The battle without Tofoo

The last bastion of the Red Ribbon Army, a single, massive airship with a wider arsenal than most armies, soared high above the green fields below, maintaining a steady course and speed that contrasted sharply with the panicked atmosphere within. Of course, the men in charge, Commander Black, and General Copper, did their best to keep up a façade of bravery, but few were fooled.
The Red Ribbon Army was doomed. Everyone on-board was aware of that. They were the only ones who hasn’t perished or deserted when their bases and outposts were razed, their forces decimated, and the Dragonballs they’d been collecting stolen. The attacks that had ravaged the army made it clear that there was no stopping these new enemies. The army was facing a repeat of the siege six years before, and this time, their might not be any coming back from it.
But, Commander Black was not going to give up so easily. He still had one Dragonball, and the most powerful flying fortress on the planet, superior even to the one used by that strange blue man six years ago. The size of a large battleship, loaded with enough armaments to reduce a major city to ashes in minutes, and the most advanced equipment available, the Red Ribbon Army’s last fortress was an imposing sight, and its great power gave some hope to the remaining members of the army. Still, the tension was palpable, and nobody was immune to it, save a single man.
The mercenary, the one called Tao stood before the Commander and General, his usual calm demeanor entirely out of place given the situation. Black wondered how anyone, even someone with Tao’s reputation, could possibly be unafraid in the current circumstances.
“You truly believe you can get the other six balls back?” Black asked Tao.
“Of course, if you can afford to pay me my fee,” Tao answered. “Ten billion zeni per ball, plus ten billion a head for any of the pests that I kill in the process.”
General Copper frowned.
“Of course, if you feel you’re better off without my help, I will simply take me leave now, and allow you to deal with this situation as you see fit,” the mercenary added upon seeing the unhappy reactions of the two officers.
“You’ll get your money, Tao,” Black promised. “Just bring us those Dragonballs.”
Tao smiled. “As you wish.”

Outside of the ship, five individuals approached, moving silently toward the ship, and the Dragonball inside of it.
They were all quiet, none having much to say. They all knew the situation. If they succeeded here, Tofoo would return, and that witch controlling Goku would fail in whatever she planned to use the Dragonballs for. Once Tofoo was back, the six of them could work together and defeat Goku without killing him.
At least, that was the plan.
It seemed whomever was onboard knew they were coming, as dozens of fighters appeared from within the airship, speeding toward the approaching warriors and open-firing.
“Chaozu!” Tenshinhan shouted as the bullets began to fly.
“Right,” the tiny man said, raising a finger and stopping the bullets dead in their tracks.
The fighters kept coming, continuing to shoot, only for their bullets to stop as if caught by some sort of invisible hand.  As the pilots brought their aircraft closer, Chaozu flicked his finger, and the sea of bullets was sent back to where it came from, tearing the aircraft to shreds.
As the planes fell from the sky, the massive airship unleashed a volley of missiles, which sped toward the oncoming warriors.
“They’re kind of slow, aren’t they?” Chichi asked from her spot at the back of the group.
“That works to our advantage,” Yamcha told her. “Chaozu?”
“Got it,” Chaozu said, giving the missiles the same treatment as the bullets, and sending them flying back toward the source.

Alarms blared across the airship as Tao walked one of its corridors. Soldiers rushed to battle stations all around him, and seconds later, the entire ship shook violently, throwing Tao off-balance. Steadying himself against a wall, he looked toward the front of the ship, his scanners working to figure out what was going on.
Five significant energy readings appeared, and Tao smirked.
“Perfect,” he commented to himself. “I love it when my prey comes right to me.”

“I’d say that put some holes in their ship,” Yamcha commented, watching as smoke rose from the areas of impact from the missiles. “Should we go in?”
“Yeah, and let’s be quick about it,” Krillin answered. “The longer we take, the more chance we have of Goku showing up.”
The five warriors swooped in, finding the largest opening they could, and using it as an entrance to the airship. Soldiers were waiting, but they proved no match for the extraordinary warriors they were pitted against, and the fighters quickly began to make their way toward the bridge.

On the bridge, Commander Black and General Copper watched the surveillance footage of the fighters making their way toward them.
“Sir, perhaps we should abandon ship,” Copper suggested.
“And go where, General?” Black asked. “Even if we could get away, that other one, that monster would just hunt us down. Just get the suits ready, and get security ready to lower the doors. We’ll divide and conquer.”
“Yes, Commander,” Copper said. “But, maybe we should just give them the Dragonball. They might leave without a fight, then.”
“Do you want to answer to the Doctor?” Black replied. “I’ll take my chances with these five.”

The five fighters in question raced through the ship, Yamcha and Tenshinhan leading, with Chaozu right behind them. Krillin and Chichi took up the rear, turning around and taking care of any soldiers that tried to ambush them.
Halfway down a long corridor, a massive, metal door descended from the ceiling, separating Krillin and Chichi from the others.
Running head-first into the door, Krillin fell back, rubbing his face.
“Great,” he groaned.
“Are you guys okay?” Chaozu called from the other side of the door.
“We’re fine!” Krillin promised. “Just go ahead without us; we’ll be right behind you.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Krillin,” Tao suggested, having seemingly appeared out of nowhere behind Krillin and Chichi.
The young woman dropped into a fighting stance, drawing an amused smirk from the mercenary.
“Come now, girl, you should know when you’re outmatched,” Tao told her. “Then again, I am going to kill you, so feel free to try and stop me.”
“Krillin, Chichi, we’ll be right there!” Yamcha shouted from the other side.
“No, keep going!” Krillin ordered. “We’ll handle this.”
Tao chuckled. “You’re just making my job easier.”
The cyborg dropped into a fighting stance, and Krillin did the same.

Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu raced down the corridor, aware that time was even more precious now. More soldiers stood in their way, but the three Crane students made short work of them, reaching the end of the corridor, and standing before a large set of doors.
Opening the doors, they stepped onto the bridge to find two large, mechanical suits standing across the room from them, each occupied by a man.
“Welcome, boys,” a bald, dark-skinned man greeted from inside of the suit. “Thanks for joining us.”
The man’s suit extended an arm toward the group, and a blast of light fired from its massive, mechanical hand. The three fighters leapt out of the way, spreading across the room as the other suit shot a similar blast, missing Chaozu by only a few inches.

Yamcha and Tenshinhan pointed at the suit that had first fired on them, gathering energy into their fingertips.
“DODONPA!” they shouted together, firing beams of light from their fingers that shot across the room and struck the machine, causing it to stagger back.
Beyond that, the damage was quite minor, and the suit began to fire more beams of light at the two fighters, the other suit joining in.
Chaozu watched as Tenshinhan and Yamcha raced around the room, managing to keep one step ahead of the attacks. These machines seemed pretty tough, able to withstand the Dodonpa from both Yamcha and Tenshinhan. Strength like that could make the fight difficult, and those stupid toys could do some damage to Chaozu and his friends.
Toys.
An idea coming to mind, Chaozu smiled.

Chichi attacked Tao fiercely, throwing kicks rapidly, and with her typical, flawless form.
But, he strength and speed were simply no match for the cyborg, who was able to easily block, parry, and dodge every attack she made.
Luckily for Chichi, she had Krillin there to help her, and with his assistance, Tao was quickly being pushed back toward the corridor under the combined assault, finding himself facing difficulty in fending off the attacks.
Growing tired of this, Tao grabbed Chichi’s ankle, yanking her off her feet and letting her fall onto her back. He then struck at Krillin, who ducked beneath the attack, and hit Tao in the gut with a headbutt, making the cyborg stagger back. The bald fighter then placed himself between Tao and the young woman.
Scanning Krillin, Tao found himself smiling. The dwarf’s power seemed no match for his own, and with Krillin’s clear desire to keep Chichi out of the rest of the fight, victory appeared to be a simple matter of time.

On the bridge, Yamcha and Tenshinhan continued to avoid blast after blast from the suits, letting the energy attacks fired by the Red Ribbon leaders rip apart the walls and damage the equipment that surrounded them.
Black and Copper continued to fire, certain that sooner or later, their two evasive foes would slip up, allowing them to take them out.
That certainty was shattered, as the arm of Black’s suit simply fell off, crashing to the ground as a horrified Black watched with wide-eyes.
The other arm joined it, and soon, Black’s suit crumbled around him, Copper’s beginning to do the same mere moments later. Yamcha and Tenshinhan stopped in their tracks, watching this with surprise before hearing laughter nearby. Looking over, they saw Chaozu with his hands outstretched toward the two machines, eyes closed, and a smile on his face.

Tao’s prediction of his battle with Krillin was playing out much as he’d expected. The smaller warrior was putting up a fight, but was beginning to lose energy, and would soon slip up, giving the mercenary the chance to put him down once and for all.
Krillin was quite aware of the position that he was in as well. He was beginning to breathe heavy, and knew that soon enough, he wouldn’t be able to fight off Tao.
“Getting tired, aren’t you?” Tao taunted. “Don’t worry, soon I’ll put you to sleep for good.”
Krillin looked around, searching for an escape route, a weapon he could use, anything. But they were trapped in that corridor onboard a massive ship. There was no escape.
At least, not while the ship was intact.
“Chichi,” he whispered, taking a step back.
The young woman looked at him in surprise. “What is it?”
“I want you to use the Kamehameha Wave with me,” he told her. “On the count of three.”
Chichi didn’t know if that would be enough to win the battle, but she didn’t have a better idea, so she decided to trust Krillin, and gave him a nod of confirmation.
Tao, sensing a victory, stepped forward, stopping only when the two fighters in front of him cupped their hands at their sides, and began saying the name of their attack.
“You idiots,” he told them. “That won’t be nearly enough to stop me.”
“HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!” the two shouted, thrusting their hands forward and firing two massive waves of energy.
The combined power may not have been enough to destroy Tao, but it was enough to obliterate half of the airship, including the ground Tao was standing on. The mercenary shouted in surprise as he began to fall, and the ship tilted before plummeting to join him.
Krillin and Chichi jumped out of the hole they’d created, and flew to safety. On the bridge, Tenshinhan blasted a hole for her and the others to escape through, escaping with the final Dragonball just before the airship hit the ground in a large, open field.

The five fighters landed in close proximity to one another, and when Yamcha held up the Dragonball, smiles appeared all around.
“We did it!” Krillin shouted joyously. “That makes seven! Now we can summon the Dragon and-“
“You won’t be summoning anything,” a voice declared from above.
The five looked up to see Goku hovering in the air above them, smirking down at them with a predatory look on his face.
“Great, me and my big mouth,” Krillin groaned.
“Get this to Bulma,” Yamcha told Krillin, tossing the ball to him.
“But-“ Krillin began to protest.
“You’re the fastest,” Yamcha cut him off. “Just hurry back. I doubt we can hold Goku for very long.”
Goku smirked wider as Krillin turned took to the air.
“Going somewhere?” he asked, opening his mouth and letting a wave of energy shoot toward the fleeing fighter.
“Krillin, no!” Chaozu shouted, racing between his ally and the blast, taking the attack full force with a scream.
“CHAOZU!” Tenshinhan shouted in horror as his friend fell from the sky.
“DAMMIT!” Yamcha shouted, taking to the air and rushing up at Goku, Chichi right behind him.
Goku laughed as the two fighters reached him, attacking with a rapid series of punches and kicks, all of which he was able to avoid quite easily.
“You two aren’t nearly fast enough,” he declared, elbowing Yamcha in the gut.
As the scar-faced fighter hunched over, Goku moved behind him, kicking him in the back and sending him crashing to the ground below.

Meanwhile, Krillin landed in front of Bulma, rushing to her and thrusting the Dragonball into her hands.
“Hurry and summon Shenron,” he instructed. “Things just got really bad.”
“Goku?” Bulma asked with worry.
“Afraid so,” Krillin said, taking off and rushing to help the others.
As Krillin left, Bulma took the ball and set it on the ground, right beside the other six.
Staring down at the seven orbs, she shouted the words, and the sky grew dark.

Chichi backed away from Goku, who fixed his gaze on her, that infuriating smirk staying on his face. She knew she wouldn’t last five seconds in this fight, especially if Yamcha was beaten so easily. Still, she did her best to control her fear, and readied herself for what was to come.
“GOKU!” a voice shouted from below.
Chichi and Goku looked down to see Tenshinhan forming a diamond with his hands, holding them up toward Goku.
“KIKOHO!”
A massive blast of light shot up toward Goku, whose eyes widened with fear. Unfortunately for Tenshinhan, the spikey-haired fighter managed to get out of the way just in time, and immediately retaliated by rushing down and giving a powerful punch to the exhausted warrior, knocking him out cold.
It was hopeless now, but Chichi wasn’t going down without a fight. With a yell, she rushed down toward Goku, attacking with everything she had despite knowing it wouldn’t be nearly enough.