Thanks to everyone who has read this, and even more thanks to those
who replied. As it says, this is part of part two, unless I call this a
short chapter and just call the next one chapter three.
This is my first major action scene, following up the ending to chapter
one.
I really need C&C on this. Please.
My problem is that this is action, something most of my fics lack in any
appreciable amount. I'm always interested in C&C on characterizations
and plot, but what I really need is some style tips. Any suggestions on
how to make my fights bigger and better will be greatly appreciated.
This just doesn't seem right.
Not mine.
�Oh, wow! This must have cost a bundle!� Yoshimi cooed as she
caressed
the silk bra.
Ryunosuke blinked and took a second look at it. �Really? How can you
tell?�
One of her other friends, Mitsuko, stared at her. �You mean you
can�t?�
Ryunosuke shrugged. �No, they all look pretty much the same to me. I
mean, I know this one looked pretty good, but it�s just a bra.�
A few of the other girls in the locker room gathered around to join in
the
conversation.
Yoshimi looked back up at Ryunosuke, �Where did you get it if you don�t
know how much it costs?�
�This old woman that lives in my building is always giving me clothes
and
stuff, it was in that.�
�Wow! She must be really nice to give you something like that!� There
were murmurs of agreement from the other girls.
Ryunosuke snorted and mumbled something under her breath. �Well,
anyway,
I don�t like it, but I bet it would look good on you, Yoshimi. You can
have
it.�
�Thanks!� Yoshimi smiled and promptly started trying it on.
(No really, it�s the least I can do,) Ryunosuke snickered mentally,
never
taking her eyes of her friend. �You�re welcome.� She turned back to
one of
the other girls. �How did you know it was expensive?�
�Well, look at what it�s made of. Silk isn�t cheap you know. And then
there�s how it�s made. And the designer, some of the top designs only
come from
certain stores and they have the highest prices.� Mitsuko pulled her
skirt up.
�Take a look at these and guess how much they cost.�
Ryunosuke was all to glad to look, but confessed ignorance of the
price.
Mitsuko told her. Ryunosuke�s eyes widened in shock. �Wow.�
Mitsuko smiled grimly. �Yeah, wow. Mom is real cheap and wouldn�t
give
me the money for them, I had to save up.�
One of the other girls laughed. �I bet it was worth it though, you
haven�t complained about your boyfriend cheating on you lately.�
Everyone laughed.
(I was right,) thought Ryunosuke triumphantly. (It is a perfect fit.)
Yoshimi looked good.
The girls left the locker room in small groups. Ryunosuke let the
conversations delay her exit for a while. She still didn�t say much,
but she
listened intently.
It was fortunate that she was devoting so much of her attention to her
audio sensors, otherwise she might have missed the sharp crackle of
machinegun
fire muffled by many concrete walls. Ryunosuke left the locker room in
a
headlong sprint before the burst had even finished, her earlike external
sensors
swiveling out into place in order to better track the noise.
Kyusaku had also reacted very quickly to the noise, although his
reaction
was more of a self-preservation instinct. He dived to the floor on the
other
side of his desk a second after large caliber slugs smashed through the
top of
his outer wall.
After destroying several square feet of wall, the assault stopped. A
loudspeaker came on. �KYUSAKU! I KNOW YOU�RE IN THERE! GET OUT HERE
SO WE CAN HAVE A HUSBAND TO WIFE CHAT!�
Kyusaku uncovered his head and peeked cautiously over the desk. He
could
just barely see part of the distinctive helicopter Poison One. �Akiko?�
he
asked. (What the hell is she doing here?)
Sensitive microphones had relayed his answer to the women at the
controls.
�YOU ONLY HAVE ONE WIFE, UNLESS YOU FORGOT TO TELL ME SOMETHING!� she
screamed.
With the loudspeaker off, she yelled, �FIRE!�
Another long burst of machinegun fire caused him to duck once again.
It
abruptly shut off and a small feminine form barreled through the remains
of his
wall.
�Dad! Are you okay?� Ryunosuke asked, concerned.
�Just fine son, but it�s going to take me hours to get my office back
in
shape.�
�As fine as you ever are I guess.� She looked back out into the
copter�s
windshield at the arguing women inside. �That�s the same helicopter
that was
chasing us isn�t it?�
Kyusaku nodded as he stood up carefully.
�That�s Mom�s helicopter. And that�s Mom in there.�
�Yes. Your mother wants to have a talk with me.�
Ryunosuke turned and looked back at her father. �Well then. It�s
disrespectful to keep her waiting.� She unceremoniously grabbed her
father and
dragged him outside to the helicopter.
Inside the helicopter, a small argument was under way. Arisa wanted to
just pull the trigger on both Kyusaku and the girl, but Kyoko was
preventing her
from doing it. Akiko was clearly tempted, but she wanted to talk to
Kyusaku
more than she wanted to kill him for being an unfaithful husband.
She would settle for screaming at him right now.
�AND WHO IS THIS? YOUR LATEST CONQUEST? A DAUGHTER BY SOME SLUT YOU
NEVER TOLD BE ABOUT?�
Kyusaku winced at the volume. �Could you maybe turn it down a few
notches? You�re hurting my ears.�
Ryunosuke ignored her father and attempted to ignore the insults thrown
her way by her own mother. She decided to take control of her father�s
end of
the conversation.
�I am NOT his �latest conquest�! That�s sick!� Okay, maybe she wasn�t
so
successful at ignoring the insults.
�KYUSAKU! GET IN THIS HELICOPTER RIGHT NOW! I WANT TO CHOKE YOU TO
DEATH IN PERSON!�
He shook his head slightly. �Why don�t you come down here so we can
talk
about this?�
Inside Poison One, Arisa was getting impatient. She had a ton of
weaponry
at her disposal and everything was turning into a shouting match. She
absentmindedly scratched an itchy trigger finger.
Ryunosuke grabbed her father and jumped back about 10 feet as the
triple-
barreled cannon chewed the ground in a short arc where they had both
been
standing.
�Oops.�
�ARISA!�
Ryunosuke had enough. She knew the capabilities of her body now, and
the
helicopter wasn�t more than 20 feet off the ground. An easy hop.
From a standing start she easily jumped the distance to the hovering
helicopter, impacting just to the left of the big gun. It was an even
simpler
matter to wrap her right arm around the barrels and pull.
The gun bent and twisted until she was able to rip the mangled mess
free
of the housing and fall lightly with it to the ground.
�NOW,� she screamed, �ARE YOU READY TO TALK?�
�How...?� began Arisa.
�Damn...� whispered Kyoko.
�I thought so!� yelled Akiko. �It�s that android Father was griping
about!�
�It just attacked us!�
�It appears to be angry,� commented Kyoko.
�I knew no other woman could take him,� Akiko said quietly. �Except
the
woman from his dreams.�
�Lady?� Kyoko asked.
�Ma�am, we have to defend ourselves,� said Arisa hopefully.
She sagged.
�Ma�am?�
Outside, Kyusaku and Ryunosuke were being ignored. Being unaware of
this,
they carried on a very moving speech, if one sided, on how much they
wanted to
sit down and talk about it like any other family.
Akiko resisted her subordinates� efforts to talk to her. After a few
minutes, they gave up. And perhaps it was that very realization that
they gave
up that spurred her to action. Akiko NEVER gave up.
�He chases after a dream, when he has me. It�s time to show him why
I�m
better than a dream.� She turned to Arisa. �Destroy that horrible
creation of
his. I don�t care what Father says.�
�That�s our Boss!� the two women chorused.
�Missile away,� Arisa said, almost as an afterthought.
Ryunosuke shoved her father to one side and quickly jumped to avoid the
incoming projectile.
More concrete wall crumbled as the missile hit, but fortunately didn�t
blow up.
Ryunosuke�s first thought was to run. Her second thought involved
Yoshimi
but probably wasn�t relevant. It finally occurred to her to protect her
father,
after all, it�s not like she could be hurt.
She darted away from her father and waved her hands. �HEY! OVER
HERE!�
The helicopter obligingly turned and fired another missile. It did
finally occur to her that she was the target, not Kyusaku.
Speaking of targets, Ryunosuke twisted to avoid the latest missile.
Akiko screamed in frustration. �Why didn�t they explode?�
�Umm, you did say not to use live explosives in the city. Without the
guns most of our real offensive power is gone.�
Arisa fired another missile, and this time Ryunosuke simply leaned to
the
side and deflected it.
Akiko screamed in frustration. �Don�t we have anything? The power
suits!
They�re in the back, correct?�
Kyoko nodded.
�Keep it busy! I�ll take it from there!� Akiko disappeared into the
back.
Ryunosuke was getting annoyed. The helicopter didn�t seem to be a real
threat. So much for her Mom�s favorite toy. It was time to end this.
She calculated nine possible angles of attack, and, choosing one,
jumped
backwards to the side of a building to rebound and fly directly at the
helicopter. Arisa fired two more dummies in quick succession but
Ryunosuke was
above the angle of attack, Arisa had tilted the nose too far down in
order to
keep a visual.
Avoiding the blades proved trickier than she had thought but it was
helped
by Arisa pulling the nose back up at the same time she was firing.
Ryunosuke wrapped her legs around the windscreen and waved inside.
Then
she squeezed. Powerful electric muscles in her legs exerted tremendous
force
against the cover, causing a myriad of cracks to appear in its surface.
She relaxed her hold and slipped down as Arisa franticly attempted
evasive
maneuvers, only to grab hold once more and punch straight through the
glass and
into the control panel.
Then she jumped back away from the helicopter, not bothering to let go
of
the fist full of wires she held in her hand. She landed lightly on the
ground
thirty feet away.
Poison One didn�t land so lightly. It didn�t explode, but there was a
finality to the crash that indicated that it wasn�t likely to move under
its own
power again.
Ryunosuke was barely able to contain the impulse to do a victory pose
and
make a speech. It was so tempting, especially when she could see it in
her
mind�s eye, but the nagging worry that other people would see it kept
the
twisted impulse in check.
She looked around for her father, only to see him seated on some rubble
some distance away. He clapped politely.
She shrugged and turned back to the helicopter. �Let�s see if they�re
ready to talk now.� She walked over to the mostly intact body. A brief
search
around the side door revealed enough dents that she was able to pry the
door out
of its mountings.
Dozens of machinegun slugs smashed into her face for her trouble.
Ryunosuke was thrown back several feet from the impact. A light blue
humanoid mecha stumbled out of the downed helicopter, one arm raised and
pointed
at her.
Ryunosuke rolled to one side as another burst tore the ground where she
once was. She flipped to her feet and examined her new opponent. A
small rack
of rockets was mounted on the left shoulder, while the right arm moved
to point
the attached machinegun again. The mecha�s legs didn�t move fluidly
like the
arms, and it seemed to shift it�s weight from leg to leg without cause.
It was a relatively simple matter for her to evade the slow response of
her untrained mother, but she nearly dodged right into the path of one
of the
little rockets.
Explosion-driven rock fragments tore at the remains of her school
uniform
but did nothing against the armored flesh beneath.
Ryunosuke rolled with the blow, once again evading the machinegun. The
mecha paused to bat at a bit of cloth that flapped across it�s
veiwplate.
She took a little bit of time to examine the cloth. It appeared to be
the
lower half of some sort of one piece uniform, although it was hard to
tell with
most of it disappeared into the canopy.
For Ryunosuke though, to see is to act. She was wrapped around the
back
of the mecha before the pilot could even begin to turn around. A sweep
of one
arm smashed the rocket housing while the other stretched the legs of the
suit
across the pilot�s vision.
Ryunosuke held on easily as the mecha turned back and forth, using the
distraction to work her fingers into the crack between the canopy and
the frame,
where the cloth went inside. After that, it was just a matter of
strength.
Akiko watched in a mix of horror and amazement as the thickly armored
cover to Mishima Heavy Industries most powerful single pilot mecha was
ripped
off and dumped to the ground.
Ryunosuke clambered up and stood on the shoulders of the mecha, then
using
the cloth she still had in one hand, pulled her mother out of the mecha.
Gently, but not near as gently as she might have.
Akiko dangled seven feet off the ground, at least until she lifted her
arms and allowed them to slip out of the sleeves of the uniform. She
fell
heavily to the ground.
Ryunosuke was about to speak when her sensors swiveled and informed
her of
another mecha still inside the helicopter. This one moved faster and
surer than
her mother�s. This one was driven by a better pilot. This one had also
just
fired a rocket, which was just about to hit the back of the one she was
standing
on and explode.
Akiko was very lucky that the bulk of the mecha was between her and the
explosion, but she was still knocked sprawling.
Ryunosuke was thrown against the side of a building so hard the wall
cracked, and she came as close to fainting as she had ever came before.
It took
her a few moments to stand up.
By that time, however, Arisa had crossed the distance between them and
had
picked her up by her head. This time in was Ryunosuke�s body that
strained
under the pressure exerted on it.
Arisa moved the machinegun around to point into her torso, then pulled
the
trigger. Hundreds of bullets flattened against the incredibly resistant
flesh.
Ryunosuke screamed for the first time. While the bullets didn�t
actually
cause any damage, and it didn�t actually hurt much, it did cause more
than a
little discomfort.
It took two try�s, but by twisting and kicking with all of her force
Ryunosuke was able to break free. She backflipped away.
Arisa turned and fired the machinegun again. Ryunosuke heard her
mother�s
startled gasp as a few of the bullets came a little to close for
comfort.
Just like what had cause him to become her. And it was all caused by
the
same person.
Ryunosuke growled, and finally, real threat showed through the cute
little
fangs.
Arisa didn�t even have time to blink before the pink-haired missile
slammed into the left knee joint of her mecha. It toppled forward.
Ryunosuke helped gravity along the way as she used her leverage to
speed
up its fall. Arisa was stunned from the impact.
Ryunosuke scanned the joints and seams of the powered armor, searching
for
weak spots on a near instinctual basis. Then she took it apart,
scattering bits
of metal for yards.
Arisa shuddered as she heard the sounds of rending metal above and
behind
her head, helpless with the controls no longer responding to her
commands. She
gurgled in surprise when a powerful hand wrapped around her neck and
lifted her
into the air, facing away from her opponent.
Ryunosuke pointed her captive at her mother, still sitting in roughly
the
same place as she landed. �Do you see that?� Ryunosuke growled, giving
Arisa a
shake. �Huh? Do you see who you nearly hit with that gun? Just
like...� She
shook her, and tightened her grip slightly.
--
Ragun P. Moody
AKA Kichigai
ICQ# 37606443
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