Galaxy Police Cadet Scramble

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Chapter 2

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Note: Chapter 1 has been revised. You will be confused if you don't go back to ensure you've read the scenes added on to the end of it.

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It only took half an hour for Miz Mishtal to grow annoyed enough with the incessant banging to finally get out of her chair and do something about it. They'd made good progress, but some interference from a local star had caused the jump to fall short. Glaring at the stars which were NOT anywhere near the Galaxy Police Academy, the indigo-tressed woman got out of her seat and headed towards the rear of the ship.

She focused her mind on the ring on her hand, using the stone to focus her natural powers. Water flowed around in her ribbons as she reached the door. Her hand paused an inch from the door's release button and the woman wondered briefly if she'd remembered to close the access panel to her books. Water and paper didn't mix well. Then she remembered she'd programmed the panel to close automatically.

A small grin dawned on her face. Time to show the upstart cadet who was in charge. One hand tapped the button and the other raised to ready a stream of water.

"Water!?" The young man groaned, blue eyes going wide in surprise. Miz grinned at the expected look of shock. The grin faded into a dropped jaw as the boy bent backwards at the waist, the water spraying harmlessly over his horizontal torso. Cutting the flow, the water-empowered woman raised her other hand to give the boy a good dousing.

She was completely unprepared for him to backflip over her table, kick it up with one foot, and brace it vertically to stop every last drop of water from touching him. As she cut the flow of water, she distinctly heard the boy mutter to himself, "Why is it always water?"

"Have you settled down, cadet Saotome?" Miz asked primly, carefully moving around the table to look the pigtailed young man in the eyes. Inwardly, she was reassessing his combat prowess. She hadn't had time to read much of the report, gleaning only that the boy had taken down a considerably notorious space pirate and he possessed some sort of strange energy field. She noted that perhaps it would be wise to assess some of his capabilities.

"So, are you in the habit of kidnapping people in their sleep?" Saotome demanded sourly, casually righting the table and sitting down on one of the beds. Miz smiled a bit and sat down opposite the confused youth.

"Normally no. However, we did tell you to be ready for transport in the morning. I tried to wake you several times, but you seemed to just dodge or roll out of the way every time I attempted to shake you awake. So I simply transported you to my ship," Miz finished, arching one eyebrow. "I do have a schedule to keep, you know."

"Okay fine, but what is this Galaxy Police thing?" The boy wondered, scratching the base of his pigtail. His eyes wandered up to stare at the ceiling. "I originally thought that I was getting a scholarship to Tokyo University."

"Oh, well this is certainly going to be awkward, then," Miz commented with a giggle. One finger rose to rest on the tip of her jaw as she carefully wondered how to word the young man's situation. "Detective Kuramitsu was supposed to brief you on the situation before you accepted."

"She did. Sorta. Well, not really," Ranma muttered, finally shaking his head. "I guess I made a bit of an assumption based on what she said, but she never said anything about Galaxy Police."

"Well, if the name didn't make it obvious, the Galaxy Police are an organization which seeks to maintain order throughout the entire galaxy. We're responsible for catching the most dangerous criminals, as well as keeping piracy at a minimum," Miz explained, frowning a bit as she noted the glazed look she was getting. "In short, you've signed up to be a police officer, cadet Saotome."

"So I'm gonna be some kinda space cop now?" Ranma groaned. His eyes wandered to the puddles on the floor. "It figures I go all the way into space and I run into some older chick who can control water. Just my luck."

Annoyed at the comment, Miz flicked a spray of water in the rude youth's direction. Her eyes widened at the sight of the tall young man turning into a well-endowed young woman with red hair.

"I gather this is the strange energy reading I found in my report?" Miz asked, gaping. The young... woman nodded, face grimacing. "Does your father change like this, too?"

"Sorta. He changes into a panda," Ranma grunted, her voice decidedly higher than it had been moments ago. Her gaze wandered around the small room. "Uh, do you have a tea kettle or something?"

"Why would you need that?" Miz asked, curious.

"I'd like to be a guy. Hot water changes me into one. So... How 'bout that tea kettle?" Ranma asked. Miz just smiled, concentrating a bit. Hot water splashed the girl, leaving a trail of steam vapour in it's wake. The girl yelped as she became a boy. "It doesn't have to be that hot."

"My apologies," Miz murmured, grinning to herself. Well, that was one mystery in the report resolved. Time for the other one. "I gather your physical abilities come from your father as well?"

"Yeah. When I was younger I wasn't as good as I am now, but when I finally hit puberty and grew up a bit I was able to match him," Ranma noted, crossing his arms.

"So does your mother have similar abilities?" Miz asked, leaning forward a bit and resting her chin on the top of one hand, elbow balanced delicately on her knee.

"Not really. She carries a katana around with her, but she's not really all that good with it," the blue-eyed boy noted, leaning back against the wall.

"I see," the water-user said, half to herself. Well, at least that part of the report had been accurate. Ranma possessed some decidedly inhuman transformation abilities passed down by his father and strength, speed, and dexterity far above the standard. The woman wondered what species the young man in front of her was.

It was common knowledge that a lot of the races could interbreed, and if the boy was from Earth it was a good bet that his genetic makeup was mostly human. Mostly being something is what made the galaxy a more diverse place, and also caused a lot of confusion when trying to figure out just species a person was.

Her species looked almost exactly like humans, save for the rarer hair colour like her own. Yet her species also had the ability to control some sort of prime element, an ability easily enhanced through mundane technology. Oddly enough, even with some of the most powerful spectral-enhancement devices, such as her ring, no other species in the galaxy could control any sort of matter or energy they couldn't control naturally.

BAM! The sudden jolt of the ship combined with a temporary shift in gravity to hurl the Galaxy Police detective across the room. She winced, expecting her head to collide with the wall. Even with her body enhancement, this was going to sting.

Instead, warm arms caught her.

"What the hell was that?" Her pigtailed savior demanded, head snapping towards the doorway. The tall woman moved out his embrace towards the door, pigtailed youth close behind. She slapped the alarm button, killing the noise.

Her hand froze as she looked out the viewports and saw not stars, but the interior of a ship, close on both sides.

"Um, this is bad, right?" Ranma wondered blandly, moving close to the window and tilting his head to see the bottom of the hanger. "Crap, those guys have some weird guns or something. This is bad."

"Pirates," Miz moaned, joining the young man. Below she could make out several humanoids in armor moving towards the bottom of her ship. She sighed, turning towards her companion. "At least they're not Bugrom. These guys will probably let us go."

"Probably?" Ranma queried, rubbing his jaw.

"Lone patrols like myself are usually ignored. It's not worth the chance of being labeled an active threat to the GP for loners. The only pirates who kill Galaxy Police officers are the major clans, and even they don't do it unless they feel they have to. I don't recognize these guys, so we should be alright. Unless they're slavers," Miz admitted, moving towards the locker at the back of the cockpit. She opened the door, revealing several pistols. She took one, handing the other to the confused boy. "Either way, we need to arm ourselves, just in case."

"I don't know how to use this!" The cadet objected, pushing the weapon back into her hands.

"Great, just great! Of course you don't have the weapon you need to fight," Miz growled, holstering the second pistol. She glared at the boy. Her stomach dropped as she saw the unlit A.I. No doubt the pirates had shut it down with an EMP burst. No help would be coming. "If you weren't using a gun like this, how exactly did you defeat Saffron?"

"With my bare hands," he replied, ignoring the way her jaw dropped as the powerful youth strode to the cockpit's door. He turned his head to look back at her. "So where are these jerks going to get on the ship? We should probably meet 'em there."

"Follow me," Miz commanded firmly, focusing her power to her ring. Perhaps she could negotiate something with the pirates. Regardless, it was obvious they wanted her alive or her ship intact. Either way, that might give her the leverage she needed to escape.

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Ranma stood on one side of a narrow doorway, Miz on the other. She wore a sleeveless blue t-shirt over top of loose grey pants, held up by a belt with two holsters. One holster held the gun she'd tried to give him, while the other was empty, the gun held in her hands. Her light purple hair was tied back in two loose ponytails tossed sharply forward over her head by a pair of functional hair clips. Pink eyes narrowed as she stared through the doorway.

Down a short hallway lay a heavy ramp, one which was slowly opening. Bright light flooded in and the pigtailed boy nervously shifted to put a bit more of the wall between himself and the potential attackers.

"So, do you have a plan or anything?" The martial artist demanded, meeting Miz's calm eyes. She smiled a bit at him.

"When they come on board, I'm going to halt them with my water and see if they're willing to talk. Then we'll fly out of here. If we can," she added the last somewhat nervously, her eyes moving back towards the lowering ramp. The ribbons of water shifting around her body seemed to echo her nervous tension, flickering with every change in the pitch of the machinery.

A solid thus heralded the end of the ramp's movement and the beginning of rapid footsteps.

"Here they come," Ranma muttered to himself. Across the doorway, Miz thrust a hand forward, triggering a briefly-lived river which surged down the ramp. Ranma grinned at the sounds of dismay, happy the liquid was working for him instead of against him for once.

"I can keep doing that all day!" Miz called lightly with a grin, ducking back into the doorway. "You may send one person up to talk! Any more than that and you all get a second lesson about approaching me unasked."

"Dibs on the next group," Ranma whispered, hearing the sound of several boots coming up the ramp. Five men in body armour had just reached the top when the pigtailed boy spun into the doorway, a Moko Takabisha in one hand. The surprised pirates had time to start aiming their weapons when the blast struck the one in the lead, the resulting concussive force throwing the pirates quickly down the ramp. The martial artist grinned at the look on the detective's face as she stared at him. His head turned towards the ramp. "Just like the lady said, we can do this all day! Only one guy comes up, or I continue bowling with you jerks!"

"Alright, you've made your point." A cultured voice called up as Ranma ducked back behind the archway of the door. Slow footsteps came up the ramp, revealing a pale, stern-looking man in his mid-thirties. Silver hair held back by a golden chain flowed down his back, and he worse simple green and beige robes which stopped at midthigh over tight black pants. Miz stepped into the doorway to meet the man's gaze. "So one of you is Muldoonese, and the other is armed with quite the fierce energy rifle. Impressive concussive force I'll admit... Though it hardly got through my men's armour."

"I'm sure you're aware of the fact you've unlawfully detained a Galaxy Police vessel. I demand you release us at once!" Miz said sternly, one hand ready to raise her gun while water frothed in the other.

"I'm sorry but after seeing you, I can't," the man admitted with a mocking bow. "If your companion is half as good-looking as you, we'll fetch quite the fine price for you at a little market I know. It was quite the lucky strike to run into you, actually. We've already got one Roshtarian on board."

"Do you seriously think the Galaxy Police will stand for this sort of behavior? Even now my ship's A.I. is sending a distress signal, and no doubt he caught sight of your ship's make and markings," Miz countered, the only sign of her distress the flickering of the water in her hand. "Do you really want a destroy-on-sight mark on your record?"

"Ladies like yourself shouldn't try to bluff while manipulating an element," the man informed with a cold grin, crossing his arms. "It tends to underscore feelings of doubt and fear when they waver like that. You and anyone else on this ship have five minutes to come out unarmed. That includes the lamp on your finger, my dear. If not, we're coming in after you."

The tall man strode back down the gantry, and Ranma was sorely tempted to blast him with a bolt of chi. He held back at a sharp look from Miz.

"So, what do we do now?" Ranma pondered, eyes warily gazing at the ship's exit. He cracked his knuckles, forcing a grin. "Do you have any idea how big this ship is? If it's only a couple dozen goons like those five who tried to get in here before, we can take 'em."

"I have no idea," the woman admitted calmly, undoing the belt which held her weapons. A determined pink gaze met Ranma's. "I'm going to need you to trust me, cadet."

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Miz felt decidedly vulnerable without her weapons or her lamp. Without the benefit of the ring, she couldn't create more than a trickle of water. Even were she standing next to a pool of it, she lacked the strength to use it as an effective weapon. If it weren't for the strength she felt coursing through her limbs thanks to the body enhancement her job offered, she wouldn't have dared go through with this plan.

The graceful woman looked over at her ad-hoc partner. She still wasn't sure of his abilities or his experience. A wide band of of leather now held his hair back in a simple ponytail. He now wore a loose grey trousers, standard issue Galaxy Police uniform pants, having complained about the idea of going into potential battle with nothing but his underwear. Miz was grateful her locker had held the new nanite-fabric pants. Altering the size of fabric at a touch of a button was useful.

He looked extraordinarily calm walking down the gantry. He probably wasn't frightened, the woman noted. Of course he wouldn't be. The enemy didn't know he'd shot that blast unarmed. He was no more vulnerable now than he had been in the ship. The thought was comforting.

The sight that greeted her at the bottom of the ramp was not. At least one hundred men stood ready to fire, weapons primed and aimed at the duo. The arrogant leader, a victorious smirk on his face, gestured with one hand. Twenty men broke ranks, parting around Miz and Ranma to swarm up the ramp into the ship.

"I do hope nobody else is on the ship, officer," the man noted with a grim smirk, gesturing once again. Three men approached, two binding the pair's hands in front of them. Miz felt a sharp poke and a light pressure in her neck as the third man injected her with some sort of syringe. At the worried look on Miz's face, the leader chuckled. "It's not poison, my dear. Simply something which suppresses that wonderful body enhancement the Galaxy Police feels obliged to use on it's weaker members."

"We're co-operating, jerk," Ranma spat, taking a step forward. He froze at the sound of dozens of weapons clicking. He grinned at the man. "Hey asshole, got a name?"

"My name is Galus, my foul-mouthed friend," the silver-haired man sneered, waving someone forward. He turned to the man. "Give our friend the same shot we just gave the lovely detective. Just in case."

Ranma stood and glared at the man, not flinching as the syringe was jabbed into his arm.

"Well my friends, it would seem you two have a date with our brig," the man said jovially, turning to walk away. "See that they don't cause any trouble."

Miz felt the strength leaving her limbs as they were escorted through the hallways. It was hopeless. Even with her powers, they were hopelessly outgunned... and without the benefit of their superhuman strength, it would only take one shot to put them down. Every bit of her training now told her just how slim their odds of escape were.

A gentle nudge broke her reverie, and she glanced over to see Ranma's confident face.

"It didn't work," the young man whispered with a grin. It wasn't a grin full of warmth and joy. It was dark, feral... A promise of pain. What didn't work? Her eyes widened as she realized the 'it' was that shot. The one which had taken her strength. He nodded in response to the hopeful look she shot him.

"Quiet!" A rough shove caused the ponytailed youth to stumble to his knees. He quickly regained his feet, shooting a dark glare over his shoulder at the guard.

"When I get free of these handcuffs, you're first," he promised.

"Just keep moving, prisoner," the guard threatened, raising the butt of his rifle. Ranma sullenly kept walking. Miz stared at her companion in amazement.

Between the lamp hidden in his ponytail and the strength he was hiding now, perhaps they would get out of this after all.

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Glossary:

Roshtarian: Generic term for a species of humanoid people from the planet Roshtaria. Genetically very similar to humans, though far more technologically advanced.

Muldoonese: Arace of Roshtarians from the Muldoon region. Similar to their fellow Roshtarians, though they have the ability to control one of the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, or Water. This ability can be greatly enhanced with spectral-enhancement devices, stones placed in various jewellry typically referred to as "lamps".

Author's Notes:

You might have noticed I've borrowed a couple characters from El Hazard. Obviously there's going to be some differences, but the characters should be familiar to those of you who've seen the OVA series.

-Gaming Ikari