Dear Listmembers,
I would like to offer these first two chapters (of a 13 chapter) fanfiction
for C&C. I am looking for comments on creative content (plot,
characterization, etc.).
I am by no means an expert on Asian culture or language so I would also
appreciate
suggestions on correcting major faux paux. This two chapter segment is 94
kb. I am not subscribed
to the list so please send C&C
to samr@my-dejanews.com (samr was the name of my first Irish Wolfhound.)
Please do NOT send
e-mail to janne. I am using this e-mail (temporarily) until I can get a
system that will allow me to
send larger packets at one time. If anyone is interested I have posted two
fanfictions on the RAAC.
"Love is a Battlefield" and "Bloodfist" under the name Allyn Yonge.
I would like to thank my three present pre-readers KazamaJun, Thiemo and
Ken Wolfe for their
patience and invaluable assistance. They have made this fanfiction
immeasurably better. Any
omissions and mistakes are entirely mine.
BEGIN CHAPTERS 1 AND 2
The characters of the Ranma � universe are the creation
and possession of the brilliant Rumiko Takahashi. They belong to Rumiko
Takahashi and her licensees (Shogakukan Inc., Kitty-Fuji TV, Viz
Communications Inc.) No copyright infringement is intended.
The characters of Sailor Moon are the creation and possession of the
brilliant Takeuchi Naoko.
They belong to Takeuchi Naoko, Bandai, Toei Animation, DIC, and all others
associated
with rights. No copyright infringement is intended.
[fanfic][sailormoon/ranma] [dark/waffy]Nemesis
Prologue
Technicians and repair crews scurried aside as the tall
blond Senshi stalked down the hallway. At her best
Sailoruranus was not one to cross. At her worst. . .well there
might be more painful fates. The entire universe hadn't yet
been explored.
"Director Ras, how is the project coming?"
The elderly balding director of research bowed respectfully. He
was one of the few people in the Imperium that had no fear of
Sailoruranus. She respected competency, whatever the field,
while he shared the Senshi's fanatic loyalty to the Crown.
"Oh it is coming very well indeed. All support and
control systems have been implanted. There are no signs of
rejection this time. Your suggestion that we tear out the
original lymphatic system and replace it was pure genius."
Sailoruranus waved the compliment aside.
"The fire control system checks out perfectly with the
secondary. . ."
Sailoruranus cut him off.
"And the primary weapon? How long until full power
tests?"
The director frowned.
"That will take some time. I did warn you. . ."
'Show me."
Ras turned to a blank wall and waved a hand over it. The
featureless grey dissolved and was replaced by a scene from
hell. A tiny girl was strapped to an upright cruciform. Clusters
of wires, tubes and cables sprouted from her nude body like
weeds. In front of her face, at eye level, a cluster of tiny colored
hoops and spheres whirled and danced like a swarm of gnats.
To one side and slightly behind her stood two women in the
garb of Senshi. The taller, dark hared senshi monitored a bank
of screens, while the smaller, aqua-haired senshi stood by, idly
tapping a neural whip against her thigh.
"Please. It hurts. Please." The whispered plea seemed to
go unnoticed as the two senshi conferred.
"It will stop hurting when you get it right. Now, put the
spheres through the hoops, without touching the edges." The
aqua-haired senshi pointed to a screen just beyond the swirling
spheres. On the screen a colored alpha numeric series flashed
past in a blur. "The screen gives you your targeting priorities.
Don't miss any, don't get any out of order and it won't hurt."
So saying, she pressed the neural whip between the bound girls
legs and twisted the setting to high. The girl screamed and
arched against her bonds. If human strength sufficed she would
have snapped the battle steel bands like tissue. Human strength
did not suffice.
"Work through the pain." The dark haired senshi
commented. "You're losing focus. You'll never survive
activation if you can't work through the pain."
Sailoruranus looked down at the bound screaming girl.
"What is her progress?"
"Oh, excellent, really excellent. None of our other
subjects have made it this far. You'll notice" Ras pointed to
characters scrolling across the bottom of the window. "that
despite the pain she is accomplishing her task with better than
sixty five percent accuracy. And the pain inflicted by failure
never degrades her performance by more than twelve percent.
At this rate I expect we can have a full power test by the end of
the year."
"Unacceptable." The response was flat and implacable.
"I want a full power test by the end of the week."
"That's impossible. We've cut rest and recovery breaks
to the minimum now and. . ."
"Eliminate them. You can feed her through a tube. Add
stims to keep her awake." She stared down at the director.
"There's a war coming Ras. I know it, you know it. The
Imperium is going to need every weapon to survive. We need
this one, no matter the consequences.
Chapter 1.
Things were going badly for the Sailor Senshi. Venus was
down, bleeding form a score of wounds. Mercury stood over
her friend, trying to buy time for Venus to recover, for the
others to arrive.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody"
The Millennial harp sang as Mercury threw her most
powerful attack at the monster. Again. She was hitting the
thing. She could see the strikes hit home. With as little effect
as Venus's "Love and Beauty Shock". She had to do
something . . .
"Shine Snow Illusion"
The deadly storm blasted the monster to it's knees, or
whatever it used in their place. Mercury had no faith in her
ability to actually stop the monster. Instead she used the
distraction to heave Venus over her shoulders in a fireman's
carry and run. She could hear the monster raking the air with
searching fire. At least the "Shine Snow Illusion" seemed to
confuse it a little. Her "Shabon Spray" and even the "Double
Shabon Spray freezing" hadn't done even that much. Zig-
zagging frantically, Mercury pounded for a low wall. She
threw Venus into the depression behind the wall and tumbled
inelegantly after. There was a snapping sound as she landed. For a moment
she wondered if she'd
left a pencil stuck in her sash again. Then the pain almost blasted the top
of her head off. Biting back
a gasp she dashed tears of pain from her eyes , brought out
her computer and started checking Venus's injuries. She
prayed Minako would be all right. She prayed the monster
wouldn't find them and the others would get there soon. She
prayed for direct divine intervention . . .nothing
fancy, just a few angels with fiery swords and maybe a
Buddha or three when. . .
"The people of Japan work hard all week and deserve
a break on the weekend. For disturbing the peace of this park,
perhaps the only green and unpaved non-neonlighted place in
all Japan--- plus the place where I got my first kiss, a place
where all young lovers can go. . ."
"Will you blast it already!!" A peevish voice came over the wall.
Mercury was having a
really bad day.
". . . to have quality time to. . ." Sailormoon sucked a
few cubic liters of air into oxygen starved lungs.
"But I worked really hard on this speech."
"Just do it!"
"Oh all right. ETERNAL MOO . . .Aaaaaaaa."
"Aaaaa? What's Aaaa?" Mercury cautiously peeped
back over the wall to see Sailormoon frantically dodging and
leaping away from energy blasts.
"OAK"
Jupiter! They were saved.
"EVOLU. . ."
THWAK!!
A blast from the creatures right hand smashed Sailorjupiter
into a wall and unconsciousness.
"Sailormercury! You've got to help Sailormoon."
"Luna, I don't have anything left."
"You've got to. It's your duty to. . ."
"I don't have ANYTHING LEFT!" Mercury half screamed as she frantically
typed commands
into her computer,
searching for a weakness in their foe.
" I can't do a 'Shabon Spray' let alone summon
the 'Harp'." Ami pointed to her leg, twisted under her. "I can't even get
up without help." She
tapped another
command into her computer. "And something is still blanking
the communicators. I can't get a call through to the Outers."
"Mars?"
"I don't know if she heard the first All Call."
Frantically Luna looked over the wall as her princess dogged
and leaped to avoid the creature's attacks, trying to gain
enough time and space to launch her "Eternal Silver Kiss
Attack'. Suddenly Sailormoon turned on her opponent.
"MOOOON FRISBEEEE MAGIC!"
Hope blossomed in Luna's face as the monster staggered
under Sailormoon's oldest but now seldom used attack.
"Ha, Moon dust. . . Eeeep!"
Sailormoon almost avoided the creature's return shot. The
near miss spun her around and slammed her into a tree.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!! Usagi!!"
Terror and despair broke down barriers in Luna's mind that
had existed since her long cryogenic sleep. The crescent moon
sigil on her forehead flared and a call that had not been heard
in ten times ten thousand years went out. For the first time
since the fall of the Silver Millennium the Imperial Rally
summoned the Blood Guard to defend the Royal Family.
"Luna! Look!"
At Sailormercury's cry, Luna looked up in time to see the
monster blasted back, away from the fallen Sailormoon.. Luna
and Sailormercury watched in amazement as a figure
wreathed in flame charged the fallen monster. Luna groaned
in despair as the monster fired a blast that caught their
rescuer squarely in the chest. To the astonishment of Luna
and Sailormercury the onrushing figure charged through the
weapons blast as if it didn't exist. Closing with the monster, the
figure smashed it with what appeared to be an axe
or war-hammer. The monster went down, stunned for an
instant, then lurched to it's feet and soon the two were locked
in a furious battle. The action was too close and too fast for
Sailormercury to make out any detail. She brought her visor
on-line and started feeding data directly into her computer.
With the naked eye the battle was incredible. Viewed through
her visor it was impossible. As Sailormercury watched, the
monster threw a flurry of short savage blows at its opponent.
Sailormercury suddenly realized that the monster was trying
to gain some distance in order to employ it's energy weapon
without destroying itself as well as it's target. This was
equally obvious to its opponent, who refused to allow it a
millimeter's space as it clung grimly to the monster..
Sailormercury was puzzled by their rescuer's defensive
posture. No matter how tough it was, the monster's blows
would eventually kill or disable it. And in this kind of battle a
cripple was only someone waiting to die. Suddenly she
noticed an anomalous reading coming from the mysterious
figure. The power readings seemed wrong. She tapped a few
keys. Startled at the result, she brought new sensors on-line
and added new commands. The mercury-computer thought
for a few moments then chirruped a reply. Sailormercury
stared at the result. Her head whipped up to stare at the
monster and the figure. The GLOWING figure. Her head
dropped back down to the computer screen to see. . .
" oh dear "
God was knocking on the door, and he wanted in very badly.
Sailormercury dragged herself back to consciousness.
Sucking in a deep breath, she immediately choked on the
layer of dirt covering her face. Brushing her face clear, she
looked groggily around to see Sailorvenus, still lying
unconscious and remarkably free of dirt and debris. Propping
herself shakily on one elbow she scanned the rubble filled
depression until she saw
"Luna!"
Sailormercury rolled over, grabbed the black tip that just
protruded above the gravel and trash and heaved.
"Ackkk, phhttt, bleah." Luna shook herself and
staggered a bit as she turned to face Sailormercury.. What
happened? Where's the monster? Where's . . . USAGI!
Where's Usagi?" Luna started to scramble to the top of the
wall when Sailormercury grabbed her by the scruff and
yanked her back down.
"Don't you mean where's Sailormoon?" Sailormercury hissed.
"Keep your head down till I can check things out."
Sailormercury brought her visor back on-line. Then in a
move that surprised Luna, Mercury removed the visor and
cautiously stuck it above the wall, all the while looking at her
computer screen.
"Well, what do you see?"
"Do you have any Windex?" Sailormercury's voice
was strained.
"What! What!" Luna sounded frazzled. "What do
you mean? What do you need Windex for?"
"Because that's what you use to clean glass."
Luna popped her head over the wall before Sailormercury
could stop her. The monster had been replaced with a six
meter crater of vitrified rock and fused sand that was still
glowing white hot.
"Usa. . . Uh I mean . . .Sailormoon. Where is she!?"
"Over there Luna." Luna followed Mercury's
pointing finger to see Sailormoon still sprawled on the
ground. The tree that had rendered her unconscious had also
sheltered her from the worst of the blast and debris.
"Thank the Goddess she's all right."
"Venus and Jupiter are going to be fine as well.
Thanks for asking."
Luna just nodded absently at Sailormercury's sarcasm,
leaped over the wall and sprinted toward her princess.
"Wait. . . never mind." Mercury muttered and
continued her scan. "Now where is the other. . .Ah ha. There
it is." Mercury changed filters on her scanner and zoomed in
on their mysterious savior. It appeared to have sustained
major damage, both from the monster's attack and its own
weapon, whatever that had been. Still the monster was
dead . . .Mercury glanced at the crater. Beyond dead. And they
were alive. That counted as a victory in anyone's book She looked back at
her computer. Their
savior was in trouble . . .
power levels were fluctuating badly, and it seemed to be
leaking a viscous black fluid that sizzled and popped where it
spattered thickly on the ground. Sailormercury shuddered as
she got her first clear look at the thing. It was twisted and
bent. Its flesh and features seemed to melt and reform as she
watched, like wax in a flame. Still, it had helped them. They
should try to help it. If for no other reason than that Usagi
would want them to help. She couldn't move but . . .
"Venus. Sailorvenus get up."No response.
"Sailor V, there's danger!" Nothing.
"LOOK! An Idol talent scout."
"What! Where? I've got my portfolio righ. . . Oh, it's
you? What's up?"
"Not much. Monster attacked. Trashed you, me,
Jupiter. Was about to kill Sailormoon when THAT"
Sailormercury pointed over the wall at the figure, standing
amidst the devastation. "showed up, killed the monster and
saved us all. It's hurt. Maybe dying. I can't walk." Mercury
indicated her leg.
"It's broken or dislocated at the least. My senshi form
can control the pain but healing it is going to take a while.
Luna is with Sailormoon, and my scans show that she's not
badly hurt. I need you to check on Jupiter. Then I'd like the
two of you to see about Sailormoon and our new friend."
"Friend? That!" Venus could see the figure clearly
now and her stomach clenched in revulsion.
"Friend!" Mercury repeated firmly, though she
sympathized with Sailorvenus's reaction.
"But . . .that thing is so . . .so . . ." Venus made a face and
shuddered in revulsion.
"We would be dead if not for that 'THING''." Mercury replied sharply.
"And until and unless we
find otherwise, a friend.
Now . . .would you please go check on Jupiter?"
Venus grinned and hopped over the wall headed toward
Sailorjupiter's prone form while Mercury turned her scanner on her own
injuries.
"Come on Sailorjupiter, wake up." Venus ran her hand
over Jupiter's prone form with a gentle expertise that would
have surprised anyone not familiar with her days as Sailor V.
Sailorjupiter moaned and stirred groggily.
"Ha, I knew your head was too hard to crack."
"Oww! Watch what you're doing."
"As soon as you're through complaining we need to
check on Sailormoon and then our new friend."
"Friend?" Jupiter followed Venus's pointing finger.
"Ewwww!!!"
"Never mind that. Can you stand?" At Jupiter's nod,
Venus helped Jupiter to her feet and the two bent, but unbowed
Senshi headed toward their princess. As they passed by, their
new "friend" suddenly seemed to notice them.
"Seensssshhhii." The word was distorted almost
beyond recognition, rising and falling like the cry of a lost
soul.
"Seeennnssshhhiiiii." The figure stalked them, its body
wreathed in flickering flame like the fires of hell.
"Uh oh."
"Uh oh! Is that all you can say?"
"'Run away' comes to mind, but we can't leave Sailormoon.
VENUS . . .LOVE AND BEAUTY SHOCK!"
Venus watched in dismay as her attack hit the figure with all
the effect of a lightning bug striking a main battle tank.
"OAK EVOLUTION!"
"Good one Jupiter. I think you made it mad."
"As opposed to it's former good nature!"
At Jupiter's strike, the figure produced a weapon, which
appeared to combine the features of a naginata mated with a
war-hammer, as designed by Salvador Dali and fed growth
hormones. It was big, sharp, nasty and kept melting and
reforming. Just like its master.
Jupiter and Venus readied their attacks, hoping a combined
strike might stop it. Or at least slow it long enough for Usagi
to escape.
"Stop!. . . Stop fighting."
"Usagi, what are you doing?" Luna's anguished cry
wrenched Venus's and Jupiter's attention from the creature.
They watched in horror as their leader, their princess , their
friend and reason for living limped forward and placed herself between
them and their antagonist.
"It's all right. You don't have to be afraid." Sailormoon's voice was
low and soothing.
"IT doesn't have to be afraid!" Jupiter whispered
harshly. "Personally I've always thought a little fear was a healthy thing"
Out of the corner of her
eye Venus
could see Mercury dragging herself along the ground, grimly
determined to defend her princess.
Usagi ignored the commotion behind her, concentrating on the
lurching, shambling figure in front of her.
"I'm not going to hurt you. You saved me. You saved
all of us. You don't have to be afraid." Talking soothingly, as
if to a wounded animal, Usagi slowly walked closer and
closer. As she did so she released her transformation and
reverted from Sailormoon to schoolgirl. The shocked hiss from
her Senshi was nothing to the creature's reaction. It backed
away from Usagi as if she were the devil incarnate.
"Seerrrriiiinnnnnniiiittttttyyyy!"
Usagi stopped, shocked to hear that name no matter how
distorted, issue from the creature.
"Ssssseeerrrrrrinnnniittyyyyyy!
Mmmaaajjjjiiissssttttyyyyy!"
The creature took a step toward Usagi, then another and
another. A fiery hand reached for Usagi. Behind her, Venus
cursed and tried to maneuver for a shot.
"Ppprrrrinnnceesss? Ppprrrrriiiiinnnnceesssss!"
The hand jerked back and the creature spun in a circle,
scanning its surroundings. Then it looked up to see a full
moon, hanging just above the horizon. It froze for a moment,
staring at the huge, cratered surface.
"NOOOOOOOOO!!"
With an awful cry, the creature leaped away and quickly
disappeared from sight.
Usagi stood staring after the creature, tears cutting
tracks in her dusty cheeks.
"Usagi" Venus discarded concern for secret identities
in her concern for her friend. "Are you all right? Did it hurt
you?"
"Oh Minna-P" Usagi turned a grief stricken face to her
friend. "She's so sad and lost. So very alone." And to Venus's
dismay Usagi burst into tears.
Several seconds and almost as many kilometers away a flame shrouded figure
dropped to it's knees
in the deserted corner of a night shadowed park. The flaming corona
brightened momentarily, then
vanished with a sharp crack to reveal a shaking form in a torn and bloody
school uniform. A
trembling hand went to a tear that ripped through cloth and flesh and came
away smeared with
blood. The shadowed figure lurched forward suddenly to land on all fours
spewing bile and blood in
a wrenching convulsion.
"Who are you?"
The whispered question came hoarsely past vomit slimed lips.
"Who are you . . .what do you want?"
##Sta'nat nat o' la tres naz. Sta'nat!##
The figure rolled back up to its feet and staggered out of the shadows.
Star light and neon gleamed
softly off a cap of blue-black hair.
##Sta'nat! L'n trnn om'qin sar ivnrrl . . .##
"SHUT UP. I don't understand. Just shut up. Leave me alone. Please . . ."
Her mama and papa were laughing together and looking at each
other with love in
their eyes . . . as the earth rose up and smashed them . . . she was
screaming . . .
##Sta'nat. L'n trnn . . .##
. . .a deliciously cool breeze ruffled the puffed sleeves of her gown as
she walked in the gardens with
her friends. The center of her universe . . .a small girl with hair so
blond it was almost silver turned
speaking laughingly to her. Overhead she could see the full earth hanging
like a blue . . .
##NTR'LANZ! STA'NAT . . .##
. . .HATE . . .so much hate that she was sick with it. Her lips drew back
from her teeth and she
lunged, snapping like a rabid wolf . . .
"NO! STOP IT, STOPITSTOPITSTOPSTOP . . ."
Gasping like a trapped animal the figure whirled and spun . . .slashing and
kicking at phantasms
that rose and melted . . . and rose again.
"GO AWAY!! YOU'RE NOT REAL. YOU'RE . . .NOT . . ."
Shadows . . .blacker than old sin, crawling through the ruins of paradise ,
eating the light like
maggots in the belly of god . . .
"NOOOOOO! DAMMMMNN YOU!!"
A corona of light flared, dimmed then flared again. A pulse of energy
blasted into the heavens
ripping the sky . . .and barriers fell . . .and connections were made.
## . . .amage. Autonomous Defense Mode engaged. Command Input
required. Passive
scanners working. Active scanners on stage one standby. Initiating
All-System repair. Stealth. . .##
The figure sank to the ground, blood mingling with tears that had waited a
hundred thousand years
to be shed.
"Oh Akane. You missed dinner. I wish you would call
if you are going to be late. I put a plate in the refrigerator, but
it's never as good reheated."
"That's all right Kasumi. I'm not very hungry."
"You're limping! Did you have an accident?
Should I call Dr. Tofu?"
"I'm fine Oneesama. Just a little tired. I think I'll just
go to bed."
"If you're sure." Worry was evident in the elder
Tendou sister's voice.
"I just need to lie down. But thanks for asking."
In her room, the youngest Tendou peeled off her blouse.
Impassively, she examined the massive bruising on her side.
Turning, she looked at her back in the mirror. There too was
bruising and a large gash running from her right shoulder
down and across to her left hip. As she watched, the edges
closed, leaving a red lump of tissue. Even that would be gone
in a few hours
. ##Regeneration in progress. Energy levels at
37%."##
She ignored the voice whispering in her head..
##Primary systems on line at 65%. Secondary systems coming
up. Primary weapon recycling.##
Akane moved to her closet and took out her favorite yellow pajamas.
##Sensor sweep shows no hostiles within engagement range.##
The pajama jacket slithered over head with a cool silky feeling. ##Unknown
targets detected. No
weapon signatures detected. Targeting priorities assigned according to
estimated threat level.##
Akane slipped the pajama trousers over her legs. As she did, pictures and
numbers seemed to scroll
across her mind's eye. There
was a brief flicker.
##Input accepted. All targets re-classified as
friend. Defense priority Phoenix, second only to the Princess.
Self repair progressing. Estimated time to complete.. . .##
Akane swung out of her window and up onto the roof with a
grace and agility that would have flummoxed her fianc�.
## . . .owering down main system while repair underway. Active
sensors to standby. Passive sensors set to sentry mode.##
Akane let the voice whisper on. She settled on the roof and
looked at the moon hanging above her head. The rough,
pocked features leaped into sharp focus that was not unusual
for an observatory telescope but was quite unusual for the
unaided human eye. The night passed quietly, except for the
whirr and chitter of insects and the silent voice whispering in
her head as Tendou Akane sat looking up at her dead world.
Chapter 2.
Ami settled comfortably in the nest of cushions Makoto had
made for her. She stretched her injured leg out and sighed in
relief. It had been dislocated AND broken. And even with a
senshi's powers a green stick fracture took time to heal. And it
all hurt. A lot.
"USAAAAAGI."
Ami winced at Rei's shrill tone. She turned to see the senshi of
fire looming over Usagi.
"MY MANGA!" Rei snatched the magazine out of
Usagi's hand. "We're supposed to be having a meeting. It's
not for you to stuff your face and read manga. You're going to
sit here and pay attention for once." Rei dropped down beside
Usagi with an air of permanence.
"And not a word out of you!" She cut Usagi off as she
started to speak. "BE QUIET!. Sit. Listen. LEARN!"
Ami stifled a chuckle. Rei had been wild when she'd found out
about the attack and Usagi's injuries. She hadn't let Usagi out
of her site since then. She was sleeping over at Usagi's house
and even following her into the toilet at school Ami had no
idea how she had arranged to be at their school, but had no
doubt Rei was going to be a permanent fixture until the crisis
has passed.
"I know a few things about what happened, not much,
but a little."
Rei and Usagi stopped their fighting and swivelled to face Ami.
Minako and Makoto joined the semi-circle facing Ami.
"I'll divide this into two parts. First, our new enemy.
I'll call him a cyborg, though neither term is quite correct."
"Cyborg?"
"You know Makoto ,a robot, like Ultra Man."
"Not quite Usagi. Cyborg means cybernetic organism,
a melding of animal and machine. Although in this case, the
machine isn't like anything I've ever seen. And the animal,
well it's definitely not terrestrial."
"Well that's a relief."
Everyone stared at Usagi .
"Well I'm tired of fighting all these terrible things. It'll
be nice to have something that's not terrible."
Rei jerked Usagi's head around.
"That's terrestrial. Terr-es-trial. NOT Terr-able. Don't
you know anything You're going to get killed . . ."
Usagi pushed her face close to the enraged fire senshi until
there noses touched.
"GOT-TCH-A"
Rei stared, frozen, at the laughing moon princess. Then with a
howl of rage she launched herself at Usagi knocking her to the
floor. She began screaming and shaking Usagi.
"You idiot. You stupid, stupid, useless, clumsy. . ."
Rei was sobbing uncontrollably "You could have got yourself
killed, you could have died. Stupid, stupid girl. You could
have died. . ."
Usagi grabbed Rei in bear hug and started rocking her back
and forth.
"I'm OK Rei. I'm OK. Go ahead and cry. It's all right.
Every thing is OK." She continued to cradle Rei in her arms,
stroking her back ,murmuring soothingly to her until her tears
abated.
"Feel better now? Here blow." She handed Rei a
tissue.
Rei looked up shamefaced.
"I'm sorry I . . ."
"It's all right Rei. Believe me, no one wishes you had
been there more than we do."
"That's right." Makoto added. "It was just luck I was
close enough to get the all call before the communicatory went
out." She turned to Ami. "How did that happen anyway?"
"Perhaps I should start over. The new enemy seems to
be a cyborg, of alien origin. It's covered in some kind of
composite armor that's very tough."
Minako and Makoto nodded in unconscious agreement.
"Unfortunately the armor also kept me from getting
very good sensor readings. And I didn't manage to get a
sample to analyze." She turned slightly toward Minako. "You
saved all our lives yesterday."
"I did? I did! Well of course I did." Minako struck a
pose . "For am I not the agent of love and beauty, called by
the goddess. . .uh how did I save every one?"
Ami grinned at Minako's infectious exuberance, then sobered.
"Your first attack damaged this." Ami brought up a
schematic of their attacker on her computer. Everyone
crowded around to see. "This 'gun' for lack of a better word,
warps space."
Everyone stared at Ami.
"I don't know how, but this 'gun' can warp space, basically
twisting anything it hit out of our space and into another..
It will destroy anything it hits and it will hit anything it can
see, within certain limits."
"Which are?" Minako was suddenly very serious. Ami
suspected she was seeing Sailor V, rather than Sailorvenus.
"First, it takes a lot of power. I think this is a single
shot weapon. No more than two, unless it's got a power supply
that I couldn't scan. Which is possible. Secondly, it may be
possible to develop a counter generator that will dampen it's
power. But for that I'll need an intact weapon to examine.
Even with an example developing a defense will take time if
it's possible at all. And finally, it seems to be very short
ranged.. This may be a design limitation of the weapon or it
may be a safety feature. In any event, coupled with everything
else it gives the weapon a maximum range, in atmosphere, of
less than fifty to one hundred meters."At the looks of relief on
the other's faces she added a stern warning. "You must
understand, within these limits this weapon is unbeatable.
There is nothing that will protect you. It will cut a battleship in
two as easily as you'd cut a stick of butter with a hot knife."
Seeing that her teammates were properly chastened she
continued.
"These 'cyborg's' are very strong and fast. In senshi form
we are faster, marginally. I think it's stronger, but not as
maneuverable as we are. It's got another weapon. What's
known in science fiction as a 'Blaster'."
"What's that?"
"A controlled discharge of very high energy . . ."
"You mean it shoots lightning bolts."
Ami stared at Usgi who gave her a gamine grin.
"Hey, I'm not as stupid as you think I am"
"No one could be"
Usagi nodded happily, then whipped around.
"Hey, pyro. What's that crack supposed to mean?"
Ami gently cleared her throat. The bickering stopped instantly.
"I've evolved some tentative tactics to deal with this
enemy." She pulled some papers out of her bag and passed
them around."This is a schematic of the thing. I've outlined
the weak points in red, with text describing which attack
should be most effective. Obviously first priority in an attack
must be the warp gun. As long at that gun is intact we're
at a great disadvantage. The tactics I've evolved depend on
teamwork, our superior maneuverability and sniping at it
beyond the weapons maximum range." She paused and fixed
everyone with a very un-Ami like glare. "NO ONE is to fight
one of these things alone. Wait until we are all together. If
there's more than one of them, we have to separate them and
hit them five against one." She waited a moment to be sure
everyone understood.
"Now for our second visitor. It seems. . ."
"She."
"What?"
"She. You said it. It's a she. I mean she's the it. "
Usagi foundered a moment. "I mean" Usagi enunciated
carefully "that she is a she. A girl. Not an it." At the looks
from the others she went on defensively. "Hey, I talked to her.
And she's real sad about something."
"Maybe 'cause she didn't get to fry us." Makoto
muttered sotto voice. Not sotto enough as Usagi glared at her.
Makoto shrugged apologetically and turned her attention
back to Ami.
"I couldn't get very good readings. And a lot of the
ones I did get don't make much sense. To start with it . ." she
paused as Usagi gave her a hurt look. "To start with SHE
seems to be in a higher energy state." At the blank looks
elaborated. "All of her electrons appear to have been kicked
up to the next shell." The looks slipped from blank to vacant.
"Essentially she is in a gaseous state, a living plasma.
Vacant became vacuous.
"A flame. She's a living flame, alright!"
"Jeeez. Get a grip Ami."
"Sorry." Ami flushed in embarrassment at her
uncharacteristic loss of temper.
"I have no idea how she maintains stability. I mean, a
plasma isn't normally stable like that. Not to mention I have
even less idea how she stays alive. Of course you need to
know that it was almost impossible to get any readings
through the . . .'energy field', so this might all be completely
wrong." Ami paused to gather her thoughts. "The only things I
can be sure of are effects, even if I'm not sure of the cause. For
instance she seems to be almost completely invulnerable to
energy weapons. The creatures blaster and Venus's 'Love and
Beauty Shock' had only minimal effect. Direct physical
attacks have slightly more effect, but she is incredibly resistant
to even those. She seems to have three weapons. Some sort of
missile weapon that fires slugs of extraordinary dense matter
very fast."
"Uh, how dense, and how fast?"
Ami looked embarrassed at Minako's question.
"I'm not sure. My computer doesn't seem to be able to
deal with velocities that high."
"It's not your fault Ami. Don't worry about it. I think
you're doing great. None of us would have the slightest idea
what to do."
Ami smiled gratefully at Usagi
"She has an energy weapon. I think it's" her voice
dropped to a whisper "a graser." At the half expected blank
looks she opened her mouth to explain.
"That's a . . ."
"A gamma ray laser. Cool."
Jaws kissed tatami all around the room.
"Usagi." Ami said faintly "How do you know. . ."
"Oh, I love science fiction. I got sort of interested from
some of the video games." She smiled brightly at the
dumfounded faces.
"Uh, yes. Well as Usagi says, a gamma ray laser.
VERY powerful. Much longer ranged that the warp gun
and probably able to fire more often. I can't be sure because I
couldn't get a good reading on the power supply. And lastly,
the final defense is some sort of variable geometry impact
weapon. That is, it seems to be able to change shape. I have
pictures of what look like a staff, a hammer, an axe and
transitional forms as it shifted from one shape to the next."
"Any thing else? I mean it seemed to recognize us?"
"What! You didn't tell me that Minako!"
"Sorry Rei, things were a little confused when we met you
after the fight."
Ami typed a few commands into her computer.
"All right, here's the video and audio from the crea. . .
from her."
All the senhsi fell silent and listened to the weirdly distorted
voice.
"I've run it through several filters, just to make sure.
It's definitely a voice. She recognizes Venus and Jupiter as
senshi. At first she seems to think Usagi is Queen Serenity,
then seems to recognize her as Princess Serenity. Here" Ami
pointed to the screen "she seems surprised by something, turns
around almost three hundred sixty degrees. Looks up. Sees the
moon. And here she runs off. I don't know what kind of
shielding she uses but she disappeared off my sensors even
before she was out of visual range."
Minako stared down at her folded hands for a moment.
"All right Ami, what do you think all this means?"
Ami looked distressed.
"Minako, I don't have enough information to . . ."
"Give me your best guess Ami."
Ami was not fond of guessing but for Minako. . .
"Well, we've defiantly got a new enemy. Intentions,
unknown. Capabilities, very powerful. But with only one
sample there's no way to know it total abilities. I can only tell
you that it's unlikely that we've seen the worst they can do."
Ami took a deep breath.
"As for. . . the other. . . I don't know. She saved our
lives. If she hadn't come when she did we'd all be dead. But
she didn't seem to happy to see that we were senshi. And I
don't know what to make of her reaction to Usagi, or Serenity
rather." Ami looked down at her computer as if for inspiration
then back up. "I wish I knew what to tell you. Until we know
more we've got to classify her as a new enemy with
unknown . . ."
"No."
The single word, silk soft , unrelenting as a drawn katana
froze the assembled senshi.
"No." Usagi repeated firmly. " She's not an enemy. She's
hurt, angry, afraid. But she's not an enemy."
"Usagi" Makoto turned pleading eyes to her princess
and friend "I know you want . . ."
"She's our friend."
Makoto looked despairingly into Usagi's calm implacable
eyes.
"Hai, Usagi. She's our friend."
Usagi swept the rest of her senshi with her eyes, holding each
with her gaze 'till they nodded in agreement. Rei was last.
"Usagi, this is crazy! Luna would never. . ."
"Luna's not here. She and Artemis are out trying to
find our new enemy. Enemy" Usagi emphasized the singular
word.
"Not enemies. This girl is our friend. And I'm sure that if I can
just find her, talk to her, maybe alone so she's not afra. . ."
"You are NOT going anywhere alone." Rei grabbed
Usagi by the shoulders and twisted her around. "You are not
playing video games, you are not going to the mall and you
are NOT going out to make new 'friends'."
"But Rei . . ."
"But NOTHING!" Rei thundered. "If you even look
like you're THINKING of going off to find this 'friend' I'm
going to paddle your little princess butt until you can't sit
down
for a month. Do you understand THAT!!"
"Yes Rei." Usagi agreed meekly.
Rei nodded satisfied. She would have been much less pleased
had she seen Usagi's crossed fingers behind her back.
******************************************************
*
"Kohanasan, please recite the attributes of the
Dragon."
The young man in question rose and cleared his throat before
begining.
"When the Dragon tries to ride the clouds and come
into heaven there happens immediately a furious storm. It has
the eyes of a tiger and the horns of a deer and the body of a
crocodile and the claws of an eagle and two trunks like the
trunk of an elephant. It has also a moral: We should try to be
like the Dragon, and find out and adopt all the good qualities
of others." Kohan bowed jerkily to the teacher and sat down.
"Very good, Kohansan." The teacher beamed at the
student his eyes searching the class until they settled on . . .
"Tendousan, would you please recite the virtues of the
Moon."
Akane looked blankly at the Sensei a slight tic forming over
her right eye.
"Tendosan." The Sensei repeated. "Would you recite
the virtues of the Moon please."
For a moment Akane sat, unmoving and unblinking her
attention seemingly turned inward. Then, suddenly, she
seemed to become aware of the teacher and bolted upright.
"Hai, Sensei. I can!" She paused, flustered and spoke
again in a very different voice. "Ummm. What was the
question?"
Sensei silenced the tittering class with a stern look, then turned
a disapproving frown on Tendou Akane.
"Tendousan, if you can not pay attention in class,
perhaps you shouldn't BE in class. Perhaps you would prefer
to stand in the hall . . .holding a bucket of water?"
"Yes Sensei . . . I mean no Sensei . . .I'm very sorry."
Akane looked miserably down at her feet, flushing at the
renewed tittering of her class mates. So miserable was she that
she didn't notice when the mirth stopped, like a dog run over
by a train. Nor did she notice the blazing look from Ranma
that effected this sudden influx of manners.
"If you would Tendousan . . .please recite the virtues
of the Moon."
"The Moon appears melancholy to those who are sad,
and joyous to those who are happy." As she spoke Akane
swayed a bit and put out a hand to steady herself.
"The Moon makes memories to those who travel, and
creates homesickness." Akane stared blindly ahead, a slight
tremor shaking her body, as if from some "suppressed
emotion. "When the Emperor Godaigo, exiled by the
traitor Hojou, beheld the moonlight on the seashore, he cried
out, 'The Moon is heartless.' . . .But she's not heartless. She's
not." This whispered protest was low and shocking in it's
intensity. Sensei started to reprimand Akane for departing
from the established list of virtues, then stopped as Akane
continued on.
"Our hearts ought to be . . ."Tears were streaming
down her cheeks and her voice was choked.
"Our hearts ought to be pure and . . .and calm . . . like
Seren . . .like the light of the Moon. The light of the Moon
shines alike upon foul and pure, upon . . .upon high and low."
By ones and twos the rest of the class started crying as well . .
.not knowing why.
"That beautiful Lamp is neither yours nor mine, but
everybody's. When we look at the Moon, we should
remember that its waxing and its waning are the signs . . .are
the signs that the culmination of all things is likewise the
beginning of their . . . .of their . . .end"
Akane dropped into her seat sobbing.
"I'm sorry . . .I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
******************************************************
*
"I'm fine Ranma. So just stop following me around."
The object of Akane's ire was perched nonchalantly atop the
dugout roof.
"Hey, who says I'd WANT to follow an uncute chick
like you. I got to take PE class too, ya know." Ranma stated
righteously .
"Since when have YOU ever . . ."
It was perhaps just as well that Akane's furious rejoinder was
interrupted by the Coach.
"Attention, please. Because of illness, injuries and
other factors the boys base-ball team will be unable to field
two full teams for the next few weeks. In order that they not
miss practice it has been decided to fill those missing positions
with the best members of the girls soft-ball team."
There were excited shrieks from the girls and disgusted moans
from some of the boys.
"Will the following girls please report to the base-ball
field as I call your names." The coach started to read names
from a list. As he did so there were sullen mutters from the
boys team.
"Man. This sucks." This came from a tall, thin boy
with hair that gleamed wetly with styling gel.
"Hey, wassa matter Tomo." Tai leered at the girls as
they trotted off to suit up. "Don' you LIKE girls." Tai winked
slyly. "Maybe Tomoi likes . . ." Tai made a rude hand gesture
that indicated a boy who . . .was different.
"I like girls all right." Tomo retorted hotly. ". I just
don't want 'em messing up practice. We've got a good chance
at the championship this year . . .we need REAL practice. Not
playing with girls."
"Yeah . . .but I wouldn't mind playing with some of
that!" Tai jerked a thumb at the girls who were running,
giggling, out onto the field.
"Ahhh Mannn." Tomo was really disgusted now.
"They're wearin' SHORTS. How the hell 'r they gonna'
SLIDE in shorts."
"Girls don' slide play'n softball." Instructed one of his
sage comrades.
"Whooo!" Tai wolf-whistled. "Well they can play soft-
ball with ME any time. Would you look at that." He pointed
at the gaggle of girls swinging back in forth in warm up
exercises. Each time they twisted, white shirts rose up,
revealing a tantalizing band of bare girl flesh.
"Especially that Tendou chick. Ya know I hear she's
really hot. I heard that she's done it with the entire Kendo
team."
"Ahhh man. That's stupid. She doesn't like boys." A
boy named Kieko leaned in close to whisper confidently. "She
only likes girls. I heard my brother and some friends
talking . . ."
"Bull." Tai retorted. "She like's boys alright. Hell,
she's always with some boy . . .or bein' 'kidnapped'" Tai
leered suggestively. "That Ryouga guy's always hanging
around and she's got Ranma livin' with her an' . . ."
"But he's her fianc�." One of the other boys protested.
"Fianc�!" Tai laughed. "Is that what you call it. I say
she just a little nanpa who'll give it away to any . . ."
A cold shadow fell across Tai and he looked around to see
Satoume Ranma standing behind him holding a bat in his
hands.
"Do you know how many bones there are in the
human body?" Ranma asked conversationally.
"Three hundred fifteen. I had to learn all of 'em."
Ranma straight armed the bat, holding it between the thumb
and forefinger of each hand.
"An' how to break." Tai flinched as the bat snapped
with an explosive crack.
"Each . . ."
Ranma slid the broken halves, one over the other. Another
explosive crack, and he held four pieced of wood.
"And every. . ."
BANG!.
Ranma held eight splintered pieces of bat, and Tai fell heavily
to the ground as his legs gave way. Numbly he stared up as
Ranma loomed over him and crumbled the shattered wood
into dust that dribbled over Tai like a pelting rain.
"You don't look so good. I think you should go home.
An' stay there 'till whatever problem you have . . .is gone."
Ranma swept the rest of the boys with a look that seemed
mild, until you looked into his eyes.
"Anybody else got the same problem Tai's got . . .they
better go home 'till they're over it."
******************************************************
*
It had been too much to hope that the story wouldn't get
around. Akane was by turns embarrassed and angry. And it
didn't help any that Tomo, the opposing pitcher had fanned
her out her first two times at bat.
"Now, just take it easy Akanechan." Her friends told
her soothingly.
"Don't let this guy get to you." Came another voice.
"HEY! AIR HITTER!" Tomo's taunting voice drifted
into the dugout from the pitcher's mound. "Aren't you gonna'
come out and at least PRETEND to be a ball player. I'll even
throw underhand . . . just like a GIRL."
Akane made a noise like a rusty hinge as her back molars met
and tried to interpenetrate.
"Now Akanechan." Came the pleas from her
teammates. "The bases are loaded. This is our last out. So just
stay cool and . . ."
Akane stomped out to the batters box and planted herself. A
few experimental swings tore the air with tremendous power,
but little control. Ranma, at shortstop, looked at her wild
swings and sighed. It would relieve a lot of her frustration if
she could just hit a good one . . .he watched another wild
swing knock some perfectly inoffensive electrons loose from
the air and sighed again.
The first ball was fast and out side. Akane's bat hummed with
the force of her blow.
"STRIKE ONE!"
"Come on Akanechan!"
"You can do it. We believe in you."
Akane set her self, pounded the ground a couple of times with
her bat then brought it back over her shoulder.
The ball was low and inside. Akane swung with enough power
to orbit the Tokyo dome. Unfortunately a base ball is much
smaller than a sports stadium. She hit only air and almost
went over with the force of her blow.
"STRIKE TWO!"
"Hey . . .ONE MORE an' you can go home and play
with your dollies!"
Ranma speared Toma with an incredulous glance, wondering
if her were suicidal or just stupid. He stared at the pitcher for a
moment, wondering if Toma could absorb enough punishment
to make it worthwhile to let Akane pound him a bit or if . . .A
sudden prickling between his shoulders brought Ranma
around. Akane . . . Akane wasn't seething anymore. She
wasn't grinding her teeth . . .she wasn't mad. She was . .
.focused. Ranma turned and trotted quickly to the pitchers
mound.
"HEY . . .Satoume, get back into position."
Ranam ignored Toma and dropped cross legged to the ground
beside the pitcher.
Toma shrugged his shoulders and began his windup. With the
way this skirt hit It didn't matter, anyway.
The ball was a slider, fast and impossible to hit. His best pitch.
Toma chose it just to show her up.
"STR . . ." The umpire started his call
early . . .anticipating what had come before.
There were three distinct cracks. The first as the tip of Akane's
bat went trans-sonic. The second occurred when the core of the
ball burst through the disintegrating outer-covering Ranma
reached out from his seated position, snagged Tomo by the
sleeve and tugged him gently aside as the core of the baseball
scorched through the space previously occupied by Toma's
head at Mach 1.2.
". . .IKE . . .uuuuu. I mean . . .uhhhhh. FAIR BALL!
TAKE YOUR BASES."
Akane stared at Toma for a moment. She turned and walked
over to the dugout to replace her bat in the bat-stand with
exaggerated precision, then trotted toward first base as the first
of her teammates triumphantly crossed home plate.
Ranma let go of Toma's sleeve and the pitcher rocked back
into place, looking more like the statue of a ball-player than
flesh and blood. An acrid smell wrinkled Ranma's nose and
he glanced down to see a dark spreading stain just below
Toma's belt level.
"Aaaah Maaan!" Ranma grimaced. He looked
stealthily around to see that everyone was distracted by
Akane's home run. Quickly he removed Toma's jacket and
tied it about the frozen boy's waist.
******************************************************
*
Cooking class with Akane was always exciting. There were
always interesting sights, and sounds and smells. Akane
approached cooking the way marines approached a hostile
beach but with less restraint . . .and with a level of violence
that would have gotten her thrown out of any properly run
street gang. It wasn't that she couldn't cook quite edible
meals, her class mates agreed. After all, she made a very . .
.tasty . . . curried rice. It was just that the struggle to . .
.subdue . . .all the evil ingredients . . .well, after that kind of
fight the poor dear was just too tired to cook anything
complicated. Besides, men were all unappreciative pigs . .
.who should be grateful for a hot meal to swill down like the
ungrateful swine . . .they probably spent all their time with
loose women while their poor wives slaved to keep home and
children. . . The discussion soon dissolved into a general
debate about men, with the girls divided into two camps. One
group favoring castration and shock collars for husbands,
while the extremists . . .But not today. Today there was no
light hearted banter about boys . . .no excited anticipation of
the perfect souffle . . . Today Tendou Akane was cooking . .
.calmly . . .quietly . . .well, ALMOST quietly.
"Quit that . . .you'll spoil your dinner." Akane
absently rapped her right hand across the knuckles with a
spoon as said hand stealthily tried to scoop a dollop of cookie
dough out of a bowl.
Nervously her classmates squeezed together, like sheep
huddling against a storm.
"What do you think . . .beef for a main course?"
She cocked her head as if listening.
"Well . . ." She sounded doubtful. "I don't know . . .do
you really think . . ." Her face brightened and she banged a fist
against the counter top. "I'LL DO IT!"
The huddle of girls jumped and made a sound very
like . . .sheep bleating.
Happily, Akane began pulling ingredients from cabinets
almost dancing in her excitement. Mesmerized, like someone
who looks up and sees the lights of an oncoming train, the
cooking class watched Akane burble happily to . . . herself . .
.as she peeled, and chopped and seasoned . . .occasionally
stopping to rap the naughty right hand that continued to make
sneak attacks on the cookie dough.
******************************************************
*
Delicious smells wafted down the hall as Akane passed by,
almost floating in her excitement. In her hands, as delicately as
if she carried the Imperial Regalia, she held a covered tray.
And on that tray . . .Akane started to hug herself in her
excitement . . .remembered the tray in her hands at the last
minute and recovered with a gasp and a giggle. And on that
tray . . .oh it was wonderful . . .marvelous . .. beef . . .chicken .
. .trout . . .three vegetables . . .and for dessert . . .a strawberry
crepe. Delicate, paper thin, golden brown pastry. It was all so
perfect. She just knew that Ra . . .Her mind stuttered away
from the name. Anyway it didn't matter. It was perfect. She
didn't have to prove anything to . . .to anyone. And anyway
he . . anyway some people didn't appreciate good cooking .
Still . . .it would be wasteful . . .to waste all this food. Kasumi
wouldn't want her to waste food. Her mother . . .Akane knew
her mother wouldn't have wanted her to waste food. Well
then. . .there wasn't any choice , was there. Absently Akane
thumped a lower form student on the head as he reached under
the covering, rendering him instantly unconscious. She
couldn't let this food go to waste . There was really no choice .
Akane batted aside the chemistry club as they leapt salivating
for the tray . . .No choice at all. She'd just have to find Ran . .
.find someone . . .so all this food didn't go to waste. Filled with
the golden glow that comes from making the hard . . .but
correct decisions Akane turned the corner and . . .
"Ooow!" Stumbling back Akane twisted to keep the
tray steady. Offended at the inconsiderate person who would
stand in the middle of the hall she looked up . . . and up . . .and
UP."
"Oh. It's you." Akane raked the person with a long up
and down glance. "That's a new look."
"Do you like it? I know the old freak will."
Akane stepped back, startled at hearing a deep, human voice,
instead of animal sounds.
The scorpion tail lashed suddenly over Akane's head to smash
into the wall. Akane leapt aside with a distressed cry, covering
the precious tray with her body.
"Not bad, huh. And I've made some other
improvements."Pantyhose Taro swept his wings forward to
show a row of razor sharp teeth along the edge. Thick
tentacles lashed the air, each now tipped with a poison spike.
"I've chased the old freak over half of China, through
India and back to here. It ends . . .I'm tired of this. The old-
man's got to change my name this time. Or I'll . . ." A deep
chuckle rumbled in the massive chest. "Who am I kidding. I
think I'll just kill him . . .whether he changes my name or not.
Maybe I should just kill fem-boy and take HIS name."
"R . . .ranma!"
Taro looked down as if just remembering Akane's presence.
"Heh. Yeah. Satoume Taro. Has kind of a ring to it.
And it's not like fem-boy deserves . . ." He sniffed the air.
"What's under there?"
"Nothing that concerns you." As Akane tried to edge
past Taro snatched the tray and held it tauntingly above her
head as he removed the covering.
"Well, what do we have here?"
"Give that back!"
Taro held the tray just out of reach as he scooped a claw full
of beef into his mouth.
"Hey, this is pretty good. Who cooked it?"
"I cooked it." Akane huffed , offended.
"YOU!" Taro chuckled. Then paused as a thought
struck him.
"If YOU cooked it, then that means this is for fem-
boy." He looked consideringly at the trays contents.
"That means that this . . .and this . . .and this . . .you
cooked for fem-boy." One by one Taro slid each dish off the
tray. Akane stood frozen as she watched all her work, all her
lov . . .all her work, land on the floor with a splat. Finally,
there was only one item left . . .the crepe. The delicate . .
.delicious . . .DIFFICULT crepe. As if in slow motion Akane
watched Taro nudge it, teasingly, with the tip of a claw . .
.closer . . .closer . . .it teetered on the edge . . .gravity and
pastry fought . . .gravity won. And the golden confection
tumbled through the air . . .end over end . . .falling like a
wounded angel . . .
"Murderer!" The thought tolled through Akane's
brain. He'd killed it. Her poor, innocent crepe. It never had a
chance . . . And the rest. Gone. All gone. All her hard work . . .
S-P-L-A-T. Beef, chicken, fish . . all gone. It was too late to
start over. . . where would she ever find the ingredients . . .
SNAP!
Taro looked around startled. He thought he'd heard something
. . .well . . .SNAP. But what . . . He looked down to see the
Tendou girl staring at him.
"BEEF!" She raked him with eyes that made him . .
.uncomfortable. Like she was mentally undressing him. Which
was silly since he was already . . .
"CHICKEN!"
Involuntarily Taro's wings snapped back into the closed
position, tight against his body.
"Now just what do you think you're . . ." He started
arrogantly, Then hastily stepped back as Tendou Akane slid
toward him, graceful as a dancer, with a very unhealthy light
in her eyes.
"FISH!"
Instantly his waving tentacles stilled and curled up out of
sight.
"Uh... actually octopus isn't really a fish . . ."Uneasily
Taro began to back away. Step by step Tendou Akane
matched him. This was silly. HE was bigger . . .stronger . .
.faster . . .
Ranma jerked upright from his nap as a scream, like a cat
being skinned alive with a dull knife, pierced the quiet day
like a needle through the eyeball.
AKANE! Damn. He knew he should have stayed with her.
But cooking class. It was not a good thing for him to stay
around Akane when she was cooking. He had a habit of saying
. . .unfortunate things. And she was already upset . . .and what
could possibly happen . . .Asking himself questions he
couldn't answer Ranma pounded across the grass toward the
main building. The wall exploded and . . .something . . .blasted
overhead, past Ranma and toward the empty swimming pool.
He looked up to see Akane, chest heaving , fists clenched, but
looking unhurt. Just as Ranma started up to her . . .screams,
lots of screams, sounded from the girls locker room. Ranma
froze . . .he wanted to go to Akane. But she looked all right . .
.and those girls sounded really frightened . .. but Akane. . .
"Yo . .. Akane . . .you OK?"
She tensed for a moment . . .then looked down, through the
broken wall at Ranma.
"I'm fine . . .just . . .FINE!"
Akane turned and stalked off.
Ranma debated following for a moment, but the screams were
louder and more desperate . . .besides he recognized that look.
Better give Akane some time . . .a lot of time . . .to cool off.
Ranma dashed for the girls gym. As he sprinted in through the
front door a jet of cold water hit him.
"Ranma-my-boy." An obscene little . . .something . .
.fastened leach like between breasts that were just forming.
"AAAAAA!"Ranma screamed and batted at the . .
.thing. He cringed as it nuzzled and fondled and . . ."
"GET OFF ME, ya old freak."
"Now is that any way to talk to your master?"
"You . . .ain't . . .my . . .master." Ranma panted as he
struggled to dislodge . . .Sprinting suddenly forward, Ranma
tried to crush . . .it . . .between him and a concrete column. It .
. .leapt off, just before impact, cackling as Ranma reeled back,
stunned from his impact..
"Heh, you'll never beat me at this rate. If you'll wear
this bra I'll train . . ." The obscene voice broke off and . . .the
thing . . .sprang aside, like a roach on a hot plate, as Ranma
launched a flurry of punches and kicks. Ranma followed this
up with a chi blast that sent . . .it . . .tumbling outside the girls
gym. Winded from his exertions, Ranma was slow in
following and lost track of . . .it.
Laughing with the innocent glee of a dammed soul the ancient
pervert bounced along the halls of academia looking for fresh
meat. Suddenly, senses honed by centuries of perversion and
debauchery tingled. He could sense what he needed . . .youth .
.. innocence . . .virgin meat. It drew him . . .excited him, like
blood in the water attracted a shark Except the old pervert was
less like a shark and more like some poisonous bug as he
skittered quickly through the empty corridors. The scent was
stronger. His groin tightened with the familiar sweet pain. His
heart pounded at the thought . . .first there would be fear . .
.fear and the desperate futile struggle to get away. He liked
that almost best of all . . .almost. There!! He suffered a
momentary pang as he finally recognized his prey. Too old
and tough . . .still there were compensations. The thought of
Soun's revulsion . . .of her poor . . .departed . . .
"Oh, Akane. Just what a tired old man needs . . .a fresh
young thing to ease his declining years."
Akane looked up from contemplating the tops of her shoes as
she trudged along the empty hallways. She had a brief
impression of a giant cockroach. Then a blurring in the air and
a weight . . . a heaviness on the spirit rather than on the body.
Happosai, master of arts martial and perverted snuggled
between the warm soft mounds with a sigh. Akane was really
too old, the old man thought regretfully. Ahh, if only he could
have gotten to her a decade earlier ,when she was in her prime.
He thought wistfully of how he first seen her. Young, tender,
so full of energy. He pictured her again in his mind. In her
little gi, sweat making dark patches in . . .interesting places. In
a darling little ruffled dress. With matching panties. Ancient
blood, cold with centuries of life and evil, heated at the
remembering. He remembered other things. Little Akane in the
furo, water beading on her soft skin. Her back to the window .
. .she didn't notice the thickening shadow creeping in the
window. But soon she would see . . .would cry out . . .would
fight . . .wiggling and twist . . . His pleasant day-dream was
clouded by another memory. Of a strong hand around his
ankle. Being ripped from his perch from the wall and thrown
to the ground, to land like a sack of garbage. Of looking up,
and silhouetted against the sky . . .an avenging angle come to
send his soul to hell. He'd been afraid then . . .for the first time
in years. Afraid that the Kami's had finally come for him.
Then he'd realized it wasn't an angel, wasn't the Kami's , but
something worse. Much worse. Akane's mother.
He was the Master. No mere woman could beat him. He'd
tried . . .but her mother had been too quick with her naginata.
And Soun, the ungrateful worm, had found his backbone and
tried to . . .Happosai winced as the scar that ran halfway
around the inside of his thigh and up his belly twinged in
remembered pain. Still, makeup and the right clothes could
shave years . . .
SNAP!
"You disgusting little pervert."
That was no way to talk to her elders. It was shameful the way
Soun was letting Akane run wild. And he would tell him so,
just as soon as he could breath.
"You dirty little . . ."
Where HAD little Akane learned those words . . .and where
had she gotten the hydraulic clamp?
"Always looking . . . leering . . touching."
"Now Akane, you're very young . . .and must be
guided by your elders." Happosai leered up from his position
between Akane's breasts.
" You have a responsibility . . .a duty in fact . . .both to
your family and your ryu . . .after all, without ME there is no
Tendou School . . .no dojo."
Happosai went on grandly, in a tone that he imagined
conveyed his importance and stature.
"I am the Master, and I decide who will be my
successor. Your father . . .your sisters, they depend on you on
how well you. . ." Happosai wiggled suggestively against her
breasts.
"Listen to you? O-be-y you?" Akane's voice was flat,
toneless.
"Why yes."
Akane really was a bright girl, Happosai thought fondly.
Perhaps she wasn't too old after all perhaps . . .
"Akane, dear. You're . . .squeezing . . .too . . .tight . .
."
"If you can still breath . . .it's not too tight."
He really had waited too late, Happosai thought regretfully.
She'd grown up with this . . .attitude. Well, perhaps her
daughter . . . or Kasumi's. Now that was a thought. A
daughter of Kasumi's. His withered manhood tightened at the
thought. Kasumi's daughter, fresh, gentle . . easily frightened.
A proer Japanese girl. And if her started while she was young
enough to be trained properly. He shivered in excitement at
the thought. But first . . .Akane . . .misguided child . . .needed
to learn who the master was.
Happosai knocked a hot coal from the bowl of his pipe onto a
chi point on Akane's hand, a maneuver that worked well on
Ranma . . .and worked on Akane. The python grip loosened
and Happosai slithered out. He turned casually and . . .really
quite lightly he thought, rapped the iron bowl of his pipe
against her temple. He hated to do it . . .but it was cruel to let
girls have so much independence. It was a mistake to educate
them. And this silly business of letting them won property,
vote . . .learn martial arts. They started thinking about things .
. .talking back . . .resisting. A little resistance was good,
stimulated the juices. But too much was irritating. No it was
much better for them if they learned young who the Master
was. Another . . .gentle . . .rap against the opposite temple sent
Akane reeling, blood tricking from her ear.
"Now Akane dear." Happoasi moved close to the
stunned girl and tickled his pipe up and down her side bringing
the stem to rest at the tender juncture between her legs.
"I think it's time that you learned some important
lessons . . .about life . . .proper respect . . .obeying your
elders." Happosai gave her a saintly smile. "Don't you agree
that it's time you learned these things . . .how to behave like a
good girl? The womanly arts . . . so that you can please . .
.your master."
Akane's lips drew back from her teeth in an expression that
would have resembled a smile only if you were a shark,
accompanied by a low rumbling growl that would have made
a rock crusher lose bladder control.
Centuries of martial practice roused the ancient lecher from his
dreams of perversion. Angered by this obvious sign of
rebellion . . .and when he'd tried so hard to treat her gently in
recognition of her faulty upbringing, Happosai brought his
pipe slashing forward intending to smash the nerve cluster just
under the breast. A move intended to paralyze the arm while
causing intense pain. An attack that Happosai enjoyed as
much for it's devastating psychological effect . . .women were
very sensitive about attacks on their breasts . . .as for the
simple pleasure of watching them cringe in . . .
Happosai's strike stopped as suddenly as if he'd slammed into
Mt. Fuji. He blinked . . the end of his pipe vanished in Akane's
fist. Akane made a sudden, sharp motion and his pipe was
ripped from his fist with a quickness that peeled skin from the
palm of his hand. At this point any normal pervert with more
than two functioning neurons would have surmised that
'something-had-gone-wrong' and slithered back under his
rock. Unfortunately, for Happosai he had sacrificed cognition
for perversion a century or so earlier.
"Master . . ." Akane purred, rather like a cat . . .a large
hungry cat.
"Ahh . . .yes . . .but you don't have the tone quite right.
It should be softer, demure . . .respect. . ."
"Mas .s .s .s .t .e .e .e . r."
There was something about the way Akane rolled the word
around on her tongue . . .not with respect . . .but as if she
were . . .tasting . . .
Before Happosai could decide if this was a good thing . . .or a
bad thing . . .a hand like a power shovel clamped around his
throat.
"urrrrrrrrr." Sounding like a leaking tire and looking
like toad-under-a-tire, Happosai dangled from Akane's fist.
"Teach me . . . a lesson?" She questioned.
"With . . .this?" She rapped Happosai sharply between
the eyes with his own pipe.
"With THIS!" She rapped him again, harder.
"ullll ulll."
Akane seemed to take that as an affirmative. She placed the
stem of the pipe between her lips and drew on it until the bowl
glowed cherry red. She looked at the pipe . . .she looked at
Happosai . . .and smiled.
"Akane!"
Ranma bounded through the school grounds, peering in
window, looking on roof tops.
"AKAAANEEE!" He was getting worried . . .really
worried. No Akane . . .and the pervert was . . .Ranma jarred to
a sudden stop as the shrill terrified scream of a rat being ripped
apart by starving cats echoed across the campus.
"Uh Oh."
Ranma turned and sped back toward the direction of the
sound. That hadn't been Akane's scream . . .he was sure of
that . . .well pretty sure . . .but whatever it was . . .it might be
dangerous. A whimpering noise brought him to a sudden stop.
Looking around he didn't see anything. closing his eyes he
extended his highly trained senses and . . .
"Hi guy. What's up?"
Hopping down in the bottom of the pool that had been emptied
for cleaning and repair he found the battered form of
Pantyhose Taro huddled in the corner, knees drawn up to his
chin. Ranma noticed a variety of interesting scars . . .was that
from a . . .fork? One wing dangled limply and two tentacles
had been ripped completely off his body.
A sudden sound, like the hunting cry of a mountain wolf broke
the still air. A shudder ran through the huge body.
Taro turned to Ranma with a wide eyed stare, like a baby owl.
"She scared me."
Ranma wrinkled his nose as an all too familiar acrid odor
assaulted his nose. He looked down at Taro's feet and
grimaced in wry sympathy.
"You're not the only one pal."
"She scared me." Taro repeated in a small voice. "She
. . .she tried to . . .eat me." His lower lip trembled and his eyes
filled with tears. "I don' like her . . .she tried to eat me."
It didn't take much imagination to realize who SHE must be.
Ranma patted Taro's shoulder awkwardly.
"Nah man. I think she just wanted to hurt you really,
really bad." Ranma said comfortingly.
"She wanted to EAT me." Taro insisted shrilly.
While Ranma tried to think of how to respond to that, the
heard a skittering sound. A sound that reminded him of
cockroaches in the wall. Listening carefully Ranma moved
suddenly, shoving Taro's massive bulk aside to reveal . . .a
tattered bag of ground beef?
"Eeeeewww!" Ranma stepped back in disgust.
Looking around he found a stick that had been used to mix
sealant to fix cracks in the pool . Using the stick, he flipped
the disgusting mess over. It was even worse on the other side.
The . . .thing . . .mewled in panic and tried desperately to
scrabble through the concrete bottom of the pool. Stepping
forward Ranma took a closer look to make sure . . ."Yeppers."
. . .it was the old pervert . . .bare from the waste down. Ranma
shuddered. The freak was disgusting enough under normal
circumstances. There were welts all up and down his backside
. . .it looked like someone had spanked him . . .with . .
.Suddenly Ranma
noticed . . .
"Ahhh Man. That's gonna hurt commin' out." Ranma
looked at the tip of the perverts pipe protruding from . . .he
shuddered again in revulsion.
"Maybe a good dose of prunes . . ."
His stomach churned at the thought. Then again . . .it couldn't
happen to a nicer . . .whatever. There was a sudden low
pitched growl that seemed to shudder the bedrock. The growl
of a very big . . .very angry . . .predator. The growl came again
. . .Happosai commenced his mad scrabble, trying to claw his
way into the earth. Taro whimpered and wrapped his tattered
wings around himself, rocking back and forth.
"OK, guys. Here's the deal. Old man. Hey, old man"
Ranma made as if to bop the pervert on the head, stopping
when he realized he'd have to touch him.
"Listen to me old man . . .or I let HER have you." The
scrabbling sounds stopped instantly.
"Here's what we're gonna' do. The two of you are
certified psycho's . . you're always kidnappin' people,
blowing things up . . .startin' fights all over the place
Somebody's gonna get hurt. Now then, Old Man, you 're
gonna give the . . .you're gonna give Taro here a new name
You been jerkin' the poor guy around long enough. You're his
god parent for Kami's sake. You're supposed to take care of
him . . .not make his like hell. You're gonna give him a good
name. . .any name he wants. An then you an' him are gonna
go away. Whatever spot on earth's the direct opposite of
Nerimia. And stay there. Unless someone asks you to come
back. An' that's not gonna be until you learn some manners."
Another angry growl, closer this time, forced a frantic assent
from the cringing pervert.
"OK." Ranma said hopping out of the dry pool. "I'm
gonna go distract Akane. I expect you guys to get gone, real
soon. An' remember . . .NO tricks. Or . . ." Ranma drew a
finger across his throat.
The two figures huddled in the bottom of the pool, listening to
Ranma's retreating footsteps. Suddenly a shadow fell over
them from above . . .a shadow with a female silhouette. The
two huddled together like frightened children.
"Gentlemen, have I got a deal for you." Came a low
voice from above. " Today, only, transportation to the Airport,
tickets to the destination of your choice and clean underwear."
The two looked up to see Tendou Nabiki grinning a sharks
grin down at them.
"And, for the two of you . . .a special price."
******************************************************
*It wasn't fair, Akane thought resentfully. Kuno blows out all
the windows in the school, pretends to be a ghost . . .Ranma
and Ryouga regularly re-enacted the warring-states period . .
.Hinako Sensei, for goodness sake, could have a full scale
battle with Ranma on the soccer field. And did anyone notice?
NO, they did not. But just let her break a little piece of the
school . . . Akane winced as part of the roof slid off onto the
ground with a crash of masonry and a cloud of dust.
. . .just let her break a LITTLE, a tiny piece of the school . .
.and every body acted as if
"What pervert girl do to Ranma?"
Akane snapped out of her reverie to see another Chinese
invasion.
"There's never a divine wind when you need one."
"What? What you saying?"
"Nothing." Akane replied wearily. "What do you want
Shan Pu?"
"Shan Pu want to know what pervert girl do to
Ranma."
"What? What are you talking about? I Haven't
done . . ."
"Don't try to fool us sugar." Ukyou stepped from
behind a tree. "Ranchan's been following you around all day
like he was your shadow." Ukyou snapped her Spatula into
guard position. "Something's going on . . ."
"Indeed peasants . . .your feeble minds have struck the
heart of the target. Some foul sorcery no doubt."
The cool arrogant tones dropped from the trees, followed
closely by a tall figure that landed with pantherish grace.
Akane dropped her head into her hands.
"Hello Kodachi." She spoke from between her fingers.
"Do not seek to sway the righteous anger of the Black
Rose, she who dwells among . . ."
"The lunatics." Ukyou muttered.
"Who dwells among the stars" Kodachi continued
firmly. "The light that pierces the darkness, the wind that
blows . . ."
"Shan Pu can feel big wind alright."
Ukou stifled a chuckle as Kodachi swung around to glare at
the big Amazon. She started to day something then turned
back to Akane.
"Well peasant . . .what do you have to say for
yourself? Speak!"
"Go away, Kodachi. I have a headache."
"We all want answer." Shan Pu moved to Akane's
side, flanking her.
"That's right sugar. Something's going on, and were
here to get answers."
Akane looked up to find herself surrounded. Ukyou was
struck by the strange feverish glitter in her eyes.
"I don't know anything about Ranma. Just . . .just go
away. I don't feel good." Akane dropped her head back into
her hands. "Just go away."
"Don't you ignore me!" The Black Rose's hand
snapped forward, releasing her ribbon like a striking snake. As
the deadly tip approached Akane, Kodachi felt a brief tug.
Startled she looked down to find her hand empty. Looking up
she saw Akane, still with her head in her hands, and the black
ribbon curled at her feet.
"Pretty good, you take away crazy-talk girl toy." Shan
Pu slid forward a heavy mace in each hand. "Now you try
Amazon warrior." As she spoke Shan Pu launched a straight
blow that Akane would have to either block or slip. If she
blocked, Shan Pu would counter with the second mace before
Akane could recover. If she slipped the blow, avoided it. Well,
that would just move her INTO Shan Pu's counter strike. No
matter what Akane did or did-not do . . .Shan Pu had her.
Her predatory smile of victory was jarred loose as her mace
smashed to a unexpected halt as Tendou Akane CAUGHT the
war-hammer in one hand. Her arm went numb to the shoulder
and the mace dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers. A
lifetime of training brought the second mace around in a
crushing blow without conscious thought. Akane's head came
out of her hands at last. Her free hand snapped forward . . .the
heavy mace slammed into her open palm . . .and stopped as
suddenly and finally as if it had run into Mt. Fuji. Stunned and
off balance Shan Pu stood frozen as Akane tightened her grip
on the heads of the two heavy steel balls. Shan Pu could hear
the metal collapse, see it crumple like rice paper and her
mouth went suddenly dry as two brown eyes made contact
with her violet ones.
"I . . .don't . . .feel . . .good."
Akane took a step forward with each word . . .and Shan Pu, as
well as Ukyou and Kodachi matched her step for step . . .in the
opposite direction.
"My head hurts."
Ukyou winced as the steel mace heads collapsed in Akane's
grip with a bang. Suddenly aware of the battle spatula in her
hands Ukyou, showing a rare prudence for a resident of
Nermia, tossed it out of sight.
"Now Akanechan. . ."She started pacifically.
Akane growled and Ukyou took a step back.
"My HEAD hurts. MY STOMACH hurts. I don't feel
. . ."
Suddenly Kodachi was right in Akane's face, a surprising look
of sympathy and concern spread across her visage. Looking
about, she pressed a small white bottle in Akane's hand.
"I quite understand. Please forgive me for bothering
you. I didn't realize . . . " Kodachi stopped suddenly and drew
herself up coldly. "We shall, of course, finish this another
time." Kodachi turned to go, then looked back over her
shoulder.
"Take two tablets, every four hours." With that, the
Black Rose vanished.
A look of astonished understand passed across Ukyou's face.
She turned to whisper something in Shan Pu's ear, then spoke
to the bewildered Akane, who was looking at the spot that had
recently contained the Black Rose.
"I'm sorry Akane." Ukyou said contritely. "I never
would have. . . . I mean, if I had known . . ." She broke off,
embarrassed.
"Well, I know how you feel . . .and if I can do
anything . . ." She broke off again, and turned to leave,
dragging Shan Pu with her. As they left Akane could hear
Shan Pu's voice, disappearing in the distance.
"Why leave so quick . . .Shan Pu have good herb . .
.help pervert girl . . . bloat . . .cramp . . ."
Astonished and bewildered Akane looked as the two
antagonists went away, then looked at the small white bottle in
her hand.
"M . . .I . . .D"
Slowly she spelled out the romanji as she turned the bottle in
her hand.
"O . . .L"
Her shriek of embarrassed rage registered at 4.3 at the Tokyo
earthquake center and prompted a second stage alert.
"Yo, Akane! What's up?"
"Hi Ranma." Akane picked listlessly at her bentou.
Ranma looked at Akane's slumped form with concern.
"Uh, would you like some of my bentou? Kasumi
made it."
Ranma winced as he suddenly realized the implications of
what
he'd said.
"Not that I'm saying your cooking's bad or nothing, I
just thought. . ."
"Thank you Ranma. That's very nice of you. I just
have a lot of things on my mind right now." Akane looked up
at Ranma's concerned face with a small sad smile. "I'm not
very hungry, but some company might be nice."
Flustered, Ranma froze for a moment.
"I'm sorry. I guess you've got things to do with your
friends." Akane sadly lowered her head .
"No, no,no. You've got it all wrong. Geez, Why dya
always gotta take me the wrong way?" Ranma plumped
himself down beside Akane. "If you want me to sit with you,
I'll sit with you. I got nothin' better to do anyway." Ooops.
"Uh I mean. . . that is I didn't mean. . . uh. . ."
Akane chuckled softly and laid a hand on Ranma's leg.
"Slow down before you hurt something. I know what
you meant. Thanks."
Ranma stared amazed into Akane's big brown eyes. He was
struck by how soft and warm they were. Ranma wiped sweaty
palms on his trousers. His pulse thundered in his ears. He was
dizzy. All he could see were Akane's eyes, and her lips.
Almost against his will he felt himself being drawn down,
down ,down. . ."
"I've got to go. Here." Akane thrust her bentou into
Ranma's hands and dashed off. Ranma sat staring at the
bentou for a bemused second, then leaped to his feet, scattering
food everywhere.
"HEY! Hey, Akane. What's going on. Where're you
goin'?" He dashed after around the gym in pursuit, but there
was no sign of her.
"Hey, Akannnneeeee!" Ranma leapt form roof to roof
calling her name.
"Innncommiiinnng!"
Venus ducked behind a car, then rolled right. The car and part
of the roadway exploded in a shower of steel and stone
fragments.
"Mercury, where are they!"
"I'm trying!"
Sailormercury was belly down in a crater with only her
dismounted visor peeping over the rim. Sailorjupiter lay half
on top of her, shielding her with her body and firing 'Supreme
Thunder' as fast as she could generate power.
"WORLD SHAKING!"
"Dead Scream"
The combined attack of two of the most powerful senshi
blasted a small office building into dust.
"Got the bastard!" Sailoruranus was exultant.
"Yes, well that only leaves about a dozen more."
"Oh, don't be such a pessimist Sailormars."
"Would you let me go!"
Sailormoon struggled futilely in Sailormars grip. Mars
increased pressure on her headlock.
"Would you stop that. Baka." Sailorsaturn stood to
one side, Silence Glaive in guard position, Sailorneptune to
the other side and slightly behind, guarding their rear. Both
very studiously ignored their princess being womanhandled by
the senshi of fire.
"Let me go. I've got to help them."
"Dammit, if you want to help, then stay here. There's
too many of them and they're to spread out. You might get a
few, maybe even a lot. But it only takes one to get lucky . . . to
get you!"
"I don't care." Sailormoon was sobbing in frustration
and fear for her friends. "I don't care, I've. . ."
Her head rocked back from the impact of Sailormars slap.
"LISTEN! You're our big gun. We're only going to
get one shot at this. Let Ami find all of them. Let Venus, Pluto
and Uranus draw them out. THEN you can dust them. But if
you go out there now, we loose our advantage. And maybe
everyone dies."
"I'm sorry Rei, it's just. . ."
Sailormars gathered her tiny princess close.
"I know, I know. I'm scared for them too. You've just
got to. . ."
A sudden rippling explosion of fire, and steel brought them
around in time to see Uranus and Pluto buried under a twenty
story office building.
"NOOO!" Sailormoon wrenched out of Sailormars's
grasp and sprinted toward her friends.
"Shit!" Cursing bitterly, Mars pounded after her
friend, followed by Saturn and Neptune. They caught their
princess as she skidded to her knees by the rubble and started
wrenching and clawing at the debris.
"Dammit Usagi." Fright had driven every thought
from Rei's mind except concern from her friend's safety.
"Dammit Usagi. You can't help them. Get out of the
open."
"I'm not going to leave them." Usagi didn't even look
around as she wrapped her arms around a stone that was the
size of a minivan and heaved. Nothing happened. Her fingers
biting into the stone until they bled, Usagi set herself again,
and heaved. Still nothing. Weeping in frustration Usagi began
beating and kicking at the granite monolith baring the way to
her friends.
"Sailormars is right Sailormoon. There is nothing we
can do here. We must get you to a place of safety."
Usagi wiped a grimy hand across a dirty tear streaked face and
turned to face Sailorneptune.
"Sailoruranus is down there! How can you leave her?
Don't you even care!."
A slight tightening around the eyes was her only response.
"Come on!"Sailorneptune repeated "We must get you
to safety."
Usagi stared at her senshi for a moment. Then her face took on
a hard set look.
"Usagi. . ." Sailormars started.
The Eternal Tier appeared in Sailormoon's hands. Wings
erupted from her back.
"ETERNAL"
"Princess, please. . ." Sailorsaturn was pleading
"MOON"
"This is not a good idea." Sailormars added.
"SILVER"
"OH SHIT!!"Sailorneptune grabbed her sister Senshi,
and leaped for cover.
"KISS!!!"
A really big noise slammed the three senshi into the ground in
mid leap. The resulting shockwave tumbled Sailorvenus head
over heels for thirty yards and left Mercury and Jupiter deaf
and dazed.
Groggily Sailormars dragged herself out from under Neptune
and Saturn. She looked around to see Eternal Sailormoon
standing with outspread wings, like an angel at the gates of
hell. She staggered toward Sailormoon, limping and cursing
ribs that she was sure were broken.
"I did it!"
Sailormars looked down where Sailormoon was pointing. At
first all she could see was blackness in the pit Eternal
Sailormoon had blasted. Then two pairs of eyes, surrounded
by layers of dirt and grease. . . blinked.
"I've got them."
Mars looked to see Sailorvenus extending her chain to the two
at the bottom of the hole.
"I did it, didn't I?" Sailormoon repeated.
"Yes you did. Now don't do it again."
"OK, I won't" Sailormoon answered muzzily.
"And for goodness sake, put some clothes on.."
Eternal Sailormoon looked down to see that she was in her
formal Eternal Sailor Suit (i.e. not even a bobby pin.).
"OK, I will." Usagi's eyes rolled up in her head and
she collapsed like an empty rice bag into Sailormars arms.
"Ami. I need you."
Sailormars smiled wryly down at the grubby girll in her arms
She was getting too old for this last minute Usagi-risks-death-
to save-everyone stuff. . Usagi was going to be the death of her
yet, if she didn't learn a little common sense.. The sudden
appearance of an enemy soldier shouldn't have been a shock,
but it was. Sailormars looked in horror as the glowing
hellmouth of a warp gun pointed at her. . . at USAGI! Rei
moved in what she knew was a futile effort to shield Usagi
with her body. Out of the corner of her eye she could see
Venus , moving in slow motion. Her hand coming up for a
'Crescent Beam.' But so slow . . .too slow. Rei wept inside,
not for her own death, but for Usagi, and cursed herself for
failing to keep the princess safe. The upper third of the enemy
soldier vanished. Rei blinked, unable to believe her eyes.
Then trained reflex took over and she leapt away, Usagi
cradled in her arms. From behind cover she watched her sister
senshi also leap away as a fiery figure charged into the battle
zone. As she watched black soldiers popped out of hiding and
launched a storm of blaster fire at the newcomer. They might
just have well tried to stop a bullet train with a paper sword.
The figure raised her right arm and a hurricane of needles
moving at .3c ripped through the invaders. Ten of the invaders
were reduced to a fine yellow mist in a fraction of a second.
However using the weapon seemed to have affected the
newcomer for she staggered and went to one knee, as if she
were exhausted.
##Princess located## the voice whispered. A grid map
of the area seemed to float before her eyes. On it blinked icons,
red for the black soldiers, orange for the senshi and a bright
pink for the princess. Red icons were coming in behind and to
the flanks of the princesses position. Cursing her weakness
Akane diverted power to the contra-gravity unit and leaped.
Sailormars watched in astonishment as the fiery figure
suddenly seemed to soar up and over her head to come down
behind her.
##Warning. Accumulators at 43%. Field integrity
below 83%## the voice paused consideringly##Hostile's
detected. Mutliple contacts. Requesting fire support and power
link.## There was a brief silence. ##Unable to make contact.
Negitive fire support. Negative power link.##
"No kidding." Akane muttered too herself. "They've
only been dead for about a hundred thousand years."
##Input not understood.##
"I said we're on our own."
##Acknowledged.##
"How are we fixed for weapons? Can we use the big
gun?"
##Insufficient internal power for energy weapon.
Sufficient power remains for a one second minimum power
burst from projectile weapon.##
"Is that the best we can do?"
##A larger energy drain will compromise shield
integrity.##
"Well, we don't want to do that now do we." Akane
shuddered mentally as the memory came to her of how . .
.unpleasant . . .and messy shield failure could be.
"Ok, time for a little attitude adjustment." A short
thick rod appeared in Akane's had. Obedient to her mental
command the rod the rod expanded and formed a short beaked
war-hammer topped with a triangular spike. The hammer
finished forming just as Akane lightly touched down in the
middle of a six 'man' formation of the black soldiers. She had
a brief moment to appreciate the beautifully articulated
obsidian armor that covered her foes. Then the closest raised
an arm and lightning blossomed at less than a meter. Akane
shivered at the sensation, as if someone had poured ice water
through her bones. The soldier seemed surprised to see Akane
emerge unharmed from 'his' blaster fire. He raised his arm for
another shot when Akane pierced the top of his skull with her
hammer putting him out of everyone's misery. Whipping her
hammer free Akane brought it back and around in a spinning
arc, catching a second soldier just below his 'ribs'. The
hammer caught, just for a second, slowing Akane's recovery
as she wrenched the hammer free with a cracking splinter of
armored flesh and a yellow spray of 'blood'.
Sailormars crouched behind the broken wall, tending to her
fallen princess as best she could. The other senshi were busy
fighting so she was on her own. Despite her worry for Usagi
and her friends she was captivated by the battle between at
least ten of the enemy and their new 'friend'. All of Rei's
doubts (well most of them) had been removed along with the
enemy soldiers head, shoulders and torso. Anyone who saved
Usagi's life was a friend in Rei's estimation. Almost gleefully
she watched her 'friend' smash the head of one enemy, then
smash the chest of another. Then . . . disaster. Helplessly Rei
watched the war hammer stick in the armor of the soldier. Just
for a moment, but moment enough for another soldier to come
from behind and fire its warp gun at almost point blank range.
Rei summoned her 'Mars Flame Sniper' knowing it was too
late, and knowing it endangered Usagi. It wasn't the smart
thing to do but it was the honorable thing. Besides, Usagi
would have approved.
The rubble strewn battlefield, close range weapons fire
coupled with the enemies unfortunately sophisticated stealth
field prevented Akane from sensing the attacker behind her
until the warp gun's power signature peaked just before firing.
And by then it was much too late.
Akane felt as if she was being ripped to pieces by
barbed hooks. She doubled over as a blowtorch of energy
gutted her like a pike.
##Warning! Accumulators at 22%. Shield integrity
12%. Containment failure in 4.32 seconds. Warning!
Accum. . .##
A normal human would have died instantly from the pain . A
dead man would have risen screaming from his grave and a
saint would have confessed to any sin to make it stop. Tendou
Akane was no normal being. One hundred thousand years
earlier she had been 'gifted' with the deadliest weapon system
the Silver Imperium had been able to devise. A weapon system
that had so horrific an effect on the user that only four people
had ever survived it's first use and three of those had suicided
rather that face it again. The fourth stood squarely in the path
of the black soldiers ultimate weapon.
In centuries of battle the final weapon had never failed them.
Until now. They watched their strange antagonist double over
with a scream that even their armor couldn't filter out.
Disbelieving they watched the figure straighten and turn
toward them.
##Warning! Containment failure in 3.32 seconds.
Accumulators at 19%. Field . . .##
"Arm Graser."
##Insufficent power. . .##
"Override failsafes. Divert power from containment
field."
##Anti-suicide protocols forbid. . ##
"Imperial Override. Serenity is in danger. Disable all
failsafes. Leave only enough power for a crash translation to
normal-space."
##Imperial Override accepted. Diverting all power to
graser.##
Akane gasped in pain as the containment field
flickered and dimmed. Her enhanced sensed rapidly spooled
down to normal and her preternatural strength failed as power
went to her graser.
##Ready## whispered the voice. ##Ready to fire.#
Akane straightened, turned toward her opponents. They
couldn't believe she was still alive. As alien as they were she
could sense that much. They struggled to bring their own
weapons to bear. Blaster fire sparkled and danced across her
shield. She could feel it now in her diminished state, like a hot
iron punching into her vitals. Enough hits like these could kill
her. Or if they hit her with another warp gun. If they had time.
. .
##Target acquisition.##
Hellfire blossomed as a blade of gamma radiation blasted
through armor, stone, steel and flesh. Akane spun, her
remaining sensor capability questing for hostile's as the
deadly beam smashed black armored soldiers into atoms. It
was like using an H-bomb to kill butterflies, only not as subtle.
##Power exhausted. Crash translation initiated.##
Akane screamed as flesh was stripped from bone, bone from
muscle and mind from body. She could feel her body being
twisted and crushed through dimensions only dreamed of by
philosophers. A normal translation was a trip to hell. A crash
translation was hell multiplied with a few new torments added
in.
Usagi regained consciousness just in time to have Sailormars
shove her to the ground and shield her with her own body. She
could hear the scream of steel and stone vaporizing, smell the
stench of ozone mixed with burnt alien flesh. This was
followed by an even more terrifying scream. Usagi pushed and
shoved herself free of Sailormars. She could no more resist
someone in pain than a moth the flame. And Sailormars, like
all of her friends was afraid she would bet burned. Mars made
a desperate grab for Usagi's ankle, then lunged to her feet after
her certifiably crazy friend. Almost as quickly as she started
she slammed to a stop as she rammed into the back of Usagi
who stood frozen in place. Sailormars started to berate her
friend for recklessness when she saw what was occurring.
Their 'friend' was crumpled on the ground, her fiery aura
crackling and sizzling like a burning corpse. Before Rei's
horrified gaze she watched the figures vaguely humanoid form
twist and flow like a blob of putty in the hands of a madman.
With an explosive crack what appeared to be a girl in a school
uniform appeared. Uasgi started to bolt out in the open toward
the girl only to be grabbed by Sailormars.
"Wait baka! You don't know if it's safe."
"I need to see if she's hurt."
"You need to put on some pants."
Usagi looked down, only then realizing that in her exhausted
state she had not regained her street clothes when she'd
reverted from her Eternal Moon Angel form. She looked up
just in time to see the figure disappear at a shambling run into
the ruins.
Then Sailorjupiter and Sailorvenus showed up carrying the
injured Pluto and Uranus and it was too late to follow.
******************************************************
Ranma had been drawn to the sight and sound of fighting with
a sick certainty that Akane was in trouble. He almost missed
seeing her torn and bloody body lying like a heap of trash in
an alley.
******************************************************
Nine billion miles from earth a relay closed. Computers
analyzed data and decisions were made. Another relay closed
and engines powerful enough to melt a continent roared into
life.
******************************************************
END CHAPTERS 1 AND 2