GD is owned by Fred Perry and Antartic press. I can't draw so they're not mine, nor is Ranma.
The response to my last chapter was pretty good. Thanks to _- and for pointing out some of the names I had wrong. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking to write most of my chapters, so I sometimes miss names and some words that sound the same, like enemies and enemy's, so if anyone sees mistakes like that point them out and I'll go back and change them.
Apologies for those who follow Ninja High School, but I know nothing about it save in passing, and unlike GD Mr. Perry hasn't placed it online yet, so if I get some things wrong(like putting Dr. Azland with them in the first place) just grin and bear it, though if I get any of their physical description wrong, I'll obviously go back and correct them. I'm working under the impression that Gina knows Dr. Azland as a fellow scientist, but the two comics haven't really interacted before this (they certainly hadn't in the GD comics except for the Masters witches)
I've decided to extend the poll until next Wednesday, which will be when the chapter dealing with Aebra and their trip there will come out, the next chapter will be out Thursday or Friday. Sorry guys, but we're getting to chapter that are only barely done, and work is a bitch at present. If you really want Brittany in the harem, PM or review and persuade me, because at this point with the pm's I've gotten to not include her, (each as stated previously worth five votes) the 'destined couple' will remain together, though not without a few bumps along the way.
Chapter 12 Battling through the ages
Asrial, princess of the Salusian race and prospective bride of Jeremy, normal human boy, sighed in irritation. She, her future husband, and that annoying tag-along Itchy-koo had gone over with a few of their friends Arnie and Akaru to Dr. Azland's to see some kind of history viewing machine. Human history however really held nothing of interest to her. At least he's not as irritating as that steam obsessed doctor, I don't think I could stand more than a few hours with him and his crazy inventions. Plus steam makes my fur fluff out!
The machine they were here to view was a large hologram projector that would be able to project into the present anything a unmanned time machine could see in the past. Dr Azlande, who had built perhaps the greatest time travelling devices ever seen, would enter the chronoverse in a manned machine, then shoot the unmanned probe into one of the era-bubbles. The tech was interesting to Arial, as it was far more advanced in many ways than anything she had seen on Earth, more advanced than her own races in many ways, though like any sane race they had never delved into time travel. That was just asking for a paradox to come up and bite your tail off. Well, she didn't have a tail anymore since her body had been changed to that of Earth normal, but still the principle was the same.
Asrial stretched, her lithe 5ft 4in. frame looking far more like a cat than her races name would suggest. She thrust out her chest, hoping to gain Jeremy's attention, but he was engrossed in listening to Dr. Azlandes lecture. In fact all the boys were, the only one who looked at her was Itchy-koo who smirked at her shrugging. "Better luck next time princess. Maybe if you had tits to speak of you could attract Jeremy's attention."
Asrial looked at her with a deadpan expression then let her eyes travel down the kunoichi's body. "We're nearly the same size ninja girl, so don't even go there. I'm not going to attack you, you know, so stop trying to rile me up. We're just going to have to wait until they're done and then see if we can find something fun to do."
Itchy-koo scowled for a moment then sighed. "Yeah I guess you're right, though I'm surprised all the boys are so interested in it."
Asrial shrugged, but before she could answer, a strange sound reached her Skunkian ears, which were of course better than any humans. "What's that?"
Itchy-koo looked at her frenemy with her head on one side, wondering what she was talking about. Suddenly Dr. Azlande's security alarms began to blare. "Warning Incoming temporal distortion, warning incoming temporal distortion, unknown time traveler incoming." Dr Azlande looked up from his discussion with Jeremy and the others in shock, then ran over to a computer screen set into the wall. After punching a few buttons he brought up a screen of the walkway outside his laboratory.
On the screen stood a young woman, dressed in a rather cute outfit and wielding twin copyright infringements, er beam sabers. One second she was standing there, the next she lashed out and the door was cut in two. She bounded forward into the lab. Dr. Azlande shook his head. "I don't know who she is, but we appear to have an intruder. I don't suppose I could prevail upon you youngsters to help me?"
Asrial cracked her neck eagerly, and Itchy-koo pulled out a few kunai, twirling them around her fingers. Ataru and Arnie both cracked their knuckles and Jeremy just shrugged. Dr. Azlande nodded gratefully. "Try to capture her rather than merely repel her. We need to find out why she's here."
Asrial led the charge off down the corridor toward the entrance but before they could reach it the girl had made her way to them.
May saw the four fighters coming toward her and smirked. She swiftly put her beam swords away, pulling out two small silver spheres. "Thank you Dr Peachbody! I didn't think these things would come in handy, but I was wrong!" With one hand she threw two grenades at the oncoming foursome, and with the other she threw two small spheres, the carriers for two of Dr. Peachbody's bio-synthetic monsters. One was huge, a monstrous Hydra, and the other a ogre, smaller than the other monster but still large and dangerous.
The largest defender ignored the two grenades, dodging under one and smacking said the other to explode in a passing room. One of the female fighters, both of whom had fallen back as the grenades came sailing at them, laughed. "Oh the doc is going to be so pissed at you Arnie, that was his TV room you just wrecked!"
With that said she shot through the smoke created by the twin explosions, dodging straight under the Ogres legs and popping back up to engage May, who brought her beam sabers back out to meet her enemy's blade. "I don't know who you are stranger, but know you face a Salusian princess in battle!"
May smirked, pushing the other girl back. "I don't care who you are, you idiots have no idea what you're doing messing with time, and I'm here to wreck you machines before you can do any more damage!" She swiped one blade low down at the princess's feet, while keeping her other blade locked with hers.
The Salusian jumped above the beam blade, breaking their blade lock and kicking out strongly with both feet. She caught May in the chest and sent her smashing backward through the far wall.
May shook her head groggily. The Salusian was strong that was certain. She looked up in time to see one of the hydra's head snapping down and grabbing the girl up into the air, swinging her around like a chew tow as she yelled and cursed. Another girl came out of the smoke and slashed at the beast with two strange looking knifes, then spring-boarded into the air before throwing them and pulling out two more. Following her closely was the second, smaller boy who tried to punch the great best with little effect. The last of the four had engaged the ogre, and looked to be holding his own.
May smirked, she wasn't here for a fight, she was here to destroy the time travel technology here. As long as they were concentrating on the two monsters, she was free to find and destroy her target. She reached out smashing a wall and going through the resulting hole, making her way around the fight to her objective.
It was at this point that Brianna and Brittany arrived outside the house, having stopped for some food on the way. "Damn it Brianna, I knew we shouldn't have stopped for food! Look she's already attacked them!"
A loud smash and a female curse of "Stop trying to use me as a fucking chew toy, you fucking asshole!" grabbed their attention. Brianna grinned. "Well it looks like we'll have some fun anyway. Let's get in there!"
Britt nodded and zoomed away as Brianna reached into weapons-space and pulled out one of her BFG's. She ran thru the door finding Brit already helping a few of the locals against one of the diabolical doggies bio-monsters. Brianna took a moment to look the action over.
The hydra was using two of its heads and both forearms to hold Brit off the ground so she couldn't use her speed, and another head was flattened into the far wall, evidence of why it was doing so. Two more heads were fighting a girl dressed like a ninja who was bouncing between them, slashing with some knives Brianna recognized as kunai at one head and then the other. Both were bleeding badly and one had lost an eye, but were both still fighting. Another head was fighting off a wild looking boy who jumped around like a monkey, but wasn't doing much damage. Another two heads were fighting another girl, though this one wasn't a ninja, she looked like some kind of bear, or maybe skunk, alien. She was definitely strong though, holding one heads jaws apart while kicking the teeth in of the second whenever it came close.
Brianna smirked. These gals were women after her own heart, but it looked like she was going to have to show them the meaning of peace through firepower. "Say hello to my not so little friend!" All the combatants looked at her and blanched. The weapon had a muzzle half again as large as her head, and it was glowing ominously.
Brit took one look than reached her arm out of the hydra's grip. Punching one head so hard it crashed into the other, she then pulled her remaining arm out of its grip before grabbing the ninja girl out of the air and jumping away. The young monkey looking boy took the hint and moved away too. The alien girl found herself suddenly all alone and dived out of the way.
As soon as the last friendly was clear (or maybe a few seconds before, but whatever) Brianna pulled the trigger and a huge ball of energy flew, smashing into the hydra. The hydra and everything in about ten feet in every direction blew up, flash frying both monsters and a lot of the laboratory in every direction.
As the fires began to die down Brianna nodded triumphantly. "Ah… I love the smell of explosions in the afternoon."
Britt appeared out of the smoke from one side as the alien girl did form the other. Both of them smacked Brianna upside the head, the twin impact being enough to plant her power suit and all in the floor face first. "What the hell Brianna!" Brit yelled, "You wait until your allies are out of the way then fire!"
The alien girl took her turn then. "I don't know what the hell that weapon fired, but you need to learn there are indoor and outdoor guns, and to choose the right one for the occasion! Talk about overkill!"
Itchy-Koo came out of the smoke at around that time, followed by Arnie and Ataru. No, he wasn't taking the opportunity to stare perversely at her ass, not at all… "Still, thanks for the assist, but who are you guys?"
Brit and Brianna introduced themselves and passed on why they were there. Asrial pointed back inside the semi-wrecked house. "Well if you're looking for the girl I took her out about a minute after she released the monsters. Knocked her right through a wall, heh, the monsters were much more of a fight."
Unfortunately when they reached the room Asrial had knocked her into, they found that May had made her own exit. "Uh-oh," Said Brit, before turning around at running off at cheetah speed.
While the fighters were busy with Peachbody's monsters May had made her way around the fight by the simple expedient of smashing holes in every wall she came to. For a meta-human of her strength this wasn't exactly difficult, and so she swiftly came upon the time machine, Dr. Azland, and Jeremy.
For all that he was technically engaged to two of them, Jeremy Feeple wasn't really a fighter. He was brave however, and he put himself between this strange girl and the doctor swiftly. "I-I don't know what you want," he stuttered, for a moment before gaining control of his voice, "but you're not getting past me."
May looked at him amused, "You're cute kid." She then smashed the ground hard enough to flip Jeremy over into the air, as well as the doctor, before they both landed back on the ground, the wind knocked out of them. "But I'm not here for the doctor or for you. I'm just here to smash these machines. They're causing a problem in the chronoverse that is threatening to destabilize the whole dimension, and I need to smash them to stop it and get my friend back!"
The doctor shook his head from where he had fallen to the floor looking up at her through dazed eyes. "But," he said blearily, "my machines don't cause any problems in the chronoverse, I've made certain of this several times."
May, however, wasn't listening anymore. She moved forward smashing first the unmanned probe and then two more machines before coming to Dr. Azlands main time machine itself.
The doctor tried one more time to reason with this strange young girl. "Wait," he yelled, "the machine is still on, turn it off at least before you destroy it! Who knows what could happen if we're still connected to the chronoverse and the machine explodes!"
May again ignored him smashing her fists into the machine. An explosion above them drew Jeremy's attention for a moment, but not May or the doctor's whose attention were now fixed firmly on the strange glowing sphere that had appeared where originally had been a portal to the chronoverse. It began to pulsate wildly and the machine began to make a dull humming sound that quickly filled the air. May began to back up warily looking at the sheen a little confused and quite a bit frightened. "Uh-heh, maybe I should've listened to you!"
Jeffery looked at her askance "you think!" he exclaimed just as the universe went white around them.
The entire room was consumed in a violent explosion of time, released energy and just plain old explosive force. Brit, who had just barely reached the doorway as the explosion began was picked up and flung backward like a rag doll, her hoarse yell of pain as the superheated air hit her going unremarked by anyone else.
The entire laboratory shuddered and began to collapse under the power of the explosion, which went out in all directions, including the fighters who were still trying to follow Brit's speedy progress down into the lab. Above them the house, which had already been badly battered by the explosion caused by Brianna, finally gave up the ghost and collapsed in on itself.
As the lab shook and fell all around them Asrial looked at Itchy-koo from where she had been implanted into a wall by the first explosive wave. "Well," she said sardonically. "This is another fine mess."
Back in Atlanta, Gina looked up worriedly as a specific alarm went off over the loud speakers. "Oh," she muttered "that can't be good." Ranma and the others who had come to her aid looked up from where they were cleaning up bits of monster from her lab. The hurt-bots had not been gentle.
Mita, who had been working on trying to figure out a way to power up her paradox blocker, looked up at her. "What's wrong Gina?"
Gina didn't answer, instead rushing out of lab five and down to lab one as fast as her feet could carry her. Ranma looked at the others and shrugged "I'll go see what's wrong. You guys keep working here okay? Hurtz Ryan ya wanna come with me?" The other shrugged and went back to their work save Ryan and Hurtz, who went after him
Kasumi, who had come down into the lab to search for her waste basket intercepted them, looking worried. "Gina just ran past me like the house was on fire. Is there something going on?"
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, unfortunately there's quite a lot going on Kasumi, I'll tell you all about it tonight at dinner, okay?" and with that he and Ryan ran past her though Hurtz bowed politely before following them. Kasumi returned the bow wondering what all was going on. Dinner was about to start in 20 minutes. Still it must be something important to make the Digger sisters and Ranma forget about food. Nabiki she wasn't concerned about forgetting food, as she had just made up a tray for her younger sister, who still had yet to show herself out side her room. Whatever she was doing in there must be very important to her.
Ranma nearly collided with Gina coming back out of lab one and racing back down the lab five. "Hold on Gina, where's the fire?"
"That's just it!" she exclaimed. "Brittney carries a small transceiver underneath her clothing at all times that reports back to me if she gets hurt by something strong enough to put her out for more than 5 minutes. It stopped reporting at all! Something must've gone wrong when they went to retrieve May!"
Ranma nodded grimly. "Can you get a reading or something on their location?" Gina nodded, not even looking away from her work. A moment later on the main screen of lab five there appeared a image of a totally wrecked house with what looked to be a young boy outside trying to pull away some of the debris. "Oh no" Gina moaned "They've got to be buried underneath there somewhere!"
"Well," Ryan said reasonably, "You have a way we can get there?"
Gina did in fact have a second time machine, though this one had been built by Penny when she was back in competition with Gina. It wasn't nearly as cool, frankly, as the Ginamobile, but it would serve their purposes. "Luckily this is the same era that Dr. Peachbody used to plant the bomb under my parent's house, so we won't have to worry about anymore interference from him. That's probably why he sent May on this mission anyway."
Ranma shrugged and he, Ryan, Mita and Gina got into the machine. It was incredibly cramped, and both Gina and Mita to had to climb onto the boys laps to fit as there was no way either was going to be left behind. Mita was blushing hotly as she sat down on Ranma's lap. Ranma ignored her, focusing solely on what could've happened to Brianna and Brit. Ryan on the other hand greatly enjoyed the fact that Gina had to sit on his lap for this trip, and he took full advantage of it. Not that she complained much. Thankfully, the trip was quick, pop into the chronoverse, out into the correct era. With Gina's locator on Brittney it was easy to find the correct era.
Everyone piled out as soon as they arrived. The young boy turned angrily toward them as they ran up, but Gina held up a hand. "Peace, were friends, my little sisters are in there?"
"You mean the cat chick and the trigger-happy one, the two with such huge…. Guns?" He said swiftly changing what he was saying as he realized that the person he was talking to was a woman.
"Yes, what happened here?" Gina asked as the others quickly went to work. Ataru introduced himself, and gave Gina a run down on what had happened since the weird girl, whose name he now learned was May, had attacked them.
Ranma, realizing this was a job that needed more strength that even his normal body could supply, swiftly changed into his were form and began to zoom. around picking up and throwing girders and anything else in his way to clear the house away from the entrance to the lab. Ryan followed after removing the smaller debris and paving the way for the others. Within 20 minutes of their arrival the newcomers had cleared enough of the house to get into the laboratory below.
Ranma reached out and grabbed the final girder blocking their way down into the lab and tossed it over his shoulder, clearing his friends and landing with a thump on the lawn surrounding the house. As soon as he did so he was hailed from below. "Halt!" a female voice declaimed imperiously "are you, friend or fooo woooow!"
Ranma groaned as a strange looking girl jumped out of the smoke from below and clamped onto his body "Hello hotty, she yelled "where have you been all my life! It appeared as if his pheromones had struck again, even through this smoke and fire smell, that the girl had a really good nose, possibly both.
He tried to wrench the girl off him as another girl followed up blushing, but also smirking slyly. "So, does this mean you've given up on Jeremy?"
Asrial blinked "Jeremy?" she said and then shook her head to clear it jumping away from Ranma and blushing hotly. "sorry, my people's noses are…. I mean…"
Ranma just waved her excuses "I know, sorry about it, it's this body ya see. More importantly, have you seen…"
Before he could finish the sentence Brianna jumped up out of a storage room where she had taken cover as the house began to fall down around them. "Ranma!" she exclaimed grabbing him and burying his head between her breasts. "I knew you'd come for me."
Ranma's arms waved wildly around as he tried to extricate himself from her over exuberant hug, but to no avail. Life flashing before my eyes, not certain if this is a good way to go or a bad one. He thought to himself, as he felt his air begin to leave his body.
Gina came up and grabbed Brianna his arm, forcing her to let Ranma go "where's Brittney?" she exclaimed.
The big guy who had been silent so far pointed over his shoulder "down that way. Unfortunately we haven't been able get through the doorway down to the main time exploration lab. It's a super-duper heavily reinforced one, and we didn't want to take the chance of bringing the whole lab down on us again by causing an explosion that could blast through it. We've been trying to make our way out outside to see if we could work the backup power and get it to open that way. Thanks for clearing a path by the way."
Gina waved his thanks away and marched down with Ranma following her and Brianna and the others following after him. They came to the door and she looked at it for a moment then to the sides and finally up to the ceiling. "We need to take this out without causing any more damage to the infrastructure of the lab." She said sternly looking over at Brianna who had been inching her gone up to firing position. Brianna pouted, but put the gun away.
Ranma shrugged, flexing his claws. "Any way to tell if there's anyone on the other side close to the door?"
Brianna shrugged and pulled out her power suits helmet from where she had stuffed it back into weapons space for a moment. Putting it on she was able to use a heat sensor to see a little ways past the door. "My readings don't indicate anything."
Ranma nodded as Asrial and the others from quagmire came up behind them "Good. He bent his hands, concentrating for a bare second filling them with energy then thrust them diagonally shouting "Cat Fist Claws!", sending his ki attack forward to slice straight through the door in too long line from one end of the corridor to the other. A neat rectangle of the doorway fell out, the power of the strike slicing through the metal of the doorway without even slowing down to impact well down the revealed corridor against the far wall.
Asrial shuddered. "Remind me never to get on your bad side catboy." She muttered. "What's your name anyway?"
Ranma stepped over the doorway into the darkness of the area beyond, holding up one hand bathed in the white light of his ki as he answered distractedly. "Ranma, Ranma Saotome. Nice to meet you an' all, but I've got a friend to find." Gina and Brianna both followed after him immediately.
Behind him Itchy-Koo cocked her head to the side for a moment, wondering why the name was familiar to her. She had heard of it somewhere before, not somewhere recent, she had seen it written down somewhere back home in her clan's mansion. She'd have to think about it more.
They found Brittney about 5 minutes later. Her body was still smoking but her werecat healing factor had already kicked in. She was able to crack her eyes open as they came toward her. "About time you showed up," she coughed, "what took you so long?"
Ranma shook his head. "Looks like this cat bit off more than she could chew huh speedy?" Cheetah growled at him a little, but that was all she could do at present.
Ranma leaned down and picked her up easily, holding her in his arms and turning back the way they came. "I'll get the injured kitty out to the fresh air and a change of clothes." Her cloths had been badly burned then she was hit by the explosion. "I don't think ya'll need me and my special talents anymore." Brit blushed hotly, though it was impossible to make out among her burns, but cuddled closer to Ranma's chest, enjoying being treated like a princess for once, even if it was by the man who was becoming her best male friend rather than her muffin.
Brianna, and the others helped the Quagmire group move on into the lab searching for their own friends. But of Jeremy, the doctor and the attacking May there was no sign. Gina came up to them as they were looking around with more and more concern and fear. She looked down at her tri-corridor (and was she ecstatic that she finally got the look and sound right!) and she said "a major temporal distortion happened here, that may be why we can't find even a hint of them!"
Asrial was the only one who figured out what she said. "So does that mean our friends are scattered throughout space and time, or just time?"
Gina looked at her with a little more respect than before. "Time actually. I don't know where they've gone, but I can figure it out with these readings and my machines back at my house."
The younger boy looked around irritably a little irritated that his rival for the Itchy-Koo's affection could still be alive out there. It wasn't like he wanted Jeremy killed but he was still interested in Itchy-Koo, who wouldn't give him the time of day as long as she had that family honor arrangement with Jeremy's family looming over her. She really wanted to be the leader of her ninja clan.
Itchy-Koo however asked, "Can someone please explain what the hell is happening here today? I mean come on, it's not every day that we're randomly attacked by a little girl who apparently can shrug off punches from Asrial and goes around with monsters who wants to destroy one of our friends labs. That's only supposed to happen on Fridays, It's not Friday!"
Asrial and the other quagmire people chuckled, and Gina grinned. "Nice to know I'm not the only one who has days like that. But you all had better come over to my house so we can explain things properly and Mita and I can figure out how to search for our friends."
As they came out of the house, they found Brit wearing one of Ranma's extra shirts, which barely fit the far bustier werecat, though she was still looking badly burned around the edges. After Gina explained that the Quagmire group was coming back with them Ranma asked "You have any way to contact Kasumi from here?"
Gina nodded, "Yes, why?"
"She'll be irritated if we bring people over for dinner without calling ahead first." Gina and the others laughed at this strange moment of courtesy after what had been a very odd day.
By the time they finished clearing up enough of the lab not to be a fire hazard any longer and split into groups to take the Ginamobile and Penny's time machine back to Gina's lab, Kasumi had been able to add enough food to her planned dinner for their guests.
Over dinner the group swapped stories explaining where they were from and what had happened today, as well as their strengths and abilities. While they hadn't run into Dr. Peachbody, the idea of a villain using the chronoverse to create his own future wasn't exactly that far-fetched to the group from Quagmire. In return Ranma was the only one that was surprised that instead of being a were-creature like he had thought Asrial was an actual alien. He still wasn't quite used to the fact that Atlantis people and the people of El Dorado were all aliens, the idea just seemed a little farfetched to him. Kasumi merely thought Asrial's ears were cute, and didn't react to the news she was an alien, believing that such things were far more possible than body changing curses.
Thankfully for Asrial (and Brit) Ranma had transformed back into his normal body as soon as they were done clearing away the house. This let her gain more control of herself, and stop blushing and trying to flirt with him. Itchy-Koo on the other hand much preferred his human form. She couldn't take her eyes off him for a few minutes after he transformed. This in turn made Ataru a little irritated, but he was careful not to show it. As he had been raised in the wild, he knew when he was faced with a predator that he had no chance fighting. Ranma radiated the kind of easy-going confidence a lion would on the grasslands. Safe to look at from a distance, but poke it with a stick and all hell would swiftly break loose.
Gina left the dinner table early to go and figure out a way to track down their friends, with Mita and Asrial leaving soon after to help. They however left much reluctantly, not used to Kasumi's excellent cooking and wanting to savor it as long as they could. Asrial even made a comment during dinner about kidnapping Kasumi to cook at the royal court. Kasumi merely smiled and replied Ranma would come to rescue her if she did, which Ranma backed up by nodding firmly, earning him a chaste kiss on the cheek.
Once dinner was cleared away Kasumi and Britney began to watch movie as it was Kasumi's turn to make sure that Britney was too busy to sulk about her lover not being around.
Britney had actually moved a little bit past sadness and was now working her way toward anger. It hadn't occurred to her at first, but Strype was sort of belittling her abilities by going off alone. Yes, it was sweet of him to be worried about her and not want to involve her in his people's fights. But a couple was supposed to look out for one another and his decision to just go off alone sort of struck her as not being very trusting. Of course she would've wanted to help his people, why the hell did he just go off when she and Gina could both have helped a lot! She decided that night that when they found Strype they were going to have a very long talk.
Itchy-Koo and the boys from Quagmire joined them while Ranma went to his room to meditate. Brianna went to her room for a few minutes then left dressed in a sheer negligee, a woman on a mission.
"Ranma can we talk for a second?" Brianna asked, as she leaned against the doorway to his room.
Ranma looked up from where he had been meditating and nodded, blushing as he saw what Brianna was wearing. "S-sure Brianna what's up?"
She marched over determinedly and sat in his lap bringing both of his hands up to grasp her breasts. "This is what's up!" Ranma made to move back and she held his hands there forcefully "Ranma," she said "we've been together for weeks now and I know that you want to go slowly, but we've been doing a little too slowly for me. I'm not saying I want to jump to sex, I do but I know you're not ready for that." She smirked at him, "but I think we need to do is more than just make out whenever we can make the time. I need more nookie damn it!"
Ranma stuttered for a few moments before replying. "So you mean like dates and stuff, um I"
Breanna shook her head "normal dates are boring Maybe if we could go to Jade for a few dates that would be fine, that way we can have some adventure as well as romance but no I want more of this Ranma." She ground her rear hard on his lap in emphasis.
Ranma blushed, looked at her then looked away.
Brianna looked at him quizzically. She could feel that he had reacted to her and that took away her other worry, that he somehow didn't find her attractive, bit it left her wondering what was going on in his head. Any normal man would've jumped her bones by now but she knew Ranma wasn't like that. But even someone with his self-control should have been willing to follow along a little, which meant something else was going on here. "All right, what's wrong?"
Ranma try to avoid her gaze for a few minutes then sighed heavily. "It-it's just you're older than me and more experienced, and I'm worried that I won't be, you know" he blushed hotly and stopped talking.
Brianna sighed inwardly. As confident and poised as Ranma was in any kind of combat situation, in emotional situations he wasn't. He had some strange areas where he had no confidence whatsoever, and it appeared as if this was one of them. He was worried he wouldn't be able to satisfy her because she had more experience than he did, and thus had backed off.
"Ranma," she said gently as she took his hands and pulled them under her shirt "just do what comes naturally, trust me. You're the best kisser I've ever met, and if you can do other things as good as you can kiss you'll be just fine. And if you're worried about not measuring up in other areas" she grinned wickedly "trust me, you exceed any other man I've been with. I doubt it'll take much instruction on my part before you master this art as well as you have martial arts."
Ranma looked at her for a minute, then grinned back shyly, leaning in to capture her lips in a searing kiss, allowing his tomcat side out to play with her for the first time in a while. She leaned back as he began to play with her breasts and nipples under her shirt. Oh yes. This was just what the doctor ordered, mama needed her nookie. Now how to break through that final barrier and get a real ride from my horsie? Her thoughts derailed as Ranma took one of her nipples in his mouth. Think later nookie now!
Early the next morning Gina and Mita stood in front of their friends, family and allies, a large screen showing a hugely complex timeline behind them. Gina spoke up: "Alright ladies and gentlemen, my colleague and I have managed to devise a way to hunt down Peachbody in the time stream. Our tracking device works on the premise of" She paused as Brit growled at her, Ranma made a snoring noise and Ryan pulled out a book while Itchy-koo started to play with a kunai. The others merely looked blank faced, and she pouted. No one understands the importance of science! "Alright for those of you with single digits IQ's and attention spans to match, we have devised a way to track any kind of disturbance in the time stream, so we can track where other time travelers have interacted with it." Brit and Ranma grinned at one another having successfully headed off her science lecture.
Mita tapped a few controls and took the discussion over. "Unfortunately given the ripples still echoing through the chronoverse from the distruction of Dr. Azlands machines, we can't narrow it down any further than this, so each of these disturbances will have to be checked in person. We hope these will be Mr. Feeple, May, and Dr Azland, but one of them will be Peachbody, so the groups that are sent will be heavily armed as well as equipped with medical gear. Who knows how badly they were injured in that explosion May caused. Wherever May is though, she may be still working under the impression that Gina is endangering the timeline, so some diplomacy will be required with her. We'll split up into teams, each team to take on place before coming back here, making a report and then moving on to the next. Thankfully we were able to find and repair one of Dr Azlands earlier time machines, so we can split into three teams."
Brianna spoke up from where she was sitting. "How're we going to pick the teams? I call Ranma!"
Ranma shook his head. "I should probably go with either Gina or the doc. I'd like ta go with you Bri-chan, but you can protect yerself, they can't." Brianna was torn between irritation and pleasure at this statement as he went on, tugging his pigtail. "And er, I should go with 'em anyway, 'cause I have no idea how to use the time devices anyway. Another thing you can do I can't Bri'."
Gina nodded solemnly. "The doctor and I will be going to the disturbance that we think is May together, but having a body guard will still be a good thing." What she didn't say was that she wanted to keep Ranma close because she was uncertain how his chaos factor would impact their time travelling. She was almost certain nothing would happen, but almost wasn't good enough when you could accidentally erase yourself from existence. "Team one will be Brit, Asrial, Ataru and Ryan. Team two will be Brianna, Itchy-koo, Arnie and Séance. Team three is Mita, Genn, me and Ranma. If any team finds one of our friends, they should immediately hit the recall button on their assigned time machine, they've been programmed to come straight back here." She held up another device about two feet long that looked like a cross between a rocket and a radar dish. "The moment a team finds Peachbody they need to plant this, it'll send out a signal that will inform everyone else of their location and act as a homing device, allowing the other teams to home in on them."
She glared at Ranma, Brit and Brianna, who she considered the most likely to cause trouble. She didn't know the Quagmire group well enough to know about them. "Remember anything we do in the past will affect the present. I want everyone to be very careful what you touch, do and who you meet. Got it!?" All three of them nodded solemnly, but Gina still had to fight off a sudden chill going down her spine.
Ranma stood up, cracking his neck explosively. "Let's get this done already, the sooner shut Peachbody down, the sooner we get back to work on finding Strype." Brit looked at him gratefully and he smiled encouragingly at her.
Brianna nodded too, reaching over and pulling her sister into a hug. "Penny agreed to take over building the spaceship, but yeah, we really need to step it up. Let's go!"
Everyone cheered and Mita spoke up in turn. "Team one you're going to go to the earliest point of causal interference, the Amazon rainforest sometime in the age of the dinosaurs. You won't have any locals to look out for, but you will have to watch out for dinosaurs. Pack some heavy firepower just in case, but make certain not to wipe out any species." Ryan and Ataru grinned while Asrial and Brit nodded determinedly. Two hurtbots walked in carrying a variety of Brianna made guns, and Asrial and the others walked over, perusing the section as one of the hurt-bots acted like a salesman on commission, extolling the virtues of each gun they looked at in turn.
As the three of them began to tool up, Gina took over the dissertation. "Team two will be going to ancient Egypt, somewhere in the Mojave Desert. around 3000 B.C Don't carry anymore tech or weapons than necessary, as you'll have to watch out for the locals." Brianna pouted while Arnie scowled, but Séance and Itchy-koo nodded seriously. Brianna however made no mention of the weapons and gear she always had on her in weapons space. It was always nice to have an ace or five up your sleeve.
"Team three will be going to one disturbance that occurred in ancient Japan in the time of the Shogunate." Ranma looked up sharply at that. That was one of the most dangerous eras in Japan, and one in which several well known martial artists had lived.
Mita took over again as team one walked over to the first time machine, armed to the teeth. "Good luck everyone. Find out friends, get them back her safe, then find that dog and his boy the others and shut down this threat for good!"
Team one exited their time machine to find themselves in what looked like the Amazon rainforest. The screeching and bellowing of large beasts moving through the forest fit in with the dinosaur era, which was where they were supposed to be. The noises overhead of high-speed lasers and explosions however were not features normally expected when going into the distant past. Nearly a second after the last of them exited the time machine, a stray missile exploded about twenty feet away, blowing up a great clump of earth and causing the wildlife to scatter wildly. As they took cover under trees and stared up in shock. Another stray shot, this time a laser beam, flashed out above them, vaporizing a few treetops. Ataru shouted, "What in the world is going on here?! I thought we were supposed to go to the age of dinosaurs, not be transported into some sci-fi flick!"
Asrial gasped as a huge ship flew by overhead, firing back the way it had come from. "I recognize that design! It's an old Atlantean colony ship! What's it doing on Earth?!"
Brit looked up in interest from next to her "Really?" Asrial nodded, her face still showing her confusion and Brittany nodded. "That might mean…." she looked over into the distance and yelled "it is, that's El Dorado, I'd recognize that top spire anywhere! This must be when they and the Atlanteans arrived on earth and ran into one another. I wonder if we can do something to help them or…" She said this under her breath but someone still heard.
From behind them a voice said slowly, "That would be incredibly bad for both the timeline and for you personally. Not only would it cause a time paradox, you personally would probably be captured or killed if you attempted to get on a ship that is locked in combat with it's mortal foes." They turned to find the doctor there. Looking much the worse for wear, with a makeshift bandage around his head, cracked glasses and several burn marks on his long brown coat. "I'm glad I stuck around where I landed, I knew the temporal distortion would be strongest here so anyone coming after us would be able to find me more easily that way.
Asrial, sighed in relief but then grabbed Brittany's tail as she tried to sneak away. "where the heck do you think you're going Cheetah?"
Ryan also came over with Ataru, who immediately began to look over Dr. Azland, replacing his makeshift bandages with real ones and checking for any other wounds. "Brittany growled "let me go! If I can somehow sabotage that ship my muffin won't be able to leave!"
"Or," Asrial said reasonably, "if you somehow can sabotage that ship the Atlantean may kill them all and your honey won't be ever be born."
Brittany gasped at that idea, and Ryan put a friendly arm around her shoulder, making sure it was friendly by keeping his hand on her shoulder and not wandering down the magnificent vista below, as he would have with Gina. He knew Brit would not take kindly to the come on. "Come on Brit, let's get the doctor into the time machine, hit the retrieval button and head on home."
Brit looked over longingly wanting to do something, anything to keep her muffin from leaving her. But then she sighed and turned away. Maybe this was for the best. Her and technology didn't really mix well, and Dr Azland did look like he was on his last legs. "Ok, lets get out of here."
Asrial nodded, but did not let go of Cheetah's tail until they were all back inside the time machine. Brit continued to look out of the windows while the time machine started up. In the distance she could see the two colony ships break off combat, both heavily damaged. The time machine disappeared as in the distance there was a tremendous boom as the ship that brought Strype's ancestors to earth crashed into the ground it would inhabit for millennium.
Brianna, Séance, Itchy-Koo and Arnie did not have nearly as easy a time of it. For one thing their time machine couldn't go to the exact coordinates of the temporal distortion, because it was in an ancient Egyptian city. Because of this, they found themselves in the desert sands of Egypt, about two miles away from the city. As Arnie and Brianna sorted out their weaponry from what she had brought in her weapons space, Séance and Itchy-koo hid the time machine. Though she didn't want to show it Itchy-koo was very worried for her friend/fiancé. "Do you think he's all right?" She wondered.
Séance shrugged and walked over to touch each of the others foreheads for a moment muttering something under his breath. "There," he said, "I used a translation spell, now we'll be able to speak to any of the locals we meet." Brianna nodded. Thanks Séance, now I know why you were assigned to this team. I thought for sure that you would go with Ranma and his group as they didn't have any long-range firepower."
Séance coughed uncomfortably "Well, I'm only an apprentice after all long-range firepower really hasn't been covered yet in my studies with Dr. Diggers, he believes in mastering the basics before going on to the more esoteric spells."
Brianna laughed "okay, but you do make do with what you've got pretty good, not everyone can say they survived a close encounter with Pee-wee's goons after all."
Séance blushed uncomfortably at the praise, after all, most of the fighting had been done by Ryan he had simply been trying to stay alive. Turning he looked at Itchy-koo and Arnie. "Do either of you have anything of Jeremy is on you?"
Arnie shrugged, but Itchy-Koo reached into her fold space pocket pulling out a picture of the Quagmire crew posing together. Around it was wrapped a handkerchief that Jeremy had given her a few days ago when she had a coughing fit. "I was planning to return it when we went back home after visiting with the doc, along with the picture but I guess I'll have to wait."
Séance gently took the handkerchief and used a variant of the 'point me' aura tracking spell. In his hand appeared a hand sized arrow that pointed out away over the desert, away from the city where Jeremy had landed strangely. "That way," he said calmly.
Itchy-koo cocked her head to the side. "I wonder what happened to him." None of the others had an answer to that and they all began to walk off.
The group walked for several hours, thankful beyond belief that Arnie had thought ahead and brought hats for them all to ward off the heat from the burning sun and that Brianna had brought drinks along. About an hour after the second water break they saw a large rocky outcropping or hill in the distance. At the same time something flew overhead at near supersonic speeds. "What do you think that was?" Arnie asked.
Brianna and the others shrugged. "I've no idea, though there shouldn't be anything native to the society of this area and region that can fly, let alone that fast."
The answer to this question was soon provided for them however, as the object came streaking back to stop in the air right above them. It was a man, Egyptian by his appearance, powerfully built and wearing a mask that completely covered his face that looked like a cross between a lizard's face and a Pharaoh's headdress. The man landed in front of them, and with a burst of magic the outfit disappeared, leaving behind a slightly scrawnier man with a very familiar face. "Ace?!" Brianna asked, "what the heck…"
The man took a step backward in shock. "How, how do you know my name is Ays?"
Arnie whispered out of the side of his mouth to Séance "Well we know that your translation programs is working at least."
Brianna said "no I… you know what never mind it'd take too long to explain. Sorry for the mix up, but we have something we need to be doing."
"I agree time is of the essence," said the man, "though I have to wonder why you for travelers such as yourselves and so strangely garbed and armed are traveling towards the current layer of my nemesis Sith. Because of interference a few days ago from a very odd source a good friend of mine was captured. A similarly garbed young man came out of nowhere and slammed into me, allowing Sith and Salamander to get away."
"Wow," Brianna muttered. "I'm really glad there aren't any lawyers here, a name like that is just asking for a lawyer to come up and slap a copyright infringement on your ass."
Itchy-Koo on the other hand, kept her attention on what was most important. "That young man was one of our friends. We had a fight near a device that catapulted him here." She didn't want to outright say they were from the future or anything, after all Gina and Mita had both explained that doing so would be a bad thing..
Her dissembling however was wasted. "The orb which grants me my power informs me that you are from the future. And," he looked over at Brianna "he says that you are a trouble child for some reason."
Brianna shrugged unrepentantly "I am what I am."
"Indeed," Ays said thoughtfully, "Perhaps we should work together here. My enemies, two of the prisoners who my foolishness set free when I took up the orb, took your friend too ask about his strange teleportation ability. Well I say ask more torture really."
"Torture?" said Arnie ominously.
Ays ignored him continuing "and they have my friend the Princess."
Brianna grinned a little impishly and looked over at Itchy-Koo who nodded conspiratorially "Only a friend?" They chorused causing Ays to blush hotly.
He stuttered, for a moment then ignored them anyway. "H-however their defenses are too good for me to just force my way in there and save them both, defeating Salamander and Sith would take too much time and one of them at least would be free to kill off their prisoners. I need some kind of distraction."
Brianna grinned wickedly, "distractions we can do."
With the help of Brianna's powersuit and the so-named Dragon Pharaoh the trip to the distance rocky hills took 5 minutes. They stopped just outside of where Ays said the escaped prisoners could sense them and powered down going in on foot. Itchy-Koo and Séance, using 'presence mask' and a few other spells disappeared up the mountain while Brianna and Arnie went with Ays to the front door, with Ays breaking off halfway to hide where he could see the entrance. The two gun users were going to cause a ruckus to bring the villains out to deal with them and give the sneaking group an opening. Ays would wait until the proper moment to start his own assault. It was a good plan even if it had been made up on the fly.
Inside the villain's lair all was not well. Sith and Salamander, a pair whose alliance was very reluctant in the first place, had been further strained by the appearance of Maelstrom, the most physically powerful and imposing of the villains Ays had released upon removing the Dragon orb from its resting place. "Damn it!" said Sith, the female of the group. She stood around 5'5" cut with an extremely curvaceous body that she showed off to good effect with her tight snake skin outfit, though the words coming out of her mouth weren't nearly as pretty. "You can't just mosey into my plan and expect to takeover Maelstrom! I don't care who you are or how powerful, I'm the one who put in the legwork, I'm the one that put in the time and captured the target I am in charge!" She made no mention of the fact she and Salamander had been saved by the inexplicable appearance of the young human boy, who was still comatose in the corner.
"Sith," Maelstrom said, glowering down at her from his own height of 7' excluding his horns, "Sith dear, do you really want another demonstration of my power? Besides, neither of you have the power necessary to kill the Dragon Pharaoh. Only I have that much power, and even for me it would be a very difficult task. We need to work together!"
Princess Penniamen shrugged from where Salamander was still holding her "whatever" she said, sounding more like a valley girl then a Princess of Egypt. "The Dragon Pharaoh's just going to blast the lot of you into the world beyond in the end, just like always."
Sith would've taken umbrage at this but Maelstrom simply patted her head. "How cute, but would he come at us with his full power knowing you're here Princess? No he'll come carefully trying to sneak in to rescue you and he will be destroyed before he can bring his full power to bear on us." Just as he said this however a loud booming noise was heard and many a gigantic explosion rocked the cavern.
Penny gasped in shock and Sith said sardonically "you were saying?"
Maelstrom on the other hand, shook his head. "That was not the Dragon Pharaoh's power; I haven't felt anything like that before, it almost felt like it was non-magical in origin." Sith and Salamander looked at him askance but shrugged and all three raced outside though not before Sith used her powers to bind Penniamen to her throne.
Outside Brianna and Arnie were taking pot shots at the front entrance of the cavern Ays had said was Sith's hideout. As soon as the bad guys appeared they broke off and raced away down the hill. Surprisingly all three pursued. "They're just some adventurers or something that found magic weapons and think they're hot sssshit" Sith said, scowling "let's kill them quickly and get back before the Dragon Pharaoh shows up."
Behind them Itchy-Koo and Séance made their way into the entrance and then from there down into the hideaway. They found Jeremy still unconscious and injured from his trip through time, and someone who looked a lot like Penny to Séance's eyes. "Are you the Princess?" he asked as Itchy-koo check Jeremy over, then lifted the young boy to her shoulder in a fireman's carry.
The Penny look-alike glared at them "yes I am, but where's the Dragon Pharaoh? He is the one that's supposed to rescue me!"
"He's waiting to ambush the bad guys as soon as we get you free."
"Ambush," she muttered, even as Séance freed her from her chains "that doesn't sound very heroic."
Itchy-Koo shrugged carefully, making certain not to aggravate any of Jeremy's wounds. "Heroic or not it's going to be effective, come on."
Outside Brianna and Arnie had been pinned down by the ex-prisoner's firepower. Brianna in particular, was susceptible, as she was part were-creature magic could harm her more than if she had been a human. Arnie though, was proving his worth as a sniper because whenever Maelstrom tried to power up one of his more powerful attacks to destroy the boulder they were hiding behind, he would pop out and nail him with a rifle round in the head. His blows weren't doing any damage to the big alien really, but they were enough to break his concentration. Sith paused for a moment as she went to use her power to drag them out into the open. "This is too easy." She muttered. "What if they were already working with the Dragon Pharaoh?"
She turned to go back and Brianna popped out of the rocky outcropping they were hiding behind and using one of her smaller weapons fired at her, hitting her in the ass with her laser. "Oh no you don't honey, I've still got more power cells to burn!" She giggled happily as she ducked back behind the boulder. "I still get to potshot the assholes even if I didn't get to the tower prison all those weeks ago. Good deeds are indeed rewarded!"
Arnie looked at her askance as she still began to giggle strangely and take potshots around their rock at the same time. He was beginning to think that cheetah girl was not exactly all there upstairs.
Sith yelled at the others. "They're trying to keep us pinned down here so someone else can rescue the princess and that other human we found. One of you pin them down here. I'll go back and make sure that the Princess stays put!"
Maelstrom shook his head. "No we must stick together. It's only together we can defeat did Dragon Pharaoh!"
At the same time, Penny and the Jeremy were already out of the cavern and being taken down the slope by Itchy-koo and Séance. As soon as they were away from the lair the Ays activated his power from where he had been hiding and raced into the combat. Sith glared at maelstrom "you idiot, we should have treated, we could have caught them all in the cave!"
Salamander was the first fall turning his back on Brianna he was hit in the back of the head by a cryogenic grenade she made to capture enemies that went off, reezing him in place. The Dragon Pharaoh simply waved a finger at him and a portal appeared underneath him, transporting him directly back into his prison cell back in the tower. Sith took one look at the oncoming Dragon Pharaoh, another look over her shoulder at the still holding out Arnie and Brianna and took off down the mountain.
"Oh no you don't little doggie!" Brianna shouted and roared after her in her powersuit. "You concentrate on the big guy, I've got the little snake girl"
Arnie shrugged, seeing he wasn't need anymore he leaned back against a rock. "This should be good." Itchy-koo and Séance joined him there to watch the action.
Brianna caught up with Sith not two minutes later and pounded her into the ground with repeated strafing runs.
By the time she dragged the villainess back to the Dragon Pharaoh his fight was over as well, having tricked the mighty Maelstrom into attacking him head on and simply disappearing allowing him to fall into a portal Ays had created hidden behind him.
Sith was a mass of bruises, bleeding marks and burns. As soon as she saw the Dragon Pharaoh she broke away from her captor and went to her knees in front of him. "Please, please get me away from her!" She wailed. "She's crazy! I tried to surrender and she just kept firing and laughing!"
The Pharaoh took one look at her and waved his hands again. "Brianna went over to her friends who were standing around Jeremy's still unconscious body. Everybody ready to go?" She said grinning. "Don't know about all of you, but I've had a great time!"
The group all nodded and before the Dragon Pharaoh could even thank them Brianna grabbed Jeremy and Itchy-koo and took off while Séance placed a hand on Arnie's shoulder, teleporting the two as far as he could in one go back the way they had come. It took him another five jumps to get them back to the time machine, but they still beat Brianna and her passengers there.
Back home, they found team one having already found doctor Azland. The only group to have not reported in yet was Ranma's but Brianna wasn't really worried, Ranma could look after himself and she would protect her sister too. Jeremy was immediately taken to the medical lab, where Itchy-koo and Asrial dumped him straight into Gina's regeneration tube. They both took the opportunity to check him out, leaving Asrial pleased and Itchy-koo not so much. Then again she had been reading quite a lot to ecchi doujin, so her hopes were probably a little too high.
The doctor had ignored all offers of medical attention however, and had immediately begun to work on Gina's computers that were monitoring the chronoverse and time stream. About ten minutes after team two got back he called everyone back to lab five. "I think I found doctor Peachbody" he said grimly, "he's about 1000 years in the future from where your group was previously Brianna, he's trying to do something to the Sphinx, which according to Miss Digger's files is a alien starship. If he can get control of that alien technology plus Mita's time machine technology he'll be unstoppable."
Brianna shrugged thinking the doctor was exaggerating but she was always ready for another fight. "All right, so let's put a hit team together and go after them. Can you tell if he knows we're coming or anything about how far along he is?
The doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid not. This technology isn't nearly as precise my own, and rebuilding my own would take far too long."
Brittany declined to go along. "I don't think you'll need me along if it's just Peachbody and his doggie boy. I want to go over and see how Penny's doing with the design of the spaceship." Brit's inability to do anything in the past to stop her muffin leaving the future was weighing heavily on her, and she needed to see some progress being made on going after him. Asrial and the other girls nodded considerately and so the group that was heading into the past again was Asrial. Ataru, Arnie, Brianna and Ryan. Itchy-koo declined as well, citing her desire to watch Jeremy. She also wanted to write her grandfather a letter, something about Ranma's name was still bothering her and she wasn't going to get any peace until she knew why. Asrial nearly declined at that point but decided to go with the hit team.
By the time they arrived doctor Peachbody was halfway through taking control of the spaceship. He hadn't thought the Diggers or anyone else could come after him and was sitting languidly on a divan watching as some of his server drones continued to open different parts of the spaceship and bring them under his control. He and Benji however turned quickly as the port time portal opened up dumping out Asrial's attack group appeared. Tapping a button he had discovered activated the Sphinx' attack drones Dr. Peachbody said philosophically. "Oh well, the floor show was getting tedious anyway. This looks much more fun. Benji, dispose of them all please." With that said Benji jumped forward toward the intruders as dozens of robots made to look like mummies came out of their holding sarcophagi.
Brianna grinned, her favorite kind of area, a target rich one!
Ranma got out of the ginamobile as it appeared in a field in a forest, stretching spectacularly, not even aware that both Mita and Gina were watching him as he did with bright blushing faces. Genn was busy looking around them, wondering why his senses were going haywire. "So this is ancient Japan? Any idea why May was sent here?"
"No idea, it was probably just completely random. Dr. Azland's time machine was still active when she destroyed it after all, so she's probably lucky she'd didn't simply cease to exist at all. On the other hand, maybe some other time traveler was here previously and that weakened the bubble enough for her to be sent here instead of anywhere else." Gina answered as she got out her tricorder. Mita joined her in looking for clues as to where May might have gone.
"Oh" Ranma said, not really understanding what she had just said, "So it doesn't have anything to do with the Itchy-Koo look-alike whose collapsed by the trees over there?"
Gina and Mita both looked over where he was pointing and gasped. Genn too looked, and moved forward. "Ranma if you see someone like that why didn't you say so immediately. We have to help her!"
"She's faking it" Ranma answered blandly, looking away from the girl up into the surrounding trees. "Those other ninjas in the trees must be after her for some reason, they kind of suck at stealth though. I was expecting better, I mean come on guys, can't any of you mask your presence better than this?"
Several more ninjas suddenly appeared all around them looking very angry. As Ranma had spoken in Japanese they all understood him and that they had just been dissed badly. "You may have seen through art hitting techniques stranger, but you are no match for our martial arts skills. Surrender, and you and the foreigners will not be killed immediately." Each ninja was armed with a long sword and brandished them threateningly.
Mita whispered to Gina, "How am I able to understand them, I can't speak Japanese."
Gina answered out of the side of his mouth. "That would be because of me, I produce a field that allows everyone around me to speak the same language."
Ranma laughed and then moved like lightning. Within 3 seconds he had disarmed at each of the ninjas and made a ring of their blades in a nearby tree. "You were saying assholes?"
"Ranma," Gina growled "do you have to be so confrontational."
Ranma looked from her to the ninjas back to her and finally said "Yes," in a pseudo-thoughtful tone. "Yes, I think I do!" With that he charged forward, as the ninjas pulled out kunai and charged forward to meet him. Ranma smacked one of them with a flying kick, before grabbing the arm of one as he thrust his knife forward, turning and using him like a bludgeon on the ninja next to him, then kicked out sending them both into a tree. Another ninja tried to stab Ranma in the back but he did a split, letting the blade pass by overhead, before rocketing up and head-butting that ninja under the chin. The last ninja had tried to capture Mita of Gina, but had run into a transformed Genn's fist, that put him into la-la land. Ranma stood up easily, not even winded. "Is that it, so lame."
He looked over at the Itchy-koo lookalike who had sat up halfway through the fight and watched wide eyed as this stranger mangled her pursuers so easily. "So, what's your story girl? Runaway from the clan, runaway from an arranged marriage, rival clan, what?"
The girl stood up. "A bit of the last one stranger. Thank you for your help, but I really must be on my way. I have a message to deliver that is of vital importance to my clan."
"Wait!" Mita stopped her from leaving, producing a picture or May. "Have you seen a girl like this?"
The kunoichi looked at the picture and nodded. "Well, it appears as if we have the same destination. Yes I recognize her, she appeared two days ago out of thin air the stories say, about two days ago. She was badly hurt, and was taken to our castle. I am on my way there to deliver a message from the shogun. If I can get there with it, my clan will be free to from its own ninja clan rather than remain subordinate to the Rivalson clan. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Icci."
Gina nodded happy to have a guide, but Mita looked worried about the badly injured part of that statement. Gina turned and pressed a button on her tricorder, which activated the ginamobile's defense systems and cloaking device. The car disappeared slowly, eliciting a shocked gasp from the young kunoichi. "Great, lets get moving."
The odd group marched off into the woods, leaving the clearing empty, or so most of them thought. Ranma however paused as he stepped into the tree line, to raise a hand and do a one finger salute toward a specific tree on the other side of the field.
In that tree stood Daishi, the best ninja in the realm, who just so happened to be working with the Rivalson clan at present. He narrowed his eyes at what was obviously both a sign of disrespect and a sign that the stranger knew he was there. Next to him another ninja, who had stayed back from the group asked "What should we do now lord Daishi? Our orders are still to take the scroll but that stranger is formidable, and the others possess odd magic."
Daishi shook his head at the narrow focus of his fellow ninja. His own thoughts were centered on the power of that mechanical object the girl with glasses commanded. Such a thing would be worth more gold than the Rivalson's had in their entire history in the right hands. "We follow them of course, perhaps when they grow complacent an ambush can be set. Go, get the rest of your clans ninjas here, we may need them just in case."
About three hours travel brought the group out of the woods and to a hill, on the top of which stood a castle. Icci broke off trying to flirt with the unresponsive Ranma to point up at it. "There travelers is the home of my family. We have lived there for generations, retainers to the Rivalson clan, but once I reach my father with the message I carry, it will be the seat of our own ninja clan!"
Ranma nodded appreciatively. "Nice, reminds me of a few castles I saw back home. Hope I don't have to fight my way out of this one though." He was thinking of the pure hell Kodachi could make getting out of the Kuno estate when he said this.
Icci giggled, latching her arms around one of his, making certain to press her teenage body against him, causing Ranma to blush slightly. "Well don't worry about that Ranma-san, with the ninjas you beat back in the clearing, you pretty much cleared out the Rivalson ninjas stationed in the area. Only my family and a few of Redno's personal guards will be here, as he will be on hand to see if the message is truly from the shogun."
Ranma coughed uncomfortably and the group made their way up the mountain. At the entrance to the castle, a massive closed door, Icci shouted "Hey open up!"
A older heavily muscled man came out, glaring at Ranma and his group. "What do you want ronin?"
Ranma smirked and opened his mouth to reply but before he could Icci suddenly appeared behind the guard, knocking him out with a swift chop to the back of the neck. "There, that was one of Rendo's guards, we should be home free. First I'll deliver the message to my father and Rendo, then I'll take you to your friend."
"First though we should probably do something about the ninjas up on your roof with bows and arrows" Ranma commented. Everyone turned to stare up at the roof and sure enough five ninja stood there with drawn bows. Next to them stood Daishi with a sword in his hands, which he waved forward commanding, "Fire!"
The five loosed arrows aiming for Icci and the powerful stranger. Ranma jumped around avoiding their shots and then hopped onto the roof, kicking the furthest ninja on the left so hard he caromed into the next three, taking all four of them to the ground. Icci dealt with the last one as he turned to gape at Ranma, a thrown kunai hitting him in the head. Daishi growled low in his throat. Now he knew he would have to overcome this Ranma before he could capture his allies. No matter, he would be no match for the Daishi.
He leaped forward bringing his sword down as all around the house alarms blared at the sudden attack. Ranma dodged to one side, jumping over the next slash and using near Amaguriken speed to slam six hard shots into his enemies head. Daishi staggered, but brought his sword up and around swiftly to cut into the air Ranma had just left, nicking his shirt but with no other damage. Ranma in turn hammered a strike into his enemy's chest, though his eyebrows quirked as he felt something like a scroll of something underneath the ninja's clothing. Now what could that be I wonder. With that thought Ranma continued the fight, his cat-given curiosity spurning him on in an act few could believe possible: stealing from a ninja. The two continued to dance around one another, neither bale to land another punch as around them the rest of the castle responded to the alarm, as did the waiting RIvalson forces on the ground below the castle.
Gina pulled Mita close, activating her personal force field as ninjas suddenly began to come over the walls. They were met by an old man in white and several other ninjas. "I don't know what the meaning of this is, but you will not find the Icchinoei house so easy to invade!" He shot forward with speed that belied his apparent age, smacking several ninja to the ground with punishing blows. Icci moved to join her father yelling "father I have the message, but it looks like the RIvalson clan doesn't want to let us go!"
"Rendo! The old man turned to yell back inside at a much younger man with smooth black hair and a face that somehow radiated smarmy self-confidence. "What is the meaning of this, if my daughter has the message then it means the shogun has given the go-ahead for us to create our own clan, would you defy the shogun?!"
The younger man frowned, but before he could answer Diashi and Ranma slammed through the wall next to him. Daishi was looking a little worse for wear, but not so much, and Ranma only had a few nicks on him in various places. Neither were close to being out of the fight, something Ranma was having a lot of fun with. It wasn't often these days he met a warrior who could keep up in speed with him.
Rendo glared at the other ninja. "Daishi what are you doing!?" he hissed. "You wer supposed to take care of the message quietly, this isn't quiet you fool, if Icci has the message this looks as if we are trying to go against the shogun's orders!"
Daishi sneered at him. "You had no problem with that as long as you couldn't be caught at it worm. But she doesn't have the message, the real message is right..." he reached inside his shirt only to pause eyes widening.
Ranma grinned, spinning a small scroll on his fingers from where he stood beside Icci and her father. "You looking for this?" Behind them Genn and the other Ichinoei clan had completed pushing the Rivalson ninjas out of the castle.
Daishi's eyes widened first in surprise then anger. "You!" He was so angry his plans to take Gina hostage and force her to give him command of her mechanical device went right out the window. He brought his hands forward in his most devastating technique. "Perfect Death Strike!"
A beam of Ki lashed out and Ranma grabbed Icci and dodged to the side, letting it pass to impact the outer wall. He put a blushing Icci down and smirked at Daishi. "You want to play that game, fine!" He brought his own hands together and fired off his own ki attack as Daishi fired off another one. "Moko ha Reiku!"
The power of the Moko ha Reiku, which was pure ki laced with his elemental affinity, impacted Daishi's anger based ki attack. The two attacks seemed to be even for a few seconds, but only for a few seconds as the gold and white beam of Ranma's ki attack overpowered the deep maroon of Daishi's, blasting through and slamming into Daishi. The so called greatest ninja in the land barely had time to scream before his body was struck by the beam, the power behind it frying him instantly. What was left of him fell to the ground, dead before he hit the ground.
At this sight Rendo gulped, his mind going into overdrive to think of a way to get out of here without having to face the strange warrior. "I-ichinoei, I must apologize for my subordinates. T-hey seems to have been taken in by Daishi's ambition, none of this was at my orders I assure you."
The old man smirked, knowing the lie for what it was but willing to go along with it for now. "Very well Rendo, as we are now separate clans, I will allow you to take your warriors and leave, but do not think we will not be watching you." Behind him Icci made a face at Rendo, sticking her tongue out at him.
Rendo ignored her with difficulty nodding equably and whistling through his teeth the retreat single to his ninjas. "Very well Ichinoei, I will be leaving now. Perhaps in the future our clans can have better relations, but for now wariness will indeed be better all around." After all, we've already made a fortune from using your family old fool. We don't need you anymore, certainly not for the price forcing you to serve would demand.
As Rendo left, the clan head turned to the strangers. "I must thank you all for your intervention here. Without you who knows how this battle would have gone."
Icci spoke up, lips quirked in irritation from looking at the message scroll Ranma handed her. "We would have certainly lost, after all without this we would have been seen as merely rebelling against our parent clan. Rendo and Daishi could have wiped us out."
Mita responded for the group, worried about her friend. "Well, thank you, but we really came here to retrieve our friend, if you could show us to her that would be much appreciated." Icci nodded and led the group inside. In one of the rooms on the second floor they found May, comatose from her wounds, which appeared to be a mix of broken bones and burns. She was the closest to Dr. Azland's time machine when it blew, and had taken a lot of damage from it. Mita ran over to her and immediately began to diagnose her injuries. After a moment she leaned back sighing in relief. "If we can get her some real medical attention she should pull through fine. The worst injuries seem to be internal, and beyond… local medical practice to heal." Mita was an old hand at not saying things like 'this time periods' and other clues that could give away the fact she was a time traveler.
Ranma nodded, leaning down and picking up May, futon and all. "Let's get back to the Ginamobile then. Genn, you take Gina, I'll take these two ok? Icci, nice ta meet ya and all, but we got places to go friends to meet and a doggie to neuter." He knelt down and Mita, after a moment's hesitation got onto his back. When she had a firm grip, he took off running out of the castle and down the hill into the forest beyond.
Icci sighed sadly at seeing the gorgeous hunk leave, and her grandfather shook his head. "Well if you must rush off to get your friend more medical attention than we can provide I can understand, but we really do need to do something to pay you all back for your help. Especially that young man. Perhaps" he said slyly looking at his granddaughter out of the corner of his eyes, "a marriage contract between our families would be in order." Icci gulped, blushing brightly, but didn't to object.
Gina who had been about to hop onto the buffed out Genn's back, paused, grinning wickedly. A few minutes later, the two of them left the castle to try and catch up with their friends. Genn shook his head. "You do know that Ranma is going to get back at you for that right?"
Gina smirked. "Yep, but it'll be worth it to see his face when he realizes he's the cause of this marriage contract not his father. I predict at least a few days of fun before he realizes I had a hand in it."
Genn shrugged as they entered the forest. "If you say so, don't say I didn't warn you though."
Team three returned with May to find they were the last to arrive. Dr Azland immediately told them he had found Peachbody and Ranma turned right around, heading toward Penny's time machine. Since Gina wanted to stay and make certain May was taken care of Dr. Azland ignoring his own wounds took controls of the machine and they took off. Mita frowned as May was put in the regeneration chamber. "Gina, how accurate is your machine when travelling to future eras?" Gina looked at her eyes cocked, but a moment later joined Mita in grinning evilly.
One-on-one Ryan and his team would've been no match for Benji but taken altogether they were able to push him back steadily..
Ryan in particular was ecstatic, his last attack had been a ki attack based on the ones Daishi and Ranma used, though it took a lot out of him. He was barely able to keep his feet for a few seconds after firing it off. "He's a lot better than the last time we fought but he's no match for a good old-fashioned gang up. Call off you boy doggie, we don't want to hurt him."
"Oh really, how else do you think this conflict will work out." Doctor Peachbody growled watching as Brianna gunned down another robo-mummy. "This isn't game boy, we're not going to just walk away and say it's a 'fair cop Gov.' I win and you will die. Learn how badly you are outmatched now. Benji, remove your inhibitor." At this command the loyal guard boy reached up and removed his collar. Suddenly he grew three feet in height, his muscles became even much more defined and his entire body seemed to pump up as if on instant steroids.
But it wasn't only his strength that increased, his speed had as well which Ataru found out as he leapt forward, aiming a spinning heel kick at their opponents face. Benji grabbed the boys foot, and before anyone could move slammed Ataru's body fast first into the ground.
The others charged forward, only to find themselves overmatched against the behemoth.
Ryan tried to get in close slamming a few hard shots into Benji's midriff, but the giant didn't even flinch, hammering Ryan aside with a single haymaker to the side of his head. Ryan's feet left the ground as his head exploded in agony, only his rolling with the punch keeping him from being knocked out immediatly. He rolled to the side narrowly missing the follow up stomp as the mercenary and Asrial rushed in. Ryan got to his feet, but his woozy stance, bloody eye and mouth denoted the damage he had taken.
Arnie made the mistake of trying to bull rush Benji, and the guard boy sidestepped easily, kicking him hard in the side and following up with another haymaker. The mercenary took the hit and returned one of his own as Asrial pounded on Benji's back with a strong three hit combo.
As the mercenary went down Benji turned and a huge round house came at Asrial so fast she had no chance of dodging it. She brought her arms forward in a blocking position, screaming in pain as the blow landed, her arm breaking under the blow. Asrial shot backwards, the momentum of the punch lifting her into the air and throwing her away.
However the fight thus far had bought themselves some time, and behind them the temporal beacon flashed again, bringing in another group of their time lost companions. Ranma and Dr Azland had arrived.
Ranma caught Asrial as she was smashed backward by the haymaker from Benji, holding her gently as she regained her footing. "Hey Skunky." Asrial growled at hearing that hated nickname, but inwardly she was grateful another fighter had turned up (and thankful Ranma wasn't in his werecat form. Her reaction to his pheromones the last time had been more than enough thank you!).
Peachbody barked allowed in amusement, "More enemies more fun! Even if your trigger happy compatriot can stand against this ship's own defenses, none of you can truly think you stand against my genetically perfected guard boy do you? It is to laugh!"
Ranma's gaze which had been amused darkened noticeably. He strode forward, cracking his knuckles as a cold light began to emanate from him. "Genetically modified huh, so what you're saying is you fucking cheated and so did he. God damn, I am tired of meeting you posers who think that they can cheat or manipulate their way to being better fighters without putting in the blood and time."
Peachbody snorted. "Oh really, and what are you going to do about it?"
Ranma sprang forward, burying his fist into Benji's guts before the guard boy could move. The impact of fist on stomach was loud in the pyramid, and Benji's body shot backward from the force of the blow. Ranma stood there, glowing in the power of his own ki. "I'm going to show you what a real master of the art can do."
Benji jumped up and ran forward, meeting Ranma halfway, aiming for a haymaker like the one that laid Ryan out. Ranma dodged almost negligently, sending back a dozen amaguriken speed punches to Benji's face. Blood spurted as the guard boys nose broke but he kept on coming, trying to tag Ranma with another series of jabs and back hand slaps.
Ranma ducked dodged and then grabbed Benji's outstretched arms, flipping himself under and mule kicking Benji in the stomach like a jackhammer at least fifty times in a second, as hard as he could.
Benji's feet left the ground as his breath exploded out of him. Below him, Ranma had dropped to the ground, and concentrating for barely a second his hands glowing like a star with ki. With a shout of 'Moko ha Reiku!," a sliver of golden light shot out from his hands with all the impetus of a cannon shell and impacted Benji's chest with all the power of one. Unlike Daishi, Benji was made of strong enough stuff not to die immediately, but he still shot up and through the ceiling, disappearing into the dark of the level above. Ranma smirked. "I'll leave doggy here to you guys. The cheater's mine." With that Ranma jumped up and after Benji.
Peachbody gulped and swiftly threw some of his monster capsules on the ground. As they erupted with two ogres appearing, he backed away moving slowly over to his time machine only to find his way blocked by a smirking Brianna, who had just finished the last of the robo-mummies, holding her side with one hand and huge hand gun in the other.
Suddenly alarms blared "warning temporal danger detected, temporal danger detected!" Peachbody looked up from where he had been rooting desperately around to find some more of his biosynthetic monsters and paled at what the view screen showed him. Mita was on the screen, a leash to lead around a small black Labrador. The doctor gasped in horror as the words veterinary hospital became discernible above the door Mito was entering.. "Is that my…he exclaimed, paling visibly.
Brianna chuckled. "I like Mita, she's evil. And you, doggy Doc are done." Peachbody desperately threw two of his biosynthetic monsters capsules out her. They were empty but Brianna had no way of knowing this and stepped back to get more room to use her guns. This let Peachbody race off in an attempt to get to his time machine.
But before he could get to it, the ceiling above the time machine shattered and down came Ranma and Benji. The two slammed like a comet into the time machine crushing and destroying it utterly under the weight of Benji's body. Ranma slipped away from the collapsing machine shaking his head "Heh oops? Mia can build another one of those things right?"
Dr. Peachbody, stared aghast as Brianna came up behind him. "Do you know what you've done! My future, the future, we can never be, nooo, nooooo," he yowled as he began to feel his and his body disappear, the paradox of his existence now that his father had been neutered catching up to him.
"Wait," Ranma yelled. "I've wanted to say this ever since I heard about you!" He raised a hand and smacked Peachbody's already disappearing nose. "Bag dog, heel!" as Peachbody disappeared with the last snarling howl of agony at both the joke and his own descoporiation the others all looked at Ranma in shock. "What, none of you ever wanted to say that to him? I thought it fit the situation and him to a tee." Everyone began to laugh and he grinned at them, raising both hand to make v-signs in the air.
End chapter
Whoo, that was a beast to write. Well, as usual tell me what you all think. Next chapter will have more of the Tendo sisters and some more of Jade and Sheila.