Redemption Chapter 10
or
Once more into the breach
Disclaimer: I own nothing. The bank can prove that.
Authors Notes: Hi yall. Welcome back. I am sorry for the long delay but a pregnant wife and an active three year old do not make for writing time. We are down to just six weeks left so I hate to say it but look for long delays. I am not giving up on the story but I will have a lot to do. Crib***cough cough***. If anyone has any recommendations for the Generals Troops I still need some ideas for Nephrite and Zoisite.
Oh well on with the story.
A.N. supplemental When I first posted this chapter I forgot to give credit to my beta Spokavriel. Be thankful you get the chapters only after his expert eye has corrected my mess.
-*****-
Ranma rolled forward springing to her feet. She quickly looked over the battlefield that the gymnasium had become. Her heart almost stopped when her new found memories told her that two terrans, her people, were fighting in the chaotic battle. As her mind tried to assimilate the new influx of options, she looked down briefly at the dark haired girl in the purple fuku. She looked so small and fragile, it triggered memories of holding a five year old Endy until he fell asleep in her arms after telling him his parents had been killed. Her mind was made up, she would not see that happen again in this lifetime..
"Endy, Guard the other fallen angel, she gets hurt and I'm takin it out of your ass. Jade, Quit dickin around and call in our air support." her voice cut like a knife across the gym.
The tone of red headed girl's voice cut through several layers of mental scaring and forgotten memories. Before Endy knew what he was doing he was standing over an unconscious Mercury with a crisp "Yes Mom."
"Aawww, you never let me have any fun." Jade whined "This is just like Tir As-lee, I have the situation perfectly under control. I even have the Angels for heavy artillery this time. Me and Endy can clean this up in a flash."
"We got a real danger of civilians gettin hurt Jade. Do I need ta remind you about rule eight?"
"No Ber. We never endanger civilians."
"Damn straight! And this ain't nothin like Tir As-lee, that was you, me, and Endy with only twenty of your fey against two hundred screaming giants.
"Exactly piece of cake, no need to worry my little helpers at all."
"Jade, call in the damn little shits and lets do this the right way for once."
"Anyone ever tell you your not nearly as much fun this go round?"
"All the damn time."
-*****-
When Kasumi was out of the main fighting she grasped her sword blade with her left hand. As she drew the blade free across her hand, her blood slowly dripped toward the ground. As the crimson liquid started to pool at her feet she started speaking in a distant voice that cut straight to the souls of those hearing her.
Come forth Terra's armies Rise up Terra's armies Bring hope Terra's armies
Rise once more to battle
The Queen summons you forth
Raise your voices to the sky
Bring death on gilded wings
The age old pact invoked
Answer with spear held high
Thy work if far from done
A darkness threatens all
Cast it out be your cry
"Hey girls its the general." The winged mini-warrior called back down to her troops. "Sorry my general but we couldn't see who you were cause of the personal flotation devices built into your shirt, you expecting an amphibious assault today my general." The grin on her face was from ear to ear with a twinkle in her eye. "Love the new hair style by the way my lord. Me and the girls always said you would look better with long hair."
"Hey Sarge," came the startled cry from around the hem of Kasumi's dress, "some bastard made off with the boss's knickers, the fiends even took his wedding tackle."
A collection of small hands met several small foreheads as a red faced Kasumi clamped her knees together and held on to her dress tight. "SPECIALIST GRETCHEN, GET YOUR ASS OUT FROM UNDER THE GENERAL'S DRESS RIGHT NOW! So help me if you weren't one of the best alive with a spear and we need all the hands we can get, I would have given your dumb ass your walking papers years ago." Sarge yelled down to the six inch high fey trying to hide behind Kasumi's calf.
"Sorry Sarge, I just wanted to see if the rumors of what people wear up under kilts is true."
"{Explicative Deleted} it Gretch, what in the hell do you think they wear under their {Explicative Deleted} kilts. By the First can't you see that the general is a {Explicative Deleted} woman." one of the collected fey said much to the distress of the nearby assembled students.
"But General Jadeite is a boy, so if that is the General then someone stole his bits." Gretchen stated pointing up for emphasis.
"Jenny, Alex, go and update Gretchen as to why its none of our business if the General is going commando while I get the marching orders. Ethel your on guard duty."
"Yes Sergeant, We will endeavor to serve."
"{Explicative Deleted} right boss, leave it to us."
"Whee on it boss lady."
"Which one of you let Ethel have stimulants again?" Sergeant asked.
"Not me Sarge."
"Sure as shite wasn't me."
"My apologies Sergeant she purloined my coffee while we were in transit."
Kasumi blink blinked at the strange little warrior women surrounding her. Jadeite's memories didn't have them being quite this colorful. Oh well who was she to judge how several millennium of isolation had affected her troops.
"Sergeant your orders are to eliminate the summoned creatures by any means necessary without endangering the local populous. Render aid to the Angels as needed and for First's sake don't get killed."
"As you command so shall it be done my General." the winged Sergeant said before turning to the collection of flying women behind her. "Boss says kill the little black bastards, don't let any civs get hurt, watch the Angels asses, and don't be stupid, this means you Gretch."
"Ooh. Ooh. Ooh."
"Yes Gretchen."
"I call the orange one. She's got a nice ass." Smack. "Ow".
"Thanks Alex. Moving on. Jenny, how much more time do you think Ethel will be on her high?"
"Approximately four hundred fifty eight seconds Sergeant."
The Sergeant sported an ear to ear grin, "Let's crash this party in style. Ethel make Boom."
"Woohoo. Boom time, Boom time, Boomy Boomy Boom time."
The manic little fey started to glow red and flew into the mass of the enemy formations.
-*****-
Ranma concentrated and formed a six foot staff out of the latent energies in the air. With all the spells the senshi were firing off she had more than enough fuel for the simple spell. She swung her staff gracefully defending the downed senshi.
Beryl had been, before she was corrupted, a student of many forms of combat. She has working knowledge of more forgotten martial arts techniques than Ranma had even heard of. Added to this was her encyclopedic list of combat magic spells, she couldn't cast very many of them but she had learned them just for the hell of it. While Beryl was unable to cast many of them for lack of manna, she just learned all she could because of a love of new ass kicking potential.
Physics class had been a dull blur to Ranma, he could sometimes understand the concepts involved with acceleration, force, and other concepts of motion and energy but the teacher was so boring that he had literally put the vice principal to sleep during a lecture he was observing. One thing stuck from one lecture though. Energy is energy, while Ranma had little manna reserves like Beryl did, he did however have massive Ki reserves. He math came out that all he had to do was force an equal percentage of his Ki into the spell in place of the manna and he should have similar results.
When it comes to energy most people had, lets say, a cup full of ki at their disposal at anyone time, it fueled their everyday activities such as keeping their heart beating and regulating muscle control. Most experienced martial artists, non Nerima brand, had maybe a gallon bucket. Nerima martial artists had closer to a bathtub full of energy available to them. A curious side note is that the reason the senshi were all female, apart from the fact that guy would look silly in a fuku, was that females had a slightly higher natural energy capacity. The energy was like a muscle the more it was used the stronger it grows. Ranma had been under constant assault in one form or another for well a full decade. His energy reserves were off the charts. Unfortunately Ranma spent most all of his time around other high level martial artists, even a few deity level people. This plus lacking any real frame of reference from Beryl's small manna reserve in her previous life led her to push a lot of her personal reserve into any spell she cast. For lack of any different experiences gave Ranma the idea that a fair percentage of his available manna would be needed to power any spells.
Ranma's mind raced through a list of techniques, spells, incantations, styles, moves, rituals, and various assorted ways to have and interesting night out on the town long forgotten by men, OK some of them were never know to men and probably not meant to be though of by men but fortunately he was currently a woman.
Let's see,
Explosion Array... too much collateral damage.
Dynasty Cannon... it's not like I really need the other half of Tokyo.
Dragon Slave... Too long to cast.
Dance of Blades... Too much blood.
Bakuhatsu-teki Kyosei... NO. JUST NO. Well, maybe later on Tatawaki
Burning Big Bang... too much alliteration.
Death From Above... has possibilities but no real high vantage point left. Thirsty Maiden Milks Bull...? Not in this or any other lifetime.
I need something that has high damage potential, confined area, quick casting, low manna cost, and not too noticeable... Singularity Point Inversion... Perfect.
Ranma shifted the staff to her left hand and focused a third of her energy into a point on her right pointer finger. Deciding she was tired of this fight she pushed another half of her energy into the point so that the bright light suddenly turned black and seemed to suck the ambient energy from the surrounding area. "Singularity Point." Leveling her hand like a pistol she mentally fired the shiny black bullet into the face of Volcano knocking her back into the horde of Tiki. The Black marble began sucking the dark minions into it like a miniature black hole. As Ranma grinned she gave the mental command to reverse the black hole and made a miniature star. "Invert."
-*****-
"Thirty-five" the senshi of Venus called out. "If you don't hurry up your never gonna throw down Neo."
"It's catch up Venus and I'm doing the best I can. Twenty." the exhausted future senshi said as she launched another pink heart at the Tiki.
"Lay off the squirt Venus. It's not her fault her attacks are pathetic." Mars stated.
"My attacks are not pathetic Auntie Mars." Neo said with a pout. "I can't help having to share a power source with mom."
"Hey don't blame this on me spore, you had those powers a lot longer than me." Moon chimed in. "You never saw me launching little pink hearts at youma. My attacks killed them, yours just annoy them."
Usa stopped and stared, normally such banter wouldn't effect her much. Today she was trying her best, really giving her all to help and everyone was on her case. Sure she wasn't a power house like her friend Saturn and she wasn't a brawler like Uranus or Jupiter. She wasn't a leader like Venus or a tactician like Mercury. She was sneaky, using her attacks to distract her opponents and make them enraged, thus making them stupid and easier targets for her teammates. It stung down to the core when her mother basically called her useless.
Anger started to replace the hurt in her angst filled teen mind. 'How dare they call me USELESS. It's not my fault that the connection to the moon barely gives off anything. It's not my fault that all I can make it do is some wimpy heart shaped attack. I didn't ask to not have any training even though I continually asked for some.'
She looked over at Ami's red headed friend, she looked so cool fighting those bigger youma. Her eyes widened as she realized who Ami's friend was protecting. Her best friend in the world was lying in a heap on the ground. The anger she was feeling suddenly found a new outlet in the Tiki.
Oh who was she kidding she was a second rate senshi at best. All she had ever known was being a pampered princess, her mommy's daughter, a spoiled brat, her father's little lady. Wait a minute, what did the blond haired lady say as she was chewing dad out? Her father was still a Terran, so maybe she was a Terran too.
Concentrating she looked deep within her self to the star seed that powered her connection to the moon. It looked like a small stream of energy that flowed from a representation of the moon. Beside the stream was what looked like two more connections. One looked like the earth but it had a stone dam blocked it at it's head. The other one was also blocked but its bed branched out with tributaries flowing in all directions, it too was dry. In her mind she willed one small stone from the first of the dry connections, slowly a small steady flow of energy started to race down the dry stream bed. Satisfied with her results and not wanting to be away from the fight for too long, she left her mindscape. After she left the trickle dislodged more small stones causing more energy to flow, this caused more stones to be released, which cause the dam to burst. The power of Terra began to merge with the power of the moon. The remaining dry stream waited for it's mistress to loose it.
Back in the real world Neo Moon felt a sudden rush of power. It was almost intoxicating, maybe this was why Taru acted weird sometimes. She looked at the mass of Tiki attacking her friends and words came to her mind. "Terra Volcanic Eruption" Neo Moon raised her hand high and pressed the energy into the ground. The surge of energy raced into the mass of Tiki and then all hell broke loose.
-*****-
Murphy was enjoying the familiar sounds of a active Tokyo morning. He had just hailed a cab from Tokyo International Airport and desperately wanted to hit five or six of his favorite bars. Don't get him wrong he loved Guam but there is nothing like coming back home. Besides he couldn't find a single place that could made a decent maki roll. He sat straight up as the cold chill ran down his spine. "Driver take me back to the airport." Hawaii was calling. Maybe he could fine a passable maki there, even if it had spam on it.
-*****-
Ranma saw the energy storm coming like a freight train. She was pretty sure that she hadn't put that much power into the spell. Her mind combed this newly acquired memories for a solution. Choice made she called out, "Aegis Sanctum". She pushed all of her might into the glowing white dome as the explosion of power and manna consumed the Tiki and the Pineapple and Coconut headed youma. The ground shook and rumbled as the pressure rattled windows for blocks. She poured as much power as she could into the spell as it tried to over power her and destroy all that was around them.
Kasumi saw the white dome surround the explosion in the gym. The fires within it had a life of its own as cracks allowed it to vent destruction into the ruined walls of the gym. Piggybacking onto a spell wasn't easy or as good as if she had cast the protection spell herself but every little bit helps. Kasumi poured raw manna into the spell till she felt that links to her helpers was fading.
Inspiration struck and Kasumi shifted focus to strengthening the sides of the dome. The dome started cracking at the top and the explosion took the path of least resistance venting its fury skyward taking the last of the gym roof with it.
As the fireball vented its last fury Ranma felt something strain and snap within her ki. Darkness claimed her as she gave one final painful shove of power into her shield.
Kasumi wobbled as she felt the shield fall. She had used up virtually all of her manna between calling her troops and strengthening the shield. She smiled once more and proceeded to faint in a heap.
Usa had trouble standing up after the explosion rocked the gym. As her vision cleared she saw that the Tiki were gone. Her treat assessment showed only three youma left the one with the Orchid in her hair was still fighting Pluto, while the Volcano haired one was attempting to help flee with the guy in the ugly shirt that summoned the Tiki. The other Senshi having been closer to the explosion were either knocked out or trying to get the bright lights to clear from their vision. "Terra Lava Lance" she said in a quite voice. The molten rock projectile crossed the length of the gym and skewered the ugly shirted man in the back, he burst into flames and was consumed to ash in a matter of seconds. Volcano jumped away from him and called out "Sister, the leader is dead, let's leave and find the Master while we can." She then winked out of sight in a small flash. Orchid knew there was wisdom in this plan, she had plans for this green haired pain in her tail, with a flash she popped out too.
The red haze was starting to lift from Pluto's eyes as her opponent disappeared. She looked around at the mangled gym and saw several of her teammates slowly getting back to their feet. What shocked her was her daughter Saturn still unconscious on the floor. 'Oh damn, what have I done.' she thought as she raced over to her. Pluto cradled Saturn in her arms and wept until a soft voice reached her ears, "Hey Pluto-mama, who hit me with the truck?" A bleary set of purple eyes blinked up at her.
"Oh baby, I'm so sorry about this. I wont leave you again." Pluto sobbed.
"Can we talk about this back home, your kinda crushing me."
"Sounds like a great plan, lets get the others."
"Ethel make {Explicative Deleted} Boom. Bloody Brilliant Plan Sarge."
"Stow it Alexandra. I didn't see you think of anything better."
"Ain't my damn job. My damn job is infiltration and comic relief. And don't {Explicative Deleted} call me Alexandra."
"Precisely Sergeant, Alex is an infiltration specialist, Gretchen is an offensive weapon specialist, Ethel is... Ethel, and I am an information specialist. It is your occupation to be the team tactician."
"OK Jenny. You made your point, by the way anyone seen the boss?"
-*****-
Sailor Moon was annoyed. That big explosion had knocked her on her cute butt, it would have been so cool to have caused that. This whole fight was irritating to her, first of all she hadn't been able to give a speech, she had been relegated to covering fire, she had lost the ice cream, and she had misplaced Kamen. Yep, this day just couldn't suck any more. Now there was this hunk talking to these little winged girls... wait a minute that's HER MAMORU! She marched over to the no longer masked masked defender of love and justice. "What are you doing without your kamen?" she whispered to her beloved.
"Oh hi dear, Rule Ten." a distracted Endy said. "So where is Uncle Jade?" Endy asked the little winged women.
"Wait, what's rule ten and who's Uncle Jade?" Sailor Moon asked growing more annoyed.
"Terran rules dear, Terrans hide from no one, and my Uncle General Jadeite." Endy said without even looking around.
"Begging the princes pardon, but its Aunt Jadeite now sir. The Boss is over there but we can't wake her up." the Sergeant said nervously saluting her prince. "Orders sir."
"Wait since when was Jadeite your Uncle... Aunt... Whatever."
"Since I was five in the SM, dear. I don't know how but I got a lot of memories back and Beryl and the Shitennou are a majority of them."
Pluto walked up still fussing over a sheepish Saturn. "Princess lets fall back to our base so we can discuss this in private away from pesky news reporters."
"All right Pluto, lets get out of here."
"What about the Queen and the Boss?" the indignant group of Fey called out.
Sailor Moon thought for a few minutes, "Ok bring them too."
Jupiter picked up a still unconscious Mercury while Venus picked up Kasumi while the Fey hovered nervously around their heads. Endy picked up Ranma and moved the hair out of her face, "It's gonna be OK mom."
The group took to the roofs and quickly made it back to the outers house.
-*****-
The Norn Temple:
Keiichi was sitting in the living room doing some homework for tomorrows physics class. It was quiet for once in the temple where he lived with at least four very beautiful girls. This would make any red blooded guy jump for joy, especially considering what they wore, or lack there of, at times. Sadly for Keiichi, this was not the case, for one of these lovely women was his sister. Of the three remaining women, they were simply Goddesses, literally. One looked and acted way to young for him, while the oldest sister was nose bleedingly gorgeous, she creeped him out on so many levels.
This brought him to the heart of the problem so to speak. The middle sister could make the sun rise with her smile as far as he was concerned. He had forced her to be his girlfriend because of a stupid wish and now he loved and regretted that wish with an intensity that was just plain scary. He hoped that Belle truly loved him but couldn't shake the feeling that the only reason she or any of her sisters had anything to do with him was that he was simply a client. They were immortal, they were just having fun, biding their time until he dropped dead so they could get on with their lives.
It was into this pensive state that he heard the door chime ring. Yelling to his sister that he had the door, he was surprised to see a black haired middle aged lady in a blue skirt and a white blouse. Keiichi felt a cold chill run up his spine as the basic male instinct of meeting the relatives flared. "May I help you ma'am?"
"Yes Keiichi Morisato, I have heard a lot about your interesting little shrine and thought I might stop by for a visit." she said with a smile.
"The shrine is not open to the public right now ma'am I'm afraid we don't actually have a priest in service, but your more than welcome to look around if you want."
As Keiichi showed the woman around the temple they chatted amiably about the different things that they saw. Keiichi mentioned the smell of the cherry blossoms when they bloomed in spring, while she mentioned the way the koi loved the pond where they played. As they kept up the polite conversation Keiichi couldn't help but feel he was being tested somehow.
"It's been a pleasure having you visit today ma'am. You can come back anytime you want."
"Oh thank you Keiichi, you can call me Kaishi. I fear I must confess something to you, the tour was only part of the reason I came here today. You see I really came to see my relatives but it looks like the girls are going to be gone for another couple of hours. Tell me young man what are your intentions toward my Belle?"
"I lo... Wait your a Goddess?"
"Something like that. So you loathe my Belle do you? And here I had such high hopes that such a nice young man would make an honest woman out of my Belle." She said as she turned around to hide the grin on her face.
"Wait. Wait, I don't loathe her at all. I love her with every fiber of my being. I just don't want to hurt her."
"What do you mean by that young man?"
"All of this got started because of the Divine Force. It's all that's making Belle have anything to do with me. I don't want to trap her against her will."
"Squeee." the auburn haired lady squealed as she latched onto Keiichi and buried him into her chest. "You just won over my support future great grandson-in-law. You care enough about her not to force her to do anything. Oh she loves you alright, might not have totally loved you at first, but now she worships the ground you walk on. Oh my great great grand babies are going to be so cute. Toki, and Sakura, and Eiko, and Akane, and Nabiki, and of course little Seto, not to mention the triplets Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru.
Keiichi had the strangest feeling that his life just got more complicated, right before he passed out from lack of oxygen.