About an hour later, they were already far from Oinktown.
Bulma drove her capsule generated off-roader down the lonely highway.
The landscape outside the window began to shift, the lush greenery of the valley slowly giving way to dry earth.
The journey to the Diablo Desert, and the fortress city of Brown Town was an eight hour trek. Under normal circumstances, Bulma would have stopped for coffee, complained about the heat, and taken a nap.
But these were not normal circumstances.
She glanced down at the digital calendar on the dashboard.
Remaining Time: 6 Days.
Objectives Remaining: 5 dragon balls.
They had less than a week to locate the remaining dragon balls scattered across the globe.
In the passenger seat, Goku was already asleep, drooling against the glass.
In the back, Oolong stared out at the horizon, watching the silhouette of the mountains grow sharper and more hostile.
They were heading into the wolf's den.
/////////////////////////////////////////
The midday sun hung over the Diablo Desert like a hateful unblinking eye.
The heat was oppressive.
Bulma, who was wearing the full olive-green utility jumpsuit, unzipped the top half and tied the sleeves around her waist, leaving her in just a white tank top.
Her skin glistened with sweat, and her hair was tied back in a messy bun.
Beside her, Oolong was suffering.
He was panting heavily, his tongue lolling out, looking dangerously close to turning into bacon.
Goku looked fine. He just looked bored.
They pulled into a lonely, capsule themed trading shop with a sign that read:
LAST STOP: CAPSULES & FUEL.
Bulma got out of the vehicle and entered the shop.
She needed fuel, obviously, but she had made a critical calculation error.
She had packed enough gadgets, but she had completely underestimated the caloric intake of Goku.
"I'll take three packs of Hoi-Poi fuel, Model 91." Bulma told the man behind the counter.
"And give me every food storage capsule you have. And water. Lots of water."
The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow as he scanned the items.
"Heading deeper into the Diablo, miss?"
"That's the plan." Bulma said, tapping her credit card on the reader.
"Watch yourself out there. Don't stop on the road for anything. There are bandits in those canyons. If you falter, they'll strip your vehicle down to the bolts and leave you for the vultures."
Bulma blinked wide innocent eyes, putting a hand to her chest in mock surprise.
"Oh my! That sounds absolutely terrifying!" She gave him a sweet, naive smile.
"I'll be sure to drive straight through. Thank you for the warning, sir!"
She grabbed her bag and walked out, her expression was instantly back to boredom the moment the door closed.
"Alright, team!" she called out, tossing the bag into the back of the car.
"Who's thirsty? Who's hungry?"
"Just give me the water!" Oolong wheezed, snatching a bottle capsule from her hand. He popped it and downed the entire gallon jug in ten seconds flat.
"I was about to evaporate!"
Bulma ignored him and reached into her pocket. She pressed the button on a small, pink capsule.
POOF.
A triple-scoop strawberry ice cream cone appeared in her hand. Cold vapor swirled off it in the desert heat. She took a satisfied lick.
"Mmm. Heaven."
Goku stared at the cone, mesmerized.
"What is that?"
"It's ice cream, want some?"
"Yeah!"
Bulma tossed two more capsules.
POOF.
POOF.
Goku got a chocolate one, and Oolong got vanilla.
As they stood there eating, the sugar rush gave Oolong a moment of clarity.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a brass compass. He checked the needle, then looked at the map he had scribbled on a napkin.
"Enjoy it while you can, according to my bearings... we are exactly one hour away from Brown town."
He turned to Bulma with the fear creeping back into his eyes.
"Listen to me. From this point on, the road belongs to them. We need to be careful. No more stops."
Bulma nodded, tossing her empty ice cream cone into a nearby trash bin.
"Understood. No more sightseeing."
"Hey, Bulma!" Goku piped up, holding his cone upside down to catch the last drop of melted chocolate.
"This one disappeared! Can I have another one? Maybe the strawberry one this time?"
Bulma sighed, reaching into her pouch and tossing him a second pink capsule.
Oolong wiped a smear of vanilla from his snout and hopped onto the hood of their vehicle.
He spread out his napkin map, smoothing it against the hot metal.
"While he stuffs his face, this is a good time to discuss how exactly we plan to get inside. We can't just drive up to the front door."
He pointed to a crude circle drawn on the napkin.
"Brown Town is a fortress. The main entrance is a bottleneck, a canyon pass monitored by scrappers in watchtowers twenty-four-seven. They check every vehicle, every shipment, and every face."
Goku licked his strawberry ice cream, looking unbothered.
"Why do we need to sneak in?" He asked between licks.
"Why don't we just go in through the front and beat everyone up? If they're bad guys, it's okay, right?"
Oolong groaned, slapping his forehead.
"I prefer to keep my skin attached to my body, thank you very much. Frontal assaults get people killed. And besides..."
He looked at Goku seriously.
"...It's not just bandits in there. Brown town has civilians. Mechanics, scrap traders, families who just live there because they have nowhere else to go. They work for the scrappers because they have to, not because they want to."
Goku stopped eating.
The mention of innocent families caught his attention.
"Oh, like the people in Oinktown?"
"Exactly." Oolong nodded.
"If you go in there throwing hands, you're going to hurt people who have nothing to do with this. We need to bypass the city and concentrate the attack solely on Dimcha's headquarters."
"But..." Oolong continued, lowering his voice and leaning closer to the map,
"There is a flaw in their security. A blind spot I kept secret and never told a soul about."
He tapped a jagged section on the eastern edge of his drawing.
"There is a narrow strip of the perimeter wall right here that is completely invisible to the watchtowers. If you approach from the canyon floor at the right angle, you can slip right past their sensors."
"And where does this blind spot lead?" Bulma asked, peering at the crude sketch.
"Straight to the back alley behind the city bank."
"The bank? You're telling me a sophisticated criminal syndicate left the back door to their own treasury unprotected? That sounds like a trap."
"It's not unprotected because they're stupid, it's unprotected because of the environment" Oolong corrected her.
"The main highway, where all the raids, convoys, and traffic come from, is on the complete opposite side of the city. This spot? It overlooks a sheer drop into a ravine filled with sharp scrap metal. They don't watch it because they don't think anyone is crazy enough to try and come up that way."
Bulma crossed her arms.
"So, that's the plan, we flank the city, descend into the ravine, and climb up the blind spot behind the bank."
"How risky are we talking here? You said it's a sheer drop filled with metal."
"Honestly? The risk of us slipping and falling to our deaths on a pile of rusty mining drills is significantly higher than the scrappers actually spotting us. It's a vertical ascent over razor-sharp junk. That's why they don't guard it. They assume it's impassable."
Bulma pondered this for a second, then a confident smirk played on her lips.
She patted the pouch on her hip.
"If the only problem is the terrain, then we don't have a problem. If you're sure they won't see us... avoiding a fall is easy. I have the perfect capsules for that."