Notes -
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The Replacement
Chapter 06
By C. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(c)2002
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Birds chirped and sang as the early morning sun rose above the horizon and illuminated the forest that stretched on for as far as the eye could see. There was dew on the grass and mountains far in the distance that rose majestically into the sky. Inside this forest was something that hadn't been seen in generations and even then it had been nearly forgotten by all but the most dedicated researcher. Over the years the forest had reclaimed the land and decimated all that had once been here. Still, here and there, highlighted by the morning shadows or rare animal was a tower, an old, old tower made from pure crystal. How such a thing had survived was unknown, but it was the only thing left standing of the entire city that had once dominated this entire area.
Now it was nothing but rubble, save for this tower that was covered in vines and looked to be almost totally impregnable even after all this time. It stood nearly six stories high and was still dwarfed by the giant trees all around it. Time had eroded its subtle beauty and crystalline beauty, but its walls still stood and its main gate was still holding fast. It stood nearly twenty feet high and looked like someone had sealed it shut, for all around the base of the tower were several bands of steel that had been set right into the crystal itself. They did not rust or fail as time went on and suggested that incredible craftsman ship may have gone into its construction.
As the day passed animals played and hunted in front of the tower and went on with their lives. Clouds rolled in and by the time the afternoon had arrived it was raining heavily and filling the small valleys around the tower with water and providing for life. Then night fell and the storm got worse, turning from a summer shower into a storm of titanic proportions. Lightning flashed across the sky and thunder rolled across the valley, it was so loud that it shook the tower. Then the lightning started to fall out of the sky, hitting trees and blowing them to pieces, starting fires and destroying everything in its path.
Then came the hail and more lightning that seemed to focus upon the tower itself, even then it held against the onslaught of destruction as everything around it was obliterated. The steel bands glowed and repulsed the lightning and the hail bounced harmlessly off the walls, but then something happened that hadn't been included in its construction. The fire that was reducing the thick trees to charcoal was caught in the wind and collapsed several of them into the tower where the wind managed to make the vines and muck covering the tower to catch fire. Lightning continued to strike the tower like a giant hammer and added to the fire as it swarmed around the tower.
After almost an hour of this kind of abuse the storm actually got worse, developing into tornado like winds to form several funnel clouds that made their way through the forest to cause even more chaos, they all headed right for the tower. By this time the flames from the fallen trees had climbed all the way up the tower and engulfed it completely. With a loud groan another tree slammed against the tower and something shattered and some of the crystal above the gate fell to the ground. A blue glow formed around the hole and expanded to cover the entire structure, the fire was put out almost immediately and the burning wood vaporized in a matter of seconds.
The tornado's were unaffected though and kept crashing against the field of power that had sprang up around the tower and as the seconds passed it glowed brighter and brighter until a low humming could be heard. It lit up the night in stark contrast to the red of the fire and quickly dwarfed it in a small area. A ball of light formed at the very tip of the tower fired into the sky to bleed off energy and protect the tower, but this only fuelled the already destructive storm and increased its wrath by pulling a giant lightning bolt out of the clouds. It struck the tower with the wrath of a god and blew through the shield and obliterated the top two floors like they were made out of paper. The winds from the tornado's moved in and finished laying waste to the tower for the rest of the night, by the time they were done only the first two floors were standing and tons of debris were scattered all across the forest.
Books and scrolls rained down and were consumed in the fire, the stones smashed and even more trees died fiery deaths. All across the planet items of power hidden in caves, in vaults, and rare collections burst forth with power to warn of the destruction of the tower. No one knew what it meant, to much time had passed and thousands of years of knowledge had been lost over time. No one alive had a clue what the glowing items meant, only that it gave them a very bad feeling that things were about to change, change for the worse.
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He had been here for at least a week now, pushing his training to new heights. That fight at the school had proven to Ranma that he needed to get better control of his power. That crater in front of the school was a very good reminder of just how much control he had over his new powers, not as much as he would have liked to have. As Ranma Saotome he was one of the best martial artists in the world, but as Vulcan those powers were nearly ten times as strong. Everything about her was amplified in some way, speed, strength, and power were all off the scale and she was cursing himself for being lax in his training. He'd had these powers for close to two weeks now and hadn't spent any time practicing them. True he had been kind of distracted, but that was no excuse to get sloppy and hurt someone by accident and he felt guilty about those students that had been hurt in his ill timed blast. Ami and Usagi had taken him to the side after that last battle and chewed him out for a couple of hours for being so reckless and stupid. This coming from Usagi was a surprise, but all of the Scouts had been effected by that Youma's rather odd effect one a persons emotions, so they had all been wound up pretty tightly.
School had been cancelled because of the fight and Ranma had been training constantly for the last few days now. From really early in the morning until late at night he was constantly in motion and almost begging for a decent sparing partner. From morning until noon he would work out in his normal form, then he would transform and use his new magic power to change his uniform into a copy of his normal clothing and practice for the rest of the day or until he dropped. Whichever came first. He almost missed Ryoga and wondered where the lost moron was, almost. So he was practicing his Ki control and perfecting it so that he could control it at almost any level. He had taken a renewed interest in certain types of Anime in the last week as well, he had found that the increase in his Ki abilities gave him the ability to perform things that were almost unthinkable a few days before, so he was trying to perfect some of the odd Ki techniques that the characters had used in the shows or come as close as he could to copying them. To his surprise a good number of the techniques were actually possible, he just had to find the right way to do them. The name was weird though so he figured he would just change those so no one complained if they saw them.
A small discussion with Ami and a quick search of her little computer had netted him several ways to get what he wanted. One of the more interesting one he had latched on to was a way to manipulate his Ki so that he could form an area around himself that was heavier than normal, combine it with some weights and his endurance training had hit some all new highs. Even Ryoga would have had problems doing what he was trying. Simple motions like walking and breathing were made so hard that he had to concentrate on them almost constantly just to keep control. The first couple of days had been incredibly hard, but after that he had adjusted to the added weight and been able to move onto some basic kata.
The aerial stuff was out of the question, his increased weight was making him nearly five or six times heavier than normal gravity and pushing him mentally and straining his body to the absolute limit. He was elated though because he was adjusting quickly and figured that within a few days at this level he would be ready to push himself to higher and higher heights of control. It was a lesson he had learned from the old man that stuck with him through the years, the harder the training the better the results when one accomplished the goal. His muscles bulged as he threw a couple hundred punches at this imaginary opponent, did a spin kick, and ended with a simple back flip to land in a perfect relaxed stance. The jump may have been a bit much but it wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be as his knees protested all the weight they had held up when he landed, maybe he should try some aerial stuff a little sooner than he thought.
Just outside of Tokyo were a number of shrines and training grounds that could be put a number of uses, that suited his needs perfectly and he had eagerly set out to put in some training time. He was kind of glad that a break from school had happened when it did and taken it as a the perfect opportunity to train before he had to go back. These were all places that he had visited earlier in the training trip and they allowed him to train as much as he wanted so long as his father wasn't around to cause more problems, like stealing the super secret scroll from a nearby shrine or ripping off a food cart or ten in his spare time. Ranma had learned a few things about the old man on this trip as well, his thieving ways were more wide spread than he had thought.
There was a small pole set up at the waters edge a little ways away, so he hopped over there and jumped up to a four foot pole and knelt down to adjust his balance. This was an area of this training ground that his father had avoided the last time he was here, but a quick look around showed that there were nearly two dozen poles of varying heights moving up stream and across the slow moving water. He moved slowly, manipulating his Ki as best he could to make sure he landed correctly and didn't snap any of his bones as he hopped from pole to pole carefully testing them to see if they could hold his new weight. When they didn't snap he grinned and started to practice his mid air stuff for the first time in over a week.
His movements were slow and poorly executed, but the skill was still there, he was just too heavy for his muscles to achieve the grace and power that they had once possessed. He could do some of the simpler jumps though and that meant he could get back up to where he had been in a short time. The next two hours were spent hopping and flipping from pole to pole, every now and then pulling out something a little more complicated and trying to complete it before he had to land.
It surprised him when he was only able to accomplish one mid air technique out of every five tries and even then he had to rush his landings. His added weight was causing him tons of problems, more than he had figured it would, but he was trying to do this a few days to early so he wouldn't let that get him down. With a couple of quick hops he landed on the ground and groaned as his muscles complained and his legs nearly buckled under the strain. Proof positive in his mind that he was trying the aerial stuff far too soon. Just like he had thought. Then he froze as he saw something out of the corner of his eye and looked around.
There was something out there at the edge of his senses, he wasn't sure what it was, but it was watching him closely. He straightened up and glanced around carefully, whatever the thing was, it was hiding in the trees off to the side and across the river. Then his eyes narrowed just a tiny bit as he felt it moving, he caught a glimpse of movement in the shadows of the trees, and he glared at the spot where he felt it would appear. All was quite for a few seconds, then the bushes parted and a tall girl stepped out into the open. She had lavender hair that trailed all the way down her back and a face that was somewhat familiar to him.
"I know you from somewhere." She called out and narrowed her eyes at him as if trying to remember something at the tip of her tongue.
Ranma tilted his head and nodded. "I know you too, but I don't remember your name."
"Call me...Ryoko."
That didn't help Ranma much, his memory for names and faces was pretty bad at times. "I'm Ranma Saotome."
If anything the girl's glare got worse. "The only Ranma Saotome I know is a red headed girl that stopped by the Masaki shrine a while back."
That did it, Ranma suddenly remembered his visit to the shrine because of Akane and just who he was facing. She would have had to fight with this girl after he accidentally ended up in the girls bath/pool inside the house, and if that cat hadn't appeared chased him off the property. Ryoko and that other one had chased him around for awhile trying to kill him with those strange Ki blasts of theirs. Luckily he had been able to get some cold water and turn female before they caught him, but that had led to a fight where he had been forced to use the Hiryü Shöten Ha. That had been just before she met Usagi and the Scouts, what did she want now?
"Now I remember you, you're that pervert that invaded me and Ayeka's bath, aren't you?" Ryoko snarled and started to glow.
Ranma started to sweat and scratched the back of his head. "Um...no?"
"You won't get away this time Pervert!" Ryoko said and held out her hand, a bar of energy flared to life. "You will pay for what you did, it took us weeks to clean up the destruction you caused!"
"You were the ones throwing around those explosive blasts lady!"
"Time to DIE Pervert!!"
"I don't need this crap right now!" Ranma yelled and dodged to the side just a the ground behind him blew up.
"Stand still and take your punishment like a man should!" Ryoko yelled as she flew across the river and charged up another blast.
Ranma didn't want to back down, but he was at the end of his energy and had been practicing for most of the morning and he needed a break before he transformed and started the afternoon fun. If he let the weight technique go now he would lose a lot of its benefit, he needed it active for at least a week before he could relax its effect, though transformation made the technique even stronger. Currently it was making him use over ninety percent of his Ki to keep it active, it was great practice and once he adjusted to it completely the Ki drain would become less and less until he could move around with it active constantly.
"NO WAY, I DON'T HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH CRAZY CHICKS TODAY!!" Ranma yelled out as he ran into the woods with the trees exploding all around him. He ducked and weaved through the explosions of wooden shrapnel as they washed over him and seriously considered releasing the technique, but decided that it could wait until he absolutely had no other choice. Anyway, he had a few trick up his sleeve that this girl probably hadn't encountered before. He just had to stay away from the river, it wouldn't do to reveal his curse to her just yet, and he would save that for later.
"DIE PERVERT!!" Ryoko screamed from above the trees and fired blast after blast down upon the fleeing Ranma.
"Gotta catch me first you old bat!!"
Ryoko screamed and dropped down into the smoke and dust that was beginning to obstruct her sight. The boy had been running in a circle through the smoke to keep her from hitting him, it also showed that he was more than a typical pervert. She was hesitant to go all out with the guy, he was cute, and she just wanted to punish him for dropping in on her in the bath and peeking at her. That privilege was only for her Tenchi and no one else had the right to ogle her, she would make him pay for thinking otherwise.
The fire and smoke all around her was making it hard to see so she teleported to a different location a few hundred feet away and looked around. The pervert wasn't anywhere to be seen and she slammed her fist into a tree and knocked it over. "Come out here and take your punishment!"
"You don't think I'm that stupid do you?" Came out of the woods from all around her, she couldn't place where the voice was coming from.
"I will make you pay!"
"Hah! I have all the time in the world, we can play some other time cute stuff!" Ranma yelled.
Ryoko blinked and growled a little, it wasn't often that a human could cause her this kind of trouble. "I will find you yet!"
"Then challenge me toots, I don't take kindly to threats and ambushes like this."
"@#&##&!!"
"Hey, even my fiancée's wouldn't say that to my face. Want some soap?"
"#$%@ #%$@ &%$@$#!!"
"HAHAHAHAHAH I like you, so do you want to challenge me or not?"
"Fine, I challenge you, just get out her where I can rip your head off!!" Ryoko yelled, her eyes were glowing with power.
"You're from that Masaki Shrine right?"
"Yes!"
"Then I'll meet you there in front of the house in two weeks. I have things I need to do before then so be patient and we can fight then."
"Tell my your name!"
"I already told you, my name is Ranma Saotome."
"That was that girl's name!"
"Go and find out about Jusenkyo and you'll understand. See you in two weeks cute stuff!!" Ranma yelled and slipped deeper into the forest not that she wasn't actively looking for him.
"$@#$&!!!!" Ryoko snarled and teleported out of the area.
"I'll have to thank the teacher for making me read that stupid American book, it was full of great insults. Who would have thought the Americans could do something so well?" Ranma mused to himself as he relaxed. He found a trail and jogged back to the housing area for the students, he still had a weeks worth of training to take care of before he headed back into town. He considered using the communicator to call Usagi and tell her about the fight, but shrugged it off. She had better things to do than worry about him anyway.
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Washu wasn't laughing for a change as she read over her latest results on the locals, there were several very bad readings there that could only mean trouble. She wondered if she should warn anyone since it didn't really have much of anything to do with the shrine. After a few minutes she decided to monitor the situation and tell the others only if they needed know. There wasn't anything they could do anyway and the locals were moving in to take care of it even as she looked it over.
She had found that humans were primitive, stupid, and very adaptable when it came to this kind of stuff. They had no clue what they were dealing with and yet they found ways to stop the threats and put then down in their own primitive ways. It was a sight to behold at times the silly things that actually worked for one reason or another. She called up a secondary screen and tapped into a satellite she had in orbit and scanned the west side of Nerima, Japan where a warp in reality had opened up and spilled out several of what could only be called shadows. There were several races across the universe that had a shadow warping ability like this and they all tended to use it for the same things, but she happened to recognize these from an old memory. They were all supposed to be extinct, completely and totally wiped out over a five thousand years ago.
They were relatively useless on their own, but once they found a suitable host they could become very dangerous as they warped the hosts mind. Those girls from the Silver Millennium that had been running around lately would have the situation cleaned by the time they arrived anyway. So Washu snapped her fingers and sat back as a comfortable couch appeared behind her, picked up a nearby tub of buttered popcorn, and sat back to watch the show. A lot of the cities on Jurai had these buildings built that created a kind of shield that kept this stuff from happening, they had been in place for centuries and she had never had much to do with them. This was the first time that she had ever found a world that didn't have them before, though the priests that were all over Japan had come close to getting them up and running at one time, but lack of cooperation and funds had squelched that idea about two hundred years back. Political problems had intervened and made sure the things were not built, they were considered a waste of money and all that. Washu laughed as the computers tracked a shadow as it headed for a dojo in the middle of Nerima, it went up one wall and through a window and vanished.
It was so funny to see primitive cultures try and understand a whole new form of science that they just couldn't grasp to save their own lives. They did make for good live action viewing pleasure though, so she sat back and enjoyed herself. It had been a long time since she watched any of the Sailor Scouts in action anyways, the loss of the Silver Millennium had been a great loss that always saddened her. It was good to get a chance to see them in action again, so with a cackle she grabbed a remote and fast forwarded to the action. Temporal devices were a pain to calibrate correctly, but once that was done they were a great thing to have in any mad scientist's collection.
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Ranma was at the mall after finishing his last week of training and was getting adjusted to not weighing so much anymore. His Ki reserves had nearly tripled as he adjusted to the weight that technique had added to him, but a good portion of it was still uncontrolled. It would take him some time to get it under control and added into his skills, a week just wasn't enough time to much of anything except perfect some new moves and build his body's endurance. His training had pretty much ripped his clothing to shreds and left him with only a couple other sets to use. Since he had the money he'd decided to swing through the mall to pick up some new clothes. Then just as he was passing by a couple of kids just wandering through the mall, the worst thing in world happened, he was shot in the head with a rather large water gun. This didn't make her very happy and the would be ambusher was soon sent head first in the fountain, his water gun floating in pieces around him. Ranma liked kids, but there were times when she came across one or two of them that needed a little beating to set them straight.
She was glad that no one seemed to have noticed her change, or the beating, but knowing her luck things were about to get interesting. It was the nature of the curse that she couldn't go two days without something weird happening to her. Ever since coming to Juuban she had been noticing things that had never even registered to her in Nerima. She figured it had something to do with her new abilities, the magic must have been affecting her in ways she didn't understand. That soul bond thing with Usagi still baffled her on certain levels, but it was something she could deal with since it didn't hurt her in any way as far as she could tell. Still she would have liked to have been asked first before such a thing was forced on her.
Ever since she had defeated those punks at the street fight, they had been hounding her with challenges and such. They actually didn't care about the money, instead they kept setting up fights for her to fight in. Once or twice a week she had to show up at these warehouses and fight this fighter or that one, all she had to do was place a bet on herself and make herself and the punks a tidy sum of cash. The last several fights had been pretty interesting too, a couple of girls from the Tendo half of his school had given her a run for her money, this monkey like creature with green hair and a fascination with lightning, and a guy who could crush stone with his bare hands. Another couple of weeks and she would be able to get herself set up in an apartment.
Only Usagi knew how she was making money and she kept telling her to stop doing it before she got in trouble. Ranma had been around enough to know what the girl was telling her, but she had no family to fall back on and needed the money to get food. Stealing it would have been easy enough, but would have made the situation even worse than it was. Like that last fight, those two girl's had nearly gotten her with that hot and cold ribbon attack. Luckily she had spotted a major weakness in the attack and used to beat them soundly. Ranma wasn't sure who those girl's were, but they had been a lot better than Akane ever had been. She wondered when Akane's father had taught them how to fight, they had years of experience behind them and had been quite surprised when they were defeated like that.
She'd even had to give them directions on how to get to the Tendo Dojo, but finding the place in that maze of streets was a pain, hopeful they had made it there to see their teacher. Ranma shrugged and made her way out of the Chinese clothing store, she pointedly ignored the dress section that would have had Shampoo drooling for several minutes. Her fiancée's were a thing of the past now, hopefully she wouldn't have to deal with them anytime soon. Eventually Shampoo and Cologne would follow her to Juuban and start up the chase again, but Ranma hoped they would just give up and go home. Being chased for three months by a raving lunatic trying to behead you just because you were better at martial arts was just plain stupid, those actions had ruined any chance the girl might have had of them being married. Talk about a sore loser.
As she was about to step out of the door, two very large women stepped from the sides to block her path. They crossed their arms over their far to large chests and rather mashed faces. They towered above Ranma's female form by close to a foot or more and they both bulged with muscles. The weird part was that they were wearing Furnikan High uniforms and appeared to be seniors of some type, but she didn't recognize them from the few months she had been there. They also had to be the ugliest girl's Ranma had ever seen in her short life and was about to comment on them holding the 'Ugly' stick for to long when she noticed the third girl standing just in front of them.
"Hi Nabiki." Ranma said casually.
"I found you finally."
"So you did, what do you want now?"
"You're coming with me Saotome."
"Any particular reason why I should? To cause me more pain perhaps, to sell me like my father does, oh I know, you want me to fight with Akane some more. Right?!" Ranma snapped.
"You have responsibilities Saotome."
"I will not be forced to do something against my will Nabiki."
"You hurt my sister when you didn't come back Saotome and I will make you pay for that." Nabiki growled.
"Well your sister hurt me on a daily basis, but you don't care about that do you? What I want has never mattered to anyone, not you, pops, my fiancées, even my mom could care less what I think. I've had enough of that kind of crap, I won't be forced to come back Nabiki and I highly doubt your sister cares whether I live or die. After all the last words she said to me were that she wanted 'THE PERVERT TO SHUT UP AND DIE!' then she hit me so hard that I was knocked clear out of the city. I landed in a lake just outside of Tokyo."
"I already tracked you to the Masaki Shrine Ranma, you managed to level most of the house and destroyed a good portion of the wooded area around the lake. They mentioned something about a giant tornado, if that wasn't enough, they were looking for a pigtailed pervert too. It seems he jumped into the girl's bath and tried to ogle them while he was under water. Maybe my sister was more correct about you than she let on, hmmm?"
"Believe what you want Nabiki, you jump to conclusions just like everyone else in Nerima."
"Oh please Saotome, I don't jump to conclusions, I make money off of you to support my family, your fiancée's and enemies are destroying the dojo looking for you. Daddy is a nervous wreck, Akane can't stop bursting into tears every time she sees something that reminds her of you, the panda is in the zoo again just to get him out of our hair and pay off some bills. You will come back and fix things, or else."
"Or else what Nabiki? You don't usually make threats like this unless you have something to back them up."
"Or else I sell your location to everyone for a hefty sum."
"Oh please, you would do that anyways and I figure you already have. Why sell it once when you can sell it again and again, right?"
"Moi?" Nabiki blinked innocently.
"Please, I've had a lot of time to think about this and the games you like to play. I just had to put it into a martial arts type of theme and it came easily. By the way, what's with the goon squad here?" Ranma asked as she gestured two the 'girls' Nabiki had brought with her.
"Matilda and Bertha, Furnikan High's most powerful wrestlers and seventh level dan in five different styles of martial arts. Combined they are the Furnikan Crushers, the have won the school bone crusher award for five years straight."
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Five years?"
"No one ever said they were smart, just good fighters."
Ranma looked up at the two girl's and frowned. "I take it you two owe Nabiki here something, right?"
"Ja."
"Hai."
Ranma shuddered, they sounded like they were gargling rocks or something. Just breathing seemed to be stretching the seems of their uniforms too, there were things in there that she really didn't want to see either. She turned to look back at Nabiki and cocked her head to the side with a smirk. "You don't actually expect me to just back down and do what you say do you, Nabiki?"
"My family comes first and you're the cause of it's problems right now, I can't keep up on the repair bills when you're not there. Now come along."
"No."
"Excuse me, be a man and live up to your responsibilities."
Ranma smirked and absently scratched one of her breasts. "...be a man, with a figure like this one?"
"Don't play with me Ranma, I know all about you and your new friends. I can make them pay for what you're unwilling to fix."
Play time was over it seemed, Nabiki was starting to play a little rougher than normal. Well Ranma didn't mind all that much, dealing with Nabiki was like dealing with the Yakuza, she was sneaky, mean, and dangerous to be around. Ranma had always wondered whether or not the girl even had a heart in her chest anymore, she would do almost anything to get what she wanted. Things between them had been getting worse and worse for months now, it was why she did everything in her power to ruin whatever Ranma wanted to do. This was no exception, though the threat was a new twist that she hadn't counted on. Well, Ranma figured, it was time to do the unexpected. She smirked as she put her packages into her new subspace pocket, every Scout's best friend.
"Just what are you going to do Saotome, you can't get away. I've made plans and you will not ruin them for me or my family."
"You seem to have forgotten something Nabiki."
"And what is that?" Ranma could hear the contempt in her voice.
"I would have been your brother-in-law if someone hadn't been trying their best to make sure I didn't marry their sister."
"I will not have you in my family." Nabiki snapped.
"But you want me to come back, for what, to be your slave? You can't have it both ways."
"Oh, but I can."
"Just how do you plan on doing that?"
"Fine then." Nabiki stepped back and smiled her Ice Queen smile. "Get her girls."
Matilda and Bertha flexed and ripped their way out of their uniforms, they had on body builder bikinis underneath. It was one of the most repulsive sights Ranma could ever remember seeing, well except for that time when Cologne showed off her bathing suit at the beach. Ranma hopped back several feet into the store and got into position, these two were about to get the shock of their lives. Still, Ranma was kind of curious what Nabiki had paid them or blackmailed them with to make them do this. It was totally dishonourable and a lost cause for them to fight like this, Ranma figured Nabiki had a plan in mind.
Then the most amazing thing happened as Matilda and Bertha stepped forward, they took on a black battle aura that was filled with more power than she had expected. What in the hell was this, she wondered? Matilda crouched down and smirked, if they would have been outside birds would have passed out from the shocking sight. Even Ranma had to step back as the ugly sight hit her, where in the world had Nabiki found these two? Well Nerima did have the most martial artists in all the world outside of China, so they must be one of those unorthodox schools that seemed to be all over Nerima.
Ranma blinked as she noticed one of the sales girl come out of the back room, took one look the two wrestler girls, and screamed until she fainted. For some reason Ranma felt like throwing up just from what these two looked like, but fainting was a little much. Though she was detecting...aha...they were putting out a kind of fear aura that was affecting those around them. Ranma could tell that it was there and adjusted her aura to counter act it, she was a bit surprised to see that Nabiki wasn't affected either, now that was strange indeed. It was pretty slick too, very dependent on their looks and size though. Kind of like how a bully only picks on those he knows will not fight back, a pretty cool trick that had probably allowed the two girl's to win a good number of matches and they had the power to back up their attacks. This was going to be fun.
"You are going down little girl, you can not stand up to our might!"
"Oh please, it's a cute Ki trick, but it is so easy to figure out how it works." Ranma taunted. To bad they were girls though, he would have to test them to see just how good there really were. The only girl he knew he could go all out on was Shampoo and she had gotten lax in her training lately.
The two large women growled and jumped forward, working as a perfect team as one punched and the other kicked. Ranma just jumped up above the attacks, landed on Bertha's head and used it to flip behind them. Then Ranma hit the floor and took off running at full speed, she blew right by Nabiki and made her way out onto the mall's second level walkway. She turned to see all three girls running after her, so Ranma called them "ugly enough to kill a dog at twenty meters" and slapped her ass as she jumped off the second level to the floor below. She landed and took off running, behind her Matilda and Bertha landed hard as the cracked the floor.
"AGHHHHHH!! My eyes, my eyes!!" Screamed some nameless woman.
"AGHHHHHH!! Oh my god! AGHHHHH!!" Yelled a store clerk that happened to be looking the wrong direction when the girls landed.
A quick look showed that Nabiki hadn't joined the gruesome twosome in the jump, so she was probably looking for the stairs or following them from above. Ranma wasn't sure which one it was though, she would have to deal with the middle Tendo girl later. There was something about her that didn't feel right and she needed to make sure the Bertha and Matilda were taken care of. Those two were tossing random innocents around like a pair of linebackers from an American football team, Ranma could feel that something wasn't right with them as well. She hit a packed section of the mall and Ranma jumped onto the wall and ran along it for a ways before jumping back down and continuing on. The sounds screaming and a mass exodus for the bathroom soon followed when the gruesome twosome hit that area. Ranma was a bit surprised that they were still using their auras though, it must have been draining them of all their energy.
Then to Ranma's surprise she had so slide to a stop as Bertha seemed to just appear right in front of her. Sliding to a stop, she did a drop and roll to keep from being body slammed and elbow smashed by the wrestler. It was enough of a distraction to let Matilda catch up and get her in a head lock, but a quick Ki charged elbow to the girl's stomach was enough to make her back off in pain. She still felt bad about hitting them, but it looked like the both of them had been hit harder than that many times before, one couldn't get this ugly without working for it. Ranma had to give them some credit, they seemed to know what they were doing. They had placed themselves on both sides of her and were slowly circling around to keep her from escaping, but it seemed Nabiki hadn't told them to much about her Ki abilities.
"I have no interest in fighting either one of you."
"To bad shrimp, it just means you will go down faster." Said Bertha.
"I will break you like a twig." Matilda commented.
Ranma just shook her head and did a standing back flip and was soon well above the girl's heads. She rebounded off the wall, a store front, and was soon running back in the direction she had just come from. The crowd was almost completely gone by this time and she spotted a fountain up ahead, she used it as a stepping stone and flipped her way up to the second level with a smirk. All that training with the weight technique had paid off, she hadn't had to use any Ki for the jump. She landed to the applause of some of the shoppers and looked back to see Matilda and Bertha gaping at her from below, she waved back and took off. They didn't seem to know how to go up like they did down, which was a good thing in Ranma's opinion. To bad there was a stair case nearby, Matilda and Bertha made a bee line for it and bounded up three steps at a time.
"Sheesh!!" Ranma slid to a stop as the floor in front of her exploded and cut off the escape.
"You can't get away from me Ranma, your life is mine to do with as I please!"
Ranma turned and spotted Nabiki as she calmly walked up from out of nowhere, but something was off about the girl now. She wasn't sure what it was, but Ranma could feel it in her bones. Nabiki wasn't usually this heartless, even for her, ruthless and picky yes, not like this though. She had never caused this much of a hassle to anyone she need something from, she worked from behind the scenes. The aura of dark energy floating around the girl was a dead give away too, don't let it be said Ranma wasn't observant.
"What the hell happened to the Nabiki I knew?"
"I was offered freedom."
"Some freedom Nabiki."
"Ah, but the power that came with it is more than enough to defeat you and make you mine." Nabiki said as she lifted her hand and fired off a bolt of dark energy, Ranma barely dodged as she was taken completely by surprise, that had been the last thing she expected from someone like Nabiki, the bolt missing her head by mere inches and blew a section of the wall behind her to pieces.
"Can we play too boss?" Asked Matilda and Bertha as they finally made it back to the second level.
"Come on girls, let's get her."
"Sure thing boss."
Matilda and Bertha shot forward and Ranma realized she had no choice, all three girls were glowing with that dark energy now. Decision made, she crouched down and smirked, they had no idea what they were dealing with now. Matilda's fist shot forward, but Ranma just stabbed at it with her finger and twisted. Like Happosai and his pipe trick, Matilda's momentum was transferred and sent her flying through the roof of the mall with a scream of shock. At the same time Ranma shot her foot out into Bertha's sternum with a little extra Ki enhanced force, she went down like a stone. A precise kick to her neck was enough to render the unconscious for a few hours.
"I thought you didn't hit girl's Ranma?" Nabiki asked sarcastically.
"Only when I am forced to Nabiki."
"Then DIE!!" Nabiki yelled and held out her hand, a beam of energy fired out. Ranma dodged to the side, but the attack had been a feint. She was caught by surprise when Nabiki surged forward and performed a jump kick. She stood there and took the hit, more in shock than anything else. Then Nabiki landed and spun around and he saw that her foot was glowing with power. Hopping back desperately, Ranma watched in fascination as Nabiki's foot impacted the floor and sent up an explosion worthy of Ryoga. The blast pushed Ranma back several feet before she landed.
"Whoa!" Ranma said and upped his respect for Nabiki's fighting skills several notches, she knew for a fact that the middle Tendo daughter hadn't been this good a few weeks ago. Hell she had never practiced martial arts in the entire time he had known her except for a few hours here and there to keep up on basic throws and stuff. Ranma started to pace around the small dust cloud that had formed around the explosion and soon spotted Nabiki stepping out of the hole she had created, a dark aura forming around her as she moved.
"You may have beaten Matilda and Bertha, but they had thought that strength would be all that was needed to beat you. I knew better and asked for skill far and above your own Saotome and you're going to be begging me on your knees by the time I'm done with you. No more will you hurt my family, no more will you get away with hurting my sister with your shallow existence. No more of your freeloading idiot father be getting in my way, you will all pay for ruining the peace and quiet that existed before you showed up." Nabiki mumbled out.
Ranma took a closer look at Nabiki and noticed that her eyes were glazed and her skin was pale and withdrawn as if she was on the verge of exhaustion. Suddenly he knew what to do and ginned, he wouldn't even have to hit her to do it either. Nabiki raised her hands and formed a rather large black sphere of energy as she glared at her. Ranma just grinned and started side stepping again, making sure Nabiki followed her movements.
"Time to die Ranma." She hissed.
"I don't think you have the strength to beat me Nabiki, you may have been given the skill, but you don't' have the spirit to kill me."
"I have enough to kill you ten times over, worm."
"Yeah right, that's why you're about drop in your tracks right?"
"You're wrong, this is enough power to do anything I ever wanted to do." Nabiki yelled and pivoted to fire at Ranma, who had moved herself so that her back was against the safety wall. She just smirked and flipped backwards and fell to the floor below and watched as the black sphere of energy obliterated the safety wall completely. Though she did have to pull some kids out of the way as some of the floor that came crashing down behind her. This was closely followed by Nabiki as she hopped down from above and landed with ease, Ranma wondered how the skills had been given to her since she wasn't using them right. Which looked kind of freaky since she was wearing a white sweater, green slacks and a pair of sneakers.
"Oh boy." Ranma muttered as she scrambled backwards. Maybe her plan wasn't going to work after all, the girl seemed to be getting stronger by the second even as her body seemed to begin wasting away.
Nabiki raised her hand at a slight angle as her aura flared up again and started firing small balls of black energy that spread out all over the place as they converged on her. Scrambling for all she was worth, Ranma dodged and weaved her way through a rather nasty strafing run of explosive rounds Nabiki was giving off. It was almost like fighting Happosai and his stupid bombs. Ranma also noted how Nabiki out of the corner of her eyes, how she was reacting and if it looked like she had a limited amount of power to use. With every shot the girl fired out she would look worse and worse, as if the energy was being drawn right from her life force instead of her Ki. She was glad at least one part of his initial idea about Nabiki's new power was true, either that or she was a great actress, it was just so hard to tell. Ranma watched with narrowed eyes as some of Nabiki's aura seemed to jump out and drain a nearby group of kids of their energy and used it to fuel an even more powerful bombing of the area as Ranma ran and dodged and weaved.
"I've got you now!" Nabiki yelled and laughed.
Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, Ranma tried to dodge, but wasn't fast enough to get out of the way of Bertha's fist as it slammed into her face. Where in the hell had she come from? Ranma stumbled back a few steps to regain her balance, but Nabiki used the distraction to fire off yet another blast of energy and took Ranma right in the chest. It blasted the red head off her feet and into the wall of a nearby store, it shattered under the blow and buried her in a pile of cement and drywall. Ranma cursed herself for forgetting about Nabiki's two goons, she mustn't have hit that one hard enough taken them out as well as she'd had liked, it would take skull as thick as Kuno to throw off the hit she had delivered. She also recalled that they were glowing just like Nabiki and that meant that they were probably as pumped up as Nabiki was.
"Like the super strength and power wasn't enough." Ranma muttered to herself.
Ranma moved slowly, but managed to get a good grip on one of the blocks lying on top of her and pushed it off with a grunt, then pulled herself out of the rubble. She noticed Nabiki and her goons were waiting for her. "That was a good shot Nabiki, but not good enough." Ranma lied as she started to feel the pain from the shot through her chest and back, she hadn't felt anything like this since she screwed up and let Kuno hit her that one time.
"On the contrary Ranma, it was the perfect distraction to get you out of the way for a few seconds."
"Huh?" Ranma gasped out.
"RANMA, PREPARE TO DIE!!" Ryoga screamed just as he kicked Ranma in the shoulder.
Ranma flies off her feet and slams into another wall. Where in the hell did he come from, she thought. "Ow..."
"Oh Ryoga, he's been so mean since you left, abandoning Akane and his responsibilities, shacking up with a new girlfriend, it's been horrible!" Nabiki cried as she latched onto Ryoga's shoulder. Ranma glared as she noticed Nabiki send some of her dark energy into Ryoga. The Lost Boy's face went from angry to murderous in a matter of milliseconds, whatever it was Ranma knew she was in trouble. Ryoga screamed, a sound of incontestable fury and hate, and shot forward like a freight train, pulling his umbrella off his pack, his eyes were coal black and shinning with insane hatred.
"This isn't good." Ranma muttered and jumped to her feet.
This situation was getting too dangerous to keep it where it was and Ranma cursed herself for not taking it outside when she had the chance. It was beginning to look like she was going to have to transform to defeat this threat, but these were her friends, kind of, and she didn't want to hurt them. Ryoga could rot for all she cared, but Nabiki was another story and she needed to find a way to save her before things got to out of hand. A battle plan formed in Ranma's mind and even she knew it was a bad one, but she figured it would work if she took it in steps.
She dodged Ryoga's berserker attack and jumped off the second floor again, landing below and quickly running for the doors to the outside. To bad Matilda had finally made it back to the fight and was waiting for her as she landed. The girl screamed in fury and launched herself forward glowing with fury...and made this horrid sound when Ryoga landed on her, complete with his super heavy umbrella as he knocked her unconscious by slamming her head into the floor and tapping her behind the ear with his umbrella. He didn't even notice or didn't care, all Ranma could see was his new black aura as it flared up.
"Today is the day you die Ranma, no more games, you are going to be bloody smear on the wall as soon as I get my hands on you." Ryoga said evenly, calmly.
Ranma didn't bother to answer as she started to run again, she needed to get outside before she could do much of anything. Even at Ryoga's current power level she could handle him in her Scout form, unfortunately she just couldn't transform in front of a whole mall full of people. She thanked all the Kami in existence that most of the mall goers had ran for it while she was fighting the gruesome twosome earlier.
"Come back here and die you coward!" Ryoga roared.
"Oh there's a good idea." Ranma snapped as she finally reached the main doors to the mall and ran outside. Just like she had remembered, there was an over hang built over the main entrance to provide shade. It was made out of wood and painted in red and gold to attract the eye. She broke to the left just as she made it out side and jumped to the top of the over hang to the surprise of the people watching.
Ryoga burst through the door, shattering it with a single blow as he stalked outside and glared around. The amazed faces of those who had watched Ranma's jump turned to fear as the boy started to glow evilly. He continued to look around for a second, then stopped, looked up, and grinned, his fangs flashing. With a minor push of his feet Ryoga launched himself upward and broke through the over hang and landed on a the edge of the hole as he glared at a surprised Ranma.
"Since when can you actually think, pig boy?" Ranma muttered.
"Nabiki opened my eyes Ranma, I am seeing thing in their true light for the first time in years. I know you for the coward that you are now Saotome and I will have my revenge even if I have to kill all that you hold dear." Ryoga sneered and started walking forward.
Ranma gaped at the change in Ryoga's presence, whatever Nabiki had done to him it seemed that she had turned him into a true killer, he wasn't just saying it anymore. There wasn't a trace of compassion left in the Lost Boy's eyes and Ranma sighed, she had known deep inside that it could come down to this one day, she had hoped to avoid it though. She stood up as she crossed her arms across her chest and made her bracers flare into visibility, her aura flaring around her. Ryoga stopped and frowned in confusion.
"For what it is worth Ryoga, I hoped it would never come to this, but you have forced my hand."
Ryoga just laughed. "Fool, you may have once beaten Saffron, but I am much stronger than him now and I will have your blood by the time this fight is over."
"VULCAN KNIGHT SENSHI, MAKE UP!!" Ranma yelled and flared with blue light.
"DIE YOU HONORLESS FUCKER!!" Ryoga yelled and launched himself forward.
Just as Ranma's transformation finishes and looked Ryoga over again, but his increased speed is too much and it is already too late. Ryoga is a trained fighter and can move much faster than what most others, his umbrella was already in motion as Ranma surged with power to transform and it slammed into her just as she was finishing her power up. With a sickening sound as it hit her, Ranma was launched off the top the over hang with a scream as she felt some of her ribs shatter with it's impact, slightly amazed that the Lost Moron had avoided her block. She landed on the hood of a car about fifteen feet away and shattered the front window with her head, stars exploded in her eyes as the glass shattered around her.
Laughing insanely Ryoga hopped off the overhang and landed on the hood of the car and planting his knee in Ranma's stomach. "You're finished Saotome, revenge is mine." Ryoga hissed as his arm rose up, his fist glowing with black power.
Ranma groaned in pain.
"Mars Flame Sniper!"
"Huh?" Ryoga gasped and snapped his head around just in time to be taken in the chest with a magical arrow made of fire and was blown off the car with a curse. Ranma barely noticed as she struggled to get back into the fight. Off to the side Ryoga was pulling himself out of a small crater as he struggled to his feet and growled evilly and noted three of the Sailor Scouts standing on the cars around him. Mars was on top of a nearby car with another arrow of fire ready to fire, aim right at Ryoga. Off to the side Jupiter was also charged up and ready to fire off a devastating flood of electricity as she glared at the Lost Boy, though he did look like her old boyfriend.
Mercury was by Ranma's side checking her over for wounds and other things with her hand held computer. She was surprised at the amount of power the boy must have had to injure one of their more effective members, but she figured that it was because of Ranma's lack of experience with the powers that Usagi had given him. Though the computer was telling her that he was a lot stronger than he had been several days ago, but right now he had several broken bones and a bit of internal bleeding that her powers were taking care of. Off to the side she watched as Mars and Jupiter attacked Ryoga, blowing up the area. She ignored it for now and went back to Vulcan, to her surprise her computer was telling that Ranma was just stunned. What few cuts she had received from the windshield were already disappearing as her healing ability kicked in.
"Come on Vulcan, get up." Mercury said.
"I feel like I was stepped on by an elephant."
"We got your call, sorry it took so long to get here."
"That's alright Mercury, I almost didn't call you."
"Wha...why?!" Mercury asked.
"This is my fight, my friends and family are in danger. I just knew that I was going to have problems curing them without Sailor Moon using her healing abilities." Ranma muttered as she sat up and shook here head, her ribs were killing her.
"Venus and Moon are in the mall trying to track down Nabiki and her helpers."
"They need to be careful to watch out for them, those three have been jacked up in some powerful ways."
"They can handle it Vulcan."
"Maybe Matilda and Bertha, but I wonder about Nabiki." Ranma said as she slowly climbed off the car.
"Why?"
"Nabiki is very good at tactics, she is smart and won't go down like some of your other opponents. She did this to Ryoga, turning his hate and depression into this murderous rage. We have to help them."
"We will Vulcan."
"Ryoga is going to pay for doing this though, his anger is always getting him in trouble."
"Well help all of them Vulcan, don't worry."
"Yeah, Yeah."
Ranma stretched and loosened up her body for the battle to come, she had seriously underestimated Ryoga and allowed him to get a good shot in, and it had nearly cost her the whole battle before it started. She sighed when she noticed she was in her female outfit again, the coat/dress combo that showed off her breasts and legs by emphasizing them for all to see. At least she had on a pair of decent black leather boots. She didn't think she would ever get used to how she looked in it, one of Happosai's wet dreams. It even gave her a bit of make up and ear rings shaped like little stars.
Sigh.
**********
Tenchi and the others were beginning to wonder about Washu lately, she had spent the last few hours shouting insults and cheering something in her lab and it was getting strange. They were tempted to go in there and see what was going on, but she had a nasty tendency to want to take samples whenever they came into the lab.
"You think we should go in there?" Tenchi asked.
"I don't know Lord Tenchi." Ayeka said and cuddled up to him.
"Back off Princess, Tenchi is mine!" Ryoko yelled and cuddled up to his other side.
Tenchi sighed and wondered why they acted like this, it wasn't as if he encouraged them to act this way.
Katsuhito just sipped his tea and smirked at his grandson's plight.
**********
Much to Moon and Venus' surprise, the mall was almost completely deserted. They were used to arriving at a battle and spending a few minutes telling people to leave or waiting for them to finish running away. It was pretty rare that they were late like this, but Ranma hadn't called them until well after the fight started so there wasn't much for them to do but get down to business. The damage to the mall seemed to be isolated to the open areas around the large fountain in the middle of the mall and up on the second level. The two girls were also surprised that they hadn't been attacked yet, they weren't exactly being stealthy.
They had found one large woman in a two piece suit half buried in the floor near that fountain. It had been pretty obvious that she had been attacked and beat to within an inch of her life. The large bruise on the back of her head had stood out as well, so much that even Sailor Moon could see it with ease. They walked around a little more and noted all the broken walls, or signs of someone being sick. Neither of them wanted to mention the horrid smell in the air, they were too innocent girls to have any knowledge of what it was.
"Why did that jerk wait so long before calling us?" Venus asked.
"I don't know, but he is still pretty new at this and the last few weeks have been pretty bad for him."
"Him? He is the most irritating and arrogant guy I have ever met, I still don't see what you see in him."
"He's not that bad Venus."
"He's a jerk."
"Venus, he hasn't even done anything to you."
"He's a pervert, a jerk, and...and...and...A PERVERT!!"
"What do you have against him then?"
Venus growled. "He was ogling me."
"WHAT?! When did he do that?"
"At the temple the other day when we were all running around."
"That was your fault Venus!" Moon yelled.
"Hmph!!"
"Heheheheheheh..."
Venus and Moon looked around and spotted a small girl leaning against the wall a feet away. She had short brown hair and a an evil aura all around her, beside her stood a very big woman that looked like she too had seen in a large fight. Moon and Venus realized that this woman was perhaps the ugliest thing they had ever seen and nearly gagged at the sight of her. The small one smirked at them and stepped forward. "It looks like Ranma still has his odd affect on women, kind of reminds me of his first meeting with Akane."
"You must be Nabiki." Sailor Moon said.
Nabiki nodded. "These is my friend Bertha, Matilda is in a hole back there and seems to have been taken out for the duration. I'm here to take Ranma back with me, you can't stop me Sailor Moon."
"I can't let you do that." Moon said.
"I don't want to fight you Sailor Moon, just leave Ranma to us and we won't have a problem."
"No go, I don't like the jerk but he doesn't have to go anywhere with you." Venus said and took a defensive stance, she wanted to be ready to fire off a Crescent Beam in an instant.
"Ranma isn't going back to the life he had in Nerima Miss Tendo, he told us all about what happened to him when he was there. He doesn't want to go back to that." Moon said.
"He has no choice because it is his responsibility." Nabiki snapped.
"No, he has a choice and he made it."
Nabiki flared up and screamed, but Venus was faster and fired off a Crescent Beam before anything could happen and blew the girl through the side of a store. Bertha rushed forward and tried to punch Venus, but she dodged and fired again, taking the large woman right in the chest. Sailor Moon fired a beam out of her sceptre and hit Nabiki before she could get herself out of the rubble of the wall, then turned it on the large woman. Both cried out and collapsed as a burst of dark energy left the two girls and flew off before Moon could do much of anything.
"That was easy." Venus said as she tapped Bertha with her toe.
"I know, I wonder why?" Moon said.
**********
Mars and Jupiter slammed into the roof of cars as they fell out of the sky and landed hard. Their bodies were covered in bruises from being hit by the umbrella welding boy, his berserk fury was impossible to break through. He was like an unstoppable dreadnaught. Only Vulcan seemed to have any luck with him and that was growing less and less by the moment, because she was injured and bleeding internally. Mercury rushed over to them and made sure they were okay with her computer before she allowed them to get up off the cars.
"How in the hell is this guy so strong, we keep hitting him and hitting him with our strongest attacks and yet he won't stay down." Jupiter complained.
"Vulcan said he was given some kind of dark power, my scans show that he has been completely overwhelmed by the power."
"Overwhelmed? He's almost completely unstoppable so far, he shrugs off Mars' fire attacks, my lighting, and even your cold attacks. How do we fight that?"
Mercury had her computer out and was scanning Ryoga again. "My scans of him can not find any kind of major weakness of any kind, just that whenever Ranma hits him something odd happens."
"Something odd?" Jupiter asked.
"His energy spikes for a second, becoming unstable in some way, but I can't lock onto it very much.
They turned to watch as Vulcan flipped over Ryoga and kicked him in the head dozens of time, landed and fired off a Ki attack that Ryoga took in the chest and shrugged off. His insane laughing was getting annoying too. "Hey Mercury, didn't Vulcan fire off one of those blasts at the school the last time we had to fight and created that crater?" Jupiter asked.
"Yes, these blasts are more controlled though, she is also running out of energy and if this keeps up she will lose." Mercury said.
"Find anything yet Mercury?" Sailor Moon asked as she landed beside them. Venus landed off to the side and walks up.
"Those three in the mall went down pretty easy, what's up with this one?"
"His power levels are through the roof, on par with Vulcan even in her current form. We haven't had a chance to do much of anything just yet."
"How about if I use the crystal on Ryoga?" Sailor Moon asked.
Mercury types on her computer for a few seconds and shakes her head. "The results are inconclusive."
"Huh?"
"I can't tell what will happen."
"Oh, um...how about if we do that one attack where we all fire at him at once and overwhelm him?"
Mercury typed again and nodded. "That plan has a better chance of working, but we need a distraction for it to work so that we can surround him and hit him from all sides."
Vulcan spun low and came up underneath Ryoga's jump and used the Amaguriken to slam over a thousand full power punches into Ryoga's stomach. It sent the Lost Boy flying back and hurt Vulcan's hand more than she had anticipated, but gave her a few seconds breathing room to rest up come up with a new attack. Ryoga was pounding the hell out of her, even in this Scout form of hers, and her damage was beginning to slow her down. If she took much more she knew there as a chance that he would win and put her down. Vulcan also smiled, it was also the best fight she'd had in a long time, the moron wasn't holding back for once and his skills were showing through.
It was too bad that something like this had to happen for him to go all out though, it would have been fun a few months a go. Now it was just dangerous and he was hurting the Scouts, she was glad they all had that magical healing or Ranma would have had to kill him by now and that was something that she had decided not to do just yet. Using a lethal technique didn't feel right yet, it was like fighting Saffron in a way. She hadn't killed him until every last option had been taken away and she still had a few ideas about how to deal with Ryoga, now all she had to do was find the strength to make sure she pulled it off. She looked over at the Scouts and saw that they were trying to get her attention, so she made couple of hops and landed near them. "What's up?"
"We have a plan, but we need Ryoga distracted for at least twenty to forty seconds." Mercury said.
"Forty seconds? I don't know if I can do more that five at this rate, he isn't holding back and I'm beginning to feel it."
"Just keep him focused on you so that we can surround him and throw everything at him." Jupiter said.
Vulcan nodded. "That I can do, I'll move the fight in between those two trucks over there to limit our fight area."
"That's too small, just keep him right were he is and we'll take care of the rest." Mercury said.
"Okay."
"RANMA!!" Ryoga screamed as he returned to the fight.
"Hey Ryoga, I thought you got lost there for a minute there."
"DIE!!" Ryoga screamed and ran forward.
Vulcan just grinned and ran forward, they slammed together in a bang, and their fists flying as Ranma went on the defensive. He pulled Ryoga in the beginning of the spiral, dodging at faster and faster speeds and pushing the last of his strength into this attack. Ryoga's enraged face looked confused for a second, then he just smirked and shook his head. Ranma just kept the attack up and started to use the Soul of Ice to cool the air.
"You don't expect that to work on me do you Ranma? I know how to defeat that attack you know."
"Maybe, but it's worth a try."
"Why try, it won't work now that I'm aware that you were going to do it."
"Isn't it?" Vulcan said and vanished before Ryoga's eyes.
Then it started as Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and Moon all fired at Ryoga as they formed a circle and laid into him at one second intervals. Hitting him from the front, back, and sides before he had time to recover and counter attack. This went on for some minutes with Ryoga taking more punishment than they had thought possible, then Vulcan re-entered the fight glowing like a blue star as the jewel on her chest flared to life.
"DIVINE ASSAULT BOMB!!" Vulcan yelled and fire the blue energy that had gathered in her hands directly into Ryoga's torso. It exploded and sent him flying backward, through the trailer of one of those trucks, through a wall, and deep into the middle of the mall.
"Whoa!!" Mars said, she had only seen that kind of strength used by the Outers when they were really pissed off.
"I'll say." Venus said, impressed despite herself.
"What about Ryoga?" Mercury said and turned to Moon, but she was gone. They all turned to see her sprinting for the mall to check on the Lost Boy.
"Oh great..." Vulcan said and collapsed to her knees as the Vulcan transformation vanished. She passed out at their feet.
"Vulcan!" Mars and Mercury cried out and knelt down to help their friend out. "Come on you two, we have to get her out of here." Mercury said.
"Why should we bother?" Venus snapped. "I never asked to have her on the team."
Mercury gasped and looked up at Venus, she had never heard anything like that from her friend before. She stood up slowly and glared in Venus' eyes, then flipped open her computer and scanned her friend. Almost instantly she started to detect traces of dark energy on her and Jupiter, with smaller amounts within herself and Mars. "I'm detecting Dark energies within all of us, especially Venus and Jupiter, they have the highest concentrations."
"What?!" Venus gasped and looked down at herself and suddenly realized that she had been acting differently than normal. She screamed and started running around them in circles and waving her arms. "GETITOUT GETITOUT GETITOUT GETITOUT!!"
"Geeze Venus, It's not that bad, we just need to have Moon cleanse us when she returns." Jupiter said and shrugged.
Mars flipped open her communicator. "Sailor Moon?"
"What's up Mars?"
"We need you to get back here as soon as possible."
"I'm still trying to find Ryoga so that I can get rid of that dark energy in him."
"Just find where he landed Meatball Head!"
"Hey Pyro, I already did that, he wasn't there so I was looking around for him! Moon snapped right back.
"If you don't find him in the next few minutes we'll meet you inside the mall, we need you to cleanse Venus and Jupiter, they've been given a bit of dark energy and we need it taken care of."
"Sailor Moon, we need it done on all of us. Were all being effected by it in some way." Mercury said.
"Okay, I'll meet you guys in a few minutes. Those girls we took care of are gone as well, I can't find anything about where they went."
"That's alright, we'll deal with it when we get a chance."
**********
To Be Continued...
Ending Notes -
**********
The Replacement
Chapter 06
By C. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(c)2002
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Birds chirped and sang as the early morning sun rose above the horizon and illuminated the forest that stretched on for as far as the eye could see. There was dew on the grass and mountains far in the distance that rose majestically into the sky. Inside this forest was something that hadn't been seen in generations and even then it had been nearly forgotten by all but the most dedicated researcher. Over the years the forest had reclaimed the land and decimated all that had once been here. Still, here and there, highlighted by the morning shadows or rare animal was a tower, an old, old tower made from pure crystal. How such a thing had survived was unknown, but it was the only thing left standing of the entire city that had once dominated this entire area.
Now it was nothing but rubble, save for this tower that was covered in vines and looked to be almost totally impregnable even after all this time. It stood nearly six stories high and was still dwarfed by the giant trees all around it. Time had eroded its subtle beauty and crystalline beauty, but its walls still stood and its main gate was still holding fast. It stood nearly twenty feet high and looked like someone had sealed it shut, for all around the base of the tower were several bands of steel that had been set right into the crystal itself. They did not rust or fail as time went on and suggested that incredible craftsman ship may have gone into its construction.
As the day passed animals played and hunted in front of the tower and went on with their lives. Clouds rolled in and by the time the afternoon had arrived it was raining heavily and filling the small valleys around the tower with water and providing for life. Then night fell and the storm got worse, turning from a summer shower into a storm of titanic proportions. Lightning flashed across the sky and thunder rolled across the valley, it was so loud that it shook the tower. Then the lightning started to fall out of the sky, hitting trees and blowing them to pieces, starting fires and destroying everything in its path.
Then came the hail and more lightning that seemed to focus upon the tower itself, even then it held against the onslaught of destruction as everything around it was obliterated. The steel bands glowed and repulsed the lightning and the hail bounced harmlessly off the walls, but then something happened that hadn't been included in its construction. The fire that was reducing the thick trees to charcoal was caught in the wind and collapsed several of them into the tower where the wind managed to make the vines and muck covering the tower to catch fire. Lightning continued to strike the tower like a giant hammer and added to the fire as it swarmed around the tower.
After almost an hour of this kind of abuse the storm actually got worse, developing into tornado like winds to form several funnel clouds that made their way through the forest to cause even more chaos, they all headed right for the tower. By this time the flames from the fallen trees had climbed all the way up the tower and engulfed it completely. With a loud groan another tree slammed against the tower and something shattered and some of the crystal above the gate fell to the ground. A blue glow formed around the hole and expanded to cover the entire structure, the fire was put out almost immediately and the burning wood vaporized in a matter of seconds.
The tornado's were unaffected though and kept crashing against the field of power that had sprang up around the tower and as the seconds passed it glowed brighter and brighter until a low humming could be heard. It lit up the night in stark contrast to the red of the fire and quickly dwarfed it in a small area. A ball of light formed at the very tip of the tower fired into the sky to bleed off energy and protect the tower, but this only fuelled the already destructive storm and increased its wrath by pulling a giant lightning bolt out of the clouds. It struck the tower with the wrath of a god and blew through the shield and obliterated the top two floors like they were made out of paper. The winds from the tornado's moved in and finished laying waste to the tower for the rest of the night, by the time they were done only the first two floors were standing and tons of debris were scattered all across the forest.
Books and scrolls rained down and were consumed in the fire, the stones smashed and even more trees died fiery deaths. All across the planet items of power hidden in caves, in vaults, and rare collections burst forth with power to warn of the destruction of the tower. No one knew what it meant, to much time had passed and thousands of years of knowledge had been lost over time. No one alive had a clue what the glowing items meant, only that it gave them a very bad feeling that things were about to change, change for the worse.
**********
He had been here for at least a week now, pushing his training to new heights. That fight at the school had proven to Ranma that he needed to get better control of his power. That crater in front of the school was a very good reminder of just how much control he had over his new powers, not as much as he would have liked to have. As Ranma Saotome he was one of the best martial artists in the world, but as Vulcan those powers were nearly ten times as strong. Everything about her was amplified in some way, speed, strength, and power were all off the scale and she was cursing himself for being lax in his training. He'd had these powers for close to two weeks now and hadn't spent any time practicing them. True he had been kind of distracted, but that was no excuse to get sloppy and hurt someone by accident and he felt guilty about those students that had been hurt in his ill timed blast. Ami and Usagi had taken him to the side after that last battle and chewed him out for a couple of hours for being so reckless and stupid. This coming from Usagi was a surprise, but all of the Scouts had been effected by that Youma's rather odd effect one a persons emotions, so they had all been wound up pretty tightly.
School had been cancelled because of the fight and Ranma had been training constantly for the last few days now. From really early in the morning until late at night he was constantly in motion and almost begging for a decent sparing partner. From morning until noon he would work out in his normal form, then he would transform and use his new magic power to change his uniform into a copy of his normal clothing and practice for the rest of the day or until he dropped. Whichever came first. He almost missed Ryoga and wondered where the lost moron was, almost. So he was practicing his Ki control and perfecting it so that he could control it at almost any level. He had taken a renewed interest in certain types of Anime in the last week as well, he had found that the increase in his Ki abilities gave him the ability to perform things that were almost unthinkable a few days before, so he was trying to perfect some of the odd Ki techniques that the characters had used in the shows or come as close as he could to copying them. To his surprise a good number of the techniques were actually possible, he just had to find the right way to do them. The name was weird though so he figured he would just change those so no one complained if they saw them.
A small discussion with Ami and a quick search of her little computer had netted him several ways to get what he wanted. One of the more interesting one he had latched on to was a way to manipulate his Ki so that he could form an area around himself that was heavier than normal, combine it with some weights and his endurance training had hit some all new highs. Even Ryoga would have had problems doing what he was trying. Simple motions like walking and breathing were made so hard that he had to concentrate on them almost constantly just to keep control. The first couple of days had been incredibly hard, but after that he had adjusted to the added weight and been able to move onto some basic kata.
The aerial stuff was out of the question, his increased weight was making him nearly five or six times heavier than normal gravity and pushing him mentally and straining his body to the absolute limit. He was elated though because he was adjusting quickly and figured that within a few days at this level he would be ready to push himself to higher and higher heights of control. It was a lesson he had learned from the old man that stuck with him through the years, the harder the training the better the results when one accomplished the goal. His muscles bulged as he threw a couple hundred punches at this imaginary opponent, did a spin kick, and ended with a simple back flip to land in a perfect relaxed stance. The jump may have been a bit much but it wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be as his knees protested all the weight they had held up when he landed, maybe he should try some aerial stuff a little sooner than he thought.
Just outside of Tokyo were a number of shrines and training grounds that could be put a number of uses, that suited his needs perfectly and he had eagerly set out to put in some training time. He was kind of glad that a break from school had happened when it did and taken it as a the perfect opportunity to train before he had to go back. These were all places that he had visited earlier in the training trip and they allowed him to train as much as he wanted so long as his father wasn't around to cause more problems, like stealing the super secret scroll from a nearby shrine or ripping off a food cart or ten in his spare time. Ranma had learned a few things about the old man on this trip as well, his thieving ways were more wide spread than he had thought.
There was a small pole set up at the waters edge a little ways away, so he hopped over there and jumped up to a four foot pole and knelt down to adjust his balance. This was an area of this training ground that his father had avoided the last time he was here, but a quick look around showed that there were nearly two dozen poles of varying heights moving up stream and across the slow moving water. He moved slowly, manipulating his Ki as best he could to make sure he landed correctly and didn't snap any of his bones as he hopped from pole to pole carefully testing them to see if they could hold his new weight. When they didn't snap he grinned and started to practice his mid air stuff for the first time in over a week.
His movements were slow and poorly executed, but the skill was still there, he was just too heavy for his muscles to achieve the grace and power that they had once possessed. He could do some of the simpler jumps though and that meant he could get back up to where he had been in a short time. The next two hours were spent hopping and flipping from pole to pole, every now and then pulling out something a little more complicated and trying to complete it before he had to land.
It surprised him when he was only able to accomplish one mid air technique out of every five tries and even then he had to rush his landings. His added weight was causing him tons of problems, more than he had figured it would, but he was trying to do this a few days to early so he wouldn't let that get him down. With a couple of quick hops he landed on the ground and groaned as his muscles complained and his legs nearly buckled under the strain. Proof positive in his mind that he was trying the aerial stuff far too soon. Just like he had thought. Then he froze as he saw something out of the corner of his eye and looked around.
There was something out there at the edge of his senses, he wasn't sure what it was, but it was watching him closely. He straightened up and glanced around carefully, whatever the thing was, it was hiding in the trees off to the side and across the river. Then his eyes narrowed just a tiny bit as he felt it moving, he caught a glimpse of movement in the shadows of the trees, and he glared at the spot where he felt it would appear. All was quite for a few seconds, then the bushes parted and a tall girl stepped out into the open. She had lavender hair that trailed all the way down her back and a face that was somewhat familiar to him.
"I know you from somewhere." She called out and narrowed her eyes at him as if trying to remember something at the tip of her tongue.
Ranma tilted his head and nodded. "I know you too, but I don't remember your name."
"Call me...Ryoko."
That didn't help Ranma much, his memory for names and faces was pretty bad at times. "I'm Ranma Saotome."
If anything the girl's glare got worse. "The only Ranma Saotome I know is a red headed girl that stopped by the Masaki shrine a while back."
That did it, Ranma suddenly remembered his visit to the shrine because of Akane and just who he was facing. She would have had to fight with this girl after he accidentally ended up in the girls bath/pool inside the house, and if that cat hadn't appeared chased him off the property. Ryoko and that other one had chased him around for awhile trying to kill him with those strange Ki blasts of theirs. Luckily he had been able to get some cold water and turn female before they caught him, but that had led to a fight where he had been forced to use the Hiryü Shöten Ha. That had been just before she met Usagi and the Scouts, what did she want now?
"Now I remember you, you're that pervert that invaded me and Ayeka's bath, aren't you?" Ryoko snarled and started to glow.
Ranma started to sweat and scratched the back of his head. "Um...no?"
"You won't get away this time Pervert!" Ryoko said and held out her hand, a bar of energy flared to life. "You will pay for what you did, it took us weeks to clean up the destruction you caused!"
"You were the ones throwing around those explosive blasts lady!"
"Time to DIE Pervert!!"
"I don't need this crap right now!" Ranma yelled and dodged to the side just a the ground behind him blew up.
"Stand still and take your punishment like a man should!" Ryoko yelled as she flew across the river and charged up another blast.
Ranma didn't want to back down, but he was at the end of his energy and had been practicing for most of the morning and he needed a break before he transformed and started the afternoon fun. If he let the weight technique go now he would lose a lot of its benefit, he needed it active for at least a week before he could relax its effect, though transformation made the technique even stronger. Currently it was making him use over ninety percent of his Ki to keep it active, it was great practice and once he adjusted to it completely the Ki drain would become less and less until he could move around with it active constantly.
"NO WAY, I DON'T HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH CRAZY CHICKS TODAY!!" Ranma yelled out as he ran into the woods with the trees exploding all around him. He ducked and weaved through the explosions of wooden shrapnel as they washed over him and seriously considered releasing the technique, but decided that it could wait until he absolutely had no other choice. Anyway, he had a few trick up his sleeve that this girl probably hadn't encountered before. He just had to stay away from the river, it wouldn't do to reveal his curse to her just yet, and he would save that for later.
"DIE PERVERT!!" Ryoko screamed from above the trees and fired blast after blast down upon the fleeing Ranma.
"Gotta catch me first you old bat!!"
Ryoko screamed and dropped down into the smoke and dust that was beginning to obstruct her sight. The boy had been running in a circle through the smoke to keep her from hitting him, it also showed that he was more than a typical pervert. She was hesitant to go all out with the guy, he was cute, and she just wanted to punish him for dropping in on her in the bath and peeking at her. That privilege was only for her Tenchi and no one else had the right to ogle her, she would make him pay for thinking otherwise.
The fire and smoke all around her was making it hard to see so she teleported to a different location a few hundred feet away and looked around. The pervert wasn't anywhere to be seen and she slammed her fist into a tree and knocked it over. "Come out here and take your punishment!"
"You don't think I'm that stupid do you?" Came out of the woods from all around her, she couldn't place where the voice was coming from.
"I will make you pay!"
"Hah! I have all the time in the world, we can play some other time cute stuff!" Ranma yelled.
Ryoko blinked and growled a little, it wasn't often that a human could cause her this kind of trouble. "I will find you yet!"
"Then challenge me toots, I don't take kindly to threats and ambushes like this."
"@#&##&!!"
"Hey, even my fiancée's wouldn't say that to my face. Want some soap?"
"#$%@ #%$@ &%$@$#!!"
"HAHAHAHAHAH I like you, so do you want to challenge me or not?"
"Fine, I challenge you, just get out her where I can rip your head off!!" Ryoko yelled, her eyes were glowing with power.
"You're from that Masaki Shrine right?"
"Yes!"
"Then I'll meet you there in front of the house in two weeks. I have things I need to do before then so be patient and we can fight then."
"Tell my your name!"
"I already told you, my name is Ranma Saotome."
"That was that girl's name!"
"Go and find out about Jusenkyo and you'll understand. See you in two weeks cute stuff!!" Ranma yelled and slipped deeper into the forest not that she wasn't actively looking for him.
"$@#$&!!!!" Ryoko snarled and teleported out of the area.
"I'll have to thank the teacher for making me read that stupid American book, it was full of great insults. Who would have thought the Americans could do something so well?" Ranma mused to himself as he relaxed. He found a trail and jogged back to the housing area for the students, he still had a weeks worth of training to take care of before he headed back into town. He considered using the communicator to call Usagi and tell her about the fight, but shrugged it off. She had better things to do than worry about him anyway.
**********
Washu wasn't laughing for a change as she read over her latest results on the locals, there were several very bad readings there that could only mean trouble. She wondered if she should warn anyone since it didn't really have much of anything to do with the shrine. After a few minutes she decided to monitor the situation and tell the others only if they needed know. There wasn't anything they could do anyway and the locals were moving in to take care of it even as she looked it over.
She had found that humans were primitive, stupid, and very adaptable when it came to this kind of stuff. They had no clue what they were dealing with and yet they found ways to stop the threats and put then down in their own primitive ways. It was a sight to behold at times the silly things that actually worked for one reason or another. She called up a secondary screen and tapped into a satellite she had in orbit and scanned the west side of Nerima, Japan where a warp in reality had opened up and spilled out several of what could only be called shadows. There were several races across the universe that had a shadow warping ability like this and they all tended to use it for the same things, but she happened to recognize these from an old memory. They were all supposed to be extinct, completely and totally wiped out over a five thousand years ago.
They were relatively useless on their own, but once they found a suitable host they could become very dangerous as they warped the hosts mind. Those girls from the Silver Millennium that had been running around lately would have the situation cleaned by the time they arrived anyway. So Washu snapped her fingers and sat back as a comfortable couch appeared behind her, picked up a nearby tub of buttered popcorn, and sat back to watch the show. A lot of the cities on Jurai had these buildings built that created a kind of shield that kept this stuff from happening, they had been in place for centuries and she had never had much to do with them. This was the first time that she had ever found a world that didn't have them before, though the priests that were all over Japan had come close to getting them up and running at one time, but lack of cooperation and funds had squelched that idea about two hundred years back. Political problems had intervened and made sure the things were not built, they were considered a waste of money and all that. Washu laughed as the computers tracked a shadow as it headed for a dojo in the middle of Nerima, it went up one wall and through a window and vanished.
It was so funny to see primitive cultures try and understand a whole new form of science that they just couldn't grasp to save their own lives. They did make for good live action viewing pleasure though, so she sat back and enjoyed herself. It had been a long time since she watched any of the Sailor Scouts in action anyways, the loss of the Silver Millennium had been a great loss that always saddened her. It was good to get a chance to see them in action again, so with a cackle she grabbed a remote and fast forwarded to the action. Temporal devices were a pain to calibrate correctly, but once that was done they were a great thing to have in any mad scientist's collection.
**********
Ranma was at the mall after finishing his last week of training and was getting adjusted to not weighing so much anymore. His Ki reserves had nearly tripled as he adjusted to the weight that technique had added to him, but a good portion of it was still uncontrolled. It would take him some time to get it under control and added into his skills, a week just wasn't enough time to much of anything except perfect some new moves and build his body's endurance. His training had pretty much ripped his clothing to shreds and left him with only a couple other sets to use. Since he had the money he'd decided to swing through the mall to pick up some new clothes. Then just as he was passing by a couple of kids just wandering through the mall, the worst thing in world happened, he was shot in the head with a rather large water gun. This didn't make her very happy and the would be ambusher was soon sent head first in the fountain, his water gun floating in pieces around him. Ranma liked kids, but there were times when she came across one or two of them that needed a little beating to set them straight.
She was glad that no one seemed to have noticed her change, or the beating, but knowing her luck things were about to get interesting. It was the nature of the curse that she couldn't go two days without something weird happening to her. Ever since coming to Juuban she had been noticing things that had never even registered to her in Nerima. She figured it had something to do with her new abilities, the magic must have been affecting her in ways she didn't understand. That soul bond thing with Usagi still baffled her on certain levels, but it was something she could deal with since it didn't hurt her in any way as far as she could tell. Still she would have liked to have been asked first before such a thing was forced on her.
Ever since she had defeated those punks at the street fight, they had been hounding her with challenges and such. They actually didn't care about the money, instead they kept setting up fights for her to fight in. Once or twice a week she had to show up at these warehouses and fight this fighter or that one, all she had to do was place a bet on herself and make herself and the punks a tidy sum of cash. The last several fights had been pretty interesting too, a couple of girls from the Tendo half of his school had given her a run for her money, this monkey like creature with green hair and a fascination with lightning, and a guy who could crush stone with his bare hands. Another couple of weeks and she would be able to get herself set up in an apartment.
Only Usagi knew how she was making money and she kept telling her to stop doing it before she got in trouble. Ranma had been around enough to know what the girl was telling her, but she had no family to fall back on and needed the money to get food. Stealing it would have been easy enough, but would have made the situation even worse than it was. Like that last fight, those two girl's had nearly gotten her with that hot and cold ribbon attack. Luckily she had spotted a major weakness in the attack and used to beat them soundly. Ranma wasn't sure who those girl's were, but they had been a lot better than Akane ever had been. She wondered when Akane's father had taught them how to fight, they had years of experience behind them and had been quite surprised when they were defeated like that.
She'd even had to give them directions on how to get to the Tendo Dojo, but finding the place in that maze of streets was a pain, hopeful they had made it there to see their teacher. Ranma shrugged and made her way out of the Chinese clothing store, she pointedly ignored the dress section that would have had Shampoo drooling for several minutes. Her fiancée's were a thing of the past now, hopefully she wouldn't have to deal with them anytime soon. Eventually Shampoo and Cologne would follow her to Juuban and start up the chase again, but Ranma hoped they would just give up and go home. Being chased for three months by a raving lunatic trying to behead you just because you were better at martial arts was just plain stupid, those actions had ruined any chance the girl might have had of them being married. Talk about a sore loser.
As she was about to step out of the door, two very large women stepped from the sides to block her path. They crossed their arms over their far to large chests and rather mashed faces. They towered above Ranma's female form by close to a foot or more and they both bulged with muscles. The weird part was that they were wearing Furnikan High uniforms and appeared to be seniors of some type, but she didn't recognize them from the few months she had been there. They also had to be the ugliest girl's Ranma had ever seen in her short life and was about to comment on them holding the 'Ugly' stick for to long when she noticed the third girl standing just in front of them.
"Hi Nabiki." Ranma said casually.
"I found you finally."
"So you did, what do you want now?"
"You're coming with me Saotome."
"Any particular reason why I should? To cause me more pain perhaps, to sell me like my father does, oh I know, you want me to fight with Akane some more. Right?!" Ranma snapped.
"You have responsibilities Saotome."
"I will not be forced to do something against my will Nabiki."
"You hurt my sister when you didn't come back Saotome and I will make you pay for that." Nabiki growled.
"Well your sister hurt me on a daily basis, but you don't care about that do you? What I want has never mattered to anyone, not you, pops, my fiancées, even my mom could care less what I think. I've had enough of that kind of crap, I won't be forced to come back Nabiki and I highly doubt your sister cares whether I live or die. After all the last words she said to me were that she wanted 'THE PERVERT TO SHUT UP AND DIE!' then she hit me so hard that I was knocked clear out of the city. I landed in a lake just outside of Tokyo."
"I already tracked you to the Masaki Shrine Ranma, you managed to level most of the house and destroyed a good portion of the wooded area around the lake. They mentioned something about a giant tornado, if that wasn't enough, they were looking for a pigtailed pervert too. It seems he jumped into the girl's bath and tried to ogle them while he was under water. Maybe my sister was more correct about you than she let on, hmmm?"
"Believe what you want Nabiki, you jump to conclusions just like everyone else in Nerima."
"Oh please Saotome, I don't jump to conclusions, I make money off of you to support my family, your fiancée's and enemies are destroying the dojo looking for you. Daddy is a nervous wreck, Akane can't stop bursting into tears every time she sees something that reminds her of you, the panda is in the zoo again just to get him out of our hair and pay off some bills. You will come back and fix things, or else."
"Or else what Nabiki? You don't usually make threats like this unless you have something to back them up."
"Or else I sell your location to everyone for a hefty sum."
"Oh please, you would do that anyways and I figure you already have. Why sell it once when you can sell it again and again, right?"
"Moi?" Nabiki blinked innocently.
"Please, I've had a lot of time to think about this and the games you like to play. I just had to put it into a martial arts type of theme and it came easily. By the way, what's with the goon squad here?" Ranma asked as she gestured two the 'girls' Nabiki had brought with her.
"Matilda and Bertha, Furnikan High's most powerful wrestlers and seventh level dan in five different styles of martial arts. Combined they are the Furnikan Crushers, the have won the school bone crusher award for five years straight."
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Five years?"
"No one ever said they were smart, just good fighters."
Ranma looked up at the two girl's and frowned. "I take it you two owe Nabiki here something, right?"
"Ja."
"Hai."
Ranma shuddered, they sounded like they were gargling rocks or something. Just breathing seemed to be stretching the seems of their uniforms too, there were things in there that she really didn't want to see either. She turned to look back at Nabiki and cocked her head to the side with a smirk. "You don't actually expect me to just back down and do what you say do you, Nabiki?"
"My family comes first and you're the cause of it's problems right now, I can't keep up on the repair bills when you're not there. Now come along."
"No."
"Excuse me, be a man and live up to your responsibilities."
Ranma smirked and absently scratched one of her breasts. "...be a man, with a figure like this one?"
"Don't play with me Ranma, I know all about you and your new friends. I can make them pay for what you're unwilling to fix."
Play time was over it seemed, Nabiki was starting to play a little rougher than normal. Well Ranma didn't mind all that much, dealing with Nabiki was like dealing with the Yakuza, she was sneaky, mean, and dangerous to be around. Ranma had always wondered whether or not the girl even had a heart in her chest anymore, she would do almost anything to get what she wanted. Things between them had been getting worse and worse for months now, it was why she did everything in her power to ruin whatever Ranma wanted to do. This was no exception, though the threat was a new twist that she hadn't counted on. Well, Ranma figured, it was time to do the unexpected. She smirked as she put her packages into her new subspace pocket, every Scout's best friend.
"Just what are you going to do Saotome, you can't get away. I've made plans and you will not ruin them for me or my family."
"You seem to have forgotten something Nabiki."
"And what is that?" Ranma could hear the contempt in her voice.
"I would have been your brother-in-law if someone hadn't been trying their best to make sure I didn't marry their sister."
"I will not have you in my family." Nabiki snapped.
"But you want me to come back, for what, to be your slave? You can't have it both ways."
"Oh, but I can."
"Just how do you plan on doing that?"
"Fine then." Nabiki stepped back and smiled her Ice Queen smile. "Get her girls."
Matilda and Bertha flexed and ripped their way out of their uniforms, they had on body builder bikinis underneath. It was one of the most repulsive sights Ranma could ever remember seeing, well except for that time when Cologne showed off her bathing suit at the beach. Ranma hopped back several feet into the store and got into position, these two were about to get the shock of their lives. Still, Ranma was kind of curious what Nabiki had paid them or blackmailed them with to make them do this. It was totally dishonourable and a lost cause for them to fight like this, Ranma figured Nabiki had a plan in mind.
Then the most amazing thing happened as Matilda and Bertha stepped forward, they took on a black battle aura that was filled with more power than she had expected. What in the hell was this, she wondered? Matilda crouched down and smirked, if they would have been outside birds would have passed out from the shocking sight. Even Ranma had to step back as the ugly sight hit her, where in the world had Nabiki found these two? Well Nerima did have the most martial artists in all the world outside of China, so they must be one of those unorthodox schools that seemed to be all over Nerima.
Ranma blinked as she noticed one of the sales girl come out of the back room, took one look the two wrestler girls, and screamed until she fainted. For some reason Ranma felt like throwing up just from what these two looked like, but fainting was a little much. Though she was detecting...aha...they were putting out a kind of fear aura that was affecting those around them. Ranma could tell that it was there and adjusted her aura to counter act it, she was a bit surprised to see that Nabiki wasn't affected either, now that was strange indeed. It was pretty slick too, very dependent on their looks and size though. Kind of like how a bully only picks on those he knows will not fight back, a pretty cool trick that had probably allowed the two girl's to win a good number of matches and they had the power to back up their attacks. This was going to be fun.
"You are going down little girl, you can not stand up to our might!"
"Oh please, it's a cute Ki trick, but it is so easy to figure out how it works." Ranma taunted. To bad they were girls though, he would have to test them to see just how good there really were. The only girl he knew he could go all out on was Shampoo and she had gotten lax in her training lately.
The two large women growled and jumped forward, working as a perfect team as one punched and the other kicked. Ranma just jumped up above the attacks, landed on Bertha's head and used it to flip behind them. Then Ranma hit the floor and took off running at full speed, she blew right by Nabiki and made her way out onto the mall's second level walkway. She turned to see all three girls running after her, so Ranma called them "ugly enough to kill a dog at twenty meters" and slapped her ass as she jumped off the second level to the floor below. She landed and took off running, behind her Matilda and Bertha landed hard as the cracked the floor.
"AGHHHHHH!! My eyes, my eyes!!" Screamed some nameless woman.
"AGHHHHHH!! Oh my god! AGHHHHH!!" Yelled a store clerk that happened to be looking the wrong direction when the girls landed.
A quick look showed that Nabiki hadn't joined the gruesome twosome in the jump, so she was probably looking for the stairs or following them from above. Ranma wasn't sure which one it was though, she would have to deal with the middle Tendo girl later. There was something about her that didn't feel right and she needed to make sure the Bertha and Matilda were taken care of. Those two were tossing random innocents around like a pair of linebackers from an American football team, Ranma could feel that something wasn't right with them as well. She hit a packed section of the mall and Ranma jumped onto the wall and ran along it for a ways before jumping back down and continuing on. The sounds screaming and a mass exodus for the bathroom soon followed when the gruesome twosome hit that area. Ranma was a bit surprised that they were still using their auras though, it must have been draining them of all their energy.
Then to Ranma's surprise she had so slide to a stop as Bertha seemed to just appear right in front of her. Sliding to a stop, she did a drop and roll to keep from being body slammed and elbow smashed by the wrestler. It was enough of a distraction to let Matilda catch up and get her in a head lock, but a quick Ki charged elbow to the girl's stomach was enough to make her back off in pain. She still felt bad about hitting them, but it looked like the both of them had been hit harder than that many times before, one couldn't get this ugly without working for it. Ranma had to give them some credit, they seemed to know what they were doing. They had placed themselves on both sides of her and were slowly circling around to keep her from escaping, but it seemed Nabiki hadn't told them to much about her Ki abilities.
"I have no interest in fighting either one of you."
"To bad shrimp, it just means you will go down faster." Said Bertha.
"I will break you like a twig." Matilda commented.
Ranma just shook her head and did a standing back flip and was soon well above the girl's heads. She rebounded off the wall, a store front, and was soon running back in the direction she had just come from. The crowd was almost completely gone by this time and she spotted a fountain up ahead, she used it as a stepping stone and flipped her way up to the second level with a smirk. All that training with the weight technique had paid off, she hadn't had to use any Ki for the jump. She landed to the applause of some of the shoppers and looked back to see Matilda and Bertha gaping at her from below, she waved back and took off. They didn't seem to know how to go up like they did down, which was a good thing in Ranma's opinion. To bad there was a stair case nearby, Matilda and Bertha made a bee line for it and bounded up three steps at a time.
"Sheesh!!" Ranma slid to a stop as the floor in front of her exploded and cut off the escape.
"You can't get away from me Ranma, your life is mine to do with as I please!"
Ranma turned and spotted Nabiki as she calmly walked up from out of nowhere, but something was off about the girl now. She wasn't sure what it was, but Ranma could feel it in her bones. Nabiki wasn't usually this heartless, even for her, ruthless and picky yes, not like this though. She had never caused this much of a hassle to anyone she need something from, she worked from behind the scenes. The aura of dark energy floating around the girl was a dead give away too, don't let it be said Ranma wasn't observant.
"What the hell happened to the Nabiki I knew?"
"I was offered freedom."
"Some freedom Nabiki."
"Ah, but the power that came with it is more than enough to defeat you and make you mine." Nabiki said as she lifted her hand and fired off a bolt of dark energy, Ranma barely dodged as she was taken completely by surprise, that had been the last thing she expected from someone like Nabiki, the bolt missing her head by mere inches and blew a section of the wall behind her to pieces.
"Can we play too boss?" Asked Matilda and Bertha as they finally made it back to the second level.
"Come on girls, let's get her."
"Sure thing boss."
Matilda and Bertha shot forward and Ranma realized she had no choice, all three girls were glowing with that dark energy now. Decision made, she crouched down and smirked, they had no idea what they were dealing with now. Matilda's fist shot forward, but Ranma just stabbed at it with her finger and twisted. Like Happosai and his pipe trick, Matilda's momentum was transferred and sent her flying through the roof of the mall with a scream of shock. At the same time Ranma shot her foot out into Bertha's sternum with a little extra Ki enhanced force, she went down like a stone. A precise kick to her neck was enough to render the unconscious for a few hours.
"I thought you didn't hit girl's Ranma?" Nabiki asked sarcastically.
"Only when I am forced to Nabiki."
"Then DIE!!" Nabiki yelled and held out her hand, a beam of energy fired out. Ranma dodged to the side, but the attack had been a feint. She was caught by surprise when Nabiki surged forward and performed a jump kick. She stood there and took the hit, more in shock than anything else. Then Nabiki landed and spun around and he saw that her foot was glowing with power. Hopping back desperately, Ranma watched in fascination as Nabiki's foot impacted the floor and sent up an explosion worthy of Ryoga. The blast pushed Ranma back several feet before she landed.
"Whoa!" Ranma said and upped his respect for Nabiki's fighting skills several notches, she knew for a fact that the middle Tendo daughter hadn't been this good a few weeks ago. Hell she had never practiced martial arts in the entire time he had known her except for a few hours here and there to keep up on basic throws and stuff. Ranma started to pace around the small dust cloud that had formed around the explosion and soon spotted Nabiki stepping out of the hole she had created, a dark aura forming around her as she moved.
"You may have beaten Matilda and Bertha, but they had thought that strength would be all that was needed to beat you. I knew better and asked for skill far and above your own Saotome and you're going to be begging me on your knees by the time I'm done with you. No more will you hurt my family, no more will you get away with hurting my sister with your shallow existence. No more of your freeloading idiot father be getting in my way, you will all pay for ruining the peace and quiet that existed before you showed up." Nabiki mumbled out.
Ranma took a closer look at Nabiki and noticed that her eyes were glazed and her skin was pale and withdrawn as if she was on the verge of exhaustion. Suddenly he knew what to do and ginned, he wouldn't even have to hit her to do it either. Nabiki raised her hands and formed a rather large black sphere of energy as she glared at her. Ranma just grinned and started side stepping again, making sure Nabiki followed her movements.
"Time to die Ranma." She hissed.
"I don't think you have the strength to beat me Nabiki, you may have been given the skill, but you don't' have the spirit to kill me."
"I have enough to kill you ten times over, worm."
"Yeah right, that's why you're about drop in your tracks right?"
"You're wrong, this is enough power to do anything I ever wanted to do." Nabiki yelled and pivoted to fire at Ranma, who had moved herself so that her back was against the safety wall. She just smirked and flipped backwards and fell to the floor below and watched as the black sphere of energy obliterated the safety wall completely. Though she did have to pull some kids out of the way as some of the floor that came crashing down behind her. This was closely followed by Nabiki as she hopped down from above and landed with ease, Ranma wondered how the skills had been given to her since she wasn't using them right. Which looked kind of freaky since she was wearing a white sweater, green slacks and a pair of sneakers.
"Oh boy." Ranma muttered as she scrambled backwards. Maybe her plan wasn't going to work after all, the girl seemed to be getting stronger by the second even as her body seemed to begin wasting away.
Nabiki raised her hand at a slight angle as her aura flared up again and started firing small balls of black energy that spread out all over the place as they converged on her. Scrambling for all she was worth, Ranma dodged and weaved her way through a rather nasty strafing run of explosive rounds Nabiki was giving off. It was almost like fighting Happosai and his stupid bombs. Ranma also noted how Nabiki out of the corner of her eyes, how she was reacting and if it looked like she had a limited amount of power to use. With every shot the girl fired out she would look worse and worse, as if the energy was being drawn right from her life force instead of her Ki. She was glad at least one part of his initial idea about Nabiki's new power was true, either that or she was a great actress, it was just so hard to tell. Ranma watched with narrowed eyes as some of Nabiki's aura seemed to jump out and drain a nearby group of kids of their energy and used it to fuel an even more powerful bombing of the area as Ranma ran and dodged and weaved.
"I've got you now!" Nabiki yelled and laughed.
Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, Ranma tried to dodge, but wasn't fast enough to get out of the way of Bertha's fist as it slammed into her face. Where in the hell had she come from? Ranma stumbled back a few steps to regain her balance, but Nabiki used the distraction to fire off yet another blast of energy and took Ranma right in the chest. It blasted the red head off her feet and into the wall of a nearby store, it shattered under the blow and buried her in a pile of cement and drywall. Ranma cursed herself for forgetting about Nabiki's two goons, she mustn't have hit that one hard enough taken them out as well as she'd had liked, it would take skull as thick as Kuno to throw off the hit she had delivered. She also recalled that they were glowing just like Nabiki and that meant that they were probably as pumped up as Nabiki was.
"Like the super strength and power wasn't enough." Ranma muttered to herself.
Ranma moved slowly, but managed to get a good grip on one of the blocks lying on top of her and pushed it off with a grunt, then pulled herself out of the rubble. She noticed Nabiki and her goons were waiting for her. "That was a good shot Nabiki, but not good enough." Ranma lied as she started to feel the pain from the shot through her chest and back, she hadn't felt anything like this since she screwed up and let Kuno hit her that one time.
"On the contrary Ranma, it was the perfect distraction to get you out of the way for a few seconds."
"Huh?" Ranma gasped out.
"RANMA, PREPARE TO DIE!!" Ryoga screamed just as he kicked Ranma in the shoulder.
Ranma flies off her feet and slams into another wall. Where in the hell did he come from, she thought. "Ow..."
"Oh Ryoga, he's been so mean since you left, abandoning Akane and his responsibilities, shacking up with a new girlfriend, it's been horrible!" Nabiki cried as she latched onto Ryoga's shoulder. Ranma glared as she noticed Nabiki send some of her dark energy into Ryoga. The Lost Boy's face went from angry to murderous in a matter of milliseconds, whatever it was Ranma knew she was in trouble. Ryoga screamed, a sound of incontestable fury and hate, and shot forward like a freight train, pulling his umbrella off his pack, his eyes were coal black and shinning with insane hatred.
"This isn't good." Ranma muttered and jumped to her feet.
This situation was getting too dangerous to keep it where it was and Ranma cursed herself for not taking it outside when she had the chance. It was beginning to look like she was going to have to transform to defeat this threat, but these were her friends, kind of, and she didn't want to hurt them. Ryoga could rot for all she cared, but Nabiki was another story and she needed to find a way to save her before things got to out of hand. A battle plan formed in Ranma's mind and even she knew it was a bad one, but she figured it would work if she took it in steps.
She dodged Ryoga's berserker attack and jumped off the second floor again, landing below and quickly running for the doors to the outside. To bad Matilda had finally made it back to the fight and was waiting for her as she landed. The girl screamed in fury and launched herself forward glowing with fury...and made this horrid sound when Ryoga landed on her, complete with his super heavy umbrella as he knocked her unconscious by slamming her head into the floor and tapping her behind the ear with his umbrella. He didn't even notice or didn't care, all Ranma could see was his new black aura as it flared up.
"Today is the day you die Ranma, no more games, you are going to be bloody smear on the wall as soon as I get my hands on you." Ryoga said evenly, calmly.
Ranma didn't bother to answer as she started to run again, she needed to get outside before she could do much of anything. Even at Ryoga's current power level she could handle him in her Scout form, unfortunately she just couldn't transform in front of a whole mall full of people. She thanked all the Kami in existence that most of the mall goers had ran for it while she was fighting the gruesome twosome earlier.
"Come back here and die you coward!" Ryoga roared.
"Oh there's a good idea." Ranma snapped as she finally reached the main doors to the mall and ran outside. Just like she had remembered, there was an over hang built over the main entrance to provide shade. It was made out of wood and painted in red and gold to attract the eye. She broke to the left just as she made it out side and jumped to the top of the over hang to the surprise of the people watching.
Ryoga burst through the door, shattering it with a single blow as he stalked outside and glared around. The amazed faces of those who had watched Ranma's jump turned to fear as the boy started to glow evilly. He continued to look around for a second, then stopped, looked up, and grinned, his fangs flashing. With a minor push of his feet Ryoga launched himself upward and broke through the over hang and landed on a the edge of the hole as he glared at a surprised Ranma.
"Since when can you actually think, pig boy?" Ranma muttered.
"Nabiki opened my eyes Ranma, I am seeing thing in their true light for the first time in years. I know you for the coward that you are now Saotome and I will have my revenge even if I have to kill all that you hold dear." Ryoga sneered and started walking forward.
Ranma gaped at the change in Ryoga's presence, whatever Nabiki had done to him it seemed that she had turned him into a true killer, he wasn't just saying it anymore. There wasn't a trace of compassion left in the Lost Boy's eyes and Ranma sighed, she had known deep inside that it could come down to this one day, she had hoped to avoid it though. She stood up as she crossed her arms across her chest and made her bracers flare into visibility, her aura flaring around her. Ryoga stopped and frowned in confusion.
"For what it is worth Ryoga, I hoped it would never come to this, but you have forced my hand."
Ryoga just laughed. "Fool, you may have once beaten Saffron, but I am much stronger than him now and I will have your blood by the time this fight is over."
"VULCAN KNIGHT SENSHI, MAKE UP!!" Ranma yelled and flared with blue light.
"DIE YOU HONORLESS FUCKER!!" Ryoga yelled and launched himself forward.
Just as Ranma's transformation finishes and looked Ryoga over again, but his increased speed is too much and it is already too late. Ryoga is a trained fighter and can move much faster than what most others, his umbrella was already in motion as Ranma surged with power to transform and it slammed into her just as she was finishing her power up. With a sickening sound as it hit her, Ranma was launched off the top the over hang with a scream as she felt some of her ribs shatter with it's impact, slightly amazed that the Lost Moron had avoided her block. She landed on the hood of a car about fifteen feet away and shattered the front window with her head, stars exploded in her eyes as the glass shattered around her.
Laughing insanely Ryoga hopped off the overhang and landed on the hood of the car and planting his knee in Ranma's stomach. "You're finished Saotome, revenge is mine." Ryoga hissed as his arm rose up, his fist glowing with black power.
Ranma groaned in pain.
"Mars Flame Sniper!"
"Huh?" Ryoga gasped and snapped his head around just in time to be taken in the chest with a magical arrow made of fire and was blown off the car with a curse. Ranma barely noticed as she struggled to get back into the fight. Off to the side Ryoga was pulling himself out of a small crater as he struggled to his feet and growled evilly and noted three of the Sailor Scouts standing on the cars around him. Mars was on top of a nearby car with another arrow of fire ready to fire, aim right at Ryoga. Off to the side Jupiter was also charged up and ready to fire off a devastating flood of electricity as she glared at the Lost Boy, though he did look like her old boyfriend.
Mercury was by Ranma's side checking her over for wounds and other things with her hand held computer. She was surprised at the amount of power the boy must have had to injure one of their more effective members, but she figured that it was because of Ranma's lack of experience with the powers that Usagi had given him. Though the computer was telling her that he was a lot stronger than he had been several days ago, but right now he had several broken bones and a bit of internal bleeding that her powers were taking care of. Off to the side she watched as Mars and Jupiter attacked Ryoga, blowing up the area. She ignored it for now and went back to Vulcan, to her surprise her computer was telling that Ranma was just stunned. What few cuts she had received from the windshield were already disappearing as her healing ability kicked in.
"Come on Vulcan, get up." Mercury said.
"I feel like I was stepped on by an elephant."
"We got your call, sorry it took so long to get here."
"That's alright Mercury, I almost didn't call you."
"Wha...why?!" Mercury asked.
"This is my fight, my friends and family are in danger. I just knew that I was going to have problems curing them without Sailor Moon using her healing abilities." Ranma muttered as she sat up and shook here head, her ribs were killing her.
"Venus and Moon are in the mall trying to track down Nabiki and her helpers."
"They need to be careful to watch out for them, those three have been jacked up in some powerful ways."
"They can handle it Vulcan."
"Maybe Matilda and Bertha, but I wonder about Nabiki." Ranma said as she slowly climbed off the car.
"Why?"
"Nabiki is very good at tactics, she is smart and won't go down like some of your other opponents. She did this to Ryoga, turning his hate and depression into this murderous rage. We have to help them."
"We will Vulcan."
"Ryoga is going to pay for doing this though, his anger is always getting him in trouble."
"Well help all of them Vulcan, don't worry."
"Yeah, Yeah."
Ranma stretched and loosened up her body for the battle to come, she had seriously underestimated Ryoga and allowed him to get a good shot in, and it had nearly cost her the whole battle before it started. She sighed when she noticed she was in her female outfit again, the coat/dress combo that showed off her breasts and legs by emphasizing them for all to see. At least she had on a pair of decent black leather boots. She didn't think she would ever get used to how she looked in it, one of Happosai's wet dreams. It even gave her a bit of make up and ear rings shaped like little stars.
Sigh.
**********
Tenchi and the others were beginning to wonder about Washu lately, she had spent the last few hours shouting insults and cheering something in her lab and it was getting strange. They were tempted to go in there and see what was going on, but she had a nasty tendency to want to take samples whenever they came into the lab.
"You think we should go in there?" Tenchi asked.
"I don't know Lord Tenchi." Ayeka said and cuddled up to him.
"Back off Princess, Tenchi is mine!" Ryoko yelled and cuddled up to his other side.
Tenchi sighed and wondered why they acted like this, it wasn't as if he encouraged them to act this way.
Katsuhito just sipped his tea and smirked at his grandson's plight.
**********
Much to Moon and Venus' surprise, the mall was almost completely deserted. They were used to arriving at a battle and spending a few minutes telling people to leave or waiting for them to finish running away. It was pretty rare that they were late like this, but Ranma hadn't called them until well after the fight started so there wasn't much for them to do but get down to business. The damage to the mall seemed to be isolated to the open areas around the large fountain in the middle of the mall and up on the second level. The two girls were also surprised that they hadn't been attacked yet, they weren't exactly being stealthy.
They had found one large woman in a two piece suit half buried in the floor near that fountain. It had been pretty obvious that she had been attacked and beat to within an inch of her life. The large bruise on the back of her head had stood out as well, so much that even Sailor Moon could see it with ease. They walked around a little more and noted all the broken walls, or signs of someone being sick. Neither of them wanted to mention the horrid smell in the air, they were too innocent girls to have any knowledge of what it was.
"Why did that jerk wait so long before calling us?" Venus asked.
"I don't know, but he is still pretty new at this and the last few weeks have been pretty bad for him."
"Him? He is the most irritating and arrogant guy I have ever met, I still don't see what you see in him."
"He's not that bad Venus."
"He's a jerk."
"Venus, he hasn't even done anything to you."
"He's a pervert, a jerk, and...and...and...A PERVERT!!"
"What do you have against him then?"
Venus growled. "He was ogling me."
"WHAT?! When did he do that?"
"At the temple the other day when we were all running around."
"That was your fault Venus!" Moon yelled.
"Hmph!!"
"Heheheheheheh..."
Venus and Moon looked around and spotted a small girl leaning against the wall a feet away. She had short brown hair and a an evil aura all around her, beside her stood a very big woman that looked like she too had seen in a large fight. Moon and Venus realized that this woman was perhaps the ugliest thing they had ever seen and nearly gagged at the sight of her. The small one smirked at them and stepped forward. "It looks like Ranma still has his odd affect on women, kind of reminds me of his first meeting with Akane."
"You must be Nabiki." Sailor Moon said.
Nabiki nodded. "These is my friend Bertha, Matilda is in a hole back there and seems to have been taken out for the duration. I'm here to take Ranma back with me, you can't stop me Sailor Moon."
"I can't let you do that." Moon said.
"I don't want to fight you Sailor Moon, just leave Ranma to us and we won't have a problem."
"No go, I don't like the jerk but he doesn't have to go anywhere with you." Venus said and took a defensive stance, she wanted to be ready to fire off a Crescent Beam in an instant.
"Ranma isn't going back to the life he had in Nerima Miss Tendo, he told us all about what happened to him when he was there. He doesn't want to go back to that." Moon said.
"He has no choice because it is his responsibility." Nabiki snapped.
"No, he has a choice and he made it."
Nabiki flared up and screamed, but Venus was faster and fired off a Crescent Beam before anything could happen and blew the girl through the side of a store. Bertha rushed forward and tried to punch Venus, but she dodged and fired again, taking the large woman right in the chest. Sailor Moon fired a beam out of her sceptre and hit Nabiki before she could get herself out of the rubble of the wall, then turned it on the large woman. Both cried out and collapsed as a burst of dark energy left the two girls and flew off before Moon could do much of anything.
"That was easy." Venus said as she tapped Bertha with her toe.
"I know, I wonder why?" Moon said.
**********
Mars and Jupiter slammed into the roof of cars as they fell out of the sky and landed hard. Their bodies were covered in bruises from being hit by the umbrella welding boy, his berserk fury was impossible to break through. He was like an unstoppable dreadnaught. Only Vulcan seemed to have any luck with him and that was growing less and less by the moment, because she was injured and bleeding internally. Mercury rushed over to them and made sure they were okay with her computer before she allowed them to get up off the cars.
"How in the hell is this guy so strong, we keep hitting him and hitting him with our strongest attacks and yet he won't stay down." Jupiter complained.
"Vulcan said he was given some kind of dark power, my scans show that he has been completely overwhelmed by the power."
"Overwhelmed? He's almost completely unstoppable so far, he shrugs off Mars' fire attacks, my lighting, and even your cold attacks. How do we fight that?"
Mercury had her computer out and was scanning Ryoga again. "My scans of him can not find any kind of major weakness of any kind, just that whenever Ranma hits him something odd happens."
"Something odd?" Jupiter asked.
"His energy spikes for a second, becoming unstable in some way, but I can't lock onto it very much.
They turned to watch as Vulcan flipped over Ryoga and kicked him in the head dozens of time, landed and fired off a Ki attack that Ryoga took in the chest and shrugged off. His insane laughing was getting annoying too. "Hey Mercury, didn't Vulcan fire off one of those blasts at the school the last time we had to fight and created that crater?" Jupiter asked.
"Yes, these blasts are more controlled though, she is also running out of energy and if this keeps up she will lose." Mercury said.
"Find anything yet Mercury?" Sailor Moon asked as she landed beside them. Venus landed off to the side and walks up.
"Those three in the mall went down pretty easy, what's up with this one?"
"His power levels are through the roof, on par with Vulcan even in her current form. We haven't had a chance to do much of anything just yet."
"How about if I use the crystal on Ryoga?" Sailor Moon asked.
Mercury types on her computer for a few seconds and shakes her head. "The results are inconclusive."
"Huh?"
"I can't tell what will happen."
"Oh, um...how about if we do that one attack where we all fire at him at once and overwhelm him?"
Mercury typed again and nodded. "That plan has a better chance of working, but we need a distraction for it to work so that we can surround him and hit him from all sides."
Vulcan spun low and came up underneath Ryoga's jump and used the Amaguriken to slam over a thousand full power punches into Ryoga's stomach. It sent the Lost Boy flying back and hurt Vulcan's hand more than she had anticipated, but gave her a few seconds breathing room to rest up come up with a new attack. Ryoga was pounding the hell out of her, even in this Scout form of hers, and her damage was beginning to slow her down. If she took much more she knew there as a chance that he would win and put her down. Vulcan also smiled, it was also the best fight she'd had in a long time, the moron wasn't holding back for once and his skills were showing through.
It was too bad that something like this had to happen for him to go all out though, it would have been fun a few months a go. Now it was just dangerous and he was hurting the Scouts, she was glad they all had that magical healing or Ranma would have had to kill him by now and that was something that she had decided not to do just yet. Using a lethal technique didn't feel right yet, it was like fighting Saffron in a way. She hadn't killed him until every last option had been taken away and she still had a few ideas about how to deal with Ryoga, now all she had to do was find the strength to make sure she pulled it off. She looked over at the Scouts and saw that they were trying to get her attention, so she made couple of hops and landed near them. "What's up?"
"We have a plan, but we need Ryoga distracted for at least twenty to forty seconds." Mercury said.
"Forty seconds? I don't know if I can do more that five at this rate, he isn't holding back and I'm beginning to feel it."
"Just keep him focused on you so that we can surround him and throw everything at him." Jupiter said.
Vulcan nodded. "That I can do, I'll move the fight in between those two trucks over there to limit our fight area."
"That's too small, just keep him right were he is and we'll take care of the rest." Mercury said.
"Okay."
"RANMA!!" Ryoga screamed as he returned to the fight.
"Hey Ryoga, I thought you got lost there for a minute there."
"DIE!!" Ryoga screamed and ran forward.
Vulcan just grinned and ran forward, they slammed together in a bang, and their fists flying as Ranma went on the defensive. He pulled Ryoga in the beginning of the spiral, dodging at faster and faster speeds and pushing the last of his strength into this attack. Ryoga's enraged face looked confused for a second, then he just smirked and shook his head. Ranma just kept the attack up and started to use the Soul of Ice to cool the air.
"You don't expect that to work on me do you Ranma? I know how to defeat that attack you know."
"Maybe, but it's worth a try."
"Why try, it won't work now that I'm aware that you were going to do it."
"Isn't it?" Vulcan said and vanished before Ryoga's eyes.
Then it started as Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and Moon all fired at Ryoga as they formed a circle and laid into him at one second intervals. Hitting him from the front, back, and sides before he had time to recover and counter attack. This went on for some minutes with Ryoga taking more punishment than they had thought possible, then Vulcan re-entered the fight glowing like a blue star as the jewel on her chest flared to life.
"DIVINE ASSAULT BOMB!!" Vulcan yelled and fire the blue energy that had gathered in her hands directly into Ryoga's torso. It exploded and sent him flying backward, through the trailer of one of those trucks, through a wall, and deep into the middle of the mall.
"Whoa!!" Mars said, she had only seen that kind of strength used by the Outers when they were really pissed off.
"I'll say." Venus said, impressed despite herself.
"What about Ryoga?" Mercury said and turned to Moon, but she was gone. They all turned to see her sprinting for the mall to check on the Lost Boy.
"Oh great..." Vulcan said and collapsed to her knees as the Vulcan transformation vanished. She passed out at their feet.
"Vulcan!" Mars and Mercury cried out and knelt down to help their friend out. "Come on you two, we have to get her out of here." Mercury said.
"Why should we bother?" Venus snapped. "I never asked to have her on the team."
Mercury gasped and looked up at Venus, she had never heard anything like that from her friend before. She stood up slowly and glared in Venus' eyes, then flipped open her computer and scanned her friend. Almost instantly she started to detect traces of dark energy on her and Jupiter, with smaller amounts within herself and Mars. "I'm detecting Dark energies within all of us, especially Venus and Jupiter, they have the highest concentrations."
"What?!" Venus gasped and looked down at herself and suddenly realized that she had been acting differently than normal. She screamed and started running around them in circles and waving her arms. "GETITOUT GETITOUT GETITOUT GETITOUT!!"
"Geeze Venus, It's not that bad, we just need to have Moon cleanse us when she returns." Jupiter said and shrugged.
Mars flipped open her communicator. "Sailor Moon?"
"What's up Mars?"
"We need you to get back here as soon as possible."
"I'm still trying to find Ryoga so that I can get rid of that dark energy in him."
"Just find where he landed Meatball Head!"
"Hey Pyro, I already did that, he wasn't there so I was looking around for him! Moon snapped right back.
"If you don't find him in the next few minutes we'll meet you inside the mall, we need you to cleanse Venus and Jupiter, they've been given a bit of dark energy and we need it taken care of."
"Sailor Moon, we need it done on all of us. Were all being effected by it in some way." Mercury said.
"Okay, I'll meet you guys in a few minutes. Those girls we took care of are gone as well, I can't find anything about where they went."
"That's alright, we'll deal with it when we get a chance."
**********
To Be Continued...
Ending Notes -
