22 The Fall

Life is something to be treasured, valued and to take it is a truly terrible act. No one has a right to take a life no matter the justification. At the very least that is what many may think, perhaps it is the way my mind works as well as I had never even come close to ending anyone I have ever encountered. Do these thoughts bring regret and remorse for the act I have just committed? No, not at all, I could care less about Tao and I truly hope he rots in the fiery pits of hell, and should I meet him in that afterlife, so be it. He has killed many more - countless - and for what? For pleasure and money, he's truly the scum of the earth and deserves nothing less than death. Men, women, and children; he did not care who's life he took as long as he had fun with it, so why should I have cared for his own? He's worth less than the dirt I walk on.

Not allowing his blood to taint the sacred land of Korin much longer I make sure there's not even a single trace of him left behind with a Kamehameha wave. I remove the pillar that damaged the soil and work on restoring it with a bit of magic, hoping that it would work as I had never attempted such a thing. It's not the best but it's good enough. With that handled, I face the tower, curious to know if Korin would do me a favor after this.

I'll just have to find out.

Scaling the tower is not much of an issue and I employ jumping every now and then to cut the distance shorter much faster. Within thirty minutes or so I'm at Korin's tower, climbing through one of the openings to come into the room he stores his senzu. He's there waiting for me, as I had expected and he greets me as he had the first time.

"Master Korin"

"Durian" He bows in turn before he approaches, his steps slow until he stands in front of me. In an instant, I'm whacked on the back of the head by that walking stick he carries around. For such a small creature, he sure packs a punch because it hurt enough for me to try to soothe the pain."Do you realize what you've done?"

"I'm sorry"

"No you're not" He sighs a familiar thing that reminds me of my father for a moment. A sigh of disappointment that always stung terribly. "But I will not punish nor belittle you. That man's heart was as dark as the night and change was not in his fortune"

That's relieving for some reason.

"Yes, the dark nimbus does exist and yes you may have it" He then says and motions for me to stand. "With what you've learned I can already see the destruction in your wake and Kami will not be happy"

I'm straying further and further away from his good graces it would seem. Matters little, as long as Kakarot is still someone he would deem worthy, it doesn't matter what he thinks of me. Though this could mean that I won't be trained under the god of earth himself, which is an opportunity lost as I'm sure someone of his status would have much to teach.

I was always curious as to how these clouds come into existence and today I've learned that Korin has a massive nimbus just sitting in his room, both the yellow and the dark one. I'm not sure what to think of it but I don't dwell on it too much. I'll ask him about it some other time.

"I just take a piece?" I'm asking this despite already attempting to pull apart a handful of the dark cloud. It feels just as soft as the nimbus and must be the same in everything but appearance. I should have requested this the first time I appeared here.

"As big as you want"

Finally, the cloud detaches from the rest and I'm left hanging onto it in the air. It makes a similar sound to the normal Nimbus, which is marvelous because it had always been such an adorable sound. Slowly the ground lowers towards Korin and slips through the door, leaving me behind in the process.

"Thank you for the cloud, I'll be on my way now" I bow once more and almost expect him to hit me again, but he does not, instead the stick taps me on the leg, bringing attention to my bloodied pant leg.

Oh yeah, I need to change.

"Do you have a shower?"

~~~~~~~~~

Showered and changed I finally leave Korin's tower with the promise to return for magical training. He reminds me that he has control over my gifted cloud when I'm heading down the tower as the cloud turns into gas for a moment and almost gives me a heart attack. That was not very funny Korin.

On my way down I catch sight of Kakarot and the rest incoming, Kakarot speeding ahead of everyone else on his own nimbus and before we're even within a few feet of each other he leaps off the cloud and onto mine, almost throwing me off it in the process.

"You've got a nimbus" He notes as he sits down. "It's bigger than mine, cool"

"Were you trying to push me off?" I ask him, standing on the edge after he crashed into me. I came this close to plummeting to the bottom.

"I guess you're in a better mood" Is his reply as he watches me with a raised brow. "Right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" More or less, I'm not angry anymore, at the very least. Anger only clouds the mind and makes way for rash judgments and actions, something I realized after I took the moment to calm down.

Just then the rest catch up with Krillin yelling at Kakarot for leaving them behind and Yamcha is shocked at the fact that I have a nimbus. Bulma on her part argues with the boys as they're leaning out the only two windows and cramping the space more than it already is.

Kakarot is amused if his laughter is anything to go by and finally hops off my cloud and back onto his.

"Okay, now you get a nimbus?" Krillin scoffs. "What about me?"

"Climb the tower and ask Korin" I shrug and linger near the plane. "It's not that hard and you don't need to be pure to use this one"

"Cool, let me hitch a ride" Krillin is halfway through the window of the plane before he's pulled back in by Yamcha. What follows is a scruffle between the monk and the bandit, for whatever reason until Krillin simply gives up and Yamcha switches with Bulma to take the wheel and then Bulma fearlessly decides to hop out the plane and onto my nimbus. I say fearlessly, but the way she immediately clings on to me tells another story.

"Well hello there"

"Just a moment ago you were scarily mad, and now...." She accuses me. "Now you're just...how do you jump from emotion like that?"

"I didn't, I just took the time to calm down" I have been taught many things and one of them is how to properly control my emotions. Master Lao has made it very clear that no matter the situation I cannot let emotions cloud my mind as it would serve to alter my judgment and logical thinking. He has proved his point to me many, many times in the past as he had a habit of angering me into fighting him, only to beat some sense into me. Thinking back, the things he has done could classify as child abuse. "Whenever I'm mad I take a few moments to just stop and breathe, it helps surprisingly well for its simplicity"

Because if I didn't I would have been shooting off towards the Red Ribbon Army and their HQ would have been blown off the face of the earth. And as appealing as that is even now, I'll refrain as that would mean I won't get the answers I want. I know everything I need to know, more or less, but I would still like some confirmation.

"You should try it" I suggest to Bulma, who looks less than pleased. "Or not"

"So that assassin guy"

"Taken care of" and that's the end of it.

"Are we allowed to ask"

"Turns out he not only killed my master, but my parents as well, who would've thought" And he paid the price dearly, didn't he. "Even better, he was hired by the Red Ribbon to kill them, so now our feud is personal"

"The Red Ribbon" Kakarot mutters and suddenly his expression hardens. "We'll destroy them"

"You realize you're talking about an army" Yamcha pitches in. "With guns and bazookas and rocket launchers and every weapon you can think of"

"You scared?"

"No just making sure you guys knew what we're up against" Yamcha grins. "I'm not turning back now, especially if this is personal"

"And we did technically agree to this" Krillin adds as an afterthought. "I have weird friends"

"You're all out of your minds" Bulma, perhaps the most sane of the group, accuses.

"And yet here you are"

~~~~~~~~

Back at the Red Ribbon headquarters, General Red and fellow General Black stand observing their dragon ball radar, noting with joy that four dragons balls are heading towards them. In their minds, it could only be Taopaipai, as he is the greatest assassin in the world and never failed a single job. It only made sense that he had handled that nosy group of kids and for that, he will be paid a hefty sum. In fact, Red might just pay him full price for his services because with those kids out of the way, and with the addition of the dragon balls they so stupidly collected for him, he's that much closer to his wish. Finally, he will be taller, finally, he will have his wish.

Alas, things don't go as he had hoped as the voices of his men erupt from the radio.

"W-wait a minute, it isn't Taopaipai!" A soldier shouts, his voice distorted through the radio but his words are heard painfully clear.

"What!"

Furious, General Red snatches a headset from one of his men and orders his soldier to explain himself, except the signal cuts a moment later and he hears nothing but static.

"Respond eighty four!" He demands, but is met with radio silence. Angered he throws the contraption to the ground, damaging it in the process.

"It's been destroyed!" A random soldier announces, angering the General that much more.

"Switch on the laser monitor!"

There on the monitor, they do not see the tall figure of Tao, instead, they are met with two children on clouds, two children with tails, and the very two that have been the most trouble since their search began.

How can this be?!

"How are they still alive?"

"Could they have defeated Taopaipai?" General Black wonders incredulously. If so then it seems they have greatly underestimated the power of this odd group of kids.

"Listen up, don't let them get a step further!" General Red commands.

"They've already gotten inside. They're on the terrace in sector twelve" a soldier fearfully announces.

"Another two are in sector thirteen"

This is ridiculous, how can a group of kids do so much damage? More than half their soldiers have been taken down and multiple of their planes have been blown to pieces as well as their weapons.

"Two of them are heading for building eight"

General Red clenches his teeth as the image of the dragon balls enters his mind. They must be heading for the dragon balls. He would not allow it. He spent so much time trying to gather them and he'll die before he lets these kids ruin his plans.

"Commander, you should retreat underground, just to be safe," says General Black in an attempt to keep the head of their organization safe from any harm. Even if they are destroyed, if their leader escapes the army will never die.

"Don't make me laugh, why do I have to retreat because of some stupid kids!" He's not a coward, and would not run from this, especially not when he's this close to his desire.

"But they were capable of defeating Taopaipai, these are no ordinary kids" Black attempts to talk some sense into his superior, but he remains stubborn.

"The Red Ribbon Army is invincible!"

Why must he constantly shout?

The monitors clearly display the four kids that have stormed their headquarters, all of them doing an unimaginable amount of damage despite all the trained soldiers and weapons they have. The two most dangerous are the ones heading for the dragon balls, while the other two are nearing closer and closer to their surveillance room. The laser monitor gets a good shot of one of their snipers attempting to shoot one down and Red is hopeful. Surely a bullet would do the job.

Sadly that is not the case with these two, as the fired bullet was simply caught by the boy of the duo, the child then throwing it back, hard and fast enough for it to pierce the flesh of the soldier.

"Unbelievable"

He seems to be the tamer of the two and that's saying a lot seeing as he brings down any and all aircraft with a massive grin on his face. And the other has no qualms about destroying everything in her path, leaving a trail of fallen and bloodied soldiers in her wake and firing multiple odd spheres that destroy their weaponry.

Soldiers experience this first hand and a great deal of them have quickly come to the realization that if they do not flee, they're likely to end up severely injured or just outright massacred.

"They're already in building eight and we've lost eighty percent of our soldiers, General" a terrified soldier reports, shaking as he stands before his leader.

Idiots, all of them. And they have the audacity to call themselves the strongest on earth? What has become of the once great and powerful Red Ribbon Army? To fall to mere children is beyond disgraceful.

General Red scoffs and with General black in toe they rush off towards building eight.

Panting and tired they arrive in the building and the room that stores the balls. To Red's relief, they are all safe and sound and he will do anything to keep things that way. There is no way in hell he's losing the dragon balls.

"We're really in a bad situation" General Black realizes and has been aware of this since those kids entered their headquarters." Those four kids possess strength beyond our wildest imagination, not to mention the core members of our army have been done away with in their search"

And with over eighty percent of their soldiers lost the army has essentially been brought to its knees. And with the way things are going, it looks like they will fully take out the army, leaving not even a trace of them behind. The only way to make it out of this is if they gather any surviving and willing soldiers and retreat. However, when General Black brings this up to Red, he refuses and curses the men who have served him for all these years. Surely they're beyond pathetic if they cannot handle some teenagers.

Unlike Red, Black realizes that this is all their own fault in underestimating the strength of these kids. It should have already been a red flag after general Blue was taken out as he was one of their strongest, especially with those odd abilities of his. And now Tao's been dealt with as well.

"As I've said before General Red" Black hopes another attempt may persuade his stubborn superior. "It is in our best interest to abandon the dragon balls and leave, your life and the lives of our remaining soldiers may depend on it"

"Goddamn it!" Ever the loud man he is, the general shouts and slams his fist onto the table where the dragon balls rest. "I was so close, just a little more and I could have gotten taller!"

Taller?

Black pauses as he regards the man he had been working under for years. Taller? Have they been gathering these powerful wish-granting orbs just for him to wish for a few more inches of height? Have their men been sent out to be dealt with by these ridiculously powerful children because this man wanted to be taller? Have they let almost all of their soldiers fall to the hands of a foe, unlike any others, simply because Red was not content with his body?

That can't be right, can it?

"Commander Red" he must not have heard him right. "Do you mean that you were collecting the dragon balls to increase your height?"

"Yes and what of it?"

What of it? Black could not believe this...this incompetent man child. Is this the man he has been working so tirelessly under?

"It wasn't in order to take control of the world?"

"We'll be able to do that in little time" Red dismisses."Before that though, I have to look cool. Gals don't like short men"

Absolutely ridiculous.

He goes off on a tirade, stating that a tall person like Black could never understand how someone as short as Red could possibly feel. All his life he had been made fun of for his short stature and having an old face despite not being as tall as one would consider an adult. And as he talks Black cannot help but think of all the sacrifices they had made - all the time they had spent collecting these balls for him, the time spent working on a device that could track them down. He made them all suffer just so he could fulfill some stupid desire of being taller? And he should listen and do as he says because he's his commander?

He just does not care about the men who slaved away working under him, he's entirely selfish.

If that's how it is, then Black has no issue with killing him. If he does not care for them, why should he show any care in return? So many soldiers have suffered for him and all he has to show for it is his stupid want. He doesn't deserve to lead this great army.

He's shot in the head without a second thought as black swears to become the new leader of the Red Ribbon as well as the world.

He barely gets to bask in his self-given rule before he's suddenly attacked. Having no time to react or even acknowledge the new appearances, he's blitzed, hit hard in the stomach, and sent crashing into the cabinet in the small room. The impact has all air leaving his lungs as he gasps for breath, vision blurred as everything turns on its axis and there before him he sees a pair of blue combat boots and soon the face of one of his tormentors, eyeing him curiously.

"Y-you"

"Good to see you're still alive" It is Durian who bends down to meet his eyes, fully crouching after a moment of consideration. "Who might you be?"

"General Black" He's far more logical than Red, he sees reason and knows he should answer this person before he suffers once more. He's not even sure what had happened, all he knows is that he's in pain and can barely move where he lies in the broken parts of the cabinet.

"And who's the leader of this operation?" The questions continue and Black tries to regain some sense of the world. Behind Durian Kakarot has collected the dragon balls and placed them safely in the pouch Durian had been carrying, content with having found six of them already.

"I am now the leader" Black admits, with a pained grunt when something stabs insistently into his side.

"What about that guy?"

"Former commander Red"

"You killed him" Kakarot states as he observes the bullet wound and the gun Black had dropped. "Why would you kill your boss?"

"He was incompetent and had us gathering the balls to wish for height instead of world domination"

Height?

"That's stupid" Kakarot snickers to himself. He's not even that short.

"Moving on from that" Durian is sitting in front of him now and he's startled to see the pistol she suddenly acquired. At first, he's relieved when he recalls the fact she's just a child and couldn't possibly know how to use the weapon. But all hopes are trampled when she proves him wrong and all color drains from his face. "I've got some questions I need answered, it's in your best interest to be truthful"

He's very much aware of that.

"Do the names Lyche and Goji ring any bells?"

Watching the look on Black's face is like watching someone finally understand the secrets to something terrible as recognition as well as realization dawns on the man's face. His expression says it all and when he answers it is only further confirmation.

"They were two of our best scientists" He recalls, remembering the couple quite clearly.

"That so?" Durian sounds far too casual and for some reason, that's incredibly unsettling to general Black, who meets her eyes for the briefest of moments. She's not happy, despite the unbothered tone of voice.

"Tell me more"

Why does he feel as if he has made a mistake of some kind?

"They were supposed to help in the research of androids and admittedly, they helped far more than anyone expected as the research they had done was far more successful than we had first expected and their first creation was almost perfect in its design" Black explains. "However, they did not agree with our goals and did not want to help in our endeavor and so they left, taking their research as well as they're only created android. Or they tried to at least"

Durian has never heard of a successful android from her parents and she always thought that they simply researched the creations.

"We naturally weren't going to give up such a glorious creation and they weren't content with leaving it in our hands so the machine was destroyed, sadly, and nothing was left to salvage"

"Anything else?" Durian asks, patiently. "Any specific reason for researching androids?"

"We wanted to create the perfect soldiers" And the creation and understanding of androids would be their first step in that endeavor.

"The study of androids to create the perfect soldiers" Durian mumbles to herself, ideas already bouncing around in her head. "Bio-engineering"

She hates to admit it, but it's quite genius, this idea of theirs. Though she's not approving of the things they have done and the things they would have done to create these soldiers. Not many people would be willing to risk their lives to become part machine.

General Black nods to Durian's conclusion and now she fully understands.

"So you're telling me that you lot had my parents killed because they refused to work for you?"

Again, Black nods, slowly and painfully.

"They were the only ones who had made that breakthrough and had the gall to take that information with them" There's bitterness in his voice that Durian notices. "And I'm certain they could have made the perfect Bio-engineered soldiers"

"We couldn't have let them go, either way, they knew too much and we could not take any chances"

And if they hadn't been such cowards they'd still be alive today and the army would truly be the most powerful organization in the world.

Before him, Durian releases a slow sigh and stands from her seated position.

"Thank you for the info" Her voice is mocking as she stands over him, not at all sounding grateful or sincere, but entirely condescending. It reminds him of commander red for a moment and the thought of that man has his blood boiling.

"Now then"

Fear spikes in his system when he hears the familiar sound of the pistol and looks up only to stare down the cylinder.

"Have you ever questioned someone before, General?"

"Y-yes"

"And what do you do to them when they are no longer of use?"

His silence is answer enough as all strength slips away, his body now weak with fear.

The Red Ribbon has fallen.