Chapter Fifteen

Treasure in the Frozen Mountain! The New Turtles Prove Their Strength!

The four young adventurers closed in on the volcano that rumbled and spewed smoke beneath them. Despite the happiness he knew he should feel for Goku being back, Krillin mostly felt a tense unease. Something about this new girl, Suno, bothered him. She seemed nice enough but there was something he didn't like about how close she and Goku were. Was she Goku's new best friend? Because that's all that him and Goku were. Friends.

Krillin tried to push that sort of thing out of his mind. Goku made friends with everyone so it didn't mean anything that she had a new friend, right? Him and Goku were still best friends. He tried to focus on something more positive like the fact that he was able to ride the Nimbus. When he first had met Goku, he'd gone right through the cloud and had to hold onto Goku to keep from falling to the ground. Now he was able to sit on the Nimbus just like Goku. That meant he was a better person than he had been before, didn't it? Krillin had always felt like it was so. That his friendships with Master Roshi, Goku, and Launch had made him better than it did before. It should have made him happy to think about that. So why didn't it?

Goku grinned as she looked down at the volcano over the edge of the Nimbus. Now that Roshi had given them the Itetsuku Sphere, they could freeze the volcano and find the Dragon Ball! Goku was also hoping that she'd get to punch more Red Ribbon Army jerks in the face. Krillin kept saying that she couldn't take them down by herself but Goku knew that she was pretty good at doing things that people said she couldn't do. Besides, she wasn't by herself now.

"Okay, Suno," Goku said as she looked over her shoulder at her redheaded friend, "Drop it in there!" Suno nodded and carefully removed the item from her knapsack before dropping it over the edge. The four of them watched the Sphere drop with anticipation. Goku was excited whereas Suno and Bulma were apprehensive. Having missed the story about the Sphere's origin and power, Krillin was more curious than anything. The Sphere fell for a long time and Bulma began to wonder if the bauble had any real power.

"Did you mi-" Bulma began to ask but the words had barely left her throat when there was a deafening explosion of cold wind that drowned her words out. It was like an atomic bomb of ice and snow, mushroom cloud and all. It swirled through the air before it coalesced around the new icy peak of the mountain and snow fell from the cloud to the cold mountain below. There was a great "Crack!" as magma froze solid in an instant.

"That was awesome!" Goku cried and eagerly clapped her hands. Krillin's eyes were wide with disbelief. Master Roshi had things of this kind of power just sitting around his house? The four descended towards the mountain as Goku took the Dragon Radar back out. Bulma only hoped that the Dragon Ball wasn't trapped in the frozen lava. On one hand, the Red Ribbon Army would never be able to summon the Eternal Dragon. On the other hand, neither would anyone else ever again. She tried to forget about that particularly dark line of thinking as Goku, Suno, and Krillin hopped off the Nimbus and walked around the mountain. Bulma gave a click of her heels and joined them, surprised to find that what had once been a volcano was so cold underfoot.

"Whatever magic Roshi has found in this world," Bulma promised herself as she followed the others, who followed Goku, who followed the radar, "It's up to me to figure out how to make it work. It's up to science!"

OoOoOoO

General Blue emerged from his tent as he heard the commotion from his troops and looked up at the mountain with his arms folded behind his back. He was fairly certain that had been a volcano a few moments ago.

'That's an interesting little development,' he thought before clearing his throat and speaking aloud. "Alright, boys," he said, the sound of his voice made them all snap to attention. "I've received some words from our esteemed Fuhrer. Apparently, the little monster girl has some allies in this area, one of whom might have built her Dragon Radar. We now have a priority to neutralize them." He turned to his chief lieutenant, Teal. "Teal!" The strapping young man snapped to attention, every inch a proper soldier. Except for that bit of stubble around his jaw but Blue liked that. "You will take half of our forces in search of these allies. Our intelligence suggests that they will be on an island somewhere in the area." Some might consider sending over fifty men to dispatch whoever these allies might be excessive but that was why he was the greatest general in the Red Ribbon Army and they were not. Who knew how numerous these allies were or what their powers might be?

"Sir!" Teal gave a cry of the affirmative and salute. Blue gave him a pat on the arm and nodded with a smile.

"Good man," he said and turned to the rest of his men as Teal gathered the forces he would take to this island. "As for the rest of you, you will come with me up the mountain." He turned his eyes to the coffin-like metal structure that had arrived earlier this morning. "And, if necessary, we will use the Mad Doctor's newest trinket." General Blue frowned as his men went about securing their climbing gear, glowering down at the box and the mechanical monster that lie within. He didn't much like the idea of relying on Gero's machines but if there was any truth to the super girl's powers, it might be necessary.

OoOoOoO

Goku frowned as she looked down at the Dragon Radar. She knew that she was the orange triangle and that the Dragon Ball was the blinking yellow dot but the Radar was telling her that the Dragon Ball was right in front of her. It didn't make any sense!

"The Radar says it's right here!" Goku said and looked down at the empty ground where there was no Dragon Ball. "Bulma, are you sure you fixed this?" Bulma huffed and walked towards her. What kind of question was that?

"Of course I fixed i-Yeee!" Bulma squealed in shock as her foot was caught in a hole in the mountainside. Krillin and Suno grabbed her hands to keep her from falling over and Bulma pulled her foot out of the hole with a sigh. That could have been bad. She could have messed up her ankle or, even worse, bruised her face! She gave the hole a stink-eye in frustration. Stupid hole, trying to trip her. Krillin bent down to inspect the hole curiously.

"Do you think the Dragon Ball might have fallen in there?" he asked. It was about the right size. A Dragon Ball wasn't supposed to be much bigger than his fist, wasn't it? Even the idea of that caused Bulma to throw up her hands and let out a groan.

"Oh, great," she muttered, "then it's definitely lost. Either the lava melted it or we just trapped it!" Krillin shook his head and put his hand in the hole. He chewed his lip in thought as he ran his fingers around the rim.

"It's smooth," he mused. "This is way too smooth to have occurred in nature. Someone made this hole." He was feeling pretty good about himself when Suno snapped her fingers and spoke up.

"That's it!" she exclaimed. "Maybe a civilization used to live in the volcano when it was dormant!" Bulma nodded, tapping her chin.

"That's not a bad idea," Bulma said as her brow furrowed in thought. "Volcanic soil is better for growing things than just about any other soil on Earth. and they would have been able to stay warm during the winter if they carved out paths away from the magma flow." She stuck an accusatory finger at the hole she'd tripped in, "And they'd have used holes like this to let out the extra hot air!" she smiled at Krillin and Suno. "Good thinking, you two!" Suno smiled but Krillin huffed. He noticed it first. Suno was just piggybacking off of his brilliant deductive reasoning.

"So we need to find some way to get inside the mountain!" Goku deduced before rushing off to find an entrance of some kind. The others hurriedly followed behind her, surprised by her sudden burst of motion even when they probably should have known not to be. When they finally discovered an entrance to the mountain, it was disappointingly far from where the Dragon Ball had been.

"Wow," Krillin murmured as he peered into the blackness. "That's dark." They'd be able to go maybe a hundred feet before they were swallowed up and blind.

"Okay," Bulma muttered as she rummaged through her fanny pack. "Lemme just find something to make a torch."

Suno raised an eyebrow. "You didn't pack a flashlight or something?" she asked in mild disbelief. Bulma huffed.

"There's a flashlight," she said defensively, "in my capsule case!" She sighed and pulled out a spray can of some kind. "This sprays a glowing paint that lasts for, like, six hours. I designed it for something kinda like this. Miners and spelunkers and people like that would be able to spray the walls in dark places to give them a little light and not lose track of where they'd been." She sprayed some onto the wall of the cave to demonstrate its neon green glow. With a wince, she reached into the capsule case. "Please don't be gross, please don't be gross!" she pleaded as she threw the capsule case onto the ground. When the smoke cleared, she was even more mortified than before. It was her mother's.

Krillin gave the top magazine a cursory glance. "Why are those two guys-" he began to say before Bulma snatched up the magazine and kicked the rest of the stack down the mountain. The dirty documents fluttered in the wind like a flock of birds as Bulma rolled up the magazine and sprayed the top of it, creating a rudimentary torch.

"Let's go!" Goku said with a wide grin and headed into the cave with a carefree stride as the other three marched behind her. Looking for Dragon Balls with Bulma. Just like last year!

OoOoOoO

Yamcha was by himself now. Well, Puar was floating around and watching him as he liked to do but he wasn't training with anyone else. Krillin had gone with Goku and Bulma and Launch had sneezed and gone inside the house. Which he honestly preferred. Blonde Launch was nice but she could also be a little… pushy.

"Y'know she thinks yer cheatin'," Launch had said to him once after he got off the phone with Bulma. "So why aren't ya?" She had asked and put her hand on his arm in a way that made him uncomfortable. He'd pulled away and frowned at her.

"That," he had said, "makes less than no sense. If that's what she thinks, I have to just try that much harder to prove that I'm not." Not that telling her that had made her any less dogged.

Yamcha tried to push those things out of his mind as he focused on the task at hand. He took a deep breath as he brought up one arm with the palm facing upward. He grabbed his wrist with his other hand and focused. He tried to search for the feeling he had when he would attempt the Kamehameha. That building of energy, that heat, that concentration of all his power into a single point. When he found that feeling, he held onto it and brought it upward. He watched as his palm began to glow with a bright yellow light. He could hear Puar clapping his paws excitedly but forced himself to tune it out. He wasn't out of the woods yet. The yellow light grew brighter and began to take a shape. It was like watching a bubble grow off of his hand. Yamcha delicately pulled his hand away from the light and watched the ball of energy hover in the air. He sighed and wiped sweat off his forehead, feeling accomplished. However, before he could try anything else, the ball exploded and sent him flying backwards. Yamcha slammed into a tree with his hair blown back and his face blackened with soot.

"Was it supposed to do that?" Puar asked with a mixture of concern and confusion as he floated over to Yamcha. Yamcha sighed as he wiped the soot off with the bottom of his shirt.

"Not yet," he said in an aggravated tone as he sat up and rubbed his back. Still, it was progress. He wasn't quite sure what the energy he was controlling was but now he knew he could manipulate it. He'd figure out the Kamehameha. Krillin would. Hell, Launch probably would. But this? This would be his ace in the hole.

Roshi stretched back in his lounge chair and sipped on a glass of iced tea. That explosion was probably just Yamcha practicing some secret technique that would give him an edge. The thought of that made him smile. It had been that same mindset that had caused him to develop the Kamehameha. He could never definitively defeat Shen so he came up with a super move that would tip the scales in his favor. What was hilarious was that Shen had the exact same idea and that put them back at square one. He gave a sad sigh and shook his head. Those had been better times.

A sudden sound broke Roshi out of his melancholic memories. He looked up and saw a pair of military transport helicopters coming towards the island. That was disconcerting enough. The large red insignia on the nose of each chopper was… more so. The helicopters kicked up sand and salt spray as they landed. Nearly fifty armed men poured out of the helicopters, brandishing their weapons with very serious expressions. The biggest one was a tall, stubbly man who pointed the barrel of his assault rifle straight at Roshi's face.

"You!" the man said. "Have you had any contact with a young girl exhibiting superhuman abilities, who wears orange clothes and has spiky black hair?" Roshi adjusted his glasses and casually pushed the gun aside with his glass.

"You mean Son Goku?" he asked rhetorically. "Yes, I have." The man moved away from him and, in a bizarre spectacle, every single one of the Red Ribbon soldiers gathered up into a huddle. They whispered conspiratorially and many would look back over their shoulders at Roshi. Then the huddle broke and the stubbled man approached him again.

"If you are an ally of this Son Goku then you are an enemy of the Red Ribbon Army," the man declared with a sneer as he pointed his gun at Roshi again. "But if you help us, we might let you live. Are you the man who invented the Dragon Radar?" The man put his finger on the trigger to make his obvious intent even more clear. If Roshi gave him an answer he didn't like, he would die.

"Nope," Roshi said bluntly. They all blinked and stared. That was clearly neither the response nor the reaction they were expecting.

"L-listen, old man," the stubbled soldier said with obvious fluster, "If you don't-" Roshi cut him off by throwing his tea in the man's face. While he was blinded, Roshi moved in a flash to jump up from his chair and hit the soldier with a spin kick to the chest that sent him flying into the sea. The other soldiers finally reacted and the air was filled with a hail of bullets. Roshi ducked and dodged and started picking the soldiers off with well-placed punches and kicks as Turtle hid inside his shell.

Launch had been watching somewhat nervously from the kitchen window. She knew Master Roshi was strong but there were just so many of them. When the bullets started flying, she shrieked and fell to the floor. The pepper shaker fell off the counter and landed right in front of her. She grabbed it with a sigh and shook the pepper into the palm of one hand. Ever since it had been explained to her what happened when she sneezed, Launch had discovered that she didn't quite like her Blonde self. She was apparently rude, crass, lewd, and didn't like changing back into her. But she knew when the other her was needed. Like now, for instance. She took a deep sniff of the pepper.

Blonde Launch came bursting out of the front door of the house seconds later, flying through the air and swinging her leg in a wide kick that took out four Red Ribbon soldiers in a row like dominos. She made her way to Roshi and the two of them fought back to back as the soldiers pressed their attack.

"Helluva party, huh?!" she asked jokingly over the cacophony of gunfire. Roshi nodded as he grabbed bullets out of the air and let them drop.

"But unless they decide to put down their guns, there's only so fast we can take 'em all out!" No sooner had Roshi said that than Yamcha leaped dramatically over the roof with his sword drawn. He swung the sword with such speed that the blade disappeared into a whirlwind of flashing silver. The guns were slashed to scrap as Yamcha ran past them, the weapons falling apart in the soldiers' hands. Puar followed behind him in the form of a giant, flying magnet and grabbed the metal scraps to dump them all into the ocean.

"Something like that?" Yamcha asked with a grin as he sheathed his sword. Roshi smirked and took off his sunglasses. No sense in risking their getting damaged. Not like there was a sunglass shop anywhere nearby.

"Much better," he said before the three of them charged into battle as the soldiers decided to take their chances and rush them bare-handed. This did not work out well for the Red Ribbon Army. In less than two minutes, the entire force had been knocked into the sea and was being carried out by the tide.

"Shit," Launch muttered with disappointment as she kicked the sand. "I wish they'd brought more guys. I really felt like I was about to figure out the kiai." Roshi shrugged and looked at the helicopters.

"S'pose I better do somethin' about these. Stand back!" he blasted the choppers to slag and shrapnel with a Kamehameha. Yamcha watched the smoke from the wreckage billow up into the sky and looked out towards the horizon.

'Bulma,' he thought, 'Whatever you guys are doing on that volcano, I hope you're okay.' He knew Bulma was smart and that the other three were good martial artists- and, for crying out loud, they had Goku- but he still felt an unease in his stomach. He was probably worrying about nothing. Right?