Reuniting with the Turtle Gang!
After a little while, Bulma was able to get control on her sonic discs and the three of them followed the Dragon Radar, soaring over the ocean. The sight of all that water scared Goku a little bit. It just seemed to go on forever. They eventually came to land again and flew over a mountain. Bulma zipped past Goku and Suno when Nimbus came to a stop and backtracked towards them with a confused expression.
"How come you stopped?" she asked.
"We're here!" Goku said and held the radar to Bulma's face to let her see. Bulma took the radar out of Goku's hand and looked at it suspiciously. The blinking yellow light that showed a Dragon Ball was in the same spot as their orange triangle.
"Huh," Bulma said and looked down at the mountain. "Whaddaya know?" Suno looked over the edge of Nimbus down at the mountain.
"So the Dragon Ball is somewhere on that mountain?" she asked. Well, that at least meant that the Red Ribbon Army hadn't found this one yet so that was good. However, before they could formulate a plan (Goku would have suggested blowing the mountain up with a Kamehameha to make looking for the Dragon Ball easier), they heard a rumbling from below. "Was that an earthquake?" And then a column of smoke rose up from the mountaintop.
"Nope," Bulma said weakly. "Definitely not an earthquake." And not a mountain either. The Dragon Ball was inside a volcano.
"How are we supposed to get inside a volcano?" Suno asked. Goku looked down over the edge of the cloud and down at the mountain.
"What's a volcano?" Goku asked. Bulma sighed. Sometimes she forgot that Goku didn't really know… anything. About anything. She chewed her lip and tried to figure out how she was supposed to explain this in terms Goku could understand.
"It's a mountain… full of fire and melted rocks," she said. Goku gasped with excitement. That sounded so cool! She wondered how hot it had to get to melt rocks. Bulma shook her head with a slight smile. Goku could get excited about anything it seemed. She put a hand on her chin and thought as they floated in the air. It would be too hot for them to even search around the outside of the mountain, never mind going inside. If they landed, she'd be able to look through her capsules and see if she'd packed any heat-resistant suits by luck. Though she doubted she owned anything in Suno's or Goku's sizes.
A sudden noise broke Bulma out of her brainstorming: the sound of a pair of fighter jets approaching. The three of them turned and looked at the greenish-brown planes approached and Bulma put a hand over her eyes to try and see them more clearly.
"Hey! The Royal Military!" Bulma said eagerly. "My dad has a bunch of contracts with the Royal Military. We'll wave them down and we'll tell them who I am and they'll give us anything we need!" Goku frowned when she saw a flash of red.
"That's not the military," she said warily as she glared at the jets drawing closer and closer. Suno saw what Goku saw and the color drained out of her place.
"Bulma, we need to go!" she told the older girl while tugging at the back of Goku's gi. How was the Red Ribbon Army already here? Did they have their own Dragon Radar?
"What're you guys talking about?" Bulma asked in a cavalier tone. "We'll be fi-" but her words were drowned out by the spray of bullets that whizzed past her head. Her face went pale and her eyes went wide as she let out a horrible shriek and dropped down into a nosedive.
"Suno, go with Bulma!" Goku said and jumped off Nimbus towards the jets. Suno winced before reluctantly flying down after Bulma. She wanted to help but she wasn't in any real position or ability to fight war machines. Goku was bulletproof and she wasn't.
OoOoOoO
Sienna and Sepia were two of the best pilots in the Red Ribbon Army. Sienna was a former pilot for the Royal Air Force that was discharged for being too reckless and Sepia was part of a stunt pilot troupe that got let go for flying too safe. Both had joined the Red Ribbon Army in search of a purpose for their lives. Originally forming a connection over little more than the fact that neither of them much liked that they were shades of brown, the two had formed a lasting friendship over the last year-and-a-half. Sienna had been the best man at Sepia's wedding. The two of them had become the Army's best pilots. So when the call had gone out about a pair of bogies outside of Blue Division's location, Sienna and Sepia answered it.
"Was that some kind of flying girl?" Sepia asked as they watched the blue-haired girl and the yellow cloud drop out of the sky to evade their bullets. There had been news about a super girl that was terrorizing the Army.
"I thought she was shorter," Sienna said as an orange blur climbed onto his plane. "Shit! Shit, shit, shit, it's her!" The girl with spiky, black hair glared at Sienna through the canopy glass. Sienna yanked on the yoke to turn into a tight spiral and try and drop the girl with his eyes screwed shut out of fear. When he opened his eyes, the girl was gone. "I think I lost her!"
"No you didn't!" Sepia warned as he stared helplessly at his partner's plane. "She's on your wing!" The girl crawled across Sienna's wing until she was back on the jet. Then she bent down and ripped the wing off. It dropped out of the sky as Sienna's jet wobbled and Sienna screamed his head off. He couldn't shoot, he couldn't maneuver. All he could do was cry and scream and pray to God as the girl pulled a fist back and slammed it into the plane until it burst into flames. The sounds would haunt Sepia for the rest of his life… which would not be very long as the orange girl flew through the flames and threw a kick through his plane with enough force to split it in half. He had just enough time to grab the ejection lever before his wreck exploded as well. The last thing he saw, the last thing he would ever see was that horrible monster girl glaring at him.
OoOoOoO
From below, Suno and Bulma watched the jet fighters explode and an orange dot zoomed down towards them. Suno flew up with Nimbus to meet Goku on the way down. Goku hit the cloud with a "floof!" and sat up to look at Suno with a grin.
"That was fun!" Goku said. Suno laughed and shook her head. Goku had a strange idea of what "fun" was. Bulma was understandably freaked out when they came back down.
"What the hell was that?!" she demanded. "Who the hell were those people? How did they have fighter jets?! Why were they shooting at you?!" Suno was about to try and come up with some sort of explanation but then…
"It was the Red Ribbon Army," Goku told her bluntly. What was there to lie about? The Red Ribbon Army were jerks and she had to beat the up!
"Oh," Bulma said with a sudden and surprising calmness. "The Red Ribbon Army. Oh, I see. That makes sense." There was a brief pause before she was suddenly screaming again. "Why the hell are you fighting the Red Ribbon Army?!" she demanded with enough force to blow their hair back. The look on Goku's face told Suno that this was a normal occurrence. Between the two of them, Goku and Suno explained Goku's first interaction with the Army, Suno's interaction with them, and how the two of them had driven them out of Jingle Village. When it was all accounted for, Bulma groaned and pulled at her face. "This isn't what I signed up for," she muttered. "I thought we were gonna go to fun places, beat up another delusional despot, and I'd get a new boyfriend!" she cried and pulled at her hair. "I didn't think I was going to be dealing with the world's biggest terrorist organization!" Goku looked a little concerned for her friend but Suno wasn't feeling quite so charitable.
"Then leave," Suno said plainly.
"Huh?"
"What we're doing is really dangerous. If Goku wasn't so strong, it'd be suicidal. But we have to do it. I know exactly how you feel. I feel like I'm in over my head every time we come up against tanks or jets or giant, killer androids. If you can't handle it then there's no shame in going home. We'll understand."
"Yeah!" Goku interjected. "I'd love to have you along but I don't want you getting hurt!"
Bulma smiled and wiped away her tears, "Jeez, you guys. How's a girl supposed to run away when you say stuff like that? So we're going up against the Red Ribbon Army. Big deal! They've got tanks and jets and giant, killer androids but we've got Goku!" Goku gave a cheer at that.
"So," Goku began, "What do we do now? The Red Ribbon Army knows we're here. So how do we get into the volcano?" Suno and Bulma put their hands under their chins and frowned as they thought. Goku copied their motions. She wasn't thinking, she just wanted to play along. When neither of them said anything after a while, Goku actually got an idea of her own. "Oh!" she said suddenly and nearly shocked Bulma enough to flip her on her sonic discs. "What about Master Roshi?" Suno gasped with excitement at the suggestion.
"The Turtle Hermit?" she said eagerly with a similar starry expression in her eyes that made Goku smile. Her master had told her stories about the Invincible Master. An immortal genius, the greatest martial artist who had ever been born. Just the idea of meeting him made her giddy. However, Bulma rolled her eyes at the idea. Even if she got to see Yamcha and guilt him into not doing anything with Launch, the less she saw of Roshi the better.
"What the heck could that old pervert do for us?" she asked. "Stuff the volcano with his dirty magazines?" Goku shook her head.
"I bet he has some kind of magic! Like the fan!" Bulma just rolled her eyes harder.
"You mean the fan he didn't have?" she asked. "If he had anything, he probably lost it in another card game. Or he pawned it off to some bimbo so she'd ffffffff-" Bulma suddenly realized that what she was saying and who she was talking to, "-ffffffrolic through the flowers with him." Goku looked confused while Suno looked incredulous. "A-anyway, the most he'll probably do is just blow up the volcano- which is terrible for a lot of reasons- and might destroy the Dragon Ball!" Goku shrugged.
"Do you have an idea?" Goku asked the both of them. It wasn't meant to be snippy, just an earnest question. Bulma threw up her hands with a defeated sigh. "Fine," she said. "Let's go see Roshi." The younger girls gave a cry of jubilation as the three of them flew off to find Kame House.
OoOoOoO
Roshi was fiddling with his radio and trying to pick up the sports stations as he and Turtle sat by the shore, Roshi in his beach chair and Turtle in the sand. In the woods, Roshi could hear Launch, Yamcha, and Krillin sparring. What he couldn't hear was the baseball game he'd been trying to find for the last fifteen minutes. With a groan, he finally turned the machine off.
"Useless danged contraption…" he muttered as he huffed and leaned back in his chair. He reached over to the little side table where his glass of gin was sitting and picked up a dirty magazine. He began to slowly flip through it and was just starting to relax when he heard the familiar "whoosh" of the Nimbus cloud and a strange second noise. More like a "wubwubwubwub" or "bwaaaaaaah". He sat up and put the magazine away, clearing his throat. Just what, he wondered, was Goku doing here?
"Hi, Master Roshi!" Goku greeted joyfully as the Nimbus came to a stop at the shoreline. She hopped off the cloud and landed on the beach followed by a redheaded girl in a blue-and-white gi of her own. Seemed Goku had found a new friend. "Hi, Turtle!" Goku added and affectionately patted Turtle's head as Bulma descended as well. She looked like she had dinner plates stuck to her feet although he was sure that wasn't the case. Some new, high-fangled invention. She clicked her heels and landed in the sand.
"Hello, Goku," Turtle replied. From Goku's friend's reaction, she clearly hadn't expected Turtle to talk. Which was fair enough. Most people didn't.
"And what," Roshi asked as he got up from the chair, "are you two doing here?" he said with a smile before pulling down his shades to eye the redhead. "And who's your new friend?"
"M-my name is Suno, sir," she said nervously and with a respectful bow. "I was trained in the Odori style by Master Frost. He speaks very h-highly of you, sir, and-" Roshi held up a hand.
"That's quite enough," he told her with a gentle chuckle. Suno visibly relaxed as he readjusted his sunglasses. "The Odori style, eh?" he pulled at his beard and thought. "Always wondered how it would match against the teachings of the Turtle School. I've heard quite a bit about your teacher as well. He sounds like an incredible fighter." Suno blushed ever so slightly at the praise for her fighting style and her master.
"Anyway," Bulma cut in suddenly, "Do you have anything that might be able to, I dunno, make a really big area really cold?" Roshi cocked an eyebrow. What an odd and vague request.
"What, like an air conditioner?" he asked skeptically. Bulma and Suno both seemed to be searching for the words to explain their situation when Goku bulldozed her way in.
"We need to freeze a mountain!" she explained. Roshi's eyebrow rose to the point where it threatened to leave his skull. And he needed all the hair he could hold onto. Clearly he was waiting for an explanation. "No, wait," Goku added with a shake of her head and a furrow of her brow. "Not a mountain… the kind where it's full of fire?"
"A volcano?" Roshi offered. Goku nodded enthusiastically. "And what, might I ask, are you freezing a volcano for?"
"There's a Dragon Ball on it," Suno said. "We need to get it before the Red Ribbon Army does." Roshi pursed his lips.
"Red Ribbon Army, eh?" he asked. Suno winced. That sounded like he was going to say he wouldn't help them. That it was too big a responsibility and it wasn't his fight. Which is why she was so shocked and ecstatic when instead he said, "Sounds like a big job. Maybe you'll need some help?" Goku and Suno nodded eagerly. "Now in terms of something to freeze a volcano…" he hummed and hrmmed and rubbed his beard. "Oh, I may actually have something!" he said with a snap of his fingers. Then he looked at Bulma and raised his eyebrow,"For an exchange, of course." Bulma groaned and searched through the capsule box in her fanny pack.
"Dirty old man," she muttered as she pulled out a random capsule. She was sure it would hold some trinket that would amuse him appropriately. A satellite radio or a tiny fridge or something. "Here!" She threw the capsule to the ground and it opened with a puff of smoke to reveal… a stack of porn mags. Bulma and Suno stared at the stack with red faces and wide eyes. Goku looked at them quizzically.
"What are those two ladies doing with their legs?" she asked as she looked at the one on the top before Roshi yanked them all away.
"Sold!" he said hurriedly and ran back into the house.
"I… I think I grabbed my dad's capsule box," Bulma muttered, mortified. She still had a few of her gadgets with her which would be useful and could get her out of a jam… but no clothes, no food, no shelter, nothing to survive with. The most she could do was burn some of the magazines for warmth. Roshi returned after a minute, cradling something in his hands.
"This," he told them when he got closer, "Is the Itetsuku Sphere." He held it out for them to look at. Even Bulma bent down to get a closer look. They could see swirling snow and frozen mountain peaks and cold winds inside. It was like the very concept of winter in a tiny glass bubble. It reminded Suno of home. "Please," he urged, "be very careful with it." On that note, Suno took it before Goku could and stored it in her knapsack. "When you get to the volcano, you can break the hell out of it. Otherwise, it could freeze an entire island."
"Where the heck did you get something like that?" Bulma asked as she gave Suno's knapsack a wary eye. Roshi chuckled and stroked his mustache.
"About a hundred years ago. It was a token from a Yeti chieftain for saving his people from a…" he paused and looked at the starry expression in Goku's eyes as she and Suno hung on every word. He sighed and waved a hand dismissively with another chuckle. "Bah," he said, "It's a long story. One you all probably don't have the time for. But when you're done stopping the Red Ribbon Army, I'll be happy to tell you all about it." They both nodded before they were all snapped out of their excitement by a rumbling sound. Birds squawked and flapped out of the forest as several trees crashed to the ground. "Ah," Roshi said, "There's some other people who will be happy to see you!" He put his fingers in his lips and let out a high, loud whistle.
OoOoOoO
Several minutes earlier…
Yamcha skidded backwards on flat feet as he was pushed out of the trees and into a clearing in the forest. He could see two black blurs darting through the treeline and erratically zig-zagging so he couldn't keep up with their movements. But he had something they didn't. As he dropped into his Wolf Fang Fist stance, he had… animal instinct. His ear twitched as he heard something dashing through the trees on his left. He turned just in time to see Krillin charging at him and brought up a knee to block his attack. Krillin pushed off his knee and jumped higher to push him back with a flurry of jabs. Yamcha bobbed and weaved and drove an elbow into Krillin's stomach to take the breath out of him before shoving him away with a palm strike just in time to hear Launch coming from behind. He twisted around and drove a sharp kick towards her face but she rolled under it and came up to slam the heel of her palm under his chin. He staggered back and she followed up with a roundhouse kick that sent him sprawling into the dirt. He hated to admit it but Launch was getting good.
"What's the matter, pretty boy?" she teased, flicking a finger across her nose as he got up and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. "Little old Launch too tough for ya?" Before Yamcha could come up with a suitable reply, Krillin attacked with a flying kick that Launch barely blocked in time. She staggered back as Krillin pressed the attack with an axe kick while he was in midair. Launch caught it in her forearms with a crossblock and threw him away. Krillin landed on the ground on his hands and feet before launching himself at the both of them and throwing his feet out for a dropkick. The three of them traded rapid-fire punches and kicks, throwing each other into one another and kicking off of each other.
Launch suddenly grabbed Krillin by the wrist and swung him around at Yamcha. When Yamcha went back, she let go of Krillin and he flew away. He landed against a tree with his feet and pushed off, hitting her with both fists in the side. She staggered and gasped for breath but she liked it. She liked that they weren't pulling any punches just because she was a girl. There was a sudden crack as the tree that Krillin had pushed off suddenly split and began to fall down towards them. Yamcha ran between Krillin and Launch and threw up one hand like a spearhead to split the tree down the middle with a kiai. As the tree fell down, Krillin swiped his hand up through the air to send Yamcha flying with a kiai wave of his own. Yamcha hit a tree with a groan and looked at Krillin incredulously.
"You left yourself open," Krillin said with a smirk and a shrug. Yamcha responded with a kiai-charged roundhouse kick that made Krillin yelp and duck as it sliced through a tree. The two traded kiais as Launch sighed and leaned against a tree.
"Cheating assholes," she muttered. "You know I can't do that kiai shit yet." She was content to let them tire themselves out and destroy half the forest before declaring herself the winner when a high-pitched whistle brought them all to a halt.
"Wonder what Roshi wants," Yamcha muttered as they all ran out of the forest. When they broke through the trees, they were greeted with two familiar faces and one new one.
"Goku!" Yamcha, Launch, and Krillin said in unison as she smiled at them and hugged each in turn. Yamcha turned his attention to Bulma and smiled even wider at her.
"Hey, babe!" he said eagerly and pulled her into a kiss before hugging her. Bulma looked over Yamcha's shoulder and glared at Launch. Launch smirked and gave her the finger. Yamcha let Bulma go and turned to Goku and the new girl. "So who's your friend, Goku?" he asked playfully with a hand on one hip.
"Yeah," Krillin added suspiciously and narrowed his eyes, "who is she?" Suno was a little bit more comfortable introducing herself now so she was more confident when she told them. Besides, with the three of them all in the same orange gi as Goku, it almost looked a little silly. Then she and Goku once again went over their story.
"Huh," Launch muttered and cracked her knuckles, "Red Ribbon Army, huh?" Krillin gave a nervous laugh.
"G-Goku," he said, "Remember what I said about now no one person being able to beat an entire army? That doesn't change just because you're two people!" Yamcha grinned and playfully rubbed Krillin's shiny head.
"Sounds like they've got a pretty good start on it already," he said. Roshi nodded and adjusted his glasses.
"So," he said, "Who's goin' with 'em?" Krillin quickly stepped between Suno and Goku.
"I-I am!" he said hurriedly. Goku grinned and Suno gave him a quizzical look. Just what was this Krillin guy's issue? Yamcha shook his head.
"Not me," he said. "I'm gonna stick behind and train some more. Besides, this sounds like one of those things where the more people there are, the more of a mess it will be." He gave a wave and headed into the house, muttering about being thirsty.
"Think I'll stay back, too," Launch agreed. Bulma huffed and Launch smirked. Now it was Bulma's turn to give her the finger.
"Let's go, let's go!" Goku said eagerly as she, Suno, and Krillin hopped onto Nimbus. From the back of the cloud, Krillin nervously decided it was a good thing no one else was coming. It was getting a little crowded. Bulma clicked her heels and rose into the air and soon the four of them took off. Roshi sighed and plopped back into his lawn chair, flipping through a magazine.
"Heavens," he muttered as he read an article. "Is this really what women think will please their men this century?"