Intro: Wow! Another one already?! Alright, I'll admit I could work on my update speed, but I'm TRYING to produce some quality works here. And that's kinda hard to do when you're killing time for at least two Episodes. The part I'm actually looking forward to is when Ryouga shows up. Heh! At least I managed to inject some (albeit very minor) plot development. Meanwhile, here's something to keep you busy.
Disclaimer: I don't gotta post this every chapter, do I??! Fine, I quit!!
Legend:
"Quotes"
'Sub-quotes'
EMPHASIS
-Emphasis-
[Thoughts]
*Sounds*
|Panda signs|
------------{ Chaos 1/2 }------------
------{ Episode 05: The Long Awaited Mallet! Ranma in La-la Land! }------
"I'm home!" Ranma leapt over the wall of the Tendo compound and began walking leisurely toward the house. Nabiki greeted him at the door, a slight smirk playing over her face.
"Hello, Ranma-kun. Have an interesting afternoon?" She asked pointedly.
Returning a smirk of his own, he replied, "Yeah I did. Pretty fun, actually. Although I really gotta say, those Sailor Senshi are complete wimps when it comes to combat."
"There's a reason they're called Magical Girls, Ranma-kun." She shook the bag of chips she was holding in a scolding manner.
He shrugged, "Yeah, there probably is, but it got too late for me to really test 'em properly. I'm gonna hunt 'em up again tomorrow." He headed for the house, intent on finding a snack. Nabiki followed, already nibbling on a potato chip.
No concern showed on her face, but a little managed to creep into her voice anyway, "I really think you're biting off more than you can chew, even if you -did- kill off that youma by yourself."
Ranma paused in rummaging through the refrigerator to look at her and raise an eyebrow, "Huh? How did you find out about that?"
Safely away from the subject of her concern, she rolled her eyes, "There is this marvelous little invention on this planet called the 'Television'. Really, Ranma-kun. You really should be a little less obvious about the things you do around here."
Finding a bag of carrots, he pulled it out and closed the door, "Yeah, you're probably right. Oh well. Not much I can do about it now." He shrugged and took a bite of carrot.
Nabiki suddenly noticed what he was eating and shivered, "How can you stand that... HEALTHY stuff??" She gestured at her bag of chips. "Now THIS is a snack!"
Ranma shrugged and headed for the family room, "I dunno. I guess when we were on the road, the one thing Pops did for me was make sure I ate healthy. Can't be a good Martial Artist without a good body, after all."
Genma grunted indignantly from his position just outside on the porch, "Hey, it was the only food I could steal!"
Nabiki rolled her eyes again, "Whatever. Just make sure you don't eat too many. Kasumi's making a carrot dish tonight."
Ranma looked around, not seeing the calm, serene girl anywhere, "Speaking of which, where IS Kasumi, anyway??"
"Oh, she went shopping for tonight's supper. It seems we ran out of supplies earlier than expected."
------{ Tendo Compound, Dojo }------
Akane launched a straight punch at her father, who moved backward to avoid it. She followed up with a kick, but he stiffly jump over it and her to land behind her. Turning around, the black-haired girl closed in, grappling with the older man, memories of Ranma rising up in her mind...
- - - - - - -
["Yeah, well your 'little girl' also has the potential to be a great fighter. It'd be a shame to let that potential go to
waste."]
- - - - - - -
["Yeah, you're tough. You can make it."]
- - - - - - -
["......If you can do that, I look forward to the day when I can see you become all you want to be."]
- - - - - - -
Suddenly she broke away from the hold and straightened from her stance, "Dad?"
"What is it, Akane-chan?"
"Can we spar? I mean seriously, like what Ranma and Saotome-san do."
Soun sighed, feelings of fear of losing his daughter fighting with pride at her ambition. He knew what had brought this on! "Oh, you're so PERFECT for each other!" He wailed, hugging his precious daughter tightly.
"Da-a-a-ad!!" Akane struggled in his hug, half angry, half embarrassed.
Finally, he straightened, tears still steaming down his face, "Of course, Akane-chan."
After taking a moment to clear his mind- and face, he settled into his stance once again. Akane did the same and they bowed. Soun took the intitiative this time, and slid forward, fist leading the way. Akane deflected the blow and retaliated, leading with her elbow. The mustached man backed away and kicked up at her, forcing her to back up also. Closing in again, he swung a fist upward, and Akane was forced to retreat again.
This time she responded by snapping a kick of her own at him. He blocked with a knee and moved forward to punch again, but she was ready for him this time. Deflecting his punch, she slid forward and attempted to foot-sweep the older man. Soun jumped up and flipped away to avoid being tripped, but landed stiffly and was forced to recover. Akane took this opportunity to close in once more, and the mustached man was soon retreating rapidly, blocking as many punches as he could. A fair amount still slipped through, and he finally jumped back and bowed in defeat.
Akane looked at him, surprised. He took a moment to stop panting, then explained, "Akane-chan, I am afraid that your old man is getting too old for this. I think it would be best if you furthered your training with someone else."
Akane looked at him pensively, "Are you sure, Dad?"
Leaning on his knees, he nodded, "Maybe there's still hope for the school itself. Your Sensei is out of shape, but maybe you can surpass what I once was. I'll be watching you, Akane-chan." Turning, he walked stiffly out the door, leaving Akane to ponder the implications of her "graduation".
------{ Juuban, Hino Shrine }------
"Okay, what is he exactly??"
Ami retreived the battle information from her computer and studied it again, "It's like I said: He seems to be completely human, except for an abnormally high Bio-energy reading and minor traces of a couple different things I can't seem to indentify..."
Rei paused in wrestling with Usagi for her manga, "I DID feel a lot of Ki around him when we fought. I use a lot of Ki with my fire-readings, but this guy had a LOT more than I do. Maybe he's an energy leech?"
Ami shook her head, "No, I doubt that. According to my scans, he never actually absorbed any energy. Which means that either he's got a special power source or that it was ALL his. But that doesn't explain WHY he has so much energy. Maybe it has to do with the other thing that's puzzling me. His DNA is all messed up. It seems to be mostly human, but it has traces of something even the Mercury Computer can't identify."
Makoto leaned forward, "What do you mean 'can't identify'? Can't that thing identify almost anything??"
The short-haired girl looked confused, "That's exactly the point. It's supposed to, but what ever this is, even the Mercury Computer can't figure out what it is."
"Oh, how sweet!!"
"Give me that!"
"No way! You weren't reading it!"
"I said give it back, Meatball-head!!"
Ignoring the outburst, Minako decided to put in HER two yen, "Well whatever he was, he was a major hunk!!"
Makoto elbowed her in the ribs, "Just remember, I saw him first!"
"No way! First come, first serve!!"
"Yeah, and I intend to get to him first!"
Ami sighed as yet another meeting between the Senshi devolved into a shouting match, "Meeting adjourned."
Nobody listened.
------{ Tendo Compound, House }------
"Ranma??"
The red-haired boy looked up from putting the bag of carrots back into the refridgerator, "Yeah, Akane?"
"I-" Her voice stopped, and she blushed suddenly. "Um, I- Uh..."
He watched her dither for a bit, then finished putting the carrots back, "Yeah?"
"Well, I was thinking... Um- about..." She trailed off, blushing furiously. She had forgotten what she had wanted to say! Ranma studied the blushing girl until she gave up and turned to rush from the kitchen.
Suddenly he grinned in understanding, and called out to Akane as she left the room, "Hey, Akane!" Still blushing, she stopped in the doorway, not daring to turn around. "I'm gonna head over to Juuban tomorrow for some special training. You wanna come with me?"
Suddenly she turned around as her face lit up with a smile, "Really?? You mean it?!"
Taken aback by her sudden switch of attitude, he nodded, "Sure, why not. It'll give ya an idea of what my training's like."
Tears of happiness came to her eyes and she launched herself at the shocked boy, hugging him tightly, "Oh thank you!! Thank you so much! I've always wanted to be a Martial Artist and now I- I... GET OFF ME, PERVERT!!!" Embarrassed by her own actons, she covered it up by grabbing her mallet and smashing the (still) stunned boy into the floor. Between the mood swings and the blow to the head, Ranma's mind decided it had had enough and shut down.
------{ Dreamscape }-----
They were fighting the Entity again. This time they were winning. It was not an easy win by any means, but they were making progress. After months of fighting amongst each other, enemies and friends alike united to become the "unstoppable force" to the "immovable object". Fortunately, the Entity was turning out NOT to be that immovable object.
And no, I am not talking about the Sailor Senshi.
He was the Lightning Master, capable of creating and controlling any aspect of Electricity. His inavertant trip to Earth had given him the knowledge of electro-magnetics, which he used to boost his strength through metal plates added to his clothing, among other things. Like his Element, he fought with a speed and ferocity unmatched, lessened only by his complete lack of grace. He slashed away with his Crescent Knives, which curled around in front of his hands not unlike their name.
Next to him was his twin sister, Ryla Donahue. She was the Flame Master, capable of doing the same with Fire as he could with Lightning. Her own trip to earth had yielded the ability to absorb the light around her, which boosted her ninja skills of invisibility considerably. Unmatched agility added to her ability to read patterns (even in the unpredictability of their fighting style) made her a formidable fighter, and her gracefulness made up for her brother's lack thereof. A single Katana was her main weapon, while she backed it up with throwing knives and other ninja tricks.
Opposite Randy was his greatest rival, Rocky Danner. As indicated by his name he was the Stone Master. All the earth and stone on the planet heeded his call, including all sorts of metals. His trip to Earth had given him knowledge of even more types of stone to use to his advantadge. His great strength and endurance had carried him through many, many fights, which explained his lack of armor. He carried a huge Crescent Blade as big as he was, somehow wielding the heavy weapon effectively.
Next to Rocky was his girlfriend, Regina "Reggie" Rivers. She was the Water Master. Any liquid was under the domain of this icey woman, but pure water was her forte. After her trip to earth, she learned to affect the temperature of the liquids she controlled, giving her more experience with ice. A cold fighter, she calculated carefully and moved accordingly. An apprentice to the Weapons Master, she carried many weapons, but seemed to favor two curved scimitars as her weapons.
To the side was the Weapons Master, Adan Winston, also known as the Air Master. He controlled every aspect of the air and wind. This silent fighter danced with the winds he created, moving as one with his Element. His many, many weapons aided his already formidable arsenal, and he used each with equal efficiency.
To the other side was Jase Jonse, the Spirit Master. This man used his own life force to aid his every move, boosting his every attribute beyond the limits of his body. Even beyond that, he could use it to create a physical force, mimicking many different things. Because of this, he used no weapon, as his own body was a living weapon.
Saving the best for last, Emperor Kun himself hovered above the fight, aiding the fighters below in any way he could. This was actually quite a lot, mind you, as the Emperor Kun was the sole living Master of the Elements. Chosen completely at random, the Master of the Elements was born once every generation, and raised from childhood to rule the entire planet.
And yet, this Elite team of fighters was barely making headway against the Entity...
------{ Eyecatch }------
Genma-panda juggles some pieces of fruit, then snatches them out of the air with his mouth. This time nothing happens and he looks around in surprise.
------{ End Eyecatch }-------
Randy jumped high into the air and came down, using his power over electro-magnetics and the metal plates hidden in the soles of his boots to pause his descent for a short moment. Simultanously charging a lightning bolt and striking out with a kick, he attempted to take the Entity by surprise. Unfortunately, the Entity had become VERY hard to surprise, and he was forced to use his natural agility to avoid a swipe by its fist. Also unfortunately, the near miss wasn't enough, and he felt a burning pain tear across his back as the Entity's outstretched fingers made contact.
He fell to the ground ungracefully, and Ryla darted in to distract the Entity before it could kill the Lightning Master. Tossing a deceptively small ball of fire at the Ebony monster, she faded from view as it swatted the projectile back at her and shook its hand in pain. Her fireball had been a little too "hot to handle", so to speak.
Taking an opening from above, Emperor Kun launched a massive spirit blast at the Entity. Sensing the danger, it moved to the side, but was blocked by Adan, who rapidly swung a spiked chain at it, followed by a Vaccuum Blade. He would have ended the fight quickly by blocking the air around the Entity, but it seemed that it didn't need to breathe, either.
Trapped by the Spirit Blast, the Vaccuum Blade, and sensing an ominous rumble in the earth below it, the Entity raised its hands and a black transparent sphere shimmered into existence around it. Both the Vaccuum Blade and the Spirit Blast dissipated harmlessly against the shield, but Adan's chain continued through, undisturbed. Unfortunately, the Entity launched a shadowy blast of its own at the chain from inside the shield, while simultanously moving away from the spot he was standing in. A split-second later, a geyser erupted from the earth, hardening into a spiked icicle as soon as it left the ground.
Adan used the wind currents to shift out of the way of the black projectile and tossed out a couple of throwing knives in retaliation, speeding their arc with more wind currents. The icicle evaporated as soon as Reggie realized that she had missed, and walls of Tentite shot up around the Entity in its place.
It took a brief moment to chuckle before it launched another shadow blast, shattering the cage in an instant. Jase took this opportunity to attack it hand-to-hand, and his fists slammed into the Entity's palms hard enough to send out a shockwave from the impact point. Unfazed by the ineffectiveness of his punches, Jase pressed on, blurring from sight from time to time as he attacked the Entity ruthlessly.
Having recovered from the scratches he had just recieved from the Entity, Randy joined Jase in forcing it on the defensive, his own Spirit aiding his strength to an extent. Suddenly, it twisted away from an unseen attack and slashed at thin air. A moment later, Ryla faded into sight, skidding painfully to a stop several yards away. Randy was about to break off when she demonstrated her own use of Spirit and stood up, the scratches on her vest the only sign of damage.
Grinning, she joined the two in pressing the attack while Emperor Kun summoned a lightning bolt from above. Too fast for the Entity to raise its shield again, it struck the ebony monster directly on top of its head. It paused to shake off the attack, and the other three took advantage of the opening and began to pummel it.
Randy drew his Crescent Knives from sub-space and let go of his Spirit-boosted strength to enhance his already blinding speed. Ryla drew her Katana, faded into the shadows, and hid her Spirit as best as she could. Jase switched places with Rocky, who summoned Tentite armor around his entire body. Surprisingly, the huge weight of the armor only seemed to make him stronger. His first punch slammed into the Entity's palms (much like Jase's had) and forced the Entity backward!
Placed on the defensive once more, the Entity began sporting small slashes and bruises. It could barely keep up with the Lightning Master's blinding speed, Rocky's attacks were too strong for even IT to handle, and that annoying girl kept slashing it from nowhere. Then, to top it off, that blasted Emperor Kun was about to launch a humongous fireball at it again.
Letting out a growl of frustration, the Entity blew its attackers back with its aura, and... grew. It wasn't its muscles that grew, it just seemed to be a little bigger all around. Finishing its power-up, it blinked from its spot and slammed into Randy with the force of one of Rocky's punches. Caught completely by surprise, the Lightning Master didn't even have time to react and was thrown into Rocky. Both of them slammed into the side of the mountain, leaving the rest of the group staring in disbelief. Even Emperor Kun lost his concentration on the fireball he was gathering, and it dissipated back into the air.
Taking advantage of their distraction, the Entity leapt upward at Emperor Kun, locking its hands together. Reaching the apex of its jump, it flipped forward and slammed its hands into the Emperor's head, sending him hurtling into the ground. Propelled further into the air by its punch, it righted itself in midair and began raining shadow blasts onto the people below.
Having recovered by this point, Jase ignited his own aura again and raised his hands in the same fashion the Entity had earlier. A bright green sphere of energy expanded from his body to enclose the rest of the Gaians, except Randy and Rocky, who were out of range. At this point it would be a moot point, anyway. The two were out cold.
The shadow blasts slammed into the Spirit Shield, causing it to shudder under the stress, but it held. Barely. The moment the blasts stopped, Jase collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Adan, Reggie, and Ryla took up positions around Jase and the fallen Emperor Kun.
As it began its fall back to the ground, the Entity angled its descent and accelerated its fall, aiming its fist directly at the trio below. Just as it reached striking distance, the three Gaians released their respective Element at the same time. The triple blast of fire, water, and air twined together as one, and the icey-hot tornado met the incoming Entity- and stopped it in its tracks.
The shock being forcefully stopped from "invisible speed" combined with the multiple elements served to keep the Entity from moving while Adan slashed like a madman, releasing many, many Vacuum Blades at the fallen Entity. Each and every one hit their target, the resulting cut oozing ebony liquid.
After a moment of stillness, the Entity sat up with a howl of rage and powered up again. Refusing to be surprised again, Adan attempted to close in, but was swatted aside before he do a thing. He was hurled into the side of the mountain, causing a small landslide around the area where he had impacted.
Ryla and Reggie stood back to back in the center of the devastation. They were the only ones left. Randy and Rocky were knocked out for who knows HOW long, Adan and Emperor Kun had been taken out by the Entity and were presumed dead, and Jase had nearly burned himself out. It was hopeless. And they had been doing so WELL, too!
Resolutely, the two rivals took stances and hoped to fend off the Entity a little longer. Completely healed of its injuries, it leapt at them faster than Randy had been attacking it earlier. Reggie was still in her stance when it chopped at her knees, sank a fist into her stomach, then knocked out a few teeth with a uppercut. She was unconscious before she had left the ground.
Growling, the Entity turned to Ryla's position and grunted in surprise. No Ryla. It quickly searched the area for her Spirit, but couldn't find it. It snarled in frustration and powered up AGAIN, everything within range blown away from it. Pain welled up in its arm and it looked down to find a scratch that hadn't been there before. More pain welled up as several invisible ojects buried themselves in various vital spots on its body.
It snarled again, but managed to calm itself to an extent. It waited patiently for several minutes, waiting for another strike, but it never came. Its red eyes glowed with fury, but it held its ground and waited some more. Suddenly it noticed that it had become very warm in the immediate area.
To understand what is happening, one must first understand how the Elemental Fighters used their Element. Most of the time they used their innate Gift to create the Element out of their own Spirit. However, it has been proven that they CAN use other energy sources as "fuel", such as light. This was exactly what Ryla was doing. She was absorbing the light around her and storing it for future use. At this point, she had been holding the invisibility for far longer than she ever had before, therefore she had also been storing huge amounts of energy for longer than ever before. The previously unknown side-effect to this was that she began leaking the excess energy as her Element: Heat.
Concern welled up as her body began to reach critical with all the energy that she had been absorbing, but she dared not drop her invisibility, lest the Entity see her and- well, she didn't really feel like finding out. And yet, she dared not make a move, either, lest the Entity somehow sense her like it had before and counter-attack. She knew that she couldn't survive another attack like the one it had hit her with before, especially since it had powered up thrice since its last attack had connected.
Thus, they were at a stalemate. Ryla could not attack without giving herself away, and the Entity could not find her while still invisible without letting its own guard down.
This would have continued on indefinitely had not the energy Ryla was absorbing reached critical mass. Suddenly an overwhelming shockwave of heat burst from Ryla's position, and she faded into view once more, her hair already on fire. This wasn't really a problem for her, as it was impossible to be hurt by your own Element, but she was more concerned with the overwhelming amount of energy threatening to burn her body out.
Unsure of exactly what was going on, the Entity shifted back a little and watched the awesome sight before it. Ryla's hair had burst into flames and shockwaves of heat continued to pulse from her body. Desperately, she closed her eyes as she concentrated on clamping down on the energy, which threatened to go out of control at any moment.
So caught up in her internal battle, she never noticed that she was now floating several feet off of the ground. Nor did she notice that the heat pulsing from her body had stopped pulsing and had turned into actual flames, despite the fact that there was nothing to burn. Slowly the flames condensed themselves and took shape, forming a giant aura around the floating girl. The last thing the Entity saw before she disappeared behind the aura of flames was that her eyes had snapped open and that they were pupilless, the same color as the golden fires surrounding her.
Then, with a final wave of heat so hot that even the Entity was forced to retreat quite a few yards back, the golden aura bloomed upward and split at the top, even as it grew at the bottom. The two splits "fell" to the side, and stopped horizontally, at the same time as another, smaller protrusion grew again at the split in the middle. By this time, the Entity realized exactly what he was looking at. This girl had just turned into a giant bird made of fire! A Firebird!!
The Entity carefully maintained its distance and launched a testing shadow blast into the flaming aura. It dissipated before it even got near the body of the giant bird. Unnerved at this turn of events, it powered up again, and launched another probing blast. This one did not dissipate, but accomplished something far worse. It drew the attention of the Firebird.
The burning bird flapped its immaterial wings, somehow creating a gust of wind anyway, and took to the skies. Focusing its aura, the Entity blasted after it, intent on killing the thing before someone got hurt. Namely, itself. Its plans got a little sidetracked as the Firebird flapped its wings and sent a huge gout of fire blazing toward the Entity. The ebony monster responded by raising its black shield again. It was successful in keeping the actual flames away, but the heat still seeped through, leaving the Entity with a bad case of sunburn.
Increasing trepidation crept into the Entity's mind. It only had a couple more powerups left and it didn't want to waste them. Unfortunately for it, it looked like was going to have to use them. growling in frustration yet again, it paused in midair and curled up into a fetal position.
A moment later a blast of power washed over the Firebird as the Entity straightened with a roar and grew even larger. By this time it was probably about the size of a car, and who knows how much power it had left. It launched another geyser of fire at the Entity, which was evaded. Undaunted, it launched another, more powerful beam and kept it up. Unfortunately, this newest power-up had proven to be at least five times as powerful as the others, rendering it fast enough to dodge even the continuous beam of fire and get up close.
Flaring its aura, the Entity blasted forward, straight through the center of the flaming mass. The Firebird jerked and let off a keening wail, even as it responded by flipping around and firing another beam. The Entity dodged this one as well, but as it turned to face the Firebird again, it noticed that the hole it had made was already closing up. And the Firebird didn't seem to be running out of energy, either.
And so they were at a stalemate once more. The Firebird could not hit the Entity, and the Entity could not HURT the firebird. At least not permanently.
Randy and Rocky were the first to regain consciousness, being the first ones hit after the power-up. Rocky shoved the smaller boy off of himself as he woke, which in turn awakened Randy. Emperor Kun pushed himself off of the ground and rubbed his sore neck with a grimace. Jase shakily rolled over and sat up, regaining his own energies at an alarming rate. The pile of rocks covering Adan suddenly shattered in all directions as a tornado engulfed the area. A geyser of water launched an angry Reggie into the air, and she landed back on the quickly freezing ground with a scowl.
As one they all looked at the staring contest going on over their heads, and began absorbing the excess energies leaking off of the firebird. Thankfully this was quite a lot, and while the Entity and the Firebird floated in midair and stared at each other, the group below refilled their energy reserves.
Except for Emperor Kun, who continued to absorb the energy radiating from the Firebird, reaching power levels he could never accomplish on his own. Taking their cue from the Elemental Master, the others began absorbing even more energy from the flaming beacon in the sky.
Once they had reached a satisfactory power level, the group began finding ways to reach the battle above. Emperor Kun and Jase flared their auras and burst into the sky. Reggie and Rocky formed slabs of Ice and Stone respectively, and rode them into the air. Upon realizing that Randy wasn't following them, they paused and looked down at him.
Randy smirked and held up his left arm, where a simple bracelet nestled directly in front of his bracer. Their eyes widened in comprehension and he nodded, the smirk widening into an all-out evil grin. As one they franticly shook their heads as he did the forbidden. He pulled off the bracelet and- "WAKE UP RANMA!! IT'S TIME FOR OUR MORNING WORKOUT!!!"
Wait a minute...
------{ Tendo Compound, Guest Room }------
Ranma awoke to the delightful sensation of almost achieving flight. Unfortunately, almost only counts in Hand Grenades and Horse-shoes, and his involuntary attempt at flight ended abruptly in the koi pond. The realization of what had just happened washed over him, along with feelings of anger, and the red-haired boy leapt from the pond as his aura bloomed into existence.
"DAMMIT, POPS!!! YOU JUST HAD TO INTERRUPT THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE DREAM, DIDN'T YOU??!" He punctuated his tirade with a lightning bolt from above, and Genma found himself unable to reply due to the way his body was twitching uncontrollably. Not bothering to land lightly, Ranma left a couple foot prints in the ground by the pond and stomped into the house, aura still blazing an angry purple.
Soun found himself unable to remove his toothbrush from his mouth as the fuming boy swept by, and even the sooo-out-of-it Nabiki edged away from him as he made his way back upstairs.
Having taken a quick bath and recovered from his outburst, Ranma was in a somewhat cheerful mood again. Breakfast was a quiet affair, except for Ranma and his father casually fighting over the food. Well, -Ranma- was fighting casually. -Genma-, on the other hand, was desperately trying to salvage what was left of his food as Ranma lashed out with lightning speed and stole another pickle.
"How dare you, boy?! Have some respect for your poor old father!!"
Ranma simply smirked and snatched yet another pickle, "I don't think so, old man. This is payback for all that training you put me through on that trip. Besides, I'm hungry. I missed dinner last night 'cause I was unconscious. So -nyaaa-!!" Pausing in his quest for Genma's breakfast, he pulled down an eyelid and stuck out his tongue.
Genma sighed in relief when Ranma finished his breakfast AND Genma's, and rose from the table, "So, you ready to go training, Akane?"
Trying not to appear too eager, the black-haired girl nodded, "Uh-huh! Just let me go get changed!"
Ranma's face lost it's cheerful smirk, "Into -what-, dare I ask??"
Akane paused and looked back at the red-haired boy, "Into my Gi, of course!!"
Ranma sighed and smacked his face with a palm, "Akane."
She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and cocked her head toward him. He looked up at her and said, "For one thing, I don't know what your previous Sensei told you, but in MY case, -everything- is training. You train ALL the time, so unless you wanna wear one ALL the time, you don't wear a Gi, alright?? And for another, we'll be going out in public, and I don't think you wanna be seen like that. Try something like your jogging outfit for now, and we'll see what your wardrobe looks like later."
Akane nodded grudgingly and moved up the stairs with a little less bounce in her step than before.
------{ Juuban, Usagi's House }------
"Hi guys! Is everyone here? What are we doing today? Oooo look at that! Did you bring lunch for all of us Mako-chan? Hey, where's Mamoru? I though he was going to pay for our ice cream!" Usagi opened the door to greet her friends, bouncing around like her namesake on caffeine. Although in -her- case it was most likely a sugar high.
Ami adjusted her reading glasses, "Well, the first thing we had in mind was to try and find that guy we ran into yesterday, then we-" She stopped short as Usagi immediately pulled out the most devastating technique of all time. The dreaded "Wet Puppy, Tearful Eyes". She sighed and continued, "But maybe we can stop for some ice-cream first."
"Yay!! Ice cream! Oh, look! There's Mamo-chan!" Usagi bounced even -more- rapidly, waving her arms to get the dark-haired boy's attention, "Mamo-chan!! Mamo-chan! Guess what? We're going for ice cream!"
Mamoru was suddenly struck with the urge to start walking in the opposite direction. Very fast. Every single time they went for ice cream, he paid for it. Dearly. Who knows -what- it would be like with the other Senshi along!
The other girls just sighed and gazed at him pityingly.
------{ End Episode 05 }------
Whee!! Finally done!!! Okay, first of all, I apologize for bringing more Original Characters into the mix. I don't particularly care for it when other writers do it (unless they do it WELL, which is rare), and I didn't originally plan it this way, but I really needed something to fill in for the "Dr. Tofu Arc". I had something planned to replace it, but I didn't think it would take up all of both episodes, so this is the result. (Not to worry! It DID have SOME purpose other than filler space...) Oh well, at least it had more action.* (In fact, this is my longest "fight scene" yet! I mean, FOUR PAGES?!?!) Don't worry, I have NO intention of making the Gaians regulars. In fact, if you're lucky, they won't ever show up again! Except for one, but "That... is a secret!" (TM)
OH!!! I almost forgot!! Here's another Aura Guide, but this one's the Elemental colors (which take precedence over normal emotional auras):
Lightning: Pale Blue/Purple when aroused (angry, exited, depressed, etc.)
Fire: Gold/Red
Earth: Tan/Brown
Water: Teal/Blue
Air: White/Gray
Spirit: Light/Dark Green
Thank you very much for the Reviews, people!! I enjoy them all! Even the flames! No, wait. I haven't GOTTEN any Flames!! Well, I guess I must be doing something right. (I bet I just jinxed myself...) Surprisingly, I haven't gotten any questions, either, so I'm either covering all the bases, or people just aren't interested. (I hope it's the former.) So, thanks again and keep 'em coming!!
* Speaking of action, am I doing a good job with that? I intend to describe the action in such a way that the reader can visualize what I'm talking about, but I'm not sure I've "got the touch". So let me know!
Hello?
Anyone out there?
Anybody?
*sighs*
Disclaimer: I don't gotta post this every chapter, do I??! Fine, I quit!!
Legend:
"Quotes"
'Sub-quotes'
EMPHASIS
-Emphasis-
[Thoughts]
*Sounds*
|Panda signs|
------------{ Chaos 1/2 }------------
------{ Episode 05: The Long Awaited Mallet! Ranma in La-la Land! }------
"I'm home!" Ranma leapt over the wall of the Tendo compound and began walking leisurely toward the house. Nabiki greeted him at the door, a slight smirk playing over her face.
"Hello, Ranma-kun. Have an interesting afternoon?" She asked pointedly.
Returning a smirk of his own, he replied, "Yeah I did. Pretty fun, actually. Although I really gotta say, those Sailor Senshi are complete wimps when it comes to combat."
"There's a reason they're called Magical Girls, Ranma-kun." She shook the bag of chips she was holding in a scolding manner.
He shrugged, "Yeah, there probably is, but it got too late for me to really test 'em properly. I'm gonna hunt 'em up again tomorrow." He headed for the house, intent on finding a snack. Nabiki followed, already nibbling on a potato chip.
No concern showed on her face, but a little managed to creep into her voice anyway, "I really think you're biting off more than you can chew, even if you -did- kill off that youma by yourself."
Ranma paused in rummaging through the refrigerator to look at her and raise an eyebrow, "Huh? How did you find out about that?"
Safely away from the subject of her concern, she rolled her eyes, "There is this marvelous little invention on this planet called the 'Television'. Really, Ranma-kun. You really should be a little less obvious about the things you do around here."
Finding a bag of carrots, he pulled it out and closed the door, "Yeah, you're probably right. Oh well. Not much I can do about it now." He shrugged and took a bite of carrot.
Nabiki suddenly noticed what he was eating and shivered, "How can you stand that... HEALTHY stuff??" She gestured at her bag of chips. "Now THIS is a snack!"
Ranma shrugged and headed for the family room, "I dunno. I guess when we were on the road, the one thing Pops did for me was make sure I ate healthy. Can't be a good Martial Artist without a good body, after all."
Genma grunted indignantly from his position just outside on the porch, "Hey, it was the only food I could steal!"
Nabiki rolled her eyes again, "Whatever. Just make sure you don't eat too many. Kasumi's making a carrot dish tonight."
Ranma looked around, not seeing the calm, serene girl anywhere, "Speaking of which, where IS Kasumi, anyway??"
"Oh, she went shopping for tonight's supper. It seems we ran out of supplies earlier than expected."
------{ Tendo Compound, Dojo }------
Akane launched a straight punch at her father, who moved backward to avoid it. She followed up with a kick, but he stiffly jump over it and her to land behind her. Turning around, the black-haired girl closed in, grappling with the older man, memories of Ranma rising up in her mind...
- - - - - - -
["Yeah, well your 'little girl' also has the potential to be a great fighter. It'd be a shame to let that potential go to
waste."]
- - - - - - -
["Yeah, you're tough. You can make it."]
- - - - - - -
["......If you can do that, I look forward to the day when I can see you become all you want to be."]
- - - - - - -
Suddenly she broke away from the hold and straightened from her stance, "Dad?"
"What is it, Akane-chan?"
"Can we spar? I mean seriously, like what Ranma and Saotome-san do."
Soun sighed, feelings of fear of losing his daughter fighting with pride at her ambition. He knew what had brought this on! "Oh, you're so PERFECT for each other!" He wailed, hugging his precious daughter tightly.
"Da-a-a-ad!!" Akane struggled in his hug, half angry, half embarrassed.
Finally, he straightened, tears still steaming down his face, "Of course, Akane-chan."
After taking a moment to clear his mind- and face, he settled into his stance once again. Akane did the same and they bowed. Soun took the intitiative this time, and slid forward, fist leading the way. Akane deflected the blow and retaliated, leading with her elbow. The mustached man backed away and kicked up at her, forcing her to back up also. Closing in again, he swung a fist upward, and Akane was forced to retreat again.
This time she responded by snapping a kick of her own at him. He blocked with a knee and moved forward to punch again, but she was ready for him this time. Deflecting his punch, she slid forward and attempted to foot-sweep the older man. Soun jumped up and flipped away to avoid being tripped, but landed stiffly and was forced to recover. Akane took this opportunity to close in once more, and the mustached man was soon retreating rapidly, blocking as many punches as he could. A fair amount still slipped through, and he finally jumped back and bowed in defeat.
Akane looked at him, surprised. He took a moment to stop panting, then explained, "Akane-chan, I am afraid that your old man is getting too old for this. I think it would be best if you furthered your training with someone else."
Akane looked at him pensively, "Are you sure, Dad?"
Leaning on his knees, he nodded, "Maybe there's still hope for the school itself. Your Sensei is out of shape, but maybe you can surpass what I once was. I'll be watching you, Akane-chan." Turning, he walked stiffly out the door, leaving Akane to ponder the implications of her "graduation".
------{ Juuban, Hino Shrine }------
"Okay, what is he exactly??"
Ami retreived the battle information from her computer and studied it again, "It's like I said: He seems to be completely human, except for an abnormally high Bio-energy reading and minor traces of a couple different things I can't seem to indentify..."
Rei paused in wrestling with Usagi for her manga, "I DID feel a lot of Ki around him when we fought. I use a lot of Ki with my fire-readings, but this guy had a LOT more than I do. Maybe he's an energy leech?"
Ami shook her head, "No, I doubt that. According to my scans, he never actually absorbed any energy. Which means that either he's got a special power source or that it was ALL his. But that doesn't explain WHY he has so much energy. Maybe it has to do with the other thing that's puzzling me. His DNA is all messed up. It seems to be mostly human, but it has traces of something even the Mercury Computer can't identify."
Makoto leaned forward, "What do you mean 'can't identify'? Can't that thing identify almost anything??"
The short-haired girl looked confused, "That's exactly the point. It's supposed to, but what ever this is, even the Mercury Computer can't figure out what it is."
"Oh, how sweet!!"
"Give me that!"
"No way! You weren't reading it!"
"I said give it back, Meatball-head!!"
Ignoring the outburst, Minako decided to put in HER two yen, "Well whatever he was, he was a major hunk!!"
Makoto elbowed her in the ribs, "Just remember, I saw him first!"
"No way! First come, first serve!!"
"Yeah, and I intend to get to him first!"
Ami sighed as yet another meeting between the Senshi devolved into a shouting match, "Meeting adjourned."
Nobody listened.
------{ Tendo Compound, House }------
"Ranma??"
The red-haired boy looked up from putting the bag of carrots back into the refridgerator, "Yeah, Akane?"
"I-" Her voice stopped, and she blushed suddenly. "Um, I- Uh..."
He watched her dither for a bit, then finished putting the carrots back, "Yeah?"
"Well, I was thinking... Um- about..." She trailed off, blushing furiously. She had forgotten what she had wanted to say! Ranma studied the blushing girl until she gave up and turned to rush from the kitchen.
Suddenly he grinned in understanding, and called out to Akane as she left the room, "Hey, Akane!" Still blushing, she stopped in the doorway, not daring to turn around. "I'm gonna head over to Juuban tomorrow for some special training. You wanna come with me?"
Suddenly she turned around as her face lit up with a smile, "Really?? You mean it?!"
Taken aback by her sudden switch of attitude, he nodded, "Sure, why not. It'll give ya an idea of what my training's like."
Tears of happiness came to her eyes and she launched herself at the shocked boy, hugging him tightly, "Oh thank you!! Thank you so much! I've always wanted to be a Martial Artist and now I- I... GET OFF ME, PERVERT!!!" Embarrassed by her own actons, she covered it up by grabbing her mallet and smashing the (still) stunned boy into the floor. Between the mood swings and the blow to the head, Ranma's mind decided it had had enough and shut down.
------{ Dreamscape }-----
They were fighting the Entity again. This time they were winning. It was not an easy win by any means, but they were making progress. After months of fighting amongst each other, enemies and friends alike united to become the "unstoppable force" to the "immovable object". Fortunately, the Entity was turning out NOT to be that immovable object.
And no, I am not talking about the Sailor Senshi.
He was the Lightning Master, capable of creating and controlling any aspect of Electricity. His inavertant trip to Earth had given him the knowledge of electro-magnetics, which he used to boost his strength through metal plates added to his clothing, among other things. Like his Element, he fought with a speed and ferocity unmatched, lessened only by his complete lack of grace. He slashed away with his Crescent Knives, which curled around in front of his hands not unlike their name.
Next to him was his twin sister, Ryla Donahue. She was the Flame Master, capable of doing the same with Fire as he could with Lightning. Her own trip to earth had yielded the ability to absorb the light around her, which boosted her ninja skills of invisibility considerably. Unmatched agility added to her ability to read patterns (even in the unpredictability of their fighting style) made her a formidable fighter, and her gracefulness made up for her brother's lack thereof. A single Katana was her main weapon, while she backed it up with throwing knives and other ninja tricks.
Opposite Randy was his greatest rival, Rocky Danner. As indicated by his name he was the Stone Master. All the earth and stone on the planet heeded his call, including all sorts of metals. His trip to Earth had given him knowledge of even more types of stone to use to his advantadge. His great strength and endurance had carried him through many, many fights, which explained his lack of armor. He carried a huge Crescent Blade as big as he was, somehow wielding the heavy weapon effectively.
Next to Rocky was his girlfriend, Regina "Reggie" Rivers. She was the Water Master. Any liquid was under the domain of this icey woman, but pure water was her forte. After her trip to earth, she learned to affect the temperature of the liquids she controlled, giving her more experience with ice. A cold fighter, she calculated carefully and moved accordingly. An apprentice to the Weapons Master, she carried many weapons, but seemed to favor two curved scimitars as her weapons.
To the side was the Weapons Master, Adan Winston, also known as the Air Master. He controlled every aspect of the air and wind. This silent fighter danced with the winds he created, moving as one with his Element. His many, many weapons aided his already formidable arsenal, and he used each with equal efficiency.
To the other side was Jase Jonse, the Spirit Master. This man used his own life force to aid his every move, boosting his every attribute beyond the limits of his body. Even beyond that, he could use it to create a physical force, mimicking many different things. Because of this, he used no weapon, as his own body was a living weapon.
Saving the best for last, Emperor Kun himself hovered above the fight, aiding the fighters below in any way he could. This was actually quite a lot, mind you, as the Emperor Kun was the sole living Master of the Elements. Chosen completely at random, the Master of the Elements was born once every generation, and raised from childhood to rule the entire planet.
And yet, this Elite team of fighters was barely making headway against the Entity...
------{ Eyecatch }------
Genma-panda juggles some pieces of fruit, then snatches them out of the air with his mouth. This time nothing happens and he looks around in surprise.
------{ End Eyecatch }-------
Randy jumped high into the air and came down, using his power over electro-magnetics and the metal plates hidden in the soles of his boots to pause his descent for a short moment. Simultanously charging a lightning bolt and striking out with a kick, he attempted to take the Entity by surprise. Unfortunately, the Entity had become VERY hard to surprise, and he was forced to use his natural agility to avoid a swipe by its fist. Also unfortunately, the near miss wasn't enough, and he felt a burning pain tear across his back as the Entity's outstretched fingers made contact.
He fell to the ground ungracefully, and Ryla darted in to distract the Entity before it could kill the Lightning Master. Tossing a deceptively small ball of fire at the Ebony monster, she faded from view as it swatted the projectile back at her and shook its hand in pain. Her fireball had been a little too "hot to handle", so to speak.
Taking an opening from above, Emperor Kun launched a massive spirit blast at the Entity. Sensing the danger, it moved to the side, but was blocked by Adan, who rapidly swung a spiked chain at it, followed by a Vaccuum Blade. He would have ended the fight quickly by blocking the air around the Entity, but it seemed that it didn't need to breathe, either.
Trapped by the Spirit Blast, the Vaccuum Blade, and sensing an ominous rumble in the earth below it, the Entity raised its hands and a black transparent sphere shimmered into existence around it. Both the Vaccuum Blade and the Spirit Blast dissipated harmlessly against the shield, but Adan's chain continued through, undisturbed. Unfortunately, the Entity launched a shadowy blast of its own at the chain from inside the shield, while simultanously moving away from the spot he was standing in. A split-second later, a geyser erupted from the earth, hardening into a spiked icicle as soon as it left the ground.
Adan used the wind currents to shift out of the way of the black projectile and tossed out a couple of throwing knives in retaliation, speeding their arc with more wind currents. The icicle evaporated as soon as Reggie realized that she had missed, and walls of Tentite shot up around the Entity in its place.
It took a brief moment to chuckle before it launched another shadow blast, shattering the cage in an instant. Jase took this opportunity to attack it hand-to-hand, and his fists slammed into the Entity's palms hard enough to send out a shockwave from the impact point. Unfazed by the ineffectiveness of his punches, Jase pressed on, blurring from sight from time to time as he attacked the Entity ruthlessly.
Having recovered from the scratches he had just recieved from the Entity, Randy joined Jase in forcing it on the defensive, his own Spirit aiding his strength to an extent. Suddenly, it twisted away from an unseen attack and slashed at thin air. A moment later, Ryla faded into sight, skidding painfully to a stop several yards away. Randy was about to break off when she demonstrated her own use of Spirit and stood up, the scratches on her vest the only sign of damage.
Grinning, she joined the two in pressing the attack while Emperor Kun summoned a lightning bolt from above. Too fast for the Entity to raise its shield again, it struck the ebony monster directly on top of its head. It paused to shake off the attack, and the other three took advantage of the opening and began to pummel it.
Randy drew his Crescent Knives from sub-space and let go of his Spirit-boosted strength to enhance his already blinding speed. Ryla drew her Katana, faded into the shadows, and hid her Spirit as best as she could. Jase switched places with Rocky, who summoned Tentite armor around his entire body. Surprisingly, the huge weight of the armor only seemed to make him stronger. His first punch slammed into the Entity's palms (much like Jase's had) and forced the Entity backward!
Placed on the defensive once more, the Entity began sporting small slashes and bruises. It could barely keep up with the Lightning Master's blinding speed, Rocky's attacks were too strong for even IT to handle, and that annoying girl kept slashing it from nowhere. Then, to top it off, that blasted Emperor Kun was about to launch a humongous fireball at it again.
Letting out a growl of frustration, the Entity blew its attackers back with its aura, and... grew. It wasn't its muscles that grew, it just seemed to be a little bigger all around. Finishing its power-up, it blinked from its spot and slammed into Randy with the force of one of Rocky's punches. Caught completely by surprise, the Lightning Master didn't even have time to react and was thrown into Rocky. Both of them slammed into the side of the mountain, leaving the rest of the group staring in disbelief. Even Emperor Kun lost his concentration on the fireball he was gathering, and it dissipated back into the air.
Taking advantage of their distraction, the Entity leapt upward at Emperor Kun, locking its hands together. Reaching the apex of its jump, it flipped forward and slammed its hands into the Emperor's head, sending him hurtling into the ground. Propelled further into the air by its punch, it righted itself in midair and began raining shadow blasts onto the people below.
Having recovered by this point, Jase ignited his own aura again and raised his hands in the same fashion the Entity had earlier. A bright green sphere of energy expanded from his body to enclose the rest of the Gaians, except Randy and Rocky, who were out of range. At this point it would be a moot point, anyway. The two were out cold.
The shadow blasts slammed into the Spirit Shield, causing it to shudder under the stress, but it held. Barely. The moment the blasts stopped, Jase collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Adan, Reggie, and Ryla took up positions around Jase and the fallen Emperor Kun.
As it began its fall back to the ground, the Entity angled its descent and accelerated its fall, aiming its fist directly at the trio below. Just as it reached striking distance, the three Gaians released their respective Element at the same time. The triple blast of fire, water, and air twined together as one, and the icey-hot tornado met the incoming Entity- and stopped it in its tracks.
The shock being forcefully stopped from "invisible speed" combined with the multiple elements served to keep the Entity from moving while Adan slashed like a madman, releasing many, many Vacuum Blades at the fallen Entity. Each and every one hit their target, the resulting cut oozing ebony liquid.
After a moment of stillness, the Entity sat up with a howl of rage and powered up again. Refusing to be surprised again, Adan attempted to close in, but was swatted aside before he do a thing. He was hurled into the side of the mountain, causing a small landslide around the area where he had impacted.
Ryla and Reggie stood back to back in the center of the devastation. They were the only ones left. Randy and Rocky were knocked out for who knows HOW long, Adan and Emperor Kun had been taken out by the Entity and were presumed dead, and Jase had nearly burned himself out. It was hopeless. And they had been doing so WELL, too!
Resolutely, the two rivals took stances and hoped to fend off the Entity a little longer. Completely healed of its injuries, it leapt at them faster than Randy had been attacking it earlier. Reggie was still in her stance when it chopped at her knees, sank a fist into her stomach, then knocked out a few teeth with a uppercut. She was unconscious before she had left the ground.
Growling, the Entity turned to Ryla's position and grunted in surprise. No Ryla. It quickly searched the area for her Spirit, but couldn't find it. It snarled in frustration and powered up AGAIN, everything within range blown away from it. Pain welled up in its arm and it looked down to find a scratch that hadn't been there before. More pain welled up as several invisible ojects buried themselves in various vital spots on its body.
It snarled again, but managed to calm itself to an extent. It waited patiently for several minutes, waiting for another strike, but it never came. Its red eyes glowed with fury, but it held its ground and waited some more. Suddenly it noticed that it had become very warm in the immediate area.
To understand what is happening, one must first understand how the Elemental Fighters used their Element. Most of the time they used their innate Gift to create the Element out of their own Spirit. However, it has been proven that they CAN use other energy sources as "fuel", such as light. This was exactly what Ryla was doing. She was absorbing the light around her and storing it for future use. At this point, she had been holding the invisibility for far longer than she ever had before, therefore she had also been storing huge amounts of energy for longer than ever before. The previously unknown side-effect to this was that she began leaking the excess energy as her Element: Heat.
Concern welled up as her body began to reach critical with all the energy that she had been absorbing, but she dared not drop her invisibility, lest the Entity see her and- well, she didn't really feel like finding out. And yet, she dared not make a move, either, lest the Entity somehow sense her like it had before and counter-attack. She knew that she couldn't survive another attack like the one it had hit her with before, especially since it had powered up thrice since its last attack had connected.
Thus, they were at a stalemate. Ryla could not attack without giving herself away, and the Entity could not find her while still invisible without letting its own guard down.
This would have continued on indefinitely had not the energy Ryla was absorbing reached critical mass. Suddenly an overwhelming shockwave of heat burst from Ryla's position, and she faded into view once more, her hair already on fire. This wasn't really a problem for her, as it was impossible to be hurt by your own Element, but she was more concerned with the overwhelming amount of energy threatening to burn her body out.
Unsure of exactly what was going on, the Entity shifted back a little and watched the awesome sight before it. Ryla's hair had burst into flames and shockwaves of heat continued to pulse from her body. Desperately, she closed her eyes as she concentrated on clamping down on the energy, which threatened to go out of control at any moment.
So caught up in her internal battle, she never noticed that she was now floating several feet off of the ground. Nor did she notice that the heat pulsing from her body had stopped pulsing and had turned into actual flames, despite the fact that there was nothing to burn. Slowly the flames condensed themselves and took shape, forming a giant aura around the floating girl. The last thing the Entity saw before she disappeared behind the aura of flames was that her eyes had snapped open and that they were pupilless, the same color as the golden fires surrounding her.
Then, with a final wave of heat so hot that even the Entity was forced to retreat quite a few yards back, the golden aura bloomed upward and split at the top, even as it grew at the bottom. The two splits "fell" to the side, and stopped horizontally, at the same time as another, smaller protrusion grew again at the split in the middle. By this time, the Entity realized exactly what he was looking at. This girl had just turned into a giant bird made of fire! A Firebird!!
The Entity carefully maintained its distance and launched a testing shadow blast into the flaming aura. It dissipated before it even got near the body of the giant bird. Unnerved at this turn of events, it powered up again, and launched another probing blast. This one did not dissipate, but accomplished something far worse. It drew the attention of the Firebird.
The burning bird flapped its immaterial wings, somehow creating a gust of wind anyway, and took to the skies. Focusing its aura, the Entity blasted after it, intent on killing the thing before someone got hurt. Namely, itself. Its plans got a little sidetracked as the Firebird flapped its wings and sent a huge gout of fire blazing toward the Entity. The ebony monster responded by raising its black shield again. It was successful in keeping the actual flames away, but the heat still seeped through, leaving the Entity with a bad case of sunburn.
Increasing trepidation crept into the Entity's mind. It only had a couple more powerups left and it didn't want to waste them. Unfortunately for it, it looked like was going to have to use them. growling in frustration yet again, it paused in midair and curled up into a fetal position.
A moment later a blast of power washed over the Firebird as the Entity straightened with a roar and grew even larger. By this time it was probably about the size of a car, and who knows how much power it had left. It launched another geyser of fire at the Entity, which was evaded. Undaunted, it launched another, more powerful beam and kept it up. Unfortunately, this newest power-up had proven to be at least five times as powerful as the others, rendering it fast enough to dodge even the continuous beam of fire and get up close.
Flaring its aura, the Entity blasted forward, straight through the center of the flaming mass. The Firebird jerked and let off a keening wail, even as it responded by flipping around and firing another beam. The Entity dodged this one as well, but as it turned to face the Firebird again, it noticed that the hole it had made was already closing up. And the Firebird didn't seem to be running out of energy, either.
And so they were at a stalemate once more. The Firebird could not hit the Entity, and the Entity could not HURT the firebird. At least not permanently.
Randy and Rocky were the first to regain consciousness, being the first ones hit after the power-up. Rocky shoved the smaller boy off of himself as he woke, which in turn awakened Randy. Emperor Kun pushed himself off of the ground and rubbed his sore neck with a grimace. Jase shakily rolled over and sat up, regaining his own energies at an alarming rate. The pile of rocks covering Adan suddenly shattered in all directions as a tornado engulfed the area. A geyser of water launched an angry Reggie into the air, and she landed back on the quickly freezing ground with a scowl.
As one they all looked at the staring contest going on over their heads, and began absorbing the excess energies leaking off of the firebird. Thankfully this was quite a lot, and while the Entity and the Firebird floated in midair and stared at each other, the group below refilled their energy reserves.
Except for Emperor Kun, who continued to absorb the energy radiating from the Firebird, reaching power levels he could never accomplish on his own. Taking their cue from the Elemental Master, the others began absorbing even more energy from the flaming beacon in the sky.
Once they had reached a satisfactory power level, the group began finding ways to reach the battle above. Emperor Kun and Jase flared their auras and burst into the sky. Reggie and Rocky formed slabs of Ice and Stone respectively, and rode them into the air. Upon realizing that Randy wasn't following them, they paused and looked down at him.
Randy smirked and held up his left arm, where a simple bracelet nestled directly in front of his bracer. Their eyes widened in comprehension and he nodded, the smirk widening into an all-out evil grin. As one they franticly shook their heads as he did the forbidden. He pulled off the bracelet and- "WAKE UP RANMA!! IT'S TIME FOR OUR MORNING WORKOUT!!!"
Wait a minute...
------{ Tendo Compound, Guest Room }------
Ranma awoke to the delightful sensation of almost achieving flight. Unfortunately, almost only counts in Hand Grenades and Horse-shoes, and his involuntary attempt at flight ended abruptly in the koi pond. The realization of what had just happened washed over him, along with feelings of anger, and the red-haired boy leapt from the pond as his aura bloomed into existence.
"DAMMIT, POPS!!! YOU JUST HAD TO INTERRUPT THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE DREAM, DIDN'T YOU??!" He punctuated his tirade with a lightning bolt from above, and Genma found himself unable to reply due to the way his body was twitching uncontrollably. Not bothering to land lightly, Ranma left a couple foot prints in the ground by the pond and stomped into the house, aura still blazing an angry purple.
Soun found himself unable to remove his toothbrush from his mouth as the fuming boy swept by, and even the sooo-out-of-it Nabiki edged away from him as he made his way back upstairs.
Having taken a quick bath and recovered from his outburst, Ranma was in a somewhat cheerful mood again. Breakfast was a quiet affair, except for Ranma and his father casually fighting over the food. Well, -Ranma- was fighting casually. -Genma-, on the other hand, was desperately trying to salvage what was left of his food as Ranma lashed out with lightning speed and stole another pickle.
"How dare you, boy?! Have some respect for your poor old father!!"
Ranma simply smirked and snatched yet another pickle, "I don't think so, old man. This is payback for all that training you put me through on that trip. Besides, I'm hungry. I missed dinner last night 'cause I was unconscious. So -nyaaa-!!" Pausing in his quest for Genma's breakfast, he pulled down an eyelid and stuck out his tongue.
Genma sighed in relief when Ranma finished his breakfast AND Genma's, and rose from the table, "So, you ready to go training, Akane?"
Trying not to appear too eager, the black-haired girl nodded, "Uh-huh! Just let me go get changed!"
Ranma's face lost it's cheerful smirk, "Into -what-, dare I ask??"
Akane paused and looked back at the red-haired boy, "Into my Gi, of course!!"
Ranma sighed and smacked his face with a palm, "Akane."
She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and cocked her head toward him. He looked up at her and said, "For one thing, I don't know what your previous Sensei told you, but in MY case, -everything- is training. You train ALL the time, so unless you wanna wear one ALL the time, you don't wear a Gi, alright?? And for another, we'll be going out in public, and I don't think you wanna be seen like that. Try something like your jogging outfit for now, and we'll see what your wardrobe looks like later."
Akane nodded grudgingly and moved up the stairs with a little less bounce in her step than before.
------{ Juuban, Usagi's House }------
"Hi guys! Is everyone here? What are we doing today? Oooo look at that! Did you bring lunch for all of us Mako-chan? Hey, where's Mamoru? I though he was going to pay for our ice cream!" Usagi opened the door to greet her friends, bouncing around like her namesake on caffeine. Although in -her- case it was most likely a sugar high.
Ami adjusted her reading glasses, "Well, the first thing we had in mind was to try and find that guy we ran into yesterday, then we-" She stopped short as Usagi immediately pulled out the most devastating technique of all time. The dreaded "Wet Puppy, Tearful Eyes". She sighed and continued, "But maybe we can stop for some ice-cream first."
"Yay!! Ice cream! Oh, look! There's Mamo-chan!" Usagi bounced even -more- rapidly, waving her arms to get the dark-haired boy's attention, "Mamo-chan!! Mamo-chan! Guess what? We're going for ice cream!"
Mamoru was suddenly struck with the urge to start walking in the opposite direction. Very fast. Every single time they went for ice cream, he paid for it. Dearly. Who knows -what- it would be like with the other Senshi along!
The other girls just sighed and gazed at him pityingly.
------{ End Episode 05 }------
Whee!! Finally done!!! Okay, first of all, I apologize for bringing more Original Characters into the mix. I don't particularly care for it when other writers do it (unless they do it WELL, which is rare), and I didn't originally plan it this way, but I really needed something to fill in for the "Dr. Tofu Arc". I had something planned to replace it, but I didn't think it would take up all of both episodes, so this is the result. (Not to worry! It DID have SOME purpose other than filler space...) Oh well, at least it had more action.* (In fact, this is my longest "fight scene" yet! I mean, FOUR PAGES?!?!) Don't worry, I have NO intention of making the Gaians regulars. In fact, if you're lucky, they won't ever show up again! Except for one, but "That... is a secret!" (TM)
OH!!! I almost forgot!! Here's another Aura Guide, but this one's the Elemental colors (which take precedence over normal emotional auras):
Lightning: Pale Blue/Purple when aroused (angry, exited, depressed, etc.)
Fire: Gold/Red
Earth: Tan/Brown
Water: Teal/Blue
Air: White/Gray
Spirit: Light/Dark Green
Thank you very much for the Reviews, people!! I enjoy them all! Even the flames! No, wait. I haven't GOTTEN any Flames!! Well, I guess I must be doing something right. (I bet I just jinxed myself...) Surprisingly, I haven't gotten any questions, either, so I'm either covering all the bases, or people just aren't interested. (I hope it's the former.) So, thanks again and keep 'em coming!!
* Speaking of action, am I doing a good job with that? I intend to describe the action in such a way that the reader can visualize what I'm talking about, but I'm not sure I've "got the touch". So let me know!
Hello?
Anyone out there?
Anybody?
*sighs*