I do not own Ranma or any of the characters, places, intellectual properties etc therein, they are in the sole ownership of one Rumiko Takahashi. You know what screw it okay? These are my characters, all mine, who gives a- wait, what's this? Why the hell are you handing me a piece of paper? Oh, um, nevermind guys, I retract what I said. On a completely unrelated note, law suits are no trivial matter.
The mausoleum-like fortress was even more daunting the closer Taro and Ranma got to it. The obsidian black walls stretched up, blocking all view into the castle and their surfaces allowed no grip, they were truly built to last. Of course it was an archaic design and wouldn't hold out against an aerial bombing or any real attack from above. Ranma had been contemplating just how they were going to get in there for over an hour, unfortunately nothing came to mind.
The front gate was obviously out, when had walking up to your enemy and asking for their hostage back ever worked? The walls were impossible to scale without some kind of climbing equipment, when the two teens sorely lacked. It would take far, far too long to dig under the walls, not to mention that on a mountain like this there was sure to be a layer of rock acting as the foundations for the larger walls.
It had gotten to the point where they were sat around a small fire for warmth and Ranma was just staring off into space while Taro shot him evil thoughts and glances. Taro couldn't believe how idiotic Ranma was being; he had found it fun to watch the boy squirm and pace for a while, all the while taunting him quietly. Now it was just becoming pathetic and boring so he stood up, walked over to where Rama was sat, deep in thought and pulled out a flask of water from the teen's pack.
With a quick motion he poured the liquid all over himself and thankfully expanded out into his cursed form. Ranma had stopped pondering to watch with intrigue, when Taro gave his wings an experimental stretch he finally understood. He stood up angrily, tempted to hit the annoying teen-turned-bull-creature but the bracelets prevented even that.
"You could have done that at any time?" Taro-bull merely shrugged but the wicked glint in his eyes told Ranma that he could have. "We could have flown here instead of getting caught up in that fire you know." This made the cocky beast pause then grunt. He didn't like it when Ranma was right, they could have flown and headed off Herb at any time yet they had instead walked, nearly dying in that blasted inferno.
Still annoyed he motioned with one massive arm at the space in between his shoulder blades, then at Ranma. The pigtailed martial artist complied and hopped up with grace into the spot indicated. Taro grunted when he came down and without warning to the other teen, took off. To say that it was exhilarating for Ranma was an understatement, he loved the feeling of un-encapsulated flight. The wind rushing through his tied-back hair and across his exposed skin was indescribable, at that very moment he actually envied Taro for his curse.
Taro was thinking along similar lines, he still hadn't become used to flight; it was an aspect of his curse that still exited and scared the teen. Despite having the curse pretty much from birth he still considered it to be merely a side of him, not the real half. He always imagined somehow getting cured and dropping from thousands of feet from the sky to the ground or a watery grave. Continuing that train of thought he looked down, wondering just how long it would take for Ranma to hit the ground from this height.
There was the unfortunate aspect of him dying as soon as Rama hit the ground as well but the option was always open. Taro had decided it would be best to stay as high as possible until they were directly overhead of the fortress. He had a lot of experience when it came to infiltrating facilities from above and some of it had taught him to avoid flying low. One trip to a Chinese military base had really hammered that message home when he flew away, followed not too closely by a few surface-to-air, heat-seeking missiles.
Taro tried to figure out a way of warning the teen on his back that he was about to begin his very rapid descent. Finding none he simply tucked in his wings and dropped. Ranma immediately dug his hands into Taro's fur, causing a few light scratches to appear on his own back, but ignoring the pain he hung on for dear life. His pleasant flight had turned into a hellish drop to the earth with the wind biting his face and tearing dangerously at his clothes.
After a few seconds that lasted far too long for Ranma's liking Taro's wings shot out to either side and they levelled out. They were only like this for a few seconds before Taro stuck his legs down like a plane's landing gear and came to a surprisingly peaceful and quiet stop. Ranma shakily departed the hairy creature and took a few moments to simply appreciate the ground beneath him. Next he pulled out a thermos of hot water and drenched the large beast.
"Hey, what'd you do that for?" Ranma shushed him, warily looking around them. Luckily there was nobody else in sight around the small courtyard they had landed in.
"You were hardly discrete like that. I have another flask or when we start to face trouble. Until then we keep a low profile and try and find Xian-Pu." Again Ranma looked around them, quickly taking in what he could. They were in a small, square courtyard with a few corridors leading off in different direction. Instead of the fool's choice he leapt gracefully up onto the roof surrounding the courtyard, to which Taro followed.
Immediately Ranma had their goal in sight, in one corner of the complex rose an enormous tower that was surrounded by the largest buildings in the fortress. The two would-be rescuers set off without hesitation, hopping from ceiling to ceiling, roof to roof until they were closer to the tower. They looked up at the very top and saw a single window flicker with light, the sight of which caused Taro to groan.
"Damn, I could've flown straight in there" Ranma turned round, motioning to him to lower his voice.
"Well too late, I only have enough hot water for one more change back and if that isn't the right window then it's gone, we'll need to find a different way in." Taro huffed in annoyance but his attitude quickly changed when he spotted two patrolling guards and nudged Ranma with his elbow.
"This isn't going to work"
"Shut up, it'll work"
"They'll see through this. They're not even the right size."
"I said shut up" The two had bickered under their breath like this for fifteen minutes, the remarks getting more and more heated every time a guard patrol passed by. The armour they had stolen was uncomfortable, didn't fit, and made even walking difficult for the two teen but apparently they were good enough actors for the guards not to notice the difference.
"This is stupid; it's the corniest thing from a film ever done."
"Well at least it works in the films." Ranma stared at him incredulously.
"No it doesn't! It fails like every time." Taro shrugged; honestly he had never been that interested in any movie enough to follow it through to the end. He had a short attention span and movies were just too long for him. After another thirty minutes of wandering the dizzying maze of corridors and passages the tension had eased and Ranma trusted in the disguises to do the talking for them. None of the guards talked to them or acknowledged them as they walked by so Taro and Ranma did the same, everyone simply saw the helmet and figured that was enough proof of identity.
They felt as though they had scoured every inch of the castle before they finally came upon a set of ornate, finely carved oak door set into the stonework. There were two guards on either side of the door and when they tried to simply walk through them to open the door they stopped them. Just before they were about to ask questions Ranma and Taro shared a mutual look and quickly knocked the two guards out. Taro may have been a bit overzealous in his blow but Ranma didn't have the time to scorn him as they dragged the bodies off into a nearby darkened alcove.
Satisfied that the two sleeping guards couldn't be spotted by a passerby they both placed their hands on the heavy doors and pushed. It opened with surprising fluidity and silence, the hinges being very well maintained, and they closed it behind them in a similar manner. They both turned to look around the new room however something more important caught their collective eyes. Standing in the middle of the room, looking fairly curious, was Lime.
The large, muscled man peered at the unfamiliar guards for a moment, he may have been naive and childish in some aspects of life but he certainly wasn't stupid. He recognised the boy who had challenged his friend and master back at the Amazon village.
"Hey you're the guy Herb beat back at Nyuchiehzu. You're supposed to be dead." Ranma smiled cockily, already throwing the flask of cold water over to Taro.
"People have a habit of trying to kill me, never really works out well for them so don't feel too bad about it." Lime had to take a few seconds to figure out what the strange boy had meant but in that time Ranma had shucked his heavy armour in favour of his lighter clothing. Taro had also gone though his own change, something that didn't seem to frighten or surprise Lime. He had of course heard about Jusenkyo, not many people in the Musk hadn't, it was their lineage after all.
While Ranma preferred to size up his opponent's strengths and weaknesses through controlled initial fighting, as was the Anything Goes way, Taro had a very different style to fight with. He rushed at the massive man and immediately went on a full offensive of kicks, punches, and pretty much anything else in an attempt to wear the boy down or knock him out. It wasn't working; Lime methodically blocked, parried, or countered every one of Taro's attacks with surprising speed.
Unsurprisingly, every time Lime countered, his massive strength allowed the blow to actually make it through Taro's weak defences. Taro, having been used to always being the stronger combatant in any fight was suddenly put at a major disadvantage as he found himself on the receiving end of a vicious offensive. If Ranma hadn't joined in he was sure the fight would have ended unfavourably for him.
As it was Ranma did join in, using tactical blows to attack vital areas of the behemoths body. He could quickly see that this boy was on an entirely different level to much of what he had fought before even Ryoga wasn't this strong or durable. After several repeated Amagurikens to vital areas, including one that Ranma wasn't particularly proud of, Lime didn't seem any worse for wear. Feeling disheartened, and not expecting the speed at which Lime could actually move, Ranma was caught in a glancing blow to his side from one of Lime's impossibly powerful blows.
He was sent head over heels across the small room to land painfully in a self-made crater in the far wall. He slid down and groaned, painfully clutching his side, it was a shock wound and nothing more but the speed and ferocity of the attack wasn't to be underestimated, if it had hit his head he might be dead. Nothing was broken, at least nothing inside of Ranma anyway. The flask in his pocket that was there in case Taro had to change into his cursed form for some reason had shattered and the contents had leaked out onto Ranma, triggering the change immediately.
He stood up, rather unsteadily, and brushed off the small pieces of wall that had ended up on him. He noted with a sigh that his shirt had gotten torn up in the attack and was barely covering his modesty but he didn't have time to dwell on his fashion right now so he dived straight back into the ensuing battle. He didn't actually get a chance to help out Taro, who was once again on the losing end of some serious blows, as a blur of grey fur and black clothing cut him off.
Suddenly, as if he had merely willed himself into existence, Mint was standing between him and the pair of combatants on the other side on the room. He was angrily tossing a serrated knife up into the air and catching it, snarling as he did so.
"You were trying to hurt Lime!" Ranma smirked, something that was becoming somewhat of an effort against these seemingly hopeless odds. Ranma would later wish he hadn't underestimated the smaller man in the village. In the time it took for Ranma to lean back into an offensive fighting stance Mint had already closed the distance between them. It was only Ranma's incredibly honed reflexes that kept him alive as a flurry of knife thrusts started filling up the air around him with razor-sharp steel.
Ranma, even with his Amaguriken was unable to keep up with the lean boy's blinding pace. It seemed absolutely inhuman the way his body just blurred, disappearing one moment and reappearing behind Ranma the next. Ranma was already covering in small Knicks and scratches that were nothing serious but he was starting to tire. Mint on the other hand was in his element, nothing was faster than he was and he quickly began picking up the pace, already sensing his opponent slowing down.
The wolf instincts in his very blood smelt the end of the fight drawing near and if he was still amongst his canine brethren he would be slowly circling the wounded prey, ready to deliver the killing blow. Instead he moved in one smooth move that took him all the way around Ranma and allowed him an easy slash at the boy's unprotected back. Ranma's sixth sense for these situations saved him yet again as he dived forward just in time to avoid the fatal blow.
His clothes on the other hand weren't so lucky, his shirt had finally had enough and as he lay on the floor, panting for breath it simply fell into strips around him. The new development hadn't gone unnoticed by his opponent, who was now doing everything in his power to not look at the two mounds of flesh now wholly not covered by cloth. Ranma noticed the change in his opponent and immediately took advantage, it turned out speed meant very little when you couldn't even look at your opponent.
Quickly Ranma had disarmed the small boy and had him on the ground, unconscious. It was a strange turn of events but Ranma wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Quickly he realised that his wasn't the only fight that hadn't been going his way, luckily when he turned around Taro was still only just managed to hold out against the onslaught from the tiger-man. Ranma joined in but was surprised again when Lime turned to face him only to completely freeze up.
Five seconds later Lime was on the ground with his friend after Taro had ripped a large piece of mortar out of the wall and clubbed him over the head with it while he was stunned. Lime may have been inhumanely strong but he was still a human and everybody had their limits, it just turned out that his was about three tons of solid rock. Taro turned to Ranma, staring oddly at his girl form, something he hadn't seen before.
Ranma stared back defiantly but Taro shrugged, snorted once and began to trudge off toward the far end of the room where a large ornate door was covered in gold leaf in intricate spiral patterns. If Xian-Pu wasn't behind it then at least Herb would be. Ranma cracked his knuckles as he moved to join Taro at the massive door.
Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, got Dishonoured yesterday and have just been playing it in all my free time