For those of you pissing because I crossed BSSM into this, relax
people. I've developed a rather... violent dislike of BSSM over the
course of the past couple years.
You thought False Identity was bloody.
It's got _nothing_ on this. Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha~!
True Identity
Chapter Two: Mission
Li Xiang
It was nearing five o'clock when three assassins and one healer
returned to the House. They had barely spoken a word to each other on
their trip-- Rache, Ranma and Aya wondering about the recall, and
Schuldich busily attempting to breach Crawford's mental defenses to
figure it out. It had become standard for the two teams plus Rache and
Ranma to meet in the main room to discuss whatever it was that needed
discussing.
As they entered, Ranma grumbled, "If this is just so we can listen to
Braddie-kins and Kudou argue..." There was a snort from Schuldich at
Crawford's latest nickname. Ranma had, quite swiftly, discovered
Crawford's dislike of being referred to by his first name. Therefore,
just as he had with Ryouga before, Ranma found a number of ways to
twist Crawford's first name into hundreds of nicknames, and _enjoyed_
unleashing them on the irrate visionary.
"Not likely," Jei's voice washed over them as they seated themselves
around the room-- Schuldich opting to sit behind Ken and draping his
arms over the young man's shoulders, while Rache weaseled herself into
the space between Ken and Yohji. Ranma had settled down beside
Farfello, half curling up against the pale haired assassin, with Aya on
his other side. Omi and Nagi were seated in their normal spots-- the
computer chairs-- and all were waiting for Crawford's arrival.
Crawford was the one who normally went out and got business for the two
teams, seeing as he had much more practice with it; Weiss had merely
awaited instructions from Manx and therefore, Persia and Kritiker.
Besides, if Aya or one of the others offered their services without
Kritiker's backing, it was more likely to be tracked, than if Schwartz
did so. They didn't need their "bosses" finding out that they were
doing jobs where none of the money made it's way back to Kritiker.
Teams that had done so, teams that had defected in previous years, to
become their own assassins for hire, had a way of ending up dead. But
with the support of Schwartz-- who had been a pain in the backside for
Kritiker for years, and still was a pain in the back side, although at
a more personal level since they were living together, to Weiss-- not
to mention the backing of the Lady Assassin, Raven, and her son, Ranma,
it wasn't likely to happen to _them_. Ranma had yet to actually choose
a codename, but it didn't really matter to him.
After all, he did have three legal identities. Saotome Ranma, Tendou
Ranko, and Nyu Xue Shi.
"Good, you're all here."
"You expected otherwise?" came Yohji's snide remark. Beneath that, one
could hear Ken hissing at Schuldich to "let me go", and "go away", and
"stop bothering me!"
"Schuldich, stop that," Crawford barked, ignoring Kudou's tone, "I want
all of your attention on this."
"This is important then," Aya raised a blood toned eyebrow at the
gun-wielding leader of Schwartz.
"Very," Bradley stalked over to the computers, standing between Omi and
Nagi, "Bring the files the American and Japanese governments sent us
up."
"Whoa, whoa," Ranma waved a timeout, "Japanese _and_ American
_governments_? You forgetting something here, Braddie-kins?"
You could almost _hear_ Crawford's teeth grinding as he shot Ranma a
very dark look. For his efforts his got a cheeky grin from the boy, and
a sharp glower from Farfello. Crawford would have turned the
exceedingly dark look on him too, except if one got the Irishman ticked
off at them, it was unlikely that they'd survive. Future-seer or no.
"We've been contacted by an agent of both governments, promising to
keep knowledge of exactly who we are a secret. He was sent out under
the command to hire assassins, then tell the government to exterminate
them. However, Agent Cole is a former assassin himself, and promised to
keep it a secret."
"Can we trust him?" Ken was trying hard not to think of the fingers
Schuldich was idly running down his spine.
"If we can't," Schuldich laughed, "it won't be that hard to mess Mister
Cole up."
"Yeah, a little bit of Nekoken," Ranma grinned widely, before turning
to look at the computer screens that spanned the wall and whistled low,
"Hey, who're the chicks?" Just because he'd fought off the advances of
four very hot women, didn't mean he hadn't noticed their figures. He
was a teenaged male, after all.
"The Sailor Senshi," Rache supplied, staring hard at the girls in
abbreviated sailor fuku. She'd seen them often enough to know who each
one was, even what her powers were. Rache may have had no idea who
their human counterparts were, but she had her suspicions. Too many
things added up and pointed in the same direction, "Vigilantes powered
by magic, or ki, or talent. I'm not sure which."
"Correct," Crawford actually liked Rache. She was straight and to the
point-- at least, when it came to these meetings, "And the government
has come across some interesting bits of information. Apparently, these
girls have decided to do away with all the current governments of the
world."
"You're shittin' us!" Ranma barked, "How do a bunch of stupid chicks--
no offense, Naru-- plan to do that?"
"None taken."
"Thermonuclear weapons?" Farfello had his 'insane-happy' face on. And
he was raking his fingers down Ranma's arms, gouging a few bloody
tracks that the boy didn't seem to notice. He'd been toughened by years
of fighting Ryouga and being hit with Mallet-sama, after all.
"Unlikely," Crawford continued, shooting the group gathered a sharp
look, basically telling them to shut up and listen, "these girls have
never shown an interest in using weapons. They've been overheard,
however, discussing a 'freezing' of the planet."
"With Mercury's ice-based powers, it is possible," Rache mused, "any
idea of what they plan to do once the governments are out of the way?"
Aya frowned, "Most likely set themselves up as the planet's rulers,
after 'graciously' saving the population from freezing to death."
"This one," Crawford pointed to the winged figure of Eternal
Sailormoon, "is who the President of the United States believes will be
crowned Queen of Earth. Japanese Officials have also confirmed that as
well as being the leader has been referred to as "Princess" in the
past."
Ken shifted further away from Schuldich's questing-- er, tormenting
hands, to look at Crawford in confusion, "How'd they learn any of
this?"
Yohji snorted, "Look at them, they barely look eighteen, and they've
been doing this for, what, six years?"
"Four," Rache corrected absently.
"Right, four. That means since they were fourteen. Do you really think
a fourteen year old can keep a secret from the government if they
really want to track her down? Hell, the government has probably been
following them since they first appeared."
Aya, Omi and Nagi nodded in confirmation, then Aya turned to stare at
the screens, "Do we have information on who these girls really are."
Omi started to respond, but Rache cut him off, "Even if we didn't, it
wouldn't matter," she bounced to her feet and began to pace, "I'm
pretty sure I know who they are. How long it's been since they showed
up, the 'new' students that arrive or vanish for the duration of one
attack or another... all the pieces fell into place just before you
showed up, Ranma."
The room was quiet, watching the redhead pad across the room with
quickly darkening features, "Oh yes, I've been thinking about it for
awhile now. And I'm pretty sure I know who they are."
Nagi turned and brought up a few more screens, Omi quickly following to
pull up the remaining ones, "Are these the people you're thinking of?"
Rache stepped up to the screens, to stare at the screen, then nodded
slowly, reaching one hand up to brush it against one. She tapped the
image of a blonde teenager in the forehead, "Tsukino Usagi.
Sailormoon."[1]
"And future Queen of Earth," Ranma snorted, "She's that girl that was
bugging us today, wasn't she?"
Rache nodded, turning back to face the room. There was a dark scowl on
her face, "Are we going to kill or incompacitate, Crawford?"
"Either is fine, however the governments would prefer death, to ensure
their own safety."
"I may not be an assassin," the girl named revenge grinned maliciously,
"But I volunteer for this mission."
"Then I guess I'll have to watch your back, hmm Schwester?"
Crawford glanced at the group, "That means Ken and Yohji are out. We
_don't_ need you two accidentally making trouble," both boys were about
to protest, but cut off at Aya's frosty glare.
Ranma bounded to his feet with a smirk, "I'm up for it. I _really_ want
to pound on those girls. Feh."
"Farfello and Aya are out," Crawford continued, then turned to Omi and
Nagi. Nagi nodded after a moment.
"I suppose I'll help."
"I'm supposed to be helping Nabiki-chan," Omi blushed slightly at the
name, and Ranma almost felt like gagging. He _still_ hadn't figured out
how it came to be that Nabiki and Omi were dating each other. It was
kinda gross. But then, he didn't really like either of them, so he
supposed it wasn't actually all that bad.
"So," Schuldich eyed the group around him, "What are the rest of you
going to be up to while we play with these little girls?"
Crawford cast his teammate a flat stare, "We still have to work out
this 'deal' you neglected to tell me about."
"For Christ's sakes, Crawford!" Yohji exploded, and the rest of the
group rolled their eyes, filtering out of the room. Yohji and Crawford
were about to start one of their infamous arguments again, "It's been
four months! Get over it!"
---
At a shrine within Juuban, a certain priestess shivered with the
premonition of trouble.
At various houses scattered through the district, eight others felt an
icy chill go down their backs.
And at the Gates of Time, a certain green haired woman stared in horror
at them. She could see nothing but destruction. The future was
shadowed, only death foreseeable. There was nothing...
No, not nothing. There was an image of... two new senshi?
She clung to that image. Sailorpluto felt hope blossom. These two...
they would be the saviors. They had to be-- they were senshi, after
all.
End Chapter
[1] Of course Naru would figure it out. C'mon, there's too many
coincidences-- and the stupid hair style.
Hmm, can anyone guess where I'm going with this? Mwahahahahahaha...
people. I've developed a rather... violent dislike of BSSM over the
course of the past couple years.
You thought False Identity was bloody.
It's got _nothing_ on this. Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha~!
True Identity
Chapter Two: Mission
Li Xiang
It was nearing five o'clock when three assassins and one healer
returned to the House. They had barely spoken a word to each other on
their trip-- Rache, Ranma and Aya wondering about the recall, and
Schuldich busily attempting to breach Crawford's mental defenses to
figure it out. It had become standard for the two teams plus Rache and
Ranma to meet in the main room to discuss whatever it was that needed
discussing.
As they entered, Ranma grumbled, "If this is just so we can listen to
Braddie-kins and Kudou argue..." There was a snort from Schuldich at
Crawford's latest nickname. Ranma had, quite swiftly, discovered
Crawford's dislike of being referred to by his first name. Therefore,
just as he had with Ryouga before, Ranma found a number of ways to
twist Crawford's first name into hundreds of nicknames, and _enjoyed_
unleashing them on the irrate visionary.
"Not likely," Jei's voice washed over them as they seated themselves
around the room-- Schuldich opting to sit behind Ken and draping his
arms over the young man's shoulders, while Rache weaseled herself into
the space between Ken and Yohji. Ranma had settled down beside
Farfello, half curling up against the pale haired assassin, with Aya on
his other side. Omi and Nagi were seated in their normal spots-- the
computer chairs-- and all were waiting for Crawford's arrival.
Crawford was the one who normally went out and got business for the two
teams, seeing as he had much more practice with it; Weiss had merely
awaited instructions from Manx and therefore, Persia and Kritiker.
Besides, if Aya or one of the others offered their services without
Kritiker's backing, it was more likely to be tracked, than if Schwartz
did so. They didn't need their "bosses" finding out that they were
doing jobs where none of the money made it's way back to Kritiker.
Teams that had done so, teams that had defected in previous years, to
become their own assassins for hire, had a way of ending up dead. But
with the support of Schwartz-- who had been a pain in the backside for
Kritiker for years, and still was a pain in the back side, although at
a more personal level since they were living together, to Weiss-- not
to mention the backing of the Lady Assassin, Raven, and her son, Ranma,
it wasn't likely to happen to _them_. Ranma had yet to actually choose
a codename, but it didn't really matter to him.
After all, he did have three legal identities. Saotome Ranma, Tendou
Ranko, and Nyu Xue Shi.
"Good, you're all here."
"You expected otherwise?" came Yohji's snide remark. Beneath that, one
could hear Ken hissing at Schuldich to "let me go", and "go away", and
"stop bothering me!"
"Schuldich, stop that," Crawford barked, ignoring Kudou's tone, "I want
all of your attention on this."
"This is important then," Aya raised a blood toned eyebrow at the
gun-wielding leader of Schwartz.
"Very," Bradley stalked over to the computers, standing between Omi and
Nagi, "Bring the files the American and Japanese governments sent us
up."
"Whoa, whoa," Ranma waved a timeout, "Japanese _and_ American
_governments_? You forgetting something here, Braddie-kins?"
You could almost _hear_ Crawford's teeth grinding as he shot Ranma a
very dark look. For his efforts his got a cheeky grin from the boy, and
a sharp glower from Farfello. Crawford would have turned the
exceedingly dark look on him too, except if one got the Irishman ticked
off at them, it was unlikely that they'd survive. Future-seer or no.
"We've been contacted by an agent of both governments, promising to
keep knowledge of exactly who we are a secret. He was sent out under
the command to hire assassins, then tell the government to exterminate
them. However, Agent Cole is a former assassin himself, and promised to
keep it a secret."
"Can we trust him?" Ken was trying hard not to think of the fingers
Schuldich was idly running down his spine.
"If we can't," Schuldich laughed, "it won't be that hard to mess Mister
Cole up."
"Yeah, a little bit of Nekoken," Ranma grinned widely, before turning
to look at the computer screens that spanned the wall and whistled low,
"Hey, who're the chicks?" Just because he'd fought off the advances of
four very hot women, didn't mean he hadn't noticed their figures. He
was a teenaged male, after all.
"The Sailor Senshi," Rache supplied, staring hard at the girls in
abbreviated sailor fuku. She'd seen them often enough to know who each
one was, even what her powers were. Rache may have had no idea who
their human counterparts were, but she had her suspicions. Too many
things added up and pointed in the same direction, "Vigilantes powered
by magic, or ki, or talent. I'm not sure which."
"Correct," Crawford actually liked Rache. She was straight and to the
point-- at least, when it came to these meetings, "And the government
has come across some interesting bits of information. Apparently, these
girls have decided to do away with all the current governments of the
world."
"You're shittin' us!" Ranma barked, "How do a bunch of stupid chicks--
no offense, Naru-- plan to do that?"
"None taken."
"Thermonuclear weapons?" Farfello had his 'insane-happy' face on. And
he was raking his fingers down Ranma's arms, gouging a few bloody
tracks that the boy didn't seem to notice. He'd been toughened by years
of fighting Ryouga and being hit with Mallet-sama, after all.
"Unlikely," Crawford continued, shooting the group gathered a sharp
look, basically telling them to shut up and listen, "these girls have
never shown an interest in using weapons. They've been overheard,
however, discussing a 'freezing' of the planet."
"With Mercury's ice-based powers, it is possible," Rache mused, "any
idea of what they plan to do once the governments are out of the way?"
Aya frowned, "Most likely set themselves up as the planet's rulers,
after 'graciously' saving the population from freezing to death."
"This one," Crawford pointed to the winged figure of Eternal
Sailormoon, "is who the President of the United States believes will be
crowned Queen of Earth. Japanese Officials have also confirmed that as
well as being the leader has been referred to as "Princess" in the
past."
Ken shifted further away from Schuldich's questing-- er, tormenting
hands, to look at Crawford in confusion, "How'd they learn any of
this?"
Yohji snorted, "Look at them, they barely look eighteen, and they've
been doing this for, what, six years?"
"Four," Rache corrected absently.
"Right, four. That means since they were fourteen. Do you really think
a fourteen year old can keep a secret from the government if they
really want to track her down? Hell, the government has probably been
following them since they first appeared."
Aya, Omi and Nagi nodded in confirmation, then Aya turned to stare at
the screens, "Do we have information on who these girls really are."
Omi started to respond, but Rache cut him off, "Even if we didn't, it
wouldn't matter," she bounced to her feet and began to pace, "I'm
pretty sure I know who they are. How long it's been since they showed
up, the 'new' students that arrive or vanish for the duration of one
attack or another... all the pieces fell into place just before you
showed up, Ranma."
The room was quiet, watching the redhead pad across the room with
quickly darkening features, "Oh yes, I've been thinking about it for
awhile now. And I'm pretty sure I know who they are."
Nagi turned and brought up a few more screens, Omi quickly following to
pull up the remaining ones, "Are these the people you're thinking of?"
Rache stepped up to the screens, to stare at the screen, then nodded
slowly, reaching one hand up to brush it against one. She tapped the
image of a blonde teenager in the forehead, "Tsukino Usagi.
Sailormoon."[1]
"And future Queen of Earth," Ranma snorted, "She's that girl that was
bugging us today, wasn't she?"
Rache nodded, turning back to face the room. There was a dark scowl on
her face, "Are we going to kill or incompacitate, Crawford?"
"Either is fine, however the governments would prefer death, to ensure
their own safety."
"I may not be an assassin," the girl named revenge grinned maliciously,
"But I volunteer for this mission."
"Then I guess I'll have to watch your back, hmm Schwester?"
Crawford glanced at the group, "That means Ken and Yohji are out. We
_don't_ need you two accidentally making trouble," both boys were about
to protest, but cut off at Aya's frosty glare.
Ranma bounded to his feet with a smirk, "I'm up for it. I _really_ want
to pound on those girls. Feh."
"Farfello and Aya are out," Crawford continued, then turned to Omi and
Nagi. Nagi nodded after a moment.
"I suppose I'll help."
"I'm supposed to be helping Nabiki-chan," Omi blushed slightly at the
name, and Ranma almost felt like gagging. He _still_ hadn't figured out
how it came to be that Nabiki and Omi were dating each other. It was
kinda gross. But then, he didn't really like either of them, so he
supposed it wasn't actually all that bad.
"So," Schuldich eyed the group around him, "What are the rest of you
going to be up to while we play with these little girls?"
Crawford cast his teammate a flat stare, "We still have to work out
this 'deal' you neglected to tell me about."
"For Christ's sakes, Crawford!" Yohji exploded, and the rest of the
group rolled their eyes, filtering out of the room. Yohji and Crawford
were about to start one of their infamous arguments again, "It's been
four months! Get over it!"
---
At a shrine within Juuban, a certain priestess shivered with the
premonition of trouble.
At various houses scattered through the district, eight others felt an
icy chill go down their backs.
And at the Gates of Time, a certain green haired woman stared in horror
at them. She could see nothing but destruction. The future was
shadowed, only death foreseeable. There was nothing...
No, not nothing. There was an image of... two new senshi?
She clung to that image. Sailorpluto felt hope blossom. These two...
they would be the saviors. They had to be-- they were senshi, after
all.
End Chapter
[1] Of course Naru would figure it out. C'mon, there's too many
coincidences-- and the stupid hair style.
Hmm, can anyone guess where I'm going with this? Mwahahahahahaha...