Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to Rumiko Takahashi, not I. Some characters are from my imagination, but not many. Do not use this story without my permission.
Sakura sneaked along through the widening corridors with Nagisa and Tsubame close behind. They gave up on finding Ran quite a while ago, but managed to free several other alien prisoners who seemed grateful. Finally, after lavishly-decorated hall upon hall, Sakura found a door.
"Thank god!" Sakura exclaimed. "Let's go."
"Wait!" Nagisa warned in a hush. "I can sense a very malicious intent beyond that door. It could be Kalu...or something else."
"If it's that little girl" Sakura growled "then I'll let her know what 'malicious intent' really is!"
"Sakura" Tsubame said fearfully, "you're a frightful priestess." To the ghost-man's heed, Sakura cracked the door only a little. Inside was a sparsely but brightly furnished room. On a throne against the center wall sat Kalu on her throne, and tied up with chains all around her and in her mouth was Ran right next to her. "Oh...there she is" Sakura quietly noted. Suddenly, Kalu bent back in her chair and laughed, kicking her legs and pointing forward. Ran struggled in vain.
"Did you see their faces?" Kalu said, still laughing her sentence. "They nearly jumped out of their skin!" Ran continued to writhe about in her binding. Sakura noticed that she was watching a screen of some kind, but couldn't make out what was on it. For the idea, she pulled Tsubame aside.
"Sweety" she said, sternly, "can you switch vision with Eukeriel?"
"Uh..." Tsubame grunted, confused. She never brought her up with any positive inflection before. "I suppose it's possible..."
"Have her fly behind the girl" Sakura instructed "and see what she's watching."
"Fine!" Eukeriel shouted, kicking off Tsubame's hat. Everyone hit the floor, afraid that her loudness had alerted someone to their presence. Sakura crawled over to the door and peered through again, but Kalu was far to intently engaged in watching her program. "I'll do it, but not for you!" she chided at Sakura. Then, the fairy dashed off and appeared right behind the pink-headed girl instantly. Tsubame softly clapped his hands together and muttered a silent chant. His eyes started to glow a bit, as did the fairy's. Then, Tsubame saw what she did: a camera feed from outside where the kids were being chased by a monster of some kind.
"OH GOD!" Tobimaro screamed, running at full speed. "Does this thing never stop!?"
"Just keep running!" Mendo commanded as the beast catching up to them roared. "Ignore your broken ribs and RUN!" The beast made a lunge, taking a small jump forward towards Tobimaro, but he dodged into the forest where the creature wouldn't chase him. He peered out through the leaves and watched as it bent back and roared at him again.
"Why not a shark?" Tobimaro asked the heavens. "Why not a dinosaur? Either of those and I might be comfortable to fight it but BOTH!? Someone up there doesn't like us, Shu-chan." Mendo glared over at him, biting his tongue to keep from insulting his weary friend.
This is troublesome Mendo thought I will admit that, but there's nothing to stop me from blaming Ataru Moroboshi for this! Perhaps I can get him in this fight and let the thing here finish him off!
"Personally" Mendo started, a bit arrogantly, "I blame Ataru for all this!" Tobimaro stared through only half-open eyes at Mendo's remark. "Oh yes! That fiendish moron of a man! The very Galactic Core from which all negative karma exudes! The king of cowardly idiots and the prince of all---" He would have gone one, but Ataru's hammer shut his face up.
"I don't like where you're going!" Ataru brashly yelled, sheathing his hammer once more.
"Yeah!" Lum shouted, hanging on a tree branch behind them all. "Darling is not a coward!"
"What about that other stuff?" Ataru asked, derisively staring at her. Lum met his gaze for a moment, then neutrally looked off into the sky. "You're kidding!!!" he shouted.
"Looks bad" Ryuunosuke observed, lying on her stomach and freely kicking her legs in the air.
"We should help" Benten said, sitting against the broken wall with her gun against her shoulder.
"Yeah" Ryuunosuke sighed. "We should..."
"KYAAA!" screamed the shrill voice of Asuka. Both the fierce girls were perked straight up, eager on all tenses to help out the fragile, berserk girl.
"Asuka!" Ryuunosuke shouted. She increased her suit's power and jumped from the steps straight to the fearful girl. "You okay?" she asked. Asuka kept quivering and whimpering, keeping her hands in front of her face defensively.
"Don't let it touch me!" She pleaded tearfully. "It's a horrible man-monster! It'll eat me!!"
"Well, yeah, that's what monsters do!" Ryuunosuke said, making little effort to comfort her. She took her by the shoulders and quickly escorted her away. Asuka and Ryuunosuke fled, attracting the monster's attention. It roared violently and began to chase after them. That's when Benten, with her trusty trigger-finger, shot a pod of missiles at the beast's head.
"How do ya like that!?" Benten shouted, propping her cannon up next to her. The best simply shook off the pain and glared over at her with its dead, doll eyes. It was about to make another berserk charge, headfirst at the plate-mailed girl, when its leg got caught on something. From the brush, Ataru had extended his hammer and secured the blunt mace end against a tree, using it as a perfectly sturdy trip wire that the monster fell over nicely.
"Hah!" Ataru shouted, mockingly at Mendo. "That's better than anything you've done!"
"Yay!" Both Lum and Ten cheered from the trees. "Fight on!" Ataru retracted and settled his hammer arrogantly on his shoulder, and accepted the praise with a haughty grin. Meanwhile, the monster struggled to get back up, tossing and kicking about with its powerful legs. Shingo and Ryoko, who had hidden themselves in the shadows until now, took the opportunity to attack together. They both took out and charged their electric batons to maximum power.
"Now's my chance!" Ryoko announced, gallantly flipping over to the monster's head. Shingo sped along from a different angle and they both prepared a synchronized attack.
"Stun Baton!" they both shouted, emphasizing the togetherness of their attack. "CRASH!!!" They both thrusted down hard, hitting the ground and electrocuting themselves.
"Failure tastes like fire" Ryoko noted, being the only one prone to shock. The monster itself ha drolled away, flipping over on its back and bouncing to its feet, just before they could hit it again. Ryoko feared for her life, and Shingo for hers as well seeing that he didn't know what fear really was anymore. The monster roared at them, ready to charge, when Benten launched another volley of explosives from her stoop at the castle steps. Ryuunosuke had rejoined her with Asuka ,and they both had guns pointed at the beast.
"Okay!" Benten shouted to them. "Fire whenever!" Ryuunosuke shot her shoulder-mounted cannon and the missiles barreled through the air, exploding all over the creature's body. It was scorched and burnt a bit, but more importantly it was mad. It roared louder than it had before and started to charge with building speed. "Anytime, hon!" Benten reminded. Asuka, who hadn't fired, just held her crouched pose and aimed, her eyes shaking with building water.
"Pull the trigger, Asuka!" Ryuunosuke encouraged. Asuka, finger twitched, but it wouldn't pull.
"I" she started, almost weeping, "I can't!"
"Yes you can!" Benten encouraged harshly. "Just fire already!" Her hot eyes gave Asuka a jolt of confidence, and with her eyes sternly set forward, she fired her gun which didn't recoil form her powerful grip at all. The rockets shot ahead, but the monster knew by know how to dodge, and flipped over its own feet to the side. Now, it was even closer to the steps than before, and ready to charge up.
"Well, crap!" Ryuunosuke shouted. "Time to run, I guess."
"I never run from a fight!" Benten shouted. The monster roared again, shaking the steel under layer of the castle floors and loosening the dust from the fractured ceiling. "Tactical retreat!" Benten screamed, dashing off through the broken halls.
"How is that different!?" Ryuunosuke shouted after her. The monster continued to stomp after them, with Ryuunosuke dragging Asuka through the air after Benten. As the beast began its stomping up the steps, a rock hit the back of its head. Curious to what would challenge it so stupidly, it turned around. In the open stood Ataru, tossing a rock up and down with his hand, and his mechanical hammer on his Oni-armored shoulder.
"Yo" he casually greeted, clutching and pitching his rock at the monster's head again. Annoyed, the monster growled loudly at him. Ataru activated his mechanical monstrosity and extended his hammer up. The gravitational mechanisms started to click and hum across the open field, unbeknown to the monster that was ready to charge ahead.
"This won't end well" Tobimaro observed.
"Of course not" Mendo added angrily. "Moroboshi only inspires failure." And to that remark, Lum kicked him in the head. The hybrid creature began to charge, and Ataru was ready. He took his hammer in both hands and strongly struck it on the head, forcing its jaw into the ground. Teeth were broken, legs were sprained, and a wave of amazement went everywhere.
In her room, Kalu had just spit out a large amount of liquid in shock and guards had already come to clean it up. Ran wiggled about in her binding and hummed happily, if only to taunt her angry captor.
"How'd he do that..." Kalu mumbled.
"Amazing!" Tsubame said in a hush, still focusing his vision through the spying fairy.
"What happened now?" Sakura asked.
"Ataru just beat the Shark-Rex like it was nothing!" Tsubame noted. "It was so cool!"
"Ataru?" Sakura said bewildered. "That seems unlikely. Are you sure it wasn't someone else?"
"It was him" Tsubame said. "Him and his giant hammer."
"Hey!" A gruff voice called. A group of guards were watching from the opened doorway that they had opened, finding the three escaped prisoners huddled together on the floor. Tsubame, trying to make the best of his dire situation, waved a greeting at them.
"Nagisa!" Sakura commanded "Knock 'em out!" Nagisa, from behind the opened door, followed his orders and punched out all the guards easily. OF course, more of them came from down the hall and from the rest of the room. Kalu sat up in her seat and looked across the room as guards were being thrown around like dolls from the open door.
"What's going on now!?" Kalu angrily demanded. Suddenly, static came on her screen and a new transmission came up.
"Greetings" Luko said, sudden;y appearing. Kalu struggled to get her mask on in front of him, keeping her face off the screen until she could.
"Wh-What is it!?" she demanded.
"I have good news, my lady" he reported. "We have captured three of the invaders."
"Excellent!" Kalu replied. "Bring them to me at once." Luko bowed, just as she affixed her mask to her face, and the transmission was cut off and the channel was changed to a cooking program. Kalu searched for the remote and found it in Ran's mouth, so she snatched it away.
"Princess!" a guard shouted. "We have re-captured the prisoners!"
"That's good" Kalu replied, "but how did they get out in the first place?" The guard stood silent, playing possum for a moment then stirred nervously.
"PRINCESS!" A voice called urgently over the screen. "What should we do about the intruders out front!?"
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!!!" Kalu roared. No one moved in her room, except Ran, who leaned over and rescued the remote again to change the channel back once more. Kalu didn't notice, as she was busy rubbing her partially exposed temples. "Just shut up for a minute and let me think...stuff's happening at parsecs per minute around here!" The guards looked at each other. Even their prisoners shifted nervously. "Gah...Everyone just hold of for a second and let me plan..." So no one bothered her for a minute while she agitated over herself about a plan, trying to think over the coking show that she gave up on changing.