Insertion

 Part 28

 Into the belly of the beast.

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

 Ranma and his crew stood around in a small group just outside the
holding cells, blending in with their surroundings as they pretended to
stand guard around a set of doors.

 "So, what's the plan?" said Washuu through the communicators in their
helmets. They were all on a private channel.

 "We need to get back to the ship," said Endimyon.

 "No, first we need to disable their tractor beams, find out where we
are, and then get back to the ship," corrected Ranma. "Plus, we need to
find a way to get far enough away to jump. We can't just fly out the
front door and expect to get away. This thing has hundreds of fighters on
it."

 "That sounds hard," muttered Serena nervously.

 "Not so much. Finding out exactly where we are shouldn't be too hard.
Washuu should be able to help locate and disable the tractor beams,
getting out I'll handle," said Ranma with a smirk forming under his
helmet.

 "Who are you anyway? Where's that girl?" said Endimyon in confusion. "We
should help her too."

 "I'm that girl, that's all you need to know right now," said Ranma
firmly as he started to move away down the hall. It was a dull metal that
looked like every other passage within the ship.

 "What?" said Endimyon dumbly.

 "Me her, same person," said Ranma as he looked at him for a moment. "Get
it?"

 "No," replied the boy.

 "Too bad, let's go," said the pigtailed boy.

 "What about the crystals?" said Serena nervously. "We can't just leave
them with him."

 "He doesn't have the whole thing. You only had two of them remember?
I've still got the third one," said Ranma as he turned to look at her.
"We can worry about that later. I don't really think we can get to him
without getting ourselves killed."

 Serena nodded and followed the group through the passageways. "I can't
see a thing with this helmet."

 "Cut the chatter, we've got company," said Ranma as he stiffened up and
started walking in a more military fashion. The others followed suit and
they moved by a large group of armed soldiers.

 "The docks are that way, and the tractor beam controls are this way,"
she pointed down two different hallways.

 "Good, they shouldn't be to far apart. You two go find the docks and
wait somewhere nearby. Washuu and I will disable the tractor beam."

 "Right," said Serena and Endimyon as they started to move towards the
docks.

 Ranma paused and looked up at one of the signs above a nearby doorway.
"What's this?"

 "Armory," said Washuu.

 "Great," said Ranma as he cheerfully walked into the room.

 "Hey! Who are you? You're not authorized in here..." said a gruff
sounding voice. A familiar humming sound promptly silenced it.

 "What are you doing?" said Washuu as she stuck her head in just in time
to see him jumping over a counter and half of the officer in charge of
the room. Several other soldiers were lying around dead as well.

 "When I said we would disable the tractor beam, I didn't mean shutting
it off," said the boy as he began to pull dozens of small objects off of
one of the shelves and put them into a large bag he had taken as well.

+++++++++++

 "There it is. Now what?" said Endimyon as he looked at Serena for a
moment. They were standing just outside the docking area in one of the
doorways.

 "You two!" said one of the men in an officer's uniform.

 "Yessir?" muttered Endimyon as he stiffened up and turned to face the
man.

 "Come with me, I've got a job for you," said the man sourly as he
motioned for them to follow.

 The pair looked at one another and shrugged before following him.

+++++++++++

 "Well, what now?" muttered Washuu as she turned back to Ranma and
frowned at him. The controls to the tractor beam were sitting in the
center of a long thin bridge. There were several guards standing around
the unit as well.

 Ranma looked at her and walked out onto the bridge. "Follow me."

 "I hope you know what you're doing," grumbled the woman as she did so.

 Ranma raised his hand in greeting to the guards and they moved towards
him with their weapons trained. 

 "Who are you? Are you authorized to be here?"

 "Yes, we're here to run an unscheduled maintenance check on the tractor
beam," replied Washuu.

 "Huh? I'm gonna have to clear this," said the lead guard as he relaxed
slightly. 

 Ranma shrugged his shoulders and looked at Washuu for a moment. "So much
for that plan."

 "What?" said the guards as they raised their weapons again.

 Ranma simply raised his hand and shoved foreword. The men were all
pushed off the edge of the bridge and tumbled into the bottomless pit
below them. One of the men caught the side and fumbled desperately to
pull himself back up. 

 "You never said you could do that," commented Washuu.

 "You didn't ask," replied Ranma as he kicked the man in the face,
sending him plummeting after his comrades. "Can you disable this so they
can't just turn it back on? I'd rather not use the explosives yet."

 "That wouldn't be a good idea, they'd definitely know we're here,"
agreed Washuu as she moved towards the console and cracked her knuckles.

 "Well, can you?" 

 "Please, this is child's play. You didn't call me the Greatest
Scientific Genius in the Universe for nothing you know," she said with a
smirk forming on her face. "Just give me two minutes, and they'll never
be able to turn this thing on again."

 "Take your time. If someone comes along, I'll let you know. Just pretend
to stand guard until they leave."

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

 Endimyon struggled as he hefted another barrel over his shoulder and
hauled it over to the growing pile on the other side of the dock. There
were three other soldiers doing the same thing with him, while Serena
watched them with a clipboard in her hands.

 She smirked as she pointed down at her fiancee. "You there! Speed it up!
I have to have all of these moved by 1300!"

 "You heard her!" cried one of the officers as he cracked a laser whip at
the boy and nailed him across his back.

 "Augh!" said the boy as he almost fell over. He struggled to get his
balance back and staggered away. "How could you do this to me Serena!" he
lamented silently as he continued to struggle.

 The princess sighed and looked up at the stack she had to move. It was
easily a thousand barrels.

 "Don't we have machines that can do this?" groused Endimyon as he looked
up at the next officer to whip him mercilessly.

 "Yes. Now get moving!" replied the man coldly as he cracked the whip
again and sent him on his way.

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

 "Well, that's that," said Washuu as she completed her task. "Those
idiots will never get this thing working again."

 "All you did was work on the keyboard," said Ranma as he stared at her
for a moment.

 "I reversed the polarity of the tractor beam. It'll shoot anything it
tries to catch miles away in an instant, the energy reaction will also
blow the coils off of the magnets. It'll destroy itself."

 "Cool," said the boy as he looked up at the machine for a moment. "Come
on, we'd best get out of here."

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

 About an hour later, Ranma walked away from a row of fighters on the
docks and moved back behind a set of barrels where Washuu was hiding. 

 "Are you done?" asked the woman as she turned to look at him for a
moment.

 "Yeah. We'll wait a few minutes before we leave," said Ranma as he
relaxed where he had stopped.

 "Wait? What for?" said Washuu dumbly.

 "Till Endimyon is finished with those barrels," replied the boy as he
chuckled at the scene that was playing out on the other side of the dock.

 "I'm surprised they haven't discovered that we're missing yet," said the
woman with a confused frown. "Especially with all those people you've
killed so far. I must admit you scared the pants off that officer when
you made him tell us where we were."

 "They know we're here, but they're keeping it quiet. Trying to let us
think we're getting away with it," said the boy casually. He looked at
the back of his hand for a moment and sat up.

 "So what does that mean?" said Washuu as she turned to look at him.

 "It means that there's a garrison of guards waiting for us to make a
break for the ship, they know where we're going," said the boy casually. 

 "So how do we get there?" said Washuu with a smirk forming on her face.

 "I already set up our distraction," said the boy with another shrug.

 "Should we really wait until he's done?" said Washuu as she peered at
the others for a moment over the barrel.

 "Naw. That'd take hours. I'm just waiting for the right moment to set it
off," said Ranma with a small chuckle. "I wish we could wait though. This
is funny." 

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

 Endimyon blinked as he found himself flat on his face suddenly. The
barrel in his hands rolled across the ground carelessly and he looked up
to see the soldiers running around in a panic.

 "What's happening?" muttered Serena as she picked herself off the ground
and turned towards the disturbance. One of the fighters had suddenly
exploded without warning. It was a flaming pile of debris and the men
around them were rushing to find out what happened and assess the damage.
The fighters were on long, conveyer belt type, hangers that hung near the
ground in a row along one wall.

 Ranma and Washuu strolled out next to them still dressed in their
uniforms. "Well, come on. It's time to go," said the boy calmly.

 "That was your distraction?" grumbled Washuu. "I could have done
better."

 "Naw, that was just something to catch their attention," said the boy
cheerfully as he started walking towards the ship.

 They approached the two guards standing in front of the ramp and saluted
them. "We're here to relieve you," said Endimyon as he walked out in the
front of the group.

 Both men looked at one another and raised their weapons. "It's them!"

 Ranma sighed as he smacked the boy in the back of his head and sliced
the weapons the men had trained on them in two with one swift motion.
"Come on nimrod."
 
 The group rushed aboard the ship and Ranma closed the ramp, as they were
doing this about two dozen soldiers rushed out from a nearby hallway and
started firing at them.

 "Turn on the shields!" cried Ranma as he rushed up to the cockpit. The
ramp closed just before the soldiers could make it onboard. 

 Washuu rushed up next to him and blinked as she noticed the men outside
setting up a rather dangerous looking missile. "That's not good."

 "Relax," said Ranma as he pulled out a small remote detonator from his
clothes and pushed down a large red button.

 The ship rose into the air as the conveyor that held the fighters
suddenly exploded, sending many of the ships crashing to the ground.
Those that weren't destroyed were trapped where they hung, unable to
launch from the broken machine.

 "Endimyon, go man the laser turret," said Ranma sharply as they exited
the dock of the ship and flew out into space. "You know how to operate
one of those?" he asked Washuu.

 "Of course," she replied sharply.

 "Well get to it, this isn't the only dock on this monster. I've only
slowed down response by a minute or two at most," he said as he gunned
the engines and blasted foreword.

 The ship rolled downward and managed to put some distance between
themselves and the huge starship. 

 "Where are we?" said Serena as she looked around outside, hoping to find
some sort of planet or landmark.

 "About a million miles from Saturn," replied Ranma as he jerked his
thumb back. "Here they come."

 Outside several small round ships with knife four knife-like wings
protruding from the sides blasted by and fired at them.

 The ship rolled, turning sharply back towards the huge starship. Laser
fire erupted from the turrets and rocked the ship as they began to
exchange fire with the fighters.

 "Not good, it didn't take them as long as I thought it would to get out
here," said the boy as he grit his teeth and turned straight into the
path of the huge starship.

 "What are you doing?" gasped Serena.

 The passing bolts of energy fired by the larger ship rocked the ship and
Ranma smirked. "I've got an idea."

 "What? Getting us blasted into pieces?" cried the princess as she
clutched the dash in terror.

 "No. I'm going to get us into tractor beam range," said the boy calmly. 

 "You're giving up?" gasped Serena.

 "Not a chance," said the boy stonily as he rolled to avoid another wave
of fighters. 

 "What's that light mean?!" cried Serena as she noticed a blinking light
on the console.

 "Our shields are about to fail," said Ranma as he turned sharply and
moved directly towards the hull of the huge ship. "What's wrong? Why
aren't they trying to grab us?" Two of the small fighters exploded as
Endimyon and Washuu destroyed them with the lasers.

+++++++++++

 Valdis stood watching the battle from the window of the bridge and made
no sound. "How many?"

 "Our count is twenty sir. All dead," replied a nervous looking officer.
"That figure doesn't include the seven fighters they've managed to
destroy so far.

 "Damn! We've just lost two more!" cried a frustrated looking officer
nearby.

 "Destroy them," said Valdis coldly.

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

 "Damn! They aren't taking the bait!" growled Ranma as he buzzed the huge
starship just along the hull on its side. Several of the defensive
cannons were destroyed, but little else could be accomplished.

 "What do we do?" whimpered Serena.

 "If we jump to lightspeed, we might burn out the driver again. Plus we
haven't had time to set coordinates. We could be shot anywhere in the
galaxy." said Ranma as he turned away from the ship. He paused and
blinked for a moment. "That's it!" he cried with a small chuckle. "Hold
on Meatball Head, it's gonna be a bumpy ride." Ranma turned away from the
ship and stopped suddenly, jamming the control's back to spin the ship in
a fixed direction.

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

 "Sir! They're preparing to jump!" said one of the officers as he
recognized the maneuver.

 "No! Grab them now! Don't let them escape!" cried Valdis angrily.

 "It looks like an emergency jump. There's no way they could have set
coordinates while moving around like that," commented one of the officers
nearby. "A risky gamble."

 "More favorable than the certain death they face if they remain. This
boy impresses me," said Valdis.

 "We've got them sir!" cried one of the officers. "Tractor beam
locked...on..." His voice died away as he watched the ship blast foreword
suddenly. There was a loud explosion within the ship and alarms began to
sound everywhere.

 "What happened?" snapped Valdis angrily as he whirled around to glare at
the man.

 "The tractor beam! It's been destroyed!" said the man dumbly. "It's a
failure sir! Something happened..."

 Valdis whirled around and stalked out of the room silently. "No. I do
not believe this to be a failure. This boy is far more clever than I had
thought." His mind turned as he stepped into the lift and watched the
doors close.

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

 "Yeeeeehaaaaawwww!" cried Ranma as the entire ship vibrated violently as
they were sent rocketing into space by the reversed polarity of the
tractor beam.

 Serena screamed and clutched the arms of her chair desperately.

 Finally, after several minutes of the violent shaking, Ranma turned on
the engines to full again and they slowly began to steady.

 Serena slumped down in a dead faint and Ranma chuckled as he sat back
and relaxed while setting the coordinates to their next destination.

 Endimyon lurched into the cockpit with a sick look on his face and
almost fell to the ground. "What happened? Are we dead?"

 "Nope," said Ranma without looking back at him.

 Washuu followed the boy in and sat down while grinning at the pigtailed
boy. "You're interesting."

 "Thanks. I get a lot of that," said the boy as he continued to work.

 "You also passed my test. You're smarter than you seem. I guess I'll
help you then," continued the woman as she looked down at what he was
doing.

 "Thanks...I think," said the boy as he finally looked up at her.

 "What now?" grumbled Endimyon.

 "Mercury," said Ranma as he turned back towards the console again.

 "What? Why there?" muttered the boy dumbly.

 "Now that...is a secret," said Ranma as he turned on the lightspeed
engines suddenly. 

 Endimyon screamed as he was thrown back into the wall by the sudden
jolt.

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

 Akane stood in front of a rather disturbing scene. The senshi were lying
around on the ground, and everything around them was burning. They were
inside an old abandoned warehouse on the harbor.

 "Damn!" she growled as she backed away from the intimidating figure
standing in the middle of the flames.

 Kunzite was standing beside her with the melted remains of their weapons
lying on the ground in front of them. "So? Now what?" he asked her.

 "We can't just leave them here," said Akane as she looked down at the
senshi.

 Mercury woke up and pushed herself up with her arms. She groaned
painfully and stared at Takibi for a moment. "You won't get away with
this."

 He pushed her back down with the heel of his boot and sneered. "I
already have. Soon you'll all be dead, and we'll rule this pathetic rock
forever."

 "We'll never allow that," said Akane as she stepped foreword. Her mind
worked desperately for a way out of her current situation. Most of the
senshi wouldn't be waking up for a while, and the rest of her team was
dealing with the Youma Lord's minion outside. It was a rather
intimidating snake made of fire, and it was resistant to their freezing
weapons.

 "I guess I'll just have to get rid of you then," said Takibi as his grin
widened to inhuman proportions. Rows of sharp teeth appeared inside his
mouth and he licked his lips with a reptilian tongue.

 Akane backed away from him in shock. 

 "Akane!" cried Neprhite as he charged in with Jadeite behind him. The
pair were still smoking from their fight outside.

 "Well. I never expected you pitiful weaklings to defeat that monster,"
commented the Youma as he turned to greet them. Both men stopped cold and
stepped back.

 "We didn't," said Jadeite with a disgusted looking frown.

 "What?" said Takibi with a small surprised frown.

 "Bwahahahahahaha! Never fear young maidens! I have come to save you!"
cried a voice from the rafters.

 Everyone looked up. Standing on one of the support beams was a huge
overly muscular figure. He was dressed in white tights with red boots and
had a ridiculously oversized cape flapping in an imaginary breeze. "I,
Okii Atama, have come to save you!"

 The man jumped foreword extending his arms and legs as if to fly. He
dropped like a rock.

 Takibi frowned and glared down at the flattened figure for a moment.
"What the hell is that?"

 Okii Atama stood up and shook his entire body for a moment, shaking off
the flattened appearance. His bald green head had a mass of fake green
hair in the front of it shaped like a heroic looking curl, and his chin
was much larger than was humanly possible. "Forgot, can't fly," he
muttered. "No matter! For I am a super hero!"

 "Pathetic," snorted Takibi as he blasted the thing with a ball of
flames.

 Okii screamed in pain and fell to his knees.

 "Now, where was I?" said Takibi as he turned towards Akane again.

 The girl was still staring at the newcomer with a rather surprised face.

 "That wasn't very nice," said Okii as he appeared next to Takibi.

 "What?" said the Youma in shock as he turned to see what looked like a
giant burnt out match standing next to him. The thing spun around for a
moment and its appearance changed. It was now shirtless, with huge
bulging muscles and black skintight pants. Two bandoleers of ammunition
were slung across his chest, and two huge weapons had appeared in its
grasp. The things had dozens of barrels on them.

 "This is..." said Takibi as he backed away and stumbled over the fallen
Sailor Mars.

 Okii curled his lip and turned his head while screaming. The barrels
exploded with noise and explosions. After a long moment, he was waist
deep in spent shells and tossed the weapons aside with an angry looking
sneer. "I'm your worst nightmare."

 Takibi was standing next to what was left of the wall, little more than
a portion of bricks that was shaped exactly like him. He blinked and
turned around. "Is this some kind of joke?" he snarled angrily.

 "No, this is. Bye now," said Okii as he handed the man a pie with a
poorly hidden bomb inside it.

 Takibi tried to toss it away but was blown back, knocking over the
portion of wall that remained behind him. He stood up and growled. "I'll
destroy you for that."

 Okii was now dressed in a simple looking dogi, his overly muscular body
replaced by a much slimmer one. "Many have tried, all have failed."

 Takibi screamed in rage and charged foreword.

 "What the hell is that thing?" said Nephrite in shock as he watched the
battle.

 Takibi and Okii seemed to vanish and reappear in various parts of the
room. Okii was always just out of reach in some sort of insulting
position, mooning the Youma, flexing his muscles, he even managed to kiss
the thing on the nose. Finally, Okii stuck out his tongue and Takibi
caught it and pulled back hard.

 "Bleh? Hry! Rt Go!" said Okii as the tongue stretched out more than
seven feet.

 "What the?" mumbled Takibi as he looked down at the protrusion for a
moment. "This is ridiculous!"

 "No, those pants are ridiculous," countered Okii.

 Takibi looked down and found himself wearing a hideous pair of plaid
golf pants. He let go of the tongue reflexively and jumped away. "How is
he doing this to me? I'm the most powerful being on this planet!"

 There was a loud clang that filled the room and Takibi lurched foreword
as Okii whapped him over the head with a gigantic frying pan.

 The youma staggered foreword with a large lump forming on the back of
his head. He growled angrily and vanished in a burst of flames.

 "What happened to the snake?" muttered Akane after a moment of silence.
She looked towards Nephrite.

 The man shrugged.

 "Here, have a balloon animal little girl," said Okii as he handed her a
string. Not knowing what to say she accepted the string and looked up. On
the end of it was the inflated body of the dangerous serpent. It was
quite dead and no longer burning. 

 "See. It's a snake!" said Okii cheerfully.

 "Right. Who are you?" said Akane as she blinked and let the dead youma
go.

 "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you!" said the man excitedly.
He bent her over and kissed her full on the lips.

 Akane reacted in an instant, flipping him over her shoulder and into one
of the walls.

 He was flattened into a paper-thin form and stuck there.

 "What the hell are you doing?" cried the girl in shock as she wiped her
mouth.

 "I was just trying to be nice," said the thing.

 "Well don't!" snapped the girl angrily.

 "We don't want to get on his bad side," warned Nephrite.

 "Oh, don't worry about that. I always help the pretty girls," said the
thing cheerfully as he waved his hand at them from the wall.

 "Should we...catch it?" muttered Jadeite as he realized that it was just
sitting there.

 "Maybe it will help us?" said Kunzite as he looked at where it was
stuck.

 "No thanks. I work alone," said the thing stoically as it jumped off the
wall and changed its appearance again. It was wearing a dark cape and
cowl.

 With that said, it shot off in a blur of green and left them standing
there in the burning building.

 "Come on, we've got to get out of here," said Nephrite as he heard the
sound of sirens in the distance.

 "What about them?" said Akane as she looked over and saw the senshi
slowly collecting themselves.

 "We'll be fine," said Jupiter as she helped Sailor Moon to her feet.
"We've done this sort of thing before."

 "Right, watch yourselves. Don't try to take it on alone again, we almost
didn't make it this time," said Akane with a short nod.

 "A lot of good it did us," commented Mars quietly.

 Akane paused in the doorway, she didn't let on that she had heard the
comment. "Come on."

 The men followed after her out of the building.

 "Bring us back Zocite," said Nephrite into his communicator.

 "Ranma, where are you?" said Akane as she looked up at the sky for a
moment before vanishing.

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

 In the shadows, Tsuki stood silently. "The image of Crystal Tokyo is
fading. Could she have been wrong about him? This can't be..." She turned
and walked into a porthole that opened up behind her. She took a final
look back, desperately hoping that she hadn't made a terrible mistake.

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

 TBC...
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