A Twist in the Plot
Far to the north, where the land is constantly covered in snow, a red-headed young girl stood stock still in the middle of a snowstorm. Her eyes were closed in concentration as she held her stance and focused on the area around her. She had to focus past the freezing cold, past the roar of the blizzard that reduced visibility to near zero, and past the nigh-constant ache caused by her harsh training. She had to free her mind just as her master had instructed and put all of her focus into her surroundings.
She heard- or maybe felt- something behind and to her right. The instant she registered the presence, she went into motion. She leaned forward slightly and was pleased to feel the kick that was aimed at her head do nothing more than slightly tug at the hood of her parka. She smoothly transitioned from that to a leg sweep aimed at where the kick came from but scowled when she didn't feel it connect.
Aware of the next attack, the girl quickly stood up and turned to the side, letting the knifehand strike aimed at her head pass harmlessly in front of her face. The strike quickly turned into another knifehand strike aimed at her neck but a quick step to her right and a quarter-turn to her left made it so the fingertips only ghosted across the skin of her throat.
Sensing an opening, the girl went on the offensive with a palm strike aimed at the solar plexus. When the attack was sidestepped, she turned it into a backfist aimed at a floating rib but that, too, was dodged. She then quickly shifted her weight to her left leg and twisted to the right at the waist in order to dodge the palm strike aimed at the bridge of her nose. While the arm was still fully extended, she launched a spear hand strike aimed at the pressure point in the crook of the elbow. She came close to hitting but the arm moved out of the way at the last second. Before she could pull her own arm back, she felt the upper arm of her jacket be grabbed as was yanked forward. A palm strike to her jaw turned her around, a knee to her stomach folded her in half, and a hammerfist strike to the back of her head knocked her out and into the snow.
A few seconds later, she groaned and gingerly rose to her feet. The blizzard had stopped almost as abruptly as it began so she looked around until she found her opponent.
"Very good, Suno," her master said as she rubbed the back of her head. "You lasted much longer than last time." Her master was old- easily the oldest person in the village- but he was just as fit as he had always been. The only thing that had stopped the Red Ribbon Army from conscripting him was the fact that he was missing an arm.
"Not long enough," Suno said bitterly, wincing when her fingers brushed over particularly sore spot.
"Patience, child. The Odori style takes many years to master and you've already exceeded my expectations. Now come, that is enough for today. Let us return to my house and eat."
Suno politely shook her head, "I can't right now, Master. I need to take care of something first." Her master nodded, already knowing what she needed to do, and took his leave.
Once she was alone, Suno sighed deeply before heading out. Her master was right. She was much stronger now than she was five months ago but it wasn't enough. As it was, there was no way she take on the Red Ribbon Army and free her village. She wasn't even sure if was strong enough to save herself if it came down to it. She hated feeling helpless but the only thing she could do was take advantage of her youth and push herself as hard as she could. She had to save her beloved village and do one other thing.
A bit to the south of the village, Suno finally reached her destination. Before her was a cross planted firmly in the ground, a simple necklace hanging on it. Suno slowly approached it and knelt before it. "Hey dad. It's me again," she began, her voice laced with both fondness and sorrow. "I just finished training with Master Frost. He says I'm doing better than he expected."
It had been over a year since the Red Ribbon Army arrived in Jingle Village for reasons unknown. Whatever the reason, they quickly took over the village and slowly started "drafting" the men into their army. The people had tried to resist at first but the Army wasn't something some small village could fight. Anyone who tried to lead a rebellion was quickly turned into an example and publicly executed. Her father had been one of the first.
Shortly thereafter, going against the wishes of her mother, Suno sought the aid of Frost who was known as a master of a style of martial artes native to that region. It had taken her nearly a week of constant pestering but he eventually caved and promised to teach her but only after she swore to not do anything reckless. That had been a very easy promise for her to make. No matter what, no matter how badly she wanted to save her village and avenge her father, she couldn't allow herself to die to the Red Ribbon Army.
Suno's training had started out very simple- learning the basic forms, the philosophy, improving her balance and flexibility, etcetera- but everything changed about six months ago. Something called a Dragon Ball has apparently appeared nearby and the Red Ribbon Army wanted it more than anything else. They forced every able man in the village to contribute to the search and even held the village chief hostage. It was then that Suno finally took her training seriously and poured all of her effort into it.
For nearly an hour, Suno talked to her father's grave, only stopping when her ears started to burn. She was about to go home when something in the sky caught her attention. It looked like a plane of some sort. It was heading in her general direction but there wasn't a landing strip anywhere in her village. There might have been one at Muscle Tower but that was quite a ways away. As she watched it, she noticed it started to wobble before quickly plummeting. Without a second thought, she took off towards where the plane crashed and hoped that she could make it in time to save whoever was in there.
OoOoOoO
Suno tightened the hood of her parka as she carried the literally frozen girl back to her house. The snow had picked up again by the time she reached the crash site where she had found a strange girl with spiky hair and weird orange clothing. The plane bore the insignia of the Red Ribbon Army but Suno barely even registered it as she picked her up and started heading back to her house as fast as she could.
By the time Suno got home, she was almost frozen as well. Between her training, talking to her father, and rescuing the girl; her fingers didn't want to work right and her parka was barely doing her any good. If her master hadn't insisted that she train when the weather was harsh, she doubted that she would have made it back. As it was, it took a solid minute of fumbling with her key before she managed to get the door open.
"Suno! There are you are! Where have you been?! I've been worried si-" Suno's mother started as soon she got in the door but stopped when she saw the girl she was carrying. Her mother was instantly upon them as she picked up the strange girl and helped Suno with the buttons and straps of her parka.
In the matter of minutes, both of them were huddling near the fire and covered with several layers of blankets. Suno stared into the fire and took sips from the mug of hot cocoa cradled in her hands as she listened to the light snoring of the strange girl in the chair next to her.
"Who is she?" Suno's mother asked as she sat down nearby.
"I don't know. I saw her plane crash when I was talking to dad. She was already frozen when I got to her."
"Was there anyone else there?"
Suno shook her head, "Just some robot that I think was piloting it."
"That poor darling. Her parents must be worried sick. I wonder where she came from."
Almost as if on cue, the strange girl started moaning before slowly sitting up, rubbing at her eyes. "Where am I?" she asked groggily.
Suno's mom was instantly on her feet, "Oh, good, you're awake! You're in Jingle Village, dear."
"Jingle Village?" she looked really confused for a moment before her face cleared up. "Oh! Now I remember! That robot died! I hope the Dragon Radar's okay. Bulma will be really mad if I broke it."
Suno and her mom exchanged a look before her mom spoke up, "So, dearie, what's your name?"
The strange girl beamed at the and hopped off the chair, "I'm Son Goku! Who are you two?"
"I'm Yuki and this is my daughter, Suno. Do you know where your parents are, Goku?"
"I don't have any! Well, I had my Grandpa Gohan but he died a while ago."
"So you're all on your own? You poor dear. Wh-"
Goku interrupted her with an annoyed look, "Stop calling me that. My name's Goku, not dear."
"R-right. Well, Goku, what are you doing here?"
Goku smiled again, "I'm looking for my grandpa's Dragon Ball!"
Every muscle in Suno's body tensed as her mother's smile became forced, "T-the Dragon Balls? Are you with the Red Ribbon Army then?"
"Who? Oh! You mean those jerks on TV? No way! I'm just looking for my grandpa's Four Star Ball. He gave it to me before he died."
The atmosphere in the room slowly relaxed but Suno remained ready to move at any moment. "Oh," Yuki said. "Well, I'm sorry, Goku, but I don't think you'll be able to find the Dragon Ball here. The Red Ribbon Army is all over the place. Even if you managed to find it before they did, you wouldn't be able to leave with it."
Oddly enough, Goku looked excited, "Huh? The Red Ribbon Army's here? Great! Now I can beat them up!"
Suno and Yuki's jaws dropped as they stared incredulously at Goku. Yuki eventually composed herself enough to speak, "Uh, G-Goku, I don't think you can do that…."
Goku got an oddly annoyed look on her face, "Yes I can! I trained under Master Roshi and took second place in the Tenkaichi Budoukai!"
It was Suno's turn to speak up, "Wait, you trained under the Turtle Hermit?" Now that she got a good look at her, Goku's shirt did have a character that read "Turtle"...
"Yep! That's where I got this gi from!"
"Well, even if that's true," Yuki began, "I really don't think you can take on an entire army. They've got guns and tanks and everything!"
Goku looked annoyed again, "Why do people keep saying I can't do things? I can too beat them! Their guns don't hurt me anyway."
Suno and Yuki exchanged another look. Just what planet did this girl come from anyway? "Well, be that as it may, why don't you at least stay here for the night? Between the blizzard and the cold, there's no way you'll be able to do anything."
"Well… okay! Do you have anything to eat? I'm starving!"
OoOoOoO
Later that evening, after they finished dinner, Goku and Suno were once again sitting in front of the fireplace. "So… Goku… Did you really train with Muten Roshi?" While Suno didn't know a whole lot about martial artes outside of her own style, even she knew of the Invincible Old Master and her own master had talked about the Turtle Hermit's legends often.
"Uh huh! I just left him not too long ago! Once I get my grandpa's Dragon Ball, I plan to go back and train with him some more for the next Budoukai!"
"Can… can you really defeat the Red Ribbon Army?"
"Of course I can! I don't know what they want the Dragon Balls for but if they're hurting people then I need to stop them!"
Suno was silent for a moment, "Do- do you think I can go with you? I've been training really hard under my own master and I really want to save my village! If you really were trained by the Turtle Hermit then this may be my only chance!" She kept her voice down so that her mother wouldn't overhear. She never even really approved of her learning martial artes in the first place.
Goku smiled and swayed from side to side, "Sure! I could always use another friend!" She then made a face and grabbed her stomach, "Hey, where's your bathroom?"
"Oh, uh, over there."
"Thanks!" As Goku rushed off, Suno sunk into her chair. This whole thing sounded stupid. Was she really going to risk her life on some girl claiming to be the student of the Turtle Hermit? And then there was what she said about guns not hurting her. That was just beyond stupid but she couldn't help but want to believe her. If Goku was telling the truth then the village was going to be saved with or without her. It would be much safer to just stay home and let Goku go alone but….
Suno's musings were cut off when the door was busted open. "Alright, everyone out here!" a dog-man wearing a Red Ribbon Army uniform shouted. Yuki quickly came out of the kitchen while Suno sprung to her feet but both froze when he and his human partner pointed their guns at them. "A little girl with spiky hair and wearing orange clothing was seen being taken into the village! She is considered hostile and an enemy of the Red Ribbon Army! Anyone harboring her will be considered an enemy and a conspirator!" Suno nervously looked past the dog-man and saw a group of ten or fifteen other Red Ribbon Army soldiers alongside a tank. How dangerous could Goku possibly be?
The Red Ribbon Army men herded Suno and her mother out of their house with guns to their backs. Suno saw that they had taken everyone in the village out of their homes. Everyone looked nervous and afraid. Had she made a mistake in bringing Goku here?
"Alright," the dog-man said as he swept his gun back and forth over the crowd. "This is your only chance. If you cough up the location of the girl now, whoever speaks will be rewarded. If not? I'm gonna start counting to ten and every time I reach ten, someone will die until I get an answer." Suno's eyes widened. She had to tell them where Goku was.
Before Suno could even open her mouth, the dog-man turned his head in the direction of her house. His ears bobbed and twitched as he listened to something. He frowned and narrowed his eyes as he squeezed his machine gun in gloved fists.
"Someone go check that out!" Two soldiers broke off from the main group and walked towards her house and through the open door. Suno swallowed when, of all things, she heard a toilet flush which was followed by the deafening sound of machine gun fire. As the last echoes of the gunshots swept over the snowy plains, Suno knew, with utter certainty, that Goku was dead. "Now then," the dog man began to say but he was cut off by an almighty "Crack!" as one of the soldiers was sent flying out of Suno's house while being followed swiftly by Suno's bathroom door. Seconds later, the second soldier followed out as if he'd been shot out of a cannon, digging a deep trench in the snow with his body when he landed. In the stunned silence that followed, Goku walked out of Suno's house. There were holes in her shirt but she was otherwise undamaged. She was, however, very, very angry.
"Hey!" she shouted to the dog-man as she marched over to the rest of the Red Ribbon soldiers. "You're those Red Ribbon Army jerks I've seen on TV, right?" The soldiers all nodded dumbly in unison. "What the heck are you doing with these people?" The dog man sneered as he pointed his gun at her.
"These people were being questioned about harboring an enemy of the Red Ribbon Army!" he snapped. Goku took a fighting stance as the soldiers formed a circle around her.
"Oh yeah?" she asked. "And who's that?" The dog man blinked and cocked his head to the side.
"Y… you," he said awkwardly but, before he could say another word, she was right in front of him with her fist in his chest. He let out an agonized gasp as the air was forced out of his lungs and collapsed into the snow. Suno hadn't even seen Goku move. The soldiers raised their weapons to fire at her but she sent down a kiai wave into the snow which sent up white powder in all directions to distract them.
Then she was everywhere at once.
An elbow to the small of the back, a kick to the side of the head, a sharp jab to the sternum. Before the snow had even finished falling, the soldiers were dropping like flies into unconscious heaps on the ground. Suno was so distracted by this impossible display of speed and power that she barely noticed the tank turning its gun to face Goku.
"Goku! Watch out!" she shouted. Even if the other girl was bulletproof, she'd still be killed by a tank shell! No one was that tough! Goku spun around just as the tank fired at her and leaped into the air to meet the shell head-on. Suno was sure that she was about to watch someone die when Goku threw out a high kick that sent the shell hurtling end over end and high into the air where it exploded harmlessly. Goku landed in front of the tank and cupped her hands to her side.
"Kamehameha!" The white beam of light smashed through the tank effortlessly and caused a tremendous explosion. The tank burst apart into fire and shrapnel that created a crater that was quickly filled by the melted snow from the heat of Goku's Kamehameha. She turned to Suno and her mother and grinned. "Toldja I could do it!" she said cheerfully.
OoOoOoO
Goku and Suno sat together in Suno's room on the side of her bed. After Goku's amazing display, the villagers were torn between shock, adoration, and fear. This was only worsened when Goku boldly declared that she was doing to defeat the Red Ribbon Army. It had seemed like such an impossible task before but now, after seeing Goku's strength, Suno and the villagers started feeling something they hadn't in a long time: Hope.
"So we're going to this Muscle Tower place tomorrow, right?" Goku asked as she kicked her legs back and forth.
"Yeah. That's where General White and the village chief are. If we defeat General White and free the chief, we can probably get rid of the rest of the soldiers on our own."
"Alright! We'll do that! Say, you said you've been training, right? What kind of martial arte do you use?"
"Um… I practice the Odori style of martial artes. My master said that it's been passed down this village for generations."
Goku went all starry-eyed, "Oooooh, cool! Do you think you can show me‽"
Suno looked around her room. It was a little cramped- far too small to fully demonstrate the kata- but it should be large enough for the basics. "Alright."
Suno hopped off her bed and closed her eyes. She had never actually practiced her martial artes technique in front of anyone other than her master before so she was a little embarrassed but she pushed that from her mind. She pushed out her worries, her fears, her embarrassment, everything and focused solely on her surroundings. She could sense Goku's presence next to her and it took all of her willpower to not break her concentration. Master Frost's presence was like a wood fire whenever she sensed and the few times she had practiced in her room, her mother's was like the flame of a candle but Goku's was different. Goku's was like a bonfire that was just shy of a raging inferno. She didn't understand what caused the difference but she started to understand just how powerful Goku was.
For the next couple of minutes, Suno silently went through her basic kata. She couldn't get too fancy and it left out several of the intricacies of her style but it was a good demonstration of the basics. All throughout, she was dimly aware of Goku's focus on her. It was like a physical weight had been placed on her shoulders and it made keeping her focus even harder but she managed. After she finished with what flourish she could manage, she slowly released a breath and opened her eyes.
"That was so cool!" Goku said, clapping her hands. "I saw a lot of fighting styles at the Budoukai but I've never seen anything like that before! It was like you were dancing!"
Suno blushed slightly, not used to such praise, "Well, 'Odori' does mean 'dance.' I won't slow you down when we attack Muscle Tower, will I?"
"Nah! You'll do great! Those guys will be too busy watching you move to do anything!"
Suno smiled happily before glancing at the clock, "Well, we should go to bed. We'll need to get up early if we want to do this."
OoOoOoO
Earlier that afternoon, at the Red Ribbon Army headquarters, Commander Red nodded and puffed on his cigar as Colonel Silver gave his frantic, exasperated report. Something about a little girl with super strength that stole a Dragon Ball and one of their planes. He sighed as he rubbed his forehead, his cybernetic eye flittering in the socket as it scanned around the room.
"Thank you for your service, Colonel Silver," Commander Red said calmly. "You've done well." On the other end of the line, Silver's blood ran cold. Those were the words no Red Ribbon soldier ever wanted to hear. It activated a trigger in the red badge on his jacket, causing it to flash bright red and grow searing hot, burning into his skin and down into his heart. Commander Red smirked to himself as he heard the other man's dying shrieks and hung up the phone. "Officer Black?" he inquired as he turned his chair to look at the large, dark-skinned gentleman by his side, his most trusted advisor and right-hand man. "Who is our most decorated Lieutenant Colonel?" Officer Black picked up the rolodex off of Commander Red's desk and flipped through it.
"That would be Lieutenant Colonel Fuschia, sir," he said in a measured tone that bordered on monotone. Commander Red nodded and grabbed at the lapels of his suit, posturing and trying to look authoritative.
"Then notify Fuschia that he's been promoted."
"She, sir," Officer Black corrected.
Commander Red blinked. "Oh, really?" he shrugged. "I was trying not to be presumptuous. Anyway, yes, notify her. And send a message to General White to keep an eye out for this little girl. She can't be that difficult, right? Ten, fifteen soldiers. A tank. That'll get her out of our hair." Officer Black nodded and left to do his duties. "Secretary Periwinkle!" Commander Red barked into a microphone as he pushed a button on his desk. Maybe her name was Denise when he'd hired her? "Bring me a coffee. Decaf. You know what Doctor Cadmium is always saying about my heart rate." He sighed and leaned back in his chair as his robotic eye darted erratically around the room, accounting for every mote of dust in the air and every speck of dirt on the ground. He hoped Gero would get around to fine-tuning this eye so that it wasn't so… focused. "Super girl…" he muttered to himself, stroking his mustache. Maybe this was one of those aliens the scientist had told him about before he'd decided to form the Red Ribbon Army.