Goku, carrying the miniaturized Bulma, was rocketing towards Roshi's island.
"Look… it's not my fault!" Bulma whined, "my dad's stupid capsule literally looks just like mine… dammit, the Dragon Ball is on the bottom of the ocean!"
"Well, Roshi has a sub?" Goku offered, "we could probably borrow it."
"Yeesh, the less time I have to spend with that pervert, the better though." Bulma shook her head.
To their surprise, however, Roshi wasn't on the Island, it seemed like only Turtle was keeping the house safe.
"Huh… not even Launch is here?" Bulma asked.
"Nope, she's out training. Maybe you should too, it helps with circulation after all." Turtle began with his slightly nasally voice.
"Yeah yeah, look, we're in a big hurry, we need to find the Dragon Balls before the Red Ribbon Army does."
"Red Ribbon Army?!" Turtle began, "They're here?!"
"They're somewhere, but we don't know for certain." Bulma shrugged, "they're searching for the dragon balls, and probably have a lower scale radar, so they can only search in zones. If we recover the Dragon Ball first, we ensure they still search the area, and we can find them in our leisure."
"Uh… why do you want to find the Red Ribbon Army?" Turtle asked, "you're normally a coward Bulma."
"HEY! I'M JUST IN TOUCH WITH MY MORTALITY!" Bulma growled and stopped, "Look, I think the Red Ribbon Army may have something to do with the Crane School, which means I might find something about Jazz and PaoPao."
Turtle nodded, "I see… that does make sense, well, you are a smart girl, so you'll probably find them easily." The turtle crawled into Roshi's hut, and after a few moments came back with a large silver capsule. "Here's Roshi's submarine, but please return it back safe and sound."
Bulma nodded, "alright, Goku! Let's go!"
Goku nodded. "Alright!"
…
"No way Jazz would do that!" Hercule roared.
"Quiet down!" Krillin hissed. "Launch is concentrating!"
Like Chi-Chi, Launch seemed to have an innate talent in spiritual control, so Roshi's training towards the two girls was a bit different compared to Krillin, Yamcha, and Hercule, for them, who needed to build up their physical stamina to keep up with the grueling strain of ki related techniques and just increase their judgment, the two girls could supplement their physical abilities far more easily with ki, and Roshi judged the best way to help them was by increasing the balance between body, mind, and spirit. At the moment, Launch was training her mind, by launching and controlling a minute amount of ki through increasingly smaller and smaller rings, the goal was to keep from destroying the rings, and even the slightest distraction could cause her to lose focus.
"S-sorry," Hercule whispered. "But… Jazz wouldn't do that…he likes her."
Yamcha shook his head, "I don't believe it either, but the warriors of Tsukimi do." The warriors had come in two distinct groups, the first group came before the news of PaoPao's death entered the martial artists' communication network. They had reacted by breaking down into tears or becoming extremely mad. One of them had even attempted to attack Hercule, who had boasted of being personally taught by Jazz before the entire debacle began. To his credit, the World Champ held his own and even beat the Tsukimi shinobi, which did little to aid the tension between them and the Roshi's main disciples. Even now, they ate at a different location, rested at a different location, and often trained as far from them as possible. Now a new group of 25 men and women, all working for Tsukimi, came to join the training. Amongst them was a girl named Yurin.
Yurin was haughty, arrogant, and strong. She was easily capable of keeping up with Yamcha and Krillin and trained using the same weights as them. Though she was rude, and after the first afternoon of training together, it was Hercule who was ready to blow up.
Yurin had made an offhand remark about Jazz's cruelty and slyness, in stabbing their leader in the back, and Hercule had rushed to defend Jazz. This resulted in a one-sided fight, and left Hercule, the technical aggressor, punished by not having lunch. Behind Roshi's back, the others had used a bit of their portion to feed Hercule, and while he was thankful for their consideration, his pride and anger made him refuse to want to eat.
"It's just… it's not fair, Jazz isn't here to defend himself, and if he learns the truth, it might be too late." Hercule grumbled.
Chi-Chi simply laid her head down in silence while Yamcha and Krillin chewed on their food noisily.
"I know, I know." Krillin began, "I… I just can't believe it either, I mean, I was there when PaoPao trained Jazz."
"Huh?" Chi-Chi asked.
"You never knew?" Krillin chuckled.
"Yeah, maybe 1 and a half years ago, Jazz had no experience with martial arts, PaoPao helped train his foundation."
"I see…" Yamcha nodded, "that makes sense, they've known each other longer than we have either of them, there's a bond there that you can't just destroy. There's gotta be something more to the story." At the same time, he said this, a shocked scream sounded from one of the Tsukimi disciples. Sharp enough to break Launch's concentration.
One explosion of dust and a sneeze later led to the Blonde Launch storming towards the Tsukimi.
"Why you bastards! I was concentrating! Don't you understand silence!?"
"Sorry, I did not mean to disturb you." The woman, Yurin, inclined her head slightly. "My allies were simply surprised by some updated news on our clan's mission."
"That being?" Yamcha began.
"Confidential." A woman wearing a mempo mask interrupted, "outsiders are not permitted to witness."
"Outsiders?" Yamcha repeated, "we trained together, and fought together with PaoPao, if it has something to do with her, then it has something to do with me!"
Yurin giggled, "really? So does that mean you'd slay Jasper without hesitation?"
"No!" Krillin shouted, "I would not, because he didn't kill PaoPao, I just know it!"
"Please, how could you even think to believe that?" Yurin's face twisted into a cold sneer.
"Easy!" Krillin retorted, "They like each other! Jazz does realize he looks at her like a lovesick puppy sometimes, then when she looks at him he's all straight-faced like a freaking porcelain doll. And I'm sure PaoPao feels similar!"
"How dare you as-" The masked warrior began.
"Silence, Talia." The girl called Yurin giggled, "really, love-sick puppy? Is that the expression? I'd have never guessed. Perhaps I shouldn't have stopped taking those speech therapy classes."
"Huh?" Chi-Chi cocked her head in confusion and realization, Yurin's voice had changed to an octave lower, and her cadence had shifted back to its normal tempo, she knew that voice from anywhere, as quiet as it was, the voice belonged to a person who could speak up a storm when she needed to, and who had the strength to back up her charisma. "Pao...Pao?" She began, tearing up.
"Wait?!" Yamcha turned between the trembling Chi-Chi and smiling Yurin. "You… you're?"
Before their eyes, Yurin removed her facemask, revealing her true identity for only a few seconds before placing it back on.
"You're alive!" Hercule shouted.
"But why?!" Krillin growled, angry after the initial shock and relief. "The world thinks Jazz killed you!"
"Yes," PaoPao replied, voice raising in octave and speeding up again, "yes it does, but so does the Crane School and Red Ribbon Army, which means they won't try to go after my base for the time being, as they're busy trying to steal the Dragon Balls."
"What?" Krillin asked, confused.
"Remember, my organization, we work with and for the King of the World to protect it from criminal organizations. The Red Ribbon Army is one such organization. On one of our missions to stop them, my people were ambushed and killed by a combined strike force led by disciples and professional Assassins of the Crane School. I led my troops to retaliate, but we were overwhelmed by the combined might of his strongest disciples Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu. They may have killed me if not for Jazz landing between us and knocking me away with Flames of renewal." She giggled, "he was even so kind as to heal several scars I've had since my younger years."
"Why's Jazz working for the Crane School?!" Yamcha asked.
"He's probably attempting what I'm doing."
"Hmm?" Yamcha asked.
"Roshi and Shen, are wildly different people, and their master curtailed the specifics of his training to cater to both, Mutato's full technique is only reachable to one who fully understands both schools, at least, that is a rumor that travels the world of elite martial arts. But how would one ever learn from both? Especially for the stingy Shen? By being useful. By allowing them to advertise his name, Jazz both emboldens new disciples, as well as gives the school some prestige in the mainstream. But imagine what would happen if it came out that I survived, wouldn't that be a blow to the Crane School's Reputation? And what about the Red Ribbon Army, with me gone, they can continue their plans unscathed, how would they react to a surprise invasion from Tsukimi, lead by a ghost?" PaoPao laughed.
"Did Jazz tell you all this?" Yamcha asked.
"No, but his intention was clear, as well as his strength, though, the only mystery is Tien's jump in power, he took out 24 of my trained warriors at once, even after they entered the Jiang-Shi state."
"Wow…" Krillin whistled nervously. "That's pretty strong."
"It's impossible without something supernatural happening to him."
"How powerful are your warriors?" Yamcha asked.
PaoPao smiled and called the woman in a Mempo mask forward. "Talia." She said simply. Without missing a beat, the Talia placed a talisman on her forehead. "Why don't you test her out?" PaoPao asked.
Yamcha grinned… "alright."
…
After installing a 3-dimensional function for the radar, Bulma ended up finding a secret tunnel entrance.
"Weird…" She thought as they casually made their way through the narrow, winding, dark underwater cavern. "I'd think there would be Red Ribbon Army members out here, but not a single peep from anyone or anything."
"Maybe they're having a party." Goku offered.
"I'd hate to see what kind of party those jerks would host." The submarine came up to a shallow lake. Getting off of it, the pair of explorers found themselves in another subterranean tunnel, though dry this time.
"Hmmm… If I had a flashlight, or maybe Krillin… that baldy's head is shiny."
"It's too dark honestly." Goku agreed, "I can't see a thing." He waved his arms until he made contact with a flat metal box fastened to one of the grooves of the wall. As he pressed the button, the air filled with the dull wine of electricity beginning to run through wiring.
"What the?!" Bulma looked up as the tunnel was filled with bright disk-shaped lights that flowed down a straight line.
"Wow! I pushed this thing and it got bright!" Goku smiled in wonder.
Bulma scratched her chin, "it…we aren't the first ones to enter this cave, but who was using it?" She looked around, "but why would there be lights in a cave this deep in the ocean…"
"Bulma!" She turned to see a 4-foot tall skeleton charge towards her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Bulma was so stunned that she rolled unto her back then flat on her but again.
Goku was on the floor rolling. "You jerk! What the hell are you doing?! People's lives may be in danger! It could be that the Red Ribbon Army is already here y'know?!"
Goku nodded sheepishly, "sorry Bulma, I just wanted to have some fun."
Bulma looked at his morose expression, "look… I get it, and… yeah I was harsh to yell, where'd you even get that thing?!"
As if his sadness was just a memory, Goku pulled her along to the skeletal remains of a sailor of some sort. An old model assault rifle lay at his feet, dating the corpse to maybe 40-50 years old. A large buccaneer hat with a skull and crossbones emblazoned in its center lay by the corpse's side. After a few short seconds, something in Bulma's head clicked. "I think… that's a pirate? But… then this place is really old, this was probably an old base of sorts." She allowed a small smile to hit her face, "there must be treasure!"
"Treasure? Is that important? I'd like food."
"You can use the treasure to get money, and money can get lots of food."
"Oh boy!" Goku raced ahead.
"Slow the fuck down!" Bulma sprinted after the monkey boy.
Eventually, they reached an obviously manufactured hallway, the rock formations, and the rough ground and ceiling were replaced with smooth flat walls, floors, and ceilings. The hallway they came across was quite strange looking, several small black circles filled the floor in a uniform pattern, while several uniform circular holes decorated the two walls. Several pockmarks and slices filled the walls, but only in the same general area as the holes in the wall.
"Hmmm… odd…" Bulma looked around, picking up a loose pebble, she threw a stone as hard as she could towards one of the black dots on the floor. Upon striking it, from one of the holes, a spear shot out, striking with enough force to stab into the solid stone wall. "Ahah!" Her exclamation started Goku.
"What?" He asked, curious.
"It's a trap! The buttons are pressure-sensitive. It's a trap made to protect the treasure from intruders. When you press the buttons on the floor, spears fly out from the holes in the wall."
"Oh wow, I guess it's a good thing we didn't walk on through, you'd have been made into a cheese slice!" Goku laughed.
"Yeah yeah… cheese… fuck! I meant jeeze…" Bulma growled at the slip of the tongue, "the problem is though you can't just get by going her unless…" she smiled and turned on her shrinking watch. Goku watched with interest as she dashed through the open spaces on the floor. As she got up, she turned to Goku. "Okay, Goku! I'll try to throw it to you!" She reached into her pockets. "I've got to have a few hairbands and stuff, with enough elasticity I…" she was cut off as Goku leaped the 20-meter gap without a running start.
"Well, that was fun!" He walked towards the next hallway, a winding one made out of bricks. "Come on Bulma!"
Bulma widened her eyes at the boy. "That… holy crap you are crazy strong." Her eyes then turned dreamy, "oh… my Yamcha's doing the same training now…" Her thoughts filled with scenes of Yamcha leaping across traffic, Bulma in his arms.
"Hey, Bulma!" Goku called from a distance away, "I'll leave ya behind if you just stand there."
"Dammit! Hold on!" Bulma chased after him, annoyed with his nonchalance. "There could be more traps!"
"Well, I don't really see or smell anything weird." But the message was understood, and Goku slowed down. Though they encountered no other trap as they came across an underground cave.
"Oh wow…" Bulma looked at the technology, "this stuff's at least half a century old."
"What makes you say that?" Goku asked.
"Well, my dad invented capsules, so before then you couldn't carry everything with you, so there has to be a separate above-ground entrance somewhere." She looked around, "though if I had the time, I could probably create standard capsules for some of this stuff…" She was so lost in thought that she barely registered Goku picking her up and leaping out of the way of a massive sword swing.
"What the?!"
They turned to see the enemy. A robot with a long baboon-like skull face, a jolly roger on its forehead, glowing red eyes, and a long whip-like tail. It rushed at them through jet propulsion despite having long legs with spring and ball-bearing joints. In one hand it wielded a sword, and in the other, its entire forearm was a minigun, with which it used to fire bullets towards the pair.
"Meanie!" Goku roared, charging into the robot and knocking its head off. As the machine sputtered and struggled to move, he pushed it into the water and fired a ki beam from his finger. Bulma heard the water roar as the explosion sent out a huge spout of water, splashing Goku. "Bleh! Ptoouii!" Goku stuck out his tongue, "eww… too salty!"
"That was different." Bulma began, "don't you normally shoot out a blast with both hands? And this one was yellow, normally they are blue."
"Oh, that's cause I tried this one called the Don Don Ray. Roshi told me it pierced things better than the Kamehameha, and it's faster, I saw PaoPao do it once, and I thought it was cool. I fought a guy like him before, he felt the same, made of really hard stuff, sorta like Jazz was when we fought, so I thought blasting would work."
"I see…" Bulma shrugged. "Okay. Well, it's a good thing this stuff didn't blow up, or else there might have been a cave-in." She took out the radar, and they followed it.
"Ah! The path splits!"
Bulma smirked, "yes, but we have the technology." She giggled, turning right as she followed the radar. Goku followed after her.
As they went down the long hallway Goku turned to Bulma. "Thanks for coming along! It's boring without a friend sometimes."
Bulma nodded, "I mean, it's pretty fun searching for the dragon balls sometimes. And it's pretty nostalgic."
"Yeah, we're just missing Jazz and Oolong, then Puar and Yamcha! And I want Krillin to come to, and PaoPao! Master Roshi, and Launch! Hercule and Miguel too!"
Bulma giggled, "wow, I don't know if they'd all fit in the mini-sub."
"You could just use more of your shrinky thingies." Goku offered.
"You're right!" Bulma smirked, "wow Goku, you're full of good ideas sometimes."
"Thanks! I guess."
They came across a square entrance to a well.
"Hmm…" Bulma looked around, "it looks like it's a dead-end, we can only continue through the well."
Both kids shed their pants, shoes, and socks, preparing to dive into the cold, salty water. One dark, cold trip later and they came across a shallow cave.
Bulma got up, spluttering and gasping for air. "Jeez…I haven't been in any water this long since I quit the diving team." She sighed, then looked up. "Aha!"
Goku followed her gaze to a large wooden chest. "What is that?" He asked.
"It's the treasure!" Bulma opened it to reveal millions, if not billions of Zeni's worth of treasure. "Aiyaiya!" She sat down, surprised, "this stuff is worth a fortune… holy crap."
"Oh wow… so that means a lot of food!" Goku grinned, "but where's the Dragon Ball?"
Bulma looked around, "probably there." In the corner of the room, another entryway into the water was spotted. "It's probably in that small pond."
Goku dived in, and after a few minutes of exploring, came out with the 3-star dragon ball.
"Wowzers kid… what's with that lung capacity of yours." Bulma sighed. "Now… how to get this treasure."
"Can't you put it in a capsule?"
Bulma laughed, "haha, fat chance all… wait!" She smiled. She took out the capsule she brought by mistake, the one full of all her dad's dirty magazines. Dumping their contents into the lake, she began fiddling with the settings, eventually, after she was satisfied, she tossed the now empty capsule towards the treasure chest. Goku watched with interest as the treasure disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving only the capsule.
"Wow… it's like magic!"
Bulma giggled, "praise me more Goku!"
"Okay! Now let's go!" Goku ignored her, jumping into the lake and towards the tunnel.
"...Boys…" Bulma growled, following after him.
The extraction out of the cave was pretty easy. Going back the way they came and back to Roshi's submarine was much simpler than the other way around.
"Wow…" Bulma sighed, "that was fun."
"I mean, yeah, but it felt a little boring." Goku sighed, "like, the robot guy was too easy, and the rest of it was boring."
"Oh?" Bulma began sarcastically, "what, did you want the cave to start falling in? And a giant octopus to come and start trying to eat you? I'm just glad we weren't cornered by the Red Ribbon Army." Her face went blank as she slapped her forehead. "Shit! I completely forgot!"
"Huh?"
"The Red Ribbon Army! We didn't see heads or tails of them! Aren't they supposed to be looking for the Dragon Balls? Did I make a mistake?" She scratched her head in annoyance. "Dammit, just yesterday I would have flown to another planet if I heard the Red Ribbon Army was in a mile to my city, now I'm trying to find those bastards, and now they wanna be scarce?!"
"Maybe we can find them?" Goku asked. "I'll fly around with Kintoun, we should find their base."
Bulma nodded, "yeah! Let's just return Roshi's submarine." They returned to the island, what awaited them there was still only Turtle.
"Roshi's not back?" Bulma asked.
"No, he's beginning to start his long training sequence for his new and older students."
"Oh? They're training without me?" Goku groaned, "come on… that's not fair."
"Goku! We have to find the Red Ribbon Army!" Bulma snapped, "Come on! Focus!"
Goku growled, "but why! You just say PaoPao and Jazz are in trouble, but you won't tell me why?"
Bulma, already stressed from her forgetfulness, snapped, "It's cause the stupid Crane School started saying that Jazz killed PaoPao!" She covered her mouth immediately.
"What?!" Goku's eyes widened. "No way… they're friends, we're friends! Why would he do something so dirty!" Before anyone could stop him, he jumped on the cloud. "Kintoun, you knew where Karin's tower was, do you know where Crane School is?" Before Bulma or Turtle could say anything, Goku soared back towards West City.
Turtle began to speak quietly. "You really screwed that one up huh…"
"S-shut up!" Bulma spat. "Dammit! What island are they on?! I'm going to freaking…" She turned on the submarine, checked the remaining fuel, then turned to Turtle. "Get the fuck on!"
"M-me?!"
"Yes, you! I need someone who can tell me where to go, there's no Dragon Ball on that Island, else the radar would have detected it! I've got to tell Roshi!"
"B-but why?!" Turtle began.
"Because If I don't those two might fight, I'm already confused on what the hell is going on and if one of them dies because of this! I won't forgive myself!" Bulma started the sub's engine.
…
Yamcha curled his fists.
"Are you sure you want to face Talia?" PaoPao began. She was sitting on a chair her followers set up for her.
Yamcha merely nodded, "of course, I've got to measure myself to this Tien guy, after all…"
…
...
Jasper(Jazz) Duncan
Age: 16, physical appearance: 16
Hair color: Red
Skin color: white
Race: Quarter Caucasian(White American of English-Irish descent), Quarter Asian (Korean), Quarter Black(African-American), Quarter Hispanic (Cuban)
Height: 5ft 10inches | 177.8 centimeters
Weight: 161 lbs | 73 kilograms, Wearing 44 lb weights on wrists and ankles, and 100 lb weighted shirt, alongside a full body tension harness.
Skills: Decent Sports Talent for Age, Semi-Above Average Intellect for age, intermediate martial arts skills, average ki control, good pain tolerance, trap building, intermediate weapons mastery, basic boxing, basic MMA, street fighting skills, bullshitting, and trickery
Powers: Magic Materialization (Fire) (Advanced Understanding), Magic Materialization (Water) (Basic Understanding)
General magic: Basic Understanding
Max Power/ Pump Up (1.5x (mastered), 2x (capable),
Shapeshifting, Mastered Skill level (indefinite)
Noble Werewolf. Juvenile Awakening, 1.5x, currently possible only under a full moon
Powerlevel: 86, will raise to 129 temporarily when using Pump Up/Max Power 1.5, or 172 when using Pump Up/Max Power 2x, if using Juvenile awakening, power will be 193 or 258 respectively
…
…
Afterword
Oh no, it looks like Goku's now under the impression that PaoPao is dead, and unfortunately, PaoPao is at the last place he'd know to check. I look forward to the clash between Goku and Jazz, and Goku and Tien, I also look forward to the fight between the Jiang-Shi-afied Talia and Yamcha. I plan to try and cover how exactly PaoPao's Jiang-Shi technique works, using what I learned from the anime and wiki as a backdrop. Also, I'm sure a lot of you noticed something weird. General Blue is missing, isn't he? Well… you'll find that out.