Howdy!
Well, here is chapter four, the last of the reposts. Chapter five will
come out tomorrow night. Hey guess what. I'm in the writing groove now I
guess, because I have begun work on chapter six, as well as chapter two of my
first story, Ranmanji (a Ranma/Jumanji x-over). They are both coming along
nicely, so you definitely will not have to wait nearly as long for chapter
six to come out! Woo Hoo!
Here is my standard comment that what is below is exactly what I posted
a year ago, so things that are written in the Author's Notes should be taken
with a gain of salt.
Author's Notes!
Heya! Well, if you are reading this I assume you have read
The previous three chapters, so I won't repeat myself again.
Well, except for a tip of the hat to Louis-Philippe Giroux
for pre-reading this chapter for me. As always, I want everybody
reading this to find his web page and read his two main stories,
Lines Of Destiny and Differing Powers. Do it now!
I would also like to thank Tannim Umoren for volunteering
His Ranma crossover web site to be the first to host this story!
This is a great service to me, and it is a great site!
http://home.earthlink.net/~tannim
C&C is always welcomed, even for old chapters. I happily
accept simple notes saying that you love the story, eagerly
read notes that give constructive negative comments, but I ignore
flames totally.
I do not own Ranma, and I do not own Starcraft. I do not have
permission to use these characters, but understand that I am
writing this not for profit, but out of respect for both.
Second Star chapter 4
Written by: Michael D. Rever
In Orbit above the former Confederate Homeworld of Tarsonis.
Tarsonis was a beautiful planet, when seen from high above its
surface. The oceans were a brilliant blue, like the color of a pure
sapphire. The land masses were a variety of shades of orange, with
the primary color being a burnt-orange shade, and the mountain
ranges of a slightly darker hue. The poles had the customary ice
caps, as did the very tips of the highest mountains. Yes, all in
all, it was a very pretty sight, and one that brought forth a
feeling of affection from all Confederate travelers who were
returning home from trips abroad.
But today was a bit different. Today the lovely orange colored
stretches were not unblemished. Here and there, tiny dots of purple
were starting to show up all over the globe. At first they were
barely noticeable, but as time progressed, these dots could be seen
to spread. Soon large tracts of land had changed into this abnormal
color.
If you were high in orbit above the planet you could have seen
this. As a matter of fact, on this day, there were several beings
looking down from such a height.
One, a man. Gloating over a victory and over his successful
bid for leadership over the former Confederate worlds.
One, another man. With a heavy heart and tears in his angry
eyes. Watching one spot on the surface in particular slowly turn
purple, all the while swearing vengeance over the loss of two of his
best friends, one of whom had become very close to his heart indeed.
One, an alien. Bipedal. His face without facial features
except two deep-set glowing eyes. Those eyes flashed in the lights
as he looked down at a sight he had seen many times before, thinking
about his failure to prevent it from happening this time.
One, another alien. This one not actually above the planet,
but at the same time, it was, in a way, over, under, on, and in it.
It was feeling eagerness at claiming a new planet, frustration over
a failed task, and a slight nervousness for a reason it could not
define.
Four beings, same view, different reactions. And in the end,
it did not matter. Tarsonis now belonged to the Zerg.
Second Star : Chapter 4 Beginnings
The small Zergling was running as fast as it could. Over
rocks, on top of boulders, around the sides of hills, and through
shallow ravines it sped, trying its best to reach its kin in the
shortest time possible. It was already much later than it should
have been. The injures that it had taken from the strange human
took an abnormally long time to heal. But as soon as it felt
recovered enough it had dug itself out of it's burrowed hole and
began its trek back to the Hive that had spawned it.
Zerglings were, to put it politely, generally stupid creatures.
They were fiercely loyal to the Swarm, as were all Zerg, but they
were only good for simple missions. However, despite their general
lack of higher thought patterns, they were not completely brain
dead. This particular Zergling had been very confused when it had
been unable to kill the human it had fought. Usually when a
Zergling is confused it will simply attack the closest thing it
perceives to be an enemy, however this was a special situation.
Even the Zergling knew that an unarmed, unarmored human should have
absolutely no chance against any breed of Zerg. The fact that here
was one human able to do exactly that worried the viscous little
beast. Could this be a new threat to the Swarm? A new breed
of Human? It had to return to the Hive and relay what it knew to an
Overlord. The Overlords were smart, and would be able to understand
this.
The Zergling ran faster as it remembered the corpse of the
Hydralisk it had run across on its way down the mountain.
Soon though, its fast trek slowed down, as it started hearing
the sounds of screaming and of machinery. Hopping to the top of a
small hill, it found itself looking down at an isolated human farm.
The farmhouse itself seemed covered by some form of gelatinous
substance, and it seemed to be slowly falling apart; being dissolved
by the foreign material. Running out of the building were several
humans that, too, were covered with the red colored stuff. Four
humans total, two of which were lying on the ground screaming and
crying, and the other two which were now carrying vessels of water
over to splash them. Soon all four had cleaned the stuff from their
now naked bodies, but huge wounds could be seen to cover them.
The Zergling became distracted by what it saw. Its forearms,
which were long blades in actuality, twitched as it listened to the
moaning and crying of the weak and injured creatures before it. It
took at step. And then it was bounding at incredible speeds towards
the building.
The family of farmers, consisting of a man, his wife, and their
two sons, didn't stand a chance.
Cleaning its blades by slicing through a nearby tree, the
Zergling's limited mind recollected its mission. Squealing a bit at
the delay it had created, it took off again, following the ravine
that ran past the now destroyed farm. However, its trek was once
again halted as the ground before it rumbled and another creature
shook off the turf that had covered it. And the little Zergling was
confronted by the tired looking face of perhaps the most deadly
breed found within the Swarm, a Defiler.
The Zergling knew what the Defiler wanted, and normally would
not complain, knowing, in it's fanaticism, that it would be in the
best interest of the Swarm, but right now it *had* to get to the
Hive. Racing as fast as it could past the larger creature, it knew
it was too late. The Zergling felt it's energy flow from it's body,
while its heart started racing abnormally. Frantically it reached
out with its mind, hoping to find some trace of an Overlord. Luck
was with it as one of the floating creatures appeared over the
horizon. But then luck was against it in that it could only send a
brief image of what it had seen before it felt it's heart burst,
followed quickly by the rest of it's body.
The Defiler shook itself with confusion. It felt a bit more
energized after Consuming the little Zergling, but it had never
heard of one of the vicious little hounds trying to avoid
sacrificing itself before. Deciding that the Zergling had obviously
been sick, it patiently waited for the Overlord to come and pick it
up; to take it to yet another isolated settlement. The Defiler did
not know that as the large flying Zerg settled over it, the Overlord
was faithfully passing the images it had received from the Zergling
to the Cerebrate which was its leader.
Two days later......
Kerrigan hurt. Well, that is not completely true. It would be
closer to the truth to say, Kerrigan ached. All over. That was the
first thing she realized as she woke up. From the hair follicles on
the top of her head, down to her toenails, there was not a single
part of her that did not ache. As she became more and more alert
however, the aches and pains receded to tolerable limits. It felt
more like her body was totally and completely exhausted. It felt
remarkably similar to the way she felt when going through the Ghost
Program's basic training courses. Listening carefully, she could
not hear any sounds that were helpful, though there was a strange
humming sound surrounding her. But it was fairly quiet, and easily
ignored. Slowly and carefully, she opened her eyes and sat up.
Looking around she discovered that she was in a small room,
laying on a table of sorts. Sitting up so that her legs dangled
from the side of the table, she took note of the machines that lined
three of the four walls. Determining that they were nondescript and
uninformative, she started to wonder if she had been captured by the
Confederacy. But she couldn't remember being caught by her hated
enemies.
The last thing she could remember was climbing a high mountain,
using her rifle as a crutch. With that thought, the memories of her
betrayal resurfaced and her eyes watered. Her head drooped. Slowly
she slid off of the table and shuffled her body over to one of the
corners of the room, where she sat hugging her legs with her face
nestled between her knees. Rocking back and forth a bit, her
shoulders would shake once in a while, and muffled sounds could be
heard.
After a few minutes like this, she raised her head and wiped
away suspicious moisture from her eyes and once again looked around.
*I haven't cried since my days in the Program. Heh. Badass
Sarah Kerrigan must be getting weak.* she thought. Not seeing any
change in the machines, and the plain looking wall had no markings,
she started to focus on the humming sound she has been hearing since
she woke up. "Hmmm, no real source for it." She mumbled to
herself, while rising to her feet. "Its coming from all around.
Could be the computers, but it doesn't sound right for that."
Forcing her tired legs to move a bit, she walked back to the table
and leaned against it. Immediately her hands and hip that were
pressed against the table started to feel better. Less tired.
Raising her eyebrows in surprise, she exclaimed, "That's a new one!"
*Never heard of any kind of 'healing bed'. If it's the Confeds,
they've kept this one quiet.* Deciding that whomever her captors
were, they would have made arrangements to prevent her escaping, and
not seeing any reason why she shouldn't try to recover as fast as
she could, she laboriously climbed back onto the table and laid
down, with her feet towards the blank wall. At first she tried to
prop herself up on her arms, so she wouldn't be surprised if
something happened, but she soon realized that this was not a good
idea after about ten minutes. Slowly she was forced by her own body
to lie back. Sleep followed soon after.
In The Central Room of the Xel'Naga Lair.
Ranma Saotome was engaged in his favorite pastime. Well, maybe
not his *favorite* pastime, but it was definitely in the top five.
He was sleeping. And he was dreaming, which was rather unfortunate
for him.
***FlashIn***
"C'mon Ranma, we have to go!" Ranko yelled while pulling
Ranma's shirtsleeve.
"Huh? Ranko? Where are we going? I gotta get to the school!"
he responded, looking down at his friend. He did not really
remember why he had to get to Furinkan, but he *knew* that it was
important. Something was going to happen there if he didn't get
moving!
"C'mon, c'mon! We have to go! You don't want to keep the Zerg
waiting do ya?" Ranma vaguely wondered how Ranko was able to pull
his shirt while standing down the street from him.
"But what about Mom? Pop and I are going to go visit her
tonight! She wants to give me something." Ranma reasonably argued,
though something tugged at the back of his head that he was already
late for dinner.
"Don't worry, I've got it!" Akane shouted at him from about
two feet away. "You go on ahead. I'll tell Auntie to wait." Why
she was shouting, he would never know. But she did look cute in the
bath towel she was wearing. Or at least she looked less tomboyish.
A *lot* less tomboyish.
"Ooooo, husband is going to get into fight. Can Shampoo
watch?" the Chinese waitress cooed from behind him.
"Yeah, Ranchan. Let her watch. You know she wants to watch
you fight." Ranma smiled at the image of his Ucchan wearing clothes
similar to his own, and standing next to Shampoo. She had her hand
on the Amazon's shoulder and was smiling broadly.
*Wait a minute! Ucchan is never that nice to Shampoo! What is
going on here?*
"Ranma Saotome, you _will_ come with me" Ranma found himself
pulled backwards off his feet and dragged down the street, which
suddenly looked awfully like a cave. He looked up at Ranko, who had
a hold of the back of his shirt and was dragging him along behind
her. Strangely he could not seem to be able to focus on her, he
could only really make out her hand and arm.
"Where are we going? Back to the Dojo?"
"No idiot, you have to fight Barney, in Hiroshima!"
"Oh, OK. I didn't want to live forever anyway. Can we get
dinner first? Maybe at the Cologne-sensei's house?"
****FlashOut****
It was a very groggy Ranma that woke up.
"Awww, man . That was the -weirdest- one yet." He mumbled
He had been having the strange dreams lately, and they seemed to
start the minute he closed his eyes. Except for a few details, they
were all different from each other, and all were very disjointed and
made no sense when he thought about them.
Blearily he looked around at his surroundings. It had taken a
while, but he was no longer surprised to finding himself in the
Xel'Naga cave. The first couple times he woke up, he had forgotten
everything that had happened to him recently, and it took him a few
seconds to calm down and remember. Now though, the reality was
setting in, and he simply stood up and began what had become his
morning rituals.
The first thing he did was to check his wounds. Or what were
once his wounds. Now, Ranma had always been a fast healer, but the
fact that the injuries he had received from his fight with that big
ugly Zerg a few days ago had already healed, and the scars were
fading, left him stunned. Checking the scars, he decided that
another day, maybe two, and there will be absolutely no evidence of
the fight whatsoever. After poking and prodding the sore areas, he
began his warm-ups, which then led to the light workout. After about
a half hour of katas, stretches, and jumps, he slowed down and
looked over at the door to the bedroom he had originally woke up in
those few days ago. It was time to check up on the lady he rescued.
Walking over to the wall, he stuck out his hand and opened the
door. Inside, he was treated to a different view than what he had
come to expect. Sure, the lady was still laying on the table, but
she had obviously been moving in her sleep, as she was laying on the
bed backwards from the way he placed her on it two days ago.
Moving over to her side, Ranma looked over her face and what
skin he could see. Noticing that the bruising and abrasions that
covered her had mostly healed, he gently placed his hands on her
stomach and began pressing and prodding various muscle groups and
feeling bones, looking for something out of the ordinary, something
to be alarmed about. It was true that he was unable to touch her
skin directly, her torn and ripped bodysuit was intact enough to
prevent such inspection, but he believed he was knowledgeable enough
about the human body that he could tell nothing was wrong. Removing
his hands from her sides, he stepped back and slowly let out his
breath. *Breathing normal, heart rate good, bruises are fading, and
nothing strange about the organs,* he thought. "Well, lady. Looks
like your ready to go anytime now." He told the sleeping woman while
walking towards the open doorway.
After re-entering the central room, he stood in the doorway,
preventing the door from closing. Looking out and around what had
become his temporary home, he mused to himself, "Well, gonna have to
find some more food." He had managed to kill one of the strange
animals that sometimes would wander around the mountainside, and it
turned out to taste similar to beef. One section of the wall to the
central chamber held a cord of wood, neatly stacked, and not far
from that was a fire-circle made of large stones. The center of the
room was unchanged and was where he spent most of his free time
exercising, though he was still trying to get used to the fact that
the spiral Ranko had imprinted of the floor would sometimes fade in
and out of visibility.
Nodding to himself as he looked over the room, he suddenly took
a sidestep to the right. Just in time to watch the girl, now
obviously awake, fly past him in a failed tackle attempt. He looked
on in some concern as the lady landed on her hands, face, and chest,
and did not stand up.
"Ouch! That's gotta hurt!" he mumbled while scratching the
back of his head.
A Few Minutes Ago
Sarah Kerrigan came awake as soon as another living presence
was felt in the room. Having been trained in the arts of subterfuge
and planning, she kept perfectly still and regulated her breathing
so that it looked as if she was asleep. At the same time, she
brought her mind to bear and attempted to 'feel out' whomever it
was. It was a rather unsuccessful attempt however, as the humming
noise she had heard before was still there, but nothing else was
found. So she had to rely on her more mundane senses.
The person was standing next to her now, and she could tell,
from the sound of his breathing and movement, that he was studying
her face, and then her body. After his visual inspection was done,
she felt him reach out and touch her stomach, and begin to feel
around. Tensing herself slightly, she prepared to defend herself,
but almost immediately realized that he was performing a medical
field exam. He poked and prodded her sides (she was very thankful
he did not actually touch her ticklish spots), and felt her ribs.
"Well, lady. Looks like your ready to go anytime now." She
heard the now obviously male person say. Listening to him turn away
and start to walk from her, she slowly opened her eyes and watched
his back.
He was a tall man, leanly muscular, and with a long braid of
black hair hanging past his shoulders. He was walking towards an
opening in the room, where the blank wall had previously been.
Sarah watched the man stop in the entrance and look around at
whatever was on the other side. Not hearing sound of other people
coming from the next room, Sarah slowly slid off of the table, and
despite her slightly protesting muscles, began to sneak up behind
her 'doctor'. When she had come close enough to make a move, she
bunched herself up, and jumped!
The last thing she saw was the man take a step to the side, and
then she was suddenly face-first in the rock floor.
Current Time
Sarah, once again, woke up. This time however, she sat up
quickly and gasped as she did so. She found herself laying on a
hard, stone floor with a strange spiral pattern. Looking around,
her eyes met the eyes of the man she had tried to jump.
He was sitting across the room from her, with his back against
the wall and his knees drawn up. His bright blue eyes stared at her
unblinkingly, and they revealed nothing of what he was thinking.
*Hmmmm, he's pretty young. Maybe twenty, but I think he's a bit
younger.* She thought, considering the young man across from her.
She had spent many years in a rebellion, and knew well that age
sometimes meant very little. She herself had assassinated several
people before she had turned fifteen, on the orders of her then
Confederate masters.
The young man had not moved a muscle, his eyes still bore into
hers with no expression and without blinking. *So, it's a contest
of wills. Fine. If that is the way he wants it, I'll be damned if
I am the first to say anything.* She then sat herself up and
matched the boy, stare for stare. Fifteen minutes lapsed. Her eyes
stinging, she was frantically using every mental trick she knew to
keep herself from blinking, and forcing her eyes to stay steadily
boring into his. Finally though, she could blink when her opponent
made the first noise.
"Sssssnnnnnnkxxxxx"
The boy was asleep. With his eyes open. And had been the
entire time.
Blinking a few times, for reasons unrelated to the fact that
her eyes were dry, she slowly got to her feet and looked around the
room, keeping the boy in her peripheral vision the whole time. The
room was circular, with a domed ceiling, and apparently made of
various types of stone. Along the wall on one side of the room was
a stack of wood, and next to that a campfire area had been set up.
Besides those things, the spiral design on the floor, and the
sleeping boy across the room, the only thing on note were three
small dots of light spaced evenly along the wall. Sarah leaned back
against the wall behind her, and studied the boy, while considering
her options.
*Well, there's no exit. But the wood for the fire comes from
somewhere. No food, and no water, which means either it is supplied
by someone else, or there is a way out. No backpack, no camping
materials. The boy is not dressed for exposure to the outdoors.
Everything suggests that is set up is temporary.* She turned her
attention solely to the boy. *Hmmmm, he's athletic. Seems to know
some survival skills, from his exam earlier. His clothes are
strange, some kind of shimmery material. No marks that I can see,
nothing to suggest where he's from...who he works for. He must not
feel threatened if he sleeps so easily. Maybe he does not consider
me an enemy? Should I consider him one? Did he help me escape the
Hydralisk? Why?*
Figuring that nothing was being accomplished by sitting there
and staring, she finally decided that there was much more evidence
that the young man was her friend than that he was an enemy. She
would wake him. But first she had something very important she
really needed to do. Standing up, she took her time stretching and
flexing, as if she had just awoken from a long and pleasant nap.
The smile of pleasure on her face as she stretched her tired arms
above her head was unmistakable.
Not trying to be sneaky or hidden, but rather with her normal
graceful stride, she walked straight across the room to stand before
her savior. Looking down at the sleeping young man, she was a
little surprised to see that his eyes were still wide open, and that
he had not moved an inch. She deliberately coughed. No change in
the sleeper. She coughed louder. Still no change. Shrugging, she
bent over and placed her hand on one of the boy's knees and gave a
little shake. The guy's eyes closed, his head fell to the side a
bit, and a bit of drool dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Rolling her eyes, Sarah wondered briefly if the boy was drugged or
something.
She decided that the polite way of waking him up was not
working, but the hard way might get a response. Standing in front
of him, she leaned over, grabbed both his feet and pulled with all
of her might.
"Whoah! Wha! Aaaaah!", the stranger cried out as he found his
butt pulled out from under him. Falling on his back, the back of
his head smacked into the hard stone floor with a resounding
*Thunk!*
"Owie, owie, owie, owie!" he cried to himself while rubbing the
back of his head and sitting up.
Kerrigan just stood back, arms crossed, and watched.