Disclaimer: Strangely enough, none of the characters or histories of Ranma, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, or Sailor Moon are my property. Any cameo characters aren't mine either.
Wonder how that came to pass...
However, I did manage to get ahold of any original characters that show up (the villains)!
Format Notes: "Speech"
Thoughts or stressing
Means that it's actually being said in English, and not autotranslated - ie the Senshi's attacks
Relatively generic except for the language thing.
-----The Fic, Strangely Enough-----------------
Voices of the Revival
Chapter One - Cops, Vampires, and Spiderman
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Life in the Nerima Police Department...
Some considered it hell. After all, thanks to all the deranged... whatevers... around, almost nothing could be done. Delinquents, thugs, massive property damage and essentially no way to bring them in. Impossible to do their jobs. And events in the area had a disturbing draining effect on one's sanity...
Moriyama Takeshi rather liked it. No criminal below the rather disturbing power level common to Nerima even dared enter the district. Any who violated that rule... suffered. So there was, to his perception, no crime - or at least no crime he was at all intended to deal with. And thanks to Saotome Ranma, events on that power scale tended to resolve themselves for the best... Perhaps not for property values, but as far as human life was concerned. So all Takeshi was left responsible for was 'police presence', being there when someone had a question to attend to, and the occassional 'is that really a crime' like littering.
Although that didn't mean he necessarily appreciated the random destruction of his fair ward, nor the people who did it. Just that he was too lazy to not see the benefits. That did not, however, prevent him from getting small revenges.
Which, on the whole, probably explained why he was singing the old American song 'Singing in the Rain' on his way home from work: appropriately enough, in the rain. His current task was to imagine the bedraggled looks on the faces of that cat, duck, or pig. And his song somehow just gave it the perfect touch.
"... just singing in de lain..." So sue him if his English wasn't as perfect as his sense of humour.
Balancing the umbrella in his other hand, he waved to old Akayama Setsuri, who waved back from her window - no need for uchimizu today, obviously.
"...What a grolious feering..." The Tendo dojo was passing by on his left.
"... I'm happy-"
"Yo! Cop-san!"
Takeshi stopped and cursed to himself. On one hand, her voice was beautiful, and so was she. On the other... 'Cop-san' sounded more like an insult than a compliment, even though he knew it wasn't meant to be. He really didn't want to get involved in anything one of this district's wonder children felt they needed a police officer for. And he was off-duty!
But, uniform or not, lazy ass that he was, he was still a police officer. So he pasted something resembling a grin on his face and turned to face Saotome Ranma, centerpiece of his beloved ward's destruction. "I've told you a dozen times, Saotome-san, call me Officer Moriy-" The grin-imitation froze on his face.
She was soaked - to be expected, considering the downpour, but he really didn't feel right ogling how the silk clothes clung to her curves. More than that, she was lightly jogging in his direction from a shattered husk of metal fragments that dripped water onto the concrete. And she was clutching that same bedraggled-looking pig he'd just recently been imagining, an uncharacteristic expression of worry decorating the redhead's delicate features (and making her look far cuter than males had any right to, down boy).
Said pig was rather more battered than he had been in Takeshi's imagination, though.
Takeshi's arm dropped limp, the umbrella falling and allowing him to be soaked. He didn't pay attention. "Saotome-san, what happened!"
"I-I dunno! He ain't hurt that bad, but he won't wake up ever since that thing-!"
Risking massive bodily harm, Takeshi placed his arm on hers in an effort to calm her down. Heh. For all his skills, he's still just a teenaged boy... "Slow down, Saotome-san. Tell me what happened to him."
For some reason, his eyes seemed to catch a pair of incisions cut into the pig's dark flesh. If he hadn't known better, he'd think they were fangs...
-------------Hours Earlier----------------------
"In other news, the recent string of 'vampire' attacks throughout the city of Tokyo has recieved its newest victim in the case of Mister Morioka Daisuke of Suginami Ward... As in all previous incidents affixed to this bizarre series of chain attacks-" The anchorwoman continued to speak, but was slightly too Muted to be heard.
"Dammit, why aren't these morons attacking in Juuban like they're supposed to!" Hino Rei exploded, slamming the remote back down to the table top. "It's like they're taunting us!"
"Well, we've been rather lucky up to this point," Mizuno Ami remarked, still working on her computer. "Really, I'd expect a little less of these various supernatural menaces to attack here in Juuban, and a few more in places like New York and London."
"We had London, remember?" Aino Minako was generally happy-go-lucky, but didn't particularly appreciate her efforts being forgotten like that.
Ami blinked and looked up. "Ah, you're right. We did at that, didn't we? Sorry about that. Berlin then." She returned to her efforts.
Minako blinked. She'd just had Ami agree with her and apologize for her comment. Why did she feel so insulted?
Tenou Haruka shrugged. "It's really pretty minor. We're lucky it's still hanging around Tokyo, to be honest."
"That's great," Kino Makoto began. "But how do we deal with this bloody vampire?"
"We patrol until we find it, and then we kill it," Tomoe Hotaru stated blandly.
"Hotaru-chan, isn't that a bit much...?" Tsukino Usagi prompted.
Kaioh Michiru shook her head and pointed at the TV. "She's right. We're guardians, Princess. People are getting hurt - none of the victims have woken up yet for the past week. It's up to us to stop. I'll listen to whatever the culprit has to say, but right now it looks like we may need to kill whatever it is. And whatever work we need to do, we should do. Right?"
"But patrolling all of Tokyo..."
"No need for that, Usagi-chan," Ami cut in with a smile.
Rei edged away from her - the pride in that grin reminded her of a mad scientist far more than she was comfortable with.
Ami set the Mercury Computer on the table, and turned it so everyone could see the screen. "There have been eighteen attacks up to this point, spread across all the twenty-three special wards of Tokyo. So far, there hasn't been a single case of doubling-up - maybe an attempt to avoid attention, maybe simple statistics. Setagaya, Adachi, Edogawa, Ota, Meguro, Arakawa, Bunkyo, Katsushika, Toshima, Itabashi, Sumida, Shibuya, Koto, Shinagawa, Shinjuku, Kita, Nakano, and now Suginami."
"Right." Concerted nod.
"Now, here's where it gets interesting. There's no geographical pattern, unfortunately. But that only leaves five wards untouched. Taito, Chuo, Nerima, Chiyoda, and right here in Minato. Statistically speaking, the next attack will be in one of those five wards."
"What if you're wrong?" Rei pressed.
Ami shrugged. "Then we're no worse off than random patrols, which is our other option. But if I'm right, we just cut our search area down to less than a quarter, and dramatically increased our odds of finding this vampire guy before his attack tonight. But it gets better. I can pretty reliably narrow it down further."
Haruka frowned. "I thought you said there wasn't a pattern?"
"No geographical pattern," Ami corrected. "And no visible pattern in victims, either. But all the wards attacked have two things in common. I'll let you guess the first one."
"Nothing? It's really easy."
Usagi raised her hand.
"... I'm not a teacher," she muttered to herself. "Go ahead, Usagi-chan."
"... They're not Minato?" When one has Usagi's classroom record, one doesn't fear sounding stupid quite so much - one is used to it.
"Exactly!"
Seven senshi facevaulted. And wherever she was, Meiou Setsuna did the same. She hadn't a clue why.
"Whatever the reason, Minato hasn't been attacked yet. Maybe they're avoiding us, maybe they just haven't felt like it yet. But let's assume they're avoiding us for now, okay? They heard our reputation and decided not to tangle with us."
Michiru leaned in. "What if they attack here next, though?"
"Then the pattern's disproved, and we keep an eye on the next wards. Right now I'm trying to narrow our patrol area to something we can reasonably cover. Now, here's the other thing all the attacked wards have in common: they all have a larger population than Minato. Whatever this vampire's target criteria, statistics dictate that he's more likely to find his targets in all the attacked wards than he is in Minato. There's one hole in the pattern. One ward he should, statistically speaking, attack before he arrives here at Minato."
"Could you stop the dramatic pauses and tell us, Ami-san?" Hotaru asked.
Ami sighed. "Nerima. It has over four times the population of Minato alone - a higher population than all the unattacked wards combined. It's so large, statistics make it being the next target a near-certainty. We should patrol there tonight."
"That's still, what, sixty kilos? That place is huge! How're we supposed to cover that?" Rei said.
Ami shrugged. "Fifty kilometers square. And yes it's a bit much. But it's all I can give you right now. And that's better than the six-hundred kilometers we had before I narrowed it down."
"So how're we going to do this?" Makoto queried.
"Go to bed early, make some kind of dummy in your bed, sneak out and rendezvous here, then cover the area in individual Senshi-form patrols and call each other if we notice anything," Minako rattled off.
There was much staring.
Finally, Usagi spoke for all of them. "You are way too experienced at this, Mina-chan."
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"Still, that was... pretty pathetic," Amy Limietter felt the need to say. Her eyes were drawn to the footage playing on-screen, somewhat like a trainwreck, and about as needlessly destructive.
"Hah! You should've been there! It was hilarious!" Arf chuckled. "The moron thought he could take on all three of those girls, but Hayate smacked him down on her own!"
Yagami Hayate blushed slightly. "It wasn't really that much."
"I guess... not every confidence is founded on realism?" Fate T. Hallaoun philosophized.
"Did we take the man's rating of his own threat too seriously?" Chrono Hallaoun asked.
"... Definitely, Chrono-kun. It may have been more boring than we expected, but it was really funny." Takamachi Nanoha wasn't normally the type to appreciate that sadistic kind of humour. But there was just something inherently hilarious about watching the man's overexaggerated self-confidence crumble like a dry leaf in a nuclear firestorm.
"So... Now that the business is done-" Amy ignored Chrono's muttering to the contrary. "-let's do what we really came here for! Been a while since we've all been together, right?"
"... You used your free time and set something completely overblown up, didn't you?" Yuuno Scrya didn't really doubt it. But asking felt more appropriate than just assuming.
"Now that all depends on your taste," Amy grinned. "Alex!"
The officer smirked and pulled a very suspiciously-placed cord. Somewhat unsurprisingly, this managed to deploy a series of streamers, large amounts of coloured confetti, and a massive banner reading 'Congratulations Captain Chrono!'.
Chrono rested his face in his palms. "I was sort of wondering why my promotion passed without note. I'm your excuse to party?"
"Of course not, Chrono! We just figured on delaying it until everyone was onboard. Or enough of everyone, at least. You've got a party waiting for whenever you pop into home, too."
Chrono made a note to give up his next bit of vacation time. "Right. You've covered the shifts? We won't be crewless on the cruise back to Earth?"
"Don't worry. It's all covered. Randy's heading up a skeleton crew that'll handle the basic maintenance tasks, and he'll switch out with Alex's crew in eight hours so he can party too."
"That's relieving to hear. Well, I won't be able to stop you short of violence anyway. Carry on." He waved to everyone and sidled to the left.
His attempted escape was somewhat defused by Amy's grip on his collar. She shook her head. That grin on her face was pretty menacing, too. "And where do you think you're going?"
"The bridge? They need their Captain, don't they?"
"Nice try. They'll call if they need you. More importantly, this is your party. I mean, your brother can't avoid his responsibilities forever, right Fate?"
She shook her head, struggling to maintain a serious expression. "Not at all. This is your duty."
He stared at her. "Et tu, Fate?" He didn't actually know Latin or much of Earth culture, but he'd stumbled across a few works of literature, and the quote was appropriate.
Fate's lips quivered as she desperately suppressed a smile. It wasn't that she didn't like him... He just suffered so gloriously, right now.
Chrono glanced at Amy's hand, and seemed to be contemplating his unarmed combat training in breaking holds.
Nanoha was completely unable to suppress her own grin as she innocently strolled into the doorway.
Chrono sighed. Blocked by the Bureau's top combat trainer... No escape left, then. "... If you insist." If he was honest with himself, he wasn't that against the idea. But making a production of it just came naturally.
Hayate pouted slightly at losing her own opportunity to join in the fun, but shrugged and chalked it up to being too slow. It was too bad her housemates hadn't accompanied her, but they were more the girls' social group than Chrono's. She'd do something special for them when she got home.
Yuuno, on the other hand, considered his own restraint to be a sign of growing maturity, and smiled to himself.
"All opposition gone, let's par-tay!" Arf yelled, uppercutting the air.
------------Ten Minutes Ago-------------------
"Batch One-Five-Six-Eight-Three-Two has reached acceptable saturation levels," Corporal William Sorrell reported into his cellphone. He glanced out the window of his room, then returned his attention to his laptop. "Projected harvest is quite high - a very rich subject. Extract?."
A few moments later, the response came over the line. "Proceed with the operation, Corporal. Standard operating procedure."
"Confirmed, control. Will continue to report status as the situation develops. Beginning operation... Now."
He switched windows in his laptop, and tapped in a few commands onto the three-dimensional map display.
Connected to his laptop, a long slim rectangle chimed "Bounded Field, Capture Type," in its synthesized voice. An array of light formed in front of it.
Sorrell glanced out the window and watched as a wave of... colourlessness... washed across the buildings of the city, towards the barely-visible target. Capture successful.
Honestly, the new update he was supposed to be testing out didn't seem to be working any different from the old hardware he'd grown up on. It wasn't worse at least. And to be fair, he hadn't even taken it into a situation where the update's advantages could display themselves.
Still, he had a job to do. He typed out a new command series, adjusting a few values to compensate for the readings he was getting off the target. And... he figured he'd test out the update. He added one more value.
"Golem."
In the gray streets outside - distant enough from the target to give it time to form - a flurry of brown energy slowly spread, resolving into a large metallic form.
"Heh. And they're calling us vampires. Well then Dracula, have fun." He flexed his fingers and prepared for the rapid series of commands he may need to enter in a moment's time, if the target couldn't be suppressed by that metal monstrosity alone.
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A massive twitch caught the attention of Sailor Mars, roof-hopping through Nerima (she'd been a little confused at people ignoring her rather abnormal activity, to be honest...). She came to a dead halt, looking ahead.
Something felt... different about the area ahead. She had no idea what it was - certainly not familiar. It didn't look any different - in fact none of her mundane senses noticed anything wrong at all. But her senses as a Senshi were driving her crazy - the area was flooded with magic. It wasn't all that strong, but she had no idea how to fight it. It was like... the area of city ahead was... covered in a brownish bubble.
She slowly moved forward. And walked right into the area covered by the bubble, without ever once crossing it. Mars gritted her teeth and restrained a curse. She'd been rather hoping for a simple force field that she or all the Senshi could smash down. She raised her communicator, ignored the odd looks she was recieving (short-skirted girl frowning at apparent midair, she'd be giving odd looks too), and started it up. "Guys, I've got something. It's real wierd, too. Get over here as quick as you can. Mercury, you especially."
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Ranma ignored the scorn of his fiancee and continued to eat/shovel-obscene-amounts-of-food-into-his-mouth. Food was far more important than her opinion. And after all...
"What are you doing, Ranma!" Saotome Genma cried, just now returning from his commanded return to humanity.
Ranma idly buffed his nails on his shirt. "No idea what you're talkin' about Pops. 'The food belongs to whoever is there', right?"
"That... wasn't... dammit!" Genma tried to pout cutely (and would've delivered hideous mental scarring if those present hadn't been used to it...), flounced down into a sitting position, and splashed himself. The fattest panda the world had seen in recent years raised a sign 'Do you have any bamboo left, Kasumi?'
The eldest Tendo girl smiled and stood, making her way to the kitchen. When she came back, she was bearing a platter laden down with bamboo.
And where she even got that stuff for Pops, Ranma really had no clue. Still, now that his food was safe, he slowed down. Slightly. From twenty times normal human speeds to ten. Polishing off the plate, he rose and took his stuff to put in the kitchen sink.
By the time he came back, the others had apparently finished too - everyone had migrated over to the TV, and were watching the news - coverage of those 'vampire' attacks that had been going on lately. And damn, those news people really had a need for attention, with a flashy reference like that. (Technically Genma was still working on his bamboo, but he'd brought it over to watch TV at the same time)
Well, whatever. Nobody watched TV to learn, they did it to veg. Ranma started on his own walk to the TV area. Boring, but what-the-hell, right? Not like there was anything more pressing to do.
And of course, that sudden 'yank' at his senses would make him wrong, wouldn't it? Before Ranma could even whirl in that vague direction, a wall of ... gray... rushed across his field of view, from left to right.
Everything it swallowed - walls, floor, roof, doors, TV, tables, carpets - drained of colour.
The TV displayed only static.
As for the Tendos... As the grayness touched them, they... vanished. They didn't even seem to notice - well, Genma did, but way later.
They just winked out, as if they really didn't belong in the world.
Ranma's blood chilled. What the hell was going on?
One thing he did know. It came from the direction of the front door. Maybe some bastard had kidnapped them? But he'd get no answers standing here and thinking. Wasn't his style, not when there was something to do.
With nary a thought to his soon-to-be-lost gender, he marched towards the front door. Opened it. And was rather pleasantly surprised - the rain had stopped. He shrugged to himself and stepped out into the streets.
Quiet. Way, way too quiet. Even if it was evening, there should've been a lot more noise than there was right now. He couldn't even hear a goddamn cricket.
Wait. Is it me that's getting messed with, and not everyone else?
He shut his eyes and felt out with ki. Other than a wierd background hum, nothing going on.
Wait. Something... familiar.
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"Where on Earth am I now!"
Hibiki Ryouga... really needed no introduction.
He was pretty sure he'd never seen a city as... gray... as this one before. Then again, the numerous times he'd been in Nerima, he'd never recognized the layout even when it wasn't as wierd as this, so his recognition skills were about as trustworthy as his navigation skills. As a matter of fact, he was one corner away from the Tendo Dojo - take the next right and he'd be on the dojo's street.
Still, he didn't know this. And so he trudged on, to continue his eternal journey.
Then 'it' stepped into the street in front of him.
About four meters tall, similarly long and wide. Standing on four spikelike legs - an 'insect' kind of build, assuming insects came in the four-meter-tall variety. A rather spindly body in the middle - as if it didn't really need it. And several long, clear, needle-tipped... tentacles?... emerging from its front.
Oh, and gleaming metal all over.
Ryouga dared to assume it wasn't friendly, and let his pack slip off his shoulders, denting the ground.
It lunged.
He lunged, a single finger extended.
Ignoring the leg smacking into his side, he stretched forward just a little more. "Bakusai Tenketsu!" The leg blew off at the shoulder, where his finger hit. Apparently the technique didn't work quite as well on metals as on rock.
Ryouga ducked, and let the thing stumble over his head and down the street.
It turned back to face him. A brown glow flowed from the broken shoulder, and hardened into a new leg.
Ryouga gaped. "You cheat as much as Ranma does!" Then he stumbled forward as a large chunk of rock smacked into his head from behind. Turning with a snarl, he faced...
Nothing.
He also faced away from the metal insect, which moved in on him and delivered a pair of blows with its clublike front legs. The tentacles slithered forward, reaching for him.
Ryouga whirled, breaking the monster's grip. "No, thank you!" He accompanied that with a massive back kick.
Normal metal gives way under Ryouga's monstrous strength. This stuff just hurt his leg.
Even as he winced and gaped in shock, another rock dropped onto his head. Again, normal rocks break against the Hibiki skull. This one acted like a normal rock dropped onto a normal person's head - it knocked him senseless. And the monster took advantage of that, a single tentacle reaching to tap against the veins in his neck. A clamp secured itself, and two needles buried their way into his veins.
Almost immediately, a shining blue liquid began rushing up the tube.
Ryouga tried to break free, but... why was he so tired? And what the hell was Ranma doing at the end of the street?
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"Shit! Ryouga!" Ranma charged at the insect-thing that had its 'thing' clamped on Ryouga's neck.
His senses had led him to what may have been the only other person here. His senses were going crazy on that spider-thing. His senses were also going nuts to the rear-left.
Ranma didn't turn to check, he just ducked and rolled forward, adding a right-side twist. A spike of rock tore through where his head had been and embedded itself into the concrete. "What the hell!"
The spike dissolved into brown light and faded away, leaving only the holed concrete.
"What the heck are you after? And seriously, you don't look even a little cool." Ranma's mouth continued to move without input from his brain as he cautiously edged towards the spider - the brain was busy running along the situation. He really didn't want to get attacked like that again - it felt lethal.
The spider, meanwhile, moved its other 'tentacles', wrapped them around the semi/un-conscious Ryouga, and... flipped him onto its back, still draining that blue liquid? It braced itself, and charged towards Ranma.
Ranma grinned and moved to meet it - counter-attacking worked well with his style.
So he was understandably disappointed when it tensed and lept over him instead, leaving him gaping like a fish.
He turned, and the gape widened when, at the peak of its arc... it continued to soar, as opposed to dropping.
"No goddamn fair! Can everyone but me fly?" He continued grumbling to himself as he lept towards it. His jump wasn't strong enough to reach its altitude, and he would've made cute little bouncing arcs under it, like a child trying to get a candy bar from a taunting basketball player.
But, since he directed a ki-blast down from his legs, his flight arc widened, bringing him high enough to slam down onto the metal spider's back.
Before he could actually do said slamming down, a series of stone spears shot at him from straight ahead.
Twisting like a madman, Ranma managed to avoid getting himself impaled. Except for that one, which he had to catch between his hands before it slammed into (and probably through) his face. It still nicked his cheek - stopping that thing felt like stopping a wrecking ball. "Oh, real fair ya bastard!" Ranma yelled as, momentum expended, he dropped, the stone dissolving in his hands.
Bending his legs to absorb the impact with the nearest building, Ranma looked forward and jumped again - just in time to let a second burst of spears dig into the roof at his feet.
Ranma looked up at the still-flying spider and grinned. Right after the last attack - best shot he'd get. Shifting slightly, he altered his flight path. And he fired the ki-blast when the time came, extending his leap until he could reach the spider.
Ranma followed a beautiful arc through the air, reaching forward...
He slammed into the spider-thing's rear-right leg. It knocked the breath out of him, but Ranma ignored that and grabbed a hold - he was not going through that fun experience of getting up here again.
Then the leg detached itself.
"This is so, so unfair!" Ranma muttered as he lept off it and landed on the metal spider's main body - sitting on top of Ryouga, since there was so little space up there.
The free 'tentacles' shivered and reached for him. Ranma growled to himself and tore the first one in half. "And why the heck am I doing this for a guy who wants me dead! Blah." Then he blinked. And here I was thinking everything on this was freaky-tough... He grinned and moved onto the next.
Apparently someone didn't like that, since the spider's flight... stopped. And it dropped, reminding Ranma of that good old 'stomach-lodged-in-your-throat' sensation. Ranma clung onto the tentacles for dear life as the dead air shot by - there wasn't even a 'whistling' wind effect.
It slammed into the ground, and Ranma was pretty sure he'd left a bruise on Ryouga's stomach from absorbing that impact.
He had to shake himself out of it pretty quick, though, as it was even quicker about growing that detached leg back in a brown lightshow, and swinging said leg up to clock Ranma in the head, sending him flying off.
Ranma sprung off his hands and skidded to a halt in the middle of the street - where were they now? Pretty close to the dojo, he thought. Damned thing was flexible, too.
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"Well?"
"Slow down Mars, I'm still getting readings," Mercury snapped. "Right now it looks like someone severed the area's phase space into two sections - that bubble of power is supporting the new section."
Uranus blinked. "That... sounded really interesting. But I have no idea what it meant."
Saturn frowned and leaned on her glaive. "A pocket dimension, attached to the present reality. Connected to the world we can actually see, but not quite there. Or really, there but not the same there as the there we can get to. Is that right, Mercury-san?"
Mercury nodded. "Close enough."
"Someone's trapped in there," Moon whispered.
Mars blinked. "What makes you think that, Odango?"
Moon shrugged. "Why else would someone bother making it?"
"Right, then how do we get in?" Jupiter asked.
"Working on that. It's not a simple barrier wall, this is completely different. We might be able to get in with our Sailor Teleport - I'm trying to work out how to actually do that now."
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Ranma weaved around a thrust from the spider-thing's leg and delivered another palm-strike to the central body.
Damn, though, this thing was so tough he was even hurting his hands.
He spun, dancing to the outside as it tried to club him.
He'd pretty much isolated the sniper's angle of fire - coming from what was now his right. But if he stuck real close to spider-boy, he'd be safe enough from that. And the spider couldn't seem to maneuver well enough to hit him.
This battle would be in the bag if he could just damage it.
He tossed a crescent kick at the central body again. Bruised his foot.
The spider jabbed down with its leg, and Ranma rolled aside as it dug into the tarmac.
Damn thing was too tough to damage. Too stiff. He couldn't even dent the stupid metal monster.
Ranma blinked, and evaded as it tried to scissor its front legs in at him. He grinned.
Stiff things are brittle. They don't take to shaking too well.
He didn't have to hit it hard, just fast. He could do fast.
He braced his right hand, squeezing around the legs and moving for the central body. "Amaguriken Revised - Break Tune!" He punched forward, time after time.
Strength-wise, he actually held back - no point busting his hand, after all. The trick was to 'tap' it, just so... Make it ring. Make it vibrate. And keep tapping.
The ringing grew, a crazy bell filling his ears. Almost deafening.
Somewhere in there, the armour around the central section shook itself down to shards. Ranma grinned, and prepared to turn the next punch into a full-strength shot for its vitals.
Then it exploded. In his face, dammit... Or at least burst into pieces. He was peppered with small chunks of metal, almost buried in the things, then Ryouga fell onto him...
Ranma was pinned down by Ryouga's dead weight when he saw it. A clear vat of shining blue liquid, hovering in the middle where the thing's center had been. Then it flew away - in the direction of the sniper.
Ranma felt a sudden 'shift'... Then the gray receded, pulling its way back from the world. Warmth returned. Colour. Wind. Noise.
The goddamn rain, she ranted to herself. But at least the piglet wasn't quite so encumbering as Ryouga's full weight.
She hefted P-chan. "Yo, piggy. Wake up." She lightly slapped the pork-ball's snout. Nothing.
"Not funny porker. Wake up!"
Ryouga moan/bweed.
Ranma's eyes widened. His ki...
A small splashing - a shoe entering a puddle - made her whirl. She knew that guy.
"Yo! Cop-san!"
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"Encountered interference. Someone else was apparently caught up in the capture field. Combat-capable, both of them." Sorrell snapped his laptop shut on standby, unplugging the external hardware and slipping them both into a small black case.
"Outcome?"
"I had to withdraw - the non-target was too good at learning tricks. I didn't want to risk teaching him more with so little to gain."
"You? You didn't think you could beat him?"
Sorrell snorted. "Don't be intentionally dense. There wasn't a point - he wasn't prepared for extraction. Would've been a waste of time and effort, and risked losing the whole harvest. Unfortunately, we only managed to retrieve about eighty-three percent of the product. Still well above quota."
"Oh boy. Well, I'll feed that to the bosses for you. Any more news?"
"Really bad, and some pretty good."
"Isn't that always the case with you, Corporal? Shoot."
"When the field went down, I detected the old Juuban subjects - Sailor Senshi. They were sniffing around. It's an open question how long we can avoid conflict."
"Ugh. That's a mess. We'd hoped for a bit more time. Well... as long as you don't let those Uminari subjects know you exist."
Sorrell shivered, stepping across the motel room to the door. "That's a definite, sir. The Senshi at least we can handle if it comes to it. But those kids are scary."
"What's the good news?"
"Actually on that subject. The AI update works like a charm - fast and smooth, made the executions pretty damn well within the expectations I outlined for it. No need to download."
"Hm? That's good to hear. Keep low and get back to base."
"Wilco. Out." Sorrell shut his phone and dropped it into a pocket, then opened the door. Carrying the briefcase over his shoulder and humming an old Western theme song, he made his way down the hall.
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It seemed... somehow anticlimactic. There they were, desperately waiting on Mercury to come up with her usual save-the-day solution...
And the pocket dimension... 'thing'... withdrew on its own, leaving them standing there like idiots.
Mercury's fingers hovered above the keyboard. Her eyebrow was twitching. "No, you do not get away that easily." She wasn't taking the loss of her opportunity to prove herself up to the challenge of getting the Senshi into a severed pocket reality very well.
Saturn straightened up and began crossing roofs again.
Neptune blinked. "Saturn, wait!"
Moon shook her head. "She's right. There are probably injured down there. We need to make sure everything's taken care of. Split up and cover the area."
"Right!" The Senshi nodded as one and lept to their duties.
Mercury saved her work before doing so. She was not sitting around like a fool next time. And solving those equations was pretty fun, too.
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"That's hardly ideal. Your Japan operations are going to take a heavy hit."
"True, but the effect can be mitigated. If nothing else we can serve to distract local opposition from the multinational efforts."
"What are the chances of the 'Sailor Senshi' involving themselves?"
He winced. "They grow daily. Corporal Sorrell almost had them walk in on his collection tonight. Five more harvests at best before they get into their stride."
"This is... disquieting."
"Not so much. We can still make percentile extractions even if they intrude. And losing the golems isn't really a problem - they're just raw material, after all."
"And what if they trace it back to the operators? They are... irreplacable. Only ninety-six presently identified in our entire nation."
"Well, you'd better finish the Model Twos and get some over here right quick, then. You've had far too many production delays, and our Model One equipment isn't suitable for direct combat." He sighed. "Other than that, I'll do what I can - two operators assigned to each extraction at divergent mutually-covering locations will have to be enough."
"It... should be. And I will see if R&D can be inspired to clean up their act."
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End Chapter One
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Next Chapter - Countermoves and Hackers
Ami: "Well, we seem to have picked up a new ally...?"
Nanoha: "We've been watched for how long!"
Ranma: "Let's go then. Head-to-head this time."
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Author's Notes. I can be contacted at miraclewolf hotmailcom. Translate that into an e-mail address. Or just click the button.
I've finally written something. Finally got back in the game! Sorry for the delays, but as I am presently unemployed, I might just be able to keep this sucker coming. I'm not going to bother making any predictions, though, since none have been right in my entire fic-writing career...
Uchimizu: A semi-ritual involving splashing water on a surface, helps to deal with dust and cool things down. Yes, Setsuri is the ladle lady.
Yes, none of the characters have visual descriptions. They're all in the company of people who know them. They'll get their descriptions as the crossovers and meetings occur. Those who don't know Nanoha may be (let me rephrase - will be) confused by the scenes showing the characters. But what you don't know will get covered, and they should all intersect eventually. Just enjoy it for now, and assume they're your typical mysterious people in the shadows.
As far as the characters go... I'm reasonably sure I did okay at least with the Ranma and Sailor Moon casts. But I've never written for Nanoha before, so I'd appreciate anyone telling me of any problems I made there.
Honestly, I'm not able to cover the Nanoha characters as well as I'd like, since for this chapter they're not doing much - I'm horrible at filler/normal life.
As for the rest of the writing... Hopefully I got away from the excessive stream-of-consciousness style from Because They're Senshi. You be the judge - readable? More than that: enjoyable?
And thanks go out to the members of Fukufics for checking this over and greenlighting it.