Skyborn

Chapter VIII: Wish Upon A Dragon

From Pleasant Village, they headed North. Oolong drove the wagon back through the Mushroom Forest. Bulma was riding shotgun, her hair in the wind. Her mood had improved a lot since the drop of temperature. Goku was lying on the backseat. He had napped for most of the way back.

"Are you sure there's a town around here?" Bulma asked Oolong. "I'm getting sick of these mushroom-trees."

"I never went this South before, so I'm not sure. But I hope so. We're gonna run out of fuel soon."

"Oh! There!" Bulma shouted, finger pointing. A few meters away there was a sign welcoming them to Seville Town. "Alright, gang. We need a Caps Corp store ASAP."

"Let's get gas first," Oolong suggested, since the station was right there. "Fill the tank, sir," he asked the attendant.

The attendant was a tall man with dark facial hair and round glasses. He wore simple peasant clothes and a white turban. "Will liquid platinum do, sir?"

"Yeah, whatever you have."

Bulma got out of the wagon and glanced at Goku. He was asleep again. "Take good care of him," she told Oolong in a threatening way. "I'm going shopping." Oolong simply waved her away.

She quickly found a Caps Corp store. The clerk watched as she went through his selection. "Not many choices, uh?" She picked the capsules she needed and showed it to him. "I'll take these. Could you number and put them in a case? Thank you." The clerk did as she asked with very agile hands. She paid and left.

"Have you bought any food?" Goku asked as soon as she returned.

"Glad to see you awake, Goku. And no, I didn't. I thought we could go somewhere and eat there."

"Good," he said. "I'm starving."

They were about to enter the wagon when several things happened at once. First, the bandit of the desert came out of nowhere, waving his arms in the air and screaming something that sounded like 'look out!' Then a whistling noise. Bulma felt Goku collide with her, throwing her down. And then something hit their wagon and it went kaboom.

Didn't help that they were at a gas station. The entire place exploded.

Goku's ears were hurting. He couldn't hear. He couldn't see very well either because of the smoke. There was fire everywhere. He helped Bulma to her feet. She had a big gash in her forehead, but looked otherwise unharmed.

A man appeared from the smoke. He was short and angry, dressed in a navy uniform. In seconds, he appeared, walked toward them, grabbed their backpacks and was gone.

They never had the time to react.

Just like that, the Dragon Balls were stolen.

They gathered at the nearest dinner, Bulma, Goku, Oolong, Yamcha and Puar. They had a few scratches, but were mostly alright. There was nothing they could do for the gas station. Thankfully nobody got hurt.

Their main concern now was how to get the Dragon Balls back.

"What happened?" Goku asked Yamcha. "Why are you here? And who was that guy?"

"I, uh..." Yamcha hesitated.

"We were following you, of course," Lady Puar put in. "We heard you were after the Dragon Balls, and we had half a mind to steal it from you."

"Oh, really?" Bulma said. "And the other half was to do what?"

Yamcha's ears turned purple.