump card. "But before you get upset over the limitation of Earth materials, consider this: The manner and materials with which these weapons were constructed allows for a continual and contained backloop without any loss of energy."
Krillen raised his hand but began to speak when he caught her attention. "Is that Bulma-ese for these things have no power level limit?"
Bulma smiled at him and he beamed under the attention. Then slowly lowered his hand when he realized it was still up in the air.
"Why, yes, Krillen. If you allow the gun to 'power up' before shooting it, it hits harder. Try not to do that if you don't have to, though. It gets unstable and it may take you out instead of your target."
Within a half hour, everyone was on the streets, shooting the enemy out of the sky. There were surprisingly few of them, she thought. But shrugging, she thought that it made sense. It hadn't taken that many to destroy this much of the city. It was likely the same planet-wide.
She was suddenly very happy she had had the foresight to contact world leaders and provide them with similar weaponry. She had made it clear that the weapons would only activate when one of her own bunkers had been accessed, and that weapons were designed to remain online for twenty-four hours, only. After that, she'd have to input a code and they would reset for another twenty-four hours.
She didn't want to be the cause for a world war, after all. Well, a united world in a war against hostile aliens was ok. But she didn't want to push her luck.
She looked at the device – the scouter – and quickly pressed a few buttons. Programming it for translation had been simple. But she had been correct that its capabilities were much greater. Now, she could discern that weapons across the planet had been activated and were being used.
She smiled widely. It looked like Radditz's warning hadn't been in vain. They were successfully defending Earth. With determination, she walked down the streets that, hours ago, she had been sneaking down and hiding in, fearing for her life. Now, she was leading her own group of defenders. She knew that they'd win the day, but they were far from finished.
This was only the first battle, she was certain, of several in a war to win the right to own Earth. First thing was first, though. They had to win this first battle.
A familiar sound in the distance caught her attention and her head snapped up to search the sky. A few blocks away, buildings shattered and windows exploded as energy blasts incinerated steel and mortar foundations. The ground rumbled with such force, she almost lost her footing, and cars that had survived the first wave of attack started to squeal as their alarms were triggered. A water main must have burst somewhere on the next street over, and water poured down like rain and flooded the roads for a quarter mile in every direction.
Somewhere above her, warriors were fighting.
She didn't know which two - the enemy, certainly, but which one of her friends? She knew that the fight would attract the attention of her remaining Ki-sensing friends, and probably a good number of the enemy, as well. Looking back to her group, she indicated that they should continue to clear their designated sector without her. Then without another word, she followed the sounds and the destruction on a path that she knew would end with someone's death.
