//------------------------------// // Sonata Search Party // Story: Sonata the Drama // by MythrilMoth //------------------------------// After a full night's sleep in comfortable beds and a hearty, filling breakfast, the search party gathered on the deck of God's Temple. The out-of-towners had changed into local clothing drawn from the capsule huts' spare wardrobes; Ron wore baggy jeans, calf-high suede boots, and a long, dark orange T-shirt that said "ORANGE CITY 004" on the front in black letters. Twilight wore a blue minidress, black tights, white knee-high boots, and a short, open ash grey vest with black stitching. Sonata sported a purple tube top, a white miniskirt, pink hi-top sneakers, a faded denim jacket, and a white, blue-billed ball cap with the Capsule Corp logo on the front. Kim wore dark pants, heavy grey boots, a black tank top, and a dark blue denim jacket with the Capsule Corp logo on the sleeves. "Okay, everybody ready?" Bulma asked. As the others chorused agreement, she collapsed the huts, returned them to her capsule case, and expanded the large green carrier plane they'd arrived in. As the group filed aboard, she waved goodbye to Kami-sama, Mr. Popo, and the fighters in training. "G'bye, guys! See you in ten months! Train hard!" "Take care, Bulma!" Yamucha replied. "Good luck!" Five minutes later, the plane was circling in the sky below the Temple. "Okay, we've got four Dragonballs and a Rainbow Monkey Crystal to find," Bulma said. She set the Dragon Radar into a recess on the plane's control console; the grid expanded outward twice, then a third time, and a small white dot began flashing on the periphery of the screen. "Okay, I've got a bearing west-southwest..." She punched a few coordinates into the controls, pursing her lips. "Looks like it's in the lake north of the Southwest Forest." "Hmm," Roshi said thoughtfully. "Don't tell me it's at Baba's place." "Baba?" Kim asked. "My sister," Roshi said. "Well that makes it easy then!" Sonata chirped. She paused, then added, "Oh. Unless you two don't get along or something..." Roshi shrugged. "Nah, we're cool. More or less. It's just that getting anything out of Baba is like pulling a dinosaur's teeth." "Even if the fate of the world is at stake?" Kim asked, blinking. "Especially if the fate of the world is at stake." "Yikes." "Alright, best get this over with then," Bulma said, punching various controls and flipping various levers. She pulled back on the yoke and turned it, and the plane lurched due west. * * * * * After several hours of flight, a lake came into view at the border of a vast desert. Bulma circled the lake, flying low, until a group of buildings on square artificial islands near one shore of the lake came into view. Team Possible gathered by the windows to look out at their destination as Bulma made her landing approach. A stone bridge connected a squat blue-and-gold dome on the shore to a large, lush square island just off the shore, upon which stood a tall blue-and-gold structure with a dome-shaped lower level and a small, round tower on the second level. Smaller square islands branched off from this island, connected by bridges, each with a pyramid in the center. Behind the palace proper was a small round island, its surface containing nothing but stone tiles. "Hmm. That's odd," Roshi said, adjusting his glasses. "What's going on down there?" "What do you me—oh, I see," Bulma said, frowning as she adjusted her landing approach. A veritable town of tents and small capsule huts had sprung up along the lake shore, with dozens of people milling about. Kim frowned. "What's up with the people?" "Well, there's always a line of people waiting to see Baba to get a divination," Roshi mused, stroking his beard. "I've never seen them all camped out like this before, though. I mean, Baba wouldn't allow anything like this." "Let's land and find out," Bulma suggested. A few minutes later, they landed and debarked; Bulma collapsed her plane, and the group filed down the shore to the entrance. Haggard-looking people peeked out of tents and huts at them; some grumbled, some snorted and went back inside, others yelled offers of sale and trade at them. When they reached the entrance hall, they were intercepted by a small, round pink ghost wearing a conical straw hat. Sonata and Ron screamed in fright and hid behind Roshi and Kim, respectively. Twilight blinked curiously at the ghost and pulled out an instrument to scan it. "Halt!" the ghost said. "Beseechers of the divination of Uranai Baba, know that the mistress is away on urgent business and will not return for several months! Many who have made the arduous journey have chosen to wait, but I encourage you to return to—" Roshi slapped the ghost hard enough to make it bob and weave alarmingly. "It's ME, ya dip!" he snapped. The ghost righted itself and stared at Roshi. "Oh! So sorry, Master! Things have been so rough here, I—" He coughed. "Umm...your sister isn't home, so—" "Yeah, we heard," Oolong muttered sourly. "We're not here to see Baba," Roshi said. "We're here for the Dragonball." The ghost blinked. "Dragonball?" "There's one right here," Bulma said, checking her Dragon Radar. "Inside the palace." The ghost frowned. "Huh," it said. "Umm..." It weaved in the air, hemming and hawing. "Well...I guess..." It coughed. "I mean, if it was anybody else, I'd say no, but since it's you..." It sighed. "Alright. I'll let you in, but only three of you!" "No, we're all going in," Roshi said. The ghost groaned. "Okay okay, you can all go in. Just don't make a mess and don't break anything! Baba-sama would have my afterlife!" "Don't worry," Roshi said absently as he led the group into the entrance hall. "We'll find the Dragonball and be on our way." * * * * * "UGH!" Ron complained as he finished repotting the tenth potted plant he'd unearthed. "Where IS that stupid thing?!" The group had been searching the palace and its grounds for the better part of two hours without finding any trace of the Dragonball or a Rainbow Monkey Crystal. "I don't understand," Twilight said. "According to my spectrometer, we should be right on top of it!" "My Dragon Radar agrees," Bulma added. "Is there maybe some kind of, I dunno, secret room or something?" Sonata asked. "Secret room, huh?" Roshi mused. "Well..." He frowned. "There's one place we could check...heck if I know how a Dragonball ended up there, though." He shrugged. "Follow me, everyone..." Roshi led the group into a series of catacombs with slick, dripping stone walls. They eventually emerged from a creepy tunnel onto a long, narrow stone bridge with a deep groove carved down the middle. On the other end of the cavern... "Oh, dude, SICK AND WRONG!" Ron yelled. Directly across from the group was a massive stone statue of a demon...sitting on the toilet. The demon's fanged mouth was wide open, revealing a dark recess that stretched into infinity within; the demon's tongue was sticking straight out, forming a bridge exactly like the one they stood upon. In fact, the tongue met their bridge at the center of the chasm, and the end of their bridge... Kim blinked and craned her neck up to look behind them. They'd just emerged from the mouth of an identical demon statue. She shuddered. "Gorchy." "So this is the legendary Devil's Toilet," Bulma said. "I heard stories about this place. Wow." "Who even comes up with something like this?" Twilight asked, face green. "This is super gross!" "Gross and scary!" Sonata added. "Hey, I think I see something!" Puar said, pointing at the statue behind them. "Look up there, jammed between those two teeth!" The group squinted and strained; Twilight pulled out a compact LED light and shone it at the statue. A gleaming object reflected the light. "I'm on it," Kim said confidently, pulling her hair dryer grappling hook out of a pocket of her pants and aiming it at the statue's nose. She fired; the anchor jammed itself into the carved nostril of the demon. Testing the line, Kim pulled herself up and swung toward the sharp, jagged teeth. She pulled a spare leather belt out of her other pocket as she swung and lashed out with it like a whip, wrapping it around the tooth where they'd spotted the gleam. Bracing herself with the belt once she reached the top, she retracted and stowed her grappling hook, then worked to liberate the shining object from the demon's maw. After a moment's work, she untied herself from the tooth, then rappelled down the statue's mouth, jumping from tooth to tooth, and landed in front of the group. Roshi's jaw dropped. "Dang," he said. Kim held the orange crystal up for the group to inspect. Two red stars glistened beneath its surface. "Dragonball," she said, offering it to Roshi, who pocketed it. "So, we're done here?" "Yeah, unless we wanna talk about super flippy ninja girl here and how she did that like it was nothin'," Oolong grunted. "Eh, that's just how KP rolls," Ron said indifferently. "Well now I'm glad we have you along," Bulma said, scratching her head. "The Dragonballs have a habit of ending up in really weird, hard-to-reach places that make finding them a major pain in the butt." "So can we get out of this creepy toilet cave now?" Sonata asked. "Because I really wanna get out of this creepy toilet cave." "I'm with the blue girl, let's bail," Oolong said. The group returned to the palace and crossed the narrow bridge to the entrance hall. "Well, so far so good!" Bulma said cheerfully. "Two days in and we've already got four Dragonballs! This is gonna be a breeze!" They walked out onto the shore of the lake...and found themselves surrounded by huge, muscular, heavily-armed bandits.