Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball.
Betaed by: Zim'sMostLoyalServant and my best friend.
LAST TIME ON DRAGON BALL IJ:
The time had come for a rematch with Tao. Korin's training paid off and Tao soon regretted agreeing to a two v one.
But Tao was no graceful loser, and tried to end things with a bang, or rather a boom, after feigning surrender. But Goku kicked a hole in one, ending the fight. Bora, meanwhile, made sure to put the master assassin off the board permanently.
With Tao taken down and an extra Flying Nimbus to their name, Bora accompanies the Son siblings for a showdown for the Red Ribbon Army on their home turf.
What peril is awaiting them in the lair of the Red Ribbon! Find out now, on Dragon Ball Intended Journey!
Chapter 18
Cutting the Red Ribbon
A Dark Ambition Revealed!
Red Ribbon HQ:
"The Dragon Balls are on the move at last," Black remarked.
"Heheh, Tao dragged his feet, must have found some village to ransack or something. But no matter, my Dragon Balls are on their way. Brown will find the last one soon enough with the enemy radar, and then Tao will deliver Dr. Briefs and his wife into my power! After all these years my wish, my dream, it's finally coming true! What could stop me now!? HAHAHA!" Commander Red laughed.
Black watched him, and with a snap of his fingers summoned the overseeing officer of the command center.
"Calculate his arrival time, and shut down the air-ground defense network to let him in. The last thing we need is to give that monster an excuse to turn on us."
"Yessir! I'll have the air unit patrols informed as well to be careful not to fire on UFOs from that vector."
"Good. This is not in the bag yet, I will not have us trip in front of the finish line," Black told the officer as Red continued to cackle in his command chair.
Red Ribbon HQ Airspace:
The one-man scout aircraft moved with a laziness that belied its true speed, the Red Ribbon pilot peering through the visor built into his helmet from the semi-open cockpit.
"This is Unit 84, I should be in position for visual confirmation," he said into his radio.
"Be advised, allied unit will be traveling at high speeds."
"I know! On a freaking pillar apparently. Things have gotten weird around here," The pilot muttered, before spotting a dot growing in the sky.
"Visual, it's Taopaipai! No, wait! It's not him! It's the brats-!" The pilot screamed, before his vehicle exploded and crashed to the ground.
X X X
"Unit 84? Unit 84!? 84 has been destroyed, sirs!" the communication tech yelled, standing up at his station.
"Bogie is slowing down. He said it wasn't Tao?" a man monitoring the radar stated.
"What?! Get me a visual!" Red demanded.
"Patching through, sir!"
"No, nooo!" Red tugged on his hair at the sight of the two brats riding on a cloud, the boy holding a staff, and a tall shirtless warrior following on his own cloud.
"Shoot! Shoot them down!" Red bellowed.
"We can't Commander, they're past the auto defense grid, they'll reach the base before it can reactivate in that sector!"
"Scramble all aerial assets, shoot to kill!" Black commanded.
"This is Commander Red, we're under attack, throw everything at them, kill them! Kill them all!" Red bellowed into a microphone, grabbing it from the communication officer. Black stood by, sweating, eyes on the radar screen.
"They have the balls. They beat Taopaipai," he uttered. Unseen by any of them, Captain Violet and Colonel Mustard stepped away from a door leading into the command center and exchanged nods before running off.
X X X
Bora leapt to the ground first, amidst gunfire on the terrace. The bullets ricocheted off him, and he struck out with his spear, quickly clearing the space. Lunch followed, landing easily and pulling out a goldenrod flower from her pocket to tickle her nose.
"Launch won't want to miss the action again," she noted.
"Achoo! …Alright then, let's get old school on this one!" the blonde cackled as she pulled out a pair of capsules and Goku landed on a balcony, knocking its defenders aside with the Power Pole.
X X X
"Send more troops! Those three aren't getting one step inside my base!" Red commanded.
"Sir, they've already cleared the South Terrace, they are inside and bursting through barricades as quick as they reach them!" a tech yelled, hand to the headphones he had on.
"Grrr, this is pathetic, I want any survivors executed! They're disgraces to the color red!" the commander yelled.
X X X
Goku leapt through the air, kicking one soldier in the neck and rebounding to strike another in the head. Launch's latest gun clicked empty, so she tossed it aside and reached for a capsule, only to shrug and leap up onto a balcony and deck the shocked soldier there.
"Where is General Blue? Where is the man who killed my son?" Bora demanded, snapping a rifle in half with one hand as a dogman soldier cowered before him.
"I don't know, I'm just a grunt! All I know is he left with that Tao guy! Please don't kill me, the Red Ribbon made me join them!" the soldier stammered, falling to his knees. Bora looked away.
"It seems he really isn't here," Bora muttered. The soldier sprang from his knees to jab a knife in Bora's side, which snapped clean off. Bora turned to glare down at the soldier.
"…I tripped?" the dogman squeaked. Bora's fist crashed down on the helmet he wore, shattering it. Bora walked on into the building that Launch and Goku had entered, following the sound of battle. He didn't even break stride as he pulled his spear from the wall by the door, casually flicking off the two men stuck to it.
X X X
"They seem to be heading toward the North Tower, sir!" the bear officer reported, practically trembling as shouting consumed the center.
"The Dragon Balls, they have a new radar and they're coming after my Dragon Balls," Red grumbled.
"Commander, please evacuate to the underground executive bunker," Black told him.
"Are you joking!? I'm Commander Red, I won't run and hide from some brat, a bimbo and a savage! Have the soldiers drop everything else. Nothing matters but stopping them, bring in the bazookas, the tanks, ANYTHING! KILL THEM!"
Another alarm started blaring.
"What now?!" Red shouted at the men on the consoles.
"Commander, it's the alarm for the liquid asset vault!"
"What? How'd those three get there so fast?" Black asked.
"Bringing up the feed," another tech said. The radar screen vanished to reveal the vault door being opened by a fat man and a woman with violet hair.
"What?! Patch me through!" Red ordered. He grabbed a microphone and yelled into it, "Violet! Mustard! What do you think you two are doing!?"
Mustard stopped as Violet uncapsuled several containers, before grabbing a box full of jewels from the vault.
"Commander, sir! In light of the current crisis, we are taking the initiative to relocate organization assets to a secure location. We know that with your brave outlook, you will be reluctant to retreat even before overwhelming force. Rest assured, we will put these assets to good use with your successor. It's been an honor," Mustard said, before drawing his sidearm and shooting the camera.
"…Execute those two!" Red roared, pounding his fist onto the arm of his chair.
"With what? Sir, all our forces are on their way to the other side of the base," Black reminded him.
"This can't be happening! The Red Ribbon Army is an invincible force of evil!"
"Sir, the enemy has almost reached North Tower," the bear officer reported. When the Commander ground his teeth rather than answering, the bearman spoke up again.
"Sir, if I might be so bold…"
"I could use some boldness, some of these weaklings are running away! I didn't order a retreat!" Red shouted as the screen lit up to show the onslaught cutting through the base.
"Sir, perhaps we should just give them the balls? Just to buy some time and rebuild for another cam-"
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
Seething, Red holstered his smoking revolver, eyes bloodshot, veins popping in his neck.
"I'm not giving those balls up. Black, you're with me, we're going to the tower ourselves. The rest of you grab guns and go fight!" Red ordered, before running out of the room. Black followed after affirming the orders.
The techs and other soldiers in the center waited about thirty seconds, looking among themselves, before ripping off their Red Ribbon armbands and running out the other doors.
"The benefits package was lousy anyway!" one yelled, leaping over his recently deceased boss on the way out.
X X X
"Die, die, die!" a rabbit sergeant cried out, firing shot after shot from a hyper-gun at Goku. Behind the overturned table he was sheltering behind, two other soldiers loaded a bazooka.
"Remember, Wally, that blonde kicked a bazooka round away. You gotta shoot straight and as close as possible," the loading soldier instructed the shooter.
Goku advanced, dodging the bullet, then the rabbitman grinned.
"Now, Wally!" he said, ducking behind the table.
"Eat this!" Wally said, popping from cover with his bazooka mounted. He pulled the trigger with a grin that almost touched his goggles.
BOOM
"Hahhaha! That's what you get! I got him guys, a perfect shot!" Wally cackled.
"Nyah! We're going to be Generals!" the rabbitman said, popping back up.
"We're going to get a vacation time increase!" the third man said, also popping up.
"…What?" the third man said, looking at his peers. Then the smoke cleared, showing a charred but undaunted Goku.
"Great, now Lunch will have to fix my gi. Take this!" Goku said, charging forward as the three soldiers screamed, then kicked the table and them back so hard it broke when it hit the wall.
Goku pulled out the radar and checked it again. A tank plowed through the wall nearby upside down with its cannon ripped off, making him look up. Bora came through the new hole, Launch followed after, whistling a happy tune.
"How's it going?" Goku asked.
"We're kicking butt and taking names, and we don't care what they're called," Launch snickered, pounding her palm.
"It seems they don't have any warriors in the league of Taopaipai, but we should be on guard for trickery," Bora said.
"Well, the Dragon Balls are in there," Goku said, pointing to the tower just across the courtyard Launch and Bora had come from.
X X X
Stepping out of the elevator, Red rushed over to the corner of the room and pressed part of the baseboard, causing it to pop open and reveal a safe.
"Are they here, sir?" Black asked as he inputted a code, locking the elevator.
"…Yes, my precious Dragon Balls," Red panted, taking them out, along with one in his pocket. He laid the three on the table in the room's center that was low enough for him to lean down on.
"I'll never surrender them. Not when I'm so close," the Commander panted.
Black silently walked over to the window and saw men running and, from what he could see of the gate, tanks and trucks were pouring out of the base. Sweating, the tall man walked over to the intercom in the wall and hit a four number sequence.
"Command center, respond," he ordered.
No one answered.
"Commander, the troops are fleeing and the command center is either taken or deserted."
"Execute them all," Red gasped, cradling the balls.
"…Sir, we need to get out of here. The enemy is tracking the balls. If we leave them, we can escape and reorganize."
"Just brats. They're just brats," Red growled.
"Brats that beat everything we threw at them, sir. Even Taopaipai. We underestimated them and hit above our league."
"Grrr, now I really don't want to give these up!" Red growled.
"Sir, it's either the balls or your life," Black stated.
"Bah!" Red said, dropping the balls into the bowl in the table's center. Black gave a sigh of relief and took the smaller man by the shoulder, guiding him toward the window that led to a fire escape.
"So close. If it weren't for them, I'd finally have become tall!"
"…What?" Black said, stopping in his tracks. Red kept walking and started to pace.
"And those useless troops, and that slut Violet!"
"Sir, what do you mean 'tall'," Black demanded.
"My wish!" Red snapped.
"Are you saying…? Are you saying that all of this was just to make you bigger? This entire campaign? All those troops killed, executed by your order?" Black pressed, stunned.
"Yes! What's the problem? I'm the Commander, you all belong to me, so what I say goes!"
"More than a decade's work, and you threw it away just to become taller?"
"I wanted world domination in the first place so no one would dare look down on me! But the Dragon Balls meant I could be a mountain; you'd have been puny compared to me! I wouldn't even need an army, with all that tallness the world would be my oyster!"
"All of it. Everything was because you hate being little?!" Black started to seethe.
"Bah, you couldn't understand! My whole life I've been looked down upon by the world. Tall people like you have no idea how good you've got it. First all the girls treated me like a little boy, then when my face matured, they'd say how tragic it was for a little boy to have such an ugly mug! Height is everything! And what's so wrong with me wanting my fair share, with interest!?"
"All these little wars, all those lives, for something that petty. We thought we were fighting to change the course of history! For something great and terrible!"
"Well, you're just another idiot like the rest, Black!" Red said, drawing his revolver and pointing it at the tall man glaring down at him, "You're just another expendable pawn! And I'm sick of 'you' looking down on me!"
CLICK
"…You wasted all your shots, little man," Black said. He kicked the Commander hard, sending him into a chair and knocking it over.
"How- how dare you?" Red demanded, trying to get up from his back, only for Black to step on his chest and kneel down. Teeth grinding, the dark-skinned man glared.
"You're right, I am a fool. Why didn't I kill you years ago and take command? At least then they all wouldn't have died for such an absurd reason. Did you even hire Gero so his cybernetics could someday make you tall too?" Black asked. Red blinked and looked to the side.
"Huh, could he do that?" the red-haired man asked. Black jabbed the barrel of his gun into Red's eye.
"It's too late for me to ask anything of the heavens, so I'll make a request to Lord Enma. When you're done suffering in Hell, I hope you are reincarnated even smaller," Black said. Red gasped, and Black pulled the trigger.
X X X
Bora's fist broke through the ceiling yet again, and Goku leapt up through the hole to look around.
"Beats the heck out of an elevator, being lifted up by a big strong guy," Launch said, smirking. Bora resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"I am certain you can jump up through these holes," he told her.
"Now, now, be a gentleman, big guy," she said, patting him on a pec.
"It's only one guy up here, and he's sitting down."
"Ohhh, sitting down waiting. Boss fight!" Launch laughed as Bora picked her up and put her through the hole before hauling himself up.
Black sat on a well-stuffed chair, his bloodstained suit jacket draped over the small body nearby, staring at the floor.
"Are you the boss of the Red Ribbon Army?" Goku asked.
"…Good question, that was the leader just now," Black said, lifting his head and pointing to the corpse. Bora walked over and lifted the jacket. He didn't wince, but put it back carefully.
"Treachery?" Bora asked the sitting man. Black shrugged, not turning to look at Bora.
"I just found out the wish we were fighting for was to make that man tall. Even world domination, all these years was all about him being insecure over being short. Heheheheh, what a tasteless joke," Black laughed mirthlessly.
"What about the Dragon Balls?" Goku asked.
"Hmm, oh, help yourself. They're right over there," Black said, pointing out the table with the three balls on it.
"Hey, it's them! All of them. That's six," Goku said. Black nodded.
"Last I heard, General Copper was hunting the last one. Guess it doesn't matter now."
"Where is General Blue?" Bora demanded of the sitting man.
"I don't know. He was supposed to stick with Tao, but Tao ditched him; the last orders he received were to make his way back here. Though considering how keen the Commander got on executing people, he may have decided to seek greener pastures. And he has no reason to come back here now. The Commander's dead, our treasury's been plundered, half of our troops here are dead or ran off. Looks like the end of the Red Ribbon Army."
"Then maybe I'll take your life in place of Upa's," Bora said, raising his spear and pointing it at the man's neck. Black turned the chair and lifted his chin.
"Well, it's not like I can stop you."
"Bora, he's not fighting," Goku pointed out.
"A leader carries responsibility for his followers' actions. You may not have sent Blue to kill my son, but you helped make that happen, and no doubt caused much misery to many and more serving that man."
"Hey Bora, I'm not going to say this guy deserves mercy, don't know him or all that he's done. But you really okay with killing someone who's already beat? That's the look of a man who life has kicked his feet out from under him then did a groin shot."
"…Turn yourself in to the King of this world, face their justice. Vow that, and I'll let you leave alive," Bora demanded
"…Hm. Fine. It's not like I have anything better to do," Black said, getting up.
Pulling out a capsule, he activated it, and in a puff of smoke a mecha appeared, with a domed cockpit. The warriors stepped back and fell into stances at the sight of it. Black leapt into the cockpit and closed it. He looked down at the three, then sighed visibly and pressed a button. Rockets fired up on its back, and without a care for the rain of debris, he launched up through the ceiling into the sky.
"…Goku, you okay with letting a bad guy maybe get away?" Launch asked him.
"Well, plenty of my friends used to be bad guys, so maybe he's done being one now too?" Goku wondered.
"…it seems we are done here. Can you find the next Dragon Ball?" Bora asked, letting his posture relax some.
Capsule Corp.:
"Dr. Briefs," the secretary said, kneeling down with the tray holding the phone. The scientist pushed himself out from under the large device he was working on, some fresh dark stains on his lab coat.
"Hmm, what is it?" the doctor said to the well-dressed young man.
"A phone call for you sir, it's a Miss Launch," the young man told him.
"Really? Well, wonder how the whole journey of adventure is going," the doctor said, taking the phone.
"Son Launch, how ya doing?
"Oh, still being stubborn about that. Weird? Hohoho, you young people today are so close-minded, bunch of young prunes.
"No, I deliberately used the word prune, it's a joke.
"You really need to work on that sense of humor.
"Bulma? Nope, I'm fresh out of Bulmas. Until my clone farm is operational anyway! Hahahaha!
"That was also a joke, or was it?
"Fine, fine. Bulma checked in after fixing your robot friend, but I haven't heard from her since, and she doesn't have a phone with her. She'll be back when she runs out of food or money.
"No, she took quite a lot of both. Healthy appetite on that girl, she'll be quite buxom when her growth really kicks in. Taking after her mother.
"I'd say it's just the right amount of information.
"Huh, so the radar isn't working?
"Well, sounds to me like something ate your wishing ball.
"That's right. Bulma loves to brag, so I know how that bit works. The radar is unable to detect the ball through thick living organic matter. Disrupts the signal the balls emit somehow or other.
"Must be a big fella. Well, hopefully if you wait, it will pass in time and you'll just need nose plugs and a shovel, but it could be lodged in that digestive tract.
"Nope, can't help ya. Science can only do so much, I should know, I'm a scientist. Anyway, maybe try the magic end of things, see if that magical kung-fu master of yours has a Ouija board, or maybe some wise talking piece of fruit to give you some directions.
"Glad to be of help.
"Say, I've been wondering, if one of you two got married, would that be a couple or a triple?
"Hello? Hello? Well, isn't that the modern condition in a nutshell, help someone out and they just rudely hang up on you," the doctor huffed, blowing his mustache out a bit.
X X X
Mai slumped, the mail bag sliding off her shoulder. A small slip and she fell back onto the shell she was wearing.
"Well done, Mai, your time has really improved," Yamcha told her.
Roshi nodded nearby, taking a puff on his pipe as he looked out over the still misty mountains as morning approached.
"Yeah, milk delivery is a no-go, too many locals just get their own from goats. But the mail must get through, ya know,"
"Why do goats hate me?" Mai asked.
Later:
"Okay, that was some good morning training. Good thing the high lake has a lake monster, I'd hate to have a swimming portion without a proper predator," Roshi mused.
"Phil wouldn't actually eat us, would he?" Mai asked, bringing up the rear as the three skipped up and down the trail toward Kame House.
"I wouldn't test it. I heard him saying humans are good on toast with mint jelly," Yamcha remarked.
"Mint jelly?! That's only good with mutton," Mai gasped.
Yamcha bumped into Roshi's back and Mai skipped face first into the shell in Yamcha's back.
"Oww," Mai moaned.
"Master?" Yamcha asked.
"Somebody's in the house," Roshi told them, adjusting his shades.
"Bandits?" Yamcha whispered. They crept closer and peeked up over the ground from the trail at the small house nestled in the high meadow before them.
"You two check it out," Roshi ordered. They looked over at him, "What? It's good training. Try and ambush them, make the element of surprise your key to victory."
"Can we take the shells off?" Mai asked.
"Nope, if it was easy, it wouldn't be good training," Roshi said. He watched as the two crept along the ground like proper turtles and scaled the wall silently into the upstairs window.
"Now this is quality improv. Face it Roshi, you're good at this," Roshi said to himself, smiling… Then the sounds of battle briefly erupted in the house, and all was silent.
"Er, maybe that wasn't such a hot idea after all," Roshi muttered, sweatdropping a bit.
The door opened, and Goku ran out and waved to him.
"Hi, Master Roshi!"
Soon:
"I really am sorry about that. I figured it was some enemy of the geezer's," Launch said as she exited the kitchen and handed Yamcha the icepack for his black eye. Mai followed after with a tea tray for everyone.
"You shouldn't serve me, I manhandled you," Bora told Mai from his spot taking up most of a whole side of the table.
"Oh, it's fine! Doing stuff like this actually relaxes me when I'm stressed out," Mai waved it off, setting the tray down at the table everyone was assembled around. Roshi nodded.
"It's not just girly stuff, first time the sea monster almost ate her, she took my oven apart to fix one of the burners. Thing's never run better," he said.
"I'm just glad it didn't explode like that mecha suit I tried to build. Er, I mean…"
"Mecha?" Goku asked, ignoring the tray to grab a handful of cookies. Launch slapped his hand, making him drop all but one cookie. She answered his complaining look with a routine glare of dismissal.
Mai, for her part, just blushed.
"Yeah, Mai doesn't talk about her old jobs," Yamcha explained.
"Fine with me, where you're going's always more important than where you've been," Roshi said, sipping his tea. Bora nodded to that, but Launch rolled her eyes.
"Nice line, how many fortune cookies did it take you to get that winner?" she snarked.
"Bah, absence hasn't taught you to respect your teacher, I see."
"Pardon, the matter at hand?" Bora asked, solemnly sipping his own tea.
"Yeah, Master Roshi, do you know how you can find a Dragon Ball even without the radar working?" Goku asked.
"Oh? Down to just one now? You must really have the Red Ribbon Army up in arms by now," Roshi chuckled.
"Nah, we beat them already."
"I see, that's nice."
…
Three spit takes erupted around the table.
"You guys beat the Red Ribbon Army?" Yamcha gasped.
"The world's strongest evil army!?" Mai asked.
Roshi didn't say anything, wiping his face and facial hair off with a napkin.
"Their base wasn't so bad. There sure were a lot of them, though," Goku recalled.
"They weren't united in the end, one of them killed their leader," Bora added.
"Yeah, turns out the bastard wanted a real dumb wish," Launch chuckled, before grabbing the teapot to refill her cup.
"Unbelievable," Yamcha gulped. Roshi chuckled.
"I wouldn't say that. I don't know that I would have the stamina to take on the Red Ribbon Army singlehandedly on their home turf, but these two with the help of Bora here… Well, here they are. While one should not aspire to cause carnage, this is the kind of power you two are aspiring for I believe, to break the barrier of humanity and seek the pinnacle of your potential."
"Yeah, nice speech gramps, but Bora here needs a wish to raise his son. So, can you help us find the last ball or not?"
"Me? Why, I can't do anything to find a Dragon Ball more than the next guy," Roshi answered. The trio of visitors slumped in their seats at that news. They'd known it was a longshot.
"Fortunately, I know someone who can," Roshi continued. Launch reached over the table and flicked Roshi on the forehead, making him squawk in protest.
"What?! I'm helping!" Roshi objected.
"Don't mess around like that, old coot," she scolded.
"Who is it, honored Turtle Hermit?" Bora asked.
"The one who can help you is Baba Uranai, also known as Fortuneteller Baba, and the All-Seeing Crone. She possesses many mystic skills and powers, among which is the power to find any physical object in this world. If the Dragon Ball still exists on this Earth, she can find it."
"Where is she?" Bora demanded calmly, though his eyes were truly alight.
"Hey, why didn't you tell Goku and me about her when we were looking for the four-star ball?" Launch asked.
"Well Launch," Roshi said, getting to his feet and going to the bookshelf in the room, "I saw no real need, as you two had the radar, and there was no reason to think it couldn't lead you to as many Dragon Balls as you needed. Also, I saw no benefit to shortening your adventure with a shortcut when the journey would make you stronger."
"Yeah, if we'd known where the four-star was, we wouldn't have known that Suno, Eighter and the others needed help. And the other Red Ribbon guys would still be causing trouble," Goku realized.
"Not to mention I wasn't sure you could beseech Baba for aid back then. She's always been cranky, and age has made her worse. In short, getting her help is an ordeal I wouldn't lightly send my students against. But you have a worthy cause, and you've proven your might. So," Roshi said, putting an atlas on the table, "I'll show you the way."
"I'll face any ordeal if it means Upa can live again," Bora said, as Roshi flipped through the pages.
Shortly:
Yamcha flew Roshi's aircraft with Mai seated next to him and Roshi behind, as they followed after the Nimbi carrying the three warriors.
"Master, there's something you're not telling us, right?" Yamcha asked. Roshi looked out the window and looked ahead, trying to seem innocent.
"Now, what's strange about the Turtle School turning out to support some graduates?" Roshi asked.
"...There'd better not be any monsters in the water there, master," Mai complained.
"Nope. Er, I don't think so? It's been awhile."
"Wait, we're going to the desert, right?" Yamcha asked, confused.
"Yep, but Baba's palace is in a lake in the desert."
"You mean by a lake?" Mai asked.
"No, you'll see for yourself," Roshi told them.
X X X
They saw indeed.
The palace was multiple buildings, with only the smallest one on the shore of a large lake ringed in green from the surrounding sands. Bridges of tan stone connected five grassy terraces decorated with trees that held buildings on the lake, and even a large round fighting arena. The shoreside building, the largest one in the center, and the one beyond the arena where circular, with wide windows on them, while the two terraces flanking the main building held small pyramids.
"Pyramids? Why pyramids?" Mai asked. They had landed at the edge of the lake's greenery; after Roshi capsuled his plane, they followed him toward the palace.
"All that for one person? It could house a tribe," Bora observed.
"That's nothing compared to Bulma's house," Goku remarked.
"That's also a lab and corporate headquarters, kid. But yeah Bora, lots of people got a lot more than the rest of us," Launch commented.
"Hmm, sometime I'll need to head back to check on my old home in the desert," Yamcha said, looking wistfully out toward the dunes.
"Don't comment on the extravagance or the taste. Baba's in a bad mood at the best of times, and she doesn't take criticism well. She's greedy and bloodthirsty, and quite proud of that. But she's a woman of her word; if she makes a deal or wager, she'll keep it, no two ways about it," Roshi advised them.
"So, you've known this Baba a long time, master?" Goku asked.
"Ha! Yes, she and I are both survivors from the old days. Though I wouldn't say we're friends. Hmm, might have been a century since last time I saw her," Roshi mused.
"A century? Truly, I can't grasp what it would be like to live so long," Bora admitted. Their path had turned into a clear trail in the light brush that grew nearer to the lake, and they saw five tough-looking big guys waiting outside the entrance to the first building.
"Huh, who are these guys?" Goku asked Roshi.
"Petitioners, most likely. Baba's well known in certain circles, and there's always people looking to find things. We're lucky the line is so short today," Roshi said.
"Five," Launch said, counting the men.
"That's right. And honestly, couldn't you let Lunch out for a bit? She took some pepper as soon as we landed," Roshi asked.
"Hey, that was her call. I'm guessing she wasn't interested in another fight just now."
"Fight?" Mai asked. The others looked at her questioningly, while Launch sighed and put her fists on her thighs.
"Look, why would Master Roshi bring his current students along? Either they're here to fight with us or watch us fight, I figure. And seeing five tough guys here makes it seem like it's some team fight. And that's what you meant, about not being ready before, right? This is some kind of Thunderdome deal, ain't it? And taking on the Red Ribbon told you we can be the one who leaves now, right?"
"Er, well, it's not strictly a fighting thing."
"Extraordinary! She really did it!" A man called. A fat man in a fancy suit and bowler hat was leaving the building with an elegantly-dressed tall thin woman. Both were middle-aged and hardly seemed to notice the eleven people waiting outside.
"Grandfather's platinum hamster wheel, to think it's been gathering dust in the western seaside villa's crawlspace all this time," the fat man said.
"Oliver will be simply delighted to have it, darling. For his little Snuckums and as a reminder of dear old Ronald," the woman said.
"Quite right, worth every zeni. I'll be sure to recommend her to everyone at the club. I say, do you suppose there are any lots for sale on this lake…?" the wealthy man said as the couple walked away.
"They got a reading?" Mai asked, pointing after the two oblivious aristocrats.
"…What is a hamster wheel?" Bora wondered.
"Hey old man, what's the deal?" Launch asked. Then their attention was drawn to the doorway, through which a pale blue classic ghost with a wispy tail and a plain Kasa hat floated.
"Will the next party please enter?" the ghost asked, sounding vaguely like a young man.
"Let's do it, brothers!" one of the burly men yelled. The others raised a chorus of wordless screams and charged in.
"No need to rush. Heheheh," the ghost cackled softly. Thy ghost paused for a moment, noticing them, gave a sneaky wink, then withdrew into the darkness of the building.
Roshi took a seat on a nearby log and pulled out his pipe.
"Get comfortable, it shouldn't be a long wait judging from the look of that group," Roshi instructed the puzzled warriors.
Soon:
"Thanks, come again! Nice try, but not really!" the ghost waved as the five burly men shambled out into the sunlight, bandaged up and some of them on crutches.
"I knew it!" Launch proclaimed.
"Uh, sir, what happened in there?" Mai asked one of the men, drawing close to him. The man turned on her, giving a death glare, baring his teeth and missing nearly half of them. Mai squawked in terror and punched him in the gut. The man folded over, and his companions sped up their retreat, leaving him on the trail.
"…Whoops," Mai went, poking the guy in the side with her foot.
"Hey now, don't start early," the ghost scolded, "Come on in, it's your turn."
Author's Note:
And so we end the Red Ribbon Saga, but the Red Ribbon Army shall return!
But now onto the Baba Arc. Though I think we will take next week off for work on other projects. Should resume updates on the Friday after next.
Until then, long days and pleasant nights to you all.