What greeted John was not surrender, but a barrage of bullets. Unfortunately, these bullets had no effect when they struck John.
John swiftly knocked out the front row of Red Ribbon Army soldiers. The remaining soldiers, seeing this, obediently dropped their guns.
John stared at the blazing vault and asked, "How do we put out the fire?"
A Red Ribbon soldier immediately replied, "Activate the fire suppression system."
"Then do it now!" John shouted.
John's heart bled—this was his money, after all! How dare someone burn it? If you're going to steal, just steal! But why burn what's left? What a waste!
To John, the money in the vault was already his. After failing to sense Android 17 and 18 at the Red Ribbon Army's headquarters, he had fought his way to their vault.
He never expected them to be so ruthless—setting the vault's contents on fire.
Once the fire suppression system activated, water sprayed from above, quickly dousing the flames.
John walked in and was relieved. The tightly packed stacks of bills had only burned on the outside and top. The center remained mostly intact, and half the vault was filled with gold bars. While not as vast as the pirate treasure he'd found years ago, the amount here was still substantial.
John turned to the soldiers outside. "I hereby declare all the money and gold in this vault mine. Guard it until my people arrive to transport everything."
He then left and locked the vault. No password? No problem—he didn't need one to open it anyway.
"Hey, do you have a phone here?" John asked a soldier.
"Y-yes, sir! In the command room—multiple lines to contact the outside," the soldier stammered.
"Good. Take me there," John said. To the others, he added, "Guard this place with your guns until I return. If any of you flee or my money goes missing, that wall will be your fate."
He fired a ki blast, blasting a massive hole in the wall. The soldiers trembled—they'd assumed explosives were used earlier, but John had done it with raw power.
At the command room, John called Bulma. The butler answered first, but soon Bulma's gentle, mature voice came through.
"John? Where are you? What's up?" she asked.
After confirming the base's coordinates, John said, "Bulma, bring those storage capsules I asked for. Fly here and help me move something."
Hours later, Bulma landed her plane at the Red Ribbon Army's new HQ, stunned by the wreckage of tanks and aircraft littering the ground. Thankfully, no attacks came.
John greeted her with a smile.
"This is a Red Ribbon base, isn't it? I saw their logo," Bulma remarked.
"Their new HQ," John said. "I ran into them robbing villagers."
"So you single-handedly took down their base?" Bulma rolled her eyes.
"They shot at me instead of surrendering. What else could I do?" John shrugged. "They fled before I even broke in."
He led her to the vault and blew the lock open with a ki blast. Bulma gaped at the stacks of cash and gold, though half were soaked or charred.
"The Red Ribbon Army's really unlucky with you and Goku," she said. "Two HQs destroyed—and you're worse, stealing their treasure too!"
"Not stealing," John corrected. "They abandoned it. The vault was on fire when I arrived. Without me, none of this would've survived."
"Let's just load it into the capsules," Bulma said. "I need to get back to my spaceship research."
With the soldiers' help, they stored everything. As John and Bulma flew off, the soldiers waved hats until the plane vanished.
Back in West City, Bulma helped John liquidate the windfall before returning to her lab.
Deep in a Mountain Cave
The lab was filled with equipment and beds holding unconscious humans hooked to machines. Dozens of researchers worked intently. A balding old man peered through a microscope.
A soldier saluted him. "Dr. Gero, our new HQ was destroyed by a martial artist named John. HQ wants him added to the revenge list."
Dr. Gero glanced at John's file. "Don't worry. Once my ultimate androids are complete, everyone who opposes the Red Ribbon Army will die."
He marked a red X over John's photo.