This story is unfinished and there're gonna be some error and spellin'
mistakes...that should be a good enough reason to delete this :(
This happens to be my first real attempt at a crossover, so don't expect much...
Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong
Bubblegum Crisis/Ranma 1/2:The boomer that just won't die
"Hiyru ShotenHa!!!" Ranma shouted as he released a massive
hurricane blast toward the dark blue boomer hovering high above him
"You ain't gonna get away that easily"
The hurricane formed right in front of Ranma, engulfing him, but
leaving him unharmed. The blast was so powerful it kept expanding
till it was about twenty meters in diameter. Some of the surrounding
building were torn to shreds as they were engulfed in the blast also.
Luckily, Ranma knew they weren't occupied since this were the slums.
He watched as the dark blue boomer hovered backwards at an
intense speed, avoiding the blast just in time.
"Damn, this boomer's nothing like the other ones I fought" Priss
said to herself. She had to push her suit to the limit just to avoid
something that powerful. Heck, she had to push it to the limit just
to avoid the boomer down below her. She looked at her view screen within
he helmet and noticed that her scanners were going ballistic. She
couldn't get a reading on what class this boomer was. It seemed like
this boomer was equipped with some scanner jamming devices. This
frustrated Priss even more, making her want to get rid of this new breed
of boomer even faster.
The blast abated, leaving Ranma standing in the middle of the
street, a massive crater surrounding him. "Damn, I'm never gonna be
able to hit that boomer at this rate" he swore silently "It's too
fast" He stood there patiently, waiting for the boomer to hover lower
so he could jump up toward it. He had was able to leap
high into the sky, but nowhere near as high as the boomer was
hovering.
Priss looked down at the boomer "Why isn't he following me?" She
hovered down and settled on the top roof of one of the taller
buildings, gazing down at him "Hm, it looks like this is going to be
easier than I thought. This boomer can't fly. Strange, considering
how much energy it could generate. I guess I better pick him off from
up here"
She pointed her arm toward him and released several laser blasts
directly toward the boomer, only to have the boomer skillfully avoid
it "Damn, this one's freakin' agile boomer"
Ranma managed to dodge the blast just in time, leaping out of the
way. As he rolled to his feet, he looked back toward where he was
standing and saw three tiny craters there. He looked up at the boomer
"Damn, that boomer's got a good AI. It's tryin' to pick me off from a
distance since it knows I'm dangerous up close"
Ranma dusted the sand off his clothes as he smiled confidently to
himself "If it's goin' to play that way"
Priss watched in astonishment "Man, that boomer's even got an AI
that makes it brush it's clothes when it's dirty. What kinda monsters
are Genom creating?! And it's even smiling"
"Mouko Takabisha!!!" he shouted as a gigantic ki blast tore from
his hands, flying straight toward the boomer at an intense speed. The
blast was so strong that even the ground below it melted from the
shear heat. The building even started to melt before the blast hit
it.
Priss lunged off the building roof just in time as the blast ripped
the entire building to shreds. She twisted in mif air as she fell
toward the ground and saw half the building just disappear from the
intense heat and power of the blast. Before she hit the gorund she
managed to land safely via the use of her boosters. But as she stood
on the ground, her heart was racing. How on eart can this boomer
generate so much energy, she thought to herself. This boomer was
absolutely nothing like she had ever fought.
Ranma stood there, watching the boomer intently, waitng to see what
it would do next. He knew that boomers always had a tendancy to
charge forward to attack, and that would be its fatal mistake. He
would use his Kashuu TenshiAmaguriken technique on it to finish it
off.
Priss stood there, waiting for the boomers next move. She looked
down at her arm and noticed that it was a bit singed from before. She
knew her armor would not be able to sustain a direct hit from another
one of those deadly blasts. And she to do everything in her power to
avoid it.
Why isn't it coming at me, Ranma thought to himself. He was eager
to finish this boomer off, but it wasn't moving. He took a step
forward, only to have his steps matached by the boomer taking a step
back.
Hm, it looks like it's trying to avoid me, he thought. He shrugged
his shoulders. That doesn't matter, I'll just pick it off from her
"Horizontal Blast revised, Hiyru ShotenHa" he shouted loudly as a
huge horizontal hurricane ripped from his hands straight toward the
boomer.
Priss wasn't able to react to it in time as the blast engulfed her
entirely. She was blown backwards into the building, the wall
collapsing in from the impact. If it weren't for her wearing the
armor, every bone in her body would have been broken, especially her
spine. It would have been shattered into a million pieces.
She slowly got up to her feet, cluching at her ribs. A few of her
ribs must have been bruised or broken.
Man, that boomer even acts like it's in pain, Ranma thought with a
bit of awe. I can't believe Genom got this far with its AI chips. I
really looks like its hurt. For a quick second, he almost felt a bit
of remorse.
Priss slowly made her way back out of the building through the
hole. She knew she was done for, all the boomer would have to do is
finish her off. But for some reason, it wasn't moving. It just stood
there, looking at her.
Ranma took a few steps forward and stopped, still a bit cautious
about attacking. He knew the boomer was faking an injury, so he
didn't want to be fooled.
"Hey, Priss, you okay?" Priss heard the communicator in her helmet
come to life "Just keep him busy for a minute. We're on our way"
"Sylia" Priss spoke back "Stay away. This thing's a monster" But it
was too late. The communicator went off. Her friends were on their
way. They would surely die if they attacked this boomer. This boomer
was probably capable of taking on a dozen Knight Sabers. She knew
what she had to do. She would have to turn
on the suits auto destruct mode and sacrifice herself and blow the
boomer up in the process.
Ranma stood there for a few moments, wondering what the boomer is
up to. It wasn't moving. He knew there was no chance it could ambush
him since he was too far away. He could just finish it off with his
Mouko Takabisha , but something prevented him. He felt this bit of
compassion toward the boomer. Even though it was faking pain, it
almost looked like it was really hurt.
The ground behind him exploded as Ranma instinctively jumped
forward out of the way. He rolled to his feet to see a small crater
in place of where he was just a second ago "Damn, that was close" He
looked up into the sky to see two more boomers hovering above him.
They all looked the same yet different. He noticed they all had a
slightly different exoskeleton and color.
Ranma could feel the adrenaline surging through him as he realized
he was outnumbered. This would be the hardest fight in his life. But
as he stood there, he knew there was a good chance he could take all
of them down before he succombed. He turned around to look at the
boomer. He wanted to finish it off so he wouldn't worry about it
later on.
When his eyes rested on that supposedly injured boomer, he was
shocked to see another boomer, a small purprle and pink one helping
it out.
Man, what kinda AI chips do these things have, he thought to
himself. He watched as the smaller boomer used its thrusters to fly
it to safety, placing the blue bommer down in the middle of the
street a dozen meters away from him, definitely out of his immdeiate
reach.
"You guys have to get out of here!" Priss told Nene "It's a goddamn
moster! It's got energy blasts that's far worse than any boomer we ever
encountered!"
"What?!" Priss heard Sylia's voice from the communicator "It's got
what?!"
"Energy blasts!" she talked into the communicator "They're powerful
enough to destroy this entire town"
She looked up and noticed Linna and Sylia turn their attention
toward her after hearing something like that.
They looked back down at that single boomer and hover backwards a bit
defensively.
"It's got a weakness" Priss said "It can't fly"
Ranma's gaze back and forth between the two hovering boomers and
the other two in the middle of the street. It looked like they were
trying to communicate with each other. They were probably sending out
communication waves that he couldn't hear.
He knew there was one thing he could do if his assumption was
correct. He would have to destroy that injured boomer before it would
transfer the data of his fighting technique "Mokou Takabisha!" he
said as he sent a ki blast rocketing toward the two boomers on the
street. He smile at the thought of killing two boomers with one blast
but was shocked to see the little purple and pink boomer's boosters
blaze into life as it jetted them both away from the huge blast.
"God, that thing's hot!" Nene commented as she looked at her suit.
Part of her armor was singed like Priss'
armor. It was a lot worse than Priss' because she had reacted a bit
late.
Sylia and Linna, as they both hovered high in the sky, both shot
several laser blasts at the human-looking boomer, shocked to see it
jump out of the way skillfully. They watched the boomer roll to its
feet and shout something.
"Duo Hiyru Shoten Ha" Ranma said. He let loose two hurricane
blasts, one emerging from each fist. The first one was thrown
vertically toward the sky as the other was thrown horizontally. The
vertical and horizontal blast engulfed each other to form a diagonal
blast directly toward the two hovering boomers.
Suck on that ya damn boomers, Ranma though with a smirk.
Both boomer managed to avoid the blast just in time, hovering to
safety.
"How the hell is it able to generate so much power?!" Nene said as
she watched her friends attack the boomer. Actually, it was more like
the boomer attacking her friends while they did all in their power to
dodge its attacks "How can it be so dangerous from a distance?!"
"Waitaminute!!!" Priss said into her communicator "Maybe that's the
only way it's dangerous, from a distance. If you close the gap
between the two of you, you might stand a chance. It wouldn't be able
to throw those blasts because it would also get caught in it"
Priss watched as her two friend nodded toward her to acknowledge
her idea.
"Let's get close to it and fight it hand to hand" Sylia said,
readying to punch right through the boomer. She had activated her
exploding punch and was ready to blow the entire boomer to pieces.
Linna did the same. Slowly, both of them hovered closer and closer
toward the boomer on the ground.
"That's it" Ranma said to himself with a smile "Come a little
closer and taste my Kashu TenshinAmaguriken. I'm gonna break both of
your heads once ya get close enough" He got into his battle stance, a
smirk on his lips, as he waited patiently for the two boomers to
charge. He knew that this was where it would all end. He was actually
grateful. He was getting tired from throwing all those ki-blasts. His
breathing was heavy.
"Why's it smiling?!" Linna said when she noticed the boomers lips.
"I don't know" Sylia said "It's probably got something to do with
the AI chip it has"
Both of them stopped hovering as Linna spoke "How come I got this
funny feeling that that's what the boomer wants, for us to get
closer"
While still in mid-flight, Sylia turned toward Linna, one eyes
still cautiously on the boomer "You saw what it could do from far
away. Our only chance is close combat"
C'mon, why aren't you charging me, Ranma thought. Why are you two
hesitating? Does it have to do with their AI chips? Are they weighing
the odds of close combat as opposed to fighting from a disatance? I
better not give them a chance to react and finish the job now.
Ranma leaped into the sky directly toward one of the boomers. He
manuevered his body in mid-flight so that his legs would wrap around
one of the boomer's arm while he would use one of his own arms to
grab the boomer's other arms. That would allow him to use his Kashuu
TenshinAmaguriken on it while he held
its limbs in place, allowing him to land every single blow on the
boomer's chest.
"Eek!!!" Linna said as saw the boomer jump straight at her.
Everything moved in slow motion as she watched the boomer twist in
mid-flight. Before she knew what happened, the boomer was attached to
her, holding her arms from moving "Help!!!" She screamed into her
communicator as she saw the boomer cock its arm back, ready to smash
a hole right through her chest.
Ranma placed one of his feet and kicked as a laser blast almost
took his head off. He had used the boomer's chest to do a kickout so
he would be propelled backwards to avoid the laser shot. He twisted
in the air and landed back on the ground safely. He landed on the
sidewalk "Damn, how am I gonna be able to get close to them to use
my technique?" he said to himself. He jumped out of the way just as
two bullets wizzed by his head. When he rooled to his feet and looked
toward where it had come from, he realized it was from the the purple
and pink boomer.
"Whoa, that was close" he told himself "I better be more careful"
He looked up toward the two hovering boomers and noticed they
seemed a bit distracted.
"Are you okay?" Sylia said.
"I-I'm fine" Linna said. But she wasn't. Her heart was beating
faster than it ever had. She had seen her life flash before her eyes.
She thought she was going to die right there, in mid-air.
"Where'd it go?!" Sylia said as she realized the boomer was still
nearby on the ground somewhere. She placed a hand on Linna's arm as
her booster went into full blast, rocketing the two to a high
altitude to avoid the boomer in case it decided to jump again. Now
that they were high enough from its jumping distance, they were
sitting ducks for that hurrican projectile that comes from its fists.
Ranma looked up at the tow hovering boomers "Damn, I can't jump up
and reach them nowe" He turned toward the two boomers in the middle of
the
street. The best coruse of action was take care of those two. He
started to run toward them.
"Eek!!!" Nene said as she raised her hand and shot several laser
blast in the boomer's general direction, all of them missing "Stay
away from me!!!" She continued to shoot toward the boomer as it got
closer and
closer to the two of them.
As Ranma got closer and closer, he wondered why that purple and
pink boomer was missing him so badly. Boomers had perfect aim, and
this one was missing him completely. Or then again, maybe it was
missing him on purpose. Maybe it was a trap. Ranma stopped dead in
his tracks, not wanting to fall for a trap.
You ain't gonna get me that easily, he thought to himself. He stood
still waiting for something to happen.
"Why'd it stop?" Priss said as she slowly made it to her feet. She
was still cluching her ribs, wincing as jolts of pain shot through
her. She placed a hand on Nene's shoulder he help keep her footing
"Why is it hesitating? Why isn't it attacking?"
As Ranma stood still, even without having to look, he knew the
other two boomers had landed on the ground behind him. He didn't
bother to turn around. He knew they were trying to silently sneak up
behind him. To let the boomers know that he didn't realize they were
behind him, he slowly made his way toward
that purple and pink boomer, taking slow, steady steps, pretending
his was geeting ready for that boomer to shoot another laser blast at
him. But he knew it wouldn't because if it did, it might hit the
other two boomers behind him.
Priss and Nene watched silently as the boomer slowly made its way
toward them. They were holding their breath, not daring to breath. In
just a few short seconds, it would all be over. They both kenw that
boomers had a weak spot that they couldn't see what was coming up
from behind them.
Once Ranma knew the two boomers were close enough behind him, he
squated low to the ground and made a wide sweep backwards, hitting
one of the boomers in the ankle. A loud clank could be heard echoing
through the streets of the slums as his foot connected with solid
steel. The boomer he sweeped fell to the
ground cluching its one leg and the other boomer executed a perfect
roundhouse toward Ranma's head, intent on cleaving it off his
shoudlers. Wasn't expecting the boomer to kick him, him expecting it
to attempt a punch, so he was caught a bit off guard. All he could do
was block the kick.
The boomer's foot connected with Ranma outstretched arms, and when
it hit him, tiny boosters located around its ankle blasted, allowing
it to follow the kick through. Ranma could do nothing but absorb the
impact. He was sent flying into one of the building walls, the wall
collapsing down on him.
"Are you all right?" Sylia asked, squatting down next to Linna as
she held her ankle.
"I think my ankle's broken" she said. She looked down at the armor
around her foot and noticed that part of it had been dented in by the
shear impact of that sweep "I can't believe it did that. How'd it
know we were behind it?"
"I don't know, but let's get outta here" Sylia said as she placed
Linna's arm around her shoulder and gently helped her to her feet "We
have to retreat. That thing's a monster"
Slowly, the two made their way toward Priss and Nene.
Ranma sat upright, holding his head "Man, that really hut" He
rubbed at a sore spot, wincing at pain jolted through his body. He
then looked down at his ankle "Damn, that metal's harder than I
thought" His ankle was swollen a bit. He tried to get up, but one of
his arms wouldn't move. It must have been dislocated from
the impact of that kick. He gritted his teeth as he used hid good arm
to snap it back into place. In all his years of fighting, he had
never experienced so much pain as what had just surged through his
body "Arghh!!!! That hurt!!!!" After a few moments, the pained died
down and he was able to move his arm around a bit "I guess it's than
not being able to use it at all"
"Damn, that was a nice kick" Ranma couldn't help but comment on "I
never knew boomers could kick that high" He threw some of the rubble
off his body and used his one good arm to stand up. Although he could
still use his other arm, it was almost useless. He brushed some of
the debris off his shirt and made his way back out the hold he had
created when he slammed against the building. As he stepped onto the
sidewalk, he caught sight of four boomers huddle together.
I have to hand it to 'em, Ranma thoguth. This was one helluva
fight, and he hadn't had this much fun in years. He knew that this
would be his last fight and he knew that he was going to go down
fighting. The boomers were like nothing he had ever fought before. He
snapped a crick in his neck as he got back into his battle stance "I
guess it's time for round two" he said to himself.
"Suck on this, boomers!" Ranma said as he launched another one of
his blasts "Duo Horizontal blast revised, Hiryu ShotenHa!" He let rip
another massive hurricane blast. Without hesitating, he let rip a
second blast, the blast every bit as powerful as the first. He
decided to give it everything he got as he let rip two more blasts
"Duo Horizontal revisedm Hiryu ShotenHa!" All in all, he had thrown
four hurricane blasts, each one right after another.
"Protect Priss!" Sylia managed to say just in time as the blasts
enveloped them. Nene and Linna had reacted instinctively and had
jumped in front of Priss just as all three girls were engulfed. They
struggled for a second while within the blast, but it was too much
for them. They force of the blast propelled all three girls backwards
into Priss as they were all thrown into one of the building walls.
Although the three girls were in front of Priss to protect her from
the blast, Priss still got hurt as she was slammed up against the
wall.
Ranma took as step forward, cautious about charging. One of his
arms wasn't working, and his foot was aching from when he sweeped one
of the boomers.
Sylia, Linna, and Nene all fell to their knees, terribly shaken
from the force of the impact against the building. Their armor
started to crack around their chest. Priss wasn't as hurt since they
protected her, but she still sustained some damage to her armor. Her
armor was still intact.
"We must retreat!" Linna said as she slowly got to her feet "Our
suits can't take much more damage!" She was shocked to look down and
see a large chunk of her armor fall to the floor. The armors
exoskeleton had fallen off. All that remained was the thin inner
armor that protected her body. She saw shocked to see her other two
friends' armor fall off.
"Retreat!" Sylia said. She would have to worry about taking care of
the boomer later. The only thing she could do was upgrade their
battle suits. It probably wouldn't do much help against a boomer this
powerful, but they would definitely be better off than they were now.
Sylia reached down and picked up the breast plate to her suit as
Nene and Linna did the same. She couldn't allow Genom to get hold of
any part of their armor. She then helped Priss to her feet "Let's get
out of here"
All three girls' booster bursted into life, only to die on them.
Somehow, their thrusters must have been damaged in that blast. They
attempted again, but it wouldn't work anymore. They couldn't retreat
if they wanted to. They would have to fight this boomer to the bitter
end. The three girls got into their battle stance. There was nothing
else they could do but fight.
Ranma seized the chance to attack. Now that they couldn't fly away,
he would now have a great advantage. They were stuck on the ground
with him.
Linna tried to punch the boomer's head off only to see it dodge her
attack skillfully. Before she knew it, she was being thrown through
the air toward Sylia. If her boosters had worked, she would had been
able to twist in the air to avoid her, but they didn't. She was
slammed bodily into Sylia, the two of them falling down on top of
Priss.
Ranma smiled he watched the boomers deperately try to get to its
feet. He was distracted for a moment as he wondered why the two
boomers looked like they were in pain, which was all that was needed
for Nene to execute a kick to his ribs. Ranma saw the kick coming but
wasn't able to dodge it in time. A sharp pain surged through his
body as he sent flying through the air. He twisted in the air to land
safely on his feet in the middle of the street. His gaze rested on
the boomer that had kicked him in the ribs. He cluched at his ribs
"Damn, I can't believe I couldn't dodge that. I could have easily
dodged that in my other form" he swore silently to himself "That
boomer's gonna pay for that"
He watched as the boomer charged into the street straight toward
him, ready to punch a hole through his gut "Horizontal blast revised,
Hiryu ShotenHa!" he shouted again as he ripped yet another hurricane
blast loose.
The blast enveloped Nene entirely. Before the blast abated, he
launched a massive ki-blast "Mouko Takabisha" Ranma watched with a
smirk as the ki-blast was popelled forward from his hurricane blast.
He watched at the boomer stuck its had out to block it, but it was
useless.The blast struck the boomer at such intensity that it was
blown backward a dozen yards, sliding on the ground to a halt in the
middle of the street.
Nene was shaken terribly from the impact of that blast, but thanks
to the inner armor that remained for her suit, she wasn't killed. She
knew she would have the biggest headache the next day, provided she
survived this fight. As she laid their on the ground, she wondered how
on earth they were going to defeat this boomer. Her thoughts were
interupted when she felt this burning sensation on her chest. She looked
down at her chest and realized that her armor had melted from the
intense heat. The armor was glowing bright red. She knew that the heat
would eventually engulf the entire suit, and the best course of action
was to get out of her suit before the armor melted completely, fusing
onto her skin and killing her.
Nene quickly rolled around to her stomach and the back of her suit
opened. She quickly and instinctively got out of the suit before it
turned into a pile of metled metal. She stood there, in nothing but
her skin-tight suit as she stared down at what remained of her battle
suit.
Ranma started at the short, pink-haired girl is disbelief. What was
going on here? Why did a boomer just come out of that boomer? And why
did that boomer look totally human?
Sylia noticed that the boomer was distracted watching her friend
break free from her her suit. She used that oppertunity to land a
powerful kick across the boomer's back. She watched in disbelief as
the boomer twisted in the air and landed on the ground safely,
unaffected by the attack. She wished that the boosters in her legs
were working because it they did work and went on during her kick,
she would have kicked that boomer in half at the waist.
Ranma smirked as he rubbed his back a bit. He realized that that
boomer's power must be real low because that kick it landed didn't
hurt at all. Now that he was sure there was no way he could get hurt,
he was about to have some fun.
He lunged forward and shouldered the boomer right into its gut,
falling down ontop of it. He sat ontop of the boomer's stomach as his
legs hook around the back of the boomer's knees. He brought his fist
backwards and he readied to punch right through the boomer's weak
spot, its open chest. Although he could punch through a full armored
boomer, he knew this would be easy since the outer armor on the
boomer's chest had fallen off.
Ranma's hands glowed blue as he focus all his battle arua into his
hand. He would make the boomer die a horrible death. He wanted to
make it where there was no way Genom could salvage this prototype
boomer. These boomers must have been prototypes. None of the other
boomers were remotely as advanced as these.
As the boomer was about to punch a hole right through Sylia's
chest, Linna used her one good leg to propelled herself forward onto
the boomer. She had managed to put enough force behind her lung to
knock the boomer off her friend, managing to landing on top of it.
The boomer punched her in the face once, but her helmet managed to
absorb most of the impact. Before it had a chance to punch her again,
he grabbed the boomers hand and entwinded her fingers with its and
pinned it down to the ground. The boomer used its other arm to punch
her. The punch had little affect. Linna knew that the boomer's left
arm must had be damaged.
She leaned forward and pressed her weight down on the boomers hands
so its arms would be pinned to the ground. She knew if it pinned the
boomer to the ground long enough, Sylia would be able to finish it
off.
Ranma gritted his teeth. The boomer was pinning him down. It wasn't
attacking. It was just holding him down. He knew that the boomer was
waiting for the other one to come and finish him off. He knew he had
to get out of there and fast.
Ranma gritted his teeth as pain from his injured shoulder shot
through his body. Ranma flexed his arms, using all his strenght to
puch the boomer's arm back. Despite the fact that the boomer rested
most of its weight on his hand, which must have been several hundred
pounds, Ranma was able to move it back slowly.
Clenched his teeth. He pushed forward with all his might. If he
didn't get this boomer off him, he was a goner.
Linna stared down in astonishment. She couldnt' believe such a
small boomer could generat so much power to overpower her suit and
its weight. Her suit had been recently upgraded yet it was still
underpowered. She could hear the motors in her arm strining to stay
locked in place. She turned her attention toward Sylia as she was
slowly getting to her feet. "Help, it's getting up!"
Ranma arched his hips upward as he brought his hand back down to
his sides. Since the boomer was holding his hands, it had no way of
stopping itself from faling forward from the forward momentum his
hips and its weight had created.
The boomer hit its head on the ground with a loud thump as Ranma
pushed it off and got back onto its feet. That was a close call, he
thought to himself.
"Damn, that thing's also extremely strong!" Linna said as she
quickly scooted to her feet as she made her way to Sylia's side. She
then shook the cobwebs from her head from when it hit the ground
"Even with our upgraded suits, it's not enough!"
Ranma smiled. These things aren't that hard. Their power supply
seemed to have been exhausted. He took a look over his shoulder
toward that human looking boomer. He saw it kneeling down next to
that blue boomer cluching its ribs. It looked like it was helping the
injured boomer to its feet.
Sylia noticed that the boomer's attention was toward Nene and
Priss. It was going to attack them. She stepped forward in front of
the boomer, directly between it and her two friends.
Man, what's with these boomers, Ranma thought. Why is it helping
each other out? It's as if it's trying to protect the other two. He
smiled. It didn't matter though. He would get to them as soon as he
finished this one off.
"Lookout!!!" Lina managed to say to Sylia, but she was too late.
Ranma lunged forward as he shouted "Kashuu TenshinAmaguriken"
Hundreds and hundreds of punches struck the boomer within mere
seconds. Most of his attacks struck the boomer's chest, but he landed
several good shots on its head and gut also.
Linna watched in aboslute horror. She had no idea this boomer was
this dangerous upclose. Its physical attacks were far worse than its
energy blasts. She watched as her friend was struck hundreds of times
in the blink of an eye.
Ranma cocked his arm back to shove his fist right through the
boomer's chest, but he hesitated. He saw the boomer in front of him
fall down on to its hand and knees. It fell down before his feet, no
longer moving.
As his arm still remained back cocked backwards, he couldn't bring
himself to finish the boomer off. Before he knew it, a sharp pain
surged trough his lower back as he was sent flying through the air.
He twisted in the air and landed on his feet a few feet away.
He watched as the boomer that kicked him knelt down before the
boomer he had just punched several hundred times. He couldn't explain
why, but he felt a brief sign of remorse as he watched the boomer
help the damaged one. The boomer was acting human, as if it were
helping out a fallen comrade.
"Sylia!!!" Linna said as she gently cradled her friend in her arms
"Speak to me!!! Wake up!!!"
"Get away from here" Sylia managed to say before lapsing into
unconsciousness.
"No!" Linna said. She looked over at the boomer and then back at
Sylia. She had to get her friend to safety. She opened Sylia's suit
up and took her into her arms. She then proceeded to limp toward
Priss and Nene "Get out of here!!! Priss, use your boosters to take
Nene and Sylia to safety!!! I keep it distracted!!!"
Linna felt something grab hold of her shoulder. She knew it was the
boomer. She and Sylia was done for. She placed Sylia to the ground
and turned to face the boomer. She had to go down fighting. She
cocked her arm back and punched toward the boomer, only to have the
boomer catch her fist. She tried to punch it with her other hand, but
the boomer also caught it. It regarded Linna with curious eyes.
"What are you waiting for?!" Linna said "Finish us off"
Ranma released his hold on the boomer's hands as he placed one of
his his hands over the boomer's throat but didn't squeeze. He watched
as the boomer used both of its hands to free itself from his grasp.
Why isn't it trying to attack me, Ranma thought. What is this, some
form of self-preservation Genom incorporated into its AI chips. It
should be fighting me until it can fight no more.
He placed his other hand on the boomer's shoulder and ripped the
outer armor off. He then ripped the outer armor over the boomer's
other shoulder. Even though this was a boomer, Ranma wasn't enjoying
this at all. Even though this was the same kind of thing that killed
his friends and family, his heart was aching.
As he held the boomer, Ranma looked down at the unconscious boomer
behind it. It looked human, just like that short, pink-haired boomer.
Ranma turned his attention back onto the boomer he was holding,
regarding it curiously. Maybe this boomer was like the other ones. He
brought the boomer closer to himself as he inspected for some way of
getting the inner armor off.
I wonder how I can get this thing off, Ranma thought, still looking
at the boomer suriously. He was no longer scared of the boomer
gurting him. It had exhausted its energy supply. After a few moment,
he saw something that might be able to get that helmet-like skull
off. He hooked two fingers under the boomer's chin and yanked upward,
ripping the skull off the boomer.
Ranma realized he was right. There was another boomer underneath.
This must be some kinda exoskeleton armor or somethin, he thought. To
his surprise, he found himself staring into the eyes of a beautiful
female boomer with short black hair.
Linna stared up into the boomer's eyes. She didn't know what to do.
There was nothing she could do. She was in the mercy of this boomer.
Actually, boomers didn't know what mercy was meaning she was as good
as dead. But why was it looking at her curiously?
The boomer let go of Linna's neck. It stood there, doing nothing.
Linna used the boomer's hesitation to get herself and Sylia to
safety. She quickly knelt down and threw one of Aylia's arm around
her shoulders, but when she took a step, her ankle throbbed as she
fell to the ground cluching her broken ankle in pain. It was from
when that boomer had sweeped her earlier.
Ranma stepped forward. He couldn't believe how human these boomers
acted. It actually looked like it was in pain. It actually made his
heart ache. He caught himself almost wanting to kneel down and help
the boomer out.
He didn't know wh, but he couldn't finish these two boomers off. He
couldn't finish any of them off. They were acting way too human, and
it bothered him. Even though they were acting, Ranma had a soft spot.
He would never kill human, and his hesitation proved it.
Ranma continued to look at the boomer curiously. He didn't really
need to kill these boomers. If he met them again, he would be able to
defeat them again. During thise battle, he had only exerted a
fraction of his energy. There was no need to kill these boomers. He
didn't have to worry about them returning back to Genom headquarters
and give them data on his fighting abilites because all of his energy
came from his ki, and there was no way Genom could reporduce that. Ki
was something only humans could possess.
Why isn't it attacking, Linna thought. She didn't care though. If
it wasn't then that mean she might be able to get Sylia to safety.
One one leg, she half-dragged Sylia toward where Priss and Nene was.
Maybe its best that I finish 'em off, Ranma thought. He didn't want
to underestimate them. He didn't want them coming back and perhaps
finishing him off. Afterall, since these boomers had fought him, they
would be familiar with his way of fighting.
Ranma shrugged his shoulders. This was the best thing to do. Even
though he would most likely not sleep well tonight, there was no
better way. Once thing he had learned over the decades of training
was not to underestimate his opponents.
He walked up to one of the boomers and grabbed it by the neck. He
slowly began to squeeze.
Linna knew the end was near as she tried desperately to make the
boomer release its grasp. It was futile thought. She was too weak to
fight anymore. Whatever feeble attempts she used to make it let go
would be useless. She swallowed the lump in her throat as se waited
for death to take her. Tears started to form around her eyes as she
realized she would never be able to do the things she always wanted
to do, that this would be her fate, to die by a boomer's hands.
Ranma released his hold, shocked. He couldn;'t believe the boomer
was crying. What kind of boomer is this, he thought. This seemed to
make him feel a huge wave of remorse. He just had to find out "Are
you scared to die?" he asked. Although he didn't like asking
something like that since it made him feel like some kind of monster,
but he just wanted to see how the boomer would respond. He was amazed
at how well the boomers could imitate human, but he wanted to know if
it had any form of human emotion.
Linna gasped for breath. After a few moments, she looked up at the
boomer. Did she hear correctly? Did the boomer just ask if she was
afrid to die? What was it doing, toying with her? She wiped the tears
from her eyes but said nothing.
"I figured" Ranma said "You can imitate human emotion, but you can
never feel it. For a moment there, I felt compassion toward you. What
a fool I am" He bent down and picked Linna up by her collar. He
cocked an arm back, ready to cave this boomer's face in and end its
so-called life. But he stopped when the boomer spoke in a soft and
timid voice.
"W-what are you talking about?" she said.
"I said you seem to imitate human emotions quite convincingly, but
you would never be able to feel it" Ranma repeated "For a moment
there, I felt compassionate not to destroy you"
"Compassion? How can you feel compassion?" Linna said. She couldn't
believe the response her words had made on the boomer. It released
its grasp on her.
"You mean you're human?" Ranma asked slowly, cautiously. He looked
down at the boomer that was on the ground, supposedly unconsious.
Linna nodded cautiously "Yes, of course I'm human" She noticed the
boomer was looking at Sylia. When her gaze rested on Sylia, she
noticed a trickle of blood flowing from her mought. Tears started to
form around her eyes again as she ran toward her friend's side. She
didn't care if the boomer was going to kill her, but she wouldn't let
the boomer hurt her friend unless she was dead.
Tears started to form around his eyes as he watched Linna craddle
Asylia in her arms, tears flowing freely. At that moment, he realized
that there was no way she could be a boomer. He saw Linna cry and he
realized that she was human. He knew one thing that could never
happen, boomers crying
He turned around "What have I done?! I-I thought you were a boomer"
He looked down at the ground ashamed. He couldnt believe he had
almost killed someone. Her death would have been on his hands for the
rest of his life. He had been steadfast to protecting people from
boomers, but here he was, about to kill the people he was supposedly
protecting.
Linna looked up at Ranma. Boomers wer programed not to attack other
boomers, meaing if he thought she was a boomer, then that meant he
was human since boomer deviate from its programming "Y-you mean
you're not a boomer?"
Ranma turned to face Linna "No, I'm not" He bent down next to Sylia
and checked for her pulse "Oh god, what have I done?!" He sighed when
he felt a steady yet weak pulse. He gently picked Sylia up in his
arms, her head resting against the crook of his neck and shoulder as
her arms fell over his back "We have to get her to a hospital"
"You get away from her!" Ranma heard the pink haired girl yell at
him "You leave her alone"
Ranma stopped for a moment before replying "We need to get all of
you to a hospital" When he received a confused look from Nene, he
continued "I'm sorry for this. I thought you were boomers. That's why
I attacked you. I thought you were boomers"
He looked down at Linna with soft eyes "Are you all right? Can you
walk?"
Linna looked down at her broken ankle and then back up at Ranma.
She nodded her head "I-I think so" She tried to put a bit of pressure
on her foot, but it was too much for her as she feel forward"
Ranma reached forward and grabbed Linna's arm before she hit the
ground "Here, he said, lettme help"
Linna didn't pull her arm away from Ranma's grasp. She couldn't
help but notice how warm his hands felt as they were pressed against
her. She could feel her heart skip a beat as Ranma knelt down and
thre one of her arms around his shoulder "Here, lean against me"
As Ranma gently carried Sylia, Linna took careful steps as she
leaned her weight against it. She was so close to him that she could
smell the faint scent of his perspiration. It looked like the battle
had taken a bit out of him.
Nene left Priss' side and ran forward and stopped in front of Ranma
and Linna "I stay you stay away from them!" She had no idea what she
was going to do, but she had to get her friends to safety. She took a
step back as Ranma looked at her with soft eyes.
"Look," Ranma said "I'm sorry for what happened. I thought you were
boomers. You're friend here made me realize that you're human. I'm
human also, just like you"
Nene said nothing. She just stood there and looked up at Ranma in
disbelief. He was human? How could that be? Her sensors had never
picked it up. But then again, the power that he was able to generate
might have keep her sensors from picking it up.
"Are you okay?" Ranma looked over Nene's shoulder toward Priss, who
was trying to stand up while cluching her ribs. She had managed to
make it to her feet, but she couldn't walk. It was too painful. He
stepped up to Priss and extended one of his hands forward. He used
his other hand to carry Sylia.
Priss just stared down at Rama's outstretched hand. What kind of
joke is that, she thought. This boomer was acting human. There was no
way a human could genterate this much power "You're not human. You
lie" She gritted her teeth as pain shot throughout her body as she
cocked her arm back. She was about to cave this boomer's face in, but
the pain was too much for her to bare.
She fell to her knees in pain. Nene rushed to her side and grabbed
hold of her "Priss, are you all right?"
"Do you need help?" Ranma asked.
Priss shook her head. She didn't need his help. Even though there
was no way she could do anything, and her suit and her body had taken
too much damage, she didn't want his help.
"Well, I don't care. You need my help" Ranma said. He reached
forwad and took hold of Priss' arms and was about to help her to her
feet, but Priss jerked her arm away.
She cluched at her ribs as pain shot through her from when she
jerked her arm. She quickly removed her helmet as a small trickle of
blood emerged from her mouth. The pain was intense and piercing. She
was in trouble. She would pass out from the pain in just a few
moments from now.
"Your ribs are broken" Ranma said "You mustn't do this to yourself
or your ribs will pucture one of your lungs. You have to take it
easy" He reached out forward again to take her arm but he didn't take
it. He waited for her to take his hand this time. Even though he knew
she was the prideful type, he knew she needed his help. He smiled as
Priss took his hand and slowly made her way to her feet.
Nene rushed to Priss' side and threw one of her arms over her
shoulders. Priss smiled a bit as she realized how much the pain had
went away now that Ranma and nene was helping her out.
"Which way to the nearest hospital?" he said. He had no real idea
where he was. He knew he was on some deserted, slum-like, man-made
island that was usually used as testing grounds for Genom's
prototypes. He had found out that this was where most of the advanced
boomers were being tested, and he wanted to get rid of them before
they had a chance to be put into production.
"The nearest one if five miles west of here" Linna said pointing
toward the horizon where the sun was now setting.
"Damn" he swore as he clenched his teeth "That's gonna take over
two hours to walk" He turned to face Priss and then looked over at
Nene "What are we gonna do?"
"I'm going to call Mackie" Nene said as she turned her attention
toward Priss "I'll use your communicator to call him" She scotted out
from under Pirss' arm and walked over to where her friend had dropped
her helmet. She picked it up.
"Mackie. Mackie" Nene syelled into the helmet "You there? Mackie"
A voice came from the helmet "Mackie here. What is it Nene?"
"We're in trouble" she said "We need you to come pick us up. I'm
sending you our coordinates" She opened up a small panel on the side
of the helmet to reveal a small number pad. She then punched in a few
numbers.
"Now what?" Ranma said. He didn't know how long it would take for
this so-called Mackie to arrive.
"We wait" Linna said.
Ranma entered the tiny room carrying Sylia and Nene's battle suits,
each suit slung around each shoulder. Sylia's suit, although the
front was dented and the breast plate was gone, was still intact.
Nene's suit wasn't so lucky. Most of the metal had metled into a
heaping mess.
"Where'd ya like me to put this?" Ranma said.
"In the corner" Linna said.
Ranma and the four girls were in a tiny room that was in one of the
abandonned buildings. They needed to take cover because the Knight
Sabers didn't want their identities revealed in case a boomer was
running around. The room was only a few meters wide, and there was a
bit a debris everywhere, but it was good enough for now.
Linna watched as Ranma placed the suits in the corner like she had
said. She was bumbfounded as wondered how Ranma was able to carry two
suits at once. Each suit weighted several hundred pounds and he was
carrying both of them like they were as light as a feather. Both suit
must have weight somewhere around a thousand pounds combined.
Ranma walked over to the window and loked out. The front window of
the building "When's your backup gonna get here?" They had been in
the building for around fifteen minutes already. He was starting to
get impatient. For every minute passed, the chance of Sylia not
waking up was more probable.
Nene walked up to Ranma and stood next to him, the top of her head
reaching his chin "He'll be here in a little while. It takes a litte
time for him to get the transport ready. That's all"
Ranma squinted his eyes "Hey, what's that over there. Is that your
friend?" He pointed toward four hovering dots about two miles away
from where they were hiding out.
"No," Nene said "those look like boomers. Afterall, this is a
boomer training ground" She looked more carefully "Those must be the
boomers we wanted to intercept"
"Huh?"
"We heard Genom," Linna said as she got up and slowly made her way
to Ranma and Nene, usuing the walls for support. When Ranma saw her
standing next to him, hereached out and gently placed her arm around
his shoulder "We heard Genom was trying out some new prototype
boomers around here and we were waiting for them to arrive. That is,
until you attacked us"
Ranma scratched the back of his head "Oh, you were here to do that
also? That's why I was here. I wanted to blow them up before they can
go into production. That ought to hit Genom where it hurts"
"Why are you doing this?" Priss couldn't help but ask. She stayed
where she was, in the back of the room, next to the unconscious
Sylia.
"You mean about my hatred toward Genom?" Ranma started out slowly.
When Priss nodded, he sighed and spoke "My best friend, was killed by
combat boomers that Genom created. The boomers went beserk and killed
her. the boomer should have never been created in the first place. And
for that, I'm gonna make Genom regret having done so. It's all personal"
Nene gasped "Oh no. Look over there, there's Mackie" She pointed
toward the ground where a truck was coming down one of the deserted
streets toward the building. The truck could be easily spotted by
those boomers from high above "He's gonna be seen!"
Ranma gentely let Nene take hold of Linna as he smiled a bit "If
those are the prototype boomers we came here to destroy, then I'll
take care of it" He then quickly ran out of the building "I already
got my second wind"
Curiosity got the better of Priss as she slowly and cautiously made
her way to where Nene and Linna was standing. Once there, Nene threw
her arm around her should as she held both Linna and Priss stand.
Together, the three girls watched as Ranma walked out to the middle
of the street and wave toward the incoming truck.
"Over here" Ranma said as he waved his hands. He wanted to get this
Mackie person out of harm's way while he did his business. He pointed
toward the building as Mackie stopped the truck and look at him
cautiously "They're in that building. Don't worry, it's not some
trap. Damn, they're already here!!!"
A massive explosion explodedon the ground just behind Mackie's
truck. The truck was sent flying forward and skidded to a halt a few
feet away. Another explosion struck the side of the truck this time
as the truck was toppled over onto its side.
Ranma quickly hopped ontop of the truck and opened the driver's
side door and reached in a grabbed Mackie's arm "Quickly, get into
the building. Those damn boomer's saw ya!" With one arm, he lifted
Mackie out of the truck and placed him down on the ground. When he
noticed Mackie just standing there, staring at him, he shouted
"Hurry, get outta here! Here they come"
Another explosion occured, this time a few feet away from Ranma.
Ranma was blown backwards off the truck, lanind on the ground on his
back with a loud thump. He quickly flipped back up onto his feet,
wiping a bit of blood trickling from his mouth "That was a lucky
shot"
He quickly jumped out of the way as another blast exploded right
where he was. He continued to do this as the four boomers got closer
and closer. He watched intently for the boomers' next attacks as they
all landed on the street about twenty feet in front of him. Each
boomer looked slightly different from each other, and was carrying a
heavy arsenal of equipment. Two boomers had rocket launchers attached
to their shoulders while carrying a shield while the other two each
carried two large calibur tank rifle. All stood close to four meters
high each. They all resembled a bigger, heavier version of of these big
brown heavy duty combat boomers he remember destroying a few days ago.
He remembered those boomers had a large cannon for an arm. He couldn't
remember what kind of model they were, but he didn' have much trouble
destroyign those. Hopefully, these boomers would be as easy also.
Ranma ran straight toward the four boomers as they all opened fire on
him. His voice echoed through the empty streets of the abandoned town.
"Mouko Takabisha!!!"
Ranma was sitting patiently in the corner of the hospital room when
Sylia awoke. She quickly sat upright in her bed "What's going on here?!
Where am I?"
She scooted away to the back of her bed when she caught sight of the
boomer that had beaten her unconscious. Although that was her first
reaction, she managed to look at everything logically. She noticed that
Priss and the others were were in the room, along with the boomer. Priss
was sitting on the bed, some bandages wrapped around her ribs. Linna was
sitting on Priss' bed, her foot in a cast. Nene was sitting in a chair
at the foot of the bed. She realized that this boomer couldn't be a
boomer. Otherwise, they wouldn't be here.
"You're never going to believe it" Nene said with a smile.
"Try me" she said with a suspicious eye. She was regarding Ranma as he
weakly smiled back at her.
"It turns out that...." Nene began. She stoppedn, realizing that she
didn't know this man's name.
"Ranma"
"It turns out that Ranma here isn't a boomer" she continued "I know
what you're going to say, 'how come we could pick it up on our
scanner?'. I checked out the suits, at least the suit that we have left,
and it turns out that they were perfectly functional. It turns out that
there seems to be something surround Ranma here that prevents it"
"I think I can explain" Ranma began "Have you ever heard of battle
aura?"
Sylia nodded her head. She had heard of it before, but never seen it
in real life.
"Well, I have this weird battle arua always surrounding me that...I
guess, messes up those scanner thingies of yours" he continued "But
enough of that now. Are you okay?"
She regarded him with cautious eyes. Ranma looked like he was
somewhere in his late twenties, but his eyes showed that he was a lot
older. His eyes showed that of life long experience, something never
evident in someone that was as young as he looked.
She nodded at Ranma's comment. It was nice that he seemed concern, but
it might all be an act. She had to remain cautious. But as she sat there
in her bed, she realized something, Ranma was there, meaning he must be
aware of their hidden identity.
"So, I assume you now know our identity" she said slowly, watching
him. She wanted to see how he reacted. She wanted to know if his words
were genuine. She could tell simply by the tone in his voice.
"Your identity?" he asked "Whatcha talking about? You mean those
things you wear are supposed to be a secret? Cool"
All four girls said nothing. They all looked at Ranma curiously, Sylia
curios the most. What kind of person was he? He knew of their identity,
but it didn't really matter to him? Something must be wrong.
"Well, I dont' really care who you really are" Ranma said, turning to
face Sylia "As long as you're not some combat boomer, I'm glad you're
okay. I getter get going now"
"Wait" she said, "Can you do us a favor?" It didn't really matter if
he didn'twant to, she still had to ask. Even though there was no way
they could stop him, she had to ask him this question "Can you please
not let anyone know who we are?"
Ranma shrugged his shoulders "Even though I don't really know what
kinda secret it is, yeah, sure. I'll keep your secret"
He left the room.
Sylia was looking at the computer screen when she realized how tired
she was. She hadn't slept in two days, and it was taking a toll on her,
especially her mind. Everything on the screen was starting to look like
gibberish. Even the simplest words seemed indiscernable. Naturally, she
would have had Fargo do the extensive research of that person named
Ranma, but ever since he got hurt duing that boomer rampage a few days
ago, he was in the hospital recooperating.
She immediately broke out of her sleepy stupor when her eyes rested on
a familiar face.
On the computer screen, she saw Ranma's face. All that extensive
background check had finally paid off. She was looking at a profile on a
man named Ranma Saotome. For the pasted two days, she had been looking
through the police logs for the man that she only remembered was called
Ranma.
A portrait of a handsome man was on the screen as Sylia stared up at
it. It was definitely him. It was definitely the man she fought a few
days ago.
She read the profile of him. She was immediately shocked to find out
that Ranma was well in his fifties. That wasn't all that surprised him.
She found that he used to live in Nerima, the same city that was leveled
to the ground by a bunch of berserking boomers that she had read about
many years ago.
"Hm, that seems right" she said to herself "If his family he was
talking about was indeed killed, then they must have died during the
'Nerima Massacre' when all those boomers went beserk at the same time.
That would confirm why he hates boomers so much" She read some more.
Sylia leaned back in her chair as she finished with Ranma's background
check. Unless Genom messed around with A.D. Police's citizen archives,
Ranma was definitely human. The research had proved quite useful. She
found out that Ranma had been arrested several times for the destruction
of Genom buildings. Building?!
How can he destroy entire Genom buildings, Sylia thought. All of
Genom's companies are heavily fortified. Although they aren't fortified
as their main corporate building, Genom's security fortifications could
take out small armies before being overwhelmed. That would mean Ranma is
more powerful than a small army.
"That's impossible!" Sylia said "How can one man take destroy an
entire building?" She decided to take back those words when she recalled
seeing Ranma throwing all those ki blasts from his hands. And of course,
he had managed to break the Knigh Sabers' armor, which was much stronger
than any of Genom's boomers.
But if he's capable of taking out Genom buildings, she thought, how
can the police manage to apprehend him. She scanned his profile again.
She remembered coming across something that might explain it.
Hm, she thought, it says here that he currently unemployed. Unless he
works as a mercenary like use, he has no source of income. Could he be
allowing himself get caught so he could spend time in jail, where he
would have food and shelter. Hm, and it says here that he has no place
of residence because his house was destroyed during that boomer rampage
several years ago.
But how come we never heard of a man like him before? Surely, if he
took out a Genom building, we would know about it. How can we miss
something like this? Hm, it says here he took out nineteen Genom
buildings that were scattered around Europe and North America. Hm, maybe
it's because the building taken out weren't in Japan that we missed it.
But that was highly improbable. If anybody attacked Genom, they would
had known.
"Wait a minute?!" she said, realizing something "That was HIM doing
that, destroying those buildings?!" She remembered hearing about Genom
destroying nineteen of their own buildings in hopes of rebuilding a
better, more advanced version Perhaps it was him that destroyed those
buildings. No. It must be. And since the police hate Genom secretly,
some would prefer no to let the public know because they actually viewed
Ranma as a savior, not some sabetour"
Sylia smiled to herself, a great weight lifted off her chest. Although
all of those were simple hypothesises, it was much better than what she
had before, nothing. She was glad that this background check had payed
off.
She yawned. Before she would tell the others, she needed some sleep.
She knew she needed it because she caught herself talking to herself
several time.
Nene looked at her dispatch screen in disbelief, not believing what
she was seeing. On the screen, five boomers had gone beseak, all of them
in the same location. Phones in the background were blazing to life as
concerned citizen's informed the AD Police of the carnage that was
ensuing.
"Oh man, this is bad!" Nene said to herself. She looked around to see
if anyone was watching. When she realized that all her fellow co-workers
were busy tending to all those incoming phonecalls, Nene quietly relayed
the dispatch readings to Sylia's computer terminal.
Sylia woke with a sudden jolt when her computer alarm went out. She
swore to herself, wishing the boomers would give her just eight hours of
sleep before they go on a rampage. She had had a very rough two days.
She needed her sleep.
"I'm here" Sylia said as she turned her computer terminal on. She
wiped the sleep from her eyes. She looked at her clock and noticed she
had only slept for ten minutes. An audio of Nene's voice echoed into the
room.
"We have big trouble" she heard Nene's voice "There are three heavy
duty 'BU-12b' and two 'Doberman' model boomers trashing up district
seven"
Sylia swallowed the lump in her throat.
Priss was racing down the highway at over 50kph over the speed limit
when she caught sight of a familiar looking man. It was Ranma. He looked
like he was headed toward nowhere in particular. She smiled as she
figured she'd give him a good scared. She skidded the bike to a halt
just inches from him.
"W-what're ya tryin' to do?" Ranma said "Are you tryin' to give me a
heart attack or something?! I'm not as young as you think I am" He
looked like he had been ready to jump out of his skin.
Priss regarded Ranma for a second. The comment brough a small smile to
his face. Ranma did no look old. It had been three days since their
battle, and she had all but forgotten about it. She had learned to live
with the thought that she had lost that battle miserably. Although she
did hold a grudge toward Ranma for what he had done to her and her
friends, she knew it was all a case of mistake identitiy. She, too, had
fallen for that mistake.
"Whatcha doing around here?" he asked. His eyes regarded Priss for a
moment before dropping down to the great looking bike. He had no real
idea if it was a fast bike or not. He was little behind on the times. He
didn't really understand technology that much.
"I'm on my way to district seven" she said "Five boomers seem to be on
the rampage there" She figured it'd be best to at least let him know
that boomers were on the rampage. Although she did resent him for the
power he could wield so easily, he was, in a way, on their side.
"How're your ribs?" he asked. He didn't forget that he had hurt her
pretty badly a short while ago. He was still concerned over her well-
being.
Priss smiled a bit "Yeah, I'm fine" She then revved the motor to the
redline mark and popped the clutch into first, the front wheel leaving
the ground as she did a wheelie away from Ranma at high speeds.
Ranma stood there amazed "Wow, that does look like a fast bike" He
began walking down the street toward the direction Priss was headed
"Now, what district did she say she was headed toward"
Sylia and Linna were both in their hardsuits when Priss arrived in
their hidden headquarters under Raven's Garage. Although their suits
were nowhere near as good a condition as before the battle against
Ranma, Mackie had managed to fix it up considerably with the spare parts
that he had. Nene's suit was unsalavagable, meaning a new one would have
to be built. It didn't matter though because Nene was still at work over
in the AD Police headqarters. The fact that their suits were in need of
some repair didn't really matter that much though, they needed to
upgrade their suits anyway. This just made the reason more appropriate.
"It's about time you got here" Linna said to as she got off her bike.
Priss gave Linna a smirk "Well, I got caught up for a moment on the
way here. I saw Ranma"
"Y-you did?" Linna said with a smile. Although she didn't want to give
away her obvious interested toward Ranma, it was too late. Priss and
Sylia noticed the change in her mood, and they knew she seemed to have a
thing for him.
"Man, I wish those boomers weren't rampaging near Sylia's building"
Linna changed the subject "That way, we could let the A.D. Police take
care of them" She sighed. She remembered when it last happened. Sylia's
lingerie store had been trashed and it took forever to get it cleaned
and fixed.
"I told Ranma where they were rampaging," Priss said as she got out of
her clothes and into her skin-tight jumpsuit "maybe he could take care
of them" She climbed into her harsuit and activated it, putting the
helmet on "Man, this feels a bit awkward, but I guess it'll have to do
for now. When'll Mackie have this fixed completely?"
"Tomorrow" Sylia said.
The three Knight Sabers arrived at the scene of the crime. Priss was
in her motoslave suit as she hovered down to the roof of a nearby
building. She was carrying a cannon capable of blowing a hole right
through an entire building. Linna was aslo in her motoslave suit as she,
too, hovered down next to Priss. Sylia, only in her hardsuit, had landed
on the roof carrying a high calibur sniper laser rifle. Her suit was in
worse condition than both Linna and Priss' so it was best she stayed a
short distance away and pick the boomers off with the rifle.
As Sylia set her rifle up and looked through the high powered scoop,
she noticed that the five boomers seemed to be working together like a
team. The three BU-12b boomers were firing their heavy duty cannons to
destroy neaby police cars and trucks while using its machine gun to kill
the hapless police officers. The AD Police didn't stand a chance.
The two 'Doberman' boomers had their backs to the police, using their
minguns to riddle the stores with thousands of bullets. These boomers
definitely didn't go beserk. It looked more like Genom was trying out
some new AI chip on their boomers. It looked as if a network had been
setup between the five boomers, to see how they would work as a team
rahter than indiviually.
"Becareful," Sylia spoke into her communicator "These boomers seem to
be working together, like there's been a network set up between them"
She aimed her rifle toward one of the BU-12b boomers. She waited for the
perfect moment to fire. She didn't want to give away her location
because if the boomer realized where she was attacking from, she would
be in trouble.
Linna hopped off the roof as she used her the massive cannon that her
motoslave was carrying to blow a hole through the chest of one of the
BU-12b while Priss did the same. Unfortunately, Priss' shot was slightly
off,m and it missed its mark. It only blew off the boomers left arm.
Priss landed just in time to jump out of the way as the boomer
returned fire, missing her by inches. The blast blew one of the hove
jets to her motoslave. The boomer straffed toward the right as it
continued to fire its cannon at Priss, narrowing missing her with every
shot. The boomer exploded as a laser shot pieced through it chest from
Sylia's sniper rifle.
"We have to get them to follow us" Sylia said "They're causing too
much damage around here. We have to get them away from the stores"
Linna and Priss acknowledged her suggestion.
"Follow me, Linna" Priss said as one of the boosters to her motoslave
blazed to life. Although the other booster was destroyed, her other
booster still allowed her to hover. Linna quickly followed.
The three remaining boomers followed. Sylia quick held a tight grip on
her rifle as she hovered from roodtop to rooftop, wondering where Priss
was headed.
"Where are you going?" Linna said as she followed closely behind
Priss.
"Remember when I said I saw Ranma a short while ago" she said "We
could have him take care ot them and get them away from Sylia's store at
the same time"
A cannon blasted from behind them, hitting the Priss' motoslave from
behind. Priss screamed as she was propelled forward from the impact of
the bast, sliding down the street several dozen yards before she came to
a stop. She tried to get her feet just as Linna hovered down right next
to her.
"You okay?" Linna asked.
"Shit, I can't move" Priss noticed that her motoslave had been damaged
badly from that blast. It was having trouble responding to her commands.
"Get out of it then" Linna quickly said as she turned toward the three
incoming boomers and returned fire, her machine guns and the cannon her
morotorslave carried firing for all their worth. The last BU-12b was
destroyed by the onslaught of firepower, but the two 'Dobermen' boomers
skillfully dodged. They stopped about a dozen meters in front of Linna
and Priss and opened fire, their minguns firing rapidly.
Linna was able to react in time to protect Priss, jumping in front of
her, as the bullets riddeled her motoslave with holes. Knowing that it
was useless to remain in her morotrslave, Linna disengaged to suit and
hopped out of it, picking up the massive cannon Priss' mortorslave was
carrying.
She fired a shot toward one of the 'Doberman', thrown back from the
kickback of the cannon. She would had hit the floor very hard as she
fell backwards if it weren't for two hands pressing against her back,
preventing her.
Linna turned to see who saved her and her gaze rested on Ranma.
"R-Ranma" she said. She regarded Ranma as he smiled a big grin.
"Lookout!" Ranma shouted as he pushed Linna to one side, aslo jumping
out of the way as a laser blast ripped across their path, exploding
again a small building a mile down the road.
Linna used her boosters to hover to her feet before she hit the ground
after being shoved. She caught sight of Ranma as he rushed toward Priss
sitting helplessly as bullets riddled her motoslave. Her suit wouldn't
respond anymore to her commands. She was a sitting duck.
"Mouko Takabisha!!" Linna watched him shoutas a ki blast ripped from
his hands. The blast flew through the air an intense speed, hitting one
of the 'Dobermen' in the chest, destorying it on impact. The impact of
the balst was so intense that several windows of nearby stores exploded.
The explosion of his energy blast had managed to create a smoke screen
between him and the boomer. Without even bothering to think, Ranma
quickly ran up to Priss and grabbed on of the motoslave's arms.
"Damn, this thing's heavy" he said as he tried to drag it, much to no
avail. He noticed that trying to drag it was worthless since the suit
was embedded dlightly into the ground from the sliding. The only thing
he could do was pick the damn thing up.
Ranma gritted his teeth as the muscles in his forarm strained. He
lifted the suit up and pushed it onto its side "C'mon, get out already"
"I can't!" He heard Priss said through her helmet. She was struggling
to free herself from the suit, much to no avail.
Ranma punched a hole through the chest of the motoslave suit and
grabbed hold of the breastplate of Priss' suit. He pulled for all his
worth, but it was still useless. He couldn't get her out. He'd have to
break the entirefront part of the motoslave to get her out. He gripped
the chest piece to the suit and ripped it off completely. He then
reached in and grabbed Priss and pulled her out, pushing her to safety.
By now, the smoke had cleared out, allowing the 'Doberman' to set its
sights on the target again. It shot at the damaged motoslave. Ranma
managed to jump out of the way just in time as the suit exploded. He
rolled to his feet quickly and lunged toward the boomer and grabbed one
of its arms and threw it over his shoulder, the weight of the boomer as
it struck the ground causing it to create a small creater. He then
smashed his fist right through the boomer's head, the boomer ceasing
function immediately.
Ranma smashed an open palm into the boomer's chest, causing it to
collapse inward, just to make sure it was no longer functioning. He then
hopped off the boomer and picked it up, all fifteen hundred kilograms,
and slammed it on the ground again further embedding it in to the
ground.
"Man, if that doesn't stop it, nothin' will" he said with a chuckle.
The boomer had stopped functioning when he had smashed a hole right
through its head, but he wanted to have his fun. He knew it didnt matter
how much more he destroyed it. Once the AI chip was destroyed, the
boomer was harmless.
He sat down on the boomer's chest "Are you two all right?"
Linna pulled up the visor of her helmet "Yeah, thanks"
Sylia finally caught sight of her two companions. She had seen them
take off toward the outskirts fo the city but she couldn't keep up since
she was only in her regular hardsuit. Linna and Priss motoslaves were
far more powerfulthan he suit, allowing them to surpass her rate of
follow.
She landed in on a nearby roof when she noticed her two friends
standing in the middle of a quite, battle ridden street, both of them
sans their motoslave suits. She noticed that there was also another
person standing by them. She quickly brought the scoop of her rifle to
her eye level as she looked through it for a clearer view. It was Ranma.
She was surprised when she caught herself sighing in relief as she
noticed it was him.
As she looked through the scoop, she knew she had a clear shot to blow
his head right off of his shoulders. There was no telling who this man
was, or why he was here. Sure, he was destroying boomers, but there
might have been some hidden agenda she didn't know about. Who knew,
maybe he wanted to get rid of Genom so he could take over the
corporation.
Thoughts raced through Sylia's head as she contemplated on wether or
not she should pull the trigger. He already knew of their secret
identity, and that could spell big trouble for them if word got out.
Only a few people outside of the group knew of their identities. Having
another person know about it just made the chances high that they would
soon be discovered.
But for some reason, she could bring herself to pull the trigger. As
of right now, he proved no threat. Their little battle the other day was
over mistaken identity, something she couldn't hold a grudge over him
because she, too, had mistaken him for a boomer as he did them.
She dropped the rifle to her side, having this weird feeling that she
might come to regret it. But she couldn't help but remember seeing the
caring and concern in his eyes when she had awoken in that hospital bed.
She remember how warm those beautiful blue eyes of his looked when their
gazes met, and she knew that was something she would never foget.
Sylia sighed a bit as a small smile crossed her lips.
"What was that thing you were in?" Ranma said as he still sat on the
boomer's chest, jerking a thumb over his back at the remnants of Priss'
motoslave suit. He noticed that this big red suit seemed to be some
extra outer that Priss wore that seemed to cover over Priss' hardsuit.
"That's a motoslave" Linna said as she looked down at her own
motoslave. The suit was badly damaged but was definitely salavgeable.
Mackie would go ballistic when he sees the damage, but he would still be
able to fix it after a few days.
"A moto-what?" Ranma asked confused. He was scratching the back of his
head as he felt a bit embarressed that he wasn't up-to-date with current
technology. He had been training in the mountains of China most of his
life. The only technology he knew was boomer technology, and that they
were something he tried his hardest to get rid of "Well, whatever it is,
I'm glad you two are all right. So I guess I better get going now" He
causally hopped off the boomer's chest and proceeded down the street.
Priss was about to ask where he was headed, but it was none of her
business. She had already thanked him. There was nothing else she needed
to do. But for some odd reason, she didn't want him to leave. She found
herself watching Ranma as his figured grew smaller and smaller as the
distance between them got larger and larger.
"Priss, I'm glad you spotted him on your way to the garage" Linna said
as she stood next to Priss, also watching Ranam intently "We would have
been in a lot of trouble if it weren't for him"
Once Ranma was out of sight, Priss did something that caught Linna by
surprised. She kicked the boomer as she swore to herself.
"Shit. I can't believe how I screwed up like that!" she said "We
should have taken care of them easily, even without the help of Sylia or
Nene. We had out motoslaves!"
"But Ranma managed to save us" Linna said softly, a bit worried over
her friend. Priss looked seriously ticked off.
Priss shot Linna a cold glace "That's what I'm pissed about! How come
we're screwing up all of a sudden?! We fought Dobermans before, and
without out motoslaves, and we managed to beat them. And here we are,
with the motoslaves, and we get trashed! I don't get it. Why?"
Sylia's boosters flared as she gently landed on her feet a few years
away from the two girls "I know why"
Priss turned her attention toward Sylia "Why?"
"It seems Ranma has something to do with it"
"Madigan-sama. It seems your plan worked" her new assistant, Carper,
said as she entered his office. He was a young man with short brown hair
and a square face. He was more like Madigan's right hand man than her
assistant.
Maigan smothed a lock of her purple hair from her face as she peered
out of his window that overlooked the entire city of MegaTokyo. The view
gave her a great shot of the a huge fault that was a result of the Kanto
Earthquake that seperated the entire west and east side of the advanced
city "We managed to collect enough data on the superboomer that seems to
be accompanying the Knigh Sabers. After a few more encounters with it,
we sould know more about it"
"Good" she said with a smile, her reflection seen as it reflected off
the glass window that seperated her from Carper's office and the
polluted air that was outside Genom Tower "What have you got so far?
Exactly how powerful is this superboomer? And where did it come from?"
"Well, since you're familiar with the boomer association classes,"
Carper said "is it all right if I use it as an analogy?"
Madigan nodded.
Carper walked over to a screen that was on one of the walls of his
office and clicked on a button. It showed a profile of a household
boomer, the first kind of boomer Genom had created "Well, there's the
simple boomers, the ones used for everyday human chorse, which is a
class 1-A boomer. The number '1' states its powerlevel output, while the
'A' states its revision type"
"I know that you fool" Madigan spat "Now get on with it. You're
already trying my patience"
"Sorry," he said. He took a breath and conitnued "Well, as you know,
the C-55 combat boomer is a class 3-C Boomer model. The BU-12b is a
class 4-B model while the Dobermans are a class 4-E model. And as you
know, the higher the revision number, the deadlier the boomer. That
means a C-55 boomer which has been upgraded to class, say, 3-E or even
class 3-F, would be able to destroy a class 4-A or even a 4-B boomer"
"Yeah," Madigan said, leaning up against Caper's chair. She felt a bit
angry for the little lecture, but she knew he was trying to getting to
the point "get on with it"
"Well, out most most advanced boomers, the four prototype one that
were wiped out on the artifical island not too long ago, were class 5-A
models. So that means, as of right now, the strongest boomer Genom can
create is a 5-A model boomer. Now, based on the boomer association class
scale that we have and use, this superboomer that the Knight Sabers
seemed to have created seem more along the lines of, get this, a class
23-A model boomer."
"What?!"
"Yes" Carper said "As of right now," He emphasized his words as he his
open hand on his table "he would be considered a 23-A model
superboomer."
"What do you mean 'right now'?" Madigan asked. She swallowed the lump
that had formed in her throat. This was almost too much for her.
Something of that class must be be out of Genom's technological grasp by
over fifty years.
"This is the class it is associated with because of what we know about
it" Carper conitnued "Its projectiles are that of a class 23-A model
boomer, but we have no idea what kind of class it is in hand-to-hand
combat. Also, we have no idea what else it is capable of. Even though it
seemed to have destroyed all four of our prototype 5-A boomers, we have
the funny feeling it was not only holding back, but had only used a
fraction of its energy"
Madigan sat down in one of the office chairs. This was too much for
her. How can the Knight Sabers have created a superboomer this powerful?
It was impossible.
"Well, what do you think about the Knight Sabers," Madigan asked,
looking up at the screen. It showed a green, wire-framed outline of
Ranma, all the way down to his pig-tail "What class would you consider
them in?"
"Well, this is just a hypothesis," Carper began "I think it's somwhere
around the 6-A to 6-B class"
"You mean they created a boomer that is nearly four times more
powerfrul?" she asked shocked.
"Yes" he said in a calm and rational voice "This superboomer seems
capable of taking out the entire Knight Sabers at once"
"Shit" she cursed. She knew how powerful the Knight Sabers were, and
the thought of something that was as powerful as all four of them at
once made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She was was
here to take over Mason's job after his death, which also meant the
disposal of the Knight Sabers. And now that they had this superboomer
working along side them, things had taken a turn for the worse.
"I wonder why would they create a monster so powerful?" she said to
herself thoughtfully "I can't imagine what might happen if it goes
beserk?"
"As much as I want it to go beserk while in the precense of the Knight
Sabers," he took a deep breath, wondering if it was all right to speak
even when he wasn't being spoken to "I would rather not find out"
"Well, what about this boomer's intelligence level?" she asked. Maybe
the boomer lacked intelligence because something might had been
sacrificed for the extreme power output, and intellience was most
likely. Heck, if there was something that could generate that much
power, it wouldn't even need an AI chip. All it needed was a program
that discerned the Knight Sabers from boomers.
"Well, if we use the same boomer assiciation class, it would still be
leaps and bounds over out own boomer AI chips. It seems to have slightly
less ntellegence than the Knight Sabers, except it has the ability to
adapt. It semeed like it is capable of incorporating strategy into its
fights"
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"Let's say that superboomer is engaged in combat with, say, ten of out
prototype boomers" Carper said "And it's fighting them under a overpass
or major highway. It is probably capable of realizing that blowing up
the highway above the boomers would easily wipe out all ten boomers at
once instead of fighting them all one at a time"
"Goddamn!!! How is it capable of doing such things?! This is
absolutely ludicrous" Madigan felt a bit dizzy. This wasn't a
superboomer. It was more like a walking army.
"It's so intelligent that it wanders the streets as we speak. It seems
capable of interacting with society as if it were totally human. Also,
there's more" Carper conitnued "This superboomer is _extremely_ agile,
so agile that it is capable of dodging bullets"
Madigan has heard enough of the bad news. She needed some good ones
"Okay, enough already on its capabilites. What do you have on its
weakness?"
Carper smiled "You're gonna like this. This superboomer can't fly.
It's most probable that the ability to fly was sacrificed for the power
output. Also, it has virutally no armor whatsoever, meaning a single
cannon blast would destroy it. This boomer also seem to be programmed to
protect human life if possible. That's all I have on it so far, but this
definitely helps balance the scales a bit"
Madigan sighed. Although she now knew of its weakness, it wouldn't
help much at all.
"But don't worry" Carper said "I have a plan. We found someone, a
human, that is capable of generating powers akin to this superboomer
we're up against"
"Human?" Madigan said in shock "This has got to be some mistake. How
can some human generate power like that? Where is it all coming from?"
"I can't explain it" Carper said "We found him living in the mountains
around China a few weeks ago while we were up there looking for another
location to set up another boomer manufactory. We tried to scan him, but
we couldn't, so we assumed he was some new superboomer our competitors
created, so we sent one of our scouting boomers in for a closer
inspection. The person, somehow, was able to feel the boomer's presense,
but it showed no hostile intentions. He actually started communicating
with our boomer, and it turns out that the person was not only human,
but was fooled that our scout wasn't a boomer. From what I gather, I
believe he's been lived in China for most his life, and has no idea
about boomer how much technology had advanced since China isn't as
developed as Japan"
"Where is he now?" she asked "I want him to help us out"
"I'm sorry" Carper said "But that's not possible. We have no idea
where he is"
Ranma rubbed his stomach as it rumbled for the second time this late
morning. He was starving. He needed something to eat and fast. His eyes
caught sight of a familiar looking girl. It was that same black haired
girl he had almost killed during that mistaken identity incident, and
then later came to save a just few short days ago.
Ranma stepped into studio as several of the women eyed him fondly. He
didn't seem to realize that most of the girls regarded him intently.
Luckily for him, he had spotted Linna just as she was finishing teaching
her class. She, too, had spotted him.
"Hiya" Ranma said. He would have greeted her by name if he knew it
"Um, I'm kinda embarressed, but you never told me your name"
Several of the girls in the classes gave Linna a mischieveous grin
behind Ranma's back. It was perfectly like Linna to have all the fun.
Most of the guys seemed attracted to her.
"My name's Linna. Linna Yamazaki" she said with a polite bow. She
pretended like she had never really met Ranma before, just to give the
other girls a show.
"Oh, okay" Ranma said with a warm smile. He noticed that Linna looked
very beautiful and the skin tight shorts that she was wearing accenuated
her curves quite nicely. She had a very beautiful build, and Ranma
seemed a bit embarressed when he caught himself staring at her for a
little longer than he was supposed to "Well, I jus' figured I'd ask, in
case we meet again, Linna"
He turned to leave.
"Waitaminute" she called out for him, causing him to stop She wasn't
expecting him to leave. She was expecting him to be just like every
other guy she had met, that he would ask her out to dinner or something.
She was caught by surprise when she saw him about to leave. She also had
to do all in her power to hide her blush when she had noticed Ranma's
gaze on her. His warm eyes made her nervous, as it they could see al the
way into her soul, all the way into her darkest secret.
"What is it?" he asked. He felt his stomach grumble. He really needed
to eat. Unfortunately, he had no idea where he was going to find food at
a time like this.
"How about lunch?" she asked casually. Although it looked casual, she
was definitely nervous asking a question like that. She had never asked
that to a man in her life before. It was usually them asking her to goto
lunch or dinner with them.
Ranma felt his stomach grumble again. He really wanted to, but there
was no way he would be able to pay for the meal "I-I'm sorry, I don't
have any money" He turned to leave again.
"My treat"
Ranma was finished with his meal within seconds. He hadn't eaten in
days. Linna watched him eat with a smile as she ordered him a second
portion, and then pretty soon a third portion. She was only nibbling on
a small salad as she watched him. He wasn't paying all too much
attention but noticed her regarding him when he bothered to look up.
"What?" he said "Do I have somethin' on my face?"
Linna giggled "No. Don't worry about it" she said as she began eating
some more of her salad. She didn't know why, but she noticed that her
day was looking better than it had ever been in weeks. Actually, she
knew what the reason was. No. Actually, she knew who the reason was.
Ranma placed the bowl on the table "Man, that was good" He was about
to burp, but realized he was in the presences of a lady, more like a
very beautiful lady "I'll pay you back for this. I promis"
"Don't worry about" Linna said "Think of it as a form of thanks for
helping us out"
Ranma looked at her for a second before speaking softly "Helpin' ya
out? I thought I was supposed to keep that a secret"
Linna giggled again. At the most inconvenient time, her watch went
off. Sylia was trying to contact her. It must be another beserking
boomer. Two days had passed since the last incident, but she wished she
had more time to herself than just two days.
"I'll be back in a sec" she said as she got out of her seat and headed
toward where the phones where located in the back of the restaurant.
"Man, this places looks like the Nekohanten" Ranma commented as he
brought the soup bowl back up to his mouth and began drinking the
delicious broth "Boy, do I miss those days" He sighed as he placed the
empty bowl down on the table again. He wished he was young. Although he
remembered having many fiance viing for his affections, life still
wasn't as complicated as it had become since he came back to Japan after
his training trip to China.
He had come back to a country that he coudlnt' recognize. Everything
was all high-tech. The technology was beyond him. Half the stuff
nowadays he had no idea how they worked. Heck, he had no real idea how
to work a car back when he was young, and now he would have to drive
something much more complicated? Life was harsh.
"I gotta go" Linna said as she handed him a several thousand yen "This
should be enough for the bill. I'm sorry to leave like this, but it's
important. I hope I'll see ya around. Bye"
Ranma watched Linna leave the store. After she left, he looked down at
the amount of money she had left behind. She had left behind way too
much money. But then again, it might be fortunate for him. That meant he
would be able to eat decently for the next few days. But still, he would
pay her back.
Now, the hard part was how.
Ryoga was walking down a street, glad that he was finally back in his
birthcountry. He had been trying to get back here for several years, but
his lack of direction always prevented him. It had taken him a few weeks
before he finally made it back.
He looked up at all the huge buildings towering over him, making him
seem like an insignificant speck in this world. He had no idea how
things had changed. He recognized nothing. Everything was so different.
He might as well be in another country and it wouldn't matter because so
much had changed.
Ranma was walking down one of the busy streets MegaTokyo late into the
afternoon when he caught sight.of a familiar looking face from his
youth. It was a young looking man sporting a yellow sleevless shirt and
black pants wearing a yellow and black headband.
"Hey, Ryoga, is that you?" he said, waving toward his friend from
across the street "Damn, it is you! How's everythin' going?" Ranma
didn't even bother to wait for the light to turn red. He just casually
lept into the air and over the entire length of the street, landing
right next to Ryoga.
"R-Ranma?" Ryoga looked at him curously "Is that really you?"
Ranma nodded, smiling "Long time no see, Ryoga"
"YOU!!!" Ryoga said, arua glowing bright red "DIE!!! Shi Shi
Hakodan!!!"
A massive ki-blast shot from Ryoga's hands, just as Ranma skillfully
jumped out of its path. The blast struck the building behind him,
blowing a hole the size of the blast right through it, the walls melting
from the extreme heat.
"Hold on there, Ry-" Ranma managed to say just as he lunged out of the
way as another ki-blast jetted right by him, striking yet another
building cauging it to exploded. It had just missed hitting him in the
head. He was lucky he had been able to dodge it in time. As he rolled to
his feet, he couldnt' help but notice how skilful Ryoga had gotten over
the years. Ryoga was now a definite force to be reckoned with.
"How dare you let her get killed!!!" Ryoga said "How dare you let
Akane get killed like that!!!"
Ryoga attacked with several punches, all of them narrowly missed, all
except for the last attack. He managed to land his last attack, an open
palm strike, on Ranma's chest. Ranma was propelled backwards into one of
the walls of the buildings, the wall collapsing in on itself fromt he
impact.
"This Ryoga Hibiki person," Madigan asked impatently toward the now
nervous Carper "I want his help. He might be capable of defeating this
superboomer running loose. Where could he be?"
"I don't know" he said "I don't know. I remember he mentioned to out
boomer scout that he wanted to come back to Japan, but there seems to be
no sign of him anywhere. I think he got lost on the way here. That's the
only thing I can think of. He does, afterall, have a very bad sense of
direction"
"That's a buncha bull!!!" Madigan spat "How can you lose track of
someone like that?"
Carper's screen went on. It showed a facial shot of a man, or boomer,
wearing headgear "Carper-sama, we have located the person" The screen
shot swtiched to a bird's eye view of the two people, one superboomer
and one human, battling each other. The shot was being taken from a
helicopter hovering nearby "We've located Ryoga Hibiki. It seems he's
already in battle with the superboomer, and he's winning"
"W-why's he fighting the superboomer in the first place?" Madigan
asked "What caused them to fight?"
"I don't know" he said "Perhaps it's just some freak coincidence"
Madigan looked at Carper curiously. She never really believed in
coincidence. There was always a logical explaination for everything, and
this situation wasn't any different.
"I surmise that since that superboomer seems to be programed to fight
other combat boomers," Carper started "it might've had troubled scanning
this Ryoga Hibiki we had trouble with, and thinks he's another prototype
superboomer we created, and thus, is attacking it. That's the best I can
come up with"
"I have to watch this" Madigan said, her eyes intent on the screen.
She had never seen what the superboomer was capable of, but had only
heard of it. Now she had a chance to see his capabilites and she wasn't
going to give up the chance.
Nene's stared at the dispatch screen and sighed. It was another boomer
incident. But her eyes widened when she noticed something. It showed
that there were two boomers fighting each other in the heart of
MegaTokyo, right near where she saw Ranma earlier on her way to work
this morning. She had saw him walking ont he sidewalk as she drove her
little scooter down the street, but she never bothered to stop. She
noticed that Ranma didn't recognize her with her bike helmet on.
"Hmm, could that be Ranma?" Nene said to herself. In an incident like
this, she would had only dispatched the AD Police to deal with this, but
the thought that it might be Ranma made her think otherwise. She
wouldnt' mind seeing him again and she knew the others didn't also "I
guess I better tell Sylia and the others"
"That hurt!!!" Ranma yelled as he stepped out of the building "What'd
you do that for?!"
"Baksuai Tenketsu!!!" Rygoa yelled as he struck his finger down on the
sidewalk. A massive explosion occured as the sidewalk shattered to
pieces, the shrapnel flying everywhere. Even though most of the pieces
were hitting him, Ryoga was totally unaffected by the explosion for he
had grown accustomed to it completely. He had gotten a lot stronger over
the years and he wanted to show Ranma what he was capable of.
Ranma's arms flew at lightning speeds as he caught every rock that was
intended to hit him. He remembered Ryoga using that technique on his man
many years ago, and it was the same now as it was before. But this time,
Ranma wasn't going to get tired for a long long time. He had, too, had
gotten sronger over the years.
"Bakusi Tenketsu!!!" Ryoga shouted as his finger jabbed into the wall
of the building Ranma was standing next to. The entire building exploded
as all the debris fell down on Ranma. Ranma couldn't react in time as he
was buried alive under the debris.
Ryoga stood there for several moments, wodnering if it was all over,
that he had finally avenged Akane's death. He had swore to kill Ranma
because he hadn't been able to protect her from death when those
machines lay waste to the entire town of Nerima. He had gone out on a
training trip to develop his skills so he would someday comback and make
Ranma suffer miserably.
But as he stood there not moving. He was hoping his revenge would had
lasted longer.
At that moment, the rubble exploded upward as a huge hurricane sent in
hurling to the heavens. All the rubble was gone as Ranma stood where the
building had fallen on him, a massive blue arua forming around him
"You're gonna pay for that!!!!"
"Goddamnit!!!" Madigan swore "What the hell's going on?!"
She was trying to see the battle on the screen but a cloud of dust had
formed after the building was destroyed as if fell down over the
superboomer. The visibility was next to none as she saw nothing but
dust.
The dust finally began to settle as she caught sight of Ryoga standing
in front of a pile of rubble.
That's it, she thought. That superboomer was defeated in a matter of
seconds. But she wished she didn't think that way when she saw the
rubble explode upward in a hurricane as she caught sight of a masssive
blue aura through the dust cloud as it settled again, preventing her
from seeing anything again.
"Shit!"
"Good, I was hoping you didn't die from somthing like that" Ryoga said
with a grin "I want you to suffer"
"You got lucky with that attack" Ranma said, his aura glowing brightly
"I wasn't expectin' you to use strategy in your fight" He cracked his
knuckles "I guess that's enough for our warm up. Let's fight!!!"
He got into his battle stance as Ryoga got into his. They were both
regarding each other carefully, waiting for the other to make the next
move. Ranma slowly started strafing out toward the middle of the street.
He didn't want anymore buidling to be destroyed. The streets were now
empty, all the cars having stopped about a hundred yards back in both
direction, mostly because of the accidents that was caused from the
distractions and destruction of seeing such power being produced.
"Horizontal Wave Bakusai Tenketsu" Ryoga shouted as he slammed an open
palm down on the ground. What happened next caught Ranma by totally
surprise. He was expecting to see the shrapnel of the explosion coming
toward him, but that didn't happen. The ground Ryoga was standing on
didn't explode. Instead, the ground below Ranma exploded.
"What the-" Ranma managed to say right before he was consumed in the
explosion. When the explosion abated, Ranma fell to his knees, a few
cuts and bruises overing his arms from when he used them to protect
himself. He began laughing as he slowly got to his feet "I-Is that all
you've got?!?!"
Ryoga's aura flared brightly as Ranma continued to mock him.
"I thought I was in trouble there for a second" he said, wiping the
dust from his clothes. He smiled wryly at Ryoga "But you have gotten
stronger over the years, much stronger. I must give you that. You
actually had me worried for a second. Now its my turn!!!"
Ranma held one hand in front of him, palm toward the sky "Mouko
Takabisha!!!" he said as a huge ball of energy formed, hovering just
inches above his hand. While still hold the ball in one hand, Ranma
placed his hand hand in front of him in the same fashion "Mouko
Takabisha!!!"
Ryoga took a step back cautiously as he noticed Ranma smile.
"Here's where it gets interesting" Ranma said with a smile "Duo Mouko
Takabisha!!!" he shouted as he threw both of his ki-blasts at one. Ryoga
was caught watching in disbelief as both spheres of pure energy rocketed
toward him at lightning speeds. Both of the blasts struck Ryoga int he
chest, sending him flying into backwards a hunder yards, smashing into
the abandoned cars down at one end of the street.
Ryoga didn't move as Ranma walked up to him, stopping a dozen yards
away.
Ryoga began laughing as he slowly got to his feet "Man, that felt like
a baby's kick!!! It didn't hurt one bit!!!"
Before he had a chance to react, Ranma lunged forward "Kashuu
TenshinAmaguriken!!!" He punched Ryoga well over a thousand times in the
stomach before Ryoga had a chance to react. The impact of the punches
sent him flying backwards another hundred feet, smashing into several
cars in the process.
Ryoga managed to recover in time to roll to his feet just as Ranma was
about to land another thousand punches on him. He wiped a very tiny
trickle of blood from his mouth.
"So, Ranma, you think you can defeat me like you did over fourty years
ago?" Ryoga said with a smile "I don't think so. I've learned a lot over
the years, and that trick won't work on my again. That I promise you"
Sylia and Priss and Linna hovered down on to a nearby roof as they saw
how much destruction had taken place already. The streets and most of
the buildings were destroyed.
"God," Linna said "This is horrible. Who would do something like
that?"
"That's who" Priss said pointing toward Ranma and Ryoga as they both
stood in front of one another, slwoly circling one another. None of them
were attacking, both of them sizing each other up.
"Who's he fighting?" Linna asked.
Sylia brought the scope of her rifle up to eye level and peered
through it. Her gaze rested on a young looking man sporting a yellow and
black headbang. As she looked at him, she wondered if this was another
prototype boomer or another human with powers akin to Ranma's. He looked
human, but there was no telling for sure. As of right now, she
considered him a boomer "I can't really tell, but I think it's best we
pick him off before he causes anymore damage" She aimed her rifle toward
the boomer's head.
"Hey, what are you doin'?" Linna asked, placing her hand on Sylia's
shoulder "How do you know if he's a boomer? We can't just going around
killing boomers unless we know for sure"
"I know, but look at all the damage he and Ranma are creating" she
replied "It's best that we get rid of him before something really bad
happens, like their battle spanning all the way down to the colliseum
where many can get hurt or killed.
She aimed her rifle.
Ranma stopped for a second "Hey, Ryoga, exactly why are we fighting?"
"What do you think?!" he said viciously "Akane died because you
couldn't protect her. You should have been the one that died, not her.
I'm here to avenge her death" He chaged forward toward Ranma, his arm
cocked back, ready to punch a hole through his face "Now, prepare
yourself"
"Waitaminute" Ranma said, holding his hand in front on him, causing
Ryoga to stop dead in his tracks.
"What?!"
"What about you?" Ranma said "How come YOU couldn't protect her? YOU
were there also. How come YOU couldn't stop her from gettin' killed,
huh?"
"I was a pig at that time!" Ryoga said, his obvious resent me now
beginning to show "I couldn't do anything. It was your fault! You're the
one who splashed me with cold water" Tears were now starting to flow
from his eyes. He resented the fact that he couldnt' do anything to save
his beloved Akane, all because he was a pig at the time, all because of
Ranma "I would have saved her if I was in my human form!"
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes, I would have laid down my life for her!!!" Ryoga said.
"And then what?" Ranma said "You AND Akane would have been killed.
Dontcha get it? It wasn't any of out faults. We were caught unprepared.
We never saw those missles coming. Even though the two of us HAD to run
away, there was nothing we could do. We, too, would have been killed if
we stayed behing"
Ryoga was silent for several long moments. As much as he hated to
believe it, Ranma was right. Both of them would had been killed. He
wiped the tears from his eyes.
"I'm glad we survived" Ranma said "That way, we can avenge their
deaths. None of them should have died, not Kasumi, not Nabiki, heck not
even my father should have died, but they did. And they won't rest easy
until we stop the killers that killed them"
"We're cowards!!!" Ryoga said "We should have died along side her!!!
It would have been the honorable thing to do, to die fighting rather
than run away like cowards!!!" Ryoga's arua started growing as his sense
of depression started to devle deeper than it ever had.
"It's not our fault" Ranma said "It's Genom's. They were the one that
created those boomers, and they were the one that didn't do a thing to
stop those boomers when they went beserk all over Nerima. They're the
cause of all of this"
"Genom?" Ryoga said.
"Yeah, Genom is the company that created those boomers that supossedly
went beserk in Nerima" Ranma replied "Even though they denied they had
any involvement in them going beserk, I know, for a fact that they sent
those boomers to Nerima, using it as a testing ground"
Ryoga said nothing. He remembered catching sight of several boomers
right before one of the missles struck the Tendo's home. He had been
knocked unconscious and had trouble remembering anything else after
that. All that he knew was Akane was dead, and someone was going to pay.
And if it was going to be Genom, then so be it.
"That's Genom tower" Ranma said, pointing up toward the thousand meter
high tower that loomed high bove the clouds several miles away from
where they were. Even from the coastline of Japan, Genom tower could be
seen easily.
"If that's the tower, then way aren't you attacking it?!" Ryoga said
"Why dontcha just walk up to the front door and destroy the entire
blasted thing?!"
"I can't" he replied. He really wanted to but he knew that if he did,
the entire world would plunge into financial chaos. And not only that.
Hundreds of innocent people that lived near the site of the blast would
be killed. And for what, some lousy revenge "I can't do that"
"Then I will" Ryoga said, turning twoard toward the looming tower. He
brought both hands in front of of his body, angled toward the center of
Genom Tower. He intended to collapse the building in a single blast. His
aura grew bright red, as he gathered all the depression he had from the
years of living without his beloved Akane.
"No!!!!" Ranma yelled. But it was too late.
"Shi Shi Hokodan!!!"
Ranma, knowing that the blast would kill hundreds, jumped in front of
Ryoga as the ki-blast was shot from his extended hands. The blast that
hit Ranma was so powerful that a huge ring of fire extended from the
impact, like a ripple in a pondm, causing both him and Ryoga to be
consumed. The fire consumed everything in its path.
The impact of the blast had been so powerful that every glass window
within a city block away shatter from the vibrations. The buildings that
stood nearby where the explosion was crumbled to the ground from the
violent shaking, as if an earthquake was taking place. Sylia, Priss, and
Linna were all knocked off their feet as they watched the ripple of
flames expanded away from him.
Sylia was forced to drop her sniper rifle in order to avoid the
destructive blast. She and Linna and Priss used their boosters to hover
backwards to a safe distance. But it was too late as the blast struck
the building ther were on, causing in to collapse. The three girls were
buried under the pile of rubble.
Both Ranma and Ryoga stood at the center of the explosion, both of
them practically charcoaled black from the flames the ki-blast had
produced. The ground surrounding them was also scorched, all except for
the ground directly behind both Ranma and Ryoga.
Ranma and Ryoga were both looking at each other, both of them deathly
silent. Long moments passed, neither of them saying a word.
Ranma then keeled forward and fell to his knees in front of Ryoga,
blood flowing from his lips, creating a small puddle of red by his
knees. He fell forward onto his hands "T-that h-hurt y'know" he managed
to say, blood still trickling from his mouth. He clenched his teeth as
surges of pain consumed every inch of his body. He noticed the hands on
the ground becoming blurry as his vision started to fail him. He was
just moments from unconsciousness.
Ryoga looked down at Ranma, noticing the puddle of blood forming
around his feet. He clenched teeth froim the pain surging through him.
He shuddered, wondering how much worse it could had been if he had
actually used one of his more powerful ki-attack. If he had used that,
they would had wiped out more than half to MegaTokyo.
Ryoga was looking at Ranma in absolute disblief. But soon, the sight
of Ranma started to blur for Ryoga. He, too, keeled over, blood gushing
from his lips. The blast had been too much for the both of them. The
pain was excruciating, too much for any human to endure. His brain was
trying to avoid the brain as his body tried to shut itself down by going
into the deep slumber of unconsiousness.
Ranma and Ryoga lay in a pool of their own blood, both of them unmoving.
"Y-you're right, R-Ranma. T-that did hurt" Ryoga said weakly, right
before passing out
Madigan and Carper were staring at the in disbelief.
"W-what the hell was that?!" the woman said. She had seen the
explosion clearly from the safety of Carper's office, but what scared
the hell out of here was that she felt the entire building shake from
it. The building must had been several miles away from the explosion,
yet she felt it. And it disturbed her terribly. She wondered how
powerful that blast must had been if it was capable of shaking a
building from several miles away.
Carper glanced out the window of his office. He looked down at the
horizon, noticing the ripple of fire spreading outward away from the
site of the explosion. The rippled of flames seemed to be the size of an
entire city block before it abted. Even from several miles away, he
could see the destruction it had caused quite easily.
The smoke on the screen cleared up, revealing a good view of two
individuals facing one another. From an explosion like that, she was
expecting to see the remains of what was left of the superboomer and
that human. That was why she was shocked to see both that human and
superboomer still standing, the only visible sign of damage among them
being some darkly scorched clothes.
"What the fuck?!" she cursed unlady-like. There were no words to
describe her shock. She had never seen something like this before
"They're both standing!!!"
Carper walked away from the window and looked at the screen again. He
didn't know what to say. He felt a sense of fear that humans were
capable of evoking such power, but he also felt awe from the thought
that the same human could survive a blast like that. And not only that,
but the superboomer survived that also.
"Hey, look at that" Carper said, pointing toward the screen. He
noticed the superboomer fall to its knees, its limbs seemingly no longer
functioning.
Madigan and Carper both noticed the superboomer cough up some blood
before it seiced its functioning. The two of them both gasped in relief
as they realized that they no longer had to worry about it anymore, that
it can no longer interfere with Genom's affairs.
Madigan felt this sense of accomplishment at a job well done, even
though she and Carper had nothing to do with getting that Ryoga Hibiki
person to fight that superboomer. Even though the sense of
accomplishment did feel good, she felt a bit disappointed. Someone like
Ryoga Hibiki working for Genom would do the company proud. It was too
bad he was consumed in the blast. But then again, if his death meant the
destruction of that superboomer, it was worth it.
Madigan laughed, glad that the situation with that superboomer had
finally been resolved.
"Well, judging from the fingerprints, it turns out that he is human,
just like Ranma" Nene told the other three girls and Mackie over her
communicator. She was at AD Police Headquarters, having stayed late
after finding out that AD Police had responded to that explosion and
found two people unconscious in the middle of the street. Her department
thought that they had been a innocent bystander to that explosion and
had taken them to the closest hospital for some medical treatment. It
was now several hours since that battle between Ranma and Ryoga.
"The person's identified as a Ryoga Hibiki. Place of residence is
unknown. From what I could dig up on his background in such a short
notice, I found out that he and Ranma used to goto school together. I
assume they were figting each other because of some rivalry between the
two of them or perhaps they were enemies"
"What have you found on the persons named Akane, Kasumi , Nabiki?"
Sylia spoke into the computer. She and Pris and Linna and Mackie were
all sitting in front of the computer screen in Sylia's penthouse. Sylia
and the others had been lucky that Mackie managed to find them before
anyone else could. They had gottne back shortly after having been buried
alive under all that rubble. Sylia remembered hearing the conversation
between Ryoga and Ranma. She remembered hearing those names, and it
might prove to be useful in finding out who Ryoga really was.
Nene smiled. It had taken her quite a lot of effort to search through
all those lists of people either named Kasumi, Nabiki, or Akane, but she
hit the jackpot when she found three people that shared the same
familyname "I found three of people of that same name, and the same
family name. Their familyname was Tendo, and they resided in Nerima. I
think they were the family Ranma was talking about that died during the
'Nerima Massacre'."
"What about Ryoga Hibiki?" Linna said, now speaking toward the
computer screen "What else have you found out about him?"
"Not much" Nene's voice echoed into the livingroom "Most of the data
based on him is unknown. Aside from some minor identifications like his
name and date of birth, there's not much else I can find on him. He's a
mystery as of right now. The only thing I can think of is that Ranma and
Ryoga are enemies. It's either that or Genom somehow found a way to hire
or manipulate him into fighting Ranma. I think it's the former. I think
Ryoga liked this Akane person, and seems to have some great resentment
toward Ranma because Ranma could protect her"
"I think that sound romantic, avenging the death of a person you love"
Linna said, sighing. Why couldn't she meet someone like that?
"Now's not the time to be thinking about something like that, Linna"
Sylia said "We have to find out more about Ryoga. We can't just second
guess this situation" She turned her attention away from Linna and then
back onto the computer screen "Nene, where were they taken, what
hospital?"
"Both were taken to Mizunkan Hospital," Nene said "why?"
"Well, I think we should pay them both a visit, so we could find out
what's going on here" she replied "What rooms are they in?"
"Hold on one second" Nene said. The sound of her typing quickly on her
keyboard could be heard.
"I don't understand" Linna said to Sylia "Why are we going through all
this trouble to find out who this person is?"
"Yeah," Priss addded "It's really none of our business"
"I know that battle between Ranma and this Ryoga person is really none
of our business," Sylia replied "but imagaine what might happen if their
battle happened to make its way down to the collosium. Many could be
killed"
That seemed to make Priss keep quite. Sylia was right.
Nene's shocked voice echoed into the room
"Oh my god!!! They're sharing the same room!!!"
Ranma opened his eyes slowly, not really knowing where he was. He
quickly realized that he was lying in a bed as he sat upright at
surveyed his surroundings. The room was in was filled with advanced
medical equipement, most of the wires from them attached to his body, as
if they were there to observe his condition. He noticed Ryoga lying in a
bed on the other side of the tiny room.
"Yo, Ryoga," Ranma said, wincing a bit from the pain that shot through
him "You all right?"
Ryoga slowly open his eyes, facing the direction the voice came from.
When his eyes rested on Ranma, he quickly sat uptight, only to be seized
by a spasm of pain. Ryoga sat still, waiting for the pain to subside,
allowing Ryoga to survey the tiny room.
"W-where are we?" he said, looking down at himself and noticing that
there were bandages wrapped around his chest. He took a deep breath and
felt a bit of pain, realizing that he must have a few bruised ribs.
"I don't know" Ranma said, looking around. He slowly flipped his legs
around the edge of the bed, the wires attached to his body being pulled
taut, as he hopped off. A bolt of pain shot through him "Man, that
hurts"
Ranma quickly sat back down on the bed and laid back down, not wanting
to really move. He needed some rest, that was all. His body would heal
in no time.
Ryoga chuckeled a bit but the spasm of pain caused him to think
otherwise "Man, what happened?" he said. He looked at his hands and arms
and noticed that they seemed a bit red, like he had suffered from an
extreme sunburn. Upon seeing that, he remebered what had happened. He
remembered seeing Ranma jump in front of his hands as one of his ki-
blasts shot from his hands.
Ryoga opened his mouth to give Ranma a piece of his mind for doing
something like that, but he stopped when he realized there must had been
a good reason. The both of them could had been killed. Surely, Ranma
wouldn't do something that stupid. Not unless there was a good reason "I
hope you have a good reason for what you did"
"Yeah, I did" Ranma said, looking up at the ceiling.
"Well, I'm waiting for an explanation"
"Man, I figured over the years, you would at least had learned to
think before you do something that stupid" Ranma started.
"What did you say?!" Ryoga spat, sitting upright, ready to pummel
Ranma for a comment like that. Even though they were sharing the same
room, it didn't mean he needed to put up with stuff like this. He was
about to get up out of bed but stopped when the fit of pain jolted
trhough him. He realized it was best to just take a rest. He'd pummel
Ranma later, after he healed.
"Do you once think about what would had happened if that blast hit the
building?" Ranma said.
"Yeah, it would've caused some major damage to it" Ryoga said "What's
your point?"
"It would have also killed the hundreds of people that lived around
that building from the falling debris" Ranma answered "I'm pretty sure
you don't want to do something like that"
Ryoga was silent for a moment. Ranma was definitely right. Many would
had died if that blast had struck the building. And that was something
he didn't want to live with. He wasn't a murderer. Well, perhaps he
would kill Ranma for letting Akane die, but he would never take the
lives of innocent people.
When Ranma realized that Ryoga was silent, he shook his head "Ah
what's the use of explaining it. You're to pig-headed to understand
something like that. Right, P-chan?"
"Stop calling me P-chan!!!"
Nene's heart was racing as she sped down the highway on her scooter.
She had never puched her scooter to go this fast before. Sure, Priss
went this fast on a regular basis, but Nene wasn't used to this. The
engine of her scooter sounded like it was going to explode from being
constantly redlined.
She swore to herself, wishing AD Police Headquarters wasn't so close
the the hospital both Ranma and Ryoga were staying. Since it was so
close, she had to be the one to get over there and have the two of them
sperated so there were no chance of them fighting each other again. Yeah
right. Like she would be of any use.
Nene saw the giant hospital off in the distance as she got close and
closer. She was only a mile away from it now. She'd be there in less
than a minute at the speed she was going.
Nene almost fell off her bike going at such a high speed when a huge
blast exploded on the east side of the hospital, the side Ranma and
Ryoga's room were. Her heart dropped as she realized that Ranma and
Ryoga must had already awaken.
She quickly slowed down to a stop, wondering if she should continue
on. Would she be of any use to stopping the fighting between the both of
them? Most likely not. What could she do?
Nene decided it was best she avoid the situation. She jerk the handle
bars toward one direction as the back wheel of her scooter spun. She was
going to get out of there as fast as possible.
A huge explosion occured some distance away from her, bit the impact
was so great she was thrown off her scooter. Nene frightfully looked
back in the direction of the hospital and noticed that the explosions
were getting closer. The first explosion had occured at the hopital. The
second one had occured a about a few hundred feet away, in her
direction.
"I told you to stop calling me P-chan!!!" Ryoga said as he ran down
the street, closely behind Ranma's trail. He sent a massive ki-blast
toward Ranma, intent on hitting him directing in his back, but Ranma
skillfully dodged it.
Ranma began taking great leaps backwards as he stuck out his tongue
"What's up, P-chan, can't take a joke?! Look at you. Your aim's lousy. I
betcha you couldn't even hit the ground" He took those words back when a
ki-blast missed hitting him directly in the face by inches. His hair was
singed from the extreme heat as it whizzed by his head.
"How dare you say something like that?!" Ryoga said, his aura glowing.
He leaped high into the air and landed on the roof of one of the
buildings. From his vantage point, he would have an easier shot. Ranma
also leapt up onto a roof.
When Ranma noticed Ryoga's growing arua, he realized that there might
still be people around, even if it was late "Hey, Ryoga, lighten up. I
was only kidding. You're going to get someone killed if you keep this
up"
Anger had prevented Ryoga from hearing as he let loose another ki-
blast, intent on toppling the entire building Ranma stood upon "Shi Shi
Hokodan!!!"
Ranma leapted into the air, landing safely several hundred feet away,
as the building he once stood on crumpled to the ground in a fiery mess
"Hey, Ryoga, stop it already. Enough's enough. You're going to hurt
someone" He leapt away another several hundred feet as that building was
destroyed.
Nene's heart almost stopped when she caught sight of two shadowy
figures leaping from rooftop to rooftop, the a few building being
destroyed in the process as they were coming directly toward her. He
tried to get on her scooter again, but the shockwaves of the explosions
kept knocking her off.
Ranma caught sight of Nene out of the corner of his eye just as the
building behind him exploded. While he was soaring through the air from
one of his bounds, he realized that the falling debris would bury Nene.
"Eek!!!" Ranma heard Nene say, just as he landed against one of the
walls of another building and kicked away from it, using it to recoil
down toward Nene. He landed quickly and let loose one of his own ki-
blasts.
"Hiyru ShotenHa!!!" he said as he sent a hurrcan spiraling from his
fist, up toward the heavens. The falling debris was absorbed into the
blast and sent flying in different direction, all of them away from
Nene. Unfortunately, Ranma had forgotten that Nene would also be brough
up in his blast.
Ryoga had caught sight of Nene just as Ranma landed on the ground
right near her. He quickly realized what Ranma was trying to save her
with his hurricane blast, but noticed Nene was taken up along with the
falling debris. Already having forgotten his anger toward Ranma, Ryoga
leapt through the air and caught Nene in mid-flight, twisting in mid-air
so his back would absorb the impact of the debris. Once the ki-blast
subsided, Ryoga found himself falling down toward the terra firma. He
reacted easily by twisting once again in mid-air and landing softly on
his feet, Nene safely in his arms.
Ranma gave Ryoga a quick look. It was about time they finally stopped
their bickering. Their fighting could had gotten Nene killed. And it
would had been over something so petty as teasing. They had to stop
going on like this. They had to stop fighting.
"Truce?" Ranma asked "No more fighting?"
"No more fighting"
Nene awoke shortly after having passed out from such a terrifying
experience. She was shocked when she realized she was flying through the
air. She immediately looked down and noticed that she must had been
several hundred eet above the ground, the ground travling passed below
her at intense speeds. Her first reactiong was to scream, but something
stopped her. She felt someone's arms wrapped around her, holding her
gently.
She looked up and noticed that she was in Ranma's arms as he continued
to jump from building rooftop to rooftop, jumpiung from one building to
the next in a single bound. Immediately, her heart leapt into her
throat. And it wasn't the fact that she was flying through the air
hundreds of feet above the ground that was causing it.
"You're awake" Ranma said softly, taking a second to regard the now
conscious Nene. Before Nene could say anything, Ranma's soft voice
whispered into her ears "Hold on tight" His arms embraced her tightly,
so tightly she fould feel his bodyheat radiating into her own body.
She looked down and saw the ground coming up toward her at extremely
high speeds as she realized Ranma had leapt off the building and toward
the ground. Before she could scream, Ranma twisted in mid-air and landed
safely and quietly on the ground.
"You okay?" Ranma said as he released his embrace of Nene.
"W-what happened?" she asked. She remembered seeing debris falling
down on her, and then Ranma landing on the ground in front of her, and
then the next minute, she remembered being sent flying through the air
in Ranma's arms.
"He's what happened" Ryoga's voice could be heard from behind them.
Ranma and Nene turned around and caught sight of Ryoga as he gently
landed behind them, Nene's scooter casually held over one of his
shoulders. It looked like that scooter was as light as a feather to him.
In reality, considering how storng Ryoga had gotten, it did feel as
light as a feather.
Nene looked at Ryoga for a moment, a bit cautious. She knew this was
that Ryoga Hibiki that had been found along with Ranma in the middle of
street after that massive explosion. When she looked at him, aside from
a few bruises, like Ranma, he didn't looke like he had been hurt at all.
"It's your fault" Ranma spat toward Ryoga "You're the one who blew up
the building above her"
"Well, you're the one who was calling me P-chan" Ryoga retorted "And
also-"
"Let's not start this again" Ranma said, shaking his head. He and
Ryoga knew they were both at fault. None of this would had happened if
Ranma had kept his mouth shut, and Ryoga had manged to keep his temper
under control.
Ranma decided it was best to change the subject. He looked down at
Nene "Are you all right?"
"I'm okay" she replied. Her eyes were on Ryoga as he casually walked
up to them, the scooter still slung over his shoulder "Um, isn't that
heavy?"
Ryoga looked at the scooter he was holding and then gave a weak smile
as Ranma shook his head "Um, well, it probably is" Even though he had
grown a lot older, he still wasn't that good with females. He gave a
weak and forced laugh. He threw the scooter off his back and placed it
on the ground.
Nene surveyed her surroundings and realized that they were now
standing directly in front of the hospital Ranma and Ryoga were supposed
to be staying in together.
"I thought you might need some medical help, that's why I brought ya
here" Ranma said "But since it seems that you're all right, I guess we
don't really have anything to worry about...except for that hole" He
jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the hospital.
Nene looked up and noticed a massive hole on one side of the huge
building.
"That was Ryoga's fault I might add" Ranma seemed quick to say. Indeed
it was. If Ryoga hadn't lost his temper and thrown one of his ki-blasts,
there wouldn't be a hole there right now.
"No it wasn't" Ryoga said, his brow creased "If you had taken that ki-
blast like a man, then that hold wouldn't be there"
"That's gotta be the single worst excuse I can think of" Ranma
chuckled. He shrugged his shoulders and proceeded toward the front
entrance "Well, whatever. I'm goin' back to my room, at least what's
left of it.
I don't like stayin' in hospital. I'm gonna go get my stuff so I can
leave. I'll see you later, Nene"
Nene was grateful Ranma's back was turned to her when he had mentioned
her. She had no idea Ranma would remember her, let alone her name. After
they had met after having fought each other and finding out they were
all human, Ranma gave a quick introduction of himself as they did. That
had been quite a while ago.
Ryoga looked at Nene curiously "Do you know Ranma?"
Nene managed to get her blushing under control to look at Ryoga. She
turned her attention toward him and nodded her head "Yeah. Oh, I never
introduced myself. I-I'm Nene Romanova"
Ryoga bowed politely, a bit nervous though "I-I'm Ryoga Hibiki" When
she noticed Ryoga looking at her curiously, she assumed he was wondering
how she and Ranma knew each other "Ranma and I met a short while ago.
It's a long story"
"Oh did he?" Ryoga said, now looking over Nene's shoulder toward the
front doors Ranma entered the hospital through "Well, it was nice
meeting you Nene. I better get going"
Nene watched as Ryoga ran passed her and entered the hospital. But
before the front doors managed to close behind Ryoga after he had passed
them, she managed to hear him say something.
"Ranma, how dare you meet some other girl behind Akane's back!!!"
Syila and the others arrived at the hospital several minutes after
Ranma and Ryoga had gone back in. Nene had been silent as she gazed at
the front entrance. It wasn't until Sylia rested a hand on her shoulder
that caused Nene to stap her back to reality.
"Are you all right?" Sylia asked. She and Priss and Linna were in
their hardsuits, even if the suits were slightly damaged from the
earlier incident where they had been buried under that building. When
Sylia looked at Nene, she noticed her fiery haired friend had this
shocked look in her eyes, like she had seen something that was
impossible.
"They're monsters" Nene commented. That was the best word she could
come up with to describe both Ranma and Ryoga. There was no doubt about
it.
Sylia kept quiet. She knew exactly what Nene meant. She, too, believed
they were monsters, but just not in a bad sense. At least Ranma had no
real evil intentions, intentions no different from hers or Priss'. She
was about to speak up for a moment and ask about all that damage they
had come across on their way to the hospital. She didn't even want to
think about how that huge hole on the side of the hospital came about.
Nene pointed over toward her scooter "Y-you see that scooter over
there? T-that Ryoga guy was carrying it on his shoulder like it weighed
absolutely nothing. A-and that wasn't it!!! Ranma was carrying me as he
jumped from rooftop to rooftop"
"He was?" Linna asked, her voice showing a bit of eagerness "And why
was he doing that?"
"She problaly fainted or something and he thought she was hurt so he
figured it was best to bring her to the hospital" Priss said wryly. Even
though the visor was down over Priss' visage, Nene knew Priss must be
smily wryly also.
Nene looked down at the ground, blushing a bit. Priss' words were
absolutely true. There was no way she could deny it. She could had made
something up, but it was best she not dwell on the subject much longer.
"Where're Ranma and this Ryoga guy now?" Sylia asked, raising her
visor a bit for Nene to see her clearly, but not enough for anyone else
to identify who one of the Knight Sabers were if they happened to be
walking by.
Nene pointed toward the front entrance "They went back into the
hospital. R-Ranma said he went in to get some stuff so he could leave,
and Ryoga followed him inside.
"They what?!" Sylia said, shock in her voice.
At that moment, the front door opened and out emerged a young red-
haired girl, clad in a slightly damp red shit and pblack pants, a dark
backpack slung over one of her shoulders. In one of her hands, there was
a little black piglet that had a black and yellow bandanna.
Sylia quickly flipped her visor down, grateful that Nene was standing
in front of her, blocking the red-haired girl's view of her. Sylia
peered over Nene's shoulder toward the young girl. The girl looked like
she was in her teens.
Ranma-chan looked at Sylia for a moment, totally silent, but
remembering that Sylia and the rest had never seen her in her girl form.
She gave Sylia a innocent smile and a friendly wave "Hiya"
Sylia kept quiet. Her hardsuit scanned the young girl, her little
display screen coming up with gibberish. The young girl must be a
sexaroid, Sylia thought. It was either that, or the fact that her
hardsuit had been damaged and her scanners might be on the fritz. But
she wasn't going to act on those sensors. Even though sexaroids were
illegal, she had no idea if, indeed, this girl was one. It was most
likely, since this girl was very pretty.
Ranma-chan realized what Sylia was trying to do. She knew Sylia was
trying to find out if she was a boomer. She wished she had hidden her
aura, but it was too late now. Actually, there was no way she could hide
her battle aura. She used to be able to back then, but her aura had
grown so strong there was no real way she could keep it concealed.
Ranma-chan held her breath as she walked by Sylia and the others. She
kept her gaze away from the girls, not wanting to make them think she
recognized any of them. Afterall, they had told her to keep it a secret.
He gave Ryoga a quick glance and muttered softly "Don't do a thing. Jus'
keep quiet"
"What a cute looking piglet" Linna said as she noticed the tiny pet
the young girl was holding. She walked up to Ranma-chan "Is he your
pet?"
Ranma-chan looked down at the piglet she was holding before she
muttered "I guess so"
Sylia watched Ranma-chan carefully as Linna continued to give her the
first-degree.
"How old is he?" Linna asked, reaching forward to pet the unconscious
pig. She wondered how nice it would feel if she could touch the piglet
with her own finers, not the fingers of her hardsuit. She looked down at
the bandanna the piglet had over its neck and noticed it looked
familiar. Where had she seen that bandanna before?
"This pig? I dunno" Ranma -chan said "I think a few months"
"What's his name?"
Ranma-chan wondered if it was all right to give away the pig's name.
He figured it was all right "P-chan" Afterall, Nene had never heard her
mention that name before. It was safe. She gave the piglet a forced
stroke to show her supposed affection for her pet. She needed to get out
of her and fast because if she stayed longer, her identity would be soon
revealed "Well, I better get goin' now. It was nice talkin' to ya"
Sylia's eyes narrowed suspiciously. That girl sure had a strange
speech pattern. She watched as Ranma-chan continued to walk away from
them. Since there was nothing she could really do, Sylia figured it was
best to leave the young girl alone. She might be human, afterall.
Ranma sighed as he ate what would be considered a midnight snack, a
pork bun. He and Ryoga were now in their original form, both of them
huddled over a tiny makeshift campfire they had created in the middle of
an empty stone room. The building they were in was abandoned, and since
it was made of nothing but stone, they didn't have to worry about that
campfire they made spreading. It just so happens that it was the same
building Sylia and the girls stayed in while he was fighting those four
prototype boomers, after Ranma had found out they were human. He never
bothered to let Ryoga know about this. Actually, there was no need for
him to tell them.
"So how are we gonna get the money to pay for all those damages we
caused to that hospital?" Ryoga said, taking a large bite into his own
pork bun. He sighed, wishing there was more. But there wasn't. They had
no money, and coming across food was very hard. This was a cold world
and the people didn't seem to be all that eager to give away food to a
cute little red-haired girl.
"I have a somewhat decent idea" Ranma started, finishing off his bun
already "We can try and steal the money from Genom Tower"
"We're not thieves" Ryoga said, shock in his voice "Why would you even
consider something like that?"
"I know it's not much of a plan, but just hear me out for a moment"
Ranma said "First off, I'm dyin' to know what's in that damn building,
but I never really tried because it's heavily guarded. But if we work
together, that would make it much easier. And of course, since that's
the main headquarters for Genom Corporations, they're bound to have some
money stashed around in there. Besides, think of this as a little
payback for all they'd done to us. After that, we could leave and use
all that loot we stole to pay for the damages. We could be like that guy
who always wore `em green tights. Forgot his name. It was Robin
somethin'"
"That idea doesn't sound to bad" Ryoga said, nodding "And while we're
at it, we could blow up the whole place"
Ranma shook his head "Jeez, how many times do I hafta say this. We
can't. Thousands would be killed if the buildin' collapses"
Ryoga kept silent. Ranma was right.
"It's best that we go in there, get the money, and perhaps find out
their dirty secrets so we could expose `em to the world along the way"
Ranma said, getting up and walking over to a broken, but opened, window.
He peered out toward the towering building many miles away that jutted
up into the horizon, so large that it even blocked the view of the
moutains behind it "So, what do ya say?"
Ryoga was silent for several moments "Okay, I'll do it"
"But first, I think it's best we teach each other some techniques"
Ranma and Ryoga were standing in the middle of the abandonned streets.
Rows of buildings dotted the street, extending in both directions toward
the distant horizon. The sky was glowing red from the dawning sun. There
was a slight fog that settled over the abandonned streets.
"I still don't see why we should teach each other, I think the
techniques I know are good enough" Ryoga said, a bit cautious.
"Jus' watch, I'm pretty sure you'll wanna learn this" Ranma said with
a smile, pointing toward a lone building several hundred feet down the
street "Ya see that building over there, I'm gonna disitergrate it. I
mean absolutely, and utterly destroy it. You won't even notice the
remains. Heck, there won't be any remains for several hundred yards
surrounding it. But here's the thing, after I use this, the explosion is
gonna be so powerful, we HAVE to run away before the rings of fire gets
to us. You'll see"
"Hmm, that sounds like quite a technique you have there" Ryoga said.
"Anyway, don't go freakin' out when ya see that blast comin' toward
ya. Run away. If it hits ya, you WILL die. Remember that Shi Shi Hakodan
ya threw that hit me at point blank range? We both survived. This one,
even from several hundred feet away, we will die"
"How would you know we wouldn't survive?" Ryoga said "I mean, we've
been through a lot and came out fine"
"Well, I used this move once" Ranma said "When I was, like you, on a
training trip, I used to travel all over the place. I used it on one of
those Genom buildings that's branched off from Genom Tower. Anyway, I
used this from around twice distance away from that building I jus'
pointed toward. I used it just to test it out. I thought the ripples
wouldn't reach me, but boy, was I wrong. The blast reached me in a few
seconds. Let's just say that it took me several months to heal after I
was caught in the blast"
Ryoga looked bored "Okay, fine. Okay, now show me this super ki-blast
ya mentioned"
Ranma smiled "Get ready for a real show" He faced toward the building
and extended one hand towad the building "I'm only gonna use one
hand.because we won't be able to avoid it if I use two hands"
He started to glow bright blue as he went into deep concentration.
Ryoga watched, his eyes fixed on Ranma as the blue aura grew larger
and larger. He had never seen someone with an aura quite like Ranma's.
He couldn't help but admit to himself that Ranma had grown quiet
formidable over the years.
"Seppuku Mouko Hokodan!!!"
Ranma moaned a bit as he walked down the streets of what used to be
and abandonned town. He hadn't anticipated his ki-blast to be that
powerful. He had been holding back. But then again, he had grown much
stronger than the last time he used that, which was several years ago.
"Man, that sucks" Ranma said "I can't believe I destroyed half the
damn town"
Ryoga was walking along side Ranma "Well, look on the bright side, at
least it was abandonned"
Ranma laughed. He couldn't believe Ryoga was saying that. He was the
last person to look on the bright side. How ironic. Ryoga had always had
a pessamistic personality, always finding the bad in out of a good
situation, and here he was, finding the silver lining in Ranma's dark
cloud.
"Well, I do have to admit. That's one hell of a ki-blast" Ryoga
couldn't help but comment. He had no idea Ranma knew something that
powerful. But it was nice that it was Ranma that knew something like
that, no some moster that would abuse it "How and where'd you learn it?"
"I don't really wanna talk about it" Ranma started "It bothers me to
think of the reason why and how I developed that"
Ryoga looked at Ranma, his eyes somber "Don't worry, I know. Lettme
see, you developed that blast to kill yourself. You were hoping to use
that at ground zero and let the blast consume you, leaving nothing
behind"
"H-how'd you know?" Ranma said in shocked.
"Cause I learned a very similar technique"
That's all I got so far ;)
Questions I need help on my fanfic:
Should Ranma and Ryoga keep the curse? It doesn't seem to fit in with the
story...at least not yet.
Should I pair a couple of the BGC girls with Ranma and Ryoga? I was kinda
thinkin' of Linna with Ranma...why? Dunno...Now, as for Ryoga??? For the
pairings, it doesn't bother me who it is....
How fast does Priss' bike go? Isn't it somethin' like 500kph?
Before you send in your suggestions and comments, please note that I know very
little about the BGC universe...
-OneShot
Jeffrey Keith Wong: jeffwong@li.net
http://www.rit.edu/~jkw7063/fanfic/index.htm
http://www.li.net/~jeffwong/index.htm
The latter site has been updated on Aug 31st.