The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, casting long, purple shadows across the outskirts of Oinktown.
Bulma crouched behind a thick hedge, carefully parting the leaves to peer back at the village entrance.
The road was empty.
"Okay, we lost them. That glue bought us enough time to get out of sight."
She pulled out the Dragon Radar.
"He's still there, the signal is stationary. He thinks he's safe in the middle of town."
Behind her, Goku was sitting cross-legged on the grass, his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
"That pig is a coward! He didn't even try to fight. He just ran away. If he fought me fair and square, I would have beaten him easily!"
"Fair and square? Welcome to the real world, i guess."
She holstered the radar and leaned against a tree, crossing her own arms.
"Nobody cares about fair. They care about winning."
Goku ignored the lesson entirely.
He didn't care about philosophy.
He cared about the fight.
He huffed, stood up, and brushed the grass off his pants. The anger was still in his eyes.
"I don't care, i'm going back there. I'm gonna find him and make him fight me!"
He turned to march back toward the village, but Bulma stepped in front of him, blocking his path with a hand on his chest.
"Stop right there, use your head for once. If you go back down there and play Oolong's game again, you will lose."
Goku glared at her.
"I won't lose! I'm stronger than him!"
"Strength doesn't matter here! Because Oolong won't fight you. He'll just turn into another villager. Or he'll turn into me. He'll get that mob to attack you again. And since you refuse to hurt innocent people... you'll just stand there and let them beat you to death."
Goku stopped pushing against her hand.
He clenched his jaw, looking back at the village lights twinkling in the distance.
He knew she was right. Being strong didn't help if you didn't know who to hit.
"So what do we do? Do we just sit here and wait for him to come out?"
"No, we don't wait. We force his hand."
She reached into her pouch and retrieved Capsule 94.
"Oolong thinks he's smart because he can hide in a crowd. But he has a weakness. Every con artist does."
She turned to Goku.
"If we can't go to him... we make him come to us."
"How are we gonna do that?"
"I have an idea," she whispered.
"And trust me... he's going to walk right into it."
An hour later, a small, cozy Capsule House sat in a clearing about half a mile from the village entrance.
The lights were on, casting a warm, inviting glow into the dark forest. The window was conveniently left wide open.
Inside, the Four-Star Dragon Ball sat on the kitchen table.
From the branch of a tall oak tree, a horned owl watched the house with unblinking eyes.
So they decided to camp near the city...
He watched.
Now that I understand how they tracked me, using a radar tuned to the dragon balls, i know they have no idea I'm here now.
Inside the house, he could see the girl, Bulma, walking around in her pajamas.
Looking more closely now, a girl and a child don't look like bandits; they just seem to be bounty hunters.
Bulma yawned, stretched, and turned off the main lights, leaving only the kitchen light dim.
He waited another hour.
The lights went out completely.
The house went silent.
Doesn't look like they're trapping the perimeter, just keeping an eye on the inside.
He needed to be sure.
He transformed.
POOF.
The owl vanished.
In its place was a common housefly.
Oolong buzzed through the air.
He didn't go for the window.
He flew to the air vent on the roof.
He crawled through the mesh, navigating the ductwork until he popped out into the living room.
He buzzed high near the ceiling, scanning the room with his compound eyes.
Goku slept on the couch, drool trailing down his chin.
Bulma was asleep in the bedroom.
And there it was.
The dragon ball.
Sitting on the table.
Oolong circled the table three times.
He looked for laser grids.
He looked for pressure plates.
Nothing.
They really are amateurs, they may think because they are strong, no one will dare rob them.
He landed on the table from a safe distance from the ball.
He crept forward, rubbing his front legs together.
With this one, I'll have two dragon balls. One step closer to bringing you back, my friend.
He approached the orange orb.
He needed to be quick.
He would transform into a hand, grab it, and then turn into a falcon and blast out the window before they could blink.
POOF.
The fly vanished. A gloved hand appeared in mid-air, snatching the ball.
Got it.
CLICK.
The moment the ball was lifted off the table, a mechanical sound filled the room.
What?
The air around him suddenly turned heavy.
Unbearably heavy.
His hand felt like it weighed a thousand tons.
He tried to transform into a bird, but his body wouldn't obey.
The atoms themselves felt sluggish.
"Gravity distortion field active." A cool robotic voice announced from a speaker on the table.
The lights slammed on.
Bulma was standing in the bedroom doorway, holding a remote control. She wasn't sleepy. She was smirking.
"Gotcha."
Oolong tried to move, but he was pinned to the tabletop by the sheer force of the localized gravity well.
That girl... she used technology to trap me. I was so obsessed with the brat's raw power that I completely overlooked the genius standing right next to him.
He was locked in a humiliating, half-transformed state, a grotesque hybrid of a pig's head gasping for air and a human hand white-knuckling the sphere.
"You... you..."
Oolong wheezed, his cheek smashed against the wood.
"You aren't quite as stupid as I thought, you didn't come in through the window, which was smart, since that was rigged with a high-voltage mesh. And you checked for the obvious tripwires before you made your move."
She tapped the table, just inches from his snout.
"But you didn't expect me to be this good, did you, Oolong? The moment the weight on this table changed by even a fraction of a gram, the trap sprung."
Goku sat up on the couch, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
"Is breakfast ready? Oh! You caught him!"
"I told you." Bulma said, crossing her arms. "
She looked down at the struggling shapeshifter.
"Now, Oolong. Let's talk about that other dragon ball."