Ranma: Xero
Part 5
Fire on Xiun Tou River.
Shampoo slammed against the muddy earth at the bottom of the river. The
screen in front of her face blurred as the water around her was brought
to a boil from the flames that now covered the outer armor of the giant
robot. She snorted in disgust as various displays lit up around her
giving messages in a strange language she could not recognize. "What's
happening?" she cried in frustration as the controls failed to respond in
time to avoid another blast.
"Come on little bug, it seems you're more in tune with that robot than I
previously thought. The X-09 series was created for operating in the seas
and rivers on the battlefield." Fei chuckled roughly and watched the
struggling unit burn in front of him. "That fire won't do much to your
armor, but it does give me an excellent beacon to see where you're
hiding. As an added bonus it will mess up quite a few of your sensors as
well." She giggled maniacally and shut down the transmission. As soon as
the young girl's face was gone her expression became deadly calm again.
Shampoo watched as the red robot stood perfectly still in the water in
front of her and raised its fist up. The clawed hand began to glow again
and the water boiled around the extended palm. One of the readouts on her
left side began to climb rapidly and she snorted. "That must be some kind
of temperature gage," she thought absently.
The red unit charged forward suddenly and shot forward the claw once
again. Shampoo pulled up the spear and blocked the strike again, but at
the cost of her weapon. The claw lost its forward momentum as it burned
through the shaft of the spear. The Amazon girl held the remains of the
weapon and ended up with a rather large knife. She glared at her opponent
and snarled angrily as the machine spun the chain over its head creating
a glowing red circle as the claw left a trail of light as it moved in a
wide circle.
"I've got to attack!" cried Shampoo as she pushed herself off the wall
of earth that she had been pushed into yet again. The red mech countered
with a slash from the chain that was easily avoided. Shampoo simply
sidestepped and spun into a kick that slammed into her opponent's chest
sending it reeling back.
"What the hell was that?" cried Fei as she glared at the machine in
front of her in shock. It was standing in a strange battle ready position
again that she did not recognize. "Is this what I've heard reports about?
Strange, I was expecting more."
"Focus, you must focus!" said Cologne inside Shampoo's mind. She closed
her eyes and was in an almost meditative state. The screams of her family
and friends filled her mind as the flames of Joketsuko seemed to burn
perpetually in the back of her mind. "Now! Destroy her!" said the voice
of her teacher from deep inside her. She slowly opened her eyes and
stared forward with a strange calm overcoming her.
"I cannot allow myself to lose control."
Fei paused as the transmission came in. "Lose control? Something is up!"
The mech's entire body began to glow red as she powered up the defensive
mechanisms to full power. "Come on insect, show me what you can do!"
Shampoo had a slow realization. She had forgotten everything her Great
Grandmother had taught her in this battle. She knew that the village was
gone, she knew that he had killed hundreds of villagers, she also knew
that she was losing badly. Her rage had consumed her completely and she
knew that it would be over for her if she continued as she had. Rage was
good, it made you stronger; but it must be controlled. She glared forward
through the flames that still smoldered on the chest plate and paused as
she flicked several switches on the console. Four yellow triangles
appeared on the screen and focused on a single point ahead of her. They
all pointed inward at the same point and suddenly turned red. "I've found
you."
Fei jumped up as the purple mech moved forward with a strange fluidity
in its movements. She gasped and shifted her weight back as it slammed
into her unit delivering several strong blows. She growled angrily and
slashed down with the chain forcing the girl back and creating a blast of
mud and bubbles as the ground was suddenly superheated. When the claw
pulled back a glowing red spot of magma remained behind and she spun in
desperate search of her opponent. "Damn her! How did I lose her?!" She
jolted forward as she was struck from behind and screamed in frustration.
Shampoo grunted in satisfaction and smiled as the red unit fell face
first onto the ground. She prepared to grab its arm when it suddenly
moved upwards and kicked down catching the unit in the head. The purple
mech staggered back as it attempted to keep its balance.
"You little bug! Can't you see you don't have the strength to hurt me!"
snarled Fei with a deadly calm in her voice as the small screen came to
life suddenly.
Shampoo glared at the mech in front of her ignoring the transmission and
charged again. This time she started with a kick to the thing's side and
performed several super fast blows to it's midsection before finishing
with a spinning kick to its head. The red mech stumbled back but managed
to stay on its feet. The only evidence of the attack was a small dent in
the chest armor.
"My blows aren't strong enough," growled Shampoo in frustration as she
moved back into a defensive stance.
The red mech recalled its hand once again and moved forward in an open
palm strike. Shampoo grunted as the sirens came to life inside the
cockpit again. Her eyes went wide as a low rumbling shook the entire mech
and she screamed as the red unit unleashed the flame-thrower inside its
palm again while forcing her to the ground with all of its weight.
"Cook! Fry you bug!" snarled the redhead.
Shampoo stared forward in frustration as the interior of the unit
started to grow increasingly hot with every passing second. "I've got to
get her off!" she thought in desperation. She moved almost instinctually.
The purple unit kicked its legs up and wrapped them around the head of
the enemy unit while the hands moved from attempting to shield against
the attack to planting themselves into the ground just behind he head.
"What the hell are you doing bug? Just fry!" snarled Fei as she
continued to press her attack despite the strange movements. Her eyes
went wide with shock as the world around her seemed to spin as she was
thrown headfirst into the ground by the maneuver. The purple unit's legs
had pulled upwards and thrown her away and then pulled her back down.
The amazon girl jumped upwards and growled in frustration. "Damn! I
don't have anything strong enough to hurt that monster! What the hell am
I going to do?" She paused again as the sound of something mechanical
moving on the unit caught her attention again.
Fei snarled in anger as she looked up at the glowing red spot on the
purple unit's chest that seemed to mock her. "Little brat! I'll destroy
you completely now!" She raised her palm up towards the surface and
smiled as the hole began to glow with a familiar flame. "Full power! I
want to cook her inside that damn thing!"
Ranma Saotome stood off against the enraged kendoist next to the
swimming pool and smirked. "Who says I want to marry that uncute tomboy
anyway?"
"Silence cur! I will not hear you speak of Akane Tendo so!" snapped Kuno
angrily as he charged forward.
"What the heck are you gonna do about it?" said Ranma coolly as he
easily danced around the boy's strikes.
"I shall smite thee!" roared the boy as he charged forward.
Ranma frowned and simply lashed out in a punch. The pair passed each
other and paused with their backs facing. The pigtailed boy stood up and
cracked his neck lazily as he slowly walked over tot he still frozen
Kuno. "Had enough yet?"
"I do not concede!" muttered the boy as he fell face first onto the
pavement.
"Dope, you already lost," grumbled Ranma as he casually walked away from
the scene.
Kuno pushed himself up in a daze and looked at the boy's back.
"Impossible...I cannot...lose..." with that said he fell down again
passed out.
"Well, that's the end of that," said Ranma cheerfully as he headed
towards the doors of the school. Akane appeared around the corner and
frowned at him as he walked up.
"Don't bet on it, Kuno is a sore loser," she commented with a hint of
anger in her voice.
"Yeah, whatever," said the boy as he moved towards the front gates.
"Ranma-sensei, do not take my brother so lightly. If anything he is
persistent, this will not be enough to deter him from Akane Tendo,"
agreed Kodachi as she appeared next to the girl.
"See if I care, I'm not doing this to help her you know," said the boy
as he looked the both of them over before continuing on his way.
"Leaving so soon?" commented Kodachi with a small smirk on her face.
"School isn't over yet!" said Akane with a warning tone in her voice.
"I've had enough of this place for today," grumbled the boy as he walked
out of the gates.
Kodachi and Akane looked at each other and blinked. They shrugged their
shoulders and followed him out the front gates.
Soun Tendo sat at the head of a large desk with several older men
sitting around him. "What is the meaning of this Tendo? You said nothing
of his returning to the complex?" snapped one of the old men angrily. He
was a thin man wearing a wide rimmed pair of glasses. He pushed them up
his nose and snorted distastefully.
"You did not need to know," said Soun calmly.
"What do you mean?" snarled a larger man on the opposite side of the
table.
"You are not the final word of this operation. I am, your funding is
appreciated and I do give reports on most of what goes on here. I am in
sole control of this operation here. You may be the board of directors of
your corporation, but need I remind you that this is not considered a
part of the company. You merely fund this operation, the technology here
belongs to me."
"Tendo you are treading on dangerous ground," said one of the men
nearby.
"You could of course pull your funding, lose any research gained by the
operation, and have turn the project over to the government for funding,"
said Soun carefully.
All of the men at the table remained quiet at this.
"I have given you quite a bit of liberty here, you know of most of our
projects and are given a limited amount of authority here in thanks to
your grants. However many of the operations here are still considered top
secret. I do not have to divulge this information too you. Nor am I
required to allow the company to reap the rewards of the technology we
discover here, but I do anyway. Please remember that you old men are
nothing more than figureheads to me."
More silence dominated the table for a long moment. "Tendo, you say that
this is not part of our corporation. I can accept that, but this is
something that you should not have kept from us. It's too important to
our future as a company."
"How so?" said Soun calmly.
"Well he is one of them after all," said the fat man with a rough cough.
"It could be seen as a breech of national defense if he is noticed by
other parties. That puts our investment at risk," agreed the thin man
calmly.
"Rubbish, if not for him we would not have been able to accomplish any
of what we have here. He unlocked the secrets of the technology we have
here. I will not allow him to be turned away just because you are
nervous. He gave us this project." Soun turned towards the window and
gazed out over the city with his back turned on the men. He sighed and
smiled almost absently. "I realize how much I owe you men, I also know
that many of you do so only in memory of my wife, but you must understand
this. I cannot allow you to force my hand on this as I have let you so
many times in the past. My decision is final. Good day." He stood up and
walked out of the room leaving the men alone for a long moment.
The thin man pushed his glasses back up his nose again and sighed. "We
all knew this day was coming. I know none of you were unaware that he was
keeping things secret from us, and with good reason. I have a report from
one of my inside men about one of these projects, and I promise you that
it will benefit us all to remain with the project."
"I doubt any of us has any real intention of leaving. It is a massive
strain on our resources to keep this place up, but we do it for our own
sake. The units the military uses are inferior by far to the ones we have
here. We just can't make them good enough without the problem interfering
again," said the fat man calmly.
The eldest of the men who sat directly across from Soun stood up and
addressed the table calmly. He leaned against a polished cane and spoke
softly. "Don't kid yourselves about having inside men. Soun knows who
they are and what they are doing, he just tolerates it. I have also seen
some of the secret projects he's housing inside this place. I promise you
that he already has government funding. We must watch ourselves
carefully."
"Agreed," said the thin man as he calmed visibly.
Cologne stood in the center of the slowly dying flames and wept openly
as Joketsuko burned.
"Elder, I have found three more...dead," said a young girl of about
fourteen as she rushed up to her side. Her arm was wrapped in a makeshift
sling that was torn from her shirt. The old woman turned and looked at
her.
"Where at child?" her voice was gentle, almost motherly despite the pain
in her eyes.
"The remains of he great hall," muttered the girl halfheartedly.
"So, we are all that remains of the elders?" said Sin Ku as she hobbled
up beside her old friend and rival with a similar look about her.
"So it seems, how many survivors have we found young one?" asked Sin Ku
as she lit the cracked and charred remains of her pipe calmly.
"Only twenty," said the girl sadly. She broke down into tears and
attempted to hide her sorrow as she turned away and straightened her back
suddenly.
"Do not hide your sorrow child. We have all lost family and friends here
today. We are a broken village. That red giant has accomplished what
three thousand years of vicious Chinese governments could not." Cologne
hopped to her side and rested her hand on her shoulder. "We will have our
revenge yet, Shampoo still lives." Almost in answer to her a pillar of
flames erupted into the sky in the distance.
Sin Ku walked up again and spoke up. "Several of the patrols returned
from their post outside the village now that the wall of fire has died
down. That accounts for ten more. The north patrol was ambushed and
perished bravely though."
The old woman nodded and watched the pillar disappear in a cloud of
smoke. "Shampoo is by the river at the moment."
"Yes, I hope for her success, however that does not change the fact that
our once proud village has become nothing but a small band. We cannot
survive another attack such as this one."
Cologne nodded and sighed. "That is a problem we must deal with later.
Find what survivors we can and evacuate the village."
The old woman nodded silently and moved away.
Fei snarled as she blasted upward. The purple unit was enveloped in a
jet of fire. "Die!"
"I don't think so!" growled Shampoo.
Fei's eyes went wide as she saw a white light from inside her flame jet
that moved towards her at an alarming rate. "No!"
Shampoo burst from the flames and landed behind the red unit kneeling
silently. The purple unit rose to its feet and turned back to face the
red demon again. In her right hand was what looked like a lance of pure
white light giving the area surrounding it a surreal glow.
Fei growled as the right arm of her unit floated down to the ground
beside her. A long slash appeared marring the chest armor that sparked
with energy. "It seems I have underestimated you girl."
"I don't care," replied the girl with a cold angry tone to her voice as
she raised the weapon into a ready position.
"We'll meet again!" snarled Fei as she cut her transmission.
"No! Damn you!" screamed the amazon as the red unit shot upwards like a
rocket and blasted out of the water. "Come back and die!" She lunged
forward barely missing the legs as she attempted to slash out at her
enemy. The purple unit landed roughly on the ground and pushed itself up
onto its hands and knees.
Mousse stood in awe as the enemy blasted up out of the water and
streaked away across the sky. He looked forward at the now still waters
and held his breath hoping desperately. "Shampoo..." he muttered with
tears forming in his eyes.
After several long moments that seemed like hours he paused as a small
disturbance appeared on the river in front of him. He stepped back in
shock as the purple unit walked out of the water holding the glowing
lance in its hand. Steam rose from the body as it slowly broke the
surface and walked onto the bank of the river with a limping stride.
Finally after it moved towards him on the edge of the river it stopped
and fell to its knees. The thing hissed with heat and the boy was forced
to back away from the giant as it stopped completely.
Mousse rushed forward and attempted to climb up to the cockpit. He
grabbed the left leg for purchase and screamed in pain as his hand burst
into pain followed by a loud hissing sound. He staggered back and
clutched his hand in agony as the skin blistered from the burns he had
received. He paused and stepped back staring at the thing angrily.
"Shampoo! Can you hear me!?"
After several seconds a familiar hiss filled the air as the cockpit
opened slowly revealing the girl inside. She stepped forward and jumped
down, staggering as she hit the ground. She managed to keep her balance
and steadied herself slowly. The girl was covered in sweat and had a hard
determined stare etched into her features. She turned and seemed to
notice him standing near her before she collapsed to the ground in
exhaustion.
"Shampoo!"
In the skies above Mars, the Admiral sat in his throne high above the
bridge of the Judicator. "What is your report?"
"Mission aborted due to heavy damage," said the gruff voice over the
intercom.
"That is unfortunate," said the man calmly as he lifted a glass up to
his lips and drank.
"They use a style of combat I've never seen before. I can see why none
of the scouts we've sent here returned," said the voice over the intercom
coldly.
"Most interesting, I take it you will send a full report?"
"Yes, I'm making repairs on the moon base now," said the voice with a
hint of anger. "I'd like to analyze it for myself if you don't mind."
"Very well," said the man calmly. "Is Siore there?"
"Yes, Siore will be briefed before she heads out. Although, I'm sure
she's familiar with this due to her encounters before."
"Siore never was very observant, see to it that she is at least
informed," said the man with a heavy sigh. "That is why I sent you after
all."
"Yes Admiral," said the voice in reply.
"Do not fail me again," said the Admiral in a cool voice.
"For the Empire," growled the voice.
"Yes," said the man as he cut off the link. "For the Empire."
TBC...
Next Time: Danger in Nerima! Blackheart Attacks!
C&C to Carrotglace@juno.com
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