ASIS: A Saotome In Space
Summary: Ranma-chan gets malleted into another dimension and must survive all manner of alien threats in order to find her way home.
Disclaimer: Most characters and settings portrayed in this story are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi, Akira Toriyama and affiliated entities. I do this purely for the fun and enjoyment of escapism – not for profit.
Chapter Ten: The One Where Sharp Things Glow
"It's fine," I said to the trio, making a brush off gesture with my hand. I'd apologize to Gine later. There were more pressing issues at the moment, like our literal survival. "Where's Loyra?"
"She's with my brother," Yeurio said. "They went out to set more traps for the invaders."
Another explosion sent tremors vibrating through the stonework beneath our feet and my attention was drawn to a plume of smoke rising up from the tree canopy in the distance. Speak of the devil. I focused my senses in that direction and felt several pings of what I was beginning to associate with the Solistians' unique mix of ki and magic. It seemed Loyra and Yeurio's brother had taken volunteers with them.
"Is that why they haven't already flown overhead and hit us from the skies?" I asked.
"Yep. Anything trying to fly in above the tree line inside of our perimeter gets automatically exploded. The ones coming in on foot get their ki siphoned and redirected to help fuel the air defense," Oleera said, grinning with satisfaction.
That was the same trick from the jail cells Gine and I had spent some time in but with a clever twist. Neat.
"It's complicated spell work so Loyra had to break from the gate circle," Yeurio said.
Further beyond Loyra, I could feel a significant cluster of ki signatures that seemed just diverse enough to qualify as the myriad species making up Kold's forces. They outnumbered us nearly three to one. Even with the Solistians making it easier to pick them off, they would still overwhelm us with their numbers faster than we could whittle them down. After all, only a handful of our side was battle ready. The rest were non-combatants.
And there was bound to be some number of the enemy who were smart enough to see through the traps.
"Right now we're only seeing the stragglers," Boreau said. "Some enemy scouts wandered inside our barrier in pursuit of Yewnoh and the survivors from his outfit when they arrived early this morning."
"Who?" I asked.
"My brother," Yeurio said.
"Ah, okay," I said, before it occurred to me. "So he led them straight to us, then. Fantastic."
Yeurio scowled at me. "Watch it," he said, threateningly.
I deliberately ignored him and carried on. "I haven't really been much for straightforward confrontations since even the average soldier seems to outclass me but, with this new development, maybe I could make a difference? In fact, there's something I've been wanting to try out for awhile which might be useful in helping to catch the ones who make it through."
Right before I'd been launched onto this journey, I'd managed to snag a scroll from my old man's pack in search of something to give me an edge with Herb. I was right in assuming he had been holding back on me big time but I wasn't mad at him anymore. If not for the umisenken, I wouldn't have been able to hunt such dangerous game on the planet that had been my home up until Turles found me. Ever since then, I'd been eager to see how it held up against more sophisticated opponents.
The trio looked very skeptical, understandably. When we'd first met, they'd basically proven themselves able to easily subdue me - especially Loyra's prized pupil. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to use it back then, though. I'd basically been on the back foot this entire time, actually. Well, no more.
With a calm sigh, I slipped into the umisenken and watched their faces for reactions. Eyes wide and mouths agape, they looked around in confusion trying to find me. I slipped a hand under the chest plate of my armor and, using the ki pocket storage technique I'd developed to emulate and counter Mousse, I withdrew a simple kunai. I brought the blade up to Yeurio's neck after positioning myself behind him and dropped the technique.
I whispered into his ear at the same time for effect. "Boo."
The boy flinched so I took the opportunity to sweep his legs, ground him, and pin him on his back while I sat on him. It shouldn't have felt that good to show up a kid so much younger than me but I sure enjoyed it. Plus, he was the only one beside Gine and Raditz who didn't tower over me in height.
"A prodigy, huh?" I asked, fighting a grin, as I looked him in the eyes and squeezed my knees into his rib cage ever so slightly. "More like a pipsqueak."
I was about to prod his ego with another quip when I suddenly felt something stiff pressing against the seat of my pants. It took a solid few seconds for my mind to make the connection that I was sitting directly over a particular area because it just seemed like an impossibility. Before I could remove myself, he did it for me.
"Get off of me!" he shouted, red in the face, as he shoved upwards enough to free himself. I barely glimpsed the tent-pole in the front of his pants before he ran off in a hurry.
"Uh... what the fuck was that?" I asked, turning to his two friends.
"You're a tease, that's what," Oleera said, with reprimand, as she glared at me.
"A what, now?" I replied, not liking where this was going. "Isn't he a little... ya know... young for that sort of thing?"
"He's fifteen, actually," Boreau said, wearing an expression that was torn between barely contained mirth and concern. "The short stature and baby face are part of why he has such a chip on his shoulder."
The nauseous feeling that suddenly bloomed in my gut was immediately counterbalanced with the urge to bang my head against something hard enough to make me forget what I'd just done. I needed to get out of here right now, lest I die of embarrassment.
"Okay, guys, it's been fun, but I think I'm gonna head out and go raise some hell. See ya, bye!" I said, in a single breath, before wrapping myself in the umisenken and jumping off the wall in the direction of that last explosion.
I moved at a decent clip, weaving through the forest and staying just above the underbrush of the floor by alternating between bounding from tree limbs and propelling myself across larger gaps with small bursts of flight. Sustained airtime is what the Saotome school was all about and this little jog brought back some fond memories of my younger days which definitely helped my mood. I remembered being pushed off of rooftops repeatedly until I developed the instinct to rebound from walls, fire escapes, and lamp posts to control my descent. If Pop could see how much I'd improved, he'd have no choice but to finally start respecting me.
A pang of homesickness hit me and I forced it back down as fast as it had come on. I could fantasize about the day I walked back into Nerima another time. Preferably while being far away from all life and death situations.
I felt Loyra's magical presence abruptly grow stronger in my senses and paused on a low branch to get my bearings. I closed my eyes and saw dancing points of light flare off to my left before disappearing in time with her aura returning to normal. That was weird. Despite having developed a keen warning sense for magic, I'd never been able to see it with my eyes closed before. Then again, I'd never encountered magic wielding aliens on a distant planet before a couple of days ago.
Thanks to that little beacon going off, I was caught up with her in moments. I spotted three other Solistian individuals with her that wore metal plate armor over baggy black tunics and trousers, all of which looked like they'd been battered by hurricane debris, before landing stealthily in their midst. I coughed, purposely alerting them to my presence, before dropping my technique.
Almost instantly, I had three glowing swords aimed at me. As expected, though, the men all stood down when Loyra recognized me and called them off.
"Ranma! Don't ever do that again!" Loyra said, catching her breath as if winded. "We could've killed you!"
"Relax, it's cool," I replied, feeling confident. I'd been eager to test their response and they'd passed. "No harm, no foul," I added.
"Ah, so this is one of those Saiyan collaborators you mentioned, then?" a somewhat familiar looking young man said. His particular shade of skin, mohawk, and facial structure was a dead ringer for a certain runt I'd probably be avoiding like the plague for the rest of my time on this adventure.
"I'm human, actually," I said. "And you're obviously Yeurio's brother."
"Yewnoh. You met my little brother?"
"Yeah. We're acquainted," I replied, unable to stop some awkwardness from leaking into my voice as I averted my eyes. "Anyway, I just came here to pick up some slack so Loyra could get back to finishing the gate. And, now that I know my technique works on her, I'm even more sure I can do some major damage out there."
Loyra scoffed. "That's putting it nicely. You almost gave this old woman a heart attack."
I gave her an apologetic shrug which she simply brushed off.
"It's fine, young lady. I'm sure I'll have opportunity to repay the favor at some point," she added, with a mischievous grin. "In any case, that's quite the impressive ability you've got. How quickly can you teach Yewnoh and his men to perform it?"
Gotta be kidding me. "Sorry, that's a no go. Best case, it'll take them several weeks and I'm not exactly teacher material."
Loyra sighed, obviously disappointed. It didn't look like it was directed at me, though. I got the sense that she was just at her limit with respect to this whole situation. I could definitely relate. Thankfully, I had confidence neither of us were going to throw in the towel any time soon. If it were the old panda in either of our shoes, though, he'd probably be retreating to his happy place with a cup of sake by now. Or some bamboo and an old tire.
"We'll take it from here," I told her, gesturing to Yewnoh and the other two men. "You just worry about finishing that gate."
She looked slightly miffed that I'd just essentially given her an order but, nonetheless, took her leave without a word.
As she disappeared into the trees, I turned to Yewnoh and surveyed his little trio of magic-sword wielding warriors. "Ya know, I bet you guys would be right at home with all of the other dungeons and dragons nerds on my planet. You certainly got the cosplay thing down."
"Um... thanks?" Yewnoh replied, obviously having no context informing him. "Listen, I've got a couple dozen of my men spread out in these trees waiting to ambush any passing invaders, but they're still pretty tired from our last battle and half of them haven't responded to my most recent hails. It might just be that they have enemy forces too close to safely make a call but we need to make contact with them. Loyra helped me to set up a healing field in this clearing and my men desperately need a buff before things start to heat up. Since you can move undetected, will you send any that you find back to this spot?"
That sounded easy enough. "Sure, no problem."
"Good luck out there," Yewnoh said.
I gave him a two fingered salute and coiled for a jump.
My leap took me back into the thicket and I brought the umisenken up before using a branch to swing and propel myself forward. From there, it was smooth sailing.
I traveled what must've been a few kilometers away from the direction of the castle before I felt the magical presence of a Solistian. It was much weaker than either Loyra or Yewnoh and his two companions. Pausing in a tree, I scanned the brush until I spotted him laying belly down on a thick branch. Now that I wasn't sprinting, I could focus well enough on my ki sense to notice a small squad of enemy soldiers huddled closely as they hiked along the forest floor. Yewnoh's subordinate appeared to be poised for an ambush but was clearly hesitant. I guess he wasn't confident he could take all of them by himself.
Might as well do my part, then.
I reached into stuff space behind my back and pulled one of the handful of Happosai's firecrackers that I'd stolen awhile back and chucked it before plugging my ears with fingers. The force of the explosion flung all five soldiers to the mossy ground while also shaking the surrounding trees.
As a shower of leaves fluttered toward the forest floor, I made my move.
Three of the five Kold men were near human in their appearance so I took a chance assuming their energy pathways were similar and bounded from person to person to deliver strikes to pressure points that, theoretically, would leave them paralyzed from the neck down for at least a day.
Catching a flash of movement from my peripherals, I turned a bit too slowly to dodge the orange-skinned frog-like alien's lunge and was tackled to the ground. We rolled across the forest floor, kicking up leaves, twigs, and other organic debris before I lost my grip on the umisenken. I didn't have time to wonder how in the hell he'd seen through my cover because, as we came to a halt, I found myself pinned against a tree stump by my opponent who was in the midst of thrusting a knife edged palm wreathed in ki toward my face.
OoooooO
Raditz was worried about his mom and, loathe as he was to admit something like that even to himself, he couldn't ignore her obvious moping because it made him feel bad to see her being so down. He may have only been seven but, by Saiyan standards, he should've been over petty sentiments like that years ago. The rest of the young warriors he'd trained with had certainly shed such burdens. Problem was, their parents were nothing like his. For every other child in the lower class, familial ties were viewed as obstacles to avoid if you wanted to move up in the world. So, for parents to completely disregard their offspring and vice versa was considered not only common sense but also essential behavior for Saiyans hoping to avoid a premature death. His father at least tried to stick to the unwritten rules, even if only superficially and to save face, but his mother had never quite accepted the way things were. She'd always, at every available opportunity, stolen hugs from him, told him how much she loved him and openly expressed pride in his accomplishments. It had been both frustrating and uncomfortably reassuring.
They'd been told to await instructions from Loyra and, since the old hag still hadn't returned from wherever she'd ran off to, Raditz had had too much time watching his mother sit quietly on a stone slab and away from the rest of their group, who were discussing adult matters that didn't really interest him. With a great amount of resignation, he approached the edge of the castle wall and took a seat beside her.
It took her a few moments to notice him but, when she did, she wordlessly wrapped an arm around his furthest shoulder and scooted him closer. She didn't attempt to insult him with any sappy words, which was nice, but she did rest her chin atop his head and stroked his hair so it was basically a wash. She kept him more or less trapped in that position until a commotion from behind them dissolved the moment.
Thankful for the release, he joined her in looking over his shoulder and saw Loyra alighting onto the stone pathway. It was about time he got the opportunity to see some real action.
The elderly Solistian began describing exactly how the surrounding forest had been rigged, where the safe spots were, and how to make friendly contact with the people she already had out there. Raditz took note of how his mother's face turned slightly sour when the old woman mentioned their human companion, Ranma. It didn't take a genius to conclude that she was somehow responsible for his mother's current funk. Despite not wanting to care, a usually quiet part of his mind vowed to smack that girl over the head for daring to insult his mom the next time he saw her.
In relatively short order, the grown-ups agreed to split into three groups and start sweeping the forest. Of course, his clingy mother volunteered him to go with her and his father instead of Uncle Turles or Zell's teams.
What a drag.
OoooooO
I had always heard that life was supposed to flash before your eyes when confronted with imminent death but all I experienced was bewilderment and disappointment at being outmaneuvered. There really hadn't been time for anything else. And then, out of nowhere, my assailant's head was separated from his body by a glowing white blade. Blood spattered at my face just before the dead man collapsed onto me.
Behind the fallen frog alien, a solidly built Solistian who appeared just on the trailing end of his prime swayed on his feet before stabbing his sword into the soil and using it to catch himself from falling over. A deep gash was visible on his scalp thanks to his buzzed down black hair and a trail of blood was running down the left side of his face.
"That was a cool disappearing act, kid," my savior said. "It was just bad luck that you went up against a Phibian. They have heat based vision."
Huh. That was something I'd never considered. The umisenken would need to be modified to account for differences in alien senses, in that case. I pushed the corpse off of me and immediately levitated myself several centimeters above the ground to avoid any further draining effects.
"Thanks for the assist. Can you fly?"
His wings unfolded from behind his back and kicked up a slight breeze as they fluttered in an attempt to provide lift. He made it about half a meter up before wincing as one of his wings seized.
I reached out and caught him by the wrist before he fell. "You can't use ki to fly like the others?"
"Too drained," he said. "Sorry."
I suppressed the urge to sigh or roll my eyes. Looked like I was gonna have to take him back to Yewnoh myself. "Alright, man, don't worry. I got you covered."
He pulled his sword out of the ground and sheathed it with his free hand before giving me an affirmative nod. As I was about to put on the acceleration, I heard a scream so deep it bordered on a roar. I looked toward the sound just in time to see a thin beam lancing in our direction and was caught off guard when the Solistian I'd been trying to rescue shoved me away. I bounced off of a tree trunk and caught my bearings only to witness the guy be impaled by the burning ki attack.
Why? Why would he do that?
I watched him fall to the ground, feeling a terrible ache in my chest as it happened. I didn't even know his name.
"Traitorous bitch!"
I turned my head and locked sight onto one of the soldiers I'd thought had been incapacitated by my pressure points. The red skinned man with shaggy white hair spat at the ground as he pointed a finger toward me.
"What regiment are you with?"
It took me a moment to realize he thought I was a defector because I wore the same style of armor. First chance I got, I was going to make sure to find something else to wear. More importantly, this guy was several steps above me in terms of raw ki but, for some reason, my instinct to flee was losing out to a bubbling rage that demanded I make him pay for what he had just done.
Carefully, I extracted three firecrackers from stuff space and kept them firmly in my palm behind my back. I was only going to get one shot at this.
"Fine. If you're not going to confess, then I'll just kill you where you stand. Maybe I'll even have some fun with you afterward..."
Something in me snapped at that. A hoarse yell escaped my throat and I flung the firecrackers at him with all my strength. The explosion provided enough cover and distraction for me to lunge back toward my fallen Solistian friend. I rolled beside him and, as I was reaching for his sword, I noticed that he was still breathing – just barely. I could still save him! I pulled the sword out of it's sheath, expecting to see a glowing magical blade powerful enough to take down a strong opponent but, instead, it was just a dull metal grey.
I was momentarily startled when my injured companion grasped the wrist of the hand I was using to hold the sword. He had one eye open as he spoke to me, the other clenched shut as it was bathed in blood from his head wound, and his voice sounded wet – probably from the wound to his gut bleeding internally. "I sense a great magical power within you, girl. Much more than myself. You've got to channel your spirit into the blade to wake it up. When you do, it'll amplify your abilities and bring out your potential as a warrior."
I hesitated, realizing if I took the blade and did what he said, that I could never go back. Gine was right when she had said that what I had done before wasn't the same. I knew that now. This, however, would be my choice.
"This is war, kid," the Solistian said with a grim, knowing, smile on his face.
"What's your name?" I asked him, just in case I failed.
"Neeko."
"It's nice to meet you, Neeko. I'm Ranma."
And, with that, I tugged on that little thread inside that I'd been purposely avoiding since my visit to Jusenkyo had changed me. I gripped the hilt with both hands, willing the blade to come alive, before a dam broke and my view of the world took on an etheral glow. Suddenly, I could see through the smoke lingering from my firecracker explosion. I looked up and could see a rippling barrier that could only have been Loyra's anti-air defense spell. Beneath my feet, intersecting waves of energy flowed across the forest floor in tendrils akin to caravans of insects. I returned my gaze to the horizon and saw the enemy soldier from moments ago already back on his feet. He was moving so slowly, though. It looked like he was trying to run through water.
When I looked at the blade, it's metal was black as midnight but it was wreathed in white flame. It almost looked like a black and white drawing cut out of reality. "So strange..."
I heard noise from below me and looked down to see Neeko trying to speak but it was too deep and distorted to make out his words. That couldn't have been a good sign. I really needed to get him out of here as soon as possible. For some reason I couldn't explain, all of the doubt that had been holding me back was gone and I knew that I would be able to handle things on my own.
The magic, or whatever it was, coursed through me and made me feel light as a feather. So, with almost no effort, I propelled myself through the air and got directly in the path of the red soldier who was now almost frozen in place while in the middle of a sprint. His right hand was glowing with charged up ki that looked almost ready to be hurled toward where Neeko was laid out.
With a casual swing of the blade, his hand was cleanly sliced off of the rest of the arm and I saw blood spurt from the stump only slightly quicker than the time it took his face to twist into a rictus of pain. Still aloft, I floated aside and let him tumble past me before following up with a slash to his backside. A fountain of blood sprayed out from the gouge in his armor and I decided that was enough. He was incapacitated enough that delivering a killing blow didn't seem necessary. If he didn't bleed to death in this forest or get totally drained by the spell, he deserved to live and have the chance to reform – but he was on his own.
Out of habit, I opened stuff space and let the magical blade fall in. As soon as it was out of my hands, the world returned to normal and I felt a wave of cold slam into me like a winter breeze. Time caught up and I saw the man I'd just taken out hit the ground like a sack of potatoes and not move. I didn't spare another thought on him and, instead, focused on more important matters.
I flew down and carefully scooped up Neeko, who grunted in protest when I moved him, before launching full speed toward Yewnoh.
OoooooO
Zarbon was thumbing the display of his data pad, going over the battlefield logs submitted by the lackey assigned to him by Freeza, when said lackey came bursting through the door of the ready room aboard his personal space cruiser.
"Appule, what did I say about barging in unannounced?" Zarbon asked, lowering the pad away from his face so the spotted whelp could see the glare he was wearing.
"Beg your pardon, Sir," Appule said, briefly dipping into a deep bow, before continuing. "There's an emergency on the front line that needs your attention."
"What emergency?" Zarbon asked, tensing as he pulled his floating office chair away from his desk to stand up. As he loomed over Appule, the smaller man trembled slightly as he began to stumble over his words.
"T-There's an, uh.. an enclave of Solistians. The fifth regiment... well, it... happened upon it when one of our platoons t-tailed survivors to a forest about fifty-ish klicks east of basecamp. Commander Nash sent a runner to inform us because their comms were being scrambled by magical interference. Apparently, we've already taken heavy losses. I was told the defensive spells they're using are... unexpectedly powerful."
Zarbon involuntarily bared his teeth as he scowled. "Who the hell is Nash? And what happened to Commander Kiwi?"
"Nash assumed command after Kiwi lead a strike team into the enclave. He ended up following with his own team but left instructions to send for reinforcements if he didn't return with Kiwi. That was... two hours ago."
Zarbon pinched the bridge of his nose in a futile effort to stem the onset of migraine. This was a real mess. If he didn't personally quash this, Kold would likely sic his brat on him as punishment. The last thing he wanted was to be handed over to the mercy (or lack thereof) of a sadistic freak like Freeza.
"There's no time to waste, then." Zarbon replied. "Sound the alarm. I want every single body at this camp in the air at once."
OoooooO
NOTES:
First time I think I've put a note here. Anyway, I am indeed still alive. The rona didn't get me, haha.
I've actually had this chapter as it sits done for like six months but, well... you guys get it. Shit has been fucking crazy out there.
I wanted to make it longer so as to wrap this arc up in one update but that's obviously not what happened. Idk if the next one will but I feel like it might.
Feel free to send your love, hate and indifference via likes, follows & reviews. Peace.