"What's it about?" Ranma felt something stir in the
back of his
mind, old instincts coming to life as AKANE relayed the
report. His grip on
the wheel tightened, blood rushing thorugh his veins as
familiar feelings
seized him.
"Ranma, you okay?"
"How far?"
"We can be there in ten minutes," AKANE replied, "but
the nearest
police units won't get there for at least fifteen. Ranma?"
Ranma ignored her as he stomped on the gas, sending
the car hurtling
forward into the growing night. He reached for the dash on instinct,
surprised to find something missing, though he couldn't recall what.
"What are you doing?!"
"You were built to fight crime, right?"
"Yeah, but not street crime! That's something for local cops!"
"And they ain't gonna get there in time," Ranma
growled, veering the
car into the far right lane scant meters before passing the
off ramp. "That
means it's up to us!"
Why is it the hero always has to be a hero? :)
====================================
"FUCKING MORON!" Bill screamed, the sawed-off double
barrel roaring
in his hands. The clerk's head vanished in a spray of blood and brain
matter, the pellets of twelve-gague buckshot ripping through
gauge, and might I add, GROSS!
the flimsy
shelves of condoms and such behind him. "GET THE FUCKIN' MONEY!"
Jim, clad in the same black mask as he, reached into
the open cash
drawer and grabbed fistfuls of whatever cash he could.
Stuffing it into a
small bag, he managed to empty out the register in record time.
"GET MOVIN'!" Bill screamed, charging out the door
with Jim in tow.
The streets were still mostly quiet, decaying houses darkened as those
inside tried to ignore the world outside their front doors.
When said world involves two gun-totin' freaks, I'd probably want to
ignore it too. :)
The two charged across the cracked concrete to the
waiting car, a
lime green '78 Dodge Charger. It was stolen, of course, from
Oh, a POS car. Lovely.
an elderly
couple back in Tennessee who had stopped at the wrong place
and the wrong time.
The jumped in, the engine turning to life with an
unhealthy roar.
Bill slammed the car into Drive, the tires squealing for a
moment before the
car lurched forward.
=========================================
"DAMN! Too late." Ranma wasn't surprised. The source
of the silent
alarm was the liquor store before which he had parked AKANE.
He didn't have
to go in, the absence of a clerk in the windows explanation
enough. He'd
seen these before, but for the life of him couldn't recall
when or where.
"Hey, those tire marks over there are fresh," AKANE
said. "Looks
like they were made a few minutes ago. I'll bet that's the
way they went!"
"How...?"
"Don't ask, Ranma," AKANE said in exasperation, "I
just know, okay?
"Okay," he replied, pushing aside his confusion and
admiration.
"Let's nail those bastards!"
==========================================
"How much?" Bill asked as the Charger sped down the highway.
"Don't know yet," Jim replied, wondering just what
that knocking
sound from the engine meant. "I'm still countin'."
"Well, hurry up! We gotta ditch this car, man." Jim
resumed countng,
Bill keeping the gas pedal floored as they made their escape.
"Hey, what the
hell?"
"What, man?"
"There's a car comin' up behind us," Bill said,
paranoia slipping
into his voice. "Fast!"
"Cops?"
"Dunno, don't see no blue lights."
"Maybe it's just some punk with a fast car," Jim
said, not really
wanting to tell Bill they'd just killed a man for a lousy
seventy-five dollars.
"In that case," Bill said with a dangerous sneer,
"it's gonna be our
next ride!"
=======================================
"That's them," Ranma snarled, anger coursing through
his tense body.
"They're going fast enough," AKANE said. "According
to my scans,
their engine's in pretty bad shape. It won't hold out much longer,
especially under that kind of abuse."
"Well, I ain't gonna wait for their car to crap out,"
Ranma said,
"I'm gonna stop 'em here and now!"
A flash of light followed by a thunderous roar came
from the car
ahead, followed a millisecond later by a spark on AKANE's
hood. Another
flash and thunderclap rang out, a spark shooting off the front glass.
"Those bastards are shooting up my paint!" AKANE
shouted angrily,
"why those little..."
Why am I reminded of that scene from Spaceballs, where the prissy
little princess loses a chunk of hair to a blaster bolt and turns into
Rambette?
//Bulletproof,\\ Ranma thought in admiration, //not
too shabby!\\ "I
gotta stop 'em before they get to a residential area."
"There's a button on the console labelled 'G'," AKANE said.
"Yeah, got it."
"When I tell you, push it."
"Hey, I'm drivin' here!"
"Just push the damn button, willya!"
"Okay, okay," Ranma said, keeping AKANE a few meters
behind the Charger.
===========================================
"What the hell?" Jim stared stupidly at his gun, a
KTW .44 Magnum.
One of the most powerful handguns ever made, it should have
shredded that
car's hood and windshield. Instead, he just saw the rounds spark off
harmlessly. Puzzlement giving way quickly to frustration, he
emptied the
remaining rounds at the pursuing car, the bullets bouncing
off the black
metal as if they were just BB's.
He ducked back inside, scrambling thorugh his coat
for another six
rounds. Bill was shouting something, Jim too stunned to
really hear. That
car had just taken six Magnum rounds without even slowing
down. Any other
car would hae had a demolished engine and dead driver, but
that thing just
kept on comin'!
Christine on crack. :)
The car lurched to a stop, Jim's head slamming into
the glovebox
with violent force. He leaned back, moaning and massaging his
forehead while
Bill screamed curses and continued to gun the engine despite
the growing
knocking sound.
============================================
"Hey, a grappling hook!" Ranma slammed on the brakes,
AKANE's wheels
locking as the shudder ripped through her body.
"DAMN! They'd better not tear anything loose," AKANE exclaimed
dangerously as Ranma threw the shifter in Reverse. The sound
He threw it into _reverse_? At 50/60 miles per hour? Whatinhell
sort of tranny does AKANE have? Any normal car (assuming the safety locks
would let you) that you did that to would have the tranny go 'NOT' and jump
out of the hood.
The brakes, yes. Reverse? I don't think he'd do that - even if
AKANE could handle it, how would he know?
of screaming
tires and the stench of burning rubber filled the air as
smoke billowed from
AKANE's rear wheels. The two howling engines formed a
dischordant harmony in
the night as the two cars struggled against each other, the
cable connecting
them taut almost to breaking.
"Man, that thing sounds terrible," Ranma said to
himself as AKANE
began to pull the Charger backward.
"Their engine will go in about another thirty
seconds," AKANE said.
"Sounds like it's gonna throw a rod or launch a piston!" The struggle
continued until, almost thirty seconds later, the Charger's
engine died.
After all the abuse the tired old scrapheap had finally given
up the ghost,
going out with a horrible clunk.
Grinning ferally, Ranma placed AKANE back in Park,
leaping out the
door and running to the other car.
"RANMA!" she shouted, "get back here! You're
unarmed!" Ranma ignored
the warning, reaching the driver's door just as it opened.
Not wasting a
second, he reached into the derelict's intereior, hands
interior
closing around a
denim vest. He yanked the driver out, landing a vicious blow
to his solar
plexus before sending him into the grip of sleep with a shot
to the temple.
Operating solely on instinct, Ranma ducked beneath
the car a second
before the shot rang out. He rolled beneath the car, coming
Is the Charger jacked up or something? All the ones I've seen are
pretty low-slung, to the point where it'd be nigh-impossible to roll under
it.
up behind the
passenger just as he began to move to the driver's side.
Quick as any cat, Ranma rose to his feet and landed a
haymaker to
the back of the passenger's neck. The masked man hit the ground in a
crumpled heap, his gun clattering to the pavement. Ranma
stood there for a
moment, allowing the exhilaration of combat to fill him as he
stood over his
unconscious opponent.
"Ranma, get back here!" AKANE shouted, "the police
are on their
way!" With a final look about, Ranma ran to AKANE's
still-open door, leaping
in and slamming it shut just before she took off into the night.
"ARE YOU STUPID!?" she shouted, "you could've gotten
yourself killed!"
"Gee, AKANE, sounds like you were worried."
"I was not!"
"Were too!"
"Was not! You're my driver, it's my job to look out
for you!" Ranma
refrained from comment, wondering just how he had gotten in
an argument with
a Trans Am in the first place.
Gee, I wonder.
<snip>
"Let's go, AKANE. It's a big world out there, and we
have our work
cut out for us."
"I'm with you, Ranma."
Well, at least they get along... sort of. ;)
=============================================
Well, that's the revision. Comments? Questions? Love
to hear them!
I like. Good action, nice feel, and the characterizations are
pretty good, even if they're in odd places. I can just imagine what the
behind-the-scenes part of the fic would be, though... :)
"Y'know, this ain't so bad. Sure, I lost my memory an' stuff, but I
get to drive a cool car, beat up the bad guys, and wear this neat jacket."
"Easy for you to say, Ranma," Akane sniffed. "You're not the one
who IS the car. And watch where you put your hands!"
Jed
Brian Payne
sofaspud@ior.com
brianp@nhspokane.com
http://www.ior.com/~sofaspud