As they raced through the sky towards the direction of the dragon ball they found themselves reentering the desert, the blazing midday heat drenched them with sweat despite the cooling wind that whirled around them on the nimbus cloud. Goku sat down and held the dragon radar close and saw they were nearing the dragon ball.
When they arrived they stayed high above and could see a few soldiers below walking around the dunes. Gohan peaked over the edge of the cloud and noticed that each soldier was poking the sand with their rifles blindly, hoping to get lucky and find the hidden orb.
"Goku, something doesn't seem right. You saw Pilaf get in his massive ship... and he has the dragon ball right? So why would it be out here in the desert?"
Goku shrugged as he rubbed his chin. "I don't know. Why don't we get off nimbus and see if it really is somewhere in the sand."
Goku landed the cloud just a couple of feet from where the radar said the ball was, which luckily was far away from any Red Ribbon soldier. They walked closely, both with their eyes glued to the radar's screen. Suddenly the floor collapsed beneath them and they fell into a dark, damp stone room with the only noticeable feature being a television in one of the walls shielded by bulletproof glass. They heard the static as it turned on.
"Welcome my young friends."
Goku glared at Pilaf through the monitor "We're not your friends, now gimme' my grampa's dragon ball!"
Pilaf laughed as he pressed a small button to his left. "I had a different present in mind for you"
Gohan looked unimpressed as a robot raised from the floor but patiently waited for his father to take charge on this one, no need for any unnecessary involvement. He was confused as his father began talking to it.
"I know you, you're that monster who tried to take the dragon balls from us last time." He prepared himself as he brought back his hands "KAMEHAME-HA!".
The robot crumpled as it flew through the wall revealing a massive tunnel system for them to navigate through.
Gohan smiled, happy that his father had found a way out of that situation without help. "Great job Goku!"
The two stepped into the long, dark tunnel and felt the entire building rumble beneath their feet. They started running hoping to find some way out of this maze, hearing footsteps up ahead they turn the corner, spotting Pilaf and his two loyal henchmen making their own escape.
Goku yelled, "STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Pilaf screeched and nearly dropped the dragon ball as he looked behind him. "Shu, hit the button!"
They saw the walls raise up in front of them, neither of the boys stopped as they easily smashed through them. Gohan noticed the building began to shake even more as the chase continued into a brightly lit hanger area. He saw as PIlaf and his men disappeared behind a thick metal door.
Goku slammed into it hoping to bash through the thick metal but was frustrated only to find a dent was all he could make
"Ugh! Come on, we're so close. Jack, there's gotta be another way around."
Gohan interrupted "Goku I think they just got in a ship, this must be a base they built out here in the desert."
Just as he finished that sentence the door in front of them rose, along with seemingly the entire wall around it, they watched as the massive circular ship rose out of the hanger. Gohan followed Goku and they both jumped onto the side of the ship and held onto a thin ledge that extruded from it. They rose into the sky only to be immediately shot at by Red Ribbon jets.
It was clear the ship was taking too much damage as areas of it began to explode and shrapnel rained down, with a piece hitting Goku's head and slicing his arm as it fell. He was immediately knocked out and would have fallen if Gohan hadn't caught him. He hovered in the air relieved that his father wasn't anywhere near close to conscious and yelled out for the fluffy cloud. It appeared with haste and took them far away from the battlefield. Gohan sighed, this was a defeat. No dragon ball and a serious head injury to go with it.
Gohan flew them to greener pastures in the direction of another dragon ball. He sat patiently as the cloud made its way through the air towards their next target. While waiting, he examined the cut on his father's arm and dismissed it as a scrape. Then he ran his hands through Goku's hair, feeling for what he was sure was going to be blood. He felt a large bump near the back of his head but surprisingly that was it, just a bump.
Phew, jeez dad you always said you had a thick skull but this is ridiculous.
He landed them next to a river within a deep jungle that teemed with life beneath the thick shade of the trees. Gohan picked Goku up and propped him up against a tree. He sat next to him and watched the sunset through a gap in the net of leaves above.
Goku awoke to see the mix of beautiful reds, yellows, and purples that radiated as the sun began to disappear behind the mountains in front of him.
"Beautiful isn't it Goku?" Gohan visualized all the times he would sit with his father and watch the sunset, those were simpler times, before Cell, before the Androids, even before the Saiyans. "When I was really young, younger than five, at the end of every day y-" he cleared his throat as he corrected his mistake. "my dad would always sit me on his lap and we'd watch the sunset together."
Goku turned his head to see Gohan sitting closely by him. Although confused as to how they got there and why they were sitting watching the sunset, all he could focus on were the tears forming in the eyes of his friend as he stared longingly into the fading sun. He remembered the story Gohan had told him, about how he lost his father. He could relate to missing someone that much, he still remembered how he felt when he first lost his grandfather, how alone he seemed to be in the isolation of the deep woods. He reached his arm around Gohan hoping that just being there would be enough to cheer him up. The two watched the final bits of sun fade into the darkness of night. It would have been a rather peaceful ending to a day of excitement had Goku not seen animals run scared past them shortly after.
He started to stand up but noticed Gohan had fallen asleep with his head resting on his arm. Goku carefully picked him up and laid him on the grass next to the tree, he decided he'd ask how they got there later. His attention turned back to the animals as more passed him including a group of frightened monkeys. He began running towards whatever threat awaited him when the dragon radar pinged, he took it out and saw that he was running towards the white dot indicating the next dragon ball, whatever he was dealing with definitely had something to do with it.
Smoke was the first thing he saw, it rose above the trees in thick black puffs. He came upon a roaring fire set by none other than the Red Ribbon Army, he cleared his way through burning logs and charred trunks to meet the colonel who was aiming straight at a monkey that was fleeing with the dragon ball.
Goku raced ahead of Silver who steadied his aim as he shot the branch the monkey was reaching for, causing it to fall off of a massive cliff. Goku leaped over the edge of the cliff and caught the doomed monkey just in time, holding onto an exposed root with one hand. He noticed that she didn't have the dragon ball, but the baby she was carrying did.
The monkey seemed to show gratitude before it climbed over Goku. As it moved away from him he caught a glimpse of the ball and noted it's five red stars. "Aw man it's the five-star ball."
He turned his head as he heard the scream of the monkey. Climbing back up onto solid ground, he met the colonel face to face. Goku could see him holding the now dead monkey and her baby. Silver pried the baby monkey from the mother's arms, throwing its corpse to the side. He tried grabbing the ball from the baby but it threw it over the cliff landing with a splash into the river below.
"You little fool, now I'll kill you too!" He began to squeeze the monkey's throat but was kicked backward by Goku causing him to release his grip on the poor animal. He picked himself up off the ground, he felt like he just got hit by a truck. "I don't know what you are, but you aren't human."
The boy spat back "You're the only one who isn't human here! You killed that monkey just for a stupid dragon ball."
The colonel laughed as he tapped the button the activate button on the radio on his waist, which served as an indication to other officers that he was in danger. He raised his hands in the air admittingly and said.
"And I'd do it again kid."
The colonel then jumped onto the floor with his hands over his head as Red Ribbon Forces began firing rapidly on his position. Goku jumped off the cliff, he was hungry, tired, and already injured from earlier that day. There was no way he could beat both the Red Ribbon ground forces or their tanks. As he fell he screamed "NIMBUS!"
The cloud caught him and he flew downriver. He made a giant circle around the army, trying to avoid seeing any troops, and eventually made his way back towards where Gohan was.
When he got there it had started to rain, he picked Gohan up and placed him on the cloud along with some firewood. He remembered passing a cave on his way back and decided that it was a good place to hold up for the night.
He quickly stacked the wood in the dark cave, he had built plenty of fires in pitch-black darkness so this was going to be a breeze. The flint sparked, the tinder caught flame, and Goku continued to feed its insatiable hunger for wood. The rain poured outside, it rained harder there than any other place Goku had ever seen. He could see Gohan shiver from the cold as the wind blew into the cave. He took a break from feeding the fire and shifted Gohan closer to it hoping that would be enough, but it didn't seem to be. Putting as much wood into the fire as he could he brightened the flame and laid next to his shivering friend.
The rain was so bad that night it completely flooded the river causing the dragon ball to wash up onto dry land and wedge itself between two boulders. The rain stopped in the early hours of the morning and the sun rose above the rainforest.
The sun was bright but the cave served as the perfect shade to stop the sun from blinding them. Goku and Gohan's stomachs rumbled as they woke up, and the two searched the forest for fruit, quickly finding plenty to fill their massive appetites.
"You wouldn't believe it, Jack, he killed this poor mommy monkey then tried to take the dragon ball from her baby. It was terrible but I couldn't beat him because I was hungry and my head hurt." Goku said as the two sat down to eat.
Gohan scolded himself.
You fell asleep, you just can't help being useless, can you? What if something happened? What if one of those Red Ribbon grunts got a lucky shot in on dad? What then huh?
He spoke with remorse. "That's awful Goku, I'm sorry I wasn't there for you"
Goku, while chewing the bits of apple in his mouth, said, "That's okay I didn't want to wake you up, you seemed really tired." He paused as his grip nearly crushed his apple " I'm just so sick of these guys, they're terrible."
The two finished their breakfast and began their search for the five-star ball eventually coming upon a man and a wolf dressed in Red Ribbon clothing searching for it too. Goku hopped off the cloud and gazed onto the radar's digital green plane, he guided his red marker to right on top of the white dot. He lowered the radar seeing two boulders in front of him. He reached between the two and felt a smooth orb. He got a good grip and lifted it out counting then recounting the five stars. He held it over his head and laughed as he spoke to Gohan
"We got it!"
The two henchmen stared in awe as the two walked back to the magical cloud that carried them wherever they wished.
"Stop right there you two! Give us that ball or we'll shoot"
The two prepared their pistols but were quickly beaten by the boys, they laid incapacitated and watched the two fly off into the sky. The man managed to crawl over to their jeep and turn on the radio. He flipped through the channels until he came upon the one designated for officers only.
"Colonel silver sir, I think we have a problem here"
Goku stared at the ball as the two soared through the air, captivated by its orange glow and five red stars. He sighed, upset that this one carried one more than his grandfather's.
Gohan saw his disappointment which was very visible as he drooped his shoulders "It's okay Goku we'll find it"
Goku looked over at Gohan and noticed a rocket heading straight for them.
Silver ran back into the makeshift base he used for the dragon ball search and placed the launcher on the table. He ran quickly back outside waited for his adversaries to crash in front of him.
He grabbed Gohan and threw himself off the cloud. He slammed into the ground on his back and whined as his lower spine took most of the impact. Goku stood up and searched the sky for his cloud that had been incinerated
"You blew up my nimbus!"
The colonel removed his jacket and cracked his knuckles "Yes I did, didn't I? Well, you'll have to forgive me. Sometimes I get a little overzealous. Say you wouldn't happen to have some sort of dragon ball locater would you? Ours seems to be a little imprecise and I'm in the market for a new one. And if you want to live, I suggest you hand it over... now."
Goku stood in his fighting pose despite his new injuries. Gohan could see just how physically unfit Goku was for this fight, the cut on his shoulder he'd dismissed as a scrape had reopened and was bleeding profusely and he could see Goku bend forward a little trying to take the pressure of his own weight off of his back. He walked forward and rested a hand on his father's shoulder.
"Relax Goku, I've got this one."
Goku collapsed onto the floor, thankful for the assist, and looked confidently up at Gohan. "Alright, good luck Jack you've got this."
The man laughed at Goku's replacement. "So you have a death wish, do you? With him, I was a little worried but you, an ordinary child? You are finished." He charged at Gohan only to be punched into the dirt just as Goku did the night prior. His head smacked into a rock causing him to be knocked unconscious instantly.
Gohan walked back over to Goku and helped him stand up.
"That guy wasn't so tough huh?"
He smiled, happy to see some confidence from Gohan who always seemed to be somewhat insecure.
"I guess not, great job Jack!"
Goku walked over to the colonel's jacket, he remembered seeing him pull out a container of capsules back at the Ox Kings. Reaching into the pockets he found the container and selected a capsule at random. He threw it and out came a lanky droid that raised its hand to salute him
"I am a personal robotic assistant and I am at your service master."
Goku was amazed, he'd never seen a robot that looked like this "Huh you're strange. Can you help me? I need something fast to ride in so my friend and I can go find the dragon balls."
The droid responded in its robotic voice, "Throw the dinocap labeled number three."
Goku did as the droid asked and a jet appeared before him. "Wow! It's an airplane but it's so small. Jack, I thought airplanes were way bigger than this."
Gohan smiled at his father's naivety. "Well they can be both small and big, this one specifically is a fighter jet and those are usually very small."
Goku walked over to it releasing the hinge that opened up the cabin of the aircraft, he saw that there were only two seats and he knew Gohan probably couldn't fly this.
"Aw man, Mister Robot we can't fly in this...there's only two seats."
The robot stepped closer to the vehicle and activated the world map screen on the ship's computer.
"Two seats is quite sufficient as you are traveling with only one companion. Please type the coordinates for your destination into the Navi-Computer and the Red Ribbon Special Forces Fighter Jet will transport you there."
Goku began to sweat, it took him a lot of time to count on his fingers, there was no way he could plug in coordinates.
"Uh Jack do you know how to type in coord-uhm"
Interjecting the droid said, "coordinates."
Goku smiled at the robot. "Thank you."
Gohan walked over and stepped into the front seat of the cockpit. He plugged in the coordinates for the closest dragon ball and gave a thumbs up to Goku who waited for his answer.
"Yeah, alright!" Goku hugged the robot "Thank you so much!"
The robot responded coldly, "If my services are no longer needed please place me back into my capsule by pressing the red button I am displaying, also do keep in mind to place me back into spot number seven and have a safe flight."
Goku clicked the button and witnessed the robot transform back into its capsule form. He placed it carefully back into its spot and hopped into the back seat of the craft. Gohan pressed the 'begin journey' button and the jet shot into the sky.
Goku pressed his face against the glass and watched as the fog formed. While drawing his best interpretation of his cloud on the window he pictured himself flying on it and soaring through the open air once more. He wiped away the image upset that his companion was gone, he missed his nimbus already.