Insertion

 Part 24

 Escape!

++++++++++++++++

 Jupiter sat in the cockpit of her ship with a cold frown on her face.
The space station loomed before her silently as she powered down her
thrusters and floated towards it for a moment.

 Two of the security ships closed in on either side of her a fair
distance away, one of them hailed her and she acknowledged them with a
flip of a switch. "What?"

 "Ah, we are honored by your presence, to what do we owe this visit?"
asked a voice that obviously wasn't the pilot of that ship. It was
probably relaying a message from the head security office of the complex.

 "None of your business, stay out of my way," she replied as she turned
the switch off again and fired up her engines. She turned and watched the
two security ships move away from her. A small blush formed on her face
as they banked away rather quickly. "Who the hell designed those things?
They look like giant..."

++++++++++++

 Ranma was standing with his lightsaber in his hand. A girlish scream was
the only sound in the room after the rather short confrontation. He
turned to see the Valdis impersonator screaming with his knees pulled up
to his chest. The man seemed to notice the boy was looking at him, and
that the shooting had stopped. He suddenly calmed and looked around,
surprised that he was still alive.

 "Well, I'm impressed," said Valdis's voice from the speakers in the
room.

 "Make sure you remember this when we really meet," said Ranma coldly. He
turned and stabbed the speaker in the ceiling, silencing the voice. "That
guy sounds like James Earl Jones," he commented as he turned away.

 Serena and Hanna were both staring at him in shock. He had deflected a
hail of laser fire with his blade, and killed every guard with their own
fire.

 Ranma turned off the blade and started walking out the door. Serena and
Hanna simply stood still, not daring to move. After a moment Ranma stuck
his head back in the room. "There's more of them coming you know. Come
on."

 That snapped them out of their stupor and they followed him out into the
hallway.

 "How did you..." muttered Hanna as she nervously approached his back.

 "Wow! That was so cool!" exclaimed Serena sunnily.

 Ranma looked at her and hooked his sword back onto his belt.  He stooped
down and picked up one of the weapons the soldiers had used. It looked
somewhat like a pump shotgun, but it was completely black and obviously
didn't fire bullets. "Both of you grab a weapon."

 Serenity immediately did so, and Hanna reluctantly followed. "Hey. You
know how to use that?" asked the woman as she turned towards the young
princess.

 "Don't be silly. Marksmanship is one of the classes I have to take every
day," replied the girl with a small shrug.

 "Oh," said Hanna dumbly. "So now what?"

 Ranma shrugged his shoulders. "Back to the ship I guess."

 "Lead on," said the woman. She gave a small wave of her hand, pushing
the responsibility off on him.

 "Huh? You mean...you don't know the way back either?" said the boy as
his eyes went wide with surprise.

 "No," replied the two girls in unison.

 Ranma pushed them up against the wall as a group of armored men marched
by in the hallway just in front of them. "Great. This place is probably
crawling with those creeps too."

 "So what do we do?" snapped Hanna angrily.

 "Sneak around until we find where we parked. Man, this is worse than
going to the mall," said Ranma as he glanced around the corner.

 "The mall?" said Serenity dumbly.

 "Yeah, at least when you lose your ride there, people don't try and kill
you," explained the boy.

 "Oh," muttered Serena. It was obvious she had no clue what he was
talking about.

 "Let's go," said Ranma as he motioned for them to follow.

+++++++++++

 Jupiter stepped off of her ship and frowned. The craft that had escaped
her on Earth was sitting right next to her own. Service men shuffled
around the craft aimlessly, working on repairing something inside. She
snorted and started walking into the complex.

+++++++++++

 "Well, we can see it at least," said Hanna as she looked out of one of
the windows and stared down at the ship for a moment.

 "That's comforting," commented Ranma as he glanced around nervously.
"Can we get to it though?"

 "I think I see a way," muttered Hanna. "It's a bit longer than the way
we came though."

 "Better get moving then," said Serenity cheerfully.

 "Will you quit it! We could be killed!" snapped Hanna as she glared at
the girl. "How can you be so cheerful?"

 "Sorry," said the princess sheepishly.

 "Quit complaining," said Ranma. 

 A group of armored men turned the corner and jumped in surprise. "There
they are!"

 Ranma turned as the men raised their weapons and fired a few shots,
taking three of them down. "Get to the ship! I'll hold them off and catch
up!"

 Hanna and Serena nodded and broke into a run as laser blast began to
buzz by them. Ranma screamed angrily and fired back, keeping their
accuracy down, and taking a few out as well.

 Serena gasped as a large metal door suddenly slammed down between them.
"No! He's..."

 "Gone! There's nothing we can do," said Hanna as she pulled on the
girl's arm and forced her to keep moving.

++++++++++++++++

 Ranma blinked as he realized that his planned escape route had suddenly
vanished. "Oh hell." He turned and noticed that more and more of the
armored men were starting to appear in the hallway. "We need to leave
now..." he told himself as he slowly moved towards another passageway to
his right.

 He dove into the hall just as several laser blasts flew by, the second
he was through, and another blast door came crashing down. "Well, we
aren't going back that way. Looks like they tried to box us in." He
glanced around at his new surroundings and frowned. It was a dark narrow
hallway with no extra passageways. Obviously some kind of maintenance
passage. "We need to leave, getting caught in a place like this would be
a bad idea."

 He started jogging down the long and slowly sloping hallway. Along the
way he tripped a few times over large wires and tubes that ran along the
ground. He finally reached the end after a few minutes and found himself
on a raised platform in a dank and mist filled room. The floor glowed
orange through the metal grates that made up the walking surface. He
looked around in confusion for a moment before the door shut behind him
again. "Great, we aren't leaving that way."

 After a moment of wandering around looking for another way out, a
strange crackling noise caught his attention. He swallowed and slowly
turned around. 

 Standing at the top of a stairway, a glowing war-hammer made of
lightening in her hand, was the Senshi of Jupiter. She had a cold scowl
on her face as she looked down at him. "Where is the princess?"

 "Actually, I was just trying to find her," said the boy sheepishly as he
grinned at her dumbly and scratched the back of his head.

 "I suppose I'll just have to get rid of you, and find her myself then,"
said the Senshi coldly as she pointed the weapon at him.

 Rather than pull out his lightsaber and face off against her, Ranma held
up the rifle and pumped the handle. A pinging tone, followed by a high
pitched whine suddenly filled the room as his face grew completely
serious. "Come get some."

 Jupiter charged and swung the hammer, only to be blown off of her feet
as Ranma fired the weapon and hit her dead in the chest. She lay flat on
her back for a moment and slowly rose to her feet. "You should know that
won't kill me."

 "No, but I bet it stings like a bitch," replied Ranma coldly.

 Jupiter screamed in rage and jumped into the air over the boy's head. He
trained the weapon on her, firing into the air as she passed over him and
finally managed to tag her just as she landed. Jupiter was sent sprawling
again and slowly stood up.

 "I've had enough of this," snorted Jupiter angrily as she grabbed the
grating. Electric power surged through the floor. The senshi frowned as
her target dropped his weapon and jumped straight up into a large set of
tubes and pipes. "Impressive, most impressive."

 Ranma landed with his lightsaber in his hand, eyeing her coldly as one
of the blades came to life. "Look lady, I've got places to be."

 Jupiter readied her war-hammer and smirked. "It's not everyday I meet
someone who isn't afraid to go toe to toe with a senshi. Let me show you
just how stupid that is."

 Ranma charged, hacking at her with the blade. She blocked with the
handle of her weapon and the two energies collided showering sparks on
the combatants. They broke apart and slashed at one another, blocking
each other's strikes and countering skillfully.

 After a short time, Ranma forced Jupiter to step back. "Release your
anger! Only your hatred will destroy me!"

 Jupiter snorted and spun around in a wide swing that took the pigtailed
boy completely by surprise. His lightsaber clattered across the grating,
with his left hand still attached to it. His eyes went wide with shock
and he clutched at the stump. Falling to his knees he screamed in anger
and pain.

 "Now. I'll ask you again. Where is the princess?" said the Senshi coldly
as she pointed her weapon at him. It crackled angrily, tiny bits of his
flesh still burning where the handle had taken the hand off.

 Ranma was looking at the ground and holding his stump against his chest.
The wound was burned shut, and there was no blood. He slowly rose to his
feet and turned his eyes up at her. "You fucking dike. You cut off my
goddamn hand!"

 "If you're lucky, I'll only cut off one more part of you," she replied
icily. "Where is she?"

 "Playtime is over bitch," said the boy as he glared at her.

 "Wha?" Jupiter's face went blank as he said this. An unseen force lifted
her off of her feet and threw her across the room.

 Ranma was standing and glaring at her hatefully, an aura of angry power
surrounding his body. His hair was blown around by an unnatural wind as
he slowly stalked forward. "I'm going to make you pay for that hand
bitch."

 Jupiter staggered back onto her feet and glared at him. "What the?"

 He reached out his hand and the lightsaber flew back into his open palm.
Both blades came to life this time, but he stopped moving towards her. 

 Jupiter growled and formed her own weapon in her grip again.

 The boy merely smiled at her and turned his head slightly. One of the
small machines that filled the room ripped itself out of the floor and
floated in mid air. 

 Jupiter gasped and readied herself. The machine flew forward and she
prepared to knock it out of the air, but the metal box that struck her
from behind threw off her aim, and she found herself taking two hits. She
turned to swing in retaliation, only to have something hit her on her
undefended side again. She staggered against the wall and stumbled for a
moment. 

 "One question. Are you my father?" said Ranma as he stared at her.

 "What?" muttered the senshi in confusion.

 "Then die," he said as the wind that seemed to surround him suddenly
picked up. 

 The invisible force threw Jupiter back yet again, this time she slammed
into a large machine that took up most of the center of the room. She
screamed in rage, electric power coursed through her body as she found
herself breaking through the thin metal plating outside the machine.
Wires and conductors reacted with her power and flooded her entire body.

 Ranma merely stood watching for a moment and then turned away. She was
obviously still alive, but out cold, and probably to hurt to bother him
again for a while.
 
 "Hey, it's the exit," he told himself weakly as he found the door where
Jupiter had entered the room.

+++++++++++++++

 "How the hell was I supposed to know?" gasped Hanna as she dashed down
the hallway in a full sprint. Serena was just behind her, trying
desperately to keep up.

 "You led us into the cafeteria!" snapped the princess irritably.

 They turned a corner and found themselves looking at a wall. 

 "Oh shit," said Hanna as she backed away.

 "They've got us!" cried Serena desperately. The sound of a large group
of men coming towards them suddenly filled the hall.

 "We're doomed," said Hanna weakly as she slumped down against one of the
walls.

 Serena blinked as she peered at the dead end for a moment. "What's that
spot?"

 "Huh?" muttered the woman as she looked up. There was a glowing red spot
on the wall. Just as she started to move in for a closer look, a long,
red, glowing rod poked through the wall, narrowly missing her nose.
"Eep!"

 Serenity looked on in awe as a large hole was cut into the wall in a few
seconds. The carved out portion slammed forward between them, slamming
into the ground with a loud clang.

 "Damn! This isn't it either!" snapped Ranma as he stepped through and
looked around. His left arm was tucked into his side and the lightsaber
was in his free hand.

 "You!" gasped Hanna in awe.

 "You saved us again!" cried Serena.

 "Huh? Saved you?" muttered Ranma in confusion.

 As if in answer to that, a huge group of armored men rounded the corner
firing their weapons at anything in front of them.

 Ranma's eyes went wide as he saw this and he stepped back into the hole
again. "Crom!"

 Hanna and Serena pulled at him and they ran into the passageway.

+++++++++++++

 Jupiter woke up with a small groan. Sparks were shooting from the wiring
that surrounded her as she slowly sat up and looked around.  She was
sitting inside of a rather large machine. "What the hell is this thing?"
she muttered irritably as she stood up and dusted herself off.

 As soon as her body came out of contact with the wires, the entire room
went dark. "Oh hell."

+++++++++++++

 Ranma paused and looked around in confusion. Serena and Hanna both
panicked and grabbed each other screaming.

 "Shut up!" snapped the boy as he looked at them. "What the hell
happened?"

 "Power failure," said Hanna. The dock was just ahead of them and they
moved towards it through the confused crowd that had formed.

 "That's bad right?" said Serena.

 "The station isn't going to last very long without power," replied
Hanna. "Whoever did this took out the auxiliary systems too. The entire
space station is going to freeze over in a few minutes, after that..."

 "What? It'll explode?" joked Ranma.
 
 "Well, yeah. There's nothing to contain the energy in the reactor
without some sort of power flow to the containment unit. If the emergency
lights aren't even on, then..."

 "You're joking right," deadpanned Ranma flatly.

 "I don't hear any emergency sirens, no announcements, nothing. This
place is completely dead," said Hanna.

 "Oh boy," muttered Ranma as he started running towards the docks. The
people around them seemed to realize what was happening, and they all
panicked. 

+++++++++++++++

 "Hey, the station is going to explode," announced Ranma as he walked
onto the deck of the ship and looked around at the three men who were
working on the warp driver.

 "What?" said one of the men dumbly.

 "We're leaving right?" said Serena cheerfully as she sat down in one of
the seats.

 "If any of you guys have family on board, or want to get off. I suggest
you do so now," said Hanna as she walked by them towards the cockpit.

 The men looked at one another for a moment in confusion. The engines of
the ship roared to life, and all three of the scrambled towards the door.

 "Hey, they left their tools," muttered Ranma as he sat down and
grimaced.

 "Are you coming?" said Hanna as she noticed that he wasn't moving
towards the cockpit. 

 "Nope, sorry. I gotta take care of this first," he said as he raised his
severed hand and showed it to them.

 Hanna gasped and staggered back in shock.

 Serena's eyes went wide. "What happened?" she cried sympathetically.

 "Senshi of Jupiter," replied the boy calmly as he pulled the first aid
kit off the wall and pulled out some bandages. "Hurts like a bitch too."

 "What?" muttered Hanna dumbly as she watched him wrap the stump with
bandages.

 "Don't we have to leave now?" he said as he paused long enough to look
up at her.

 "Gah! The explosion!" cried Hanna as she rushed back into the cockpit.

 Serena was watching the boy calmly wrap his arm in a sort of fascinated
horror. This wasn't the way the stories she'd heard went. The handsome
hero was supposed to be invincible against evil, and protect the
beautiful princess from the forces of darkness. Ranma was not what she'd
expected her handsome hero to be. She nodded her head and closed her
eyes, promising herself that she'd ensure that he'd get what he deserved.
After such an ordeal, he'd be so disappointed if she didn't marry him.
Endimyon was a flake anyway. He'd get over it.

 Ranma looked up at her with a confused frown. She was thinking about
something, but he had absolutely no clue what.

 Finally, they lifted off and blasted into space.

+++++++++++++

 Jupiter calmly walked through the chaos towards her ship. The station
was shaking violently and huge pieces of it were falling into the
panicking mob that tried to make it to the escape pods. There weren't
more than a hundred people left on board, but they were all massed around
the central area where the pods were. 

 She turned to look at them for a moment. Luckily, the escape pods had
their own power systems. Her ship was only a short distance away though;
she calmly pushed through the crowd with ease, shocking anyone who dared
bar her way with the aura that surrounded her body.

++++++++++++

 "What is that?" muttered Ranma as he stepped into the cockpit with
Hanna. His arm was wrapped up and hung from a sling.

 "Federation Destroyer," replied Hanna calmly. 

 The ship was a huge black warship. It was shaped like a large oval with
several smaller ovals attacked to the base. It was also still attached to
the shattering space station. It slowly moved away from the growing ball
of flames after a moment and turned away from the doomed base.

 "They're too busy trying to escape the explosion to notice us,"
commented Ranma. "Where can we go? The new Warp Driver is in, but it's
not completely installed yet. We need someplace quiet where we can spend
a day or two completing repairs."

 "Uranus," said Hanna calmly. She pointed at the nearby planet indicating
that they were already on the way.

 "This looks like a good port. It's small, but close to a larger city,"
said the boy as he pointed to one of the screens.

+++++++++++

 "What the hell is this?" snapped Hanna as she looked around at the
hovels that surrounded her ship. "This isn't a space port."

 "No it isn't," replied Ranma calmly.

 "Then why did you tell us to land here?" snapped the woman angrily.

 "Because they'll be looking for us at a space port," replied Ranma
calmly. "Use your head."

 Hanna blinked and opened her mouth to say something. She seemed to think
about it and changed her mind. Without a word she turned back into the
ship and left Serena and Ranma standing outside.

 "Are we going somewhere?" said Serena cheerfully.

 "I am, I guess you're coming with me," replied the boy with a small
shrug.

 "Where are we going?" asked the girl as she watched Ranma open one of
the cargo hatches on the outside of the ship. He stepped inside and
pushed out a small land speeder.

 "Into that city. It'll take a few hours, and she'll have time to fix
this stupid ship," he said calmly as he hopped onto the floating bike.
"Hop on."

+++++++++++++

 Serena simply stared at Ranma as he came out and flexed his new arm a
few times. The operation had taken about an hour and a half. He reached
down and grabbed a metal cup from the a small table in the waiting room
and crushed it easily. He nodded with a stone-faced expression as he
looked at his hand for a moment. "Kakko-ii."

 "Huh?" muttered Serena dumbly.

 "Bet you thought I would say something else huh?" said the boy with a
slight smirk on his face.

 Serena shook her head for a moment and sighed. "Are we ready to go back
now?"

 "I suppose so," replied the boy with a shrug.

+++++++++++

 "Where the hell have you been?" snapped Hanna as she tapped her foot and
glared at the pair as they rode up to the ship.

 "I had to get a new arm," said Ranma as he showed her his new hand. 

 Hanna blinked. "What? How did you? Do you have any idea how much those
cost?"

 "I certainly hope so, I just bought one."

++++++++++

 Six months later...

 "Mah bill?" muttered Genaku as he looked at the letter that had been
placed in his hand.

 "Yes sir," replied the young soldier in front of him. "According to
this, several thousand credits were taken from your account on Uranus. To
buy a prosthetic arm I believe."

 "What?" snarled the general as he rose to his feet and slammed his hands
onto the table.

 The soldier shuddered under the gaze and stepped back. "I'm sorry sir.
They're demanding payment!"

 "So, this credit company believes that they can make demands of Genaku
McTome do they?"

 "Apparently so sir," said the young soldier.

 "Where are their central offices located?" said the general as he stood
up to his full height.

 "On...Venus I believe," said the man as he looked down at the letter for
a moment.

 "I want a full planetary scale assault prepared. We'll make sure this
doesn't happen again."

 "Yessir," muttered the young soldier dumbly.

 Two weeks later, the infamous assault on the planet Venus occurred.
Meril, Meryl, and Marril financial was wiped off the face of the galaxy
forever, and Genaku McTome never received so much as a phone bill for the
rest of his life. 

+++++++++++++

 Back in the present, Ranma looked around at the villagers that now
surrounded the ship. "What the heck are they doing here?"

 "You come from the sky, you are the prophesized hero who will save our
village from the terrible evil," said a creepy looking old guy who walked
up to them. He had dark skin and an unusually large nose, a shock of
white hair encircled the large bald top of his head.

 "Who the hell are you creepy old guy?" asked Ranma as he looked at the
man for a moment.

 "I don't know. They've been here since you left. I can't get them to
leave," muttered Hanna.

 "Um, what do they want?" said Ranma as a large group of old women
surrounded them and started to touch him and Serena reverently. 

 Hanna was also targeted, she spun around and punched one of the men
suddenly. "Hey! Watch where you grab!"

 "You have come from the sky to deliver us. You will go to the ancient
palace of Dakran, where the evil sleeps. There, you will find..."

 "Wait a minute, this is starting to creep me out," said Ranma as he put
his hand up and interrupted the man. "You want us to go to this temple to
stop an evil cult, rescue your children who've all been kidnapped, and
bring back some sort of mystical stone. Right?"

 "Yes!" exclaimed the creepy old guy happily.

 "Wow!" gasped Serena. "How did you know that?"

 "I'm seriously considering filing a lawsuit against Lucas Arts when I
get back to my own time," muttered Ranma.

 "What?" muttered Hanna as she looked at him for a moment.

 "It's nothing," said Ranma cheerfully as he waved the comment off. He
turned back to the creepy old guy and grinned. "Sounds like fun. I'm
game."

+++++++++++++

 Next Time: Ranma Saotome and the Temple of Doom.

 

C&C to Carrotglace@juno.com

Previous parts can be found at Http://www.fanfiction.net and R&C Books
International Fanfic Company at Http://www.rcbooks.org

Ja!
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