Sorry about the delayed update -- FFNet's new QuickEdit system is just plain wreacking havoc with the formatting here.
TOKYO
Chapter 9
The Beast
At the restaurant where Ranma worked, Akane Tendo paused as she did the dishes. (Nobody trusted her anywhere else in the kitchen.)
"Akane? What's up?" asked Sakaki, a slightly older young woman with long black hair, looking over from where she was chopping carrots.
Akane shrugged, and continued. "I dunno ... I just ... all of a sudden had a bad feeling about something ..."
"Wonder what that means," said Sakaki. "Do you have some kind of psychic power?"
Akane shrugged again. "Well, no, unless you count my ability to sense chi that I get from my martial arts training," she said. She felt a gnawing feeling in her stomach.
"Do you think it might have to do with Ranma?" asked Sakaki as she resumed chopping the carrots.
There was a pause, and then, in a quiet voice, Akane said, "I don't know."
She didn't bark back that it had nothing to do with him, thought Sakaki, filing that away for future reference.
But after a moment, she felt it, too.
"Dang ... There wasn't even any hint that he'd been hurt!" said Seifer. "Those Techniques must be pretty ..." He stopped, seeing that everyone's minds were elsewhere.
They were in the depths of the power plant now, and it was pitch black except for a ball of light hovering around them, created by Soma.
"I'm definitely sensing a dark aura," said Soma.
"Me too," said Ranma. "It's not like it's huge, really, as much as it's more ... fundamental."
"I have a bad feeling about this," said Seifer.
"Yeah, that's what I mean," said Ranma. He frowned and turned to Nei. "You doing okay?"
"I ... th-think so," she said. She was clearly terrified of something, but she was clearly controlling it better than most people would at that level, including -- Ranma decided to face the facts -- himself.
"You look like you're shaking so much, if someone gave you a laser gun you'd put your signature in the target," said Seifer.
"I-I'm fine," said Nei. "Don't worry about me ..."
"Are you still getting some kind of ... precognition?" said Soma cautiously.
Nei nodded, and shivered visibly.
Seifer said, "Must be one hell of a vision."
"Oh, hush," Ranma grumbled. "I think it's really time you WAUGH!"
The metal floor he'd been walking across suddenly gave way, and he fell into the darkness below with a crash.
"Ranma!" exclaimed Soma, looking down. "Are you all right!?"
"Uh, yeah," said Ranma. He sounded like he was only ten feet below them. "Could you get me a light?"
Soma simply dropped down into the hole below, creating another ball of light as he did so. Seifer shrugged, glanced at Nei, and then jumped in after them. Nei followed, seeming extremely reluctant.
"Uh, thanks," said Ranma, getting to his feet. "But you didn't really need to jump in after me."
"Anything broken?" asked Soma.
"Nah, I've been kicked into worse things by Akane," he said.
"My bad feeling just got worse," said Seifer. "Where are we, anyway?"
"I think we're near the generators," said Soma. "There, see? It's one of the furnaces where fossil fuels were burned to spin the turbines and generate electricity ..." He stopped. There was a darker shadow there ...
"Uh-oh," said Ranma.
"Oh, crap," said Seifer.
They had seen its face before, whenever Zio had used his Nightmare ability right before casting the Black Wave. It was massive, with a skull-like face, permanently locked into a leer of pure evil, baring its multitude of fangs. Its eyes blazed with a smouldering hatred for all that lived, and focused on each of them with a gaze that seemed to pierce into their souls.
The rest of its body wasn't that much better. A huge, writhing mass of flesh, barely covering its bones, pulsating with untold power. It was clear that, however power Zio was, next to this beast he was nothing.
Nei actually seemed close to tears from her terror. "Dark Force," she whispered.
Soma didn't even bother to draw his sword. "Nei, get us the hell out of here!"
... but there was no way her Techniques could penetrate the Darkness that surrounded this beast.
"We are so fricking screwed," said Seifer.
The last thing Ranma saw before the blast from its mouth engulfed them was Seifer pulling something out of his trench coat ...
"What the hell just happened!?" exclaimed Dita, looking at the Mandala.
"I don't know," said Zelgadis. "There's suddenly been an upsurge in dark energy where they are ... Let's see what the Orb shows us." He went to the orb. "Holy shit."
"VASH! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!" shouted Dita. She went to the phone. "I'm calling Zero," she said.
"What's going on!?" said Vash as he all but fell down the stairs. Then he yelped as he saw the image in the Orb.
"I wish we had more than eight members," muttered Zelgadis. "Let's get moving!"
"Wait ... we're going to fight that thing!?" exclaimed Vash.
"Yes," said Zelgadis. "I know you aren't very experienced, but we're going to need all the help we can get here. And we may already be too late ..."
Rufus Shinra looked out over the city and felt a vague unease. This was an unusual experience for him, which didn't help. It was as if there was ... something fundamentally bad out there somewhere.
He finally had a focus for it when he saw the explosion in the slums. He went over and tapped a button. "Get me the Maverick Hunters," he said.
"Commander Zero was trying to call you, actually," said the voice on the other end. "I was just about to call you."
Rufus paused. "Good," he said. "Patch him through."
Smoke was pouring out of the top of the power plant when the four arrived. Zero immediately pulled out his Z-Saber, and noted that Zelgadis had his own sword drawn. Dita had her blaster out, and Vash was merely standing there looking nervous.
There was the sound of running footsteps, and then a squadron of H.O.L.D. troops and Maverick Hunters arrived. "Don't shoot!" said one of the H.O.L.D. troops. "Or ... stab, or whatever. We're on your side!"
"I should hope so. I'm the one who called you," said Zero. He gestured towards the plant with his saber. "Shall we move in?"
The plant exploded.
It wasn't a nuclear explosion; it hadn't been a nuclear plant, for one thing. Nor was it the orange fireball that filmmakers are so fond of depicting when anything explodes. No, this explosion was full of smoke, an instant of flame, and lots and lots of falling shrapnel and rock.
Out of it, like a Balrog from a pit of fire, came Dark Force. There was the sound behind them of H.O.L.D. troops and Maverick Hunters running away.
"Crap," said Zero under his breath. He glanced around, half-expecting to see that Vash had fled with the others.
He hadn't. He was simply standing there, a hard look on his face, as if matching Dark Force's gaze.
The smoke settled in the pit that Dark Force had just vacated. Four figures lay there, unconscious. In twin columns of green light, Zio and Neifirst materialized.
"So," said Zio, "which of the boys would you like to kill when you're done with your 'sister'?"
Neifirst grinned wickedly, and looked up towards the figure of Dark Force for a moment, reveling in the sight of a being of pure destruction: a state she could only wish for. "Hmm ... I think I'll take the kid with the girl-curse on him," she said, looking down at Ranma and extending her claws.
"Excellent," said Zio. "I was hoping you'd let me kill the twit with the gunblade -- he got on my nerves." He looked down at Soma. "Of course, I wonder if I'll be able to use the dark powers at my command to kill this one -- he is part vampire, if I understand correctly."
Neifirst nodded. "I want to savor this moment," she said ... and then they heard the cry.
It was a cry of hope, piercing through the terror generated by Dark Force. It was a cry of a great, mystical bird as it flew down, it seemed, from above the clouds.
The Phoenix swooped down towards the center of the combat, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. But it wasn't destructive fire; rather, it seemed to merely illuminate its gigantic wings.
A red glow surrounded them all, as Dark Force turned its smouldering gaze up to glare at the Phoneix, but it seemed immune to the terror. Seifer, Nei, Ranma, and Soma were lifted into the air, their wounds fading away with a crimson flame ...
... and then a huge blast of fire slammed into Neifirst and Zio, seeming to even pummel Dark Force, before the Phoenix finally took off and flew away.
Seifer grinned. "I knew that Phoenix Pinion would come in handy ..."
Zio looked singed. His glare really did smoulder as he stood up. "You will pay for that," he said, his composure cracked. "You and the rest of your friends are going to die." He reached down and grasped Neifirst's shoulder, and then the two of them vanished in a black haze.
And then they were alone. Eight of them, arrayed against Dark Force.
It swung a gigantic, clawed hand down at Vash, who simply jumped to the side, firing his gun. The bullet hit Dark Force square between the eyes, and it roared, shaking the entire city.
This shook Zero out of the trance he was in, and he leaped into the air, swinging his sword in a complicated series of slashes at its face. Dita fully charged an X-Buster she'd gotten her hands on and fired it off at Dark Force. At the same time, Soma leaped into the air and slashed at Dark Force's back.
Zelgadis closed his eyes. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows," he murmured, beginning the incantation for a powerful spell. "Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows."
Seifer, meanwhile, raised his hand and cast Ultima. White light exploded against Dark Force, expanding in a pearlescent sphere of energy before fading away.
Nei threw her hands forward with a cry of "NaThu!" A yellow blast of light flew from her hands and knocked against Dark Force.
"In thy great name, I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand," murmured Zelgadis, power beginning to surround him, "before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hands."
Zero noticed what Zelgadis was doing. "Aw crap!" he yelled. "Everyone, out of the way!"
Dita grabbed Vash and threw the two of them to the ground a good distance away, even as Vash fired off another shot and hit Dark Force along the jaw.
Ranma leaped into the air, drawing the power of Dark Force's hot chi into himself and combined it with his own chi. "Hiryu Hyotoppa!" he called, throwing a powerful blast of wind at it from behind.
Zelgadis raised his hand, and a glowing ball of energy coalesced into it. "Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I posses," he cried, and thrust his hands forwad. "DRAGON SLAVE!"
A gigantic red-orange blast of magic flew forward and smashed into Dark Force. There was an immense release of magical energy, and an enormous yellow dome of light expanded outward, completely destroying the surrounding abandoned buildings, erupting outward in a blast that created a minor earthquake through the city.
Zelgadis stood, looking with satisfaction at the gigantic smoking crater in front of him. Vash, Zero, and Dita lay sprawled on the ground nearby, and he could see Nei using her healing Techniques on Ranma, Soma, and Seifer fifty feet away.
There was no sign that Dark Force had even been there, save for a deeper blackness at the center of the crater that slowly faded away even as he watched.
"Well," he said, "looks like we did it." And then he slumped forward, unconscious.