While the five of them spread around the gym, Ranma and Trunks began
their fight. Since everyone was there to see them fight, the Senshi
and Mamoru did get a chance to see them in action as well.
Trunks began the assault while delivering some easy punches, Ranma seamed
to have no problem at all dodging them. Then, Trunks went a little harder
and faster. Still, much to his surprise, Ranma managed in not letting a
single blow go through his defenses.
[Not bad.] he thought. [A normal human would've been flat on his back
right now.]
[Looks like I won't have to hold back against this guy.] Ranma noticed.
[Let's see how can he handle the Amaguri Ken.]
After Trunks delivered the last punch, Ranma made some space between them
and then charged.
Trunks felt how his opponent's power level began raising.
"KACHU TENSHIN AMAGURI-KEN!"
Ranma's fists turned into a blur as he began striking the purple hair boy
at high speed. To this, Trunks began to parry the blows while pretending
to do it with a lot of effort. His friends from outside the ring widen
their eyes noticing what just happened.
"Did you see that!?!" Minako told the other blond.
"What happened?" Usagi responded, "I couldn't even see his punches."
"Did you guys see that??" Ami declared as she approached her friends.
"That kind of speed isn't human!" Usagi commented.
"Could it be that Ranma..." Ami began.
"Trunks seams to be holding his own too." Minako added, she then gave it
some thought "You don't think that he..."
After defending himself from the last flurry of punches, Trunks made a side
step and tried to hit his opponent with a roundhouse kick. Ranma
fortunately noticed this and threw himself backwards while performing a
flip kick which allowed him to make a great counterattack. The kick just
missed Trunks' face by an inch.
After that, Trunks forced his opponent to move back with a simple kick-punch
combo.
[This guy can attack in almost any kind of pose.] he thought, [Let's see
what else he can do.]
[Not bad. Not bad at all.] Ranma analysed. [I thought all that upper body
would slow him down. Looks like I really have a fight in my hands.]
Both re-engaged combat after that short pause. Trunks took the offensive
and Ranma concentrated in dodging using a serie of extravagant moves, almost
as if he was made out of rubber. Even though Trunks could anticipate all of
Ranma's attacks, he was more than a little surprised when he witnessed how
his opponent gracefully dodge and delivered all sort of attacks.
In spite of having a much higher power level than Ranma, Trunks had to
admit that his martial arts forms were quite raw compared to his opponents'.
After attempting another attack, Trunks began punching frenetically at the
same speed Ranma did moments ago with the Amaguri-ken; completely unaware
that by doing so, he was starting to rise suspicion among his friends.
"There it is again!" Minako pointed out. "Did you see that?"
"No." Usagi responded.
[Trunks-kun...] Makoto thought.
Ranma was forced to use all of his speed to avoid any punch from hitting
him. He finally managed to jump out of his reach.
[He's as fast as I am. Maybe even faster.] Ranma considered, [Okay... let's
see if he can handle *this*!]
Ranma began to gather his hands together, a glowing sphere formed
between his palms. The public gazed in fascination to the display of ki.
"Oh my God!" Ami said, "He's about to do one of those blasts!"
"He... can't!" Makoto declared worried. "With all the people in here..."
[A ki blast???] Trunks wondered stupefied, [He can do that???]
The half-Sayan time traveler began to look worried.
[What am I suppose to do??] he added mentally, [Counter it with another ki
blast? Nope. Knock it off course? No, too suspicious. I can't dodge it
while there's people behind me.] he then looked at Ranma with
determination. [Looks like I'll have to take it. Might as well let it send
me off the ring while I'm at it. I don't want to go on with this show.]
"Trunks-kun!! Get out of the way!" Makoto begged. The only response she
got was Trunks shielding his face with his arms.
"MOKUO TAKABISHA!" Ranma shouted as he released the blast.
Trunks received the attack fully against his body. Even thought he absorbed
it without receiving any sort of damage, he threw himself backwards
pretending the strength of the blast send him off the ring.
He then crashed on his back against the ground, giving up the match to
Ranma.
Makoto, Minako, Ami, Usagi and Mamoru rushed towards him to see if he was
okay.
Pretending he had a hard time, Trunks got to his feet while "looking"
disappointed. He then proceeded to dust off his gi with his hands.
Makoto was the first who got to him and began examining him for injuries.
"Hey... Mako-chan..." Trunks said as the girls ran her hands along his body
(don't get the wrong idea!). "I'm all right. Really."
The way the girl was looking at him however, didn't showed that things
were all right. Actually, Makoto's face expression was shifting from
concerned to very pissed off.
"You IDIOT!!!" she yelled. "I told you to dodge it!! You could've gotten
hurt!"
"But... but I..." Trunks tried to explain, surprised by the sudden change
of attitude, "I had to find out if I was able to take it or not [Well, there
goes another lie...]."
"What is this? Some kind of Macho stupid thing?" she asked still pissed,
"What would've happened if you couldn't have taken it? Did you even
thought about that?"
"That wouldn't have happened." Ranma interrupted from inside the ring,
"That blast wasn't strong enough to do any serious damage."
"Serious damage??" the angry girl asked the pigtailed boy, "Just exactly
how serious were you planing to get?? What's the big idea shooting those
things in a place full with people."
"Hey, that was a short range attack!" Ranma explained, a little upset for
being unjustly accused. "I only used a small portion of energy to do it."
"That doesn't make it better!!" Makoto declared.
Trunks decided to take matters in hand. He took his friend's arms and
dragged her outside the gym.
"Excuse us for a moment." he said on his way out. Once he got outside the
building, he looked at the girl straight into the eyes. "Mako-chan, what's
wrong? I told you I'm fine. There's nothing to worry about."
Makoto looked at him with a mixture of rage and sadness. She wasn't sure
if she wanted to slap him or hug him for what just happened. Never the less,
she tried to get a hold of herself.
"I... I was worried... you might be hurt." she spoke heavily, "Is there
something wrong with that?"
"But I'm fine." he repeated. "You don't have to overreact so much."
After saying this, Makoto clench her fist in frustration, seeing that her
friend wasn't getting the point.
"I... heard about the monsters the Sailor Senshi fight all the time." she
tried to explain.
"What does that has to do with any of this?" Trunks asked.
"I... I also heard that a Super Saya-man tends to kill them with that kind
of blasts... When... when I saw Ranma throwing that... blast... I thought
that... that you might..."
[Uh oh, now I get it.] Trunks realized, "You thought I was going to be
killed."
Makoto just nodded to this. Trunks then took her in a comforting hug,
trying to calm her down.
"I'm sorry." he told her softly, "I didn't knew it had you so worried.
[There was no way she could tell that blast wasn't strong enough.]" he
then put his hands on her shoulders and looked at her. "I promise I'll be
more careful from now on."
The tall brunette began to regain her smile afterwards.
"Still." Trunks made clear, while gently hitting her on the nose with his
index finger. "I think you owe Ranma an apology. I'm pretty sure he didn't
have the intention to kill me."
"I think you're right." Makoto declared, "I was a little out of line with
him."
"Besides," he went on, as both began to walk toward the gym, "you told me
not to worry when you were fighting. I think you could have a little faith
in me when *I'm* fighting."
"Deal." she stated.
Once back into the gym, both saw their friends along with Ranma, Akane and
Ukyou. Rei had shown up recently and was now having a conversation with
Ami. Who was probably putting her up to date from what just happened.
The couple joined the group.
"Hi, guys." Rei said to the newcomers, "Looks like I didn't make it in time
after all. Sorry about that."
"No problem." Trunks told her. "Nice you're here though."
"So, is everything okay?" Mamoru asked Makoto.
"Yeah, everything's fine." she responded, she then turned towards Ranma,
"Sorry I yelled at you back there. I was a little out of line."
"No sweat." Ranma declared without preoccupation, "I'm used to girls yelling
at me all the time. At least you didn't hit me over the head before I got a
chance to explain, like some people I know."
At this point Ranma should have considered what he just said. Especially
when two of his fiancees were next to him. But then again, if Ranma thought
things before saying them, he wouldn't be Ranma, now would he?
Anyway, the important thing now was that he said it. And as you can
imagine, Ukyou and Akane didn't took it well.
"RAANNNNMMMMMAAAA!!!!"
"Ranma! You jackass!!"
[Uh oh...] the young martial artist thought once he realized what he just
said.
WHAM!
CLANG!
The double team mallet-spatula attack quickly took care of the impertinent
boy. Everyone, except for Mamoru and the two aggressors, looked at the
slammed martial artist with a that's-gotta-hurt look.
"I assume you're used to this by now." Rei told Mamoru, noticing his lack
of preoccupation.
"You don't know the half of it..." the tux dressing hero declared, "By the
way, did you sensed any other energy readings on your way here?"
"Yeah, recently," the young priestess responded, "Strong readings actually.
Ami just told me about the match too. Looks like Ranma is our mysterious
hero."
"Well, I don't know about you guys," Trunks said unaware about what they
were discussing, "But I'm hitting the showers."
"Me too." Ranma added (who recovered miraculously), "Besides, I'd like to
talk to you. You know, about the match."
"Er... sure."
Before anyone got a chance to say or do anything else. One of the school's
staff rushed inside the gym and asked for everyone's attention. There was
also a police officer next to him.
"Listen up, everyone!!" he shouted, making sure that everyone heard him,
"We need that everyone in this school evacuates the area as soon as
possible. Please don't panic. Follow the safety procedures we've practiced
in an ordered way and everything will be fine. The school's staff will
guide you somewhere safe until the crisis is over."
"What the heck is going on?" Akane asked, although she knew that none of
her friends would be able to answer.
Ranma managed to get close to the officer who was there to check that
everyone evacuated.
"Hey, what's going on?" he asked him.
"Don't worry, kid," the cop said, "The Swat team is taking care of that
thing. You just move along with rest of the students, just like the other
guy said."
"So, what's wrong?" Ukyou asked him.
"Looks like there's a *thing* out there." he explained.
The local students narrowed their eyes.
"Another monster." Rei stated. Her other Senshi friends along with Mamoru
nodded discreetly.
"Wow!" Ranma declared. "Those things are real? I'm getting a closer look!"
With a great jump, the young martial artist leapt out of the window and
began moving from rooftop to rooftop once he reached the street.
"That idiot!" Akane said in a sign of lost cause, as she began to follow
Ranma.
"Hey, guys," Ukyou followed, "Wait for me!" she then began to chase after
them.
"Are they nuts??" Rei asked not believing what she just saw, "Weren't they
listening when I said a MONSTER was out there??"
"Don't try to understand them." Mamoru told her as he held her shoulder.
[We have to get rid of Trunks so we can transform.] Makoto thought "I have
to get my stuff out of my locker." she said, trying to invent an excuse.
"You get out of here." Trunks told her, "I'll go get it. [That'll give me a
chance to change into my costume.] I'll meet you with the rest of the
students later." he then left without giving her a chance to protest.
Makoto was about to go after him, but Minako held her back.
"Don't worry about him." she said, "He'll be a lot safer on his own than
with us. Besides, we need to transform."
Once the five high school girls and the senior college guy managed to
sneak away, they proceeded to pull out their transformation artifacts
somewhere where they couldn't be seen.
(No! I'm not going to make them say their transformation phrase. I assume
you've seen enough Sailor Moon episodes to know how it goes. Besides, it
takes too long and I prefer writing senseless Author's notes such as the
one you're reading now ^_^).
"Okay, let's go!" Sailor Moon told her friends. The rest of them nodded and
began running towards where the monster supposedly was.
"Sailor Mercury," Mars began as she kept on running, "you earlier told me
that Ranma could be Super Saya-man, right?"
"That's correct," Mercury validated, "Ranma has the skill, strength, stamina
and special techniques necessary to consider him as Super Saya-man."
"Not to mention the fact that he's a babe too!" Venus added.
"Er... yeah, that too." Mercury replied as she rolled her eyes. "Why do you
ask, Mars?"
"Well," the fire Senshi went on, "Ranma left towards the monster a moment
ago, but I don't sense Super Saya-man's energy anywhere near."
"Maybe he hasn't transformed yet." Jupiter suggested, "Or whatever he's
suppose to do."
A couple of blocks away, Ranma finally made it to where the crisis was
taking place. Since he was moving via rooftops, there were no officers
that noticed him entering the restricted area.
The Swat vans had the thing surrounded in a small park, trying to keep it
isolated from the rest of Tokyo. The monster, though, didn't seem to have a
ny intentions to leave.
"That's the monster?" Ranma asked a little disappointed. "It looks more like
something that popped out of a Sci-Fi movie."
Ranma's observations weren't inaccurate. Instead of a monster with huge
fangs, scales or tentacles; the thing looked more like a six legged
satellite. More like a robot spider. It had all kind of gizmos around it's
shell. Some of them looked like weapons, but most of them were gadgets
Ranma couldn't recognize from this planet. The robot itself was as
big as a car but wasn't showing any threatening actions.
Unless you consider blinking your lights is a public offense.
Never the less, the Swat team was on the lookout in case the thing decided
to change it's intentions.
"pant! Ranma," Akane said exhausted once Ukyou and her caught up with
him, "We're not suppose to be here!"
"I just wanna see what the thing can do." Ranma told her.
"Remember that this isn't Nerima," Ukyou pointed out, "We're not suppose to
cause any trouble here."
"I'll be good." the pigtailed boy declared sarcastically.
"Anyway," Akane began, "What's all the racket about."
To this, Ranma just pointed to the robot standing in the park. The two
girls looked at it.
"So, what does it do?" Ukyou asked.
"So far, not much." Ranma responded. "Besides blinking it's lights, that is."
"That's it?" Akane asked.
"Well, yeah. So far." he answered.
"Hold on guys." Ukyou told them both, "A group of girls is entering the
park."
The three of them got closer to the roof's edge to get a better look. The
five Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen were, indeed, entering the park after gesturing
the Swat team to leave the problem up to them.
"Hey, aren't those the Sailor Senshi?" Ukyou asked.
"Their look kinda cute." Ranma pointed out. Her two fiancees however,
didn't liked it too much when he said that.
"Well Gee, Romeo. Why don't you go down there and help them out?" Akane
fumed.
"Well maybe I will!" Ranma challenged.
"That guy with the tux isn't half bad either." Ukyou declared.
"humph! It's just the suit, if you ask me." the young martial artist spat.
"Jealous?" Akane teased.
"Shut up, you guys." Ukyou told them both, "I think the leader is saying
something."
Back in the park:
"You There!!" Sailor Moon declared while pointing at the strange machine.
"Parks are a place for kids and young lovers to spend some time. I won't
allow you to ruin this sacred place with your evil deeds..."
"Er... Sailor Moon," Mercury interrupted, "It doesn't really look like it's
doing anything wrong, you know?"
"Whatever." Moon replied, she then faced the monster again. "Where was I?
Oh, yeah! Anyway, I won't allow you to keep all those people from visiting
the park. I'm a champion of love and justice. I'm Sailor Moon!" as she
began to do some strange arm poses.
"Sailor Mercury!"
"Sailor Mars!"
"Sailor Jupiter!"
"Sailor Venus!"
"An Tuxedo Kamen!"
"And we shall punish you..." Sailor Moon ended while still performing her
trademarked arm poses, "In the name of the moon!"
The robot just stood there.
The Senshi waited.
The robot still stood there while blinking his lights.
The Senshi waited.
The robot was still standing there, minding its own business.
"Why isn't it doing anything?" Sailor Moon asked confused.
"How should I know?" Mars responded hotly.
Meanwhile, on a building's roof:
"Ranma, you can stop laughing now." Akane told the boy who was rolling
around while holding his stomach.
Back at the park:
"Well, if that thing isn't going to do or say anything, I'll make the
first move!" Jupiter declared. "SUPREME THUNDER!"
The bolt that came out of Jupiter's tiara just bounced off an invisible
barrier that surrounded the target only a couple of feet before it was hit.
The robot's face (or what seemed to be it's face) turned towards the
aggressors and responded to the gesture by pulling a huge machine-gun out
of it's back and starting to shoot at everything that moved.
Needless to say that the six heroes quickly took cover.
"Well, this is finally starting to look like a fight." Ranma stated. He
was quickly silenced by Akane's punch.
"Shut up!" she demanded. "Can't you see the can get themselves killed!"
The Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen were now scattered around the park each one
protecting themselves against the laser blasts.
Sailor Mercury began to make use of her computer while she took cover
behind a wall.
"Can't you do anything?" Mars asked her from behind a rock.
"Just try to buy me some time!" she responded.
[How am I suppose to do that?] Rei thought, "[Oh, well...] Hey, you, ugly!"
she shouted to the robot who turned towards her when called, "Eat this!! FIRE
SOUL!"
Sailor Mars' attack had the exact same effect than Jupiter's moments ago.
The machine then answered back emptying all it's ammo on the black hair
girl.
Mars knew she wasn't fast enough to dodge all the projectiles at once.
A red blur quickly passed near her at great speed an pick her up before the
blasts even touched her.
Rei just then noticed that she was being carried by a guy wearing a red
chinese shirt.
"Hi, there." Ranma said with a smile, "Need some help?"
"There's Ranma!" Venus told Jupiter.
"Yeah, along with Ukyou and Akane." her friend added, noticing the two
other girls from Nerima.
"Why isn't he wearing his Super Saya-man costume?" the blond Senshi
inquired.
"You can always ask him once we're done with this thing." the tall brunette
responded.
The nine persons present managed to regroup behind a big rock which was
out of the robot's range. Everyone was looking worried or concerned, except
for Ranma who seemed to be enjoying the experience very much.
"This is the last time you're putting us in this kind of mess, Ranma!"
Akane told her fiancee.
"Hey, I didn't asked you to come!" he told her back, "Besides, a girl as
clumsy as yourself would only get herself killed here!"
Akane glared at him, Ukyou sighed, Sailor Moon sneezed and the rest just
raised an eyebrow to the comment. This really wasn't the moment to discuss
between them.
"Excuse me..." Tuxedo Kamen interrupted, before both started to insult each
other and make things worst, "But I don't think this is the moment to fight
among ourselves. We *do* have a monster to take care of."
"Anybody has any ideas on how to take care of it?" Jupiter inquired.
"I've ran some analysis on that monster." Mercury began, everyone paid
close attention to her. "I did manage in getting into his program and find
out about it's mission... before the CPU threw me out."
"What is that thing's mission?" Moon asked her. Mercury took a deep breath.
"That machine is a colonizer." she explained. "It's mission consists in
finding planets with a rich environment and colonize them. For their wealth
I suppose."
"Well that thing sure has some nerve!" Akane declared. "Didn't it noticed
that this planet is already taken?"
"It doesn't care." Mercury went on, "When the colonizer finds a planet, it
follows three phases. First: Analysis of the planet's geography and wealth.
Second: Analysis if there's any life form in it. And third... destruction
of all life form that isn't considered important."
"And what exactly does that thing considers as an important life form?"
Mars asked fearing the worst.
"Plants are considered important because they create oxygen," Mercury
responded, "But humans don't fit into it's definition of *important*."
Silence reigned around the group for a short moment.
"So we have to get rid of it before it gets rid of us." Ranma said simply.
"Looks like it." Jupiter added. "Anybody has any ideas?"
"That thing is a very advance piece of machinery. It also has a self
defense system, as you might of noticed." Mercury added, "If it gets
attacked it will respond and make sure the mission isn't interfered with."
"So if we don't try to attack it, it won't fire at us, right?" Sailor Moon
asked. she then peeped from the corner of the rock. She was greeted by a
flurry of blasts. Fortunately, Tuxedo Kamen pulled her back to safety
before she got hit.
"Let me guess," Ukyou told Mercury, "We are now official threats for that
thing's mission and we must be eliminated, right?"
Mercury just nodded in approval.
"Okay, so here's the plan." Moon began, "Mercury, do you think you can use
your computer to make that thing's shield disappear?"
"I can give it a shot."
"In the meantime, Super Saya-man will try to distract it flying above it.
Maybe his blasts can actually go through that thing's shield."
"Somebody here can fly?" Akane asked surprised. "Who?"
"Him!" all the Senshi stated while pointing at Ranma.
"ME?" the boy asked in big surprise. "What the heck are you talking about?"
"You can cut out the act, now." Venus told him. "We know you're Super
Saya-man." as she winked at him.
Ukyou and Akane noticed Sailor Venus' gesture and, along with what was
recently revealed, immediately began imagining the worst.
"RRAAAAANNNNMMMMMAAAA!!!!!" Akane began as her aura began to flare, "What
is the meaning of this??? For how long have you've been hitting on the
Sailor Senshi???"
"Ranma, you jerk!" Ukyou continued with the same kind of aura, "You've been
cheating on me?? How could you???"
"No, wait!" Ranma hopelessly tried to explain. "I don't know what the hell
they're talking about! You've got to believe me!" he then turned towards
the Senshi for some help. "What's all this Super Saya-man thing you're
talking about? I can't fly!"
"You can stop pretending." Moon told him. "It's been a month since
you've been doing this. We're not stupid, you know."
"A MONTH???" Ukyou said outraged. "You've been cheating on me for a month???"
"*You* are the biggest scum on this planet!" Akane told him, ready to give
him a taste of her stratosphere punch.
"Akane, Ucchan... You know I can't fly!!" Ranma tried to explain as he
took a steep back. "I've never met these girls before!"
"Well, actually...." Mars started, "I don't feel the same kind of energy in
him that in Super Saya-man."
"See, you hear!" Ranma declared as he held his hands protectively. "I'm not
him!"
"What??" Venus asked the fire Senshi. "He has to be him! If he isn't, then
who is?"
Mars suddenly tensed.
"He's near." she responded dryly.