Ranma/Metroid
'Ill Gain'




The space pirates were ill equipped.

The Space Hunter had steadily progressed to their main layer, though with a great deal of effort. The Space Hunter had decisively dealt with some of the most deadly traps tailored specifically to handle her with uncanny skill. The Space Hunter had efficiently slaughtered one of their most elite fighters, and left the second in no condition to combat for a while, and she did it while facing both of them at once. The Space Hunter utilized technology that was somewhat beyond even their full comprehension with relative ease. The Space Hunter had at some point gained close combat skills that made the Space Hunter all the more deadly. The Space Hunter was currently battling, and winning against a sea of space pirates who were hellbent and desperate to stop her from progressing. It wasn't a battle...

It was a clean slaughter.

Kasumi elbowed one pirate to her right, and spun into a roundhouse kick with her right foot into the one in front of her. She leapt over another one, and landed on its head, and then rolled into a ball, leaving a bomb between the legs of the next one in front of her. As she stood up, her left hand shot to the side, and grabbed one of the humanoid mantises by the neck, and slung it around like a bludgeon to clear some breathing room; and after its task was done, slammed it into the ground. She pulled to her left, evading a slash from one of the pirates aimed for her head from behind, and spun around. Her knee connected into the attacking pirates small of its back, and instead of pushing it away, her knee lodged into it, and she dropped down into a kneel, breaking its back.

From her position, she rose her arm cannon to the side, back handing another pirate in the stomach, and sending it flying into a group of them trying to gain a good vantage point to attack. Still kneeling on the wailing creature's back, Kasumi took aim at four of the pirates that were in turn trying to aim for her with their eye beams; Kasumi was much faster on the trigger.
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"[WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE HAS MADE IT INTO THE FINAL LAYER?!?]" The furious voice of the creature on the moniter shouted.

"She managed to amazingly escape the final trap, it should not have been possible!" the black mantis creature wearing a red cloak replied with an incredulous voice, "But it is still less of a matter, even if she makes it beyond the current overwhelming forces of ours, she will not leave this planet.

"[That is correct, she will not,]" the voice was low and menacing, "[because you will release the improved bioweapon..]"

"You... you cannot be serious..."

"[It is worthless to me, or to any of us, if she survives the discovery. There is no way she should be able to overcome them, as they are as you stated, immune to all of her possible weapons.]"

"But we haven't established a slave gene in them, they will not be easy to control once they are released..."

"[I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR IT! You will release them...]"

"Y-yes."

"[And you will released *all* of them.]" The mantis creature looked up towards the cerillian blue benefacter, its eyelids fluttering from the sides in its version of pale shock.
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The Space Hunter aimed her her cannon to the right, and fired at one space pirate almost against the wall. Her grappling beam barely missed its head, leaving the creature to think it had the advantage. Just as it was rushing forward, Kasumi jerked her arm back, pulling a good hunk of the wall with the beam, and slamming it into the head of the space pirate. Kasumi continued to retract the grappling beam, pulling the humanoid mantis to her by its head, and the Space Hunter raised her right foot, at about head level. She relinquished the grapple beam, and before the space pirate's head could fall from her foot, she brought it down into a stomp.

The last space pirate gave a final wail that signified that it would die before letting the Space Hunter get any further. Of course, Kasumi was more than willing to oblige it, as she ducked under its high horizontal scissoring slashes, and grabbed it by the waist. Kasumi then flipped into a suplex, slamming down the mantis onto the back of its head and the small of its back. She rolled off of him, and then fell from standing into an elbow drop onto its ribs. Kasumi then ran to a wall, and a moment later, landed from a flying elbow into its head.

"[Kasumi, what are you doing?]"

"Indulging," Kasumi replied kurtly, "Lemme have my moments..."

"[Whatever, you're wasting time.]"

Kasumi rolled her eyes, and stuck out her tongue, knowing her sister couldn't see, "I'm moving on." Kasumi walked towards the newly accessable exit, and opened it. She stepped into a dimly lit hall, lined with recognizable technology of the space pirates, but found no one around. The Space Hunter looked about, keeping her guard up and ready for any attack, when a low keening noise sounded from the distance, a very familiar sound.

Before Kasumi even knew what hit her, she was tumbling onto the floor, and wrestling with some mass of goo. She gasped, as she felt the sudden pull of her bio-energy from herself, as it was being stripped from her quickly. Kasumi intellectually knew what it was that just attacked her at blinding speed that she almost missed, but the panic settling over her mind attempted to keep her from its full realization.

Quickly recalling her knowlege on how to deal with the metroids, Kasumi quickly switched on her freeze beam, and combined it with her plasma shot. She struggled to get her arm cannon in position, and fired the beam into the creature that was leeching her of her life and suit system energy.

It didn't work.

Kasumi began to frantically fire her beam into it, but its grip held firm. "NO!" She flaired her battle aura with violent effect, finally dislodging the creature. The Space Hunter now got a good look at the metroid that hovered warily about her, now joined by two others after her outburst. They were instantly familiar to the manta ray-like creatures she had encountered not too long ago, but now they were much larger, possibly because they were more matured, and held the transparency that she knew metroids commonly held. The other differences from standard metroids were that the three spheres that supposadly served in place of their nervous system were now at the front of the body, instead of the center, and their mandables were now also on the front, instead of under it. Finally, their bodys were rather flat, giving them an aerodynamic look for speed.

Kasumi stepped back, when she realized how confident they seemed, as if she was going to be defeated, regardless. It was a very familiar confidence that she was having a bit of problems placing where she had felt the.... the aura of confidence before. Kasumi's eyes widened behind her visor in realization, and she nearly fainted, when each of them started generating a golden sphere of ki between their mandables.

"OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYY....." Kasumi moaned in sudden, intense fear, and leapt out of the paths of the Mouku Takabishas. As soon as the creatures fired, they circled to bhe back of her, and attempted to blindside the Space Hunter. Kasumi flaired her cold aura in an attempt to ward off. The ignored it, and continued to rush her, forcing Kasumi to evade for all she was worth with every technique and every ounce of skill she held.

Nabiki had been silent the whole encounter with the metroids. She really hadn't been expeciting it, but she wasn't surprised in the least. It also lead her to consider something Kasumi had asked her not too long ago; about the strangeness of the situation. She directed her efforts into deducing what the appearance of the metroids meant, knowing Kasumi would be up to the task of destroying the monsters.

Unfortunately, they seemed to be learning from their mistakes, and changing their attack patterns on the fly, making the gaps Kasumi was narrowly avoiding them smaller and smaller. Finally, she was slammed into the ground, dogpiled by all three mutated metroids. In desperation, Kasumi flaired her battle aura into the blizzard soul technique, and fired her freeze plasma beam at the same time. After over a dozen shots in the space of four eternally long seconds, Kasumi no longer felt her energy being leeched from her body.

She brought herself to standing, looking down upon the mass of three frozen metroids on the ground before her. These... these metroids, they were using...

"Oh... Ranma..." Kasumi sobbed. She closed her eyes, and brought her right foot up, flairing it with ki. She brought it down hard, letting a tear escape at the sound of ice shattering.

"[Kasumi, what about Ranma?]" Nabiki asked, the mentioned name bringing her attention back. Kasumi turned back down the way she was heading, now full of fury and vengence for the ones that did this. It was all clear to her now, the metroids on earth were no accident, or random selection because of the abundance of beta radiation that allowed the metroids to multiply. The technology on this planet that was chosen by the space pirates, dealing with a being's bio-energy wasn't a coincidence. It was all part of a plot to develope what potentially was to be an invincible bio-weapon the likes the universe had ever seen, and Earth payed dearly, by being a part of its development. Worse yet, Ranma, and who ever else possibly, were unwilling templates, genetic and/or psionic.

With a feral roar that slowly got louder, Kasumi broke into a run, not bothering to utilize her light dash or enhance her own speed with her personal energy. She wanted them to know she was coming, she wanted whoever did this to know her every move, to see her anger, and know they'll be the ones recieving its full.

Nabiki puzzled over what ever had upset Kasumi so, and knew that her sister's anger was going to bring many mistakes. Nabiki decided to quickly go over the recent battle with the metroids and Kasumi, and her eyes went wide themselves, while all sanguine color left her face.

Kasumi's roar became pronounced through her ki as she ran down the hall; causing the floors, walls, and ceiling to tremble slightly. Ahead of her was another chasm that would lead her to whoever brought this atrocity to fruitation. She was quickly derailed from her anger, and gasped as she brought herself to a stop before jumping down the pit. She barely stopped at the edge, and looked down. Rising from it was a symphony of screeches and keening sounds, followed shortly by over a hundred of the mutant metroids...