Chapter 10: Nemesis
A tired old man sat in front of an elaborately carved workbench idly tapping his quill pen on the side of the ink well and staring at the parchment in front of him. Sighing, his gaze swept the gems and baubles stacked in untidy piles on the desk. To an untrained person, it would seem like cheap jewelry, to the magically initiated they would glow with a subtle aura that would signal various enchantments had been imbued into them.
"How did it all go so wrong," the mage muttered under his breath. The prophecies had seemed so clear. Sacrifice the godling and then march victoriously to war. It all went wrong when the wrong demon or godling had been summoned in the Lost One's place. Erasing the mistake had... simply not worked. The summoned creature had destroyed grounds and left, never to be seen again. This was not a bad thing either, considering the amount of power the monster had. Unfortunately, it had probably warned their true target. It was really the only way to explain how poorly events had conspired against the plan.
Time and time again the spell had been attempted in a more secure area, far away from the palace at the chancellor's strident insistence, yet the results had been negative. Nothing had come through. He was able to tell that it had been close, however, it had brought nothing through. The last few attempts before gambling on the rune statue had seemed to be the closest, yet again nothing had come through the portal. Those had been different though, almost as if the target had been anchored to that dimension. It had taken all his energy and most likely his credibility to convince the emperor to invest one last effort in the project. The ancient golem had been priceless and combined with the enchantments the royal guild had imbued on the statue it should have easily found the godling and brought it back to them.
But it hadn't. Nothing had been heard from it since. The gaudy gems in from of him served as a rough way to keep tabs on the statue, each was linked to a corresponding talisman embedded in the construct. Weeks ago almost half of them had shattered indication some huge trauma the statue had suffered. Then nothing more. The king had no doubt lost faith in him. Even he now doubted his abilities.
The various priesthoods in the Western Empire had all had similar results from their auguries. The Empire would fall if it moved aggressively on its neighbors before the Lost One had been removed from the empire. The mage was no religious zealot but when completely independent clergies said the same thing there had to be some truth to it. At least that's what the Emperor thought, and who was he to disagree? It seemed that along with his reputation would go the hopes and dreams of a glorious empire of man, stretching from one shore to the other across the world.
"Excuse me," coughed a low voice from behind the mage. "Have you seen a young man, sturdy build, large backpack, and a silly-looking rag tied around his forehead?"
The mage whirled, causing the chair to be flung away from him as he spun to face the intruder. Standing mere feet away was a husky tanned figure of a man wearing homespun rough clothes.
"How did you get in here," the mage asked in a steady, though strained tone even as he began to mutter activation phrases for his personal defenses.
"Just a man trying to find his grandson... er, great-grandson, well, you get the idea," the man said with a distracted air. "Tracking just isn't my thing; I keep getting odd resonance's here. This is the sixth time I've been here, though I haven't seen you here before."
A shimmer sprang up around the mage and in the distance, an alarm could be heard.
The newcomer ignored the signs of magic springing up around him. "You're not the talkative type." He nodded approvingly to himself. "I can relate, sometimes you need some quiet. Though admittedly you're not much help."
"You will leave or be destroyed," the mage stated firmly.
"Hmm, I take that back, you do talk, though you're silly if you think I'll leave before I figure out why I'm here." With that he slowly began to walk around the cramped office, stopping occasionally to stare at something. "There must be a reason I keep showing up here."
"You were warned," the mage muttered with a wave of his hand. Sheets of lightning sprang up, illuminating a tracery of lights on the floor. The outlined circle flashed for a moment and waves of coruscating energy moved towards the wandering figure.
The newcomer didn't even glance up as the light flowed around him like a river around a stone. "That's pretty unfriendly of you," the man said distantly, his mind on other things. As he slowly made his circuit around the room, energy continued to flow around him, with flashes of lightning, and even wind.
The mage was getting rather desperate, in hopes of getting an idea of what he was facing he reached into his pocket to grab a prepared talisman that would hopefully reveal the nature of his opponent. After activating it, he immediately wished he hadn't. Crying out in pain he staggered back tripping on the overturned chair and clutching his eyes.
The being prowling the room didn't look up from his search, but did grumble to himself. "Silly mortals, it's foolish to try to look into the true face of a god. Ah, perhaps that's what's causing the problems." Walking over to the desk he gingerly pushed the different gems around. "Say this seems to be linked to my grandson and that annoying servitor."
Eyeing the old man cringing on the floor clawing at his eyes he shook his head disapprovingly. "So you're the group that decked the old statue up like a trollop on New Year's Eve and sent it after my boy."
Plucking up the several relevant talismans before him, he offered some advice, "I'd leave him alone if I were you, if you actually succeeded in grabbing him I'd have to come back and get him." He shook his head slowly once more. "Most humans are just too fragile to be around us too much. Don't make me come back."
Gathering up the last of the trinkets he turned and seemed to fade into the ether. Behind him, he left an old man still moaning and clutching his eyes, sitting next to a fallen chair and a still glowing circle inscribed on the floor. The desk was mostly clear of jewelry but in the center lay an orange the size of a melon.
There was also blank parchment in a puddle of ink slowly spreading out from the overturned ink well. The Emperor's report would have to wait a bit longer.
Ranma ducked under another of Shampoo's attacks and tapped her hip to show that the girl was off balance. The match was nearing its end, as was demonstrated by the girl's ardent attempts to pin Ranma for a final heated embrace. Ranma almost imperceptibly shook his head at this. Shampoo was far more attractive without the bubbly cheerleader attitude but this just highlighted the problems he had at home. Still, it was time to end the match, both to keep the Amazon away and to see if she had come up with a counter to the Butterfly kiss.
Leaping over the girl during another grapple attempt he moved his index finger to touch the girl in her back to initiate the move that would undoubtedly throw her across the practice field. He held his breath as he moved at a moderately fast pace, half hoping that the girl would finally find a counter. Shampoo spun around and he was faintly hopeful as it appeared that she was going to hold the energized digit away from her in a manner similar to how he originally tried the counter Ryouga's Breaking Point before he found out that the technique was useless against living creatures. Then he became slightly worried at became obvious that she was not attempting to keep the finger away from her, but latching on to him just before he applied it. Ranma's eyes widened and he just had time to enunciate his surprise before the kinetic energy transfer.
"Shit!"
The energy was transferred to Shampoo but her hands had found very solid purchase on Ranma's shoulder and waist. The busty girl flew back, arcing across the arena... carrying the dismayed martial artist along with her. Without thinking, Ranma shifted his momentum to allow him to impact first and absorb the fall. It was completely unnecessary, but unfortunately also completely instinctive. When they finally landed after flying over a hundred feet lengthwise, Shampoo was on top and wasting no time straddling the dismayed male and nuzzling his neck. She had found that Ranma panicked far quicker if she tried kissing him and the amorous moments actually lasted longer if she compromised on showering her affection.
It actually worked here as well as Ranma lay still for a few minutes. "A suicide solution to the Butterfly Kiss?" Ranma asked half in dismay and half admiration. "Well... it's innovative but I really would prefer it if you found a better counter."
"Silly boy," Shampoo crooned into his neck. "Shampoo already know the counter, this is exactly what I was trying for."
Ranma squawked indignantly, "What? Shampoo we really need to get you training seriously. This arena championship is dangerous stuff. I know hardly anyone dies these days but I heard that there are a lot of new entries this quarter... high power entries. We got to get you up to speed fast.
"You worry too much, I have come a long way under your care," her muffled voice came from where her head was nestled in his neck. "Just because I ignored the obvious counter and went for the more rewarding one doesn't mean I don't take this seriously."
At this point, a huge booming impact shook the floor followed by a ripping sound and Ranma's eyes were drawn to the center of the field where a distortion was forming that he recognized by the signature tingling sensation as a precursor for a rift.
"Shampoo! Get off! There's a gate or something forming and we're getting company." Ranma urged her in an exasperated tone. Shampoo was better, but her priorities were still majorly skewed.
"I am quite comfortable as I am. I worked hard for this moment... tell me if it's a psychotic killer, otherwise, tell them to go away."
Ranma watched as the distortion grew and expanded outward finally forming a stable portal. Once it was solid a form stepped out. Backlit by the unusually brilliant light from the portal the creature's features were unclear as it turned to survey the training area until it came face to face with Ranma and his fiancée. All he could clearly make out was that it was humanoid and was dragging a stick in the sand. A feeling of dread started to suffuse the martial artist though he had no concrete reason for the sensation. Suddenly, the thing's eyes lit with and malevolent crimson, and waves of violent energy began to pour from its skin. A subliminal sensation, almost shuddering impacts of footfalls was felt as it slowly approached the two on the ground.
"Ranma!" A disturbingly familiar cry ululated from the monstrosity. It raised its stick and Ranma's eyes widened in horror as it became clear that the stick was a familiar-looking hammer. An enchanted hammer that he had brought back as a gag gift for his fiancée and had turned out surprisingly painful.
"Akane" Ranma stuttered in incomprehension. Nabiki was keeping a close eye on Balthazar and no one except Rhada, Abdul-Ra, and Anhur know the exact dimensional coordinates where he was.
"It can't be angry girl, just beat it up and tell it to go away", Shampoo muttered comfortably.
"Ranma" The apparition repeated its battle cry. "I can't believe you! I practice for weeks with my enchanted hammer because it said it can get me to you, so I can help you save the universe and I find out you've wasted all these weeks playing snugly face with the Amazon bimbo!"
Shampoo stiffened in Ranma's arms at this descriptor. "Okay. It is the bitch." The purple-haired girl admitted quietly with growing anger. Silently she straightened up and smoothed her slightly mussed hair before turning to her rival. The flash and energy expelled by the closing rift was completely ignored as irrelevant by all participants.
"Listen up you immature little bitch! I am going to kick your ass if try to hammer Ranma when I show a little bit of affection to him," Shampoo stated in a low dangerous tone. In one hand a pillar of blue energy formed as her sword formed. Stepping forward she continued, "I have decided to be reasonable about this, I don't interfere with your lame attempts to show your 'love' and you don't interfere with mine." She breathed a trembling sigh, "I don't like it but I refuse to let Ranma get caught between us anymore."
There was a moment of silence as Ranma digested this strange declaration. It was a really sweet sentiment. It was obvious that Shampoo had really grown and matured. Well, either that or a strange alien Intelligence had reached into her body and mind and massaged it as if it was putty... but still, she had really changed. He doubted that Akane would willingly go for it though. Out of all of his fiancées Akane was the one most willing to let Ranma make his own decisions even when they hurt her... well after a small fit of anger. However, Akane was also not one to share. Of course, there was the final problem...
Akane stood silent for a few seconds, eyes glowing with anger and confusion and chi radiating in waves, trying to absorb Shampoo's response.
"Argh! You're still insulting me in Chinese!" Akane had only caught a few words of the torrent spewing from the Chinese girl's mouth, but what she had caught seemed to have been somewhat rude. Why else would she be speaking in her native Mandarin tongue? She knew no one understood the twisted thing.
"Doh!" Shampoo exclaimed as her unencumbered hand rose to massage her temples. Too much time spent around a Ranma that was comfortable with her speaking her own language had destroyed whatever reflex she once had to try to speak the Japanese tongue. Her grandmother was going to kick her ass when she found out that her efforts to improve her granddaughters Japanese had been undone. Then again, she only did it for the sake of her son I law so maybe it didn't matter anymore.
"Shampoo beat you unconscious and then try again," the Amazon stated in Japanese. "It's too, too much work to do that again." Upon making this decision she leaped towards the other teenage girl.
Ranma was about to step in between them when he noticed that a subtle glow was covering the hammer and intermingling with the girl's own aura. Shaking his head he walked over to the edge of the arena where a stool stood against the wall to watch the encounter. He would step in if there was any serious danger on either side but getting in between Shampoo's natural skills and new psionic powers and Akane's most recent power-up toy was looking to be excruciatingly painful. He had already worked on his body hardening and toughening skills enough for the day... let the girls work on their own for a bit.
Two hours later the sandy floor of the arena was covered on glassy craters and various walls had gaping holes in them. Ranma was mildly impressed at both of the women. Shampoo had come a long way and surprisingly so had Akane. Sure, most of it was the hammer but there was a lot of skill and chi manipulation improvement as well. Without the hammer the Amazon would still cream her but... still, it was good to see. He had been worried the girl was stuck at her old plateau and would never budge.
A dry clattering sound came off from the door to the left. "They are still at it?" the insectoid manager asked in surprise.
"Yeah! I'm really happy with how far they've come... well, okay, once I got passed the whole pissed about having Akane follow me here in the first place," Ranma stated thoughtfully.
"You could probably have the black-haired girl fight with you instead, the people running the event probably can't tell one human from another without a psychic to read their aura", offered the alien.
The martial artist shook his head slowly. "No, Shampoo is more polished. Heck, she's got more of a killer instinct than I have," or hope to ever have, Ranma continued the thought. "They make great training partners though. I think their stamina is really evenly matched."
During the conversation, the two women had recovered from their most recent impact that had thrown the two away from one another and were slowly, painfully crawling towards the other in hopes of inflicting just one more bruise before they collapsed in exhaustion."
"Nope, I say we keep to the plan. Akane can train with Shampoo but there's no need to endanger someone else. They seem really motivated." In the field, the two girls had reached the center and forgoing anything as sophisticated as weapons, were weakly trying to strangle the other.
Nabiki had just arrived home from the alternate Japan where she had overseen the loading of some very delicate machinery into the transport circle. Looking at the clipboard she gave a satisfied smile. This whole enterprise had been extremely profitable, although explaining where the money was coming from required imaginative bookkeeping verging on the miraculous, she was well on the way to becoming a real mover and shaker in the Japanese business world. Of course, the ironic part was that as successful as she was at home, she was infinitely more successful in that weird twisted version of Japan Ranma had stumbled upon. The reason was simple of course, on the other side she didn't have to hide where her assets were coming from. Heck, her agreements were mostly from the government anyway.
With the flush of a job well done still upon her, it was jarring when her senses reported something happening in the dojo. Something involving a ton of magic and the dimensional membrane between worlds being rudely hammered away by more force than skill.
Cursing the chaos that seemed to inundate Nerima, she rushed downstairs and threw open the door leading the dojo. Standing in the center of the room was her little sister going through a strangely complex kata with that odd hammer that Ranma had brought back from the Palladium world. That was not surprising, Akane had been acting oddly, muttering to the hammer and her dedication to the art seemed to skyrocket as she spent hour after hour when Jess wasn't in the dojo, going through katas Nabiki had never seen before.
She hadn't thought anything of it. Everyone said the hammer wasn't evil and Nabika wasn't anything like a dedicated martial artist like Akane or their father was. There were probably tons of katas she hadn't seen. She just chalked it up to Akane working through her issues with Ranma. Staring at the hammer that was spilling forth light, and leaving a trail of visible magic energy as Akane danced through an arcane form, it occurred to Nabiki that perhaps she had taken a few things for granted.
As Nabiki struggled with the urge to interrupt the impending disaster forming in front of her and the knowledge that interrupting a major magical ritual when so much energy was already tied up in the process of tearing through the dimension couldn't have a good end, her choices were removed from her. With a boom that shook the house to its foundations, a portal formed in the space circumscribed by her martial dance.
Seeing the energy stabilized into a less hazardous form Nabiki moved forward towards her sister. "Akane! Don't go! There are a lot of things you don't understand yet and you're not going to help!"
Akane turned and looked to her sibling, hammer resting on the ground and breath coming in slight pants. "I know enough. I won't stay here and wait," she patted the haft of the handle as it leaned against her leg. "I've been practicing. I can make a real difference. You'd be amazed at what I can do now... I know Ranma will." She smiled sweetly at her sister and continued, "I'm sure he'll be happy to have some help saving the world for a change." She then confidently turned and walked into the portal.
Nabiki sadly shook her head as she stared into the shining vortex of energy before her. Her sister meant well, she really did, but sometimes she seemed less connected to reality than even Kasumi did.
From far away Nabiki heard an outraged cry of "Ranma!"
Then the portal slammed shut.
The dragon shifted his weight in thought, sending an undulation through his slowly writhing body as it floated a few feet above the ground. He wasn't sure how wise his present course of action was but he was running out of options. In the past few weeks, he had in effect been laying in wait outside the Bloody Grub training area hoping to get a chance to spring into an attack upon the dreadful human he had been hunting. His efforts had so far been in vain. If he even saw the human leave the compound he was immediately led upon a merry chase through the streets, roofs, and dirty back alleys of Splynn.
Sometimes his opponent would pause to taunt him before continuing to wind his way through the city, other times his presence wasn't even acknowledged. In either case, after no more than a half-hour he would lose his prey, sometimes momentarily finding him again before the human vanished. He knew it wasn't invisibility, like most supernatural creatures he was proof against that trick. He wasn't even sure it was a martial arts technique. Although he wasn't built to use them he had a vast library of martial arts knowledge that before he met the infernal human he would have confidently stated was unrivaled.
But something always happened. The martial artist would leap behind a building and be gone. He would jump inside a sewer access door forcing him to shrink his gigantic form to follow... and simply not be there. This left him a very angry and frustrated dragon. He didn't think he was alone in a lack of ability to track the man. Often the Eye of Eyelor would be left floating aimlessly and he was quite sure it had lost track of the human as well. At such times he would eventually give up and lay in wait at the training compound. He could at least be sure that the gnat would eventually come back here.
Often, he would entertain fantasies of breaking in and wreaking havoc until the thorn in his side had no choice but to face him to keep him from destroying his friends and home. Of course, there was the issue that he had no idea if the huge complex that housed the stable of fighters that was located in the Bloody Grub suburb had any emotional attachment to the human. There was also that the games and tournaments within Splynn were extremely popular by all. Including Spynncryth. It would be very unwise to upset the ruler of the city in such an obvious way.
And so he was at an impasse. He was sure if he could just get the human to stay and fight he would be able to wreak devastation the fragile creature. It was soon obvious that he was not the only one thinking the same thing. Not too long ago he was approached by one of the annoying self-important beings that called themselves the Sunaj.
Until then, he had assumed that they had all run away and hidden from his presence. After all, he hadn't seen them since his visit to their headquarters. There they had given him the information on where to find the human and then they had vanished. He had gone back later to try to find out more about possible ambush sites but the building was deserted. The condition of the building shows signs of a fierce battle but nothing more.
The Sunaj had made an interesting offer. A way to make the human stand and fight. Of course, it required him to cooperate with the Sunaj insect but the humiliation might be worth it. It must be worth it... if the human continued to make a mockery of him he would go mad with rage.
This of course brought him to where he was now, floating in front of one of the government's low-level pencil pushers filling out forms. Or rather having his 'partner' fill out forms for him. Supposedly his presence and confirmation would be sufficient. He hated dealing with such mundane matters but it would be worth it if he could trap that human.
Finally, the armored assassin signaled the paperwork was complete and he placed his claw mark strategically on the contract. It was done. Events were in motion that would culminate in his vengeance.
As he floated out the door he absent-mindedly noted an oversized demonic harpy at the table he had just left, sitting down to fill in a ream of paperwork. It didn't look happy about wasting its afternoon either.