Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Happy Birthday Vegeta ❯ The Crescent Island ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: Please! Akira Toryama would never have written this tripe.

Author's Notes: My sincerest apologies for the lag, made another major life change, and (sigh) those tend to disrupt my creativity.

Happy Birthday Vegeta

Chapter Five

"Bulma, why are we taking the capsule jet?"

"I think this is the easiest way to reach the location," she replied while programming her flight pattern into the onboard computer.

"Too far for one of us to just fly?" Gohan prodded the blue-haired woman.

Bulma finished punching in coordinates then reclined in her chair and stretched her jean clad legs out in front of her. Seeing persistence in Gohan's handsome face she sighed.

"The last dragonball is on an island in the South Sea...it's inhabited by a brutal tribe of natives. Definitely hostile natives."

"We defeated Cell, and you are worried about a few spear-wielding natives?" Gohan was incredulous. Bulma nibbled her bottom lip and considered how to explain her feeling on the matter.

"It's not just that Gohan...the island itself has a reputation for weirdness...electrical irregularities, gravitational anomolies...frankly the whole thing gives me the creeps!" she shuddered delicately. Gohan smiled and relaxed into his chair.

"It still doesn't sound like anything we can't handle." He looked at Bulma and grinned, "You are with The Great Saiyaman you know..." Bulma choked back a groan.

"Please tell me that's not the cover you're adopting?" He slid dark sunglasses over his twinkling eyes and nodded.

"Gohan, you are such a baka," she laughed. "Might as well settle in, it'll take us a couple of hours to get there." There was a moment of quiet, and then knowing how thorough Bulma was, he asked, "what sort of back up plan did you make?"

Bulma worried a long strand of aqua hair as she answered. "Twenty-four hours. Krillen and Piccolo have the coordinates and we have twenty-four hours before they act." Gohan nodded, then fell asleep, leaving Bulma to stare out the window at the fluffy clouds, with a slight frown on her face.

Several Hours Later

"Well, there it is." Bulma broke the silence as a small crescent shaped island came into view. Turquoise waters lapped along the beach that was the inner curve of the crescent. Cliffs rose in a gentle incline from the beach and flattened out across the top of the island. Bulma skillfully piloted the tiny jet around the outer curve of the crescent and gasped, waking Gohan. Sheer cliffs plunged several hundred feet straight down. Opaque mist clung like curtains to the walls of stone, concealing the base of the island from them.

"Beautiful," said Gohan, his eyes wide.

"Yeah, but I think we'll put down on the beach." ulma replied with a smile. Moments later she landed the vehicle on the soft sand. Without a word, she logged onto the computer, and with a few keystrokes sent a cryptic message and coordinates to Capsule Corp. "Just in case," she murmured. She performed a mental inventory, double checking the placement of her capsules. 'A girl never leaves home without them' she thought and a nervous giggle worked its way past her lips. She completed her check, grabbed the dragon radar, and exited the plane. She saw Gohan down on the beach, and turned to encapsulate the vehicle.

Goku's son stood in the sand facing inland, his hands in his pockets, eyes closed, as he scanned for signs of life. He stretched his awareness from the jagged cliffs, through the jungle on the plateau, and felt along the vast expanse of beach. A puzzled frown drew his dark brows together. He opened his eyes, perusing much the same path visually. "Bulma?" he called just as she approached from behind. "I'm not getting anything Bulma...if there is anyone here, their ki is very low." He thought uncomfortably of the androids that had no ki signature...and of warriors who were trained to be able to suppress their ki when needed. Neither thought sat well with him. He turned and looked at Bulma who was fiddling with the dragon radar. She looked up, her cerulean eyes wide with anxiety.

"I'm not getting anything either Gohan." She spoke through a throat tight with tension.

"What?"

"The dragon radar is not indicating the direction of the dragonball. It's not indicating anything at all."

"How-"

"I don't know! It was fine on the way here!" She attmepted to run a diagnostic on the radar, then shook her head.

"Nothing. It won't even self-test." She paced a bit in the sand.

"I was afraid something like this might happen, dammit. I told you there were reports of electrical irregularities..." she took a deep breath, and the Capsule Corp logo on her tshirt streched pleasantly. "We may have to do this the hard way...the map-and-compass-way." Gohan stared at her.

"You're sure we are in the right place? This would not be a good time for an error in calculation." Bulma exploded in Gohan's face.

"Of course I'm certain! I told you I had the locations to within 99%...I didn't make any other mistakes did I? Noooo! This is not my error, Gohan...it's something else..." She stopped, and they looked together towards the top of the island, then back at one another. Bulma shrugged out of her backpack and pulled out the necessary gear...several topographical maps, a compass, and insect repellent.

"Our clock is ticking...lets go."