Full Circle II
Chapter 5: Ranma / Boomer Benpai Round One
Ranma's gaze flickered between the heavily armored monstrosity and the students of his school. When he had reentered the dojo he had been prepared for a fight, a fight, which judging from the backhand he had been given would be the most satisfying in decades. Skillfully executed and with enough force to smash him through two walls, it seemed he had finally found an opponent that would top Ryoga's legendary strength.
Ryoga had always been stronger than Ranma while he had been able to keep up but he like all the martial artists in Ranma's life had succumbed to the ravages of time meaning that eventually Ranma through training had become even stronger. Not having to worry about aging helped almost as much as the extra training. This beast though was strong, he couldn't say that about many opponents after the centuries of training he had behind him.
Reentering the dojo in a loose stance he prepared to either take on the dojo destroyer or help evacuate and protect the students of his school. Neither action had been necessary, before he could satisfy his need to go all out and match himself against such a potentially dangerous and skillful opponent the family robot had walked in. It surprised him when the female robots eyes emitted a malevolent red glow effectively halting the rampage of the metallic beast before it had brought the entire dojo down. What sort of technique could freeze a rampaging opponent like that? He couldn't feel an oppressive battle aura and yet the effects had been similar – 'something to think about later.'
"Hurry, we need to get the injured out before the roof collapses." Ranma started in surprise at the actions of Nabiki as she rallied the students, this was a side he had not expected to see in the arrogant Anything Goes heir. Since the destroyer had first crashed into their class she had been frantically organizing the students and evacuating them, already half of the injured had been moved outside by those who had escaped injury.
Ranma had half expected that she would gather the healthier students together and attack the beast in defense of their dojo. That was certainly something he would have done but then he never had to deal with so many injured students or the recognition that his skills were not even close to enough to deal with whatever threat threatened his school. It was an action that would have been both rash and foolhardy; the injured should be the first priority. It was good to see that his first impressions of the girl were wrong. It seemed that all was not lost and that aside from some rough edges she definitely had some potential he could work with. He expected nothing less from his own progeny.
"Ranma, what are you doing just sitting there. You're not injured so how about helping?" Ranma grunted in reply not moving from his position in the corner of the wrecked dojo. Here he had a good view of the class, the armored beast and the hole the class was using to evacuate the injured. It was fascinating watching his school operating in such a disciplined and orderly manner in the face of such an event. Even more so that it was one of his descendants was leading them, but fascinating as watching Nabiki in action was the families robot was what captured most of his attention. The way it morphed into inorganic tentacles of seeming larger mass than its original form and engulfed the large mechanical dojo destroyer was not something he had ever seen before. Its slow absorption of the great mechanical being and its piecing red stare made Ranma shudder, this was something he would definitely need to keep an eye on.
The amount of injury caused by such an insignificant thing as a collapsing roof was another demonstration of the depths to which his school had fallen. A falling roof would have no more than bruised some of the less skilled members of his school while he had been in charge of training. Now he could see broken bones and crushed limbs, what a disaster. "Someone needs to watch to make sure that thing doesn't wake up, if it does who's gonna protect the injured?" he answered arrogantly volunteering himself for such a role. With their limited ability to channel Ki and control their aura there was no way the people in this room would have any hope in defeating this monstrosity in defense of their dojo. Not to mention how, whatever the family robot was doing would affect the strength of ferocity of the dojo destroyer.
"Idiot, there's nothing you can do. Just help us evacuate the wounded, the AD police should be here any minute." Ranma snorted in disbelief, there was no way a police force could deal with something like that. He had met and trained a few people that could possible together stand a chance against the monstrosity but none had been in any police force or armed forces. He just wondered what would happen when it woke up and the police arrived. Not the attractive outcome Nabiki was hoping for he imagined.
"You're relying on police to defeat that? You'll be glad I'm guarding that thing before this is out." He didn't think anyone apart from that girl he had picked up in old Tokyo had seen him getting hit by that thing earlier and he intended to let Ranko do all the fighting for the time being. It was still too early to reveal himself and he was still getting a feeling for the condition of his school. From his earlier discussion his female side had escaped mention in the histories of the schools founding. Either that or Akane just hadn't mentioned her, he liked to think it was the former for what he planed.
Akane had been evacuated with the first of the injured under Suon supervision, his opinion of Nabiki had been raising steadily and the students seemed to be a good group. The only thing his school really lacked was skill; everything else was mostly rough edges, although Suon's behavior under pressure had hardly been impressive and he hadn't seen Kusumi since their conversation in his room.
The sound of gunfire ricocheting of the hardened body of the monstrosity combined with the slamming of the wooden entrance to the dojo caused Ranma to jerk in alarm. Kasumi stood in a daze, staring blankly at the remains of the dojo, the injured students and the great armored robot responsible. She seemed almost oblivious to the danger of the ricocheting bullets or the giant war machine standing in the middle of the Tendo dojo.
"AAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!" Nabiki and the other uninjured students doubled their efforts in moving the injured students as further gunfire woke the beast causing resumption in the destruction of the dojo. 'Looks like the police are here, I've yet to find a competent police force,' thought Ranma while considering the bravery or stupidly of such a senseless act. Their bullets were obviously doing more harm than good so why did they persist.
"Kasumi get out of here," Ranma shouted trying to snap the elder Tendo out of her stupor. "Kasumi," Ranma cursed as one of the enormous fists, which had knocked him through the compound wall, demolished what was left of the east wall and continued in its path to strike the still gazed Tendo.
"Damn," Ranma cursed again as he dove for the girl idly dodging the ricocheting bullets and shaking his head seeing that some of his students were not so lucky. Today was going to be a day to remember.
Leon dropped the clutch and spun the back wheels in an attempt to slow the speeding patrol car. "Alright, we beat the Sabers" he announced in triumph loading his gun with armour piecing rounds in preparation for engaging the rogue boomer.
"Maybe that wasn't such a good idea this time Leon," muttered Daley looking up at the monstrous armored Boomer as it towered over the remains of the Tendo dojo. It looked silent as survivors made their way out of a hole in one of the stonewalls surrounding the complex in an orderly manner. Only the malicious red glow of the eyes gave the boomer away, the evil glare of a rogue boomer inspired fear in those who had ever witnessed the amount of destruction and injury they could create.
"What are you…." Leon stared before getting a good look rogue Boomer for the first time. "What the hell is that, damn Genom – what where they thinking when they built that." An obvious military modal such as this should never have been built let alone allowed anywhere near Tokyo. Still he could appreciate the need for heavily armored weapons in some circumstances, mostly combating rogue Boomers. It made no sense to him creating heavily armed boomers.
"Still think we should've beat the Night Sabers here Leon?"
"Screw it Wong. You've got a gun use it," Leon snapped as he clicked a new magazine in place a started firing on the beast.
"I don't know what that things is made if but I think we woke it up," shouted Daley as he reloaded his clip and resumed his firing.
"Damn headquarters what's taking them so long," shouted Leon as he watched his armour piercing rounds bouncing of the surface of the Boomer. There was no way he and his partner could take the boomer down by themselves and the Knight Sabers could be arriving at any time.
"I hate to say it but it looks like we may need the Knight Sabers this time Leon. Reinforcements are not going help much with that. We aren't even scratching it."
"Didn't I say to scr….what," Leon cut of in surprised confusion, focusing his gun fire at the blur which was heading straight at him from the direction of the boomer. He cursed as the clip ran out but before he could even thing of reloading or diving out of the way the blur snap-kicked his gun out of his hands and back-fisting his partners into the windscreen of his patrol car.
Leon took a step back, a little intimidated by the furious expression on the young man that so suddenly materialized from the blur and appeared in his face. Something about the young man screamed 'run away' making him all too aware that just a moment ago he had been shooting at him. The crashing of his windscreen shattering when Daley's gun struck it, clearly demonstrated the strength of the man in front of him.
"What is it about cops and their guns," the young mans distain at their profession was obvious from his expressions. "Here," he announced thrusting an unconscious young woman into his arms. "The survivors are gathering over there make your self useful - there's injured. Broken bones, crushing and penetrating wounds and…" Leon took another step back as he growled out "gunshot wounds."
"The cavalries arrived," Daley joked trying to lighten the atmosphere. Ranma looked to where he pointed and shook his head at the blue streaks rapidly approaching. "Go," he commanded the two policemen before once again approached the dojo. The two AD policemen hurried to where he had pointed and so there was none to watch as his curse activated.
Most of the students had been evacuated and Ranko had arrived just in time for the real fight to begin.
"What is that thing Priss?" Nene's worried whine blared over the communication systems as the rogue boomer came into view. The huge mechanical beast towered over what was once the Tendo dojo, there wasn't much left standing as the fiend continued its rampage. She was impressed at the orderly manner in which people where evacuating the area. Normally more people were injured from the stream of panicked people than from the rogue boomer, particularly if they got there within minutes of detecting a reaction in the boomers core. Such a reaction took some to completely corrupt a Boomers core giving them some leeway, it was only at times like this where they had to replace their batteries that Rogue boomers had anytime to cause huge amounts of damage.
"Its just a bigger and uglier boomer than we've dealt with before Nene. Let me occupy it, you just find its core so I can destroy it quickly, tonight's already been long enough." Sylia was paying them for every boomer destroyed, so there wasn't much point taking their time. "Move it Nene, the AD police are already here," she growled as Nene perched on what was left of the compound wall.
"Don't worry so much Priss, until reinforcements arrive there's not much that those two detectives can do to us. Besides there's so much information here," Nene murmured as she started sorting through the data coming in from her instruments.
"Yeah, and for once they are looking after the injured instead of …Nene!!" Priss screamed in disbelieve as a tentacle like arm speed from behind a pile of rubble and smashed her companion into one of the ruined skyscrapers that abounded old Tokyo. 'How many times had Sylia warned them about the rogue boomers and how dangerous they were,' Priss berated herself. Still all the others she had fought them they had been satisfied with destroying or absorbing the surrounding materials making themselves stronger. From her limited experience, rogue Boomers rarely attacked outside of their immediate vicinity unless they were attacked themselves, she had not expected this one to be any different.
"Nene, answer me. Nene!!" Priss tried desperately to get her younger team member on the communications channel even though the scrapped remains of her suit was embedded into the concrete wall. "Damn you!!" she screamed at the overly armored Boomer as she prepped her knuckle bombs. She could only imagine what was left of Nene from the mangled remains of Nene's suit.
"Calm down and report Priss," Sylia urged over the communications channel. "Priss!! What's going on?" Sylia's persistent questions tuned themselves out into a drone of monosyllable muttering as Priss's adrenalin surged. Switching her radio off, Priss charged the beast "Die!!!" she screamed as images of Nene flashed through her head. Jumping off the compound wall and landing on the back of its huge neck Priss slammed her fist down between its shoulders detonating her knuckle bombs. "Eat this Boomer!!" she shouted in anger amidst the boom and smoke of her knuckle bombs exploding.
"What the hell?" she cried in strangled pain and confusion, cradling the shredded remains of her suits arm. Flicking her radio back on as her shock flushed the adrenalin out of her system causing her to calm down. "Sylia what the hell is this monster made off," she demanded. "There's barely a scratch on it thing and my suits wrecked."
"We'll talk about it later, for now you need to get Nene and withdraw. Priss do you hear me. Damn it Priss answer me," Sylia slammed the headset down in frustration from the communications van she was using as a headquarters. At this rate things would not end happily for them unless she broke out that thing. She had promised herself she wouldn't and for a while it had seemed that Nene and Priss were handling things well enough that she would never have too. Had she left it to late to recruit a new member?
Ranma slowly cracked the knuckles in both hands from where he watched the beast wiping the floor with the two new fighters. Knight Sabers, what a stupid name for such a weak pair. They weren't much better than those two fools from the police. He wasn't sure which one was worse, the one in the pink tech – suit or the one wearing the blue.
At first he was a little surprised at finding some moderately strong female auras inside the suits, but after thinking about it a little, it made sense. In a society, which had lost its skill, its warriors would have to out of necessity look for alternatives. It was a novel solution; a suit would be much harder to disarm than a sword or gun – if there had been able to use them effectively.
Watching them fight from his hiding place was almost painful though, the pink suited girl just sat there waiting for the thing to hit her. That tactic wasn't so bad, he had done so himself on occasion. It was a good way to judge an opponents strength and fighting spirit. Take the hit and then viciously counterattack with a speed which would overcome there defenses. What made him shake his head in dismay though was the fact that she had been mangled so easily, surely she would have known the limitation of her suit before accepting a hit like that.
Seeing her companion taken out so easily had seemingly enraged the blue suited one. Her attack was ineffective and actually damaged her more than it did the mechanical beast she was fighting. It wasn't long before she was knocked off her perch and joined the other one as a mangled mess on the sidelines. "Sad really, I just think of the potential of those suits with just a little bit of training. What a waste." He could well imagine himself in a suit before he dismissed the idea. He was more than powerful enough without one. Besides such a power up could only be described as a crutch. Besides unless he wore the suit constantly he would be unable to instantly respond to challenges like this one.
"Heh, its time for me to show my stuff then," Ranma grinned stepping out once he was sure that the two girls were out of the fight. He hated people interrupting his fights and was sure the girls would feel the same way he did about it. He didn't feel any guilt about there injuries since he was sure that their suits would have absorbed most of the damage.
"AAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!" the beast roared as Ranma charged, after having finished destroying what was left of the dojo and surrounding compound, demolishing those techno suited vigilantes and giving him a few warning swipes whenever he got close it had started approaching the survivors of the attack. "Lets go!!" Ranma yelled in reply to the beasts challenge, the bright orange locks of his female form trailed brightly behind him as he dodged the metallic tentacles the beast had sprouted in response to the attackers.
"Hey," Ranma shouted in consternation as one of the tentacles he had lazily dodged suddenly branched off, splitting in two and enveloping his arm in a firm grip with a speed he had been unprepared for. "What the.." he muttered darkly as the tentacle morphed into a giant hand and tightened. Slowly crushing his arm in a vice-like grip, the sound of his ulna grinding against his radius and then cracking echoed through the surroundings bringing everyone's attention to the red haired demon fighting the mechanical dojo destroyer.
Ranma just shook his head in a numb amazement, nothing had been strong enough to crack his bones for two hundred years. There was nothing man made that should have been strong enough or hard enough, but here was a beast that had cracked both bones in his arm beneath the elbow and if it continued to tighten its grip threatened to shatter them. His arm would be a mangled mess beneath the beasts grip if he didn't do something. Sure he was weaker in his female form but still..?
Almost by reflex a distal-tapered Dao appeared in his other hand severing the tendril that held him allowing him time to counterattack before his other limbs suffered the same fate. As strong as this beast was he could not afford to play around even if the immediate area had been evacuated. Cradling the remains of his mangled arm Ranma considered the last time he had been caught unawares in a fight. Too long, maybe it was the kind of injury he needed to suffer before he became too convinced of his superiority.
Ignoring the sickening way his arm hung, he launched himself amongst the armada of tentacles in preparation for round two.
A/N – Sorry guys, a little short perhaps but it seemed appropriate to stop here.
- Thanks to Nuvares and Teal Thanatos, without who this chapter would have been Redefined honor or Trust. It is they who persuaded me to continue FC II.