Author's Note – Slightly epic length chapter, please be patient as you read!
Ranma and The Doctor
Chapter 9
Biting the Clawing Ferals
New Long Island
Elsewhere in New Manhattan
At the moment
Ryoga looked around in puzzlement, then spotted a pale blue light several blocks away. Yuko watched as he paused in his tracks.
"What's wrong, Ryoga?" She floated in front of his face, ignoring the fact he was looking through her at some distant point.
"That ki... Ranma's here?!"
He turned to go in that direction before Yuko, arms outstretched, phased through him to block his view. "Stop Ryoga! You don't have time for that!"
"Yeah... That's right..." He looked towards his destination on the UPS and kept walking, "I have to get some more stuff."
"Okay, turn right at this corner and you're there."
Doing so, after being corrected again for going left, he found the shop from before. He smiled and walked inside.
"Hello?"
Despite it being around two o'clock in the morning, the old owner came out from the back. "Ahh sir, you're back so soon?"
"Yeah..." Ryoga laughed casually, "I just realised that I should've taken you up on that offer. I need a bit more for now, but Yuko can tell you exactly what I need."
"Yuko? Who is -"
He watched as Yuko peeked her head above Ryoga's shoulder, having been hiding behind him this whole time. Visibly, his face darkened, but he kept a professional appearance. "Very well, how may I help you AI?"
Yuko flinched at the moniker, which, while true, denied her unique identity. Ryoga grabbed the man by his collar and lifted him up from the ground.
"Look here," His face was contorted with inner fury, his eyes alight with anger, "I accepted you calling me a Stray, but I will NOT accept you calling Yuko just 'AI'. She is going to be with me for some time, so you'd better treat her like you treat all your customers, or else I'll make things hellish for you, or maybe just take my business elsewhere."
Paler, and much more amiable, the man nodded. "Y-yes, of course..." Once his feet touched on the ground, he bowed lightly. "Sorry, Yuko. What items do you require?"
"For now, I need a Level 7 file decrypter, Upper Tier password cracker, Maximum scanners, both invasive and external, permanent access to universal mainframes and networks, and all these items must be accessible via my AI interface."
He raised an eyebrow at the hacking material, but said nothing to reflect his feelings. "No problem, I don't have them in store, but my transmat can get them straightaway. You'll need a new memory chip to store all this information on your UPS. I recommend getting a better upgrade to a full persocon in near future."
"We'll think about it..." Ryoga cut in, not knowing what he meant by that.
"Okay, here they are, all preloaded onto the card..."
He passed Ryoga the memory stick and told him where to insert it in the UPS. Yuko vanished for a moment before speaking in a robotic voice unlike hers.
"Rebooting, please wait while AI updates databanks." The image flickered for a few seconds.
"The software automatically patches her to the latest version and registers the new program in her AI routines, so that Yuko can access it automatically." The owner explained.
Ryoga nodded dumbly, and waited until Yuko's image sighed and rubbed her forehead in a cute gesture. "Phew, that's all done. If I crashed I would have lost my memory of everyone..."
"Good that you're okay." Ryoga smiled. "We'd better get moving, I don't know how long my aura will last..." He turned to leave before recalling the owner of the shop. "Oh, by the way, I'm in trouble because my lights have switched off, I don't know if you might be affected so make sure that you can stay in the light somehow."
The owner was intrigued. "ION-Ra cut your power? That's interesting... I do have one light source here for emergencies only, so I should be fine."
Stepping out of the shop, Ryoga was confronted with the dark, and continued on his way. Soon more growls were heard.
"Crap... More of this nonsense..." The noises were loud beyond his aura boundary.
Yuko moved away from him slightly. A small window with a grid on it emerged in front of her face, with many dots strewn over it.
"Ryoga... My new scanner tells me that there are several dozen of these creatures all around us. They're coming from nowhere. We need to keep moving before the power goes out.
"If it does," Ryoga added, "I'll be dead, because it's my life energy... Besides," he looked into the shadows, seeing only the faintest of reflections against the glassy eyes of the stalkers, "I doubt I'd last long without light anyway..."
Yuko frowned, and her windows changed from a grid layout to a body outline. Several parts of the body were labelled as mauve, and a dangerous bleeping sound echoed from those points. She gasped and cancelled the screen, moving closer to his face.
"R-Ryoga!" She was distraught, "You're bleeding, badly... Your body is filled with toxins from the Ferals, and your blood won't clot!"
"So...?" Ryoga just grunted and strode on.
"So?!" Yuko moved from side-to-side, keeping his attention on her, "You'll die... Even with emergency medical care..." She stopped and swore lightly, making Ryoga chuckle. "Shit, I forgot to ask for that, and what's so funny?"
"Nothing, it's just not like you to swear..." He laughed out loud now, making Yuko redden either by fury or by embarrassment.
"Well, I... I learned from my owner I guess." She slapped her holographic self on the face and turned to face him again. "You're changing the subject... It's my fault, I should've known you'd be in trouble, without a real hospital, it's not possible to cure this -"
"It's alright..." He huffed, beginning to speed up his progress. "I've been through worse..." Yuko stared blandly at him. "Sometimes, knowing that you're going to die gives you that extra edge."
Looking increasingly doubtful, Yuko said nothing and continued to follow Ryoga's path through the empty streets, being sure to correct his directions whenever he strayed off course.
Elsewhere in New Manhattan
"Ranma," The Doctor coaxed, "Please climb down off that lamppost, we haven't got all night..."
The petrified girl would not budge, shaking her head fervently and pointing at the person behind him. "I c-c-can't, n-not until y-you get rid of that c-c-c..." She couldn't even bear to say the word.
"What, cat?" He looked at the person in question. "That's a mean thing to say, she's not a cat."
"Sh-she's got fur and wh-whiskers!" Ranma stammered.
"Technically, she's a felis sapiens, descended from cats, am I right Novice Hame?"
"Doctor..." The cat nurse from his previous visit to the city was nervous, her ear twitching behind the nun habit. "We haven't got much time..." She had four light orbs that were functional, and kept the both of them safe, whilst Ranma still had her aura protection.
"Sorry about this..." He spoke to both Novice Hame and Ranma, the former for the delay, the latter for what he was about to do. Pulling out the sonic screwdriver he aimed it at the lamppost and activated it.
Ranma felt the primitive bolts holding the lamphead give way before toppling to the ground, with her included. Landing on her feet, she watched as the cat nurse did nothing to approach her. Walking on tiptoes ready to sprint far away from the new arrival, she went to the Doctor, who subtly shielded the view of the cat woman.
"Who is she?" Ranma asked.
"Novice Hame, a nurse from my previous visit to New New York twenty years ago, with... my previous companion." He readjusted his face by wiping a hand over it, then speaking on. "Which reminds me..." He turned back to her, "I'm supposed to be angry with you!"
"I'm sorry, Doctor..." She pulled his arm. "But he's been waiting for you for all this time..."
She reached out to her bracelet, the Doctor recognising what it was too soon. "No! Wait!"
Ranma could only stare as the Doctor and the cat nurse diffracted away from vision.
"Doctor? Doctor!"
Spreading her senses out wide, she couldn't feel his alien ki anywhere. Feeling quite alone already, she knew what she had to do.
Without wasting time, she ran towards her destination, the main building of ION-Ra.
New Brooklyn Hospital
The empowered Kuno had taken down almost a hundred Ferals, their bodies piling up on the chapel ground, those bodies that hadn't burned up. The wave after wave of attacks didn't abate one iota.
There was a sudden lull in the lunging creatures, as most of them switched to a different target. Screams of humans came from outside the chapel, and immediately Kuno realised what was happening.
Keeping the flame aloft, ensuring he remained in the light as he ran to the safe-haven.
It was dark there. Lights had failed in many parts of the open plan ward, and there were already dead humanoid bodies strewn on the floor. Jinnai was on the top, his eyes lifeless, his torso ripped apart by many claws.
"You honourless bastards!" Kuno ran in, eyes red, and ready to fight.
Heading straight for the shadowed areas, he started cutting away at the monsters one by one, only to move to another place to stop them emerging from another area.
Scattering the patients, he killed any of the creatures as they pounced on those moving into the dark parts, even stopping them leaping through their portals.
"They can transport via any shadow large enough to accommodate them." He smiled, "This makes things easy for me."
People watched the kendo garbed boy battle against the numerous animals, both amazed and frightened by his antics and flaming red eyes.
"Die!" His sword swung tens of times to slice down the attackers, but he couldn't be in two places at once.
Unconsciously, his eyesight no longer registered the heat signatures of the beasts, but now Kuno felt as if he was watching a slow motion replay.
He saw how his sword, still swinging at its normal pace, but also as the world moved by slower.
"I see..." He came to his conclusion fast, "Time has slowed for me to save everyone..."
Using this new ability, Kuno could easily run from one place to another without losing too much time. Nevertheless, he quickly discovered that it was putting a strain on his body. His arms were sore from all the strikes he made, and his legs were fast growing tired.
He glanced at the clock on the wall, "Half past two... Still too much time until dawn..." He grimaced, "This does not bode well for me..."
New Manhattan
Ryoga's breathing was raw. The area he was in possessed little light, and he was draining his ki trying to generate the pale green light around him.
"I can't do this for much longer…"
Outside of his circle, the snarls and claws dragging on the walls were ready for him.
"Damn it…" He held his new device in his hands. "Only one more mile…"
Yuko shook her head, feeling sorry for him. "You're holding it upside down... We're here, look!" She pointed forwards and the ION-Ra logo was pale against the street below.
"Right..." Ryoga strolled to the doors and face planted into the glass.
"Umm, that's just a window, the automatic doors are here..."
"Right..." He tried again, and this time they opened up, allowing him in. "I wonder where I should go..." He saw the reception area and walked towards it. Yet, there was no one there. "Hello?"
"Here, let me check..."
Yuko moved towards the counter and stared at the flat screen panel. A series of windows opened up around her and showed several pages of phones numbers and contact home addresses.
"Everyone has gone home, but the doors are open, which makes no sense..."
She opened the cracking software and immediately a rectangular box with stars opened up, followed by a slow uncovering of the password. Once that was done five seconds later, she went to work on the cryptograph, voice analysis and DNA sequencer.
All in all, it took around one minute for the system to be fully unlocked. "Okay, now let's see... There was a day off announced for today by the head of the corporation, and he's currently in the secondary building."
"Great!" Ryoga threw his hands up in the air, "More walking! I'll never get there now!"
"Wait a minute..." Yuko pulled up some architects blueprints, "This area has a direct link to the other building, an express walkway."
A few more circuit images followed by a smile from Yuko, and arrows on the floor showed the way to the walkway. Ryoga deftly kept to the path and found him at the start of the express lane. The arrows behind him had faded away by now.
"Okay, how do we run it?" He asked, not understanding the language on the complicated terminal.
"Here, let me..." Yuko moved for him and extended a hand over the blue screens. Frowning slightly, she opened some documents to do with wiring and power, and then the walk way lit up. "Okay, just step on the square."
"What, h-"
Whatever Ryoga was about to say has been taken out of him by his loud gasp of shock as the walkway propelled him down a glass tube. Somehow the walkway did not make him lose his balance.
"I had to reroute power, it had been shutdown just earlier today..." Yuko wasn't happy at this news. "Something wrong with this deal..." She shook her head and focussed on the facts. "We're heading straight there now. The light from the square should give you a small breather for now."
Letting his ki go, Ryoga wiped the sweat off his forehead. "How long will it take?"
"Around twenty minutes... We're heading for the outskirts from the centre of the city, so it'll take a short while."
"Good... I can rest up for a bit then..."
Sitting down on the small square, satisfied that he wasn't going to fall off from the lack of centrifugal force, he slept.
ION-Ra Headquarters
Ten seconds later
Another person came through the automatic doors, but stopped suddenly.
"Great, it's empty!" Ranma cursed. "Where the hell should I go?"
The reception desk lit up momentarily as a new set of arrows blinked their way in the dark corridors, leading her past the desk to a central lift column.
"Well, that was simple..." Ranma then obeyed their directions until the lift doors, where one set of them opened in front of her. "But... Which floor now?"
Automatically, the doors closed and the lift started moving.
"Down we go, I guess..." She cracked her knuckles.
New Brooklyn Hospital
Kuno's stamina was fast running out, but he didn't want to use the new powers available to him to increase it. "I must not give in..." He mumbled to himself constantly.
Despite his efforts, it was getting harder and harder to defend everyone in the large ward. People were screaming from all around him, and he couldn't use his time manipulation powers to get to everyone because of the intense pressure it put on his own body.
"There must be a way to protect everyone..." He thought back to the first battle on Katasdemi, where the tall Guardians fought, and how they used the elements.
"That's it!"
He concentrated on the blade and created ice particles, which then neatly formed into a wall in front of him. Though it was in shadow, the Ferals did not make their way through it somehow.
"I see, these beasts must require more than just shadows to transport themselves, they also need specific materials. Fire and ice look to be perfect deterrents against them." He shouted out to the people behind him, but still focussing on his weapon to create more of the barrier. "Everyone! Stay behind me and keep within my wall!"
The surviving nurses and doctors helped those more unfortunate patients closer to the centre, and soon they were all huddled into one large mass. Kuno was now generating ten metres of wall a second, his body becoming racked with invisible hits from the stress it produced.
Soon, everyone was inside an ice wall. To make it more secure, Kuno raised his ice sword and made it an enclosed room, with a slight incline in the middle, to make a conical shape.
Seeing that the floor was still the same as it was, he took no chances. Lighting up the fire, he created six fires relatively near to the ice wall, and one large one in the middle. The six pointed star ensures that no stray shadow would let any of the Ferals in.
The people sat down, exhausted from all the excitement. As their shadows danced among the flames, they began to talk animatedly. Kuno unsteadily stood up to check if there were any flaws in his plan. He already made the flames specific in their construction so that they could not melt away his ice. Walking sluggishly, he reactivated one of his bolts to regenerate his body, which it did so at an accelerated pace.
Though he did this only one time, he felt a strange tugging at his arm, only to find that it was sinking further and further into his skin. Widening his eyes, he stopped the ability, and it paused in its movement.
"I must not use this power for longer than necessary, I may have abused it too much today."
As he spoke, it moved one millimetre out of his skin, gradually taking back its former position.
Double-checking his measures again, he nodded with satisfaction and returned to the centre, where he was met with rapturous applause.
Surprised by the sudden adulation he received, he did the only thing he could.
"Hahahaha!" He laughed dramatically. "There is no one on this Earth who can defeat the mighty Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!"
Raising his sword, the five elements burst from it like fireworks instead of the standard lightning bolt from the sky. The cheers of 'Kuno' with other compliments, the numerous whistles from fans, and dozens of nurses with hearts in the their eyes were too much for the kendo student, and he promptly accepted everything from everyone, and began to have a celebration party, taking this chance to unwind for the first time since he arrived on the planet.
Fifteen minutes ago
Deep under ION-Ra Headquarters
Two people flashed into existence in the dark bowels of the old city. After quickly checking his surroundings, the Doctor turned to Novice Hame.
"You are going to get me back up there right this instance!"
"I can't..." Her sleeve was smoking. "The teleporter could only be used twice, and I'm not good enough to fix it."
"What have you been doing? Surely you must know something on how to stop the Ferals! Why has no one come to stop this?"
"Because we can't!" She had tears in her eyes. "We are trapped here, alone with just a food dispenser, unable to spread the news."
The light orbs near Novice Hame began to shut down, so she paced rapidly to another room.
"When you say 'we', who's the other person?"
As they circled another doorway, a telepathic voice whispered into his mind.
"Doctor..."
Amazed and shocked at hearing the person again, the Doctor looked to see the characteristic cylinder filled with smoke, inside of which lay...
"The Face of Boe!"
The large brown head with small hair follicles that took on the appearance of tentacles, nodded lightly.
"It was about time you showed up, old friend..." He let out a long audible sigh. "I'm nearing my end..."
"But... why?" The Doctor was feeling the glass chamber.
"As I'm sure you know, Doctor," Novice Hame spoke up, "the Ferals thrive and kill in complete darkness, with protection from ION-Ra..." She smiled bitterly. "Did you know when ION-Ra started up as a company?" Hearing no reply, she continued. "Twenty years ago, since you were last here." She shook her head in anger. "All they did was create the light orbs to 'protect' the population. There were no power plants or generators, all the electricity, the necessary power for any home, business or individuals, was provided by the Face of Boe."
The Doctor then looked back and saw a large cable coming from the back of the chamber, feeding into a broken up wall.
"The Face of Boe helped me construct the line feed into the central mainframe, and had been giving his life for the people of this planet. I've been unable to escape from this room either, without these light orbs that my lord generated for me in my time of dire need."
"So, you've been waiting in here, all this time?" The Doctor
"It was my penance, I needed to absolve myself." Her body was slight, and she seemed weighed by the pressure of twenty years of waiting.
He put a hand on her shoulder. "And that you have."
Novice Hame seemed to take this to heart and was touched.
"Doctor?!" A new voice came from far away in the maze of rooms.
"I have made it easy for your new companion to get here." Boe said briefly.
"Ranma! Over here!" The Doctor shouted.
Following the voice and tracing his ki, as well as two others, the redhead reached the area, but stopped short at seeing the giant head.
"Wh-what is that?"
"Oh, don't mind him Ranma, he's the Face of Boe. It's perfectly okay."
"O-okay..." She did so, but steered far away from Novice Hame.
"What is it with you and cats?" The Doctor asked.
"It's, uh..." She couldn't put it into words, "Let's just say I had a bad experience with them when I was young..."
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Doctor," Novice Hame cut in, "but my lord has not much time left. We need to restore power to the planet via conventional means, and not through his own life energy."
"Good point..." He looked around the room, "but I can't see the control panel or anything of the sort down here."
"Yes, you'll need to get to the higher levels. There should be some terminals in reception, but I don't know what has changed since we were confined here.
"Okay..." The Doctor looked at the transmat food machine and scanned it with the sonic screwdriver. "You're right, there's no way to access anything interesting from here... However," A high pitched whine later, and a light palming of the buttons, "now you can communicate with me through this, while I'm still in the building."
"Doctor..." The Face of Boe was blinking slower and slower. "I give to you my last -"
"Don't be silly, none of that stuff now, you've got plenty of life left in you!" He avoided talking any more by starting to move out with Ranma.
His companion was confused. "What was that, his last what exactly?"
"Oh nothing," The Doctor waved it off, "Just a few things about a famous last line to a traveller."
"Ah..." She saw that her aura was rapidly running out. "Doctor, I think I can last only fifteen more minutes..."
"Not to worry, Ranma..." He waved the sonic screwdriver around. "I've still got enough juice in this for us to finish this once and for all."
"That's great news," She said mildly, her eyes narrowing as she searched the dark surroundings, "because the Ferals are back..."
They had reached the lift areas, but the power had cut out for them. The Doctor pointed to the nearby staircase.
"Feel like some exercise?" He grinned widely.
Ranma returned it with force, "Why not, I could do with another run..."
Together they jogged to the steps and made their way up two at a time. In the odd case that there was a blockage, given that the sub-basement levels were not accessed by people regularly, Ranma kicked the rocks, filing cabinets and whatever was in their way to make things clearer for them to get to the upper levels.
"Crap..." Ranma stated unnecessarily.
A whole section of the wall had collapsed, and the rubble was too much for Ranma to simply knock away by hand.
"Great, just what I needed, wasting my energy again." The Doctor chuckled at her grumbling.
Filling herself with her own ego, she blasted away the neo-concrete and vaporised some of the steps by about two floors.
"Hmm, a light jump then..." Casually picking up the Doctor in her arms, ignoring his one protest, she leapt to the secure upper levels. Her aura illuminated the floor number. "Level B6, still a few more to go."
"Ahem..." The Doctor cleared his throat, "Now, I'm not a chauvinist by any means, but you didn't need to help me up back there. I could've handled it on my own..."
"Sure you could," Ranma's voice was sincere, "but you'd have cost me time, time that this ki aura doesn't have, so I chose the quickest route up." She smirked, "Hope you weren't too embarrassed at having a lady..." She paused here before continuing on, "carry you up!"
"Not at all!" He laughed, "Equal rights for all men, women and null sexualities!"
Ranma didn't even want to think of what that other category implied, given her former status. Thinking of something interesting to take their minds off the increasing volume of growls, she asked a question.
"Come to think of it, you mentioned you were a, what was it called again, a Time Lord." She reached another landing and ran up more steps. "Are there only men and women there, not this null one you said just now?"
The Doctor was cool. "Yeah, just the normal two, I'm male in case you were wondering."
Rolling her eyes and half-shuddering inside, she changed the topic. "So? Why aren't you travelling with one of them? Not pretty enough?" She flicked her pigtail jokily, but was surprised to see his smile grow a little thinner.
"It doesn't work that way. Time Lords who choose to travel away from their planet, and believe me it's rare for that to happen, must travel without other Time Lords, though the rules don't state anything about humans or other species." He winked before growing melancholic, "We also have to give up our names, and assume a new identity. All trace of my past name has been wiped from my mind, so I'm simply called 'Doctor', because that's what I chose." He sighed, "My planet was beautiful, nothing like it in the universe, but the war changed all that."
"War?" Ranma frowned, not liking the sound of where this was going. "Like a World War?"
"No, far worse than that, the last great Time War, between us and the Daleks, another race that uses time travel." He sighed, "Everyone died, the Daleks, though some came back later they all died again, my people, my family, my home planet, wiped from this plane of existence."
"So..." Ranma was treading carefully, trying not to upset him further, "You can't go and visit them in my home time, or go back before it started and stop these Daleks?"
The Doctor shook his head, "You can't cross your own time stream, or change the course of huge events, because the universe would fracture. Besides," He mumbled, "I already tried, and failed..."
"Ah, I guess that's pretty bad, huh?" Ranma kept on running, noticing that it was final set of stairs, "I'm sorry, Doctor, for your home, and everyone you knew, I had no idea."
"It's okay, Ranma," Smiling at her he pointed up ahead, "Ground level, we're here!"
The mountain of roars came from the reception area, the Doctor used the scanner to figure out where they were. "There's around a hundred Ferals here..."
"Easily fixed..." Ranma started punching away, avoiding getting hit by the first few, before things grew out of control.
Ranma and the Doctor were avoiding the bodies as they trudged onwards.
"We have to get to the centre, to stop all this!" He shouted over the cries. "Clear the way for us!"
"No problem…" Ranma dug into her reserves and held her hands out in front of her as the Doctor switched off his sonic screwdriver.
"Moko Takabisha!"
Sending dozens of them flying, they kept moving forwards until the sounds desisted, and the reception desk was in front of them.
"Righto! Time for me to work my magic!"
Aiming the sonic screwdriver at the monitor screen, he cycled through various windows and images before tripping the right circuit.
"Novice Hame, can you hear me?"
"Y-Yes Doctor, we're here, please hurry! My lord is fading fast."
"Working on it..."
Sticking his tongue out through his thinning lips, he checked all the settings and found that he could access all the necessary information through that one terminal. He then saw an unnatural blockage in the power lines that restricted the flow of electricity to the population. As he started to unravel it, he cooed his appreciation.
"Well, well, the hardware itself is doing the blocking, but I can crack this software to make it all work." While he was figuring out how to bypass the hardware, he spoke on, into the screen. "So tell me, Novice Hame, what I don't understand is the Ferals, no one is trying to stop them."
"A powerful government official, we know not who, is preventing anyone from trying to solve the mystery, anyone who tries... has their light orbs cut off at the worse time."
The Doctor noted as such, seeing how fearful people were at paying their bills. Ranma was keeping watch quietly, but also listened to the conversation.
"But, from what I recall, ION-Ra started up just as the Ferals began appearing, and that was all twenty years ago."
"Yes, there's one last thing I forgot to mention." Novice Hame began to sound guilty in her voice, "During my time at the old hospital, we recreated the original human based on old DNA samples from within our gene code."
"You mean, you have human DNA inside you?" The Doctor was interested.
"Yes, but we're not descended from humans exactly, perhaps some of our ancestors absorbed it somehow during the evolutionary process, perhaps by licking."
Ranma shuddered at this point.
"Go on..." The Doctor could sense that something huge was about to be revealed.
"The problem was, human DNA wasn't the only thing that was uncovered..." She began to sniff, and her light sobs were heard through the screen. "The DNA of another species, a primal version..."
"The Ferals..." The Doctor darkened.
"Yes, I had no idea of this until those last few hours before the hospital fell. They were hidden away, but somehow they escaped and bred..."
"So, the name gives it away, feral animals tend to be reserved for one species only..." The lights starting flaring on, much to the Doctor's surprise. An indicator on the screen showed how a large barrier to the energy had been removed. "Hang on, why's this happening? I haven't done anything yet!"
However, the other human occupant of the room was white with horror, and began stammering. "C-C-C-C-CATS!"
Ranma's anguished cries came as the internal lighting finally gave the twosome the real image of the Ferals. They took the form of large predator cats, with the body of a tiger, but the head and mane of a male lion. However these were pure muscle, and they were coloured black, their polar white eyes stilling Ranma. They varied in size, from no more than a domestic cat to a fully grown panther. It was difficult to specify the gender, but this wasn't exactly their concern at this time.
Despite their size, they shirked at the light, they weren't moving very fast, and the Doctor realised why.
"Their eyesight, they must've been kept in the dark all this time, so it must hurt to look at it directly." He saw them raise their noses. "No, they are blind in the light, but their sense of smell hasn't diminished at all..." He saw their gaze shift entirely on them, "and there are two tasty people right here."
Ranma meanwhile was shaking, her fists held no conviction, as they last thing she wanted to do was to touch a cat. Tear globules hung at the corners of her eyes, but even the Doctor couldn't calm her down.
"No, keep them away from me!" She backpedalled and hit the far wall, watching in horror as they advanced on her, the weakest one by the scent of her sweat and fear.
"No, stop!" The Doctor shouted whilst aiming his sonic screwdriver, trying to find some way of holding them, but it was too late.
Five Ferals lunged at Ranma, one large, one medium and three small ones scratching and biting at her arms, legs, chest stomach and face. Her half-hearted attempts of resistance were laughable, and not even hurting the Ferals, who were flinched at what they expected to be the same strength as before. The cuts on Ranma multiplied exponentially, and despite her increased muscle mass and overall physique, she was in danger of losing one of her arms, the bare flesh giving way to bone.
The reception desk started making a dreadful fog horn-like sound. The words 'Manual Override' were clearly visible even from where the Doctor was standing.
The lights switched off again, accompanied by an almighty yowl. Hurrying up, the safety of Ranma and his own mortality running through his mind, the Doctor used the sonic probe to charge up his lights orbs, and within seconds he was horrified at what he saw.
Ten minutes ago
Secondary Headquarters
Outskirts of New New York
Yuko spoke into his ear. "We're here Ryoga."
He jumped awake, ready to attack something, but softened when he saw it was the floating hologram. He nodded past the exit. "Can you sense anything out there? I don't feel any of the Ferals."
"Scanning..." Her eyes showed lines of code as they loaded the appropriate program. "No life signs detected, however there does appear to be a human shape in the office above."
"Right, let's introduce ourselves." Ryoga grinned darkly.
The door to the inner reception area was smooth as it slid open in the silent office space. As with the main building, this one was more of less abandoned recently. Ryoga saw something on the floor and increased his ki aura slightly.
"Blood stains..."
There was a large splotch of it from just behind the reception desk, the screen illuminating the wall with a red tinge from the particles of blood on the monitor. Yuko moved closer and performed another analysis.
"From my basic level health databanks, this matches human DNA, not Feral."
Ryoga traced the pattern with his eyes as it snaked up the staircase. "Let's see where it leads..."
Another minute of climbing and they found themselves at the top floor of the seven storey building.
"I'm detecting the human body shape in through there." Yuko pointed to a door at the end of the corridor.
Pacing himself, Ryoga gently moved to the door and waited for it to slide open, and found himself staring into an office of a very important person, in which was a large desk with and expensive looking chair behind it. Whoever owned the office was also sitting in the chair.
From what little he could see, the person was old, by the state of the wrinkles in his hands, and wore an expensive business suit, coated in blood.
The only reason for concern was the lack of his head above the neck, where there was just a stump leftover from what appeared to be a large bite.
Yuko covered her face, her emotional nature fluctuating greatly from seeing something as horrible as this. Ryoga was several shades whiter, and managed to hold down his bile long enough to not vomit everywhere.
"Yuko..." He whispered, partly not to breathe in the smell of death through his mouth, "I need you to tell me who he is, if you can..."
She nodded and floated closer to the body, moving closer to the fingers and blood stain, all the while conducting analyses from the data she was gathering.
"There's no doubt, even without the retinal scans..." She shook her head in disbelief. "This is the CEO of ION-Ra. The bite was by an exceptionally large Feral, though it is peculiar, because they generally leave very few remains behind. It was recent too, around one and a half hours ago..."
"What does it mean then?" Ryoga wondered. "A new type of Feral?"
Yuko shrugged, "It's possible, Ferals are considered to be bestial by nature. This fatal wound clearly shows intelligence."
"But, why kill him?" Ryoga looked about the office, but seeing nothing interesting, he edged closer to the desk. Seeing one drawer was ajar, he pulled it out fully and saw a small vial inside.
"Yuko, what's in this?" He held it inside his aura light, but couldn't tell anything other than it was a clear pale blue liquid.
"Hmm..." She separated the molecules and tried to determine what it was. Her eyes widened in surprise. "It can't be!" She got nearer to his face. "Ryoga, put one drop on that on the cut on your hand!"
"Huh?" Bored, he did so, but was surprised to see that it didn't bleed so much. "What's this then?"
"It looks like an experimental antidote." She looked uncertain. "It's not complete, but it might help. I can't tell if there will be any side effects..."
"It doesn't matter." Ryoga waved those concerns off. "Do I drink it, or spread it on me?"
"It looks like it should be drank, so -"
Swallowing it in one go, Ryoga licked his lips. "Mmm, it's sweet, not bad for medicine."
"R-Ryoga!" She admonished him, "You're never supposed to drink uncertified drugs!"
He wasn't worried about this, as he already felt his blood begin to cool slightly on his arms. He frowned again. "Yuko, I'll be fine I just want to sort this mystery out and get out of here, that's all..." He paused, seeing something strange on the body. "Yuko, is it normal for people to still have a fist when they die?"
"What?" She turned her eyes to the CEO's left hand, which was curled into said fist. "It's not unheard of. Why, what do you have in mind?"
Ryoga tried to puzzle things out. "I don't know... My lights shut off today, ION-Ra controls the electricity from what you told me, and now the CEO is dead by a clever Feral." He looked around the office. "It looks too normal to me, no fighting whatsoever, I would've left a mark if I was fighting here. Perhaps he knew the person, maybe he knew he would die, that's why he came up here bleeding, but whatever it was came and finished him off."
"You think it's a clue?" Yuko asked, impressed with his deduction.
"If someone is about to die, and they know it, they try to do something. Leave a note with the name of the killer, or try to hide some evidence against the person." He pried apart the fist and a small disk fell out. "This could hold something we need to know."
Yuko stared at it and gestured to a slot in the desk. "Put it in there and I'll read it." Ryoga did so, and the desk started humming as Yuko interfaced with it. Suddenly she opened her eyes fully and yelled. "Oh God!, Ryoga!" Her eyes were frantic. "We have to get out of this building, fast!"
"Why?" He stood up fast, preparing his ki. "Is something coming for us?"
"No! It's much worse!" She starting heading for the exit, "We have to get out of this building within two minutes!"
"Okay," He glanced at the window, "that can be easily done."
Seconds later, Ryoga was being pulled by gravity as he hurtled through the air. Yuko, dragged by him due to the restriction of her UPS, was squealing as she fell too.
"We're going to die, we're going to die..." She kept repeating under her breath.
Ryoga smirked, "I told you, I've been through these kinds of situations before." They passed the second storey, and he braced his legs for impact.
The subsequent crater generated by his two feet, and ki enhanced ankles and heels, sent the bio-tarmac into the air, splitting the road in two.
Yuko spoke once her fear wore off, "We're alive..." She was wiping holographic tears away from her face, still in disbelief, "Ryoga, you need to head straight for that building!"
"That round one there?" He pointed at a cylindrical building around a hundred metres away.
"Yes, go, hurry!" She flew alongside him, opening up wireless connections to the networks she accessed moments earlier. "I'll explain, Ryoga... The CEO was murdered, he was blackmailed into charging for energy to everyone, otherwise he and his family would die. He had files in there related to his own investigations about ION-Ra, and the Ferals." Yuko closed her eyes, "He found that there was a major problem with his own company, a conspiracy that began twenty years ago. Back then, electricity was free, as it was so easy to produce. From a certain day, shortly after a quarantine incident at the hospital, ION-Ra merged with the other energy provider, and began to charge for power, to protect people from the Ferals. The light orbs were also built, to provide light, and to spy on anyone who questions the company."
"That's strange." Ryoga said aloud, "Why would they do that?"
"Monopoly maybe, but it wasn't properly investigated. Someone has been making ION-Ra earn money when it shouldn't..." She indicated ahead. "That is why we're going to change that tonight. That building there is absorbing all the surplus power, and also preventing other methods of generating electricity. Inside it, there's also a complicated closed circuit surveillance unit that monitors for key words and sentences."
"So, what're we going to do?" He asked, somewhat confused.
She looked at him strangely, "Why, we're going to destroy it!"
Ryoga stared blankly at her. "Excuse me?"
Yuko narrowed her eyes, "Whoever is behind this has killed thousands of people. That disk contains deaths by Ferals, mostly suspicious ones because the people had already paid their bills. It's been going for two decades, I won't stand for this any longer!" Another window with a countdown was displayed in front of her, "In one minute, from what I saw in the network files and programs, all the electricity in New Earth will be shut off, and the Ferals will have a field day! Millions will die!" She opened up several upload and download pipelines, "I'm transmitting all the information I have gathered to all the news agencies in New Earth, and for the system news networks too. I'm also grabbing all the data I can from this giant Capacitor for proof, and will send it on later."
"What do you want me to do?" Ryoga asked, still unsure.
"You think you can blow it up, with your power?" Yuko was honest. "Without the hardware, the shut off will not happen, and the power will flow freely through every building on the planet."
Ryoga looked at the building once more, before nodding. "I need to get to the top first..." He looked around the side and saw a small ladder, "Perfect..."
He started climbing two rungs at a time, and was on the top in ten seconds. He stared up at the night sky with unfamiliar stars, as a thin cloud slowly blocked them out, and spoke quietly. "Yuko..." He didn't look at her, "I want you to say something mean to me."
"What?!" The countdown was reaching its end, "Why at a time -"
"Now, Yuko!" He angrily shouted.
"I..." Yuko racked her electronic brain for something to say, trying to choose an ideal insult from her list that could apply to them, "I... I wish I never met you...?" She trailed off in a questioning form, but it made no difference, because Ryoga didn't catch the last query.
"Oh God, no!" He screamed, his green ki ballooning, "It's worse than I thought! Another friend, lost, again?! Why?!"
Yuko was panicking at his reaction, "W-Wait... I -"
"MAXIMUM POWER, SHI SHI HOKODAN!"
Her apology was halted by the humongous column of green light that fired upwards, reaching the cloud that lazily passed overhead. Gathering itself into a ball, it began to plummet to earth.
Ryoga zoned out, his expression growing listless and exhausted. His head slumped forwards, much to Yuko's terror, as her words didn't reach him.
The pressure caused the Capacitor to implode, and crushing it beneath the tonne of weight. Ryoga fell through the rubble, bringing Yuko with him, under the crumbling debris.
"Ryoga! Ryoga?!" Yuko was phasing through his face trying to grab his attention, his closed eyes not moving.
Sighing loudly, he stretched his arms, inadvertently shifting a large piece of the roof that had landed on his arm. He looked around him, seeing the building completely demolished, with a few fires lighting the area.
"Yuko, is the power back to the city?"
She checked rapidly and nodded.
"Could you start up my light orbs again?" Yuko scanned the code and smiled, seeing the firewall gone now, and in a second Ryoga was orbited by three glowing balls. "That's great, Yuko, thank you." He yawned again. "It's weird, I'm sleepy now, I'll just have a nap, wake me when it's dawn, okay?"
"Of course, Ryoga." She watched his breathing grow steadier and deeper, "Just so you know, I didn't mean that, right now you're very important to me..."
She stopped talking and smiled, for he was fast asleep, snoring loudly.
Meanwhile
New Manhattan
The Ferals had moved away from Ranma now, as if uncertain as to whether to attack her. The Doctor stared as Ranma's hair was on end, her pigtail spiking out to a perfect straight rod. She stood on her tiptoes, and brought her hands to the ground, her nails scraping it touchily. Arching her back up, she yowled again, then hissed at the Ferals.
Neko Ranma's face was indistinguishable from her hair, given that they were both the same colour now, her life fluid was strewn around her on the wall and floor. One of the smaller Ferals jumped and bit deep into her leg, drawing more blood through the black jogging bottoms. At this point, she stopped making noises to look at the tiny creature, before slapping it away with her hand.
Yet, as she did so, her nails had grown larger by an inch, her pupils became slit shaped, the irises grew white, and even her fangs had lengthened. Though not herself at that time, Neko Ranma's brain noticed these changes, confused as to why it was happening, before feeling something odd, similar to hot electricity, filter from that spot. She held her leg and made loud anguished cat cries, as her whole body changed in other small, but painful looking ways.
The largest Feral lunged at her, but the redhead had already finished her adaptation, and was now tearing into it. As the others started attacking her, she fought back with equal ruthlessness. She made no qualms about ripping them into pieces, nor ingesting body parts.
She didn't stop until they were dead, all that remained on the floor being inedible body parts, much like the first crime scene that the twosome saw just a few hours earlier.
Then she looked directly at the Doctor.
"Ranma..." He collected himself and spoke sincerely, while bringing his Time Lord essence forwards, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... I'll find a way to bring you back to normal." Her eyes did not change, but neither did she move any closer. "Remember your name, Ranma. I'll call you to remove this influence over you." He could tell that more of the enemy were coming. "I promise you, I'll get you out of here."
As the sounds of other Ferals filled the room, the Doctor closed his eyes as Ranma hissed again, leaping straight for his face. Quickly, pointing it up, he extended his sonic screwdriver so that it grew longer, exposing the intricate innards, and switched it on. Though the blue light was only on for milliseconds, the lights orbs instantly deactivated.
The impact of Ranma against the Doctor never occurred, and he pressed the switch again on the sonic probe, bringing the light back, but no Ranma in sight. Outside of his view, and throughout the building, he heard the endless screams of animalistic pain, mixed with yowls and hissing. Even outside in the street, the same sounds were mirrored across the city and presumably the planet. Passing by the messy remnants of former Ferals he went to the reception desk, safe in the knowledge that wouldn't be targeted by them again.
He briefly flicked through the screens using the probe, and accessed the previous instruction.
"ION-Ra Lighting Shutdown: Manual Override. Got it!" He smiled, then traced the source of the order. "Sent from, Floor 200?" He looked up at the ceiling. "From here? But that's..." He smiled knowingly, "Of course, where else to make sure you know what is happening around the land, huh?" He eagerly rubbed his hands in glee. "Time to met the big boss now, I wonder who it could be?"
Striding over to the lifts, he saw that they were also powered down. Sending sonic pulses to the lift button, he rerouted the necessary energy to run it, and the doors opened. Using the same routine, he shut the doors and it zoomed up to the upper reaches of the building. He noticed that the lift was not interrupted in any way, as it appeared from the top of a section of the building, leaving him with a view of the whole city below, vanishing beneath him.
Only for the entire city to be lit up like never before. Every single window, as opposed to the soft light they all had when sleeping, had now turned to hard light, shining brightly through their windows, waking up all the people inside.
The Doctor smiled, "Well, at least the Ferals won't be able to move easily with all that light about the place."
He looked up, ready to meet whoever was at the door.
As it approached the upper levels, it entered another lift shaft, plunging the outside into darkness again, and finally it reached the final floor. The lift doors opened smoothly, but the outer doors, that belonging to the 200th floor, screeched with lack of use. Coaxing the gears to churn out that extra bit of effort, they caused sparks on the floor as they moved into the walls, allowing the Doctor into the pitch black room.
He walked in, safe knowing that the light orbs were under his power for now. As his eyes adjusted to the non-windowed room, showing no signs of movement, he could tell he was on a carpet, leading forwards, and that there were some steps Going up to a slightly elevated level.
In the centre of that plinth, there was a large concise structure, and the Doctor smiled.
"So, that's where my TARDIS went, huh?" He took a step forwards before hearing a tapping. He remained where he was, staring straight ahead.
"So, you called this a TARDIS then, Doctor?" A figure walked around from the back of it, "It's quite special in its own way, seeing as how I can't get into it..."
The Doctor saw that the person was very large and round. "Have we met before?" He didn't say his name, so it was natural that the person knew him.
"Oh come now, Doctor," The person sounded hurt in a mocking way, "it's only been twenty years, since that day in the hospital. You assumed me to be dead, but I came back, stronger than ever..."
Size light orbs now glowed around the man, as he stood between the Doctor and the TARDIS. His sneer hardened the look on the Doctor's face.
"I see, it makes some sense now..." He took a few more steps closer, "Only a few people could have the political power to coerce ION-Ra to conform to their choices, am I right, Duke?"
The Duke of Manhattan clapped his hands slowly, "Well done, Doctor, you've caught on -"
"But..." He was interrupted, as the Doctor began pacing around the room from side to side, holding his chin and occasionally gesturing to the Duke, "what I don't get is how you got so high? The Duke still has to report to the Prime Minister, and even you can't override his orders. The whole issue about the Ferals is also up in the air. They aren't something that humans like you could survive an encounter with, let alone negotiate. Why are you helping them kill people?"
Why Doctor, I do believe you're asking a few too many questions of me," He chortled, before rubbing his large belly, "much like the recently departed, shall we say, head of ION-Ra?"
The Doctor laughed at him, "Oh, and what can you do, O Corpulent One? Sit on me? Belch me to death?"
The Duke grinned, baring a few more teeth than he should have had in his jaw, "Oh, my dear Doctor, I could do so much more to you, but the time has passed for chitchat, I have business to attend to, thanks to your meddling and your companion ruining things for me at the Capacitor."
"Hang on, what Capacitor. What are you talking about?" For once, the Doctor was lost.
"Don't play games with me, your death will be swift." He held out a fat hand, "Ferals, kill this man in front of me."
The Doctor held out his sonic screwdriver, ready to fight back, but he didn't need to, for none of them came out.
"What?" The Duke was mad, "Ferals! Kill him now!"
From the darkness, one body flew out towards the Doctor, claws outstretched.
He aimed the sonic blue light at the head, and emitted a high pitch whine. The Feral faltered in its lunge, reaching for its ears mid-flight as the sonic pulse affected its sensitive hearing, and it skidded to the floor within range of the Doctor's light orbs.
For some reason, he put away the sonic screwdriver, and knelt down to look at it closer. Placing both hands on the sides of its head, fingers stretched to specific points on the temple, he spoke softly.
"It's okay, Ranma." Feral Ranma stared up, wide-eyed and scared, "Just let it go, this isn't you. You have the influence of a beast. Just remember your humanity, remember your name."
The redhead, soaked in the blood of every Feral in New New York, wailed as she scratched her head, before finally pounding it on the ground.
"My name..."
She spoke between hits, as her nails and fangs shrank in size.
"My. Name. Is. Ranma!" The last hit sent cracks spidering out in the floor. Standing up unsteadily, she smirked, her royal blue eyes back to normal now. "I'm back, Doctor, like you wanted."
He smiled happily and sincerely, "That's great news, Ranma, but we still have a problem..." He nodded towards the Duke, "That's the guy who's been controlling the Ferals."
Ranma turned to stare at the large man, "Wow, this guy could eat my pops under the table any day!"
"What?!" The Duke was enraged at Ranma insult but also at the situation, "Where are my Ferals?" He looked straight at Ranma, "What have you done with them?"
Ranma, stepped in front of the Doctor, the blood of those she had killed pouring over her clothes, soaking the carpet and spreading far.
"Dead." She stated simply, her eyes boring into his own pair.
"What do you mean 'dead'?" The Duke was beginning to laugh, "There are over ten thousand of them!"
Ranma checked out her body, fists and feet, seeing the hundreds of cuts that adorned her skin, and the layers of thick hot blood that caked her figure. She also sensed that she had just had a recent meal, consisting of meat of some description, but she chose not to analyse it any further lest she regurgitate whatever it was that was inside her.
Flashes of memories came to her as she recalled hundreds of Ferals, her peculiar heat and light restricted vision, and the knowledge that she knew what had happened to her now.
"I killed them all..." She held up her hands, "My body acted on its own, and attacked anyone who threatened me. I actually did killed them this time, I tore them apart." She had a haunted look, but it was deadly when facing the Duke, "I could see through shadows, like they were cameras, and I could travel to any place I wanted that was dark. I saw everything, all at once, in this city. All the Ferals, all the humans, aliens and everything. Though I can't remember who I saw or what I killed, all I know is, in my mind, your army of Ferals is completely gone. I wiped them out."
"Y-You...!" The Duke spluttered, "You've ruined my plans now!" He felt his face, "Now, how am I going to kill every disgusting person on this planet?" He leaned forwards for a moment, then looked up, laughing loudly, "Well, I'll just have to resort to the old-fashioned way, do it yourself."
Ranma wasn't in the mood for games, and stalked closer, still dripping the blood of her enemies on the floor. She had started to move out of the Doctor's light orbs, but was not beginning to charge up her ki.
"Oh, and how are you going to do that?" She remarked casually, "You don't look like a martial artist, and I don't care about hitting someone with your title. I've fought a Prince, and a Lord, perhaps I would've fought God soon."
The Doctor decided to make a comment at this time, "But of course, the Duke is already dead isn't he?"
The Duke stared at him, "How perceptive, Doctor, do tell me how you guessed that?"
"Simple." He walked around in a random pattern, heading towards a corner of the room. "No human has ever contacted, nor communicated with the Ferals, not unless they were slaughtered moments later. It takes a certain type of person to be able to do that, namely, the same species." He raised an eyebrow, to wait for the answer, "Right?"
"Once again, you are correct."
The Duke, now tired of the charade, pulled off the head and threw it in the air, as it landed in a lump on the floor, revealing itself to be nothing more than a rubber mask, though on a closer examination, it turned out to be a hollowed out skin of the real Duke.
Still inside the bodysuit of the Duke, and sticking out of the thick neck, the face of a smiling maw greeted them, that of a black Feral.
"You are the first humans I've show this face to, you should be thankful."
The Doctor deadpanned, "You shouldn't be grateful, I'm not a human." He spoke with strength behind his voice, "Why are you doing this?"
"Isn't it obvious?" He spread his arms out wide, "I was born into this world, from the cat DNA. From that DNA came me, the first Feral, the Leader, and the other strain was the original human DNA. They cloned that DNA countless times, to produce the human farm you destroyed. They rejected me!" He snarled, "They threw me into the Undercity, to rot away, but I found my way out." He looked directly at the Doctor, "Shadows, the perfect conduit to move from place to another."
He grinned widely.
"When you destroyed their subjects' cages, I was released too, and I latched onto the first human I could find, and that was this fat Duke. Of course, I was starving, so I did enjoy my meal, which was his secretary I think..." He patted his stomach in remembrance of that tasty human. "Using this political power, I got hold of what I needed, information about the tests, the DNA replication units..."
He paced slowly.
"I found the old labs they used and used it on myself to produce my siblings, only they didn't possess the upper brain functions, just mere instinct. However," He grinned here, "excellent weapons to wreak havoc, to kill everyone on this world for throwing me aside like rubbish." He was angry, "Twenty years it took to prepare, to create more of them, to rig the electrical supplies of the world, twenty years of watching as the humans survived, happy in their worthless lives. Twenty years, and all ruined in one day, thanks to you!"
He was pointing at Ranma, but was frozen.
Due to the long speech, which captivated both the Doctor and the Leader, Ranma had been struggling with herself, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists. Once the attention was on her, she changed
As her nails grew longer, they cut into her palms, splashing more blood onto the floor.
"Enemy... Enemy..."
Her voice was going at a higher pitch, until she could no longer control herself, and snapped. Her fangs resumed their larger size, and her eyes switched to the alternate version.
Feral Ranma yowled, then hissed, intent on killing the one creature in front of her.
"I see," The Leader lowered his finger, "So, this was how it happened. But," He raised his hands, "you must have the same weaknesses too."
The light orbs around the Leader sped away and moved into precise locations in the room, including behind the TARDIS, illuminating the entire room so that there was no more shadow in the room. Feral Ranma spat, shielding her eyes, and cowering away from the brightness.
"I can do different things though, I'm not like you, I'm not blind in the light."
Feral Ranma was trying to find a way out, whilst keeping her eyes closed, and clawing pathetically at the reinforced walls, barely making a mark on them.
The Doctor didn't move, instead kept glancing back and forth from Ranma and the Leader Feral, he spoke only to one person in that room.
"So, Duke, if you don't mind me calling you that, seeing as you didn't name yourself, I'm asking you sincerely, stop this now."
The Leader stopped in his steps, his eyes conveying amusement, "Why should I? Once you're dead, I can start to kill everyone here, one by one, then I'll move on to another planet, until all the humans in this galaxy, no, this whole universe, are dead!"
"And after you've done all that, what will you do?" The Doctor applied his logic, "Once all the humans are dead, what will be your purpose in life?"
The Leader thought about it, then replied, "I'll rest, then I'll move on to another species that treats others like trash."
"So, you'll never stop then?" The Doctor continued for him, "Every race in existence has, even if just the once, acted badly to another race, so you'll be targeting all life in the universe."
"Yes, Doctor," The Leader licked his lips, "And you'll be the first victim." He opened his mouth and ran towards him.
"Not today, I'm afraid." Removing the sonic screwdriver, he fired it towards the face of the Leader.
"Argh!" He held his head, but wasn't as affected as Ranma was earlier, "I told you, Doctor, I'm different to the rest, you're just giving me a buzzing headache with all that. It's not going to stop me..." The Leader halted sharply, seeing a strange occurrence in front of him.
"No second chances..." The Doctor's tone was final.
His three light orbs moved right in front of him, closer to the body. As the Doctor was located in one of the corners of the room, a shadow formed behind him, covered from the other six orbs of the enemy.
Feral Ranma, seeing a safe haven where her eyes would not be blinded, ran there and hid in the relative darkness.
"Ranma," He spoke to the person yowling quietly at his back, but not taking his eyes off the Leader. She paused her noises and appeared to be listening carefully, "There is one more shadow in this room, find it. You know what to do Ranma."
Feral Ranma hissed once, not liking being told what to do. Regardless of this, she seemed to understand vaguely what he meant, and was looking inside the the Doctor's shadow, until she found what she was looking for. Her maw widening, she leapt into the silhouette of the Doctor.
He looked at the Leader, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."
"What are you..." The Leader frowned, until he felt a sharp pain, "Mrowww!" He yelled once, before screaming at a constant rate of agony, spitting blood from his lips and nose.
The outer body suit of the former Duke was wobbling and shaking in a strange way, lumps appearing at every corner, only to retract to its position. Crying one last time, he dug his claws into his chest, and ripped open the skin, releasing a dark red mass, which tumbled out over the steps. Falling backwards, the Leader was still.
Running up to the red object, the Doctor pulled out a long tissue from his inside pocket, and wiped as much of the blood off as he could. Feral Ranma was trying her best to keep away from the light, but the Doctor's grip was firm.
"I'm sorry, Ranma, I shouldn't have made you go that far..."
He felt the temples again and reminded her of the instruction he suggested. Within a minute she had regained her former mind, and looked down at herself.
"Man, that's was disgusting... How did you know there'd be a big hole inside that fake suit?"
The Doctor cocked his head to one side, "Well, I just took a wild guess really, those other Ferals were all thin, so I assumed that he would be the same, just using that body to disguise himself, itself being hollow."
"Doctor..." Ranma was shaking slightly, "What's happened to me, my body? I've never been so different. I do become a c-c-cat sometimes, but the claws, my teeth, and I think my eyes change -"
He helped her to her feet, "Again, this is just an assumption of my own, but when you regress into the mind of a cat, somehow your genetic structure changed too to compensate, and probably has done so in the past in order to move the way cats do. Yet, when that Feral bit you, it injected a new strain of DNA into your bloodstream, an evolved, yet by this time, ancient form of cat. It was already warped by its forceful separation from human DNA in this time's cats, like Novice Hame. It accelerated your own evolution, survival of the fittest, and the Ferals DNA won, overwriting those little genes into fully blown, grown-up ones."
Ranma scratched her cheek, "I didn't get all that, you mean I'm no longer human?"
The Doctor reassured her, "The vast majority of you is human, that will remain dominant, but a part of you is Feral. Your VamPlast must've fallen off at some point, and from what I can tell, you've gained an immunity to their toxin, so your blood is clotting at a normal rate."
"Will... Will I change into one of them?" Ranma shook with worry, "I hate c-c-cats, but to become one..."
The Doctor was still, "I can't tell from here, I need to run some tests in the TARDIS just to be sure. I also need to take care of that arm..."
They walked together towards the blue box, but both noticed something wrong. "The Duke is gone..." Ranma commented.
The fat suit skin was now crumbling without its host inside, but the Leader was nowhere to be seen. A trail of blood led from the neck opening to the back of the TARDIS, where a hidden staircase led upstairs.
"The roof..." The said together, and they ran after the Leader.
The sky was brightening, dawn was just a few minutes away. They no longer needed to follow the path, because he was lying right in front of them, his back against the ION-Ra sign. His midriff was shorn and barely recognisable, the multitude of cuts, scratches and bites having made their mark.
Ranma was more in control now, and forced the bestial instinct deep inside her. The Doctor moved forwards, starting the conversation.
"You've lost, and with those wounds, you're not going to last long." He spoke harsher, "But you did deserve it."
The Leader coughed, still keeping one hand on his stomach, "It looks that way, I had no idea you could be to ruthless as to send your pet to kill me."
"Pet?!" Ranma growled, "I'm nobody's pet!"
The Doctor waved her down, "Ranma is human, but I had to stop you somehow, I can't let you out among the people now, you'll kill them all."
The Leader said nothing, just breathing shallower and shallower.
"I'm the last of my kind," The Doctor said, "So are you." The Doctor raised a hand and stretched it out to him, "Let me help you. I can heal you and take you to a planet without humans, but rich in wildlife, whilst being too primitive for space travel, to live out your days."
The Leader smiled, his teeth bared, "You'd even help a monster like me?"
"I hate to see the end of a species, no matter who or what it is."
The Leader was in two minds about it, but he held out his uninjured one and accepted the Doctor's. "Your offer sounds impressive," He grabbed the Doctor's other shoulder with his free hand, "but I have no desire to die alone, You're coming with me!"
Opening his mouth wide, the Doctor was impressed at the rows of teeth that were displayed to him, and realised suddenly that soon he'd be heading down past them into throat.
A body appeared between the two, and before the Leader could latch around the Doctor's head, Ranma punched the arms hard, making him release his grip. Momentarily stunned, he saw her grow brighter as her aura filled the rooftop.
"You lying bastard," She was furious, "You tried to kill the Doctor, and he only wanted to help!" She pulled all the aura into her hands, her eyes harsh and cold. "No second chances... Moko Takabisha!"
The ki blast propelled the Leader backwards, as he was enveloped into the life energy, and then crashed against the logo. Between the fixtures and the projectile, he had nowhere to go. Absorbed into the ball of energy, he saw everything at once in that light.
"Beautiful..." His body began to crumble at the seams as he was slowly being vaporised. "A divine light..." He was too enraptured to scream, as his face melted away into the air.
Without anything to hold it back, the ball of power slammed into the logo, powering it with life energy. However it was too strong, and the bulbs blew up, blowing out inside the orange glass, setting it on fire.
As the letters burned bright, the sun rose above the apple grass hills in the far distance, finally bringing the long night to a close.
Ranma padded her forehead with her sleeve, only for more blood to be rubbed off on it. "I probably need a nice long shower after this, and maybe a change of clothes..."
The Doctor chuckled, "I'll bet you do..." He looked down at the city, as hundreds of police cars were flying towards their direction. "We'd better go, and tell the Face of Boe that we won..."
Going down the stairs, they entered the TARDIS and immediately transported themselves downstairs, opening the door moments later.
Quickly updating his sonic screwdriver, by linking it to the central computer, he walked out and fired it at his light orbs. Soon they multiplied, and the dark room was fully lit.
They both stood there, shocked, as Novice Hame kneeled at the side of the Face of Boe, his glass cage holding back the smoke shattered. He was visibly breathing now, gasping with every intake of breath.
Ranma walked up slowly, not knowing who or what it was exactly, but realising that this was a very important event. She said nothing, just watched, as the Doctor also kneeled down on the other side.
"Doctor..." He spoke mentally, "It is time..."
"Nah, you've got plenty of years left in you..." He spoke offhandedly, "No need to die now."
"Sadly, the day has finally come when I would depart from this life, and now it must be..." He blinked once, "I've lived through many eras, and seen too many lives extinguished, wishing that I would join them..."
"My lord..." Novice Hame was crying, "Please don't leave me..."
"You've lived for millions of years, why stop now?" The Doctor asked.
"The only constant in life, is death. You should know this better than most, Doctor..."
The Doctor was quiet, knowing that nothing was truly immortal.
"Once a life has been lived, it is time to move on, and I have lived more lifetimes than most of existence..."
His eyes opened fully, and he looked at the twosome, taking in one last long breath. "What I pass on now goes for the both of you..."
Ranma's ears perked up as she listened intently.
The Face of Boe then spoke out loud.
"You are not alone..."
His eyes saw the shock and disbelief in the Doctor's own pair, saw Ranma tearing up, Novice Hame sniffing loudly, and then he closed them forever, letting his last breath linger in the air.
Novice Hame immediately broke down and could not be moved from his side, whilst the Doctor still stared off into space, trying to analyse what he said, immediately refuting it in his mind.
Ranma, once a spectator to this death but having turned out to be a necessary viewer, cried. She couldn't place the reason for her tears, the death of a life so long obviously traumatised her, but the sorrow came from a deeper part of herself, one she could not understand. She fell to her knees, the adrenaline from the previous hours draining away, leaving a lot of pain and agony behind.
"D-Doctor..." Her face, beneath the caked on blood, was frighteningly pale, "Help me..."
Hearing the call, he jumped into action, running to the fallen person, and carrying her into the TARDIS. Sending out a call to the authorities to help Novice Hame, he transported up onto the road.
Several hours later
The TARDIS
Ranma woke up from her rejuvenated sleep, and was happy seeing that her arm wasn't amputated and that her body was clean. She fumed silently, wondering if he washed her body, then flushed.
The Doctor was in the main room, as she walked in, testing her elbow joints and looking at herself in a mirror, seeing how normal looking her fangs were. She let out a long winded sigh, attracting his attention.
"Hello, Ranma," She frowned at his somewhat formal tone, "How are you feeling?"
"F-Fine, thanks..." She prodded at the spot where her bone was visible, "You fixed me up good."
"Nah..." He grinned cheekily, "I didn't do anything, I had the TARDIS medical room patch you up. I may be a Doctor, but I'm not much good at healing physical wounds." He saw her look down at her body shyly, "Don't worry, I'm a gentleman you know! I wasn't in the medical room when it removed and repaired your clothing."
He slightly angled the screen behind him away, catching her eye as she saw the outline of a familiar figure, along with two symbols containing circles, a cross and an arrow.
"What's that?" She jogged over as the Doctor subtly pressed a switch behind his back, "Oh..." The screen now showed live footage from outside the TARDIS, picking up the local new channels.
"... and so the event of last night, which unfolded in a manner of hours have been stunning. The elimination of the Ferals has been dubbed as genocide, but some people feel that they were a scourge on our society. It will take days to clean up their remains from our streets. NNY News and other news channels all received the same files, containing a conspiracy relating to ION-Ra and the electrical supply. The Duke of Manhattan was found, dead in the headquarters, containing tell-tale signs of Feral death, and the body of the CEO of ION-Ra was also found at the second headquarters..."
"Did you send the documents, Doctor?" Ranma wanted to know.
He raised his eyebrows, "Actually, I didn't, someone else must've done it."
"... light orbs have been used to spy on us since the beginning, though what we thought of as the power plant was in fact a Capacitor and surveillance unit. It was destroyed early this morning by persons unknown, and all that is left is rubble. Meanwhile, in other news, at the hospital, the Blue -"
The Doctor switched off the TV, sighing again and looking up at the curved ceiling of the TARDIS. His eyes lit up, recalling something he wanted to ask her.
"Ranma, your cat transformation..." She froze at the sound of the word, "Why were you put through that trial?"
"Trial?" She said, confused, before her face constricted in horror, "Y-You mean..."
"Back when I was travelling long ago, I stumbled out in the middle ages in Europe. Apart from stopping an alien symbiont take control of the king, I also saw something that I swore I wouldn't allow, though I saved one person, the others weren't so lucky." He looked at her, forcing her to realise what it was, "The girl was about to be tortured, raw meat hang off her, and she was being lowered into a pit of starving cats."
Ranma shook, and closed her eyes, trying to push out the similar memories.
"From what I heard, it was meant to loosen up the victim to talk, but they would eventually die from their injuries, as medical care was a bit lacking, to say the least."
"T-Torture..." She glowed, her ki growing around her, "When I see pops again, I'll kill him!" She growled loudly.
"Your... dad...?" The Doctor stared in disgust, "Why would he -"
"He said it was a training technique, from some book he read..." Ranma interrupted, as she looked down at herself, her ki began to steam out more furiously, "Said it would make me unbeatable..." She clenched her fist, "He tossed me in there so many times! That stupid panda bastard, the book said on the next page that only idiots would try it..."
The Doctor closed his eyes, feeling the fury from the girl opposite him and mirroring it with his own. "Ranma, I can't change your DNA back, it would be beyond my power to do that. I don't know what the trigger will be now that the Ferals are gone, but I hope that normal cats won't do the same as now..."
She shuddered, "I hope not..." She sighed, but saw the Doctor pacing nervously as he poke at the central console.
"What's wrong, Doctor?" Ranma sat, perched on one of the bannisters circling the central plinth. He didn't reply, so she continued, "Is it what he said, the big head?"
"Yes..." He took his time, "I don't know what he meant by that statement." He stared at Ranma, "I'm the last Time Lord, there is no one else, otherwise I'd know..." He tapped his head, "We can sense each other if there are many, but since the Time War, I've felt nothing." He smiled gravely, "The Face of Boe is wrong, I am alone, there is no one else like me."
"Why did you talk about me then?" Ranma's mind was clouded of that meeting, her pain blocked out the memory of what she recalled, but she did remember crying, "I cried, Doctor... I never cry... Well, maybe I do, but it's really rare..."
The doctor frowned again, "That's the confusing point, 'a traveller without a home', that describes me perfectly, but you?" He checked her quickly, "You do have a home, right?"
"Well," Ranma was awkward, "I kinda live with a friend of pops, and we're not paying any rent, but I'd call it a home..." She wasn't sure of this and covered her lips with her hand, thinking.
"Tell you what," The Doctor began pushing some levers, "we're going back to your family, see if everything's okay there, hmm?"
Ranma smiled widely, "Sure, I'd like that..." Inside, she wondered over the last words, but remembered something else important, "Wait a sec, what about that item we need, to remove my curse?" She almost forgot what they were there for.
"No problem, already went out and got it from outside." He clapped his hands against his coat, "Trouble is, it's a dangerous product, a glowing green substance that can mutate any human who stays long enough inside it." Continuing on from Ranma's 'eww', he clapped his hands, "I had to put in my storage to keep you safe, sorry for not telling you earlier... We can get the next one from your home time too." He looked about, also thinking back to another promise, "Do you want to go outside and see the city? With all the excitement, I forgot about it to be honest."
"Nah..." She waved it off, "Seen too much of the city last night, when I 'changed' I saw out of all the shadows at the same time. My head hurts just thinking about it."
The Doctor smiled, cheerful again, "Righto, allons-y!"
He slammed his hand on a button and the TARDIS lurched, as Ranma fell from her seating position.
Ten minutes earlier
New Manhattan
Ryoga was half dazed as he sauntered into the shop. "Hello?"
The old proprietor came out of the back, smiling wide, "My dear friend, how can I repay you?" He held up the old torch with batteries, "This relic here saved my life, thanks to your warning, my light orbs went off, but I managed to keep myself in enough light to not die."
"Umm..." Ryoga scratched his head, "You're welcome?"
"What else can I help you with?"
Ryoga showed him Yuko, who was hovering nearby, "Yuko has a list of things she thinks I need, please get them for her."
Without a fuss, he listened carefully and provided the necessary things that she requested, not bothered about the legality or questionable nature of any of them.
"Will that be all, sir?"
Ryoga obviously had enough money to pay for all of it, as Yuko now had installed the software in her new computer terminal, located in subspace. There were almost no physical items to mention, and any that were too large to hold, were in the storage.
"Yeah, I think that's about it..." Yuko nodded, happy she now purchased all the items she knew were necessary.
"About last time..."The owner was keeping his head low, "I apologise for my behaviour..."
Ryoga sighed, "It's okay, I got a little rough back then, I was under a bit of stress." He grinned.
"Still, I'm not like normal people, I had a reason..." He looked to one side, his guilt coming off him in waves, "My wive and child were killed long ago, several star jumps away, upon the rebellion of the central governing AI, which took control of all the services and military..." He bit his lips and couldn't continue.
Yuko and Ryoga looked on sympathetically. The former spoke first.
"I'm sorry, I can't say I know of that incident, there were many, but I'm not like that..."
Ryoga nodded, "Yuko would never change like that, she's my friend."
The man nodded and bowed lightly, "I know, please understand my prejudice, I still can't forget that day."
"It's okay, Ryoga muttered, and waved to him. "I'm off now, I don't know if we'll meet again."
"Travel safely..." He replied, his smile knowing.
Outside, Yuko began running through some diagnostics, before speaking, "I'm glad we got all those things, it'll allow me to help you in many more ways."
Ryoga looked at her, "And you promise you bought no weapons?"
"Yeees..." She was annoyed, having heard him argue with her over that matter earlier. She folded her arms, "But I still think that the Gravitational Beam Emitter would've been a great gun for you to have."
Ryoga shook his head, "If I can't use my own power to beat enemies or whatever, what's the point?"
Yuko sighed and slumped froward, "Okay, fine, I give in..." Her hair tingled, and she stood up straight, "Hang on, this is odd. There is a vast increase in chronometric particles around us, including subtle transmat technology."
Ryoga started to fade away, and he recognised what was happening. "Uh oh..." He looked up at Yuko, "One last thing I forgot to mention, I sort of travel through time..."
You what?!" Yuko screamed, as they both disappeared.
Ten
minutes earlier
New
Brooklyn Hospital
"And you fought alone did you?" The news reporter spoke with great admiration for the person in front of her.
"Yes, that I did, to protect the innocent and the weak."
Kuno stood proudly at the entrance of the hospital, where a throng of reporters had arrived and were interviewing him.
"How were you able to defeat the Ferals?" Another one spoke from the back.
"Why, I used my weapon..." He pulled out the sword to show them. "The Ferals feared light, so I used it to produce fire." Demonstrating as such, the murmur grew as the crowd were amazed by the seemingly magical blade. "Once they knew I was too dangerous, the cowards moved on to the patients, so I ran in and defended them again, also learning that the Ferals could not penetrate ice, hence the barrier you saw." He sheathed the sword.
"Do you know how many of them you killed?"
"I do not, but it does not matter in the end, I lost count after twenty, most of their bodies were burned to ash, so some bodies will probably not be found after extensive searching."
"Why were you brought in to the hospital first?"
"I was injured, the Ferals ambushed my self in an alley, and so I sought help in the hospital. I was presumably treated whilst asleep."
"Do you know the names of those who helped you?"
Kuno's face fell slightly, "I know only of one man who gave me his name. He was Jinnai, the Chief of medicine here, however I found, much to my dismay, that he died in the first wave of Feral attacks in the protected ward. I was unable to revive him, even with my other powers..."
He lightly squeezed his left arm under the bandage he put on, to stop any prying questions.
"Some reports we have received from other members of staff imply that you walked out from the Equinox Cove, after receiving your debilitating injuries. What was inside there?"
Kuno smirked, his ego shining through, "There was nothing of interest inside that small room, other than an insane speaking blob."
Meanwhile
Equinox
Cove
The sphere sneezed loudly, bursting the lightning from its surface, adding to the rooms static charge. The mouth spoke to no one.
"Stupid idiot... Still the same..." She mumbled under her breath, before the lips vanished inside its surface.
Meanwhile
Upstairs
The reporters were asked to move back as Kuno saw a horde of people coming out from the hospital.
The patients were all smiles and beaming joyously at their saviour. Soon the television cameras picked up the miracles he performed back then, healing the wounded and even those who were not touched by the Ferals, curing them of any disease they may have had.
Kuno stood up at the steps of the hospital, so he was above everyone, all looked towards him.
"This night has been a revelation to me. I have fought my utmost, and still the battle was lost, for people have died." He said a prayer for Jinnai, the man who delivered him to the Equinox Cove. "I cannot bring people back from the dead, it is most likely impossible for me in my current state, perhaps forever. However, I will protect the innocent people, for if my name is not the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!"
The applause and tears of everyone were shining, leaving him in an early morning glow.
Slowly his body began to fade away, and he widened his eyes. "I must leave you now, everyone, my time had arrived." He raised his sword higher. "I will return to you all! Goodbye!"
Despite the yells of 'Don't leave' and general dismay, Kuno vanished, leaving behind only the slight bloody footprint from his fights where he stood.
---
NEXT
EPISODE
---
"At last..."
The man stepped away from the windows, watching his new invention go through its paces.
"It's finally complete! The world will see its power once and for all..."
---
The residents of Nerima, used to strange events, thought that even this was beyond their understanding.
As the crowds ran from the disturbance, Ranma and the Doctor stood still, staring into the distance at the darkness that approached them.
---
"Oh no..." The Doctor mumbled, "We're in trouble now..."
The TARDIS lurched to one side, as some controls sparked and sent hot air towards them.
"What?! What else could go wrong?!"
The Doctor smirked, "Never say those words, it only makes things worse..." He resumed his stoic pose, "Its moved... It's on the top of that..."
Opening the door, Ranma gulped, seeing the distance to the earth, far beyond anything she jumped or fell before.
"Why does it have to be one of those days?" She grumbled, gathering the strength in her legs."
---
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" ------ said, his tone strangely cruel.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever..." Ranma waved him off.
"Not you..." He looked past her, "Isn't that right, Doctor?"
The sneer widened as the Doctor stared on in horror, "No, no!"
He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, but the opponent was ready.
"Too late..."
---
Author's
Notes
Dear God, this chapter took me an age and a half to finish. At over 15,000 words in 40 pages, this is the longest chapter I've ever written in fanfiction, so I do apologise for the headache you undoubtedly received from reading the whole thing.
Can you see what powers the trio are getting? Kuno, magic; Ryoga, technology; Ranma, genetic. I'm hoping to not make them seem overpowered, all the abilities have restrictions, as I'm sure you'll see from now on. Ranma arguably though is the strongest still.
This turned out to be a fairly long episode in New New York, I'm hoping that from now on the others won't be as long. This was mainly to show the new powers in action, and to set up the key words and themes. Though I did recycle The Face of Boe's message, I'm hoping that I diverged the episode far enough from the Gridlock one in the series to make it feel different.
So, next stop, Nerima! What awaits them there?
- J
